Under a manhole cover, in the giant opening leading to the sewers, there was an underground palace. Despite its environment, the palace was clean and neat. There were thousands of people running around and doing errands.

The walls had torch holders at certain intervals and torches were lit. There wasn’t a single light bulb, let alone any other technological devices.

All the people inside the palace had white clothes with a red snake over their chests. This was the secret headquarters of the Starve Cleric.

Giant doors of the palace opened, and everyone looked at the person who had arrived. She had a similar outfit with the rest, except her mask was different. She was the ‘Starve Cleric’ Girl Miles had seen in Umbra Forest while hunting the humanoid vampire.

When people saw who had come, they greeted her with their heads and turned back to what they were doing. The girl walked at the guards watching over people in the cages. Every cage had a single person, but there were thousands of cages. Inside the cages, captives were running on wheels. They looked like magnified hamsters, producing electricity.

Their speed was nothing to scoff at. They were a lot faster than cars. If an expert were to see, they would realize all these humans had at least used fourth strengthening serum. It meant all of them were at least Form-Rank, Pinnacle-Tier hunters.

There were cables coming out of cages and uniting at the front. The cable was connected to an ancient-looking machine, producing electricity through kinetic energy. Blue sparks could be seen raining on strange objects placed orderly. There were thousands of them. If Miles were to see them, he would recognize the devices were the same as what the trio had used while he fought them in front of the hospital.

“Red Snake!” Guard saluted the approaching woman with respect, as they called her title. “You have been away more than a year now.”

“Is the Leader inside?” She asked after she nodded them to relax. She ignored the question about her absence.

“Yes, ma’am. He has been waiting for your arrival for months now.” Guards said.

“Hmm.” She nodded and walked deeper into the palace. After some time she arrived at the majestic door and knocked on it before she entered.

“Elfrun, you are finally back.” the man sitting on the throne said. He was the Leader of the Starve Cleric, Degenhard. He had a bald head but his eyebrows and beard were blonde. His muscular body could be seen even under his clothes. He was close to 2 meters and his arms were as thick as regular human legs. His eyes couldn’t be seen, because there was a piece of red cloth over his eyes. But he was following Elfrun, Starve Cleric Girl, with his head as she was walking.

“Sorry, father. It seems like when the information of my powers got out, that despicable Cross must have asked AI to follow me. Ever since I left the Dimensional Device, I felt eyes on me, preventing me from coming earlier. Only lately when the alarms went off, I found an opportunity to slip away.” She said as she arrived in front of the throne. She kneeled on one knee and took out the box. She presented the box carefully to her father and opened it. Inside the box was a pair of eyes.

“I acquired the things you ordered, father!” Elfrun said while presenting the gift.

The eyes were red and looked nefarious. If Miles were to be there, he would recognize them to be the Vampire’s eyes.

Degenhard reached out to the eyes and took them in his hands. The eyes were not flesh, and there were small wires coming out at the end of them. Degenhard lowered the cloth covering his eyes, and Elfrun saw the horrific scene once again. Degenhard’s eye sockets were empty. There was nothing in those bloody holes.

Degenhard brought the red eyes to his eye sockets and placed them in. The eyes looked dead, but after some time, energy rose from Degenhard’s body. Energy moved to his eyes and covered them. When filled with energy, wires livened up and started to merge with Degenhard’s nerves. After a short few minutes, the eyes were functioning once again.

As soon as the eyes were connected, the pressure was born in the room. The eyes shone like the beacon of apocalypse and covered the room with their red luster for a short second. Elfrun shivered where she was kneeling. It only lasted for a second but to Elfrun, it felt like a lifetime.

“Not bad, not bad at all!” Degenhard looked around with his new eyes and praised. “You didn’t let me down at all, Elfrun!”

“It is my honor to help you, father!” Elfrun was still on her knee and looked at the majestic figure in front of him with zeal.

“Hmm, rise!” Degenhard uttered.

Starve Cleric Girl, Elfrun, rose to her feet and took out her mask. Under it was a beautiful face.

“Sadly their rank is too low, but eye-type artifacts that can fit me are too rare. I have to make do with them for now.” Degenhard spoke with an eerie chuckle, “Oh, they have other functions too. Hmm, it seems like I can see in the dark. But that is all. It is better than I expected. By the way, what orb did the monster drop?”

“I wasn’t able to acquire the orb, father,” Elfrun said and recounted what had happened once again.

“That damned Marooner again? Useless!” Degenhard snorted with rage. In his rage, Elfrun bowed her head to avoid his father’s anger and kneeled on the ground once again. His prospects and Starve Cleric’s prospects lied in his hands. If he couldn’t rise to glory once again, how could he liberate the world?

“But since that fool Prince was there, there wasn’t much you could do.” He said as his anger reduced and he calmed down.

“I wonder what Mercer would think if I were to face him now. He thought he killed me at that time and took out my eyes. He left me with my last breath, lying in a pool of my own blood, embraced by Death’s sweet arms!

But I lived! I lived to avenge what he did to me!”

“The time is coming, father. Your time is coming!

We will soon have enough manpower to execute those despicable people.” Elfrun said, and added, “Also, I am in the pinnacle-tier now. Please bestow upon this lowly slave your divine teachings about energy!”

“Oh, as expected of my daughter, you are fast.” Degenhard’s anger vanished and laughed heartily.

“I will start to teach you every day, starting from next week. But you should still take it slowly. Even though you are at the pinnacle-tier now, energy is still harmful to your body. Anything lower than Form-Rank is thrash”

“I understand, father.” Elfrun nodded her head, and got up to leave, “I will follow your instructions.” She bowed and left the room to have some sleep. Only Degenhard is left in the room. He looked at the mirror in the room and his red eyes,

“I feel something else from these eyes. I wonder what they are.” He murmured to himself.

At the same time Miles was in his bed sleeping. When he started to convulse in pain, Coin released himself from Miles’s arm and floated to look at him. A shining ray of light left Coin and scanned Miles’s body, but couldn’t find anything wrong.

“What is going on?” He asked as he approached Miles to wake him up.