Chapter 34: Vampire Hunt (4)
Elmenhilde Karnstein Pov:
{I returned to Bucharest soon after Lord Azrail's engagement ceremony ended, but without him around, there's nothing for me to do.}
I stared at the hologram and watched Amy walk around Master's house, looking for anything she could do to pass some time. She had already finished her daily training, and in her [King]'s absence, there was no work for her to do.
This laboratory had access to all the security cameras within Master's house, the city of Bucharest, and the Astaroth Clan's castle.
Thanks to that, I could watch everything happening inside those places at any given moment since I had access to almost everything within the laboratories, with authority only second to Master himself.
Even Master's room was no exception, but I never dared to check up on him without his permission, much less spy on him, so whenever I had nothing better to do, I'd randomly watch one of the many cameras as if it were a reality show.
{Well, it's not like he's around all that much, to begin with.}
After roaming around aimlessly for some time, Amy picked up a book from Master's library and began reading it.
"I feel the same as you, Amy…"
Master left for the underworld more than a week ago, and I had been dying of boredom because, with my work completed, there wasn't any work left for me.
My experiments were in constant progress with Great Sage's help. Sitting around watching glass tanks with living test subjects wouldn't hasten them.
"But the thing that happened at the banquet... Was it seriously a prank?"
Master's reaction was a bit too natural, but knowing him, it could've very well been an act, as well.
After all, the heartbreaking moment only lasted a moment, and Master returned to normal the next second, telling his father that the prank wasn't his idea.
There was no doubt that he could've done it as a prank because, while it had its downsides, there were also benefits.
The 'real criminals' had already been punished, with their information now available throughout the Underworld. I read the publicised reports, too, and there were no loopholes.
"Then again, who am I to judge his actions?"
Not to mention, the banquet wasn't even my favourite moment. It was when Master trashed Diodora, but alas, before the situation escalated further, the Astaroth Clan's Head stopped him.
The way he one-tapped Diodora's [Queen] while saying 'Move.' was the best part. A chill ran down my spine when imagining myself in that position, so I pushed those thoughts to the back of my head.
"Master's hands are rated the same for everyone, aren't they?"
{Notice. Experiment 308 has concluded.}
"Show me…"
The holograms above the desk changed, displaying dozens of graphs and some reports, causing me to skim through them.
"I guess it's too much to expect any results in a little over two weeks…"
Naturally, I was researching methods that might help Master enslave my mother, Krul Karnstein—the Carmilla Faction's leader, to make him the de facto ruler of it.
For that, the purpose of my research was to temporarily weaken a Vampire's Magic Power with slow dosages of medicine—something based on my previous research related to Demonic Power.
"Great Sage."
{Answer. Yes?}
"Change the experiment's main target to me… Even if my Magic Power's frequency isn't the same as Krul's, it's fairly similar. And while you input the data, increase my strength to match her for detailed results."
While explaining the following steps to Great Sage, my right hand went ahead and grabbed a piece of jelly that was on the plate, tossing it inside my mouth.
"Delicious~!"
{Answer. Understood...}
At the end of the Great Sage's words, there was a strange silence.
Picking up the changes in a person's mood was my speciality, and I could instantly tell when Master wanted something, all the way from some silence to a head massage, so I understood that Great Sage had something she wanted to ask.
"What is it?"
{Question. What are you eating?}
"This?"
I glanced at the blood-red jelly on my plate before picking up one of the cubes.
"It's jelly made out of Master's blood… Cold blood doesn't taste nearly as good as freshly extracted blood, but when turned into jelly, it's surprisingly delicious, almost like a desert. I even made ice cream from his blood."
By condensing and diluting the blood using some of my equipment, I could also control the sweetness, so the jelly and ice cream were a lot sweeter than Master's normal blood, hence why I called them deserts.
I even made a spicy version of his blood.
{…}
"Please don't make me feel like a creep, Great Sage."
It was a revolutionary innovation for me.
"You are a creep, Elmen… Who in the Vampire's history ever decided to make desserts out of blood?"
"Master!"
Master's voice echoed throughout the room, causing me to jump in surprise—accidentally swallowing the whole jelly cube in my mouth while falling to my knees, where I rightfully belonged, with him standing right in front of me.
"Elmen…"
Master crouched down, and from the look in his eyes, it was easy to tell that he was displeased by something.
My body trembled slightly, feeling a deep urge to kowtow to him and beg for forgiveness, but any unnecessary actions might end up causing the opposite effect.
His right hand gently caressed my left cheek—which wasn't anything strange; he would occasionally treat me like a pet. However, under his intense gaze, my body couldn't even move out of fear.
