The bellows of hot air could not be felt anymore inside the discussion room of the Zarselos tribe as all whom breathed fire now looked slumped and cold even in the warmth of their scorching dunes

"Send for the fastest Sand Wing, pay whatever price they quote"

Saznar was the first to speak, his words sounding more and more like a sigh as he dejectedly let those words out

"What happens to Collins?"One of the present snakes said timidly, he was of the few that didn't understand what caused the elderly snake to throw a rampage nor did he get what he was trying to say

"...Sigh"

With a heavy sigh Saznar explained his understanding of the situation

"You recall how the vampire said the Gardelos they fought had an aura of destruction around it? From my knowledge the usual use of aura in the case if the Gardelos is applying it to the poison cloak around them, like Saverin once did"

The horrid name brought a chill to everyone present but they didn't have time to dwell on the past, the problem at hand was much more important

"It goes to show that the poison she was infected with Carrie's a trace if its aura, I'm sure it's only a small trace since she has an aura of her own to counter it but just that small trace of aura caused Collins to go berserk"

"Because they are our ancestors? Is that why he was affected so much"

Sanar nodded to the guard's question

"An aura of destruction is meant to only destroy whatever lives, but since we carry a trace if the Gardelos bloodline it didn't count us as an enemy and instead consumed his mind instead of directly harming, that caused him to harm himself in the end though"

Now that everyone was on the same page the atmosphere turned even more depressing

"B-but what about his last words?"

Asked yet again the same timid snake, receiving not a sigh but a glare instead

"What of them?! The guy lost his mind what can you expect of him to say? It's not like he was about to reveal some conspiracy, we already know of the truth"

Saznar snapped at the poor fellow, breathing heavily as he filled the room again with hot winds

"Saznar, what of the catty that we were supposed to give them, we cant just sent any of the lizardmen or mice men anymore can we....."

This reminder caused hoke to cool down and get quit once again, gloomily looking at the ground

"We send them the treasury keeper, what else can we do?"

"The treasury keeper?!!?"

"Ssaznar, reconsider, this isn't some random treasure we are giving them, the treasury keeper has been with us for hundreds of years and we couldn't replace casually if those darned bloodsuckers killed him in their consumption"

"You talk as if I know not his value, but what would you have me do? Renege my words to someone them? That would only get us killed, they did us a great deed by informing us if the calamity we would have faced and now we shall honour our part if the deal, especially since we failed the detoxification, if we just grabbed some random two-legged creature I don't think we can withstand their wrath"

Everyone turned sullen and silent at his explanation, failing to come up with a reason or way to avoid this loss

"Send them the catty, let's hope they leave him alive"

A few guards nodded and went to the treasury to fetch the poor soon to be meal....

Back at the destroyed guest house, YuJu was listing to Ellis's groans while he watched the surroundings for any unexpected surprise, he was pretty sure they fooled them but you could never be too careful

"Master..."

"Bear with it Ellis"

"But... the poison isn't quieting down at all, they are ripping at each other without rest, I don't think they are stopping any time soon"

She grunted through clenched teeth as she talked, her legs shaking from extreme pain that even her skill found hard to suppress

"Even if one of them eats away at the other and comes out on top you will only start another painful session with that poison ripping into your body instead"

Her legs started to shake more and she looked like she was about to lose it, her eyes giving him a pitiful look in askance of his assistance

"Worry not, this was only caused by the absence of the energy you got from the seed which worked as an equilibrium, just now when the snake sucked it all with the some of the poison it ruined the delicate balance, now you need only add a new factor to balance them out once more"

"And that would be?"

He glanced at her with a sly smile and said two words that caused her already shivering body to shake even more, from anxiety this time

"More poison"

Afraid she would hear more things she rather not Ellis shut her curios mouth on her own for the first time

An hours later a few guards came toward then from the tribe, among them was a yellow two-legged figure looking like a dwarf next to the large snakes

As they got closer Ellis noticed that this figure wasn't small at all though, it was a bit taller than her in fact, walking on two legs like any human, has the same facial features of a human with a lot of red acne on the face and honeydew coloured eyes

It looked pretty similar to humans if compared to those lizardmen and micemen, in the end though it was still very far from being a human skinned creature as its rough yellow skin and the absence of any ears were a big glaring difference

"Sir, this is the catty we've acquired, a Fodiens Harenae, one of the last of its kind in this nameless desert, we hope it pleases your taste"

Motioning the weird humanoid looking fellow to go forward the guard presented

"And the tonic?"

