Indis smashed the red orb that was floating above her head the moment David sensed that he was being watched.

Blood manipulation was one of the many talents that came along with being a member of the Akasha Race, also known as 'Vampire Royalty' or 'The First Vampires'.

Aside from the general talent of blood manipulation, Akasha's also possessed personal talent as well.

In Indis's case, she was able to manipulate illusions and could warp reality to a limited degree, usually for one person at a time.

Still, it came as a surprise to Indis that her spying methods were becoming apparent to David Rice because that meant that his power was slowly growing to rival her own.

'Humans have changed since I last saw them,' Indis thought and correctly so.

Indis came from an era where humans used mystical methods to fight against the mystery of the world and different dimensions, but now, Science had made humans even more lethal.

Even if it was her mission to grow warriors from those gathered in the Herme's Dimension. Actually, Indis wasn't sure exactly what her mission was.

It was more like a vague thought that would enter her mind daily, and if she did something wrong, her soul would pay the price.

Sadly, even thinking about betrayal would render her motionless with soul-tearing pain.

It also didn't help that she had a pesky soul constantly whispering in her ear all the time.

The stronger David got, the closer Indis came to completing her task, but she was also scared to confront Zeel once more.

The thought of dying did not scare Indis but the thought of dying by Zeel's hands did.

One glance at Zeel and Indis was able to know that Zeel did not merely kill his enemies, he did something infinitely worse.

Indis saw Zeel behave loving and mundane when he was with Alice and Elizabeth, but the moment he was alone, Indis could see Zeel for the monster he was.

Everyone knew right from wrong, but Zeel gave Indis the feeling of someone who couldn't tell the difference.

At first, she thought that with a little time she would be able to recover her power enough to rival Zeel, but the more she learned about her master, the more she was contented with just being alive.

Prison didn't seem so bad after you spent a couple of seconds in Hell.

"His strength is rising too fast," Indis said, speaking to empty space that soon warped to reveal a boy of similar features to her own.

Only, this boy was ethereal in nature, not possessing a physical body at all, and also black energy was slowly corrupting his ethereal nature.

The leftover effects of Zeel using the abyssal bead on the boy's body.

At this point, Indis was sure that her brother's soul was corrupted and dying, but she did not possess the knowledge that could save him.

Magics was not passed on to every member of the Akasha Family, and Indis was just a 5thPrincess in the end.

Actually, Indis could care less about her brother or anyone else. She wasn't the same after being tortured by humans for hundreds of years.

"He is becoming a threat to us," Carlo, Indis's brother, said with venom in his voice.

Indis knew that Carlo had grandeur aspirations of ruling over this Dimension with an iron fist, but such a thing would never come to be.

Indis doubted that anywhere touched by Zeel's hands would survive the destruction.

Blue light flashed from the Pseudo-Beamer on Indis's wrist and she was transported to another sub-dimension that was saturated with unknown energy.

Throughout the past year, Indis had spent time in meditation within this dimension but failed to learn anything about the mysterious energy.

The only thing she knew was the information provided by Zeel.

'Homo-Superior Aether huh?' Indis thought, staring at the bluish-liquid energy that felt strangely homey and distant at once.

Indis never went closer than a couple meters because beyond that distance, the whisperings and promise of power started.

Indis had felt this sensation before when dealing with cursed artifacts, but this was different, she could feel the promise of power was sincere.

Even as a talented illusionist, Indis had never heard a promise so intensely seductive.

She even experimented a bit by allowing humans and Jumpers to discover the Aether, but they always dissolved and were absorbed into the Aether within seconds.

Of course, her soul was damaged after failing to fulfill her duties as a guardian, but it was a small price to pay to be sure of what exactly Zeel had her guarding.

Indis knew that not knowing was more dangerous than knowing but not testing.

'INDIS!' Carlo yelled, his voice becoming a distant echo in the back of her mind.

"I can't disobey any commands given," Indis replied shrugging.

When Zeel offered her a way to live, it took Indis a microsecond to choose to sacrifice her brother instead, but she still felt reluctant to destroy his soul.

After all, whenever she went a little against Zeel's commands, she could have her brother's soul bear half the pain.

Indis was just as angry as her brother at being reduced to such a pitiful state, but she knew that only patience could bring forth an opportunity to rid herself of her shackles.

