Nightmare System - Volume 1 Chapter 30 Displaying Strength

“Hey, need help?” Miur asked.

“Who is it?!” Leon reacted and sent a knife flying to where the voice came from, which was right behind himself. It was a voice unknown to himself, thus the caution.

“Lord Helleborus sent me to help you,” Miur quickly added before Leon could say anything more.

Leon wiped the sweat off his forehead for a moment, choosing to trust this man. Sending a random person he befriended out of nowhere, that did sound like Hell. They also saw Lirger getting destroyed just now. He contemplated only so far during a fight. There were only 8 minotaurs left by the time Miur got there. 2 Pseudo Hells were frustrating the enemy, focusing on defence as the party dispatched the beasts one by one.

“We killed the big bad wolf-cow right there,” Leila said and added: “Just need to get rid of these few now.”

“I’ll give you a hand,” Miur said as he melted into the shadows once more. Leila was shocked since there was someone who even surpassed Nero in this skill, at least that’s what it seemed to her eyes. She nodded quietly and used her Multiplier on her dagger, aiming at another minotaur’s eyes. Leon was getting ready to land a solid hit using his telekinesis-controlled blades at this moment. He was also finding out that learning how to apply the force upon the daggers in a more precise manner instead of just adding more fuel to his attacks, which didn’t help increase the damage per se.

Minotaur, seeing the daggers coming his way, shielded his eyes using his hands but before Leon could use his attack even, Miur left the shadows and ripped through the creature’s ribcage using his claws. They were sharp to the extent that he didn’t seem to encounter much of a resistance as he dealt the fatal blow. Piercing the heart finished off the beast and Miur once again melted back into a patch of shadow on the ground.

With Miur’s help, the minotaurs were easily defeated. Pseudo Hells, seeing they got more help, stopped trying to hold the rest of the minotaurs in line and started killing with all they had as well. They were acting as a barrier between Leila Vaun and Leon, only letting 1-2 pass while they used their speed to frustrate and kill them when they found the chance to.

“Thanks,” Leila told the man in black. “What’s your name?”

“Miur. I doubt the king would have mentioned me, I could only talk to his copy before one was unfortunately killed off during all the fighting.”

“Who are you?” one of the Pseudo Hells spoke up, apparently wondering about this man’s personality. Although he would take risks if it was on himself, he couldn’t do so for his friends. Thus, neither were the copies reckless. On the other hand, Hell liked people when they were strong enough.

“I am Miur, Captain of the Lirger’s elite team. Well, then again, Lord Hell dispatched the rest of the team during his initial visit.”

Leon was still cautious against the man since he had this odd ability that made it harder to see him. The man was right in front of him, but then again, a portion of his brain was almost saying there was nothing there.

This ability itself was also what attracted Leila, she had a very similar ability herself. She wondered if this would be the final stage of it if she became proficient in One With Shadows.

“Why would you turn against your own?” Leon asked eventually, seeing his little sister was already enamoured by the man’s charms, or perhaps his abilities. Leon had also noticed the man seemed to have perfected Leila’s skill.

“Lirger is dead, why would I not?” Miur shrugged his shoulders. He was mostly amusing himself here, he was doubtful even Hell could catch him if he wanted to simply run away.

“And Hell’s copy you said you chatted with, are you the one who killed it, then?” Pseudo Hell asked this time.

“Yes,” Miur replied with honesty this time. He has always been an excellent judge of character. As long as he was truthful, he was almost sure he’d be welcomed considering his strength. This is what he gathered from Helleborus’ character.

Leila withdrew by a slight margin from him. Although a copy, he had still killed Hell. As someone who saw his skills first-hand, especially his speed as the copies held back the minotaurs, it was an incredible feat by itself. Of course, it was also possible the copy was just fine with dying there, they didn’t have much of a self-preservation instinct.

“You are saying you are strong enough to kill us?” the other Pseudo Hell spoke up this time, with a mocking smile. According to those rankings, even Hell’s copies could rival regular Vampire Lords, a mere subordinate said he killed a Pseudo Hell? It was impossible.

“Not quite in a direct fight, but as long as you don’t run, I can kill you,” Miur replied once more with confidence. He had a slight smile like that of Hell’s when he was about to kill something, etched on his pale face.

