Chapter 119: Double?
In [To Kill A Demon Lord...], Ophiuchus is largely portrayed as a mysterious organization. When it was eventually revealed to be, at its core, just a coven of Vampires and had been started so a certain someone could have eternity to surpass his limit and reach the peak of Magical Excellence, things were brought a bit closer to home.
It became a personal arc for Caius Von Helsing. The first for him in the story and the first time Aurelius took a bit of a backseat in the narrative so Caius could face what could become of him if he allowed himself to embrace his Vampiric nature as he had been trying not to do thus far.
Arlette being a member of ’Ophiuchus’ had ended up being very minor in the original story. Mostly because her snooping around to prove what Caius was, got her killed by Caius’ caretakers—The Hellsingers—and someone else was sent in by the Organization to continue where she left off.
Since he had arrived in this world and had his encounter with Arlette, Caius had wondered what he’d do about Ophiuchus. Now that he was not pushing Arlette’s path towards an eventual early death, she was likely to keep at her assignment until the plot came to a head. The plot being an eventual Invasion of Lochxen.
Had Caius not gotten to know Arlette as he had, he would have found a way to reveal what he knew and gotten her or her eventual replacement away from the Academy before things got out of hand. But he couldn’t do that. He liked her here.
Besides, that Invasion plot was still a ways off.
Anyway, Caius had been stumped. That was until the events two days ago.
What had started off taking him completely by surprise and blindsiding him had ended with him becoming a Vampire Lord in need of subjects and where better to find a bunch of them than a coven hidden away right in the Acheron Empire’s very capital.
Another reason he just couldn’t bring himself to hate Athenodora. Annoying bitch that she was for using him as bait, she had helped him more than he had ever expected.
The alternative to the path that was now open to him would be to start creating Vampires of his own but Caius wasn’t interested. He may have joked about it once with Kaya but he didn’t think he’d ever turn her or any woman he was interested in, into a Vampire. If he did, he’d lose the ability to evolve through their blood and that was largely the reason he went after them in the first place. Besides their incredible beauty, of course.
No, Vampire creation was not currently on the cards for him and fortunately, it wasn’t needed.
But the task ahead was still difficult. There were preparations he needed to make and so, as he was being driven home in a Carriage, with an entourage meant for his protection, he was again buried in his Self-composed Grimoire.