The OP Lich is a Returnee, Chapter 239 (Patreon)

Chapter 239 – Monastery

They did not move out immediately. After all, they needed vehicles not just for themselves, but also for the other officers that would be accompanying them, and wagons to bring the nuns into custody. Because with this Soul element magic in play, they’d all need to be brought in and checked for programming.

Thankfully, the idea of scanning the nuns and deprogramming them wasn’t something Detective Paul Ragar needed to deal with. That was something that could be done by specialists. Of course, the only people who really knew enough about such spellwork to do it properly were from Risen Athelia. Thankfully, the elder vampire, Sergeant Major Laeroth Aesys, had already gotten in contact with his superiors, and arranged someone to come in and handle the deprogramming.

It was just before noon when they arrived at the Mănăstirea Dealu. The sun was high in the sky. Perfect for hunting a vampire.

Detective Oana Mihai looked up from her tablet. “Thirty-one permanent residents on file, eight already in custody. It is Wednesday, so there should be few, if any, visitors, but there may be more vampires. Assuming our Mistress and any of her spawn are not on the official rolls, we should be looking at between twenty-three and thirty or so people, all told. We have enough room in the vans to hold them, but capturing them may be problematic. Especially the vampire.”

“Leave that to us,” Laeroth said, softly. “We should be able to take down the sisters, their Mistress, and any other vampires there without killing, and do it more quickly and safely than your people can. If your people hold the perimeter, and let us do the sweep, then that and the sun will keep them from escaping.”

Joetta Summershade, the wraith, nodded once. “I’ll create a barrier, once we are on site. It will prevent tricks like the Shadow Walk ability from allowing anyone to escape, unless they can eclipse my power.”

Paul nodded. “You’re the experts, and we can do this as part of authorized action by local representatives. Priority to capturing the sisters alive and as unharmed as possible. They’re just human, and likely brainwashed. Any vampires on site will regenerate if they aren’t killed, and the justice system can handle how to deal with them once captured.”

They pulled into the parking lot at the monastery, and piled out of the vehicles. Joetta moved as though she were taking a breath, and then a shadowy wall surrounded the monastery. The wraith looked over her shoulder at Paul. “I’ve set it to keep any undead but the four of us inside, though I will remain outside to keep the barrier solid. Your people will need to form a perimeter, as discussed.”

Paul didn’t answer, but instead barked orders into his radio. There was a time to ask questions, and there was a time to take action. Laeroth looked at his young bride, and said, “Emilia, you will guard Joetta and the detectives. No vampires should be able to get through, and we won’t let the sisters past us, but if there are any thralls outside the perimeter, they may try and attack.”

“Understood, Master,” Emilia nodded. She understood the reasoning. Joetta needed to concentrate on the barrier, after all. While she wouldn’t be defenseless, a strong enough attack would shake the concentration, and possibly give the master vampire a chance to escape, if she had the Shadow Walk ability. That would be unacceptable.

Arabella Boffin, the halfling ghoul Necromancer, smiled her sharp-toothed smile. “You focus on the living this time, Sergeant Major. The vampires will dance to my tune.”

“Fine, fine. We should try to keep the bloodshed to a minimum on sanctified grounds. Just be sure that they don’t use any tricks to turn those grounds against you, yes?”

The undead laughed, and then they were simply gone. Not like they disappeared, or teleported. They just moved so fast, that they were there one instant and gone the next, faster than the eye could track. From the way the wraith and younger vampire acted, such displays were not unusual.

Oana looked at them, and asked, “Are they always capable of moving at such speeds?”

“Oh, yes,” Emilia nodded. “Though capable of it and willing to put forth the effort for it are two different things. Master, as a high-ranking vampire and Deathsoul, who focuses his power into his body, is naturally capable of this, though he typically holds back, since moving at speed has unfortunate results on objects he interacts with, like doors. Lady Arabella, however, is a high-level ghoul, so her baseline speed is far greater than yours or mine. I believe she is using body enhancement magic, however, to amplify her speed and senses. She would not normally move at such speeds.”

Joetta laughed. “If you think that was fast, then you should see Her Majesty when she truly lets loose. Even before her ascension with the Seals, she was capable of breaking the sound barrier with her body alone. With her as she is now? I would not be surprised if she could fly from her palace to here in less than an hour. Possibly much less. But such speed would cause much damage in her passing.”

Paul closed his eyes for a moment, and said, “I am going to need several drinks when this is done.”

(Inside the Monastery)

Abbess Anca Silivasi was going about her rounds when she felt a pulse of magic, and the black dome rose over the monastery, cutting off the sunlight. She was the Abbess, and the one in charge of the mortals, here, but she still went about helping with the chores needed to keep everything running, when she wasn’t stuck with the paperwork. Then, of course, there was her service to the Mistress.

She paused in her cleaning of the marble sarcophagus holding the head of Michael the Brave, the man who first briefly unified Romania, considering what this sudden shade meant. The Mistress would want to know about it, obviously, but she was already sleeping, as she did every day between eight in the morning and four in the afternoon. She would have to wake the Mistress, and get her advice on what was happening. After all, while the Abbess was in charge of the mortals, and the daily running of the monastery, the Mistress was the one who was truly in charge of this site. And, one day, she would rule all of Romania.