"Yes, my fellow tribesmen will get right to it"

"Good then, treated her while I drink"

YuJu then walked inside with the yellow fellow in tow, leaving Ellis t deal with the 'detoxification' but not without a parting reminder of giving her control over the process

Left alone with the giant snakes Ellis tried to look as calm as possible, exposing her poisoned leg once again as she allowed another old snake to once again sink its fangs into her skin, inducing a fiery red poison

The vibrant poison instantly plunged itself into the battle of poisons, engulfing both sides with the massive energy it had

Both the black and purple-black poisons couldn't really put much of a fight in terms of energy, the black one that was acquired from the black lizardman was quickly scrapped apart and lost in the red tide of the new liquid, the deeply rooted one she got from the plains however managed to hold on with its enhancement from the previous energy the seed gave

'Kugh'

It felt like her dead and cold leg suddenly lit up in flames, a grunt almost escaping her mouth, she'd screams if not for the facade she was putting, but waited she did until enough poison was injected to fight off the malignant one she got from the plains

Her hand instantly gave the stop sign promoting the snake to stop injecting and pull the fang out

Gladly pulling away from the fearsome vampire the snake then backed off, waiting for any further instructions

Guessing that the snakes thought this poison shouldn't be enough for her treatment and she'd need more she, taking after her master, shook her head as if to point out the uselessness of this treatment and then went to guard the door he went into

Seeing her actions the snakes nodded in understanding and left silently, not bothering the cold lady, as for the small snake she also left, guarding the main door

"Haaah, haaah, huu haaa"

Once everyone cleared the hall Ellis took laboured breaths, her body legs back to their shaking, but she didn't dally standing there for long

Pushing open the door to the room YuJu went into the sight if her master biting into the fellow's neck greeted her

"???"

Her face was so confused it was amusing, never suspecting for once that her master wasn't human, the scene before her proved otherwise though

'Master is a...vampire?'

Shocked and speechless she stood there, not knowing whether she should go out or stay

Her presence didn't bother YuJu at all though, his focus was on the weird fangs of his instead

'I can somehow make use of them, it feels a little natural but foreign at the same time'

As if these fangs were a part of him yet not related to him at all, the contradicting feeling you get when a body part if yours is physically your own but you're a stranger to it

'It's doable'

That was the important thing for now, for his plan depended heavily on their usage

What he was doing right now was sucking the blood of this man into his fangs then mixing it with a tiny amount of his own blood before sending them back to the man's body, the process slowly gave control to YuJu over the man's body, a process called enthralment

After quite some time, much longer than the normal Vampires enthralment process YuJu had seen, the whites of the man's eyes turned into a red colour housing his honeydew pupils giving him an eerie look

Finally taking his fangs out the man YuJu gave a breath of relief, while the process wasn't too harming or tiring he wasn't really used to sucking blood out of someone's neck, especially with Ellis's weird eyes on him

"I am human worry not, this is merely a skill I acquired through my second class"

Those words knocked a heavy breath out of her lungs, her many worries and inner struggles finally subsiding, replaced by the massive pain she'd been ignoring in her legs, to distract herself from it she asked him of the next phase of the plan that he hadn't told her yet

"Hmm, watch"

He simply said, picking up the man's body and throwing it out the building, right next to the small snake

"I'm done feeding, for now, keep him alive till before morning for me to feed once again"

The small snake nodded weakly and carried the body to the guards, conveying his words

"..What? he wants us to take care of him to he can eat again?"

"That bloodsucker is really something else isn't he"

"Shh, lower your voice, we don't want to get on their bad side, tribes were wiped out for less"

"Your right, my bad"

"Now how are we supposed to take care of him though?"

"Hmm...throw him back into the treasury, next to the Sand Crown, I'm sure it will keep him alive, at least till morning"

The other guards nodded and handed him to the treasury guards who carried him inside the massive well-protected dune that housed their myriad treasures over the course of centuries

"Sorry to do this to you my old friend, but you have lived past your times, please do us this one last favour and stay alive till morning"

With those parting words the guarding snake left the lonesome fellow by himself next to a spiked sandy stone in the middle of the treasury

As soon as the sound of quicksand coming down and closing the entrance the 'half-dead' man's eyes opened wide, his gaze sweeping around the vicinity with a cold and sad gleam in his eyes

'Oh, Il do you a favour, old friend'

Then he gave up resisting the order's he'd been given, just like they gave up on him