VQuintessence
patreon
The Way Of Blood III
🕑 Added 2022-05-26 14:33:55 +0000 UTC.................
Chapter 85: The Way Of Blood III
.................
Ian was right by his personal mansion, it was not a very big estate, but it was elegant, suiting his taste. The mansion was also right next to the newly built Cat's rest.
Money and influence can do wonders, especially in a world like the one he resides in. Having the two large buildings constructed in a matter of four months was a possibility.
It's even more of a wonder if one considers the gorgeousness of the Cat's rest and the mansion, befitting of the base of the Roses.
It's also important to note that not only did the Cat's rest become a monumental symbol in Gotham, vibrant with prosperity. It's not just one coffee, the one next to the mansion is the main one. It's a chain of coffees under the Roses.
Despite its prosperity, there was another brand chain that went way past it, not only in popularity but also in revenue, especially the latter. The said brand is called Ivy's Garden.
The garden contains a variety of plants, even rare ones that are hard to find. Next to his mansion was a large greenhouse, one Ian stepped into, finding Ivy within.
The greenhouse was exquisite, to say the least. There are about ten rows of various planting pots, including Raised planters, rail planters, planter pots and boxes, and even hanging planters.
Plenty of exquisite and wonderful plants were spread all around, neatly place and looking healthy.
"Happy?" Ian questioned, amused by her antics. How her fingers trailed around her plans. How every plant around her moved as if alive, dancing in indication of her happiness.
Her eyes lit up as she looked at him, and instead of answering, she just jumped into his arms, hugging him tightly, "You have a month and a half's time of life force to pay, and only then can I be happy."
The way she looked at him, and the way she trailed her fingers along his chest. It was as if she was treating him like a plant, a divine plant of sorts but still a plant, something that weirded Ian out quite a lot.
"Yeah yeah, with due time." They didn't really have much to say as they were used to talking on the phone while he was away.
Though she stayed stuck to him like glue, smelling him like someone who has been wandering a desert for ages before finding an oasis, and tasting its clear natural water.
"Agh, you're really..." Ian was defeated. He just allowed her to do what she wants while telling her why he was there.
"Anyway, I've commissioned a few people with creating all kinds of exquisite plants. I'll also be working on the project though I was never that interested in the field. I will see if I can achieve any results.
You'll be involved in the process as you know more than I do. You're a botanist after all. You also have experience in biochemistry, right?"
That instantly got Ivy's attention as she hastily nodded, "Why do you need others? I'm sure I can do it myself. It will just take time, and I just need the tools necessary to experiment."
"Exactly, it will take time. You see, sweet Ivy, business doesn't work that way. More products with better quality mean more customers, more income, more influence."
Ian started stroking her hair, almost reflexively. Perhaps caressing Raven's hair regularly and for so long made that a habit.
"Another good news... The expansion plans have started. We've already started establishing other of our brand chains in other cities, Cat's rest and Ivy's garden alike."
Ivy was stunned for a while. She didn't speak but just left a kiss mark on his cheek as she jumped in happiness like a little girl.
The more Ian observed her, the more he realized that. She behaves like an adorable youthful woman in the midst of nature, but how humans treat nature turns her into something else... He saw what she turns into, firsthand.
Someone threw a planter pot out of the window out of anger, according to the Roses' investigation. The pot had a plant in it, one made by Ivy's garden. The next day, he was found dead. Ivy hid nothing from him, she told Ian that a poisonous snake found itself in the disgusting human's home... It is what it is.
'Hmm, I trust her a bit... Until I won't anymore. Her obsession is too unnatural. As I thought, I'll have to fix her.'
His thoughts were kept to himself as he made himself to his next stop, the basement of the mansion, specifically his lab.
His first project after arriving home was for Raven to create a few wards and protection spells around the mansion, especially the underground level.
In fact, Raven focused mostly on dark arts and sealing arts, so she really didn't know much about that, but Ian did, it was his focus aside from the core elements of magic.
He rejects magic, thus he can not use magic, so he saw fit to study the concept of it and how it works. He studied the gears that make magic work how it does, all for the future.
Now he stood in a room right next to his lab. It was almost completely empty and dark with only an experiment table on it.
Ian lifted his left hand and focused on bringing two things from the black Rose dimension, one is the staff of all things, and the other is a living being.
His stance changed, going down a bit with the lance-line staff ready to pierce its target. He knew the exact moment she will appear, so his weapon was already on its way beforehand.
And before the dazed and lost Imogen can respond, the staff went right through her heart. Her angelic physic did little to stop the demonic weapon, and what came after made it even harder for her to respond as the staff started sucking her life force.
Granted, she is an angel, so she might have an unlimited life force or at least a large reservoir of life force, but the massive rate at which her life force was absorbed made her weak, finding her body to be harder to control.
She was still able to move though, and if not for the shock, she would've been able to respond and even defeat Ian, if she were to act smart that is.
However, the shock left her unresponsive, giving Ian enough time for the Kryptonian dagger to appear and his hand and swing at her kneck several times.
The angel's head fell to the ground as Ian pushed the staff deeper into her heart with his knife following after it, making sure her heart is destroyed... Angels can simply be killed by destroying their hearts among other methods.
"Hahh." Ian let out a breath, "Nothing went wrong. I guess Murphy's law has yet to take effect? Well, it's easier than I expected."
Still, Ian waited a while more to see if an angel's death can be detected though nothing happened, 'Is it perhaps because she's a fallen angel?'
He left those doubts behind him and focused on those two beautiful possessions of Imogen, her bo... Her gorgeous black wings.
Ian licked his lips, his eyes shining with brilliance. Just imagining his plans made him giddy, to a certain extent, creating plans and watching them unfold was more exciting to him than the results.
He threw the staff and the dagger back into his dimension but brought out the Kryptonian sword. He went ahead and moved the angelic body a bit before swinging down several times, slicing the wings out of the body.
"Phew, quite heavy huh?" It wasn't worth the trouble, so he brought a baggage cart and transported the wings to the lab. He then took the rest of the body to a freezer and put it there until later.
Thankfully, the underground part was only open to him and completely closed with walls of several inches of steel. Just getting inside requires several different codes, basically constructing a complicated intelligent electronic lock system.
Otherwise, if anyone saw him treating a body like nothing, and the anticipation in his eyes. He looks like a completely different person, a mad scientist.
"Now, back to the way of blood!"
In the lab, before Ian were several test tubes and a few other objects. If anyone with a brain comes to know about them, they'll go further and beyond to acquire them to the point of desperation.
