Death's Door

"They are getting away! Strike them down, my blades!"

A wave of countless swords was sent in the direction of their enemies, no matter how good their defenses were, they would not escape unscathed.

Since they were focused on retreating and one of them had his hands full with carrying the undead in his hands, Princess knew that they were not very likely defend themselves from her attack.

Yet, when her swords swarmed upon them, they hit what appeared to be an invisible barrier, once they came near the barrier; the swords were struck down by bolts of lightning. Now all of the swords she sent either fell down or were turned to dust.

"A lightning type barrier? And a high level one at that, my Holy Swords seem to be unable to pierce through it…I didn"t sense lightning affinity from any of those three, which means they most likely had an ally nearby….d.a.m.n it! Just when I had the chance to make a good impression on my beloved, they manage to slip through my fingers!"

"Your Highness, back to the original topic, why are you here?"

"I wanted to see Leon-sama, of course, why else?"

Seeing First Princess"s unwavering look, Knight of Night could only shake his head in disbelief.

"That was your reason for sneaking out of the palace, putting yourself in mortal danger and in the middle of the battlefield no less, just to see that guy?"

"Of course"

"Is she serious?" Larat couldn"t help but think.

"You do realize Leon is a lone wolf, right? He always operates and fights alone, he may be one of the captains of the Holy Order, but he is a captain in name only, he does not actually lead anyone. So you are not likely to find him in such crowded places"

Looking at his surviving troops, Knight of Night could only praise their courage. They were Holy Knight and Knight level warriors, but they faced off against a Demon Lord level demon and some kind of a winged humanoid creature.

"Oh…Is that so…" Princess"s expression instantly turned gloomy.

"I guess you are going to tell about this to my father"

"You saved my life, so if you so desire, my lips are sealed"

"Thank you"

Larat proceeded to pick up his sword from the ground.

"It is strange, when we fought each other, he seemed to know me, and his dagger sliced through everything except for my sword…"

But then, as he gazed upon his sword, it ended up being sliced into thin pieces, and ended up scattering on the ground.

Larat was left holding a handle connected to only about an inch long blade.

"It can"t be! Does that mean every time we clashed against each other, he ended up slicing through my sword and it only managed to stay in one piece because I channeled my chi through it?!"

As soon as the flow of chi to his sword had stopped, the blade showed the true extent of the damage it had taken.

Unlike mana, chi was generated by willpower, but it used up body"s stamina while channeling it.

So if magic used up mana and was for spells, chi used up body"s stamina and was primarily for powerful swordsmen.

While it was a common trend to channel mana through a sword, considering it was much easier than learning to channel chi, Larat made sure to learn both skills, which ended up saving his life on this occasion.

"Who was that guy? Better yet, who were they? The demon that used Darkness magic seems to be one of the Demon Lords….Yes, there was one with a similar description, but he was supposed to be dead, maybe a different demon but of the same type…Then, there was a winged humanoid. He did not seem to have horns, one of the angel-folk, perhaps? But his wings were enormous, aren"t the angel-folk"s wings supposed to be much smaller…"

Angel-folks referred to a race of winged humanoids that originated from the Floating Island, a colossal chunk of land that defied all common sense. They were different from angels, who were the servants of G.o.ds, but due to them possessing wings, perpetual youth, and extremely long lifespan, they were called the angel-folks. Angel-folk usually had grey, silver, or golden eyes, and with no exception, they had silver or white hair, which, combined with their wings, was an easy way to identify them.

Still, that winged man was wearing a mask, but his hair was visible, and it was black. He seemed to be rather tall, not stuck in adolescent-like body like angel-folk are known for, and his wings were far bigger than those of the ordinary angel –folk. Larat made a mental note of that winged humanoid as a possibly new type of angel-folks.

What he couldn"t have known was that Morphus was not an angel-folk, but a full blown angel.

"… And what was up with the undead that possessed a demon eye? So the rumors of undead conspiring with demons were true….This is horrible, horrible…."

"Do you always do this? Talk to yourself out loud?" Princess noticed Larat mumbling to himself.

"Thousand Apologies!" Larat"s face ended up bright red as he lowered his head in shame.

"No worries, I actually think it"s a little cute" Princess ended up teasing Larat quite a bit. It was always fun to see someone fl.u.s.tered, even if that someone is a hero.

"I wish I could spend time like this with Leon-sama…."

