"Why are you crying, Lilith?" Castiel asked gently. "Don't worry. I won't let anyone hurt you today. I was a little late coming here, but I won't fail in protecting you. You are my responsibility from now on. Just smile and let me handle the rest."
Castiel wiped the tears of the little girl before he stood up.
He turned around to face the three men.
"So you have chosen... How unfortunate." The red-haired man known as Atlan sighed. "Castiel, you always walked a separate path from the rest of us, but we don't care to stop you. However, today I can't let it go anymore. "I told you before that this path will lead you to a tragic end. It looks like this is the end."
"Are you sure you want to stick with your decision?" Another young man asked who seemed like a teenager who was eighteen or nineteen years old.
"Yes, Lucius. I have chosen." Castiel responded lazily. He raised his right towards the sky. "And I will stick by my choice!"
A blood-red pattern appeared on his hand, which started shining brightly. Winds intensified, and the temperature started falling.
"Then so be it!" The others also raised their hands, doing the same thing.
A small circular pattern shone brightly in the palm of Castiel's hand. A bigger circular formation appeared above his hand, which seemed to be an exact copy of the pattern in his hand. The only difference was that the formation was much wider. It was two meters wide.
A blood-red sword shot out from the formation, flying high up. Soon, the sword started falling down. It stabbed the ground before Castiel.
Castiel grabbed the hilt of the mighty Sword that had thousands of blood-red patterns carved on it. He pulled the sword out of the ground. "She is my responsibility now, and I won't let you hurt her more than you already did!"
~~~
"Lilith? What happened? Tell me what your master would have done if he was in a similar place? Would he have run away?"
Getting no response from Lilith, Atlas kept calling her out, but she didn't respond. It was as if she had suddenly gone silent.
Letting out a deep sigh, Atlas turned his back on her. "You aren't answering because you know the answer as well! I don't believe Castiel would've run in the face of adversity! I don't know what kind of a person he was, but I have a feeling that there was no way he could've been such a coward."
"And similarly, I won't run either! I don't care if they're stronger! I don't care if they're faster! I don't care if they're scary! I won't run! My sister is my responsibility, and I won't let them hurt her more than they already did!"
As soon as Lilith heard the last sentence of Atlas, it was as if she felt a jolt of lightning course through her body. These were the exact words that Castiel had said while saving her.
"These words..." Lilith kept staring at Atlas blankly.
"These words what?" Atlas felt as if Lilith was suddenly acting weird. Did he do something?
"Nothing..." Lilith responded. "I won't stop you. I respect your conviction. And you're right. He wouldn't have run."
"Even though I won't stop you, I won't let you put my master in danger either. I'll help you to ensure you don't do something stupid. But you must listen to me at all times."
"I will. Whatever helps me get my sister back, I'll do it!" Atlas declared with conviction. "So, can we leave now?"
"Good. Before leaving, let me tell you some important things that you must know for your safety. Firstly, you must stay hidden as much as you can. You can't let the Vampires see you. If one sees you, try to use your speed to take them out fast. At any cost, don't give them the chance to alert others!" Lilith reminded Atlas.
"You aren't prepared to face them right now, so you must make sure you don't end up surrounded! Second, you must get out of here as fast as you could after getting your sister before others realize what happened!" she further explained.
"I'll keep that in mind." Atlas nodded.
Atlas knew that she didn't need to warn him about that, but it was good that she did. It showed him that he had an experienced person on his side. In any case, he wasn't going to war yet, or so he thought...
Atlas couldn't see the stairs properly when he was coming here before, but now that he was leaving, he could see them clearly. Each of the stairs had some strange marks carved on them, which seemed to be made from a thin line of blood. The walls on both sides of the stairs also had the same carvings.
"These were made by Lord Castiel before he went to his slumber," Lilith said as if she was able to read his mind and knew what he was thinking.
"Can you read my mind?" Atlas inquired, frowning. This was slightly scary.
"Meh, do I even need to read your mind to know what you're thinking. You're such a simpleton that your expressions alone are enough to give away what you are thinking." Lilith lazily responded.
"Any special reason to make these markings?" Atlas inquired. "I noticed the coffin also had something similar."
" Of course, there is a reason. You might not know this, but my master was also someone who could use spells that only witches were able to use. Then again, each Progenitor had a unique specialty of their own in addition to the common abilities that all four Progenitors shared."
"Being able to use spells was my master's unique specialty. What you see on the wall are the formation spells which he made with his own blood before he went for his slumber."
"What's the use of them?" Atlas asked, seemingly amused.
"These spells are strong enough to destroy any vampire or witch if they stepped on the stairs. My master didn't want his sleep to be disturbed, after all. So he made these formations so no one could enter this place.*
"Who would've thought that the one who came here would be nothing but a normal human."
"I suppose I should thank him for not making these spells to kill humans," Atlas let out, scratching the back of his head. "Then again, I already died after getting down. So I doubt this would've been any different even if he had died before getting down."
He soon reached the top of the stairs.
As he reached the end of the stairs, all he saw was the wall before him. There was no path ahead. "It's close again. I don't know how I opened it the first time, but I think it's because some spot on the wall was pushed. Let me try pushing blocks. It was something like that."
"Don't worry. This castle was a secret castle of my master. He made this place, especially for himself. I know all the secrets of this place, including how to open it," Lilith said, sounding proud. "Just press this place."
Her shadow pointed at a certain spot on the wall.
Atlas raised his hand to touch the spot, but he stopped mid-way. He could hear some sounds coming from the other side of the wall. It was as if someone was there. It wasn't the right time to open this wall.
"The prisoner ran away! But how!"
"We would be killed if someone finds out that the prisoner ran away while we were on duty! We must alert everyone!"
Somehow, he was able to hear each word clearly even though the people were talking on the other end of this thick wall.
"Well, so much for staying hidden." Atlas sighed. "I need to stop them if I don't want everyone to know. It's better to take out the guards right now instead of waiting for the Vampires to be alerted!"
He placed his finger on the wall. The wall started slowly falling. As the wall continued going down, an opening was made for Atlas to leave.
There were three human guards on the other side, each being surprised at the wall, which suddenly went down to reveal a stranger on the other end. However, before they could even ask any questions or make any noise, Atlas's figure moved.
Boom~
A single punch. A single punch was enough to send one of the men flying. He crashed into the wall in the distance. Coughing out blood, he dropped to the ground.
Even though he knew what he was now, Atlas was still amazed at his strength. Was this the strength that the Vampires enjoyed? No wonder they were called the new gods!
"You idiot, don't play around!" Watching Atlas get complacent, Lilith yelled. "Finish them fast, and don't use too much energy!"
"I know, I know!" Atlas yelled back as his figure flickered. He appeared before the other two guards and grabbed their throats with one hand each.
Crack~
The throat of the two men was crushed. Atlas tossed their bodies behind him. The bodies flew towards the stairs and kept rolling down.
He walked over to the third man, who was already dead as well. The man's skull was cracked from the impact with the wall. Holding his collar, Atlas dragged his body back and tossed him down the stairs as well.
The wall closed, hiding the bodies of the men and the secret chamber from sight forever.
"I told you, don't waste your energy on humans. Next time, finish them immediately in the most efficient way. My master's body was in slumber for so long. It shouldn't have much strength. And I don't want his blood urge to overwhelm you!"
"Blood Urge?" Atlas asked, surprised. He had heard about it for the first time, but the name sounded intimidating. What did she mean? He wondered.
"What is Blood Urge?"
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