Lord of Estaria

by K R Zax

  “There is no one in the imminent surroundings,” I said when I opened my eyes. My personal magical drones are great, but it’s a shame that they are that big. If I can make smaller ones, I could spy on the noble girls in Tsarigrad at night.

  “E-excuse me.” The knight turned around hastily, riding away at full gallop.

  “Well, never mind. It’s part of your charm.” Lillian sigh.

  “What is?” What the hell happened?

  “Your evil smile.” Lillian giggled, and then she filled her lungs with a big breath of air. “You smell so good. Hmm, you Demon.”

  Will she turn into an addict? It’s a shame that only she reacts that way. If the other girls were also demon-kin… No, that would be bad. Why restrict myself on one type of girl, when there are so many races to play with?

  We selected a group of twenty people and went ahead to inspect the place. After almost an hour, we came to the scene of the crime.

  Those were facts. Just look at this! A carriage riddled with arrows, four horses and six men - all dead. What else could you call it?

  One of the deceased had a sliced neck and nice clothes, but he wasn’t wearing any jewelries. And if he had some, they were probably taken from his dead body.

  Three guys were adventurers, an archer and two swordsmen, D rank, that was what their Guild Cards said. I couldn’t see their weapons and there seemed to be some equipment missing from their bodies. They killed the swordsmen with arrows and the archer had a wound on his chest, probably from a spear.

  There were also two of the attackers, they were each done in by an arrow to the head.

  “My Lady,” one scout called out as he looked over the scene. “It appears that they were attacked by a lot of archers, at least five of them. They killed the swordsmen first and then the horses.”

  This guy had a knack for telling stories, I liked it. Too bad I didn’t have popcorn.

  “The bowman was at the front, he was probably driving the carriage. He hid behind, and when the assailants came closer, he shot two of them, but there must have been more because someone threw a spear and pierced his chest.

  Then, they opened the door of the carriage, pulled the merchant outside and cut his neck.”

  “They also took his belongings,” another scout was holding pieces of rope in his hand. The ends were still attached to the back of the carriage and there were also some on the roof.

  “They went that way.” A soldier pointed at the wilderness on one side of the road. There were some trees there, but it was mostly bushes and tall grass.

  “Alright, lets go.” Lillian said, and we went after them. I used my undead birds to scout, sending ten of them to cover more ground. We came across some goblins and a couple carnivorous rabbits, but they were already dead. The goblin bodies were left to rot, but only the rabbits’ skins were left behind.

  “There is a fire up ahead,” I announced after some time as I watched the scenery through one of my minion’s eyes. “There are nine of them, and a woman.”

  Shit! I broke the contact with the bird because I didn’t want to watch that crap.

  The rest had hardened looks on their faces when I told them of my findings. Some bandits were like that, according to what the soldiers said.

  We separated in two groups and advanced towards the criminals. When we were close to their campfire, I watched the second team through my bird, and waited for them to arrive at the other side of the bandit’s camp.

  Meanwhile, the nine shitholes were sitting around the fire, eating freshly baked rabbits and laughing. Of the fourteen horses that were tied to nearby trees, four were packed with sacks, nicely secured so that they wouldn’t fall off the animals. They probably stopped to eat and have some fun before resuming the trip.

  “Go!” Lillian ordered when I told her that the others were in place, and we encircled the camp with our weapons in hand.

  “In the name of the Empire, I order you to stop!” One knight yelled when the ruffians stood up and took their weapons. The archers were pulling the strings, ready to shoot arrows at us, but they were taken down easily by our bowmen.

  “Throw them! I repeat. Throw your weapons and raise your hands!”

  “Kill ‘em! Kil...” A bandit had the top of his head blown off by a big Air Bullet. And then everyone froze.

  “Oops?” Trinity staff was in my hands, and several more Air Bullets levitated above it, ready to kill anyone who tried to play the tough guy.

  “A’right! We surrender!” One bandit said, and the others followed suit. There were six of them now that two of their archers and a swordsman were shot.

  I walked past our soldiers as they restrained the criminals and went to look at the woman. She was naked, and her hands were tied to a tree. Her body was covered in dirt and sweat, there also were some small wounds and bruises on her pale skin.

  Her body shuddered when I traced the tip of my fingers over her waist. Hmm, I could give it a try since she still alive…

  “Please,” she said in a raspy, sobbing voice and turned her messed up face to look me in the eyes. “Don’t… no more… please...”

  Bloody hell! What the fuck am I…

  “Take care of the woman!” I growled at one of the soldiers and walked away from that place. When I was far enough, and sure that no one could see me, I punched a tree with all my strength and it cracked.

  Damn! What was wrong with me? I wanted… The poor girl, she was… And I… “Damn!”

  Crack!

