Chapter 96 – Blood Letter


    Somebody rang the doorbell. Grumbling, John looked at the clock. 6AM. Who the hell was bothering him so early? Well, they wouldn’t have to wait long. He rolled out of the bed and equipped the stuff for the day. He almost drew the Ne of the World Ender into the Equipment slot by ident. He noticed the mistake before it could happen and dropped it back in the inventory.


    He also heard footsteps downstairs. Aclysia, as he swiftly reminded himself. ‘Master, you have a visitor,’ her diligent voice rang in his head, she sounded mildly displeased.


    John yawned and asked, ‘Who?’


    ‘Victoria Beloozero.’ He quickly went down the stairs.


    The Russian sniper stood in the entrance area, her arms crossed. “Took you long enough,” sheined before pulling out a red letter. “You have been invited to the Bloodfallen Headquarters,” She formally informed him, as he took it and read its contents.


    It was a long letter, speaking about how much they regretted what happened to Travolta, how they wanted to continue working with him, how they heard about Jimmie leaving and so on. The crux of the lettery towards the end.


    <i>‘…We therefore ask that you answer our summons with utmost haste. If you ignore us for an extended period of time, we will take measures to ensure yourpliance. Therefore I, in the name of the Bloodfallen, hope that you will heed our call within the next two days. Victoria shall escort you once you are ready.</i>


    <i>We have fallen from Red,</i>


    <i>Igor – Guildmaster.’</i>


    “This is not an invitation, it''s an order,” John stated and put the letter into his inventory.


    “Will you obey?” Victoria asked, she didn’t even try to hide that he was right.


    “Not like I have a choice in the matter,” he sighed.


    “You have a choice.” Victoria disagreed. “Obey and be safe or disobey and face our wrath.”


    “That’s not a choice, that’s an ultimatum,” he grumbled and got his shoes. “Fine, I wille with you.”


    “Right now?” Victoria seemed a bit surprised, positively so.


    “Yea…well no I want to have breakfast first, afterwards sure.” Missing out on another Tuesday of school, what did it even matter? He learned nothing of value there, nothing he couldn’t teach himself with the inte anyway. Plus, there was not even a hint of doubt left he could sustain himself off grinding Instant Dungeons indefinitely. “Want something too?” He asked. He wasn’t psyched about having Victoria around after all she had done. Still, it was good manners to be a good host. More importantly, he might learn something important through chitchat.


    “I will have a couple of pieces of toast,” she decided and followed him into the house. She was stopped by Aclysia however. “What is it?” Victoria asked, ring.


    “No shoes in the household,” The Artificial Guardian firmly stated.


    Victoria slowly nodded and sat down to get out of her boots.


    As they got seated and Aclysia prepared the table, John pulled out his phone. “What are you doing?” Victoria eyed him up suspiciously.


    “Calling Jane. She would ask questions if I did not, so calm your tits.” John answered and decided to be a bit of a rude host as he ogled said part of her for a moment.


    Victoria looked annoyed. “Your behaviour is uncalled for!”


    “Is it though?” John asked and listed a couple of reasons, “So you appeared in my life just to spy on Travolta, or Collide as a whole, then you blew up Jimmie, then you attacked me and my girlfriend, then you guided us towards your Guild Leader, who is not the nicest of people by the way, and finally you shot Travolta.”


    “Don’t insult Igor,” Victoria threatened and John sighed in response.


    “And because that is the only thing you took away from that list, my behaviour is absolutely called for.” He took a sip of orange juice. Her words were not particrly threatening while she was on her own. Her Stats were about his level but she relied on guns and he had a maid with Steelskin in intervention distance.


    He clicked on the shortcut for Rave’s number. It began to ring. It took maybe half a minute until he heard a tired voice from the other side. “Joooooohn. It’s 6 something. Whaddya waaaant?”


    “Good morning to you too, Jane,” he chuckled. “Victoria is here and…”


    “WHAT?!” The voice on the other side was immediately wide awake. “What does that traitorous bitch want at your ce?”


