Aurora

A new Demon Lord has been born. Aurora, Demon Lord of Death has risen from the night. Mortals! Prepare your armies! Choose your side!

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You have been elevated to Demon Lord by the Absolute Being: Death as a reward for your faithful servitude. You have brought glory and renown to Death. Rejoice at the honor! Continue to serve Death until it is your turn to join the countless beings that will fall to your blade.

Unlocked Death Magic – Absolute Control. You control of Death magic is boosted to the extreme. As a servant of Death, few will be able to stop your magic. Death magic is more effective! You are even able to prevent death from taking hold, but Death does not like to be denied what is his. Proceed with caution.

Level Difference debuff reduced by twenty levels.

New spells:

Death's Grasp: By channeling Death magic, the caster can immobilize their target, binding them with spectral chains that drain their energy and restrict their movements.

Gravefire Burst: This spell summons ethereal flames from the realm of Death, creating explosions that burn with spectral fire, causing both physical and spiritual harm to enemies.

Cursed Plague: The caster unleashes a contagious curse upon their foes, infecting them with a deadly plague that drains their life force and spreads to others.

As a demon lord, a beacon has been created to signal the forces of light. However, as you are a dungeon core, the signal covers five times as much distance to give you a fighting chance.

As a demon lord you gain energy through your aspect. Death energy is required to increase your rank. Current Rank: F. Highest rank possible: SSS.

A nation under your control has been detected! All inhabitants have converted to the Cult of Death without issue. Rank increased to D!

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I paused in my perusal of the notifications for a minute. There was just so much to take in. Not only had I become a Demon Lord, but I had become quite dangerous at that in just a matter of minutes. Just the spells alone made me a force to reckon with. Now that I had Lake Ruin in my grasp, I was able to cover close to five hundred kilometers around my dungeon. That was plenty of territory to protect my core.

Rubbing my eyes, I pulled up the last notification. I soon saw that it wasn’t quite a notification and more of a message.

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Child of Humanity. Heed my words. Serve me well and you will live to see the end of this world. Take my gifts and spread the ultimate truth. There is only Death at the end of the road.

--

I paused at the first statement. Something felt off about it. Even if I was a human before I became a vampire, would death know that? Even if he did, wouldn’t he say something like child of the night as I was currently a vampire. I scratched my head at the weird phrase but filed it away when I failed to come up with something to explain it.

As I scratched my head, I felt something towards the middle of my head. Reaching up, I found that I had a nice pair of horns now. I pressed my hand against the wall and created a quick mirror. My hair had taken an ethereal whitish green that was often associated with ghosts in many games. My skin was still deathly pale but glowed dimly with energy.

As I thought, I had two horns growing nicely out of my hair. There was a third one between the two, right above the middle of my forehead. Sinister-looking energy sparked between the horns forming what I could only call a crown.

“It would appear that I’ve gone through some changes,” I muttered dismissing the mirror from my dungeon.

Vhix’s cold expression softened for a second. She went from a corpse that had been dead for a week to one that had only been dead for a few hours. “Yes. Death’s mark is impressive on you, Lady Aurora.”

“I will have to give my thanks to him later,” I said.

“My master will greatly appreciate it,” Vhix replied with what I thought might be happiness.

I chuckled then started heading for my dungeon throne. “I see that Death has a vast and deep heart,” I said to fill the silence.

“It is his great kindness to help people into the next existence. He is truly the greatest there is,” Vhix replied. I was glad to see that she was talkative. Most of my monsters only talked to me when I spoke to them. The Greater vampires did have a level of personality, but they were created by me. My paragons were better in that regard, but again, there was a level of modification on my part before they were summoned.

We eventually reached my throne while I was thinking to myself. I had to take a second as my core had also changed. Before, it looked like a floating orb of blood inside a glass orb, but now it was pitch black with a red outer layer. In the center was a laughing skull. Death was really doing everything he can to mark me as his own.