  She suffered a lot. Went through hell. And all I was thinking was to add more pain! God! I wanted to have some fun with her! It was sickening!

  “What’s wrong with me?” I looked down on my shaking hands. Am I losing myself? Will I turn into a monster? A real Demon?

  How did this shit happened? Everything was normal when we arrived, and when some of the bandits were killed. But when I approached the woman… I could sense her fear and despair… And it felt nice.

  Everything was fine, I was even looking forward to enjoy some time with her. And then, she looked at me with those eyes filled with hopelessness… That was when my heart broke and brought me back to reality. If it wasn’t for the devastating pain that I felt in my chest in that moment, I might…

  “Darling,” Lina suddenly hugged me from behind. Man, I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings. Thank God, she wasn’t a monster.

  “You must have felt awful when you looked at what they did to her.” Ah, so she came here to comfort me. “You looked so hurt, that I almost cried.”

  It was a good thing that no one could read my mind, like Dr. Sam could. They would be disgusted with me otherwise. Because I know that I was.

  “Thank you, I’m fine now.” I’ll have to keep my act together from now on. “But, stay like that for a bit longer.”

  Soothing. Having a girl like this was the best.

  We stayed like that for a while longer, but since the sun was so low in the western sky, I decided that it was time to go back. I was thankful that Lina didn’t bombard me with thousands of questions on our way to the crime scene. She sure knows how to be tactful.

  When we reached the road, the rest of our group was already there, camping a little further away from the merchant’s carriage.

  Some soldiers were putting the things that the bandits stole back inside the carriage. As they told me, the woman was the wife of the murdered merchant, and all the belongings were now hers according to the law. We will help by transporting them to Zupol city, which is the place she and her husband were from.

  They loaded the bodies of the merchant and the adventurers on a wagon, so I put them inside my Storage to preserve them until we reach the city.

  As for the pieces of trash, they were sitting on the ground with their hands tied. But that didn’t restrain their speech, so they were making vulgar comments about the girls from the Demonic Order.

  “So, tell me, what are the laws concerning criminals?” I asked Lillian, who was still tending to the as
saulted woman.

  “Death or slavery.” She replied shortly. “You can get about three gold coins for the six of them from a slave merchant.”

  “Hey, I’m hungry!” One of the criminals said, eyeing Velira as she was steering a pot with stew. “You could also feed me, since my hands are tied.”

  “Haha! And I need to take a crap! I’m sure some girl could come with me to wipe my ass!”

  “Hahaha!”

  “I see that you are in need of some special treatment.” I smiled while addressing the bandits. By the looks of everyone else around me, I wasn’t the only one irritated with this scum.

  “We don’t need anything from you, boy. Unless you have a sister.”

  I laughed with the bandits at their offensive joke, and that made them look at me like I was crazy.

  “You are so funny. Here, let me show you something even better.” I summoned five Darkness Trolls, and the six men looked terrified. “Trees. Bring.”

  “W-what are you doing?” One of the not-so-tough guys asked when my Trolls walked away.

  “Something funny.” I replied and waited for my undead to return.

  The Trolls brought the upper halves of some nearby trees and formed a pile close to us. Then, I created ten Fire Balls and toss them on the tree branches, channeling more mana and Air Magic to make a big fire. There was a lot of smoke at first since the trees were full of water in this time of the year, but I soon had a nice fire going.

  “Hey! What are you doing?”

  “Let me go!”

  “Kid! Your monster is out of control!”

  The Bandits protested when my Trolls picked them up.

  “I told you that I’ll show you something funny, didn’t I?”

  “No!”

  “Please!”

  “Aaaaaa!”

  “Mercy! Have mercy!”

  “Hahaha! Mercy? That’s a good one.” I laughed while tasting their fear. Ah, if only I could Absorb their souls while they were still alive. Maybe I’ll try that some other time. “Now let’s see how long can you last in there.”

  My zombies tossed them into the big fire one by one, and the camp was soon filled with the screams of burning bandits.

  Chapter 4.

  “Wow! Crazy!” Lina cried when my zombie came out of the black hole. Right now I was practicing my magic, and I tried recreating Uhra’s spell.

  When I fought against him, he used this space magic to redirect my attacks back at me. It was a nice spell, but I could operate it only in my field of vision. And even then, it was hard if the place was too far away.

  Again, I made two holes. One was a couple of feet away from me and the other was several yards away. Then I gave the command to another zombie, and he stepped inside the hole in the camp's edge, then came out from the one near me.

  “Can you open one inside Tsarigrad? I’d like to sleep in a bed tonight.”

  “No,” I said, and all the girls looked disappointed. The hell? I just mastered a great magic! Even Velira told me that this kind of spell is even rarer that Darkness Storage.