Pseudo Hells looked at one another and began playing rock-paper-scissors between one another. The winner was revealed in the first round.

“Best of 3!” the one who lost yelled.

“Don’t be such a sore loser,” the other Pseudo Hell replied and turned to Miur: “You’ll be fighting me.”

“Sure.”

They were around 15 metres apart from one another. Pseudo Hell thought he’d just Warp to him and kill him. If he died instead, it proved he could be a valuable ally. Then whatever he decided to do would be Hell’s problem. Pseudo Hells did not fear for their lives. They were fine with dying. It would be fine, as long as the original survived.

“I am warning you, I won’t hold back either!” Pseudo Hell yelled and took an attacking stance. He looked at Miur and saw the same smile on his pale face. He didn’t answer or move, so Pseudo Hell thought he’d start anyway. He got ready to launch himself to him as soon as he teleported and at that very moment, however, he felt his skin being punctured from his back.

He warped to “Miur” who still seemed to be standing there with the same smile, still not moving at all. When he looked back where he teleported from, he saw Pseudo Hell II holding a sword against Miur there. It was unfathomable to Pseudo Hells, that he was at two places at the same time.

“An illusion?” Pseudo Hell thought, seeing the one Pseudo Hell II had at the end of his sword was a moving, breathing Miur. A physical examination also revealed that indeed, this Miur Pseudo Hell was near was an illusion made from shadows.

“I thought we were having a duel here?” Miur said, Sword of Blood on his neck. The sword simply touching his neck was enough to make a deep cut, but Pseudo Hell II didn’t move it further.

“You are an assassin?”

“Yes,” replied Miur.

“Things have changed, I can’t have assassins close to my friends. You will stay put until Hell clears the rest of your base.”

Miur was shocked. He was going to kill everyone even after already winning the battle? What logic was that?

“Why would he?” Miur asked. “He won the battle; shouldn’t he absorb the vampires along with Lirger’s base to be his own? He doesn’t have the vampires to man both bases!”

“Porter died, he will kill until he is no longer as angry,” Pseudo Hell II said, standing near them. “As for you, we aren’t sure yet.”

“There still seems to be around 200 vampires on our side, let me convince them to join you.” Miur was unaware the one who replaced Lirger would be someone with such childish tantrum. He was gonna eradicate a whole base just because his friend died? It was unbelievable.

Pseudo Hells looked one another, unsure of what to do. It would surely be great if they could build up their numbers. These vampires weren’t weak compared to his army, either. In fact, there were tens of vampires there a lot stronger than Hell’s knights. Tens of vampires almost equalling in strength to Porter. Pseudo Hell II then offered arm-wrestling out of nowhere, said if Miur won, they’d do as such, stopping Hell.

“I am not very confident in my muscles, but I’ll try,” Miur was puzzled and disappointed at how much of a brute this new “Lord” was. It was probably better if he just ran away from here.

They found a rock suitable for the match so each set on one end. It was a quick match and as Miur guessed, he was no match for the strength of these brutes either. It was a shame, so much strength being killed off, but there was no helping it.

“Alright, I’ll go talk to Hell about it,” Pseudo Hell II said. “Don’t let this guy leave your sight. Leon, use your skill to hold him if he does anything funny, he won’t be able to run away.”

It was a confusing bout of minutes for Leila and Leon, but Miur understood what was going on. Pseudo Hells were just following orders, like simple peons. He guessed that they couldn’t disobey orders from Hell, and also guessed that ensuring the party’s safety was their primary task here. They first tried to gauge his strength with a duel, but one of the Pseudo Hells were just lying in wait in the case that the first one would lose, or perhaps if he proved to be more than a match for one copy. In such a case, he wouldn’t be able to protect the party by himself, so he saved the one duelling with him. It truly amazed him what two simple minds focused on one task could achieve.

“Was this all according to the plans of you two?”

“Yeah.” Pseudo replied.

“Fantastic.” Miur was almost giggly in contrast to his gloomy looks.

As far as Miur could see, they also finally measured his brute strength to see if he could be subdued easily. He wondered if the real lord was as calculative, they were his copies, were they not? It certainly seemed he had a taste for carnage, but wasn’t he the same himself? He only wanted to see amusing things, that’s why he was with Lirger in the first place. Perhaps under his childish tantrum was a kindred soul to himself.

