The Vampire Elder screamed, voice raw and ancient, echoing through the shattered skies.
"You defile the sanctity of this land!" Valen roared, his fangs bared, eyes glowing crimson with primordial hate. "I will not let you have it, filth!"
Alugard, the Zombie King, merely chuckled, a low, guttural sound that rolled like thunder through the blood-soaked wind. "Your time ended centuries ago, leech. Tonight, I feast on the marrow of your kind."
They clashed.
Valen struck first—vanishing in a blur faster than the eye could follow, reappearing behind Alugard. His claws, obsidian and harder than steel, raked across the undead king's back. But they met bone and rotting flesh that pulsed with cursed necromancy. No blood spilled. Alugard's body didn't yield.
The Zombie King turned in a flash, his corrupted blade—a jagged, cursed weapon forged in death—sweeping out in a wide arc. Valen leapt back, but the blade grazed the edge of his cloak. The fine blood-threaded silk tore like paper.
With a snarl, Valen summoned a thousand blades—shaped from pure blood and honed to atomic sharpness. They materialized in the air, hanging like fangs from a demonic maw, and then darted toward Alugard with light-breaking speed.
Dozens impaled the Zombie King, punching through his chest and limbs. Black ichor oozed from the wounds. More blades came, shredding muscle and breaking bone—but he did not fall.
Instead, Alugard spread his arms and roared. "ABSOLUTE DOMAIN—DOMAIN OF THE DEAD!"
The air curdled. The light died.
All color drained from the world as the battlefield shifted into something... wrong. The ground cracked, replaced by endless plains of rotting corpses. The sky turned into a writhing mass of screaming faces. Blood rain fell upwards.
Valen gasped. Oppression. Suffocation. Every breath felt like glass tearing down his throat. His mind spun as the domain crushed his spirit. Inside this hell, Alugard was not just powerful—he was a god.
The Zombie King walked slowly toward the elder, untouched by the blood still dripping from his punctured form. "In here, old man," he said, voice echoing a thousandfold, "I am death. And you are just meat."
Valen staggered, eyes bleeding, soul trembling. But he wasn't done.
He threw back his head and screamed, voice warping the air. "BLOOD DOMAIN! ABSOLUTE EXPANSION! BLOOD ARMOR! DIVINE WINGS!"
His body ignited with bloodlight. Armor formed around him—layer upon layer of crimson plates laced with divine sigils. Massive wings of congealed blood burst from his back. His hands held the Blood Trident, a forbidden weapon of his forefathers, sealed for millennia.
In his last act of will, Valen unleashed a torrent of blood that slithered through the domain, bypassing walls, piercing through dimensions—searching.
Far away, within the hidden vampire quarters, four sleeping teenagers stirred. The blood entered their mouths like snakes made of liquid ruby. Their eyes flickered, bodies trembling.
E999, watching silently from the shadows, narrowed his eyes. He knew this wasn't natural—but he said nothing. He'd seen vampires use stranger things.
Valen roared one last time, lifting the Blood Trident and casting it into the walls . The walls cracked. A portal of red flame opened above the battlefield. From it descended his final army.
Blood beasts—wolves made of boiling blood, serpents of pure crimson venom, armored soldiers forged from centuries of sacrifice—poured out, screaming for vengeance.
Still, Valen wasn't finished.
"Blood Armor—Absolute Control. Blood Sword—DIVINE SLASH!"
The armor cracked, split apart, and fused with his weapon. One massive streak of red energy carved through the domain, heading straight for Alugard.
But the Zombie King laughed and snapped his fingers.
"ARISE, MY MINIONS!"
Thousands of undead crawled out of the corrupted earth. Ghouls, banshees, reapers, bloated corpses fused together with rusted weapons and rotting armor. They formed a massive shield wall, blocking the Divine Slash. The clash created a shockwave that split the ground open for miles.
The vampire villagers joined the fight, screaming war cries as they unleashed torrents of blood—Blood Walls, Blood Strikes, Blood Spears. The entire world trembled under the power unleashed.
But vampires fought with blood. The undead had none.
The counter was perfect.
Ghouls tore through blood beasts. Zombies caught vampire warriors mid-strike and crushed their skulls like melons. Banshees screamed, rupturing eardrums and sanity. Within minutes, the vampire forces crumbled.
