Chapter 45: 45. Eternal Servitude

The refugees watched in fright as the vampire defended the kobold and himself from arrows with simple waves of his hands, while a fog of chaos surrounded the kobold, breaking down spells into raw mana.

"I'm dreaming, right?" A terrified man said in between sobs. He grabbed a woman next to him and shook her shoulder, "Linda, please… tell me this is a dream!" The woman had a frozen expression as she watched the scene. 

"How can humans ever fight against such a thing…" the woman muttered while being shaken by the man. She looked down the bridge at the bundle of flesh and organs that used to be their leader.

She just shook her head in disbelief, "He had no idea what he was up against. That vampire saw us as nothing more than rats that had invaded his home, pests that he had to deal with, and nothing more."

The knights screamed as the vampire that looked like an angel of death descended upon them like a vulture. Surrounding the vampire was a dense swarm of metal plates that rotated at high speeds and shredded anything that entered their range. Spells were deflected, and archers were either decapitated or blinded by flashes of light.

It was a one-sided massacre. 

Near the end of the slaughter, a beautiful woman emerged from the black carriage with a sinister grin plastered on her face. Fay noticed a bleeding knight using the bridge's side rail for support. She raised her arms, and water cascaded out. It was surprisingly weak and only irritated the knight. But to everyone's surprise, the girl ran up and kicked the knight square in the face, sending him spiraling in the air before landing in the lake with a splash. His heavy enchanted armor dragged him down to the murky depths below.

Only his helmet returned to the surface, peacefully bobbing on the water, surrounded by a pool of blood.

The vampire was terrifying like death incarnate, the woman was ruthless, but the kobold was possibly the most bloodthirsty creature here.

The little guy jumped straight into the middle of the knight's formation, surrounded by chaotic mana that was toxic to the mages. Whenever they attempt to cast spells within Varn's domain, their mana becomes corrupted and uncontrollable within their own bodies.

His small frame allowed him to weave effortlessly inside the formation, ripping heads and limbs off anyone he came in contact with. Although Varn's magic is B grade, already making him a terrifying existence. His raw strength alone was inhumane and allowed him to crush the knight's enchanted armor with only his claws. 

Within minutes the majority of the knights had perished and lay in pools of red as dismembered corpses. 

Damien calmly observed the two remaining survivors. Before B grade existences, which also had enhanced bodies like Damien and Varn, C grade knights were mere cannon fodder that needed culling. 

The real fight would be between the higher existences. Damien, Varn, and Beldroth stood side by side and faced off against the middle-aged man and young women. 

Beldroth had focused on protecting Fay as she went on her murderous rampage. His body itched in anticipation. There was nothing he loved more than killing traitors. Then, in disgust, he spat to the side and said, "Lloyd and Kristie… why?"

These were people he had personally trained years ago, yet now they stood on opposite sides of the battlefield. 

Lloyd snorted and said, "Beldroth, do you believe anyone would willingly become a traitor? Not that it matters, as Duke Nightshade correctly noticed either you die or I die today."

Beldroth scoffed, "It's three versus two. What's the first thing every mage learns in combat school? Never become outnumbered. Even the strongest mage will fall when confronting multiple opponents."

Lloyd nodded at his previous teacher's words, "It appears so…" it was true. In a mage-on-mage battle, there are two types of combat.

The first and most popular is killing your opponent by using a lethal spell, such as an ice spike through the heart. The second and less common method was overwhelming your opponent's mana circuit with invasive mana. This is the less popular route as it only works on those weaker than the mage, and it's terribly inefficient, as the defender has the home advantage.

For example, Damien would have to send ten times the amount of mana to overwhelm Lloyd. Then Lloyd would have to spend defending.

But what happens when a mage is outnumbered? Now the mage has to defend against invasive mana and lethal spells simultaneously. Since Damien is a B+ grade mage, the closest to the A grade as possible, and Varn is a wild mage that excels in using his mana to destroy another mage's mana. Lloyd and Kriste had absolutely no chance.

Lloyd put on a sinister grin, "How about a duel, old friend? Leave the girl to the boys…." 

Kriste had a horrified expression as Lloyd pushed her forward. "W-wait… I was forced here."

Lloyd was also a wind mage and dashed towards Beldroth. "Your twenty years too early to fight me, boy!" Beldroth shouted as he smacked Lloyd away with a palm surrounded by high-pressure winds. 

Varn whispered to Damien, "Master, are you sure we should kill this woman? She looks so pitiful."