"Make no mistake brother. I am shackled so well that my master knows the first lover I ever had," Indis said, hoping to quell her brother's irritation.

It would be bad for business if the sacrificial goat failed to produce some milk before it was slaughtered.

Indis was just that thorough – no resources go untouched.

Indis knew that patience was not something her stupid brother understood. After all, it was his mindlessness that got them captured and imprisoned beneath the desert for thousands of years.

Indis breathe a sigh of relief when her brother did not respond, but the next moment she felt something amiss.

Exiting the pocket dimension, Indis appeared on the tallest peak of the floating Eastern Mountains.

Once there, she looked down, her eyes peering through the many facets of the Herme's Dimension and targeting a singular individual walking casually through the streets of Traveller's City.

Indis's breathing quickened and her face grew red with anger.

"What have you done?!" Indis yelled, causing her brother's soul-body to quiver in pain.

"I merely accelerated the experiment by a couple of years," Carlo answered defiantly, but his defiance did not last long.

Carlo's action was a direct affront to Zeel's orders, and soon Indis buckled over as her soul was ripped and mended in a vicious never-ending cycle.

Indis felt her mind tingle as her organs were destroyed, regenerated, and destroyed once more.

What her brother had set in motion would have only one outcome – the creation of a monster.

"ARRRAGGHHHHHHH!!!" Indis yelled causing spit, blood, and organ pieces to spill from her mouth.

However, a small smile still graced Inids's face even as she toppled over in pain. This loophole to complete her mission was actually an idea she developed from observing Zeel.

Indis once asked Zeel in Verne Universe 'How do you survive so long with so many enemies?'

Indis remembered Zeel's brilliant smile, a genuine smile, unlike the innocent ones he would show his wives.

'Easy!' he said and pointed at Indis's head 'Always remember to create your own enemies,'

And that's exactly what Indis did, created an enemy out of her naïve brother.

∞∞∞

A man was casually walking the streets of Traveller's City in a dazed state. He could feel something stirring around inside his stomach.

He knew that he woke up outside the barrier with something in his stomach, but never thought to check what it was.

The man slouched down and sat on the road, everyone moving around and not taking any notice of the man.

Slowly, the man's stomach started to expand and his body was engulfed by darkness.

∞∞

David's and Millie's eyes snapped open the moment they felt the small spatial distortion.

They would feel such distortions every single time a Jumper Jumped to another location, but this time was different.

All Jumpers had unique signatures when Jumping, David and Millie had the skill to identify those signatures through taste.

It was like a tangy flavor in their mouths every time they jumped, strawberry flavor when Millicent Jumped, and a sour flavor when someone unfamiliar Jumped.

David and Millie were familiar with all Jumpers inside the city so this sour taste immediately garnered their attention.

David Jumped to the location of the distortion in an instant, while Millie ran to Millicent's room and grabbed her daughter, Jumping them both to a bunker beneath Traveller's City.

Once there, Millie immediately activated a blue barrier that stopped all Jumpers from accessing the bunker.

This was her and David's last resort plan and the acknowledgment that it was now needed scared Millie to no end.

The moment David appeared at the location of the distortion, it had already grown into a black mass that engulfed a couple meters of space in diameter.

David had Jumped too close to the black mass and felt his body weakening and losing all sensations.

The lack of any senses scared David so much that he didn't even realize when his finger had spaghettified, frozen, and detached from his body to be engulfed by the sphere of darkness in front of him.

David immediately Jumped backward but the gravitational pull of the Black Mass fought him for a moment before relenting.

Several more Jumpers appeared next to David as he watched the black sphere shrinking into itself.

It didn't take a genius to understand what would happen when the shrinking stopped.

"What is it?" David asked the Jumper next to him – Jan.

David had a suspicion of what the black mass was but he was hoping to hear something different from his thoughts.

Jan was the resident 'Jumper-Physics' expert. Most of David's new abilities were calculated and thought-up by Jan.

"An artificial Black Hole," Jan said through gritted teeth "But this is completed… last I heard the humans had not perfected the designs as yet,"

David closed his eyes and sensed the black Hole with his Jumper Awareness and came to a startling conclusion.

"I think they found the missing component for their artificial black hole," David said smiling sadly.

"What is it?" Jan asked intrigued but showed disgust the next instant.

David eyed the twenty Jumpers behind him and replied "Jumpers… the missing part was the body of a Jumper!"

Silence followed…