Valen watched as his kind were butchered—drained dry, torn apart, left to rot.
Alugard laughed, standing in the center of it all.
"What now, old man?" he mocked. "Your people are ash. Your blood runs dry."
Meanwhile…
In the quarters, a woman stood by E999. Her name long forgotten, only one thing remained—she was mother to the four blood-marked teenagers. Her eyes welled with tears as she watched her transformed children twitch in their sleep.
"I… I beg you," she whispered to E999. "Please save them. Even if I die… even if I never return. Please."
E999 smirked. "A few hours ago, you and your kin planned to kill me. Now you beg for mercy?"
She dropped to her knees, sobbing. "They're all I have…"
E999 stared at her a long time before sighing. "Fine. But don't expect miracles."
Taking his silence as consent, she turned and ran into the chaos outside.
What she saw broke her.
Valen stood alone, barely alive, wings burning out, armor in ruins. Alugard loomed with thousands of undead.
She screamed, "Chief! We must run! They've won!"
Valen turned, eyes wide. "Why are you here?!"
But her voice was already in his mind, assuring him the children were safe. She gave him a look—one final, desperate plea—and then turned to face Alugard.
The Zombie King didn't speak. He didn't raise a hand.
One of his minions tore her apart with a sickening crunch.
Valen screamed.
Something inside him snapped.
"BLOOD COMBUSTION!"
He flew high into the sky, veins glowing. His entire body ignited in red fire. His blood exploded outward in a cataclysmic surge, swallowing half the battlefield, annihilating thousands—vampire and undead alike.
The teenager quarters were caught in the blast.
Everything went white.
Later…
E999 groaned beneath a pile of splintered planks, the air thick with ash and burnt flesh. He pushed himself up, body aching.
The quarters were gone. Bodies charred. Buildings reduced to rubble.
He scanned for the four. If they were dead, he'd take their cores. Maybe sell them.
But to his surprise, two stirred. Slowly. As if reborn.
They stared up at him with wide, glowing eyes.
"...Father?" one whispered.
The other bowed. "Father."
E999 froze. "What the—? I'm not your damn father!"
They didn't listen. Their eyes held no malice, no memory. Just… innocence. A blank slate.
He narrowed his gaze. "What do you remember?"
They blinked. "...Sleep."
Nothing else.
Curious, he activated Aether Sight, eyes glowing gold.
°~[Name: Julius Edgar]~°
°~[Rank: Nill]~°
°~[Level: 4]~°
°~[Agility: 50]~°
°~[Strength: 51]~°
°~[Vitality: 52]~°
°~[Intelligence: 150]~°
°~[Potential: DEMIGOD]~°
E999's mouth fell open. "...Bloody hell… What the actual fuck is this?!"
They were stronger than him. Already.
He looked at the other two, still asleep.
and they all screamed power.
He couldn't kill them now. Not with this kind of potential. No, they'd be useful.
He picked up the remaining two, carrying them over his shoulders like cargo. The two awakened ones walked beside him obediently, still calling him "Father."
He winced every time they said it.
Back on the battlefield…
Corpses stretched for miles. Blood had soaked into the land itself, forming rivers. A few dying groans echoed in the distance.
E999 arrived at the epicenter—where Valen had died, where Alugard had disappeared into the tunnels.
There were things here. Treasures. Cores. Weapons.
And more bodies to loot.
He smiled grimly.
"A new chapter, huh…?"
He looked at the twins by his side—Julius and the other one still unnamed.
"Guess you're mine now. Let's see what this world has left to offer."
And with that, E999 knelt beside a twitching ghoul, his blade humming.
The world was not saved. It was broken.
But in ruin… there was always opportunity.he stabbed the zombie to death.
°~[Killed a level 1 zombie.]~°
°~[0.001 EXP gained.]~°
E-999 exhaled in mild irritation. A twitching ghoul lay still beneath his foot, its skull caved in, steam rising from its corpse. He wiped the blade on its ragged cloak, eyes scanning the ruined battlefield.
Smoke curled into the air. The earth was littered with corpses—vampires, ghouls, monsters of all kinds. A perfect harvest.
Without a word, he dropped the two unconscious children he'd been carrying. They hit the ground gently, like discarded luggage. The two awakened ones—Julius and the unnamed girl—watched him silently, their glowing eyes fixed on him.
