It had only been months since Vishara’s resurrection but she had already, once again, left her mark on this world. After her encounter with the inhabitants of Ulrum, she went straight to the Argon Kingdom, the nation that was founded by her betrayers’ and now ruled by their descendants. It was unwise for her to attack a nation without any forethought or a pn. Wrath possessed her when she saw the taint of her betrayers. She couldn’t hold herself back.

  She allowed her emotions to make her decisions. It was stupid but she didn’t regret it. She survived the confrontations after all. She also learned plenty about the kingdom of her betrayers. The understanding of Murux had fallen far from its grace. They had neglected a core aspect of this world. She understood why. They cked affinity with Murux, at least most of them did, which led to the regression of magic. But the humans didn’t wallow in their inferiority. They found ways to compensate for their cking aspects. If they cked the affinity, they would build things that came with the affinity. They built machines and tools and they used Murux to fuel and augment their creations.

  Vishara could never forget the first time she encountered a Syer. She had thought it was some new race that had surfaced during her perpetual slumber. It wasn’t. It was a machine, a creation of the humans, made to resemble their own image. It had no emotion. It did not feel pain. It did not hesitate. Surrender was not a concept it understood. Most of all, its combat prowess was more than formidable. Though Vishara knew she wasn’t even half as strong as she was in her prime, she was still shocked by the Syer’s abilities.

  Before she encountered the Syer, she had fought the human soldiers and knights. They didn’t put up much of a fight. They were weak, extremely so. Vishara found her rage surging. She couldn’t accept that these weaklings were now the ones who ruled the world. It infmed every fibre of her being… until she met the Syer. She understood why these weaklings stood on top of the food chain.

  The Syer was fast and strong. Above all, it was resilient and tenacious. No matter how much he damaged the machine, it would not stop. It had a directive and it was fully committed to it. No amount of destruction to its existence would compel it to retreat. Vishara felt fear for the first time since forever. She felt no fear when she was stabbed in the back. Only anger. But now, there was fear… but there was also excitement. The scales were even. She couldn’t remember the st time she had fought an opponent that she could remotely consider formidable until this machine. Granted, she was not in her prime but she still considered the Syer worthy of her respect.

  Moreover, she lost. Defeat was no stranger to her but never in such a manner. She was overwhelmed by the Syer’s tenacity and persistence. Not to mention, she was a vampire. Flesh and blood were her sustenance. The Syer had none of those. It was iron and steel. In her current state, she couldn’t compete with its raw strength or speed. Her experience and skill were the only advantages she had but the Syer could learn.

  She reckoned she would have lost her life then and there if some outworldly being was not causing trouble for the various dimensions. A rift appeared, a portal that led her to another world. She escaped the Syer but it followed her. The timely appearance of the dragon, whose name was Henry, had allowed her to live to fight another day.

  Be it fate or coincidence, Vishara knew she owed the dragon her life. But given who she was, she didn’t reveal her sentiment to the dragon and he seemed not too bothered by her ck of gratitude. She couldn’t tell if the dragon was magnanimous and simply apathetic neutral about her. It was a bit of both, she came to learn ter.

  The dragon was a mysterious being. She had never met a dragon before, but Henry was unlike what she had read in the books about dragons. He was disciplined, something a beast could never be. She was grateful for that. She had many suitors in the past, some were even from vastly different races. She was well aware of the extent of her beauty. She could rouse any beings with sapient intelligence. She thought she could do the same with Henry but when she saw how indifferent he was about her feminine appeal, she discarded that idea. She would control him in another way. Most important of all, she would have to be patient. She couldn’t afford to rush and risk invoking more of the dragon’s suspicions.

  Fortunately, the journey in the other world was smooth for the most part. The dragon did not suspect her more than he already had. Once they returned to their homeworld, they parted ways. She understood that once she unched an all out assault on the Argon Kingdom, the rest of the world would not stay still. She would need allies. She would need the dragon by her side.

  She would need an army, Vishara concluded after wandering aimlessly for a few days. She wanted to probe the kingdom more but the Syers proved to be a huge obstacle. She also needed to recover her strength but it would get her nowhere if she didn’t at least have an army. If the kingdom had an army of Syers, it would be a difficult battle even for her prime, much less in her enfeebled state now.

  One thing held her back from taking action immediately, and that was her past experience with betrayal. She didn’t just need an army. She needed one that would never betray her, no matter the circumstances. She needed them to be her thralls. Once, she had understood benevolence and compassion but all that understanding was taken away from her when her allies betrayed her. Never again, she told herself. It was also the reason why she didn’t just offer an alliance with Henry from the get-go.

