Chapter 28: Throbbing Hearts

The situation in the arena looked dire and difficult as there in the middle, Arthur had a hand plunged into his chest and went from the other side along with his still beating heart.

Normally, any regular person would freak out and do even worse, but Arthur looked calm with his heart out of place. He was feeling weird by that.

’Strange, I feel nothing.’ He thought as he looked at John who had this shit eating grin that went from ear to ear believing that he had won.

Believing that he was so strong that no one would be able stand against him at all with power coursing through his body making him feel intoxicated. And although he couldn’t speak, he could feel.

At the VIP room, Ava was frantic and worried sick yet at the same time angry, so furious at that person who did that to her beloved, the man she gave her life to, literally.

"I SAID. LEAVE. ME!" Ava said in a death-cold voice that made the queen’s assistant shudder and feel as if her body was trying to follow Ava’s orders without her consent.

And to be aware, the queen’s assistant was somone so old, maybe as old as Hella herself, and as vampires get stronger the more they age, you could say that she was so strong.

And right now, that strong person was feeling threatened by a mere child like Ava.

Meanwhile, Alfred was sweating bullets as Hella was looking at him with death glare that seemed to suck out his soul while releasing her heavy like ocean killing intent and directing it all toward him making him feel so suffocated and dreaded.

"I wonder....." She said making him tense. "How could you do that to your own son. Though I don’t care but I know you too well, Alfred."

"You were planning to use this to create your own army, right?"

As she said so, his eyes dilated as he felt so exposed in front of her.

’That crazy woman! How did she—!’ He thought but then—

"Your thoughts are obvious like an open book."

"What if I wanted to do so?" He said while looking at her with a frown masking his true thoughts.

"Then I may have to kill you here once and for all. Your fancy games started to piss off lately." Hella said while showing a grin that sent shivers down his spine as she didn’t look like joking at all.

The queen didn’t even look at their direction and continued observing. Ava was too angry and worried to even care about what was happening beside her, while Kares just smiled faintly at what Hella had said along with Terra who seemed glad with that Alfred was going through. She could already see that he was so afraid of her.

Scarlet was standing beside her daughter trying to calm her down from her outburst.

"Ava, stay down and look. He isn’t dead yet." Scarlet muttered to her daughter in a cold voice while holding her wrist that was raised to strike the queen’s assistant.

"But—"

"Not buts, he is a vampire. You should understand that something like taking out his heart won’t kill him. Besides, look." Hearing her mother, Ava looked at Arthur who was looking calmly at the grinning John. There was no expression of pain, no screaming, no nothing.

And that made Ava calm down and look more clearly, then remembering their connection, she focused on it and didn’t feel any feelings that indicated he was in pain.

This made her more confused than worried.

"I can’t feel anything?" She said as if questioning the reality in front of her.

Scarlet looked more at Arthur and couldn’t help but feel as if something tugging at her heart.

It was a weird feeling but familiar somehow.

Then she remembered, the day when Arthur showed her his darkest side.

’Don’t tell me,’ She thought as she could clearly remember that she felt the same before darkness swallowed her whole and made her see what couldn’t be seen.

The queen too felt the same but with intensity more than what Scarlet was feeling.

’Something is about to happen.’ She thought as her hand went to middle of her chest, the heart that was not beating but she could feel as if it was beating.

And then right at this moment, they heared the voice, loud and clear, old and ancient dripping with authority and majesty.

"T###h##e###He###art"

The voice seemed to talk in their minds, all the people in the arena and the whole vampire city heared it.

But they didn’t understand anything, nothing looked clear from what the voice had said as it was in a language they couldn’t understand.

Even if a person tried to focus to understand what the voice had said, he couldn’t. But then it came again.

"##H##ea##rt ##Θάν##ατ##ος#!"

It was still the same, so unclear and incomprehensible even if you tried hard.

But there was only one person who became tense when heared the last senctence.

And it was—

’It’s coming!’

The queen, Glorias.

HUMMMMMM!!!

