Children of a Lesser God

Chapter 232: The Secret

Laz ended up getting himself dressed with some formal clothes from his special pouch. Since it seemed like it was going to be some sort of formal dinner, this was the best he could come up with. It wasn't suit and tie fancy, but it was button up and wrinkle free. As far as Laz was concerned, this was as classy as he got.

As Laz stepped out, he noticed a young woman waiting for him.

"This way, please."

Knowing that this was his escort, Laz followed behind her, but she ended up just leading him the same way they came, ending up back in the big open area that he had first arrived in.

Strangely, all the red had been replaced with white, giving the huge room a more holy and pure feeling. Laz's eye was practically twitching when he saw what everyone was wearing.

There were tables lining the entire outer perimeter of the room and spaced at an even distance apart, all of the girls were seated in a relax position while looking towards Laz who had just walked in. While Laz was dressed in a black shirt, with black pants and a red tie, every girl in the room were wearing white gowns with various accents such as angel wings, halos and even diamonds.

Laz had no idea what he had walked into. Just as he was about to turn around and ask his escort what the hell was happening, Freya appeared and took the lead seat. She too was dressed in a white ball gown with a slightly plunging neckline. Her dark hair had been done up in an elaborate way on top of her head. Considering Laz had just seen her a few minutes ago, he couldn't help but wonder how the hell she had gotten dressed almost as quickly as he did.

"Come, my guest of honor. Join me?" Freya asked while indicating the seat next to her.

Laz, with no other option, walked over and took the indicated seat. While she had seated herself at the left center of the room, Laz was seated at the right center. It almost felt like some sort of wedding ritual.

Laz took a moment to study the fine dining wear that had been laid out in front of him while Freya said a few things to one of the severs before the girl hurried off. Just as Laz was about to ask what was going on, he noticed a door open to the side as four girls walked in.

Although the girls were now wearing high necked, ball gowns, Laz was able to immediately recognize them was the four named Ivy. What was more interesting was that they were now wearing white half masks, hiding the upper portion of their faces. Laz decided it was better to stop trying to understand what was happening and just go with. He figured that any answer he received wouldn't make sense anyway.

"Ah. My dears. You have come to join us?" Freya asked with a smile. The girl's only response was a slight bow as they walked over to four open spots, down the table a ways from Freya. Freya didn't seem bothered by their lack of words and simply laughed a little before standing up.

"Welcome to all of my kindred. Today, we had a special guest with us, one who I am sure you have heard me mention. This is Lazarus. Please, just call him Laz."

"We greet the young master," echoed throughout the hall, as though they had not just heard what Freya had said. Apparently, he was going to have to get used to being called master while he was here.

He had no idea what to feel about that.

"Please feel free to greet him when you get a moment. For now though, I must ask that all of you keep to yourselves in regards to him as the orders from higher up have indicated that there might be some problems enjoying his flavor. Of course we only take these things as suggestions so I will be trying him out myself first. All of this is at the young master's discretion though as he is our precious guest. Come now my beauties and let us eat. We are even graced with our four devils this evening so make sure to give them your utmost respect." With the speech's end, Freya clapped her hands as servers started piling into the room, bring with them a wide array of dishes and treats, setting them all down at the tables so that each person present could select what they wanted at will.

Laz had never seen so much food before or a feast served in this manner. There must have been at least a few hundred people seated around at the tables, and yet there looked like enough food for over a thousand.

Laz couldn't help but feel his horizons widened at this time.

Seeing Laz's eyes get bigger, Freya couldn't help but laugh.

"What?"

"You look like a country boy who just wandered into the big city for the first time," Freya responded..

"Well... this seems like... a lot of food for few people? I mean... how much can everyone eat?" Laz voiced his concerns. It wasn't that he cared that food might be wasted, but as a man who had lived in relatively poor conditions before, he just felt that it didn't make much sense.

"Far more than you can imagine." Freya pointed out towards the large gathering a females and felt like he had been hit by a train. The girls were demolishing the food at a rate that he couldn't understand. It was like a room full of huge men had taken the form of women but had kept their huge stomachs in the change.

"They need a lot to eat as part of the change that took place to them. We all are like this. The food itself actually had different parts of edible demon beasts mixed in, causing it to be far more filling and nutritious than regular food, but even then, the amount needed is huge. Haven't you ever noticed how much you eat? Especially after exerting yourself for a period of time?" Freya asked as she began to eat. Even she, with her tiny form seemed to consume the food at a massive rate.

