Eve of the Advent

In the midst of darkness, a little boy could be seen unmoving.

His eyes blindfolded, his mouth gagged, and his body tied tightly by a rope, not letting him move even by a millimeter.

'I've been here for about 4 hours already…'

Regis thought to himself as he tried to retain his calm.

He had been counting the time since earlier in order to calm himself down.

At first, he struggled as the feeling of panic overwhelmed him. However, after a while of meaningless struggles, he calmed down.

After all, he knew that pointless actions would only further exhaust him, making the situation more detrimental to him.

'Shit… how long will this last?'

Regis cursed in his mind as he could feel his sanity slowly sleeping awake.

After all, even if he counted the seconds in order to distract himself, it would be inevitable for him to slowly lose patience.

It was his strong mentality alone that kept him from going insane.

Tap… Tap… Tap…

Fortunately, it didn't take long for him to sense some footsteps.

'Finally!'

Regis was not sure whether those footsteps were a sign of good or bad things.

However, he did not care.

All he wanted was for there to be something to distract him from this endless darkness.

"Huh!? Where am I!?"

"Who are you people!?!"

"Mommy!!! Hwaaaa!!!"

"What the fuck!!!"

"I wanna go home!!!"

…

Childish voices loudly resounded in the area, startling Regis.

'So I'm not the only one here…'

He thought to himself.

It did not take long before he could feel the gag on his mouth being removed along with his blindfold.

Slowly opening his eyes, Regis silently observed the surroundings.

A dark room only dimly lit by torches and candles. Rocks surrounded the area as stalactites littered the ceiling.

'Are we in a cave??'

Regis thought in his heart.

He looked around further and could see numerous children about the same age as him.

It was at this moment that his mind slowly started to clear up.

'Right! They were looking for suicide soldiers! Though, why choose children?' He wondered silently.

After all, if one wanted to build an army, even if it was a suicide squadron, they would at least choose people who had some battle experience.

It was common sense.

This was the reason why the demonic humans' choice of kidnapping children sounded strange to Regis.

Looking at the crying children in the surroundings, he only snorted in his heart.

In a place where he could not even ensure his safety, he did not have the luxury of feeling pity for other people.

Thus, he only silently observed his surroundings, hoping to find a way out somehow.

Clap— Clap— Clap—

Three claps suddenly echoed in the area, silencing everyone.

The children who were panicking and crying all stopped as they all turned to the source of the clap, Regis included.

There, they could see a black-clothed man standing.

His pitch-black eyes contradicts the calm expression on his face.

'Strange…' Upon landing his sight on the man, Regis instantly noticed something strange.

It was the fact that he could see the man's pitch-black eyes, meaning that he was a demonic human.

However, what Regis found strange was his expression.

So far, every demonic human that he had seen always oozed uncontrollable bloodlust and insanity.

It was his first time seeing a demonic human who looked calm and… quite elegant.

"Children! It is your fate to be bestowed upon the blessing of Agaroth, the Devil of Destruction!"

The demonic human's words caused the children to panic.

"Eeek!!"

"D-Devil!?"

"Wahhhh!! Mommy!!! I wanna go home!!!"

…

Clap—!

"Silence."

"You are lucky to have this opportunity!"

"Didn't you all live miserable lives up till now!?"

"This is your chance to become strong!"

"This is your chance to take revenge upon those who did you wrong!"

"This is your chance… to take revenge on this unfair world!!!"

His voice carried with them a hypnotizing tone as the children all seemed to be in a trance.

"That's right… When did I have a good meal?"

"I have always been abused by my parents…"

"My parents abandoned me…"

…

"They should suffer…"

"It's their fault that I did not live a good life."

"Right, maybe I should kill them…"

…

Seeing this, the demonic human nodded in satisfaction.

"That's right! And I'll help you in doing so!! You can address me as Leader. Now, prepare yourselves and receive the blessing of Agaroth!!!"

He then spread his hands as thick black energy spread in the area.

'Wait… Is that demonic power!?!' Regis's eyes widened as soon as he saw the black energy in the air.

As a fanatic of fairy tales, he was no stranger towards stories with heroes facing demon kings and such.

These stories often described the power of demons as dark and sinister.

'Blessing of the Devil my ass! He's just outright killing us!!' Regis cursed in his heart.

"Ahhhhhh!!!!"

"Arghhhhh!!!!"

"Wahhhhhh!!!"

The pained screams of children who were the first to be touched by the black energy resounded in the area.

Some began to cry tears of blood, while some began to convulse violently.

Nevertheless, the demonic power unceremoniously entered their bodies.

"Don't fight the blessing of Agaroth! Accept it and become his soldier!!"

The demonic human's hypnotic voice resounded in the children's ears.

'Shitting hell!' Regis could feel dizziness shrouding his mind.

He then steeled himself and bit his lips until it bled.

Only then could he feel his mind clear up a little bit.

However, it did not change the fact that the black energy had reached him.

Pain.

Pain incomparable to anything he had felt before.

As the demonic power entered his body, it ravaged his insides, crushing his bones, deforming his muscles, twisting his nerves, it did not spare even a hair on his body.

'No! No! No! No!'

'I want to be a warrior! I want to be a hero!!'

'I don't want to be a slave of the demons!'

'Please… not my heart…'

Tears of blood soon fell from Regis's eyes as he convulsed like the other children.

However, no matter how much he protested in his heart, the demonic power covered his whole body inside and out.

It did not take long for it to reach his heart.