Death's Door 141 Volume 6: Chapter 16: Recruit?

"Yes, Morph"

"Why do you look like that?"

Dark Lord was no longer disguised as an ordinary black haired man.

He took off the mask Lukalis and Camilla made for him, and reverted back to his original disguise.

Now he was Runfar Sevilles, the lord of the Sevilles Estate.

"I just thought it was time for a slight change. That is all"

"Does it have anything to do with the angel we just met?"

But after seeing Dark Lord's pained expression, Morphus muttered.

"Never mind. Don't want to talk about it?"

"Maybe later, but not right now"

"As you wish, master"

Dark Lord/Runfar Sevilles and Morphus proceeded to walk towards the territory of Merok, specifically the area that was used as a prison.

But it would take some time to get there and Dark Lord was not in a rush.

So, they proceeded to visit different areas of Merok, just so they could get as much intel as possible.

Along the way, they ended up in the slums area.

And strangely enough, they kept finding corpses that seemed to be mummified.

While Morphus was curious about the strange double fanged bite marks on the bodies of the victims, Dark Lord was muttering to himself.

"Knight of Death, huh? So, in a way, I am one of them? The heroes? No, that couldn't possibly be it. Each one of the 'Knight of something' are champions, representing a deity, a primary or a secondary. Which means I am here representing Olim. That just sucks."

"Of all the people, it had to be me! I am the Knight of Death that has to take down all the other champions, how is that even fair? Uhhh….But on the bright side, I saw Desolai, on the down side, she has no idea who I am…"

"Milord?" Morphus was getting a little worried about his superior's mental state.

It was almost like Dark Lord was lost in his own little world.

"…Chronos, I will definitely slaughter you for this!"

"Milord, are you ok?" Morphus nervously asked.

Dark Lord talking to himself like a lunatic was rather alarming to say the least.

"Never better"

Dark Lord's face clearly expressed his ice cold rage.

"So what do you think about the corpses?"

"I do not believe someone went through the trouble of removing the blood from the bodies, it looks more like the perpetrator drank the blood. A vampire, possibly"

"A blood sucker, heh? I think I know exactly who we are dealing with"

"Really?"

"Yep. I had an odd fortune of running into her a while back. Should be easy enough to deal with"

After following the trail of bodies, they found an abandoned building.

"She is in there. Wait for a minute; I have something I need to take care of"

"I shall wait outside, Milord"

Dark Lord proceeded to enter the building.

Morphus tried his best to listen to what was going on inside.

He heard some noises, struggle, sound of stuff breaking, and a woman's scream.

And then, Dark Lord emerged victorious, dragging the blond haired fanged woman out of the building by her hair.

She was the vampire that caused all this mess.

Punching her in the gut, he slammed her head first into the ground.

"I should have killed you back then; at least you wouldn't have caused any more trouble. But now….See ya…"

Dark Lord prepared to test out just how good was his right skeletal arm was at tearing a person into pieces with sheer physical strength.

If anything the undead were good for, it was nearly unlimited physical strength, just as long as you have enough mana.

"Wait! Dark Lord, who is this?"

"Just a low level blood sucker, nothing important"

"But she could be of use to us alive, rather than dead, right?"

"You think we can use her? Very well"

Dark Lord took out a piece of paper out of his storage ring.

On the paper was writing for binding contract.

Recently he had gotten rather good at making contracts, and by now, he was very confident in using them.

A willing consent was no longer necessary, instead, a drop of blood sufficed.

That was also his trump card, in case that Knight of Light ever found out that Runfar Sevilles was the Dark Lord.

During the time Runfar patched up her injuries, he put a drop of her blood on a binding contract, which she was not aware of.

Now, if she ever tries to attack him, he can bind her with contract, which would, at the very least, buy him some time.

The weakness of such contracts was that beings with exceptional willpower could break free of them.

Dark Lord was confident that if Knight of Light ever became aware of the involuntary contract he put on her, she had willpower powerful enough to break free.

But, even then, placing a binding contract on her that she was not aware of was a good strategy.

If used just right, it could mean the difference between victory and defeat.

Dark Lord was well aware of Knight of Light's power; having her as an enemy could potentially get him stuck in infinite loop again, but this time, with no way of coming out.

There was no way he wanted to go through that again.

With a drop of the lesser vampire's blood, the contract was sealed. Dark Lord finally let go of her. Immediately she tried to attack him.

"Bow"

With a single command, her body moved against her will.

"What is this? Why is my body not listening to me?!"

"Who said you could speak, worm? Prostrate before me and hit your head three times upon the ground"

"Who do you think you are to order me around…!"

Lesser vampire found herself on the ground, bowing deeply, and hitting her head each time for a total of three times.

"I guess that carried my point across rather clearly. From today on, I am your lord, you answer to me and none else. If you try anything funny, I will eat your hearts. I believe you have two more left after I ate one and set you on fire"

"You! You are that man! I will slaughter you….!"

"Silence"

Immediately, her speech was cut off. Even if it was a nonconsensual contract, as long as one's blood was bound, it was extremely effective.

It takes a person with exceptional willpower to break free of such contract, a willpower this lesser vampire clearly did not possess.

"You will speak only when spoken to and you shall do exactly as I say and nothing more. Answer me if you understand, and also don't forget to say 'milord'."

Even with her mind resisting as much as she could, her body obeyed.

"Yes, Milord. This one understands."

"What is your name?"

"Verine Nain"

"I see, you shall be accompanying us then. At the very least, you should be more useful than a corpse, right, Morph?"

"R-Right!" Morphus could only watch the process of 'recruitment' with silent awe. His leader seemed to be even more focused than he was before.

And his actions were showing it. He was quick, precise, and merciless. Morphus could only be thankful that Dark Lord was not his enemy.

Just the thought of it was terrifying.