Nightmare System - Volume 1 Chapter 31 Annette

“You will start our duel,” Hell said.

“Of course, my Lord,” Annette replied and raised her hand in the air. Before she could lower her hand, Hell had already started using Quickening and focused his attention on his surroundings. Unless the hostile force was somehow faster than himself boosted with Quickening, it would be impossible to catch him off-guard from any direction. Hell simply stood where he was and watched Annette’s hand going down. He could see the minute changes in Miur’s face, the moment when he turned into a shadow and melted into the ground.

“Fight!” Annette yelled.

The reason Miur was so hard to distinguish when he used Shadow Step compared to other vampires was because he travelled from shadow to shadow, only visible during the brief moments when he is passing into another shadow. He was entertaining the idea of being a King or being able to start countless wars simply because of the position he would occupy. He killed one of his copies even when he was using a Godly artefact, although this was the original, he didn’t use any weapons whatsoever, looking down on himself. That would be Lord Hell’s end, Miur was thinking.

But what he didn’t know was that the copy he killed was rather one that had used up all his mana without noticing in the heat of the moment and was simply surprised that he couldn’t use Quickening to get away. That brief moment aligned with Miur’s sneak attack and he was able to kill one. If copies used Quickening, their speed would simply become something Miur would be unable to sneak attack.

He started leaving the shadow behind Hell, Theperes’ eyes were comically open right now, as soon as she saw it. Hell glanced at her and giggled for a moment and then turned to Miur abruptly, trying to hold Miur’s claws. It turned out, however, Miur was using another ability which allowed him to create illusionary copies in-motion. Hell, suddenly seeing 5 more of him attacking from all sides, he simply punched each one and when all of them dissipated, he saw a slight patch of darkness right under his feet, ending with a punch there with all his might.

Melting into a shadow didn’t necessarily give one immunity to all damage. It was incredibly hard to destroy a vampire who could use the ability by normal standards, but if you had someone who could destroy the ground with one punch while not even giving the person a chance to escape, it would work. Destroying the patch of ground they inhabited as a shadow immensely damaged a vampire. It wouldn’t kill him, but the damage would be distributed equally to each percentage of his body then.

It meant that low-level attacks could continue attacking forever and the vampire would not even be bothered. But when an attack of immense magnitude hit, it was worse than simply losing a body part for a vampire. This specific punch had caused a heart attack on Miur as he suddenly jumped up from the shadow with blood dripping from near his mouth.

“They are only copies, after all,” Miur said as he held his chest. “What did you do?”

A heart attack would be almost impossible for a vampire, only possible since his entire body was badly damaged, each part of his body was attacked to an extent that this could happen.

Hell was still watching things in slow-motion. He would not allow any mishaps. He would have to destroy his belief that he could ever be a match for himself to gain a strong ally like Miur. He warped to him while using Quickening and used the vampire claws ability to penetrate through his skin easier. He held Miur’s heart who could only look at Hell in confusion.

“Ah, I see. Your heart has been weakened by my punch,” Hell said as he gripped it slightly tighter, causing him to convulse in pain. Hell jump-started Miur’s heart a few times each time he caused it to stop, gripping it tighter once more. It was a pain Miur could not endure when he finally gathered the strength to get the words out:

“Please I am defea”

“Ssssh,” Hell put a finger on his lips to shush Miur. “You see, I’m using you as an example so that my new comrades here won’t even consider the possibility of a rebellion. Just hold on a bit more, mate,”

Miur’s eyes were bloodshot and the fact that a foreign object to his body was touching his heart already caused him great disturbance, let alone someone keep releasing and tightening it again and again, only letting go enough to keep him alive.

“Did you know that I can actually take your abilities, transfer them to someone else and simply get rid of you?” Hell whispered to Miur’s ear, who could only look at Hell’s eyes as if saying: “Don’t do it!”

“I won’t do it,” Hell said. “I will give you a choice. Either run away with all your might after announcing your defeat, in which case I’ll let you go. Or accept me as your master and I’ll give you the seat you deserve in the future battles. I will now let you go in five seconds. Four. Three. Two. One.”

Hell did as he said. He didn’t have a plan of this sort when he came up here, he winged it and hoped for the best. “I like winging things,” Hell thought. “Pun intended.” He let Miur go who collapsed and vomited an unseemly amount of blood on the ground.

