- A Deceiver

The corridor, dim and long, carries the sound of footsteps belonging to a human and a beast, travelling only a short distance before fading away into the walls. With her spine straight, every step she takes is perfectly executed with no flaws. Her pleasing features and her long black hair so elegant and beautiful, make her look as if she is a flower surrounded in the night, accompanied by a monster who will nor protect nor attack. A monster whose true name is Ulbert Alain Odle.

Silently Ulbert follows her as she leads the way through the corridor so familiar to her. Staring at her back with his arms behind him he couldn't help but notice how much she reminded him of a maid from Nazarick, so pure and so...alike. Nazarick truly was his home. It was thanks to the guild and all the players within it that he was able to stay sane, only now that they are gone he realizes how much he misses them.

Ulbert took in a deep breath and brought his mind out of the memories.

"How much longer," He asked. Anna slightly startled by the unexpected question hesitated for a moment before speaking. "The meeting room is only a few minutes away Lord Baphomet," She replied. Her hands, interlocked in front of her, slightly trembling.

Ulbert did not reply to her answer. Instead, he lowered his head down and looked to his hooves, each step so powerful. No longer human indeed. He thought. No longer a weak, puny, fragile little human. No longer, a deceiving terrified little mouse. No more...He clenched his fists. Rage burnt fiercely through him, so hateful and sudden it is, scratching on the walls of his mind, so eager to escape.

Andras...A face whose features are blurred and forgotten appeared in his head. Sending puppets and followers just because you are too frightened to come yourself. Is this really how you act when your Lord is not present? His eyes burned with wrath. You pathetic coward, it was a mistake choosing you. A mistake... He let out a wide grin. That I am willing to correct...

Andras took a deep breath. His back covered in cold sweat, rests against the wooden chair, creaking as he pushes against it. His fingers too numb and cold to grasp a glass of water, his knees too weak to make him stand. The agony of anticipation.

It has been an hour since he gave the orders to Anna. Poor girl. He thought. To give you such a dangerous mission. Forgive me...

"They are on their way," Tristan, just as anxious, looked at his mate. Andras, seeing his friend tightly grip and axe, his face full of despair, looked him in the eyes.

"You must understand this is the only way," He said.

Tristan, in response simply looked away, biting his tongue and not saying a word.

"Go..." Andras added. "We mustn't waste time."

Tristan looked at him one last time, it was a long look, filled with pain and anger. He then lifted his arms and whispered a spell under his breath, shortly after his tough dwarven body disappeared into the thin air, no longer seen or heard.

Andras turned his attention to the door in front of him. With a deep breath, he too, tightly clutched the sword hidden under his robe and prepared himself for whatever is to come.

"L-Lord Baphomet?" She turned herself and looked at Ulbert. He stared back. "We have arrived," She said and bowed down her head. Ulbert let out a devilish grin as he walked past her, his footsteps loud, heavy and terrifying.

"Wait here Anna, this will not take long." He fixed his top hat and patted down his velvet cape, ready to enter the room. His hands pressed against the doors, and with a light push, they sprung open.

Slowly, the great shadow walked into the room. The candles that burnt bright with hope and strength, dimmed as he walked past. The warm atmosphere, so pleasing to the skin and so caring, succumbed into icy-cold darkness. Death itself walked in.

"B-Baphomet!" Andras, so frightened he is, gasped as he stood up.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk" Grinning, Ulbert looked at him. "Lord no longer?" He asked as he patiently began walking around the room, studying the table and the candles with his hands behind his back. "No..." Andras, voice quiet as if whispering, replied. Unexpectedly calm.

Ulbert leaned forward towards a candle in the carved in wall. "Humans..." He stared at the burning fire. Small and thin. "They are such...Weak beings. Foolish, deceiving creatures that are blinded by greed, power and lust." He reached out his hand. "Beings that just like pests, must be exterminated," He squeezed the candle's light into the darkness, and a faint but wonderful smell, twisting and dancing with the smoke, coated itself around him.

He looked to Andras who is sweating profoundly, his hands clenched in fists and his breathing rapid. "Foolish, human." Ulbert's smile faded away. "Did you think you could just get rid of me?" Anger so clear in his voice manifested as he began approaching Andras. Suddenly, without looking, Ulbert threw one of his golden syringes at the naked wall. It flew with great speed and precision until it came to a complete halt, only a few centimetres away from the wall, as if floating in the air. Out of nowhere, a man who was invisible to the naked eye appeared and plummeted down to the ground, his dead body now resting against the wall. The syringe killed him swiftly and painlessly, a merciful death in Ulbert's eyes.

"You think you can defeat me with these cheap tricks?"

Andras looked at the body, then back at Ulbert. Silent but terrified and stunned.

"Surprised I can see them?" Ulbert glanced around the room. "I can see every single one of you pathetic mortals" He opened his arms and slowly spun around. "An Idea of a madman to take me as a fool!" He let out a burst of deep laughter and turned his attention back to Andras. No longer smiling or laughing.

"All shall burn..."

"Baphomet no!" Andras reached out his hand and from the ceiling, walls, and all-around, dozen of assassins revealed themselves. Blades in their hands, desperately attempting to strike Ulbert.

"HellFire Wall!" Ulbert lifted his hands and a spell escaped his lips. His fingertips burnt with thin fire and a moment later, the sparks that were so small manifested into a large nova, reaching every corner of the room and obliterating all life.

