Chapter 381: The Shadow of Suspicion
Alexander waited for five long minutes in the middle of the plaza, but no one appeared. The absence of Lyssandra and his woman’s caused his patience to vanish completely, giving way to a surging, contained fury as an ill omen crossed his mind.
"Make way," said Alexander, looking at the guard formation with eyes cold as ice. "If anything happened to Lyssandra or the others, no one of you will survive tonight."
The guards, far from yielding, gripped their weapons with even greater stubbornness and held their defensive line, adamantly refusing to let him pass.
"You have officially exhausted my patience," said Alexander in a dark, pitiless tone. "[Shadow Vampire Summon Level 1]."
Instantly, the shadows across the plaza began to writhe and rise like columns of black smoke. Hundreds of imposing vampiric warriors, forged from pure ancestral darkness with glowing crimson pupils, emerged from the ground, covering every inch of the pavement.
"Kill anyone who stands in my way," said Alexander.
The female adventurers and guards fell into absolute panic, unleashing a volley of ranged attacks. Enchanted arrows, blasts of fire, and spears of light struck the shadow vanguard head-on. A shadow vampire took three silver arrows straight to the chest and a fireball that blew away half its torso; yet, it didn’t dodge or even attempt to defend itself. The gaping wound in its body simply refilled with surrounding darkness in the blink of an eye, regenerating completely as it pressed forward without a shred of fear.
The shadow warrior made a brutal leap, drove its dark claws through the archer’s neck, and ripped her head off with a single jerk, causing blood to spurt like a fountain.
Beside it, another guard plunged her enchanted sword into the abdomen of a second shadow vampire. The creature didn’t even blink; it grabbed the steel blade with its bare hand, shattering it into a thousand pieces, and crushed the woman’s skull with a devastating punch that splattered brain matter across the city hall walls.
Explosions, screams of agony, and the sound of tearing flesh echoed through the entire plaza. The shadow vampires advanced like an unstoppable wave of death, absorbing every blow, regenerating instantly, and slaughtering dozens of combatants in their path.
Alexander walked slowly through the center of the carnage with his hands in his pockets, without needing to lift a finger while his army of darkness cleared the path before him.
Alexander crossed the shattered thresholds of the city hall and stepped into the grand main hall. Suddenly, an imposing figure emerged from the upper shadows. She was a tall woman with extremely wide hips, grayish skin, and eight barbed spider appendages sprouting violently from her back.
"A spider woman..." muttered Alexander.
"I see a Vampire Emperor has entered our realm... How strange," said the creature, descending from the ceiling with unsettling elegance. "As far as I know, we have had a pact with your race for many millennia... Why do you seek to break it?"
"I don’t give a fuck about whatever deals you have with the vampires," said Alexander.
Alexander deactivated his [Vampiric Emperor] skill, retracted his dark wings, and reverted to his standard human form right before her eyes.
"A human hybrid...?" said the spider woman, narrowing her compound eyes in astonishment. "Interesting... In my hundreds of years of life, I have never seen one like you. How is this even possible?"
"Nothing is impossible," said Alexander in a cold tone. "Seeing you here tells me everything I need to know. You work for the Spider Queen... Where is Lyssandra, the former mayor?"
"That bitch?" said the spider woman, letting out a mocking laugh. "She refused to submit to Her Majesty’s goodwill... so we killed her."
Alexander’s bloodlust exploded in a microsecond. The surrounding shadows felt their master’s wrath and lunged forward violently. In the blink of an eye, the claws of three shadow vampires pierced through the spider woman’s chest, crushing her heart before she could even react.
"I see... Then there’s no need for anyone in this city to survive," said Alexander, turning his back on her.
The shadows locked their crimson eyes on the women desperately attempting to flee in all directions, overtaking them within seconds to resume the slaughter.
"Exterminate everyone who does not kneel," ordered Alexander.
The shadows lunged into the attack. A wave of violence and despair broke out in the streets as the shadow vampires hunted down every guard and combatant attempting to flee. The clash of metal against dark claws lasted barely an instant before being drowned out by muffled screams and the gut-wrenching sound of flesh and bone being torn apart. The few women who managed to cast fire spells or magic barriers saw their incantations slicedvthrough by the creatures, which absorbed the impact, regenerated their dark matter in the blink of an eye, and severed their limbs without mercy. The plaza pavement was quickly slicked with a crimson tide as the slaughter continued unchecked.
Indifferent to the chaos outside, Alexander stepped through the main corridors of the city hall. He stepped over the remains of the spider woman and headed up into the upper offices to check if anything useful remained amidst the wreckage. The mayor’s office was completely turned upside down; fine wooden furniture had been smashed to pieces, and hundreds of documents lay scattered across the floor.
Alexander began flipping through the intact papers on the main desk. Among the patrol reports and supply orders drafted in the spider faction’s handwriting, he found a tactical map of the Kingdom of Sandoria marked with several red ink locations, alongside a ledger sealed with a protective enchantment.
"So they didn’t just take over Plyaro..." said Alexander with a cold smirk as he snapped the magic seal with his fingertips. "Seems like the queen of those vermin has been quite busy while I was away."
Alexander continued flipping through the order ledger, tracking the drawn lines across the tactical map with his gaze. The spider woman faction had systematically deployed troops across the entire region, boxing in the territories held by his allies.
"They’re closing the ring around Liora..." said Alexander, narrowing his eyes as he read the notes on the latest evacuation caravans. "According to this map, they must be fleeing south. Are there more cities down there, or are they planning to force their way through the Dark Forest?"
Alexander snapped the ledger shut and tucked the map inside his clothes. Outside, the screams of the slaughter had died down completely, leaving only the quiet rustle of the shadows waiting for his next command.