    “She brought me an ultimatum to visit the Bloodfallen. Don’t feel like going but I don’t think there is another choice here.” He looked over to Victoria who was following the whole dialogue with intent staring. “So I will probably be gone for today, at least.”


    Rave was less controlled in her emotions. “Fuck that!” She cursed, “You are not going anywhere with that girl without me.”


    “What, you think I will cheat on you?” Even now he felt like bantering. To treat this situation seriously outwardly wouldn’t have made Victoria’s face scrunch up like she had eaten something sour. “Just because I am heading out with the cheap woman who slept with us only to gain our trust?”


    “Yeah, right, no I think she will shoot ya.”


    “That is the more likely oue indeed,” John admitted with a giggle, then he added in a serious tone, “But if youe with, your dad is probably going to rip my head off.”


    “Grind out a few more levels and that thought won’t be threatening anymore though,” Rave countered. “Also, ya think I would skip on an adventure? Nu-uh. Tell me where to go.”


    “A second.” John turned to Victoria, “How do we get there?”


    “Train.” Was the short answer, “Centre Station.” Was the just as short, longer one.


    “You got that?” John asked.


    “Ja, corner my ce, Mitchum Park?”


    “Sounds good, we should be there in about an hour.”


    “Great, see ya.”


    “Bye.” He put down his phone and spread some butter on his toast. “Aclysia, if Victoria pulls a gun on me, break her arms.” He said nonchntly as he threw some smi on there.


    Aclysia shot the sniper a re, “I was nning to anyway..”


    While Victoria let out a ridiculing grunt. “You think your toy could do that?”


    “I know for a fact that Aclysia, that’s her name in case you forgot, can do that,” he stated and bit into his toast.


    “…You have changed since thest time I really spoke to you,” Victoria stated with narrowed eyes. “Not for the better.”


    John washed the bite down with some orange juice. “I am a lot wiser and I went through hell yesterday. Also, I had to bury a man I would have called a friend.” He stared at her nonchntly. “What kind of threat do you think you present to me after all of that?” Victoria had no response.


    They finished their meal in silence and went out. Taking a bus, the trio rode close to the city centre and then met up with Rave. Under the eyes of a certain bird, they had their greeting kiss.


    “Tell me the truth: you missed me yesterday,” John stipted.


    “Nope, Fairy Tail was too awesome,” Raveughed and grabbed his arm. She was currently in her disguise as the in brte. “Did you miss me watching infomercials on the dumbest fantasy universe out there?”


    “Well, I didn’t really get to it. A redhead and a secretive blond guy kept me from it.” John sighed, he really wanted to watch that podcast.


    “Oh? Tell me all about it.” Rave demanded and John was happy to do so as the verdin jumped out of the tree and followed them. He kept the details on SecretBlonde to himself for the moment, he didn’t want Victoria to know, but told her all about how it felt to be a fission bomb. “As a half-Japanese girl, I have mixed feelings about dating the guy that was the bomb that killed thousands of my people,” shemented, when he was done.


    “As an American I have mixed feelings about dating a girl who watches Chinese cartoons instead of good old Looney Toons.” He countered.


    “Don’t call them that.” Victoria stepped in with a reprimanding re at John.


    “Why not?” John wondered, “Don’t want me to p Communist nations on anything?” That stopped Victoria dead in her tracks before she could make an argument.


    “Yes,” she answered in a confused tone, “How did you…?”


    John hadn’t spent thest weekend doing absolutely nothing but fucking. He had worked through her documents multiple times until he memorized and analysed everything of note. It wasn’t that hard with his Stats. “Because,” he stared her dead in the eyes, “I have rectified my mistake of trusting you. Tell me, do Abyssals usually think it''s wise to make a Latebloomer your enemy?”


    Victoria’s jaw visibly clenched and she stared. “I’m guaranteed by the Bloodfallen.”


    ‘I know, and they’re my enemy too,’ John thought. As obvious as that may have been on his face, it was important to give the Bloodfallen reasons not to eliminate them yet. “Will you continue to be, when I be a more valuable asset than you are?”


    Again, his words silenced her.


    There was a grim satisfaction in being powerful.