The Lost Vampire System Chapter 24 - Allegiance
"What is this?" she blurted out.
"What is what?" Jareth asked.
"There is a screen that isn't a part of NYXIS in my vision," she stated. "Yes."
In Madison's vision, the screen changed.
"You have accepted becoming a member of Jareth's inner circle," a replicate version of the system's voice said to Madison. "You have been granted a knowledge page that keeps track of everything you can do."
In front of Madison's eyes, Race, Stats, and Skills tabs popped up. As she looked at them, she noticed one other tab. It said "Jareth's Orders". She opened it, and it said, "Jareth has no orders for you."
Meanwhile, in Jareth's system...
"Madison has accepted becoming a member of your inner circle. She has been granted a knowledge and communication system. It is an extension of your system that allows the member of your inner circle to easily keep track of her skills and growth."
Jareth also noticed another tab that appeared in his system. It was called "The Inner Circle." He opened it up, and it showed Madison's name and an overall description.
"This allows you to send orders to your inner circle. The members of your inner circle will not be able to communicate with you."
That is cool, Jareth thought while projecting it to Apollo. "Can Draven also do this?"
"I don't think so," Apollo stated. "But he also has telepathic abilities, so I think he might win on this one."
"Is this what you have?" Madison asked.
"Mine is better," Jareth replied with a smile at her.
The system chimed in. "Would you like to give the first member of your inner circle their first order?"
First order, Jareth thought. What about go touch the back of the vault.
Like the system could read his mind, the order was placed.
"Would you like to send this order? Yes / No?"
Jareth selected yes, and the message looked to have evaporated.
On Madison's end, the voice of the system sounded. "Incoming order." That's when the message appeared, and it was read to her. "Your leader, Jareth Nightshade, has ordered you to touch the back of the vault."
Madison froze as she slowly looked at Jareth, who looked like he was waiting for her to do something. She decided to follow the instructions as she went to the back of the vault and touched it.
"It works," Apollo stated in an excited voice, and Jareth could imagine a smile on his face.
A smile appeared on Jareth's face, and Madison could see this.
"You know," she began, "I wasn't truthful then, but I will now."
"You weren't truthful before?" Jareth asked.
"I kneeled before you halfheartedly until you presented me with this gift. I can see if I am improving or not. I'm sure there will be more in the future." She slowly walked over until she was five feet away from Jareth, who lifted up his arm slightly, ready to attack if she did something fishy. She just stopped as she dropped her right knee onto the ground and bowed her head. "I, Madison Budak, swear my allegiance to you, Jareth Nightshade."
Jareth was a little taken aback at the whole swearing of allegiance aspect, but once again, Apollo had something to say.
"Don't act surprised," he said. "Accept her allegiance like accepting your birthright."
What? Jareth thought to Apollo.
"Making your allies like your kingdom is a good thing, Jareth," Apollo spoke. "This is also a video game."
"Uh," Jareth stuttered. "Your loyalty is noted and received. Rise, Madison."
"Whatever," Apollo giggled.
Madison rose to her feet and noticed that Jareth was blushing slightly.
"Uh, sorry," she said to Jareth. "It felt right."
"Now that you're loyal to me or whatever, can I use your vault?" Jareth asked as he turned away in embarrassment.
"No," she said, which took Jareth aback.
"Why?"
"I may have given you permission to enter my vault, but I have to be inside of it. I'm not on the game as frequently as you probably will be. Honestly, just explore the place and try to grow your name as the CrimsonDawn. This place is the perfect way to create a faction. Once it's big enough, you can invite them in the real world. That's what the Frostwood faction did. We also have three years at school. Wouldn't it be more accomplishing to grow your name at least on your own?"
Jareth sighed as he nodded.
"Good," Madison said. "We are done here. I'm a Cambion, and you are almost a vampire, I assume. We are on the same side."
She opened the vault door and stepped out. Right when the last part of her body was out of the door, Jareth could feel his body being yanked as he was thrown out of the vault, crashing to the ground.
"Ha, ha, ha!" Madison laughed.
"Ha ha, very funny," Jareth grumbled as he stood up.
While this was happening, the girl who was in the dark room watched the pair make their way up.
"At least one of you stay," she whispered.
Back on the surface, the two were chitchatting about school and what their second class was going to be.
"I don't know yet," Madison said. "Probably the evolved training class. My form is a bit unstable. I was hoping that they had a technique that will work with my… condition."
"Condition," the green-eyed girl said from within the dark room.
"What about you, CrimsonDawn?" Madison asked.
"Probably the weapons class. Find a good weapon that works with my power. Though I could always switch."
"True to that?" Madison said as they reached the area where Jareth had come in on. "This is one of the entrance and exit points of NYXIS. Just note the time." She then pointed to a clock that said 9 p.m. "I paid five hours for you. It has been forty minutes, so you have four hours and… now nineteen minutes to exit the game. What the military didn't tell you is that they can't just take you out of NYXIS, but they will charge you one dollar every minute that you are late getting out. If you want to stay more, you have to exit the game back into the box, and it will ask you if you want to extend your time without unstrapping yourself. I'm hungry and I have money, so I'm leaving. You clearly don't eat regular food anymore, and you've never been in here, so I suggest that you stay. I also suggest that you buy yourself a cheap in-game watch."
When she was done, she jumped onto a white circle, and she was beamed up.
"What should I do now?" Jareth asked as he turned around to see a billboard that said, "Want to test your skill? Play the Evolved 1v1 to test your skill. The entrance is at the bottom of the sign."
He stared at the billboard and turned his head to a big clock that was projected onto one of the buildings before slowly walking over to the billboard.
Back in the dark room, the girl's mouth was hanging open slightly at one of the things demonicMadison1 had said.
"Did she say that he doesn't eat regular food anymore?"
She started to flick her hands, and a search engine was opened up, and the name CrimsonDawn was typed. It showed search results for CrimsonSolar and others, but not about this CrimsonDawn. Her lip twitched as she looked to have opened up the code, but something was blocking her from doing anything.
"What?" she said. "How did they cover my back door? The government really doesn't trust me, but who could have the same Evolved power as me? I am an Original."
She gave a sigh.
"Oh well, I guess I have to watch him myself."
She sat back in her chair as she kept on using her abilities that the government had placed within the game to find hackers.
*****
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