  Hmm, even so… I really should buy a bed, I’m tired of sleeping on the ground every night. Shit! That means that I should buy beds for my future wives as well! And why stop at that?

  I should also buy better tents, and equipment, and clothes…

  Calm down, calm down. I already sent my zombies to hunt monsters. There should be plenty of them in the morning. You will have some money when you sell them. But it’s too bad that I can’t leave them in one area for a whole day and then come back to retrieve all of them. I could earn a lot if I could do that.

  “That’s it!” I jumped on my feet, startling the girls. Even some guards were looking at me wearily.

  “What is? My lord, are you feeling unwell?”

  I didn’t answer to Lillian’s question and instead I concentrated on one of my Darkness Zombies. He was deep inside the forest with several others. I willed him to stop and then looked through his eyes. Stressing my senses, I used my undead minion as a reference point and opened a hole in reality.

  “Where’s the other one?” This time Lina asked, and everyone else looked around, but they only saw one mass of swirling Darkness.

  I took a deep breath and jumped inside, only to come out beside my zombie, who was a few miles away from the camp.

  That’s right, I can use my Darkness Zombies to travel around. I checked my body, and everything seemed to be fine. This is good. I can leave the zombies in this area and come for them in the evening. They can work 24/7, no need to pay them, or feed them. And the money will just keep coming!

  Ah! I could almost hear the coins rolling in!

  “Ow!” Lina yelped when she crashed into my chest after I returned to the camp. It seems that she was about to rush through the hole when I came out. “Where were you?! I was worried!”

  “Sorry,” I hugged her and glanced at the others, they all appeared to be relived that I was safe. “I had to try out something.”

  “Did everything went well?” Aler asked while biting some roasted orc. “Don’t tell me you really went to the capital.”

  “Nah, not the capital, just a few miles away.”

  “You know, not everyone here knows what you’re talking about,” Bjorsal was leisurely drinking his ale, probably because it was his last barrel so he took his time savoring it. “How much is one ‘mile’?”

  “Eh, about one and a half kilometers, I think.” Crap, I forgot that they used the metric system.

  “That far!”

  “Wait! Don’t get ahead of yourselves.” They all shut up when I raised my voice. “There is a downside, and that is the fact that I need to use a lot of mana. Just now, the amount of mana I used to go that far was ten times greater than what I used to open a hole at the edge of the camp. And the longer I keep the portal open, the more mana it will consume.”

  Anyway, the excitement soon subsided as they continued to eat their meals or took care of the equipment. Sadly, only Velira showed some interest in my magic, but since she could not use it, she borrowed my book on low rank spells and skills to see if she could improve her magic.

  While I continue experimenting, I couldn’t help it but wonder how much my emotions will be affected if my Dark Magic rank increases again.

  When Dr. Sam sent me to that forest, I could already notice some differences. I was fine with killing other beings, and sometimes even felt happy about it, but I told myself that it was fine since they were monsters. When I saw slaves being sold, I didn’t really mind it. Then I killed the Desert Blades party – I actually still enjoy thinking about that one. So funny.

  There! I’m turning into a bloody monster!

  Uh. Today I threw six people into a big fire and their screams were like music to my ears. They were criminals, so that makes me feel a bit better. Some vigilantes did kill criminals in movies, and a lot of people didn’t mind that.

  OK, that is a good reference. Kill the bad, spare the good.

  I can do that.

  Control the Darkness. Embrace it. But under no circumstance try to suppress it, because whenever someone tried to do that in fantasy books, it backfired epicly.

  Be evil – it's fine, but have some standards, my guy. Don’t just turn into an animal, that’s disgusting!

  I am a Demon Lord.

  Demon.

  Lord.

  A creature who is inherently evil, and a man of culture. Both can exist at the same time.

  But in order to do that, you need to be a madman. Like a magical version of Dexter – my favorite serial killer.

  That could work.

  I stayed outside working on my spell until everyone retreated to their tents. Guess I could go to sleep too. Tomorrow I’ll have to work all day, counting monster corpses and turning them into new Darkness Zombies.

  “My Lord… Ah… yes…”

  I was heading to bed when I heard the moaning; it was coming from one of the tents that the girls from the Demonic Order place
d awfully close to mine.

  Huh, they were obviously fantasizing about me. I took a deep breath and my inner monster calmed down a bit. Whoever it was, it doesn’t matter. I am an evil man of culture and should behave accordingly.

  “Scissors, I see. How lovely.” Two girls were sitting on a blanket, moving their hips enthusiastically as they grind on each other.

  “M-my lord!” The girls tried to cover themselves when I walked inside their tent. No wonder, since I caught them with their... Pants down? Well, it doesn’t matter how the saying goes, they are naked and that is the only thing that’s important right now.