Death's Door

Apparently her long elven ears were cut at the tips; it was a common practice to brand elven slaves in such a way. But the ear shape still was not human-like, so it still had to be concealed, otherwise anyone would find out she is a former slave.

Looking how Alua introduced herself to the staff and started with each a.s.signed task, Camilla couldn"t help but ask his master.

"Milord, is this really a good idea? What if she decides to turn on us? She is not weak, elven magic is especially potent. It is like keeping a highly dangerous hound chained up in your own room!"

"Relax. She is not going to kill me."

"With all due respect, how can you be so sure of that?"

"Because of this." He took off the fake skin on his right hand, etched on the inside of the fake skin were letters. Fake skin was like a glove he wore around his skeletal right hand, but it seems it held more secrets on the inside than meets the eye.

"A contract seal! Then that means…"

"Exactly, when I shook hands with her, she didn"t notice but her hand got scratched just a little, enough for her blood to seep through, and the fact that she agreed voluntarily made it possible for the contract to be valid. Now, no matter what happens to this piece of paper, the contract still stands, paper is just required to make it easier to use."

Contracts can be made in multiple ways, but there were advantages of having paper contracts. For one, anyone in possession of the contract can always modify the contract"s conditions, as he had done with Augustus"s own contract to Sevilles estate.

Also, instead of having to shake hands or perform a strange custom with multiple individuals, he can just have them all put a drop of their blood on a premade contract.

This way, he can make contracts with multiple people while also having the option of tricking anyone into making a contract.

"You have really thought it out, milord." Camilla was speechless at how everything seemed to be planned out from the start.

"Unfortunately the circ.u.mstances require me to do so." Dark Lord solemnly replied.

"The elven girl shall do mundane tasks around the mansion until time comes for her to be of use to me, until then I will keep her around this estate. With her unknowingly signing the contract, there is no longer any chance of rebellion. Besides, right now, she is broken, nowhere left to go, when individuals are at their lowest, they are the most useful."

"It is as you say, milord."

"For now it is just two of us, if we plan on accomplishing anything, we can"t keep going like this; we need to increase our numbers. I trust I don"t have to point out that this place is just a disguise, a ruse in order to fool everyone who watches us. Augustus lost this game the minute he let down his guard. We cannot afford to make the same mistake. While they cannot rebel against my will, we cannot be too careful. None of the staff must know about my true objectives."

"Yes, milord."

"To that end, we might have a good chance of persuading a certain someone to join our cause, if we get lucky that is. I will need your help for this."

"Your wish is my command, milord."

"Thank you, Camilla." Dark Lord"s left side, the side that still had face, sincerely smiled.

He may be a disposable servant, but he is the closest thing Dark Lord now had to a friend.

* * *

Roughly two days after the elf woke up, the Black Wolf demon, or more accurately Dark Wolf demon, slowly opened her eye.

Her right eye was missing, forcibly taken from her by Augustus Sevilles, in his bid to take her power for himself. However, he failed to transplant it due to incompatibility with demon flesh.

The ceiling is not familiar. My hands and legs are no longer shackled, what is this thing that my back is touching…it is so soft…

She caressed the pillow with her hands, making change into shapes. It has been a while since she felt something this soft.

Am I dreaming?

Then, she heard the door open, and two individuals entered. It was now obvious; this was no dream, but reality.

One looked like an androgynous butler while the other one"s appearance almost made her heart collapse in shock.

Her sole eye opened wide, she wanted to scream but her throat she had not used for some time would not make a sound.

On his face he wore a half mask, concealing everything on the right side except for the nose. His golden bond hair adorned his head. His sole red left eye gave a piercing sensation, as if she made one wrong move; she would die on the spot.

Aug..Augustus?!!

No…

He might look like him, but he is no Augustus, he is far younger…

Who is he?

"I bet you are wondering who I am. And no, I am not Augustus, nor am I his relative. This appearance…" he gestured at himself. "…Is for cosmetic purposes only."

"Who are you?" she ended up asking in a hoa.r.s.e voice. It was obvious she was struggling not to lose control of her emotions. Augustus"s appearance was truly traumatic for her.

"That would depend on the answer you give to my questions."

"Don"t joke around with me! Tell me the truth!"

She activated her demon eyes, a large black apparition in the shape of a wolf monster appeared, choking the masked man into submission.

