I DO NOT OWN EMINENCE IN SHADOW, HOWEVER I DO OWN ANY OF THE ARTS SHOWN IN THESE FICTS.
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Chapter 4 : A threat to her peace
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It was time.
IT WAS TIME!
After a year and five months after Remilya's birth, and multiple grueling months of attempting to teach Remilya to speak, she was starting to form words!
Elizabeth could barely wait.
After the whole incident with Remilya nearly succumbing to her illness of lack of blood intake, they've started to feed her their blood every once in a while, while still having her eat normal human foods.
Much to Elizabeth's displeasure, Remilya had to drink blood or otherwise she would die, Elizabeth's decision of trying to stray her away from her nature as a vampire.. Or well, her nature as a dhampir made that an impossibility.
She would have to simply make sure her daughter did not grow a taste for human blood, she would have to simply limit her blood intake to either her or Mary's if possible, her Blood contained magic to an extent, and she could use that to keep her daughter in check.
But enough about the problematic issues, this Queen has something else to worry about, something more detrimental to whatever she's currently monologuing about.
It's getting Remilya to say 'Mommy' as her first word!
She spent more than seven months repeatedly saying the words 'Mommy' to little Remilya, trying to teach her to speak.
This... This is a must, failure is not an option! This Mommy shall get what she wants!
"Mary! Mary! Come here she's saying her first words!" Elizabeth hurried Mary to come to her side who was setting down the tray that had her Lady's and Young Mistress's food.
Mary dashed towards her Lady's side and also took a peek inside Remilya's cradle, she was just as excited as her Lady, she was excited for the young mistress's first words..
First words being 'Auntie' that is.. She also secretly had been teaching the young mistress to say the word in secret, call it mutiny but she knows she would never betray her Lady, but she also wasn't letting down on her young mistress's first words!
Unbeknownst to her, Elizabeth was aware of what Mary had been doing in secret, she simply thought it was adorable that her friend thought she could one up her.
Simply adorable .
"Come on dear! Say Mommy!" Elizabeth said while flashing a devious smile, her crimson eyes glowing towards Mary as she sent her a silent message.
Mary saw her Lady's knowing smile and made a dramatic silent gasp.
'My dear Mary, you're still too green to try and compete with me .'
'Uurk! I should have expected you would notice, My Lady!'
Sparks started to appear between the two as they deadlocked stares.
Both immediately turned to Remilya's cradle and immediately started repeating the words 'Mommy' and 'Auntie' to the child, causing the poor baby to be confused.
"Say Mommy!"
"No! Auntie!"
"Mommy!"
"Auntie!"
"Mommy!"
"Auntie!"
The both continued on, Remilya despite being confused, gleefully laughed as her guardians fought over who gets to be the first word.
Both guardians eventually grew tired as Remilya wasn't doing anything other than laugh.
"Well.. She was starting to say something, I guess our amateurish behavior sort of cut her off from that." Elizabeth sheepishly said.
"Agreed, my apologies my Lady." Mary agreed, they were certainly both being childish, but it couldn't be helped as both were excited for the young girl.
"Still, that was quite devious of you to try and steal her first words from, me, Ohhh..! I feel betrayed, whatever shall I doooo." Elizabeth playfully said as she looked at Mary with one eye.
"Again, my apologies Elizabeth-sama, but this Auntie could not simply just give up." Mary smiled.
"It's fine, you can have her second words though, since her father isn't exactly present, the words 'Daddy' or 'Papa' will be third instead if possible, it's his fault for not being here." She pouted.
Mary sweatdropped. "My Lady.. I think you forgot that he isn't exactly aware that he has a daughter, you did say you wanted to surprise him remember..?"
Elizabeth froze.
"I-Uh well! That's... That's.. True." Elizabeth coughed in her mouth in embarrassment. "That's an error on my part, sorry."
"I don't understand My Lady, why not simply go back to Midgar and tell him of the Young mistress? At first you said you didn't tell him because of a spur of the moment, now you want to surprise him."
Mary questioned, before she continued. "And our plan of rebuilding the Haven won't exactly be finished within this Era as all vampires aside from us are already dead..? So it can't be that."
Elizabeth's eyes darted to the right, nervously smiling as Mary interrogated her, it seems that just like her, Mary had changed too, becoming more attentive and strict to her, oh how unfair she was being.
