Death's Door

Dark Lord muttered while putting on his mask along with armored clothing. He expected to have a rather challenging fight and he was not a warrior, even with crystal dagger he would be at ma.s.sive disadvantage against someone of caliber of Holy Knight.

"That is rather depressing way to look at it, Master."

"Morph, if you lived my life, depression would be the last thing you would be worrying about."

That much was true, no matter what turn his life took, or what path he decided upon in each loop, there is at least one thing that happens that makes him regret even waking up.

"I guess so. Speaking of which, I will need to exit your body very soon. Unlike my previous host, master"s body was far stronger, I ended up staying here for more than two months, but staying any longer will be dangerous. My former vessel has recovered and now can be used again. It"s just a matter switching vessels now."

"Hmm, in that case, would it be fine with you if you go back to your vessel after helping me take care of this task? I will need your a.s.sistance if what the goblins perceived to be threat-worthy is actually a serious matter. Afterwards, you can go back to your vessel. Is that fine?"

"I suppose occupying master"s body for one more day should not be too dangerous, however, I wouldn"t recommend any longer than that."

"What will happen to a vessel if angel occupies it for too long?"

"Nothing good. Angels are energy beings, and by this world"s standards, we are energy without bodies. But the vessels angels can occupy are not designed to handle so much energy. If angels stay within the vessel too long, the vessel will be destroyed, I have never seen a vessel destroyed, but I was told by my former owner that it"s not a pretty sight."

"Owner, you say?"

"I did once occupy a body of a pet, after all."

"I see. In that case, let us not delay it any further. Sooner we take care of this task, the sooner you can transfer into your old vessel."

"Yes, master!"

* * *

"Intruder!"

"Kill him!"

Mercenaries hiding within the cave have sensed someone"s presence, but his scent was strange, almost like he was partially a corpse.

There were total of six mercenaries within the cave, it was a temporary place to stay for them, but for now they needed to lie low and conserve their strength.

Previously they ended up in a crossing blades with knights of Holy Order, resulting in several of them being injured, thus forcing them to retreat. However, they knew of this cave and what lies within it.

What was within the cave was responsible for their fast recovery.

One mercenary, who looked humanoid-like before, though with rather rugged features with a large diagonal scar running across his face, charged at the intruder.

The ring on his left hand was unmistakably glowing with the red piercing light within the darkness of the cave, illuminated only by the torches.

Within an instant, mercenary"s body grew large, his entire body was now covered in fur, adoring his head was a pair of large cat-like ears, and his muscles were bulging with undeniable strength. His rather sharp fangs were sticking out of his mighty jaws.

He no longer was human, he had transformed into a bipedal beast, his lower body was beastly as well, with claws sticking out of his boots, still he was walking up-right, like a human being as he pounced upon his pray with a roar that could have scared away any unsuspecting foe.

"I really don"t have time for this."

With a single slash of what seemed like a swipe of feathered wings, the beast man fell on the ground, his head severed from his torso as it rolled away.

Strangely, his body now reverted back to human.

"Hmm, how curious, I thought beast-men were supposed to keep some of their features in their humanoid form, not be able to become a full human at will. Unless…"

He plucked the ring off the finger of the dead mercenary.

"I see, ring of racial change. First time seeing one other than the ill.u.s.trations from books…"

"Die!"

The mercenary tried to use some-kind of method of stealth in order to kill the intruder while he was distracted, but he quickly found himself impaled by a razor sharp wing through his stomach.

"But how? You were not even looking in my direction…"

"I guess I will be keeping it"

He put the ring in his pocket and now looked up.

"Oh? Thank you, Morph."

"Think nothing of it, master."

Having two within a single body had its perks; even if one was distracted the other one would be fully alert.

"Now then…" Dark Lord brandished his crystal dagger.

"Let us have some fun!"

Two down, just four more to go.

* * *

"Well, that was rather disappointing, I expected a bigger challenge, none of them even had blessings, and their mana pool was not very impressive either. Maybe goblins were overestimating them."

"Master, I can still feel presence of mana within the cave, the source is still very much alive, as far as I can tell."

"Then lead the way, Morph."

Of course, that was physically impossible, considering both were occupying the same body, but Morphus fully knew what his master meant.

Within the depths of the cave, they found something covered with cloth, likely to conceal what was underneath.

Without a hint of caution, Dark Lord took off the cloth, revealing the form of what was underneath.

Tied by hands, neck, and feet, across a structure resembling a large, metallic pentagram, was a humanoid. She was dressed in rags and had a bag tied to her head, preventing her head from being seen.

The structure itself was curious, with Morphus"s shared vision, Dark Lord could clearly see the energy flowing through the structure, and it led to many gla.s.s bottles nearby, filled with strange glowing liquid.

Lifting up one of the gla.s.s bottles, Morphus examined one, before nodding in understanding.

"Liquid mana, I see."

"So what is this thing, anyways?"

"Master, I think it is a device used to drain mana from a living being and convert it into physical form."

"Sounds rather convenient"

"If that was all there is to it. Master, this mana, it is far purer than any mana I have ever seen!"

"Purer? Isn"t all mana the same, just different amounts per user?"

"Not exactly, pure mana is far more potent than ordinary mana, its efficiency is also higher, and in simple terms it is like comparing gold to copper!"

"I see. Then taking the one who can produce such mana might be good idea."

Now the Dark Lord finally started to pay attention to the humanoid tied to the pentagram structure.

The entire body seemed to be malnourished and covered in bruises, it seems like such conditions lasted for some time. But for some reason, the skin of the humanoid seemed to be of a better quality than that of ordinary human.

"Fascinating, so many mana points…"

"How many?"

"Fifteen"

"More than twice the average, impressive."

