When Quinn looked back at the fight he just had with Tikker, he wondered whether he would be able to beat such a person solely with his normal powers. The Celestial Vampire had grown leaps and bounds in all his skills, so he ultimately concluded that it should be possible.
Tikker had been classified as a 'Dedicated Follower' by his system, which from what Quinn could tell, had allowed him to benefit from a lot of energy through the Marking, yet he had been far from the same level as Laxmus.
In fact, he would put him somewhere between a Vampire leader and their Vampire knight of his time, though probably closer to the former. The raw power of the energy might have put him above them, yet in a direct fight, he would bet on the leaders whose skills should give them the advantage.
'I wonder then… how strong would a strong vampire with Celestial Energy be? Is that why Laxmus had changed into something completely different to what I saw today? Because his energy was stronger.'
Suddenly a dreaded thought crossed Quinn's mind. If Laxmus had survived until this day and age, then it was practically guaranteed that he would have far more Celestial Energy than the last time they met. At least whoever gave him the marking in the first place would have had time to gather more energy. At first, Quinn thought the Dhampirs would be his biggest threat, but now he was starting to reconsider.
At the end of the fight, he had gained 3 Celestial Points, yet he wasn't sure if that amount of points given to a follower could be considered big or small. The Celestial Vampire could only base it off his own points, which had started at 10, though only the system might be aware how many he needed to level up.
'Chances are higher that such an amount should be low. After all, why would the Celestial give so many points to a weak vampire? It would make more sense to give more points to someone strong like Laxmus… but just what type of God is Laxmus working for?'
Walking over to the vampires that were still standing where they were, it looked like Quinn's Influence skill still hadn't worn off. Looking at his arm, he could see the red glow was also starting to fade.
'Right now, I can only mix a part of the Celestial Energy with my Blood aura, but I could tell that using it in its raw form would be most effective to fight off Dedicated Followers and Celestials themselves. In other words, as long as I can only infuse the energy with my own body, I'm going to have to be fighting head on with my fist and legs a lot more.'
The question was, if he increased his Celestial Energy would he be able to use it in a pure form externally from his body? Either way, it wouldn't hurt to find more ways to increase this energy.
Covering his body with the shadow, now that the energy had faded, Quinn had decided to merely put on some of the basic armour he had on him, rather than his iconic Blue Fang set. However, he also placed the Demon tier chest piece underneath it all.
"Well, seeing as all of you should now be aware of who I am, I hope that you don't decide to do anything stupid, and will help me without having to be forced." Quinn addressed the vampires before him. Without Peter, there was no way for him to use the same disguise as he had before.
In the first place, since the Influence skill would only allow a person to get simple answers, it was always best if they admitted the truth and the Celestial Vampire could confirm it with them.
"Why should we tell you anything? You bastard just forced us to attack our leader, and then you killed him in cold blood!" The closest vampire that Quinn had set free spat at him.
Quinn naturally sidestepped the saliva, but he was confused at this reaction.
"How come you don't recognise me? I thought there were statues of me everywhere? Aren't you guys even worshipping me?" Quinn raised an eyebrow and removed his mask while also moving his long hair a bit so more of his face could show, yet none of them seem to react any more favourably.
"I'm Quinn Talen! The old Vampire King, leader of the Cursed faction." The Celestial Vampire stated, yet all he got in return was the mocking laughter of all those vampires.
"Haha, do you think we are idiots? Do you really think anyone would fall for that? If you wanted to fool us, you should have at least changed into his actual appearance!"
Quinn was left speechless. He had been worried that this might be the case, but it still felt bad that people didn't believe him when he told them who he was. Unfortunately, he couldn't really blame them.
If he was in their shoes, would he believe that a legendary figure from a thousand years ago could suddenly return?
He had even used the shadow powers, yet they didn't seem to have notice, which made Quinn wonder how Tikker had recognised him?
'Come to think of it, can I be sure he did? Maybe he was just projecting, since he was about to die?'
Looking over to the vampire's body, he noticed that it had slowly begun to disintegrate, turning into ashes. It reminded Quinn of how the Originals would die. The good thing was that it would leave no trace of his body if someone were to come looking.
"Even after defeating your group leader, you don't believe me? Alright, I guess I'll have to ask the old-fashioned way." Quinn said with his eyes glowing red once more.
He told the three to kneel down and placed the mask back on his face.
"Who gave Tikker that Marking on his body, making him a Dedicated Follower?" Quinn demanded to know.
"I don't have a name. I never saw the person who does the Marking."
Each one of them answered, and they were clearly under the Influence skill, so they couldn't be lying.
"What's the method of getting a True Marking or being selected as a Dedicated Follower?" Quinn asked.
"Only those that are selected know." They answered.
It was getting frustrating, but it was clear that the Red Vampires were very secretive about their ways. In the end, Quinn asked what he could, how large the force of Red Vampires were and similar questions.
However, it seemed like they knew little about that as well, because the Red Vampires were spread on several planets, all communicating with each other. There wasn't one group as such, and their base seemed to be constantly moving, similar to Pure's way of operating in his time.
Only once in a while they would be a summons of the Red Vampires to come together. Those who could make it would arrive, but that still wasn't the entire amount of Red Vampires. Whatever the case, the force sounded larger than that of the entire vampire settlement during his time.
The most interesting information he had managed to unearth was that they communicated with each other through telepathy. In other words, the ability of the eighth family that Quinn had only somewhat just started to bring back during his time. Each day, they would all receive a message reminding them of their goals, what they believed in and so on.
The ability truly allowed all of them to feel connected. That was then when Quinn started to ask about the two groups of vampires, once again though there wasn't a lot of information. They hadn't even properly seen the apparent 'real leader' of the Red Vampires.
When asked how they were able to trust someone they hadn't seen to this degree, the fervent answer was because of their belief in Quinn. It made him wonder who was using his name so strongly to convince vampires over to their side.
Before deciding what to do with them, a memory popped up in Quinn's head, it was about what the town's folk had said before.
"I've heard rumours about the Red Vampires getting involved in the fight against the Dhampirs. Apparently, someone strong helped in the war. Do any of you know anything about that?" Quinn asked, not really hoping for much.
"They are one of the leaders." The vampires answered.
"What's their name?"
"We do not have a name."
"What do they look like?" Quinn continued to press. "What did they have on them, what were they wearing, tell me every little thing you know, even if it was just from rumours!."
"During the battle, it was the first time we saw them in person. They had long black hair, they looked like a vampire but were slightly different as two horns stuck out from the top of their head, and they wielded a black sword with our Marking." The vampire described.
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