New Chapter for the Highest Tier (June 2021)

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Vampire King Apollyon

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In the Vampire Realm, Apollyon dressed as a royal at all times, wearing elaborate and long tunics and robes made of silk gathered at the waist, embroidered with golden leaves and tied with golden belts.

He refused to be out of style.

Only the blind among the common people would mistake him for someone other than the King.

Apollyon couldn't believe how he cared so much about his image as a ruling Monarch.

Yet he had given that up--wearing for something simpler and practical such as shorter cloaks, tunics and shirts--since he would be travelling with his wife.

At this point, he didn't care about what everyone thought of him.

Apollyon recalled how his father taught him to be a future King at a very young age.

King Gwythyr was strict and cut-throat, but he had spoiled him as a kid.

Anything Apollyon wanted, he shall get it as long as he would obey King Gwythyr's commands and follow his father's will.

He strove to become the epitome of prestige.

One unruly hair on his forehead or the prince's golden crown was knocked askew by a child's enthusiasm, a crumpled shirt, dirt or a tear on his luxurious wolf fur robes during wild boar hunting were considered weaknesses to his allies who came over.

Millenia had passed.

Apollyon's memories were blurry that he couldn't remember what they looked like.

Apollyon defied his father only twice.

Once.

When Apollyon was nine years old, he insisted on bringing a cute dark-eyed black pup wagging its tail as it followed him around while he and his father strolled around the village marketplace and talking to the merchants.

He begged his father to bring the dog back to the castle and take care of it as a pet.

King Gwythyr refused, claiming the mutt was a weak and useless predator compared to a wolf cub.

He convinced him that he would find him a wolf cub to raise as a hunting companion.

He was such a spoiled young brat that he thought he just had to throw a temper tantrum in public so that his father would approve of the dog, but it turned out it was the opposite.

King Gwythyr kicked the pup, and it yelped.

He perfectly recalled how the young Apollyon's mouth parted in shock at how the Vampire King stomped his large boot on the animal until he died from the incessant blows.

Eyes wide, Apollyon stared at the poor creature as it whimpered with every hit.

Frozen in place, Apollyon wished that the precious black dog he had his eyes on would die right away so that it didn't have to suffer anymore—so that he didn't have to cringe with his father's every kick on the poor animal.

From that point on, Apollyon didn't dare lay his gaze on a dog ever again.

The second one was that fateful night he killed King Gwythyr.

That was the time when he turned into a fire-breathing monster, devouring both vampires and servants running around on sight.

Lilith had stitched the Archdemon of Gluttony's soul into his.

She completely ruined his life just because he had no interest in her before and after she became a High Priestess.

Lilith made many attempts to be closer to him in the past—similar to what she did previously at the Spring Courts while hunting Lilith's conjurer with Prince Aspen.

The snake almost seduced him to drink her blood.

It was the very same tactic she used—propositioning him to be his secret lover and offering him with her blood and flesh back when she was supposed to be High Priestess of the Vampire Realm.

Apollyon made the mistake of allowing her to enter his life.

Lilith into his lonely heart who only longed for a true friend he couldn't find in the Consortium.

A Crown Prince with an absent mother--who would rather stay in Scleranthus--was a position he didn't like but had to accept.

It was what was expected of him.

It was his fate to be the Vampire King.

Apollyon had rejected her like a gentleman when she entered his bedchamber out of nowhere as she learned to use Underworld Magic for the first time.

She was supposed to treat his refusal as a saving grace so that she wouldn't have to betray the Goddess of the Underworld.

Lilith stripped in front of him without batting an eyelash, made Apollyon avert his gaze and turn away from her.

He did not dare look.

Not even once.

Lilith's confidence at offering her virginity to him made him close his eyes and exhale a harsh breath, wondering if she was chaste in the first place.

Looking back, he knew, as an adult prince in his puberty, that he can have any woman he desired.

Apollyon was tempted to accept her proposal, but he endured the stirring in his loins and told her not to speak to her again.

Who in their right mind would mess around with the High Priestess his father had appointed from the Human Realm when Apollyon wasn't certain what kind of relationship this beautiful woman had with King Gwythyr?

What could go wrong?

Everything.

"Apollyon." Luna interrupted his trip to memory lane, and Apollyon sighed with relief. "What are you thinking about so deeply that you have gone silent on me?"

He was glad she did because it was a nightmare.

It took him thousands of years to find his mate.

He wouldn't lose her and let her escape his clutches.

Apollyon was determined to love her for another thousand years or so—even until the afterlife.

He would follow her to the ends of the earth—to whatever Realm she would reincarnate after they perished.

They were inseparable as lifelong mates.

He was adamant about keeping it that way!

He should find the means to shackle her to him if their physical vessels turned to ashes. "How can I bind you to me if someone managed to end my existence?"

"Your question is scaring me." Luna looked at him warily. "No one would end you because I would have to kill them first before they get to you."

"I told you before. I want to be an Archdemon." He gave her a disdainful smile. "Would you still love me if I become a ruthless Archdemon?"