"I mean, yeah. Now that you mention it." Thinking about it, Laz knew she was correct. He had always hunted and processed his own demon beast meat, something that had been made easier and easier as their population exploded. On top of that, as he got stronger, his appetite had increased by many times. Laz also noticed that the stronger the demon beast he was able to find and consume, the less food it would take to fill him.

"Perhaps you don't think about it, since it's only ever been you. But imagine when you have a large enough number of people, how much food that takes? We are the large group in the state, so we have to have enough food for all."

"I was wondering about that." Laz decided to ask some questions since Freya seemed open to it.

"About what?"

"Well, this? These girls, every one of them... their energy is weird and their aura's are unlike that of a normal infected person. It just seems... strange... to have so many people appear in one place all at once." Laz had been traveling the coast for a few years now and had seen many things. He understood that as time went on, more and more infected would appear. But he would never have thought there would be this many in one place.

And besides that, Laz had a sneaking suspicion that each one of them had a similar ability.

'Was that even possible?'

"What do you know of us?" Freya asked, looking at Laz while taking a drink.

"People call all of you Vampyres. But other than that, only what I've seen."

"Well" Freya started laughing. "They are not wrong."

"You.. really are?"

"Each person, whether infected or not, now has a bit of energy in their blood. That's just the way it is. In a similar manner to pollutants and carcinogens, it's something that humans have begun taking into their bodies. But like all things in small enough doses, it doesn't really do anything or cause any harm. Now the question is, is their a way to get that energy out from them?"

"So... you're saying...?"

"Of course. If the energy is in their blood, that means the energy can be taken from their blood."

"Then you all really???" Laz couldn't believe that what he had heard was actually the truth.

"Why not? It's simply a different way of extracting energy after all. There are different ways to do it like when killing another infected, their bodies release energy that can be absorbed. But imagine the slaughter that you would have to go through to get that result. This is much more efficient."

"Damn..." Just because you hear a story, doesn't make the story true. Laz had his doubts, but now it seemed like what he had heard was, in fact, true.

"But then how are all of you?" Obviously Laz wanted to know how all of them had the exact same ability, but didn't want to appear rude.

"You want me to show you?"

"You're going to suck my blood?"

"Tempting offer. Would you like me to? I can make it a night you will never forget."

"So you don't need to suck my blood?" Laz caught on to what she didn't say instead of focusing on what she did say.

"After dinner. I will show you. For now, please, eat. There is always more. And besides which, it looks like there is more than one girl here who wishes to meet with you." Freya laughed as Laz noticed a line forming in front of him. These girls had eaten quickly and wanted to introduce themselves to him as soon as possible.

Laz was confused as to why this way, but did his best to greet every girl who came up.

By about the tenth girl, he had lost track of their names.

By the one hundredth, he just let them talk while he ate, nodding his head and grunting at the right time. This didn't seem to deter them in the least.

As the dinner progressed, every girl had a chance to talk with Laz for around twenty seconds each, roughly speaking. By the end, Laz had just zoned out and glazed over.

"What was that all about?" Laz asked, seeing Freya laughing next to him.

"You will learn soon enough. Now come and allow me to answer your question." Freya got up and without saying anything, lead Laz away.

Down the long, darkly lit corridors, Freya moved with ease, taking Laz a different way than the bath house. Laz still could only marvel at how big this place was.

At one point, Laz felt something behind him and noticed four sets of cold eyes staring at him from behind. A little startled, Laz said hello in a friendly manner, but got no response back. The girls just continued to walk along behind them.

"Uhh..."

"Don't worry about it. They are like that when they put on the masks. They won't bother to talk to anyone or anything," Freya informed Laz before continuing on.

As they rounded one Laz bend, Laz noticed that the walls suddenly took on a more ancient and solemn feeling. For some reason, Laz felt like he was in a much older building now.

The path way finally ended at a large metal door. The thing was a massive, twenty foot portal that seemed like something out of a story book or medieval castle. They just didn't build things like this anymore.

Without pause, Freya put her hand on the door and whispered a few words before slowly stepping back.

Almost at once, the door began to open itself, like the mouth of some great beast. As Laz stood there in shock, a light from inside the door practically blinded him. In such a situation, Laz started to spread out his spiritual sense to get an idea of what he was walking into, only to find it disappear as though it had been sucked into a black hole. Laz quickly stopped trying to check.

As the door finished opening, Laz finally saw what was behind it. The light was coming from what looked like crystals imbedded in the ceiling, except that all of the light was shining down onto a large stone dias in the middle of the stone chamber.

On top of the stone dias laid a transparent coffin in which laid a young doll like figure.

"Welcome Lazarus. Since the girls refer to me as their queen, then I would like to introduce you to our god."