Reincarnated into a New World As a Vampire

"Master, this…"

"Yes, their ritual must have started. That's a ludicrous number of souls. Just how many have they killed to achieve this?" Anshire said while looking at a distant sky. From her point of view, her own eyes, she could see the souls of countless people swirling around high above in the sky, trapped and unable to dissipate to the next world. Being a former primordial dame, she was well aware of the ritual proceedings and its requirements, so she understood what was going on.

Not wishing to involve herself in the matter, Anshire turned her attention elsewhere. At the moment, she was monitoring Aldritch and his people to see how everything went. Seeing as his power and influence was rising at a steady pace, Anshire knew both first hand and from experience, that he was already becoming an unstoppable force.

As she watched, she thought about Aldritch's offer for her to join and serve under him. Truth be told, even back then, it was a really tempting offer, but now it was even more so and much more. It would only be wise to join and serve under him than oppose him in some wild wish to defeat him. Maybe if he was alone, that would be possible and she wouldn't consider his offer, but with the kind of people who served under him…

The reason Anshire had chosen to spy in on their progress rather than just wait for report after all was done was because she wanted to see his subordinates in action also, to gauge their strength and understand what they were capable of. Though she kept feeling as though she herself was being watched, she wasn't shy of being caught spying.

"Then again, I think they've been operating without command, where is their lord?" She wondered to herself while going everywhere to look for him around the castle and its surroundings.

Since she was remotely viewing all the happenings through the eyes of several of her ghosts, she could switch between them freely and even control where they moved and looked, a very convenient trick.

…

While other events took place, Helga, Naiha, and Veronica had already begun the ritual, adhering to the exact proceedings as Aeress had instructed, without so much as an inch of diversion.

Aldritch who normally would not be able to see souls and such ethereal creatures found himself no longer blind to them. Maybe it was because he was within the barrier, he could see them clearly, and for all he had to say of them, the words he could use to describe these souls and what was happening before his eyes were, 'a freak show'.

He wasn't sure what the purpose of the ritual was, but if everything he was looking at floating all about and even around him were souls of people, then it was bad business to be there. He was well aware of his own strengths, he knew what he could confidently handle and what he could not.

'I see why they so wanted me to stay away. Does that mean if I were to intervene, this entire ritual would fail? What about these souls and spirits then?' he questioned himself. He still had no intention of interfering, he just couldn't help these idle thoughts from popping in and out of his head. In a way, it kept him company while he watched as everything progressed.

…

In the nether realm, Aeress spotted a slight smile on her face for a brief moment before it returned to that of seeming anguish, as she could feel the ritual had been started. At this time she had been holding off the abyssal being for more than five days within the nether realm, and to say she was nearing her limit would be an understatement, as she had already past the limit. She was now at a point where she was barely holding on through sheer will and faith alone.

'A little faster…' she thought to herself painfully, referring to her disciples.

"Hahaha, your little plan won't work. In the end, my will shall be done!" The abyssal being said in a powerful voice that sounded just like Aeress's.

At that very moment, it took over Aeress, pushing her consciousness back into the astral body while getting ready to inhibit the husk body fully.

Since the astral body was part of the physical body and part sprit body or soul, Aeress's astral body already had a link to her physical body, and since the abyssal entity's spirit body was in place of Aeress's, it would take full control of the body once it inhibited it, leaving Aeress's soul devoid of both a physical/material or astral body. She would be lost in the spirt real forever, unable to ever return to the world of the living or venture into any astral plane.

"At long last…" The abyssal being said in a cold and calm voice with a villainous smirk on its face as it stood in the form of Aeress.

…

"Now, gather the souls into the body!" Helga ordered.

Immediately, all three of them transitioned to the final part of the ritual to condense all the souls floating aimlessly inside the barrier into Aeress's body.

The process was swift and only took some minutes before all the souls had been sucked inside.

With that, the ritual had come to an end. The body was the link to the astral body and the gate way for Aeress to pass into the world of the living into a material body, and a link for the souls to reach her.

As they waited in anticipation with tensed minds, the three women watched from outside the barrier as Aeress's eyes came alive and she raised her head with a devilish smile on her face.

"Finally… I am freed into the world of the living." Her words sounded clear.

Helga and Naiha needed no one to tell them that their ritual had failed, this was not the Aeress that wished to bring back, this was the abyssal being.