"W-Well.. You see." Elizabeth reluctantly spoke.
"Hmm..?" Mary lifted an eyebrow.
"It's because I've thought of it before deciding to have her meet Shadow-san.. I want Remilya to have a normal childhood for the time being, have her play with children around her age, I didn't have that same luxury when I was a child, and I doubt her father has one too with all the burden he's carrying." Elizabeth explained. "The other reason is I'm.. Rather trying to avoid having my Husband's organization find out that I have a relationship and a child with their leader.." Elizabeth's voice started to get meeker we she got to the last part of her sentence.
"What? Why? Are they threatening us..?" She didn't understand, the Shadow Garden was Shadow's organization, why would her Lady be avoiding them..?
"Is it because of Shadow..?"
Elizabeth shook her head. "Not exactly but.. It IS somewhat because of him, but not like that. " she clarified. "Remember when I told you how there were already who loved him? That."
Mary took a few seconds to process it, before she realized what her Lady meant.
Her eyes widened at the realization. "Oh... OHH!"
Elizabeth agreed and snapped her fingers at Mary "Exactly! It's not that I'm afraid of them or anything, it's that just.. Imagine what dozens of jealous women would do if they found out I managed to snag their beloved leader in romance, not to mention have a daughter with him." She pondered with a hand on her chin.
"True, true." Mary agreed.
"And I can't exactly just go there and bother him, Remilya's papa is veeery busy most of the time, and I've already bothered him enough before-"
"Pa.." Elizabeth was cut off as a third voice joined.
Mary and Elizabeth blinked, before turning to the source of the voice.
"Pa!" Remilya chirped, happily saying her first word.
"..."
"..."
Both red heads looked at the baby with deadpanned stares.
"Pap!"
They slowly looked at each other, the same deadpanned expression still in their face.
"I.. We.."
"I don't.."
"..."
"..."
"Her first words."
"Was him."
"He's not even here." Elizabeth said with a monotonous voice.
"I believe it's your fault for mentioning him, Elizabeth-sama." Mary said without pulling any shots.
"..."
"..."
They stared at each other.
It was clear that these kinds of shenanigans always happened between the two, as Elizabeth suddenly pulled out feathers for tickling out of nowhere.
Mary's eyes widened in horror.
"You have a ten seconds head start before I start chasing you."
And just like that, Mary hauled ass as fast as she could.
++--------------------++
That time would end up as one of Elizabeth's most memorable yet regretful memories. Her darling daughter had instead said "Papa" Instead of "Mommy" Which greatly – Not really, she could use this to tease Cid-kun. – hurt her feelings.
After that, she had made it her priority to have little Remilya call her 'Mommy' the following weeks after, which eventually succeeded, Mary was the last one to get her wishes as little Remilya had trouble saying 'Auntie' much to the woman's sadness. Poor Mary.
The years passed by quite fast for Elizabeth's liking, but she enjoyed them nonetheless, she watched as her daughter learned how to stand up, to speak properly, to hugging her for the first time.
Ohhh how happy she was that time.
They've been spending quite a lot of time in this apartment for a long time now, thankfully Mary had the money to pay for it despite how expensive it was.
She technically still has some buried money somewhere near the lands of the lawless city and where The Haven used to be, maybe she should dig out some of it so she can spoil her darling daughter.
Speaking of her daughter, she looked at where her daughter was. She was currently in a park with her daughter, who was playing with a few other kids.
During weekends, a group of parents would tend to gather around in the park to let their children play, since she wanted her daughter to have a normal life, she gathered the confidence to ask them if she could let her daughter play with them, to her glee, they welcomed them with open arms.
They didn't seem to question why her daughter had pointed ears or why she had an umbrella, which was fortunate, what they did ask was if she was a noble because of her choice of clothing.
Nothing too serious.
Oh and one more thing, she and Mary had found out that Remilya can go into the sunlight with no consequences whatsoever by pure accident, said accident involving Elizabeth having to speed through multiple buildings within an instant just to prevent her daughter from curiously exposing her hand to sunlight.
Gods, that day was extremely stressful for both her and Mary, they both checked for burns nonstop after Remilya had exposed herself to sunlight, followed after by a three hour long attempt at scolding the young girl because of her actions, which well.. They performed rather poorly since neither of them liked seeing the sight of a sad crying Remilya. They were truly a bleeding heart, she and Mary were both thankful to whatever graces are still out there for the fact that Remilya was a Daywalker, otherwise her daughter would have burned away to dust.
