Point-of-View: Hacte Routh

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The battle is over...we are victorious. Hm, I suppose I cannot deny that Kuro certainly played a significant role in this victory, but without Lord Valaque, he would be dead right now...yes, that ingrate now owes my lord his life. He had better be grateful.

The Vampire King went up in red flames, and my lord began approaching Kuro. What are you doing, my lord, you must not get so close-...no, it is not my place to question his actions, I must know my place. Lord Valaque will not make a mistake, of that, I am certain. Hm, they are shaking hands? Ah, that lowly scum must be thanking my lord for saving his life, and is surely pledging his allegiance to him now-...h-huh...?

Wh-what happened? My lord is-...h-he collapsed? Is he...dead? N-no, that cannot be right, that is impossible, Lord Valaque would never be felled so easily, and by such a person as this...I cannot accept that! He must be tired or something...

But he...he is not getting up...n-no, it cannot be...he is dead...that bastard...h-he killed him...he killed my lord! No...how dare you...you lowly maggot, you dare...I...I will...I will kill y-!

"Who's there!?"

A wave of fear seized my body as he sharply turned his gaze back towards me, an alert glare in his eyes...before I could stop myself, I was running away...no, I need to go back...I need to avenge Lord Valaque...but...if I fight him...I...I will die...

Such cowardice, disgusting! No, that is wrong...Lord Valaque deserves to be properly avenged, and I cannot do so as I am now...therefore, I will not strike until I obtain the power to do so...yes, that's right...I will gain power, and once I do, I will hunt down Kuro Black...yes, I will return someday...and kill him...

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Point-of-View: Kuro Black

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"Ahh-...where am I...?"

"Rise and shine, Lagusa...I healed you enough to keep you from croaking, but only so that I can kill you myself. Oh, and I'll make sure that the thousand Fire Magic life forces you consumed won't go to waste, 'kay?"

"You...I see, everything went according to your plan, didn't it? Tch, if only Valaque had listened to my suspicions."

"Yup, I really lucked out that your boss was such a complete idiot. Well, that idiot's dead now, and you'll be joining him in a sec."

It was currently the first week of February, 1675, a few days after the successful counterattack against the Vampires ended. After I defeated Lazarus and killed Valaque, I restrained the Retribution Tier members that were still alive, namely, Azeria, Rion and Rex. They were currently being held in the Rustlands' prison, and we still hadn't decided what to do with them yet.

After I tied them all up, I met up with everyone else, which took a while since, you know, we didn't have a way to communicate over distances. Eventually, everyone was accounted for, though we'd suffered numerous casualties. From the east and west groups, we only had six survivors...Selesa, Les, Yuur, Siela, Oreg and Siert. All the others had been killed.

And from the sixteen that stormed the castle, seven died...well, I'm counting Lagusa, who isn't dead yet, but may as well be. I explained to everyone that the Vampires were no longer going to be a problem, and that I had effectively imprisoned Lazarus in me. There were a few protests at that, but I managed to convince them that it was a good thing, since I planned to inquire into all his knowledge about the past. That, and I couldn't get rid of him even if I wanted to. I was able to prove my point almost immediately, when Ekai brought up his new form. According to Lazarus, that was a person's True Anima form.

Apparently, about five hundred years ago, it was a slightly more common occurrence, and was usually seen when a human who had powerful Elemental Magic and significant Anima effects found themselves in dire situations and pushed to the brink of death but refused to give up...since it was relatively rare even back then, the monsters didn't worry about it too much, but were still pretty wary of it, since the few humans that did unlock this power were insanely powerful.

Anyway, after that, we left Silvland and headed back to the Rustlands using teleportation spells. On the way, we stopped by The Empire and gave the handful of remaining people a choice...die or get imprisoned. A lot of them seemed fiercely loyal to Valaque and tried to attack us, and were subsequently put down. The few that chose to live were taken in as prisoners along with the three Retribution Tier members, including Dista.

Once we got back to the Rustlands, things were pretty crazy for a few days. As it turned out, Silvland ended up terminating their alliance with us following an internal conflict. Princess Agatha returned to the nation the day after we drove out the Vampires, and she proposed some pretty drastic changes, including abolishing their religion, though anyone who still wanted to worship were free to do so...and yeah, the nobles didn't take kindly to that.

She was nearly killed as a result, and probably would have been if Selesa and Les didn't go with her as bodyguards. And so, she was forced to run away, and Silvland demanded the return of the asshole prince. Personally, I'd have preferred to see that guy killed, not to mention that Silvland was currently in no position to be making demands, but Erhtaph decided that it wasn't a good idea to make any enemies so soon after a costly battle, so we sent him back to Silvland.