Miur felt his head was about to split open, the repeated stress on his vessels caused his veins to pop in a few places in his body. He had a mediocre healing aspect, it was enough to heal those veins almost immediately. Of course, there was nothing to dull the pain. He struggled to get up and turned to the army he’s the Captain of.

“I have assessed Lord Hell myself, I can tell that he has defeated me in such grandeur that I have nothing else to say other than that Lord Hell surpasses Lord Lirger in any way! His strength equals that of Demon Generals of Lucifer!”

Hell was slightly disappointed, thinking perhaps Miur was going to leave indeed.

“I will stay by the side of Lord Hell and act according to his commands, from today until my death! Repeat!” Miur said.

The newly acquired vampires had already become Hell’s soldiers, they did not hesitate as they repeated Miur who also repeated the line along with themselves once more. Miur had not seen such torture in his life of 250 years before. If it wasn’t the pain that paralysed his body back then, the fear would still be enough of a substitute. He was so weak, so weak! But as long as he was stronger than the other vampires by Hell’s side, he could still reap immense benefits. It was a small price to pay for salvation.

Miur kneeled before Hell and said the following words: “Oh, my Lord from today ’til death, which is the next base we’ll be attacking?”

“Which one is closer?” Hell asked.

“It is the Traitorous Pandora of the Menaroan race,” Miur said. As he was saying this, he also experienced this blessing that was granted to the rest of the vampires on the scene. It was an unbelievable jump in his abilities and he asked for permission to acclimate to this new change right after mentioning that it would take them a month to travel to Pandora’s base. This would be only possible if they used various dinosaur mounts, as well.

Hell first ordered them to bring the teleporter back into the base and then the capture of these mounts that could be used.

“Go and rest, Miur. We’ll leave in a few days,” Hell said and raised his voice “Everyone, rest as much as you can. If there are any grudges between any of you, solve it with a duel after getting permission from Annette!”

Hell thought that if his Knights were too weak, it would cause problems with the new vampires he absorbed into his army. They’d isolate the first batch, which would be an immense loss to himself. With Puppet Mastery, it was easier for vampires to get stronger compared to most of the mortal races. Of course, there would be a limit and that limit would become an impossible to climb mountain at one point for many, but his army could easily raise their levels to that of elite vampires, still.

The vampires were ordered to catch enough mounts for the travel and Hell sent a copy to Miur for sparring purposes. It was also so that he could keep an eye on him at times. Hell checked the list of Vampire Lords once more.

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.

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.

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.

Xanim: Vampire Lord Xanim is proficient with a sword.

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.

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

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.

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.

He had killed the strongest two and the third strongest was already his subordinate. There were 4 Vampire Lords not well-known about. It is said that they departed to be the Queen’s bodyguards and such, but who replaced them, it was hard to guess. Their bases were on the other side of the continent, an incredibly long distance. Impossible to traverse without using the portals, which required more than one able caster. Casters were quite rare and space-mages such as Aurus was one in a million. Still, Aurus was saying that they could travel from one portal to another by taking a day of rest each time and it would still be a journey of a few months. The Queen’s city was at the corner of the continent, too far a journey.

“Impossible Nightmare System, ya bastard!” Hell thought to himself. Why was it that he had to spend so much time travelling?

“What if I said there was a skill I could teach you that would allow you to recover your mana completely in 20 minutes?” Hell asked after a slight contemplation.

Aurus was very excited as recovering his mana in 20 minutes would mean a devastating force could be unleashed every 20 minutes, as long as one had the necessary spells.

“Is it actually possible?” he asked as he stared at Hell. This was a man of incredible abilities saw it was certainly possible if it was him saying it. “It won’t still be wise to shorten the distance to a few days.”

“Why not?” Hell asked. He knew why, it was everyone else but himself that would be incredibly tired from such a journey. Not only that, but they’d be also disadvantaged in battles. Hell was considering the possibilities and most of them would have a negative result. If they suffered heavy losses, even after winning, it could dispirit the army. It would be incredibly hard to enlist new vampires and he would have to rule with fear. “Would little Aurus be tired?”

Aurus was quite obviously frustrated to be teased by someone who he deemed as his Lord. “Look, Hell” he explained what Hell also thought about. He listened to Aurus with a smile and a look of surprise on his face. Hell liked teasing people, after all.

It was then decided that they would take a few months, making pit stops along the way. Aurus also suggested that if Hell also took down another Vampire Lord, Virgil and the vampires under him would wholeheartedly be supporting Hell’s endeavours and their strength would be more than doubled, as well.

