77 Volume 3: Chapter 21: Experimenting (Part 3)
For a mortal being that is not powerful, having allies is necessary to accomplish any objective.
That was one of the key reasons for Dark Lord forming the Shadow Lords, as well as having them act as his eyes and ears throughout the Tracoa territory.
Instead of exposing himself, he can have Shadow Lords take care of specific missions, however, at the current moment; they are merely reporting movements of importance. In a sense, a spy network.
Critically speaking, although Dark Lord was the leader, he was weaker than every member of Shadow Lords.
Meros was far more skilled and was a master swordsman. Lake Luondo, as a tiger type demi-human possessed extraordinary physical strength. Camilla was by far the most lethal, with his ability to conceal his presence completely and his arsenal of poisons. Goblin Captain can gain powers of anything he ate, by now he was easily a match for knights. And Morphus, the newcomer, could possess bodies of others and use them as his own.
Compared to all those ranges of talents, Dark Lord paled in comparison.
Without his crystal knife or feeding on mana, Dark Lord was very weak. Absorbing mana only temporarily made him powerful and it only works on his undead side instead of his entire body.
He could use his demon eye, but it used up so much mana that it was not the best option. In a sense, Shadow Lords were there to compensate in areas in which Dark Lord lacked.
Currently Shadow Lords consisted of seven members, including Dark Lord. Camilla was the one responsible for casting concealment spells and providing different poisons, goblins in particular, used Camilla's poisons in abundance.
Goblin Captain was busy supervising the projects Dark Lord commanded him to carry out. Essentially it was building more goblin nests, but some of them were fake nests that will be used in order to lure invaders in. Earth type goblins that were born by Holy Maiden of Earth were especially useful as they could manipulate earth type mana; digging tunnels and changing the terrain were their main forte.
Considering Goblin Captain had shown himself to be exceptionally useful, Dark Lord considered him alone, unlike the other goblins that were disposable pawns, to be a member of Shadow Lords. As such, Goblin Captain was seen a pawn rather than a slave.
Meros Solros was currently tasked with watching over the adventurer guilds, since he is a former mercenary, none was suspicious of him. Adventurers only thought of him as the strange mercenary who never picks up a job and only comes in to have a drink, not realizing his true mission.
He was there to keep track of who was sent towards the Tracoa territory and reporting if powerful adversaries were sent there to take care of things. Essentially he was the human spy responsible for knowing what adventurers or Holy Order had planned.
That way, Dark Lord could stay at least one step ahead of them.
While humanity had no idea who he was or what kind of organization Shadow Lords were, Dark Lord had an inside man reporting to him nearly every day. It was because of Meros that Goblins had such huge rate of success, only attacking parties Meros judged to be weak and completely avoiding the strong ones. This way, they kept the dangers to a minimum, and surprisingly enough, not a single one of Dark Lord's goblins got killed yet.
If Meros was responsible for keeping track of military side of humanity, Lake Luondo, the demi-human, was responsible for watching what occurred in the streets, important events that happened in public was his responsibility to keep track of.
If nobles made some kind of a move, with his keen ears and sharp eyes, he would immediately find out. His duty was of paramount importance, for in a sense, he kept track of what people knew, and collecting such information comes very useful for it allows one to have a way of manipulating the populace.
That left only Kyra Kara and Morphus.
Morphus's vessel still has not recovered completely, so he was still occupying Dark Lord's body. Dark Lord worked jointly with Morphus, with the angel helping out every now and then with mental communication.
As for Kyra Kara, she conducted night raids to the places Dark Lord instructed, with concealment cast upon her. Most of her missions were conducted with Dark Lord and Camilla, but she could also do solo.
Her solo night raids were not all assassination missions; they were mostly for gathering information, maps, and objects.
In simplest terms, it was thievery. But it was not as simple as that. Using her illusions, she would force the humans to voluntarily give up said items, usually by having them see hallucinations that kept plaguing them until they gave in after the madness was too much to bear.
People under illusions would put the items in places where Kyra Kara bid them and by the next day, the items would be gone. People started to create rumors of making offerings for spirits due to this.
When she was not obtaining items from her victims, she would assist in killing people in Dark Lord's night routine. He had to do that at least once per week, absorb mana of several people, his undead side kept making him hungry for the life force of mortals, their mana. If he did not feed, he feared he would lose his mind, his addiction to life force was evident, apparently all undead are like that.
Using her illusions, she would lure her prey into traps and Dark Lord would feast upon their mana without having to worry about leaving a mess. Apparently killing people in their homes raised a mass panic, now they were trying to be more discreet about their night activities. As far as populace knew, people kept disappearing at night, though funnily enough, the place with least amount of disappearances was Tracoa territory.
