Ch.2222. Vampires

While a time of penance continued in the basement of the Gracchus mansion.

‘The intermediate condition… was having at least 6 divine attributes, right.’

As I prepared for promotion to an intermediate deity, rather than focusing on the scale of my religious order, I decided to pursue an easier goal first.

I resolved to hunt for one more divine attribute to add to my current five, fulfilling one of the conditions for promotion to an intermediate deity—possessing six divine attributes.

If this were after the fall of the Roman Empire, I could simply target dungeons hiding relatively common divine attributes. But at this point in time, such dungeons couldn’t possibly exist.

After all, divine attribute dungeons are mostly natural transformations of the remains of pantheon gods killed by Bjorn.

Since my options were limited, I made a decision.

I would hunt a ‘god’ directly and absorb their divine attribute.

Of course, targeting a pantheon god directly would be insane.

Beyond combat power… such gods typically have powerful backing, meaning I could risk being beaten and forcibly subjugated by their superior deity backers.

So my target now is a god who, while technically part of the pantheon, either wants their own territory or has been marginalized by pantheon politics—essentially a god who belongs to the pantheon in name only.

Specifically, the wolf god once worshipped by Bjorn’s tribe.

After using several complex and delicate methods of faith manipulation to confirm, I discovered that the wolf god Bjorn once worshipped has been pushed out of the Roman Empire’s mainland and now maintains a colonial form of worship in lands where his faith was once mainstream.

I couldn’t determine exactly what happened… but he’s been practically expelled from the pantheon, with just one small temple in that colony.

Moreover, his followers are merely a few colonists who worship him out of necessity, so if I deal with that place, the wolf god’s supply of faith will be drastically reduced, making him easier to kill.

My plan is to raze that colony, then enter the wolf god’s divine territory that I’ve already identified and kill him directly.

Naturally, I’m planning an all-out war using my apostles and minions, but… there’s one critical problem.

‘The troops are far too few…’

While the quality and potential of my minions is excellent, the problem is that my religious order is too small to effectively deploy these minions on the battlefield.

Regular believers might fight to the death due to their overwhelming faith… but besides them, I only have a few hundred militia-level troops—mere cannon fodder.

Gracchus, the head of my order and my priest, is the only one with a combat-related profession, but even that is just a low-level priest position, too weak to make a meaningful difference in war.

Therefore, I eventually changed my approach to their role, deciding to mobilize them as a choir—singing sacred hymns to summon and maintain my minions.

A choir that amplifies the power of miracles, one of the priest’s skills, can raise the level of specific miracles by several stages through a large-scale ritual.

With this, summoning Revenge Hounds and Blood Warriors would fulfill the basic troop requirements.

If I bring my faithful gladiators from the arena to rampage alongside Bjorn, the basic forces should be sufficient… but somehow, I felt this might still be slightly lacking.

And in a situation where I didn’t know the enemy’s numbers, this shortage of troops could lead to the failure of the expedition, so while deeply contemplating…

‘…Come to think of it… I have those, don’t I?’

I reached the idea of mobilizing those perfectly suited for this war—vampires.

※ ※ ※

In the distant future, an era when good gods of the pantheon and evil gods fight using their believers.

While vampires would eventually form their own faction as members of the Undead Alliance, establishing nations and causing trouble worldwide, at this time they were little more than scattered individuals.

Originally, those cursed by the previous Blood God to become vampires were few in number,

with only a handful of others turned by those with poor self-control or overwhelming bloodlust.

Even those who would eventually become completely corrupted were still managing to restrain themselves for now, so I made my decision.

《The God of Blood and Vampires proclaims. Cursed servants, come forth and become beings free from the curse.》

I would bring in vampires who hadn’t yet caused major incidents to supplement my shortage of troops.

‘Nngh… will this be enough?’

《Yes, it’s sufficient.》

After bringing Lisa and using her to broadcast the “voice of god” that all vampires of true-blood rank or higher could hear,

I granted these vampires a one-time privilege to instantly teleport here—to the Blood Sanctuary—if they wished.

After some time passed,

red mist formed throughout the Blood Sanctuary, revealing vampires of various appearances.

The first appearance of those who would one day bring chaos to the world and potentially achieve world domination as members of the Undead Alliance was…

‘…What are these beggars?’

Their shabby attire was so disproportionate to their power that I couldn’t help but think that way.

While their appearances were actually quite decent despite lack of grooming, the problem was their clothing.

It was hard to believe these were the same beings who would one day pose as nobles—they wore damaged leather, rags, tattered linen clothes, and carried shabby hunting tools.

Their appearance, like that of barbarians, shattered my mental image of vampires, but… part of me understood.

As their names with “von” suggested, they originated from what would be Eastern Europe or Germany on Earth, and at this time, those regions were essentially barbarian territories.

Moreover, once they became vampires, normal ways of living within their tribes essentially disappeared,

naturally resulting in attire that would easily get them treated as vagrants even by tribal society standards.

Anyway, back to the main point.

“This place is…”

“…Divine, divine power.”

“Is this the palace of the Sky Father?”

The vampires who entered the sanctuary at my invitation looked around with wide eyes at the beautiful scenery I had meticulously customized.

Gems large and beautiful enough to be family heirlooms were casually embedded even in the floor,

and the interior maintained by maids was spotlessly clean as if newly made.

But beyond these material reasons…

They were also surprised by the high concentration of divine power filling this space—the Blood Sanctuary.

Even though only high-ranking vampires of true-blood or higher were gathered, exposure to such dense divine power

would normally cause their bodies to gradually erode and purify—an inevitable fate for vampires.

Yet now, despite continuous exposure to such intense divine power, not only were they unharmed, but their depleted magical energy and minor wounds were actually healing.

It was like being unaffected while standing in a mist of sulfuric acid.

While the vampires were looking around in bewilderment, Lisa appeared before them holding a large two-handed staff—drawing all their attention.

But their attention stemmed not from malice but from a kind of reverence or fear.

Lisa—a divine-blood vampire, apostle of god, and saint—was powerful enough that she could potentially defeat all 29 true-blood vampires gathered here even if they united against her, making her more than sufficient to capture everyone’s attention.

Feeling slightly burdened by their gazes, Lisa could only speak after receiving my encouragement.

“Fellow kindred, I am Lisa Raeldottir, the second most favored servant of Ma-Duk, the great God of Vengeance and Fresh Blood, and the master of our kind.”

The vampires seemed surprised that someone with such immense power would humble herself so much…

but Lisa continued without paying any attention to their reaction.

“Fellow kindred who have become like this due to the curse of a forgotten god, Ma-Duk has taken pity on us and told me that he would bestow upon us the honor of being able to enter his heaven after death.”

At this, everyone stared at Lisa with wide eyes.

In this era, reaching the heaven of one’s god was considered the ultimate goal in life,

so she was declaring that those who had been forcibly denied this opportunity for external reasons would be given another chance.

“But only if you participate in the holy war that he will declare.”

“I-I will! I will participate!”

“Hail Ma-Duk! Under heaven, only he is the true savior!!!”

“We will follow, we will follow, we will follow—!!!”

Swept up in religious fervor, they decided to participate in the holy war without even hearing the detailed conditions.

And thus, I gained 29 true-blood or higher vampires—and hundreds of lower vampires under them—as my followers.