Her Heart, His obsession

20. Dark Days Commence

Dante was in the throne room of his Castle of Spears busy with target blasting using the fighter spheres around the room hovering from place to place. For all fighters, this was practice but to Dante this was a hobby. As he was demolishing each sphere, another one appeared and Dante was destroying them fiercely from where he was sitting on his throne by waving his hands.

As he was enjoying his destructive hobby, he was thinking about one thing only, Athena. She had come out of whereever she was hiding till now. He could feel her in Alaska but he was not in a hurry to go to retrieve her yet. He was going to wait patiently until Athena, would come to him willingly. That time was going to come either way. Meanwhile he would wait and watch Athena's actions patiently. He was really curious to see what she was going to do in Alaska. If she thought, she could save that territory from his reach, then Dante wanted to see her try.

He smiled. She was his blood match after all. Athena could surely delay Dante's quest but could not stop him. Dante was certain that she could never defeat him but she could challenge him to the maximum point. Dante couldn't wait for show time. In fact he anticipated and looked forward to a duel between them at some point. But, either way it was her destiny to stand by his side one day. She was his afterall one way or another.

Once he got bored and it was time to summon his commanders as the sunrise breakfast call was long gone, he ended his hobby time by throwing a ray of light around him and all spheres evaporated into thin air. He closed his eyes and focused on 12 of the burgundy coloured stones around the room. He smiled to himself, he had added one more commander after the introduction of Demetrious last night. At least his brother won't be the only newbie.

He had promoted Dylan to a role of commander because he now fully trusted him and he paid his dues by capturing masses of vampires and freedom fighters in the past three months. Sean and Xavier had given him accounts of how he had lead enforcers at night time to victory. It was now time for Dylan to prove he was not just a law enforcer. His bloodline was strong enough to lead battles in absence of Alexander who was now the full time head of the healing division. Dylan was not made a commander earlier on because of Dante's suspicions of his ties to his pacifist run-away half brother, Donavan who was near the top of his wanted list. But now, Dante had fully believed in Dylan's services and loyalty to promote him to where he should have belonged along time ago.

Eleven dark cloaked figurers and the white cloaked new commander soon appeared. Formalities happened first when all except Demetrious knelt on one knee and bent their heads down avoiding eye contact. Dante was sitting on his throne looking at his commanders one by one. "Commanders you may rise and permission granted to look up. You have a lot to prove to me when my conquer begins today. if you fail in your missions I would not hesitate to punish you as I see fit. I warn you today, that by punishment I don't just mean demotion. Showing weakness in my eyes is always a crime but on the battlefield it's much much worse." By then he knew, he had sent the message out as waves of fear and horror were coming his way. He knew well that his commanders feared nothing and no one except him.

"As you may see, there is a new commander in this room today. Dylan welcome aboard. As quick as I have promoted you, I could demote you. Don't disappoint me."

Dylan knelt on one knee suddenly avoiding eye contact. "You may speak Dylan."

"it is my honour to serve you. I swear that I would fight to the death for my master." He was telling the truth "good" Dante thought. But he has to show me his worth in action too. "You may rise Commander and look up"

Dante found it amusing how much the waves of fear multiplied when his commanders were asked to look him in the eye. There were many reasons for this. For one, the severity of the offence of looking him in the eye if he hadn't granted it was beyond imagination. He made those people who defied him in that manner wish they were never born. However, there was also another reason that made people shake in fear when looking at him. He was powerful to the point that he could intimidate people by just looking at them using his waves of power. This gift was mostly useful when tormenting prisoners for information. They normally spilled their secrets when he as much as glanced at them. But of course he gave the responsibility of interrogations to others because he wanted those prisoners to be tormented to no end for daring to cross him. That was a longer route but more painful route that he enjoyed hearing about.