"Humans have always mistreated our kind, enslaving us for ages. Now they will know what it's like to be slaves!"
Laughter echoed through the grand council hall of the Mosaic Kingdom.
This was the capital city Nighthem, and today was a historic day, a new beginning.
Today, they would declare war on the Human Nation.
Not just to conquer it but to completely colonize it as their own.
All twelve council members were present.
They didn't actually need much planning for this war, the outcome was already clear.
Human nations have grown far weaker than they used to be due to countless civil wars, and now, they are no match for the united might of the Mosaic Kingdom.
But this wasn't just about war, it was about justice.
Revenge for their ancestors.
The Mosaic Kingdom was a nation of demihumans. It thrived under the leadership of the Council of Twelve, where each member represented a different race of demihumans. The council was created to ensure fairness and unity among the demihumans, and it worked.
While humans tore themselves apart with civil wars, the Mosaic Kingdom grew stronger and more prosperous with time.
A giant ogre leaned back in his chair, letting out a deep chuckle. "Do you think any human woman could satisfy me?"
"I already feel sorry for her soul," a werewolf replied laughing, his sharp teeth shining, as he grinned.
But soon enough, the room's atmosphere shifted as the door opened, and a tall figure entered. It was the leader of the council, Dracula the Third, the Vampire King.
"Greetings," Dracula said, his voice calm but commanding.
The room quieted, and everyone bowed slightly as Dracula took his seat at the head of the table.
Dracula's piercing eyes scanned the familiar faces of the council members before stopping on two unfamiliar figures standing near the back.
His gaze lingered on them for a moment before he spoke.
"Who are they?"
"They are the ones I told you about, the ones who planned this attack. And the one on the right is their leader. They call him General."
Dracula's crimson eyes focused on the said General. "Good work," he said. "What do you want as a reward?"
The General straightened his posture and replied, "Nothing, sir. I did this for our people. But if it pleases you, I would be grateful if you granted a fitting title to me and my team. That alone would be an honour for us."
"Hmm,"
For a brief moment, Dracula simply stared at the General and his team, his cold gaze making the atmosphere heavy.
The General stood firm, though the silence made him feel uneasy.
Finally, Dracula spoke, "Fine. You will be made a Count, and your workers will be granted land and the titles of Barons."
His tone was commanding, but his gaze remained cold and disinterested.
"Now, back to our—"
Before he could finish, the door to the hall burst open. A guard sprinted in, his face pale and drenched with sweat.
Fear and urgency were clearly visible in his expression.
"Sir! Sir! It's an emergency!" the guard exclaimed, his voice stammering as he stopped just before Dracula's seat.
Dracula's crimson eyes narrowed, a deep frown forming on his face as he studied the panicked man.
"What is it?"
The guard struggled to catch his breath, his chest heaving as he again spoke in a stammer. "T-Tens of immortal ships… and t-two dragons…" He paused, gulping audibly, terror visible in his eyes.
"They've already destroyed 80 percent of the kingdom in less than forty minutes… and there's someone waiting outside…"
The room froze for a moment, as they processed his absurd words.
"What the fuck are you talking about?" one council member blurted, his disbelief echoing through the hall.
"You're not making sense!"
"Immortal ships? Do you mean the ones from the time of the Gods?"
"Fuck that and tell me, what about Dragons? Are you saying there are dragons attacking?"
"And how the hell has 80 percent of the kingdom been destroyed without us knowing?"
Chaos erupted among the council members. Their voices overlapped, some in disbelief, others in anger.
But one thing was certain, the guard wasn't lying. No one would dare to make a prank in this situation.
Dracula raised a hand, and the room instantly fell silent.
His eyes, colder than ever, bore into the guard. His usual calm was gone, replaced by a grim frown.
"I can feel it,"
Dracula muttered, his sharp senses attuned to the faint yet overwhelming presence outside. "The pressure… Even though they're trying to suppress it."
His teeth clenched tightly. "Who is it?"
"The Duke of the Northern Lands," the guard replied in a shaky voice.
Dracula's eyes widened slightly, and for the first time, his composure crumbled.
"Ragna?"
Beside him, the General's eyes shot open in shock. His entire face tensed as the fell on his ears.
✿✿✿
*Ding!*
A blue screen appeared above Claire's head.
**[Status Update!]**
"Status update?" Arthur muttered, slightly startled.
And soon enough a full window materialised before him, displaying Claire's information.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ Summon Status ]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Name: Claire
Gender: Female
Race: Human
Racial Classification: Humanoid
Loyalty Status: 🟢 (Fully Loyal)
Note: Loyalty status may shift due to certain effects or external factors.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ Attributes ]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Grade: D ★
Path: Martial
Profession: Warrior (Base)
Anima: 0 ➤ +1000 / 5000
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ Special Traits & Talents ]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
None!
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ Skills ]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
- Martial Manual: Basic Swordsmanship (Lv: 3 ➤ Lv 4!)
- Aura: (Lv: 1 ➤ Lv 2!)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ Equipment ]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
- Low-grade Heavy Sword (Damaged)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"Fuck!"
He stared at the screen, momentarily dumbfounded. Claire's progress was shocking. Before, when she killed someone, the Anima gauge would increase by one or two points at most. But now, it had skyrocketed to reach thousand.
Not just that, her Aura and Swordsmanship skills had both leveled up.
Arthur let out a satisfied laugh, his excitement uncontained. Claire, on the other hand, tilted her head slightly in confusion.
But, as always, her expression remained neutral.
Arthur's eyes darted to the new addition on the screen.
A star?
"What's this star about?" he muttered, half-hoping the system would respond. Lately, it had become quite unreliable, choosing randomly when to answer him.
[It demonstrates the minor evolution a summon undergoes. Upon reaching five stars, a full evolution occurs.]
But this time, he was in luck.
"Oh," Arthur mumbled, nodding as he comprehended the information.
Still, now it was time to focus on more important matters.
Ado.
The ogre was just a low-grade summon, and Arthur didn't care much about him.
But this time he was more excited, Ado had been strong enough to overpower both Claire and the ogre together. It was only thanks to Ado's blind rage, and his quick thinking, that they had somehow managed to win.
Now, standing over Ado's lifeless body, Arthur's lips curled into a grin. 'What grade summon will I get by sacrificing his soul?'
The thought made his blood race with excitement as he eyed the corpse beneath him.
"I didn't think you were capable of killing a member of the Phoenix Guild," It was a woman's voice, that came from the shop's entrance.
Arthur turned around, and his grin faded.
It was Leslie.
She walked in confidently, "Do you really think the Phoenix Guild will let this slide?" she asked, a smirk playing on her lips.
Arthur and Claire's expressions remained blank.
"But," Leslie continued, stepping closer, "I can help you, of course."
Her tone was casual, even playful, but Arthur didn't care for all that.
It was only irritating him...
'Bitch, you only got this time to show up, Tsk! Now I can't use the system. It has to be in five minutes or it's useless… Should I give up?'