fear?

"WHAT DID YOU SAY!?" Graslis shouted, His voice echoing through the long halls of his manor, the surrounding air slowly growing suffocating as his eyes turn bloodshot with rage.

"H-humans have infiltrated Lord Abies's fores—"

"HUMANS?!" He growled, interrupting Kalgar.

"Y-yes, My Lord." Kalgar replied with beads of sweet dripping down his neck.

With a terrifyingly twisted face, Graslis rapidly tapped the side of his glass with his fingers until it broke, embedding the sharp glass unto his silky white skin.

"Tell me, Kalgar how could this have —HOW COULD THIS HAVE HAPPENED!" Graslis roared, popping cracks on the fireplace in front of him.

Kalgar gulped, looking at the ground while he knelt in front of Graslis. "I do not know, My Lord. " Kalgar frantically replied, "His subordinates should be powerful enough to fend off type 7 adventurers —I never thought they would pass the- "

"Those reasons are not fit, Kalgar…" Graslis purred, hovering his eyes over the kneeling Kalgar.

"Th-then I shall leave now and chase out the humans, My Lord. And in the case of my death, you should escape, to preserve the Dumeur bloodline."

Hearing Kalgar's answer, Graslis sighed, placed his hand over the fireplace, feeling its heat gently caressing his palm.

"I'm sorry, Kalgar."

"N-No!" Kalgar stuttered, "You do not have any faults, My Lord! Everything is entirely due to my oversight and wrongdoing!" Kalgar continued, slowly standing up with his hand on his chest.

"I do not mean that, Kalgar." Graslis whispered, clenching his fist full of glasses. "I'm apologizing for burdening you."

"I apologize as your Lord, Kalgar."

"B-BUT MY LO-"

"Shush, Kalgar." Graslis raised one finger.

Kalgar shrunk, thinking that his own incompetence has caused his Lord to be like this.

"I will go to my brother." Graslis said, dusting his clothes. "You shall stay here, guard the manor and make sure that you mess those humans so bad their parents won't recognize them."

"As you wish, My Lord." Kalgar bowed.

"Oh, and one more thing Kalgar."

"Yes, My Lord?" b

"Apparently, one of those humans is… a noble." His eyes squinting as he spoke.

"I understand, My Lord." Kalgar bowed again, but now with a sinister smile.

"I shall depart now, Kalgar."

Then, moments after Graslis has departed, Kalgar stood up. "I shall do this properly now." He sighed to himself.

After straightening his collar, he strode the long hallways of the manor, going down 4 flights of stairs. As he passed the 4th flight, cries of agony, howls of suffering and screams of pain emanated the bleak and blood filled path that leads to a wooden door.

Kalgar walked through the puddles of blood and stood in front of the door. Before opening it, he crouched, wetting his hands with blood and ran them through his hair, giving it a tinge of red. Then proceeded to enter the room with a small smile on his face.

As he opened the door, the thick smell of blood that filled the room wildly let out, like water released from a shattered dam.

Entering the room, what greeted Kalgar's eyes is a naked man whose twisted limbs are tied to a turning wheel as if without bones, his blood flowing, his skin popping everywhere but he is very much… alive and screaming.

"Still alive, vermins?" Kalgar laughed. "Oh right, you can't die." he laughed again.

"MY FATHER WILL FIND ME AND HE WILL FU— AAAAAEUAGH" A young man crucified to tall hot metal shouted before a hooded figure shoved a sizzling rod in his mouth.

Kalgar walked closer to the young man, picking up a hot rod, piercing it on his feet, turning his skin and meat to black as it sizzled on contact with the rod.

"So tell me, which family are you from?" Kalgar asked as he slowly dragged the hot rod up the young man's leg. "If you tell me, I might just kill you already."

The room got filled by the man's scream and a small look of pity from the 3 more young men being tortured in the chamber.

