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CHAPTER V

(First contact)

[AN: Again… please bear with grammatical errors.]

Much to their fear, the massive door of the tower showed signs of opening and everyone quieted as they anticipate the emergence of someone or something from it. The sounds of clanking can be heard from the mechanism of the door. And then slowly, the door screech open.

The door seems to whisper as it let out cries of tormented souls trapped inside the tower; it was an eerie kind of feeling.

When the door finally shut wide open, the intensity of the surrounding darkness seems to increase that the heaven grumbled and the earth trembled. Then an old man with a stern stature emerges from it. He has long silky white hair and beard, crooked nose, sharp eyes but without pupils, and is wearing dark and extravagant long robe of great quality. His aura is domineering.

"Is he the lord of this castle? His presence alone inspires silence." Anastasia had said.

"I never sense this kind of power before! It is crushing me!" Relline cried.

"What is that being?" Nigg asked in awe.

"Sister, this magic power is greater than those four godly existences." Rielle whispered.

"I know… this is certainly the greatest existence in this realm… no… in the whole world." Kisara replied.

"Sister, I sense great evil from him." Aaminah said as she's trembling.

"Let's pray to our gods to save us from this evil." Kisara said.

"He must be the chieftain." Kol spoke.

"He must be." Gol responded.

"I can sense evil magic from him." Mur-ag said.

Just as they make their own speculation about the old man, it calmly spoke.

"Greetings denizens of Helmurus… today our great master will grace us of his great presence."

His voice was heard even in the distance, which echoed in the entire plane. And every one from the army who heard it, screamed in great exultation. For it was the moment they've all been looking forward in their entire life, a day where they could witness the greatest lord that ruled the great underworld, for some had never seen him that they only knew him in their imaginations. However, that doesn't mean they are ignorant of his glory and power as they etched it in their heart and soul. Everyone knew that their great master had massacred gods by great number and calling them weak, who instilled fear in the hearts of these gods when they sense his great presence, whose wealth encompassed the whole land, and whose very existence is great evil and is eternal. But most of all, he was known as the being that inspires other great lords to follow him and brought glory upon themselves. For all they know, these lords were beings of great power and wisdom, far beyond their imagination that they cannot fathom, known as the High Lords of YGGDRASIL.

The crowd was in uproar. These few words by the undead are enough to make them mad in excitement and if he would command them to attack, they will charge in without a moment of hesitation.

"NIVEK RELLIM!" "NIVEK RELLIM!" "NIVEK RELLIM!" "NIVEK RELLIM!"

They all screamed in unison the name of their venerated master.

This sudden transition of event had made the outsiders to be at loss of words.

Is there someone greater than this godly old man? If it does, just what kind of existence it might be? Is what they thought. Questions they had asked upon themselves but are unwilling to learn the answer.

And then, the undead wizard continued, "O denizens… our great lord is vexed, upon the matter of other high lords' leaving."

When they heard him, they all fell silence once again as they longed for their lords, saddened by the fact that they were abandoned. But then, their longing turned into a spark of hatred, hatred to these lords that abandoned them which cause their great lords' dismay. They never voiced it out as they still revered them as their lords, but in their eyes are burned with passion towards their master that never abandoned them.

That's right… you are to serve only one lord. You must cast away the shadows of your former lords, for they abandoned you. I will instill hatred in your heart and soul to those who betray our great lord. And when the time comes, you will kill them with your hands. They abandoned our great lord and if they seek to return, they shall never make it back alive! For all the glory belongs only to you, O great lord… Lord Nivek Rellim! Not even my creator is worthy of this glory! It is what the undead wizard thought, thoughts of what will be considered as treason to their creators. But, who would cast a suspicion on him? He is after all the most intelligent individual amongst them; however, if he compares himself to his master, he is nothing but a mere thought… such was the great wisdom his master possesses that contains thousands of eon's worth of knowledge.

"Our master calls for your allegiance. Will you pledge?!"

