Azhantu (1)
Krack!
“Ugh! What the heck is happening?!”
Wirak, in charge of the Azhantu Branch of the Brokoslac Clan, couldn’t comprehend the current situation at all.
A sudden attack had breached the defenses spread throughout the city and struck directly at the hideout located right in the middle.
He could guess who the culprit was.
‘It must be the guy who was hiding with the fragment! His target is the fragment we had!’
What he couldn’t understand was how it was possible.
‘I was already monitoring the entire city for the search for the fragment. How did he evade our surveillance? And how did he find out the location where the fragment was hidden?’
While he was filled with questions, what mattered now was protecting the fragment safely.
To make matters worse, the incident happened in broad daylight, leaving their guards down and taking over 10 minutes to notice the anomaly and respond.
[Death’s Finger.]
Boom!
“Damn it!”
And the bigger problem was those things.
A horde of undead was surrounding the building, preventing them from getting inside.
‘Of course it had to be when the sun was out… This must have been his plan as well. But there’s no time to waste.’
The summoned vampires were steadily joining the fight, but how long Tiapol inside would be able to hold out was a mystery.
Rumble…
Just then, dark clouds formed in the clear sky, quickly ballooning to cover the entire city in shadow.
‘Damn it! I’m late!’
The city protection magic set up in their base was launched, but because it was an unexpected attack, it was taking time to activate, and Wirak had no time to spare.
“We’re charging in! Clear the way!”
Keek!
“Push through!”
Clatter— clatter!
Obeying Wirak’s command, the vampires gathered tightly to force their way inside.
Though the dark clouds above mitigated some of the penalties, the vampires, unable to exert their full power, were falling one by one in their reckless assault.
[Command of the Undead.]
Gack! Wirak, go ahead first!
In a moment of sacrifice, thanks to a subordinate who blocked the black magic with his own body, he managed to finally make his way into the building.
“I’ll head inside. You all block the entrance here!”
Arriving at the basement entrance, Wirak commanded the few dozen subordinates who had entered with him.
While the number of low-bloods that followed was only about ten, it was sufficient to block the entrance to the basement that lacked sunlight.
‘Tiapol! Please hold on!’
He hurriedly moved across the basement towards the place where the fragment was stored, praying fervently.
This was a matter personally ordered by the clan lord himself.
If something went wrong…
‘No! That can’t happen! It can’t…’
He rushed forward and finally arrived in front of the room where the fragment was stored, but he could go no further and had to stop.
Whoosh—
Overwhelming black magic was emanating from the warded room.
‘Too late…’
At that moment.
Creeeak—
Slowly, the basement door creaked open…
From the widened gap, darkness seeped out like an abyss.
All the hairs on his body stood on end, and his senses went on high alert.
The split-second, as the door opened, felt like ages for Wirak.
He found himself gasping for breath without realizing it.
He couldn’t take his eyes off the door.
It was as if…
The gates of Hell were opening.
And then he would soon come face to face with…
A being wearing a mask, flowing in a black robe, and approaching cloaked in pitch-black flames.
Like a Demon King descending… a calamity spreading despair and fear.
*
[Object Information]
– Name: Hans
– Race: Undead (Archlich)
– Common Traits: “Mind Hub,” “Clarity of Mind”
– Individual Traits: “Rotten Heart,” “Evil Wisdom,” “Forbidden Knowledge,” “Undying,” “Mana Affinity,” “Black Magic”
– Special Notes: Enhanced by the power of ‘Fragment of the Undead King (2/3).’ Innate black magic drastically increased. Can extract his origin to gain undying status, and as long as the stored origin is not destroyed, he will constantly revive.
I opened my eyes, storing the power I had absorbed.
The blood magic barrier from the remaining vampires around me couldn’t withstand the flow of energy and was torn apart afterward.
[Wow, this is impressive!]
It wasn’t just that I got double the strength from absorbing the second fragment.
‘At this level, the output is at least five times… And including the newly acquired skills, my combat power has increased tenfold!’
The effect of the newly acquired “Forbidden Knowledge” was simple.
As the name suggested, it allowed me to gain knowledge of black magic and undead.
‘It feels like I have a massive library in my head.’
Filled with grimoires of evil sorcery, including summoning demons or sacrificing people.
