The vampires gathered in Sanguineum’s main square, which was surrounded by multiple pointed spires that towered above it. There were only about 1,800 vampires there, as most of them had died from the disease or while were defending the slave quarters from Kang Yoon-Soo and his party’s attacks. This was the first time all of the vampires had gathered in one place regardless of their rank, as they had never before had an incident that threatened their whole existence as a race.
“Euuuh…”
“My body is better now, but my head hurts…”
The vampires moaned and groaned after being infused with the mana of the Nobles of the Night. They had managed to recover from the disease and regain their strength, but the same could not be said for their mental state. as the powerful mana infused into them had given them a migraine.
“Cough! Cough!”
However, there were still a lot of vampires who had not even gotten the chance to be infused with mana; they were the lower-ranked vampires. They grumbled and complained.
“Why aren’t they infusing us with their mana?”
“We can also fight if the Nobles of the Night infuse their mana and help us recover from this disease.”
“Tsk… Are they looking down on us simply because we’re lower-ranked? I think they’re forgetting that we’re the majority of their forces.”
It was then that the Vampire Lord waved his hand, and all of the vampires in the square immediately closed their mouths.
“My beloved citizens,” Argoric said while flying through the air, his wings smoothly keeping him afloat. All of the vampires’ gazes turned toward the Vampire Lord. Argoric, surrounded by twelve Nobles of the Night, said, “We have to win.”
It was the first time the Vampire Lord had ever given a speech in public, as vampires were a haughty and arrogant race, and their lord was no exception to that. The previous Vampire Lords had only given commands and made threats, but they had never taken the time to give a speech of the sort that was happening at the moment.
Argoric, on the other hand, was different. He was quite well-known for his eccentricity among vampires, and his asking the vampires to gather only for him to publicly make a speech was proof of that.
“No one likes to lose, right?” Argoric began.
“…” The vampires all looked confused, seemingly unable to understand what the Vampire Lord was talking about. Had the Vampire Lord gathered so many vampires in one place just to say something silly?
However, Argoric was unfazed as he continued his speech. “What do you think is the best strategy in war?”
Nobody responded. Some vampires even openly expressed their annoyance at the Vampire Lord for wasting their time. It was very difficult to find an ounce of loyalty from the vampires, who were proud and arrogant in nature. In fact, this was the first time some of the vampires had ever seen the Vampire Lord.
Argoric pointed at one vampire among the crowd and asked, “You, you over there, try making a guess.”
“Cough! Do you mean me, sire?” The vampire hesitated before responding, “Isn’t it decimating the enemy, not leaving even one alive?”
“Wrong. The answer is winning without fighting,” Argoric said. He continued, “Now, think about it. How clever is the enemy? They didn’t fight us head-on, but they instead chose to spread disease among us. Then, they ambushed the slave quarters, which were located on the outskirts of the city, and increased their forces. I think highly of their strategy.”
The fact that the disease had spread through the fog was already widespread knowledge among the vampires, but to think that the Vampire Lord would praise the humans who should have been considered their mortal enemies? The proud vampires could no longer understand what the Vampire Lord was trying to say.
“That’s why I’ve decided to learn from them. I’ll win this war in the most efficient way possible,” Argoric said.
There was only a day left before the full moon, and the vampires could finally leave Sanguineum as soon as the full moon rose. That meant today was going to be the day the enemy would launch an offensive.
“I can brainwash any form of life, and anyone I lay my eyes on will be turned into my slave,” Argoric explained. The mind control skill was an advanced skill that only high-ranked vampires and above could use, but it was only the Vampire Lord who had a skill that could mind control multiple targets at once.
Argoric smiled and continued, “But what if I brainwashed hundreds of the enemy forces? What do you think would happen if I gave them the command ‘kill yourself’ or ‘join my army’?”
The Vampire Lord planned to mind control the enemy; was there any other method as efficient as that? However, the vampires were still perplexed and confused as to why they had been told to gather.
Argoric said with a nod, “However, as you all know, the mind control skill has a requirement equal to the power used.”
It was blood. The vampires’ mind control skill consumed blood whenever it was used. In fact, even a high-ranked vampire would be left in an anemic state all day if they used their mind control skill on someone with weak mental fortitude for a short while. That was why most vampires did not use the skill even though they possessed it.
“A lot of blood is required to use the mind control skill, and that’s why I wish to ask all of you to donate your blood,” Argoric finished.
Right as the vampires were looking at each other while looking confused, a vampire at the front of the group suddenly collapsed.
