2173 Belly of the Beast (Part 1)

"You have no idea what you are talking about, Vampire." The Wendigo's laugh sounded like a dry cough. "Each one of those psychos is Awakened. Taken one by one they are ants due to their weak magical powers, but even a small group is damn hard to kill.

"They receive the best training and equipment, and once the salve array forces them to fall in line, their teamwork is flawless."

The Firstborn glared at the Wendigo until he noticed that the undead was also extending his bleeding hand.

"I don't get called to train recruits, I'm a frequent customer of the sixth floor." The Wendigo said the moment Vladion shook it.

"On that floor there are countless magical labs where the Mad Queen conducts the experiments she needs to expand her influence to the rest of Garlen. She cuts open those like me to discover the weak points of each species of undead.

"Also, I'm pretty sure that this Meln you mentioned is kept there. I never meet anyone except for my jailers there, but from time to time they talk about a final weapon.

"Every time it comes up, they turn toward a heavily padded room whose walls are thicker than a Dragon's finger."

"What about the power core?" Vladion asked.

"It's located in the Headmaster's office, hidden behind the wall to the east of his desk." A female Vampire said.

"How do you know?" The Firstborn noticed the surprise and confusion in the other undead that matched his own.

The fact that only one person knew its position and exact at that was fishy. Even more since she had asked nothing in return.

"First things first." She held her bleeding hand out, making Vladion relax.

Only once the oath was sealed did she reveal her origin.

"I'm the only survivor of the first batch of warriors sent by the Undead Courts to take over the Golden Griffon academy right after Arthan's execution. Back then there were no sealing arrays so we thought it would have been a simple matter.

"Get in, imprint the power core, and then build our own nation thanks to the power of the living legacy and strong of a truly immortal army. Or at least that was the plan. With Arthan's death, the arrays and trap got turned off so getting in was easy.

"Too bad that once inside we discovered that he had already assembled the first batch of students. We fought tooth and nail until we reached the Headmaster's office and that was the beginning of our end.

"At first, Hystar congratulated us for getting so far. Yet once he noticed that the Unwavering Loyalty array had failed to enslave us, he got really angry. The Headmaster revealed the power core to expose us to the full power of the magical formation, and when that also failed, he started killing my companions.

"He kept alive only one member for each undead race to study us and try to understand how to fix the flaw in the array."

"What happened to the members of your group?" Vladion asked.

"Don't you see it?" The Vampire pointed at the other cells. "He killed them the moment a more powerful or skilled member of the same species entered the Golden Griffon.

"As Caltria said, there's a limit to the number of people that the academy can keep alive. Undead can't be ordered around so there's no reason to have duplicates. Which means that your success means a great deal to me.

"If you fail, I'll die and you'd take my place. Why keep a mere Vampire when you can have the Firstborn?"

Vladion thanked them and returned to his allies, sharing with them everything he had learned via a mind link.

The Void stirred inside Lith at the idea of killing Orpal and Lith let his darkest side linger on the thought for a second. Then, the image of his daughter flashed in front of his eyes and Orpal went back to being a secondary mission.

'There are no other stairs on the map, we need to explore the ground floor a bit. Vladion, suit up.' Kalla said as Lith's wrapped around the Firstborn again.

Just like the White Griffon, the ground floor was filled with sunlight and had plenty of windows. The non-magical staff would have found it claustrophobic and had a hard time living there otherwise.

Once back in the open, the Firstborn was forced to use Blindside again. The academy's staff had woken up and started the morning activities. People moved to and from the administrative office, where the paperwork necessary to run Thrud's territories was handled.

The second biggest flow of people came from the kitchen.

Awakened rarely slept but that meant they needed to eat often to recover their strength. The night shift was done working and enjoyed their meal in the inner garden of the academy, basking in daylight before going to bed.

Lith was flabbergasted noticing that they looked tired but happy with their jobs. They sat at the tables with their families, making small talk with the clerks carrying the latest batch of documents.

"I still can't believe that a creature 700 years old is such a terrible cook. How can Hystar handle priceless magical ingredients and then butcher even a broth?" A woman asked while making sure that her children ate the vegetables as well.

"Beats me." A man replied with a shrug. "But I can't complain. If he didn't suck so bad with paperwork as well, I wouldn't have my job."

Lith had expected the lost academy to be run by shady criminals and people who obeyed Thrud because they were too scared to do otherwise. Yet the ground floor looked like a park's picnic area.

'I'm familiar with collateral damage, but the idea that these people will die along with the Golden Griffon still sucks.' Lith thought while the group stuck against the walls of secondary corridors to avoid someone from accidentally bumping into them and exposing their presence.

'This is war, Scourge.' Vladion said. 'We are taught to demonize the opponent. To think of them as evil monsters bent on destruction while we are the good guys. Otherwise, soldiers would realize that their enemies are just like them, obeying orders and trying to make a living.

'At that point, aside from zealots, no one would be capable of keep fighting.'

Once they reached a place near enough to the stairs to appear on the map, reaching them was easy. The hard part was to wait for a moment when no one was looking while also avoiding being discovered.

Only after the night shift was done eating did the number of people moving around decrease enough to open the secret passage unnoticed. Once they reached the first floor, Lith could finally slip off Vladion for good.

From there up, there would be no windows and the only light would have been of magical origin. Lith recognized the design because it was almost identical to the White Griffon's.

The only difference was that while back at his academy each corridor was filled with doors leading into a small apartment for a student to live in, here there were bars instead of doors, and the prisoners were held each in a single room with a bathroom to save space.