Caeldaemos slithered about the mansion through the shadows. He had found a lot of incriminating evidence against the duke but not the duke himself. From what he had overheard from the servants, Gaolphista should be home.

Much of the evidence he had found showed that the duke had been siphoning off millions of Tress to build an army to invade human lands. He had about a third of the nobles in his corner while pressuring or blackmailing others to support him. There were even documents showing that the duke intended to usurp the royal family to install a puppet as the emperor.

Caeldaemos wondered why he didn’t want to be emperor and messaged Listamati. She responded that the duke likely didn’t wish to have knives pointed in his direction. By using another, he would not have to worry about sacrificing his pawn to replace it with another.

“Damn, the duke is in a bad mood again…” A servant stated.

Caeldaemos rushed over to see a couple of servants exiting a secret hallway. He quickly moved inside before the passage was closed. He made his way down.

The smell was heavy with medicine and disinfectant. There was also a putrid smell hidden behind it all.

“What the hell is this place? Some kind of lab?” He continued to check around, gathering more evidence as he went, becoming nauseous at the experiments he saw.

Caeldaemos found several spirits in chains. Wind, fire, water, light, darkness, earth. He had every elemental type of spirit locked up. The women quietly cried while staying as far from the gate as possible.

“Hey.” He whispered from the shadow.

The spirit of darkness looked over. “W-who’s there?” She nervously asked.

“I’m here to help,” Caeldaemos answered.

“Y-You can’t stay here! He’ll get you too!” She desperately cried.

It hurt his heart that they put a stranger above themselves. Just how badly had they been treated?

“What’s going on?” The fire spirit asked.

“Someone’s here!” The spirit of darkness stated.

“If you can get us out, please do. But if you can’t, leave this place and tell the spirit king!” The spirit of fire begged.

“Will anyone notice you gone?” He asked.

“Not for a while.” The fire spirit stated.

“Then let’s get you out of there.” He reached out and pulled them all in while quietly breaking the chains.

“Huh!? It’s you!” The water spirit exclaimed.

“Who is he?” The earth spirit asked.

“He’s the Demon-Lord!” She answered.

The other spirits backed away while the water spirit hugged him. “Thank you!”

“But… isn’t he the Demon-Lord?” The others asked.

“He is! But he is good! He destroyed slavers and one of the old cults!” She stated.

“I swear by Io, I am here to put an end to Gaolphista and save you.”

The spirits watched in awe as the silver haze of light rolled over him. Shortly after, they sobbed, celebrating and thanking him for saving them.

It took some time for them to calm down enough for him to ask them questions.

“Can you tell me what is happening here?” He asked while showing outside the shadows.

The spirit of fire stepped forward. “That bastard is performing mortal experiments.”

“What does that mean?” He cocked his head.

“I heard what he said before.” The water spirit spoke. “He said something about creating the perfect vessel for his beloved or something.”

“What kind of things has he done?” He asked.

The spirit of light trembled before breaking down in sobs again.

Caeldaemos knelt and used Lord of Darkness and Bringer of Light on her.

After he finished, he knew what Gaolphista had been doing.

The duke had been attempting to infuse pure spirits with monster blood. With spirits being such pure beings and monsters impure, it was maddeningly painful for the spirits. It felt like their bodies were trying to rip themselves apart as the opposites pushed away from one another.

“Gods… You have died sixteen times….” Tears rolled down Caeldaemos’ face beneath his helmet.

“All of us have been robbed of our lives. Only Maisea has lost a few since she was recently brought here.” The fire spirit spoke. “Litra there has been here the longest… She is on her last life….”

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

The spirit of light, Litra, hugged around Caeldaemos’ neck. “Thank you! Thank you so much for clearing away my darkness!” She sobbed again, but this time happily.

Caeldaemos stood. “Do any of you know anything about a fox spirit named Dasheara?”

The spirits looked about themselves.

Litra was the one who spoke up. “Yes. She was said to be his greatest success and failure.”

“He would always compare us to her.” The fire spirit stated.

“Why was she a failure? What happened to her?” He asked.

They looked to Litra.

“Um, why do you want to know?”

“Her daughter wants to know the truth of what her father did to her,” Caeldaemos answered.

“Her father?” Litra asked.

“Gaolphista.”

All of the spirits were surprised. “But… spirits cannot reproduce with demons.”

“That is what I have been told before. Could he have used some kind of ritual?”

Litra shook her head. “He does have a ritual he uses, but it only infuses blood into us.”

It didn’t make sense. Maybe he stopped using it…

“I think I might have an idea…” The spirit of darkness raised her hand.

“Go ahead.”

She began speaking of her theory to Caeldaemos. By the end of it… Gaolphista was going to die painfully.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gaolphista sat at his desk in his lab, looking over his latest failure results. “Dammit, if only that bitch fox didn’t use that curse… I would have had the perfect vessel….”

“Dominate.”

A sharp pain pierced his mind, and he quickly moved from his seat, summoning his sword and shield from his storage ring. “Who dares!?” He shouted.

The large form rose from the shadows to stand before him.

“Ah, the Demon-Lord.”

“You will pay for your crimes in blood and suffering.” The Demon-Lord stated.

“Hah!” Gaolphista laughed. “Fool. Do you think I didn’t have anything to deal with you?”

