Death's Door

Apparently he is still not completely used to occupying a human body, so sometimes he needs time to stay dormant within the body, in a sense; it is a sleeping time for him.

The more angel gets used to occupying a vessel, the less "naps" the angel would need to take, but Morphus only had two humanoid vessels so far, so it took a lot out of him.

Which is why, after Dark Lord sent the zombie a.s.sa.s.sin on a mission, Morphus requested an hour to sleep.

With Morphus"s influence now completely dormant within his body, Dark Lord could no longer sense everything around him. With Morphus active within his body, his senses were sharper, and his eyes could even see mana within people"s bodies.

Now his vision was back to normal. Dark Lord learned that demon eye can see mana within bodies as well, but it required focus, skill and concentration, and it also consumed a lot of mana in the process. And even then, the quality of sight offered by demon eye paled in comparison to the sight through the angel"s eyes.

Though, right now, because he was using his mask, even his demon eye was not accessible, and the angel within his body was pretty much out cold.

"Well, I suppose I made Landon a little too worried when I told him that I would see Leon off. It is time for me to head back."

Runfar started to walk towards the inn; however he failed to notice three a.s.sa.s.sins lurking within the Shadows.

In an instant, a large bag was cast over Runfar"s body, and then he felt ropes tying him up.

He could feel their mana signatures, as half undead, once his right side sensed mana signature, he could easily trace it back, in a sense it was like a dog sniffing specific person by scent.

But then, he was struck hard upon his head with a blunt object.

One of the a.s.sa.s.sins, a three meter tall brute, struck Runfar on the head with a large war hammer.

Not content, the other a.s.sa.s.sin proceeded to stab Runfar"s body through the bag with his rapier. His sword definitely pierced through Runfar"s flesh.

"Mission is complete. Now all that"s left is to dispose of the body."

* * *

"Well, I have been in worse situations."

Dark Lord could not see anything, but he could feel a chain on his legs pulling him deeper and deeper into the water.

"This time, what happened was just plain stupid. Of all the times Morph had to take a nap, it just had to be right at that time!"

I am very sorry, Master.

"Honestly, Morph, you have the worst timing. Still, it seems we are sinking, and these chains are not comfortable…"

Dark Lord proceeded to take advantage of his skeletal hand in order to get out of the bag that was over his body, the ropes were a little loose, allowing him to untie them.

"Well, it is not the first time something like this happened to me."

Did this happen to you before, master?

"So many times I lost count"

Now the only thing that remained was the anchor attached to his leg that kept pulling him deeper and deeper into water.

Allow me, Master.

Morphus proceeded to manifest a single wing under water, which extended downwards like a blade under water and slashed at the chains at Dark Lord"s leg. The chain was severed, but they were very deep under water.

I can"t flap my wings….Water pressure is too high…

"Come to think of it, Morph, I do not need to breathe, so there is no need to be alarmed about drowning, however, I recall I was. .h.i.t in the head with something heavy, most likely a hammer…the impact should have killed me, yet why am I still alive?"

It is most likely because I am occupying your body, master.

"Does a vessel that angel occupies become immortal?"

By far not, I can only make the vessel more durable and heal wounds, maybe some lethal injuries, but if vessel were to be…let"s say, beheaded, then there is really nothing I can do. I can make my vessel survive to the extreme, but I cannot prevent death, should that befall upon my vessel.

"I see, in that case, I am grateful."

Still, they were stuck under water, but given time, Dark Lord knew they would be able to swim out.

Yet, from out of nowhere, they heard a sound

LOOK SISTERS….OUR NEW PREY HAS ARRIVED…

I WANT TO TAKE A BITE OF HIM FIRST…HE LOOKS SO CHEWY…

NO, HE IS MINE!

ENOUGH. FIRST BITE BELONGS TO THE ELDER.

Oh no.

"Morph, explain, what are these sounds? They are not in human language, but I can understand them somehow, who are they?"

