Mistress Lethia?

*****

In the dark lands, where little to no sunlight ever appeared to reach and there was no sign of human life, there was still life, if one were to call it that.

There were dark dependents! Beings who lived off the darkness instead of the light thrived off one another.

In one of the numerous kingdoms that existed in the dark lands, just south of the Dark Sea, which divided the dark lands from the lowlands where humans thrived under the sunlight, outside of the capital city, Zaciki, inside a mine not far away, corpses were scattered across the ground.

They appeared to be humans bathed in the dark energy of the world.

Amidst the numerous corpses that decorated the mine's dusty floor were two corpses of such beauty that they seemed out of place among the rest.

One was a devilishly beautiful woman with long silver hair and a simple white dress, while the other was an otherworldly beautiful woman with similar long silver hair as the first and a simple black dress; however, the first's beauty far exceeded the second's—it was as if they were worlds apart.

Clearly, these two were Aurora and Amia.

Slowly, Aurora came to her senses. She couldn't feel a thing—it felt as if she'd lost her sense of touch; however, she was aware of this owing to her extrasensory perception skill.

'A rocky surface?' She slowly opened her eyes, giving her blurry vision a chance to recover.

'Have I been given another race?'

As she waited for her eyes to recover, she heard a ghastly moan, one she'd never heard before.

"Urrrgh!"

The moan echoed through the cave; however, she'd felt its origin was close, so close that the moan appeared to be coming from her.

'I'm an undead.'

She hadn't ever experienced an encounter with or fought an undead; however, she'd read and heard stories detailing the hoarse cries of an undead, specifically one that came from a zombie.

By now, it was clear that she'd been reborn, if you'd call it a zombie, and this was proven by her eyes never ceasing to recover from their blurry state. However, was Amia, who'd stepped through the gate with her, a zombie? Or was she denied permission as she was before, leaving her in another world, far from one another, alone?

She pushed her body up, sitting up—her mind was full of worry and fear of being alone. She looked around the dark surroundings, and soon, her eyes landed on the woman sitting beside her, staring at her—she was Amia.

'This body's sluggish. Is this how it feels to live in another race's body?' Amia asked through telepathy.

'We're sluggish because we're undead.' Aurora sighed—she was glad she wasn't alone.

With her worries gone, she opened her status screen, only to find almost all of her skills locked similarly to how it was before...

[Name: Aurora (Heavily Weakened)]

[Race: Demi Goddess, Succubus Empress (Locked), Snow Demi-Goddess (Locked), Fire Demi-Goddess (Locked), Lesser Zombie]

[Sex: Female]

[Titles: First Universe Tier, Daughter of Chaos and Order, Empress of Lust, Submissive, Sex Demon Slayer, Creator of Neko Succubus, Incubus Genocider, Incester, Brutal Slayer, Monster Genocider, Diligent Worker, Lazy Ass, Empress of Sloth, Empress of Diligence, Gorgan Servant Slayer, Ant Genocider, Guild Master Of The Moonlight Guild, Last Snow Woman, Ascended Monster (995,574,946/1 Billion Humans Killed), Merciful, Hybrid Nymph Slayer, Ice Princess, Naga Slayer, Ogre Killer, Empress of Wrath, Undead Slave]

[Level: 1 (Divinity Rank 1 (Locked)]

[HP: 20/20 (Locked) (True Value 1 Billion)]

[DP: 5/5 (MP Locked) (True Value 10 Billion)]

[SE: 0/3,392,050 (Locked)]

[STR: 4 (Locked)]

[VIT: 5 (Locked)]

[INT: 50 (Locked)]

[AGI: 1 (Locked)]

[DEX: 2 (Locked)]

[DEF: 3 (Locked)]

[CHA: 3,402,084]

[Unassigned Stat Points: 0]

[Balance: 100.52 Million USD]

[All stats are drastically weakened due to Order and Chaos' punishment.]

[Magic: Demonic Magic - Tier 8; Arcane Magic - Tier 6]

[Magic Skills: Imagination Creation, Corruption Manipulation, Void Shift, Void Step]

[Active Skills: Telepathy, Future Sight, Imperceptibility, Necromancy]

[Passive Skills: Omni Weapon Proficiency, Regeneration]

[Arts: Dark Arts, Demonic Arts, Assassination Arts]

[Perception Skills: Danger Detection, Extrasensory Perception, Thermal Perception]

[Resistance Skills: Disease Immunity, Contaminant Immunity]

[Innate Skills: Chaos (42.9% Unlocked), Order (14.3% Unlocked), Devour, Conversion]

'Over two-thirds of my skills are locked, huh? In addition, I gained a few skills belonging to my undead race. Devour and conversion…'

[Devour]

[Type: Innate]

[Devour… the ability that all the dark dependents possess. As the light dependents cultivate to grow, the dark dependents devour… to grow, one must devour and assimilate, become one with those one has devoured, and ascend to great heights as a proud member of the darkness.]

