The Record of Unusual Creature

“Bethanos?” said Hessiana with wrath in her eyes. “He took the key?”

As soon as Nangong Wuyue caught her breath, she examined the vampire for any injuries, thinking to heal him with her siren skills. But, she quickly noticed that there was no external wound. “Where’s the wound?”

The male vampire leaned against the pillar, looking weak and embarrassed as he turned his head away. “It’s an internal injury. It will heal itself in no time.”

Hessiana kicked him in the stomach. “You f*cking coward, did you play dead again at the first opportunity you got? Get the f*ck up and talk!”

The kick was so hard that the male vampire almost suffered the internal injury he had been pretending to have. But, he still grinned like a clown without the slightest hint of embarrassment. “I wanted to stay alive to tell you what happened…”

Hao Ren did not know what to say about Hessiana’s clownish subordinate, but it was not the time to complain. Zeon quickly examined the bodies of his men for fatal wounds, then nodded at Hessiana with a serious face. “It’s the Higher Shadow Blade.”

Hessiana looked at the mess of the aftermath, her eyes filled with fury. “Has Bethanos gone mad? Is he declaring war on the two families?”

“Could this be the reason for the energy storm in the foreign dimension?” asked Hao Ren. Suddenly, many things came to his mind. It began to dawn on Zeon and Hessiana too as they gnashed their teeth in anger. Hessiana gave her lone surviving man another kick and said, “Inform everyone to gear up; holy water and everything. We’re going for Bethanos! The Hessianite Family has not been in a fight for three years, so they think we’re easily bullied!”

“Calm down. You’re not going to go in blindly.” Zeon stopped Hessiana. “Bethanos knows more about the relic than we do and he has taken the key. He wanted us dead in the foreign dimension. He came prepared!”

Hessiana stared at Zeon. “Then what should I do, old fogy? Do we just let him do whatever he wants?”

Zeon frowned and pondered for a while. He then turned around and shouted at a body on the ground. “Andrea! Stop playing dead! Go back and inform everyone to get ready for a face off with Bethanos. Another thing, send William on recce; I want to know what the Shadelings are up to before we take action.”

A flirty woman rose from among the dead and jumped to her feet before nodding at Zeon. She then spread her bat wings and flew downtown in the dark.

Hessiana gave Zeon a silent glance and said, “…Looks like we have a common ground here.”

“Shut up.”

Hao Ren was speechless. He felt like he could no longer stand it; the dead bodies and their facetious attitude towards death had all crushed his perspective on life. He desperately needed some quiet time to reflect and ponder on whether these otherworldlings were seriously brain-dead.

Soon, the flapping sound of wings broke the night as a bunch of vampires from the Hessianite Family arrived. They came to clean up the scene as soon as they got wind of the situation. Hessiana grabbed one of them and asked anxiously, “What are the Shadelings doing?”

“The Shadelings in the city are gone,” the lesser vampire answered. “We’ve got intel that the Bethanos Family has retreated to their hole. At the moment, all areas controlled by the Shadelings have been locked down while the little recce bats have been shot down.”

“Any movement?”

“No, for now.”

Hessiana let go of her hand. “Clean up this mess, then arm yourselves with weapons. We’re going to war.”

She then turned her head and nodded at Hao Ren. “Will you help us? You can go now if you don’t want to. Follow me if you do.”

The maiden had totally turned into another person—ferocious and resolute. Hao Ren finally realised how a brain-dead, mini version of Vivian could fight her way and conquer half of the city back then. He nodded without hesitation. “Count me in, of course. We were almost toasted by the energy storm earlier, don’t you remember?”

They hurried back to the Hessianite Family’s station in the city with Zeon tagging along. The Hessianite Family’s place was not far from the Parthenon, which was on a hill. The Lucas Family’s place was on the other side of the city, so Zeon thought it would be more convenient to first have a discussion in Hessiana’s place, after which he would go back to his place to assemble his army.

While on their way there, Hao Ren recollected the intel he received on the Bethanos Family, and every other intel about the incident.

Shadelings were a cross between humans and demons. Some people speculated that these creatures were descendants of demons and humans; some said their ancestors were fanatic sorcerers who were crazy in the pursuit of demonic power that they themselves became cursed and mutated into a new species. Like most unusual creatures, shadelings could be in human form but still retain the combat form of a demon. They were skilled in shadowy powers and various curses. Not to mention, their vitality was second only to werewolves. They were indeed a difficult opponent.

The most notorious characteristic of shadelings was greed—greed for energy, greed for power and greed for forbidden knowledge. Shadelings would do anything for power. They were very susceptible to the temptations of shadow powers and various forbidden knowledge. They had launched wars against other unusual creatures and even their own kind, mostly for the sake of power and knowledge. Their craving for power was akin to the pure-blooded demons while their fanaticism towards forbidden knowledge could rival maniacal human sorcerers. It was no wonder that people had suspicions of shadelings’ ancestors being humans who had a covenant with the demons.

But shadelings and the other unusual creatures had gone dormant post-Mythological period. They were not idiots and they knew when to lay low. Shadelings who hid in the sanctuary did not cause much trouble; they began to mingle with other races. But no matter what, they were still a dangerous element.

Actually, other races were not any less dangerous; be it the blood-sucking vampires or the reckless werewolves, even the lone demons who were the minority. They were just as irascible, and would cause trouble for others as well as themselves from time to time. Since everyone was some sort of volatile element themselves, no one blinked an eye when shadelings sought sanctuary in the Shadowy Divide. But due to their notorious capriciousness and greed, other races were more cautious towards them.

The Bethanos Family was the only shadeling force of influence in the shadow Athens. Under normal circumstances, these shadelings would not allow a second shadeling force to exist. So most of the time, there was only one shadeling family in each sanctuary. The Bethonas Family, like the Lucas Family, was also an established force. Their leader, Bethanos had been living there since the establishment of the shadow Athens, and in Hessiana’s words, was a fogy as well as a freak who dethroned Zeon Lucas from claiming the top title.

When news of the ruins’ discovery by the Hessianite Family broke, Bethanos began to covet the treasure. He had been making various excuses in numerous occasions, trying to poke his nose into the matter. But Hessiana was very smart and shared the secret of the relic with the Lucas Family from the very beginning. Although she was displeased about it, the alliance of two vampire families in securing the relic was better than letting Bethanos get his hands on it. Everyone knew the shadelings’ nature; once they came into the picture, destruction was imminent.

Even so, they had underestimated the ability and guts Bethanos had. Zeon Lucas did not expect Bethanos to be so daring either, openly snatching the key away and trapping the two heads of the Blood Clan in the other dimension.

Getting the key was easy, but what was next? The influence of Hessiana and Zeon’s families would still remain, they would not just suddenly crumble when their leaders disappeared. Even if choas were to erupt, the Bethanos Family would not be able to fight a multiple-front battle; other ancient ones guarding the city would not just sit by and watch—the shadelings in the city would be slaughtered. Perhaps, Bethanos wanted to hide in the ruins with his henchmen after snatching the key? Did he think that he was going to acquire an unprecedented power in the ruins and come out invincible? These presumptions may be a little far-fetched, but considering Bethanos was a cunning old fox, it was certainly not luck that he could survive till this day.

What was even more important was the level of security Hessiana and Zeon had put in place at the entry ceremony. The guards were trained to handle the unexpected, yet it seemed that Bethanos had brought out all of his best men for the key, betting the lives of his entire family on it. What kind of treasure was Bethanos after that he was so willing to sacrifice everything for it?

The behaviour of the shadeling family was indeed unusual.