Chapter 96
In the past, she once believed that she was the strongest person.
Fundamentally, vampires were a race with absolute authority when it came to battle capability and magic. And even amongst them, she was leagues above the rest right from the very beginning.
The latent amount of mana was different. The amount of mana they had from the moment they were born was completely different.
Basic attributes and the cap on the limitations. The one who was born well above the others in both of these aspects was her – Benetnash.
Everyone around her had labelled her as a child prodigy or a princess. However, those labels only caused her to feel discomfort.
Looking at the vampires around her, she had never considered them to be part of the same species as her.
She could only see them as low-levelled lesser lifeforms. She could not think of them as the same race as her either.
Was her self-esteem just simply so high that it resulted in her feeling that way?
Or was it just common for a child to think that they were special and different from others?
If that was the case, then all was well… truly, if that was all there was to it, it would have all been fine.
However, in actual fact, she really was different from the others.
The more that she grew up, the wider the gap between her and the others became. Eventually, this caused her to feel that everything else in the world was nothing but rubbish.
It’s as if they’re things that look like me, but are actually completely different living beings.
Such a thought was ever-present in the mind of Benetnash, almost to the point of making her feel certain that was how it actually was.
Genius? Prodigy? Exceptionally talented?
Even when she was described or categorised in any and every form of that description, none of them felt right.
If an individual human and an individual monkey were to ever face off against each other in terms of their speed in solving equations and the human won, was that guy a prodigy?
No, of course not. It was just natural that a human would win against a monkey.
In summary, it was exactly just that. It was just the most natural course of events that Benetnash was able to defeat all other vampires in existence. It was just simply because they were all inferior to Benetnash and were existences lower ranked than herself. The gaps arose just simply because they were lesser living creatures.
At the very least, Benetnash recognised the sheer difference between herself and the others in such a way.
There was once even a time she had gone all around the continent just to look for an enemy who would be able to fight with her on equal footing.
The more that she fought and killed, the more her power grew. Eventually, she reached a point that there was n.o.body who would go against her.
How boring it was for her. To be victorious in a battle that she knew for certain she would win even before anything had started. The feeling of how dull everything was. The feeling of how disappointing and unsatisfying everything was.
There had been times when she felt that the enemy had put up a good fight. There had even been times when she felt there was some difficulty.
However, she had never once met an enemy whom she believed could defeat her. She had also never met anyone that could truly be called an enemy who could fight her as her equal.
Eventually, she exterminated all enemies on her continent which was equal to a quarter of the landma.s.ses of the world, requiring her to venture out into the world as her next destination.
She had previously heard rumours of the existence of the Demon King and the Lion King, who were categorised as her fellow supreme rulers.
In truth, she did not have the slightest bit of expectation for them as she believed that she would still come out victorious.
Nevertheless, they were still enemies that she had to eventually meet face to face. They had to determine who was the strongest, and the one who could come out victorious in the end would be the individual who could decide the future of the world.
In the past, before Ruphas Mafahl stood on top of the world, the world only barely managed to maintain the balance because the top four individuals were at a stalemate—the pinnacle of the demon race, the Demon King; the pinnacle of the magical beasts, the Lion King; the pinnacle of the dragonkin, the Dragon King; and the pinnacle of the vampire race, the Vampire Princess. These four were individuals who had to eventually face each other to determine supremacy.
Apparently, there was also someone called the Devil King Aigokeros in h.e.l.l. However, because he did not feel like coming out to the surface, the ones competing to be the true supreme ruler were long considered to be just the four of them.
As such, when she heard that news, she was surprised for a moment.
— The Dragon King had been subjugated by a flugel woman.
One of the four pillars who maintained the world’s balance and were deemed the “strongest” was butchered by a member of a flugel race who was completely under the radar.
Even Benetnash had heard about the rumours of the Dragon King.
His personality was the very definition of arrogance. He was a tyrant who considered every existence other than himself to be a lesser being and often killed other living creatures on a whim.
She had heard that he often scared the humanoids and demanded live sacrifices.
