50. On the brim of war
Kamui was laying in his bed in their headquarter. The fight with Thresh had severly weakend him. He had burned everything he had in his fight with Thresh. His own divinity was consumed by the Golden Blade of Verathagna, his body´s divine power was consumed as he tried to stand his ground, great parts of his soul conduits were destroyed as he used his body´s ki and mana, his blood and soul reserves almost completly depleted, Greydrone´s heart highly vulnerable, blocking his own dragonic power. Kamui sighed, he was weak, again. Luckily this time his soul was intact, slightly attacked by Astraea´s body, but not weak like last time, recovery would be faster this time. He adjusted his position and slightly winced at the pain. His body took incredible amount of damage, that was only regenerating slowly. His godly body regenerated with a much higher rate than a human´s body, his battle regeneration was even higher, every wound closed almost instantly so he could keep fighting with wounds, that forced others to their knees, but for this he payed a prize, after the battle it took him some time to truly heal. If Kamui explained this, he often compared that to the movement between a spot and another. Normal people walked the distance, his increased regeneration allowed him to run this distance, so he was faster, but in battle he sprinted this distance, moving much faster, but after this sprint he was exhausted and needed to take a break.
His current condition was troublesome, but not what really troubled him. Soon after he collapsed on the battlefield the barrier fell aswell and Xeronos and the League had arrived to investigate what was going on. After Kayle informed them what had happend, Xeronos lost his temper. He accused the League for trying to kill Kamui and that was an act of war against them. Of course the summoners denied this and said, this was the work of a single summoner, Xeronos could not blame the entire League for this, but Xeronos didn´t wanted to hear it, he said he would make them pay for what they did to his brother, after he brought him to safety. Only Kamui´s inner circle stopped him from doing something rash. The day after that Kamui had been sleeping, no one was allowed to see him, not even Sona. Another day later Kamui had woken up and got all the details, so right now he was thinking what to do next.
Xeronos and Kamui were on the brim of open war with the League of Legends, a war he would not let happen so easily. If he wouldn´t take the reigns in his hands, then it would be definitly Xeronos against the League, Xeronos was strong, very strong, but against the entire League it would be difficult, but even if he would win, so many lives would be wasted, that was not something Kamui could allow. On the other hand, Xeronos was right. It didn´t matter that only a single summoner tried to kill him, he had been a summoner of the League, together with a champion of the League. Kamui could not exclude that the summoner acted on behalf of the Council of Summoners, the summoner died before Kamui could question him. Even if he acted alone, for not keeping him in check, the League was to be blamed.
Kamui was thinking, he needed to find the right balance between demanding a form of repayment from the League and not letting things escalate. Kamui decided that the moment he would be able to leave their headquarter he would have to talk with the Council of Summoners, he was sure, that if he would talk with the Headsummoner about what happend, they would find a compromise, but no matter what he would do, neither Xeronos nor the League would be happy about it.
A soft knocking caught his attention. Someone opened the door carefully. Ren entered the room with a tablet in hands. "Master are you awake?" "Yes, please, come in." He smiled at her. "I brought you something to eat." "Thank you, my dear." She smiled happily at him. The whole day they had been serving him, since standing up was a giant effort for him right now. She filled him a cup of tea and then began cutting his meal in small pieces. "Master?" "Yes?" "What will we do next?" "You mean with the League?" "Yes, Xeronos threatend them with open war, will we really wage war against them?" Kamui could see the worry in her eyes. "I am afraid i am not sure." "What do you mean you are not sure?" Haishel said as she entered his room. "Have you already forgotten what happened? Then let me remind you, they tried to kill you!" "Yes, Haishel, i know, but.." "No, buts! This time they have gone to far. You don´t intend to forgive and forget that already, do you?" "What´s wrong?" Lamia asked as she and Depore entered his room aswell, Haishels shouting indicating that their master was awake. "Nothing is wrong" Kamui informed them ," I just think we shouldn´t act rashly." "Rashly?!" Haishel shouted "You got almost killed, and we shouldn´t act rashly?! What other reason do we need to ground them into the dust? Xeronos is more than ready to fight them. We will make them pay for what they did to you, we will remember them of their place and this way we will prevent that something like this happens again, furthermore you can absorb their energy, with that many powerful fighters you should be able to replenish great parts of your former strenght." Haishel then sighed annoyed, she knew him well enough that he wouldn´t act on that, because despite his incredible strength and the fact that he had killed so many times, he was a very peace-loving man, it were always the others who forced him to fight. "Fine then, tell us, what do you intend to do. Maybe the great Celica want to share his plan with us. Tell us what do you want to do, to make them pay for the fact that it was simple luck that you survived! And don´t give me the crap that you can´t die, you know exactly what i mean. And think about it, would you do the same thing if one of us got attacked?" This was a harsh blow, Haishel knew that. Kamui was extremly overprotective if Silverwings were invovled, especially his apostles. If one of them would have been attacked, he would ground the entire Institue into the dust, if he had to. Those who harmed his apostles were mercilessly killed by him, not making a difference between the people he hunted and those who stood in his way, but for himself he was way more forgiving, too forgiving for Haishel´s liking.
