Hell's Consort

Newest Chapter of Highest Tier (May 2022)

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Vampire King Apollyon

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Gritting his teeth to suppress his anguished screams in silence, Apollyon sat down next to her and touched the silver obol on her forehead with utmost reverence.

His shoulders were slumped as he examined her in a fine, strapless turqoise dress that hugged her curves.

Despite her greyish skin, her blue lips and the lack of the usual pink in her cheeks, Luna was bewitchingly beautiful.

She looked like she was simply taking a nap that made her lose the spark that she once had.

He knelt beside his wife stiffly, uncertain whether he should laugh or cry from his family's misfortune.

Yet, he couldn't stop himself from reaching out to squeeze her hand and feel its softness once again.

Apollyon recoiled when he only felt ice.

Without warning, his stomach hardened at the realization that he wouldn't be able to experience the love and comfort her cuddles and kisses had provided.

Apollyon gripped the gunwale in hopes of easing the violent tremors in his body as he summoned more strength to get through his desolation.

He would never forget how gentle her caresses were.

It will be forever ingrained in his memory, helping the sparks in his soul to continue burning bright for the sake of their children.

As he recalled the good times they had spent together, Apollyon allowed happiness--the warmth of her smile while she told him sweet and silly things--to flood into his brain in hopes to lessen his grief.

Sadly, it had an opposite effect of what he truly desired because these seemingly happy memories had threatened to break him even more, change him beyond recognition.

The sound of her laughter was hauntingly vivid in his mind that hot, silent tears streamed down his face.

His chest felt like it was about to burst and his heart sank unto the bottom boards he had knelt on.

Apollyon thought he had gone insane since he was the only one who could hear its music.

He glanced up to the dark skies to recite a prayer to the gods and goddesses who cared enough to listen, wishing for them to take this despair somewhere else.

He wanted everything to melt away and dissolve around him except his beloved but it was impossible when someone else was in her funerary boat.

"You should leave, Vampire King." Apollyon heard an old man' rasp in a voice that sounded like he hadn't used it for centuries.

He immediately wiped his tears with his palms before looking over his shoulder.

As he gained the courage to hold Luna's hand to ground him in this current reality, he squinted at the gaunt old man clad in the same reddish-brown garb that Apollyon had seen in a fever dream while he was in the Crystal Cave.

Sometimes, he wondered if what he had experienced there had happened for real.

Queen Morgan had deposited him there to get rid of any demonic influence from Ravin's venomous bite.

"Have I met you somewhere before?" Apollyon asked as he scrutinized the old man from head-to-toe, swearing to himself that he was teling the truth.

The old man gave him a half-shrug.

"Maybe?" He looked away from him and focused his attention on rowing the boat, instead. "You tell me."

His brows furrowed.

This wasn't the time to jest.

He seemed familiar and Apollyon couldn't quite put a finger on it.

Apollyon's suspicious gaze also took its time to regard that long pole in the stranger's right hand.

Whern Luna's physical vessel had turned to ashes in the Material Realm, this old man must have fetched her soul at the shore to take her somewhere else--a place where he thought she would belong.

Charon was the ferryman in charge of transporting souls of the dead across the River Styx into the entrance of the Underworld.

''Why isn't she awake, old man?" Apollyon couldn't conceal his anxiety when the hand that gripped her icy fingers quivered. "I would understand if this was her physical vessel but it is not." He pressed a salty kiss at the back of her hand in a valiant effort to soothe his own fears. "Is her soul sick?"

"No one is allowed to intercept and talk to her unless Hecate sees her in the Underworld first." Charon watched him carefully, his bluish-grey eyes fierce as if he finally saw him as a threat. "That is what the Goddess told me. I am required to follow that directive."

What did Hecate want with Luna?

"Why was she demanding my wife to meet her in the Underworld alone while I am here suffering, willing her to wake up so that she could talk to me for once?"

"Perhaps, the Goddess wanted the woman to stay in the Underworld with her instead of Hell." Charon replied. "She was her Priestess, afterall."

Flapping his Archdemon wings, he leaped in front of the ferryman to fist his rumpled collar.

"You should turn back the boat to the spot where you had fetched my wife---" Apollyon growled while attempting to snatch a pole in his hand. "---or I will burn this boat down."

He wanted to row the funerary boat back to the shore but the old man refused to budge and let go of it.

They stood there at a stand still.

Apollyon thought twice about overpowering him and pushing him to the River Styx.

The consequences might be too severed for him to handle since he wasn't aware of all the rules in the UUnderworld.

However, he would like to hear about the truth from Charon's mouth.

"If you burn this boat down, it's not like I will be the only one in hot waters. You and this lady couldn't get out of River Styx as well." The cracks on his dry skin became even more visible when the corner of his lips curled into an smirk. "All three of us will be poisoned from the miasma emanating from this waters." Charon's sagging cheekbones and wrinkled brow made him look wearier. "Any soul who will attempt to harm me will drown here for eternity."

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