‘And “Undying” too… But first, I need to take care of that thing.’
I opened the door and faced Wirak, who was frozen in place.
He had fought through the undead to get here, but he was already a step too late.
[No need for lengthy talk.]
Raising my gloved hand to conceal my bones, shadowy hands sprang forth from all directions, overwhelming him.
“Gah! What the hell is this monster!”
Wirak roared, tearing apart the attacking shadows, bloodshot eyes glaring in fury.
He was certainly much stronger than Tiapol, who he had dealt with earlier.
Unlike Tiapol, specialized only in blood magic, he was effectively using overwhelming physical abilities while keeping a similar level in magic.
‘But for now, he’s just a good punching bag.’
I used only the newly learned black magic acquired through “Forbidden Knowledge.”
It was best to try out anything firsthand.
A chain with a scythe swung through the air, and the air in the basement ignited with the smell of sulfur from hellfire.
The various defensive barriers set up around me allowed no approach from him.
Crash—!
He attempted to escape the confines multiple times, but this area was already mine.
Darkness compressed the space, pinning him down.
“Gah, damn… damn! What the hell is this amount of mana?! Did you completely absorb the fragment?!”
[Heinz! I’ll draw his attention; you find a way to escape and inform the clan!]
At Wirak’s words, telepathy was relayed to Heinz, who was hiding in one corner.
I thought he was hidden well, but being direct-blooded made it impossible to hide completely.
[Heinz! Can’t you hear me? It’s an order!]
But as he remained still hidden, he received telepathy from Wirak again.
I felt the restraint of the power coercing Heinz, but having no reason to comply any longer, I easily ignored it.
[Damn, could you really be unable to move as well?]
He seemed unable to consider that his order could be rejected.
Struggling against the shadows, Wirak was soon captured and pinned to the floor by black chains.
Thud!
“Gah, gah. Who… who are you?”
His voice was resigned, as if he sensed his end coming.
But his eyes still burned with resentment, glaring at Hans.
As if he couldn’t accept dying like this, his eyes were filled with fury.
I glanced at him for a moment, internally smirking, and spoke.
[My name is Hans.]
There was no harm in revealing my name.
After all, it’s not even my real name.
[Go to sleep.]
Before things got more bothersome, I quickly used black magic to put him into a stasis.
Wirak’s body slumped.
Then Heinz, hidden in the shadows, approached and sank his fangs into his neck to drain his blood.
《The entity achieves conditions to grow. The special skill “Bloodline (Low Blood)” evolves into “Bloodline (Pureblood).”》
Withering away, Wirak shattered into dust.
Heinz could finally rank up after draining the second pureblood.
‘It seems there’s some form of loss when draining blood. It looks like I just barely reached the edge of pureblood.’
Even after draining Wirak and becoming a pureblood, it seemed I was still weaker than Tiapol, probably because I just ranked up.
“Oopsie~ Now that I’ve just become a pureblood, I can’t help it. But if I keep draining blood, I’ll definitely get stronger.”
Since I decided to focus on cannibalism, the speed of growth would be on a different level compared to other vampires.
Heinz stood up and headed upward.
There were still plenty of vampires remaining.
Surrounded by the undead, unable to escape.
*
It didn’t take long to sort out the situation.
As I drained the blood from the resisting low-bloods one by one, I felt the purity of the inherent power, the blood-draining factor, increasing.
“Ew, I can’t possibly drink this? Now I understand why Rosilika said that.”
As I drained the blood of the servant, I spat on the ground, grumbling.
They said servants and slaves wouldn’t even be treated as vampires.
Because they were filled with impurities from mutated blood factors, draining their blood would further decrease the purity.
‘I see why they’re so incomplete.’
These were beings whose cells were forcibly mutated by injecting small amounts of blood factors.
They cost little to create and had high efficiency compared to the resources consumed, but that meant they had limitations.
Heinz glanced around.
The destroyed hideout building and the garden turned battlefield.
Hans was resurrecting the destroyed undead and reviving the corpses of the minions that Heinz couldn’t consume.
Fortunately, thanks to Hans’s concealment barrier still being intact, it seemed the residents hadn’t noticed the commotion.
“Now, shall we slowly leave the city?”
Even if the vampire rulers were crushed, that didn’t mean all problems were solved.