"WE PLEDGE! WE PLEDGE! WE PLEDGE!" They all shouted as madness had taken over them.

"And to whom do you pledge?!"

"TO OUR GREAT LORD… LORD NIVEK RELLIM!"

"The great lord has heard your worship and has accepted your loyalty. Listen now, we are currently facing the unknown and it is our purpose to defend this world from the enemy with our lives."

"WE KILL! WE KILL! WE KILL! DEATH TO THE ENEMY!"

"Then behold for our master had arrived!"

And everything was engulfed in total silence once again. They controlled themselves from making unnecessary movements that even a small metal sounds from their armor can't be heard. But each and every single one of them is burning with desire to see their great lord.

They could sense great power and evil looming from the door. Sweats formed in all living creatures. At last, they could witness the form of their god that they are rejoicing. But for the prisoners, it was the emergence of the bringer of doom.

And then, their great lord emerged from the great door of Aegremont castle, a being that is darker than the night itself and terrifying than all the monsters that scoured the land, a being so evil that its touch will corrupt all mortal and aura that consumes the surrounding light. Even the air became still as their lord made his way towards them.

They all kneeled together. The sight of it is overwhelming like waves flowing back to the open sea. Even the mighty dragons and all the creatures had descended in the presence of their great lord. And they all felt the boundless presence of the evil lord, it was extremely tyrannical!

Nivek scattered his sight amongst his subjects and felt contented in everything he saw.

This is awesome! With a massive crowd like this, it really makes me feel like a true king. He thought.

"AHHH!" A woman was heard screaming. It was the wizard Relline as she can no longer withstand the pressure and lose all her sanity when she sensed great magical power of this monster and the tyrannical aura it gave. Being an excellent wizard among her peers, she is extremely sensitive to mana that encompasses her. But she cannot gauge the amount of mana that this monster possesses, it was great and immeasurable.

"Relline! What's the matter?" Anastasia had asked.

"No, no! Please, help me! I don't want to stay here! No! Please o please… Help me."

"Relline… I'm sorry I can't be of help… but please hold on a bit."

"No… I can't take it anymore!"

Then, a bird like existence that is one of the 4 powerful creatures, which are standing next to the door, flew right at them. Her face is beautiful yet extremely ferocious. Anger is shown in her face and she's full of killing intent.

"Insolence! How dare you show disrespect in the presence of our lord! You should die this instance!"

This killing intent only made it worse for Relline that she felt being tortured to death.

Nivek only observed this incident, he felt indifferent.

"Please stop! You are killing her!" Anastasia pleads.

"Stop? You dare command me to stop? You? Hahah… Fool! You should die as well. You can only blame your own self for your foolishness!"

"Feora stop." Malik commanded. "You are in the presence of our lord, so you must contain yourself. And remember what our lord has ordered you to do."

"Yes, it is to bring them here… alive. Please forgive my inapt behavior, O great lord."

But I never said to bring them here as prisoners! I simply want to ask some questions. This is a problem… my words has great weight on them that their interpretations is very wrong. I should carefully use my words from now on. It is not I am not careful with my words enough, but I should make it clear to them without compromising my cover… I should change my approach with the guest as I asked them some questions.

"Very well." Nivek nonchalantly said.

My friends knew me as tyrant… then I will become a tyrant.

When they all heard him spoke, it sent chill in their body as his voice carry all the world's malice that threatens their very life.

"Bring them here…" He commanded.

This is great. I never knew how to follow order in my entire life as I was born a winner. Let us see if I could make use of my boss skills that I acquired in my entire life.

"As you command…" Feora then face an orc. "You… bring them out."

"You heard the general! Quickly! Get them out!" The orc ordered to his subordinates.

The orcs followed and forcefully led them out of the prison carriage, dragging them in the process. "Hurry up, you lazy filthy human!" One of the orc said.

"No, please no!" Relline begs.

"Shut up!" The orc shouted.

"Give her to me!" Feora commanded. "I shall dragged her myself and present her to the lord. Then I will enjoy killing her afterwards."