They never really did know because dhampirs were extremely rare, even way back in her time when The Haven was still standing.
Oh well.
"Mother!" Elizabeth was removed from her inner musings when her daughter called out to her.
She looked to where her daughter was playing with dozens of kids varying in age, Elizabeth stood up from the bench she was sitting at and approached her daughter.
She looked at her daughter who was wearing the new dress Mary bought for her. ' She looks absolutely adorable .'
"Yes?" She answered back to her daughter, her daughter was currently running back to her with her small stubby legs.
"Mother! Mother! May I go with my friends Rand and the rest?" Her four year old, turning five in just a week asked of her, pointing to a group of children, some her age while the others were older.
' Well now isn't that cute. ' Her daughter always attempted to speak with mannerisms like a noblewoman, it was mostly due to the other children calling her a noble that her daughter had the idea of trying to imitate one.
Mary thought it was cute, while she thought it was merely adorable.
She looked to where her daughter was pointing to a group of children varying in age, most just as old as her. In the middle was a very well dressed boy who was older than her daughter by a year or two.
Ah, it's that nice young man. Rand Omadolcnte, the boy comes from a low-class noble family from what she's heard, not that it mattered, the young man was very respectful and well-mannered even at his young age, a testament to being a heir to a noble. She merely found it cute that the boy immediately became good friends with her daughter because he thought that she, too, was a noble.
The boy didn't mean any offense or harm so it was fine to let him befriend her daughter.
And It wasn't really a problem or anything troublesome that people were mistaking them for nobles, granted, she IS the Blood Queen, the very pinnacle of all vampires that used to live throughout these lands, and pretty much counted as a royalty even by just name, but she didn't want the attention that may lead to her daughter getting involved in something, or worse, hurt. ' Hmm.. Maybe I should wear simpler clothes next time? The humans of this era do quite have fashionable clothing sense compared to my time. '
"Mother! You're spacing out again!" Elizabeth was brought out of her thoughts when her daughter pulled at her skirt, Oops, she didn't mean to space out like that.
She turned to her daughter and gave her a pat on the head.
"Mhm, you can go as long as you keep your promise, remember what they are? " Elizabeth reminded her daughter, she brought three fingers and smiled when her daughter nodded, "Number one is?"
"Do not use magic unless it is necessary."
Her daughter answered, Elizabeth's smile only widened more when Remilya perfectly spoke without stuttering on advanced words.
Only four years old and already able to speak such words, she read from a book that at age 2 to age 3, children are able to speak to an extent but rather cut off and barely intelligible, at age four they're able to speak properly, although only the basic parts of conversations.
She really needed to give Mary a raise for teaching her daughter efficiently compared to her poor attempts at teaching little Remilya..
Oh wait, she doesn't pay her.
' I guess I'll just give her a gift every now and then .'
"What's the second one?" Elizabeth continued before she could space out again.
"Do not approach any strangers I don't know." Remilya answered perfectly once more, proving the little blood sucker's intelligence.
"Correct!" She gave her daughter a gleeful wink and went to the last and most important question. "Number three?"
"Never try to bite someone or taste human blood." Remilya answered the final question with a smile.
Okay, it might have been a bit over the top to have a child as young as Remilya to learn about human blood and vampires in general enough to give her the idea of what NOT to do, but that was for her wellness, Elizabeth wasn't going to take any chances of her daughter going berserk.
"Good job my little dhampir." She crouched down to her daughter's level, covering them both under her umbrellas shade, she brought her face closer to her daughter before giving her a boop on the nose. "You may play with young Rando as long as you stay safe, go on."
Her daughter visibly beamed with joy before running back to her friends.
Elizabeth stood up and watched her daughter with joy.
"Having fun Elizabeth-sama?" Mary walked up next to her, Mary had just arrived back from her shopping with multiple bags of groceries in her hands.
Since all vampires were quite literally dead except for them, gathering information about other vampires was useless, she instead uses that time to buy groceries and home products.
Elizabeth turned to her friend, "Mhm.. It's rather relaxing and enlightening watching Remilya have a nice childhood I was never able to experience properly."
"Agreed, it's better to let her have a normal childhood rather than having to deal with heavy burdens at a young age, something most vampires don't get the chance to have.." Mary grimacingly reminisced of the times before she met Elizabeth.
