Andromalius’s Castle- Helen

“We have been called to serve the magnificent demon lord, in his private chamber,” Mikhail said, curtsying slightly outside the castle door.

The guards stationed in front stared blankly at our group before turning their attention to Mikhail.

While our numbers were far greater than what which you would expect, the guards nodded almost immediately when his eyes fell on Mikhail’s body. I guess because of Mikhail’s appearance that he was too captivated to process any information in front of him.

Rather, from the looks on the guards’ eyes, they seemed to be enchanted by him to a degree where they would agree to whatever he said without bothering to think about it.

For a moment, I felt scared of the possible things he could do if he used his abilities in an evil way.

The guard captain glanced at us once more before returning his eyes to Mikhail’s chest.

Even if he wanted to find any fault, with so many beauties, there was little to say to refute Mikhail’s statement.

Not only that, because we did not have anything on us besides our clothes, he must have figured that it was impossible for us to cause any problem.

The truth was far from it. Our weapons were concealed behind Mikhail’s spells, and like what happened previously at the entrance gate, the guards looked at us with mana infused eyes.

After a while, they nodded.

Off in the corner of my eyes, I noticed that Mikhail’s hands, which he held behind his back, was trembling.

“I see… come this way,” he said after giving us a glance filled with wicked and perverse desire.

Some of the girls shuddered but wordlessly followed.

Three of the five demons were tasked with leading us to the demon lord.

I glanced at Mikhail, who, after entering the castle, became deathly silent. 

To our surprise, Mikhail immediately moved forward after the gate closed behind us, and drawing his dagger, he covered the demon’s mouth with one hand and drove his sword through his head.

Pulling the blade out with a river of blood pouring onto the marble floor, he turned to the demons by his side.

When the demon to the right heard of the pitter patter of blood, he turned around to look.

Caught by surprise, his vision blurred as a sword pierced through the center of his head.

His arms dangled lifelessly his head was pinned against the wall. Blood splattered against the wall.

While simultaneously stabbing his sword into the demon to the left, he turned to the demon on the right side with a murderous look.

The other demon, who was reaching for his sword, was grabbed by the head and slammed against the wall.

Without mercy, Mikhail dashed forward, dragging the demon’s head against the wall with all of his might before slamming his body onto the ground where he stabbed the demon’s heart with his dagger.

The entire battle was concluded in less than five seconds. Before anyone could realize what happened, three corpses laid in front of us.  

The moment that the last demon faced his end, I turned away.

Even for a knight, the scene in front of us was something that no sane individual could possibly look at without feeling some sort of horror.

When I glanced at the demon, whom body was twitching had had more than half of his head missing, I noticed, under the crack of his helmet, the terrified expression on his distorted face before his death.

The mural that he had painted with blood resembled that of a crimson shooting star.

I couldn’t help but cover my mouth, forcing myself not to vomit.

With his back turned to the demon whom blood was spurting out from half of his head, Mikhail pulled his sword out of the wall, and watching as the second demon collapse onto the ground with a loud thump, he sighed with relief.

When I looked at Mikhail, there was a demeaning smile plastered on his face.

Stretching his arms out and sheathing his sword and dagger, he said happily, “that felt good.”

“Why did you do that?” I said, holding back, “they would have shown us to the demon lord’s room.”

It was hard to believe that this person was the same person carefree person who would easily surrenders to her whim.

“Unlike the guards at the gate, there is no doubt that the demon lord would see through us, and before we can defeat him, we will be surrounded,” he replied, smiling like he did when we were looking through the stalls back in the city, “the more we kill now, without anyone knowing, the fewer will react once we fight him, or once we leave. And, we need to catch him off guard if we want an easier time to kill him.”

“Still…” I glanced at the dead bodies.

“Don’t worry about it Helen, they’re just demons. Now, we should dispose of the body in one of these room and hide for the time being,” he suggested, lifting one of the bodies up and dragging him away.

Just… demons, I stared at him quizzically. Even though they were demons, to have such little amount of care about the value of their life. Not only that, he was a demon himself. For him to care so little about them…

While I thought about it, he continued to move forward.

Chloe, who stood by my side, frowned with a disgusted look on her face.

The two knights closest to the corpses hesitated before carrying the bodies behind Mikhail. The rest began disposing of the evidence with some quick water spell that washed away the blood and flame spells to burn away the water.

“Oh,” he said, turning back around for a moment to speak to everyone, “I forgot to mention this, but do not use any magic spells unless you have to. This demon lord may not have the wealth or power to have a magic core, but there is a high chance that if we use magic, the powerful demons that reside within his castle will be able to detect the flux of mana, and once that happens, our cover will be blown.”

After being warned, we followed behind him.

I wanted to ask him a few things, but remembering what just happened, I found myself unable to ask.

Eventually, we were able to sneak into one of the many empty rooms and dumped the bodies.  