Spirits of Water. They are preying on us. My ears are capable of understanding their voices, and as my vessel, you can hear them as well.

As the figures of what seemed like fish or mermaids approached from the distance, it became obvious they were neither fish nor mermaids.

Granted, they had humanoid bodies and fish tail, but they were more fish than humanoid, their hair slithered like octopus tentacles. Their skin color ranged from blue to yellow, their gills, multiple flippers, and scales made them have a rather unearthly look.

These were the spirits of the water, the ones who preyed upon sailors and drowned those who were unfortunate. This place is called Lake of Death for a reason, due to the large number of Water Spirits occupying it, many feared even sailing a boat across this lake, much less take a swim.

Every resident of Tracoa knew of the rumors about the lake, the fact that many of those who swim in the Lake of Death never come back alive.

Occasionally, they would find severed body parts of people washed up upon the sh.o.r.e; the leftovers after the Water Spirits have had their feast.

Their clawed hands and triangular razor sharp teeth that resembled small daggers made them seem even more dangerous.

"c.r.a.p, I don"t have mana in my body; I used it all up to create that d.a.m.n zombie."

I can"t pull my wings up. I can only move them downwards, but that will not help at all.

The water pressure was too high, Morphus, an angel with aerial capacity, was clearly at a disadvantage here.

These water spirits, if it weren"t for their tentacle hair, fish-like physiology, and their razor sharp teeth, they would have resembled very gorgeous women.

Now the biggest one of the Water Spirits, the one that seemed to be about five meters from head to tail, clearly their leader, was now circling Dark Lord"s body, clearly thinking of where to sink in her fangs first.

Then, she pounced.

Her teeth now penetrated into his body, but unlike what she expected, the flesh was not soft but bony.

She is going to eat us!

Morphus was clearly panicking, but Dark Lord silently smirked. It seems like the fish took the bait.

He intentionally made his right side seem livelier to attract the big Water Spirit"s attention, she ended up taking the bait, hook line and sinker.

If she had bit his left side, he would be done for, but instead, she bit his undead side, the side where he could not feel pain.

She bit around the shoulder area, allowing Dark Lord to use his right hand to grab hold of her neck with his right hand.

As her teeth sunk into his body she now felt a skeletal hand upon her neck; refusing to let go.

It wouldn"t have been a problem normally, many who were her prey before ended up struggling against her, but they steadily lost their will as they drowned.

But the bony hand refused to let go, instead, its grip grew stronger and stronger each pa.s.sing second, and her strength seemed to be diminishing at the same pace.

"I see, even a spirit has a life force, and if that"s the case, I can absorb it."

She felt weak all of a sudden, her jaws were no longer holding on tightly to her prey, instead, it was her prey holding on to her neck with an unbreakable grip.

The other water spirits saw this happen and were alarmed, all of them scattered away, and in their minds they thought that if this someone could harm their leader, then they were not safe either.

Now Dark Lord was floating deep under water with a five meter long water spirit"s body hanging limply by the neck on Dark Lord"s hand.

She was not dead, but she seems to have lost consciousness.

"Well, it might take some time, but let"s get out of here."

* * *

If anyone was on the sh.o.r.e, they would have seen a rather bizarre sight, a half masked man with torn up clothing now emerged out of water, dragging what seemed like a struggling mermaid out of water by the tail.

His bony fingers sunk in deep into the flesh on her tail. He obviously dragged her to the surface by force.

"Please, I can"t survive long without water!" Water Spirit pleaded.

"And who said you are going to be leaving alive?" Dark Lord"s red eye focused on her intently.

"Please, I am begging you…"

"I wonder how many fish parts of you I can pluck off…"

Dark Lord"s right hand proceeded to rip one of her fins off. She screamed in pain. As a Water Spirit, she had many fins, which made it easier for Dark Lord to pick one and rip it off of her body.

Previously he did not have strength due to wasting all his energy on creating a zombie, but now that he had absorbed the energy of Water Spirit, he had enough strength to overpower her and rip her body into shreds.

