Free Web NovelChapter 5: The House Morgrath Massacre
At the Estate of House Morgrath.
The moment the hooded man slipped out of sight, Lord Darian Morgrath and his wife, Vanessa, turned to stare out the window in silence.
It was well past evening now.
The air had begun to cool.
The two of them waited, tensely staring outside the window, for the next messenger to return.
Until then, neither could so much as think of doing anything else.
If even the smallest piece of this went wrong tonight, both of them would lose their heads by morning.
A demon rampage on this scale had never been attempted before.
And they were the ones who had opened the door for them.
To the outside world, House Morgrath was considered one of the Five Great Houses of the Dark Empire.
They were a house with their own Dark Art, passed down through generations.
It was called the [Beast Taming Art].
With it, they could control any beast, and even strengthen their own physical power tenfold.
But that was only what the others had known for centuries.
In reality, House Morgrath practiced a far more unique technique, one that had never been heard of or recorded anywhere.
The [Demonic Art].
This was the true Art of House Morgrath, the one that allowed them to form contracts with demons. Beast Taming was merely a sub-branch of it, a technique built on the most basic principles of the real art.
The Demonic Art was the very reason House Morgrath stood so powerful among the Great Houses.
When a person formed a contract with a demon, they could borrow a portion of that demon’s power. But such power was never given freely. In return, the demon took root in their blood, and in their flesh.
With every passing generation, House Morgrath had bound their bloodline deeper to the demons they served.
And tonight, those very demons were about to unleash their first rampage, right under the Empress’s nose.
Vanessa wrung her hands together.
"You’re certain this will work? If even one of them opens their mouth, our whole house will be doomed."
Darian, sitting beside her, simply replied with a confident tone.
"They are bound by my will, once they set up the teleportation crystal, I will have them all killed. So worry not, this is just our beginning. Once we succeed, we will have both the Dark and Holy kingdom under our house Morgrath’s domain."
"...You’re right."
Vanessa sighed and reached for her own glass on the table, her eyes drifting to the maid refilling it.
"...Hm?"
The maid was standing perfectly still, like a statue, and one of arm was stretched out toward her.
It looked strange.
And she wasn’t the only one.
The maid beside her stood frozen in the very same posture too.
"...Mary? Seenvy?" Vanessa’s voice wavered. "Are you feeling unwell? You look—"
That was when she saw it.
Everyone in the room, the maids, the butlers, even the five guards, had gone wrong.
Every last one of them had turned toward her and Darian, with their arms raised towards them, black-eyed and blank-faced as though some unseen hand were pulling their strings.
"...Grrrrrr..."
The sound that crawled from their throats was not human.
Vanessa’s glass slipped from her fingers and shattered against the floor.
"D-Darian—!"
Break--!
The word didn’t get out of her throat.
Because the maid nearest her had forced her own hand down Vanessa’s mouth, halfway to the wrist.
It happened all too fast.
"Gwwaaaakkkk—!"
Vanessa gagged, as her bile juice rose, and through the haze she realized Darian was caught in the same nightmare beside her, a guard’s arm jammed deep past his throat.
"Gwwaaakkk—!"
Two more figures stepped forward.
One pressed a hand flat against Darian’s back, the other laid a palm over his head.
The same was done to Vanessa.
A purple light radiated outward, and the maids with their hands at the couple’s backs spoke in perfect unison.
"[Curse Art: Paralysis.]"
Their bodies seized rigidly, they were unable to move so much as to lift a finger.
Then the two with hands over their heads spoke.
"[Origin Art: Dissever]"
"...!"
"...!"
Both Darian and Vanessa felt their demonic power, severed.
It was as though some unseen hand had reached their demonic contract and revoked it from within.
They couldn’t move, they couldn’t speak.
With an entire arm forced down their throats, they could barely draw breath now.
No matter how desperately they tried to clamp their jaws, the paralysis held them open, and the maids were refused to withdraw.
Tears welled in their eyes and their faces went from red to a deep blue.
And worst of all, the severed link meant they couldn’t reach their demons.
The power that had defended their house for generations was simply... gone like it hasn’t been there before.
In those final, suffocating moments one thought clawed through Darian’s mind.
’...Who?’
Who could have done this?
’’... I can’t even cast any spell!!’
The servants which he handpicked had turned against him in one night.
The strength that just got displayed, and the spell they just casted on him.
It was all news to him.
It was beyond one could perform,, simply severing the link of contact is not possible, unless...
’....Demons.’
The Demon who he had contracted with had done it so by his own will.
’Did... they betray me? Did they turn on us before... the rampage even starts!’
But his thoughts never finished.
His vision swam and the blue of his face darkened.
His struggling limbs went slack, and beside him, Vanessa’s eyes had already gone glassy and still.
Lord Darian Morgrath, head of one of the Five Great Houses, died believing his own masters had forsaken him.
He never once suspected a boy, dancing at his own birthday banquet.
Across the House Morgrath estate, in every wing and every room, the same scene unfolded all at once.
Darian’s elder brother, his aunt, his nephews, his nieces, the distant relatives who had come to take shelter.
One by one, they met the same silent, merciless end, by the hands of very people who had served them faithfully their entire lives.
. . .
At the banquet.
Slump—!
Rian’s legs wobbled, and he stumbled mid-step, his hand was still clasped in Mara’s.
"Rian...?"
Mara felt his movements slow.
He was sweating now, and his face had gone pale.
She stopped dancing at once and caught him by the waist.
"You’ve gone tired all of a sudden, I think we should stop here."
Rian wiped the sweat from his forehead.
"...Yeah. I think you’re right."
His voice came out thinner than he’d have liked. "Sorry. I am just a bit lightheaded."
’...Shit.’
Inwardly, his jaw tightened.
’I can’t even control thirty undead without my body folding on me?’
How far had he fallen?
He’d only just refilled his Dark Mana, and a single mass-command had already wrung him dry again.
His old body wouldn’t have so much as blinked at this.
He leaned on Mara as they made their way off the dance floor.
"Rian—"
Lilly started toward him.
He waved her off with an easy smile that cost him more than it should have.
"I’ll be right back, Lilly. Just need to hit the washroom."
He slipped away from the group and headed down the corridor toward the washrooms.
The moment he found one empty, he stepped and shut himself into a cubicle, and locked it behind him.
"...This won’t do."
He huffed, bracing against the wall.
From inside his coat, Rian drew out a small purple crystal pendant.
A dark high density liquid swirled inside it.
He stared at it, and gulped.
"...I didn’t want to burn this so soon."
He exhaled through his teeth.
"Just my rotten luck."
He bit down, and the crystal cracked between his teeth.
The dark liquid slid down his throat, and slowly his Dark Mana began to return back.
It wasn’t nearly full.
But it was enough for one more Gluttony.
He wiped his mouth.
He’d thought he could pull the whole thing off from a distance.
But his sixteen-year-old body had proven far too weak for that.
He doesn’t want to use Gluttony here.
’I can’t believe I have to handle the rest by hand.’
Rian snapped his fingers, linking back to one of the undead maids he’d planted inside House Morgrath, chosen at random.
He used a Grade-3 Spell which he had created.
[Origin Art: Shadow Blink]
From inside the cubicle, his body vanished under his own shadow.
