Chapter 77: The Vampire’s Investment

Chapter 77: The Vampire’s Investment The invisible walls of my Domain, which had been both my fortress and my prison, were now just a suggestion. A guideline. Not a rule. I stood in the center of my new Throne Room, the crystal walls of the Spire refracting the dungeon’s dim light into a thousand silent rainbows. The feeling was intoxicating. I could walk out the front door. I could go for a stroll through the ruined streets of Aethelburg. I could visit Gorgon’s old mall and see what Isabelle’s team had done with the place. "So, what’s the first order of business for a newly liberated Lord of Darkness?" I asked the room, mostly to myself. "A victory parade? A world tour? Maybe I’ll go find one of those hero-run cafes I’ve read about and leave a terrible online review." "My Lord," Pixia’s voice was a tiny, grounding buzz of logic. "May I humbly suggest that before you engage in... recreational tourism... you review the new options your evolution has unlocked? Knowledge is power, after all." She was right, of course. The boring, sensible answer was always the right one. It was infuriating. With a sigh that was only slightly dramatic, I sat back down on my crystal throne and pulled up the Demon King System. The interface was the same, but new, tantalizing options had appeared in my Creation menu. I scrolled past the familiar faces. The Goblins, the Orcs, the werewolves. And then I saw it. A new tab, glowing with a faint, ominous red light. It was labeled [Unique]. There was only one option inside. [Vampire Baron]. "Ooh, a unique unit," I purred, my gamer instincts tingling. "Exclusive content. I like it. What’s the catch?" I tapped the description. And my cold, unbeating heart nearly stopped. [Vampire Baron] [Description: A powerful, sentient vampire noble, bound to you as a direct subordinate. Possesses a high degree of autonomy and the potential to evolve independently. A true commander for your armies of the night.] [Cost: 1000 Max CP (Permanent Reduction)] I read the cost again. And a third time. And a fourth, just to be sure my new A-Rank eyes weren’t deceiving me. "One... thousand?" I whispered, my voice a strangled squeak. "One thousand maximum CP? And it’s a permanent reduction?" Pixia zipped in front of my face, her tiny hands clasped in academic horror. "My Lord, that is a catastrophically inefficient expenditure of resources! To permanently sacrifice one thousand points of your creation potential... you would be crippling our long-term growth! My simulations indicate that such a decision would set back our projected timeline for world domination by at least fifty years! It is financial suicide!" She was right. It was an insane price. A king’s ransom. I had just clawed my way out of debt, and now the System was offering me a deal that was less of a purchase and more of a Faustian bargain. I would be trading a huge chunk of my ability to create armies, to build my kingdom, for one single, powerful subordinate. It was stupid. It was reckless. It was the most tempting offer I had ever seen in my entire afterlife. I imagined it. A true second-in-command. Another being like me, a creature of the night, a vampire of noble blood who could lead my forces with intelligence and power. Not a created monster. Not a converted hero. One of my own kind. "The gacha is a cruel mistress," I said softly, my mind racing. "But sometimes, you have to spend a fortune to get the SSS-rank unit that will carry you through the endgame." "My Lord, this is not a gacha!" Pixia wailed. "This is a statistically guaranteed bad investment!" "Is it?" I countered, a slow, dangerous smile touching my lips. "I have armies of Orcs and Ogres. I have Isabelle to lead them. What I lack is a peer. A proper lieutenant. An enforcer." I looked at the screen again. There was another layer to the choice. [Select Specialization: Blood Knight / Shadow Magus / Nightmare Assassin] It wasn’t just a unit: it was a customizable one. I could choose its class. Its role. I could forge it to fill the exact gap in my command structure. "I’m doing it," I said, the decision solidifying in my mind. "My Lord, no!" "I’m doing it," I repeated, my voice now holding the cold, absolute finality of a king. "Which specialization has the highest probability of a positive return on investment, Pixia?" Pixia looked like she was about to have a tiny, pixie-sized aneurysm, but her analytical brain couldn’t resist a direct question. "The... the Nightmare Assassin path, my Lord," she stammered. "It focuses on stealth, speed, and single-target elimination. It would create a perfect ’special operations’ commander, capable of high-value target assassination and covert intelligence gathering. It complements Commander Isabelle’s role as a frontline battlefield general." "A perfect assassin," I mused. "I like the sound of that." I took a deep breath. This was it. The biggest gamble of my life. I pressed the button. [Confirm Permanent Sacrifice of 1000 Max CP to Create Vampire Baron (Nightmare Assassin)?] I hit ’Yes’. BOOM! The world didn’t just shake. It felt like a piece of my soul was being torn out. A wave of pure, agonizing emptiness washed over me. I felt my Max CP, my very potential, drain away, leaving a gaping, hollow void where it used to be. In the center of the Throne Room, a pillar of pure, solidified shadow erupted from the floor. The air grew cold, and the light from the crystal walls seemed to dim, devoured by the oppressive darkness. From the pillar of shadow, a figure stepped forth. He was tall, impossibly elegant, with slicked-back silver hair and eyes the color of a moonless midnight. He wore a perfectly tailored black suit that looked like it cost more than my old apartment building. He radiated an aura of bored, aristocratic menace. He took one look at me, a flicker of understanding in his dark eyes, and knelt in a single, fluid motion. "I await your command, my Lord," he said, his voice a smooth, cultured baritone that dripped with condescension and absolute loyalty. I looked at my new subordinate. My impossibly expensive, soul-crushingly costly new commander. "Welcome to the team," I said, a grim smile on my face. "I’m calling you Izayoi. And I hope, for both our sakes, that you were worth the price." --------------------------- The silence in the Crystal Spire was a new and deeply unsettling experience. For weeks, my afterlife had been a constant, frantic scramble for survival, a blur of battles, strategy meetings, and the occasional, ill-advised victory party. Now, with Queen Alyssa’s domain absorbed and my other rivals cowering in their corners, a profound and terrible quiet had descended. It was the silence of victory. The silence of the endgame lobby after the final boss has been defeated. And it was driving me insane. I sat on my new throne, a magnificent, if slightly pretentious, chair carved from a single, flawless crystal, and stared out at my new, sprawling kingdom. Fifty-one sectors. My domain now stretched across the entire northern half of Aethelburg. It was a proper empire, a testament to my strategic genius, my ruthless ambition, and the fact that I had a really good pixie who could do math.