Rise of the Blood Sovereign

87  Diana

"What?" The woman suddenly asked Lyle with a nervous smile.

"What are you talking about Ned, what poison?"

"Drop the act, Diana, I know you poisoned it before I even entered the room."

"The poison in the wine is odorless, but unfortunately for you and for those that orchestrated all of this, the color of the wine changed slightly, not to mention the thin green line that can be seen on the edges of the wine bottle from the poison that had touched it."

"It's still not a bad idea, you took the antidote in advance so that you could drink the wine and make me feel comfortable with drinking it."

"You used a poison that lasts for a long time, probably Manderbush or even Liang, both of which are not that easy to make nor are they readily available to everyone, which makes me certain that you were not one to buy it, you don't have the money, nor the connections needed to get it."

"Plus, there's the simple fact that you wouldn't gain anything from killing me, so whoever is paying you to do it, must be paying well, or maybe they threatened you, perhaps even both?" Lyle asked the woman with a smile before taking the glass of wine and drinking it.

"Ah, it's good wine, shame you had to poison it." Diana stared at Lyle with confusion as she didn't understand why he would drink the wine after being aware of the poison that had been put inside.

"Oh, sorry to disappoint you, but this kind of poison won't do much against me, it's pretty harmless to me actually."

"Still, I can taste it, are you sure you guys picked the right poison, isn't the taste a bit too strong?" Lyle asked with a smile as Diana continued staring at him. She didn't know what he mean, when she drank the wine, it tasted the same as normal as the poison truly was odorless and would not change the taste or color of anything it was poured into.

"Yeah, I should have expected that you wouldn't notice the taste, you're just a normal human after all," Lyle said with a smile as he got up and hugged Diana from behind before placing his chin on the side of her neck.

"So, Diana."

"Why did you decide to betray me after knowing me for so long, huh?"

"I-I really don't know what you're talking about Ned, I truly-"

Diana's words were cut short by Lyle sighing.

"Oh well, no need to make excuses, you will be telling me everything in a bit, after all," Lyle said before his fangs suddenly appeared and he bit deeply inside her neck whilst simultaneously cutting a bit of his skin and forcing a part of his forearm in Diana's mouth and making her drink his blood.

The woman struggled and tried her best to get Lyle off of her, but it was for naught as he was simply far too strong for her.

Diana was after all a normal human who, although beautiful, was at the very max level 8 or 9, and she was completely powerless to do anything to Lyle.

Upon drinking his blood, Diana slowly started feeling dizzy and soon lost consciousness.

After about 2 minutes, her body started going through a spasm while Lyle simply grabbed her mouth in order to muffle her screams of pain.

The other brothel workers and the customers found nothing out of place with the sound of a person thrashing about and merely smiled as they imagined a woman being dominated by a man, and they were not wrong, only that the domination was being done in a very different way compared to what they thought.

Lyle waited a couple of minutes before Diana was turned into a vampire, over which he had full control over her.

Not only was his control over any vampire he created great, but it was even more so when taking into account the fact that Diana was only level 8 when Lyle, a Tier I being, turned her.

09:21

Not only was his control over any vampire he created great, but it was even more so when taking into account the fact that Diana was only level 8 when Lyle, a Tier I being, turned her.

She had nothing she could do at that point and could only answer Lyle's questions truthfully. Not even the slightest of details was missed by Diana as she told him everything she knew.

The whole thing started back when Lyle was in Linston and had sent a message from the branch of the organization that was found there.

Upon learning that he was alive and that he wished to stay in Linston for a bit in order to gather info about the dungeons and how they were changing thanks to the system, the whole organization was shocked as everyone soon learned of the news.

Lyle being the one that was sent to assassinate the young duke was no longer a secret as they had an info leak a couple of days after the duke had been killed. Nobody knew who it was that leaked out the information that the 'Shade' was the one that had assassinated the duke, and even after spending a lot of resources and manpower, the organization was unable to find anything out.

Upon learning that the archmage Irin was actually the magister Ilya, all the large organizations of the empire were in an uproar.

Some of them had even dealt with the archmage in the past and they never suspected that the frail old archmage was actually such a character. For him to actually hide so deeply without anyone noticing anything was incredible.

When Lyle sent the message that he was alive and in Linston, the organization went through another upheaval.

All the higher-ups had learned of his status, not only was it incredible that he was able to assassinate the young duke who was under the protection of a powerhouse like Ilya,  but Lyle had also managed to escape and survive, something that even a Night Blade might be unable to do.

The plan to poison Lyle started then.

Diana didn't know who it was that wanted Lyle dead and she only met a couple of figures that were always wearing cloaks and she was unable to recognize any of them.

The mastermind of the plan had hidden deeply and never showed himself, only using servants to meet up with Diana to let her know of the plan.

One thing she did notice was a ring that one of the servants she had actually met up with several times in the past had worn.

The ring had a green jewel that was coiled by a snake that formed the ring. It was a peculiar ring and something that people would rarely see, which is why Diana was able to remember that.

Lyle stroked her cheek before turning around and leaving the brothel. For now, he would keep Diana alive as he was able to keep three vampiric servants at once after he was successful at evolving and reaching Tier I.

He could order Diana to take her own life at any time he wished, but for now, she could turn out to be a good source of information as she had some high-ranking clients that would definitely divulge some information after spending some time with her and having some alcohol.

As for the mastermind behind the plan to kill Lyle?

Lyle already had an idea of who it was that wanted him dead. Even without the ring that Diana noticed, he would have still gone to check out if it wasn't the same person as he was the only one in the city that had anything against Lyle.

A young assassin that had not even reached Tier I back when Lyle left to kill the duke.

He was a weak assassin that actually specialized in spying and getting info, but even in that, he was subpar and it was only thanks to his father that he was able to join the organization.

That was also the only reason why Lyle had not done anything to the man in the past since he didn't wish to incur the wrath of a Night Blade whose son had been slaughtered by him.

Yes, the father of the man that wanted Lyle dead was a Night Blade that held the same rank as Lyle did in the organization. Since the Night Blade had been in the organization for much longer and was actually a high-grade Night Blade, Lyle was unable to compete against the man in any way. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

He was weaker than him, he was much less influential, and he had way less money compared to the man.

All of that culminated in Lyle mostly keeping quiet when the son would try to get in a fight with him, verbal or physical.

For some reason, the failure of the son really hated Lyle since he knew from his father that Lyle was actually quite young and that he was one of the greatest talents in the empire. The youthful spirit of competitiveness was lit ablaze in the young man's heart who from that point on, had no other goal but to become more powerful and influential than Lyle.