"We are truly blessed to have been given the chance for a new start." Elizabeth agreed. "I suppose we have Shadow-san to thank for that."
".. Speaking of that, you've been rather.. Lax for quite some time, you've been spacing out way too often my Lady." Mary asked. Elizabeth looked at her with a confused expression.
"True, I've been caught up with my thoughts nowadays.."
Mary tilted her head. "Any reason why..?
"Nothing in particular, just enjoying my time with Remilya as much as possible.. I'm afraid I might accidentally miss out on her childhood, I could take one blink and she'd suddenly turn into an adult without me noticing, we vampires can lose track of time after all.." That was true, pretty much any race with a ridiculously long lifespan could lose track of time if they weren't paying any attention to their surroundings.
Elves are a prime example of that.
Because of this, she's decided to meet Cid again back at Midgar and introduce him to his daughter and have him spend time with her.
He was human after all.. Though she wasn't sure if he REALLY was a human with how much power he had.
"I see.." Mary turned her gaze to Remilya's group of friends. "I'm glad she's fitting in well."
"She is." They both enjoyed watching Remilya have fun, clearly intent on keeping the child happy.
Suddenly, Elizabeth had an Idea of messing with Mary, she turned to look at Mary-
"Whatever you're thinking, please stop it Elizabeth-sama.. " Mary groaned with exasperation.
Elizabeth visibly flinched with shock, how did Mary know what she was thinking just now?!
'Could it be... She has a mind reading ability?! '
"No, I don't Elizabeth-sama.. I simply could see what you were planning to do or what you were thinking." Mary chidded with an annoyed expression.
"Not helping your case, are you secretly a mind reader..?"
"No, I'm not, I've simply just gotten used to your shenanigans my Queen.."
"Are you su-"
"Yes!"
Elizabeth kept on bugging Mary that day if she had mind reading abilities.
Their peaceful days continue in Oshiana with Elizabeth and Mary watching over Remilya as she grows up.
Elizabeth wished that this peace would continue for as long as she wanted to
++--------------------++
Light footsteps echoed through a hallway within a facility one could mistake for a futuristic world.
A man in a well-dressed military uniform walked with pride and power within the facility as multiple similarly well-dressed personnel saluted.
As soon as he reached the end of the hallway, he was welcomed by a highly-mechanized vault door with glowing neon parts, it opened showing dozens of individuals all wearing lab-clothes.
One of them approached the man and gave him a bow. "Belmo-sama, what brings you here today?" A few other scientists that were close also gave a slight bow before continuing their own respective duties.
The person the scientist was talking to was Belmo Ontrippofz, a man equal to Fenrir in-terms of power who would have gained a position within the rounds if not for the fact all he cared for was himself, the Knights of the Rounds rejected his rise in power and prohibited him from ever entering the ever powerful Leaders of the cult's ranks.
That was unless he acquired something that would greatly help the Cult, even without the Position, he was powerful himself because just like Mordred, he managed to take control and manipulate the Ocean-side kingdom of Oshiana for decades now. Nearly corrupting every government official within the kingdom while making the general public look peaceful to avoid any suspicion.
It was only then that he became active once more when he caught wind of the Blood Queen entering his Kingdom four years ago,he would have gone out himself but that would have likely alerted the Vampiric Queen so he sent out his best operative to do it instead, a First Child specifically trained for stealth, which nearly went wrong as he was nearly discovered despite being manufactured for the sole purpose of spying, thankfully – And somehow – The Blood Queen didn't notice him.
For countless years he looked for anything that would help him enter the Knights of the Rounds, mercilessly killing thousands and leaving no stone unturned for anything that would grant him his desires of becoming more powerful, both in position and magic.
But now, his answer was here in the form of the Blood Queen's help, or rather.. Her daughter.
When his subordinate came back with his report, which unfortunately, wasn't as detailed as the First Child was practically sweating out every liquid he had in his body when he came back. But he would have to make do as he did bring back very, VERY crucial information, because it appears that the Blood Queen has a relationship with the Cult's main enemy leader, the leader of Shadow Garden, Shadow.
The very same person who had killed his Master, Fenrir.
That accursed bastard, Fenrir-sama was the one to have helped him to rise in power and was one of the few people he respected, when he was killed four years ago, he made it a vow of his to avenge his late master by using the Blood Queen's daughter, or rather, Shadow's daughter.
