Chapter 688: Dragged In 2
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Previously, Black Sethe's words had made Garen feel disconnected from the dream realm, but this had worsened his impression of it. He now looked at it as though it was some sort of dangerous environment.
'To normal people, the dream realm is indeed nothing dangerous because they only wander through the realm while barely conscious, and this would not be able to attract the interest of other dimensional galaxy creatures. However, if the current you were to dive deep into it, the focus and conscious effort that you put in will be much greater than any ordinary person's, and such an obvious prey will be just as distinguishable as a campfire in complete darkness.'
"I'm feeling very lethargic now."
'Indeed, that's because your consciousness has followed the snake for a very long distance. Take a rest, that will be it for today. You'll need more training after this, as the Vision technique can only be trained when you have reached the depths of the second level of the dream realm. The current you can't even reach the point of actualizing the first level,' Black Sethe's voice slowly softened, he too seemed to be very fatigued.
After half a month.
America Natiya State.
On a highway running through barren yellow plains, there was a white car that was slowing down on the left shoulder of the white highway, which then came to a halt in front of a gas station.
The door opened and was then slammed shut.
A young, beautiful lady with a tall physique exited the vehicle.
The lady was wearing sunglasses, tight purple jeans, and a white tee-shirt. She turned around and murmured to another beautiful lady in the car before she made large, purposeful strides towards the gas station.
The sun blazed down upon the road as dazzling sunbeams blinded all of its travelers. As the heat from the sweltering road radiated in waves, some people would be sweating buckets. Strangely, the lady who had exited the car was not visibly sweating at all.
"What month is it, for it to be this hot..."
The teenage girl in the car was indeed Arisa, who had left Grano with her sister. She was currently dressed in a thin shirt matched with light blue jean shorts, and her outfit accentuated her slender, long legs. One of her ears was fitted with an earpiece, which was playing some music.
"This is the southernmost region, it's normal for it to be hotter than other regions, plus the weather forecast has also predicted that tonight's temperature will dip into the negatives. The difference in temperature will only grow further apart," there were two more people in the car, and the one who had just spoken was a middle-aged man wearing summer beach-pants who was dozing off in the back seat.
The other person was a lady dressed in white office attire. She had long, blonde hair tied into a neat braid, and coupled with her cold stare, she gave off a stern, sharp vibe. Both of them didn't look like they were beyond thirty or forty years old.
The lady glanced at the man.
"My last trip to Natiya State was sixty years ago and back then, the temperature differences weren't this bad. This is probably caused by the recent pollution and vegetation issues."
Arisa spoke softly from the side, "Sixty years… Lord, you Blood Breeds really do make us envious. Despite the decades you've lived through, you don't look a day older."
The lady looked at Arisa and gave her a warm smile.
"You lot aren't bad either; your sister has already hit the top-tiered standards among humans, and she's almost comparable to those specialist mercenaries. To be able to do this as a human is already very impressive. After all, one's talents are limited."
"Of course, my sister is really strong!" Arisa stuck out her tongue and gave out a prideful grin, "Mr. Pritto, how far are we from Lars?"
The man closed his eyes as though he was sensing something, and reopened his eyes after a moment.
"There aren't any traces of him nearby, meaning that he should be more than thirty kilometers away from us. We can rest easy for now."
"It's too bad, I'm sure we would have been much safer if we'd remained in Grano," after Pritto had met with the Arisa siblings, he had been pulled into the two Blood Breed forces' war, though he always felt that they did the sisters wrong. Hence, during the chance opportunity where he was pressured to fall out with Lars, they had to leave Grano and rush towards the Light Party's main camp in Natiya State.
As the conflict worsened, the Secret Party's advantage was strengthened, and they swarmed the Light Party strongholds en masse. Though it was unclear how they'd acquired such a tremendous number of members,the Light Party's forces in Grano's Faya State have also begun retreating diagonally towards the southernmost parts of America, giving up Central America entirely to the Blood Breeds of the Secret Party.
As for the leader of Light Party who bore high hopes, the first Death Apostle Ashen Castine, she had remained silent without any action or reaction.
Of course, in the eyes of the regular people, the two parties' conflict appeared to be a conflict of interests between the shadow forces of two large organizations. Or perhaps it was a conflict between two extremely-wealthy organizations and was not related to any civilian.
That was indeed the case, no matter if it was the Secret Party or Light Party, they both adhered to the rule of not overexposing the Blood Breeds, and thus anything that happened would be covered up with a layer of rationalization.
On the other hand, the witches relied on the strength of their many alliances and had announced their neutral stand on this matter. In fact, they were also considered to be a large-scale organization as they were led by the Death Apostle, Lion Mother, hence even the Secret Party would not offend them too recklessly.
As the Light Party retreated, Grano lost its usual security, and so the Arisa sisters also chose to leave Grano so that they wouldn't affect other civilians. Little did they know, Raffaele was the leader of the witches. Raffaele could not insist on protecting them due to pressure from the Secret Party, and as the leader, she could not disobey Lion Mother's decree or the conflict with the Blood Breed's Secret Party would result in multiple casualties among their subordinates, as clearly indicated by her grandmother and other elders.
