Reborn As A Ghost: Time To Build My Undead Army!

Chapter 1040 A Talk With Kimiko

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The more the Vampires talked about everything, the more rage I felt. It felt like all the anger I've been suppressing for long was coming back. I resisted the urge to destroy their souls, they were already dead anyways, so I simply tried to be more merciful for a change of pace. For once.

What we learned was quite a lot, from the location of kidnaped people to the amount of Vampires distributed across the city. The Vampire organization here was the largest, and they, unlike the rest, didn't hid from the people. They were like a huge mafia, working alongside humans and beneath the ruler's eyes.

But who was the true ruler? The Lord and his family, or "Lord Hendrick", who seemed to be the true master of Emerald Fountain? From trading treaties to all kinds of connections, he handled almost everything.

It was quite clear that this guy was either cooperating the city lord or had him intimidated into cooperating. Though I was leaning towards the first option, the latter wouldn't work because the Vampire would have simply killed him eventually instead of trying to force him to cooperate against his will.

According to their words and information, the area where he hid was a huge underground palace, which was protected by a triple-layered Divine Blood Barrier formed using Techniques from "Ancient Vampires", most likely the contacts these Vampires could have with the ones from Umbralheim, which I presume are the ancestors of the Vampires of Yggdrasil.

This Divine Blood Barrier was made using three Divine Blood Cubes, powerful Divine Relics these Vampires gifted to Lord Hendrick. They were placed at the core of each underground facility, three of them in each corner of the underground pyramid.

The entire city had over a thousand Vampires we'll have to fight, this place, without a doubt, was proliferating the most with the bloodsuckers. The worst part is that they're all criminals, I doubt less than ten of them would actually even be normal.

"So it is in these underground facilities, where the Cubes are located, and where the kidnaped people is being held captive, right?" I asked Kimiko.

"Yes, this is all the truth, and everything we know." Kimiko nodded; her slightly Japanese face made her look much cutter than the other Vampires. "Lady Maria- I mean, Master, please let us assist you in this endeavor, to pay for our sins, and to repay you for having given us a second chance, instead of shattering our souls."

"Hmph, of course you're helping. There's no way I am letting you have it easy now." I smiled. "You'll fight against your former comrades and free all the people you kidnaped and wronged. And you might even die in the process. If your Undead bodies die in such process, I will not give you a third chance."

"Y-Yes…" Kimiko nodded. "Lord Hendrick is a very cunning man, he's known as the Horseman of Conquest for a reason."

"Conquest? Hmph, who does he thinks he is to call himself like that?" Lucifer was genuinely pissed off. "Is every stupid Vampire Boss the owner of such an arrogant title? What would their ancestors say about such things? All their descendants, turned into criminals constantly torturing innocent people! The Demon King and the Vampire Progenitor would have never wanted this to happen!"

"T-That's…" Kimiko fell into silence. "I-I'm sorry, I wasn't born a Vampire to know such legacy. For most of us, becoming a Vampire was just a way to become stronger, and to survive in this unfair world."

"Tsk…" Lucifer simply ignored their words and looked away somewhere else.

"So we've defeated one already, that woman, was she one title too?" I wondered.

"A-Ah, you defeated her?! Yes, that was the Horseman of Famine." Muttered Kimiko. "The other three horsemen had been really worried since her death."

"You've met the others?" Partner asked her.

"O-Only once, I saw the Horseman of War and the Horseman of Death visit Lord Hendrick. Only briefly so." Kimiko said. "One of them, the Horseman of Death, notified him that she acquired a powerful Divine Artifact, the Core of the Tower of Skadi."

"What? So that's… the vampire woman that was there! That damned woman that could raise even those you destroyed their souls!" Said Partner.

"Yeah…" I nodded. "So she was the Horseman of Death all along? I was already kind of guessing she was one of them anyways. She's… she has developed a Level of Necromancy not even I can reach yet. To wield the power of Origin Cores to raise Undead, even without requiring their bodies or souls."

"I-It is said the Horsemen are incredibly powerful beings that have surpassed even the SS Rank…" Said Kimiko. "They're the closest beings to Gods within the entire organization, aside from our Progenitor, our true Leader and someone that is said to be a Demigod. Our Grand Progenitor, Lord Sirius."

"Sirius?!" Lucifer opened his eyes in shock, instantly recognizing that name. "Sirius… That man! So it was him all along?! He was the one that made this entire organization of criminal vampires?!"

"You know him?" I asked.

"Yes, of course I know that bastard!" Lucifer roared in utter anger and fury. "Dammit! It had to be him from all people?! He's the brother of the Vampire King that once existed and was my good friend, and the friend of the Demon King. His weak, often sickly younger brother he was always taking care of. I've always wondered what happened to him. But to think that the honest and good-hearted Sirius ended growing into a monster that would host such a wicked organization of psychopaths… H-He wasn't like this before!"

"A lot must have happened since then." I said. "After all, you all lost the war against the Empire of Light, right? And also against the Gods, now that we know they're the ones controlling that Empire."

"This entire time, we were never fighting just humans…" Lucifer sighed. "I suppose that's why it makes sense we lost, despite being so strong. It was the Gods, the Gods all along helped them get to us, with their watchful eyes above the heavens, they told them everything, all our positions, all our weaknesses. And now Sirius, that damned bastard! I guess it makes sense now, all of it…"

"All of it?" I wondered.

"Yeah…" Lucifer nodded. "I've finally remembered all of my lost memories of the past."

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