Chapter 408: My dear, sweet Blood Emperor

Ethan spent another four hundred thousand gold coins to fully integrate the mine into every system he had already built in the city.

Goldenveil, at its current level, could transmit the energy extracted from its magical vein up to five hundred kilometers away. A respectable distance.

So, for the time being, he didn’t need to worry about how much energy this place would consume.

He took a step back, returning to Faelith’s side. She watched, wide-eyed, as the world around them began to change.

The ground trembled slightly beneath their feet. A deep rumble rose from the earth, as if something enormous were stretching awake beneath them.

Streets opened up on their own, the paving stones sliding apart and rearranging themselves to make room for the new structure.

Tall walls rose from the ground, meticulously crafted in a distinctly elven style. Elegant curves and smooth lines wove together into patterns that were symmetrical yet unique.

The building swallowed one hundred thousand square meters of land and rose more than five stories high.

And, judging by its size, there were clearly many more floors hidden beneath the ground.

A large warehouse sprang up next to the building. From it, wide roads stretched out to the streets of Greenleaf itself, connecting both the common entrances and a massive gate, wide enough for ten mammoths to pass through side by side.

Faelith clung to Ethan’s robe, her slender fingers curling into the fabric.

"You know, I’ve seen this happen so many times, but it still never fails to impress me..." She shook her head with a sigh, her eyes still fixed on the last walls as they finished settling into place.

"I know, your man is just too amazing, isn’t he?" Ethan teased, puffing out his chest on purpose, drawing a soft laugh from Faelith.

"Yes, indeed," she replied, hugging Ethan’s arm tightly.

Her soft breasts pressed against him without the slightest hesitation, the plush mounds engulfing his strong biceps, their warmth seeping into his skin.

"Come on, I want to see the inside of this place and, well, start getting things ready for the extraction. The quality of the elven silver produced here must be incredible, right?"

Ethan nodded, letting her pull him along toward the mine’s interior.

***

Meanwhile, many kilometers away.

The Eternal Forest was a savage place, one of the Seven Forbidden Zones. It was so immense that, if it were a unified nation on Earth, it would rank as the fifth-largest country on the planet.

Spanning the entire northern region of the forest and stretching for nearly a thousand kilometers lay the Eternal Mountains, a long range of icy peaks perpetually shrouded in mist.

Many said that most of those mountains were ruled by terrible bloodsucking creatures, their black castles staining the white snow like smudges of ink.

In the past, that place had been a human kingdom.

But a demon’s unholy blessing had transformed its people into creatures of the night—beings who grew weak in sunlight and needed human blood to remain at their prime.

While the snow elves ruled the highest peak of that range, everything else belonged to these creatures of the night.

They were vampires.

Among the many black castles, there was one larger than all the others, rising right in the heart of the Eternal Mountains, its sharp towers vanishing into the mist.

Inside that castle, in a hall shrouded in darkness, was a woman.

She sat upon a throne of steel, blood, and bones, her figure almost entirely swallowed by the shadows.

Only an intense white light streamed through the windows behind her, faintly illuminating the deep neckline of a red dress.

There, a pair of enormous, juicy tits stood out, squeezed tightly together by the form-fitting fabric until they bulged over the neckline in two heavy, creamy swells.

Her pale skin glowed softly in the dim light, the deep cleavage between them rising and falling slowly with each breath.

Beyond that, one could only make out the mature contours of her face and her eyes, which shone in the darkness like two blood-red suns.

Those eyes fell upon a short woman kneeling at the foot of the staircase.

She had short blue hair and wide hips that even her submissive posture could not conceal, their generous curves flaring out from her narrow waist as she bowed low.

The servant also had red eyes, but nowhere near as intense as those of the woman on the throne.

"My Empress, all one thousand Night Guards have already been awakened. They are advancing to eliminate the last traitor. Count Cassian’s head should be at your feet within a few days," the servant declared without lifting her head.

All around her, dozens of other heads lay scattered across the floor, their glassy eyes staring into nothingness.

Traitors, every last one of them.

"Hm..." The woman on the throne did not react immediately.

In her right hand, she held a goblet filled with a bright red liquid, swirling it slowly as the thick contents clung to the sides and slid back down.

The long, sharp nail of her left index finger tapped against the steel of the throne in a slow rhythm, each soft click echoing through the hall.

She raised the goblet to her lips and took a lingering sip. A single drop escaped from the corner of her mouth, and her long delicate tongue slid out to collect it without haste.

"I sensed a great many Green Skins dying in the Eternal Forest. Was it those strange, immortal beings?" she asked, a hint of curiosity glinting in her crimson eyes.

Her voice was low and velvety, filling the entire hall without ever needing to be loud.

The servant raised her head slightly, just enough for the light to catch in her eyes.

"Oh? No, my Empress. The cause of those deaths was a man named Ethan Goldenveil. I don’t have much information on him yet, but our Shadows are already monitoring him. During that battle, he revealed an artifact of vampiric origin. A ring."

The Empress was already raising the goblet to her lips once more when, suddenly, she froze. It halted in midair, a finger’s breadth from her mouth.

Her eyes flashed, and in the next instant, she was on her feet.

The servant stared up at her with a puzzled expression, not understanding a thing, while a sweet cackle spilled from her mistress’s lips and spread through the dark hall.

"Ah... my dear, sweet Blood Emperor... it’s you, isn’t it? I know it is! Fufufufu~"

The Empress stepped down from the throne.

Her enormous breasts bounced with every step down the long black staircase.

They were far too heavy for the neckline to hold in place, and each footfall sent them heaving upward before gravity dragged them back down, the two pale mounds colliding against one another in a slow, voluptuous sway.

The soft flesh quivered where it spilled over the red fabric, ripples rolling across the exposed tops of her breasts. Each tremor had barely begun to settle before the next step set them trembling all over again.

The light from the windows followed their movement, streaming over her pale skin, vanishing and reappearing in the deep valley between them with every sway.

Her hips swayed beneath the red dress in the same rhythm, rolling from side to side as she made her way toward the far end of the hall.

The fabric clung to the full curve of her ass, the thick cheeks lifting and settling in turn, a lazy ripple passing through them each time her heel met the stone.

"Prepare fifty Night Guards and ten Shadows. I’ll be visiting Goldenveil," she said, holding out her hand.

An elegant umbrella appeared between her delicate fingers—slender-handled, trimmed with dark and red lace.

Outside, the light remained bright over the snow.

A smile spread across her lips, revealing the tips of two sharp fangs.