A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

Chapter 317: Chapter 317 - Bunker

Alta was a city much like Kirkenes, only larger. It was located on Norway's western coast, between the many fjords that littered that side of Norway.

It consisted of mostly low buildings of a few floors at most, but compared to Kirkenes, which had been the sight of multiple battles between the Dominion and Enclave, Alta was in a far better state.

But that was not the grim part about what the Ashcroft sisters saw when they looked out over the city from their vantage point.

No, the grim part were the blood farms.

Several walls were build around sections of the city, dividing it in a number of square blocks. Each of those blocks housed hundreds of humans and shapeshifters, huddled together in the cold with barely enough space to lie down and sleep.

Fortunately, they were still first-ranked Runebounds and Arcanists. They didn't get sick, or need food, or go to the bathroom. The human Arcanists had even figured out how to use aetherium to protect themselves against the cold.

Unfortunately, that same status also meant that the vampires could take far more blood than pre-awakening humans could survive.

All the people inside those farms looked like anemic zombies, shuffling back and forth with hollow faces and empty eyes. The aetherium in the air kept them from dying, despite the minimal amount of blood in their bodies, but they were far too weak to move more than a few meters a day, let alone resist their captors or advance towards the second rank.

"They look like they can barely lift their arms…" Emma mumbled sadly. She and her sister were crouching on the top of the hill, careful not to be seen.

"Can we do anything to help them?" Emma pleaded with her big sister.

While her time with Erik had made Emma a little more callous towards strangers, she still preferred to help pitiful people like these if she could.

"Forget it," Emily shook her head harshly. "Master's plan requires us to be stealthy. Besides, it's just the two of us, and there's at least a hundred vampires on guard down there. They're not all second-rankers, of course, but at least a handfull of them are. We would never survive a frontal attack."

Unlike Emma, Emily couldn't care less about these people. But she did care about Emma, so she had to at least give a valid excuse not to help them.

"I know…" Emma pouted, still unable to tear her gaze away from the wretches down in the city.

Seeing her expression, Emily sighed. "Look at it this way: if everything goes according to plan, they will soon be free. So the sooner we get our part finished, the better."

That made Emma smile a little. She nodded softly, "I suppose that's true. Astrid said the blood farms were a lot more humane under her mother's rule. And if they join the Council, the blood farms would be abolished all together!"

Even Emma could understand the necessity in the existence of blood farms within the Dominion. Vampire's needed blood, after all. Otherwise they'd turn into an army of raving ghouls.

But that was only because the Dominion was a vampire-only faction. The Council, instead, levied a small blood tax on all their non-vampire members to feed their vampire allies. It wasn't a perfect system, as not everyone was happy having to give blood and getting noting substantial in return, but it was the only real way for peace to exist between the three races.

Before the awakening, most vampires survived on blood banks, but that simply wasn't an option anymore. Thus, the human and shapeshifter leaders simply forced the issue, since they couldn't afford to lose the vampires as allies. Especially not now that the human-centric Asian faction was moving on them.

"Right," Emily nodded to her little sister's statement. She retreated a little to remain out of sight from anyone looking up from Alta, and before standing up from her crouched position, and looking at Emma. "So shall we get going? We still need to find the place," she said, with a little eagerness in her voice.

Following her back sister, Emma soon stood next to Emily and narrowed her eyes at the raven-haired woman. "Why are you so eager to finish, anyway? Is it just because he ordered you to?" she asked, sceptically.

Emily grinned a little perversely, "Not entirely… he promised he'd finally take down my body's final barrier after all this was over, but if I do a bad job, he'll do it gently…"

Erik had still not made Emily entirely his, as the last month had been far to busy with the final preparations for stepping back onto the world's main stage. Of course, he'd still defiled her back door a few times, but her most vagina remained unspoiled.

Emma had to take a moment to before she realized that 'doing it gently' was a bad thing in Emily's mind, causing her to giggle. "God, you've become such a pervert, big Em!"

"And I'm happier than ever," Emily grinned in response, before taking a hand-drawn map from her own storage jewelry: the collar around her neck. "Here is the map Astrid drew… I think we're supposed to go that way," she mumbled, before moving to the east.

While Erik, Elora, and Astrid couldn't be sure exactly how the Dominion's inner workings operated, they could make some educated assumptions based on what they did know.

For instance, Elora realized that for Sigurd's system with the ghouls to function effectively, there had to be a central operations room to monitor everything and directly control the second-ranked ghouls—something she knew the Dominion did based on their encounter with the ghoulified Astrid.

Assuming all second-ranked ghouls were controlled from that room, it would serve as the Dominion's linchpin, the crucial element on which their entire system rested. Therefore, the simplest way to cripple the Dominion and end the war was to locate and destroy that central operations room.

Unfortunately, while Elora was certain this linchpin existed, she couldn't pinpoint its exact location. This was where Astrid's knowledge became invaluable.

While Astrid had fled during Sigurd's coup and lacked specific information about his operations, she knew the secret locations of the original Dominion, particularly the renovated WWII bunker that had once been the residence of Liv, Astrid, and Liv's closest lieutenants.

In Astrid's time, this bunker was the most secret and secure location in the Dominion, known only to its inhabitants. With those lieutenants now either dead or having switched sides, it was unlikely that Sigurd would have changed its location. After all, even Astrid was presumed dead by him.

Of course, they couldn't be certain the control room was in that bunker. But even if it wasn't, anyone with access to the bunker would likely know the location of the control room.

Thus, this bunker now became the Ashcroft sister's target.

While they stalked through the surrounding woods in search of their target by following Astrid's map, Emma suddenly spoke to Emily using their new bond as Erik's wives. They still preferred talking out loud most of the time, but right now, they couldn't afford for anyone to hear them.

Her tone sounded a little concerned, "So… are you sure that's how you wanna do it, big Em? I mean, I had that entire moment planned out… you can't do it again, you know?"

Emma had laughed earlier, but the more she thought about it, the more she worried that Emily was being a little too flippant about losing her virginity, caught up in her newly unleashed desires as she was.

Emily paused a moment, but then kept moving and responded. "I get what you're saying, little Em. But you don't need to worry," she said through the bond, confidence in her voice. "I know what I want. Besides, I don't need it to be overly special…"

Turning to her little sister, she grinned with a heavy, perverted lust, "I just want to cum harder than ever before, and to finally have Master claim all of me. And I know that will happen if I just give my body over to him… Or rather, to Daddy… hehehe"

As she talked, one of Emily's hands rested on her womb, and the other pulled softly on her collar. She could feel her lower body twitch slightly with anticipation.

Truly, Emily had fallen head-first into depravity.

"Ugh," Emma groaned with a partly relieved, partly exasperated smile. "I shouldn't have worried…"

"I still appreciate it!" Emily giggled happily.

Suddenly, Emily held up a hand, before taking out the map from her collar storage again. After comparing the surroundings to what she saw on the map, she spoke up again, "I think we're close, little Em. Keep an eye out."

Emma nodded, and they kept moving, more slowly this time.

Suddenly, Emily tensed up, and stopped, causing Emma to nearly bump into her.

"We're not alone…" she mumbled through their bond.