Kamui sighed. "Haishel, you are right, and i don´t intend to let them go unpunished, i am just saying, that we could gain more from it than just simply slaugthering them." "Gain something more? Like what, partner?" Delf asked. The fight took it´s toll on him aswell. This was one of the rare moments where Delf felt tired. Enduring the pressure of the Golden Sword of Verathagna wasn´t easy, but what really had tired him was Libracles. Eventought it didn´t materialized completly, the power of Libracles wasn´t easy to handle, not for Kamui and not for Delf.
Before Kamui could say anymore, realisation hit Haishel, "the formula?", Haishel began to smirk. Kamui nodded smirking "You sleazy little genius. As a form of reparation you intend to let them do the work." "Correct. This encounter is the perfect opportunity to force them to do it. In my current condition i am not able to work on the formula, but by demanding them to work on the formula we can return faster to our world. I will let them work on parts of the formula, with this parts alone, it will be completly useless for them, but extremly helpful for us." Kamui explained his plan to them. Eventough he nearly died, he hadn´t lost vision on their goal, returning to their world, and achieving this goal was more important than simple payback.
"Maybe we should ask for more, boy," Dante said. "you know, with the whole trying-to-kill-you-business i think we should ask for more, besides, this way we could cover the importance of the formula parts." "But what else could we demand? We don´t neet anything else" Lamia asked. She was right, the headquarter was more then a simple place to sleep. It was a small version of the Ravenright, the Brotherhood´s flying fortress and safe haven for every Silverwing. The headquarter was like an outpost, it was protected by a powerful shield. The walls were thick and magicly enhanced. The sunshine and birds only an illusion to conceil the fact that they were underground. Some of the levels were support-only levels, providing them with everything they needed, air, water, food, a complete self contained eco system. The entire headquarter was powered by a powerful crystal in it´s center, a structure which not only emitted enough power to support all this, but that also regenerated it´s own, an indefinite source of power, and all of this reduced trough powerfull magic to the size of just a great mansion, and right beneath the Institue of War.
"I know what else we can demand. Wine, wealth and women" Haishel said after a moment of silence "Women?" Kamui, Ren, Depore and Lamia asked. "Of course. The fastest way for him to restore his energy is to bed a woman, or have the four of you already forgotten that?." Haishel´s smirk grew even wider. Another moment of silence as Ren, Depore and Lamia were thinking. They were not happy with that suggestion, the thought of their master bedding a stranger woman, not his normal love making with apostles, but simple sex, carnal desire to restore his power. They were definitly not happy about this, but Haishel was right, for him it was the best, they knew how much he hated it of being weak, not being able to protect them. "Yes, this is the best way." Ren was the first one to speak. "If it is for the master." Depore added. "This way master will get stronger." Lamia said. The three of them smiled sadly at him. They were not happy about it, but if it was the best for their master, they would not interfere, placing his well being above their own selfish desire, accepting that the man they loved more than anything else would sleep with another woman, who was not an apostle. Kamui stared at them,speechless, both for the fact that Haishel suggested something like that and for the fact that the three of them accepted that so readily. "Are you drunk?" was his simple response. Before they could argue any further Haishel bursted in a series of laughter. "Come on, do you three really know him that bad? You should know that he would never accept something like that." "Then why are you suggesting something like this?!" Ren, Depore and Lamia shouted at Haishel, embarrased. "Just felt like it," Haishel responded smirking. For Kamui sex was the fastest way to restore his energy, but if apostles were involved he was first thinking with his hearth, then with his head. He would never do anything to hurt them, be it physically, mentally or emotionally. He would rather bear the fact that he was female and weak again, then bedding a stranger and hurting the women he loved so much. Haishel may be hiding it from the others, but Kamui understood her true intention, a simple distraction to ease the gloomy atmosphere, and it was successful, the situation already much more carefree, their tought not only filled with worry for their master and revenge for what the League did to him, they were now reminded of the deep love he felt for them.
