I felt the warm embrace of her touch and almost staggered. My heart had soared to the skies and I felt a surge of happiness. I never wanted Liz to leave my side ever again. I wanted to hold her close and never let go. I did fall in love with Liz and I loved her with every fiber of my being. Again, she kissed me and I realized it was a beautiful dream but it was not meant to be.

I shook my head for a bit in a daze.

                "Where were you?" I said as I released her from my embrace.

Liz looked at me with her emerald green eyes.

                "I thought you wouldn't wake up Demitri," Liz said. "I just had to find you."

I cracked a faint smile at her.

                "Sometimes I think I won't wake up either," I said. "But where did you go?"

Liz tried to tempt me with her eyes and ignored my words.

Not yet, I echoed the thoughts back to the devil in my mind.

I ran my fingers through her hair and a smell wavered that did smell just like Liz. Though I knew better and slowly I grabbed this Liz by her head. She looked at me with gentle eyes before I slammed her head against the door. She chuckled a bit after my show of violence and still looked at me with loving eyes.

                "You can take me here right now if you want," Liz said as she tempted me with her body.

My expression turned serious and I slammed her head against the door again.

                "It was a very nice try but the real Liz wouldn't act that way," I said.

This imposter pretended to be Liz and got very close to me. I was taken aback by her actions but she did fail in one area. This fake Liz tried to poison me with her lips. The moment they touched mine, I knew what her lips were covered with. The real Liz would know that I'm immune to poison and she wouldn't try to poison me anyway. Who was this assassin and who sent her?

The imposter had a hint of clarity but still tried to play it off.

                "Abuse me like you always do, Demitri," the fake Liz said.

The imposter tried to move away but I kept her forced against the door.

I punched this fake Liz on the face and drew blood from her nose.

                "You can do better than that Demitri," the fake Liz said.

                "Who are you?" I said. "Where is Liz?"

                "I am Liz," the fake Liz said.

                "No," I said almost whispering to her ear. "You're not."

The imposter realized I wasn't going to be tricked.

                "Are you going to kill me just like your friends traitor?"

                "I will if you don't answer my questions," I said.

The fake Liz tried to give me an innocent smile before she moved and kicked me away.

 I staggered backward before I tried to attack her. The Imposter pulled out a dagger from the side of her robes and stabbed me in the arm. I pulled out the dagger from my arm and forced it back toward the imposter. We struggled for a bit but I was much stronger than this fake.

                "Tell me!" I screamed.

                "For the Cardinal!" The fake yelled back. "I would gladly die than tell you anything you traitor of humanity!"

Slowly the dagger would be buried deep in her chest.

The life in her eyes was gone and the fake fell dead. It was a surreal feeling as it looked like I had killed Liz. My hands were covered with this imposter's blood. This fake was a very good chameleon to be able to imitate Liz in detail. She was even able to get through the castle and find me quite easily.

 The fake had yelled out the Cardinal's name so I knew that the Black Birds were behind this. How were spies and assassins out in Demon Territory already? Helen probably sent them out once she had unified the Kingdoms. I had really been asleep too long for her plans to have already gone into motion.

The door to my room opened and I heard Petra's voice.

                "Lord, is there something wrong?" Petra said. "The Marquis told me to come check on you and I heard a commotion."

I looked at Petra who was horrified at the scene in her eyes.

                "What have you done!?" Petra screamed.

I shook my head to clear away the voice.

                "It's not what it looks like Petra," I said. "This is a fake, it's not the real Liz."

I knelt down and looked for the seal of shadows used for appearance transformation. It was a magic well known to the Black Birds. I found the seal in the shape of a grackle on the imposter's chest. Then I broke the seal by breaking her skin with my fingernail. The shadow magic dissipated instantly and black shadow like mists appeared. After the shadows disappeared, we were shown the real body of a female assassin in the Black Birds' uniform.

                "See?" I said.

Petra fell on her knees in shock.

                "I'm sorry, I doubted you, my Lord," Petra said.

                "Don't worry," I said. "If I had killed Liz…I would've probably killed myself soon after."

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Petra stared at me in a daze.

                "The Marquis told you to come here?" I asked.

                "Yes," Petra replied. "He said you might need my help."

I snorted and knew that the Marquis let this imposter through his castle.

                "Where is he now?" I said.

                "Getting ready for dinner, my Lord," Petra said.

I quickly grabbed a cloth and bandaged my bleeding arm.

                "Could you find someone to clean this up?" I said. "I have a dinner appointment."

I left Petra who must have been going through some emotions to go see the Marquis.

I went through the corridors of the castle in a hurry as I searched for the Marquis. I needed the Marquis to answer some of my questions again personally. I wondered why and how this assassin would be able to get so close. I had doubted the failing security of the Demon Territory but I saw that it was just a ruse. What game is this Marquis playing at? Why did he let this assassin just come through for me?

As I walked towards the main hall I was greeted by a familiar maid.

                "Lord Demitri," Sabrina said. "The Marquis requests that I guide you to him for dinner."

                "I see," I said. "So he had this planned out already?"

The Demon maid gives me a smile with a courtesy and leads me to the dining hall.

