Chapter 52: Future of Varina
Percy kissed Rita before he pat Vivian’s head and told her to come along. Vivian immediately hugged Percy’s arm tightly, and she smiled happily as they walked out of the library together! But just before she left, Vivian turned to glance back at Rita, and Vivian stuck her tongue out at her!
"Blergh~"
Rita’s eye twitched before Rita just shook her head in amusement and headed towards the librarian’s desk. Vivan might be an adult now, but she still acted the same as when she was a child, and Rita refused to allow a child to get on her nerves!
Rita got ready for the students that would soon be coming to the library, but a loud voice suddenly echoed from upstairs, and Rita looked up to see Viva running out from the elevator!
"Rita! The vampire guard just woke up! Where’s Percival!?"
Rita’s eyes widened in shock, and she let out a long sigh before calling on Lana!
Woosh!
Lana appeared in a gust of wind and saluted!
"Lana is here, Madam Rita!"
"Lana, handle the desk. I need to take care of this."
Lana saluted with a wide smile, and Rita quickly left to meet the vampire guard.
...
[Library Clinic]
The first thing Ethan noticed when he opened his eyes was that he was in a hospital room. There was a bright white light shining down on him from above, and he squinted as he felt a banging headache slamming into his skull! A cute face suddenly appeared in Ethan’s view, and Ethan blinked when he saw the tiny girl smiling at him.
"You’re awake!"
The girl was wearing a nurse’s outfit, and she looked really happy to see him awake. Ethan groaned as he put his hand on his head and turned to the side, and Ethan froze as he finally noticed the dead body of his lady lying on the bed beside him.
"Lady Raya."
Ethan gasped out her name, and he felt his heart rate pick up as he quickly tried to stand, but another cute nurse put her hand on his chest and made him stay down.
"You’re still healing. You can’t get up yet."
Ethan’s eyes were fixed on the dead body, and he sent out a pulse of mana to try to feel for any traces of his lady’s mana. But there was no response at all, and Ethan put a hand over his eyes as he felt an intense grief coming over him. This wasn’t how things were meant to go! If anyone had to die, then it should’ve been him!
Ethan felt like his world was crumbling around him, but then he felt the pendant around his neck, and he realized that he couldn’t break down here. He still had a mission to accomplish, and stopping now would only insult his lady’s sacrifice.
Ethan turned to one of the cute nurses and spoke in a raspy voice.
"What... What time and place is this?"
Beta tilted her head to one side and blinked cutely before she said:
"You’re in the city of Aquinas within the Kingdom of Andura. The year is 10 AV. Ten years into the Age of Verati."
Ethan closed his eyes and let out a long sigh in relief! They actually made it! Ethan hadn’t believed that this pendant could really take them through time, but there was no more doubt in his mind! He was in the past!
Ka-Cha!
The door leading to the clinic opened, and Ethan turned quickly to see two people entering. One of them was a feline demihuman with cat ears and whisker marks, and the other was a beautiful vampire that Ethan immediately recognized!
"Lady Rita."
Ethan gasped and quickly sat up, and Rita watched him closely as he struggled to bow to her. Ethan was only a guard in the Pastoni vampire army, so Rita was far above him in hierarchy! Rita raised her hand and told him to stay seated before she spoke.
"You are from the future, aren’t you?"
Ethan nodded once, and Rita put her hands in front of her in a regal stance before she commanded.
"Explain what happened and why you came here in as many details as you can. Leave nothing out. I’ll decide what to do with you after I hear your explanation."
Ethan swallowed as he felt an imposing aura flowing off Rita. It was obvious that Rita did not appreciate him being here at all! Rita had a general dislike for all vampires after everything that happened to her in Varina, and if not for the fact that Percy wanted to know what was going on, Rita would’ve already sent the vampire back where they came from! But for Percy’s sake, Rita was willing to put up with them for a while longer.
Ethan took in a breath and let it out in a sigh to calm himself before he started speaking.
"It all began when the Horox faction was massacred by a mysterious mage..."
Rita listened to Ethan’s explanation without showing even the slightest bit of emotion on her face, and she took in everything Ethan had to say.
Ethan explained that after the Horox massacre, there was a sudden shift in the vampire war on Varina that saw the two remaining factions, the Pastoni and the Ashton, increase their aggression even more! Now that there was one less faction, it only meant that whoever managed to wipe out the other faction would become the automatic leaders of Varina.
At first, it seemed like things were going well for the Pastoni. They managed to push back against the Ashton at every confrontation, and they were winning various battles along the borders. The Pastoni were preparing a plan that would allow them to attack the Ashton fortress and kill the leader of the Ashton Faction once and for all. But things had gone horribly wrong when the half pendant of the Chronos Medallion was discovered.
No one knew exactly where the pendant came from or how it ended up in Varina, but one day, while the Pastoni army was patrolling the outer border of the territory, a soldier found the pendant lying beside the body of a dead wanderer. The soldier had brought the pendant to the leader of the Pastoni faction, Rita’s father, and after they gave the pendant to an appraiser to find out what it could do, they were all stunned to discover that the artefact allowed people to move through time!
This information sent a ripple of shock across the army generals, and Rita’s father ordered all the generals who had been present when the pendant’s function was discovered not to say anything about this to the rest of the army! The Pastoni had discovered a tool that could give them ultimate power, and they would need to make sure their enemies never found out about it!
Almost immediately, grand plans started being made! The head of the Pastoni made the choice that he would be the one to travel into the future with the pendant to find out what the Ashtons were planning to do next. This way, the Pastoni could plan ahead for anything, and they would be able to take the Ashtons by surprise!
A small platoon was created for this trip, and Rita’s father was given armor and weapons that would give him an advantage in case he ended up landing in an unfavourable position when he got to the future. On the day that he was to leave, he was sent off grandly by all his children and some generals in the army since everyone thought he would be gone for a long time! But they were all shocked when the leader returned barely one second after he left!
Rita’s father walked out of a dimensional door with a bloody sword and a nasty grin on his face. His armor was chipped and broken in many places, and he had a scar along his left cheek from an arrow that barely missed his head. The leader was the only one who returned, but everyone could tell that he had fought a great battle to make it back!