Nightmare System

As Jack was trying to justify wearing such an armour that directly contrasted the nature of vampires and they kept messing around in the Treasury, Aurus came inside.

"It's done, King Hell."

"Oh? This quick?" Hell was surprised.

"Well, you asked for me to gather around a hundred possible dissidents or weaker vampires. There weren't any who seemed to be challenging your authority, but these hundred are the weakest in your current army. Do you wish to train them? If so-"

"Nope." Hell's blood-red aura gushed out from him again. He had acquired this skill as he levelled up during his confrontation with the human army.

*Bestial Aura: User can amplify his emotions into an aura attack. No Mana required. Supplied by the intensity of one's emotions*

It seemed to be a useful skill but only seemed worthy as an intimidation tactic. The ability was active at all times, it was truly hard to keep one's emotions in check.

"I will kill them."

"What?!" Aurus exclaimed. "Maybe I should get Lord Virgil, you may want to consult him on this?"

Annette then interjected before Hell could say anything. "I am sure King Hell has his reasons. If he says they must be killed, then they must be killed!"

Annette usually knew her place when around Sons of Shadow, she had accepted them as her seniors. But nonetheless, there was never a need to question Helleborus Reeveman. There was nothing he would do that would be wrong. At least, that's what she thought.

"Show me to them," Hell commanded Aurus after blinking at Annette whose face immediately went red again. "There's no need to bother Virgil about this."

Aurus loudly gulped and felt his mouth dry. Lord Virgil has always been one who cared for his underlings, but not this man. He even wondered if they would be next if he ran out of enemies.

"May I ask why?"

"Experimentation. Also, Aurus, when would we have to leave to get to the Ancient Mountains or whatever in two days?"

"We can make significant headway with a few of the portal stones here. It should be fine if we leave in around 12 hours."

"Rad. You can also watch my experimentation, but you may get hurt while doing so. Now, let's go."

I hope you are right about this man, Lord Virgil, Aurus thought and led the way into a large hall with the promised hundred vampires. They immediately cowered as soon as they laid eyes upon their King whose bloodl.u.s.t was as blatant as it could be.

Hell asked Aurus to send only one of these vampires each time into the room with him, and another when he asks again.

It was done as asked, and Hell was soon facing a lanky vampire with a problematic physique. It seemed as if he was a more advanced ghoul than a vampire.

"Your Majesty, I just want to say that-"

"Shush," Hell whispered and stabbed the vampire with the Sword of Blood. It wasn't a lethal blow, he just wanted to awaken it. "Hold the sword," Hell commanded.

The vampire spit some blood out by accident and was shocked, but he complied. He would do so anyway, he could feel the sword eating into his insides. However, as soon as the lanky vampire held the sword, his eyes changed. It was barely a second until the vampire's mind was completely taken over by the Sword of Blood. Or rather, what lived in it.

The vampire started grinning with bloodshot eyes, looking at Hell. "Stupid child, you will regret giving me a body. That damn Player Killer will also pay for what he did to me."

Hell's aura slightly intensified as he made two copies of himself. The copies used their Quickening and Short Distance Warping abilities to hold the vampire.

"I think you will find it that you are the one who is about to regret that you took over a fleshy body. Very prone to being damaged," Hell said and started punching the vampire repeatedly. The large room echoed the furious roars of the demon-like being controlling the vampire mixed with Hell's laughter. After turning the vampire into a puddle of flesh and blood, Hell asked for another to be sent into the room.

As Hell tortured a legendary demonic creature currently residing inside a peerless artefact, there was a sudden rush of vampires outside, some took to the walls with crossbows and Virgil stood on the walls, as well, reviewing the situation.

"Any word from Aurus or Hell?" Virgil asked.

"King Hell brought Aurus with him for an errand in the palace. As well a portion of the vampires," Annette truthfully answered.

"Well, we must earn our bread here, as well," Virgil showed a warm smile and commanded his Sons of Shadow to position themselves for the battle. "Order your ghouls here, we'll send them all."

Annette, the person who turned them all had absolute mental command over them, unless some of them managed to become something smarter than a regular ghoul like Theperes had. She did as asked and they waited. Another mortal army had arrived, but they were from Tenmo, the Lizardman country. They were known to be tougher opponents. Furthermore, they hadn't just sent a thousand like the humans, but three thousand, currently leaving the edge of the forest.

"How funny that they approached us using the same tactic we used a few days ago."

"Will the Knights join the battle?"

"Of course! I have been blood-thirsty for a while now!" Jack said, accompanied by the sound of metal with each step.

"Are you really going to wear that in the battle?" Annette huffed as she rolled her eyes.

"Are you kidding? I just got this thing. I'll keep it safe here."

"Good." Virgil then turned to the gathering of vampires on the ground and yelled: "We shall show our King that we can also be of use to him! Any vampire here is worth ten of theirs!"

