The last Vampire with the Hero summoner system: I get 5x their powers-Chapter 71: Exception Empire
The first thing that caught my attention was a towering mountain.
It rose beyond scale, a white spear piercing the sky so high the clouds seemed to cling to it for balance.
Snow and stone stretched upward, size literally bending perception, leaving the eye aching and the mind struggling to accept the size as my neck was completely turned towards the sky, and I couldn’t see a peek.
My eyesight was godly good because of [Eye of Sanguine] so it was kind of shocking.
It was half green, with lush forest probably housing so many animals. Though the second half was stone and snow purely because of how thin the air must be. It would be impossible for vegetation to grow.
But, it wouldn’t have been that eye-catching if not for one deformity at its center, right around where green turned to snow and stone.
It was a massive statue shining like polished white marble. The actual size of the structure must be absurdly big to be visible this far away. But that wasn’t the most shocking part.
When you look at a massive structure like this, you’d expect it to be something like a majestic lion head or something similar. But one thing you would never expect was there—
A fucking hamster.
An exact, heavily realistic, Michelangelo-level statue. Small nose, small ears, plump cheeks, even the moustache.
I looked around at my peers, and none had even the slightest shock at the hamster’s statue.
"That is Lord Pazuzu’s beast form, complete form." Suge described, and when he noticed my blank, confused face, he explained further.
"All beast-Kin have a full release where all of their powers are multiplied three to even ten times in especially talented individuals. It uses an exceptional amount of Arcana to transform, so I couldn’t have used it in a fight with Alyndra, unfortunately."
He’d clearly misunderstood what I was baffled by. Well, it was an interesting piece of information nonetheless.
"Lord Pazuzu’s pretty cute." Alya’s eyes were stuck on the hamster too, but they weren’t surprised, rather awestruck, glowing, probably much brighter than Suneater’s body temperature. "Can we meet him already?"
Cute wife.
She’d recovered pretty fast from all that happened just hours ago. I wasn’t complaining. She has at last finally acquired some sort of safety inside here. Before, it must have been like soldiers in WW2 trenches for us.
"I doubt. He has a physical form no longer. He will meet you two in your dreams at his will, I believe. And, the form there is said to be formless." Suge answered Alya seriously.
My eyes finally turned to the actual things I should’ve focused on in the first place.
It was bustling with onlookers. There were thousands of beast kin people, some lizard people, some dog people, some cat people, all in common clothes, staring in curiosity at us.
Even though the whole vibe was very medieval, the houses were very well built. All two stories, paints reflecting vibrantly, with cobble-stoned footpaths on both side of the dirt road.
Carriages were moving around, people were gossiping, and kids were playing tag in between the spaces in the crowd.
As Suge walked, leading the eye-catching group of other Mari Swan escapees and us, people automatically cleared the way.
Suneater’s body had long vanished without any of us realising, the majestic wall returning to it’s place.
Subaru’s eyes were moving from one place to another. It looked like he was observing, but as a former public situation avoider, I could guess he was awkward in front of that many people.
Being a vampire with barely a heart lowkey improved my social skills.
We were still dressed in the Mari Swan uniform stolen from the guards, so people didn’t even think of Alya and me as part of the saved slaves.
We must seem like spying insiders providing information on Mari Swan to the main squad to these people because of how Suge was treating us.
Subaru, on the other hand, was the center of attention. He just looked that badass and out of the group with his long katana tied on his hip and black Kimono. His way of walking was badass in general, too.
After a few minutes of slow walking, passing through all the crowds and houses, we finally stopped. It was a four-story building. The two wooden doors of its entrance fully opened.
It was in a faraway corner of the empire, and the mountain’s peak was still visible from here, even surrounded by clouds. Though the hamster statue was hardly visible.
Apparently, the mountain was at the absolute center of the entire continent, visible from every corner. That wouldn’t have been as surprising as it was if I hadn’t learned the size of this continent.
It was bigger than the combination of Asia, North America, and South America by mass. This... It was absurd. The mountain that seemed pretty big to me at the start was really fucking far, it seems.
My entire body was shaking, looking at the majestic mountain again.
The mountain being visible from all corners of the continent means the mountain needs to be... 2000 kilometers tall!
Now, to put it in perspective, that is two hundred thirty Mount Everests tall. What the fuck?
