At this point, Alice's heart was beating at an unsteady rate. The turmoil of whether she should step down or not made her mind feel conflicted.
'But if I don't go… then I won't be able to catch those tricks of the vampires…'
Knowing that vampires have still not understood their lesson, made her blood boil. On top of that, she found this trick to be literally the cheapest of all.
'To drink our blood, they will go to this length?' Her eyebrows frowned at his thought.
Subconsciously, Alice's legs started to move in the direction of the staircase. Keeping her hand on the cemented wall, she managed to keep one foot on the step of the stairs.
They were in the round shape, not having a proper view of where they led to.
Gulping the saliva present in her mouth, Alice held the lantern in her own hand while the other was on the wall.
She took slow steps to be extra careful about when she was going at this point.
While chanting in her inner self, all she wondered was from where these stairs came from!? She never saw this path ever in this entire castle until now...
The cries of the person had stopped entirely but the deep stillness was very much giving her a hint of something wrong.
However, her wish didn't last very long.
Instead of cries, what entered her ears was the noise of mumbling. "But who is actually talking here!? Are these vampire soldiers here discussing their entire strategies to kill us?"
At this mere thought of hers, Alice's eyes were filled with horror. Shocked was written on her entire face, but that didn't halt her pace to walk down.
The number of the steps she took was out of the count. All she felt was these staircases to be extra deep, who knows where they were leading to!
At last, when Alice took the last step, she arrived at the basement, covered with nothing but entire darkness and quietness.
No humbling and nothing entered her ears anymore except the noise of someone eating.
The fewer sounds from the other corner made Alice's eyebrows lift and gaze to work in the direction of noises.
What carried with her was the shocked expression of hers when she found this entire situation no less than a war game.
Alice's back was filled with beads of sweat where her legs had started to shake with the time. They were turning into jelly, and it was out of her control if she would be able to stand anymore.
Following the voice, she arrived near the windows of the basement where her eyes caught someone's back who faced the glass windows.
"What are you doing here!?"
"See, if you are any vampire and trying to do anything against us, humans, you will face tons of consequences which would be deadly." Alice's threat was alarming.
Her grip tightened around her piece of clothing when the man didn't turn around.
From a certain distance, she guessed that the man wasn't a normal human, otherwise, his height wouldn't be that much.
Moreover, those clothes… didn't seem appropriate for a human to wear.
"I asked you something! Answer me this instant!" Alice slightly raised her voice, to which the man didn't bat an eye to her.
To her dismay, he didn't even glance at her for once, staying stagnant in his current position.
Alice bit her lips at the ignorance. Despite the numbness that rose, what came along was the fear of something known and unknown.
Yet this fear never let her down from protecting the kingdom of hers. Alice walked further, covering the distance between the two of them.
Her eyes never tore from the man's back, maintaining the same intensity and the fire that she had ignited earlier. Unknown to anyone, her hand holding the lantern were trembling due to the undefined worries.
When Alice stepped close to the man, she lifted her hand to stare at her fingers for once. The next moment, her gaze once again fell on the tall man right in front of her.
She brought her hand above, despite the shaking inside her. She stretched her hand, able to keep it over his shoulders to mutter,
"Who are you…"
But the second her eyes caught the sight of the corner of his burnt face, Alice immediately pulled her hand back when her eyes widened in shock. "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU!?"
This time, the man turned fully around when the sight frame was in her view.
The man's face was entirely burnt, with his eyes filled with red payment. Alice's back was filled with chills.
Subconsciously, she took a few steps back as her breath started to be uneven as well.
"Tell... me! Who are you.." She yelled at the top of her lungs but it was of no use as the man didn't fitch even a bit.
What she came across was a faint smile that started to lift his corner of the lips, "Princess Alice… You told me that it will have deadly consequences?"
The husky and mocking voice was enough of him to send her in the piles of hell.
Tiny hair on her neck has started to rise due to the thickness around.
The atmosphere took a thirty-degree turn which started to turn colder and colder as compared to earlier.
"What consequences will you give the man who has no heart and is already dead!? Hahahahahaha…"
An icy layer of the voice was enough to leave her heart when she shakes her head. "I..I.. didn't mean.."
"I never asked if you mean that or not. But you will surely taste good.. won't you!?" Hearing this comment, Alice knew she was in the tightest spot.
This monster is staring at her as if he will devour her at this very moment. Running away seemed like the worst option where she could feel her legs already glued.
'Uf... I can't move my legs..' it was hard to differentiate what it was due to the monster's magic or because of her deadly fear.
"No..no…" Alice's lips started to mumble the two words when she felt the man stare at her, making her uncomfortable. The lamp has started to flicker, making her heart almost come into her mouth.
"I..i..will not.. tell.." she was able to speak when the monster only laughed at her statement, "Tell anyone!? How can I let go of a delicious meal like you?"
His words were only disliked by her even more.
Subconsciously, she shook her head vigorously as he started to laugh at the constant rate.
But what caught her heart almost coming out of her chest was the one step that the monster took in her direction. No.. she wasn't here to end up being his food that was eaten by them!
Fortunately, a bright beam of light was drawn in her direction which made Alice instantly cover her eyes and keep her head in the pouch of her shoulders.
She faced her head in the other direction while she heard the yellings of the monster with no clue what was happening right now.
"Agh… this light.." she was clueless about the source of this bright white light that came out of where. But this was strong enough to make her lamp burst into pieces and it fell to the ground.
After a while, when the light disappeared, did Alice open her eyes with a light narrowed slunt to view something in front of her.
'Did the monster just disappear?' She wasn't sure because, from the middle of her hands, she saw nothing...
However, while entirely removing her hands, the view in front of her was a pure horror-filled experience.
The skeleton!
The monster had turned to ashes and bones lying on the floor almost made her feel nauseated in her stomach. Her entire energy was being consumed when she fell on the ground with a thud over her knees.
"Wh..what happened here?" She wanted to be sure but the tired look started to consume and spread over her as she fell on the ground and took a look at bones and ashes right there.
She could sense something distant before the mixture and the surprise and shock in her mind started to come together to consume her.
At last, Alice finally fell on the ground with the only words muttering out of her mouth with all the amount of energy and courage left in her
"F-ATHER... BROTHER… help.. me...."