Thud…!
While he was on the floor, the vampire groaned in pain and cried out, “Eh? Ah! M-my body…!”
The lower-ranked vampire’s body dried up down to the bones as all of the blood in his body was sucked out, floating into the air. His skin cracked like dry ground, and his blood vessels dried up like tree roots during a drought.
That was not all.
“Euuk!”
“M-My blood! It’s being sucked out!”
The lower-ranked vampires’ screams rang out all over the plaza as their blood escaped from their bodies and floated into the air. The scene resembled a rain of blood flowing in reverse.
The lower-ranked vampires’ blood gathered above Argoric’s palm as he called out, “My beloved lower-class citizens! Your blood will be my flesh and mana, and I will use your contributions to control our enemies!”
“Euuuakkk!”
“H-Help me!”
The lower-ranked vampires struggled and cried out for help, but Argoric mercilessly continued sucking their blood out as he exclaimed, “War can be quite tragic! Oh, to turn me into a king who has no choice but to kill his own citizens!”
The middle-ranked and high-ranked vampires’ faces turned blue at the sight of the Vampire Lord’s merciless atrocities. They had only heard of the madness of their Vampire Lord, but they had never witnessed it firsthand. However, the sight before their eyes was far more atrocious than the rumors they had heard.
The Vampire Lord sucked the blood of countless lower-ranked vampires out, and the other vampires could only nervously gulp at the sight. Then, the remaining vampires who had survived the madness of the Vampire Lord started to get on their knees and bow their heads in reverence one by one.
‘This will be more than enough,’ Argoric thought as he looked over the square. He had sucked the blood out of one thousand vampires. It seemed as if it would be a huge blow to their fighting power, but that was not the case at all.
‘They were infected by the disease anyway.’
That was the main reason why Argoric had not infused any of the lower-ranked vampires with mana. Besides, the lower-ranked vampires’ combat power would have been significantly lacking even if the Nobles of the Night had infused mana into them.
‘We have equal numbers to the enemy.’
Kang Yoon-Soo’s forces had a combined total of eight hundred liberated slaves, as each of the slave quarters had possessed two hundred slaves. However, the enemies they were going to face were none other than the vampires.
‘The quality of the troops themselves is different,’ Argoric thought with a smile.
The slaves were nothing more than a bunch of ragtag ragamuffins. They were creatures who had been enslaved for years. The vampires, on the other hand, knew how to use magic and were very strong.
‘On top of that, this is Sanguineum.’
The battlefield was the vampires’ home territory, and they were surely going to be at an advantage in a place that did not have even a single ray of sunlight. Additionally, the vampires had overcome the disease to a certain extent through the infusion of mana by the Nobles of the Night.
That was not all, either. Every single one of the vampires now feared Argoric.
‘I’ve gained a lot by making this speech,’ Argoric thought.
The Vampire Lord had gained two things through his speech. He had gained the unconditional loyalty of the vampires, and the blood he required to use mass mind control on the enemy.
‘I’m looking forward to seeing how that man faces my mind control ability.’
The strategy of winning through the easiest and most efficient way possible annoyed Argoric, who had been looking for an opponent he could fight to his heart’s content, but the idea that he would not use such an easy strategy because of his boredom was stupid at the same time. Additionally, the enemy would be able to beat this strategy easily if he were truly a worthy opponent for the Vampire Lord.
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‘It doesn’t matter that you’re a regressor or whatever. Will you be able to find a way to fight against my mind control ability?’ Argoric thought with a smile on his face.
The Vampire Lord waited. There was only a day left before the full moon, and the one who was running out of time was not him, but rather the enemy. Therefore, he was absolutely certain that the enemy was the one who was going to come charging against him.
“I-It is an emergency, sire!” A vampire who had been sent out to scout came flying toward the Vampire Lord in a rush.
“What’s the matter?” Argoric asked.
“The enemy is charging toward the square as we speak, sire!” the vampire scout replied.
“Oh! Is that so?!” Argoric exclaimed in joy, as if he were a father who had just heard news of the return of his prodigal son.
However, the vampire scout’s face was pale as he continued, “B-But something is strange about them, sire!”
“What is it this time?” Argoric asked.
“T-They… They all transformed into werewolves! The werewolves are coming!” the vampire scout exclaimed.
Argoric furrowed his brows and muttered, “Werewolves?”
There were certainly a lot of werewolves among the slaves, but it should have been impossible for them to transform into werewolves as they required the moonlight for that, and Sanguineum’s fog prevented even a single ray of moonlight from reaching the city.