"Please!"

Dark Lord ripped off another fin, he was obviously enjoying himself.

"I beseech you!"

He kept ripping away her fins, one after another.

Finally, she was reduced to a sobbing wreck as all her fins were torn off her body.

"Now for your tail"

"Please! Anything but that!"

Dark Lord"s hand stopped before grabbing the Water Spirit by the face.

"Oh and why wouldn"t I want to inflict as much suffering as possible to the overgrown fish that tried to eat me?"

"Let"s make a deal. I will give you my Blessing in exchange for my life."

Dark Lord now dropped her to the ground.

"Blessing you say? What kind of Blessing?"

"Cough…Cough…Blessing of Protection against Water, it will protect you up to high level water magic."

"Is she lying?"

I don"t believe so, master. Some spirits, like G.o.ds can give blessings, but they are naturally different from blessings given by G.o.ds. The blessings given by G.o.ds are seeds that can be nurtured and made stronger, while the blessings of a spirit have no such capacity, still it is very useful.

"Morph, how much is considered high level per say?"

I believe that by high level are usually level 6, which means her blessing allows protection up to level six water based magic, it is not very strong, but it is not worthless either.

"I see. Then in that case, if you value your life, give me your blessing."

"I understand."

Water spirit replied with a visible shift in tone, in water, her voice transmitted itself in a mighty way, but now her sound above water was that of a weakling. It seems that a spirit out of its own element is very weak.

She placed her hand upon Dark Lord"s chest and chanted something in her own language.

With Morphus"s shared senses, Dark Lord managed to grasp the gist of what she has said.

It was essentially "With this I bless thee".

Just like that, the Dark Lord obtained the Blessing of Protection against Water.

"Now that I have given you a blessing, let me go."

"Of course, but one thing I would like to ask you. In the event that the one who gave the blessing dies, does the blessing disappear or does it remain active?"

"Once given, blessing is no longer tied to the one who gave the blessing. Even if the one who gave the blessing were to perish, the one who houses the blessing within his body will not lose access to the blessing."

"I see."

"Why did you wish to know that…" her eyes opened wide in alarm, from Dark Lord"s back sprouted two large white wings.

"You said you would let me go!"

"Sorry, but that"s not how I work."

Two white wings now proceeded to slash Water Spirit"s body, almost severing her torso from her lower body.

She was now dead.

Using his sharp bone fingers, Dark Lord proceeded to carve the teleportation seal on the corpse of the Water Spirit.

The way he utilized teleportation magic was to set up marked locations, so when his subordinates came to those locations, they could teleport from them. However, it will only work if his subordinates are at marked locations and nowhere else, and the places they will teleport to will be the other marked locations.

Currently, there was no way of being anywhere and just teleporting to marked location, he needed to be physically near a marked location.

In order to overcome that obstacle, Dark Lord tried to improvise by carving the teleportation seal on his victims so they could be teleported directly instead of carrying their corpses to the marked locations. But it took at least a minute to carve the teleportation seal, suffices to say it was inefficient and could not be used for combat purposes.

Also, he tried to carve the teleportation seal on himself, but due to his mana absorption ability that accelerated his regeneration and Morphus"s ability to heal wounds, the seal he carved on his left arm did not stay and could only be used once before it healed again and he would have to carve the mark all over again.

After finishing carving the seal on the Water Spirit"s corpse, Dark Lord muttered.

"I hope goblins like seafood."

Within a moment the corpse was gone.

* * *

"Well, that went rather smoothly"

"To think our high priority target was such a weakling."

"Onlegio n.o.ble family thought it would take four people to get the job done, but what do you know? We got it done easily done by three!"

"That fellow wanted all the reward for himself, instead of working in a team, he went off by himself! He might have chickened out, considering Runfar was still alive when we found him."

"Indeed. He must have realized he could not get the job done alone, but by that point he already declared his intention to go solo, so it was a choice between damaging his pride or quitting. He must have chosen the latter one."

