Death's Door

However, convincing the maids might be harder than the butler.

I will need to be careful. As long as I am around the staff, I need to maintain the image of a kind master and gain their trust, this way my reputation would be established and none would connect the dots and find out I am the Dark Lord.

As for the matter of my army…I wonder how far it has progressed…

Dark Lord proceeded to teleport himself from the teleportation area within his office towards the marked location, the goblin nest.

However, rather than a nest, it resembled more of a labyrinth. Within it, goblins were busy with forced procreation.

When the goblins sensed his footsteps they ended up taking up their arms and swarmed out of the nest, but when they saw it was the Dark Lord, all of them bowed on their knees.

Their current leader, Goblin Captain, as Dark Lord called him, spoke up.

"We are honored by your visit, master. How can we be of service to you?"

"Show me how far you have progressed."

"As you wish, master." Goblin Captain led the way.

On the inside, there were four women, each had different colored hair. One had red, one green, one yellow, and one brown. Each one"s hair was apparently that way due to which G.o.d gave them their blessing.

Color red was a.s.sociated with G.o.ddess of fire, Ignis, so the Holy Maiden representing her had red hair. Green represented wind, yellow lightning, and brown earth.

Apparently it was that way for every generation of Holy Maidens, as they are entrusted with the "key" for maintaining the barrier, their hair changes to represent their affinity to their G.o.d; at least that"s what the rumors claimed.

However, the "keys" for maintaining the barrier can only be used by pure maidens, now they were anything but pure. Their hands and legs tied, their bellies swelling with the future goblin offspring, their clothing torn, and their expression revealed just how broken they were.

They were no longer even resisting, it is almost like they accepted their fate to be the breeding pens for these green monsters.

It has been two weeks since they were captured and bred; now it was not long before the new batches of goblins will emerge.

"Very impressive."

"Thank you, master."

"However, will they truly be able to fight within a week of birth?"

"Yes, my kind has evolved to develop far faster than humans."

"I see. But then, just having four women will not be enough to sustain an army. The more goblins there are, the more wombs there have to be."

"It is as you say, master."

"While I did say not to make any moves for now, after the goblins are born and mature, you will have a lot of hunting ground to cover within Tracoa territory. Did you carry out what I asked of you at nights in villages?"

"Indeed, four of us made sure as many villagers saw us before we teleported away."

Dark Lord purposely had few of them seen by villagers within Tracoa territory, away from the Sevilles territory. This way, they will think there is a goblin threat but they will think that there is a very low number of them.

Naturally, because they cannot afford services of knights, the villagers will consult adventurers. Goblins, in small numbers, are very weak; so many rookies go after them.

In fact, many rookie adventurers started showing up in Tracoa territory, looking for goblins, with not much luck. Apparently they killed some goblins that were not under Dark Lord"s control. Dark Lord"s goblins were, however, perfectly safe.

"By underestimating your numbers, only rookie adventurers will be sent. This will make your task much easier to complete. But keep in mind, while you lot are far stronger than regular goblins, against a higher level adventurers the best policy is to run away and teleport to safe location."

"Understood, master."

"While they are exterminating wild goblins, you will build your strengths and numbers, and when the newborns mature, you will take the adventurers on, one by one. To that end, Camilla had a very bright idea, here. Have everyone eat this."

Dark Lord gave Goblin Captain a shed skin, apparently, Camilla, as a snake type demon sheds skin every so often. Knowing that goblins are able to absorb abilities of anything they eat, Camilla proposed that they eat his shed scales, in hopes that goblins will be able to replicate his concealment ability.

Goblin Captain took a small portion of the scales and ate in on the spot, the other goblins followed suit.

After a few minutes, goblins, under Dark Lord"s orders, tried to use Camilla"s concealment ability.

The result was not perfect, but workable. Instead of becoming completely gone from sight, it looked more like camouflage; the goblins apparently gained a weaker version of Camilla"s concealment.

If they are careful they can blend into surroundings and be practically invisible, but their body outlines were somewhat noticeable. While they are using the ability, they look like they are made of clear gla.s.s, capable of being seen through, but also noticeable.

Another weakness of the version goblins had is that they were not capable of casting concealment on others, only on themselves.

"Master, it is not unusual. In order to acquire perfect version of power of what we eat, we need to consume a lot of that substance. There simply weren"t enough scales."

That explained a lot. Maybe next time Camilla sheds his skin I will ask him to donate it to goblins charity.

"It might not be perfect, but it is still workable. Using this ability, you will sneak up on rookie adventurers, kill males and capture the females. I trust you guys still have plenty of poison darts?"

"Indeed, master gave enough to last couple of months."

"Good, while attacking adventuring parties, make sure to attack them when they are alone, we don"t want to attract too much attention. To other parties, it would seem like parties started to go missing. As long as you raid them one by one, they will keep sending rookies, without being aware that"s exactly what we want. Avoid large confrontations or attracting unwanted attention. The last thing I want right now is to deal with high ranked adventurer party."

"Yes, master."