"Relline!" Anastasia cried out when Relline was handed to Feora.

"Come here you bitch! You insolent fool! Just you wait and I'll have your head serve in a plate." She whispered. "Oh look! Your pussy is wet. Did you just pee when you witness the greatness of our great lord? Pitiful… very pitiful… I felt sorry for our lord to see your disgraceful existence. I will make sure you die by my hands after this." She then drags her by her neck.

Even the orc prisoners was treated the same, all 957 of them. They struggled hard but these orcs were stronger than they were. One of them got punch in the head for trying to escape and blood gushed out from it, if not for the orcs regenerative ability, that orc would have been dead.

Now that all of the prisoners are kneeling a few feet away from Nivek, still in chains, he readied himself to question them. He will ask politely if he must.

What should I address them? Humans…? Citizens of this world…? Argg! I'll just go with the flow!

"Greetings… I am known as Nivek Rellim… and I am the master of this realm."

Is it good enough? What the fuck! They are really scared to death. And that woman seems to be pissing on her pants. Is it because of my voice? Oh wait! I didn't deactivate my aura. Sheesh… my bad… I forgot to deactivate my aura since I'm in the guild base. No wonder they all felt uncomfortable. Well it is too late to deactivate it now. They could just hold on it for a bit, after all it was weak; but I'll certainly make sure not to hold them any longer than 15 minutes since their condition is very bad.

"Well? Is there anyone who wishes to respond?" And he waited for someone to respond but it was a complete silence. "No one?"

"Imbeciles! How dare you to ignore our great lord!" Feora exclaimed and readying her sharp claws while the others had their hands on their weapon.

"Shh… shh…" He silences Feora with the index finger on his mouth. "I know that you look after my presence, but having such impulsive behavior is unsightly. It ruins your beautiful appearance. Do remember this… we created you Feora to bestow majestic presence in our company which will struck the enemies heart!"

I mean to make them fall in love of your character and hesitate to engage you.

"I will take your words into my heart and soul, O great lord." She responded.

M-my g-great l-lord s-said i-im b-beautiful! Kyaa~! How stupid of me to act without thinking it first. To think that my brash action would disgust my great lord! Stupid me! Alright… alright… I will behave according to what our lords' wishes me to behave. Right! To think I will be called beautiful… kuku… not even the most beautiful guardians were called with this honor by our great lord! Is what her thought at this moment.

Then Nivek continued. "As for all of you…! Your sword shall remain unsheathed and will not shed blood, unless, I give you my command or threatened by our enemy. The blood in your sword shall be offered in my honor! One thing I despised the most are those who fails to follow instruction, it is an act of insubordination!" He exclaimed.

I have those employees that think they can do better than what I instructed them to do, but ended in a number of failures which had cost me to lose more money.

Then his men let loose of their hard grip in their sword, fearing their master will disavowed them for insubordination.

"Very good!"

Well… this should put them in check. In my current situation, I don't have a problem seeing someone die or the idea of killing. However, I will refrain myself from killing… especially these humans over here. I don't mind killing these orcs as they are monsters known for being savage… I am glad, there's still a small part of my humanity that remains… but perhaps, it is only my memory. This is a big problem… I never killed anyone before, and I do not want to kill this time… I'll spare these humans… I have to spare them without losing the confidence of my NPC's on me… After all, I am known as Evil. And supposedly, sparing lives isn't in my vocabulary.

"My subordinates had treated you poorly that I must ask for your forgiveness." He said which the NPC's felt perturbed by it.

Milord doesn't have to feel sorry for them, in fact they should be grateful that they manage to make it here and witness the great presence of our lord! Is what they thought.

He looked at them as if telling them "It is okay".

However, the prisoners who heard him only felt more wary of him. Just what kind of powerful and evil monster seeks forgiveness because his subordinates maltreat the prisoners? This monster… this monster is a schemer! They all thought.

"Before we begin… we must first remove those chains that are binding you… allow me to remove it."

