"Silrus, believe it or not, I have no malicious intent in my request, so I'll give you a chance," h.e.l.l said as he wore a steeled face. "You can take me there now to create friendly relations and especially while I'm alone, or I may still find and visit you in the future after I take down the Djinn Queen."

"I'll… I'll take you," Silrus said. Whatever weight he had in his words dissipated. It was a unique feeling, conversing with someone that could kill you at any moment without blinking an eye. He realised he was foolish, thinking back to a few minutes ago when he could probably choose to be naïve once in his life and save the lives of his five friends who fell here. He would resign from the position of Captain when he returned.

"Now that's more like it!" h.e.l.l laughed.

"Come on, Nirr, we have to go." Silrus supported the female hunter who had been having trouble standing up as the mental blow she suffered caused immense pressure on her. She was unprepared to lose even one teammate, let alone five, this was only her second mission. Although she showed promise, it was a disaster befallen her mental state.

"Cool names, what do they mean?" h.e.l.l asked.

…

Nero's attack succeeded, and he could feel the flesh being punctured through the tip of his blade. He activated his ability, Two-Instance Fighting, as he stabbed him from his right side. This ability let him create another instance of his actions and thus either null a blocked attack of his or managed to prevent an attack that could hit otherwise. Of course, the more diverse the instance he wished to create, more improbable the execution of it was. He, however, succeeded without any problems this time.

Leon yelled in pain and used his Telekinesis as a gigantic hammer-like force from where he was. .h.i.t to push back Nero, but sending him five metres into the air instead with the amount of power he used. Leon followed up by shooting the curved sword at him while immediately focusing again on Furcas who saw an opening to attack him head-on. Leon had used more than half of his mana at this point, and could only choose to use a quarter of what's left to punch Nero once more in the air since the curved blade had missed him.

He had to get used to his ability more until it was basically another limb for himself. Nero had tens of broken bones that were quickly trying to repair themselves when another giant punch of Telekinesis. .h.i.t him in the air, almost shattering them.

Furcas deflected the dagger that landed on him once more and risked being attacked by it. Since he had gotten closer to Leon, he would make use of the situation and deal a blow. He could stab him tens of times in mere seconds as long as he got a few more inches closer, but at that decisive moment, Furcas was punched onto the ground by Marco who no longer chose to watch the events unfold.

"Stop!" he yelled, facing the incensed Furcas. He was someone who favoured one-on-one duels more and would want to honour them in any case, but not only he had already made an exception with the request, or rather, demand of Leon; the duel they agreed on was also now tainted by Marco, a good friend and comrade of his.

"How dare you intrude upon our duel?" Furcas yelled while Nero was already on the ground, trying to get up. Since he never favoured getting hit, his regeneration was only at a basic level, far from Virgil's speed of regeneration. It was a gruelling matter, enduring thousands of hours of torture.

"You shame Lord Virgil!" yelled Marco. "You dare act so brazenly in the house of both a friend and superior of his?"

Aurus, hearing this, he commented smugly, saying: "Superior? And what do you base that comparison on?"

Marco then turned to Aurus and replied harshly: "On the fact that Lord Virgil has agreed to follow Lord h.e.l.l. We have all served Virgil for hundreds of years and our loyalty to him is unshaken even now, but we must move forward! Dwelling on mere dreams and delusions will only hurt the reputation of Lord Virgil himself!"

A few moments of silence ensued the words of Marco who clarified the situation for everyone. It was indeed as Marco said, disagreeing was unnecessary at this point. Even Aurus knew this to be the case, but anger was rarely based on logic, nonetheless.

Nero managed to slowly to get up and raised his voice, he was already agreeing with Marco before: "Leon!" he yelled. "I will apologise to you and every comrade we have here!" He was embarra.s.sed and did not want to accept his fault, but even though he could get the jump on Leon, his attack was unsuccessful, and he was beaten into a pulp in mere seconds. He figured in a one-on-one fight, it would be impossible for him to win unless he succeeded in killing him in one move.

Nero sat on the edge of the podium and yelled once more. "Porter, I have seen you progress far more than the other vampires and admired your resoluteness for training. I failed to control my anger when you attacked me in such seriousness, right after I decided to school you in regular combat. I am responsible for all this, and if Lord h.e.l.l wishes to not take me in, I will accept it, and apologise from him also!"

