Death's Door

But that was no issue for the Dark Lord. After all, due to his curse, he knew what would happen ahead of time, thus nothing unless it was the first time the event happened surprised him.

He had less than six days before the Five Holy Maidens will be camping out near Tracoa territory. Each one represented one of the five primary G.o.ds, their powers were formidable. In order to be able to maintain the barrier, they have sworn to be pure until their position can be pa.s.sed over to the next maiden. However, while their magic is strong, their bodies were still human.

Apparently, the five G.o.ds valued purity, thus it was an obvious knowledge that if the Maidens lose their purity while their blessing from their primary G.o.d will be intact, they will lose their ability to maintain the barrier that prevented demons from entering the Holy City.

Using his curse to his advantage, Dark Lord pinpointed the exact time and location of the place they are going to arrive to inside Tracoa territory. He also knew that they had only about ten escorts, the Holy Maidens were all very powerful beings, the escorts were weaker than them, they were there to act as their shields for the Holy Maidens, and after all, lives of Holy Maidens have to be kept safe no matter what.

Ability to maintain the barrier manifested in a sense like five keys that cannot be replaced. There is one key from each primary G.o.d, as long as the Holy Maiden is pure, in conjunction with her blessing, she is able to access the key and pa.s.s it on to the next maiden when the time comes.

But if the Holy Maiden loses her purity, the key will be lost forever, and the barrier can no longer be maintained.

According to Serena, G.o.ddess of humanity, it takes hundred years for primary G.o.ds to create such keys, so losing the Holy Maidens was equivalent of losing the Holy City"s barrier for a century. By then, countless demons would have entered the Holy City; it was a possibility that had to be avoided at all costs.

Five maidens with keys were needed to keep the barrier strong; losing even one of them meant the barrier would lose 20% of its power.

What Dark Lord needed was a plan, a flawless plan that would allow him to get rid of Holy Maidens while not exposing himself, and at the same time reap huge benefits. He smiled smugly to himself.

He knew exactly what to do next.

That was where the Goblins came in.

Inside of Augustus"s house, there was a teleportation area carved into the marble floor. Dark Lord could only chastise himself for not seeing it before; it would have made his "night feedings" on mana much easier. He made it a habit of walking around at night, with concealment spell cast on him, to steal mana of people in their homes.

When he had the goblins enter his estate, rendered invisible with Camilla"s magic, he gave all of them a task.

Each was given papers with carvings; those were seals of teleportation. They were to travel to different locations of Tracoa territory and mark those places by placing the teleportation seals on the ground and activating them with their blood.

None would see them; Camilla cast a spell of concealment on all of them.

But, he gave them a strict order.

"You are not to touch a single human being, no matter how much you want to, there will be a time for that, but not yet, first we have to make the necessary preparations, until then, you have to stay out of their sights. Fail to obey me and I will crush your hearts in an instant."

Goblins gulped in fear, but chose to obey their master.

Through the power of master-slave contract, he is able to telepathically communicate with them and keep track of their locations.

Within a day, the goblins marked more than forty locations within the Tracoa territory, as each goblin communicated where they placed the markers; Dark Lord marked each spot on the map on the Tracoa territory.

After that task was complete, he had goblins activate the teleportation seals and teleport back to the mansion.

So, in a sense, as long as there are marked locations, the user of the teleportation area can travel to those places from the mansion and back.

Marked places for teleportation were interconnected, so Dark Lord could teleport to any of them, his subordinates needed to stand on top of the teleportation area. None else, but Dark Lord and those he allows to use the teleportation areas can use them. He specifically designed those seals with his mana signature, only those with his approval can use the teleportation locations.

As night set in, it was time to raid the barracks of knights. Making sure to teleport far from the Sevilles estate, Dark Lord, Camilla, and goblins entered the places where the knights of the kingdom were peacefully sleeping. With Camilla"s magic they entered into the barracks undetected.

Soundlessly, Camilla proceeded to poke each person with a claw, injecting each one with a paralyzing poison. All twenty of the knights now were paralyzed but still very much alive. Some might have been awake, but unable to move.

