“Fuck, I told you Karyn!” Antar then got closer to Karyn. So did the rest. They got into their formation and sprung up the protective shield.

“Hmph. Weak.” As soon as the shield formed a dark lances of dark energy started appearing above it. When Aleir was forming objects with the dark energy during his fight with Holy Lord there all had rough shapes. Now however, they all had a smooth surface and precise shapes. Their strength had undergone a qualitative change.

When the group saw the objects, they realized what was going on. Aleir had to be connected to the tree. Most likely he was the tree!

“Do you think that we went here just to refresh your memory? No, we knew this would most likely happen. And here no citizens will get hurt as we kill you!” Eldrich said in a confident tone.

“How valiant of you. But you miscalculated.” Aleir gave them a wide smile. As he did, the lances started bombarding the shield. Before anyone even managed to cast a single spell the barrier already had several large cracks on it.

“Antar, Karyn! Hold the barrier! Zenon, Ornan! We use combined magic!” Eldrich yelled out orders as fast as he could.

The barrier was cracking loudly. It looked as if it would fall apart any moment.

“Use all your magical energy in this spell! We don’t have time to release more than one spell!”

Both Zenon and Ornan nodded and started channeling their magical energy in the spell. The spell formed a huge greatsword. It looked very majestic with numerous ornaments.

“Ugh… we… can’t… hold on…” Karyn squeezed out of her as she was almost devoid of any magical energy and an extreme wave of exhaustion was coming upon her.

“Release… NOW!” The greatsword was aiming at Aleir, who was just silently staying there. With his handcuffs still on, smiling at the group. The greatsword was flying at an extreme speed. It seemed as nothing could stop it.

In a flash the greatsword was almost upon Aleir. However when it got close the greatsword suddenly stopped.

The whole group looked in shock and despair. They couldn’t believe their eyes. The greatsword was caught by a dark hand coming out of Aleir’s right side. That hand caught the greatsword as if it was just a mere toy!

“Shit…” Eldrich, out of all, was the one who felt as if he had fallen into the pits of hell. He brought his companions here! This was his plan to try to squeeze out the truth out of the man. However he didn’t think that the man would suddenly attack them like this. And what he didn’t expect the most was the strength the man held. They were not his match! Aleir just stood there and didn’t move an inch. Yet they tried their best to resist him but failed.

At this moment the shield cracked. It broke like a cracked mirror.

“I think this is over isn’t it?” Aleir still stood there, a grin hanging on his face. “However, I can’t kill you.” The whole group was flabbergasted. He would just let them go?

“Thanks to you and your villagers I was awakened. That’s a debt I owe you. However, since you threatened me I need to punish your little group.” Aleir’s grin then turned into a smile that wasn’t a smile.

A two dark lances appeared out of nowhere and flew in the direction of Zenon and Ornan. As they saw them getting closer all they could do was to give a desperate smile. In a flash the lances pierced both Zenon and Ornan and they fell on the ground, dead.

Eldrich and Karyn with Antar just stood there, powerless. Angry at themselves for being weak and even angrier at Aleir for murdering their friends!

Eldrich clenched his teeth and mumbled to himself “I will make you pay for this.”

“So… now, we can get to the negotiations” Aleir calmly said as if nothing had happened. He then continued. “I need people to supply me with information. Thus, you got 2 choices. First, serve as my slaves for as long as I desire. Second, die.”

The group’s expression paled. Their faces completely drained of any color. Eldrich then stood up to Aleir and fiercely responded.

“I would rather die than serve you!”

After Eldrich said that his expression was one of hate and anger. He served the city all his life. Unlike some of his subordinates he took all of his duties very seriously. Yielding to Aleir and serving someone as evil as him wasn’t something he could accept. If he did yield to him it would be the same as throwing everything he had done till now.

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Aleir’s expression hadn’t changed. He just simply waved his hand. From the ground started emerging small spikes that were coming towards Eldrich who couldn’t resist since he already used up all his magical energy. In a moment the spikes shot through Eldrich’s legs. Then his lower abdomen and his chest. Eldrich was hanging mid-air, soon to die due to the serious injuries.

Aleir then started walking closer to Eldrich. The rest of the group was just staying a bit further back, shivering from fear. They didn’t want to die. Serving the man was still better than dying to them. When Aleir stood in front of Eldrich he leaned forward and whispered into his year.

“You will still serve me even in death.”

Eldrich could barely hear what the man was saying as his vision was rapidly fading and his senses were dulled. However he still involuntarily shivered. After a short moment Eldrich closed his eyes. His mind filled with regret and pure hatred. The only thing comforting him a bit as his consciousness faded was that he had died for what he believed.

