My releasing my aura for a short amount of time when I entered the plains would have alerted any powerful Adventurers from the Guild at the nearby city.

I did this deliberately before entering the castle, I wanted powerful--by Human standards--Adventurers to come to my new castle.

So I wasn't surprised when the noise of an alarm spell going off drew me back from reminiscing about the bad old days.

It seems that some vermin had started wandering the halls of my base.

When I used an observation spell, I heard what they were saying. They spoke about a Demon destroying this castle a month ago, and their superiors said that they detected a surge of magic power and Demonic aura, so they sent this group to investigate.

They also hoped that they could also loot some treasures that may have been missed by the first team, and following teams, before they removed my head and took it back to get a reward.

Listening to the intruders made me feel a strong sense of nostalgia, they were such typical Adventurers. If they were exploring a normal ruin around Human territories, they would have been fine.

However, they picked the wrong place.

Shaking my head and feeling a smile forming on my lips, I put my book back into my Spatial Ring.

Then I activated the Amulet that I wore at all times.

I had created this Amulet when I was playing with the basics of Rune Inscriptions and Enchantments. The Amulet had been inscribed with a Greater Rune of stealth. It was much more powerful than anything the Humans could make in this Era, it fully masked me even when I gathered mana and cast a spell that was Level-3 or lower.

I could also activate a stealth effect without channelling any mana or using a spell.

 

With my stealth activated, I stood up and walked out of the Throne Room. It was time to investigate the little mice which were squeaking and skittering through my halls.

I decided to turn at least one of them into a minion, and one will escape to tell the Guild. From what the Adventurers were saying, I was only C-Rank apparently.

I was an ex-Hero as well as trained by a Shureen.

Insulting.

 

 

Found them, the skittering little mice, running helter-skelter through my home.

The party was comprised of an interesting combination of people, but the composition was very well thought out and designed.

There was a Dwarf Warrior, clad in full, and enchanted, plate armour. He wielded a massive and inscribed battle-axe, which looked like it had a powerful curse magic on it.

Next was an Elven Mage who wore simple robes, and it had no marks of rank, but to judge from the Gem layout on his staff and the mana swirling around him, he was a journeyman. A journeyman Mage was someone who could cast spells of Level-3, and instant cast at least one Level-2 spell.

The last member of the little party was a Human Priestess. She was beautiful, with raven-black hair escaping the edges of her white wimple and blue eyes. But she was wearing the vestments of Arre's church, though it was obvious that she was low ranked, probably an acolyte.

 

It was an easy choice, I decided that the Priestess would become my minion, corrupting a follower of Arre sounded nice.

I would allow the Mage to 'escape' and alert the Guild in the nearby city.

The Dwarf would be changed, he would be a help to my minion. He would be changed into a Thrall, by my minion, after she was fully corrupted and under my control.

Deactivating my stealth Amulet, I stood behind the invaders.

I wanted a cool entrance.

The Mage was the first to detect my presence, he stiffened and slowly turned around to face me.

Even though I wasn't specifically hiding, because of my training, I had a naturally weak presence.

Elves have the sharpest senses, especially Mages, which is why he found me.

The next one to notice me was the Priestess, but only because she happened to be watching the Mage. She turned as well, following his gaze.

She twitched and then froze when she saw me.

Her beautiful eyes widened, I could see that she began to tremble softly, blood drained from her face.

It seems that the priesthood of Arre had spread images of me, even though I was believed dead. I do not know why they would do this, because if Arre even suspected that I was alive, he would stop at nothing to kill me again. I was one of the very few people who knew his secrets, that he wasn't the 'good', 'loving' god that he and his followers claimed he was.

Even though he was the last to detect me, the Warrior was the one who reacted the fastest. Shouting a warning to his companions, he pulled the Mage and Priestess behind him.

In a well-practiced move, he prepared his axe for a swing.

He was obviously very experienced, possibly even a veteran from the Dwarven army, he had definitely worked as a mercenary.

The Dwarf stared at me, ready to move at any moment, but I could see the sweat beading his forehead. He had obviously worked out that I was much more powerful than him, but he still moved to protect the others instead of throwing them between him and me, using that to attempt to escape.

I felt a little respect for him.

Without warning, he swung his axe at my face.

Judging by his strength and speed, he would be around B-Rank, which was considered quite powerful when found in a city at the edge of the Human Empire's territory.