Dark Lord deliberately conducted mass massacres in Racron and Merok territories in order to attract most attention to those areas; compared to them, the amount of people who disappeared within Tracoa territory was miniscule.
The aim was to have the Holy Order investigate the other two territories while the only prominent problem in Tracoa is goblin infestation. However, the ruse will not last long. Dark Lord knew it, yet having the Holy Order playing exactly to his tune was rather enjoyable.
However, Dark Lord needed someone who was ruthless and bloodthirsty.
Someone, who would horrify the humanity with acts of pure brutality, this person should have a clear grudge against human beings.
Someone with a clear goal of massacre and has no qualms in carrying out those urges.
What he needed was a serial killer.
Someone, who will strike fear into the hearts of nobles and royals, someone who has been wronged by them so thoroughly that mercy is no longer an option….Someone who wants to kill them as much as they want to kill her…
…And Dark Lord knew the perfect person for the job.
* * *
Entering into the room where the seventeen year old girl sat on the floor, Dark Lord proceeded to sit on the chair next to the bed. She had been like this for several days, according to Kyra Kara, her mind was scarred and she felt fear of everyone within the mansion, specifically, fear of humans.
But when Dark Lord entered the room, she did not show any signs of fright, instead it was the look of silent resignation. Apparently she knew he was the one in charge here, and if he willed it so, she could die at any moment, but strangely enough, she did not mind that at all.
She was broken, in more ways than one, but that was exactly what made him interested in her. If the person is broken, then the clay can be molded to be anything he desired. In her case, she already was broken, so he wouldn't have to go through too much trouble.
The only thing left now was for him to mold her into shape of what he currently desired.
"I suppose it would be for the best for both of us to show each other our true faces, you have already seen mine, but I have yet to see yours…" Dark Lord proceeded to tap the girl's forehead.
She flinched slightly, as if an electric shock had transmitted through her body. But in a moment, the change was evident. With feline ears on her head and a tail on her body, it was obvious she was a beast person.
There was a seal on her head that concealed her true form, Dark Lord could not see it before, but with Morphus inside his body, he could see it clearly, and with Morphus's assistance, he deactivated it.
With her eyes wide open in horror, she asked, in a trembling voice.
"H-h-h-howww?"
While she did understand what was spoken to her, the trauma had affected her speech, sometimes resulting in stuttering.
"I know many things, Jun." She never told him her name, so it was doubly surprising that not only he knew she was a beast person, but who she was.
As her hands trembled and her vocal cords wouldn't make a sound, Dark Lord continued.
"Do not worry, I already told you, I am not going to hurt you."
Seeing that she was still on edge, Dark Lord began.
"Jun Valens, daughter of Jude Valens, a former knight of Holy Order."
He knew this because he used Kyra Kara's demon eye to forcibly get all the information he needed out of her in the last loop, but it also resulted in her getting enraged, and after she attacked and subsequently killed him, he arrived at this point.
Even with his undead strength, physical prowess of beast person is nothing to scoff at.
"Your mother was one of the Holy Knights who was once a peasant, but through facing countless hardships and pure valor, she rose to become one of the Holy Knights, second only to Heroes. She even gained the favor of the royal family by being given her own land with her own title. But the nobles were envious of her achievements, so they chose to take personal measures against her. Her husband, your father, was killed, but she persisted in her duties as Holy Knight out of loyalty to the kingdom, but then they did the unthinkable. They took you, her only child, and sold you to slavery."
"H-h-how do…you…know…?" It was obvious Dark Lord struck a chord, everything he said up till now was true, but having someone else know so much about you out of the blue was terrifying, her face paled in expectation of something horrifying.
"They used you in order to have her give up her land, her titles, and quit being a Holy Knight, for the sake of saving you; however, they chose to play a cruel joke upon her by sending her a beheaded corpse, making her think you were dead, while leaving you in their hands. They used you, violated you, tortured you, raped you to the point of your body became unusable, and then, after your body was almost on the brink of death, they chose to discard you, like a used piece of paper. All for the sake of their pride."
Dark Lord continued.
"One of the reasons your mother managed to become a Holy Knight was because of being a demi-human, their physical strength is greater than most humans, but only humans are allowed to become knights, so she hid it with a spell, and it seems she even taught you how to cast it on yourself. The nobles suspected something was off with her strength, they could not attack her directly, they feared her wrath, and she was stronger than most Holy Knights, not someone you want to make your enemy. So instead, they chose to take away those she cherished more than anyone."