Aleir then reached out and dark energy flowed into the corpse. After a short moment it created a cocoon. The cocoon was rapidly expanding until it popped. All that remained from the cocoon was a black figure. It didn’t have any facial features. It looked more like a black silhouette than an actual living being.

“Not bad. The process went better than expected. It lacks in some areas and is nowhere strong enough but that’s as much as I can get from a weak dead mage.” Aleir then pondered for a bit “Should I reanimate the other 2 as well? No, this is still just an experiment. Mages of this caliber aren’t good for anything but gathering information anyway, or as a cannon fodder.”

Karyn with Antar looked at the black figure in horror. They figured that had they revolted this would be their fate. A soul trapped in an empty husk, blindly obeying any commands. Both looked away as they couldn’t stand the sight of their former team leader.

Aleir turned to Karyn and Antar “It’s your turn.”

When it reached their ears they shuddered. Antar then jumped in front of Karyn with his shield raised.

“Didn’t you say you can’t kill us?!”

“I did, and I won’t kill you. I said you will serve me for as long as I desire. Don’t worry, I will keep your souls intact. You won’t die but you will serve me as a puppet. Your team leader had his soul consumed by me. The same thing won’t happen to you. You got my word.”

Aleir then pointed at the two. From the ground black vines shot out and entangled Antar. He was struggling but he couldn’t move nor get rid of them. After a short moment the vines formed another cocoon. The same thing that happened to Eldrich happened to him. He was turned into a black figure without any distinct features.

Karyn then dropped on her knees, weeping in despair. She was silently mumbling a prayer. “Be blessed our Holy Lord, protect us from the evil. For we are your humble servants…”

Aleir’s expression changed for the first time. “Did you just say Holy Lord?!”

Karyn looked up, her eyes wet. “I-I did…”

“Where did you hear that?! Do you know something about the Holy Lord?” Aleir bombarded her with questions.

She was taken aback. Karyn didn’t expect Aleir to be interested in her lord.

“W-We of the Church all pray to the Holy Lord. He is the one who guides us all.” Karyn squeezed out of her.

Aleir laughed. He was laughing very loudly. “What an irony. I used to be a Holy Lord, long time ago. However that’s all a past that no one needs to know.”

Holy Lords generally had no contact with one another. During his time as Holy Lord he almost never left his temple thus he didn’t really know if people actually knew about their existence. But it seemed now that in some form they did.

Karyn was weeping. She didn’t know what to do. 2 of her teammates were dead and 2 were turned into those black figures. “I’m sorry Antar, I should’ve known that the man was evil. But even now I feel no evil aura. The aura even feels… noble? What is happening?” She mumbled to herself as Aleir was slowly walking towards her.

“You pray to a Holy Lord. And you feel my aura to be noble. I wonder what that could mean.” Aleir then gave her an evil grin as the black vines shot out of the ground once more and entangled her. She wasn’t struggling. She had long accepted her fate and knew that there is nothing that can change that. Then the realization dawned upon her. “Wait, this can’t be real right?” She looked at Aleir with eyes filled with despair. Aleir continued to grin. In a short moment the vines created a cocoon and a black figure was created.

When the figure walked out Aleir pondered for a while. “Good, 3 should be enough for a while. All I need is to use them to gather information. I wonder if I can change their appearance.”

He then pointed at one of the figures. It was the newly created black figure from Karyn. The blank appearance of the figure started to change, the black started turning light brown and her face started taking familiar shape. After a moment the black figure transformed in how Karyn used to look like. It even retained the same aura Karyn had. Unless someone was stronger than Aleir no one could see through the disguise!

After Aleir made sure that the black figure looked exactly the same as Karyn he had the other 2 figures transform into their former selves.

“Hm… maybe I could use them to harvest some more life force.” Aleir had an evil smile on his face. One that was filled with cruelty and lack of remorse. He then imbued more of his dark energy into the figures.

“The Guardians will help me get some more life force while I don’t have to move a finger.” As he thought about it he let out a laugh.

Aleir could command the figures through ordering the dark energy within them. He didn’t have to voice his orders, just think about them and they would execute whatever he wished. Although two of the figures had souls they were shackled and couldn’t put up any resistance.

“Go and blend back in the city. Search the archives of the city for information about Holy Lords. Also, bring me some citizens as sacrifices each day. I will be here waiting every day after the nightfall.” Aleir ordered and the figures turned around and walked in the direction of the city.

“Good, this way I should be able to consume more. However I feel that devouring mortals won’t be as efficient due to their low magical energy. Let’s see how good it will be.” Aleir sat down in one of the broken farmer houses and started circulating his dark energy to carefully examine the changes.