Aurus himself was also excited since he wanted to fight alongside other Sons. Demons and Vampires have been passive against one another for a long time, now, and they hadn’t found the chance to fight in a real war. Certainly, they did fight many small-scale battles until now, but it was incomparable to the real thing. This was a warmonger world, even the most gentleman-like and lady-like characters in it could be feral and bloodthirsty, killing without a second thought.

Soon after, Hell saw Annette bring him two vampires. It seems his copy gave the job to his Knight as his time was running out. She brought the vampires not out in the open, but to a guest room not used for years. Annette and Alfie had cleaned up the place a bit beforehand as well, but it still looked dirty to an extent. There were no vacuum cleaners in this world.

Hell walked up to them and ripped their hearts out as if it was nothing out of the ordinary. Annette was terrified how trivial of a matter her Lord acted as if this was, but she couldn’t help but ask.

“My Lord, I thought you wanted to take their abilities?”

“I have. That’s another way I can do it,” Hell replied and told her to come closer. Annette was panicking, words turning into perfectly scrambled knots in her mouth and she was unsure if she was to blush or be scared. Her face turned red when Lord Hell put his hand on her chest, her body temperature rising to horrifying degrees. This man was akin to a God to her.

“Lady Theperes” she finally gathered the courage to get the words out, met by Hell raising a brow, oblivious to the situation. Of course, she stopped talking when she realised she was embraced by a mana-like power pouring inside her chest into her heart and her mind. She suddenly even knew what ability she had been blessed with, “Flaming Hands”.

It was one of the two abilities Hell received and thought of that one as the most useless one. It would, however, be an upgrade for Annette and other vampires.

*Flaming Hands: 10 mana per second used, the user scorches the area she attacks*

The other ability would be better suited to Theperes.

*Lion’s Heart: Passive skill, strengthens the heart and grants resistance against all charm effects*

Hell didn’t want her to be controlled by another wizard-like Dmiria. Furthermore, the information on some Vampire Lords was very limited. It was a possibility they could be wrong, too. Hell then distributed some more skills. He gave *Quick Steps: +50 agility while using, 500 mana per minute it is active* to Leon and *Skin Hardening: No mana required, the user can harden the skin, directly doubling the defence* to Vaun.

Leon was simply grateful, and he could only thank Hell. Leila was also grateful beyond imagination. To think that they thought of leaving him behind, it was a preposterous notion that would never be spoken or considered by the two siblings.

Vaun, on the other hand, was shocked. Lord Hell sometimes would help him raise his strength. He would say it was more like a game, but Vaun didn’t feel like a player, he felt more like a summoned creature, that would be left behind, eventually. But he was now given a skill by his Lord, and when he tried it, he could feel how tough he became.

Hell tested Vaun’s 250 defence by throwing a punch at his chest directly. He used a healing brand on Vaun’s back, so he wasn’t worried much. The punch had absolutely no effect on himself. Hell then took out the Sword of Blood and although Vaun was a bit worried, Hell assured him it would be fine. He stabbed himself with the sword to feed it as usual to access its strength and slowly pushed it to Vaun’s chest.

The sword was sharp enough that simply touching it to a tree bark was enough to cut it, but it only scratched Vaun. Hell now told Vaun to brace himself and swung an arc in the air toward Vaun. He only closed his eyes, hoping he wouldn’t die. The sword didn’t cut him in half and was almost stopped in his chest. Of course, this meant that Hell could chop him in half if he applied his skills and kill him as easy as flicking a finger.

This much defence still meant Vaun was becoming a reliable shield. He started vomiting blood and was having trouble breathing. Surrounded by vampires and Vampire Lords, for a moment there Hell wondered why he wasn’t healing, yet. That was right, Vaun was only given the basic vampire regeneration ability, which was little more than being able to reattach the limbs.

“All right, drama queen, I got you,” Hell said and snapped his fingers, activating the brand at that moment. It was but a moment and Vaun was completely fine. He left the room with his bloody clothes and Theperes entered.

“Here you are,” she said.

“Here I am.”

“I was thinking about the future,” Theperes said.

“Wow, the future?” Hell said, abruptly in a panicked state. “Look, Theperes, I”

“Let me finish!” Theperes interjected and added: “I am wondering what your plans are if you finally kill the Djinn Queen.”

“Oh, whew!” Hell laughed. “It’s simple, then I’ll kill the Demon of Pride.”