Nightmare System

"So, what are you planning on doing to the residents of the city? Surely you wouldn't massacre them all," Theperes said as she walked in the ruined city with her clone bodyguards. The clones seemed to be not mindless, but more like another Hell.

"We will kill off the majority of the able-bodied, leave almost all of the women and all children alive," Pseudo Hell-1 said as they continued on their path. Hell didn't give them any weapons, so any enemies they encountered, they pummelled to death. One of the copies always stayed in the shadows, making sure the path ahead is safe.

"It makes me wonder," sighed Theperes. "If there could be a peaceful option without involving the city."

"That is quite naïve thinking," Pseudo Hell-2 replied. "What do you think this city of thousands upon thousands would do if they realised we have a meagre force of 500, only as much as half of the city's army?"

"Even the citizens would start attacking and killing vampires. With my, or Hell's strength, I'm sure we would still win, but we'd incur significant losses while doing so. And we'd probably have to kill even more of the population," Pseudo Hell-1 added.

Theperes pondered for a few moments when she heard the cry of a little boy. She rushed ahead with her bodyguards and saw a four- or five-years-old kid crying leaning against the wall behind him, watching the corpse ahead of them being devoured. Theperes was initially unable to ascertain whether it was the father, mother or the brother, only realising it was the father from his clothes when she got close.

Her heart ached and tears welled up in her eyes. "Stop!" she commanded. "Get away from that kid and leave this place!" she added as he tugged on the shirt of one of the vampires.

"Wait for your turn, woman!" the vampire sniggered, not even sparing a look at who it was and raised his hand to swing his claws at her.

She wasn't scared, however. Theperes had three of Hell's copies guarding him. It was even better than having a whole garrison guard yourself.

The vampire's hand was caught mid-air by a shadowy figure in that very moment, with the vampire finally seeing the person in front of himself clearly.

"Yo, do you guys know who you almost attacked?" asked Pseudo Hell-1. Hell's idea was to label his copies as "Pseudo Hells", they were also numbered according to the order they were summoned. An exceedingly stifling air suddenly fell on the vampire who was now panicking beyond reason.

"If it's you- Lord Hell, then she was…" the vampires could barely get the words out with Hell's gaze penetrating deep into his soul.

"Apologise!" Hell commanded and threw the vampire on the ground with all his might. Even from as high as 2 metres, the vampire's broken bones could easily be heard when he crashed on the ground. Hell made sure not to break his neck or damage his head so that he wouldn't be knocked out.

"Yes, my Queen, my Lord, forgive this poor fool for daring to such an extent. The vampire vomited some blood. His ribcages must have punctured an organ.

"Were you eating this child's father right in front of him?" Theperes asked with a stern tone. She was quite disgruntled. "You are all vicious animals, almost worse than ghouls."

"Yes!" the vampire yelled. "We are but some animals who can only follow your mighty selves. Please spare this pitiful follower of yours!" pleaded the vampire.

Theperes was at a loss with this vampire crying out to such an extent. There was not one trace of his blood frenzy from a moment ago. The little boy had crawled back to what remained of his father, crying uncontrollably. She walked up to the boy, closed his eyes with her hand and took the boy into her embrace. She felt a sharp needle poking into her heart when she saw the boy, she had to try and remedy his pain somehow.

"They will never hurt you again," Theperes started crying along with the boy who was struggling to get out and go to the side of his father, not able to stop herself. This heartbreaking scene was a relief for the bloodthirsty vampire as he figured he'd be forgotten for now and could scuttle away soon. He kneeled on the ground and dared not look up, the vampire could still feel the pressure from his Lord, his King.

Pseudo Hell-1 would execute the vampire immediately had he looked up even for a moment. "What do you wish to do with him?" he finally asked to Theperes, seeing the lowly soldier before him wouldn't budge.

