Lust System: Conquering the World Beauties

For a brief moment...

The darkness became perfectly still.

Then laughter erupted.

”Ahahahahahaha...”

The sound spread across the battlefield like invisible waves.

Some soldiers covered their ears.

Others looked wildly around them.

The laughter refused to come from one direction.

It was everywhere.

”You cannot stop the darkness.”

”You cannot stop what has already begun.”

”You are...”

”...far too late.”

Dickson didn’t answer.

He simply continued staring.

As though he were trying to memorize every detail of the voice.

Then—

Crack.

A sharp sound echoed through the battlefield.

Everyone froze.

Another followed.

Crack.

Then another.

Crack.

The darkness surrounding Ren suddenly began collapsing inward, spiraling violently around him as if consuming its own vessel.

Ren’s body jerked unnaturally.

His expression twisted in silent agony.

The smile disappeared.

For the briefest instant...

His original eyes returned.

They were filled with terror.

He tried to say something.

No words came.

Only a silent plea.

Then the darkness surged once more.

A column of black flame suddenly burst upward from beneath him.

Unlike ordinary fire, it gave off no warmth.

Its color seemed to swallow the surrounding light instead of producing any.

The flames wrapped around Ren completely.

Nobody moved.

Nobody spoke.

Within moments...

The darkness receded.

The black fire vanished as abruptly as it had appeared.

Nothing remained.

Not ashes.

Not scorch marks.

Not even lingering heat.

Only empty ground.

The battlefield remained silent.

One minute passed.

Then another.

No one dared break the silence.

Finally...

Dickson exhaled slowly before turning toward Vanessa, Lana, Lilith, Sergei, Mikhail and the others.

”You all saw that...”

It wasn’t really a question.

Vanessa nodded first.

”I did.”

Lilith’s expression remained unusually serious.

”So did I.”

Even the werewolf elders silently nodded.

Dickson folded his arms.

”My hunch was right.”

Everyone looked toward him.

”It never made sense.”

He slowly walked toward the spot where Ren had disappeared.

”The attacks.”

”The timing.”

”The scale.”

”The sheer number of vampires.”

He shook his head.

”Turning the entire planet into hell serves no purpose.”

”Not for creatures that have spent centuries surviving in the shadows.”

He looked back at everyone.

”They weren’t acting on ambition.”

”They weren’t fighting for territory.”

”They weren’t conquering.”

”They were following something.”

His gaze lingered on the empty patch of ground.

”Being controlled.”

The realization settled heavily over everyone present.

Vanessa lowered her eyes.

”If that’s true...”

”...then we’ve been fighting pawns.”

Dickson nodded once.

”And there’s something else.”

Everyone waited.

His next sentence made nearly every person present blink.

”I don’t think most of the people we’ve been killing...”

”...are actually vampires.”

”Huh?”

Several soldiers looked at him as though he had completely lost his mind.

Even Sergei frowned.

Lilith raised an eyebrow.

Lana stared for several long seconds before rubbing her forehead.

She had just started believing Dickson was finally using his brain...

...and now he had somehow managed to throw that progress away in a single sentence.

Dickson noticed every expression.

He rolled his eyes.

”Use your heads.”

”I’m not saying vampires don’t exist.”

He pointed toward the battlefield.

”I’m saying some of them are vampires...”

His voice lowered.

”...and most of them aren’t.”

Dickson slowly walked toward Lana, Lilith, and Vanessa, rubbing the bridge of his nose as though the more he thought about everything that had just happened, the bigger the headache became.

Around them, the battlefield was finally beginning to settle.

The werewolves had already shifted back into their human forms and were helping one another regroup. Some carried wounded comrades over their shoulders while others quietly searched the battlefield for those who hadn’t made it. Their earlier battle cries had faded, replaced by exhausted conversations and the occasional sigh of relief.

Not far away, military medics rushed between injured soldiers, wrapping wounds, administering first aid, and helping those who could still stand. Engineers were already inspecting damaged armored vehicles while rescue teams searched through collapsed structures, making sure no civilians had been caught in the aftermath.

The smell of smoke still lingered heavily in the air.

The ground was scarred beyond recognition.

It looked less like a battlefield now and more like a place where nature itself had been torn apart.

Only a handful of people remained standing together in the middle of it all.

Lana.

Lilith.

Vanessa.

Mikhail.

Sergei.

And Dickson.

Nobody spoke immediately.

Each of them was silently replaying everything that had happened with Ren.

The darkness.

The voice.

The impossible black flames.

None of it made sense.

Dickson finally broke the silence.

”Hear me out for a second.”

Everyone looked toward him.

He scratched the side of his face before speaking again.

”Let’s assume for a moment that you really are a vampire.”

He paused.

”And not just any vampire.”