Using his daughter against him would prove useful, not only to pacify Shadow himself but the most important one of the two, The Blood Queen herself, Vampires were similar to demon possession, if he could his hands on the very pinnacle of vampires and find out more similarities between vampire curse and demon possession, if it were to have anything that could help him gain more power then.. He could join the Knights of the rounds.
But the problem lies within the Progenitor herself, Belmo was confident of his power and could probably fight the Queen of Vampires, but he had no doubt he would lose horribly if he did fight her.
Which is why he needed a plan to deal with her, something that would allow him to overpower her and kidnap the child.
Ohh... How could he forget, the child herself was just as important as the mother, maybe even more. Being an extremely rare Dhampir, not to mention a miracle in itself! He'd thought that progenitors were unable to bear children just as history thought, but it seems they were wrong.
Not only was the child a Dhampir, but was also the daughter of the strongest vampire.
Imagine the possibilities, Imagine the power he could get if they studied the offspring of the Vampire Queen, she would be the perfect lab rat for knowing more about the Demon possession.
A female half-human and half-vampire, if she were to have both Demon Possession and Vampire curses flowing within her, how potent would it be..?
Because of this, he constructed a plan that would allow him to do overwhelm the Queen and take the Dhampir away, according to his subordinates barely comprehensible report – It still was, as the First Child could barely remember what he heard when the Blood Queen nearly found him out, apparently his fight and flight senses went into overdrive causing the man to run away in fear. – According to what his subordinate remembered, the Blood Queen was intoxicated somehow by a wine from the Progenitors Era called 'Sleepful God', a wine so rare there's only a dozen made in history, fortunately the Cult itself had one.
He had to pull some strings and make up excuses just to acquire it, in the end he did manage to get it, once he did he gave it to his scientists, intent on finding out what makes it tick, vampires were nearly impossible to get drunk, much less the strongest progenitor in history, they spent at least a year researching about this 'Sleepful God' wine, which was worth the time as the beverage possessed some interesting capabilities.
Other than being made to intoxicate vampires in general, it also temporarily lowered and disabled the person's senses of magic once drunk, allowing the wine to completely intoxicate anyone no matter how high their tolerance or their defenses against all kinds of poison was.
How the hell was this kind of drink even made in the first place? After they found out the capabilities of the wine, they spent the last three years and so forth trying to replicate the effects, the best they could get was imitate the alcohol level, the trait that allowed to temporarily disable a person's defenses proved to be impossible to replicate, whoever made these things was genius.
So instead of having his men replicate the effects, they'll simply use the actual samples itself and weaponize them, in the end, they all arrived with the idea of turning them into small beads for maximum efficiency, each bead contained 2% of the wine's content, it may seem low but it was practical, the effects of the 'Sleepful God' will always affect the person who ingested it, no matter how miniscule the amount was.
Enter his new project dubbed "Sleeping Queen", it was aptly named since he was going to use it against the Blood Queen herself, and if possible, the higher-ranks of Shadow Garden.
This Project allowed him to have a total 30 beads in his disposal, as the remaining was used for testing purposes and research. Now the other problem was having the Blood Queen ingest these.. Which would have been a ridiculous idea when he could just have his men modify these beads to explode into a small mist when exposed to stress, he'll simply split the quantity in half.
15 to be ingested, the other 15 to be used as projectiles that explode into a small cloud of mist.
However, that was easy to say as these 30 beads are still not done.
Belmo gave his head scientist an acknowledgement before ordering him, "I'm here to see your progress on those beads I've tasked you of creating."
The scientist nodded in affirmation and guided Belmo throughout the facility, weaving through dozens of other scientists working for the Cult of Diablos, the room was eerily filled with the sounds of papers being turned and machinery everywhere, just what you would expect from a facility filled with scientists.
Just before they entered deeper into the facility, his eyes caught sight of one of his most prized treasures being synthesized for him inside a giant tube, a creature from one of the unknown realms. Those foolish idiots from the higher rankings, even the Shadow Garden, never noticed that it wasn't just [Ragnarok ] that had gone through the [ Black Rose], a few unknown creatures had slipped by unnoticed during Ragnarok's rampage, with the exception of him.