There was a gust of wind as the church door opened, and then she felt a hand grabbing the back of her neck, keeping her from turning. Fatigue hit her, as though she had been awake for days, and she collapsed against the cold stone. The last thing she heard before the darkness took her was a voice saying something in a language she had never heard before.

Sergeant Major Aesys nodded once as the human slumped to the ground. Trying to disable someone so weak without causing permanent injury was troublesome for someone of his power level. There was a reason why many cities in the other world did not have many very powerful people on the streets to keep order. Oh, every city worth speaking of had one or two powerhouses, to counter other powerful individuals when they showed up, but most of the day-to-day guard work was done by those less powerful, because they could intervene more safely, without excess damage to people or property.

The skill he had used was a simple one, but required a fine degree of control to keep it nonlethal. Using Death mana in his palm, he ‘killed’ her chemical stores of energy. Not enough to kill her, but enough to crash her system with fatigue. If she’d been able to react in time, she might have been able to use mana to supplement her energy, and fight back, but that would have simply delayed things. This technique was a favorite of Death mana wielders in the other world, when they wished to disable, rather than maim or kill.

“One down,” he said in low Athelian, before rushing off to the next set of heartbeats he could hear. It had been far too long since he’d been allowed a proper hunt. He intended to enjoy himself, even if he couldn’t eat any of the women.

In the converted cellar that she had turned into a bedroom safe from the sun, Flavia Nica, the Mistress who truly ruled here in this monastery, stirred in her bed. Four of her spawn surrounded her, naked as she was. They were some of her weaker spawn, but the more attractive ones. And, even as a vampire, she still had appetites for more than just blood.

But that was not why she was stirring, now. Something was wrong, though she couldn’t tell what. She checked her phone. Still no message from Filip, or any of the spawn she had sent to deal with the detectives, and drive a wedge between the Romanian authorities and the Lich Queen. That was concerning. Filip should have called her the moment the deed was done. That he had not so much as texted yet meant that the attack had not gone well. Perhaps they lost more of the spawn than they had hoped, and Filip was busy keeping order, and ensuring that the Choir was able to return to the monastery.

It was noon, now, and Filip would have had to get his spawn indoors, preferably below ground, somewhere, before the sun rose. Too much earth and stone would block signals. If he’d had to rush to get everyone underground, then that would explain it. He would call when he woke from the day sleep. Or she would call him, and find the answers.

But what had awoken her? The spawn around her were still asleep, like the dead. As she would normally be at this time of day. But something had forced her awake.

She stretched out with her senses. If she pushed mana towards her senses, she could hear the heartbeats of the mortals around the monastery. It was a useful trick she had picked up early on in her vampiric unlife, allowing her to know where her prey was, and how far away any potential witnesses or reinforcements might be. Now, she used it to try and get a handle on what was happening in her domain.

Twenty-three heartbeats inside the monastery’s grounds. Most beating quickly. Agitation, perhaps fear. But two were slow, steady, like the women were asleep. More importantly, her senses, which should have extended all the way to the parking lot, were blocked just outside the buildings. Some kind of barrier, keeping her senses from stretching further?

As she listened, another set of heartbeats went from frightened to sleeping in the span of seconds. Then another. That was not natural. And she could hear footsteps. Whisper quiet, but audible to her enhanced hearing, along with wind suggesting something moving very quickly. But something without a heartbeat.

Understanding dawned upon her. The undead from Risen Athelia! After the attack, they must have decided to patch their relationship with the Romanians by hunting her directly. Filip and the spawn would not betray her, of course. They were still alive, she could feel that, but their orders prevented them from saying anything about her. But the Choir, even if they were killed, would be identified as sisters here at the monastery. Clearly, the Athelians had decided to come and kill her.

She did not bother with getting dressed. Clothes could be replaced. Her life could not. Turning intangible, she used Shadow mana to slip through the cellar wall and—her incorporeal form bounced off a barrier that forced her back, as though she were physical, and hitting a solid wall. They knew to prepare for her slipping out through solid ground? This was even more serious than she had initially believed. She needed to find a way out, quickly.

“Ah, there you are. Death Bind!”

A voice came from the door to her cellar bedroom, and her body locked in place, wrapped in bands of Death mana. She hadn’t heard it open, and could still hear the sounds above, with the other undead moving about. One had come hunting in the cellar for her? She looked over her shoulder, the most she could manage against the impossibly strong spellwork holding her.

“A girl?”

The undead, only the size of a child to her eyes, laughed, revealing rows of sharpened teeth, and said, “You humans, always thinking of things in your own scale. For your information, wench, I am a halfling, or I was, before I became a ghoul and Necromancer in the service of the Lich Queen of Risen Athelia. And you have gotten far too ambitious for your own good, ‘Mistress’.”

Flavia grit her teeth at the blatant contempt and disrespect in the way that last word was said. “I am a daughter of House—” Her words were cut off as another band of Death mana covered her mouth and forced its way down her throat, gagging her.

“No, that’s quite enough out of you. You stay quiet, while I complete the seal to bind you, permanently. You’ll be a slave of the Romanian government for as long as they choose to keep you, incapable of harming a single citizen without their leave, and I’ll be sealing your Soul element completely. You should be thankful, you know. Because you were only using the Soul element, instead of true Soul Magic, you get to deal with me, instead of the Lich Queen herself.”