"Right…Wait! Even if we did complete the task, we forgot to take a proof!"

"Proof is right here." One a.s.sa.s.sin pulled out his rapier. "The blood on my blade is all the proof they need."

"But there is no blood on it."

"What?" a.s.sa.s.sin examined the blade, and it was true, there was not a single drop of blood on the blade. "How is this possible? I clearly stabbed him through the chest!"

"You might have stabbed him in the armpit by mistake, who knows?"

"I wouldn"t make such a blunder, I clearly felt an impact!"

"No matter, we drowned him, there is no way he is alive even if he somehow managed to survive getting hit with a war hammer."

"I suppose that without proof, Onlegio n.o.ble family will have to take our word for it."

"It is not like we ever failed a mission, so they have no reason to doubt us."

"That is true…"

Three a.s.sa.s.sins chatted to their hearts" content within a pub.

After drinking for quite a while, they left the building, now making sure not to be seen by people in the shadow of the night.

Three of them kept walking until they heard a voice within darkness.

"It seems I have finally found you."

A form of a masked man emerged out of nowhere. He landed softly on the ground before them.

Their eyes now focused on his face, all of his clothing was incredibly wet.

"Sevilles!? But how?"

"You will not live long enough to find out."

In a blur of white, two of the a.s.sa.s.sins were slashed with razor sharp wings that promptly proceeded to retract back into Runfar"s back.

The third a.s.sa.s.sin attempted to flee, only for Runfar to appear right behind him.

"Where do you think you are going?"

Before the a.s.sa.s.sin could do anything, Dark Lord grabbed him by the throat and immediately drained his mana, but not to the point of killing him, of course, he had other plans for him.

"Now then."

Making the third a.s.sa.s.sin"s limp body sit on his knees, Runfar now took off his glove on his left hand. On his left hand were two rings, one black one and another one with a curious stone.

One was ring of Olim, the G.o.d of Death, the other was his new ring, a storage item, and on it was a crystal with pocket s.p.a.ce magic that allowed him to store many things within it. It was one of the many items he obtained after Warlow"s surrender.

Within the storage ring, he kept some of his possessions.

He proceeded to pull out a certain eye within round gla.s.s, it used to be in a tube, but Dark Lord felt it would be more practical to have it in a small circular gla.s.s filled with preservative.

He now proceeded to make the a.s.sa.s.sin face the demon eye within the gla.s.s.

Using the mana he stole from the a.s.sa.s.sin, dark Lord activated the demon eye and with it he proceeded to interrogate the a.s.sa.s.sin and modify his memories.

"Who sent you?"

"Onlegio n.o.ble family"

"I see, now it makes sense."

Dark Lord then made sure to find out everything about their operation, by the end of it, he knew everything he needed to know.

Now all that was left was to plant false data in his brain.

"You have succeeded in your mission. You have killed Runfar Sevilles, but everyone else but you were killed in a fierce fight."

He planted this false memory into a.s.sa.s.sin"s head.

"As for proof, have this." Runfar removed his half mask, his fake skin on the right side of his face resembled scar tissue; he now proceeded to give the a.s.sa.s.sin the half mask.

"Now go, inform Onlegio n.o.ble family of your success and be rewarded for it!"

The brainwashed a.s.sa.s.sin now proceeded to stand up, ignoring the corpses of his acquaintances; he proceeded to head back to the Onlegio territory to do exactly as he was told.

"Well, that"s that"

Dark Lord proceeded to carve seals on both corpses and teleported them away. Goblins should be satisfied for a while.

* * *

"Master Runfar! Where have you been? I have been worried sick…Wait, where is your mask? And why are you so wet? What in the world happened to your clothes? Did something happen…."

"Don"t worry, I just went for a swim with my clothes on, but I ended up ripping them and my mask ended up washed away. Sorry."

"Master Runfar, please don"t scare me like that."

Landon was glad that nothing serious had occurred while completely unaware of the truth. He simply thought that his master was being weird as usual.