"You planned on using yourself as a test subject for the drug I'll use to weaken Krul?"
I nodded slightly.
"Then, you must've wanted to try the initial results on yourself, too?"
I nodded again.
"And what was the first thing I told you not to do while conducting experiments?"
'Shit... That skipped my mind in hopes of pleasing him…'
"T-To never use myself as a test subject. I'm sorry, Master. I thought that if it could help you even a little..."
I wanted to lower my head, but the gentle touch of his hand kept me in place, with our eyes locked together, looking at each other.
"You are useless to me if you're dead, defective, or broken; the value you offer is much more than Krul ever could, especially after the six months I invested in you, and the only one who can harm you is me… Understood?"
'Am I being praised?'
For some unknown and twisted reason, that thought made me feel happy.
Was I happy because Master praised me—that I had some worth to him, or that his need guaranteed my survival, prolonging my life?
I had no idea, but obeying him was already an instinct for me, and before I could even think it through, my lips slowly parted on their own.
"Yes, Master."
Hearing those words, the displeasure in his eyes disappeared, and after looking at me like a well-trained pet for a few seconds, he smiled and got up.
"Have the preparations been completed?"
"They have, Master. From the test subjects to the backup power—everything is ready."
"What about the surveillance in Bucharest?"
"I tripled the surveillance in Bucharest as you instructed, Master."
"Anything new?"
"There have been a few complaints about humans disappearing within the last few days, so I believe another Rogue Vampire has entered your territory…"
"Again? Is it from the Carmilla Faction?"
"No, Master. If that were the case, someone would've informed me by now."
"When did it appear?"
"The day after you left for the underworld, Master."
"So it was before the banquet, huh?" Master pondered for a few seconds. "Well, I'll take care of it later... It's not like a few hundred humans dying at the hands of a Vampire is rare. For now, we have more important things to do. Let's go."
That was true.
There were well over a million humans in Bucharest; a hundred or so dying wouldn't affect anybody.
Not to mention, the two of us had killed a lot more people than that Rogue Vampire ever could.
"Where are we going, Master? Should I get dressed?"
My body was, like always, as naked as the day I had been born.
"No, we're going to the [Darkness Magic Research Lab] to conduct Great Sage's experiment."
"Already?"
I believed that he would at least take a short break after coming back from the Underworld, but his going straight for the experiment surprised me a little.
"Let's go."
Since he had already said so, who was I to complain?
"Yes, sir."
Hurridly getting up from my knees, I picked up my tablet from the table before stepping on the Astaroth Clan's Transportation Magic Circle.
From how it looked, Master wasn't affected by what happened at the banquet—not in the slightest. That reaffirmed my initial guess about him being a part of it, along with his brother, Ajuka.
And that begged the question—was Satan Beelzebub aware of his younger brother's crimes?
Considering that he was Master's brother, it wouldn't be impossible for Ajuka to trace those disappearances back to him.
But then again, it wasn't my place to ask Master about anything, so I pushed these thoughts to the back of my head, focusing on the Great Sage's large-scale experiment.
Honestly, I was looking forward to what Great Sage's experiment was about, unbothered by the fact that a large number of my kin were about to die.
The only thing I cared about was pleasing Master to ensure my survival. If the Vampire Race must suffer for that, I'd happily support him with all my might.
After all, that was the sole purpose of my existence now.
.
.
.
"Six hundred Low Class, two hundred High Class, and seven Ultimate Class Vampires…"
"I restored all of them to their peak as per hour instructions, Master."
{Notice. All test subjects are under the influence of Life Force Conversion.}
A week passed since Master returned from the Underworld, and ever since then, we tirelessly worked on the finishing touches for Great Sage's large-scale experiment.
To ensure that everything went smoothly, Master decided to triple the number of test subjects involved.
Since I had already categorised half of the criminals in Carmilla Faction's prison beforehand, it wasn't hard to select and bring a few hundred of them here in time.
Master also made sure to spend a decent amount of time in Bucharest to keep up appearances as the overseer.
"Wear this." Master tossed a necklace towards me, and I wore it around my neck without hesitation as he continued. "It'll trigger [Teleportation Magic] in case something goes wrong…"
Master didn't say [Transporation Magic], but [Teleportation Magic]. Although he had created a method for instant teleportation a few months ago, it couldn't yet be performed freely and needed a lot of preparations.
The necklaces would most likely be useless outside this particular laboratory, too.
"But why [Teleportation Magic], Master?"
"There's a 76% chance that our experiment will end with this laboratory exploding, and in case the space around us is distorted, [Transportation Magic] won't work..."
