Chapter 531 Army of the Queen　　Michael''s pupils shrunk when the berserker unleashed its full effect on him as he grew a few inches taller and broader. The next moment, he dashed at the vampires with such inhuman speed that Sabrina''s eyes failed to follow his figure. He crisscrossed among the vampires, cleaving their heads and shing and dashing them.


    Of course, some vampires managed to cut him, but Sabrina didn''t see any signs of pain on his face. Instead, she was staring at him inplete shock. To her, Ghost seemed like a mix of Rowena and Noah. He had the finesse of Noah and ruthlessness of Rowena.


    Ghost terrified the terrifying vampires. Some of them tried to run but unfortunately had no way to go. In a few minutes, the golden sandy shore turned red with blood and in addition to dried coconuts, the ind contained severed heads of the vampires.


    "Weaklings," Michael snickered after killing all the remaining vampires.


    Instead of approaching Sabrina, he went to the ind edge, bent his back, and washed the blood off his face with salt water. Next, he washed his beard, hair, and neck to clean the blood. Then only did he turn around to see Sabrina''s frightened face.


    "You don''t have to be afraid of me Sabrina," Michael said, sttering the blood from his two swords,


    He then slowly walked towards Sabrina, who stood closer to the lone coconut tree with the glowing rune on her palm.


    "Normally, I don''t poke my nose into anyone''s business. But the vampires brought me here, and you are with the vampires. Do you know what that means?"


    Sabrina shook her head slowly,


    "That means, whatever you''re here for has be my business. We can''t fly away from here and we certainly can''t man that ship by ourselves," Micahel looked at the merchant ship floating near the ind.


    Of course, he could fly away from the ind if he wanted. However, it would defeat his whole purpose ofing here. Still, Michael had to put up a facade like he was brought to the ind by the vampires.


    "So it''s safe to assume you were brought here by the vampires because of that right?" Sabrina saw Ghost''s gaze falling on her glowing hand,


    Sabrina slowly bobbed her head up and down. He then turned his head to the side to see the glowing rune on the tree. Unfortunately, although the system scanned the rune, it failed to find what kind of energy the rune was pulsating. But as far as Michael felt, the energy was a hundred times more powerful than the Celestial energy.


    "Try cing your hand on the rune one more time. I have a feeling our only way out of here is to go through whatever this is,"


    Sabrina hesitated for a few moments, contemting whether she should involve Ghost in her mess or not. But after looking around the endless ocean, she had a feeling that no one woulde to save them any time.


    Besides, Sabrina wanted to see what the vampires wanted from her.


    "Wait," but when she was just a few inches away from touching the rune on the coconut tree, Michael grabbed her hand,


    "If we are going to do this, there are some rules. If you follow these, you will get home safe and sound. You got me?"


    Michael looked into her eyes and didn''t move his gaze even an inch away. Under his cold gaze, she had no choice but to nod,


    "Hmm"


    "Good. First, you will do what I say and when I say it. No questions,"


    For some reason, the rune on the tree gave off a feeling simr to his runic teleportation runes. If it was like the teleportation rune, then he knew that the rune on Sabrina''s hand must be the one that activates the teleportation rune.


    Just by looking at Sabrina''s shivering legs, he could tell that she was terrified to the core by the vampires. Michael had seen the same signs in soldiers tortured in camps in some ces back on earth. So it was obvious to Michael that they tortured Sabria to break her spirit.


    "I can leverage her weakened state to get more information," Michael said to himself. Since her mind and body were in a vulnerable state, he nned to exploit it to get as much information as possible from Sabrina rted to the key.


    "Second, no lone wolf bullshit. You''re not in the shape to fight alone. So let me do the fighting. You will stay close to me all the time,"


    "But-"


    "No buts. I am giving you a golden opportunity here, Sabrina. You can watch and learn from the best. You can either ept it or throw it away. The choice is yours,"


    Michael interjected her before she could oppose him. Sabrina stared into his calm, pitch-ck eyes for a few moments.


    "Hmm" Finally, Sabrina nodded, having no choice.


    "Now go ahead," Michael released her hand as she finally ced her hand again on the rune.


    As soon as both runes came into contact, the runes created a powerful shock wave that circled out of the ind, forming a strong wave in the sea against the wind.


    It almost knocked down Michael but sted the dead bodies into the sea.