“Awoooooo!” The howls of werewolves reverberated across the entire city, as more than three hundred werewolves suddenly appeared from the alleys and charged in a massive wave.
The vampire at the forefront extended his hand and shouted, “Ice Javelin!”
One of the werewolves charging in the vanguard was hit by the vampire’s Ice Javelin, but the werewolf did not falter, lunging at the vampire and biting his head off.
“Euk—!” The vampire could not even finish screaming as his headless body fell to the ground.
The werewolf in front, having just bitten off the vampire’s head, glared at the other vampires with its golden eyes—it was none other than White.
White opened its bloody mouth and roared so loudly that the whole square shook. “Urnokra!”
[White has used Wolf’s Fear.]
[The vampires’ morale has fallen.]
[All monsters of the wolf race have been buffed by Wolf’s Fear.]
All of the werewolves roared in unison. “Urnokraaaa!”
The werewolves started to rip apart the vampires at a frightening speed, and the vampires fought back by raining magic down on them.
“Die! You stupid sons of bitches!”
“The sword of the night will cut you apart!”
The werewolves and the vampires clashed against each other in the city square, instantly turning it into a battlefield.
Argoric looked at the necklaces around the werewolves’ necks and muttered to himself, ‘Moonstones…’
All of the werewolves were wearing necklaces around their necks, embedded with yellow stones that emitted the glow of moonlight.
Argoric snickered and thought, ‘So you still had some tricks up your sleeves. Heh.’
The Vampire Lord had actually been confused when he heard that Kang Yoon-Soo’s forces had occupied a mine, but he now realized the reason why they had taken over that mine.
The moonstones, when refined by the hands of the slave dwarves, perfectly emitted a glow akin to true moonlight. Werewolves could exert even more power when they were in their wolf forms. In addition, the werewolves had an innate hatred for the vampires, and that made them even trickier adversaries to deal with.
“But I just have to mind control them, right?” Argoric muttered before flying toward the werewolves. The Vampire Lord’s eyes shone, and red rays of light shot from his eyes and swept over the werewolves.
[You have attempted to brainwash 317 werewolves.]
[You have consumed a significant amount of blood.]
However, the result was not what the Vampire Lord had expected.
[The werewolves are in a frenzied state because of the moonstones.]
[The only thing driving them is their innate hatred for the vampires.]
[You have failed to brainwash the werewolves.]
‘Tsk… I just wasted my precious blood…’ Argoric clicked his tongue and grimaced. Then, he looked back and gave a command. “Nobles of the Night! Go take care of those werewolves.”
The twelve Nobles of the Night, who were all top-ranked vampires, joined the fray. They stretched out their arms and started to simultaneously cast a spell. “Oh great demon of hell, appear before me and cast these fools out of my sight!”
A large magic circle appeared in the sky; it was the first step toward summoning a demon that resided in Pandemonium. The twelve Nobles of the Night had combined their mana to summon one single demon.
“For what purpose did you call me?” a demon called out as it appeared from within a cloud of dense white steam—it was the lower-ranked demon, Mondus. The demon’s body was surrounded by bluish lightning.
‘A demon is still strong even if it’s just a lower-ranked one,’ Argoric thought as he watched over the battlefield.
The demon was not as strong as the Vampire Lord, but it was more than enough to take care of the werewolves. In fact, Argoric considered it a waste to use a demon like Mondus just to take care of a pack of werewolves.
“Lower-ranked demon, Mondus,” a Noble of the Night began.
The demon responded, sounding displeased, “Do not call me lower-ranked.”
“Go and take care of the werewolves,” the Noble of the Night commanded.
“You must hand over their remains to me as per our contract,” Mondus said as he summoned a large lightning spear.
The sound of thunder reverberated across the skies, and multiple lightning bolts seemed about to strike the city’s square when….
“You can become a demon king,” someone called out.
Mondus instantly halted his barrage of lightning.
“Oh, lower-ranked demon. Why are you stopping your attack?” a Noble of the Night asked.
Mondus ignored the Noble of the Night and stared down at the brave little human before asking, “And what might you be?”
“For how long will you be content to stay a lower-ranked demon?” asked the man, who was standing atop the tip of one of the city’s towering spires.
Mondus seemed to have had his interest piqued, as he asked, “Are you telling me that I can become a demon king?”
Kang Yoon-Soo nodded in response and said, “Of course.”
…Of course, he was just lying to the demon.