"Master... Master... Master..."
The voice was soft and shaky, carrying both panic and fear.
Vlad opened his eyes as his senses returned. His blurred vision slowly cleared, and he found himself hanging upside down in a dimly lit place.
A heavy chain was clamped tightly around his ankle, suspending him upside down, and even both his arms were pulled behind his back, bound by the same iron chain.
He twisted slightly, the metal creaking with the motion.
As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, Vlad realized he was in a giant abandoned mine.
The ceiling arched high above, wrapped in darkness and drifting mist. Old pulley systems dangled from above, some still bearing giant, rust-covered wagon buckets, their chains groaning with every slight sway.
On the stone floor far below, broken carts lay shattered and split open, their wooden frames eaten away by time.
A few scattered piles of forgotten tools and dull, glinting minerals could still be seen, remnants of the labor that once took place here. Narrow stone bridges crossed over, connecting sections of the mine, some broken, some still intact.
The air was cold, and mist filled the chamber.
'It must be the Deceiver,' Vlad thought, and despite the iron cutting into his limbs, a thin grin formed on his face.
Everything was going as planned.
"Master," Vel whispered again, her voice trembling, closer this time. "You are finally awake..."
Vlad tilted his head and saw her small figure hovering next to him, glowing in a faint green glow.
"A monster attacked you. A real one... it..it tried to eat me," she said, tears welling in her eyes.
"It dragged you here. And tied you up like the others..."
"Others?" Vlad blurred, a flicker of interest breaking through his daze.
"Look. Look down there." Vel pointed below at other chains closer to the ground.
Vlad shifted in the chains and looked where she pointed, and sure enough, there were at least four individuals hanging upside down by chains that he could see, just like him.
They were hanging across the cavern, looking less like prisoners and more like captured game, still and silent. Their condition was confusing, as no one showed any resistance or, more accurately, life, but Vlad wasn't given any time to think about it.
As Vlad activated his inhuman instincts, making his vision clearer, he received the answer as to why the four individuals were hanging lifelessly and not struggling to get free.
'They must be his test subjects and have fully turned to Hollow,' Vlad realized, seeing their chalk-white skin and motionless bodies.
'He must be testing the plague and his control over it,' He reasoned, seeing their shriveled and old skin and how they were tied using chains, which shouldn't be needed since the Deceiver he knew could control his creatures like mindless golems.
Who did what he told and moved when he commanded.
'While not perfect, If he had already reached this level in his work, then how far is he from reaching that level of control,' Vlad thought, memories of the first catastrophe flooding his mind.
The Verdant Blight of False Immortality that the Deceiver created was a world-level threat. Within just three weeks of being infected, anyone third Rank Ascendant or below fully succumbed to its effect.
One silver lining in this horror was that only the intelligent races were being infected, but humans having the weakest resistant and highest number, the plague was spreading fast among them.
In his previous life, when the authorities thought that the threat of the Hollow plague was under control since every infected was put to sleep using a tier six array of the Empire, and severely affected areas were isolated to control the plague.
But on the thirty-first day after the plague began, its true horror came, as every slumbering individual woke up no longer affected by the effects of the array and, like conscienceless puppets, began to spread carnage.
Then, Tael finally revealed himself as the orchestrator behind the chaos. Declaring himself the Deceiver, he took the abandoned city of Thalmaris as his base.
The Deceiver unleashed his armies on the human Empire, and in just twenty-four hours, he took down two cities and a dozen small and big villages.
The Hollow army grew to six hundred thousand, and the death count reached tens of thousands.
But then he stopped.
Just as panic spread in the world, the Deceiver made a chilling promise: He would cure everyone, every last soul infected and not lost if the Empire fulfilled a single demand.
He wanted the Eldest Princess, Ysabel Solaris, as his bride.
The declaration stunned even the highest echelons of the court, and to ensure they took him seriously, he revealed one final truth.
