Valerian led his troops to the edge of the Black Forest and gave them detailed instructions before leaving.
He returned to the Saras Kingdom to meet Marie. He walked into Rex Capital Bank and was quickly led to her office.
He did not disguise himself. He felt no need. When he entered her office there were two people waiting for him.
One was Marie and the other was a tall handsome man, wearing a black suit. His crimson eyes shown with intelligence and wisdom. He had long black hair tied in a ponytail and pointy ears that showed how pure and powerful his vampire blood was.
"Lord Valerian. It is a pleasure to see you again. I was worried about whether we would be able to communicate with you again in the near future." Marie began.
The man beside her was looking at Valerian as though trying to see through him and his identity.
Valerian smirked and ignored him. He gave his attention to Marie instead.
"It has been a while. I apologise. I had other affairs that took up my time but I am here now. I have a few requests."
"Of course. I will aid you to the full extent of my power. Please, allow me to introduce you to Lord Alexander Walt Von Windsor, Grand Duke of the Aruval Kingdom under King Eric Vlad Aruval. He is my family's Patriarch and has expressed interest in meeting you."
At this introduction, Alexander stepped forward and took over.
"I see and greet the distinguished Mass Shareholder." Then gave a gentlemanly bow.
"I see and greet the Grand Duke Von Windsor. I am Lord Valerian Erebus Jata. It is a pleasure to meet you." Valerian stated calmly. "I am curious as to why you wanted to meet me though."
"As you are the largest shareholder of this bank I was curious to meet you and get to know you now considering that my family and yourself will have a very close working relationship." The Grand Duke's voice was elegant and pleasant to hear. "I was also hoping to have a friendly duel with your Lordship."
"If that is all then I do not mind but why do you wish to duel me?" Valerian asked.
"I have been made aware of your identity as the Founder of the vampire race. I wish to test the authenticity of this claim.
"If this claim is true, my family will pledge our fealty to you but if this assertion is false then I will have no other option than to kill you for staining the cherished memory of our First Father."
Marie looked at the Grand Duke with wide eyes. Was he not supposed to win Valerian over to their side? How does he intend to do that by challenging him and threatening to kill him?
"I see. Very well. I accept your challenge. Quite frankly I am interested to see how you will fair as well." Valerian admitted and saw a genuine smile appear on Alexander's face.
"Excellent, if you do not mind, I will use a relic to teleport use to a more suitable location. It will take a day to activate it." Alexander was excited but he became a little worried when he saw Valerian's contemplative face.
"Is this relic the only thing you need?" Val finally replied.
"Yes that will be all. We cannot exactly fight here."
Alexander's response pleased Valerian.
"Very well then this relic will not be necessary." Without giving the Grand Duke a chance to respond, Val snapped his fingers and a portal appeared above Val, Alexander and Marie.
All three were instantly drawn into it and a flash of white light blinded Alexander and Marie for a moment but when their vision returned they stood in an empty and grand coliseum.
It was vast, metallic and ancient looking yet well maintained.
Alexander stood in the arena and Marie was seated in one of the many spectator seats just as surprised as the Grand Duke.
"I apologise for bringing you here so abruptly. This is a lower quality replica of one of my favourite arenas. We are in a pocket dimension made from my memory. You can go all out here and fear nothing."
Valerian's words drew Alexander further into astonishment.
'Such a power? He really is full of strength and mysticism. Our race may be saved from itself if he really is Him.'
This was Alexander's own thought and his shock was replaced by a smile.
"Shall we begin?" Alexander asked.
"Whenever you are ready." Valerian and Alexander were thirty feet apart bit such a distance meant nothing to them.
"Very well." Alexander's mana rose at an insane rate. His focus was divided between his control and Valerian.
He dared not take his eyes off his opponent who seemed unfazed by what he was doing.
Alexander smiled then suddenly disappeared. Valerian arched his eyebrow, recognising the skill [Flashstep].
The Grand Duke appeared behind Valerian who still had not moved. His nails were extended and could cut through steel.
Just as he was about to pierce Valerian's back. Valerian himself disappeared leaving only an empty space where he had once been.
Alexander was slightly taken aback. He stared at the empty space for a second then quickly turned around but still found the space empty.
"Flashstep is a juvenile skill. I was told that in the days of my empire it was taught to children in school in their first week." Valerian's voice made Alexander turn again and he saw Valerian standing thirty feet away, exactly where the Duke had been when the duel started.
"The flaw of that skill is that it merely reduces the amount of steps between two places. Your movements are still visible to those whose eyes are sharp enough." Valerian continued. He narrowed his eyes threateningly. "And my eyes are sharp enough so I ask that you take this duel a little more seriously or I will be disappointed."
Alexander looked at the vampire before him who barely looked fifteen with slight confusion. Vampires could control the rate at which they aged.
The key word was "control" not "stop". No matter their rank, vampires under the rank of Elderborn, still aged.
The lower castes of vampires could live for millennia. Alexander was part of a higher caste. He was an actual Pureblood and his age was was a little over fifty thousand years old. Few could compare to him in the vampire world.
Elves, dwarves, vampires and even the undead had to pay him the necessary respect that his age and power afforded him. Yet funnily enough he was still quite young for his bloodline caste.
He chose to look older for the sake of diplomatic communication with the shorter lived races where age was synonymous with wisdom.
If compared to the humans for example, he was actually in his mid-twenties and no king, queen or high ranking aristocrat would find a young looking noble worthy or respect. That was the folly of beings whose lives did not even last a two hundred years.
Ironically, Alexander had fallen victim to this stigma himself. He saw Valerian's age and had doubts on top of his original doubts.
He knew that the first ancestor of his race had to be powerful and long lived. Many stories about Him had been passed down from generation to generation but He had been gone and absent for so long that it was neigh impossible to separate what was true and what was false.
This duel had been Alexander's idea. He wanted to, not only to check the validity of Valerian's claim of being the Founder of the vampire race but also, check how far he fell from the power his ancestors wielded but seeing Valerian's youth, he chose to test the boy inside the original test.
Alexander confirmed that the boy was strong but whether or not he was powerful was not yet determined but what he had not expected was to be chided.
He did not expect to be reminded of the training matches he had with his own father while duelling with Valerian.
He did not feel as though this duel would be so reminiscent of ones between teacher and pupil, master and disciple. Valerian was the true noble and Alexander was already feeling like the vassal. An inferiority complex had already began to develop and take root.
'Is this boy really that powerful?'
"Forgive me, my lord. I will cease testing you and take this matter as if it were life or death." Alexander stated with faux humility, still gauging his enemy's strength.
"Truly, that would be in your best interest." Valerian stated in a tone of nonchalance.
'The arrogance!' Alexander's eyes went wide and vowed that it did not matter what this boy knew or did not know. He wanted to thrash Valerian to the point of death just to humble him ever so slightly.