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Chapter 95: Blood Slaves

As always, the skill quickly gathered all the information about the two young girls and conveyed it to Miss Vilyric.

First of all, their strength was surprisingly decent, at least lv30, which means they were at a terrestrial level in this world.

Moreover, these girls were neither humans nor the typical kind of vampires.

They were the vampire’s dependents, or shall we say, blood slaves.

Legend has it that a vampire’s fangs possess special powers that can transform living beings into members of their kin.

Yet, this is actually a broad statement, and upon closer inspection, it divides into many forms.

Overall, there are basically two situations.

One is to transform the other into an identical vampire, starting with considerable power, reason, and complete vampiric traits; this situation is generally referred to as the “Initial Embrace.”

The Initial Embrace is a serious and solemn matter for every vampire, requiring them to expend their own blood, damaging their vitality, and there is a limit to the number of times it can occur.

In some sense, it can be seen as resembling the way ordinary creatures reproduce.

Just like the progenitor of blood splitting into six princes, each prince spawning a limited number of dukes, forming a pyramid structure that gets larger from fewer to more, with strength gradually diminishing unless in special cases.

But these are the orthodox vampires.

Another type of attendant exists among vampires, and that is the blood slaves.

Blood slaves can also be understood as vampires that have not been fully transformed, possessing some traits like light sensitivity and immortality, while still retaining some characteristics of their original race.

Creating blood slaves poses almost no cost or consumption for vampires, especially those of higher ranks; if they desire, they can convert large numbers of similar low-tier servants at any time.

This is one of the vampires’ terrifying aspects.

Blood slaves are absolutely obedient to the vampire that created them, and since they are not fully transformed, they usually retain more of their original characteristics and vitality, serving as a kind of reserve food for the vampires — in other words, a source of blood.

On the other hand, the ability to create blood slaves is a sort of means of “resurrecting the dead.”

For example, the two girls before me.

Although the intelligence detection couldn’t investigate their pasts and origins in detail, at least Miss Vilyric could discern that this pair of sisters had died for some reason, then been transformed and revived by a higher-level vampire into blood slaves, resulting in their current state.

Similar to the methods used by the Throne of Immortality to create undead beings, the transformation of blood slaves is also an imperfect and partial resurrection technique.

The most evident flaw lies in the fact that, regardless of their previous selves, upon becoming blood slaves, their self-awareness becomes incredibly weak, making it nearly impossible for them to take any initiative or think for themselves.

Kind of like zombies or those puppets made with the puppet potion from the Throne of Immortality.

Yet blood slaves are undoubtedly alive, and they will experience light sensitivity like vampires.

Miss Vilyric can sense the heartbeat pulsing within the chests of these two girls, the liquid flowing through their veins, and the warm breath leaving their noses.

Aside from their hair, which has turned a dark red and varies in length likely due to incomplete transformation, and their blood-like vertical pupils, they are almost indistinguishable from ordinary humans.

The only difference lies in their eyes, which are devoid of life, even more hollow than those whose souls have been taken, resembling exquisite sculptures.

If Miss Vilyric’s intuition is correct, only the vampire who created them can command these blood slave sisters to move.

Why do people in this world enjoy playing around with such flashy resurrection and transformation tricks?

It’s a bit uncomfortable.

Miss Vilyric had already noticed the several cuts on the pale necks and wrists of the sisters, which should be marks left from bloodletting.

Initially, she thought vampires would bite the necks directly, like in stories; is it true that they actually place blood into cups and savor it like a drink?

Is there some bizarre protocol involved?

Forget it… I can’t just leave them be.

While I find it hard to watch, on the other hand…

Blood slaves are still living beings; their current immobility is simply because their master hasn’t given any orders or they are executing a “standby” instruction, which doesn’t mean they lack vision or the ability to act.

This can be observed from the movement of their eyes when the door opened.

Once that vampire returns and asks the blood slaves about Miss Vilyric’s previous visit, the fact would definitely be revealed.

Though I feel like it wouldn’t be a huge deal even if they found out, someone is still a tad irritated that her exquisite infiltration might be exposed due to such a clumsy reason.

So, she decided to give these two maids a little “attention.”

Moreover, Miss Vilyric herself was curious to test whether the magic from the “Illusory World” could reverse the situation in the event of being resurrected as blood slaves after death.

“Hee hee hee… Dear sisters, I’m sorry, but I must ask you to become my test subjects~”

Deliberately mimicking the evil grin of a classic anime villain, but when paired with the high beauty and pure aura of the black-haired girl in her white cloak, it resembled more of a mischievous little devil’s pose than a true sense of threat.

Even so, the two maid sisters still displayed no change in expression.

This won’t do, girls should always look cute with smiles!

After pondering, Miss Vilyric resolved to first target the sister with the slightly higher level; perhaps she possesses greater resilience.

Since they were not in a state of actual death, a simple 7-tier resurrection spell, the Prayer of Revival, wouldn’t work just like it did with Kunier and Plakaka.

Currently, these two girls’ lives are maintained by the characteristics of being blood slaves; if that were erased, the sisters would die again.

Thus, the overall strategy is split into two parts.

To detach them from their transformed state while bestowing them with the power of revival.

And among the skills Miss Vilyric mastered, there happened to be one that perfectly suits this situation.

A 9-tier resurrection spell, Time Rewind, which is two levels higher than the Prayer of Revival.

Please don’t misunderstand; Time Rewind is not a form of time magic; it is a proper Holy Light skill.

Rather, there is practically no systemic time-based skill in the “Illusory World.”

The name is primarily due to its effects, which are reminiscent of classical time reversal; it seems the game designers might have shared a similar sense of humor.

In the “Illusory World,” death is merely a special state, while the resurrection magic Time Rewind can eliminate all abnormal effects on the target and overturn their death status to a condition deemed “completely normal.”

It resembles a time reversal but is evidently distinct from actual time travel.

If we’re to draw a comparison, the former could be seen as retrieving a specific body state from a fixed save file, while the latter is akin to playing it back directly.

In essence, the Holy Light magic Time Rewind may grant the target a state that perhaps never truly existed during their life; this could be considered an overdose in healing…

Uh, let’s hope nothing unexpected happens!

 

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