  She came across quite a bit of good luck in her pursuit of the army. There were many people who were wronged by the kingdom. Betrayed and abandoned. Discarded after exhausting all the use they had of these people. One particur individual had a simir fate to hers. The individual was to be an Arch Knight. He hailed from a common folk family. He was more talented than all of his peers. He grew at an unprecedented rate. When it came time for his anointment as an Arch Knight, the betrayal happened. The people he once called his friends had led him into an empty room before stabbing him from all sides repeatedly. They then dumped his body into a river that carried him off far away from the capital.

  Vishara chanced upon him. She was surprised to find the man to still be breathing. She healed the man and learned of his circumstances. She knew right then that she had found her first willing sve, blinded by hate and vengeance. And she continued to find more and more individuals of simir fates. It didn’t come as a surprise but it was something that made her wonder, just how did the kingdom continue to thrive with so many victims and enemies?

  They were all at the lowest points of their lives. Some were even at the end of their path but she paved a new road for them. She gave them all another chance at life with the opportunity to exact vengeance on all those who wronged them. She did not trick them into becoming her thralls. She did not hide the fact that they would become unconditionally subservient to her. Yet, each of them agreed to become her thrall.

  Naturally, Vishara was curious and a bit suspicious. She didn’t hold back her misgivings. Before she had them turned, she asked each of them and they all gave the same answer. They had already lost everything. Vengeance was all they had. Compared to what they had suffered, becoming a thrall to one who promised them vengeance was more than they could ever ask for. Vishara was satisfied. She didn’t choose the wrong people. They understood vengeance as much as she did.

  As her army grew, her presence became more and more widely known. People began seeking her out on their own accord. They voluntarily pledged their undying and unwavering fealty to her, even at the expense of their own freedom. This spoke volume of the Argon Kingdom. The common folk would rather become a sve to a monster than to serve their royals. Before she knew it, she had amassed enough thralls to form a small nation.

  Gradually, Vishara managed to rebuild the nation she once had, albeit much smaller than what she envisioned. It would do for now. There was no need to rush. Haste would only make waste. She needed to be particur with her pns. Conquering the Argon Kingdom was only the first step. The difficult parts come after a conquest. It was easy to conquer a nation but much less so in governing one and making it st.

  Which was why Vishara had not gone to war with the Argon Kingdom. She didn’t want to die with her vengeance. She didn’t believe there was any meaning in vengeance if one could not bask in the moments after their vengeance was completed.

  Though she didn’t go to war with the Argon Kingdom, that didn’t mean she stayed her hands. Only a fool will go to war without any preemptive strikes. The Argon Kingdom might be mighty but it was quite dependent on the graces of other nations. This was Vishara’s first step in conquering the Argon Kingdom, cutting off its resources. The kingdom’s response was quick. The court went into an uproar. They immediately waged war but sadly for them, they knew not who their enemy was nor did they know where their enemy was. At best, they only had a vague realisation.

  The silent war would have been swift in escating into an all-out war but the kingdom did something that Vishara didn’t expect them to. No, it was not the kingdom but the scheme of a single princess, the sister of the current king. The princess sought out the assistance of the Ulrum natives. Inadvertently, or not, the princess ended up soliciting the help of the dragon. Much to Vishara’s vexation, the dragon ended up agreeing to the princess’ scheme.

  At first, Vishara was curious by the dragon’s decision but when they met and had a talk, she realised the dragon was no stranger to war. The dragon was not as naive as she had believed. The concerns id out by the dragon were not untrue. Ulrum would be dragged into the war regardless of their actions and decisions. In war, there was bound to be colteral.

  “Why can’t you just be mine?” Vishara muttered softly in her solitude. The reception hall was devoid of any presence, save for her own. She sat atop the throne that was built upon a pedestal raised with dozens of steps. “You have made things needlessly complicated…”

  Then, a puddle of darkness formed at the bottom of the steps leading up to the throne. At a single, simple gnce, the puddle looked no different from the thousands of shadows in the room, but Vishara knew better.

  “Speak,” she commanded.

  A dark figure surfaced and rose from the puddle of darkness. “Ulrum has successfully defended its borders.”

  “I expected nothing less from them. What about casualties?”

  “There is none.”

  “Oh? That’s surprising. Even considering how the dragon had already chipped away the kingdom’s forces beforehand, this is still an unimaginable feat.”

  “The dragon pyed no part in the defence. The Lavans decimated whatever’s left of the kingdom forces before the tter could be anywhere close to the mountains.”

  “Ulrum would be a great ally to have,” Vishara mused. “Is that all to the battle?”

  “There is an interesting incident in the aftermath of the battle.”

  “Do tell.”

  “There is a new variant of Syers. Stronger, faster, and significantly more resilient.”

  Vishara spoke no words in regards to this piece of information but her dour expression spoke plentifully of her thoughts. Time was now fully against her.