Then, Dark Lord proceeded to put his right hand upon their heads, proceeding to absorb almost all of their mana and mana points out of their bodies.

Human bodies have an average of seven mana points, term given to physical locations on the body that produce mana, like mana, they can also be stolen. They can be thought of as tiny stars within the body that produce mana.

Yet, it seems that when the mana points are stolen, if they are not within the original body, then they get used up without being rejuvenated. Yet, it takes a long time for the mana points to get used up.

If mana points were supposed to last for a lifetime inside the original body, Dark Lord estimated that at most they last about a year within the body of someone who steals them.

While humans had average of seven mana points, it is not unheard of people having far more than that; usually it is attributed to their talent or great mana capacity.

If seven mana points are present in a body, only six can be used for magic, one mana point is used to keep the body alive.

As he extracted mana and mana points with his undead ability of mana absorption, Dark Lord made sure to leave each victim alive by leaving a single mana point within their body.

Nowadays, he no longer had much of a hunger for food, while he still could eat, it seems like his undead side hungered for life, specifically the life force of mana and mana points.

Ever since he ended up being turned into a half undead, he has had cravings for mana which he satisfied every other night by sneaking into homes and draining the mana of the people. With Camilla"s a.s.sistance, none suspected anything.

With each meal, he became stronger; he noticed that he even gained the mana abilities of those he has drained; now he was even able to use magic, though he had not used it before, so he needed to practice.

His right side, the skeletal side, was unbelievably strong; he was capable of doing physical feats with his right arm and leg that were previously impossible. And with each mana meal, the physical capacity of his body increased.

Maybe I should be grateful to that lich for turning me into half undead….or maybe not.

After he consumed most of the mana and mana points of twenty knights, he bid the goblins to cut the knights into pieces and eat them.

Armed with sharp weapons, goblins proceeded to chop their barely living victims into pieces. Filling their insatiable bellies with human flesh, they kept eating, spilling blood everywhere. They kept eating for hours.

In three hours, they were finished eating all of them. Apparently goblins have extremely tough teeth and their mouths can expand to eat something size of a human skull. Even if the goblins were weak, their victims were helpless as the goblins indulged their need for gluttony.

Now there was nothing but a wet puddle of blood over the knight"s beds, their bodies were now being dissolved inside goblins bellies. The physical effects of their rapid evolution were starting to show.

Their bodies were no longer weak and frail, they grew at least a foot taller, gaining muscle ma.s.s, and Dark Lord suspected that they also gained powers of the knights they consumed.

When the other knights will find the barracks empty and b.l.o.o.d.y, with no bodies in sight, they will suspect armed forces breaking in and a.s.sa.s.sinating the knights, while destroying their bodies. Maybe they will come to a conclusion that the knights were kidnapped.

But they will never suspect that the knights ended up becoming a meal for hungry goblin bellies.

Using the teleportation mark near the knights barracks, they quickly teleported back to the mansion.

In order to keep the goblins in check, Dark Lord temporarily kept them inside the dungeon inside Sevilles mansion.

He ordered them to train with the weapons he provided them, bows and arrows, poison darts used with blow pipes, ropes, and spears.

For five nights straight, they raided barracks of knights and homes where the Holy City"s knights lived one after another, leaving only blood as the evidence of grisly murder. As expected, goblins grew stronger with each "feast". Dark Lord had made sure that each day he would take seven goblins with him for feeding; meanwhile the other three will be rebuilding their nest.

Runfar received news of b.l.o.o.d.y murders, but not a single body of victims were found. In a month, adventurers, warriors, and knights lead by heroes would arrive in Tracoa territory. They suspected the foreign forces, unaware it was not an enemy from the outside but the inside.

One reason for doing these night raids was to attract the enemy towards the Tracoa territory, instead of running after the heroes; he will have them go towards him.

Destruction of humanity can only truly commence when the heroes have been destroyed, to that end, having them come to him was one of the purposes of the plan.