Before he left, he swore that he'd one day kill his 'blasphemous' sister. The very next day, we got word that Silvland were no longer our allies, and that the cunt prince was now the cunt king.

So, yeah, literally days after we freed them from the Vampires, they turned on us. Well, technically they weren't our enemies, they were just no longer our allies, and since the majority of their Adventurers were killed, they don't have any real offensive power, we're way stronger than they are.

I considered using one of my two remaining King's Decrees to make it so that the Vampires were free to attack just Silvland again, but I decided not to waste it...never know when these Decrees might come in handy further down the line.

We still had our alliance with Bronztan, but our relationship with them was tentative at best at the moment, Erhtaph and Headmaster Yiserir were taking measures to ease tensions between us and them...I refused to be involved, since I'd likely make things worse if I ever interacted with their bitchy queen again.

Oh, and Princess Agatha, well I guess she's no longer a princess, would be staying in the Rustlands from now on, along with Selesa and Les. Les might've been fine, but the other two would definitely have gotten killed if they went back to Silvland now, because of the whole thing about the existence of Reincarnators contradicting the teachings of their religion.

Oh, and as for the location where Goldway and The Empire had been, the Rustlands would be building a sort of second-base there, named the Goldlands. Aurich would be overseeing and put in charge of it. For now, it wasn't going to be a full-on rebuilding of a nation, but that would certainly be a worthwhile consideration in the long-term.

For the short and medium-term, simple structures would be set up, and it'd be a place for Adventurers to train, collect valuables and trade them in for money, and most of the valuables would then be transported to the Rustlands, stimulating our economy, while the rest would be used to continue developing the Goldlands.

Aurich was totally on board with it, and since he was grateful to us for everything we'd done, he was fine with ownership of the area being claimed by the Rustlands. And since we now had more to offer in terms of trade, we could potentially strengthen the alliance between us and Bronztan. But I planned to stay out of the economics, it just wasn't my thing.

I still hadn't gotten a chance to ask Lazarus about the past and what he meant when he said that knowledge of the past was going to be crucial going forward. Atticus had previously said that his memories of the distant past were hazy, but Lazarus assured me that he remembered everything clearly, and that Atticus's memories were probably fuzzy as a side effect of the King's Decrees.

Since he can't control my body like Atticus could with Fuo, I decided to talk to him alone and write down everything he said and then deliver those notes to Erhtaph. Oh, and I do mean it when I say he can't control my body, not even if I wanted him to. He can't see or hear what I'm seeing and hearing either, though can view them a few seconds later, after they become past memories.

Speaking of my body...well, Persia had been kinda right, I did end up getting another convenient power-up. First off, my body had gotten physically stronger by a significant amount. My time limits had also gotten massive boosts.

I could now use Karma Mode: One Hundred Percent for fifteen minutes...hm, actually, I think I'll just call it Karma Mode, because with that much time available to me, I won't need to worry about the time limit much anymore, so I won't have to use a lower percentage of Karma where previously I'd have to consider it and calculate the time limits to decide which amount of Karma would best suit my requirements.

As for Vampire Mode, I could stay in the form for ten whole minutes, and it gave me a x20 boost instead of the previous x15. And my flight speed in that state had increased from x18 to x24. I had seven Crosses at my disposal; Eyes of Compulsion, Teleportation, Beckon, Repulsion, Quintuple, Absolute Defense and Stagnate. And of course, the sub-Cross of Eyes of Compulsion, King's Decree.

Oh, and then there was the additional form that Lazarus had mentioned, the one beyond Vampire Mode...this form lasted a minute, and had a cooldown time of twenty-four hours, but it gave me a x50 boost, with x60 in flight, basically my power level when I had consumed the life forces of the Evil Numbers...I looked a bit different in this form too, but I hadn't noticed back then since, you know, it's not like I had a mirror on me.

My tail was a bit longer, slightly thicker and a lot tougher, with some spikes all over it. My claws turned black, slightly more curved and grew a bit longer, while a red pattern formed across my face, chest and arms...I thought it looked pretty cool. At first, I thought of calling it Vampire King Mode...but I was stronger in this form than Lazarus had been, so I instead went with Vampire God Mode.

My Healing Factor had gotten a major ungrade too, I had complete control over it...I could literally use it to grow extra limbs or use my bones as weapons if I wanted to now, though doing something like that in significant amounts would probably drain a lot of stamina.

And the improvements to my Healing Factor weren't just due to Lazarus's life force, but Valaque's as well...I mean, they guy literally had over twenty-five thousand people's worth of life force in him, and that was the main driving force in powering up my Healing Factor.