Hearing Kalgar's words, the young man's eyes sparked, "F-f-fin...nfine" The young man whimpered speaking between crying and hyperventilating.

"Okay then." Kalgar whispered before snapping his fingers at a hooded figure who casted a healing spell at the young man and took him down from the metal he is crucified on.

"Speak up." Kalgar looked down at the young man, pointing the hot rod in his face.

The young man pursed his lips then spoke, "I-Im Hanib Fellacio, from the Fellacio fami—" Interrupted when Kalgar stabbed the hot rod through his head.

"Sadly, I'm a man of my word…" Kalgar mused, slowly removing the hot rod from the young man's head, leaving him to drop on the pool of blood that surrounds them.

Before leaving the room, Kalgar walked towards another bloodied man, lying down on a rack, veery slowly turning his arms and legs to minced meat only to be healed when it reaches his torso.

"Put him in the brazen bull." Kalgar laughingly said to the hooded man beside the rack.

"As you wish, Kalgar."

Afterwards, the man was placed inside a copper bull that is suspended above a very strong fire. The muffled screams of the man echoed as he is burned alive inside the glowing bull, cooking him alive while being suffocated. Added to the fact that he probably knows he will be healed and go under it again.

"Good job." Kalgar patted the hooded figure's back before walking outside the chamber, without a speck of red on his person,

*At the forest******

"Wow Reyna that's cool!" I shouted while Reyna made another doll made of fire.

Those are some hot dolls… heh, pun intended

"Well it's nothing compared to making flowers explode." Reyna pouted her lips.

"It makes me envy him so much more— Imagine how I can use that to pick up women...." Fern mused while he stared at the beautiful walls of the room we're sitting at.

"This is a really beautiful place." Reyna whispered as she picked up a green-colored rose.

"Yeah, this was where I spent my time before meeting you two."

"Real—"

"My Lord, Demon Lord Graslis is outside the forest." Maxim suddenly appeared. Making the two humans stand up and walk towards the corner.

Right… who is that again?

"Graslis?"

"Your brother, My Lord." Maxim frowned.

"Right! What does he want?" I asked Maxim while I stand up.

"He wants to talk to you, My Lord."

Talk to me? Didn't he want to kill the past me? He probably came to finish business and kill me on the spot with his own hands…so much for brothers.

"Why does he want to talk to me?"

"Because of the… humans." He slowly said, cashing in a deep gleam at the two standing at the side.

"I see, because he hates humans right?"

"Yes, My Lord, and so should you."

Oh please, you don't get to decide what I want and what I don't.

"Tell him to come here them."

"As you wish, My Lord."

I looked across the room and noticed the two looking at me with twisted faces.

"Why?" I asked, "What's the matter?"

"Yo-you're a Demon Lord?" Reyna replied, beads of sweat dropping from her and Fern's faces

"Apparently, yes"

"D-demon Lord Abies?" Fern stuttered.

"Yup."

After answering, the two fell to the ground, Fern quickly taking out a dagger from his boot then swung it on his neck minutes away from SLICING HI — WHAT IS HE DOING ?!

"HEY STOP!" I shouted, reaching my hands towards Fern but unable to reach him while the blade quickly crept closer and closer to his neck until he suddenly stopped. His hands bound by roots and leaves —not his hands but... his whole body.

I looked down and noticed a cluster of roots protruding from my feet and extended all the way to Fern.

D-did I just do that? DAMN I'M AMAZING — BUT WHY WOULD HE DO THAT

"Why would you do that?" I calmly asked Fern.

No answers came up, only the two of them looking at me with tears, sweat and snot dripping down their faces, their chests rising and lowering rapidly and their bodies shaking as they stared at me with... fear.

fear? I don't understand — wait did I- did I do something wrong... why do they look at me like that... No ones ever looked at me liked that...

On the verge of crying, a deafening roar came out from the entrance of the tree.

"YOU ARE NOT MY BROTHER"