Twitch. Twitch. Twitch.
Adam’s fingers twitched, while his heartbeat grew faster and faster. With great effort, his eyes opened to reveal vast caves and bare gray surfaces.
"W-What the hell...?"
Instead of the kitchen of his penthouse and the view of the First Ring, now before Adam lay a vast cave with only stone columns supporting the high ceiling.
The only sound here was drops trickling down the walls and splashing onto the ground from sharp edges.
"Argh!" Adam clutched his head, and a searing pain filled his mind.
He couldn’t rember the last ti he’d had such a searing headache. It was as if he’d gone through several teleportations in a row, and the pressure surpassed anything he’d ever experienced before.
Still, it wasn’t a wound, and after a few minutes, Adam ca to his senses, though he was still breathing heavily.
"Agh... Agh... Agh..."
"Fuck, where the hell am I?" Adam muttered, slowly getting up from the ground.
His legs were shaking. He couldn’t stand still and nearly fell, but he leaned against the nearest column.
"Did Gladius do this?"
His gaze wandered further, taking in the scale of the place where he had ended up. It wasn’t a simple cave running from one point to another in a straight line.
Before Adam’s eyes, stretching past several columns and reaching a cliff, lay a true abyss plunging deep below. The cave wound around the abyss, forming sothing like a ring.
That wasn’t all.
"Shit..."
Adam’s eyes dropped lower, seeing the sa caves extending several levels down. Everything was the sa: empty caves supported by columns and an abyss at the center that they surrounded.
The only clue Adam had was a faint light shining ahead, growing dimr the deeper the caves went.
"I don’t know who, Gladius or Xyrea, but soone sent here. The only question is, which way the hell do I go? Up or down?"
Adam was about to move on. He had to figure sothing out and get out of this place, but then he rembered sothing.
He looked at his hand, at the vial that, despite everything, was still in his grip.
"Hah, I see. So he didn’t lie after all." Adam raised the vial, staring at his reflection in the dark blood. "Queen Elisa... What happened to you if just your blood is one of my conditions?"
Then, Adam rembered how he’d thought he’d get the Blood of God from Vaarh, a monster that wasn’t even at the Lord Level.
"For so reason, I feel proud that my conditions are so complex, but..." He looked at the caves surrounding him. "It’s nothing but trouble, to be honest."
For a while, Adam stared at the vial.
He hadn’t imagined it this way. When he first saw this condition, he’d decided it would happen during a battle against a majestic monster, soone dangerous and proud. The dragon that was Vaarh was the perfect candidate for that role.
But... reality turned out to be far darker than he had imagined. To beco stronger, he had to drink the blood of another Phantom, not just a strong warrior, but his Queen, the creature that had protected all of humanity from total annihilation for hundreds of years.
Adam didn’t know where he was now, but he realized it was most likely a dangerous place. This was a trial from Gladius, and all he had to survive here was the blood of Queen Elisa.
"Blood of God. Sooner or later, I was bound to get it," Adam muttered as he opened the cap on the vial.
The powerful scent of blood imdiately filled the air around him, making his heart race.
Now, he felt like a starving monster that, for the first ti in a long while, had seen a fresh piece of at before him.
Every fiber of his being and all the energy within him wanted that blood, right now.
"There is no other choice. If all of this is really Gladius’s plan, then without this power, nothing awaits here but an inglorious death."
With a final sigh, Adam opened his mouth and tilted the vial.
As soon as the first drop of blood fell onto his tongue, he froze, and his pupils narrowed.
...
Around the sa ti, Silvana woke up as well. Unlike Adam, who had ended up far from the Citadel, she remained where she had been, in the house she shared with Adam.
Through a blur, Silvana saw two figures sitting at their table. Steam from the freshly brewed coffee wafted past their faces, accompanying their casual conversation.
Blinking a few tis, Silvana recognized the figures as Xyrea and Gladius.
This didn’t bother her much. She rembered that they had co to them, but the mont when Xyrea knocked her out had simply vanished from her mory, for now.
"Adam... Where’s Adam..." Silvana muttered as her mories gradually returned to her.
Soon, her eyes widened as she stared in horror at Gladius and Xyrea, who had noticed her waking up.
"Oh, it seems the young Operator has finally returned to us. Good morning, Silvana." Gladius raised his cup in greeting.
In an instant, Silvana crawled back and looked around. No matter where she looked, Adam wasn’t there.
What’s more... none of the other thods worked.
"W-Why. Why can’t I reach him?" Silvana’s voice trembled. This had never happened before. No matter how far away Adam was or how dangerous the mission he was on, she had always stayed by his side.
Gladius waved his hand dismissively.
"Oh, don’t worry about it. It’s all because of the energy of the place he’s in. Once he returns to the Citadel, everything will be back to normal."
"You... Where did you send Adam?" Silvana clenched her teeth, and pure anger covered her face.
However, Gladius didn’t rush to answer. Instead, he pulled out the chair next to him, making room for her.
"Please, sit down. As I said, we’re not enemies."
"Shut up!" Silvana waved her hand. "What kind of horrible place is this, where our powers don’t work? Adam won’t survive in such dangerous lands! You just want to kill him!"
Gladius leaned on his hand.
"Yeah? Then why did I give him the vial?"
"Agh?"
Gladius’s eyes narrowed.
"Soon, you’ll feel it. You’re right, Adam is in dangerous lands right now, which ans he’ll drink her blood very soon."
His voice grew deeper.
"Surely, right now, Adam is taking his first sip. It will be a montous event for both of you."
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