Death's Door

"How did you guys find me?" Meros asked.

"I had Camilla mark you with a teleportation seal when you were asleep."

"Then why the heck did you take so long?!" Meros was slightly pissed off.

Essentially, Dark Lord could have come to rescue him any time he wanted by teleporting to his location, but instead, he chose to let Meros be a prisoner for a couple of days.

"In order to not attract attention, of course. Besides, you being here was all part of the plan"

"Plan, you say?" Meros could not believe how matter of factly Dark Lord was being about Meros's predicament for the last two days.

"Oh, by the way. Here, I believe these belong to you"

Dark Lord handed Meros his Teleportation Ring and wallet.

At first Meros was surprised, but then his expression changed to that of undeniable rage.

"Where did you get them?"

"Camilla took them while you were not looking" Camilla muttered.

"You did?!" Before Meros could pounce on Camilla, Dark Lord spoke up.

"On my orders"

Meros's face was completely red from rage. Now instead of Camilla, the target of his rage was now shifted to Dark Lord.

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?! You landed me in prison and now you are telling me it was all part of some stupid plan of yours?! SERIOUSLY?! Couldn't you have at least warned me about it?!"

"Meros is scary" Morphus hid behind Dark Lord, who was awkwardly smiling.

"I needed someone on the inside so we could sneak into here without being detected or attracting any unwanted attention. You did a rather splendid job of being our inside man"

"Shut up! I don't want to hear about it!"

Then, Meros thought for a second before coming to a horrible conclusion.

"Did you have Camilla add some toxin to the wine I was drinking as well so I would pass out quicker?"

By now, Meros started suspecting Dark Lord in being involved in practically everything that was happening around him.

Considering just how much problems Dark Lord caused to the human kingdom within a span of few months, Meros's paranoia was completely justifiable.

"No. That was all you"

Meros's took a deep breath to calm down.

"Please tell me you are not going to do something like this again"

"Sorry, Meros, I can't promise you that"

"Seriously?"

To that, Dark Lord couldn't help but chuckle a little.

Then, Dark Lord proceeded to turn his back to Meros and walk towards the inner chambers of the prison.

"Morph, why is he here?" Meros asked of his angel colleague.

"I am not certain, but he said something about a man named Naven or Navel…no, it was Navek, I think."

"Let me guess, a new recruit?" Meros asked. If anything, this reminded him very much of the time he was scouted by Dark Lord as potential member of Shadow Lords.

"That is most likely" Camilla answered. "Sorry about the wallet and ring, by the way."

"How easy is it for you to steal something from a person without him knowing?" Meros was a little curious.

"Just as easy as swiping the wallet from a clueless stranger" Meros's eyes opened wide at what Camilla was holding in his hand.

It was Meros's wallet. Camilla stole it again.

"Give it back!"

"Here" Camilla nonchalantly tossed it to Meros, who caught it in his hand.

"You should probably put your guard up more, Meros. That was too easy"

"I will keep that in mind, thank you very much" Meros sarcastically uttered.

As for their leader, Dark Lord just kept walking forward with confident steps.

Only when he reached the final cell did he finally stop.

The man inside the cell was a man with purple hair, with a long unshaved beard and mustache.

If anything, his head looked like a purple ball of fur attached to a human body.

His clothing was ragged and torn, but his body was in a remarkably good condition, not something you would expect of someone starving within a cell.

After seeing that he had a visitor, prisoner's yellow eyes made an eye contact with the single glowing red eye of the man standing outside his cell.

"I have wanted to meet you for a while. Navek the Deathless"