Vhix was looking around as if everything interested her. I sat down while I was watching her. “Where were you before you came here, Vhix?”

“The Abyss. Guiding souls to Death.”

“Hmm.” That didn’t go very far. I felt that it was more because that was all that mattered to her rather than because she didn’t know how to describe it. Then again, it might just be emptiness. “I see. Thank you for telling me. Now then,” I leaned back and crossed my arms. “The question is what to do now that I’ve got a target painted on my back.”

“Send all those that come for you to our master,” Vhix said with conviction. She even huffed with her chest puffed out. It was clear someone was raring to fight.

“Of course!” I puffed out my chest just as much. “Death has done a great deal for me. I plan to repay that kindness.” It was ironic. I had gotten more help from a demon lord and Death of all things than anyone else.

First things first, I sent my mind over to my Twisted Webs body. I quickly checked the city menu to make sure I didn’t cause any trouble with my recent change.

Twisted Webs

Level One City

Population: 12,501

Combatants: 1,501

Economic Strength: A+

Combat Strength: C-

Cultural Strength: SSS+

Magical Strength: E+

Current Administrative Wealth: 3,401,544 (Assets & Gold)

It looked like I had caused the Cultural rank to go up another rank. I was excited by what my spider might be able to achieve with such a high ranking. If we could sell some of the goods created here, I might be rolling in the dough. When I looked through some of the records for the city, I found transactions of various pieces of art that ranged from a thousand to hundreds of thousands of gold coins.

The problem was that the transactions were with nobles from the surface. I wasn’t sure of the cause, but the city’s connection with the surface had been cut off a few years ago. It was before Mira and Opal started playing the game, so they had no idea of the cause either. Thinking about it, I had a feeling it was due to the Deep Dwarves from Bingram or perhaps another of the settlements that were hostile against the Archnea.

No doubt there were a few players among the dwarves. If they got quests, they would be able to make greater changes in the status quo. Something I would have to plan against in the future.

I was in the middle of reviewing some records when I got a message. “HEY! Are you in the city?!” Mira shouted through the friend chat.

I covered my ears before I responded. “Yes. I was making sure of some things.”

The line cut off and I was left staring at empty space. I shrugged then went back to the paperwork in front of me. I barely got through two pieces of parchment when the doors to the throne room burst open. My hand went to my gun, but I quickly released it.

“Hey!” Mira shouted as the pair rushed to the foot of the throne. “What’s the big deal?! Just who the hell are you?”

I set the paper to the side and sighed. “I’ve told you that I’m technically on the surface. This body is a puppet. Well, I basically joined the Cult of Death on accident, but I don’t mind. The whole Demon Lord thing was his idea.”

The pair shared a look then sat down on the ground without reserve. “Be straight with us. What do you plan to do with this city?”

I stared at them for a second then nodded. “I was honest before, I don’t plan to cause any trouble for the city. If anything, I want it to grow stronger. I greatly enjoy the works of art created by the Archnae. As an artist by trade, they speak to my heart. In fact, if I had known about this race before I created my first avatar, I probably would have selected them as my race.”

They shared another look. Were these two codependent? Not that I was going to judge. I just had never seen them apart since I first came to the city. Opal took a deep breath as if to calm herself. “I’ll take your word for it. The city has been making note of the vampires that patrol the tunnels around the city now. Some have even begun to reach out further than they normally would. I know the miners are happy.”

“I am glad to hear it,” I rubbed my head to try and relieve the stress. “I really hope that my ascent to Demon Lord doesn’t cause problems for this city. For now, if anyone does come looking, send them to the surface above us. Use that as an excuse.”

“Oh don’t worry, we had already planned to do just that,” Mira laughed.

“Fair enough.” I paused as I sensed something. Closing my eyes, I realized it was from my Kaga body. Someone was at the door trying to get my attention.

“You’ll have to excuse me.” I closed my eyes to connect to my Kaga body but paused. “Don’t ever start using multiple bodies, it quickly becomes a headache.”