#242
Vampire Rise (2)
It was far too murky and chaotic to be called the mental world that composed a single being.
‘What on earth is this…?’
In one place, dark-red rain poured down like a squall; in another, a pool of blood swirled in a vortex; and right beside it stretched a parched desert.
A world that seemed as though fragments of shattered worlds had been forcibly stitched together and jumbled about.
—How could you devour your own kin… Power, my long-cherished wish…
—I don’t… want to die… How long must I live… in hiding…
—Research… I must research… Buncheonhoe, power!
On top of that, incomprehensible fragments of thought flowed through the entire space, raging like a storm and muddling the mind—
[Urgh, what is this…!]
Merely being exposed to this hostile environment was enough for the soul hardened over ten thousand years, and the ego established through a thousand years of memories, to be rapidly eroded.
[…Don’t tell me all of this is the resentment from kin-devouring? Just how many did he devour…! No, more importantly, how could he still think properly after his mental world was polluted to this extent…?]
He hurriedly wrapped the karma that had swelled grotesquely over long ages around himself like armor, protecting his ego as best he could while muttering softly.
When he had first come into contact with the poisonous blood, he had assumed it was because of some unknown bloodline dwelling in Heinz’s body. He had never imagined that even his mental world would be in such a state.
After all, the person in question, Heinz, had been acting far too normally for that to be the case.
[Oh? As expected of the Primordial Vampire? This must be quite a harsh environment, yet you seem to be enduring it rather well.]
While he was struggling to grasp the situation—
A familiar voice rang out, riding the storm thick with chaos.
It was the owner of this insane world and his target: Heinz.
[My apologies. Your visit was so sudden that I didn’t have time to clean. It’s also the first time I’ve had a guest. Well, to be honest, it was such a mess that I’d already given up on it completely.]
Words of mockery tinged with laughter.
Obaipo frowned and looked around.
But nowhere in this twisted, intermingled world could Heinz be seen.
‘It seems he has no intention of showing himself directly… Is this a trap he prepared to deal with intruders…?’
As expected, no matter how he thought about it, there was no way the leader of a faction who had reached Sacred Blood could possess such a deranged mental state.
Surely, somewhere, there was a safe zone where his intact mind was stored.
‘Of course, that alone is impressive enough…’
He gradually heightened his mental power and curled up the corners of his mouth.
‘It seems he’s relying on this trap right now…’
A mental world was not a world governed by physical laws, but by the power of will and thought.
Wandering around blindly in search of a path would only mean dancing to the other party’s tune.
[You’ve underestimated me far too much, Heinz…!]
But he, too, was no ordinary existence.
Obaipo focused his mind as much as possible on a single point, mobilizing even the unknown authority embedded in his soul, and took a great step forward.
With only one thought in mind: to go to the place where the master of this world, Heinz, was.
Swaaak—
The surrounding scenery changed in an instant, as though he had used a land-shrinking technique.
‘Hoo, I’ll end this quickly—’
Thinking it had gone as intended, he triumphantly raised his head.
And at last, he came face-to-face with it.
[…Hah? What is that now…?]
A gigantic wall rising as though it cut across the world.
The inviolable sanctuary born in the wake of the Immortal King Hans’s corruption incident—the “Soul Firewall.”
‘Damn it, is he hiding inside there…?’
One mountain after another.
Its overwhelming majesty was apparent at a glance, and the distant pressure that made it seem absolutely impossible to break through no matter what method he used left him breathless.
On top of that, the erosion trying to swallow him even at this very moment was still continuing, so he could not simply stand still like this.
[To think you came this far in one go. Even though this is not your own mental world, you wield your power this skillfully. As expected, you’re remarkable. But that power just now was, after all…]
Heinz’s words began to ring out again, but Obaipo, who had no time to spare, ignored him and drew out every bit of his ability, ramming into the gate.
This time as well, he raised the power he had received from the Revolutionary to its limit.
[…The power of the Abyss? No, it’s somewhat different. As expected, this doesn’t seem like something I can simply overlook. But how is it that you possess such power?]
Yet no matter how many times he slammed into it, the gate showed no sign of being breached.
Heinz, too, seemed convinced that the barrier would not fall, and had only continued to show interest in something else since earlier.
And that attitude was more than enough to grate on Obaipo, who had been ignored ever since they were outside.
[Kuh, you’ve been chattering on and on since earlier…! If you’re so curious, why not find out for yourself? If you keep cowering inside like a coward, you’ll gain nothing!]
Adding to that feeling, his irritation surged as he found no answer no matter how much he battered at the gate, and he spat the words out with a sneer.
The response that came back was completely unexpected.
[…Indeed, you have a point. It seems we need a deeper conversation.]
[What…?]
No sooner had those words ended—
The entrance of that iron fortress, which had shown no particular reaction no matter how much he struck it, began to tremble little by little, and then slowly opened as though welcoming him outside.
It was such a hollow opening that all the effort he had spent pounding on it felt meaningless.
[I shall invite you in. Come inside.]
What followed was an exceedingly meaningful provocation.
[If you are confident you won’t regret it.]
It was an arrogant declaration made while throwing wide the gate that had protected him, but Obaipo paid it no mind and strode proudly inside as though he had been waiting for this.
After all, he had come here for that very purpose from the beginning, and there was already no other possibility left for him.
‘What a fool… The one who will regret this is you…!’
And above all else, he had confidence that he would absolutely not lose.
‘He doesn’t know that I can draw upon the power of other bloodlines even within the mental world.’
The essences of Sacred Blood he had fused into his heart with his own ability.
If he detonated all at once the power he had deliberately saved without using for the decisive moment, along with the authority granted by the Revolutionary…
‘It will only be temporary, but my output should rise tenfold.’
