Nightmare System

The ones who had their hands in the air a moment earlier no longer did so and were paralysed in fear. Hell's voice was very friendly, but his words were both quick and certain. He gave his orders to this new bunch, each of whom felt they had no other place to go. Many of them thought of mounting a sneak attack on the enemy leader when they could, but it seems it was true that this man had enough power to win against Lord Pandora.

"Do realise that any insubordinate acts will be punished with a quick death. You will follow our army and each of you will pair up with one of my soldiers. The entire group will be eradicated if you gather in groups of 3 or more. That is all. You will be stationed outside the city for tonight. Rest, we will go tomorrow."

Hell had a bad feeling he couldn't get rid of and wanted to return home as soon as he could. He also figured they'd station them outside for today as they turned the residents of the city into ghouls and vampires. After he left here, the population remaining would have an abundance of wealth and homes to choose from. After all, so many had died.

There would still be occasional sounds of crying heard in the city as they went in, and the screams of the innocent rose into the air once more. With the city's soldiers stationed outside, there was no one to save the regular citizens. Some residents of large frame and strong body were sure to become vampires, so they were collected somewhere else as a batch that would very likely become full vampires.

The specifically feeble ones, on the other hand, were collected in another large building and were sure to become ghouls. Ghouls were nigh-mindless creatures that obeyed the orders of any vampire, but especially the one who turned them. So Hell appointed Annette and Jack to do the turning. Hell thought that with Jack's strength in battle and his thirst for blood, he would be able to command the newly turned vampires.

Annette would turn the feeble ones, you didn't need to be forceful or authoritarian in any way to command ghouls. Hell decided to rest in a large mansion in the outskirts of the city, away from the screams of the innocent. He would bring Theperes there before the creation of his army started, he didn't want her to know nor hear about what was about to happen. They would dine and have fun in that mansion, with many vampires outside, making sure nothing is amiss.

Hell flew through the city to search for a suitable, clean mansion. He found a nice place, emptied the corpses and had a score of his army clean and prepare the house for their King and Queen to stay at, with one of the Knights, Roro, leading them. He had replaced Annette as she was given another task. He was called Lord Hell, yes, but some had already started calling him "King Hell" amongst themselves, especially after the occupation of Pandora's City.

Hell sent a few soldiers to call for Theperes as Hell waited, ready for some action on the large bed on the second floor, prepared to welcome his lover with all his being. To his surprise, however, Theperes entered the room with a child in her embrace.

"What? Where did you get that child from?!" Hell exclaimed.

"Stop yelling," Theperes shushed him. "He just slept." She carefully shooed Hell away from the bed and let the boy lie on it. The kid still had tears near his eyes and his cute look melted Theperes' heart, who only looked at the adorable creature lying before herself and c.a.r.e.s.sed his hair. "I will look after you," she whispered.

Hell, on the other hand, was horrified by the unfolding events, immediately going outside to find his copies. "What happened?" he asked. "That kid! Is it hers?! What is this?!"

Pseudo Hell-1 stepped forward to speak up, he was very blunt and quick to explain. He also knew how hard this would be to explain, but in a context where you were getting briefed by, well, yourself, it was a lot easier to believe and understand. "She saw a kid crying with his dad or whatever being eaten by one of our vampires. She interfered and saved the boy from the bloodthirsty vampire and wouldn't take no for an answer when we said she couldn't take him."

"Huh?" Hell said, with his face twitching. "You expect me to believe that?!"

"What? You don't believe yourself? You are one dense bastard, that's really what happened!" Pseudo Hell interjected.

"How dare you? I'll skin you alive!"

"Good luck doing that, I'll die and melt before that happens! Hahaha!" Pseudo Hell laughed frantically. The copies were only an extension of Hell, they had no concept of worrying about dying.

As the man who was rejected s.e.x and his copy yelled at one another in front of the mansion and made their soldiers uncomfortable, another voice tore through their bickering. "You woke him up!" Theperes yelled. "Go and yell somewhere else." The windows were shut with enough force to crack them.