As such, it was not that surprising that the humanoids bore a grudge against him. Even if he was subjugated, it would just simply be a fitting retribution.
The problem was how it was the act of a single individual.
The individual had not been leading an army, there were no traps involved nor did the individual lead them to their demise through skillful and deceitful words.
The individual boldly walked up to him, attacked him and single-handedly slaughtered him.
This very fact caused Benetnash to feel a sense of surprise.
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Nevertheless, at the very moment, she was still not fascinated enough.
The reason the Dragon King lost was that he was weak.
In other words, he was just someone insignificant and not as powerful as he was described by all the rumours.
After Benetnash made such a conclusion, she quickly lost interest in the flugel woman.
However, she only realised her mistake just a few years after all of that. And this realisation came with herself as the price.
As a result of when that very specific flugel – Ruphas Mafahl came storming into her very own domain.
It was the very first time in her life that she fought whilst she was mentally prepared to be defeated. It was also the first time in her life she felt such excitement during the battle.
It was the very first time since she had been born a few hundred years ago that she fought with someone on her equal… no, the first time she met someone who was superior to her.
The races involved were a vampire and a flugel. Within the humanoid races, they symbolised darkness and light respectively and were the two races where the relationship could be seen as the furthest possible from each other.
However, she understood. – She’s the same as me. Other mobs, other vampires… she’s far closer to me than any of those.
She was a non-conformer within the boundaries of her own race just like herself, a faulty existence given birth to by the world and an existence which should not have existed.
For the first time, she could not see victory in sight. She never thought until this very moment that she would one day be able to lose herself in a battle where her defeat was in sight.
She was not in a battle where victory was certain and was winning in the way it was predicted.
She was full-heartedly “challenging” in a battle where she did not know whether she would be able to win or lose.
This – how pleasant!
In the end, it was painfully clear defeat on Benetnash’s behalf, resulting in Benetnash agreeing to join forces with that woman with the qualification that it would only be to the point where Ruphas managed to unify the world.
It was humiliating to her that she was not dealt a finishing blow. However, it was more humiliating to her when that woman was mindful of her and made everything as “Let’s consider it as you didn’t lose.”
Yet, at the same time, it was the ship that Benetnash had to board.
Because she met that woman, she found out that there were superior existences.
She became aware for the first time how fun battles were.
Furthermore, she was able to find out that she could improve further.
Then it would be the next time. Next time for sure, she would win against that woman.
Even if she were to lose at that time, she would not receive any pity. The pity that she received due to this loss was her fault because she was weak enough that her enemy could afford to pity her. To ignore that very fact and make light of her own loss, Benetnash’s own pride would not allow such a thing.
Therefore, for now, she decided to obey that woman to help her become the supreme ruler.
When that woman took command of the world, it would be time for the rematch. For the sake of that, she did not mind providing her a.s.sistance.
When that woman stood on top of the world, they would have a true conclusive battle.
That was most likely the first-ever wish from the bottom of her heart that Benetnash had.
Notwithstanding that it was often misunderstood, Benetnash did not particularly hate Ruphas.
Although she had felt some dissatisfaction about getting a dent on her t.i.tle of the strongest, she recognised that she was not strong enough.
As such, she neither hated nor resented Ruphas.
If anything, she was thankful to Ruphas and respected her for it.
If Benetnash was asked to name one person that she respected out of the entire world, she would no doubt mention Ruphas’s name without the slightest bit of hesitation.
Benetnash did not hate Ruphas at all. If anything, she liked Ruphas.
Her affection was strong and pa.s.sionate, similar to a young maiden who had just fallen in love for the first time. She yearned for Ruphas in her every waking moment.
It was a feeling similar to affection, a feeling not far from love.
The only difference was, in her case, all of those feelings were turned into a murderous intent and pushed onto her fangs.
Every form of affectionate expression was turned into a murderous expression, thus resulting in them coming out as fatal attacks.
Therefore, Ruphas Mafahl alone was someone that only she could kill.