Jun's hands were trembling non-stop, her fists clenching, she was breathing hard. He was right on all counts.
"Even now, she thinks you have died, visiting your grave every single day. How tragic~"
Dark Lord obtained so much information through Meros and Lake's assistance. After he came back through the loop, he knew the name of Jun's mother, and then he had his subordinates find out everything about this Jude Valens.
Meros managed to find out about her past as Holy Knight while Lake found her visiting the graves.
"Which raises the question of…What will you chose? I can send you back to your mother, but do you really think the nobles that enslaved you or the human kingdom that allowed this to happen to you will allow you to have a peaceful life? They will cuff you again and you will be back in their hands, to be used up until you are on death's door, and then you will be set ablaze. You know that well firsthand."
She touched her scar on right half of her face, after Holy Maiden of Water healed her that was the only clearly visible evidence of her body being set on fire. Other scars remained, but they were concealed under her clothing and were not as prominent.
"W-What c-c-can…I…do?" she was clearly terrified of what would happen to her if she was enslaved again. She developed a clear fear of humans as a result; the only one she felt somewhat comfortable around was Dark Lord, the half skeletal demon.
"You can take vengeance."
Dark Lord proceeded to snap his fingers, out of nowhere appeared a rather obese man, he obviously was a nobleman, judging by his grooming and clothing, but he was currently tied up to a chair. This was a collaboration work by Shadow Lords. Lake tracked him down, Kyra Kara put him under an illusion and tied him up, and Camilla used paralyzing poison on him. Now his body wouldn't be able to move, but he was still conscious. His eyes were open, if he wasn't paralyzed, he would have been screaming in horror after he saw Dark Lord's half skeletal face.
His body was marked with teleportation seal, so Dark Lord merely had to transport him to this room from where the Shadow Lords kept him.
"Let me present to you…Lord Roland Drake. But I believe you are already acquainted."
Jun's nightmare seemingly came true, this was one of the nobles who kidnapped her and sold her to slavery, she remembered his face well; he was the one who put the slave collar upon her back then.
One of the humans who destroyed her life….
She felt frightened, terrified, her mind was barely holding together, just barely managing not to collapse.
She remembered the faces of the nobles who did this to her, every single one of them, how could she forget? The nobles that took everything away from her by selling her and humans who made her life a living hell for the last five years of her life, she remembered all of them.
She was afraid, but more than that, she wanted to inflict harm upon them, so much that they would feel pain even in the afterlife.
"You can run away or…" Dark Lord brandished a copper dagger and presented it to Jun. "…You can make them feel a little bit of your pain."
The nobleman was tied up and helpless and this demon was offering her a chance. Whether chose to run away or take revenge, she had to decide. It was now or never.
She proceeded to take the copper knife with her trembling hands and now approached the nobleman. Apparently the paralysis poison started to wear off because the nobleman started to squirm uncontrollably as she beast girl approached him.
For an instant, all her feelings, thoughts, and emotions were crystal clear; she knew what she had to do.
She plunged her knife into his belly.
Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab!
Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab!
Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab…..
Dark Lord simply watched as she kept inflicting wounds upon wounds on the nobleman, making sure he suffered while she kept stabbing him, she wanted this to last as long as possible.
This was a cold blooded torture, but to her, this was all she had left.
It seems like the experiment was successful.
The purpose of this entire arrangement was to have Jun become someone like Dark Lord, give her a sweet taste of revenge, soon she will crave it.
Age wise, at least biologically speaking, Jun was year older than Dark Lord. Dark Lord knew for a fact that he was sixteen when Chronos kidnapped him. Time-wise, only about four months have passed since he arrived here, around nine-hundred years before his time. Although he was not seventeen yet, at least biologically, Dark Lord felt as if he was a man who lived for much longer.
Even though she was technically older than him, Dark Lord was the one playing the role of the mentor. Funnily enough, among the Shadow Lords, despite being their leader, he is the youngest member; of course, he would never tell them that. Sometimes, it was good to maintain the illusion of older age just in case. With the way he acts he could easily pass off as someone in his early twenties.
After stabbing the nobleman for what seemed to be the sixtieth time, Jun beheaded him, her face and body covered in his blood but she did not care. Her mind was still scarred, but this action allowed her to focus all her rage upon it. It was liberation for her wounded soul.
"Well done."
Dark Lord proceeded to remove his cloak and put on Jun's body, covering her, calming her down somewhat.
She was now just like him.
Dark Lord proudly looked at the monster he just created.