Marco's actions, coupled with the embarra.s.sment of being beaten after a sneak attack caused him to spill those words, which mostly helped dissolve the situation.

"I have nothing to apologise for!" Furcas yelled. "I a.s.sume everyone knows I was neutral and did not want to fight Leon until he challenged me. But I still want everyone to know that I have no grudge with anyone here, I will always accept a challenge and not shy away from it!"

"Fair enough," Marco said and turned to Leon who seemed to be in pain still, albeit his healed organs. It was probably a phantom pain on his part. "Leon, I a.s.sume you will forgive us, even Aurus once more and be understanding that we were the highest authority in this part of the world for hundreds of years."

"Yeah, sure. It's fine." Leon slowly got up, felt somewhat defeated as he took back his drink on his way out. Leila tended to him and got back inside soon after to inquire further about Nero's ability to immediately melt into shadows and even move within them. Since even her cla.s.s had changed to "Shadow Vampire", a seemingly unique cla.s.s. And to be fair, vampires have had an inherent ability as well as an affinity with shadows, it was probably the best thing to have happened to her, apparent from the fact that the System had changed her cla.s.s to a mix of her both qualities.

…

The Mad King of Menaroa called the Blood Hound after having hunted more than thirty vampires in one night, and Lord h.e.l.l, acquiring his t.i.tle after defeating Dmiria and consequently taking over his base were laughing and chatting, seemingly enjoying their time together. Silrus was stupefied, and even his decision to resign was denied personally by the King when he heard about it, not blaming him. Nirr was in a constant state of fright, so much so that she said she was going on a "solo mission" to find and hunt some prey for her tribe.

"I can't believe you killed him in mere seconds!" Blood Hound Praneo said as he downed another large gla.s.s of what seemed to be beer. h.e.l.l had missed an occasional beer the most, so this was a refres.h.i.+ng feeling to himself. The beer had a rather sharp and slightly bitter taste, just how he liked it.

"He was so confused when his spell wouldn't work on me!" h.e.l.l laughed and almost as if he was in a race with the King, he also downed a gla.s.s of beer.

"Silrus!" the King Praneo yelled and called for him. He dutifully agreed and arrived before the King. He wasn't dismissed earlier, so he had been waiting in a corner.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Silrus kneeled, facing below.

"You haven't told anyone what happened to your team, have you?"

"No, we were directly sent here to see you after I briefed the Chief of the City Guards, as Lord h.e.l.l wanted to speak to an authority as soon as he entered the city,"

"Good." The King nodded and added: "Inform their families, you were attacked by a horde of stray vampires, saved by the man who defeated Dmiria."

"Your Majesty, surely you would allow me to truly tell what happened to their families of what happened in secrecy at the very least? Of course, that will create some grudge between-"

"Silence." h.e.l.l was amazed by this man's aura. He could truly be called a ruler. The King continued: "Your opinion is unneeded. Execute this mission to your utmost. You may leave now."

"Yes." Silrus bowed his head again and left.

"I appreciate it Praneo," h.e.l.l said as he raised his gla.s.s once more. h.e.l.l was also surprised to see the amount of beer the King could drink. This beer had a very high alcohol rate, unlike most others h.e.l.l drank in his life.

"This is nothing next to what you've done for us, even if you didn't do it for us," Praneo smiled as he matched h.e.l.l's gla.s.s. He also hadn't seen many that could drink as much as himself. The King also didn't mind h.e.l.l calling him by his name and not his t.i.tles. He had the strength to do so after all.

"So, you wish to go back to Dmiria's, -no- your base back today?"

"If I could. I have a deal with Virgil to train his elite soldiers," h.e.l.l said truthfully.

"You train the Vampire Lord Virgil's elite soldiers?"

"You know him?" h.e.l.l asked, curious.

"He ranks fairly high even among other vampire lords. Do you want to see our ranking of them?" Praneo asked.

"Of course," h.e.l.l exclaimed. "I have been looking for information on other vampire lords, how did you find intelligence on them?"

"We have our own intelligence network, I a.s.sume you'd know that I can't reveal anything about our informants."

