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Chapter 97: March of the Dead
🕑 Added 2024-11-09 09:54:35 +0000 UTCAlright! with this, villainess should be back on track with 15 advanced chapter. now time to work on tentacles. oh yeah, i promised to show you guys the entry i wrote for the contest before right? it should be up after i post this week's tentacles. it's a 37k word story. only 7 chapters. enjoy!
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Many of my vampires fell. The Kinslayer Law was merely a decree from the king, with no real consequences in the face of death. In desperation, I saw many demons flinging spells recklessly at my vampires. Spells that had mainly been used for restraint—like Ice Prison, Dark Tentacles, and Wind Shackles—were now wielded as Wind Blades, ice spears, necrotic spears, and Firewalls.
Nevertheless, the horde kept growing. This 40-square-kilometer island was too dense for the demons to efficiently isolate the vampires. As soon as someone was turned, they would immediately bite others. The demons had no place to run.
Some of them, however, survived. I could feel my mana increasing as these vampires knelt before me, though they were mere husks of their former selves. The demons had simply barricaded themselves inside the ship, blocking the entrances and exits. Even though my vampires were strong, they couldn't break through a five-meter-thick wall.
At this very moment, some of my vampires were chipping away at the wall, but it kept regenerating. I knew where they were, so I approached and broke through the wall with a single punch. I felt invincible, my power immeasurable. I had over two hundred thousand active vampires, and the number was growing by the second. Day and night no longer mattered as my vampires infiltrated the ships. I had chosen to attack at dusk, just as the sunlight began to fade. By dawn, the deck was cleared of demons.
Several humanoid creatures and animals were hiding on the deck. As I approached, The humanoid knelt before me. They were tall in stature, with purple skin and long tongues that slithered from their mouth to their knee. Apparently, they revered me. I thought I couldn't understand their language, but when I complained in my own language, they surprisingly responded in kind.
"Praise be to the White Wing of Death. We are grateful to our liberator!" I was irked by their reverence for my white wings—it was embarrassing, and I hoped they would stop. However, it was a trivial matter. My goal remained on these demons.
"Master of the White Wings, are you here to free us from these slavers?"
"No. I am here to kill them." I pointed at the demons. They knelt and moved their mouth, but no voice came. I assumed they were smiling, sinister as it was; there was no malice yet. Their tongue slithered on the ground like a snake. I almost instinctively step on it. They knew I was on guard and retracted their tongue back. My hesitation in not letting them lick my feet seems to please them even further.
"Of course. We thank you."
I ignored anything unrelated to the demons and focused solely on recruiting more vampires, punching holes into their bunkers. I thought the humanoids would take care of themselves, but surprisingly, they followed me like ducklings following their parent.
"Are you looking for something?" I asked.
"We wondered if you would visit the pens. That's where our families are. Of course, we assume your nemesis was there too. There is bound to be a station master and their followers there. We shall support your endeavor if you spare our lives, Esteemed white wing. We, too, are displeased by the horned ones."
I decided to entertain their request. After commanding my vampires to clear the way, I let them lead me. Blood was splattered across the floors and walls, but there were no bodies—the corpses had all joined my horde. The sight was surreal, like a scene from a horror story, with blood everywhere but no signs of the dead.
As I walked, we reached the pens… and they truly looked like pens. It was not a mere derogatory language for slave barracks. I tried to suppress my disgust. The demons had barracks-like quarters with bunk beds, blankets, and pillows—not exactly luxurious, but far better than these other people, who were crammed on the ground, stacked inside wooden boxes with no beds or blankets, similar to dogs in cages in animal shelters. Their conditions were miserable.
"Is this how the demons treated you?" I asked, breaking open the cage they were in.
"Well, yeah…" The slaves shrugged. They have lived like this for so long that they thought it was normal.
"Do you have a home?"
"We used to. Our home was conquered by these demons…"
"I see. Do you know how to steer this ship?"
"Um… yes, maybe? We'd need some mages to do it."
I sighed at the obvious answer. They explained that the ship was simple to operate but required a ridiculous amount of mana. You just need to fill mana into separate engines to control left, right, or forward movement. No wonder Claire thought these demons were barbarians—they didn't even understand the concept of rudders or sails. Magic had made them lazy.
"These ships are made from several smaller ships, right? Like legos. Do you think you can detach one of them?"
"What are 'Legos'? But yes, revered White Wings, the ships can be decoupled from each other. You just need to remove the magic shackles between them. There are about twenty shackles per ship, and each one requires mana to unlock."
"Do you have enough?"
"Given a week or two… I believe we could decouple one. We apologize for our limitations." The three bowed down again, kneeling their heads to the ground.
"No need to apologize. Right now, these demons are my top priority." I said as I walked toward another of their bunkers. Many of the freed captives were now tending to their families, occupying the numerous demon barracks that had become empty. I ripped apart the steel door blocking my path, then formed a wall of darkness to shield myself from the spells flung at me incessantly.
My dark tentacles grabbed one of the demons, slipping into his mind and corrupting him into one of my undead. Screams erupted as the demons found themselves cornered, with no way out. Even with their limitless spells, I was stronger. My power could no longer be measured by levels; with this horde, my strength felt inexhaustible.
