MAEPG: Episode 20

Episode 20 Arch-Lich (1)

Crackle—!

“Ugh! What’s going on?!”

Wirach, in charge of the Brokoslack Clan’s Azantu branch, couldn’t understand the current situation.

The hideout, located in the heart of the city, which was under surveillance due to the search for the fragment, had been suddenly attacked.

He could guess who the culprit was.

‘It must be the bastard who stole the fragment and ran away! He’s after the fragment we have!’

What he couldn’t understand was how it was possible.

‘We were already monitoring the entire city for the fragment. How did he avoid our surveillance? And how did he find out where the fragment was hidden?’

It was full of questions, but what was important now was to protect the fragment.

Because the incident occurred in broad daylight when security was lax, it took more than ten minutes to notice something was wrong and get there.

[Finger of Death.]

Boom!

“Damn it!”

And the bigger problem was those things.

A group of undead were surrounding the building, preventing them from entering.

‘It had to happen when the sun was out… Of course, that was also his plan. But we don’t have any more time to waste.’

The vampires who had been urgently summoned were arriving one after another, but he didn’t know how long Tiapol inside could hold out.

Rumble…

Dark clouds suddenly formed in the clear sky, quickly swelling and covering the entire city in shadows.

‘Damn it! It’s too late!’

The city defense magic installed at the headquarters.

It couldn’t be helped that it took time to activate because it was an unexpected attack, but Wirach, who was in a hurry, didn’t have the time to understand.

“We’re going in now! Make way!”

[Kieeeeek!]

“Push through!”

Clatter— Clatter!

At Wirach’s command, the vampires gathered together, focused only on entering.

The vampires, who couldn’t use their full power because they couldn’t completely offset the penalty from the sunlight despite the dark clouds over the city, died one by one as they forced their way in.

[Summon Wraith.]

“Gah! Lord Wirach, go ahead!”

And finally, he was able to break into the building thanks to the sacrifice of his subordinate who blocked the dark magic with his body.

“I’ll go inside. You guys block the entrance here!”

Wirach, arriving at the basement entrance, gave orders to his subordinates who had entered with him.

Only about ten Fledglings had followed him in, but it would be enough to block the basement entrance where sunlight didn’t reach.

‘Tiapol! Please hold on!’

He ran through the basement towards where the fragment was, praying earnestly.

This was a matter that the Clan Lord was interested in and had directly ordered.

If something went wrong…

‘No! That can’t happen! It can’t…’

He hurriedly ran and finally arrived in front of the basement where the fragment was kept, but he couldn’t go any further and had to stop.

Whoosh—

Overwhelming dark magic power was emanating from the room where the barrier was cast.

‘We’re… too late.’

At that moment.

Creak—

The basement door slowly opened…

And through the gap, darkness like the abyss seeped out.

All the hairs on his body stood on end, and his senses became sharp.

The moment the door opened felt like an eternity to Wirach.

He couldn’t help but gasp for breath.

He couldn’t take his eyes off the door.

It was…

As if…

The gates of hell were opening.

And he was soon able to face it.

A being approaching, wearing a mask, a black robe billowing, and surrounded by pitch-black flames.

Like a demon king descending… a calamity scattering despair and fear.
_______________________

-Individual Name: Hans

-Race: Undead (Arch-Lich)

-Common Traits: “Mind Hub”, “Clear Mind”

-Individual Traits: “Corrupted Heart”, “Wicked Wisdom”, “Forbidden Knowledge”, “Immortality”, “Magic Affinity”, “Dark Magic”

-Special Notes: Rank increased by the power of the ‘Immortal King’s Fragment (2/3)’. Inherent dark magic power increased explosively. Can extract his essence to gain immortality and will resurrect endlessly as long as the stored essence is not destroyed.

I opened my eyes, gathering the absorbed power.

The vampire’s blood magic barrier that remained around me had been torn apart, unable to withstand the flow of power.

[Wow, this is amazing.]

It wasn’t just twice as strong from absorbing the second fragment.

‘The output alone is at least five times… And if you include the new skill I gained, my power must have increased tenfold.’

The effect of the newly acquired “Forbidden Knowledge” was simple.

As the name suggested, it allowed me to gain forbidden knowledge, including dark magic and undead.

‘It’s like a huge library has been placed in my head.’

And it was a library full of evil grimoires, such as summoning demons and sacrificing humans.

