Chapter 4: Murdering the Murderers

Belius Arkendgrad was a man who lived and breathed the teachings of the Slane Theocracy. He was a human, the only race on the planet that deserved to exist. He was rich and he could do whatever he wanted to any elven slaves the Theocracy captured, especially the women. Those who spoke out against him were either silenced or bought off. He truly believed that he was untouchable. Who would dare lay a finger against a powerful noble such as himself? Unfortunately for Belius, he was in for a rude awakening.

Another one of his men was thrown into the air and landed with a sickening crunch. Belius couldn't believe what was happening. Everything had been going according to plan. His men had been rounding up the last of the villagers in preparation of their execution when suddenly a monster that could best be described as a knight who guarded the gates of hell and started slaughtering his men. Body parts littered the ground and blood from the creature's latest victim had been splattered on his armor. He was starting to panic.

"Kill it! Kill it now!" he shrieked. Yet another soldier tried his hand at bringing down the beast. This lucky bastard was actually able to score a hit on the two meter tall abomination from behind. The problem was that his sword shattered on impact with the monster. His eyes widened as the monster turned around to look at him with those red, hateful eyes.

"Oh shi-," before the soldier could finish that elegant statement he found him eviscerated by the creature's jagged sword. At this point, Belius was nearing a mental breakdown and was becoming a problem for the other knights.

"KILL IT! KILL IT! KILL IT! KILL IT! KILL IT!" he screamed over and over again like a child throwing a tantrum. The only thing that shut him up was the fact that the monster turned its all-hating eyes towards. If that skeletal, rotted face was capable of expressions, it be twisted into an evil grin as closed in on Belius. "HELP ME! I'LL PAY YOU ANYTHING YOU WANT!" he pleaded to his soldiers. Just as the jagged blade was raised to deliver the killing blow, a calm yet commanding voice rang out.

"That's enough Death Knight." The Death Knight, as it apparently was called, lowered its weapon at the orders of its creator. Everyone, villager and soldier alike, looked towards the newcomers who floated down from the sky. One was a tall and handsome man in black light armor with a red high collar cloak while the other one a distinctly feminine shape to her and sleek black full body armor and wielded a massive battle axe. Belius glared at the horns that sprouted from the sides of the female's head.

Filthy abomination.

He approached the tall man while making sure he had a subordinate to act as his shield should he need to make an escape.

"You there!" Belius called out now that his usual arrogance had returned. "Do you realize that your beast got loose and interrupted an operation that was ordered by the Slane Theocracy's Six Cardinals themselves? Put the beast down and deliver me just compensation or you will be hearing from the Theocracy? Why do you not speak? Do you know who I am? Identify yourself!" Albedo growled at this human's arrogance for talking her master in such a way. Belius simply glanced at her before looking back towards the tall man. "It seems your Death Knight isn't the only pet you should keep your pet on a leash. She has nice curves though. Perhaps we should consider her our compensation?"

This human really is an idiot.

"….My name is Lucifer Dracul,"the man, now identified as Lucifer, said. "And you are a fool." Belius blanched at the directness of that statement. "I ordered the Death Knight to attack you because you were killing innocents." Belius laughed at that. Lucifer eyebrow twitched as this man was really starting to get on his nerves. He had deactivated some of his inherent abilities such as his red eyes, which were now a steely gray, and had retracted his fangs prior to coming before ordered the Death Knight to stop. However, the more this man grated on his nerves the more tempting it was to, literally, bite his head off.

"Ah, you must have mistaken us for members of the Baharuth Empire because of the armor. I suppose that was the point of disguising ourselves as them in the first place. We work in the name of the Six Great Gods so if a few peasants have to die so their will can be done then so be it. They're lower class for a reason you know." Belius apparently thought he was being rather funny as he started laughing that annoying laugh again.

I came down here to try to reason with him, but with his religious zealotry, supposed racial superiority, and complete sense of entitlement, every moment he breathes is an embarrassment to any creature capable of doing math as simple as 2+2. Is every member of the Slane Theocracy like this?

Lucifer had had enough of the infuriating man so he looked back towards his Death Knight.

"Death Knight, kill them all." Belius' eyes shot open as heard those order uttered. Not even two seconds later the Death Knight had begun reveling in the carnage once again.

"Wait! Wait! Spare me! I'm too rich to die in a place like this! I'll give you anything you want!" Belius cried as everything started to go downhill for him again.

Ah, he's a coward too. Because why half-ass being a total waste of genetic material.

"You only have one thing I could possibly want," Lucifer stated as Belius looked up at him with hope. "Your soul," Lucifer finished with an evil grin as Belius felt all hope of living leave him. "He's all yours Albedo. Try to keep him mostly intact I plan to collect their corpses and turn them all into Death Knights." With that said he folded his arms behind his back and walked off leaving Belius and his troops to their painful demise. Although he did look back to watch Belius get stabbed over and over again while he squealed like a little bitch.

Lucifer had spent the past three hours managing the bodies being moved to Nazarick, helping the villagers rebuild, and squeezing as much information as he could out of the village elder. Deactivating some of his racial traits had definitely done the trick and no a soul suspected the he was a vampire, of course he had been made to go back to Enri and Nemu and alter their memories. Still, for the most part, everything had gone exceptionally well. His only displeasure was that in his anger he simply allowed the Death Knight and Albedo to slaughter of the Theocracy's soldiers. In retrospect, he should've captured a few of them and sent them to Neuronist to get more information out of them. Currently, he was standing next to Albedo as they watched the humans scurry about. He had just finished explaining how he had come to see humans as cute pets instead of roaches to be stepped on.

"Albedo, I understand that you don't like humans but you need to learn to work with them," he told the succubus sternly. Albedo let out a sigh before responding.

"As you say Lord Momon- my apologies, Lord Dracul."

"Lucifer is just fine Albedo," he said with a chuckle although he mentally recorded the name Momon. It had a nice ring to it. Albedo immediately perked up.

"Is that what you want all of the Floor Guardians to refer to you as my lord?" she started fidgeting the same way she did back when he called her dear. "Or…. Just me? Lucifer didn't know how to deal with Albedo's question and the village elder was waving him over so he took the quickest escape route.

"I leave that up to you Albedo," he said as walked off. If she hadn't been wearing a helmet he would've noticed her face had gone as red as his cloak. His vampire senses, however, did smell an increase in female hormones in the area but he decided to ignore it.

"Sir Dracul!" the village elder panted as he ran up to him. "There are more armored men headed this way on horseback. What should we do?"

This was fun at first but now it's becoming a pain.

"Gather your people in the center of the village," Lucifer ordered calmly. "You and I will shall go discern whether these men are friend or foe." They didn't have to wait very long before a man who was the very definition of a seasoned veteran stopped his horse right before them.

"My name is Gazef Stronoff. May I ask your names?"