"Gold isn´t such a bad idea, master likes gold." Depore suggested. "Could you maybe say it so that i don´t sound like a greedy old man?" Kamui asked. He wasn´t really intrested in gold, jewels and the like, but it was part of his dragon nature to heap a small amount of gold and other valuables. Why this was part of dragon nature, he didn´t know, but he inherited this trait from his dragonic mother, and shared it with other dragons, having some gold was also extremly helpful, with gold you can buy some helpful hands in emergency situations. Steel wins battles, but gold wins wars."Yeah, i guess gold is not such a bad idea, this way our demands will seem more reasonable." "Humans and their so important gold" Haishel smirked. "Haishel, not all humans are like that." Ren objected. "But most of them," Lamia argued "humans are..." but then Kamui´s heavy coughing drew their attention to him.
Kamui took a look at his now blood stained hand, coughing up blood was never a good sign, his inner organs still in a very bad shape. "Maybe you should sleep a bit" Ren said worried as she cleaned the blood from his mouth and his hand. He smiled weakly at them "yes, maybe that is for the best." Haishel, Depore and Lamia left the room, Ren was collecting the dishes, then she put them on the table next to his bed and sat next her master. "Yes?" "I just want to tell you, that whatever you decide, we will follow you, master. Not only me, all four of us. If you want to solve this situation peacefully, we will support you. I know, that maybe Haishel is not really satisfied with this, but she will follow you. If you decide to demand retribution in blood, we will be by your side. We trust you, not once you have mislead us, we will follow you, even to death itself. This is the path that we apostles have chosen to walk upon. Yes, we might be weak now, but we will do whatever we can." A warm feeling spread through Kamui´s body, no matter how often he heard the love of his apostles, it was every single time a very special moment for him, reminding him that he had chosen right. Kamui placed his hand on Ren´s face and she leaned against it, feeling his comfortable warmth. "Yes, Ren, i know, thank you." More words weren´t needed, his eyes told her everything she needed to hear, everything she wanted to hear, and so much more.
Ren then shifted her position and presented her neck to him. "Ren, you don´t have to..." "please, master" she interrupted him, "i am more than willing to sacrifce my body and my energy to you." Kamui tought for a moment, but the longing in her eyes, in her voice told him otherwise. Carefully he sank his fangs into her neck and a soft gasp escaped her. Kamui waited a moment, letting her getting used to the feeling, before he began to drink her blood. "Don´t stop, master" she said, already high on emotions. She wasn´t the only one who felt the pleasure of his stimulation, Kamui felt the same, not only because he refreshed the hunger that was always plaguing him. The act itself was very personal, a woman willing to share her energy with him, and only him.
After a while Kamui sealed the wound on her neck with his tongue, before placing a kiss on her neck. "Thank you, Ren." "Whenever you need me, i will be here for you, master. Good night." Ren placed a soft kiss on his lips, then she stood up, took the tray with the dishes and left his room.
Ren stopped in her tracks, after she left his room, Haishel was waiting for her, leaning against the wall. "Haishel, how can i help you?" "It is almost as good as sex, isn´t it?" Haishel said smirking, before turning around and walking away, leaving a beet red Ren in the hallway.
