Chapter 84 - Recruitment 2

The big room, with its plain white floors, walls, and ceiling is slowly but surely draining his sanity.

Even the wards in the room that are keeping him, are lacquered white, almost blending them to the color of the room.

He does not know how long it has been since his capture. If it weren't for the food and souls that are delivered to him through a trapdoor from the ceiling of his room at a clockwork-like schedule, he would have totally lost his sense of time.

He has almost given up in trying to escape. Even though he has been devouring the souls given to him by his captors, it only provides him with very little hope as he knows how strong the superiori have become. He figures that a person, or a group of people that can afford to imprison him in a fine facility like this, are powerful superiori.

Early in his captivity, he thought that the humans will not be able to make him submit and crack. He has fought battles in hell, got captured, and endured painful tortures for years at a time. But out of his expectations, the humans deferred from physical torture, and instead resorted to isolating him in a bright, white blank, and silent room.

He has tried to sing and shout to relieve his boredom, but that lost its effect after only a few days. He tried to draw on the walls and floors using the utensils from his food trays, but his captors replaced them with white plastic and white Styrofoam. He tried using his blood, but his captors would simply gas him unconscious, and waking back up to find a clean and repainted room.

No matter how much he gets angry, or tried to resist, his captors have very indifferent attitude towards him, something that he thought would not get to him.

Even when he tried to kill the young superioris girl a month ago, he still was not granted the only way out he was hoping; death.

He never would have thought that he would see death as hope, but his captors have successfully suppressed him, and even his fiery nature, something that is an innate part of him, is neutralized.

'hahAHaha'

'Xoz'gekal, my friend. I've come to visit.'

He does not know when it began, but every now and then, he hears giggles of his daughter, or the greetings of his closest friends.

He would love to immerse in them but ultimately, he knows that they are just day dreams, figments of his imagination from the loneliness and intense boredom brought upon by the white, bright room.

Suddenly, *clack* there is a movement in his empty world.

The door of his room, one that is not inferior to the average bank vault's door, gets unlocked and is silently pushed open.

He raises his brows seeing no one. He would try to dash to the door, but he cannot even hope to reach it, not with the talismans and sigils painted on the ceiling and the floor.

Soon however, the vault door closes back up, breaking his heart.

Suddenly, a man in a fancy formal kimono appears in front of him, startling him.

"Interesting. Why wouldn't they put a security camera here?" The man scrutinizes his room without even giving him a sign of acknowledgement.

Had it been his earlier self, he would have lashed out. But now, he knows that doing so is pointless even if he kills the man in front of him.

Then, to his surprise, the man steps inside the range of the talismans, meaning the man is now at his mercy.

"Xoz'gekal. What happened to you? The knights from the floor above told me you were feared during the Great War, and here you are, all tamed." The man's words annoy him.

"What do you want?" He asks as he approaches to intimidate the man.

"Let me show you something." The man pulls out what he recognizes a demon core.

But looking more closely at the core, his eyes widen.

"Ag'Dramos." He cannot help but mutter.

"Oh? You recognize who it belonged to just by how it looks?" The man seems to be impressed with him.

"I know how Ag'Dramos smells…" He takes a deep breath, feeling a bit sad for a comrade.

"So. You folks are trying intimidation now?" He asks with a scoff, getting over his feeling of loss quickly.

Finally, someone is here to break his boredom, and that someone does not seem to have an idea that speaking to him is better than just leaving him alone.

"No. I just want to talk to you, buddy." The man's words surprises him, but the man's use of 'buddy' as if they are friends sounds eerie to him.

Suddenly, he realizes something.

"You- You're speaking our language…" He is taken aback even further by the man's fluency with the demon language, even though he feels that the man is human.

"What? You speak human languages just fine. Why can't I?" The man shrugs.

"Benefits of possessing humans." He responds.

"But you... Why have you even bothered to learn our language? And... Who are you?" He is now more than interested in the man.

"Someone who is torn between breaking you out of here, or just leaving you after a short chat." Red reveals his intentions.

"W-what the. What?" Xoz'gekal is confused.

"How were you captured, by the way? I heard that you're one of the strongest generals during the great war." Red asks instead of answering, taking the demon out of his confusion.

"Y-yeah… They happened to capture me when I just took over the body of this host." Xoz'gekal starts.

"My strength back then wasn't even at a Knight's level, so I was powerless… Wait…" he immediately notices how easy the man is pulling out information from him.

"Damn. I must have been very lonely. I think I'm oversharing even to a human like you." He almost groans.

"You must have been." Red nods.

"What day is it?" The demon asks.

"September 7, 2021." Red says.