”I mean one that’s lived for hundreds... maybe even over a thousand years.”

He looked from one person to another.

”Tell me honestly.”

”If you’ve already lived that long...”

”...would you really be that terrified of dying?”

The question lingered in the air.

Nobody answered immediately.

Lilith folded her arms.

Her brows slowly knitted together as she replayed the expressions she had seen on the battlefield.

The panic.

The desperation.

The pleading.

It...

didn’t fit.

For someone who had lived centuries, death shouldn’t have been something completely unfamiliar.

Eventually she nodded slightly.

”...You’re making sense.”

Her voice was quieter than usual.

”They were afraid.”

”Not cautious.”

”Not calculating.”

”They were genuinely terrified.”

She looked toward the empty spot where Ren had disappeared.

”That wasn’t the reaction I’d expect from someone who’s spent centuries watching kingdoms rise and fall.”

Dickson snapped his fingers.

”Exactly.”

He pointed at Lilith.

”That’s exactly what has been bothering me.”

He slowly began pacing.

”Forget the strength for a second.”

”Think about experience.”

”If you’ve survived for hundreds of years...”

”You shouldn’t just be powerful.”

”You should be unbelievably experienced.”

”You’ve had centuries to fight.”

”Centuries to learn.”

”Centuries to improve.”

”But those guys...”

He shook his head.

”They didn’t fight like veterans.”

”They fought like people who’d been given power...”

”...without having enough years to truly master it.”

That observation made Sergei narrow his eyes.

The werewolf had spent nearly his entire adult life fighting.

He understood experience better than anyone.

”The boy has a point.”

Everyone turned toward him.

”I’ve fought thousands of opponents.”

”Humans.”

”Werewolves.”

”Exogens.”

”Even vampires.”

”But today’s enemies...”

”They lacked something.”

His voice remained calm.

”Instinct.”

”They were powerful.”

”But they weren’t refined.”

”There were countless openings.”

”They relied almost entirely on overwhelming force.”

Mikhail slowly nodded in agreement.

”I noticed it too.”

”There were several opportunities during the battle where experienced fighters would’ve withdrawn, regrouped or changed tactics.”

”They didn’t.”

”They just kept charging.”

”Almost like...”

He hesitated.

”...they were following orders instead of thinking.”

Vanessa lowered her gaze thoughtfully.

”So we’re all seeing the same thing.”

Dickson nodded.

”Exactly.”

He looked around at everyone.

”The oldest person standing here...”

He gestured toward Sergei.

”...is him.”

Sergei rolled his eyes.

”I suddenly don’t like where this conversation is going.”

Dickson laughed.

”What I’m saying is you’re only in your late thirties.”

”But based on what we just fought...”

”You’ve got more real combat experience than creatures that are supposedly several centuries old.”

He spread both hands.

”Doesn’t that sound ridiculous?”

Nobody answered.

Because...

It did.

Lana finally spoke.

”So you’re saying one of two things.”

Dickson nodded.

”Exactly.”

”They either aren’t real vampires...”

”...or...”

”They haven’t actually been vampires for very long.”

Silence returned.

It wasn’t an impossible theory.

But almost immediately another problem surfaced.

Dickson sighed.

”Yeah...”

”I already thought about that.”

He rubbed his forehead.

”If they were all turned recently...”

”...where did they come from?”

Nobody had an answer.

Lana frowned.

”There would’ve been reports.”

”Thousands of reports.”

”People don’t simply disappear without anyone noticing.”

Vanessa nodded slowly.

”Families.”

”Friends.”

”Governments.”

”Someone would’ve noticed entire populations going missing.”

Lilith continued the thought.

”And even if they somehow kidnapped people quietly...”

”...not on this scale.”

”We’re talking about tens of thousands.”

”Hundreds of thousands.”

”Maybe even millions across the world.”

She shook her head.

”That’s impossible to hide.”

Dickson pointed toward her.

”Exactly.”

”And there’s another problem.”

He looked toward Sergei.

”Turning humans into vampires isn’t even supposed to work.”

Everyone immediately understood what he meant.

Leonid.

He had always been treated as an exception.

A miracle.

Something that wasn’t supposed to happen.

Dickson folded his arms.

”If creating vampires from humans isn’t normally possible...”

”...then how are there suddenly so many?”

”And if somehow it is possible...”

”...why didn’t anyone notice hundreds of thousands of people disappearing long before all of this started?”

His questions echoed through the silent battlefield.

Nobody answered.

Because every answer they considered only created two more questions.

The mystery had only grown deeper.

Whatever force had spoken through Ren...

Whatever darkness had claimed him...

It wasn’t simply controlling vampires.

It was hiding an even bigger truth.

And for the first time since the war had begun...

Every single person standing there realized they might not even understand who their true enemy really was.