"We can start with this," Pseudo Hell-2 said and held the vampire's arm that was to attack Theperes had the copies not interfered. "This is quite a sinful arm now, isn't it?"

The vampire swallowed his saliva in fear and still dared not look up. He began shaking with two of the copies so close to him with bad intentions. Pseudo Hell-2 used all his strength and started breaking his arm. The bone was slowly crushed further and further, finally shattering. The vampire was wailing and rolling on the ground with pain, accidentally managing to release himself from Hell's grasp.

His arm looked like wet spaghetti, bending in all directions as he moved about. "Let's remove the problem, shall we?" Pseudo Hell-2 added and held the vampire down with one hand while gripping his broken hand with the other. With the bone gone, with Hell's stat of 72 strength, it was rather easy for him to rip the muscles and tendons apart, tearing the arm away. The sound of flesh tearing was uncomfortable for Hell, too. He didn't like the sound at all.

The vampire now began wailing so loudly that he seemed to have suppressed all other sounds in the city, stopping the crying of the boy along. To stop him from yelling as such, Pseudo Hell-2 started punching him on the ground. One punch was already enough to easily disfigure the vampire's face, and he rained tens on him. It was hard to call it a face at this point, but at least the vampire had stopped crying.

"Kill!" the little boy yelled. "Please kill!"

Both copies looked at Theperes, waiting for a response. Theperes felt a deep connection to this child and wanted to help him all she could. "Kill him," Theperes commanded as she continued hugging the child. She wanted to close his eyes again, but the boy did all he could to see. "I want to see," he yelled.

"All right," Pseudo Hell-2 said and grew vampire claws, sinking his hand into the vampire's c.h.e.s.t and holding his heart in his hand. He c.a.r.e.s.sed it momentarily, then ripped it from the body, killing the vampire. It was truly thrilling to have a heart beating in your hand. One would feel the fleeting aspect of life. Pseudo Hell truly felt like a reaper as he did it.

"You can't take the boy," Pseudo Hell-1 said, seeing how she seemed to be reluctant to part with him.

"I'll ask Hell," Theperes said and dismissed his notion.

"What?!" Pseudo Hell-1 exclaimed. "But… I am Hell!"

"I'll ask the original, then," Theperes added with nonchalance.

"Look, we just razed this city. You can't just go around picking up orphans!" Pseudo Hell-2 added.

Theperes walked up to Pseudo Hell-2 who still had blood on his hands and gave him a mean look. "I'll save this boy from this hell!"

Pseudo Hells, understanding the seriousness of the situation, didn't point out the irony in her sentence, only sighing. "You can't pick up another, then!" said both copies, at the same time.

"I wasn't planning to!" Theperes snorted and they kept walking.

"Hell will resupply the spell with mana at the end of each hour, we should be fine," Pseudo Hell-1 assured Theperes, just in case.

…

"Wait," Hell said. "I wonder what her status update was."

Belland still embraced his lover in his arms, Amilyr, as she tried to hold herself back from biting back into Belland's bleeding arm. Hell had already had enough with this couple, but he also didn't care about killing them off. He simply left.

Hell wished to surveillance the area by flying around, but since he had to supply the copies with more mana, he refrained from doing so. He was quite fast on foot, too, so he ran. He went to the town square, surely, his vampires would bring the prisoners here to gather them up.

As he ran through the streets, he saw his vampires killing, mutilating some residents while some smaller groups of the city's forces were fighting some of Hell's army. With such scattered forces, it was unavoidable there would be some groups here and there remaining. The smell of blood and smoke rose was infused in the air, not being able to smell much else as he got closer to the town square.

There were corpses here and there, with blood covering the streets. A fight between vampires is surely to be bloody and ruthless. The difference between an organised force under orders and a peaceful city's disorganised troops were clear to see. Hell finally reached the open area ahead and as he thought, here were the prisoners, and a large number of Hell's own troops.

"Huh?!" Hell suddenly exclaimed. "Are they stupid?" Hell called his knights to his side.

