Muller was once a mercenary active three hundred years ago. During a Blood Corpse invasion, he was hired by a noble lord to guard a city for him.
Faced with Rosalind's overwhelming army, the lord brazenly fled with his trusted men without informing the mercenaries and militia, leaving behind a group of unfortunate men who had not yet received their wages to guard his home.
After this news spread, the militia, mercenaries, and even the soldiers left behind instantly lost all will to fight, and collapsed at the first touch when faced with the Blood Corpse below the city.
The city inevitably fell in the end; all the living people in the city were either sacrificed to the Blood Corpse or became one of them.
Muller believed he had fulfilled all his responsibilities as a human being—he hadn't even received his full pay!
Furthermore, as a Low Tier individual with some degree of fame, Muller did not go completely insane after being transformed, unlike ordinary civilians who become Blood Corpse.
He retained some rationality from the beginning, essentially becoming an elite monster right out of the gate after his Blood Corpse Transformation, and ultimately accepted the fact that he had become Blood Corpse with a clear conscience.
The reason is simple: as a mercenary, Muller's principle is—it doesn't matter who he works for, right?
Over the next two hundred years, Muller gradually distinguished himself in battle after battle, and even managed to kill an earl on the opposing side in a Blood Corpse war with the York Lineage.
He absorbed the power of the Earl of York Lineage, thus gaining the ability to Shadow Traversal, and came into Rosalind's sights, becoming one of her valued subordinates.
Over the course of a century, he carried out all of Rosalind's orders admirably, and through a combination of opportunity and the Grand Duke's reward, he became a marquis.
Then the timeline jumps to when the Demonic Tide had just broken out...
"Father, have you ever heard of the ' True Blood Alliance '?"
Seeing Müller-chan's eager gaze, Ed, who had been somewhat distracted, finally realized that the other person's narration had entered the main plot.
But he had never heard of the word before, so he shook his head helplessly.
Muller was not disappointed by this, and explained in a very serious tone:
"This is the name of a gathering held by the seven Grand Dukes when the Demonic Tide had just broken out."
"Before this, they had been fighting each other for thousands of years..."
"You mean, this ' True Blood Alliance ' is essentially a ceasefire negotiation?"
Ed found a more colloquial way of saying it.
Muller nodded and then shook his head:
"Yes, but I suspect it's more than that..."
"Guess?"
"I'm sorry, Father, my abilities are limited. At the time, I was only responsible for perimeter security, so I don't have any substantial evidence."
Tell me about it.
"As you command... The ' True Blood Alliance ' not only temporarily halted the fighting between the various Blood Corpse, but it also made all the Blood Corpse stronger."
Muller recalled the past and said earnestly:
"The Grand Dukes may have used some secret technique... In any case, due to the characteristics of the vampire race, the power gained by the Grand Dukes is transmitted from top to bottom to the lower-level Blood Corpse. Therefore, I also felt the distribution of that power, but I couldn't discern its source."
What type of power is it?
"Physical enhancement, and some areas I cannot describe or articulate."
Ed nodded to Muller to continue, and his loyal adopted son continued his narration:
"Besides these two points, the ' True Blood Alliance ' also discussed one other matter."
What is it?
"It's... a tactical plan on how to conquer the entire world."
Ed's eyes lit up:
"Specific content?"
Muller lowered his head and said with some regret:
"I, a marquis of this rank, cannot know the most specific information, but the seven grand dukes are generally divided into two factions."
"The three lineages of Wens, Rosalind, and York are responsible for gathering the remaining alien races in the Demon Realm, converting those that can be transformed into Blood Corpse, and exterminating those that cannot be transformed, thus achieving the substantial unification of the Demon Race."
"The four lineages of Antos, Adelaide, Hall, and Vanessa are responsible for external wars, prioritizing the annexation of kingdoms bordering the Demon Realm..."
Ed nodded, finally finding an answer to a long-standing question in his mind.
No wonder the seven grand dukes were divided into two groups: those sealed away and those imprisoned. The root of the problem lies in this " True Blood Alliance."
Therefore, the Graycast Corridor and the Eternal Domain should be two emerging forces that appeared when the vampires split into two groups, like a sharp sword stuck between the two waves of vampires.
How did you do that?
"... The seven grand dukes thought they would soon be able to unify the world, but unexpectedly, the plan lasted for several years, and both sides encountered great problems."
"In the Demon Realm, although some demons with lower potential were quickly wiped out, some demons with High Tier beings were not so easy to defeat."
"For races like demons or liches, there are many High Tier races within them, and even vampires are not so easily assimilated by them."
"Although they are no match for the three lineages of vampires, these guys are incredibly fast, making them difficult to catch."
"Therefore, the Demon Realm realm quickly reached a stalemate, and the stalemate between vampires and demons lasted for more than a decade."
Ed's lips twitched as he listened to Muller's account.
Is the Demonic Tide terrifying?
That's really scary.
However, as Psionic Energy phenomenon, tides take time to have a substantial impact on living beings.
While the lower-level demon races would likely face extinction quickly, it's possible that intelligent demons and liches with their own skills could adapt to the initial concentration of Demonic Tide.
Do vampires look down on all other races because they are more adapted to the Demonic Tide?
Could their brains have also been corrupted by the Blood Poison?
Thinking of this, Ed pressed on:
What about the kingdom?
Muller's tone remained submissive:
"Things aren't going well in the kingdom either."
"In the first year after the True Blood Alliance, Grand Duke Hall successfully assassinated the king. According to his plan, the kingdom would completely collapse as a result and become a mess."
"But a kingdom is not a highly centralized state like an empire; after the king died, the various nobles became even more independent..."
"The lesser nobles were quickly wiped out, just like the Low Tier demons, but the greater nobles, who often had nearly a thousand years of accumulated wealth and experience, built numerous fortresses to defend against the Blood Corpse, and each one was very difficult to take down."
Hearing this, Ed curled his lip, realizing that the Blood Corpse weren't as powerful as he had thought.
I had heard Bennett mention before that before the Demonic Tide, he was the so-called Marquis Aduolin, and his Fir City was defeated and forced to surrender by the Grand Duke of Antos himself.
At the time, he was wondering why the Grand Duke needed to personally intervene to attack a marquis's city, but now he suddenly understood a little.
Considering Antos's Miser nature, as a stingy fellow who doesn't even own a duke's throne, it's no wonder he's constantly putting out fires all over the world...