I get that it’s a fantasy world, and I’d read about bigger structures in Webnovels I had read, but seeing the length after realising its size was an amazing, thrilling feeling.
There was only one person living on that mountain, Suge had told. The chief. He’s basically the king. And, he lives in a small hut in the midst of the lush greenery on the mountain.
"You can rest well in this place. Eat as much as you like. I have instructed them to provide proper, separate luxury rooms for you to relax to your liking." Suge said basically to all of us.
There were some tears in the eyes of the escapees at the mention of food. Well, I’d like a warm, high-protein, tasty meal with a cup of coffee after all that shit, too.
Alya looked similarly excited as she shared a look with me. Subaru, on the other hand, looked stoic, but we could hear his stomach grumbling like in those anime for some time now.
After becoming a human, he obviously needed to eat like anybody else.
"Relax for as much time as you like, don’t worry about anything. You people have been through a lot." Suge’s voice softened as he smiled. His towering body was glowing like an angel’s under the afternoon sun.
All of them thanked him, including Shen and Sasha, who had been very quiet for the entire while. Suge talked with everybody properly, giving them a few words of encouragement before finally turning towards us.
"It turned out you, Alya, and Subaru will need to appear in front of the Chief tomorrow morning, so unlimited rest doesn’t apply to you. Well, it’s not like you two require that." Suge said with a thoughtful look. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎
I sighed, yes, we two had healed to perfect health, and Subaru isn’t injured in the slightest. But... We also need a mental break!
"Not a problem." A problem really wasn’t an option since it’s the invitation from the literal king.
"Thank you for the understanding. Please enjoy yourself." Suge nodded.
"Do we have a problem?" Alya suddenly asked, startling Suge. After noticing our startled, curious gazes, she explained.
"You seem very tense..." Oh, right, she can read emotions.
"What’s up, Suge? I am open to help, you know."
"It’s nothing I should bother you with." He shook his head. "It’s just since many Alphas died in this mission and the SI (Special Investigation) Unit’s action commander just lost his sister, things are not very good diplomatically."
"Noble families are even asking Louise to be removed from the position."
"Huh?! What the hell?" Removing him for this?
"That’s an overreaction. Can’t a person even mourn their loved ones?" Alya asked in a bit of a daze, completely taken aback.
"They can. But Louise has a history. He had nobody but his sister growing up as an orphan in the slums. He lived for her to live. He worked for her to live. Everything he did was basically to protect his sister."
"In the end, she was the same and joined the same unit he was part of, which he hated. But he seemed to have been very productive in protecting her from any harm. So productive that he became the commander really fast."
"Now, all of a sudden, the main source of his motivation had been removed. Higher-ups are not liking that and think it will negatively affect the most important task force of the military."
That was still stupid and evil, but it made a little more sense.
"I see, so what can we do about it?" I asked, knowing there was barely anything I had the right to do here.
"The entire SI task force is planning a way to convince Louise to act more normally and not show grief. He understands this, too, but probably doesn’t care much about it. But, we need him to lead this group, or it will get... corrupted." Suge said rather mysteriously.
"Hm... I can understand how hard it must be." Suge nodded, as if he had experienced these things, "I doubt Louise will care about corruption or anything like that. If the main anchor has vanished."
Suge could only nod bitterly.
"But, the person who loses a purpose is a blank slate who easily can find another in the right environments."
Suge froze, "But, isn’t it too soon?"
"There’s no other option." I shook my head, "Cheering him would be rather disrespectful. I think Subaru is right. You should focus on finding another thing that motivates Louise to please higher up to prevent that ’corruption’." I sighed.
Subaru looked at me for a second, and then suddenly, his lips curled in an uncharacteristic smile.
Guess he realised I still respect him as much without powers? That was good news.
"Thank you. I will keep that in mind. Anyways, you three should focus on enjoying your well-deserved peace and not my problems. Chief isn’t a bad man, so it’s nothing serious. See you in the morning!" Suge smiled again, and then his body blurred.
"Good luck!" I said as he left. I was curious about the corruption, lowkey, maybe he will tell me later.
After a deep breath, I turned back to the direction of the towering building, watching as the other Mari Swan escapees quickly entered inside, following the workers of the inn-like building.
Finally, it’s time to talk it out with these two. I glanced at Subaru and Alya.
My heart skipped a beat. A familiar feeling.
Guess vampires can feel anxious.