"Hello Hell, we have captured the majority of the army and slaughtered the rest!" said Jack with a smile, making a point of showing his person, being covered in blood everywhere.

"Good lad," said Hell. "But why did you gather the townspeople and the military here? Sure, this place is spacious enough, but whose idea was this?"

"Ah, Lord Hell, it was mine, with some help from Sir Vaun." A blond vampire stood out with her 2.5-metre tall body. "If I may explain?" Brynhild asked.

"Do so."

"Well, we have the prisoners away from the city's residents and obviously it would be rather hard for us to shepherd such a high number of people so we have only taken prisoners the ones that were foolish enough to stay outside and try to run away. We, then, threatened the army about killing them off if they acted out. We have already killed 30 residents to prove our point. The latter action was pointed out by Sir Vaun, saying he was sure the spirit of the prisoners needed to be broken first."

"Good lass!" Hell laughed heartily and asked: "Where is he, right now? I haven't seen him for a while."

"After suffering grievous injuries during holding the line against the vampires and we suggested he rests. My Lord, Sir Vaun was exceedingly useful against defending the line and probably saved-"

Hell interjected: "What? No! I gave him the ability to heal himself as you do! If he doesn't get back here in two minutes, I'll break his legs!"

Brynhild rushed into a manor nearby, it seems he was getting the VIP treatment around here. But one minute after she went inside, a man was seen running with a shield and a sword in his hands. He looked beyond ridiculous.

I was looking so cool during the battle back then, this is ridiculous, Vaun thought. But he guessed quite fast that Hell was not joking about this, so he ran out with some pyjama-wear he found in the house. They were quite comfy, made from silk. Just as he started enjoying some rest, Brynhild, unfortunately, rushed in, telling him of the situation. Vaun arrived before Hell and stood guard without saying a word. He could see mockery in the eyes of the prisoners and Hell's vampires alike.

Hell used his new ability, "Flying". It would be a lot more cost-efficient to use this skill, so he tried it out. It was surprisingly a lot harder to fly with this spell, compared to feeling your wings as you did. Hell still managed to fly into the air without much of a trouble, and rose before the prisoners, getting ready for his performance.

He was a good actor! He was sure! And people who were desperate would hold onto any promise of hope they were presented with. So that's what Hell would do, give them hope. It seems he had still lost around 70 with an estimated 80. Taking these 200 as prisoners while turning as many of the city's residents as they could and only use the ones who half-succeed and become ghouls would greatly bolster Hell's strength.

He currently only had a few hundred ghouls and an estimated 420 vampires under him. If he could raise the number of ghouls he has to at least 1.000 would make great vanguard. Ghouls would be loyal to the one that turned them, so as long as the first batch of soldiers he saved did it, there would be no problems. The only hiccup would be if he failed to use these 200 prisoners as soldiers.

Hell also realised that trying to convert such a loyal group of soldiers would be dangerous to the extreme. Who knew which ones would accept to join as an assassin or an informant?

Hell pondered for a moment in the air, with the vampires in Pandora's City grew restless and curious about this flying man. They had recognised their lord in the air from his spells and ability to fly. While also having heard his voice before he died, but it was different with Hell. Even if they weren't that high in the air, not many had focused on the challenger.

Hell's face suddenly lit up, the answer was obvious! A buddy system could work wonders! Now, Hell thought. I should address these poor souls.

"I am Lord Hell, the conqueror and king! I'm here to relieve you of your chains you were bound by the Djinn Queen!"

The crowd of vampires were silent, while Hell's own army was still under the effect of his previous speech a short time ago when they were recruited! They now believed him even fiercer and had no doubt about this victorious leader of theirs in their minds. He promised victory and there they were, almost entering the inner circle of the Vampire bases. The main base and the 4 bases around it would be the main force, a terrible might that managed to govern almost half the world.

