The horror level cryptid retired to his own chambers walking so slow it seed almost like he was sliding across the ground and Uriel watched it until it finally disappeared from sight. As soon as the nosferatu left the room an imnse pressure was lifted from Uriel and he felt he was finally able to breath normally again.
As reliable as his mystical sense had been so far, Uriel now learned it was completely useless with a horror level cryptid such as the nosferatu. It gave him an unsettling feeling, but he couldn't sense his presence at all except for the brief mont where it channeled its flux energy.
Fighting cryptids required different strategies depending on their level, beast level cryptids usually hunt in packs, monsters ambush unsuspecting victims and entity level cryptids are too varied which called for different strategies in each case.
Uriel vanquished enough cryptids to climb from the evolved to the heavenly rank in a short span of ti, which was an exceptional feat although Uriel wasn't aware of it. He had also encountered more horror level cryptids than most heavenly rank hunters and survived, but he didn't have a clue as how to kill them.
Thanks to his, way too many, conversations about cryptids with Luna, Uriel had so unconfird theories about them. He knew that weak cryptids carried an empowered version of their sa abilities whenever they leveled up, he also knew that entity rank cryptids possessed a weak spot or allergy that made them easier to deal with. But the sa couldn't be said from horror level cryptids.
There were just too many factors and too little information about them. The only reliable way of killing a cryptid that worked no matter their level was to destroy their flux orb, which also resulted in a waste of money.
Uriel would have loved to have been left to his own devices, but he was forced to pick up a maid to 'serve' him through the night. More than an invitation, it was a demand as he understood from the vampire's insistence.
The two maids were similar to each other in beauty, age, stature and body proportions. Their energy signature was also similar, making it a seemingly unimportant decision. However, Uriel had yet to understand the vampire's motives for inviting him for dinner and then staying as a guest and the most likely option didn't bode well for him.
All the evidence suggested the fight against the horror cryptid already started and he was inside so sort of sick feeding ga in which he was the al.
If anything, the one good thing about Uriel's realization was that he was still alive. This ant that so far he was winning, but a single misstep could be his last and he needed to thread carefully.
"Do you want to go with ?" He asked the maid on the left with no reply whatsoever. Then he went and asked the one to the right with the exact sa result. "Can you speak?" He asked sothing different, but neither of them reacted in any shape or form. Thinking they were under the influence of the sa strange ability that made him lose so ti, Uriel decided to perform so tests.
He passed his hand in front of them, pretended to hit them only for him to stop in the last second, he even shouted at them getting absolutely no reaction from them. They didn't so much as blink an eye, but things changed when he poked one of them in the head.
"Ouch! Thank you for choosing , I'll serve you to the best of my skill." She yelped and then perford a well practiced reverence. The other maid made a reverence too and then retreated leaving Uriel alone with the maid.
"Why didn't you speak before!?" Uriel grunted.
"Master doesn't let us speak, but you are my master now and I have to obey you." The woman replied with a straight face.
"Where is the exit?"
"I am not allowed to answer that question, master."
"I'm not your master, just talk casually to ." Uriel let out and followed with another question. "Then what questions can you answer?"
"I can't answer that question, but I'll obey your commands."
"Fine, stay here while I take a look around."
"I can't do that, I must remain by your side at all tis."
To say Uriel was annoyed would have been the understatent of the century. He knew the woman had no bla in this situation, but that didn't make him hate her any less. the more Uriel thought about things, the less they made sense and the worst part was knowing there was another hunter in front of him acting like there was nothing wrong.
He might have attributed it to her being under the nosferatu's ability, but he already proved it wasn't the case.
'I need to figure out what's odd about this. I should be safe as long as I play by his rules, but if I reach the end of the ga my reward will be surviving and what I want to do is to kill that thing.' Uriel inwardly pondered about his possibilities. Choosing one of the maids was only the first decision in what seed to be a long stressful night. 'Unless...'
"I can go wherever I want as long as I'm with you?" Uriel asked.
"That is correct, master." The maid nodded.
"I want to go where the nosferatu is."
"That is not possible." She replied, but this ti Uriel wasn't annoyed. It was the exact outco he expected.
"But I don't know where he is, what if I enter the wrong door by mistake? Can you at least give a warning?" Uriel asked and this ti the maid's eyes widened in shock. It seed as though she imdiately figured out the kind of ga Uriel was playing and for the first ti she lost her composure.
"Correct." She nodded trying to hold back her tears.
"Then follow !" Uriel shouted as he ran all over the maze-like building checking doors one by one. The maid was also a heavenly rank hunter and although Uriel didn't have his Dash skill active she was having trouble keeping up with him.
What tipped Uriel about the nosferatu's motives was sothing the vampire said. It was a small thing that seed obvious, but after realizing the maid was simply buying ti Uriel understood everything.
"Tomorrow by dawn only one of us will be alive and it's going to be ." Uriel said as he barged in the door the maid pointed out as the forbidden one.
The chamber was exquisitely decorated and there were many eye catching treasures, but one nial item stood out the most. It was a wooden casket so old it could have passed as a museum piece if not for its simple build and cheap materials. There were so carvings in it which Uriel recognized to be the ancient language he first spotted in Chichén Itzá acting as the proof that he was correct.
The reason why the vampire was so persistent into sending Uriel off with a maid to 'give in to the pleasures of the flesh' was because the condition it needed to feed properly was to rest before the al and the maids were nothing but a distraction to keep him occupied for a few hours. It was a race against ti, but now that Uriel reached his goal he hesitated on how to proceed.
It didn't take a genius to know the horror level cryptid was inside that casket and would probably be defenseless. The problem was sothing else the vampire ntioned.
'He said he'll share his knowledge with , but if I kill him now that knowledge will be forever lost.' Uriel bit the tip of his fingernail trying to decide if killing a horror level cryptid was worth losing countless years of knowledge from a perspective different than that of humans and it opened an ethical dilemma.
The creature inside that casket was probably as evil as it looked, but only from a human's perspective. From his perspective, he was the first of his civilization and the father of an entire race.
The maid finally caught up to Uriel, but she didn't dare cross the threshold and limited herself to look at him with eyes filled with despair. Her own survival also depended on Uriel's, but just like Uriel she needed to play her part or die a horrible death. Many hunters arrived on that place the sa way she did, but Uriel was the only one who made it that far.
It was the only chance to kill the cryptid and there he stood with a pensive expression on his face, seemingly reading the markings on the casket until he finally made his mind and piled every flammable item he could find in the chamber on top of the casket before picking up one of the lit candles.
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