As far as humanity knows, he was just a n.o.bleman, Runfar Sevilles, owner of Sevilles estate, a kind man to his villagers, and the new master of Sevilles estate. A frail man with many injuries on his body, not someone to be suspicious of.

They will be looking for foreign invaders or monsters, they will never know that the one they consider a sheep is truly a wolf waiting for its chance to strike.

But the matter of attracting humanity"s heroes towards them was a long term thought; the important matter right now was dealing with Five Holy Maidens.

He prepared thoroughly for their arrival.

The location was marked with teleportation seal, so Dark Lord and goblins can go to that place at any time.

Goblins received specific instructions as to what to do; Dark Lord gave them all the equipment they needed, including mana binding chains and ropes.

Now if the plan works out exactly as he ordered then he can move on to the next phase. If the plan fails, then he can always come back in time and redo it all over. There was no need to rush. After all, he had all the time in his hands.

* * *

This is horrible. Simply horrible…

Holy Maiden of Water, Lais Lairen, couldn"t help but reflect.

Five Holy Maidens, of whom she is one of, were sent a letter by the king to come back to reinforce the barrier on certain section of Holy City. Apparently the demons managed to invade and take back the captured Demon Lord, killing Count"s son, and leaving almost all of the knights guarding the prison for dead.

The report also included that Knight of Mind was severely injured to a very sensitive area and needed healing, so he was temporarily given a break, to heal, so to speak.

Knight of Mind is one of the strongest and arrogant heroes I have ever met, what kind of injury could he have received to need a vacation to heal?

They decided to camp out at a location close by to Tracoa territory, they would resume at their pace until they reach the barrier at the designated location.

It is strange…we renewed that section of the barrier only two months ago, it should have been fine for at least half a year…maybe we didn"t pay enough attention to maintaining it…I will write a letter of apology to the royal family, the other four will be too stubborn to admit that they did anything wrong…

But when they reached their camping spot, the escorts, ten high ranked knights a.s.signed to them directly by the king, suddenly started to wobble around, and one by one they collapsed.

Then, the reality started to spin in circles. She tried to maintain her balance, but then and a dart landed on her neck….and then her mind drifted away.

"Well done, Kyra, so your eye of illusion can be used to make anyone near you lose senses, huh?"

"I simply had them hallucinate; giving enough time for the goblins to shoot them with darts coated with Lord Camilla"s paralyzing poison, milord." Kyra Kara replied.

"No need to address me as Lord, I am simply Dark Lord"s servant, just like yourself." Camilla smiled.

Three of them were invisible, and inaudible to anyone else, Camilla"s spell of perfect concealment was very handy.

"Forgive me for saying this milord, but why did you need goblins? Couldn"t we have just ambushed the Five Holy Maidens by ourselves? Why capture them? Can"t we just kill them?"

"No. Senseless killing will not bring us any benefits. I have big plans for them…"

Dark Lord now proceeded to give mental commands to goblins.

Kill the knights and take their bodies. As for the Holy Maidens…proceed just as planned.

All goblins now nodded "yes" within their minds.

* * *

Lais Lairen woke up to the sound of screaming coming by.

She was inside of what seemed like an open s.p.a.ce, covered by trees, obscuring them from sights of anyone nearby…

Her hands and legs were chained to a large boulder with mana binding chains; her magic was no longer available to her.

Then, green figures with the torches appeared around her. Their pointy ears, green skin, horrifying features, and muscular bodies alerted her of what they are.

Her eyes opened wide in terror.

Those were goblins.

The worst nightmare for any woman. And it seems like she is at their mercy.

As her eyes darted around for her companions or the knights who were supposed to be protecting them, she saw one of the goblins munching on an arm that belonged to one of the knights.

Pieces of armor were lying everywhere, the goblins must have eaten the knights.

And then, her eyes couldn"t believe what she was seeing.

One of her fellow Holy Maidens, Holy Maiden of Fire was tied to the ground; her arms and legs chained up and tied. She was bound on all four limbs.

