Chapter 253: What’s Your Plan?

Status

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Name: Mariah Lycann

Age: 497

Core level: Lv. 33

Race: Vampire

Classification: Supernatural Creature

Bloodline: Primordial Vampire, Noctis

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“Huh, you have two bloodlines. I didn’t think you had already undergone your first evolution.”

Mariah, who was still clinging to me, finally opened her eyes the moment she spoke.

She heaved a heavy sigh when she realized it was all over.

“Yes, I’ve done my fair share of hunting in this city so I’ve leveled up quite a bit. The Noctis bloodline is the one responsible for my shadow ability. The feeling you get every time you level up is just exhilarating. It makes me want to level up more,” she recalled fondly with a slight flush in her cheeks.

“I’ve missed that feeling too.” I replied.

Hearing her describe how good it felt to level up, I realized at that moment that the two of us were the same. We were more similar than I first thought.

Mariah was no longer clinging as tightly to me, but the two of us were still in an embrace. I leaned in closer to whisper something into her ear. That was when I noticed the tip of ears was slightly red.

“Let me show you something.”

Immediately as I spoke, darkness began swirling around our feet. It wasn’t her darkness, though; it was mine. My hounds, to be exact. The realm where they lived was my home too, and I could travel back and forth as I pleased.

For a moment, it felt as if the both of us were falling into an endless darkness, but then a split second later, we could feel something soft beneath our feet as if the terrain had changed. Glancing down, we saw red sand beneath our feet.

“Where are we?” Mariah asked as she glanced around at the barren space around us.

What surrounded us was a barren wasteland, too harsh to even call a home.

“This is the shadow realm. Those hounds you saw earlier; this is where they live.”

Even with my explanation, Mariah still seemed confused as to why I brought her here, so I took her by the hand.

“Let me show you something.”

We were standing on a small sand hill in the barren wasteland the shadow hounds called home. Just beyond that sand hill lay what I wanted to show her. With her hand in mine, I brought her on top of the hill where she could see it.

Her jaw dropped in surprise the moment she saw it.

“Wait, could this be…”

She turned her head and looked at me in utter shock. There was even a hint of fear in her voice, causing it to tremble slightly.

The reason for her reaction was because of what lay below the hill we were standing on. What she saw was a sea of vampires.

“The moment all the noble vampires died, all the regular vampires in the city went missing,” Mariah said, trying to piece everything together. “You were the one that kidnapped them all.”

“Something like that. After I got rid of all the noble vampires and Cassian, all the regular vampires were left on their own. They needed a new leader. It was easy to deceive them. I gathered all my forces to scour the city in search of all the remaining vampires. I pretended to be Cassian and deceived them with my eyes of deception along with a few empty promises. Once they were all gathered, I trapped them in the shadow realm.”

“Because you needed them out of the way,” Mariah said, trying to read through my intentions. “Even though most don’t realize it, vampires act as the protectors of this city. With them out of the way, your pack can rampage as they please. That is why you brought them here.”

When Mariah spoke, she had a brilliant smile on her face. She seemed genuinely impressed by that plan.

“Not exactly.”

The moment I spoke those words, her excitement seemed to diminish.

“What do you mean? Why else would you go through the trouble of bringing them here?” She asked. She cocked her head to the side and racked her brain to think of a reason, but nothing seemed to come to mind.

“Come on, tell me! I want to know, what is the real reason you brought them here?” She grabbed onto my arm eagerly.

Meanwhile, I stared at the vampires down below. They seemed to be in bad shape. They were deprived of blood, and it seemed like quite a few had resorted to killing each other. I didn’t have an exact number, but there were thousands of vampires roaming around the shadow realm.

Even though a few were dead, I would say that Cerberus and the other hounds did a good job keeping them all in line.

“The reason I brought them here…” I began, and the moment I did, Mariah’s eyes seemed to sparkle more, causing me to crack a smile. I enjoyed teasing her. I found the child-like wonder on her face amusing. “…was to create an army.”

“An army?” She looked even more confused. “Wait, did you turn them like you did me?”

She took another look at the vampires.

“No, you wouldn’t have… C’mon, tell me!”

Her curiosity bubbled over, and she began pulling on my arm even harder.

“Alright, alright, I’ll tell you. The truth is that every vampire here is infected,” I explained.

“Infected? You mean that thing you did to my son?”

“Yes, whenever I so wish, I could turn every vampire here into mindless ghouls. It’s almost like I have my own army of undead.”

Mariah said nothing. Her expression froze for a second. Then slowly, her demeanor changed to one of excitement. She placed both of her hands on her cheeks, which seemed to be heating up into a blush.

It looked as if her mind was consumed with thoughts of what I had planned.

I understood her excitement since I was feeling it too from just looking at the vampires. Right now, they were like my livestock, and the shadow hounds were my dogs guarding them.

When I finally turn them into ghouls, it means they will have a lifespan of 24 hours, and when they die, I would be reaping all the EXP from their deaths. Furthermore, the carnage a vampire-turned-ghoul could cause in a city was a bit frightening.

This many vampires would be enough to cause a city-wide bloodbath.

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