[Location: Dungeon—Vampire King's Castle]

Tti-ring!

[Skill Level Up!]

[Name: King's Call]

[Level: 2]

[Type: Active]

—Required Mana to activate: None

— Creates a shadow soldier by extracting Mana from the recently deceased lifeform.

— The odds of extraction failure will rise higher depending on the target's original Stat values, as well as the length of time since its death.

— Number of shadows that can be extracted: 30/150.

NOICE!!!

[Item: Key to the Castle's Gate]

— Rarity: A

— Type: Key

— The key to unlock the gates of the Vampire King's Castle. Can only be acquired after killing the Gatekeeper.

"Mmm... Status Window."

[Status Window]

• Name: Dominic Nocturne von Morningstar

• Race: Demon (Incomplete Primordial Fragment) / ???

• Level: 102 —> 169

• Job: Demiurgic Archon

• Rank: C —> B

• Title: [Dances With Wolves], [The Forsaken Lucifer(Locked)], [He Who Shouldn't Be Awake(Locked)], [God-Eater], [The One Who Creates in Defiance].]

• HP: 5610/5610—> 6280/6280 (+500)

• MP: 0/4310—> 0/4980

[Stats]

• Strength: 645—> 712 (+50)

• Agility: 541—> 608

• Stamina: 561—> 628 (+50)

• Intelligence: 431—> 498

• Sense: 501—> 568

—Available Stats Points: 110—> 190)

Reduction in physical damage: 60%

[Skills]

• Sovereign Haki (Passive/Active): Armament Core (Lvl. 35), Observation Gird (Lvl. 30), Conqueror's Will (Lvl. 35)

• Conqueror's Coating (Active)(Lvl. 1) — Manifestation of supreme dominance. Infuses the user's attacks with the essence of the Conqueror's Will, allowing strikes to bypass conventional defences and directly damage spirit, soul, and willpower.

• Demiurgic Physiology (Passive)(Lvl. 1) — The body of the Demiurge, sculpted from divine entropy and chaos-born potential. Grants limitless evolutionary potential, extreme resistance to conceptual interference, and a vessel capable of housing transcendent energies beyond mortal or demonic limits.

• King's Call (Active)(Lvl. 1—> 2) — Creates a shadow soldier by extracting Mana from the recently deceased lifeform.

[Job-specific skills]

— Active skills:

• [Genesis Manifestation] (Lvl. 1) — Constructs temporary reality fragments using pure Aetheric Concept. Power, form, and scale are limited only by imagination and vessel integrity.

• [Creation Reversal] (Lvl. 1) — Rewrites the last five seconds of a manifested construct's existence. Cost: exponentially increases with each reversal.

• [Aether Domain] (Lvl. 1) — Temporarily imposes the user's conceptual laws on a localised area. Duration scales with SPIRAL control and soul stability.

— Passive skills:

• [Conceptual Instinct] (Lvl. 1) — Subconscious adaptation to metaphysical structures. Grants intuition toward reality manipulation and defensive creation.

• [Lucifer's Insight] (Lvl. 1) — The eyes of rebellion. Perceive flaws, seams, and corruption in any existing structure—physical, magical, or spiritual.

I LEVELED UP 67 TIMES?!

My cold and stoic mask I keep in front of enemies fell off just by looking at that screen.

Sixty-seven levels.

Sixty. Freaking. Seven.

For a split second, all the dread, all the agony, all the pressure that had been choking me since stepping into this cursed castle evaporated into something dangerously close to disbelief.

…No.

Not disbelief.

Relief.

But even that came with a sharp aftertaste of fear.

This was just the gatekeeper?!

THEN THE FUCKS HIDING INSIDE THE CASTLE MUST BE — MONSTERS.

Now that I have seen how the fuck did Lucifer even seal them, and the system turned it into a dungeon for me, clear?

The thought lingered like frost in my skull.

If Alexios was merely the gatekeeper… then what awaited beyond those sealed doors was not a battlefield.

It was a slaughterhouse designed for kings.

My gaze drifted back to his corpse.

Or rather — what remained of it.

Alexios Payn lay half-buried beneath fractured stone and ruptured obsidian, his once immaculate uniform torn and soaked black with blood that still steamed faintly against the corrupted marble. The spear that had ruled this corridor lay snapped in two beside him, its silver surface dulled, stripped of whatever authority it once held.

And yet even in death… he didn't look defeated.

He looked paused.

Like a sentence mid-thought.

A noble beast chained by inevitability rather than vanquished.

My fingers flexed unconsciously.

King's Call.

The newly strengthened sensation of the skill lurked at the edge of my awareness like a beast waiting for permission to feed.

Could it work on something like him?

My eyes narrowed.

He was powerful — inhumanly so. The system's own description made that clear. And the stronger the target, the higher the chance of extraction failure.

But…

If it succeeded?

A shadow forged from Alexios — the Vampire King's right hand.

Even imagining it made the chill crawling down my spine turn into anticipation.

"Let's see just how stubborn you are, even in death."

I extended my hand.

"Rise Up."

When I did that, the shadow cast beneath Alexios began to wiggle as if it came to life. It was the same reaction as when I extracted the shadows from the Paimon and knights before.

'Okay, good!'

I clenched my fists tightly. I had a good feeling about this.

[King's Call has commenced.]

[Attempting to extract….]