Power of her demon eyes- the Illusion, she can cast a strong illusion that plays with her enemy"s senses, but the illusion is not perfect for various reasons. For one, the illusion was an even plain, while the caster could make an illusion, the victim, if strong enough of will can overcome it.

The masked man simply smiled and shrugged, even when the black wolf monster was breaking his bones, he smugly smiled.

In the next moment, the black wolf monster was no longer there.

Masked man stood there with a confident and bored look.

A form of skeleton surrounded him, like an aura, he was within the inside of that skeleton; skeleton had one red eye while the other was white.

The illusion of the black wolf monster was torn in half by the skeleton"s mouth, taking a bite of it, holding the lower body of black wolf monster in its jaws.

That was one of the weaknesses of her demon eye, the illusion, no matter how complex, it was still a figment of imagination, triggered by will of the user, which meant, that if her enemy"s will is strong enough, he can combat the apparition with the illusion of his own projection.

Unlike her right eye that allowed her to cast illusions without being able to see what the person was seeing, with a verbal command, her left eye cast an illusion that went both ways, the victim saw the illusion and she saw it as well.

Right eye was more versatile, the user could just say what he wanted the victim to see, and the victim would see the visions without the caster"s further involvement.

Left eye was trickier, in a sense, because she is able to see what her victim sees; she is also able to see what kind of apparition her victim can project while her eye is activated.

And what she saw made her shudder in fright.

Illusions show the true self that lies within the individual.

What resided within that masked man was a menacing skeleton that looked like the b.l.o.o.d.y reaper himself. It was too scary.

Seeing that Dark Wolf Demon was shuddering all over from fear, masked man dispersed the illusion by willing the skeleton generated by his will to disappear into thin air.

"Well, that got heated up really fast. But there is no need to be alarmed. I am not here to harm you."

After seeing that, how can I believe you?

"And do not worry; you are among your own here. Camilla, if you wouldn"t mind?"

"Of course not, milord."

Camilla immediately cancelled the illusion on him; now the scales on his face, and his long tail were visible. Other than that however, he still looked like a butler in uniform, albeit a snake demon butler.

"You"re a demon? But your horns…"

"I lost my horns some time ago." Camilla sadly replied.

"As for me…well, I might as well show you…" the man took off the half mask on his right side, revealing a completely skeletal face.

Within the half skull was a single white eye looking at her with its piercing gaze. There was no eyelid on his right eye, so the eye contact was constant.

She ended up screaming in horror when she saw his true face, but then calmed down somewhat.

Now that he was unmasked, a single horn protruded from that man"s head. It was the proof he was a member of her kind, a demon.

"Two of you are demons…"

"That is correct. Now that you know this, how about you tell us who you are and how you ended up here, then we can go from there."

Dark Wolf demon was visibly hesitant, but then she reminded herself that the ones talking to her were not humans, but demons just like her.

If she thought they were humans, then this matter would have gotten ugly really easily, but both of them were demons. If anything, they were her brethren.

Even if she felt frightened of the demon with skull for half of his face, because they were demons, she felt slight sense of comfort.

Even if I die here, at least it will be at the hands of my own kind, not humans.

Just like that, she began her tale.

Her name is Kyra Kara; she was a member of Kara clan of Dark Wolf demons. Her village, a place where demons lived in peace, got attacked by the knights of the Holy order. The humans were merciless.

Unlike demi-humans, elves, or beast men, humans have a kill on sight policy with demons. Not many managed to survive due to that.

She and members of her clan hid in caves, unable to find a way to sustain or feed themselves, most of her clan members perished.

When they were weakened, she along with the few others were captured and sold on the black market. Weakened with silver, mana cancelling chains and holy water, they were helpless as they were sold as slaves.

The buyer was none other than Augustus Sevilles. He used the demons for his experiments, each treated as a test subject. To him, demons were nothing but a plaything to perform his gruesome experiments upon.

He soon noticed her demon eyes, without knowing their true abilities; he took her right eye, wanting to use its power for himself.

However, he failed to implant it in his own body.

Others, however, were not so lucky.

"My clan members perished after one another, in the end only I remained."

"I see. Then it might delight you to know that Augustus Sevilles is dead."

"What? But…how?"

"I killed him."

"Then you have taken away my last reason to remain here. I wanted to kill him and avenge my own clan."

