New Chapters from Highest Tier 5

*****************************

Vampire King Apollyon

******************************

"I heard you wanted to see me, King Oberon. For what reason do you want to meet your grandson?" Apollyon asked quietly.

He almost thought he saw pain flashed in his grandfather's blue-grey eyes. "I only saw you on Princess Ourania's paintings so I wanted to see if you in flesh and blood."

And here he thought, King Oberon desired to end the conversation about her, and now, he was using his mother as a deflection to ignore her question.

Brilliant.

"We have a private room for Princess Ourania full of your portraits. From your childhood until now. A millennium had passed, and you are still her obsession."

Stretching his neck from side to side, Apollyon spread his legs in a dominant gesture and leaned back on his chair, relaxed. "Have you actually seen how they look like, King Oberon? Because I don't think she would show that to you if her goal was to prove that she wasn't crazy like you used to think. Come on, give your daughter some credit."

"You were right, grandson." Sweat loomed in his forehead, and Apollyon was skeptical if this hot summer afternoon was the reason when King Oberon was unaffected a few minutes ago. Was there something King Oberon had seen which disconcerted him?

"Why don't you tell me what it's all about, grandfather, and quit this unnecessary suspense."

Luna nodded in agreement as her hand rested on top of his on the armchair.

Whenever Apollyon felt this mysterious dread, Luna could feel what he sensed in that instant and showed her support without him needing to say anything.

These were times when Apollyon felt that he was lucky to have a mate who loved him and accepted him despite his imperfections.

Apollyon and Luna waited for a few minutes for King Oberon's response. But once again, the Summer King dropped the subject.

'What the f*ck?'

Rubbing the back of his neck in an attempt to lower his blood pressure, Apollyon was tempted to overturn this damned table into his grandfather's lap until everything, including the food and crockery, came crashing down.

If it didn't come out wrong in front of his grandfather, Apollyon would have told this old man how much of a tease he was. But that line was reserved for a wife, not a grandfather.

Queen Titania must have sensed Apollyon's anger rolling off him like waves because she cleared her throat and explained on King Oberon's behalf.

"Your mother, Princess Ourania, Apollyon." Queen Titania began. "As a way of compensation and a way of removing our guilt as parents for what we have done to her, by forcing her into marriage with King Gwythyr to whom she clearly suffered mentally from, we gave her an entire floor in the Summer Castle for herself. After she told us her story of torment from the Vampire Realm, King Oberon and I made it our mission to give her whatever she desired so that she could be happy again, returning that smile back to her face. And she was happy by herself ever since she came bach to the Summer Realm… or so we thought."

Apollyon nodded, his eyes set on his grandmother.

This time Apollyon hoped that they would finish the story to understand what made the strong Summer King feel spooked. "The top floor of the Summer Castle was hers. We made it as luxurious as possible, following her every request on that floor with extreme attention to details. We didn't want to disappoint her of our actions. Like she instructed, no one was to go unto that floor except her and everyone followed this including us to show our respect that we wouldn't do anything to compromise her freedom again."

"It was just recently that our daughter had allowed strangers to visit her floor to see all her work of art, especially the Summer aristocrats who were her patrons. There are portraits in there of you… The stages of your growth. From the day you were born. from your childhood, to puberty until to the man you have become. It was right in front of us. Lined up in a chronological order in a specific time line. I walked down the hallway, it felt like I have seen you in personal because of how detailed you appear in her paintings—like you were alive and you were about to descend from the background. What I see right now in front of me is the exact same face that I have which made me think that Princess Ourania had seen you as you are before today." King Oberon said.

Frown lines marred Luna's forehead. "I also noticed this too, King Oberon. You, King Titania and Princess Ourania wasn't surprised to see King Apollyon. And, what's strange is that.. Princess Ourania didn't hesitate to show her distaste on me… which also made me think that she had seen me before."

"Queen Titania and I have seen you before in one of Princess Ourania's paintings. Centuries way before the news had spread all over the Faerie Realm that the Vampire King was alive and have gotten rid of this curse, they call the Blood Beast. It's the last painting she ever made,. There was a sense of darkness to it that it gave me the chills when I saw her recent painting. At first, we didn't think much about it. We thought you were our daughter's imaginary friend when she wasn't getting out of her floor and socializing with the rest of the Faeries."

"But it's not." Luna insisted.

"Yes. You are Apollyon's wife." Queen Titania gave a little nod. "Our daughter have predicted your existence so accurately centuries before this meeting."

"I think you already knew that we had lived in the Spring Courts for a year. What made you think to contact us now?" Raising an eyebrow, Apollyon drawled, "My wife and I… Do you want us to be a potential chess piece for your games against the Spring Realms?"

"No." King Oberon said. "We need you to find the Eternal Tree of the Four Seasons.1"

Tree of Four Seasons is a mythical tree in the Faerie Realm. In the myth, it was guarded by the Archangel Ariel to protect the creatures of the past from being possessed when there was a time where demons successfully walked the Earth alongside the creatures from other Realms. That time the angels were hunting them. It was the moment where the hell wasn't created yet. I will explain as we go further along.