What would Alexios look like after its extraction? My hands became slick with the sweat of anticipation.

Unfortunately…

Ting!

A mechanical beep akin to a metal plate breaking in half rang inside his head.

[King's Call has failed.]

[Two more attempts remaining.]

"Yeah, thought so, stubborn fool… but are you more stubborn than Paimon?"

My jaw tightened.

Two attempts left.

I drew in a slow breath, letting the air scrape my lungs as I stared down at the corpse of the Vampire King's right hand. The silence of the corridor pressed around me, thick and watchful, as if the very castle was holding its breath to see whether its faithful lapdog would answer my call even after death.

The shadows at his feet trembled faintly, stretching, curling, recoiling.

Like something deciding whether to obey a blasphemy.

"Again."

My voice echoed, low and unwavering.

"Rise UP."

The darkness surged upward in a sudden spiral, a vortex of ink-black haze clawing at Alexios's corpse. The mana residue clinging to his broken frame vibrated violently, as if resisting a hook digging into its essence.

[King's Call has commenced.]

[Attempting to extract….]

The air grew unnaturally cold.

A shrill whine – almost like metal being dragged across bone – filled the hall as the shadow tried to peel itself from the authority that had once owned it.

For a heartbeat… two…

Alexios's shadow twitched violently and then snapped back to the corpse like an elastic band stretched too far.

Tti-ring!

[King's Call has failed.]

[One attempt remaining.]

"…Tch."

A faint click of my tongue escaped before I could stop it.

Even dead, you still bow to him, huh?

To the Vampire King.

To your master.

A flicker of something unreadable passed through my eyes as I studied the still face of the butler. Not hatred. Not respect. Something far colder.

Pity.

Devotion like that… didn't end.

It lingered. Clung. Rot with purpose.

But the system did not care about devotion.

It cared about dominance.

"You fool, let go of chains that no longer bind you."

My voice was barely louder than a whisper, yet it carved through the silence like a scalpel.

"You're dead, Alexios. Your duty ended the moment my blade went through your throat."

The shadows quivered again, as if offended by the audacity.

I exhaled slowly, steadying my pulse, forcing my breathing into rhythm.

"This time is the last, you can cling to chains of loyalty forged for a king who no longer stands before you. Or you can obey me, who freed you from the burden of life and death alike."

The last words left my lips, quiet but absolute. The corridor seemed to hesitate, the marble itself holding its breath, as if waiting to see whether the impossible would come to pass.

The shadow beneath Alexios stirred once more.

Slow. Tentative. Defiant.

Its movement was not mechanical. Not obedient. It was deliberation—a remnant of will refusing to bend, even as the body that anchored it had long ceased to claim dominion. A ripple of black light spiralled along its edges, the faintest trace of silver threading through like veins of moonlight trapped in ink.

I extended my hand fully, the veins along my forearm standing out as my pulse hammered with the weight of control.

"Rise," I commanded again, louder this time, with the authority that had bent even the Conqueror's Coating to my will.

It was then!

Uwaaahhh-!!

A deep scream could be heard coming from somewhere, and a chilling, eerie wind swept through the corridor leading to the castle gates.

'Is this it…?'

My expression brightened.

Aaaaah-!

Just as I had hoped for, as the lengthy scream came to an end, a black hand emerged out from the Alexios's corpse. And when that hand pressed down on the ground, a new message popped up in my view.

[King's Call was a success.]

I let out a cry of happiness.

"Yes!!"

I tightly clenched my fists. The taste of success was so much sweeter since I had to go through two failures to get here.

However, the good news didn't end there.

[The King's voice had awakened the departed's enslaved spirit.]

[You have succeeded in strengthening your shadow soldier.]

[The shadow's level will now start at 10.]

[?? Lv. 10]

— Elite Knight Grade

Tti-ring!

[You can bestow a name to a knight-grade or higher soldier.]

[The bestowed name will be maintained until the shadow soldier is dismissed.]

[Please set the soldier's name.]

I gaped at the notifications before me.

Though I knew Alexios was stronger than Paimon, who started at Lv.7, And Paimon is a Knight Grade Shadow.

Alexios started at Elite Knight Grade, but what is this grading system, and how does it work?

Is it Level? And what's after Elite Knight Grade?

Damn, too many questions.

But first, my gaze returned to Alexios's newly formed shadow.

There was a sharp distinction, well, the obvious change would be the entire form being black with purple streaks like cracks. The height difference wasn't much, just a bit taller, bright purple glow in the eye sockets. Otherwise, no difference, oh, a full black with a purple blade spear was held in hand.

I grasped the decision firmly, knowing the name I gave this shadow would define its existence under me. My mind raced, heart thundering with the weight of authority and the aftertaste of battle.

After being fully formed, the Shadow knelt before me, waiting...

"Your name," I muttered, voice cold and decisive, "will be…"

"Erebus."

[Will you set the name as 'Erebus'?]

"That's right."

As soon as I spoke, the question marks on the guy's head disappeared, and the name Erebus appeared there.

[Erebus Lv. 10]

— Elite Knight Grade

'My own loyal soldier, eh….'

I took a look behind me.

30 shadow soldiers were still there, waiting for my orders.

— Number of shadows that can be extracted: 31/150.

"Should I enter?"

The black iron doors, the writhing chains, the grotesque reliefs carved into cold metal.

***

Stone me, I can take it!

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