[Karma: +200]
Adam observed the two brothers, Miguel and Diego, with an amused look on his face while ignoring the notification about the Karma that he had gained from terrorizing the siblings.
From their perspective, each of them was actually talking to him alone inside a white void of infinite space. On the contrary, from his perspective, he was facing the two of them at the same time while delivering the same set of lines.
Where Miguel appealed to the ability to give more influence, Diego went more on the militia side of things of their business.
The side by side speech of the brothers showed the clear difference in perspective between the two.
But what was admirable about the duo was the fact that… whatever route they ended up taking, the two of them wished to protect the other. Even at the cost of selling their lives, bodies, and souls to him.
Adam thought that he would be able to use this bond of theirs.
He could easily keep lying and make sure that each of them keep the truth from the other. He could relish as he watched them walking on eggshells as they tried to protect the other. Moreover, he felt that keeping the truth hidden would make for quite an entertaining performance from them.
But it would also be very inefficient, and with such complicity, sooner or later one will crack and talk to the other or one would discover what was really going on here.
This will mean that he would be forced to kill them at that very moment. As they would surely feel betrayed and start plotting on how to rebel against him which would ultimately jeopardize his plans and the development of his private force.
Adam did not wish to make the mistake of underestimating those two simply because they were far weaker than him.
In the end, wasn't it Hae-Won, a normal and weak woman who helped him in destroying the plan of an entire cult that summoned 'The Devil' himself?
Even if that was unintentional and more a question of luck. This showed that anything could happen in this world and that even if you prepared for nearly everything, simple luck could still fuck you up completely over without you even knowing what hit you.
Once the sand in the hourglass finally ended up completely emptying from one side and filling the other side, Adam snapped his fingers, and the boundary of illusion that kept the two brothers separated, fused immediately.
"Brother?" "Diego?"
Adam chuckled ever so slightly at the sight before speaking, "As you can see, I was having a little discussion with the two of you at the same time."
Adam was moving carefully here. He wasn't just trying to instill fear in the pair of brothers' hearts. Fear was a powerful motivator, but at the end of the day, it was only temporary. Humans were fast to forget the fear and the more you pushed them the higher there were the chances of them biting back and bringing an unexpected scenario into the equation.
What he needed to do right now was to make them feel utter awe when facing him; make them feel so small and weak that they could not even summon the thoughts of trying to rebel against him. Thankfully, when it came to this department, the power of the 'Dreams' was the most efficient.
"Listen well. Follow me and I will make sure even your wildest dream will be realized one day. I have great ambition and the two of you will be my first generals. Oppose me and I will crush you without the slightest hesitation."
He brought his arms forward toward them,
"Come."
The two brothers exchanged a gaze. Though no words were spoken, a look was enough for them to understand that they had no way of escaping this predicament that they found themselves in.
As such, the two of them stood up and started to approach him with an extremely hesitant and careful gait, as if they feared offending him by even the slightest of their actions.
When they came close enough, Adam merely chuckled,
"Open your mouth."
Uneasiness flashed in their eyes but they still did as they were told.
Using his own telekinesis, he slashed both of his wrists and as blood started to flow, he squeezed the blood and brought it toward them.
Now, true horror flashed in the eyes of the two men.
In the supernatural world, blood was quite an important factor.
It was the greatest conductor when it came to 80% of rituals and even the 20% remaining could be strengthened with the use of blood.
It also didn't help that some races used blood as a way to change the race of others.
"A vampire…?"
Miguel muttered but Adam shook his head, "I am not a vampire. But my blood is far more precious than mere bats. So— will you drink what you are offered?"
Miguel gave a bitter smile. He had honestly been partially honest about his vow of servitude. It was only a stop-gap measure. A way to avoid dying now and finding a way to rebel later.
But he had a feeling.
The feeling that if he drank the blood now, he would never be able to walk out of this situation. He wouldn't be surprised if this blood had some kind of Geas that would truly bring them under the control of the ghastly entity in front of them. [1]
"Do we have the choice to refuse?"
"Obviously. Heh, I believe in the power of free will. At the end of the day, you always have a choice. You simply have to be ready for the consequences of the choices you make. We all do."
His voice was light but the threat in the contents was evident to both.
Neither Miguel nor Diego had to ask what would happen should they refuse.
"I accept."
Miguel immediately kneeled on one knee, and while he hesitated for a while, Diego did the same.
Adam nodded and the blood moved before coming close to them and as they opened their mouths, the blood flowed in their body.
It was quite a disgusting sight.
There was no way any sane human would be happy drinking the blood of some unknown creature.
But they had to do it for their survival.
As for Adam… he was watching them with heightened anticipation and expectation.
Rather than giving his blood to Shuri without knowing what would happen, giving it to two random people he might have killed on the off chance was the best way to test out the effects of his blood.
In the blood he gave to Miguel, he filled it with the desire to transform him, while he focused on the desire to not transform in the blood sample he gave to Diego.
This was an experiment after all, and whatever the result was, he wished to know if his intent could affect the result or if it was fixed.
Now then— what would happen?
[1]: A Geas or Geass is like a spell. In short, it's a prohibition-type spell from Celtics mythology. A geas can be compared with a curse, or paradoxically, a gift.
If someone under a geas violates the associated taboo, the infractor will suffer dishonor or even death. Conversely, observing one's geas is believed to bring power.
Best example. Let's say, "I will only fight evil."
Definition of evil aside, if the one under the Geas fights someone "good" he will be harmed. But if he fights someone "evil", he will receive a boost in power.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