Sabrina opened the doors and magnificence of the dining hall reflected in my eyes. This Marquis really lives like a grand life of riches.  Everything shined golden and the floor, as well as the ceiling, were spotless. The Marquis was sitting at the end of a long table reading some documents in his hand. A lot of dishes were scattered about on top of the long table. He noticed our appearance in the huge dining hall and shifted his gaze towards me. The Marquis gestured for us to come forward and I obliged.

                "Ah, Lord Demitri," the Marquis said. "You have arrived in time for dinner I see."

I wasted no time with pleasantries and confronted him.

                "Did you know?" I said. "That there an assassin disguised as Liz who tried to kill me?"

The Marquis put down the document in his hand and pushed up his glasses.

                "I told the Oracle that once she has returned that she would see me no matter what. When I heard she didn't and went straight for you, I knew it was an imposter. The Oracle keeps her word and wouldn't do something frivolous as to see you when we have things to accomplish," The Marquis said with a wave of his hand.

                "You let her come and try to kill me?" I said.

The Marquis smirked at me.

                "She shouldn't be able to kill you and if she did…then you were not worth my time," The Marquis said. "This would mean that the Oracle too would be not worth my time."

A boiling anger shot through my body and I felt irritated by being played like a fool. My hand reached for the hilt of my sword but I was stopped from unsheathing it. I looked behind and saw that the maid Sabrina had her hand on the hilt of my sword. A murderous aura came from her eyes and no longer did she seem like a timid obedient maid.

                "Forgive me Lord Demitri," Sabrina said. "But I will not allow you to harm the Marquis."

                "Don't you want to know where the Oracle went?" The Marquis said.

                "You know?" I said.

I shut the voice out of my head.

I gritted my teeth for a moment but brought myself back to my senses. I looked at the Marquis who only kept a smile at me. I released my hand away from my sword and Sabrina returned to her façade. I looked at a chair close to the Marquis and nodded my chin to Sabrina. She understood my actions and pulled out the chair for me.  

I sat down and didn't bother with proper etiquette.

                "Where?" I said.

                "We should eat first," the Marquis said. "We have some excellent pigs here in the north."

                "Where is she?" I said.

                "You see this area is cold and desolate but a particular breed of swine live here," The Marquis said. "They survive the harshest of the cold and feed on anything smaller than them to survive whether it be plants or animals."

                "Where is Liz?" I said.

                "These swine are true Demons-"

I slammed my fist on the table and the Marquis seemed peeved.            

                "Lord Demitri, I can see that you are a man of business only," The Marquis said.

                "No, I'm just not a fan of games and bullshit," I said. "You've lost my trust when you tried to test me with an assassin in the image of Liz."

                "That assassin was not mine," The Marquis said.

                "Either way you let her through and let me kill someone who looked like Liz," I said.

The Marquis rubbed with chin slightly with his hand and nodded.

                "I can understand your anger," the Marquis said. "There's one thing you should've realized Lord Demitri, you shouldn't have trusted me as I never trusted you."

The Marquis signaled for a plate of pork and Sabrina obliged him.

                "So while I have lost your trust, you have gained mine," the Marquis said.

The Marquis hadn't cared to look at me while cutting into the ham.

                "By trying to kill me?" I asked.

                "No, But you would kill your friends for your own survival," the Marquis replied. "A needed trait for the Demon Lord."

                "She wasn't Liz and I knew she wasn't," I said.

The Marquis inserted a fork into the slice of ham and ate it.

                "You had no doubt?" The Marquis said after a wipe of his mouth with a cloth.

                "None."

                "Interesting," the Marquis said. "Care to explain?"

                "No."

                "Good."

The Marquis set aside his plate and looked at me.

                "I need to know if you can be the Demon Lord, Lord Demitri," The Marquis said. "You might not care but the Demon race does and then so do I."

I looked at the black ring on my finger and felt calm after suppressing the voice.

                "Where did Liz go?" I said.

                "She went for a parley," the Marquis said. "To the north."

The Marquis looked left of the dining table to a huge map of the Demon territory scrolled on the wall.

                "What?" I said. "Isn't that the Demon General's territory?"

                "Yes, General Bartholomew holds the territory to the north and plenty of the human spies must have seen her leave this area," the Marquis said.

                "Why did she go there!?" I said.

I stood up and looked at the map.

                "For you," the Marquis said. "To help prevent a civil war when another war brews on the frontlines."

The Marquis gracefully picked up a wine glass on the table and drank it.

                "She wants you to become the Demon Lord and she'll risk it all for you," The Marquis said. "Would you let it all go in vain?"

                "Damn!" I said. "Of all the reckless things!"

                "Yes, you did kill the General's son after all," The Marquis said. "Blood leads to more bloodshed."

I looked at the Marquis who kept his eyes on me with a smirk on his mouth.

                "I'm leaving to go get Liz," I said.

I turned around and started to leave.

                "Do you need an army?" The Marquis said.

                "No," I said.

                "I'll make sure that you get a fast horse," the Marquis said.

I looked back at the Marquis who returned to eating.

He devoured the swine that he talked about immaculately.

Pigs are always fed but hogs will get slaughtered as Martin had told me.               

This Marquis looked to fatten me up to get slaughtered as a test.

How much power would I really wield if I controlled all of the Demon Territory?

I stopped thinking about it as I began my crusade to save Liz.