[Chain Unlock][Wide Area Effect] He mentally invoked. [Chain Unlock] is basic thief skill that unlocks normal locks while [Wide Area Effect] is simply to expand the effect of the skill to a much wider scope.

Then, the chain that binds them fell on the ground. Then they moved their hands to see that they are really freed from the chain.

"Now, I have some questions that I would like to know the answers. I wonder who might be kind enough to help me on this."

It was silence. No one dared to raise a hand and volunteered.

Ah… I forgot… I should give them some assurance.

"Of course… I will guarantee your safety… and set you free."

Again, their response is silent.

"No one? Believe me I have several methods that will give me the answers… I simply do not want to do that as I wish to know you better. Because of this, I will show you mercy. If you do not want that, then let us proceed with my other methods which are painful and gruesome."

"Milord! Milord if I may…" One of the prisoners' orcs had expressed himself. But unlike the rest of the orcs, he is green and rather smaller than the rest.

"Ah~ Finally… someone who understand me. Tell me, what is your name orc?"

"R-rakkal… milord." The orc responded albeit anxious.

Mur-ag and other orcs bursts in rage towards Rakkal. But Nivek had ignored them… for now he will put in his mind this commotion. Right now, he will ask this orc and see if he can get some information. He will take advantage of this orcs' weakness.

"Rakkal?"

"Y-yes m-milord, this humble me is called Rakkal."

"Mm… Rakkal… is a good orc name. Then come here and join me."

Rakkal hesitated but then he walked forward in the center stage where Nivek is standing.

"M-milord, pardon me of my impudence… but can you really spare this small creatures life?"

"Yes… If you are generous enough to satisfy me with answers I needed, then I will set you free… unharmed… I will even bestow you wealth if you desire it."

"M-milord… I have no desire for other things… I simply wish to return."

"If that is what you want… so be it."

"M-milord… I wish to have an assurance."

"Nonesence!" Malik interjected, "You dare to doubt our lords' words! Know this you piece of a maggot… our lords' will is eternal and his word is absolute!"

And the NPC's are all nodding in approval of Malik's words.

"Forgive me, milord. I cannot take his boldness any longer. His foul mouth exudes blasphemous garbage." Malik sincerely apologizes while the others are nodding.

"Hehehe…" He let a small laugh… an evil laugh. "Listen Rakkal… I will keep my words. Doubt it and you shall face my wrath."

"Irkk!" Rakkal shrieks.

"Now, tell me about the outside world… do not miss a single thing and do know better when not to lie… or regret it for eternity."

"Y-yes m-milord… This world is once a world of orcs and other creatures, where humans are few and hunted. However, gods had descended and fought with humans destroying the great army of orcs and beastman combined. We are then force to retreat in hiding in the north and south of these great continents."

"Rakkal stop telling him about our world, you bastard! Do you believe that monster will keep his words! Stop it Rakkal or I'll kill you! You will only make it easy for that monster to conquer us all! Grrr!" Mur-ag exclaimed.

But Rakkal continued; however, he is wary of Mur-ag as from time-to-time he cast a look at him.

"Today, humans outnumbered us greatly and with magic that their gods had taught them, we cannot fight back. Once we hunted them, now we are the one that is being hunted, captured and sold as slaves."

"Rakkal! You! You lacked orcs honor! Our great ancestors will shame you in the land of Valhalla!"

Mur-ag was about to stand up to make a dash towards Rakkal to grab its neck and rip it, when an orc much bigger than him had blocked and punched him in the stomach; it is painful that he kneeled and coughed blood.

"Know your place!" The orc yelled.

"Rakkal… I swear… by our ancestors… I will have your body on a stake… *Cough* *Cough*"

"Continue…" Nivek demanded to Rakkal.

"Y-yes… When the gods are gone, humans had then founded a number of nations and established supremacy of humans over all things that lived. We orcs wishes to reclaim our lands, our wars had lasted for 500 years and now that the humans are waging their own wars against each other, we have decided that it was time to move our forces and reclaim what is ours."