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Mikhail, who was guarding the door, turned around to look at me, “it would be best to signal the attack. The safest place once the battle begins would be here for us. The battle will draw away many guards from the castle in order to bolster their army. Once that happens, we’ll move out and sneak our way towards the demon lord. They’ll be too preoccupied to worry about the defense of their castle when their front door is being attacked.”

“Are you alright?” he asked, visibly concerned when I stared blankly at him.

Shaking off the strangeness of his sudden switch in personality, I nodded my head and took out the crystal.

*****

His footsteps were silent, and with his figure absorbed within the darkness of every corner. It was as if he was one with the shadow. And, with every move he made, his victims grew in the number.

There was no mercy in his attacks, and with every strike being lethal, there was little to no resistance from the demons that fall to his blade. If we did not know that it was him, we would have never thought that the horrendous things that were committed in this room would be done by someone who seemed so passive all this time. It was like watching a monster unleashed upon a group of defensive children.

There wasn’t a single spot within the room that was not covered in blood.

With a trail of corpses behind his back, he became was more frightening than the enemies that we thought we would be fighting.

After having singlehandedly cleared an entire room with over twelve demons by himself, he stood at the center of the corpse-riddled room.

While it was still difficult to hear him breath, I could hear enough to tell that his breathing was growing louder.

His shoulders slumped down with fatigue and his chest were expanding and contracting erratically.

It would be far scarier if he wasn’t tired from having killed so many demons.

The scene in front of me was nothing less than a gut-wrenching portrait of death.

With hands covered in blood, he brought his fingers through his hair as he drew it back.

For a moment, he had a dangerous bloodlust within his eyes.

But, as he turned around, it simply… vanished.

“Thank goodness that they didn’t scream,” he said, breathing a sigh of relief, “is everyone alright?”

My head immediately nodded almost subconsciously.

I couldn’t help protested sheepishly, “Mikhail, I am starting to question whether or not you are an ordinary incubus or not.”

 After everything that he showed me, there was no way that he was normal- even for a half-breed.

Even though he had single-handedly wipe out a room full demons, he didn’t seem to be even slightly affected.

“Is that a compliment?” He replied casually, smiling back at me with the same smile he would constantly wear as if there was nothing wrong in the world.

“If you wish to take it that way,” I answered back, holding back the trembling within my voice, “are you alright yourself?”

I was starting to believe that he was a wolf in sheep’s clothing, but from his past record, he didn’t seem like someone that would betray us.

At first, I had assumed that everything he did, the sudden change in his characteristic when faced with his enemies, was simply out of hatred, but even hatred could not burn for so long, or delivered so mercilessly. Though, I can’t say that I comprehend his thought process anymore.

Whatever his motive was, as long as it does not hurt us or our race, then I don’t believe it would be a trouble.

“Oh, are you concerned about me?” He asked, brimming with joy.

“It would be unfortunate if you collapsed out of fatigue,” I responded casually, “because we will not be carrying around deadweight.”

It was strange, even though I had just met him, there was a likeableness about him that makes me relax around him, and there was this sense of dread, like a bird ignorant of the fact that it had landed on a monster’s mouth. Even though I have seen him make little work of the guards of the castle, I still couldn’t find myself to hate him.

I felt confused.  

Some of the girls who had gone pass the viciousness and barbaric slaughtering of demons were actually cheering for him. In truth, they were our enemies and if we were to spare them, they would return the favor with the tip of their sword.

It would be better for them to died rather than us.

When I thought of it like that, it made his action more excusable.

The others, while weary of him, were also pleasantly calm about his actions.

Perhaps it is the incubus blood that flows within his veins.

“Tsk, how cold hearted,” he protested, “but I am alright. I just need to catch my breaths and I will be back to normal.”

“If you need, we can rest for a little,” I suggested, feeling a tad bit bad that he was doing everything.

Even though our group had a sizeable amount of experience when it comes to combat, we had never dealt with demons in such large quantities before and it was quite overwhelming.

On occasion, we would be able to assist Mikhail and kill a runner, but most never had that kind of chance when they face Mikhail.

“No, that won’t be necessary,” he replied almost immediately, “the longer we stay here, the more people will die outside the gate, and the more likely we will be caught.”

“No matter how swiftly we were clearing the rooms, if any one of us were harmed, it will only cause us a delay at the end,” I voiced my thought, “if you need any time to recuperate your energy, don’t hesitate to say the words.”  

“I will keep that in mind,” he said, standing straight up, “let’s keep moving.”

I had never expected for Mikhail to be more useful than what I had imagined.

Demons are far stronger than humans on an average level, but he was a mix blood, so he should not have been any stronger than an average demon, yet he was far stronger than anyone I have ever met.

Watching his back, I hated to admit it, but amongst the chaos, it was nice to have someone to rely on.