Chapter 187 - Spawn

Torches burst into life one after another as footsteps echoed down the dark corridor. The fiery light illuminated two hooded people as they passed, casting upon them like impeccably programmed spotlights, following their progress along the hallway.

But the shadows frolicking on the coarse, stone walls fell upon their faces, hiding them further under the darkness of their cloaks, and their urgent strides left nothing but the golden glint of the intricate trimmings on their velvet capes. When at last the pair reached the heavy door at the end of the passage, one of them unceremoniously wrenched it open, making it groan loudly in protest.

"Ritz, you beckoned?"

Ivan of Kres' booming voice echoed in the room, as his fingers pulled back his cloak to reveal his crimson head atop his handsome face. It had been a couple of days since they had last seen each other, and he had thought that the King of Heaven had totally succumbed to depression.

Alistair of Ritz' revenge on the people who had murdered his sister and Ivan's fiancée had been completed, and it had already been revealed to all and sundry who the silver-haired beauty truly was. His real identity, of course, had established Ritz's new rank in the hierarchy of all the nations in Ged, as what they called their world.

Who would dare make trouble with Ritz now? None. Nobody would ever risk making nuisances against the nation where the Returner to Ancestry of the King of Heaven Perun, sat as its emperor.

It was why Ivan had been confident in leaving his best friend's side to cater to his own nation. Well, Kres' own reputation had soared further of course so the problems he faced connected to his restless neighboring kingdoms significantly decreased. Their emperor's a close friend of Perun after all – someone who could even address the King of Heaven as his equal.

They wouldn't dare take the wrath of heaven upon themselves literally.

Also, Ivan had declared to all that the enemy of Ritz was an enemy of Kres. So it was safe to say that everyone also knew that it was true the other way around. Anyone who was Kres' foe would have to deal with Ritz too.

Ivan had never felt relaxed and totally at peace. It was also why he could leisurely come to Ritz when Alistair had asked for him so suddenly.

"What are you still doing there?" Ivan turned to the other cloaked figure, and sure enough, Fredek removed his cover as well before bowing to the king.

It was Fredek who had fetched Ivan at Kres at Alistair's behest.

"Good work," Alistair complimented his most trusted servant before turning his attention back to Ivan. "I need your help."

Ivan, of course, was already expecting something like this, and so he crossed the room and sat on one of the velvet chaises in front of Alistair's huge oak desk as he had always done when he came in this study room.

The Flame Emperor could feel a mystifying excitement coming out of Alistair, and he felt curious. He was expecting him to be still gloomy as he had been since he left him. The King of Ritz loved his sister so much that her loss almost tore him apart.

"You too," Alistair indicated to Fredek who almost immediately bowed like a loyal servant that he was.

"At your service Your Majesty," Fredek answered with a curtsy, making Ivan roll his jade eyes heavenwards.

"I'm at your service too," Ivan said mockingly, his stance and eyes dripping with sarcasm, although it was the truth.

Ever since they were children, the Flame Emperor had been whipped into a fine follower by the Ritz King – even before knowing who he really was. There was nothing anyone could do to change that. He was Alistair's best man, best gopher – only a little bit better than Fredek.

He'd a long time ago accepted his fate…

"I had an uninvited visitor last night," Alistair began and the two men whipped their heads to look at the Ritz King curiously.

"His Majesty had a visitor last night?"Fredek sounded so surprised.

He was after all tasked with the new security of the palace and overall safety of the king. Alistair had a visitor unannounced or otherwise was total news to him – and it was a bad kind of news.

Very bad.  

"Don't panic. It was someone even you couldn't detect," Alistair told Fredek reassuringly. 

Fredek was one of the bests in the whole world when it came to security, and so having him not detecting something meant only that it was someone from that other world.

Ivan's jade gaze narrowed as he realized what the king meant. "You had a celestial visitor?"

There was no other way to explain the inability of Fredek to detect someone except for one thing. It must have been a deity.

"Well, I couldn't really call her celestial," Alistair commented with a bitter twist of his lips. 

Hearing that, Ivan visibly paled as he straightened in his seat, his jade eyes widened in alarm and horror as he slowly realized who Alistair might have been talking about.

"Y-you mean… Czernobog?"

Alistair shook his silver head. "His spawn...."

Ivan frowned, remembering that tiny bit of information he had forgotten. Of course. It could never be the Black God. The deity of calamity and disaster, bringing bad luck and misfortune was trapped in the depths of hell where the King of Heaven Perun had banished him and had no capability to ascend to the mortal world.

Therefore…her.

"What did she want?" Ivan's voice was severe when it came out.

He had no idea what all the details were as he had forgotten most of them. But he was sure that that evil entity was after Alinea – had been after Alencica since the beginning of time.

Just imagining the millennia of grief and suffering Perun, Alencica, and his ancestor Kresnik had gotten in the hands of that evil witch made his blood boil.

Too bad, nobody could ever kill her except…

"Ali's gone. She had no more business appearing in front of you," the Flame Emperor continued with his voice ringing with severity.

Alistair looked solemn for a while before nodding. "I thought that too, except…"

His voice trailed off, and both Ivan and Fredek looked at him in question before he continued.

"Except Ali's not dead. She's still alive…"