He had accepted a C-Ranked request, but came with them while the difficulty was below his power. Normal adventurers would send weaker team mates on lower difficulty quest while they completed harder quests, instead of acting as guardians.

He also hadn't tried to run.

This showed that it was likely that his team was important to him.

Of course, he wasn't a threat to me, but if he ran it would be irritating chasing him down.

I reached out and stopped his massive wedge-shaped axe with a single finger.

However, he actually managed to scratch my skin and a drop of blood oozed out, before I healed in less than a second. He had managed to break my natural defenses, which was quite good, his axe must be incredibly powerful.

Impressive.

I could feel the other two panicking, they gave off a tangible air of fear.

Even the Dwarf drew a sharp breath when he saw how easily I had stopped his attack.

They all believed that the Dwarf was incredibly powerful, yet before me he was a child, in power. And in height.

When beliefs are broken, all that is left is demoralization and despair.

I stepped forwards and punched the Dwarf in the head. There was a clang as his helmet dented inwards, then a soft pop and his skull cracked.

As his skull cracked, his head exploded, but it was mostly contained by the helmet.

Blood sprayed out of the helmet's opening.

I had remembered to deploy a basic ward, so no blood landed on me.

The broken, and thoroughly dead body flew through the air and slammed into the wall. I made sure to punch him sideways, so that he wouldn't kill the people behind him when he flew away because of the power of my hit.

His fingers spasmodically jerked open, releasing his grip of his axe, which clattered to the floor. Though that small noise was mostly hidden by the louder noise of his armoured body slamming into the stone wall.

Turning away from the corpse, which was now slumped down against the wall, I faced the Mage.

"Run." My voice was barely a whisper, I made sure to inject some of my aura and killing intent into my voice.

Without even looking back, he ran. He deserted his teammate too easily, leaving a beautiful Priestess to the whims of an evil Demon who kills so viciously.

Well that's what it would seem like from his point of view.

Turning my gaze from the shrinking back of the cowardly Mage, I looked into the pale white face of the Priestess. Seeing me look at her, she let out a strange squeal and fell down, her legs too weak to sustain her weight. She didn't seem to notice any pain when her butt hit the hard stone floor.

The shock of the fall seemed to bring her back to reality, she scrambled backwards on all fours. Her lips were trembling as though she were trying to say something, but I couldn't hear her voice.

I could see a deep and all-consuming fear in her eyes.

When she bumped against the wall behind her, the Priestess let out another strangled sound.

Her eyes widened as I began to approach her.

I was milking the drama of the situation, walking slowly and drawing it out.

This was caused by my old love of theatrics, and maybe a slight sadism.

The Priestess at first was staring at the floor, but with a slight shudder, she managed to raise her eyes and meet mine. Tears welled up and threatened to overflow, making her strangely damp eyes look much more so. Her raven-black hair was dishevelled as her wimple had been pushed off her head.

She raised her hands, a mute appeal for mercy. She was trembling so hard that she could barely keep her arms raised.

As I stared into her eyes I suddenly felt a pang in my heart, which must have been a sliver of Humanity that remained buried deep inside me. The tiny remaining part of what I used to be, but something that escaped the purge and something I just couldn't abandon.

I felt pity for her, as well as sudden urge to protect her, like she was a small animal. A kitten.

Trying to ignore the pang, I started to chant the Demonic Conversion magic that I had planned. Luckily this magic had a fairly short chanting time.

However, the effects of the spell took a short time to fully manifest.

The visible manifestation took a few seconds, the invisible and mental manifestation took a little bit longer to appear.

Glowing magic chains materialized out of the stone floor beneath the Priestess. They moved slowly upwards, swaying and dancing as they wrapped around her.

 

 

 

She was pulled away from the wall, struggling, as the chains restrained her. She tried to fight them, but she didn't have either the physical or magical strength to fight a Level-7 spell.

But she had stopped pleading, she apparently realised that it would have no effect on her current situation.

The chains pulled her clothing tightly against her surprisingly supple and well-developed body, holding her prone and spread-eagled.

I walked slowly towards her, and when I arrived, I knelt down and looked into her face. She looked back up at me for an instant before she clenched her fists and closed her eyes, shivering.

Fear caused her breathing to speed up.

But because of how the chains were arranged and her clothing was pulled against her, it was slightly awkward for me. I felt my face heat up, I couldn't control the instinctual male hormonal reaction, though I didn't get the physical reaction luckily.

The way that this spell worked, it was highly likely that a misunderstanding would be raised.

Well, I would be violating her, in a way.