"Ratsu," he said, naming the girl on a whim. She blinked, as if accepting the identity.
"Carve every head. Dig out the cores," he ordered, pointing to the field with his chin. "Use the daggers."
He plucked two blades from a nearby corpse and tossed them at their feet. The twins caught them effortlessly and nodded in eerie unison.
What followed was both grotesque and efficient.
With their unnatural strength, the act of splitting skulls was less like surgery and more like slicing through soft clay. They worked in sync—silent, obedient, methodical. Flesh peeled, bones cracked, and cores were ripped from the dead like fruit from overripe trees.
E-999 left them to it and stepped over broken bodies toward the true prize: the corpse of Valen, the vampire elder. His body lay sprawled in the ruins, armor shattered, wings torn off, his once-proud trident buried in the dirt beside him.
E-999 knelt beside the fallen vampire, frowning. The man had power, knowledge, and most importantly—secrets. A waste. But not a total one.
He slid his dagger across Valen's forehead and dug carefully into the skull. What he retrieved wasn't a Neurocore. No—this one was different.
It pulsed in his hand, a deep crimson glow emanating from within. Alive. Thrumming.
°~[Crystal Core (Blood Affinity)]~°
This wasn't the dark, cursed kind carried by zombies. This was refined—an evolution. A legacy.
He pocketed it and turned to the vampire's weapon. With a whisper, he activated Aether Sight. Golden lines traced over the blade's surface, revealing its truth.
°~[Item: Divine Blood Blade]~°
°~[Potential: Demigod]~°
°~[Effect: +20% boost to all stats when wielded.]~°
E-999 blinked. "Well… jackpot."
Hours passed as they harvested. When the last skull was split and the final corpse looted, the battlefield resembled an excavation site more than a graveyard. Piles of armor, crates of weapons, and dozens of glowing cores were laid out in rough rows.
That's when the other two children finally stirred.
He turned to face them, unsure of what he'd find. But instead of confusion or pain, they looked at him with hollow devotion.
"Father…" they both murmured, rising slowly.
He narrowed his eyes. Unlike the first two, these ones had memories. Or so he thought. But their gaze was empty—no past, no identity. Only him.
"...You're the same as them," he muttered, more to himself than to them. "Great."
Still, they'd be useful.
He lifted them over his shoulders like sacks of grain and led the other two toward the village's last intact building: a hidden tunnel complex beneath the ruins.
Inside, they descended into cold stone halls. The children trailed him like shadows, always quiet, always waiting. Their eyes never left him, silently begging for instructions.
But E-999 had no interest in playing house. He had one goal: break through to Level 10.
"I need more kills," he said aloud, mostly to himself. He recalled the prison under the village—where captives were kept, tortured, forgotten.
He took a turn and headed there. The children followed.
At the far end of the prison, he found a locked cell—the only one untouched by the previous carnage. The gate was reinforced, sealed by vampire magic. But Valen's ring served as a key.
The door creaked open.
Inside crouched something… unnatural.
A boy—perhaps twelve—yet twisted beyond recognition. He had snow-white hair, skin like cracked tombstone, and a monstrous insectoid limb for a right arm. A scaled tail twitched behind him. His eyes gleamed like a reptile's—cold, calculating.
The boy hissed, and without warning, launched forward, aiming to knock E-999 aside and escape.
But he didn't account for the quadruplets.
Before he left the ground, all four children moved—blurred like ghosts—and tackled him mid-air. He crashed into the floor with a sickening thud, the stone beneath cracking.
The thing thrashed, roared, bit. But their grip was absolute.
E-999 chuckled, drawing his new sword. "Sorry, kid. Nothing personal."
The Divine Blood Blade hummed as it pierced the chimera's skull.
The boy spasmed once, then lay still.
°~[Killed: Level 40 Chimera]~°
°~[EXP Gained: 1000]~°
A surge of power rushed through him. His muscles tensed. His heart thundered. He could feel the barrier to Level 10 cracking.
Grinning, he dug the core from the chimera's head. It was heavy. Dense. Pure.
He looked at the children, still pinning the body down, their hands soaked in black blood. All four turned to him in unison.
"Father?"
E-999 sighed.
"Yeah, yeah," he muttered. "Let's keep moving. Still plenty of monsters in this world…"
And with that, they vanished deeper into the tunnels.