'He's ready to sacrifice years of hard work for one experiment…'
Master had designed the barriers around his laboratories to contain any explosions. So, even if one of them were to explode or self-destruct, no one outside would sense anything.
'Now that I think about it, no one except Great Sage knows the precise locations of his laboratories…'
Even with someone as devoted and loyal as me, he'd only ever let out information he deemed necessary.
Master was a meticulous person indeed, keeping the servant he created himself at arm's length.
"By the way, Elmen. How are things at the Carmilla Faction?"
Although that sudden question surprised me, I still replied without delay. "Everything is proceeding as expected, Master. My influence within the faction has increased considerably in the last six months."
"What about Krul?"
"I've made sure to let her know of my ambitions while pretending to hide them, but she hasn't shown any interest."
"That's to be expected… Other than that, how's the Karnstein Household doing?"
"As per your orders, I brainwashed most of the members and servants of my household over time. The only ones I haven't subdued are those strong enough to resist me, along with the spies working for Krul..."
"What about the spies from other noble households?"
I gave him a sweet smile. "They are all under my absolute control, Master."
As one would expect, the brainwashing methods created by Great Sage were exceptional. She merged Master's expertise in torture with magic to create something horrifying.
And even though I was the one using them on others, the thought of becoming the victim sent shivers down my spine. The fact that she improved them after each report I made didn't help much.
"Good work."
Master never looked at me during our conversation, but I saw him smile in satisfaction and lowered my head.
"Thank you, sir."
"We'll rebuild the [Darkness Magic Research Lab] below the dungeon in Karnstein Household if this place gets destroyed…"
'So that's why he asked me about the Carmilla Faction out of nowhere…'
Building a laboratory under the Karnstein Household's dungeon wasn't a bad idea.
The last time someone other than me visited the dungeon was decades ago. So, as long as we covered the place with barriers, no one would find anything strange even if they visited it.
"If that is what you desire, Master."
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.
.
{Notice. Temporarily shutting down the functions of every facility except this one.}
From this moment, Great Sage focused all her calculative power on the experiment. That was why she couldn't maintain control of other laboratories any longer.
"Hmm…"
Master stood at the room's end, surrounded by several dozens of holograms. At his feet were two of the seven Ultimate Class Vampires, lying unconscious on the ground under the influence of [Life Force Conversion].
"Are you ready, Elmen?"
I rechecked all the holograms in front of me before nodding. "Yes, Master."
My role during this experiment was simple.
All I needed to do was adjust the power supply per the demands manually.
It wasn't a difficult position on paper, but even with the slightest bit of miscalculations, everything here would go kaboom.
Master would've preferred to do it under normal circumstances, but that wasn't possible right now because of Great Sage's unavailability. His current role was to collect and analyse data as the experiment progressed.
The amount of information he'd need to process in seconds was enough to fry someone's brain more than a dozen times.
"Alright, let's begin…"
Seconds after his words finished, a thin door made out of darkness manifested in front of him. It was only big enough for one adult to pass through at a time.
As the door manifestation finished, several of our 'batteries' had already died.
For such a small amount of darkness, the power consumption was outrageous.
"Here goes…"
Master picked up one of the Ultimate Class Vampires with his right hand and pointed his left hand towards the pitch-black door.
[Life Force Conversion.]
The Astaroth Clan's Magic Circle appeared next to his palm as the female vampire started ageing rapidly.
Thanks to the target's strength, it took Master a few minutes to convert all her life force into magic power.
He soon tossed the dried-up corpse aside and focused all the magic power around his hand.
'The raw magic power far surpasses even the Ultimate Class…'
But from how Master's hand trembled, it became clear that he couldn't control this much power.
He then released all the magic power in one attack and—
ZAP!*
"Huh…"
My eyes widened in surprise.
The thin door of darkness dissolved an attack with enough raw power to obliterate a Satan Class Devil with ease. Not to mention, it didn't even show a minute fluctuation while doing so.
'The ability to dissolve all forms of energy and devour living beings…'
It was the highest level of Darkness Manipulation, something only the best users could do, but even they couldn't use it with such proficiency and skill.
'We succeeded…!'
That was the goal of our experiment—to bring out Darkness Magic's full potential.
Drip!* Drip!*
"Impossible…"
However, contrary to my expectations, Master looked anything but happy.
Veins bulged on his forehead, blood trailing down his nostrils and eyes as he stared at the thin door of darkness in disbelief.
I couldn't even imagine how much information he processed within seconds for it to have consequences like that.
"Great Sage. Hand over the controls to me…"
{Notice. It is dangerous—.}
"It's fine."