A strong humming sound echoed through the whole city as if there was a monster sleeping underneath the city and was about to awaken shaking it all which made all the vampires panic and looked so confused as this was the first. It didn’t happen before.

Besides, the deep and strong sound made them feel dreaded and a flunking sound could be felt in their chests in the next second from hearing the sound.

Their supposedly non-beating hearts began flunking for some reason.

BA-DUM!

BA-DUM!

Even those in the VIP room could feel their hearts throbbing and flunking but faintly not like others.

To the queen, she couldn’t hear anything happening around her, only the faint sound of her heart was reaching her delicate ears, a small blush could be felt on her cheeks while her hand was on her chest feeling the throbbing heart.

It was so strange yet she didn’t hate it.

Then there, in the middle of the arena, Arthur looked at John who had that bewildered look as he could clearly hear the throbbing hearts of those in the arena.

"I think.....it’s time to end all of this, don’t you think?" His voice was calm and quiet as if not affected by all of this.

"Huh?" And for the first time since accessing his true form, John released a confusing sound that looked more human.

It looked as if he was saying: what are you talking about?

But Arthur didn’t care about his expression or anything at all, he was feeling nothing, so numb and high.

"It’s time to keep my promise." And as he said so, his eyes glowed intensely before muttering a single word that echoed through the whole city.

"Ῥή##γ##ν##υμ##ι!"

As the word came out, the confused John suddenly—

POP!

His body exploded like a ballon scattering blood, intestines, brain matter and other things that were unrecognizable around.

And now with nothing to hold his heart, it was about to fall before a strange force held it and put it back inside his chest as it was before the hole regenerated again as if nothing ever was.

With this, the scene only had Arthur that was drenched with so much fresh blood and body innards. It was too much for the stomach to take.

While silence was so deafening that it filled the void. Nobody understood what had just happened. From the beginning to the end, they didn’t get anything that they even didn’t realize that the sound of their throbbing hearts had stopped.

"What....had just happened?" Kares asked breaking the silence, her eyes glued to the scene in front of her no aware that her body was shaking, but her mother noticed and held her hand tightly for that as she too felt the same but held it inside.

’What are you Arthur?’ She asked herself.

"I don’t understand a shit." Scarlet said as she too was the same.

Meanwhile Hella was grinning widely as her eyes gleamed dangerously with something hidden nobody knew while looking at him.

Ava didn’t waste a single moment before breaking through the VIP room and sped toward Arthur who was still standing in the middle of the arena, the glow in his eyes fading away.

"Darling!" She didn’t care about his stained clothes as she immediately hugged him tightly as if trying to merge with him.

To her Arthur was more important than the whole world and anything valuable in her life.

"Are you okay?! Do you feel pain?!" She said frantically looking for any wound on him completely forgetting what her mother had said to her before.

"I....am fine." Arthur responded faintly as he finally looked down at the worried bundle of energy in his arms making him finally relax his body and hug her tightly as if he had finally found something to hold onto.

And feeling him hugging her, she melted against him and hugged him back even tighter as if afraid he would disappear.

’Finally, my anchor.’ He muttered inwardly before darkness claimed him as he fell down.

"A-Arthur!!" Ava felt his body falling much to her shock and worry before she could feel his beating heart throbbing against her own making her calm and continue hugging him.

"Take him to my room in the palace." Then the voice of the queen sounded from behind making Ava look at her with narrowed eyes as she didn’t like this idea.

"Why your room? Considering him being my husband, shouldn’t he go to my room?" Her voice was sharp dripping with venom.

"Because I said so, now don’t waste my time little girl. Fay, take him to my room." As Glorias said so, Fay, her assistant walked toward Arthur to take him according to the queen’s orders.

"I dare you touch him with your filthy hands!"

"Sigh~ your jealousy is so annoying you know." Then before Ava could respond, Glorias appeared behind her gracefully before touching a vital point behind her neck with her delicate finger making her lose consciousness immediately.

"Take him." She said before taking Ava in her arms.

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A/N: Psst! You still there?

Good~ then enjoy!