'A little dramatic, but I'm sure this will benefit me in completing the quest.'

[Conversion]

[Type: Innate]

[Conversion… a skill that all and future lords of the dark dependents. One can convert others, whether they are dead or alive, into a lesser zombie. Those turned will be absolutely loyal to the one who's turned them, unless they possess the prospects of being a lord, in which case their loyalty to one will decrease as they evolve.]

'Judging by the recent title and this skill, I'm a slave, but to whom?'

Nothing! No matter where she looked around the cavern, she couldn't locate anyone who'd be considered her master—all she saw were the numerous undead that lay around her.

Sighing, she gave up her search for this so-called master, with her vision being too poor for her to determine who it was, nor did she believe her master to be here simply because why would anyone want to be here? It was a cavern filled with undead, and she doubted anyone would want to be here.

Additionally, thinking of having a master and herself being loyal to them put a sour taste in her mouth—she'd rather suffer as she did in hell than serve someone she didn't know or whose motives she didn't know.

For now, she decided to check out the quest given to her and slowly move on from there.

[Rimra's Quest: Reach the peak of the evolution of an undead through devouring. (Rimra's Note: The quest may look easy, but don't be fooled by its simplicity. An average undead would take decades, maybe centuries, to reach halfway to the peak.)

Status: Ongoing

Rewards: Return Token | Title: Empress of Gluttony | Additional Reward: An Empress Title, depending on one's actions.

Penalty: Permanently, Undead; locked skills will be locked perpetually, perpetual slave.

[Time limit: 1,825 days (5 years)]

'Rimra appears to be fond of me; unlike Isdis's, her note gives advice.'

"Urrrgh!"

Numerous hoarse moans permeated the cavern, and the zombies that lay around them started to show some movement—their limbs twitched, and the zombies, all in different stages of their decomposition and dressed in the ragged clothes they wore when they were alive, staggered to their feet, swaying as they found their balance and quickly took their first steps.

Seeing this, a chill couldn't help but run up her spine. How many of these zombies contained a soul that couldn't earn its eternal rest?

She shook her head and cleared her thoughts. 'I shouldn't think about this... I can't prevent this, nor would it affect my quest. I'm also in a similar state as them.'

Rising to her feet, she assisted Amia in standing up, and suddenly, she lost control of her body—her body turned around and walked alongside the mass of zombies who were leaving this cavern.

The dark energy in her body appeared to be linked to something or someone, and the other end pointed in the direction that she, Amia, and the mass of zombies were heading.

Their master was calling them!

Aurora wanted to break the link between her and her master, but as she went to break free, something abruptly buried itself into her mind as it inflicted pain; however, reacting quickly, she destroyed the mental stake with a single burst of concentration.

'Close. That was close. If I hadn't destroyed it before it buried itself too deeply into my mind, I'd genuinely become the caster's slave.'

Soon, the mass of zombies had arrived at their destination, and they ceased their walking as the force controlling their bodies subsided—this returned control over their bodies; however, none of the zombies made any idle movements.

They just stood there mindlessly, waiting for an order to be given.

At the front of the mass of zombies, a woman appearing to be in her early 20s dressed in a long black dress embroidered with blood red flowers that wrapped tightly around her curvy figure; her hair was a long silver, and her red eyes shone in the caverns' darkness with pride and royalty—her ears were unlike hers or any other ears she'd seen; they were pointy.

In the woman's hand was a glass filled nearly to the brim with a dark red liquid—it appeared to be blood.

[Lethia, Vampire Princess]

[Type: Undead]

[Level: 137]

[Class: Necrotic Blood Mage]

'A vampire? I'm a slave to a vampire princess.'

"This is all? I'd thought they'd be more... forget it. I'll make do with what's here... The corpses I used were months old; it isn't unexpected for there to be more failures than successes." Lethia smiled and took a sip from the wine glass. "Split into two groups of men and women."

All around Aurora and Amia, the zombies stiffly started to separate into two groups. Aurora and Amia simply followed the female zombies, and soon the groups were formed.

"Excellent. Men, you'll expand the mines and extract the demon ores. The women will carry the ore and rough process the demon ores on the surface. Now begin!"

With their orders given, the zombies set off to complete their orders, as did Aurora and Amia, who imitated the female zombies.