No matter how much this was Heinz’s mental world, advantageous to him, there was no way he could overturn that degree of difference in output with his strength alone.
Even if he yielded a hundred steps and assumed Heinz could withstand four or five times the power, the result would be the same.
The situation would be over before he could think of another response.
Harboring such sinister calculations, Obaipo marched confidently into the open barrier—
[You’re here.]
And there, he was able to face the spiritual body of Heinz, in the form of a human figure glowing red, whom he had so badly wanted to see.
However, what he had not expected was…
[…What… is this…?]
The one waiting in the innermost depths of that mental world was not Heinz alone.
[Kuhuhu— What a fascinating fellow. You have some peculiar things hanging off you.]
A pitch-black evil, as though all the world’s impurities had been gathered into one, scanning him with black eyes that seemed to see through everything.
[That power. It bothers me a lot. As expected, it looks like that Revolutionary bastard did something, doesn’t it?]
In contrast, a pure-white saint, surrounded by dazzling radiance and blessings as though loved by God, scattering bright light around him.
[Tsk, I don’t have a body, but I’m strangely hungry. What would happen if I ate that in this state? Would it fill me up?]
[Ah… Indeed, I can sense a peculiar aura from him…]
Besides them, there was a madman seemingly made of dark-red flames of madness, a relaxed green figure who seemed to carry warm sunlight, and more…
Before he knew it, nearly ten beings had surrounded Obaipo after he entered the castle.
‘When did he receive outside support…! No, wait. That’s not it, is it? Every one of them is a master of this mental world?’
Having lived for long ages and become well-versed in techniques and the mental arts as well, the moment he saw them, he realized that the current situation was turning in an extremely strange direction.
And certainly not in a direction favorable to him.
‘Multiple personalities…? No, there’s no way mere alternate personalities could possess such stature! And each of their dispositions and levels are on entirely different dimensions. A black mage who feels like an Immortal King, a saint who seems to be a holy man, even someone who appears to be a high elf. …And don’t tell me, is that a dragon…?’
Among them was a golden lifeform with a silhouette clearly different from the others in human form.
A mighty endangered creature that even he had not seen in nearly three hundred years.
‘The most likely possibility is that he summoned the souls of heroes through necromancy and sealed them within his body using some great art…’
In any case, one thing was certain.
Right now, he had ended up in an utterly shitty situation.
His trump card? The authority he had been granted? None of that held any meaning anymore.
‘…Damn it.’
Cold sweat ran down Obaipo’s back.
Of course, there was no way a spiritual body in this mental world would have physiological reactions, so it must have been his imagination.
[Kuhuhu— I was just beginning to make a little progress in my research. To think I would gain an additional clue to the Abyss here! Come to think of it, this fellow was also from the Oath of Reversal, wasn’t he? This will likely become a good clue in many ways.]
A chilling voice that made his hair stand on end just by hearing it.
Without realizing it, he glanced behind him, but the door through which he had entered was already firmly closed, as though it had never opened in the first place.
[Do not worry. You need only cooperate a little. As it happens, I have a fine item with me! It will not hurt much. Ah, to be more precise…]
With the black figure approaching while holding some kind of orb in his hand at the lead—
Extraordinary spiritual bodies, each of whom looked difficult to face even one-on-one, began to creep closer.
And then—
[…You will no longer be able to feel pain, either. Kuhahahaha!]
That was simply.
The end of it.
***
“Hmm.”
Heinz II slowly opened his eyes and quietly looked at the old vampire, Obaipo, frozen in front of him.
Quite a long time had passed in the mental world, but not much time had passed in reality.
He slowly raised his hand and removed Obaipo’s hand, which had been stretched toward his forehead.
Like a mannequin, he merely followed the movement limply, without strength.
‘Even if he had surrendered, I had no intention of accepting him as a subordinate.’
Obaipo was a sinister fellow who had spent a long time with the Oath of Reversal, plotting schemes from the shadows.
His disposition was the complete opposite of Briki, who was always carefree, and he was also skilled in techniques, so even after subordinating him, Heinz would have continued to suffer from an unpleasant unease.
“You said the loser offers everything to the victor.”
Puk—
Without hesitation, Heinz’s hand plunged into Obaipo’s heart, now little more than an empty shell.
Unlike the collapsing body, the heart thrashed and beat wildly as it was seized in his hand.
“This is quite a satisfactory offering. I shall gladly accept it.”
As soon as those words ended, Heinz clenched that heart and burst it.
At the same time, along with Obaipo’s blood, nine drops of true blood that seemed to have been implanted by some means were cleanly sucked into his hand.
‘Mm, it won’t be too bad as an energy source.’
Now that most of the vampires on the continent had entered under his command anyway, having more true blood wouldn’t make him special beyond increasing the size of his energy tank.
As stated before, no matter how many he gathered, it was only one branch among the numerous lineages of vampires, and above all, he possessed “Hybrid Evolution,” which was a superior version of it.
‘That’s not what’s important right now.’
No, of course it was important.
But there was another issue that was more important right now.
Namely, the change that occurred as he absorbed all of Obaipo.
As he adjusted his condition, feeling steam rising from his heated body, he suddenly saw a notification window appear before his eyes and slowly raised the corners of his mouth.
《Achievement Accomplished! You have become the vampire lord who unified a divided and antagonistic race, the “Vampire King.”》
《You have taken control of the majority of the vampires existing in the dimension of Auterica. As a reward, you are granted the special privilege “Lord’s Authority.”》
《By accomplishing an achievement, you have greatly influenced the world. Karma increases further.》
Heinz II, who had once been human, only to somehow become a lowly remnant-blood vampire, and who had eventually risen to the pinnacle of Sacred Blood—
At last, had become a true king who ruled an entire race.
#243