{Answer. Understood.}
"Elmen, maintain a constant power supply for as long as possible… Use the extra batteries if necessary…"
"Yes, Master."
Great Sage and I had no idea what Master learned, so the only thing we could do was follow his orders.
Moments later, the thin door dispersed into several threads of darkness before moving towards Master and entering his arm.
'What the…?'
I watched as Master's body dissolved into darkness, falling to the ground in the form of a black liquid. It soon disappeared into his shadow, leaving no traces of his presence behind.
'Was something like that possible with Darkness Magic?'
No. Being able to travel through and store things in shadows was understandable, but merging them and becoming intangible?
That wasn't even in the legends.
"So this is the ability to merge and travel through shadows? A shame that I can't use it with only my power right now…"
A pitch-black circle appeared on the ground, and Master's body slowly returned to the room.
"But this isn't it…" He then turned towards me. "How long can the batteries keep this up?"
"One hundred and twenty-seven seconds, Master."
The six hundred Low-Class Vampires had already died in under a minute. And from my calculations, the remaining two hundred High Class and five Ultimate Class Vampires could provide power for around two minutes.
As I said, the power consumption was outrageous.
"Two minutes, huh…"
Master glanced at the female vampire he previously used before devouring her body with his shadow.
"That's more than enough time…"
He then picked up the last Ultimate Class Vampire at his feet and activated [Life Force Conversion] on her.
"Elmen, hold her against the wall…"
Four hands extended from my shadow, taking the vampire from Master's hand and pinning her against the wall where the pitch-black door once was.
"Keep an eye on her vitals…"
"Yes."
A hologram appeared above my desk, displaying the vampire's biometrics.
"For the final test…"
As Master raised his hand towards her, the vampire's magic power surged, creating hundreds of barriers between them.
The quality of these barriers was above average at best since we didn't have much time to waste on them, but with this much quantity, they should be able to block the attack Master did earlier.
A black arrow launched from Master's hand and charged towards the vampire at a speed I couldn't even follow.
The arrow passed through the barriers as if they weren't even there before penetrating her heart.
But unlike what I expected, there were no wounds on her body, and the barriers were intact with no damage, too. Even her vitals remained the same.
'Considering the attribute's properties to devour things, that arrow should've at least left a hole in the barriers and her chest…'
Something wasn't right.
I rechecked the vampire's vital, noting that both her body and soul hadn't taken any damage from the attack.
'Huh? Her vitals disappeared out of nowhere?'
There was no way that the scanners broke, then…
My eyes went towards the hologram's bottom right corner, and they widened.
"M-Master…"
"What's up?
"She died… without receiving any damage from that attack..."
Even though the results were in front of me, I found it hard to believe them.
All Pure-Blooded Vampires had immortal bodies under normal circumstances. It wouldn't make sense for one of them to die without any reason.
"To think something like this was…"
Master stopped mid-sentence, his lips curling into a small smile before he placed his hand on his mount, only to—
"Pfft—Blegh…!"
Vomit a mouthful of blood, violently coughing and laughing hysterically without any care for his body as blood poured out of his mouth.
It was my first time seeing him like this, but… He seemed genuinely excited.
For a brief moment, his eyes lost focus, and just as he was about to lose balance—
"Master!"
I rushed over to support him.
{Notice. Terminating experiment due to insufficient power.}
Great Sage announced the deaths of all our eight hundred and five batteries.
{Resuming the functions of all facilities. Successful.}
"Seriously…" Despite his body's condition, the smile on Master's face never disappeared. "To think darkness could disregard things—from abilities to defences. It even disregarded the need to harm the body and soul to cause damage or kill someone…"
"Disregard things?"
"Yeah…"
I helped Master sit on a chair before using [Clean] to wipe off the blood from his body and floor.
"In that single attack, I used the ability to disregard things thrice... Disregarding defences by passing through the barriers and physical durability. Disregarding abilities by ignoring a vampire's innate immortality. And finally, disregarding the 'natural law' of harming someone's soul and body to cause them damage or kill them…"
I blinked at his explanation.
"Isn't that too powerful?"
"It's like the Belial Clan's [Worthless] but on steroids." He chuckled at his comments, leaning back against the chair. "No. It's far better than that…"
"Master… Can you use this freely?"
"Don't be foolish. Even a Satan Class Devil can't hope to utilise this power, much less the current me..." Although he said that, there was no disappointment in his voice. On the contrary, his voice held a strange, borderline insane enthusiasm as he continued. "It might take a long time, but this is the first step in understanding what this world and magic truly is…"
---
"Are you returning to Bucharest, Master?"
