Legacy World 4.21 Raven's Suspicion

Vlad teleported himself away, but he did not escape unscathed. His clothes were in tatters. Deep wounds littered his body. However, he stayed among the treetop and looked down at Michael with a smirk, looking completely unbothered by his state. It was as if the battle was already concluded with him being announced as the victor.

Michael used his sword as support and pushed himself off the ground very slowly. He was clearly drained of strength. Although he looked up at where Vlad was, there was a glazed over look in his eyes, like he was only half conscious.

"Humph. You're still not dead." Vlad sounded a tad bit impressed. "You're either the strongest or one of the strongest already. Then let's see how you survive this!" Vlad multiplied himself again then had all his copies bear down on Michael at the same time. 

Despite his spacey look, Michael squeezed the handle of his sword just before the first attack could land. The same rugged light streaks shot up from the ground and completely consumed the copies of Vlad, disintegrating them into nothing. Vlad repeated it once more to get the same result. On the third attempt, Vlad secretly followed his copies, easily blending in with them.

Despite how skeptical Vanora was, she knew that Vlad must have something up his sleeve that would definitely kill Michael. Before she could think of much, she cried out, "DEREK!"

Vlad's heart jumped in shock and surprise to hear Vanora calling an unfamiliar name. His fist ended up brushing against Michael's cheek then hitting the ground beside Michael. The dust settled at the same time Michael's light attack disappeared. Vlad looked worse off than Vanora in her worst state. Bones peeked through several deep wounds on his body and face. However, his attention was now on locating the person who Vanora called out so frantically for.

/Who hit her up while I was occupied?/ When his glare finally landed on Vanora, he froze to find her gaze fixated on him.

"Are you done? I want to go now. We're wasting time." Vanora sounded a lot more calm and showed a tiny pout.

He then remembered how he had told her a fake name and that he was 'Derek' now. Suddenly, he felt too guilty to look at Vanora in the eye while he returned to her side. He realised that he had to come clean one day, especially if he wanted to hear her sweet voice saying his real name. Based on what he knew of Vanora thus far, he had a hunch that she would not take the news very well.

As the pair left the scene, Michael stared at the red-haired figure with a complicated gaze. His life would have ended there and then if she had not intervened. He did not even have enough strength to move even though Vlad was right in front of him and distracted for a good while. Now that he thought about, her initial reaction to him was odd too. Vlad's immediate hostility was the norm. Whereas, Vanora only lost her calm when Vlad almost took his life. /Who IS she...? What's her goal? Why's she with the demon lord? Why does the demon lord look so different from the last time? What's going on?/

After getting a breather, Michael dealt with the curse that he had been suppressing all the while. He softly and slowly completed the rest of his chants and black smoke seeped out of the tossed up ground and destroyed trees. He then placed his palm on the ground and a light spread from it to cover the entire area. A bright line shone and everything was back to how it was before the battle began. He slowly pushed himself up with his sword again, then walked aimlessly, trying to find a place where he could hide and recover. Despite using his sword that was kept in its scabbard as a walking stick, he continued to stumble every other step he took. After walking for what felt like an eternity, the sight of white glorious wings among the greenery drew a sigh of relief from him. His vision blurred and his consciousness began to slip away. Sounds of someone throwing a tantrum filled his ears. Registering no sounds of battle, he knew that it had to be the angel throwing a fit and acting uncouthly. He collapsed onto the ground, not getting to investigate further even if he wanted to. /Another oddity.../

Meanwhile, Vanora was just done updating Vlad of what she found out from Michael. Since news of the recent battles they won had already spread so far, the angels would be on guard for another sneak attack. So, he changed his approach.

Vlad ordered all the new stragglers they met to meet at a specific point where the rest of their minions were waiting on standby. This continued on for a few days. Just as the hell beings' patience wore thin, Vlad sent out the first wave of attack. It was a direct and straightforward attack with no tricks up their sleeves. However, the strength and numbers of the first wave could not match to the strength and numbers of the angels. Before the angels could wrap up the battle, Vlad would send in the next wave. The same pattern repeated itself several times. The angels finally became frantic. Would it ever end? Only then did Vlad reveal a satisfied smile and join the fight.

Vanora found his little trick meaninglessly sick and cruel. If they had went all out from the get go, they would have won the battle without losing as many lives on their side. However, she closed one eye to it. She held no compassion for the beings on either side of the war. Things had also been progressing quite smoothly for her, so she did not feel the same urgency to get stronger. The idea to use visualisation as a tool to manage her emotions came to Vanora one day. Once she had the idea, she put it to practice. She pictured an ocean full of fishes. The ocean reflected her emotions. The fishes in it were her thoughts. Whenever she needed power, she trapped the fishes, which was akin to obsessing over a thought. They would swim around in a frenzy and the ocean would rage. This was what she did while she burst into the battle scene with Vlad.