Knight of Light, her beloved, the man she adored, was nowhere in sight, but First Princess would swoon just by thinking of him.

* * *

He spent countless loops studying Knight of Night"s fighting pattern, coming up with one strategy after another, and then testing them out with predictable results. All for the sake of beating Knight of Night just once.

Granted, Knight of Night coming was an unforeseen circ.u.mstance, since this was the first time he was in this loop and he did not killed, so there was no need to repeat it, but this time, this time Dark Lord came so close to ending his foe that he could almost feel the victory in his grasp.

And then, out of nowhere, that woman showed up and ruined everything.

It took every skill, equipment, and strategy he had in his disposal to counter and corner the Knight of Night, Dark Lord ended up using up nearly all his stamina doing so.

"Who would have thought that crystal dagger can"t cut through chi…"

By the time that Princess arrived, Dark Lord was already out of breath, and when she unleashed her weapons, he knew that he could not win against her.

Still, Holy Swords do seem to be pretty effective on undead.

Several of his bones were chipped, cracked, and one was definitely broken.

As a half undead, as long as he absorbed mana, his bones would regenerate and regrow, but it still was a painful experience.

The swords had Holy Magic coated on them, making them far more deadly than ordinary swords.

If Dark Lord got blasted by a powerful spell of Holy Ray, he knew that his undead side might be destroyed on the spot.

But, it was not like he was weak, there was a certain threshold of damage he could take, but once exceeded, his body would fail.

"Knight of Night, he is an even bigger pain in the a.s.s than the Knight of Light!"

"This was the best chance I had of getting rid of him, I managed to trick him and bested him…and yet that woman just shows up and ruins everything! So many loops, so many deaths, so much suffering I experienced, all for nothing! Just kill me now…."

As Dark Lord stared at the countless Holy Swords approaching them, he could only smile as his wish was about to come true.

Yet, the swords never reached him. They struck a barrier of lightning and ended up falling on the ground.

"So she followed us, huh. What is that elf thinking? Stalking us like this…."

For a while now, Dark Lord noticed that he was being followed, but now he could tell for certain who it was.

Then, Dark Lord looked at his left hand; the teleportation ring seemed to now be out of range of that woman"s blocking spell.

"I wonder if it works now…"

Dark Lord called out to Cifer.

"Cifer, grab hold of Morphus"s shoulder"

Cifer did just that.

Morphus was currently carrying Dark Lord, so Dark Lord proceeded to activate his teleportation ring.

In an instant, all three of them ended up being teleported inside the forest near Sevilles Estate.

They ended up crash landing and were now groaning underneath the pine trees.

"Well, so much for a good landing" Morphus ended up laughing out loud.

"No kidding…. So Cifer, I guess you might have changed your mind about joining us now?"

"Not at all, Milord! If anything, this is even more of a reason for me to join you!"

"Pardon?"

"You fought the second strongest hero, Knight of Night, to a standstill, and almost defeated him, all by yourself. None of us Demon Lords had ever managed to defeat him, but you might be the only one to push him this far. While I am certain my King could have beaten him, other than her, I thought none else could….except for you, Milord. Having someone like you to be my Master is more than I can ask for!"

"You do realize that once you make a contract with me, you can never go back to being one of Arin"s servants, right? I know I am repeating myself here, but is this truly what you want? It is not going to get any less dangerous"

"That is fine by me, Milord. Danger is a price for having a purpose. It will be an honor to serve you"

"In that case, let"s make a contract"

Dark Lord ended up making a contract with Cifer.

"Cifer Palak, I welcome you to the Shadow Lords"

"Thank you, Dark Lord"

"Welcome to the family! From today on, I am your senior!"

Morphus ended up hugging Cifer rather tightly. Dark Lord had to stop himself from laughing out loud; Morphus was like an overexcited child that just made a new friend.

Apparently due to the way that some of the Shadow Lords, namely Lukalis and Meros, treated Morphus like a little kid, and he did act like one, especially when occupying the body of a young boy, Morphus wanted to be taken a little more seriously.

He thought that being treated as someone"s senior was the best thing in the world.

Dark Lord wiped the sweat off his brow.

"He is a Demon Lord that is able to taken on many Holy Knights and is even able to use Darkness magic…It is safer to keep him around, it is too dangerous to let someone this strong on the loose. Huuuuh….One more weirdo I need to keep track of, of well, at the very least, I know he is not completely useless."