Witch of the Gate (Part I): Empyrean Crystal Soul

Finally, after a few months, my burn wounds have healed. My whole body was scarred with burns and my wings had been also burned. I could feel the pain on my body for the whole first month and I needed a lot of healing elixirs combined with the usage of mana to not feel the pain.

Finally, my burns are healed but my wings will need a little more time.

When I think of that battle, I get angry and confused. I got what I needed but that person was dangerous. I don’t know how but she is dangerous. I have an idea of who she is but it doesn’t matter anymore.

-“Master, how are you feeling today?” A voluptuous female demon gets inside my chamber. She is Irina, the succubus.

-“I am feeling a lot better. In a matter of fact, I will go out wearing clothes.” I say. I had already dressed up.

-“How is everything going?”

-“Everything is fine, master. Even with your absence, everything is running smoothly.” She confirms. I nod with satisfaction. However, I need to check myself.

As we get out of my chamber, we are going down some levels.

At the first level, there are some demons waiting me. They are the Higher Legion which is consisted from Higher Demons. I can’t depend only on Orks and Trolls to protect this tower.

-“We salute the Great Duke Alector.” They shout and I nod. It is true that I am one of the Archdukes of the Demon Tribe and the smarter one at that.

This Tower of Sins is my creation as I acted to give some solutions to the problems of our king. This is the first research center of Etheria and it is established by me.

The captain of the legion, Sakram, the Minotaur gives me his report and it seems that everything is fine. Well, I wouldn’t expect anything else. Then, he also follows me.

He is muscular and huge and his figure is overshadowing the small and frail Irina but their strength is at the same level. I dare to say that Irina has a lot of potential and could win over Sakram.

Anyway, we get down to the next level. This is the laboratory of elixirs. Even though there is stagnation and infertility throughout Etheria, some areas in which the other tribes are located, there is some greenery or some other ingredients. So we get it from them to make our elixirs, which are mostly elixirs of healing, enforcing and reproduction of mana. This last one is really difficult to culture so we provide it only to higher demons.

The laboratory is working thanks to the higher goblins who are the best workers. However, the leader of this is Moral, a hybrid between an elf and a demon.

Moral had provided me with the elixirs I needed to get better.

-“My lord, I see you are okay.” He says.

-“Mm. Your elixirs are of high quality.”

-“Thank you, my lord.”

I nod and continue to lower levels.

In the next level, there is the workshop. In there, dark weapons are manufactured. We got some pretty good quality ores from the Dwarves and we create our own weapons inserting them with dark energy.

This time, we have Dwarves slaves to work on them as they are the best technicians and craftsmen. They are creating simple but strong weapons for the army but also strong spiritual weapons for the Higher Demons.

-“How is it going with the new item?” I ask Rondo, the gremlin and the leader of this workshop.

-“We make some improvements, sir. With a little more work, they would work not only on monsters but to other creatures, too.”

-“Perfect. They need to be really strong spiritually so they cannot be damaged easily.”

-“Yes, sir, but we need more magical cores.”

-“You will have them.” I say and he smiles cunningly.

At the next floor there was some commotion. Orks soldiers are bringing in some captured people. There are Beast people and Elves in them. Despite their injuries, they are still resisting. However, they are injured and tired so they can’t win over their opponents.

The Ork soldiers put them on stony beds or tight them with strong magic chains. This floor is a place in where we suck out of these people their mana, letting them with a useless Mortal Bronze Soul. For some of them, the shock they are going through is too much, so they die. On the other hand, those who survive are working slaves in the mines or the fields. They can also be used as food for the monsters.

-“Oh, there is a human with this batch.” Irina says as she has a very luring look on her face. There is lust in them as the human she mentioned, is a man.

It is rare to have a human with higher grade of soul after so many years. Well, there are some survivors sheltered in the other tribes. On the other hand, we purposely let some of the Humans alive, so they can reproduce themselves. We need them before their final extermination.

The extraction of mana is the reason that we demons could finally take revenge. Well, it was not something that we created.

It is laughable that this is a technique that the Humans developed in secret. When we took it, we received the power to turn things over. This is nothing but their karma. There is also an easier way of taking out the Soul itself but that needs a strong Higher Demon.

It needs a very strong dark force and a very strong water spell so we have some Succubus, Incubus and Nixes to take care of this work. In a matter of fact, Irina is responsible for this place but she has some good partners to replace her.

We let this floor full of painful screams and get lower. We are now at the ground floor. Here, there is the accommodation of the soldiers and some prison cells for our “guests” or “guinea pigs”. As I appear, all the soldiers are saluting me respectfully and fearsomely.

However, this is not the end of the Tower of Sins. There is also another floor deeper into the ground. In there, the creation of monsters is taking place.

As we are going deeper, we can feel the hotness as we are approaching the center heart of the volcano. From its lava and mana, we create some powerful beings. For this reason we need plenty of mana.

This is about a metamorphosis spell which was evolved with the help of dark energy. We use the scarce mana that animals have in them. We twist it with some dark energy via the spell of metamorphosis, which is taking place on the level of the spirit and not on the body. Then, we reinforce this kind of dark mana with more power, which is resulting in transformation of the body in the end.

Finally we create some pretty strong creatures as “foot soldiers”.

In the beginning, we were releasing them to cause chaos and damage. However, without will, they destroyed everything without limit. So we created some mind control rings. If they wear them, we can control them. This is the item that Rondo is trying to improve, so we can mind control and other creatures.

-“Where is the core I brought?” I ask Irina.

-“Lord Orphus is working on it.” She replies.

Orphus is one of the Archdukes, too. He is a Lich and a very ambitious one. With his dark magic is going to repair the broken core and bring it back to life. However, it is not going to be a pure Soul anymore and it doesn’t matter. All we need is its mana force, so we can keep the Tower of Sins operating non-stop. This is not easy as he meddles in the very laws of nature. It is been already two months and he didn’t finish yet.

Our king wants to hasten his plans and for that reason, we need more mana. It was clever of me to remember this alternative solution. I had to force my way to one of the Elves clans and take their Fruit of Life so I can use it as mediation to force open the Gate.

As I checked everything, I returned to my champers.

I am alone and then I am taking out a book. It is quite old and heavy. This is not supposed to be at my hands. This book is "Pandora’s Box". This is the cause of the Demon kin’s decision to act ambitiously.

Well, there were some miscalculations but in the end, we were able to conquer this world and that was only the beginning.