And that wasn't all, of course...I could now use all five Elemental Magic types! My Lightning Magic hadn't gotten any stronger, and the other four types were about on the same level as it was...maybe that means that a person has an already predetermined upper limit to the scale of their Elemental Magic capabilities. I don't plan on using them in a fight until I've spent at least a few months training with them...I had a lot of decisions to make, like should I opt to master Propulsion or Flight?

Well, I don't have to make that decision right now, there's no rush, and besides, I had other things to do at the moment. So, let's get back to the present...

"I suppose you plan to kill me now?" Inquired Lagusa, wincing in pain as he tried to move.

Like I said, I only healed him enough to keep him alive, so he was still in pretty bad shape right now.

"Don't bother, the only reason you aren't restrained is because I don't need to restrain you. I've slashed your tendons and all your muscles are torn too, not to mention that I've broken the bones in your limbs. And yeah, I'm going to kill you...after torturing you a bit. It'll just be a small taste of what I went through for the three years after you sold me out. Oh, don't worry, I'll make sure that the thousand life forces in you won't go to waste," I replied, nodding at Persia, who was behind me.

We were currently at the Goblin Cave, I had decided to get this done outside the Rustlands, so that no matter how loud he screamed in pain, it wouldn't bother anyone.

"I think I understand now...just like the Vampires, you can consume life forces...that is why you sent us ahead, so that you could consume the life forces of the other Vampires while we kept the king occupied."

"Yup, that, and additionally, I was hoping that Lazarus would kill off some of you guys, since that'd save me a whole lot of trouble. And now, The Valaque Empire is all but history."

"I see, then Valaque is dead, right?"

I smirked and held up my hand, forming a small orb of each of the five Elemental Magic types at my fingertips.

"I dunno, you tell me."

"What rotten luck, to be reincarnated in the same world as you. I sincerely hope that we never cross paths again, in any world...my old apprentice."

"Well, despite everything that happened at the end, I suppose I do owe you for saving me when I was a kid. So, thanks for that. And for everything else...sincerely, fuck you."

With that, I began his torture, subjecting him to the same treatment I received in those last three years of my previous life, electrocution and dissection, slicing off his limbs bit by bit, while using my Healing Factor to keep him alive, until all that was left was a head and torn up torso. His tortured cries of pain weren't enough to satisfy me though...no, after going through all that three years, there's no way subjecting him to it for an hour or so was going to make up for it.

"Y-your rage...a-and...bloodlust...I-I see...this i-is quite painful, m-more painful th-than anything I-I've e-ever felt before...but i-it is...n-not enough for you...is it?" He muttered hoarsely, blood dripping down his mouth.

Yeah, but...there was just no way I was going to be able to torture him enough to make up for those three years...that was a scar that, deep down, was never going to fade, it was etched into my memories far too clearly for that...

"No, I've had enough...this is goodbye, Lagusa...and for the record, I agree with what you said...I too hope that we never cross paths again...you old bastard."

With those parting words, I transferred his life force to Persia, killing him. The two of us then left the Goblin Cave and began heading back to the Rustlands. I left his corpse there, the Goblins and insects can eat his rotting flesh for all I care.

"You okay, Kuro?" Asked Persia, tugging my sleeve with a look of concern.

"Yeah, never been better, actually...I mean, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that I saved the world, right?" I replied with a grin, ruffling the top of her head.

"Hey, cut it out...my hair is difficult enough to comb as it is now," She sighed with a frown.

Ever since I transferred that Vampire Knight's life force into her, her hair had become a bit wild and unruly.

"I like the way your hair is now though, it's cute."

"Yeah, yeah...maybe I should cut it?" She mused, twirling a strand of hair while thinking about it.

"Short-haired Cat Girl, huh...? Yeah, go for it, I think I'd like to see that," I responded with smile.

"Hm...maybe I will."

...

...

A few hours later, around 10 PM at night, I finally had some free time. The last few days had been pretty hectic, but I had finished giving my account of everything that happened, along with some input on certain issues, and now, I was finally done. And I planned to relax for a while after this. Except for training, I had no intention of doing anything that was too far out of my comfort zone, I was gonna take it easy for some time. But first...

"Alright, Lazarus, it's time you and I had a nice, long conversation. I hope I'm right in assuming you'll answer any and all of my questions?"

"Yes, I have no reason to hide anything, the more that you know, the better your chances of survival are, and consequently, the better my chances of survival are. Ask me whatever you wish."

Alright, then, it's time for me to learn about the past of this world...

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