"Master, as far as I can tell, this person once had more than thirty."

"What?"

Dark Lord was now curious, just what kind of a human being could have so much potential?

"Now, let"s see what it is inside this bag…" Dark Lord took off the bag off of the humanoid"s face.

A bruised face, a broken lip, slightly bleeding, but not too serious…The face was rather fair, and judging by the long pointy ears, this was not a human being.

"An elf, huh? Well, what do you know? Another one…."

Opening one of the elf"s eyelids, Dark Lord examined her eyes. They were pure white, obviously unable to see.

"So she was blinded, huh. Figures….And also…."

Dark Lord cast a sideways glance behind him.

"How long do you think you can spy on me?"

He suddenly addressed the form of a semi-corporeal being that was half floating in the air.

It was a ghost, and better yet, it was an elven ghost.

Judging by the rope-like link connecting this ghost to the living elf"s body, it was safe to a.s.sume that this ghost"s unfinished business was with this elf.

The ghost was dressed in form fitting clothing, from his appearance alone, it was rather hard to determine his age, but he gave off the air of someone elderly, at least by elven standards.

If he was a human being, he would be like someone in his late fifties, but in great health, if he was alive that is. He looked rather frail, his eyes were slightly sunken in, and his face had unmistakable signs of aging.

It seems like even long-lived elves are not immune to aging.

"Yes, you, old looking elf, I am talking about you."

Realizing that he was being addressed, the ghost could not conceal his surprise.

"You can see me? But how? Until now, none else even noticed…."

"Let"s just say I am a special case. So what are you, a ghost haunting this elf? Do you desire revenge against her in order to attain eternal peace, if that is the case, I can easily arrange that…..."

Dark Lord brandished his dagger, just waiting for an opportunity to let the elf girl rest in peace with a single strike.

"Certainly not! Revenge? She is my granddaughter, for goodness sake! The only reason I am here even after death is because I wish to protect her!"

"Protect her? What a laugh. Ghosts can"t do a thing but be annoyance to the living, might as well give up and move on."

"I cannot do that. Of my proud family, Kreschen Household, she is the only one that remains alive. I cannot let her die as well."

"Your problems, not mine."

Dark Lord now shrugged and stood up, preparing to leave the cave.

"Wait! Please! Don"t leave! You are the first one I have managed to communicate with since my death, if you leave, there will be no hope of saving her!"

"I really don"t give a d.a.m.n, old elf."

"Please! I am begging you; I can do nothing in my current form. I can see you have no evil intentions, so please, I beg you to save my granddaughter!"

"Listen, old elf, I have absolutely no intention of playing the role of a bloated up savior. I have plenty of other roles entertain myself with. Besides, I already have an elf in my employ, I don"t need another one."

"How can you say that? Even though you are not a human yourself, you wouldn"t help another non-human in peril? You wouldn"t even save an innocent girl?"

"Do you think I am a fool that wastes his time rescuing girls?! I have better things to do than play a desperate lady savior. Such a role is for a fool to play and suffer, and I am no…"

For a second, Dark Lord fell silent.

"…fool. Come to think of it, ever since I was stranded in this world, I did nothing but save people, mostly girls, without even realizing it. Granted, I did it in order to reach my own goals, but still, I cannot say I did not rescue them."

Dark Lord frowned.

"Rejecting it outright would make me a hypocrite, I should at least see if there is any benefit to letting her live."

"Old elf, state your name."

"Liren Kreschen."

"All right, in that case, do tell me, what use she can be that"s worth enough to let her live? If she can be of use to me, I will let her live, if not, then I don"t see anything wrong with letting her become food for my minions."

"Even among elves, her talent for magic is exceptional. Not only that, she is proficient in multiple fields related to magic, including and not limited to rune craft, elementalism, and magic item creation."

"Is that so? And will she be obedient?"

"That part I cannot guarantee."

"Very well, for now, I will let her live. The choice of what will happen to her will be up to her after she regains consciousness. For now, I might as well give her a small present."

Dark Lord proceeded to put his left hand upon her eye-lids.

"Morph, I hope this is easy enough for you to mend."

"Worry not, master, the eyes are not missing, all I need to do is restore them, there is no need to use up ma.s.sive amounts of mana to recreate them."

Dark Lord"s left hand seemed to glow with an otherworldly light, the light now touched the elf girl"s face, after a few seconds Dark Lord withdrew his hand.

Now her face seemed to look much better, the bleeding, cuts, and the bruising on her face were all gone. Now her face looked fresh and clean.

Opening one of her eyes and taking a look at the purple eye-pupils, Morphus smiled.

"Success, master, it was successful."

"Well done."

Dark Lord replied to Morphus"s mental message.

"Who are you talking to?"

The ghost asked, he apparently could not tell that Dark Lord and Morphus were a two in one.

From the ghost"s perspective, Dark Lord"s behavior might have resembled the rambling of a madman.

"It does not concern you. All you need to know that she will be alive, for now. As for you…"

Dark Lord now proceeded to cut the threads that bound the ghost to the elf girl.

"You will be coming with me; we have a lot to talk about."

"My binds! Will I not disappear without them holding me in the world of the living?" the ghost was apparently panicking, this stranger just cut off the binds that kept him tethered to his family even after death.

"No, as long as your business is not finished, you will remain in this realm, the threads only bound you to the object of your unfinished business. Without the thread, you will not be bound to her, thus, you can walk freely, but only after your unfinished task has been fulfilled, you will be free to truly pa.s.s on."

"Young one, you truly are rather knowledgeable about such things, are you perchance a Reaper in disguise?"

"No, merely a former servant of one"

Dark Lord camly replied, much to the elven ghost"s confusion.