Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night

A secret gathering of Horde Kings was taking place on the west coast of the United States. There were a half dozen figures standing within Lilith's penthouse, herself included among them. The combined power of the undead in this room was enough to wipe out humanity entirely if they really wanted to.

But despite this, they appeared paranoid, skittish even. Looking over their shoulders as if they were somehow waiting for a far more terrifying and powerful figure to pop out of the shadows and take their souls back to the void.

These were the leaders of the moderate faction. Among them were Horde Kings such as Lilith, Damian, and Victor. As well as three others. The fact that a Tier IV Horde King was among them showed just how few of the Horde Kings were actually secular in their beliefs regarding Death and the worship of her.

These were also those Horde Kings who did not seek humanity's extinction, merely its enslavement as a valuable food source. One that should be properly cultivated. Damian, as powerful as he was, was not aware of Lilith's plans. Nor the involvement of someone like Victor who experimented in a similar way.

Today, however, he had learned the truth. Lilith was keeping hundreds of thousands of humans alive in various settlements across California. The largest of which was no doubt Elysium whose membership included at least 100,000 living human beings.

Whereas victor had a different approach to his farms. One might call him a free range expert. Allowing the humans to awaken their powers, and kill enough of his horde to grow powerful enough that their hearts would fuel his growth.

Lilith and Victor had different philosophies on quantity vs. quality. But their goals were the same. And because of this, they had decided to come together and combine their efforts. While letting the other moderate leaders finally become aware of their schemes.

"As you all have seen by now. My plan is to foster the growth of human beings in small cages, where they can easily be corralled into their slaughter. The leaders of each of these so-called settlements have been forced into servitude towards me, and their loyalty is unquestionable.

With their current numbers, and their rate of growth. I can consume up to a hundred humans a day without them even being aware of what is happening. Although victor seems to have a different method in mind. Why don't you enlighten us on the methods you have been researching?"

Victor sighed heavily and shook his head, confirming that there were indeed risks with his approach. But the rewards were much greater.

"Unlike Lilith, the humans I have permitted to live are substantially less in number. But they have all awakened certain abilities, or will eventually do so. I allow them to grow more powerful by fighting against my horde. And in the end, when they are at their ripest, I plan to harvest their hearts for the massive gains.

But I won't lie. I recently suffered a major setback. One of the human farms I was managing recently imploded on itself. After a thorough investigation, I have discovered it was an attack by one of the other human farms. The infighting among them turned deadly, and I was unable to recover the bodies with their hearts intact.

A massive loss to be sure. If all of their hearts were devoured by a High ranked Tier I, it would undoubtedly have pushed them over the edge into Tier II. Still, I was hoping to wait for them to ripen a bit more before harvesting. It is such a shame that they were killed off by their own kind like that. Humanity really is foolish…."

Damian and the others sat in silence while listening to Lilith and Victor go on about their ploys. Damian had wiped out pretty much every human being in the New York Metropolitan area, but there were still plenty of living outside of the city area within the State that still drew breath.

He was now intrigued by what Lilith and Victor had proposed, and was quick to ask a followup question.

"Say we all join in. Combine our efforts to grow a stable and submissive population of humans to feast upon. Will this grant us the ability to surpass Balthasar?"

Lilith scoffed when she heard this and rolled her eyes. Really Damian? Did you even need to ask? Ultimately she voiced these thoughts aloud while lecturing the man as if he were beneath her.

"Of course! That fanatic, and the little bitch who clings to his side truly believe they are waging a war bestowed upon them by god. They believe without any proof that it is their mission, given to them by Death herself, to convert every human being into one of us, or destroy them in the process.

They have already wiped out the source of their growth. From here on out, they are doomed to stagnate. So long as we keep consuming human flesh, whether it is awakened hearts, or simply the bodies of those non awakened humans. We will eventually grow stronger than the two of them. And when we do, we can put an end to this ridiculous cult once and for all."

Damian didn't necessarily like Lilith's tone. But he had to agree with what she said. The source of their growth was to devour human flesh. If they drove the human race to extinction, then the hierarchy that currently existed would forever remain in place.

Their only path forward was to continue eating human flesh. And to do that, they would need to genuinely treat them like livestock. Raise them to be devoured, and control their numbers so that they never tried to free themselves from their captivity.

With this in mind, Damian voiced his support for the plan.

"I'll begin to gather up the survivors outside of my domain and establish footholds for them to live in. I will seek both of your guidance on how to best set up these farms. I think I speak for everyone when I say we should not let the fanatics find out about this.

If they do so, it could cause a civil war, and we do not have the numbers now to contend with them. Especially since Evilyn has just wandered off and disappeared after we sent her to find Zane. I mean... Seriously; I know she's a ghost and everything. But it's unusual for her to break contact with us for this long."

Lilith immediately perked up her attention. Evilyn was a powerful subordinate of hers. A ghostly Tier II Horde King was worth about as much as a regular Tier II Horde King. They could not be defeated via conventional means.

Nor could their attacks be blocked by normal means. Few Horde Kings of the same level had the means to contend with them, let alone one of a lower level. It was a testament to Gwen's power that she had blocked several attacks from Evilyn during their encounter.

But nobody knew about this except for the parties involved. And after seeing the truth, that Death was truly real. Evilyn had wandered off into the night to seek some introspection. Her last message was some falsehoods, whispered through various other voices saying that Zane was headed east.

It was truly concerned for her to wander off like this, and because of this Lilith sighed heavily before deciding to do something about it.

"I'll have people search for her. Who knows where she has gone off to? Freaking ghosts, they're always like this. So unreliable…"

With this said, a new understanding was made between the moderate faction of the Horde Kings. They would begin fostering the growth of humanity as a resource for food. Giving the species hope for survival, even if they were being raised as livestock.