"After a while, the king of Kizilalem will take action, after all, the Holy Maids never arrived to fix the barrier and the last place they are seen is Tracoa territory. He will start sending knights of Holy Order in order to investigate. I estimate they will start coming in four to six months, until then, the only ones you will have to deal with will be rookie adventurers. But don"t make mistake and let anyone escape, if anyone catches a word of a large nest of extremely powerful goblins, then everything will be for nothing. Do you understand?"

"Yes, master."

"Worry not, in time, you will have larger role to play in it, Goblin Captain. But until then, I want goblins to multiply and get stronger. Report to me through our contract when the hatchlings are born. That will be all."

Goblin Captain bowed to his master.

His master was very strict, any kind of insubordination will result in being butchered and eaten by him and other goblins. While only ten of their original tribe remained, they knew perfectly well that following Dark Lord was the only way to perpetuate their species. That and the fact that Dark Lord will not hesitate to consume them if they even slightly disobey him.

If two words were used to describe him, they would be "Absolute control."

Dark Lord now proceeded to teleport away, leaving Goblins Captain to relay his master"s orders to other goblins.

Master Dark Lord trusts me to do this, I shall not disappoint him!

* * *

Of course, having a Holy Maiden within the mansion would have been a no-no. If anyone found out someone that important inside Runfar"s mansion, then it would have spelled disaster.

Which is why, right before she entered his mansion, Runfar used Kyra Kara"s demon eye in a gla.s.s tube to erase her memories of being Holy Maiden and replace them with mentality of a simple servant who was just hired as a maid and medic.

As for her blue hair, the obvious proof of her being Holy Maid of Water, it was died black with Camilla"s magic. When it comes to concealment, poison, or disguise, snake demons are second to none.

Now instead of Lais Lairen, she was simply Lis, a new servant and medic to Sevilles mansion.

The other servants were surprised by his announcement of a new servant joining in; they thought that the elf maid Alua was the last addition to the mansion"s staff.

Kyra Kara, the demi-human girl apparently was not a member of the staff, as far as they knew, she worked exclusively for Runfar, many suspecting that she was his concubine.

The elf, Alua, on the other hand, seemed to be fine with aimlessly cleaning the mansion. Runfar could tell she is broken in mind and body, her goal of revenge was gone, now she could only aimlessly follow his orders. Until the time comes for him to address the elven kingdom, he will keep her around as a house maid. At least she would be useful that way.

However, if I keep relying on Kyra Kara"s demon eye without learning anything about my own would be a huge waste…I do not know how to use mine, so I might as well ask someone who does know.

* * *

"You wish for me to teach you how to use your demon eye?"

"Yes, considering Camilla never awakened his before losing his horns, so the only one I can ask is you."

Dark Lord, Camilla, and Kyra Kara were speaking within an empty room; there was a lot of empty s.p.a.ce and even several closets.

"How come you don"t know how to use it if you have it constantly activated? Haven"t you used it once since you awakened it?"

"I did not awaken it; an acquaintance of mine forcefully activated it."

He was, of course, not going to reveal he knows the demon king, Arin Draco herself.

"Really? Only someone higher than Demon Lord level can do something like that~"

"No matter. I wish to learn how to use my demon eye, that is all there it to it."

"Of course, milord."

"However, I am wondering, will my ability be like yours? That would be very convenient."

"Most likely not, aside from twins who tend to have identical power within their demon eyes, demons develop power unique to themselves within their demon eyes."

She pointed at her left eye, now her sole eye changed colors from brown to pure glowing white.

"My power, the Illusion lets me have control over it to have various effects on person"s mind, be it planting or erasing memories, hallucinations, or questioning. Generally, it does nothing but mental damage; it has no physical effect on the target. Other demons might have demon eyes that actually do physical damage; it depends on the individual demon. Every power is different, but each pair of demon eyes has only a single power, for example, while I can use Illusion, I cannot make that stool levitate just by looking at it. Something like that."

"I see, then how do I activate it?"

"Simply concentrate your mana in your skull, the demon eye will then act accordingly."

Dark Lord proceeded to do just that.

His right demon eye, in his lidless skull for a right side of his face, started to glow brighter, and then in a moment, he disappeared from Camilla"s and Kyra Kara"s sight.

At the same time, they heard a crashing sound and a sound of groaning from the closet.

When they rushed towards the closet and opened the door, they found the Dark Lord lying on the ground, with all the equipment in the closet in a messy state. Apparently he ended up crash landing on top of the equipment.

"Owww, what happened?" Dark Lord asked, rubbing the back of his head.

"Milord, you went from there and ended up here." Camilla pointed at the end of the room to the closet.

"Well, that makes it clear; the power of your demon eye is short range teleportation." Kyra Kara stated with a confident smile.

"I don"t feel good."

"Yes, another matter I forgot to mention about demon eyes, they consume a lot of mana, if you are not careful, you might end up draining yourself dry till there is nothing left."

"Good to know."

Dark Lord had to admit, while the power of his demon eye was useful, the mana consumption rate was crazy high. He had to admit, he wanted to throw up.

While the short range teleportation is useful, he might as well keep using the marked teleportation area. However, his demon eye will allow him not to be constrained by the marked locations, though its range does not seem to be very long and the mana consumption for a single usage was alarmingly high.

He would need to practice a lot before being able to use his demon eye in action.