She would not permit anyone else to kill Ruphas, and only Ruphas would be permitted to kill her.
As a consequence, she simply could not accept the outcome of that incident.
She could never forgive the bunch of people who had defiled the battle between Ruphas and herself.
Everything began when Benetnash asked Ruphas for a rematch.
It was a mutual agreement between the two of them. The pact stated that when Ruphas unified the world, she would once again fight Benetnash with all of her might this time.
Ruphas had indeed fulfilled that agreement, and the two of them were clashing with each other, using powers which could end up destroying the whole world as collateral.
One was the supreme ruler who had gained extraordinary strength by utilising her own power to create golden apples and the stat-increasing items she created through alchemy.
And the other was Benetnash who had endlessly absorbed mana to get herself to level 1000 through her own efforts after gaining a rival called Ruphas and realising her own potential.
Both were existences which had far surpa.s.sed the boundaries of the vampire and the flugel races respectively and each were dishing out skills and power which was anything beyond common sense at each other.
For Benetnash, it was the moment of exhilaration that she had long-awaited, believing that the battle would continue until she ended up dead or she killed her opponent.
Eventually, the battle entered its climax, and Benetnash was finally being pushed back into the corner.
She was truly riddled with wounds all over her body. Not even her innate vampire regeneration ability could keep up and she was likely to use up all of her remaining strength after the next full-powered attack.
In comparison, Ruphas still had some leeway. With the current state of things, one could only admit that Ruphas had an overwhelming advantage in this situation.
Of course, Benetnash was not someone who would give up just because of that. If she only had enough strength to attack one last time, she just had to reverse the situation with that one attack. It was as simple as that.
“I’m coming, Mafahl… let’s end it with this last attack.”
“Yeah, sounds like a plan. Come at me to your heart’s content, Benet.”
The figure of Ruphas, who moved her hands with an expression as if she was holding back, felt annoyingly charming as usual.
Even if I’m going to lose, I want to land one hit. I’m going to put everything I have into this attack and slam it into her. I’ll become an existence she will never forget.
No… I’m going to win! I’m going to pierce her heart with this one attack!
With the drive to strive for a certain victory, Benetnash started dashing towards Ruphas, and Ruphas welcomed that attack head-on.
Nevertheless, the betrayal happened all too suddenly.
Right before the attack landed, someone had used interference arcane magic on Ruphas. This interference skill activated and caused Ruphas to become unable to move for a moment.
Benetnash noticed this interference and quickly tried to stop her attack at the last moment. However, an attack which already contained the momentum imbued by all of her might could not be easily stopped.
Although her claws managed to avoid dealing a fatal blow, it still landed on Ruphas’s flank, causing a red flower to blossom.
“You lot… what is the meaning of this!?”
Of course, the one who shouted this out loud was Benetnash.
From her point of view, her anger was reasonable as her long-awaited battle was interrupted by something boorish.
Therefore, she was staring daggers with detestation towards the individuals – the 7 Heroes, who had interrupted everything.
However, she quickly noticed it. There was something strange about them.
They were overflowing with an unbelievable amount of divine energy they normally would not have. They currently had enough power that even when compared to her current self, they would not be considered inferior.
What’s this? I admit the 7 Heroes are strong individuals, but they’re definitely not this strong.
Against Benetnash who was seething with rage, the 7 Heroes did not answer back with anything.
Let alone that, they used arcane magic to restrain Benetnash and sealed her movement.
Normally, she would not have been affected by such arcane magic and even if she was, she would quickly be able to break out of it.
However, the current Benetnash was wounded all throughout her body. She could barely move her limbs satisfactorily.
In the end, Benetnash could only slump on the ground pitifully and observe the situation while being unable to figure out what was happening.
“Apologies, Benet. Looks like there’s something important I have to attend to. I’m sorry, but let’s consider this time’s battle as just wounding each other and leave the conclusion for next time.”
“Wa – wait, Mafahl!”
“Don’t worry, I will definitely come back. You should sharpen your fangs until that point.”