Damien looked towards the woman. She seems to be around twenty years old and has light purple hair in an emo style over her eyes. She did resemble an abandoned kitten with those eyes.

Damien turned towards Varn, "Let me teach you something, my dear disciple… there is nothing more dangerous than a cornered animal."

Varn tilted his head in confusion, but Damien walked towards the shaking girl. She looked up towards Damien and stuttered, "S-sir, my family is being held hostage by the prince. I didn't want to come here…."

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Damien just grinned, "An oscar level performance, but alas, it's impossible to conceal your bloodlust before me, little girl…." 

The girl's pitiful appearance vanished as she lunged forward with a silver-coated dagger in her hand, screaming, "Die, you fucking monster!" 

Damien's glove emerged from his pocket and shot forward to grab the girl's wrist. Damien made a twisting motion, and she cried out as the dagger fell to the floor with a clang. "Kristie… there's only one punishment for trying to assassinate me."

Kristie looked up with crazy eyes and met Damien's smiling gaze.

"Eternal servitude…"

Damien lifted Kristie using his floating gloved hand. She struggled with all her might and desperately gasped for air. Damien said to Varn, "Overload her with your mana." 

Varn nodded, and his wild mana surged forward. Its untamable wrath slammed into Kriste's mana circuit like a hurricane. She barely managed to resist the invasion with her darkness affinity mana, yet suddenly she felt a pain in her neck. 

Damien greedily drained her blood and funneled his blood affinity mana into her. Fighting against two fronts, across two separate circuits within her body, became impossible. Her body quickly gave in, and she passed out.

Damien extracted his dripping fangs and used the silver-coated dagger on the floor to lightly cut his finger. He then allowed a single drop of his crimson blood to fall into Kristie's open mouth. Kristie's body jolted in pain as Damiens blood destroyed the poison inside her.  

"Blood contract made between Noble Vampire Damien Nightshade and Human Kristie. Blood slaves affinities (Darkness) is unlocked."

For the second time, Damien heard the voice in his head. He then muttered, "I now have four different affinities; Psychic, Blood, Spatial, and now Darkness. The known limit is five. Although that limit is passable with an S rank item, that item is guarded by a Dragon on the eastern side of the continent, past the Kazimir mountains… So I must pick my final affinity very carefully."

He looked down at the passed-out woman by his feet. He debated killing her now since he had unlocked her affinity, but that would be rather wasteful. So instead, he was tapping his chin and looking at the many corpses around him. He then glanced at the terrified group of refugees, which gave Damien an idea. Walking across the bridge as if he was taking a casual stroll, Damien approached the refugees.

"You are all free to leave," he said, dumbfounding them all. "You can return to your pathetic little lives and live out your final days in fear of the strong." He said with disdain.

"However, for those that wish to never return to such an insignificant life, I have a job opportunity. Sign a soul contract with me and become my private army. In return, I will provide magical knowledge, weapons, armor, and a decent wage that you can send back to your families."

"The choice is yours."

The group of starving refugees wearily eyed the bridge that had been dyed red with blood. Sounds of a battle between Beldroth and Lloyd echoed in the distance. Suddenly the vampires that had terrorized them for years didn't seem that scary anymore. But, compared to what they had witnessed today, they realized they had never witnessed what true power was.

The strong get to decide their fate and the fate of others. Although they would be soul-bound to Damien, the chances of them living even a few more days out there with no money were zero. 

Damien stood still for a while and noticed that nobody stood up to leave.

"It seems you have all made the right decision."

One by one, he bound the refugee's souls in golden chains. Then, glancing at the many corpses with mostly intact armor, he shouted towards the car, "Thar, fix up the armor and resize them for my new knights here."

Thar exited the car and began to pry the armor from the corpses. Using his C-grade metal magic, he fixed dents and removed holes. But unfortunately, there had been only thirty knights, and half of the armor was unusable. 

Damien walked over and shook his new blood slave awake. Once her eyes opened, she emotionlessly said, "What are my master's commands."

Damien smiled and replied, "You shall be known as Zero, the commander of my private army. Train them well for me, will you?" He said while pointing to the rag-tag group of dazed refugees that had just signed away their souls.

Zero stood up and bowed, "It shall be done, my lord."

Damien nodded in satisfaction and patted Zero's shoulder, "She will be your commander and trainer."

Damien then rubbed his chin, "There's so much to do… but first let's clean up this battleground and then visit Blackthorn for supplies to fix this castle up."