Lord: Starting from a Goblin Nest

”Your mother...?” The Pollution Worm Demon pondered for a moment. ”Ah, I remember her, yes. Did she send you to see me?”

”No, he did,” the Ghost Witch said, tilting her chin toward Ron. ”We’re investigating the history of that former kingdom. The demons, the devils, the queen... you should know all about it.”

”As for my mother, she’s dead.”

”I see,” the Pollution Worm Demon nodded, not at all surprised. ”I’ve heard many stories about the dealings between Ghost Witches. Quite... interesting.”

”As for the Farama Kingdom, many years ago, an Elf Mage came here. I pointed him toward a ruin where he would find the answers he sought. Now, I can show you the same place, on the same condition:”

”Please don’t expose this place to outsiders or other demons,” the Pollution Worm Demon’s tone was almost pleading. ”Those humans will die out in two generations at most. There’s no need for any drastic measures.”

”As for us demons, just let us wither and die on our own. Glazter still wants me to work with him from the inside, but I’ve long since given up.”

”Allow me to interrupt,” Constance raised her hand. ”You used plurals at first, didn’t you? ’Us,’ and then ’me’?”

”Babu Demons are the Dark Monarch’s most loyal followers, and by their very nature, they would never pass up an opportunity for slaughter,” the Pollution Worm Demon explained. ”I control them to prevent them from showing their cruel side.”

”You sent quite a few Babu Demons back to the Abyss when you arrived. In a way, that’s a relief for all of us. But please don’t do the same to me—I don’t want to go back to that place.”

Aive snorted. ”How rare.”

A note of reminiscence entered the Pollution Worm Demon’s voice. ”I served as an advisor in the court of the Farama Kingdom’s Last Queen. She was a very special person, so much so that she changed me a great deal.”

”I couldn’t stop her from inviting disaster by summoning devils, nor could I stop the Dark Monarch from descending in a wrathful punishment. But at the very least, I was able to preserve a remnant of her people, allowing them to live and reproduce on this land without having to leave their home, until the very last one dies.”

”Such an act is nothing short of a betrayal of my own race and nature, so it’s no surprise that I lost a great deal.” Seeing that Ron and the others were making no move to attack, the relaxed Pollution Worm Demon let the flowing cloak of shadows around its body dissipate. To maintain its racial talents now, it would have to pay a price of several, or even dozens of times, the normal amount of Energy.

”But unfortunately, the devils look down on me, and the other Deities offered no response whatsoever. I couldn’t find sanctuary with any other being, so I could only weaken slowly. If you send a creature like me back to the Abyss, I will undoubtedly be utterly destroyed... and I don’t intend to die just yet!”

”You betrayed your faction and your race, yet you fear death?” Victoria found this incomprehensible. ”You seem much smarter than other demons. Didn’t you foresee the consequences of your actions?”

”Foreseeing it is one thing; being willing to accept it is another,” the Pollution Worm Demon fell silent for a moment. ”I don’t know which Deity you serve, but whoever it is, they’re certainly better than Glazter. You don’t want to know what I’ll face if I go back.”

”I failed to defend my territory, failed to resist the devils’ invasion, and even failed the recent task he gave me of taking in his followers—I’ll be demoted to a Timid Demon, or even worse!”

”I’ll be turned into cannon fodder after endless torture! I, Datina, do not want to suffer that fate!”

”Datina?” Ron’s ears perked up. ”Is that your true name?”

”Yes, what of it?” the Pollution Worm Demon snorted. ”You can try and see what you can do with my true name—but I’ll give you the answer first: you can do nothing, because even among demons, I am the most despicable of traitors.”

”So? Still interested in my story?” A hint of mockery tinged her voice. ”If not, I’ll tell you the location of that ruin, and then I’ll leave, alright? The demons and humans here are as good as dead already. No need for you to dirty your hands killing them a second time.”

”Remember to prepare plenty of Holy Water and the like. That Mage had the nerve to come back and question me after being driven off by Undead Creatures. You all wouldn’t do that, would you?”

”Can’t say for sure,” Ron said, noting the location Datina gave him. It was a perfect match for the position described in the Mage’s journal. ”Can’t you just tell us directly? You witnessed it yourself. Your words would surely be more useful than us blindly guessing based on what the dead left behind.”

”People prefer their own assumptions to the words of a demon,” Datina’s tongue twitched slightly. ”At least, that’s what that Elf believed. But if you wish to listen, I don’t mind telling you.”

”Essentially, when a new queen ascended the throne, she discovered that a third of her kingdom’s subjects were already demons or Cultists. She tried to seek the help of devils to turn the situation around, but she wasn’t cautious enough and incurred the wrath of a Demon Lord.”

”Ghouls, zombies, Undead... a plague of various Undead Creatures spread from the mines that were already being prepared for the demonic invasion of the material world. The queen led her troops personally, but the result was a pyrrhic victory.”

”To halt the demons’ advance, she took a series of harsh measures. But by then, nearly all her subjects were controlled by demons. An army composed of my kind invaded her kingdom while she was fighting the main Abyss army. By the time she returned, everything had changed.”

”When a Pollution Worm Demon does its job, no one ever suspects demonic influence,” Yelena let out a soft breath. ”They’ll believe it stems entirely from the victim’s own solitary fanaticism and degenerate, antisocial thoughts.”

”Among the souls we Shadow Spirits collect, we occasionally encounter one or two such cases.”

”Precisely,” Datina nodded. ”In such a hopeless situation—outnumbered, with enemies hidden while she was exposed—the queen’s defeat was inevitable. The ruin I’m showing you is one of the places where she is buried.”

”One of them?”

”She made a pact with a devil,” Datina said, deliberately glancing at Yelena. ”Therefore, to ensure she would not come back to life, her body was dismembered and sealed by the demons in five separate locations, each guarded by a large number of Undead Creatures and demons.”

”I was one of those guards.”

”So that’s why there are so many zombies in that village over there.”

”That was the largest number I could move away. As a Watcher, I can’t very well steal from what I’m guarding, or else...” Before Datina could finish her sentence, her tongue suddenly shot out like a spear toward Ron’s shoulder!

This seemingly frail demon still possessed formidable strength and cunning. She had been hiding her true power all along. Only now was the true lethal range of that tongue finally revealed!