In fact, now that those they held leashes on were swept away all at once, public security would likely worsen.
Now was the perfect time to leave.
Heinz hurriedly moved to the location where his siblings were waiting.
The kids would be ready to leave first, just waiting for him.
‘Even so, leaving just like this feels a bit guilty.’
As I briefly pondered, I soon realized it was a meaningless concern.
Didn’t he have two bodies in this world?
‘Right! Anyway, Heinz has gotten strong enough by now. There’s no need to rely on Hans’s help, so let’s split here.’
Heinz would take his siblings and leave the city, while Hans would stay behind for a while to deal with other matters.
‘Having multiple bodies is quite convenient.’
Just as Heinz was about to move to the spot where his siblings were waiting, Hans used his newly acquired knowledge to turn the vampires into ghouls and store them in the acoustic spatial dimension.
[Hmm… If I research this more, I might be able to open it on Earth too?]
The synergy between the newly obtained “Forbidden Knowledge” and “Evil Wisdom” was outstanding.
Thanks to this, I could skillfully use the black magic I had learned not long ago.
The only space magic I could use right now was utilizing the acoustic dimension located behind the “Auterica Dimension.”
However, by employing “Evil Wisdom” to research new knowledge, I would soon be able to create space that could be opened on Earth.
[Let’s think about that slowly. For now, let’s go collect the remaining things.]
There were still plenty of things left to gather.
Having collected all the undead, Hans slipped into the shadows and moved quickly.
The destination was, of course, the vampires’ main base.
‘Now that I can use teleportation, but it still feels risky, so I’ll save it for next time. There’s bound to be movement-restraining barriers at their mansion too.’
When he moved to the main base, it was clear that battle preparations were already underway.
With the hideout attack triggering emergency summons, they must have entered a state of crisis.
‘Meaningless struggles, of course.’
I first wrapped the entire mansion in a concealment barrier.
Now I was ready to unleash.
[Come forth. Sweep them all away.]
From the blackened ground, hundreds of undead surged forth.
I enhanced the undead with black magic and slowly followed behind them.
Krack!
“Gahhh!”
Keek—!
A battle broke out between the waiting minions and undead inside the mansion.
A two-meter-tall slave with a bat-like face and ghouls of the same form tore into each other.
A servant dropping from the ceiling crushed the skeleton’s skull, only to be countered by another undead, bleeding out and collapsing.
[Hmm… There seems to be more than I estimated?]
There were many more minions popping up than I had roughly gauged while being Heinz.
I heard they had put a large number of them into hibernation underground just in case.
“Destroy the intruders! Hold out until Lord Wirak arrives!”
Gahhh—!
It seemed they were unaware that Wirak was already dead.
From what I could see, the only strong one left was just one low-blood left behind to protect the base.
‘Then there’s no need to stall any longer.’
Gradually, I spread black magic throughout the mansion.
Shadows slithered across the floor, walls, and ceiling without discrimination.
Kieeeee—!
“Ugh! What is this?!”
After just a moment, when the shadows had finally spread across all domains…
I lightly tapped the floor with my skeletal staff.
Boom—!
Whoosh!
“Ugh—!”
In an instant, the mansion was engulfed in a fog of blood.
Black thorns erupted from every direction engulfed in shadows, piercing the vampires.
“Ugh… Lord Wirak…”
The low-blood, impaled by thorns all over, flailed briefly before finally ceasing all movement.
An eerie stillness enveloped the mansion.
[Wow… This is more incredible than I thought!]
Having committed a mass slaughter all at once, I could distinctly feel how much stronger I had become.
At this level, I’d surely never be ignored anywhere.
‘No, that’s only natural, I suppose.’
A sea of blood filled with hundreds of corpses, surrounded by countless undead exuding a menacing atmosphere.
In the midst of it all, Hans emanated a black aura.
Rather than being ignored, it felt like everyone should flee at the sight.
‘What kind of Demon King am I…’
I briefly glanced around.
Corpses that could be used for undead and the expensive-looking ornaments visible beyond them.
There were still plenty of things left to collect.
‘I have to gather everything I can. Where did they say the valuables were stored?’
I dispersed the undead throughout the mansion while humming a tune internally.
The more money, the better.
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