    The next moment, a bright light beam shot out of the tree, enveloping Sabrina and Michael. Sabrina quickly covered her eyes with her hand.


    When she opened her eyes, she was standing in a gloomy ce void of any color except ck and white. She looked up to see nothing but a ck sky. She saw nothing but dark walls engraved with countless runes and symbols when she looked around her.


    Hearing a sudden rustling sound, she jerked her head to the right to see Ghost running his hand through the symbols. The hallway she was standing in was at least fifteen meters wide.


    She slowly made her way towards Ghost, who was busy checking out the symbols and engravings on the wall. The ce gave her an eerie feeling with its ck and white ambiance.


    Michael on the other hand was focused on the engravings and symbols on the wall to the point he didn''t even notice Sabrina standing behind him.


    The seemingly chaotic engravings formed a drawing when looked closer. He could vaguely make out a lion with wings roaring at a woman with a giant woman with several arms.


    What drew his attention the most was the figure standing beside the lion.


    He seemed to be holding a sword and a hammer resembling the doom bringer.


    "Is that me?" Michael asked himself,


    "Ghost," he snapped back to reality when Sabrina ced her hand on his shoulder,


    "You have any idea about this ce?" Michael asked Sabrina,


    He felt like he was dropped into a ck-and-white movie. Even the gems in her dress lost their glow and looked gray. The floor was paved with rough stones which were also used in the walls. The sky was pitch ck void of any stars or moons. Michael wondered where the light wasing from but to no avail.


    "Hmm" Surprisingly, Sabrina responded to his question with a nod,


    "Shadow Realm. The ne between the worlds," Sabrina said, looking around.


    She read about the shadow realm while scouring through the ancient scripts in the Holy Academy library. Among all the realms, the shadow realm was the most mysterious and many believed it was just a myth. However, after looking around the ce, she had no doubts.


    "What might possibly tempt the vampires in this ce?" Michael slowly walked along the walls as Sabrina followed him behind,


    "Can you remember anything the vampires said that could help us? Calm yourself and think," Michael urged her to spill more information about the key.


    Not only the vampires but also the guardians were interested in the key. Which could only mean one thing; the key would open the gateway to something much more powerful.


    Sabrina however remained silent without opening her mouth. Michael looked over his shoulder to see her opening and closing her mouth as though she was contemting whether she should tell him or not.


    Instead of pushing her too hard, Michael decided to give her some time.


    "Check this out," Michael suddenly halted his steps and pointed at the engravings to Sabrina.


    She stepped closer to Michael, looking at the symbols he was pointing at. While she was looking at the random ce Michael showed her, Michael took out several Spyders and drones and let them fly out in all directions to get the ce''syout.


    "Am I looking at something?" Sabrina asked after a while. No matter how close she looked, she couldn''t make out anything but just random shapes and symbols.


    "It''s a maze," Michael mumbled under his breath when the drones and Spyders formed a map of the ce. They were literally standing in the middle of a maze.


    The drones were still flying as theyout of the ce confused Michael as a maze should.


    "I need toe up with a n," Michael thought. But, of course, Sabrina was the best source to know more about the ce was Sabrina.


    "What else do you know about this shadow realm? Any time difference between us and our world?"


    "ording to the scripts I read, time stays still in the shadow realm,"


    Finally, Michael felt a little bit relieved. In case the time stood still, as she said, he could attend the Aqua n auction without missing it. Besides, he didn''t have to worry about missing the rest of his studies in Mazeroth.


    Whoosh!


    His train of thoughts was abruptly interrupted by a whistling wind. They both felt a gust of wind passing through them. Michael immediately unsheathed his swords while scanning the surroundings. His environmental scanning map didn''t reveal any hostiles near him until he vaguely saw a few silhouettes materializing out of thin air surrounding them.


    "System scan them," Michael quickly ordered the system as the creatures walked out from the shadows revealing their full form. As soon as Michael''s gaze swept across them, he creased his brows.


    They were some kind of humanoid creatures with no skin covering their bodies. The creatures hissed at Michael. To him, they resembled the skinless anatomy dummies in sciencebs.


    Sabrina, who had less tolerance for horrifying creatures, immediately felt her stomach growling as her face turned green.


    [Army of the Queen…]


    Surprisingly, Michael heard the system''s voice flickering as though something was disarraying the system.