Hence, leaving Grano has become the sisters' only choice. After consecutively killing multiple vampires and low-level Blood Breeds from Secret Party, Isaros had been permanently recorded on the Secret Party's hit list. For her sister's safety, she had no choice but to flee Grano alongside Pritto and the other Scarlet Moon Blood Breeds.
"It's too bad…. If only…" Arisa heaved a long sigh and stared out the window. Suddenly, she seemed to have startled, as though she saw something unexpected.
"Vivien?! Why is she here!!" Arisa shouted, and immediately flung open the door and ran towards her.
In the gas station, there were two other cars that had stopped for refueling, and there was a small crowd of young teens standing by the side. They seemed to be on a trip, and some of them giggled as they chattered on. Among them, there was Little Vivien from Uncle Thomas' family!!
"Vivien?" Pritto and the young Blood Breed woman didn't react in time, but judging from Arisa's expression, it was obviously someone she knew.
Suddenly, Pritto took a closer look.
"Oh no! That's Lars' men!!"
"Such coincidence?!?" the female Blood Breed was also shocked.
"Get them back on the car!! Quick!!" Pritto closed his eyes to take a hold of the enemies' locations.
Meanwhile, in the gas station, Isaros had also noticed that Vivien was with other people by their cars, as well as her younger sister Arisa running over.
Suddenly a sharp scream was heard from the car's direction.
"Be careful!!!" it was the female Blood Breed's voice.
Isaros could see streaks of black shadows rushing towards her with a glance from the corner of her eyes, as well as a few vacant cars rushing towards the cars in the kiosk.
Bam Bam Bam!!!
Amidst loud screaming, Vivien and her classmates were stunned.
The cars collided with each other, causing a loud collision and in that instant, a few cars were mushed and tangled with one another. The deformed lump of several cars was heading straight towards their group.
Vivien stood there, trembling in terror as she stared at those cars that came straight towards them. Her head had gone completely blank, and although she was trying her best to get her body to move, an overwhelming horror had completely stunned her.
She was just a girl who'd gone on a trip with her friends after her examinations, how could such a thing happen suddenly?
"Kill the witnesses!" called a cold, cruel man.
At this time, Vivien suddenly felt pain on her body; a shadow had suddenly tackled her to the ground from the right, and she'd rolled some distance away.
The immense amount of friction between the tires and the road created a loud screech, and when coupled with the shrieks of brakes, several black tire marks were burnt into the ground. It brushed by the two people and rammed straight into a pole.
Bam!!
The strong crash sent shivers down Vivien's spine. Nothing actually crossed her mind, but she could feel that she was being enveloped by a soft body, and was slowly helped up after a while.
"Dodge it!!" a familiar voice was heard from her side, Vivien felt that she was tugged towards the right with force and began running.
She then saw Elder Sister Isaros dashing towards her with a stunning speed before engaging two black uniformed men in combat. With the loud smack of hands, the two black uniform men were deftly punched. The duo let out a dissatisfied moan and rushed towards Vivien abruptly.
"Run!" it was Arisa's voice.
Vivien's head was completely blank as she was tugged along by Arisa and ran with all her might. The two uniformed men were quickly blocked by other people and no longer chased them.
After running for some time, the two of them reached the white car, hastily clambered in and slammed the door shut loudly before a foreign-looking, beautiful lady in the driver's seat started the car.
Soon, the sounds of doors opening and closing happened behind her and two other persons entered. One of them was Elder Sister Isaros whom she was familiar with. The other man, on the other hand, was a stranger in a beach attire. Both of them had flecks of blood on them.
"Go!!"
"Tommy!! Tommy and the rest were still there!!" Vivien had finally reacted; she screamed but she was being held firmly by Arisa.
Vivien looked back, but she could only see the gas station going up in flames as a strong explosion discharged. The crimson-red flames and black smoke engulfed everything in its path, whether human or vehicle. The cars that have been approaching the gas station all immediately braked, which soon caused a traffic pileup.
The car continued forward and had sped up even more while riding on the impact of the explosion.
"This… What actually… happened?" Vivien suddenly felt like the entire world had become completely foreign to her. Beside her was Arisa who was still holding onto her hands tightly.
"It's alright, it's alright, I'm here, Elder Sister's here… things will be fine…. It will be fine…" she could hear Arisa murmuring softly.
"Why the hell did you bring her along? Dump her by the roadside somewhere!" the foreign lady screamed suddenly, but her voice sounded very soft as compared to the grumbling explosion.
"She is my friend!" Arisa screamed back.
"You are dragging her into this!!" the lady seemed to be very frustrated, bringing one non-combatant was already a hassle, now there was another one, did they not want to live anymore?!
"Lars is in pursuit of us, not only him, there are two more Blood Breeds with levels…" a deep male's voice could be heard from the passenger's' seat.
"I could barely take on one," Isaros spoke softly. In fact, as of now, she was the weakest link among the combatant trio; against the pure Blood Breeds, her capabilities were obviously insufficient.
"Then what about her?" The driver looked at Vivien who was sitting in the passenger seat.
Isaros went quiet for a while.
"I will contact her brother to pick her up, she will follow us for the time being."
The driver couldn't help but grumble.