Wolf of the Blood Moon - Book 3 - Intermission 3 (Patreon)

                                                         The Grand Hotel

Lyra Sinclair del Argus, marchioness over the lands of Rivenfall, a march of the Guardian Duchy of the Argus clan, appears in a puff of red fog inside of a large ballroom full of humans right next to a vast core spanning five meters in width alongside an arachnae. And almost immediately, she senses the faintest hint of blood lycan coming from somewhere in the city. Somewhere to the south, closer to the border. So she glances at the humans in the room – all of whom are Class I or II ‘Guardians,’ as they like to call themselves – and find them already running out of the room.

Lyra scoffs before turning to the count beside her who is currently in his humanoid form – one that has the eerie eyes of a spider but with pale skin and four spiderlike limbs sticking out of his back and through his pitch black leather and metal armor. And the arachnae immediately narrows his eyes when their gazes meet.

“Count Zephyr von Arachna,” she says with a light arch of her brow. And the man replies with a short, “Marchioness Sinclair.”

Despite her wishing to go find the Princess as quickly as she can, she still stands still with her eyes narrowed on the man, waiting.

Eventually the Count gives in and performs a very light bow while crossing one arm over his chest and straightening his other arm to follow his torso as he says, “Your ladyship.” He then straightens back up with a faint sneer on his face, clearly unhappy at her higher station in ranking.

Good to see he’s taking his loss of command well.

Generally the command over Class V Fractures is given to the highest leveled Counts amongst the Demon Kingdom of Tartarus, but this time an exception was made. One that put Lyra as the one in charge due to the Demon King’s direct intervention through having the Blood Lord assign her to the Fracture. Something that normally wouldn’t have been done since it decreases the overall number of Class V demons that can be sent through the Fracture, even if their leader is a higher level than they otherwise would be.

“Remember your objective,” she states, her voice coldly echoing through the room as various other Class V demons of all varying species appear around them. “You must stall for time until the Princess is recovered. After that, I will rejoin you in eliminating those pesky Knights.”

“As you wish, Your Ladyship,” the Count says through gritted teeth, not even bothering to hide his distaste for her. Something that is generally common amongst the arachnae, who tend to hate everyone thanks to their Demonic Instinct of envy.

Lyra knows he won’t disobey though. No one disobeys His Majesty, even if they wanted to.

The only ones who are exempt from being a target of the arachnae’s envy is the Royal Family. So even if the spider wished to sabotage Lyra, which he no doubt does, he wouldn’t do it if it might bring failure to the mission.

Why did I have to come with an arachnae, again? I really wish it was a ghoul’s turn. Or even a kitsune or oni.

Lyra frowns for a moment, only to sigh a second later.

Then again, anything’s better than a succubi or a mindeater.

After she sees the core stabilizing behind them, signifying that all the demons are present and accounted for within the surrounding area even if they aren’t all in this room, she begins to float into the air and shouts, “Attention!”

All of the many noble demons in the room, most of which being simple Barons with only a few Viscounts amongst them, immediately focus on her and perform a bow, placing a single fist over their chests while shouting, “Your Ladyship Marchioness Sinclair, we live to serve!”

“All Class V demons are to hold this floor and defend the core with your lives until the mission is accomplished,” Lyra shouts, her voice echoing throughout the entire building, starting many human Guardians who are currently trapped within the building. But they don’t survive long as the Class V demons who appeared further away from the core all lock them in place with ease without killing them before making their way up to the core themselves. “Class IV and below demons should wrangle up the humans and bring them to the floor that the core room is on, along with the two surrounding floors to use as hostages! Should the humans enter their bunkers, all Class IV demons are ordered to shatter the barriers!”

Waves of blood begin to appear at the Marchioness’s feet before they slowly move up in ripples to envelop her entire body, soon expanding outwards to eventually reveal a three meter tall blood lycan in her beast form as she growls out, her voice echoing out despite her not using her mouth to speak, “Today we hunt for two reasons!”

The demon nobles all begin stomping a single foot, shaking the entire building and further frightening the humans, most of whom are bound by now and being carried by the peasant demons.

“Our main priority is to find and bring the Princess back to Tartarus! To where Her Royal Highness belongs!!!” she exclaims, her voice growing louder and louder as a light growl rings true from each and every demon’s throat in unison. “And then we eliminate the damned Knights who have plagued us for so long!”

The growls all turn in to roars before she finishes, “Tonight we hunt! Now get to it!”

In an instant, the roars double in volume. Meanwhile the Marchioness immediately flies through the air straight towards a wall before smashing through it and every other wall until she reaches the barrier of the large building and smashes that as well, not even pausing when dealing with the thing that is supposedly deadly towards any demon below Class IV. But the moment she makes it outside of the building, she is hit with a large tentacle that sends her flying straight to the ground, creating a massive crater and destroying any of the human vehicles that were in her way.

Lyra growls as she begins to climb out of the crater and looks up where she finds a man with eyes akin to blobs of water staring at her whilst slowly floating down to the ground with various tentacles each covered in water sprouted from both his back and hair waving about him.

The moment the Marchioness’s eyes make contact with his, the System relays to her his identity.

Lyra’s glowing red eyes narrow on the man who is labeled amongst demon kind as one of the most frightening humans in existence. A man who – just like all the other Title holders – is so powerful even the System gives him a unique identify result that somehow just feels powerful.

The woman doesn’t hesitate for even a moment as she rushes towards the man who is nearly an entire two hundred levels above her. But as she does so, she hears another fight along echoing from closer to the core as flashes of white light shine out of the building signaling Her Royal Highness’s mother. So she sends a telepathic signal through a call stone in her pocket to the woman known as Fredricka by the humans.

The Knights defending this city are now both preoccupied. Find the Princess and bring her to the core. But under the orders from His Majesty, absolutely do not permanently harm any who might be dear to Her Highness, even if they are humans.

Lyra isn’t worried about White destroying the core in their fight as the Count has no doubt put up enough defenses around it to shield the core well enough that even the White Knight will require time to remove them. Time outside of combat.

Now we just need to handle these Knights and keep their attention for long enough.

Despite her thoughts though, she can’t help but feel a shiver run down her spine even as she leaps through the air towards the Blue Knight, finding the look in his eyes frightening even for her.

I just hope I survive long enough to see Her Highness.

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<|{Blue Knight of Humanity} – Human – Level 1822|>