"You are gonna get an earful from her, too," said Pseudo Hell with an immense grin on his face.

Hell was slightly disgruntled, but it seemed that was really all there is to the story. "So she wants to look after that snotty brat until after our invasion?" he asked.

It seems their small play was over, Pseudo Hell also stopped messing around and replied normally. "My guess would be that she wants to raise him. Congratulations, we are a father now."

"So she has a soft spot for children," Hell said and contemplated for a while. "All right," he said. "Go to Annette and tell her that there must absolutely be no children in her batch."

"Sure." Pseudo Hell understood his reasoning, not even mentioning it would be quite inhumane.

Hell sighed and strolled inside, now he had to deal with this new trouble. Going up these stairs seemed so much harder, he just wanted to rest now if he could. Theperes welcomed him on the top of the stairs.

"How can you be so inconsiderate?" she questioned in a quiet voice.

"I am not gonna act like it's normal you just brought a child here, Theperes."

Her face muscles relaxed, and she gained a more graceful outlook. She looked beautiful and pure enough to bewitch Hell. "Let me keep him," she said with a pained face that would break any man's heart. "He is all alone in this broken world."

"Theperes, we are not an orphanage. We just razed this city, will you just go around and pick up any orphan you find?"

"No, just this one… Please, Hellebore. I'll take care of him all by myself and won't inconvenience any of you," she said in a cute voice, her arms c.a.r.e.s.sing his c.h.e.s.t.

"He is just a kid, he will go insane around us."

"I will keep him from any unsightly thing."

Hell had nothing more to say, even if something happened to the kid, not like they'd be jailed. "Do whatever you wish, but that was to be our room."

"I will prepare another—"

"I already had this mansion cleaned, we'll get him to a room on the same floor. I'll also have Roro stand watch, tending to his all needs. He will even call for you if the boy asks, how is that?"

"I knew you'd understand!" Theperes said, her sad and pained looks vanishing instantly as if they were never there. Hell was about to call her out on it when she kissed him in elation.

"I'll get Roro, then."

Hell didn't interact with the child and it had already passed midnight with Theperes tending to him. It was also great that she was distracted with this during the transformation of the residents. She finally entered their bedroom with tired eyes after four or so hours and threw herself on the bed.

"Are you hungry?" Hell asked, tearing the artery on his wrist with the help of his skill Vampire Claws. It hurt, but Hell was all right with pain, the blood spew in force as Theperes quietly bit into his wrist. "You are very delicious," she m.o.a.n.e.d while eating.

They both finally could relax in the mansion in each other's arms. In the throes of passion, they were glad to have each other. But little did they know, the soldiers on guard-duty outside felt miserable and could only sigh. They had just fought a great battle, after all.

Miur revealed himself from the shadows without a sound at dawn, right behind Hell's sleeping body. What he saw when he gazed at Hell's back were the many points he could attack to finish him. He didn't want to; it was just a habit. After all, this was as fun as the battles against the demons and devils. It had been around 50 years since a large-scale battle occurred, there should be another soon. But he was bored already, and thankful to Hell for killing Lirger, and managing to recruit himself.

Hell shushed Miur quietly just as he opened his mouth to speak and got up after covering Theperes with the blanket. He quietly started dressing and motioned Miur to go outside. Hell looked at himself before a mirror and realised his muscles becoming a lot more pronounced since before these crazy events. It had only been weeks, but felt a lot longer.

"Is it the stats?" he mused and followed after him soon after.

Miur was amused that Hell realised he was there. He made sure to not make the slightest sound and sneaked into the mansion flawlessly, but, nonetheless, he was caught. Although he was yet to kill any strong opponents here, just watching this good show was also quite satisfactory. Miur then took the initiative to speak, seeing Hell leave the room and close the door behind him.

"My Lord, I have news."

"Shoot."

"What?" Miur was confused.

"I mean tell me."

"We have gathered a third of the remaining population but out of 5.000 residents we collected, only 500 seemed suitable for the process of becoming a vampire."