"This gods… you speak of… what are they or what kind of power they possesses?"

"M-milord… these gods are beings of immense power and wisdom… but not as powerful such as yourself…" The orc corrected himself as to not provoke the being in front of him.

"Oh~ powerful you say… I am curious…"

"Y-yes… they could fight a dragon and defeat it, that some heroes among men weren't able to defeat alone… that it will took 9 demi-gods to defeat a single dragon."

"Gods… dragons… demi-gods?"

"It is not me you should ask about the god's milord… you could ask those humans over there… as gods are affiliated with them. What I could tell is that… they are bad news to orcs."

I will ask them later… this orc is crafty… he wants me to take actions against humans. Perhaps he realized the orcs I command that I would sympathize with their cause.

"Now that you witness the army I command… what do you think of it? Do you think that these gods has the power to defeat it?"

"I-I d-don't think so, milord."

"Don't be shy and say what you need to say, do not be afraid that I will be offended by your answer. In fact, I will be much thankful of your honest answer… and disappointed by your least honest opinion."

"N-no, no milord… I speak truly… no gods has the power that rivaled yours."

"Mm… and why is that?"

"I never heard those gods could command an army like this… You have dragons, undead and even demons in your army… this… is a testament of the greater power you wield than those gods… O great lord! It is true! It is true!"

"Very well…"

"Rakkal! You bastard! To praise this monster is like condemning our world that our ancestors had fought and died to reclaim it! But now, all their sacrifices will become nothing! You… you sold your soul to this demon! You should not be allowed to enter the Valhalla!" Mur-ag once again shouted.

"Bring that one here!" Nivek ordered and Mur-ag was dragged towards him and forced him to kneel. "You are that warrior."

"You know me?" Mur-ag answered.

"I saw your fight against those humans and I am impressed. Tell me, isn't Rakkal one of you men?"

"No, he's not!"

"He is not?"

"He serves other chieftain… Bhor-ag."

"But why is he with you?"

"Orcs pact, but Bhor-ag wants to control all orcs. Bhor sends Rakkal as part of the pact."

"And you submitted?"

"No! I bowed to no one but our great ancestors!"

"You speak of honor… orcs honor. What is it to orcs?"

"Honor is what makes us orcs! We cannot submit; we can only die with honor!"

"Ah… warriors honor. I knew a lot who keep their honor till the end. But what it has to do with you now? You are kneeling in front of me that you considered enemy. A form of submission I must add. And where is the honor in that?"

"Ugg!"

"What are you going to do now… great orc?"

Mur-ag was silent.

"Nothing? Hehe… your warrior spirit is weak… young orc. You can't be proud of that. However, I will give you a chance to live… you and your orcs… All you have to do is pledge your fealty to me and you shall live."

"And then what? Kill us when you are done with us?"

"Kill you? Young warrior, you know nothing of me… that's why." He then looked at the crowd. "Hear me, denizens! This orc is a proud warrior! I offer him his life but he stubbornly refused my leniency."

Right now, Nivek felt confident when he heard the previous orcs. If it is true then, he is the most powerful being in this world now, given the fact of how his prisoners react to him.

Such fear is genuine. He thought.

However, he can't be overconfident of that. What if there are other powerful beings, hiding in plain sight? He must not underestimate this world. That is why, he must use any means to prove some of his conclusions.

"KILL! KILL! SHOW HIM NO MERCY MILORD!" The orcs shouted.

Mm… this is great… I am putting a good show. I must make them confident in me.

Then Mur-ag got up on to his feet and shouted.

"I challenge you… demon!"

And silence enveloped them.

This filthy worm dared to challenge our great lord! Such impudence! Feora thought. She bit her lips trying to control herself from charging in.

Hoho… What a great honor to be able to witness how the lord gets in this maggot's mind. I somehow got a grasp of our lord's plan. It was magnificent! As expected of our lord. Malik thought.

"Chieftain!" Kol and Gog exclaimed.