After saying that, she left Benetnash where she was and flew away… and did not end up returning.
What happened afterwards was as foretold by history. The wound that Benetnash landed on Ruphas served as the main cause that Ruphas was cornered and eventually, defeated by the 7 Heroes.
Benetnash was again subjected to a defeat phrased as “wounding each other”. Furthermore, the loss of her rival robbed her of a reason to continue striving and living.
She lost all interest in worldly matters and started to view the entire world with indifference, making her hole up in her own coffin.
Although she knew very well after receiving a message from her subordinates that Alioth and the others were about to fight against the Demon King and that they were requesting her reinforcements. Notwithstanding all that, she ignored everyone and kicked the messenger away.
She knew that their betrayal was not out of their own true wills. Nevertheless, she could not forgive them.
Therefore, she did not pay any heed whatsoever to what was happening around the world.
It did not matter to her that the humanoids were pushed into a corner. It also did not matter to her however many of the heroes died. Nothing managed to move her heart.
The turning point for all of these came upon her that fateful day, approximately fifty years after the defeat of Ruphas.
It was the day that the army full of demon fodders came to invade her country. The day where she crushed them all as a slight exercise.
It was because of the bombsh.e.l.l dropped by the only individual within that h.o.a.rd that put up some of a fight, the Demon King.
“Hmm, as expected of the Vampire Princess. You’re worthy of being rumoured to be the only person within even the 7 Heroes that could fight against that Ruphas Mafahl alone.”
“On the other hand, you don’t reach up to the rumours of yourself. Well, I’ll admit that you’re quite strong, but that’s all there is to it.”
The fight between the two of them was not on equal footing.
Although the Demon King still had some leeway, there were many wounds all over his body, and furthermore, much of his clothes were torn.
In contrast, Benetnash was almost completely untouched. The flow of the battle was overwhelmingly in her favour.
Nevertheless, it could faintly be felt that the Demon King had also not used all of his power to fight.
What was fascinating was how even though he was being overwhelmed to this degree, the Demon King still did not show the slightest intention of fighting properly.
“It’s a shame. If you were there at the time, maybe the state of the world would be different right now.”
“Whatever. I really couldn’t care less what those guys did.”
“How bitter. Is that all arising out of the anger of being interrupted in a battle against her?”
“…. You should choose your words more carefully. I don’t mind tearing apart that mouth of yours that’s moving around a lot.”
“Spot on, huh.”
Benetnash moved with a speed fast enough to leave sound behind.
Blood blossomed out like a flower as the Demon King, who had his right arm along with his shoulder sliced off, took some distance.
However, his face was still as fearless as ever, and notwithstanding that his arm was cut off, he did not even react a little.
“Well, just calm down a little. Alcor… ahh, Alcor is how we refer to Ruphas amongst us, you see. Anyways, didn’t she say it herself? That she’ll “definitely return”? You’re jumping to conclusions too rashly.”
“You talk as if you know something.”
“That’s because I do.”
During the time the Demon King replied, he brought the severed arm towards the open wound.
When he did, the arm reattached itself perfectly, even though he had not st.i.tched it up.
After he tested that his fingers moved as normal, he looked at Benetnash with the smile of a devil offering temptation to its target.
“Ruphas Mafahl will definitely return. Hmm… let’s see… according to ‘her’, it’ll be about one hundred and fifty years from now. To a vampire like you, it shouldn’t be that long of a duration to wait. It will be good if you just wait around patiently. Don’t worry, your wish will definitely be fulfilled.”
Even now, Benetnash did not know why the Demon King knew of such a thing.
She also did not know who he was referring to when he mentioned “her”.
Nevertheless, it became a fact with Ruphas’s actual return.
Then… then, it’s fine. The reality was everything. Everything else was irrelevant, nor was she interested in anything else.
As long as this version of reality existed, she was fine with it.
She did not require anything else.
Benetnash silently and patiently awaited her arch-rival’s presence to approach her as she waited in a room where her subordinates were forbidden from entering.