Chapter 96: Virexa

“You hang around, I’ll investigate this place,” Jax said, giving Hydra a slight kiss and then walking away to the house.

“Alright,” Hydra responded and nodded, deciding to head out and take a nice rest before Jax called her back.

Soon, Jax stopped right before the house, and up close, the sense of wrongness this particular location gave him only sharpened, and it also felt very deliberate, as if the house wanted everyone to avoid it.

The structure drank in light rather than reflecting it. The stone wasn’t void-black like Nightengale’s architecture, but a deep, muted charcoal veined with something faintly iridescent, as if the rock remembered starlight from another age.

The windows were narrow slits, their glass opaque to avoid anyone from looking inside and seeing what was going on.

Jax lifted his hand and knocked.

~KNOCK~KNOCK~KNOCK!~

Three clean knocks, all of which echoed cleanly, but Jax didn’t sense any response. Inside, the presence didn’t stir.

There was no shift in the rate of heartbeat, no spike of surprise. Whoever she was, she had heard him, and had chosen not to answer.

Jax exhaled through his nose, amused at this scene.

~KNOCK~KNOCK~KNOCK~KNOCK!~

He knocked again, harder this time, lacing just a thread of authority into the motion, but just like last time, the only response was silence.

Then, barely perceptible, a flicker. Like someone rolling over in bed and deciding the world could wait five more minutes.

Jax chuckled.

“Well,” he said to the door, “I tried to be nice at least,”

His body blurred, not visually, but conceptually. Solidity loosened and Jax soon became intangible, easily stepping forward and passing through the door as if it was fog, allowing him to see the interior of the house and look around.

The house was dim but not dark, lit by scattered sources of warm, amber light that floated lazily near the ceiling, bobbing like drunk fireflies. The air smelled of old wine, dried herbs, ink, and something sharper, like ozone maybe, or burnt sugar.

Books were everywhere. Not shelves—piles. Some stacked neatly, others slumped open on tables and chairs, margins filled with dense, elegant handwriting in half a dozen languages Jax recognized and twice as many he didn’t.

A couch occupied the center of the room, its leather cracked with age but meticulously maintained.

And draped across this couch, boots kicked off, one arm flung dramatically over her eyes, was a woman, a beautiful one.

Long dark hair spilled messily over the couch like ink poured without care, strands clinging to her cheek and neck. Her skin was pale, but not vampiric porcelain, warm, faintly flushed, like someone who had actually been in the sun occasionally.

She wore a loose shirt that might once have been elegant and trousers that had seen better centuries, sleeves rolled up to reveal slender wrists etched with faint, glowing sigils that pulsed lazily in time with her breathing.

Her eyes snapped open the instant Jax fully materialized. Sharp violet eyes with sparkles of gold. The woman looked hungover from her movements, yet Jax could see in her eyes that she was 100% aware.

“Hmm,” She hummed as she looked at Jax up and down, sitting up in a singular smooth motion.

The languid sprawl snapping into lethal grace, and in that same instant a blade of condensed energy formed in her hand and she swiftly brought it to Jax’s throat, but the Demon King didn’t even flinch, just chuckling as he waited for her to speak.

“Breaking into my house,” she said dryly, voice husky and amused in equal measure, “is a very bad way to introduce yourself.”

Jax raised both hands slowly, palms out with a very relaxed posture.

“I knocked.”

She squinted at him, clearly assessing, pupils contracting, then expanding again, “You phased through my door.”

“After you ignored me.”

Her lips twitched despite herself. “Bold of you to assume that wasn’t intentional.”

“Oh, I assumed it was,” Jax replied cheerfully. “Which is why I didn’t take it personally.”

The blade at his throat sharpened, humming softly.

“Tell me what you want,” she said, smile turning predatory, “quickly. Before I decide killing you will improve my mood.”

Jax laughed, wondering how this woman didn’t recognize him when his look had practically spread all across the Demon Kingdom at this point.

He leaned forward, into the blade, just enough to make a point to her as he stared directly into this lady’s eyes.

“Careful,” he said lightly, “You’ll spill my blood on your couch.”

Her eyes flicked down, then back up, surprised despite herself, “You’re either very confident or very stupid.”

“Bold of you to say that with what you’re doing,” Jax said confidently.

The woman snorted. The blade dissipated with a lazy flick of her wrist, dissolving into sparks that winked out before touching the floor.

“Sit,” she said, gesturing vaguely, “Or don’t. I don’t care. But if you’re here to threaten me, flatter me, or recruit me, you’re already late and underprepared.”

Jax lowered his hands and took a seat on a nearby chair, turning it around and straddling it casually. “I’m here to ask some questions about your Clan Leader, Nulissa,”

That got the woman’s full attention.

The humor drained, not entirely, but enough to reveal something coiled beneath it. She grabbed a bottle from the table beside the couch, uncorked it with her teeth, and took a long pull.

“Nulissa worries about everything,” she said after swallowing. “That’s why she’s still alive.”

“And why she built a city that functions,” Jax replied. “But this worry is… specific.”

She studied him over the rim of the bottle, “Since you’re so confident, you must be Jax, that new Demon King fella?”

“Guilty as charged,”

Her gaze flicked over him again, slower this time, “Demon King, building that new Capital,”

“Wow,” he said. “Word travels fast.”

“I read,” she replied flatly, gesturing to the chaos around them, “Among other things.”

She sighed and leaned back, pressing the heel of her palm into her eye. “Let me guess. She didn’t tell you about me.”

“She didn’t need to,” Jax said gently. “The city did.”

That earned a low chuckle. “Of course it did. Damn place has a better memory than I do.”

She lowered the bottle and finally offered him a real smile.

“Name’s Virexa,” she said. “And you just walked into the part of Nightengale that everyone pretends doesn’t exist.”

Jax inclined his head. “Then I suppose we’re both done pretending.”

Her smile widened, teeth flashing.

“Oh,” she said softly, eyes gleaming. “This is going to be fun.”

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