Hunter of the Evernight
Chapter 459: Interpretation

Chapter 459: Interpretation

Serena busied herself in her private quarters, drawing up images of what she thought the Dark Lord would appear as.

In one such painting, the Dark Lord resembled a being of pure darkness, his body bloating the light in the sky, delivering eternal darkness to the landscape below.

This interpretation was a more base one, reflecting on the title he carried.

Another painting held a bit more nuance as the Dark Lord appeared as a being that embodied the Night Kindred, with the head of a vampire, the hands of a werewolf, the legs of a Hyena, the wings of a dragon, and the torso of a Banshee.

Indeed, the Dark Lord was proclaimed to be a master of the Night, a Lord over all Night Kindred, hence the rather grotesque interpretation.

The last and the one she was currently working on seemed to be an interpretation of the line, ’He who straddles the line between darkness and light’, as it depicted a being, his skin pale as could be, walking across a boundary with one side shrouded in perpetual light and the other, in eternal darkness.

Serena seemed enamored by the painting as she applied careful strokes, unwilling to damage it.

Inwardly, she thought how wonderful it would be to be the bride of such a great being.

She knew the others would be greedy, that they would want to take the power of the Dark Lord for themselves.

But she... no, she wanted something more.

She wanted to love the Dark Lord as such a being would surely need an Empress and who else but she was worthy?

Serena subconsciously licked her lips as the thought of making love to the Dark Lord crossed her mind, leaving her increasingly hot.

Just as she made to apply the final stroke to the painting, the doors to her chambers burst open and she missed it, applying the stroke haphazardly, resulting in a ruined work.

Her eyes turned cold as she looked back at the bastard who had interrupted her painting, ignoring the fact that she was completely in the nude.

"My lady, I apologize for barging in like this, but there is trouble."

Serena glared. "Speak after which I shall end your life."

"The Abyss, my lady. An Incursion has occurred."

Serena didn’t give a response as she reached her hand out and choked her subordinate with her Psionics.

Only when the poor vampire dropped dead did she finally put on a robe before moving to inspect the news she’d received?

But then, the longer she walked, the more she realized that there was something fundamentally wrong.

Like the very basics of what was considered normal on Eventide had slowly begun to warp, strange chaotic energy fueling the distortion.

A frown painted her visage as she hastened her pace, quickly arriving outside her castle only to be met with a most shocking scene.

Strange-looking trees, too grotesque to be considered normal, sprouted at different portions of her dukedom, leaving her perplexed as to how these things appeared in the first place.

Seeing as her subordinates were already moving to deal with the trees, Serena took it upon herself to source out the reason for the anomaly.

Her close connection to the aether, born out of her identity as a Cryptid, allowed her to pinpoint a strangeness outside, hence, she moved without hesitation, quickly heading for the surface.

The moment she came out from the mountain range, her gaze shifting to the land behind the mountain range, the land corrupted by the Night, Serena froze at the sight.

Instead of the Nightingale Forest, what she was met with was far more foul, filling her with disgust.

The dark trees were gone, replaced by flesh and blood grotesqueries that had no reason to exist on the mortal plain.

The sky above now had a massive tear from which monstrous abominations surged down below with some looking in her direction.

But that wasn’t what caused Serena’s heart to lurch with fear though it did unsettle her.

Instead, it was a sight in the distance, a towering tree that defied the heavens, standing tall with bone-white branches that extended far and wide.

It possessed bloody flesh-like bark covered in blood and pus with thorny vines resembling umbilical cords.

This tree emitted a dense aura, one that froze Serena in place as an innate understanding of the entity emerged in her mind.

At the same time, her body began to break down, her eyes bleeding, her flesh squirming as though something was seeking to break out from within before finally... she transformed into a tree in midair before crashing to the mountains below.

A resounding boom broke the silence of the Eastern Highlands for a brief moment.

***

"I have called each of you here today for an important matter." Adelia began, wearing her usual attire as the Mouthpiece as she addressed the Order members.

The number of those available was noticeably lesser than their previous meeting as some of them had been unfortunate enough to be part of the casualties incurred by the war the Vampires had brought to the Empire.

The atmosphere was somber and dissatisfaction was rife amongst many.

"The Empire is in danger of being overrun by those despicable bloodsuckers. We cannot allow that to happen. Initially, I had thought the Great Families were good enough to handle the matter but those night crawlers are smart, utilizing the Month of Astra and its dangers to deal double damage to our forces. As it is, I have already reached out to the Commander in Chief of the Parliamentary Army. He has begun his march in a bid to aid our allies, now it is our turn."

Taking a deep breath, she continued. "I understand some of you are upset, upset that we haven’t moved before now, I am at fault and I don’t plan to shift blame. You may curse me all you want, but now is the time to do what we were created to do, defend the Empire. So let us do that."

Silence followed as those seated exchanged looks with one another, reluctant to fight now that they were required to do so.

Adelia wasn’t surprised, they were nobles, politicians, and merchants.

She couldn’t expect them to give their lives in battle.

But that didn’t mean they would be completely useless.

"I shall assign roles to each person, roles that are to be carried out diligently. Let us face this chaos together, else there shall be no..."

Adelia trailed off as the Weeping Lady emerged at that moment, her body increasingly translucent.

Feeling apprehensive, Adelia inquired. "What’s happening?"

"... The Abyss. An Incursion has occurred."

Those present in the hall jumped to their feet, the unexpected news leaving them increasingly on edge.

Before anyone could speak, the Weeping Lady suddenly turned in a particular direction, facing one of the Cavaliers present, and stretched her hand out.

The next moment, the Cavalier collapsed.

"What..."

Then, they transformed into a tree.