"No problem, it will suffice if I can get some information on them, as I'm planning on killing most of them," h.e.l.l said. This was another man h.e.l.l took a liking to, for a completely different reason than he liked Virgil. They were similar souls, Praneo and him. h.e.l.l had no doubt had he the strength, he would have stormed through multiple bases already.

King Praneo nodded to another Menaroan he dubbed his right-hand, and she promptly left.

"You say you wish to create friendly relations between us, I would like to inquire what it entails, I doubt the reason you had been talking about the force you now command is because you simply talk a lot," Praneo said sternly with a stark change in his mood.

"I am planning on killing both the Djinn Queen and Lucifer right after." h.e.l.l also displayed not a callous demeanour this time, but a bold and authoritative one, inspired by the King.

"You believe you have enough strength?"

"Yes, in fact- oh, she is back," h.e.l.l said, seeing Nile, the King's right-hand arrive with a scroll.

"We only have data on eight of the Vampire Lords," Nile explained as she handed over the scroll. h.e.l.l gazed at the rankings, the first thing he did was spotting Virgil's name on the list and relaxing soon after.

*The Rankings of Vampire Lords (By Power)*

1- Dmiria Wilful: Vampire Lord Dmiria is known to be using mind-control, mind-altering spells. As well as spells that can attack one's spirit directly.

2- Lirger Neiron: Vampire Lord Lirger is famous for his immense strength and immense size and is said to have crushed the former Vampire Lord of his base with one hand, thus occupying it.

3- Virgil Maneya: Vampire Lord Virgil is famous for his all-around strength and high-speed regeneration. His incredible stamina is said to have allowed him to fight for an entire day against another Vampire Lord once.

4- Xanim: Vampire Lord Xanim is proficient with a sword.

5- Serene Tiger: Vampire Lord Serene is a were-tigress is known to be the only one of the were-race to have survived the vampirism process.

6- Olva: Vampire Lord Olva is a clairvoyant and an able Vampire.

7- Pandora: Traitor Pandora is one of the two we know who holds the position albeit not being a vampire. He can summon and control up to five (as far as we know) spiritual beings in his fights.

8- Zimli The Undying: The only Vampire Lord that is said to be truly immortal. It is said that any wound he receives, including amputation, heals in seconds. Although he doesn't seem to have much strength, his mastery over regeneration gives him an edge few vampires have.

"The first one is killed by me, and the third one follows me," h.e.l.l said. "However, it is interesting to see such an array of different abilities. Do you know anything about the remaining four?"

"Not much, but they are bases that lost their Lords to the Djinn Queen, becoming her bodyguards. It must be one of the bodyguards that filled the position, so I doubt there will be anyone significant you will have to look out for. What you see on this scroll is what we gathered in the last fifty years!"

h.e.l.l contemplated for a few moments and turned to Praneo: "I want Menaroa to follow me in my campaign. Of course, I will show you the strength I have to offer at an individual level."

King Praneo was also a straightforward person, but the words that came out of h.e.l.l's mouth demanded too much. Praneo asked, with a severe look: "You want me to be servile to you?"

"Yes, and no. I won't go against how you want to run your country, and any smaller details can be thoroughly discussed after I kill the Djinn Queen, what do you say?"

"What if I say no?"

"I will leave you alone, and our sides won't have any dealings with one another unless necessary. Of course, I will hope that I have gained a good friend here no matter what your answer is," h.e.l.l said, a slight smile forming on his face at the end of his words.

"h.e.l.l, I don't believe you have bad intentions for my nation, but I can't simply bow down to someone else's authority. Menaroa will stay independent!" King Praneo said. He couldn't just hand over the nation, especially not to such an incomplete promise. "However, doors of this nation are open to you and only you, If you wish to visit. We will not turn back a man of your calibre."

"Thank you, I'll be sure to visit after I start fulfilling my promise of conquering other bases. However, before I leave, could I get a copy of the information on that scroll?" h.e.l.l asked.

"Nile, make a copy of it immediately." Praneo said and commanded someone else as well, saying: "Lord h.e.l.l will require some clothes, call an able person immediately!"

"Right away, Your Majesty," the Menaroan guard said and left quickly.