Chapter 381: 'Then you leave me no choice.'

"And I need you to give House Veyr full Authority to inspect the Crimson Hearth."

Aurelia gave her final demand, only this time, the reaction was far stronger than before.

"No."

Cassian shook his head.

He wasn’t having any of it.

"That wasn’t a request."

Aurelia spoke as her tone became much more threatening.

And that very tone made the six Arcelis Ancients shift their postures a little, the Veyrs responded in kind.

Suddenly, the pressure in the Hall rose to an absurd degree.

Cassian, however, still did not back down. He couldn’t back down in this regard.

"You should understand what you are asking, Aurelia."

"I do."

Aurelia answered without a change in her expression.

"You are asking House Arcelis to expose its deepest structure to House Veyr. Crimson Hearth isn’t a mere barrier protecting the estate, it has information on every single member of this House, every single detail of its internal architecture, and much more.

If we give full access to House Veyr, you will not only have all the information it has, you will essentially understand House Arcelis completely.

You will even know the Hearth’s weaknesses and that information could be highly detrimental to us.

You are practically asking us to surrender ourselves to you."

He spoke directly.

He wanted Aurelia to understand how absurd her demand was.

And Aurelia...

She didn’t care.

"You gave access to an Archdemon, I don’t think giving it to House Veyr makes any difference."

"We did not give access to Neroth."

"Oh? Are you sure?"

Aurelia spoke as she extended her hands and pointed towards literally everything around them.

Cassian, however, did not back down.

"Your request is still out of hand.

We will not hand over the formation that controls our very lives to Hou—"

"It isn’t just your life that the Hearth controls, Cassian."

Aurelia interrupted again.

"It holds my life as well."

She spoke, looking into his eyes.

"And unlike you, who was secretly keeping a demon inside your estate, I had nothing to do with it.

I came here as your guest, I trusted you and your control over your house, only to find out that an Archdemon held that control.

And because I trusted House Arcelis, there is now a formation that can make me fall to my knees.

I cannot have that."

She spoke, explaining things from her end.

"I cannot have someone with ill intentions make something similar to that formation and manage to suppress me.

It will put me in danger I won’t be able to protect myself from.

I need to understand what it was inside the Hearth that Neroth used to weaken me, then I need to erase it."

Aurelia declared loudly.

"We will erase it for you."

Cassian answered, just that—

"And I am supposed to believe you how?"

Aurelia had no reason to believe him.

"Who’s to say the same thing won’t happen again?

Even if you do wish to erase that right now like you say you do, what if, when you are actually supposed to do it, you somehow realise something and do something entirely different from what you initially intended to do?

What do I do then?"

She asked and Cassian...

His face became ugly.

Aurelia did not stop.

"After all, you already did it once before and it put my life in danger.

How am I supposed to trust you, or your people now?

What if when I return, you are influenced by someone else and create a formation specifically designed to weaken me?

Even if you yourself won’t use it, there are still thousands of beings who would give you anything you desire for a formation like that.

And we all know you don’t do well in front of temptation."

Aurelia spoke out loud, making the Arcelis Ancients lower their heads. Only this time, the matter wasn’t something they could give in to.

So they couldn’t remain silent.

"...if we gave you the Hearth, you’d have the same power."

The female Ancient spoke up, looking at Aurelia.

"The Formation weakens us as well. Who’s to say you won’t design a formation specifically to weaken us, only in your case, it’s even more dangerous because then, you would have the power to weaken every single Arcelis Ancient. We’d be completely helpless, while you would still have your brother and your House protecting you."

It was a strong point from a certain point of view.

Just that...

"It doesn’t matter."

Aurelia shook her head.

"These are the consequences of your mistakes, I shouldn’t be the one paying the price for that."

The female Vampire’s face turned ugly.

Just then, Valerian spoke up again.

"Let’s try and find a middle ground."

Cassian turned towards him, waiting for him to speak. Valerian looked at the Arcelis Patriarch and continued.

"While you investigate the Hearth, your people work together with our people. We will find out if the Hearth still has any traces of Neroth left in it and destroy the structure that allows it to weaken Vampires."

Cassian thought about it for a moment, he even looked at Aurelia, wanting to see if she agreed with the arrangement. He was actually hoping for a disagreement between the siblings here, but he didn’t have high hopes.

Aurelia looked at her brother, who nodded at her and she nodded back.

The siblings were on the same page.

Both House Veyr and House Arcelis working on it together.

It was one of the better solutions to the problem at hand.

But...

"No."

Cassian still shook his head.

"We cannot let your people have access to the Hearth."

He then glanced at Aurelia and asked a simple question.

"You say you do not trust me and then you tell me that I should trust House Veyr with the formation that protects my entire bloodline? That doesn’t feel fair, do—"

"It doesn’t matter."

Aurelia actually shook her head. Cassian looked at her and she continued.

"Whether you think this is fair or not does not matter.

We are getting access to the Hearth and we are getting it now.

And if you stop us..."

The very air around Aurelia changed.

"It won’t end well."

Cassian heard those words loud and clear.

Only this time...

"Then let’s see how this ends."

The air around him changed as well.

Five Veyr Ancients stared at six Arcelis Ancients.

"...do you truly wish to do this?"

Cassian Arcelis asked one last time.

"Are you giving us access?"

Aurelia Veyr asked.

"No."

Cassian Arcelis shook his head and—

"Then you leave me no choice."

Aurelia Veyr spoke and the moment she did.

Eleven Ancients clashed with each other.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM