Chapter 69: Empty Search

"I think it must be a very cute kitten. And I think you’re the best Papa Duke in the world. Even if you are a grumpy hedgehog."

Kaelus looked down at the bright, smiling face of his daughter.

The anger, the exhaustion, the heavy burden of the impending hunt, it all melted away, washed out by the blinding light of her affection.

He sighed, a long, defeated sound, and allowed his rigid posture to relax.

He reached down, picked her up under her arms, and hoisted her smoothly into the air, settling her comfortably onto his hip, resting her weight against his unarmored side.

"I am not a hedgehog," Kaelus grumbled, though he wrapped his arm securely around her waist, holding her close. "And the feline is a fierce predator. It is currently guarding my war room."

"Sure it is," Seraphina grinned, resting her head against his shoulder. "Can I pet him when we get home?"

"If you survive the journey," Kaelus replied dryly. He turned toward the door, ignoring his terrified, sweating knights. "Now, we must depart from the library. Marquess Julian has finalised the layout of the city’s underground catacombs. We have located the likely staging ground for the anomalies."

Seraphina’s smile faded slightly, replaced by the serious, determined look of the Supreme Dark Archmage. "Are we going to fight the man in the hat?"

Kaelus’s violet eyes darkened, the Reaper returning to the forefront, cold and absolute.

He walked toward the massive oak doors, carrying the most precious thing in his world securely against his chest.

"No, Seraphina," Kaelus said softly, his voice carrying the chilling, irreversible promise of a winter storm. "We are not going to fight him. We are going to erase him."

And as the Archduke of the North marched out of the library, his tiny, dark-haired Sovereign resting safely in his arms, the knights of the Black Bastion fell in line behind them, ready to plunge into the abyss, knowing exactly what kind of king they were following into the dark.

The underground catacombs beneath the city of Oakhaven were an intricate, sprawling labyrinth of ancient stone, forgotten crypts, and subterranean rivers.

It was the perfect staging ground for an illicit, highly organised abduction ring.

It was also, as the entity with the pink eyes had undoubtedly calculated, a nightmare to search.

***

For thirty-six uninterrupted hours, the combined forces of the Black Bastion and Marquess Julian Myer’s elite estate guards tore the underground city apart.

They left no stone unturned, no crypt unopened, and no shadow unpierced by Kaelus’s overwhelming, destructive mana.

They found the remnants of the operation.

They found empty cages forged from cold iron, discarded magical dampening collars, and ritualistic arrays painted in dried blood that made the knights of the Bastion grip their swords until their leather gloves groaned.

But they did not find the missing children.

And more infuriatingly, they did not find a single trace of the elegant, velvet-clad monster.

It was as if the entity had never existed.

There was no residual mana signature, no lingering spiritual footprint.

The tracker hounds brought in by the Marquess whimpered and spun in circles, their noses unable to pick up a scent that belonged to the material plane.

The creature had simply dissipated into the ether, taking its secrets, its prey, and its arrogant, mocking smile with it.

The failure was absolute.

By the time the Vanguard returned to the surface, emerging into the sunlight of the Myer estate’s courtyards, the atmosphere surrounding Duke Kaelus von Nacht had bypassed mere anger and plummeted into a freezing abyss.

Kaelus was as dark as a thunderhead.

The ambient temperature around him had dropped below freezing, leaving a faint trail of frost on the cobblestones wherever his heavy boots fell.

His violet eyes were entirely devoid of light, resembling twin voids of absolute annihilation.

He did not speak, did not issue commands.

He simply radiated a killing intent so dense and suffocating that it felt as though the oxygen had been vacuumed out of the estate.

The knights of the Black Bastion, men who routinely threw themselves into the maws of demonic leviathans, were utterly terrified.

"God, I have never seen him like this," Sir Lucas whispered, pressing his back against the ornate wallpaper of the guest annex corridor, trying to make himself as flat as possible. "During the siege of the Crimson Citadel, he was furious. But this? This is different. This is a quiet rage. Quiet Lord Kaelus is the one who levels mountain ranges."

"He feels he has failed," Sir Boris rumbled softly, sweating profusely in his armor despite the freezing temperature of the hallway. "The beast looked at the Lady. It challenged him in his own strike zone, and then it slipped through the net. His pride as the Reaper is bleeding, but his instincts as a father are definitely detonating."

Sir Gallahan stood a few feet away, holding a silver platter laden with a magnificent, multi-layered strawberry shortcake.

His hands were trembling so violently that the delicate china plates clattered against the silver.

"He needs to eat something," Gallahan swallowed hard, looking at the heavy oak doors of the Duke’s temporary study. "He has not consumed anything in two days. But if I walk in there right now... he might accidentally freeze my head to the ceiling."

The three legendary commanders of the North stood in the hallway, completely paralysed by the overwhelming dread of their liege lord’s foul mood.

They did not notice the small, crimson-clad figure waddling down the corridor until she bumped directly into Sir Gallahan’s greaves.

"Why are we whispering here?" Seraphina asked, looking up at the three massive men with wide, curious eyes.

Her hair was tied into twin, somewhat lopsided pigtails, and she was clutching a slightly battered paper duck.

"My Lady!" Gallahan hissed, instantly dropping to one knee, trying to balance the rattling cake tray. "You should be in the nursery! The Duke is currently... processing some important variables. The environment is hazardous right now."