Devils and demons were nothing to scoff at, either, controlling more than half of the world themselves. Both sides ruled with an iron fist, crushing any and all rebellions with sheer force to ensure their control over the world with their numbers. Usually, one vampire would be appointed to each city, who would be responsible for overseeing all matters. This able vampire would also be required to control the country.

From time to time, a vampire from the main base would be teleported to solve the problems, but all races in this world feared and respected the vampires. Of course, there were neutral zones in the world just the same, The Dimensional Labyrinth ruled by the Minotaurs and Tenmo, the Lizardman country. These nations, however, would cooperate and pay what they must to stay that way, with neither country interfering with the vampire business.

"Lord Pandora may have been kind-hearted, but that's no way to rule a kingdom! No way to rule vampires! I am not one with such pathetic emotions, but I will give you all one chance if you want revenge," Hell ended his words, with an anticipating silence ensuing. What these vampires wanted the most right now was undoubtedly revenge, Hell had to engrave their minds that it was simply impossible.

He saw Vaun standing on guard, sweating in his peripheral vision and called out to the prisoners before him with a sly smile on his face: "Anyone who can cause my good friend Vaun to stagger with a punch will be able to challenge me, the man who killed Pandora, as well as most of your other commanding officers!"

Vaun sighed and left his shield and sword on the ground, standing before the prisoners. It seems he was both punishing him and breaking the spirit of Pandora's soldiers at the same time. Well played, he thought.

"Who wishes to challenge my friend here?" Hell asked.

Many a hand were risen, seemed to be almost half of the army here wished to get revenge on him. "Good," Hell said. "I'll watch as all of you lose your hope."

The first vampire that came out had taut muscles and stood over 2-metres tall. He seemed to be a Lizardman, scales covering all over his body. He arrived before and sent a punch with all his strength behind. The Lizardman vampire huffed and expected Vaun to be sent flying ahead, but his wishes failed. He opened his eyes in shock, with some snot dripping from his nose.

The hundred vampires that raised their hands clearly had not seen this body of Vaun, hardly scratched by hard swings from bladed weapons, let alone being punctured. Not only that, but everyone thought he was also a vampire, making him impossible to kill. Vaun was swarmed by the enemy at one point, covered in hundreds of cuts small or big, thus he was momentarily excused from the battle after it ended.

Vaun didn't move even slightly. He definitely felt the hit, but it wasn't much after what he experienced during the battle earlier. The other 100 vampires who had seen how Vaun battled were already fazed by his incredible durability. After this small exchange, there seemed to be now around 50 showing their hands.

"May I ask a question, Lord Hell?" the Lizardman vampire gathered his confidence and finally asked.

"Proceed," Hell said, now sitting on top of the broken statue in the middle. The statue was damaged to the extent that it was impossible to guess what it originally was.

"Can Lord Hell dish out such a punch?"

Hell stopped for a moment and asked in return? "Would you like a presentation?"

"If you can grace us with it," the Lizardman said. He wanted to tear a new hole into this enemy before him and he would try to rip his heart out as soon as he came close to himself, avenging Lord Pandora.

"All right." Hell used Quickening and Short-Distance Warping to immediately appear before the Lizardman and punched him in the c.h.e.s.t using all his strength. His strength, combined with such speed sent the muscular creature flying, only stopping when he hit the wall of a house, with a very visible recess in his c.h.e.s.t, his ribcage was crushed.

Roro arrived before the Lizardman to confirm his status. It was revealed that such a punch to his ribcage caused it to be broken and puncture his own heart. He was alive, but in a coma until his ribcage healed.

"He is still alive, but in a coma," Roro yelled.

"Now," Hell said. "Who wishes to try next?" There was an infernal smirk on his face, welcoming all challengers. The ones who raised their hands before had withdrawn them in the next second, their hearts beating exceedingly fast. Each one tried to avoid Hell's eyes as he gazed at the crowd.