"Shit… It's only been four years?" Xoz'gekal is shocked.

"Only?" Red figures that the demon is very old.

"Yeah. I was tortured once. Took the Lord I once served, seven or eight human decades to make me submit to him… But… here. I'm starting to lose my mind after only four years of isolation." Xoz'gekal explains.

"A-hah, well." Red smirks.

"Humans do know a thing or two about breaking their enemies down."

"That, they do... They fucking do..." Xoz'gekal readily admits, but his body starts to tremble out of anger.

"Uhuh. So want to get out of here?" Red offers.

While he senses that the demon has a lot of anger for the humans in this facility, it does not hold hatred towards humanity. At worst, it feels disdain towards humans.

"Why would you do that?" Xoz'gekal asks warily.

"I find you useful. Instead of letting you rot here, serving me would be a better alternative, no?" Red offers.

"Serving a human…" Xoz'gekal's years' worth of suppressed anger explodes and he jumps at Red.

*SLAP* But the next moment, to his surprise, he finds himself hugging the floor.

He feels dizzy, and an intense stinging pain on his face.

He looks at Red and sees that Red's hand outstretched to his direction, making him realize that he indeed, was just slapped to the floor.

"W-what…" Despite his disbelief, his anger still has not subsided and it fuels him to stand up.

"Let's not resort to violence, shall we?" Red says as he flares his killing aura.

"*kkk**kkk*" Xoz'gekal cannot help but kneel at the pressure he is feeling, and hold his throat with one hand to try to resist the choking feeling. He then raises his palm towards Red with great difficulty, and releases a torrent of blue flame.

Red smirks as he simply strips his clothes off and lets his body bathe in the blue flames. Then, he circulates his spiritual energy quickly throughout his skin. He wants to try if Xoz'gekal's flames are suitable for him to use to further temper his skin.

After feeling the burn for a few seconds, he is pleased to find out that the flames indeed suitable. The flames are do not hungrily consume, but hungrily persist. A perfect type of flame for skin tempering.

Xoz'gekal, feeling the pressure and choking feeling gone, stops his flames. Then, his eyes widen in surprise to find that Red is stark naked, and that Red's skin looks very smooth and unblemished, unaffected by his flames.

"Oh? Why'd you stop?" Red says, making Xoz'gekal's jaw drop.

"Well. That burnt a little. You're more useful than I thought." He continues to say as he puts his kimono back on.

Xoz'gekal's anger at this point, has evaporated. His mind runs and he suspects that the man in front of him can possibly be at the level of the strongest Demon Generals, or maybe even as strong as some weak Demon Lords. As he knows that even Demon Lords would not dare to face his flames with their bare skin.

Xoz'gekal tries to make an estimation of his peak self, his self when he was still in his original body, if he can give Red a fight, but he immediately figures that even his peak self can not hope to resist Red for even a little. 

"Ready to hear me out now?" To his relief, Red does not seem to be angered or even annoyed. Red's confidence and tolerance to simply brush his attack aside, makes him sigh in defeat.

"What do you want?" Xoz'gekal asks as he stands up.

"Like I said. I want you to serve me." Red proposes.

"Okay… And what makes you different from the people here?" Xoz'gekal asks.

"Oh. Great difference. With me, you can have a new identity, you can roam around everywhere as long as you're careful of sigils and talismans." Red says.

"Okay. And what makes you think I won't even try to resist, or attempt to escape from you if you offer me that freedom?" Xoz'gekal scoffs.

While he fears at Red's strength, he is not impressed by Red's blind confidence in holding him down.

"I have my ways to make sure you won't do that." Red says.

"So. What do you say?" He asks.

"I will. Sure. But…" Xoz'gekal readily admits, but swallows his next words. He hopes that the man in front of him is arrogant enough to be careless, allowing him a chance to escape.

Suddenly, Red disappears from his sight, and the next moment, he is already in front of him. His eyes widen as Red holds him down with pure strength.

Then, he feels his world shake, and something inside of him changes.

He does not know what, but he is sure that something has changed.

"Kneel, Xoz'gekal." He hears Red command, and without second thought, he follows it.

He does not know why, but he feels that this man in front of him is worthy, nay, an honor for him to serve.

Even more worthy than the previous Demon Lords he served before.

"Good. Wait a day or two. I'll come back for you." Red further instructs, surprising Xoz'gekal.

"My Lord, you can just remove the talismans and sigils from this room. I can tell you how." Xoz'gekal wants to leave and go with Red immediately.

"I already know how, Xoz'gekal. Just wait for me here. And trust me, we can get out of here without fighting anyone." Red says, and with that, he leaves, leaving the dumbfounded Xoz'gekal behind. 

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