She screamed for the goblins to let her go, but the goblins just proceeded to tear off her clothing. Her loud screams were met with their amused laughter.

She kept screaming, tears flooding her eyes, but none was coming to help. Without her magic, she was just a human being, goblins easily overpowered her physically.

And then, the goblins proceeded to violate her. Like bees attracted to honey, they swarmed her.

The other Holy Maidens were tied up and were forced to watch their companion"s fate, knowing full well they were next.

"No…No…No…" Holy Maiden of Fire cried as her blood, proof of her chast.i.ty spilled on the ground.

But the goblins did not stop, like animals bent on reproduction, they kept violating her body. Her screams slowly started to grow weaker.

After a while, her mind seemed to have completely shattered as she ended up completely unresponsive. But the goblins kept using her body.

After Fire Maiden"s ordeal, soon they grabbed the Earth Maiden and subjected her to the same treatment. She screamed, cried for help, but her fate was same as Fire Maiden"s.

One after another, Wind Maiden, and Lightning Maiden were all violated by the goblins. Their screams echoed through the forest, but they must have been far from villages because none came to save them.

They are saving me for last…I can no longer save them…I need to find a way to save myself…

Then, she noticed there was a bag size of a person nearby, it was moving. Then the knot on the bag ended up being undone.

Out of the bag came out a man with golden hair and red left eye, with a half mask on his face. He looked like a n.o.bleman. He must have been captured by goblins and kept as food.

His hands and legs were tied with ropes, but he managed to somehow get out of his ropes.

When she saw him, it was as though she saw her ray of hope at this moment of dire need. His golden hair seemed to belong so someone who descended from heavens. She felt that if he were to save her here, she wouldn"t mind selling her soul to him.

While he did clearly notice her, instead of helping her escape, he just turned his back; and was about to go away.

"See ya."

"Wait! Please! Don"t leave me here!"

He looked at her as though she had lost her mind. She couldn"t understand, wasn"t saving a maiden in distress the natural thing for a gentleman to do?

"Why should I? I can just run away from here while the goblins are busy. What happens to you or anyone other than myself is not my problem."

"Please, I am begging you; don"t leave me to die at the hands of these monsters!"

"You are a female. I am pretty sure goblins will keep you alive for breeding purposes."

"That is even worse!"

"And I should care why? If I try to free you, I will be risking my life, my precious, one and only life, for the sake of you, someone I never met. If it is a choice about saving my own skin or dying to save your, I am certain I will choose the former."

He started to take steps away from her.

"Please stop! I don"t want to be violated by goblins….I don"t want to end up as their breeding hen!" she started sobbing. No matter how much she struggled, her chains were not budging.

"Sorry, but it"s not worth the risk."

"I will give you anything you want, just please…." Her face was streaming with tears. She was desperate.

"What could you possibly offer to me that I would want? I will have you know, I am a n.o.bleman with my own estate. I have no interest in riches or treasures."

Her face grew dark. It was obvious she was thinking of what could she offer him in exchange for her rescue.

If he does not want riches or treasures or status, there was only one thing she had left.

Hesitantly, she whispered.

"My life."

"What did you say? I couldn"t hear you!"

"I said I will give you my life!"

"Meaning?"

"I will abandon my post as one of the Holy Maidens…if you help me, I shall declare myself to be your servant till my death."

"Hmm, interesting. But you do realize the seriousness of what you are proposing, do you not? Indeed, that would be a fair compensation for my a.s.sistance. But I do not trust words alone, if you want my trust you have to seal a contract with me. That is my condition."

"Is my promise not good enough for you?"

"Promises don"t mean a thing considering there are no risks for breaking them, as for contracts, they are absolute. You either agree to it or become a breeding pen for goblins, it"s your choice."

Her face cringed, but she had to accept his condition, he did have a good point. A contract meant far more than any promise.

But agreeing to him was abandoning her comrades, her duty, and running away. But her friends can no longer maintain the barrier; their purity was cruelly taken away by the goblins. The only one she can save right now was herself.

