Limitless The Strongest Revenant

[They are rank E ghouls, my lord. They are known undead who follow the will of vampires like dogs. While vampires technically belong to the monster faction, ghouls share similarities with both undead and monsters.]

Unlike zombies, ghouls didn't look injured. They had no rotting flesh or holes in their bodies. Instead, their skin was extremely white, like chalk. Except for their bones sticking out of their skin, they looked like humans.

Under the protection of three of my avatars, Pixie went everywhere with her manifested {Fate} in her hands. It looked like a giant compass with a stand. Although, given the result, it seemed that Pixie had too little practice with her {Fate}.

I mean, I could understand. As a slave, it would've been hard to get souls to experiment. And with all the combat training she had crammed into her last week, she would hardly have enough time to do anything else.

In accordance with her status as my {Vassal} Joshua and Claire paid special attention to her. To make sure she did not die, they began training her the moment I left for my honeymoon. Robyn in particular had extremely high standards, so she drove her recruits crazy.

The few times Robyn wasn't with me, she was instructing Alicia and Pixie. Exa shared the shooting drills and tasks that my kitten had forced the two of them to do in order to get a Mastiff.

So, in addition to being instructed by Joshua, Vela's wolves, and Robyn in fitness and hand-to-hand combat, Alicia also had weapons training. Her diligence paid off, though, as everyone said she was already combat ready.

Incomparable to when I found her, Pixie was already a certified combatant. With {Call My Name}, she gained the ability to defeat even bigfoots.

"Um...show me the defender...no...why is it pointing to the ground? {Compass}! Show me the people I need to find...no, that's not it either...focus Pixie! Um... {Compass}! Who's the person my lord most needs to see?"

Because she earned a lot just by being my {Vassal}, Pixie was already at level 3. Her other {Fates} were {Pinpoint}, a combat application of {Compass}, and {Search}, which allowed her to be...well an extremely good searcher.

The problem was that apart from {Pinpoint}, Pixie had to know what she wanted to find first. Exa, analyzing Pixie's {Fates}, came to the following conclusion.

[{Compass} seems to be driven by emotion. The more desperate Pixie is for something, the more powerful it becomes. {Pinpoint}, which allows her to instinctively locate weaknesses, is even better than [Analyze] when she is in danger. Unfortunately, this means she is almost useless when relaxed.]

As if to highlight her miserable past, Exa's observation was spot on. {Compass} was born out of my {Vassal}'s earnest desire for guidance. As sad as it was, I could understand why it was driven by emotion.

'But I do not think I have it in me to deliberately act like a villain for her. I might do that to a little boy, but not to someone like her. We are in no hurry, we can afford to wait,' I lamented inwardly. '

In contrast, her guardian Delroy Baxter was much more in tune with his {Fate}. {Advent} manifested as a Victorian plague doctor mask. The creepy bird skull masks were bad enough, but D's upped the creepiness to 11. His mask in particular looked like it had been preserved in formaline.

But while it may have looked ugly as fuck, I could not argue with the results. Under my protection, D would hold the zombie's head and begin to tell me his last memories.

"This one...he was a construction worker who died during an enlistment...this one was a rogue, he had no way to pay and was sold to a reaper...he was brought here with 50 others and died...this one...he was part of the same batch..."

Ever since I tried using [American English] on Gareth, I have been using it on everyone with an accent. The results were even better than I expected. I could understand the Jamaican as if he had grown up in America.

The zombies in particular didn't have any new information to give. Most of them were either humans who died during their enlistment or rogues.

"This one...wow, he died during an enlistment, but the reapers around him look like they were wearing cosplay...I sent Exa the screenshots. This one...died in a tsunami...can't tell where..."

[My lord, the clothes from Delroy's investigation were from the Spanish colonization era. That would place this zombie as a person who lived between 1492-1565.]

Among the living dead we encountered, there were all kinds of stories. From zombies from ancient times to zombies of people who just happened to die.

"D. I think we should try the ghouls. Checking out the rank F's is a waste of time," I ordered.

"Yes, my lord."

While it would be beneficial to learn their stories, it wasn't what I needed right now. In the grand scheme of things, nothing would come of learning what these zombies were before they died.

The main problem was that I did not know what happened to the defenders. This zone was technically the last bastion of this floor.

Unlike Gareth's floor, whose tactics included abandoning the zones to spread out the undead, the 30th floor's approach was a traditional defense.

This simply meant that by the time the undead reached this specific location, everyone else was already dead. Unfortunately, unless someone close to the reaper made a request, no one would come looking for them.

The capricious nature of the Reapers prevented anyone from questioning where they went. For all anyone knew, the Reapers could have simply chosen to stay on Earth. Abandoning their duties was all too common.

Though many of the Administration clerks kept tabs on their Reapers, it was not rare for some to disappear for years at a time.

At my words, D approached one of the ghouls and touched its head. Only for his next words to reveal the answer to my problem.

"I...Fuck...dis be wrong man! What the hell? What the fuck? FUCK! AGH!!"

Unable to take what he saw, D quickly stood up and threw away his manifested {fate} away. Shaking with what I assumed was fear, he began to vomit on the spot. His behavior reminded me of my first night.

While people eventually become desensitized, one did not immediately acquire such a tolerance to horrific scenes. Especially when what we saw was unimaginable evil.

'Exa.'

[My Lord, we have found the defenders of the 30th floor].

Then I looked at the writhing ghoul in front of me. I shot off its arms and legs and broke its jaw. It struggled helplessly to get close to me.

"You've got to be kidding me..."

[It seems that the reason why ghouls share traits of both undead and monsters is because they were once reapers].

"They were turned into monsters?"

Another unexpected synergy I discovered was D and the [Exa Network]. With Exa, anything D saw, anyone on the network could see as well.

[It would be easier to show you, my lord. I sent a recording of what Delroy saw with his {Fate}. Please be at ease, I will make sure that nothing happens to you while you watch. And, it is quite graphic, please prepare yourself.]

I swallowed nervously as I relinquished control of all my bodies to Exa. Focusing on the video I was about to watch, I steeled myself as I witnessed the last moments of this reaper.