His death wouldn't stop the Hollow Horde.
It would only make them grow faster, more violent, and completely unrestrained.
The threat was true, but only to some extent.
The threat left the Empire with a bitter choice: surrender their star princess or gamble with the lives of millions.
But before a decision could be made, the Deceiver was slain just three days after his demand shook the realm.
It was unknown who took him down; most speculated it was some other empire since that madman's death unleashed the zombie horde, which was no longer guided or restrained.
But a good thing or bad thing happened, depending on how one sees it.
After just six days, the rampaging horde of the hollow began to fall lifeless, and even the Verdant Blight of False Immortality began to fade away, its infected slowly recovering.
Some who were too far gone were left with permanent mental and physical damage, but after countless deaths and damage, the Verdant Blight of False Immortality finally ended.
The unexpected death of the Deceiver was the reason Vlad believed he was working alone. If he had the backing of the Cult, he shouldn't have died so easily, but then again, who knew what truly happened, so Vlad couldn't be certain.
The threat the Deceiver posed was also why Vlad was not willing to waste any time. He knew that if he failed, what terrible fate awaited the world.
Vlad knew that if the Demonkin rise could be stopped, then the Deceiver could very well join hands with the Cult and start the event far before it should originally take place.
This was why Vlad was not running around acquiring every opportunity he knew but focused on the Deceiver to end him before his rain of terror could even begin.
"Master, we have to get out... Be.. before that monster comes back," Vel whispered, her voice trembling with panic and fear.
"Calm Down," Vlad calmly said, "This is exactly what I wanted, so don't worry, everything is fine,"
Vel hovered close, her eyes full of anxiety. "But Master, that creature... what if it attacks you?"
"Did you forget I'm an immortal adventurer? I can't die," Vlad said with a faint smile. "And since you are a spirit, you will be safe. No mere creature could harm you." Vlad grinned, reassuring her that everything was fine.
"Okay," she said quietly, though her radiant, fear-filled eyes lingered on the mouth of the mine tunnel.
Vlad took a deep breath, filling his lungs with air before roaring, "Hello! Anybody? I'm awake now."
His voice echoed off the high stone walls, cutting through the gloomy silence.
Vel flinched and floated closer. "Master, the monster...it could still be near," she whispered. "What if it hears you?" Her voice trembled again, just above a breath.
"You worry too much," Vlad said lightheartedly, his tone almost teasing.
The poor little spirit drifted closer, understanding that her master had a plan and that, somehow, things were going the way he wanted.
But seeing the lifeless figures hanging in the distance and thinking the monstrous thing that had dragged them here might be responsible for their fate made her shudder in fear.
Vlad's call fell on deaf ears, so after a few minutes, he made another attempt.
"If you think the silent treatment will scare me, you're mistaken," Vlad called out, his voice echoing through the misted cavern.
"I am an Immortal Adventurer, and slipping free from your grip wouldn't be difficult." He paused, letting the words hang for a moment before shifting his tone, calmer, confident, almost persuasive.
"But I am not here to escape. I am here to make a deal, one that benefits both of us."
"I know what your potions can do, and I am willing to sponsor you, offer manpower, connections, and the means to perfect your work and produce it on mass," Vlad said and went silent.
A moment passed, and then it came.
"VVVVVVRRRRRAAAAAARRRRRRR"
A guttural, piercing cry tore through the cavern like metal being ripped apart, layered with a deep, inhuman resonance that rattled the chains and vibrated in Vlad's ear.
Vel shrieked in panic and darted behind Vlad, her small body trembling as she pressed herself close.
Vlad, not bothered, raised his head, watching calmly as the thick mist in his surroundings parted. In seconds, a bone-white figure tore open the mist, bridging the distance between them in the blink of an eye.
He saw it coming and watched as the bat-like creature turned mid-air, its jaw stretching unnaturally wide. A gurl growl escaped him as it came at Vlad's neck.