“Don’t worry, I won’t do anything,” Miur said as he sat on the rock they arm-wrestled on. “I’ll just wait.”

“Porter, I apologise. You really didn’t deserve to die,” Hell said, looking at his corpse. Theperes hugged Hell from behind and said that it wasn’t his fault.

“He was loyal until the end,” she said.

“That he was.” Hell didn’t shed tears for him, but it still left a bad taste in his mouth. He felt one of his copies getting closer to himself, so he turned to face that way. They didn’t have a direct connection, but one can feel his mana.

“What happened?” Hell asked. His copies wouldn’t come to him unless all vampires were dead, and there still seemed to be around 180.

“You will want to give the order for our base to stop, we learned some things. More will die while I explain, can you just capture them first?”

“Sure,” Hell said. He surely trusted himself. If he thought it was a good idea to stop, it really was a good idea to stop. “Give the order, then.”

Pseudo Hell II gave the order right after he could do so, declaring that as long as they didn’t run away, no more of the Lirger’s vampires would die. There were still a few that tried to run, especially by turning into shadows, but Pseudo Hells hunted those few themselves, trying to organise them into a cl.u.s.ter.

“Hell commanded the system to stop making noise during the battle as it was distracting and it complied to Hell’s surprise, turning into a notification bar he could see in his peripheral vision if he focused on it.

His mana had shot up again and he had gained two more levels, along with a bunch of abilities he acquired. He first checked his new abilities he gathered throughout the battle.

*Skin Hardening: No mana required, the user can harden the skin, directly doubling the defence*

*Instant Slash: 200 mana to use, the attack takes a fraction of the second to execute*

*Body Manipulation: 50 mana per minute, the user can modify his body to grow wings, scales and gills*

*Mana Recovery: The user can focus his strength inside to recover large amounts of mana. The amount restored in one minute equals to 5% of the entirety of the mana pool*

*Resistance of Fire: Innate to fire-wizards, this resistance is only acquired through understanding the intricacies of the fire element*

*Fire Arrow: 50 mana to use, this arrow made of fire has great penetrating power*

“Cool,” said Hell and looked at his mana, shooting up. Along with his newly acquired stat points invested into it, his mana had now reached a new high.

*Mana: 1216/5255*

This meant that each of his copies could use a brand as well. Of course, that would mean they couldn’t use any other abilities. He was, for now, done investing in Dexterity. As long as the enemy was experienced enough, it didn’t mean a thing if he was a little faster or not. He would have to utilise his strengths and punch through his enemies’ defences.

Hell wondered what kind of insane defence Vaun would boast once he was given the ability “Skin Hardening”. It seemed there were some vampires with abilities in that army as well Hell realised, since after killing Lirger that he only gained the abilities “Body Manipulation” and “Instant Slash”. Hell thought of using Body Manipulation to grow some wings before heading over to the gathered vampires. Lirger was surely fast with those wings.

A pair of wings sprung up from behind Hell. They looked leathery with incredibly sharp bones protruding from the tips of the wings at the top.

“Of course my wings would look like this,” Hell murmured, following with a sigh. It was incredibly difficult to use the wings to even move a few metres in one direction, so he gave up for the moment after failing a couple of times, walking towards the crowding vampires. Not only that, but his clothes were also ripped even further now, his upper torso revealed. He now realised why Lirger wasn’t fond of clothes.

“And that is why we must now follow Lord Hell, for he proved to be more worthy than Lirger!” Miur was saying. “Lirger was a victorious Vampire Lord for long years, but even I, his Captain of the elite has seen that Lord Helleborus would bring us to a brighter feature, and he promises to bless you with more battles! I say we serve him and conquer other bases soon!”

Majority of the vampires cheered out of the fear that they would be executed otherwise. Anyone who tried to run was swiftly killed by the copies of the person who was dubbed “Lord Hell”. After all, they also saw how strong those copies were. If the copies were that strong, how strong was the original? Strong enough to kill Lirger, the strongest vampire they have ever known, that’s how much!

Although the way things developed was too fast for most of the vampires, there were still around 190 left after a few more killings and it would be easy to keep them in line after Hell’s show of strength. Vampires, in the end, all served strength. Vampires were feared creatures because almost all types of creatures could be turned into vampires and their regeneration abilities and immortality gave them the chance to increase their strength exponentially.