‘And “Immortality”… But first, I need to deal with that guy.’

I opened the door and faced Wirach, who was frozen in place.

He had somehow managed to fight his way through the undead and get here, but he was already too late.

[There’s no need for long speeches.]

I raised my hand, which was wearing a leather glove to cover the bones, and pointed at him. Shadowy hands emerged from all directions and swarmed him.

“Kuaaagh! Damn it! Where did this monster come from?!”

Wirach roared, tearing apart the shadows attacking him with bloodshot eyes.

He was definitely much stronger than Tiapol, whom I had defeated earlier.

Unlike Tiapol, who specialized only in blood magic, he actively utilized his overwhelming physical abilities, and his magic skills weren’t that far behind either.

‘But right now, he’s just a good punching bag.’

I only used the dark magic I had newly learned through “Forbidden Knowledge”.

After all, it was better to try everything out myself.

Black chains with sickles attached swung through the air, and hellfire with the smell of sulfur burned the air in the basement.

The various defensive barriers I had erected around me didn’t even allow him to approach.

Boom—!

He tried to escape several times, looking for an opening, but this area was already my domain.

The surrounding darkness crushed him, pressing down on the space.

“Ugh, damn it… Damn it! What is this absurd amount of magic power…! Did you completely absorb the fragment?”

[Heinz! I’ll distract him, so you find a way to escape and inform the clan!]

A telepathic message was sent to Heinz, who was hiding on one side, at the same time as Wirach spoke.

I thought he was hiding well, but it seemed that I couldn’t completely hide him, perhaps because he was a direct descendant.

[Heinz! Can’t you hear me? That’s an order!]

He sent another telepathic message when Heinz continued to hide silently.

I could feel the power of the compulsion trying to force Heinz, but there was no reason to obey anymore, so I easily ignored it.

[Damn it, don’t tell me you’re also suppressed and can’t move?]

It seemed that he didn’t even consider the possibility of him disobeying his order.

Wirach, who had been resisting, was eventually bound by black chains and collapsed on the floor.

Thump!

“Huff, huff. Who… are you?”

A resigned voice, as if he had accepted his end.

But his eyes were still burning, glaring at Hans.

A look of resentment, as if he couldn’t die like this.

I looked at him for a moment, chuckled inwardly, and opened my mouth.

[My name is Hans.]

There was no reason not to tell him my name.

It wasn’t my real name anyway.

[Sleep.]

I immediately used dark magic to put him in a coma before things got more troublesome.

Wirach’s limp body.

And Heinz, who had been hiding in the darkness, approached and sank his fangs into his neck, sucking his blood.

《The individual meets the conditions and grows. The special skill “Blood Kin (Fledgling)” evolves into “Blood Kin (Pureblood)”.》

Wirach’s withered body crumbled into dust.

Heinz was finally able to rank up after sucking the blood of the second Pureblood.

‘It seems there’s some loss when sucking blood. It seems like I’ve barely reached the bottom rung of Pureblood.’

Even though he had become a Pureblood after sucking Wirach’s blood, he still seemed weaker than Tiapol, perhaps because he had just ranked up.

“Well~ it can’t be helped since I just became a Pureblood. I’ll get stronger if I keep sucking blood.”

Since I had decided to focus on cannibalism, his growth rate would be on a different level compared to other vampires.

Heinz got up and headed upstairs.

There were still many vampires left here.

Surrounded by undead, unable to escape.
___________________

It didn't take long for the situation to be resolved.

As I caught the resisting Fledglings one by one and sucked their blood, I could feel the purity of the bloodsucking factor, the source of power within my body, increasing.

“Ugh, this is undrinkable. I understand why Rosilica said that.”

I spat out the Servant’s blood on the ground, grumbling.

They didn’t even treat Servants and Slaves as vampires.

They were full of impurities, mutated bloodsucking factors, so sucking their blood only lowered the purity.

‘I understand why they’re so incomplete.’

These were beings whose bodies were forcibly mutated by injecting a small amount of bloodsucking factor.

They were easy to create and efficient compared to the resources consumed, but there were bound to be limitations.

Heinz looked around.

The destroyed hideout building and the garden that had become a battlefield.

Hans was repairing the broken undead and reviving the subordinates’ corpses that Heinz couldn’t eat.

Fortunately, thanks to Hans’s concealment barrier, which was still in place, it seemed that the residents hadn’t noticed the commotion.