"Not yet. I need to hunt the Rogue Vampire first."
'Ah... That's his current cover for not being in Bucharest since returning from the underworld.'
In reality, Master had already found the Rogue Vampire and was secretly keeping an eye on her to make sure whether it was a trap or not.
For some reason, he seemed even more paranoid than he was before.
"While I'm gone, practice what I taught you…"
While his body recovered for the past three days, Master taught me about Darkness Manipulation and Magic.
After consuming his blood for over six months, my strength had already increased a lot, along with better control over my magic power. It was only natural for him to train me further.
"I won't disappoint you, Master."
"There are also those things to take care of…"
"Those things…?"
"After the banquet, I can't freely collect test subjects like before, remember?"
"Right…"
"Since that's the case, I might consider breeding them myself…"
"Breed them yourself…" I stared at him before looking down at my naked body. "Should I prepare a bed before your return, Master?"
He blinked at me, unable to form any words.
{Notice. That sounded extremely sus, Master.}
"Forget it… We'll focus on that later."
'Maybe I was mistaken?'
It seemed like he hadn't yet reached the age to care about such things.
"For now…"
Master waved his hand, causing dozens of holographic icons to appear around us. From the icons, he picked up the trash can and expanded it, revealing hundreds of files that he had previously deemed unnecessary.
"This one should be enough as a first product…"
Everything except the hologram above his palm disappeared, which appeared to be a pair of strangely high-tech-looking goggles.
"Master, are those..."
"A Virtual Reality Headset… Since I'm already ten, it's about time I started building a name for myself and gaining achievements other than being Ajuka's brother. Releasing something like this to the public should be good enough…"
From his explanation, Master wanted to create a VR headset that would allow devils to participate in Virtual Rating Games, whether they were youngsters or professional Rating Game Players.
It could also let players train their abilities and clan traits without restraint, also letting them experience fighting against virtual avatars created from other players' data.
If it became a trend, it'd have data from all the top-rating game players so that other players can challenge them and for their opponents to strategise around them, along with ranking and betting options.
The Four Great Satans might also agree to have their virtual avatars built for people to challenge them.
It could also have opponents from other races, almost like a game with story mode, and since there was no risk of dying, people could go all out without holding back.
The visuals would be so close to reality that even the strongest of participants wouldn't be able to tell them apart.
However, that was only the pretext.
The VR Headset would let us collect data on Demonic Power on a grand scale, including abilities from clans he couldn't get his hands on, along with how different people fought, their spells, abilities, etc.
We could also release lesser versions in the Human World for extra monetary profit.
"But it's only an idea right now, so I'll think about it in my free time…"
"Take care, Master."
I bowed towards Master as a [Transportation Magic Circle] appeared under him before he disappeared.
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.
"This is… interesting."
I stared at the human's corpse in front of me, somewhat surprised.
He was a Sacred Gear wielder who died a few minutes ago.
But somehow, his Sacred Gear didn't return to the Biblical Heaven after his death.
"So we can hold Sacred Gears even after the wielder's death by storing them inside our shadows…"
That was something I learned while messing around with Darkness Manipulation.
A pendant came out of my shadow, and within moments, it returned to the Biblical Heaven.
'Although it isn't a definitive solution, Master can surely create one with this information…'
After all, we still couldn't permanently extract Sacred Gears from humans and store them here. It was only temporary.
[BEEP! BEEP!]
Out of nowhere, red lights started flashing through the laboratory, accompanied by the sounds of an emergency alarm.
"What the hell—?!"
I looked around with wide eyes. All the holograms and screens displayed the same emergency sign.
"Great Sage?!"
There was no reply.
I hurried over to the control panel, but—
[Access Denied!] [Access Denied!]
[Access Denied!] [Access Denied!]
Despite my numerous efforts, it wouldn't let me access the system even after scanning my biometrics.
And as if that wasn't bad enough, my eyes landed on the timer displayed under that message.
[29:59]
[29:58]
[29:57]
"This is… the final self-destruction protocol…"
A shiver ran down my spine.
{There are only two situations under which the self-destruction protocol will activate. The first one is if someone unauthorised sneaks into a laboratory, that facility will explode immediately.}
{And what is the second one, Master?}
{In the second case, all facilities will simultaneously activate the final self-destruction protocol under one condition.}
The single condition he told me was…
"It can't be…"
I felt the strength in my legs disappear and fell to my knees.
I knew that there was no way for me to leave this laboratory now and that the impending self-destruction meant my death.
However, the thought of my safety wasn't the first thing that crossed my mind.
"Master… died?"
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