"I accept." She reluctantly agreed to his condition.

"Splendid." He approached her right hand and shook it with his own.

"Henceforth, we will enter a covenant, I, as your lord and master, and you as my loyal servant, do you accept?"

"Yes"

"Then the contract is established." For a moment a white chain appeared and bound them to each other. Then the chain then faded out of sight.

He now was her master; she can no longer go against his orders.

"Considering I am now your master, I now have a reason to save you."

He took out a copper dagger out of his clothing; apparently he carried it on the inside of his jacket so the goblins did not notice the weapon on him.

He proceeded to slash the chains that held her. He had no way of removing her shackles so the mana binding chains were still attached to her.

As soon as she was able to move, with shackles still on her limbs, he gave his first order.

"RUN!"

Both run as far away from the goblin nest as possible.

"But what about the others?" she finally asked as they were at least a mile away from goblins.

"We cannot save them; neither of us can take them on alone."

"But I abandoned my comrades."

"It was a tough decision, but there was no choice." What he was saying made sense to her shocked heart.

Apparently the golden haired masked man was a n.o.bleman, by the name of Runfar Sevilles.

"My name is Lais Lairen. Master, I am forever in your debt. Till the day you free me, your wish is my command, master."

It was obvious she was conflicted, as much as she didn"t want to do this; she had no choice, yet choosing to abandon her comrades and her sacred duty entrusted by Aquorion, primary G.o.d of water, it was no easy task.

"Serve me well, Lais Lairen. From this day, you are member of Sevilles Estate."

It took them two days on foot to reach Sevilles territory.

* * *

Thus, the Holy Maiden of Water joined the Sevilles Estate.

She thought that she was saved by the kind master Sevilles, but the truth was far worse than she could possibly imagine.

The reason he saved her out of the five is because she is the only one who agreed to Master-Servant contract with him. In the last loops, Dark Lord did the exact same scenario with the other four Holy Maidens, but they either refused to make such contract outright or tried to use him as a bait to escape the goblins. Water Maiden was the only one who seemed to be the type that will agree to such a contract.

Each one of Holy Maidens can heal wounds to certain extent and use magic of their respective element to a very high capacity. His mansion needed a medic anyways. This was a perfect opportunity to acquire both a medic and breeding pens for goblins.

After verifying that none was watching him and the room had sound proofing spell cast on it by Camilla, Dark Lord contacted the goblin captain through his master-slave contract.

I trust everything went well?

Yes master, we have taken them to our new nest.

Perfect. With such powerful bodies, the goblins they shall give birth to will be powerful indeed.

Indeed, thank you master.

I promised that if you follow me, I will make your kind prosper. I simply kept my word. However, the disappearance of Holy Maidens will raise alarm; the king will surely eventually send his forces to investigate.

Before the king sends his forces, there will be many adventurers hunting for you. Do not make any moves and focus on procreating, for now. I had Camilla cast a concealment spell over your entire nest. Keep me informed if anyone comes near your nest. Contact me when the goblin litter is born. For right now, before your numbers are large, I cannot have goblins be hunted down. You are not to make any moves without my orders, do you understand?

Yes, master.

Then that will be all, Goblin Captain.

One of the Goblins was especially obedient and acted as the middleman between goblins and Dark Lord. Goblin Captain was more intelligent than the others; his ability to lead groups exactly the way Dark Lord specified was impressive. Other goblins, while they understood his speech, their minds were too focused on gluttony or l.u.s.t.

I suppose goblins are not too different from humans….there are smart ones and there are dumb ones…

With Holy Maidens out of the picture, the barriers of Holy City will all be gone within less than a year, as far as I know. I made sure none saw the Holy Maidens being taken by goblins, but humanity will find out sooner or later…

But they will be perfect for bearing future generations of goblins…

Soon, I will have a goblin army of my own….

Goblins are a perfect army. Under a contract, they are completely obedient, disposable, and above all, easily replenishable.

Nothing personal ladies, I just want my army.