"Sorry, but it seems I beat you to the punch."

"I can no longer take my revenge; there is no longer a reason for me to be here."

"What are you going to do then? Do you really think you can go outside? One demon in a city full of humans?"

"What about you? You clearly disguised yourself among humans. What if I reveal your secret?" she tried to have the upper hand.

"You can try, see where it gets you. But do you really think for a single second that you will make it outside, in the place full of human knights, without my protection?"

Skeleton faced man made a perfect counter to her threat.

"It"s true, it seems like I cannot go anywhere far without exposing myself and if I reveal your secret, this place will no longer be safe to be in."

"Correct. You have two choices. One, you can leave and expose us all, and then we will all end up being hunted down and eventually killed. Or two, you can join us."

He purposely gave her two choices, it was to make her options limited, and so that she would not come up with a third choice of her own.

"Join you?"

"Indeed, Kyra Kara. I would like you to join our group, with me and Camilla included. We don"t really have a name for our group, do we, Camilla?"

"Not that I know of, milord."

"Well, I am the Dark Lord, so the group I lead should be fittingly called, the Shadow Lords! Yes, I like the sound of that. Oh, yes, I am known as Dark Lord, by the way. Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Kyra Kara."

"Likewise. But what is your group"s objective?"

"Destruction of the kingdom of Kizilalem, or at least humanity within it."

The mood in the air immediately changed.

Is he serious? That is just absurd! Inconceivable! Ludicrous!

"What you speak of is madness! It"s impossible!"

"Really? Is it impossible for three demons to be talking comfortably in an estate full of humans? I am pretty sure that"s what we are doing right now. Nothing is impossible. With a proper plan, any fortress shall fall; it is just a matter of time."

"This is ridiculous; you can"t really be planning to accomplish that."

"As implausible as it sounds, that is the truth, verify it with your demon eye if you wish."

"How did you know I can do that?"

"If you can cast an illusion into my mind, then it is not a big stretch to a.s.sume you can also look into truth within it."

He boldly approached her.

She was sitting on the side of the bed, but now she stood up.

"Think of it like taking revenge upon the entirety of humanity, just the way you would want it. You can think of it as liberating demon kind, helping surviving demons, or etcetera. But what it comes down to is a chance to make humanity suffer for what they did, if you had a chance like that, wouldn"t you take it? To make them feel what it feels like to feel fear for their lives as they approach their impending doom. That is what I am offering."

"I …if it is possible, I would take that chance."

"Splendid! Now for the sake of caution I will have you make a contract with me. In order for this objective of mine to succeed, I will need your absolute loyalty, are you in or out?"

He held out his hand.

If I take his hand, I will be making a deal with the devil, but if I don"t, then all the lives other demons, my clan members, have lost will be in vain. My sole life is a small price to pay if it means they will not suffer any longer.

"As long as your objective is destruction of humanity, I accept." She shook his hand.

Now the contract was complete, with both parties came to an agreement.

* * *

"Of course I cannot have anyone in the mansion blabbering about you being a demon, so can your illusions erase memories as well?"

"Not with my left eye, it can only cast illusions that can be influenced and seen from both sides. The right eye could, it is far more versatile, though Augustus took it away from me."

"You mean this?" Dark Lord took out a gla.s.s tube with an eye within it from the pocket of his coat.

"My eye! Why do you have it?"

"I found it in Augustus"s office; would you like to have it back?"

"No, even if I did, there is no way for me to reattach it; I would much rather have you keep it. I a.s.sume it will be safe in your hands, master."

"Alright, then, how do I use it?"

"Pour mana into the eye and give a verbal suggestion or command, the victim will experience what you have stated, within their mind. If a right command is given, it is possible to erase specific memories. It is also possible to put people under deep illusions, but unlike the left eye, the caster is unable to see what the victim sees."

"I see; what a useful eye."

He had her wear a cylinder hat on her head to conceal her horns.

"Do not come out until I am done."

Just like that, he proceeded to use the demon eye within the gla.s.s tube to brainwash the entirety of the household into thinking that there was only one survivor after the dungeon incident, the elf girl.

It took a lot of mana, but now, none of the staff knew that there was a dark wolf demon in the mansion.

Then, Dark Lord proceeded to introduce Kyra Kara as a demi-human who will be working for him from now on, so it is best for them not to be surprised to see her around.