Vampires were strong and usually an unstoppable force. And one thousand vampires would very well be enough to destroy a force of 3.000. But they couldn't afford any losses. It was harder for Lizardmen to be made into vampires, either.

Virgil had hoped to have Hell and his sinister new ability in such circ.u.mstances. Breaking the spirit of the enemy was a big part of winning a fight. Virgil had understood that there was no hesitance in Hell's voice as he butchered hundreds and thousands.

There would always be some justification in people's minds as they took lives or committed evil acts. After all, no villain ever considers themselves to be the villain. That's why there would be some hesitation, sometimes just in the eyes of the person. Hell's indifference awakened the primal fear in other people when he decided to move. Nothing was scarier than looking at someone who actually decided to kill you.

"Get your mediocre shooters off the walls, we'll cover here," Nile said. "We wouldn't just watch you die here." Nile has also been watching the army slowly come out and position themselves in the clearing. "They won't be able to meet our range, we'll deal as much damage as we can."

"Do whatever you will, Menaroans are not of my concern," Virgil replied and added: "We'll act accordingly."

The vampire army was still pumped up from Hell's previous show. Their blood boiled with excitement. And hearing about a battle, the two siblings soon found themselves next to the Commanders for this battle, Nile and Virgil.

"This is that damn idiot's fault," Leon muttered.

"This will be my first battle!" Leila excitedly said with gleaming eyes.

"What, no!" Leon interjected. "This isn't our fight, I can't have my little sister risking her life for something like this."

Jack, just having managed to doff the armour, raised his voice.

"Then why have you pathetic fools come back here? Our King is being as generous to welcome traitors like you back, yet, you are still ungrateful and won't even defend his current home?"

"Brother, they are right, the least we could do would be lending a hand."

Leon was frustrated after being confronted about his hypocrisy. He wanted a safe place for his sister, but also couldn't stand the idea of fighting for a monster. He no longer had any amicable feelings left for him after Leila talked more about her fascination about Hell. Leila had greatly appreciated being with Hell after experiencing a near-death experience at the claws of creatures that didn't even dare get close while they were with Hell.

"We will fight if they break into the city."

Jack clicked his tongue and turned his face away. Virgil and Nile didn't pursue the topic further, either. They didn't know what Hell was thinking, but they wouldn't want to get on the bad side of Hell, either, so they let it go.

Menaroans started filling the walls soon after, sneakily, as per Nile's orders. Virgil's Sons of Shadow were either in the shadows of the battlefield hiding under corpses or amidst the vampire army pumping them up even harder. Oddly enough, both the newly transformed vampires of the town and former soldiers scared into submission were fired up the most. It seemed their d.e.s.i.r.e to protect their city was strong, even if it was in ruins.

Ranged offensive from nearly two thousand Menaroans and an immortal race ready to charge in a fight with close quarters. It sounded like this would be an easy battle, even without the help of the siblings. Lizardmen of Tenmo, a not-so-far lizardman kingdom, was the second mortal kingdom ordered to attack Pandora City.

Lizardmen started moving towards the city. It would have been better if it was any other nation. Lizardmen's tough scales covering their bodies made them hard opponents against both vampires who had trouble puncturing those scales, and Menaroans with their arrows. They moved in an orderly fashion and as soon as they entered a range of 300 metres, Menaroan archers popped up from their hiding places and started raining arrows on them.

The arrows would sometimes hit one or two of them and wound them, but none of them stuck too deep. The approaching army furthermore moved in a tortoise formation with their shields covering them even further. It would be not much short of a miracle if they managed to kill a few of them.

After around 20 or 30 of their ranks were slain by arrows, Virgil decided it was enough, that it was time to meet them outside. The gates were swung open, but instead of vampires, the immense swarm of ghouls, the former residents of the city, started gushing out from the city. They were fast and unrelenting.

Ghouls started pouring out of the city and vampires followed. Jack and Annette followed right after the ghouls, leading the army. Lizardmen tore through the first hundred or so ghouls with ease, but with the overwhelming number of enemies slowly surrounding them, a bleak picture was painted for them.

One lizardman, in particular, stood out, wielding a hammer and a large shield covering his massive body stepped forward with an ear-piercing battle cry. Another caster stood behind him and started shooting balls of fire at the ghouls. No ghouls could even scratch at them with their impeccable teamwork.

"We will destroy you foul creatures, even if it is for other foul creatures plaguing these lands!" the warrior lizardman staying before the caster yelled. Most vampires relied on their claws and healing abilities to jump into the battle. They would take critical damage, fall on the ground, but get up again soon after.

Virgil soon saw a patch of shadow moving on the ground, finally manifesting into a physical shape in the middle of the battlefield. It was a slim man wearing jet-black clothes. It looked like a walking shadow, barely discernible in the chaos of the battlefield.