Bodies, burnt and soulless, dropped down to the ground, smacking against the large table and the cold stone floor. Young men and women, covered in robes and daggers in their hands, now all lay dead in front of Ulbert.

"It really is a shame." Ulbert gazed at Andras who is well and unharmed, bewildered as to why the spell had no effect on him. The flames have reached him, he could feel its mild heat on his body, surrounding him in the fiery aura, yet he is intact.

In a heartbeat, Ulbert giant shadow appeared in front of Andras, crouching with his hooves on the table with a large smirk on his face. Horrified, Andras reached for the dagger under his robe, ready to strike. So slow...Ulbert swiftly grabbed Andras by the neck and threw his body flying at a nearby wall. His body slammed against the wall hard, his bones cracked and blood gushed out of his mouth, his tongue nearly bitten off. He would have screamed if there wasn't a lack of air in his lungs, all pushed out during the impact. His eyes whirled around in his sockets, his mind in disarray, gasping for air he held his stomach as more blood spewed out of his mouth.

"Oops, I do apologise. I am yet to get used to this body, I hope that wasn't too hard?" Mocking him, Ulbert stood up and looked at a nearby, dead body, pushing it back and forth with his hoove. "What a waste" If only I was able to resurrect them. He said and thought as Momonga, his good friend, popped into his head with a feeling of sorrow soon to follow.

"Ulbert! You ready for that Nazarick raid?"

"Are you kidding? I've been preparing for weeks!"

"I bet I will out damage you."

"You wish!"

His and Momonga's voice and laughter echoed as sweet memories began wandering about in his mind, only to fade away leaving an unexplainable feeling of sadness behind.

He chuckled. Dismissing the memories as he looked at Andras fighting for his life.

"You know." He stepped over the body. "If that protection spell was not cast on you, you would have died from the impact." Closer he approached. "Of course, considering the circumstances, you will still die, no matter what you do."

With one eye closed, Andras barely opened his bloody mouth to speak, yet no words were coming out. Ulbert, now crouching in front of him, grinning and staring with his yellow eyes, grabbed Andras's hands and put them both on his chest, as if an angel soon to ascend.

"Shhh..."He whispered. "Embrace death...For now, you are a free man." Ulbert opened his hand and placed it over Andras's face, sealing his eyes away as he prepared to cast a spell.

"You were not useful in life...But perhaps, you will be useful in death." Ulbert spoke in a voice so calm none would believe.

"Character steal" He cast a spell and from within his grey hand, white light, sharp and piercing, shone brightly onto Andras's face, swiftly embracing his whole body with a glow. The light, so holy and pure, ripped every single hair, skin and cell belonging to him as if taking the soul itself. Andras did not scream. He laid still as his life faded away, only smiling one last time as he welcomed death with open arms.

And his body ceased to exist.

Ulbert stared at the shining white orb levitating in his palm, so innocent and fragile it is. An essence that is not a soul, not a spirit, but a body steered away by an unnatural force. A body that now belongs to Ulbert Alain Odle.

He took a deep breath and placed the orb next to his beating heart. The two, so different and unique, merged as if two pieces of the same shard, long lost and finally reunited.

His ears, pointy and hairy, shrank down and changed shape to resemble that of a human's. His hooves became feet with ten toes and his grey hair turned into pink skin. His eyes changed to ocean blue and his monstrous face altered, taking a shape that belongs to a human. No longer did he appear as a monster.

His velvet cape, his black top hat and the equipment on him, all shrank to match his new body missing nothing but the shoes. His bare feet felt the freezing stone and his newly acquired body shivered with the cold.

"A-Andras...?" A voice soft to the ears called out to Ulbert, he knew who she was even before his gaze met hers, a voice hard to forget.

"Anna..." He replied, his voice no longer menacing but comforting.

She looked around the room, burnt bodies lay dead all around her, smell yet to reach her nose. And among those bodies, only one man stands, a deceiver, with a body that does not belong to him.

"Is something wrong Anna?" Ulbert turned his head, staring into her eyes with a smirk on his face.

"I-...W-Where is Lord B-Baphomet?" She asked. A question she knows the answer to, an answer, so horrifying, she is too afraid to admit.

"Has my appearance changed so much that you do not recognize me?" Ulbert walked up to her. His long blond hair, swaying with every step he takes.

Her lip trembled."L-Lord Baphomet? I-I...N-No I did not. Forgive me!" Despite her numb body she forced herself to her knees and bowed down. Her heart beating so quick. Her breaths swift and heavy. Closer, he approached, now standing within inches of her. He crouched and grabbed her by two of her arms, slowly, lifting her body as he stood up. She looked at his face, the face she knows so well, and tears began flowing down her cheeks. She couldn't help it.

"Shh..." Ulbert caressed her red cheek and wiped the tears away with his thumb. She froze still and looked down. Not seeing the smile, so genuine it seems, appear on the new face of his.

"I am not angry with you." He said. "How can I be mad at my favourite little pet." The words, so kind-hearted and confident, sent chills down her spine and turned her hardened knees weak.

Ulbert lifted her chin with his finger and their eyes met one another. She could feel his warm breath on his skin, she could hear his heartbeat, and for a second, just for a second, she thought he too, was a human.

"My favourite little...Pet."