“Well then, shall we leave the city now?”

Eliminating the vampires who ruled the city didn’t solve all the problems.

Rather, with the ones who had been holding the gangs on a leash gone, public order would deteriorate further.

Now was the perfect time to leave.

Heinz hurriedly headed to where the siblings were waiting.

The children would have prepared to leave first and would be waiting for him.

‘But I feel a bit guilty leaving like this.’

I thought about it for a moment, then realized it was a pointless worry.

I had two bodies in this world, didn’t I?

‘Right! Heinz is strong enough now. There’s no need to rely on Hans, so let’s split up here.’

Heinz would leave the city with the siblings, and Hans would stay in the city for a while and take care of other matters.

‘It’s convenient to have multiple bodies.’

As Heinz headed towards where the siblings were waiting, Hans used the knowledge he had newly acquired to turn the vampires into Ghouls and store them in a subspace.

[Hmm… If I research this a bit more, I might be able to open it on Earth too?]

The synergy between “Forbidden Knowledge” and “Wicked Wisdom” I gained this time was excellent.

Thanks to that, I could skillfully use the dark magic I had learned not long ago.

The only subspace magic I could currently use was the one that utilized the negative dimension located on the other side of the ‘Auterica Dimension’.

But if I researched new knowledge using “Wicked Wisdom”, I would soon be able to create a subspace that could be opened on Earth.

[I’ll think about that later. First, let’s go collect the rest.]

There were still many things left to take.

Hans, after gathering all the undead, melted into the shadows and moved quickly.

His destination was, of course, the vampires’ headquarters.

‘I can use teleportation now, but it’s still a bit unstable, so I’ll use it next time. And there must be anti-teleportation barriers installed in their mansion.’

The headquarters he arrived at was already busy preparing for battle.

They must have entered a state of emergency after the hideout was attacked and an emergency summons was issued.

‘Of course, it’s a pointless struggle.’

I first cast a concealment barrier over the entire mansion.

I was planning to really wreak havoc from now on.

[Come out. Come out and sweep them all away.]

Hundreds of undead poured out from the blackened floor.

I used dark magic to strengthen the undead and slowly followed them.

Crackle!

“Kuwooooh!”

[Kieeeeek—!]

A battle broke out between the subordinates waiting inside the mansion and the undead.

A Slave over two meters tall with a bat’s face and a Ghoul of the same shape bit at each other.

A Servant who dropped from the ceiling smashed a Skeleton’s skull and was counterattacked by another undead, collapsing, bleeding.

[Hmm… there are more than I thought?]

More Slaves than I had roughly grasped while I was Heinz kept popping out.

I had heard that they were keeping a large number of them in hibernation in the basement in case of emergencies…

“Eliminate the intruders! Lord Wirach will be here soon!”

“Kreeeegh—!”

It seemed they didn’t know that Wirach was already dead.

The strongest one here was just one Fledgling left to guard the headquarters.

‘Then there’s no need to waste any more time.’

I slowly spread dark magic power throughout the mansion.

Black shadows crept across the floor, walls, and ceiling.

[Kieeee—!]

“Ugh! What’s this?!”

After a short time, when the shadows had spread to every area,

I lightly tapped the floor with the skull staff I was holding.

Thud!

Splat!

“Ugh—!”

“Kuwooooh!”

A blood mist suddenly spread throughout the mansion.

Black thorns shot out from every surface consumed by the shadows, piercing the vampires.

“Gah… L-Lord Wirach…”

The Fledgling, with thorns embedded all over his body, struggled for a moment before stopping.

A momentary silence fell over the mansion.

[Wow… This is more amazing than I thought?]

After committing such a large-scale massacre in one go, I could truly feel how strong I had become.

With this much power, I wouldn’t be ignored anywhere.

‘Well, is that obvious?’

Hundreds of corpses lying in a pool of blood, countless undead standing around, creating a sinister atmosphere.

And Hans, emanating a black aura in the middle of it all.

It was a sight that would make anyone run away, let alone ignore.

‘What kind of demon king is this…?’

I looked around for a moment.

The corpses that could be used as undead and the expensive-looking decorations beyond them.

There were still many things I could take.

‘I have to take everything I can. Where was the place where they kept valuables?’

I hummed to myself as I spread the undead throughout the mansion.

The more money, the better.


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