Chapter 270: A Resurrected Soul
In Ivan’s study chamber, Viktor handed him the weathered, leather-bound book, containing pages filled with the history of the royal vampire lineage. His eyes scrutinized the young vampire who received it from his grip and was presently going through the pages, as if searching for something.
When Ivan had asked him for his family’s history book, Viktor didn’t think he was being specific until he mentioned the history books that had been kept in Vesunard. Knowing he couldn’t defy the orders of a king, he had asked someone he trusted to fetch the book for him, and now that he had brought it in front of the vampire who seemed to have been expecting him all this while, he couldn’t help but be weighed by curiosity concerning why Ivan would need this book out of the blue.
Ivan on the other hand, skimmed through the pages, portraits and passages detailing his family’s lineage. Most of the things in the book he already knew, his family’s history had been lectured to him a dozen times, but he has never held the book to actually go through it, unlike Duncan who had gone to Vesunard to learn about their family’s history in person. If Duncan says he saw a name similar to Marius in their family’s history book, then he knew he was telling the truth.
As he continued to flip through the pages, glancing at every battle his family has ever encountered in the past, he finally came across the name that grasped his attention instantly. Lifting his head to look at Viktor, he placed the book on the table and pointed at the name for Viktor to see.
"Who is Marius?" He asked, "you must be familiar with the owner of this name, as you were present in the war this adversary has once brought. I want to know who he is." Demanded Ivan.
"Marius is not a name to be spoken so lightly, Your Majesty." Viktor’s eyes darkened with knowledge, and then he sighed before leaning back on the chair he sat on, arms crossed. He suspected a day like this would come, and truth be told, even the deepest of secrets will be revealed at their own timing.
"Marius is like any other enemy this Kingdom has to face. Why do you ask?"
"The fact I don’t know about him up till this day is enough to leave me curious, don’t you think? Unless you’re hiding his identity which I believe is not the truth, is it?" He pushed on.
"Marius is a demon that was cast down to Earth with a dark purpose." Viktor explained, his voice filled with an eerie seriousness, eyes distant, as if he had ventured into the past. "Centuries ago when the world only knew about expanding their Kingdom, Marius was sent to fulfill one goal– to sow chaos and turmoil, to manipulate the hearts of both vampires and humans, and ultimately, to bring world domination. His presence was a menace to both vampires and humans alike, and he’s most probably, one of the best manipulators you can ever come across. He has the highest record number of soul stealing, and when he targeted vampires to achieve the domination he sought, no one refused to go down without a fight."
Lord Viktor’s gaze bore into the focused ones of Ivan, "the war lasted up to many months, close to a year. He was extremely powerful, and asides his demon soldiers, he possessed the mystic orb that had been his weapon into attaining destruction."
Lord Viktor paused, and then he continued, "When Marius was finally brought to his knees by your antecedents, he was killed, bringing the war to an end, but the Orb remained– that was how we had our hands on the mystic Orb from the beginning. When Marius was no more, the Orb became a proof of our victory, but as time moved on, everyone started to see the Orb’s significance and not the destruction it could have brought. It helped in different ways, so your family decided to keep it, harnessing it into their Kingdom, and the progress was always positive until it became a target to those who wanted the power it had."
"So what happens if Marius returns?" Inquired Ivan, and Viktor’s lips twitched at the question, "if he ever does return, then we’ll need to prepare for another war, cause he will come back for the Orb, as I’ve heard. His possession towards the mystic Orb is rather maddening, one cannot fathom if it is because of the powers it possesses, or if there was something more to the Orb that always made him want to cling onto it. He was killed, I witnessed the scene myself, he can’t be brought back unless resurrected."