Violating her faith, her mind, and her will.

Which I have no idea if that is better or worse.

Reaching out, I gently stroked her forehead. Her skin was warm and slightly damp with sweat, I felt goosebumps raise as my fingertips brushed her hair off her face.

She opened her eyes again. For some reason, as well as the fear, I saw a slight spark of curiosity.

"I apologize for the fear that this has caused. However, I require one of you, and you are a follower of that bastard Arre, so I chose to steal you."

Her eyes were fixated on mine, she had stopped shivering so much. I don't know if it was because she realized that I wasn't going to kill her, or because the spell was starting to affect her mentally.

I felt the spell reach the end of the first stage, it required a second infusion of mana to activate the second stage. So I gathered some mana into my palm, releasing it as I gently laid my hand directly onto her forehead.

She flinched as my hand glowed and heat gathered in my palm, but when I released the mana, she flinched back and seemed to be trying to tunnel into the solid stone floor.

Her movements were instinctive, her soul seemingly realizing that it was in danger.

"What was that spell?" She had recovered enough to ask, though her voice shook. Her mental faculties were surprisingly good. If I had been on my first mission and put in this situation, I wouldn't be able to function well enough to even consider that question.

"A forbidden magic called Demonic Conversion. Once the spell is complete, you will become my minion."

The Priestess considered my words for a second, and then she looked deeply into my eyes, with a mixture of curiosity and sadness, "Why are you doing this to me?"

She was probably beginning to feel the mental effects, feeling her mind become foggy and her devotion towards the bastard being strangely twisted and changed.

It would be absolutely terrifying.

Again I felt a stirring of pity when I saw her terror.

I took my hand off her forehead and sat back, sitting cross-legged, I looked closely at her. She had stopped her struggling against the chains, she seemed to have realized that it was futile.

She turned her head and watched me, she might have been trying to play on those strange feelings of pity, either that or she was trying to figure me out.

"I need followers, minions. Minions that I can control and trust, that I can used in an upcoming war. I could use slaves, but I don't have the money to purchase them in enough numbers. You cannot trust Mercenaries. I will be gathering people who must be either completely loyal or under absolute control, to fight an incredibly powerful enemy."

As I spoke, the Runic symbols on the chains started to dissolve and run like ink. The magical 'ink' reached the end of the chains and started to enter and run across the Priestess' skin.

The Runes began to cover all of the visible surface area of her body. The glowing runes were visible through the thick Habit, showing off a lot more of her body as a silhouette.

The Priestess went silent as the Runes entered her, for a few minutes she went completely still, the fear in her eyes faded. It was as though I could see her faith and trust in her god being twisted and perverted, changing into a faith and trust in me.

One of the primary effects of Demonic Conversion was that it brainwashed the target. It changed love, faith, etc from the original target to the caster of the spell.

It generated a complete and total devotion and submission from the target towards the caster.

While the spell could be undone if it was needed, it could only be undone by the original caster, because the spell was governed by his unique mental and soul imprint.

Demonic Conversion worked better on targets with stronger faith, so the best targets were priests or paladins, as long as their faith was real. Well, gods were very real in this world, their existence long proven, some of the Young Gods walked around the mortal world as avatars.

The more faith that the target felt, the more they would worship and submit to the caster. They would be reliable and trustable, because they would be unwilling to betray, or even disobey, the caster.

They would be as unlikely to betray their new master as they would be to turn against their previous god, even after the mental control was broken.

Another side effect of the spell was that the more faithful the target was, the more powerful and pure the breed of Demon they would be converted into.

There are the Seven Virtues, which are the opposites and counters to the Seven Deadly Sins. The Demon created by the Demonic Conversion would be one of the Seven Deadly Sins and determined by the Virtue that was deep in the target's soul.

The Runes and symbols on the Priestess' skin grew brighter and brighter, squirming and writhing all over her skin. They glowed so brightly that her skin looked like it was lit from behind by a golden light, I couldn't even see her silhouette through her clothing anymore, since her skin had reached almost sun-like brightness.

After a few more seconds, the symbols all stopped moving and joined up, making the Priestess' skin seem as though it was made from molten gold that flowed and shimmered. It was so densely packed in tiny magic Runes.

She glowed and radiated an aura of Demonic power.

With a brilliant final flash, the conversion was completed.

Once my watering eyes cleared, and I could see again, what met my eyes was a Demonic girl.

A beautiful succubus with a pure, and thick, royal bloodline.