"Save me…" a demon child clung to her mother as her father rose as one of my vampires. The child smiled briefly, recognizing her father, but her face turned to horror as she realized he had become one of my horde. I said nothing as he moved instinctively, approaching them. Then, he bit them. Their scream echoed in the empty hallway.
A pang of guilt hit me as I watched him bite his own daughter, turning her and her mother into a mindless vampire.
"Maybe I should make the contract to give them intelligence," I muttered as I moved to another bunker within this gargantuan ship. "Then, at least, they could keep their sanity…"
The ship was enormous. Even after three days of nonstop walking, I didn't think I had passed the same place twice. During these days, three of the former slaves followed me, bowing their heads respectfully. At first, I wondered what they wanted, but it became clear they were subtly guiding me to free their brethren on other ships. I didn't mind; they also provided me with every piece of information they knew.
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Meanwhile, less than a day after Elidranthia left Elderan, her letter was discovered by Alicia in her bedroom. She hurried to find Claire and Ludwin for help.
"Princess Claire! Milady isn't in her room! She left this letter! We must hurry!" She wailed. Panic filled her voice.
"That reckless girl! Why does she always do this? She never even told us about her reaper activities!" Ludwin cursed. "Claire, Brother, Let's go!"
"Ludwin, wait. We don't even know where she went."
"To the north! We know the general direction, right? There is only sea there. We are bound to see her flying dragon there."
"But without supplies? She can survive on feystones alone, but we need food and water. Besides, there's no way we could catch up with a dragon using our airship!"
“Then let’s use a wyvern.”
"We could try, but what then?" Heracles sighed.
"Despite appearances, dragons are still a bit faster than wyverns. Their mana and power levels are different," one of the researchers explained. "As for where the dragon goes, we could try to make a searching device to search for its residual mana. But we need time. The dragon is not here after all. We never thought it would be stolen so soon."
"Damn it!"
"I'm not giving up, Ludwin. We'll take the airship and head north, but we also need to figure out where exactly she's gone," Claire said.
"Good! Let's go!"
And so, Claire boarded her airship, feeling an urgent need to act. Ralph was a white dragon; even at night, he would be visible to anyone who happened to look up. Indeed, some citizens reported seeing a dragon flying northward toward Ellynias. So, they set a course for the fort near the port town.
Upon reaching the fort they'd established near Ellynias, they learned that Elidranthia had attacked the demons in the port town, liberating part of it. Soldiers had witnessed the chaos, hearing the screams of demons as they fell under attack from the vampires. Then, they witnessed a white dragon fly to the sea.
However, Elidranthia had already left without fully finishing her task, leaving many demons still in Ellynias. Claire took it upon herself to assault the ruined city, spending two days on the offensive and depleting a significant amount of precious ammunition.
"We shouldn't be dealing with these insects! Eli should be our priority!" Ludwin complained.
"We can't leave them alone. Besides, this is the perfect moment to strike—they're already weakened by Eli's vampires."
"The soldiers said that the dragon headed north. Let's go." Ludwin sighed, gripping his rifle. Claire agreed, and they all headed north. Just a day later, however, they encountered one of the demon settler ships that Elidranthia had left untouched a few days prior.
The demons didn't allow the airship to pass. They had let Eli through, assuming the dragon was wild and only nesting nearby. However, an airship was clearly piloted by someone sentient, and the demons were already aware of the airship's existence due to information from previous settlers. Somehow, they had kept in touch despite the short time Claire destroyed the earlier ships.
"They've sent another ship," Alicia groaned.
"We must destroy it. If they reach shore, we won't be able to stop them. That ship holds over a hundred thousand soldiers—all of them mages," Heracles said.
"But what about Eli…?" Ludwin murmured.
"I am afraid we no longer had a choice. They're coming at us with kites. Prepare the guns, keep your distance, and stay within range," Claire instructed the engineers.
And so the faceoff began. Using the same tactics Claire had used against the previous ships proved effective. They used rifles to shoot down the fliers while aiming cannons at the ground emplacements. However, no matter what they did, the island wouldn't sink. They reached a stalemate, with neither side able to get closer. This time, Claire had no ships on the sea to board the enemy vessel. The day dragged on, gunshots and cannons echoing at intervals.
"We need to retreat. We can't overwhelm their island carrier," Heracles said. Ludwin closed his eyes in frustration. He wanted to refute it, but he knew Heracles was right, and Alicia began to sob. Heracles continued, "If we deplete our ammo, we'll die. I know you're frustrated. I would be, too, if Claire were the one out there. But you have to understand."
"I'll arrange several ships. The port in Ellynias is still under repair, but there are some ships there untouched by the demons," Claire said. "But Heracles is right—we were too hasty. We're nearly out of ammunition. We need to restock first."
"Let's go." Ludwin sat on the floor, defeated.
And so, the group quickly returned to Ellynias and assembled ten warships. Two weeks later, they managed to track Eli's dragon via its collar. Ludwin nearly lost his temper at the slow work of the researchers. However, the researchers explained how hard it was to seek the dragon's mana without the dragon itself. Fortunately, since the dragon came from a spawner, they managed to tune their tracking device to it and tested it on the wyverns. The tracking device was then completed. It didn't actually locate the dragon, but the mana it emitted. With this, the group should be able to trace where Eli had been.
Nevertheless, their efforts were in vain, as Eli had already moved on to the demons' continent by the time they finished their preparations.
