Lord Of Puppets

(Vampire?)

(I’ve never encountered their kind before!)

(Well... I did encountered Ariava... But she was a dhampir succubus? A half vampire – half succubus.... Technically she counts.... But again, I’ve never encounter a normal vampire.)

(No! It doesn’t matter yet... I mean, it does matter...)

"..."

(It is not like one or two vampires.... ALL of the black knights are showing the same symptoms of accelerated dryness and change in appearance.)

(....No wait.)

(Did they done something to their bodies?)

(....No....Something isn’t still adding up....) – thought Thauma as it was inspecting the bodies.

(When Ariava was talking to about vampires, she told me that they often hide their identity in order to infiltrate the settlements and feast.... Is it the case here?)

(But how?)

(There is good chance that there is one, which would allow them to pretend to be normal humans.... Or there could be either spell, or maybe a magic tool which special ability.) – thought Thauma as it began picking up knifes that were hanging on the wall.

(No.... Not them.)

(Not only that, the vampire corpses apparently rot quickly... Or "dry" up?)

(I will have the dungeon devour these black knights that stood out the most during the battle, and instead I will use the ones that didn’t caught my attention per say or do not look like important figures.)

"!"

(The amount of DP is way more massive than I’ve thought!)

(....Still... I will probably have to make a lot of expendable bomb golems again... I did used up a lot of them... And they are one use only.)

(And... There are also these things.)

(The golems that appeared at the start.... They had it.)

(Do they work differently?)

(Upsides?)

(I need to study it.)

(But that is for later.) – thought Thauma as it put down the core and equipped itself with several blades as it then began approaching the table where the vampire was laying on top of it.

<<It is only logical explanation.>>

<<Not only that.... Vampires are mostly called "monsters".>>

<<And the vampires feast on them.>>

<<Ariva told me that some people willingly turn themselves into vampires for either power or enteral youth... But.... Is this really it?>>

<<A monsters that would hunt their own kind?>>

<<Honestly.... I would like the be born as human, elf, dwarf.... Or just anything else.... I don’t want to be dungeon master.>>

<<They just... Did THAT to themselves?>>

<<...>>

<<Research.>>

<<Their stomach, heart, lungs and several other parts of their bodies seems to mutate... They still are somewhat the "same" in the way compare to the human regular organs in terms of appearance and what not.... But the thing that stands out the most is their heart.>>

<<.... But this thing here.... It isn’t organic.>>

<<A small device, disk looking device with legs and with something resembling a small hole on top.>>

<<The device wrapped itself around their bones and was straight up attached to them... These legs here were straight up dug into them... But what is this thing?>>

<<But... Upon inspection, the device didn’t really suffered any "direct" damage?>>

<<I’ve tried inspecting the device over and over again... But I couldn’t find its purposes.>>

<<This device here? It wasn’t destroyed because of an attack... So why is... Ahhhhh!>>

<<I’ve already tried doing countless different experiment and what not with that thing, but there is no improvement!>>>

<<....And this metal that made up the device... I don’t know it.>>

<<No answers and instead just more questions.... Things are not looing great.>>

<<Either way.... This thing here maybe the reason behind their weird change of appearance.... A magic tool.>>

<<Ariava told me that the vampires are divided into rankings.>>

<<Higher ranked nobles are usually much stronger vampires.>>

<<....And these vampires... There was a lot of them.... And they were beyond extremely strong.... So.... Does that mean there is possible vampire noble involved here?>>

<<...>>

<<Why in the bloody hell when things finally started working out.... I suddenly get extremely unlucky?>>

<<I WOULD NEVER EXPECT THAT TO HAPPENED!>>

<<But here we are.... Against my wishes.... Damn.>>

"Fuck me.... This can’t be real..." – said the scared imprisoned soldier.

".... I don’t think, even if I were to recover my full power, I would be able to let us escape." – said the golem user as he was chained up.

(But mana distribution isn’t something easy!)

"!"

"..."

<<They resisted.>>

<<But I’ve broke their bodies over and over again.>>

<<The extraction process.... It did took quiet sometime.... They were resisting talking for... Quiet sometime.>>

<<Ripping off nails.>>

<<Burning them alive.>>

<<By now, I’m somewhat knowledged in art of torture, meaning that I know how to make them speak no matter what.>>

<<Once they starts speaking, I’ve found a lot of stuff.>>

<<Crow Watchers.>>

<<Apparently these so called Crow Watchers are the elite soldiers of the empire and they are divided into multiple armies.>>

<<4 small ones and 1 main one.>>

<<...So they were not the strongest force.... Or more exactly, they were told to pretend to be the second strongest.>>

<<But what they did knew is that they served two people.>>

<<And the duke.>>

<<Oh crap.... So does that mean the whole "empire" bit was true?!>>

<<How screwed am I right now?!>>

<<...>>

<<Yeb.... I’m properly terrified right now.... But even so... I can’t just wait and do nothing.>>

<<...However.>>

<<As there was one person I wanted to interrogate no matter what.>>

"W-what do you want?!" – asked panicking golemancer as he tried backing away.

{"You."} – Written Thauma as it showed the piece of paper to the golemancer.