Chapter 629: The Gateway

Caius felt the Carriage descending and accepted Athenodora’s hand to stand up. He noticed Athenodora wince and frowned.

"You haven’t fed yet," he said.

"Oh, you’re sweet to worry," Athenodora said in a cooing voice as she patted his cheek, "But, I’m fine."

"Feed," Caius said.

"You should," Philip said from up front in a hard tone.

"I think I can decide when to feed all on my own," Athenodora said dismissively, "Besides, now that we’re here, Caius should preserve his strength."

"What good does that do?" Philip snorted, "He’s here so you can feed. He should make himself useful."

Caius just smiled.

"He’s not wrong," Caius said and raised a brow at Athenodora as he teased, "Come on, you know you want to."

"Well, maybe just a little nibble," Athenodora said. She sank her fangs into Caius’s neck and drew his blood into her mouth.

As the taste hit her tongue, Athenodora forgot what she said about only having a little. Caius didn’t call her to order and just let her keep going. Philip didn’t call Athenodora to stop either and Caius suspected that was because he was hoping Athenodora would drain Caius completely, killing him.

No such luck though. The moment the Sky-Carriage touched the ground, Athenodora pulled her fangs out of Caius’s neck, dragging her tongue across the fang-marks she had made on his skin to lap up any bit of blood that might seep out and also get herself an extra taste of Caius’s skin.

"Alright then," Philip said, "Let’s go."

Athenodora stood straight and seemed to glow from the recent feeding. She led the way toward the door that had opened into a ramp. Philip followed her and Caius was a couple of steps behind them.

As he walked, Caius opened a canister of Beast Blood and drank it all to rejuvenate himself from his recent blood loss.

"Here?" Philip said as he spun around to take in the terrain, "The Blood is here. In this unassuming wasteland?"

He wasn’t entirely wrong. The region didn’t exactly scream ’special’. In fact, when they had been flying over and the terrain had been changing across the locations they traveled, Caius was sure they had seen places like this many, many times.

"If it looked ’special’, I do believe many would have figured out what makes it special long before now," Athenodora said airily.

"So where is it? Where’s the blood?" Philip asked.

"Patience," Athenodora cautioned and then began to walk about, mumbling to herself.

"What are you doing?!" Philip asked after two minutes of this.

"You interrupted me. Now, I must start over," Athenodora said with a sigh and truly retraced her steps to start from the beginning.

"At least tell me what you’re up to," Philip said.

Athenodora frowned.

"Triangulation," she said simply, "Now hush."

Philip looked back at Caius, momentarily forgetting he disliked him just so he could try for an ally who was as irritated by Athenodora as he currently was. Alas, Caius was walking about as well, his expression suggesting he was considering something deeply.

Unlike Philip, Caius understood what Athenodora was doing and just let her work while he revised his plan, trying to polish it of any problematic dents.

Caius had no idea how long he spent thinking but he was called back to himself when Athenodora cried out.

"Ah ha!"

Philip looked like his patience had just been about to run thin when she cried out and the elation that appeared on his face was so great, only for it to be dampened when Athenodora didn’t pull out the Blood but rather went to her knees and began to chant in the ancient tongue according to the clue she had deciphered.

Her chants translated into;

"I kneel at the site of great sacrilege, ready to brave the trials to make atonement. To destroy the abomination where it lies and ensure the world is not subjected to the horrors it shall unleash if set loose.

Now open your gates to me, O Hallowed Halls that I may show my commitment to right great wrongs."

Philip frowned. Of course, being an age-old vampire as he was, he understood the vampiric language that was so intrinsic to Vampiric existence. He understood what Athenodora had just chanted and it spawned questions in his head.

"Abomination? Great horrors? Just what obstacles must I face to acquire the Blood for my Lord?"

Philip sounded like he was talking to himself and Caius didn’t bother to interject. He actually liked that Philip was already of the mind that the obstacles were his to face. That made things more straightforward because that was essentially what Caius intended for him to do.

Caius actually appreciated Athenodora being here a lot more after her fluent delivery of the chant. The Ancient vampiric tongue isn’t all that obscure— Hell, the Leopolds knew enough of it to use a watered-down version as an oath that bound the members of ’Ophiuchus’ to their service. It also served as the password into their underground Coven.

Anyway, while [To Kill A Demon Lord...] hadn’t written out the Ancient vampiric tongue, in this world, there was a complete vocabulary that Caius could quite easily get his hands on. And since he knew the translation of the Chant in common tongue, he could work backward so he’d be able to deliver the chant in the vampiric tongue as was intended.

But it would never have been as fluent as Athenodora had just been and may have even required a few tries if the gateway just refused to accept his shoddy language. So yeah, he was glad she was here.

It seemed like Philip had held his breath and there was a stillness in the atmosphere as he waited to see if Athenodora had succeeded.

And then a dot appeared in midair, about two feet in front of Athenodora’s face. It was a dark dot and began to expand, becoming darker still and warping the space around it. Soon, it was a wide circle floating about an inch above the ground, pulsing in a steady rhythm.

"And there... it is," Athenodora said and although she tried for her usual coolness, she couldn’t help but be awed. She had seen all kinds of magic, but none gave her the impression of spatial power as the floating circle did.

"What is it?" Philip asked.

"A Gateway, obviously," Caius said, "Into the Dimensional Plane that houses and hides the Blood."

"And you know this, how?" Philip asked.

"What else could it be?" Caius asked Philip in turn.

Philip looked like he was trying to think of an answer and then he just cleared his throat.

"Right..." he said, squaring his shoulders. He stepped toward the Gateway, raised a leg to put through it, and then froze as his bravado eased slightly before he then turned toward Athenodora while gesturing at Caius as he said,

"How about the boy go in first? Since he knows so much about this ’Gateway’."

Caius smirked.

"You’re not worried I’ll snatch the Blood the moment I’m in there?"

Philip sneered.

"If it’s not a trick to do away with the dumbest of our numbers and you do get the Blood, I’ll just grab it from you.

I’d like to see you try to keep it from me."

"Philip—" Athenodora started.

"No, it’s fine," Caius said with a smile and a shrug, "I can go in first."

So he stepped toward the Gateway and without pause, stuck his hand through it. It was a curious sensation. He could still feel his hand, wiggle his fingers but yet it felt disconnected from him— as though his hand had traveled millions of kilometers away from him in a single instant. Caius pulled his hand out and wiggled his fingers in front of Philip’s face without turning away from the Gateway.

Philip flinched when Caius thrust his hand at his face as though he was expecting it to be horribly mangled or maybe even sawed off. Seeing it whole and perfect, as well as having it thrust at him with such audacity, made him growl.

Caius ignored him and, calm as can be, stepped through the Gateway. It was like the curious feeling on his hand except now with the entirety of his body— It felt like he had traveled insanely far in an instant. There was no weariness whatsoever. The Gateway itself was difficult to explain, it was like water made air or air made water. To pass through it felt... soothing.

The other side of the Gateway was like a moonlit night— Caius looked up and there was no moon in the sky and no visible ceiling to suggest this was a room. There was no obvious source of lighting despite how moonlit it looked.

Caius heard splashes like footsteps hitting surfaces of water. He turned around to see both Athenodora and Philip had walked through the Gateway as well.

Athenodora looked at the liquid-covered ground with a curious expression on her face.

Philip cast his eyes about.

"I see no borders," he said, "How large is this place?"

The dimension did look to go on as far as the eye could see. Behind them, the Gateway began to shrink until it was back to being a dot that then vanished entirely, leaving them with no obvious way out of the dimension.

Caius let out a calm, readying breath.

"And here we go."