"What is Miur doing there?" Virgil mumbled to himself.

"Miur?" Nile asked.

"A dangerous figure Hell picked up on the way here. He used to be Lirger's right-hand figure, from what I've understood. He mostly sticks around Hell."

Focusing where Virgil pointed at for a few moments, Nile also saw a patch of walking shadows, tearing apart anything that tried to attack him. He continued taking calm steps forward.

"Ah, this is good, this is what I wanted," Miur talked to himself with a euphoric voice. He then suddenly stabbed his claws into a corpse on the ground and a patch of shadow slowly materialised right under it.

"Why did you attack me, you fool?!" Nero exclaimed.

"I see a fun target there, tell your buddies to concentrate their fighting on the peons."

"Crazy bastard, I hope they lop your head off," Nero spewed out the words with hate as he spewed out some blood. He would mostly be inconvenienced by such a move rather than dying or getting critically hurt, however, it still hurt. After all, a vampire would feel the hit throughout their body when hit in shadow form.

Miur slid on the battlefield as if skating without much of a care, his claws were strong enough to tear through the scales of these lizardmen. He soon found himself surrounded by the enemy, and at that moment, he melted into the ground. He wasn't as easy to see while walking either, but that didn't mean they wouldn't catch on, either.

The lizardmen frantically stabbed the ground with swords and spears, thinking to get him as he tried to escape. Miur was agile and far faster than Virgil's prodigy in Shadow Step, Nero. Executing a Shadow Step for vampires, as in, melting into a shadow required one to let their entire being melt into a shadowy substance and not everyone could muster it as the user also became more vulnerable in that form. Nature of all living beings screamed against such acts, especially in the middle of a war.

Killing the lizardmen surrounding him in a gory and brutal fashion also attracted the attention of the warrior and the caster who tore through most of the ghouls Annette had. The warrior lunged ahead against Miur to finish the fight in one blow, but to his surprise, he could only force this thin vampire back. He was unable to break through his defence even with his heavy hammer.

"Not too bad," Miur parried the warrior's next attack and stepped back, letting the ball of fire pass him through. "Do entertain me, I have been bored for a while now."

"Aneak, give me the Boon of Fury and Boon of Lightning," the warrior said.

"I thought we saved those for their leader," replied Aneak, the caster.

The warrior stopped for a moment and asked Miur: "Are you the one that occupied this city?"

"No," Miur said and waves his hands in nonchalance. "If you are the only leverage this army has, don't bother, you can barely be a nuisance to our King. Killing me will still be a huge blow, however, why don't you try that?"

Aneak and the warrior lizard looked at one another and nodded. They didn't know if their enemy told the truth, but they knew it could indeed be a good-enough blow to the invaders that they may not get punished even if they lost the battle.

"What is your name? I am Meyneak" the warrior asked as Aneak cast the boons on him. His muscles became firmer and larger. His body also felt a lot lighter as he felt an explosive boost in his abilities. Aneak fell to the ground, powerless as two lizardmen protected him from the sides.

"I'll give you my name if you beat me," Miur said with a giggle. His pale face was hidden behind some shadows again as he motioned Meyneak to come at himself.

Meyneak, yelling another battle cry, charged ahead once more. He was many times faster and stronger as before. His hammer went right by Miur and the impact took a chunk off the ground. Each of his blows was deadly enough to wipe out pretty much anyone if it hit, if Miur wasn't such an elusive target.

Miur cried out with joy. "Yes! Some real excitement. Show me more!"

Meyneak became angrier as he used rapid attacks one after another, hoping to hit him at least once. They moved on the battlefield as the fight continued and any vampire or lizardman who tried to join in the fray were either slashed into pieces or turned into mush.

Miur took a slash at the lizardman's c.h.e.s.t at every chance he got and bloodied the creature until he had become slower and weaker.

"That's good enough," Miur mumbled and quickly shadow stepped behind Meyneak, dismembering his arm holding the shield. As soon as he turned back to hit Miur with his shield, he felt five holes in his c.h.e.s.t. Miur's claws were touching his heart, almost in a c.a.r.e.s.sing manner. "Shame, I'm sure King Hell would like to make you an addition to his army."

"Meyneak, do it now!" A voice suddenly tore through the battlefield. The voice belonged to the other lizardman Aneak. Nigh-invisible ropes started covering his body, but he wasn't simply restricted by the ropes, but paralyzed by the spell. Meyneak raised his hammer once more, bringing it down like the fury of the heavens. Before Miur could free himself of the spell and shred Meyneak's heart, the hammer crashed into Miur's skull and broke his neck. Miur's corpse fell on the ground unceremoniously.

"We did it!" Aneak laughed. Meyneak looked up, yelling his heart out.

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