Hell walked onto the platform Miur was standing on to give the vampires a speech with slow steps. The vampires from Hell’s base all bowed down, Hell’s Knights also followed suit and the vampires from Lirger’s base didn’t dare make a sound. It was still too new for them, they had barely started fighting and in around half an hour, everything was over. It was too surreal.

“I am Lord Hell!” he yelled. “From today onwards, you are under my command. Are there any complaints?”

The vampires were quiet, of course, no one would be stupid enough to say a word at this juncture when Hell turned to his copies: “Your opinion on them?”

“Most of them have more than sufficient strength,” one of the Pseudo Hells spoke up and then whispered to Hell: “We have also identified two vampires whose abilities could be useful for taking, we’ll bring them to you later.”

“Good!” Hell turned to the vampires with a smile. “I favour the strong! You will inquire about the way my bases operate from my Knights, and as I can see there are some stronger ones here who may have a shot at becoming one of my Knights as well!”

Hell gazed at the crowd and saw some of the vampires discovering the newfound strength within themselves, it was the Puppet Mastery taking effect. It was also a great way of ascertaining the allies and enemies Hell had in here.

“Some of you may be experiencing new strength within you! This is my gift to the ones who swear to be loyal to me until you meet your ends! Swear fealty, serve under me and you will also gain this ability. You will stand above others and you will undoubtedly be more powerful. Is this not what you, is this not what any of us seeks?!”

“Now tell me, who do you follow?!”

“Lord Hell!” the majority of the vampires immediately chanted and soon, the rest followed along. As far as Hell could see, every single one of them seemed to be feeling a boost to their power. He then looked at Miur and asked. “Aren’t you convinced?”

“Of course, I am,” Miur declared, making his position clear.

“Why aren’t you experiencing the boost, then?”

“Surely, you would first need to bless me for that to happen,” Miur said.

“It happens when you become loyal to me. So, Miur, tell me, what do I need to do to gain your favour?”

“Lord Hell, I-”

“I don’t like lies, speak accordingly,” Hell interjected with a stern tone.

Miur gulped down some of the salivae in his mouth and considered running away. He was on a stage with Hell’s friends, knights and some of his vampires along with an army that just accepted him as their boss. He also wondered how great it would be if he had gotten stronger, but could someone only as strong as himself do that? Sure, he had killed Lirger, but he used a Godly artefact and many copies. He was sure he could do the same if he had those abilities.

“I don’t believe you are strong enough to raise my strength, but I also don’t plan on betraying you. I find you amusing,” Miur said.

“Do you want to challenge me for the position of the Vampire Lord? If you win, you get to win both bases and can have even more fun, is that not so?”

“I doubt your friends would let me go if something happened to you, so”

“Leon,” Hell interjected while Miur was talking.

“Yeah?”

“If he kills me, leave him be.”

“You can’t be serious,” Leila cut in.

“You won’t do something so risky,” Theperes said, adopting Hell’s own tone as she said it. “I can’t just lose you.”

Hell was slightly emotional, but he knew it was impossible for even an assassin to kill himself as long as it was a duel.

“Aurus, what happens to my copies if I die?” Hell finally asked, realising how ridiculous of this request of his was.

“They’ll disappear when they run out of mana,” Aurus truthfully replied.

“Alright, then, how about this?” Hell turned to all his remaining copies. “If I die while fighting Miur, escort him out of here safely at all costs.”

“Sure.”

“All right.”

“Okay,” and such answers were given by Pseudo Hells, they knew what Hell was thinking, it was to give Miur a real chance while completely crushing his faith that he could ever win against himself.

“Are you okay with it now, Miur?”

“Yes.”

Lirger’s base was also watching the fight with anticipation. No one really knew how strong Miur was, he would kill everyone in one move and even the most barbaric Lirger was understanding towards him at times. Both sides took their places and gazed at one another.

“Annette!” Hell yelled.

A girl with a small figure distinguished herself from the crowd. No one would think she was any threat whatsoever, but she was one of the knights. She was a girl with long brown hair and blue eyes, standing around 155 cm tall.

“Here!” she said.