The creature was four-legged in nature, despite this it possessed six different wings that were akin to a dragon.. Well, the creature in itself was akin to a dragon due to the scales it possessed – Which was oddly reminiscent of a bird's feathers – but that was thrown out of the table when it possessed an armored beak, bringing it closer to a hybrid of a bird and a dragon if anything.
They were able to snag the creature away when it was nearly killed from the attack that eviscerated Mordred created by the Shadow Garden's Leader after the former Knight of the Rounds ate a piece of Ragnarok's severed arm, empowering himself. – Or well, what was written on the report – It was fairly powerful in itself, easily surpassing dozens of First Children's in-terms of Magical pressure and Brute force.
While in reality, they were just being in denial. The man had completely illuminated the night sky, this mythical creature was actually injured by Ragnarok itself in it's blind array of attacks. The report had simply just been a way too keep the Cult's degrading moral at the time.
A wonderful gift it was eitherway, because it proved to be a treasure of knowledge for magic, he could use this thing to get his well-deserved seat within the Rounds, but that would mean having to share something valuable as this, the only person he would ever share it with was the late Fenrir.
So instead he opted to keep it for himself, and when the time comes, he will use it to empower himself.
But that's in the future, close as it may to being finished, the Blood Queen was his current priority.
Finally arriving at their destination, the mechanized futuristic doors of the facility ahead of them quickly opened, his eyes were greeted with the deeper parts of the hidden facility, the room was vast in range, Inside was more personnel and scientists working together on the "Sleeping Queen" Project.
His head scientist led him to a testing room where a test rat – Said test rat was an abducted civilian who saw too much – Was being used as a target practice for the Projectile type Sleeping Queen beads. The Head Scientist paused in his feet and turned to face the glass to the Testing Room, prompting Belmo to do the same.
The scientist shoved both of his hands in his lab-coat's pockets and took out two small marbles- No, beads, both differentiating in colors as one was a bright yellow color while the other was a darker shade of yellow and showed it to him.
"As you can see Belmo-sama, progress has been going rather smoothly, the projectiles being used within the Test Room is the one dark shade of yellow within my right hand." The Head Scientist gestured to the test room behind the man, before he continued on. "The darker shade of yellow was the failure of our attempts of replicating the 'Sleepful God's' effects, we thought that it would simply be a waste to get rid of them, so we thought of using them as a blueprint for the projectile types of Project Sleeping Queen."
Belmo nodded in satisfaction, at least his group of people were competent. "Good call, even if they don't have the Sleepful God's effects, it's still able to greatly intoxicate those who don't have inner defenses." Belmo moved his gaze inside the Test Room, watching as the Test Rat was hit by one small projectile, the projectile suddenly exploded in a yellow mist, the man involuntarily inhaled them and instantly fell unconscious.
"Wonderful job Head Scientist, I will reward your team later on after this. When can I expect the beads to be finished?" Belmo smiled maliciously as his project was nearing completion.
"In my humble words? A few months or more, keeping the wine's effects within a small container without suffering consequences of losing its effects will prove difficult my sire, this testing is merely a blueprint of how we will do it with the Sleepful God's contents." A few months or more, huh? It's fine he could wait it out. Belmo's smile widened further, finally, things were setting in motion.
"How about our friend inside the capsule, can we use it yet?" Belmo referred to the captured creature from one of the realms.
His head scientist frowned when the creature was mentioned, the man didn't really have the power to complain about their research since he himself was enjoying the alien specimen, however he had a few worries.
"Our tests from a month ago proved that its magical prowess is rapidly growing in power with each day after it was exposed to Tears of Diablos, my lord, is it wise to empower it by this much? It could wreak havoc within the facility if it ever gets out."
Belmo raised an eyebrow, before shaking his head. "Fret not, why do you think I split the Sleeping Queen beads into two?"
The Head Scientist immediately caught on. "I... See! Using the ingestible ones on the creature while the projectiles were for the Blood Queen."
"Correct, if it becomes complete will I be able to extract its power?"
"Don't worry my Lord, we always keep that In mind, which is why we have these." The Head Scientist briefly ran to a different room, leaving Belmo alone for a few seconds before the man eventually came back with an object within his hands.
"And that is?" Belmo questioned, the object in the scientist's hands was a small orb with a gem inside.. Were those runes?