Gaolphista held up his left hand and activated one of his rings. A black goop shot out from it and bound the Demon-Lord in place. “Hahahahahah! My mistress has prepared me for you, just in case. I will-.”

SNAP!

The bindings began to break.

“Oh. Well, here would be difficult.” Gaolphista cruelly smiled. “I’ll see you upstairs.” He ran from the room.

The furious roar of the Demon-Lord shook the entire facility. “GAOLPHISTA!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fury pumped in Caeldaemos’ veins. He was going to kill the duke if it was the last thing he did!

The metal door to the lab was ripped off its hinges, crushing several knights who arrived to slow him down.

“Choose.” Caeldaemos pointed his jager mace at them. “Die for that sinner that performs atrocities against the mortal races.” He let his threat hang in the air. “Or get the fuck out of my way.”

The knights needed only to glance at one another before running for their lives.

Caeldaemos finally caught up to Gaolphista, who was finishing a ritual.

“HAHAHAHAH! You’re too late Demon-Lord! I shall kill you and be known as a hero!” Gaolphista cried as his body rapidly bulged and changed. He grew in size so great that it ripped apart his home.

Gaolphista roared in triumph in his dragon form. “You shall die Demo-!” He was cut short by a jager mace to the face.

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Caeldaemos smashed more scales off of Gaolphista’s face.

Gaolphista roared in anger and unleashed a gout of fire.

Caeldaemos dove out of the path and smashed his mace into Gaolphista’s right foreleg.

“GRAAAH! You bastard!”

Gaolphista’s tail whipped around and slammed into Caeldaemos’ shield, knocking him back.

“I’ll fucking kill you!” Caeldaemos yelled in anger.

He zipped around and hit the point where Gaolphista’s tail met his back end, shattering the scales, breaking the bones, and snapping his jager mace.

Gaolphista roared in pain before breathing fire once more at the Demon-Lord.

Caeldaemos held up his shield, activated its Mana Eater ability, and absorbed the magic fire. While he bought time, Caeldaemos quickly made a new mace.

The battle continued, leaving the duke’s mansion a mess of rubble, and the city panicked.

Gaolphista coiled his long neck and struck out, trying to eat Caeldaemos, but the Demon-Lord uppercut the dragon with his new mace. While Gaolphista was stunned, Caeldaemos spun in the air, building enough momentum to smash, and break another mace, right into the side of Gaolphista’s jaw.

“GragaaaGAA!” Gaolphista’s jaw was shattered and loosely hanging. “Damn you, Demon-Lord! You ruined my mistress’ plans! I will not let you leave here alive!” It was then that Gaolphista activated an ability that made Caeldaemos feel weak.

“Impossible… You have Hero’s Call?”

“Hahahahah! I am better than those pathetic Heroes! I shall rule this world with my mistress!” Gaolphista madly cackled at getting the upper hand.

“No.” Caeldaemos created several custom curses. “The only world you will be in is death. Demon-Lord’s Call!”

Shifting the balance of power back in his favor, Caeldaemos unleashed the curses on Gaolphista. As a final addition, he created a domain that sealed Gaolphista inside, and a sickening blackish glob was shot straight into Gaolphista’s hanging open mouth.

The dragon coughed and hacked before screaming in pain. He thrashed about on the ground as his scales fell off his body and his flesh bubbled and rotted.

“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME!?!?” Gaolphista cried.

“What you deserve.” Caeldaemos watched as the demon dragon suffered.

Gaolphista continued to cry, scream, and suffer.

What Caeldaemos had hit Gaolphista with were curses of Feeling Amplification, Pain Amplification, Suffering Amplification, Unending Awareness, and the sickening glob was his first usage of Lord of Pestilence… Rot.

After thirty minutes of suffering, Gaolphista ceased to move, and his continuing-to-rot corpse bubbled and fell to goo. Seeing the work was complete, Caeldaemos purified the domain space with white fire for ten minutes before removing the domain. Assured his work was done, he jetted off to the palace to turn in his findings.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sylvia sighed as she finally made it back to Venture. She checked Michael’s location once more, seeing that he was still to the west and, better yet, not that far now.

She stopped a four-armed demon. “Excuse me.”

“Hmm? What can I help you with, madam?” He asked a bit curtly.

“What is west of here?” She asked.

“West? Other than demi-human lands, there is a town called Hallibrush. They are a friend of ours.” He answered.

“I see. Have you heard of a demon named Michael?”

The demon chuckled. “That is not the name of a demon.”

Damn. She figured he must be going by another name. “How about a large demon? Horns, wings, and no tail?” Sylvia could only remember what the Avatar of the Demon-Lord looked like.

“I can think of many who match that.”

“How about west of here.” She asked.

“If that is the case, there is only one I can think of. His name is Caeldaemos. He is the baron of Hallibrush.”

Caeldaemos. She finally had a name. “Thank you.”

“Do you know him?” The demon asked.

“I… Yes. I wronged him long ago and am trying to make amends.” She honestly answered.

“I see. Be careful of his family. From what I heard, they are very protective of him.” The demon stated.

“Thank you.” She bowed her head in thanks.

“No problem. Take care.” The demon went on his way.

Not wanting to waste any more time. Sylvia mounted on her Wind Scythe and rode as fast as possible to the west.