Chapter 646: Altar

The taxi arrived at a building that was still under construction right in the heart of the city. The road was barricaded and there was a huge notice indicating that the construction was suspended for the next five days.

Once the taxi driver ensured that Alicia got off fine and confirmed the destination was the correct one, he drove off, leaving Alicia to stare at the dark and eerie place ahead of her. The place looked desolate and was deafeningly quiet.

Using the remaining bit of power left in her, Alicia did not waste a single moment and made herself disappear from the dark roadside. When she materialized again, she was already inside the building she was just looking up at a moment ago. She did just as what Ezekiel had instructed her to do, and it appeared that the vampire prince was right - as usual - that the undead vampires were all at the entrance preparing to attack any vampire that arrives at their doorstep.

Their defenses were solely made specifically to go against vampires, thus Alicia found that she easily entered their headquarters without having anyone notice her presence.

The inside of the place was even quieter. Just like what Ezekiel said, the undead vampires were indeed like puppets who remained still as statues, just waiting for orders. They will not make any move, nor noises without any command, as if they were programmed. The only way they would move on their own was if the situation developed according to an instruction given earlier to them.

Since Zeres never was in the habit of using crystal balls, it was not possible for him to see her. And Ezekiel said that the other witches were too busy creating more undead vampires, so it was unlikely for anyone to have anticipated or already seen her arrival.

Quietly, Alicia looked around the lightless building as fast as she could. She needed to find where Zeres was before any witches notice her. Where was he?

Because Alicia had already lost too much power, she could not even sense Zeres' or any witches' presence around. So, all she could do was wander and check all places, hoping she could find Zeres. She thought that maybe, he would be found inside a room, alone, somewhere in this place. Her guts told her that he was probably at the highest floor, so she planned to materialize there. But her power was too weak to bring her up there and it only managed to transport her three floors below where she had aimed.

Carefully heading towards the stairs, Alicia remained vigilant but unfortunately, her senses were truly useless and extremely dulled now that she did not even feel the presence of a witch already standing behind her.

"Oh, were you trying to escape? You changed your mind right at the very last minute?" a male witch tauntingly asked as he grabbed her. "Too bad, but it's too late for you to change your mind." He continued and the next second, they disappeared.

When they materialized, the male witch let go of her and she found herself standing on top of a round altar surrounded with candles prepared for rituals. She did not resist a while ago thinking that perhaps the witch would have brought her over to Zeres first. But it seems that her assumptions were wrong and totally off the bat.

She should have known that there was no way any witch would think that she was the queen at this moment, with how weak she was. They would more likely be thinking she was just a weak witch - the weakest one it seems.

Trying to search for Zeres, Alicia frantically looked around but all she saw were the rotting bodies of dead vampires surrounding the altar and the witches in cloaks forming a circle around them. The altar where they were standing on was covered with blood. So, she already knew what had been happening at this very place. How many witches have they already sacrifice here?

Her stomach began to knot up when she heard someone yell out.

"Now let's begin. Make her bleed." Came an order and when Alicia followed the voice, she saw a man that was somewhat familiar to her. This male witch was the man the previous queen had banished from the Dark Forest due to his rebellious mind. It appeared he had completely turned mad now.

But Alicia did not have even a moment to spare a thought towards that mad witch. She needed to find Zeres urgently. Just where was he?

The witch who approached her did not even let her pull down her hood. He attacked her without any preamble that Alicia was caught off guard. The man's blade slashed her cheek. She had dodged but because of her weakened powers, he still managed to wound her.

She cursed and glared sharply at the male witch. The witch looked shocked for a moment, looking at Alicia. He seemed to recognize her but there was an obvious denial in his eyes.

"Oh, you almost fooled me. Are you perhaps the queen's twin?" the male witch mocked. "Impossible. You even feel weaker than a mere human. How could someone as weak as you be the queen's kin? Oh well, whatever." He laughed, madness evident in his eyes as well.

He lifted his sword and Alicia pointed the dagger Zeke gave her towards him. If she had power right now, she would have already destroyed every one of these insane idiots.

"You bitch. You voluntarily came here to offer yourself and now you're going to fight?" the man sneered.

"I am not here to offer myself. Where is Zeres?" Alicia asked. Despite her weakness, she clearly exuded the bearing and mannerisms of a queen and the man was momentarily halted in his actions. But his madness took over again almost immediately.

"How dare you call our king like you're at his level, you weakling!" he screamed and attacked her.

Alicia dodged and stopped his first attack with the dagger Zeke gave her. However, she did not manage to dodge the second attack in time and she was slashed again. Blood gushed out from her body. But she had managed to return a counterattack and had slashed the witch's throat in the process.

"What the hell is going on? She killed him!" One of the witches yelled.

"Damn it! How dare she interrupt our work. We don't have the time for this! Someone, get rid of that witch, now! We can't afford to waste any more time here!"

Alicia could feel the blood flowing down her body - and with it, whatever little power that was left in her. Damn. No. She have yet to meet up with Zeres!

Gritting her teeth, Alicia's eyes became icy, and a glint of silver appeared in her eyes as she saw a blade flying towards her.

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A\N: (04-16-2021) I'm so sorry for not updating much this week guys. I've been unwell the last few days and I'm still in a bad shape rn. I'm getting better but I'm still weak and coughing(dw, it's not covid ^^).

I forced myself to write this chapter because today is Hellbound's anniversary. 🤧It's been exactly 1 year since I uploaded the first chapter of this book.

I just want to thank you guys for staying with me until now. To those who are with me since chapter 1 and to everyone who came midway, thank you so much 🙇

Today is very special for me so I posted a cute anniversary group photo of the major characters on my Instagram so make sure to follow me there @kazzenlx.x to see it.

You can also show me anything - thank you message, fanart doodles etc. You can comment here or dm or tag them to me on insta so I can put them all to my Instagram story. ^^

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY HELLBOUNDERS!!!