"This! Is the very same item that will help you my lord. It's designed to extract the power from the specimen once it is in vicinity, an artificial artifact modeled after the very artifact that was used by the late Lutheran's Eye of Avarice! An artifact gifted to my humble team by a kind fellow researcher, Sherry Barnett! We weren't exactly sure why she had shared one of her inventions to us years ago, but we accepted it nonetheless."
Sherry Barnett.. The name rang a bell within Belmo's mind, but he couldn't quite place who it was, he'll have to thank this person later on, and maybe even recruit them(Threaten them).
"I see, once again, a wonderful job, when can I expect this to be finished?"
"With the Sleeping Queen Project occupying most of our time, I'd say a year my lord." Occupied? With the amount of personnel they had in this facility?
Well, he wasn't like most of his allies as he somewhat valued his subordinates – Which was valid, if he let them die or threatened them, who would do things for him? – So he'll just have to wait it out.
With that said... Simply putting the Queen to sleep wouldn't work in the long term, all that would do is allow him to overwhelm her before she recovered her strength. What he'll need is something that will help him long-term. Maybe stabbing her in the heart? Nearly Impossible, but still possible. He simply needed to come up with another few more plans to counteract her.
If he remembered, Demon Possession and Vampiric Curse didn't mix well with mentally unstable hosts right? Be it emotionally or a mental illness. Maybe he could use that, but that would mean he had to hold out while he had one of his men traumatize the brat. As for that part of holding out, maybe taking it the fight into the sea when its directly afternoon would work? Temporary at best, maybe something to stack up with the Sleepful Queen, something like a poison...
Liquefied silver? Now that's an idea.
'if it wasn't enough... Then maybe.. This one will do?' His hand traveled to a small trinket necklace accessory currently occupying his neck, it bore the color palette of Oshiana's National colors, with a tiny figurine of Oshiana's Water Spirit attached to it.
But leave those thoughts for later, he needed these two main projects done first. The rest wouldn't matter until later.
What was important was his plans were finally set in motion, all he needed to do was wait.
++--------------------++
OMAKE : During Baby Remilya's First Words.
Somewhere in Midgar, a certain mob suddenly felt a pang of pride.
Cid frowned as he felt something he wasn't too familiar with while he was in class, bored to death by the school's boring lectures that would be of no help to him in the future.
"Hmm?" Cid looked at his uncharacteristically shaking hand, not out of fear, coldness or weakness, but of.. Pride? "That's weird, I suddenly felt really proud of someone." Probably had nothing to do with him, because like.. Who would he be proud of, other than the people he knew?
Skel nudged him with his shoulder and gave him a smugass smirk.
'He's gonna say something stupid. ' Cid summarized quickly.
"You can't be proud of your little junior if you've never used him in battle, unlike us, who have become men!." Skel quipped from beside him.
"Mhm! We have become men! As we have managed to ask a girl out!" Po parroted.
"You two didn't commit sexual harassment did you?" Cid countered with a bored tone.
"No we didn't!" Both of his friends said in union.
"Sure, sure." Yeah right, last time, these two idiots told him of their tale of how they became men by asking out some hot chicks to a hot spring, then came crying back to him for more 'Tickets' when they tried to talk to the same brown-haired girl they've initially asked out rejected and flat-out threatened them. That was like a year ago or so, how did he get those tickets in the first place again..?
...
Didn't Elizabeth mention something about going to a Hot spring during their so called 'Dates'? He still wasn't sure if she was indeed his girlfriend, considering she did leave to follow her dreams just after her confession to him, romance wasn't really something he'd thought of before so he wasn't sure.
He would have just shrugged it off just like Alexia's 'Fake' Relationship with him back then if not for the fact he had a feeling something between him and the Blood Queen happened, he just couldn't put his finger on it..
Every time the Blood Queen would come to his mind it would bother him, like he's missing some details... Though, it's probably that sweet ass gold she promised to him.
Probably...
He started scratching the lower part of his nape, the hidden bite mark still persisting after all this time.
'Wonder how she's doing though, hopefully she can follow through with that dream of hers... Or was it dreams? I feel like she told me something about having another dream.. Oh well'
It would be kinda fun to fight her again, maybe he could do something that'll get them both to fight?
Fighting side by side with her would be fun too I guess.. Wait what, where did that come from?
Eh, whatever, he'll just play it off with something cool when they meet again.
'May we meet once more under the moonlight shining down on us, Blood Queen.'
Or something like that.