Death's Door 49 Volume 3: Chapter 15: Double-Crossed

"Kazan, Temur, Rahat…You are all ok…" Arin Draco uttered with joy that couldn't be concealed no matter how much she could try. Her comrades, the Demon Lords, they were alive. Dark Lord did not tell her how many Demon Lords contacted him, so she was prepared for the worst. But apparently, all three managed to survive.

Thanks goodness.

"We indeed are."

Demon whom Arin Draco referred to as Temur was the fox type Demon Lord whom he met previously, she answered to the Demon King with kind voice.

As Temur approached Dark Lord, Dark Lord glared at her with his dead eyes. Apparently he was expecting Temur to attack him.

"Please do not be alarmed, I merely wish to take my king into my own arms, it seems you were carrying her for quite a while."

"Where is Sariu?" Dark Lord bluntly responded.

"Worry not, we kept our end of the deal, she has not been harmed. Now could you please give us back our king?"

"It's ok, Dark Lord, she is my ally." Arin Draco smiled with reassurance.

"In that case…Here you go." Dark Lord calmly proceeded to hand Arin Draco whom he was carrying on his back to Temur, who proceeded to help Arin stand by leaning on her shoulder.

"Thank you. We will forever be in your debt, our fellow kin." Temur bowed her head.

"Enough with the chit chat, where is Sariu? I am starting to lose my patience."

"She is right here." A male voice sounded out.

It was Kazan, gesturing down at the ground from which a large blue crystal sprouted out. Within the crystal was the frozen body of a witch. Sariu Lixus, the one Dark Lord was currently contracted to.

"As promised, we did not harm her. However, it is a surprise you managed to actually free our king, we took a desperate gamble, but to think you would succeed…" Temur was promptly cut off by Kazan.

"So what? If I was able to sneak into the city, I wouldn't have taken nearly as long and would have caused quite a lot of damage on my way out. He simply got lucky." Kazan said with both arms crossed boldly.

"Uhm, Kazan, I believe it was more than just luck, I urge you not to underestimate him or it could end badly for you." Arin chimed in.

"Your majesty, please don't say something so absurd, a hornless nobody demon like him could not possibly be a threat to me, a Demon Lord." Kazan now turned his attention to Dark Lord. "Hey, hornless disgrace! Don't you think for one second that you are my equal, for I, Kazan Karatengu, the last of the Karatengu clan of crow demons, am your superior!"

"Stop Kazan, he is also…" Arin didn't get the chance to finish before Dark Lord spoke up.

"Whatever floats your boat. Now then... Free the witch at once!" Dark Lord now took a more aggressive tone.

Kazan smiled.

"You brought our king back and we didn't kill the witch, thus kept you alive, didn't we keep our promise already?" Kazan smiled cruelly.

"Kazan! That was not the terms of our deal!" the eagle type Demon Lord ended up speaking against his fellow Demon Lord.

"Oh for crying out loud, Rahat Ras, don't you get it? If we free her we will lose our precious resource. Just think about it, if one of us is contracted to her, we can use this to sneak into the Holy city in order to free the demons trapped inside without triggering any alarms! Think about how many humans we can get rid of, just one Demon lord alone can take on hundreds of knights if he makes a sneak attack upon them. We will be able to gather back our troops without any restrictions and the ability to shrug off non-mana based attacks is just a bonus. Passing her up is same as letting go of our best chance to liberate our kind!"

"But the deal we made…it would be dishonoring our promise…" Rahat Ras protested.

"Promise? You prioritize the promise given to nobody over safety of demon kind? You wouldn't be speaking like this if the entirety of your clan got exterminated, with you the last one remaining. You must be happy that the Ras clan has several active branches, and many of them are still active. Maybe if all the Eagle type demons got erased from existence, then you would understand a little of my judgment!"

"You..." Rahat Ras was obviously angry, but the argument against him was sound, still he could not help but end up activating his magic. As an eagle type demon, his body looked like a humanoid bird. Now his feathers seemed to have been set on red fire. It was a warning.

In response, Kazan's own body seemed to be coated in black flames.

With both of their mana coating them in red and black flames respectively, they were glaring at each other threateningly.

"That's enough!!! You are not the only ones here you know!!!" Temur ended up interrupting their spat.

Both of them immediately turned their backs upon each other and smirked in indignation. It was obvious the issue was not over, but they will have to save it for later.

"Well done, Temur Tang." Arin sighed in relief.

"This one does not deserve such high praise, your majesty."

"It seems like taking back the witch is not going to be as easy as I thought, then in that case…You! The crow face!" Dark Lord called out to Kazan.

With Kazan's bird head looking his way, Dark Lord proclaimed.

"I challenge you to a duel, if you win, you keep the girl, if I win…she is mine."

"What makes you think I will accept this challenge, hornless weakling?" Kazan glared at Dark Lord with smug expression. He seems to believe that he already won.

"Hiding behind the other demons after not keeping your word, not only you are a double-crosser, a coward as well! I suppose it is rather fitting, a cowardly crow you are indeed~"

"You will wish you never uttered those words. Alright, I will face off against you. However, if I win, consider your life forfeit and your servant will become one of us. Are those acceptable terms?"

"Indeed they are."

Now Dark Lord and Kazan Karatengu were squaring off against each other.

"Stop! Kazan! Dark Lord! This is madness! You are both…"

Ignoring Arin Draco's desperate pleas both charged at each other….

Within three seconds, Dark Lord found himself impaled through his heart by a sharp hand that seemed to be tougher than iron.

"Like a worm, you fall by my claw"

Kazan proclaimed as Dark Lord's vision went blurry. And just after a moment, Dark Lord was no more.

Chapter end

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