331 Overwhelming the Enemy [Day 201] Last night… I had a very strange dream… it was as if all of the souls I've eaten were gathered in a single space, and when I woke up while dreaming, I tried to grab them to see what in the world where they, only to feel my own soul being grabbed by my arm… After thinking for a while… I concluded that my Soul, after becoming Rank 5 and mutating, had somehow transformed into space where the souls that I ate remain as if I had my own Hell or afterlife inside of me for every soul that I've eaten… I didn't felt any disturbance at all, and it even felt pleasant to look at them, for a moment I saw myself as a Goddess of Death… However, now that I've tried to see them again, I can't… It seems that I can only do it between my Dreams, so I will move experiments for tonight. Today I decided to open a large breakfast like the ones in my Kingdom, my child inside of my womb was incredibly hungry, so I had to feed it well. Most of the centaurs didn't seem as surprised when they found out that I could summon Familiars and other small monsters… what they felt surprised about is how my "sisters" (this is how I call my wives) mercilessly killed them for their meat. They had never seen a mage kill its Familiar to eat it, mostly because Familiars are a one-time summon, but unlike them, I can summon them endlessly, meaning that the purpose has become that of food. Their flesh, blood, and bones are nutritious, even when they just appeared out of thin air, some centaurs thought of me as some kind of very ancient witch that has lived for thousands of years. Nonetheless, after Rimuru, Zehe, and I began to cook, they quickly fell on their knees due to all of the ingredients and seasoning we had, and ate happily without complaining or questioning my every movement. Food always works. Agamocles had begun to trust me more now that Nixephine and Nefertiti saved the life of his young brother, while the old goat centaur Medastus had always seemed to trust me, but Agamocles aggressive personality usually clashed with him, now that both trusted me, the others that followed them naturally grew accustomed to me and my sisters (wives). I also converted two more surviving Vampires that were pawns of the little Vampire girl and the Ogre, masking it as "brainwashing with my Illusion-Attribute Magic". They were led by Cassandra and Caedmon, who had gained several levels yesterday through fighting the small fry that they once called siblings and family. After forcibly evolving into Vampire Nobles with my bites, their levels reset, so it was easier for them to level up for now. After breakfast, we planned our next movements, two small Resistance Bases were already attacked overnight and most of the survivors ran towards the Resistance Headquarters, which I let being protected by several Familiars, Undead, and Slime Clones that I just masked as summoned familiars. This probably means that the Vampires are just "provoking" me, wanting to make the "irregular" that they call me as get out of its hiding place and confront them. However, I have decided to proceed through our plans and to invade their main base, which was in the nearby city. In Cilane, there are three unnamed Cities, they usually change name depending on the Duke that controls it, but now that there aren't any dukes as most of them were assassinated, they are "nameless", so they are just called City 1, City 2 and City 3. City 2, the nearest city to the outside villages is where most of the Vampires are conducting their research and gathering to inform themselves about events, I could clearly see them with my Phantom Flesh Bats, which they were mostly unable to detect, and if they did, they could pose as just a weak Ghost-type monster and get easily killed. The Vampires like to move at night, and yesterday event was called as an "irregularity" by the Resistance, it seems that it was perhaps due to the little Vampire girl and her Ogre own nature being just different than most Vampires, who are conservative and cunning, these two were just insane. Caedmon and Cassandra said that the little Vampire girl with long purple hair was named Joliette, and she was their superior, but her twisted and immature nature and personality most of the time made her commit mistakes or rush things. The Ogre named Frank that accompanied her was an Ogre that she grabbed as her plaything, experimented with, sewed pieces of monsters into it and brainwashed it into having a child-like mind, afterward, she converted it into a Vampire with her blood. She liked to hold control over people and often called those bellow her as puppets, most of the Vampires in her squad were personally brainwashed by her, and the Vampire Family Head Aleksandra ignored her behaviors as she was strong enough to be useful. That's why no one wanted to join her group, as they would most likely be brainwashed and converted into Vampire Puppets, a new race that she created after controlling Vampires for several years with her threads. I was interested in her because after eating her, I obtained her thread Arts, which seemed superior to my original threads and puppet master, if I were to couple everything with this, I may get a new and upgraded skill. Seeing how the Vampires decided to lay low, for now, we found this the perfect opportunity to strike, by using my Mirage-Attribute Magic, I created countless coatings of Illusions and camouflaged the large army of centaurs ready to raid the Vampires place, as we moved towards their base through the ground, by using my Skill [Transcendental Element Creation and Manipulation]. I created an underground cave by manipulating the ground itself and giving them life like golems, the large earth walls moved aside as if they were made of slime, and easily opened a way through. I masked this not as my power but that of Nixephine, so they could think that she was the one in charge of manipulating earth instead of me being able to do most things. They accepted it very quickly, with the excuse that I gave them of it being a "Unique Skill" and "It's a unique Skill that this race of Arachne can develop". It seems that Earth Mages, Wizards, and such aren't really capable of molding the earth to this extent and this speed. The Vampire base was underground as well, right below a large building which seemed to be a bank, but was abandoned in recent times. Thins went incredibly smoothly, most Vampires were actually resting or drinking blood or eating centaur flesh, the moment they saw the entire floor open out of nowhere and countless of armed centaurs who could barely be seen due to my Illusion Magic, they were very taken aback… Several Vampire heads began to roll before they could do anything, Sofarpia and Sofelaia led the group as they used their