Arriving back at the estate, where I was warmly welcomed but also rudely placed into that of a mercenary contract, I let out a long groan as I stood with my partner in front of twin double wood doors. They were practically glaring at me as I took a step forward, pulling down the handle and pushing them in.

Inside the room, I was greeted by a woman with flawless velvet robes and long black hair so dark they almost sparkled with stars like a slice of space. She was lying back in her reclining chair, reading a book peacefully whilst I did all her work.

“Done,” I muttered, not showing any proof of my work as I assumed she already was aware of his death the second it happened. She was terrifying like that, as with a telekinetic prowess so wide and strong, she could essentially see every nook and cranny of this city if needed.

“That’s great!” She exclaimed before gesturing her hand downward. Confused, I waited until a shadowy figure dropped from the ceiling above, his pale face and bearing fangs just narrowly poking out of his mouth, slightly covered by a black hood. He was a vampire. The spitting image of a bloodsucker. “This guy apparently said that your friend that you came here with has made a deal with the other Duchess… who is also allied with me. Pretty cool, right? So, how would you like to meet your little boyfriend again?”

“He’s not my boyfriend… but, yes, that would be amazing if I could meet Orion again.”

“Hmmm… not your boyfriend? Eh, doesn’t matter to me,” that goddamn witch creepily smiled. Her pressure was through the roof and those dagger-like eyes of hers practically pierced through my skin and latched onto my neck. Even the vampire standing right beside her was hit by this merciless wave of attention as she slowly trailed her pupils to the man’s chest. “If you can’t control yourself even under the influence of another demon lord… then you don’t deserve to live. Hah! And you call yourself a loyal servant of the vampire duchess… what a joke.”

The epidemic that had spread throughout the entire city was targeted mostly toward the poor and struggling. But, that doesn’t mean monsters and demi-humans or even demons were able to escape its starving wrath. Its properties were strange, and I still couldn’t figure it out, but there was one thing I was sure of.

“He’s here…” I muttered, snapping my head around towards the doorway. And while leaning against the doorframe casually, like he hadn’t just stirred up chaos amongst an entire fortress-like city, he proceeded to lick the tip of his middle finger.

“What are you doing here?” The duchess in front of me angrily leaned forward whilst the demon lord continued to keep his cool. He looked as if he was just on a gentle stroll, coming to talk to a few of his friends that didn’t welcome him very warmly. In fact, it was a sharp and cold greeting with spear blades immediately targeted at his neck.

His cold black eyes grazed against the spears just centimeters away from piercing into his neck, and then looked up at the duchess. She was trying to keep the upper position, but upon feeling a crushing force press down on the entire room, she bowed her head. I, on the other hand, was completely unaffected, so I just stood there, motionless, waiting for the demon lord to do something.

“Is Cy doing fine?” The man turned towards me, but instead of a creepy or cold tone, he almost seemed genuinely intrigued or maybe even worried. It was hard to tell as the expression on his face was always covered with an expressionless mask of flesh.

I didn’t even respond verbally as I was too frightened to do so, so in the end, as he began to walk towards the duchess, I gave him a slight nod. He lightly smiled before giving me a nod back just as he leaned over the wooden desk beside me.

“How do you know her?” The duchess’ gritted her teeth. Her stern mask was slowly falling apart as the pale man, who almost seemed to be the embodiment of the abyss, stroked her face with his right hand. His slender fingers trailed down her chin and then to her neck, where the duchess visibly gulped a massive drop of saliva that looked as if it would just get stuck in her throat. The power of this demon lord was incredible… and way too powerful for anybody to even hope of retaliating against him.

Even the strongest of the strongest within the strongest city was unable to stand up against a single demon lord. She was nothing but putty in his hands as she felt her breath escape as soon as a pale and slender hand gripped her throat.

“How… do you… know her…” The woman attempted to choke out as if wanting to answer one more desperate question before her life escaped through her very own fingers. It looked as if the demon lord was really going to kill her, but just as her eyes nearly rolled back into her head, he let go, allowing the woman to drop back into her seat. Coughing and gasping for air, her natural reaction was to also begin tearing up as she grabbed her beet-red neck. 𝗈𝐯𝗅xt.𝗇𝓔t

“Her friend… who you could almost call her brother, is my Apostle. I trained and allowed him to rise to nearly the peak of the demonic species… well, not yet, but I’ve given him the tool to rise up there and even begin to scratch the gods… but this girl right here, she as special or even more than my little apostle,” The man smiled sadistically as he gestured for me to come closer to him.

This man was a sociopathic, psychopathic, sadistic asshole who used anybody he could to his advantage. He was not only the smartest of the demon lords but also one of the greatest tacticians when it came to manipulation. You can be smart at general things, but being smart and applying it to real-world situations is something of an entirely different level. It was almost as if he was a library, and every time he needed something, he would delve deep into himself, searching for whatever piece of information he needed the most.

“*cough* *cough* *cough* So then… what are you here for? *cough*…” The duchess proceeded to glare at the demon lord, who only saw her as nothing but a mere fly. His condescending gaze was degrading but also justified, as his power was far beyond hers.

“I came to renew my contract with your boss, but it seems he is currently sleeping. Anyways, I overheard your conversation earlier about how your friend… Orion, was it?” He turned towards me with the same sadistic smile as before. I could only give him a nod of confirmation. “Hmmmm… so he is here. That boy, I never really liked him. He managed to complete the teachings of Cerberus and proceeded to try and manipulate me… didn’t work, of course, but he could be able to do it against such an idiotic city like this.”

“Pah!” The duchess scoffed at that information. “So, what you’re saying is, he let himself be enslaved so he could enter… wait.”

The entire room fell silent as the duchess covered her mouth, brainstorming over the events that had occurred at the perimeter of the city. And the realization that she had come to was so dark that her face couldn’t help but pale.

“Are you telling me he was acting weak just so he could infiltrate the city and destroy us? I mean, under the authority of another duchess, he could practically get away with anything as long as he has her under his control.”

“You overestimate him. The reason why he is so smart and calculative is that he is weaker than everybody else in the first place. This allows others to see him as nothing more than a tiny, harmless spider, allowing him to weave the webs of control through their entire being… he’s basically me, but weaker. And that’s what makes him better than me at controlling people. He won’t be the one making moves on the city, but people he managed to control… and that includes you, Apostle of Destruction,” The demon lord turned back towards me, pointing his long middle finger right at me.

After licking the tip of his fingernail, he chuckled ever so slightly before proceeding to walk out of the room. His gaze nearly punctured holes through the two guards, who were frozen with fear at the very presence of this man.

Their guard duty of protecting the entrance to this room was nothing but a joke in front of this man. He could walk in and out as he pleased, and nobody would dare to stop him. What an asshole…