"Why don't we use the hearts of the vampires we killed and make sure we'll be able to make even more vampires?" Hell asked. He figured the reason, but it'd be a shame later if that was a possibility from the beginning.

Miur sighed and answered: "The blood in the heart of a vampire cannot be simply preserved, it needs to be fresh, or it won't work." It was possible to detect a hint of boredom as he spoke, as if it was common knowledge to all.

"I wanted to ask, just in case. How is the army doing?"

"You will have to speak about that with your Knights, my Lord. However, I would like to say that in mere moments, you will have to leave as the newly established army of yours will have to feed. I assume you designated the other residents of the city as food sources."

Hell blanked out. "I totally forgot!" he wanted to say, but couldn't. This was the worst time possible, Theperes would probably wake up in mere hours. The real carnage was about to start, so he did the only thing he could make up on his feet.

"Exactly," he said with a stern face. He hadn't shown any hint of surprise on his face, truly masterfully disguising his shock. He was thinking of ruling this city and its residents perhaps, it was a nice city. "I will leave a copy with Theperes and oversee the whole matter yourself. You are free to act as you wish."

"I thank you," Miur said with a hard to distinguish smile on his face that was the colour of ashes and vanished into the shadows once more. This slim, tall figure coupled with its pale appearance made him very hard for the eyes when directly looked at. It was probably better that he always used his ability to partially hide himself using shadows.

After Hell made a copy in the mansion, he left. He almost ran out of mana the day before, so instead of flying, he ran. He was already hearing the cries and dying shrieks of the people around. There seemed to be more than two thousand ghouls and 400-ish vampires.

Hell then saw Jack leading the vampires around in the streets. They were all following him around with Jack sending them to certain locations to feed every once in a while. It was incredible that he managed to subdue them all. Hell figured there was more than 400 when they woke up, dwindled down by the crazy vampire that turned them all.

Of course, newly turned vampires had no chance against something like Jack. He was truly strong, as Hell also witnessed multiple times during the battle. Of course, he would have no chance against Hell himself, but Jack himself was also improving the more he fought. The ghouls, on the other hand, had to listen to Annette, so they weren't rampaging at the city at the moment. After a quick inquiry, Hell found out that the ghouls were simply feasting on the bodies that failed to transform. They had a lot of bodies to devour If they wanted to eat.

Since the ghoul population wasn't as expected, the city itself would probably be fine. It was just 400 vampires, how many could they kill? Hell quickly teleported before Jack, who had a smile on his face as soon as their eyes met.

"420 vampires, my Lord, they are all ready to die for you!" Jack laughed as he raised his arms in the air and motioned the vampires on his back.

"How did you subdue them?" Hell asked.

"Torn apart 20 of them when they attacked me," Jack said, bloodthirst oozing out from his body. His clothes were stained with blood, and it had even dried already. When comparing auras, Jack's aura wouldn't be far behind Hell's. Such a strong aura for a kid, Hell was thinking.

"How old are you?" Hell asked.

Puzzled by the question, Jack still answered: "16, my Lord, why?"

"Wait, you are actually 16? So you were born 16 years ago?"

"Yes."

"You are one evil kid, Jack," Hell said. "But I like it. You can go on with your business."

"Thank you, my Lord."

Hell made sure everything was going smoothly, he also learnt that 20 of his prisoners were killed when they tried to escape, their bodies raised to be the omen of death to all who went against Lord Hell. The vampires knew it was hard to survive in the wild by themselves, and along with the horrifying visage drawn for them by Hell's army, they dared not escape.

Hell instructed his Knights and Virgil to settle the city and allow the army to rest for one day. Hell could see that he really couldn't force them to fight continuously. But if they were to fight, Hell would rather it was here, in this city. And while everyone was busy with something, he wanted to discover this Elemental Contractor ability he got from Pandora. Hell was wondering if he could get one of those fire elementals, now that was cool. He checked the spell.

*Elemental Contractor: The user can form a bond with one elemental the user is in-sync with*