powerful equipment and magic swords to slash and release Mana Blade Techniques. "Gyaaaaaaaaaah!" "W-What is the meaning of this…?!" "From where did they come from?! From wh- Uuuaaaaaahh…!" "R-Run! Run!!!" "How could we get invaded by these lowly horses?!" Sofelaia used her Holy Sword Techniques to make quick work of the weakest Vampires, slashing them with a deadly holy light, turning them into ashes within seconds. "Holy Guard! Holy Slash! Hundred Holy Slashes!" Flash! "Gyaaaaah! It burns! It burns!" "A Holy Attribute Warrior?!" "A-A Centaur Paladin?! Impossible!" Sofarpia used her Mana Blade techniques and enhanced her swords with Fire Magic to burn the Vampires alive, some had strong magic shields, but they were broken with my support. "Flame Blade! Fireball! Die, you bloodsuckers!" "Nooooooo…! Spare me…! P-Please…!" "T-There is no hope…" "W-Where is Keenan-sama?!" A group of Vampires gathered in a corridor, desperate, and began to summon Blood Beasts and Small Demon Beasts, trying to overwhelm us with numbers, but the Centaurs were experienced with dealing with these monsters, and with my buffing skills, they were at least thrice as strong, slicing the beasts in half without trouble. Agamocles and his young brother led a group of armored centaurs as they sliced the beasts with easiness. "Oorraaah! Triple Thrust!" shouted Agamocles, as he released three powerful thrusts from his large blade, penetrating the skull of a large blood beast and throwing it away with intense force. "Big brother, I've gotten stronger as well…! Heavy Slice!" shouted Agamocles younger brother, as he raised his long sword and released a technique that made his blade heavier so it could deal more damage, slicing a Wolf-like Demon Beast in half. "H-How can they be so strong?!" "But our superiors said that these Centaurs can't even compare to a single King Class Blood Beast! This is too ridiculous!" "Should we surrender?!" Slash! Before they could even consider surrendering, the Vampires leading the beasts were beheaded by a large shadow in the form of a human, Jerold, who was lurking behind them and using my Illusion coatings to become completely invisible, slicing their heads before they could even realize. Meanwhile, my wives supported them from the sides and targeted the strong and more intelligent Vampires before they could do something more dangerous, slicing them, burning them, or pulverizing them with incredible might. The Vampires in this large base were being led by someone named Keenan, who hasn't shown up until now… And by using my Phantom Flesh Bats, I detected a fairly strong Vampire running away from us, it seemed to be a Beast Man Vampire, with long wolf-like ears over his head and a wolf tail, he was running desperately, leaving all of its subordinates to die. ----- Keenan was born in Thanatos as a Half-Beast man and Half-Beast Demon, his family was poor and he also had three little siblings to take care of, his father left them and his mother was always sick, so she could only take care of the house and not work on her own. By utilizing the inherited powers of his father and mother, Keenan diligently trained himself as a mercenary and an explorer, completing dangerous tasks in the Explorers Guild in Thanatos, gaining small amounts of money every day, enough to feed his family. However, as things went by, he found himself in a progression wall. Since his childhood that he had never stopped growing stronger, reaching new heights and earning more money, but his growth suddenly faltered… he became worried and paranoiac, and the money that he gained became less as more explorers joined and took the tasks before him. And when he was almost lost, he found the Vampire Family, who welcomed him with open arms, they converted him into a Vampire through a ritual, and he suddenly gained new abilities, power and his progression once more became swift. With the special task given by the Vampires, which could go from monster exterminations to blackmail, assassination and extortion, he gained more money, enough to feed his family well and pay a good education for his little siblings. Although he craved for richer and more delicious blood, he always kept himself away from consuming other people, he always drank monster and animal blood, no matter how bad it tasted to him, it was enough to feed and fill his belly, so he endured and worked harder. Through the years, he trained hard, exterminated traitors and monsters, and raised through the ranks, bought a nice and better house for his family in the city, and was recognized as a Noble Vampire of high position by the others, he was respected… And due to this, he was assigned a task, a very risky task. "Exterminate the Irregular!" Said Lady Aleksandra, the Head of the Vampire Family. This task wasn't an ordinary assassination task, they needed to track down a mysterious enemy that had lurked inside of the Cilane Kingdom, where Keenan superiors were slowly diminishing the Kingdom to conquer it. For this, he was given strange artifacts that could track down the irregular and also boost his vitality beyond belief, alongside a medium-sized piece of strange shining meat, he ate it all, and after that, he gained an immense power… With this, he felt confident, whatever being that irregular could be… he should be fine, right? With such strength and companions who had the same powers, there wasn't anything to fear… Oh, how wrong he was. Before Keenan could even assess the situation, three Vampires of the same position as him, some whose strength even surpassed him were annihilated easily. Keenan feared for his death more than other Vampires, and was less loyal than other Vampires as well, he feared that if he were to die here, his family would be left alone without anything left to support them, quickly being thrown to the streets, his mother would die, and his siblings would either die from starvation or be enslaved by the criminal organizations. Keenan didn't want to die at all, he refuged himself in the Vampire Base and waited for his superiors to show up in the following days… But out of nowhere, the floor opened and a massive army invaded the base, with a strength that he had never seen in centaurs, he saw how his subordinates were easily beheaded, while other strange demi-human women used evens stronger techniques and magic to slaughter his servants. He instantly felt through the artifact that the irregular was close, and ran away without any shame… However, as he was already very far away from the base, the space around him turned black, and bloodthirsty energy took control of his entire body, he couldn't move an inch… "S-Shit…!" A beautiful Fairy accompanied by other beautiful maidens appeared before him. "Why are you running away, little dog~?" -----