Her brilliant indigo flames immediately drew everyone's attention, including the attention of an ice cold beauty with blue hair and bat wings. Vlad noticed her presence at the same time that she noticed theirs. /So Raven's here. But what's she doing out here at this time of the day?/ Raven was drenched in sweat and her brows were furrowed together. Despite pushing herself to the limit, she looked as attractive as ever. Vlad did not spend too long mulling and soon focused fully on supporting Vanora. He put in extra care to not reveal any powers that would give his real identity away.

The fight dragged on till the sun set. The darker it got, the faster the angels got whittled down. /What's that?/ Vanora wondered to herself while eyeing a dark figure morphing here, there, and everywhere. It was thanks to it that Vanora had an unexpected moment of breather.

"That's Raven. This fight should end very soon." Vlad answered, as if he had heard her question.

/So that's Raven./

Raven's powers peaked once it struck midnight. The only light came from the crescent moon, fire attacks, and the angels' powers. While the majority found it harder to see, Raven moved and attacked with greater precision. Her strength was comparable to Vlad's. The way she melded into the dark was as if she was darkness itself. No attacks could hurt her. Like Vlad predicted, the angels got wiped out before the sun reappeared in the sky. 

Unfortunately, that was not the end for the pair.

While all the hell beings were busy cheering and celebrating their win, Raven flew straight to Vanora, without even taking a breather. "Who are you? Are you acquainted with Lord Vlad?"

Vanora kept her hell fire blazing around her as a precaution and shook her head.

Raven's eyes narrowed. She did not look the slightest bit concerned about being dangerously close to Vanora's hell fire.

"How's it possible that a demon like you have not met Lord Vlad even once? You may not be very strong but you aren't weak either. You're enough to make a difference on the battlefield."

She shrugged. "HE told me about Lord Vlad before, though" She gestured towards Vlad. 

Raven eyed Vlad from head to toe. Her piercing eyes seemed to look through his disguise. "Who are you?" She asked once she met his gaze again.

"Lord Vlad's messenger." Vlad replied coldly with an emotionless smile. Although he could understand the way Raven treated him and Vanora, he did not like it one bit.

"I don't remember him having a messenger." She challenged.

"Are you sure you know him well enough to know everything related to him?" He challenged her back. 

"I know enough." She then directed her conversation back to Vanora. "I didn't hear anything about you until recently. Are you new?"

Vanora nodded.

"Since when?"

"Around 2 months ago."

/That's around the time Vlad went missing. Two mysterious characters with dubious backgrounds. There are those weird rumors floating around too... Only one way to find out./

Her blood red nails became razor sharp and she swung her hand towards Vanora's throat. However, Vlad caught her wrist the moment Raven raised her arm.

"Don't you dare lay a finger on her." Vlad growled.

"Not many people can match my speed before the sun has risen." Raven spoke meaningfully, then added with an emphasis, "My dear Lord Vlad."

Hearing a familiar name that was well respected and held in adoration, the masses turned their head towards the three with their ears perked. They were eager to hear news about their demon lord.

Raven and Vlad stared each other down.

Vanora silently watched on, unsurprised that someone finally recognised who he was. She knew that his disguise would be blown one day. After all, it was written in the book that Vlad led the army with his real identity, not as 'Derek'. She was, however, unsure of how Vlad would respond to it and how he would choose to handle the situation. Vlad had behaved strangely from the first day she met him. She initially thought that she simply had a flawed understanding of his character. After the incident with Michael, she started to consider the possibility that a bug had already appeared in this world. This would make her purpose here redundant, since her missions were meant to prevent such bugs from happening in the first place. So, this kept her on her toes.

The tension between Vlad and Raven built up so much that everyone held their breaths. It felt as if even a little sound could set them off. Suddenly, the hell beings around them melted away together with the colours of their surroundings.

"What's wrong? Why the sudden need for privacy, Lord Vlad?" Raven asked coolly with an eyebrow raised. This told Vanora that she was not the only one who knew where Vlad was teleporting them to.

He sighed heavily as he threw Raven's hand aside. "Goddammit Raven. You almost exposed me in front of everyone."

"Why should I make things easier for you? You went missing so suddenly. I had to clean up after you and take over your duties. I would have thought you were really missing if not for the mysterious rumours about me going around hell bullying other hell beings and favouring some demon girl with indigo flames. The only one with enough guts to disguise as me would be you."

"It's a more convenient disguise than the current one I have. Otherwise, you know I'd have to waste time on establishing my strength first." He muttered while avoiding her gaze. When he disguised as Raven, he knew that it may cause some issues for her, but he had prioritized returning to Vanora as soon as possible.

Finding that the tension had disappeared, Vanora felt safe enough to recall her hell fire back into her. She also could not help but comment on their short exchange, /I'd ship them. That Rosa demon absolutely stood no chance. How delusional. Vlad, too. Why did he like Angela when there's someone like Raven by his side?/ She sighed at the story for the umpteenth time.