“I came here to make a request, or.. let’s say, I came to propose a deal.” Victor says in a dead tone.

.

.

The entire place remained silent for a while, but then the silence was broken, not by Victor this time.

“The Crow, if I’m not wrong. I don’t know what you think you are doing, but I assure you that this is not a place where you can just do what you want and go scot free.” The vampire sitting before the vampire lord says to victor, quite calmly.

Victor not being one to engage in politics and the schemes that have to go into it, he decides to get to the point quickly and not waste any time.

“So the deal I have is..” Cutting Victor off as he spoke, the same vampire who just answered Victor a moment ago spoke again.historical

“We have every information on you ‘Crow’. Though it was a bit unexpected that you showed up here and did what you did, considering your normal attitude, we can assure you that we do not fear you in anyway.” The vampire said, still keeping his eyes fixated on Victor.

‘So they think I am the same as the other Crow? No wonder. It would seem that the original Crow is quite strong, given their reaction to him, or maybe there’s something else.’ Victor said in his mind.

Though he thought of these things and some more, he wasn’t going to play around with them, he had better things to do. (Not really)

“The next time you interrupt me, it won’t be funny.” Victor said in a plain and nonchalant voice while looking at the vampire before the throne. In the end, one could engage themselves in such games, creating schemes and trying to manipulate the other party, but in the face of absolute power, such schemes are not needed. OF COURSE, Victor doesn’t consider the power he possesses as absolute, but it it definitely so at the moment. He was a bit cautious about the vampires thinking that they might be stronger than him, but as he is seated in that throne room, he could feel it. Only the vampire lord was worth it, the rest weren’t really much.

“I came here to meet the, ‘vampire lord’, not to exchange words with one who is below him.” Victor said following his earlier provocation. Without beating around the bush, he went directly to his offer to them.

“I will allow you to offer up 70% of the vampires that are under your.. whatever it is to me, let’s say as, sacrifice, and by so doing, I, on my side of the deal won’t massacre your entire race.” Victor said, still nonchalant in his attitude and voice.

To what he just said, the atmosphere inside the throne room changed completely, and the tension could be felt, literally. Every vampire inside that room tensed up immediately, and if not for the show of strength earlier where they saw just what Victor could do, they would have attacked right that instant. Maybe it was the respect for the lord, being in his presence, or it was them being cautious towards Victor, they remained put and after a while of staring at Victor like they had already killed him in their heads, they all turned their attention towards the vampire lord.

‘Guess the vampires are the more coordinated ones between them and their supernatural counterparts. Wonder if they also exist in this world.’ Victor said in his mind. There were countless fantasy novels and series where vampires existed and their counter parts didn’t exist, so Victor thought it possible in this world. Not like he was looking forward to their existence though, they didn’t really fit his evolution path. Maybe as a second form it would be possible.

With the way the entire thing was progressing, the vampires couldn’t clearly make out anything about Victor or what his plan was. He didn’t seem to care at all at the mention that they had his information, as the ‘Crow’, and they hadn’t heard of any new notable figure appearing in the human world. Also, after he directly took it to the leader, if the vampire lord didn’t reply now, it wouldn’t do well for his power standing before Victor.

The vampire lord adjusted the way he sat, from a more relaxed posture to an upright one. “What do you mean by that? Offer up my family to you as sacrifice,-” Before the vampire continued however, Victor cut him short.

“What? Family? This isn’t the entire vampire community? This isn’t your entire race?” Victor thought in his mind.

‘If that’s the case then.. there’s no need for me to have this negotiation at all.’ He said in his mind as he stood from his seat, and as he did, all eyes returned back upon him. What did he mean by ‘it wasn’t their entire race?’ Everyone asked themselves this question in their minds. At that moment, the smarter ones out of the bunch seemed to have understood something, and the three vampires and the vampire lord himself were part of these people, something Victor noticed himself.

Originally, the reason why Victor wanted to have this deal where the vampires will give him 70% of their people was simple. Victor knew how much material it would cost him to get to the absolute peak of the vampire evolution tree, and to achieve that he needed evolution material. If he was to kill and get the evolution material of all the vampires present in that city, it won’t be enough, so he planned to have them get into a deal with him. They would provide the evolution materials for him as time went by. Vampires couldn’t be born, only made, so after the first 70% were taken, new vampires will be made by the remaining 30%, and he would take the new ones. The process would continue until he reached the peak of vampire evolution.

Of course, with the information that these weren’t the only vampires around, and that this was just one of the many families, Victor no longer saw a need to keep some alive. He could just get the remaining materials from the other families.

..

(In the minds of the vampires)

The vampires just realised that they had messed up by saying the word family, and that apparently that had put them in a bad position. Whatever Crow wanted to do, with the existence of other vampires, he no longer needed them alive, so they had entered a very bad position all of a sudden.

The vampire lord was thinking of different ways to handle the situation before him, and apart from him, other vampires were also thinking of their own way out of this.

The vampire lord had already seen that he won’t win against Victor. He suspected that Victor was at least at the same level of strength as himself, so the outcome of a battle between both of them was quite clear in his head.

‘I have to find out what he means, and even what he wants.’ The vampire lord says in his mind as he looked at Victor who had stood up, with both of his palms clenching tightly around the arms of the chair.

..

“Hmm..”