Grand elder waited until everyone left the room and said, “Lord Baal, we all learned a lot from our last big meeting here. You pointed out my biggest problem very precisely and I would like to ask you for a guidance. In return our alchemy specialist elder Jan would give you some lessons, since you seemed to be interested in this subject.”

As usual, it took few minutes for Nick to answer, “I can’t promise for now. First you would have to tell me the problem and then I can judge if it’s possible and in case it is, the price.”

“Of course, Lord Baal.” Grand elder gladly accepted.

“Over hundred fifty years ago, after becoming the grand elder of the Holy Order, within the documents available only to the grand elder, I stumbled upon some old forbidden scriptures that gave me idea and helped me to create my own lifeforce replenishing technique. If anyone would know about it, it would also would become a forbidden technique, but, Lord Baal, talking about it to you won’t create any problems, of course. Once in a while I absorb the lifeforce of another person and it increases my longevity. Lord Baal, you most likely already noticed the problem – with time I have to perform the replenishment more and more often. In the beginning I only needed one person in five years, now it takes three for me to hold on for a quarter of a year. If this goes on, the sect soon will need a new grand elder. I need your help. Please, Lord Baal!”

‘That sick old bastard! So the three little girls were sent to his room not for sex, but just to die so he could live? With me being so weak, there is no way I can save them. What to do?’ Nick was already tired from all of this, he just wanted to wake up from the nightmare and forget.

But out loud he said, “I need more details. You will need to elaborate more for me to see all the flaws. Go on.”

After organizing his thoughts, grand elder explained in detail why he should be burned on the stick, cut in small pieces or dissolved in sulfuric acid alive – basically he needed to be killed for sure without any opportunities of revival.

Once in three months he gets three young virgins, paralyzes them with a venom of the spotted jungle spider so they are fully conscious but immobile, then places his palm on their heads and using his Qi somehow sucks their life out. Then he has to meditate for ten days to complete the absorption process and stabilize his body’s condition.

Nick couldn’t grasp any details because of the deep shock state he was in. The more time he spent here the more he was confident this place had to be cleansed.

He did not hear much from what grand elder said, but that didn’t mean he could not ask the ‘smart’ questions, “I need more details, give me the math. At what age did you start using this technique, detailed progress on how many and how often etc. It is important.”

“Yes, Lord Baal! First time I tried this technique, I was 118 years old. During the years … well ... there were some alterations to the technique, but the basis itself always stayed the same. This year I am 283 years old and this will be my …” Grand elder continued with a bunch of numbers, but Nick did not hear him anymore.

‘What? Seriously? 283 years old? But normal people live around ninety and usually less, even in this world. So this old murderer has been killing others for almost three centuries!’

If Nick was in shock before, now he just blanked out. He came to his senses when he realized there was silence in the library – he basically missed 95% of the grand elder’s explanation.

“Are you sure that was it? You didn’t forget any details? It does not matter how insignificant you think they are.” Since he did not hear most of it, Nick tried to somehow salvage the situation.

Grand elder was trying to think of what he missed while Nick did his best to figure out how to use this situation and stop the killings at the same time.

“Are you familiar with the concept of yin and yang?” Nick probed since Grand elder did not come up with anything else.

“No, Lord Baal, please teach me!” Grand elder got excited.

“You are almost starting your quarterly replenishment. The time is too short and you can’t make any adjustments or changes without a proper preparation. In theory there is a possibility, but we can talk about it when you come out.” Nick said something random. He now had ten days of time!

Grand elder did not place much hope on the moody and devious Belial. Therefore he was ecstatic when he heard there was a possibility to make improvements, even if it was for the next time.

Nick did not care. He went back to his room, ‘enjoyed’ the regular inquisition, repeated his exercises and slept.

When he woke up in the morning, he was giggling. Chubby Elsa watched him in confusion.

“Elsa! Morgenstund hat Gold in Mund!” Looking at the panicked expression of the girl, he laughed even louder, “Don’t worry, I didn’t curse you in Demonic. Quickly, bring me some paper to write on!”

‘Germans are weird people. Why would they want to have gold in mouth in the morning? Don’t they brush their teeth first?’ Nick thought while washing up. And he was still laughing. He woke up with an inspiration!

The next fifteen days went by without any surprises. Nick was exercising, reading, torturing himself and once a day treating himself to a glass of pure, white milk. He endured seemingly endless fire resistance treatment while self-hypnotizing with the idea ‘I need to get stronger using any means possible to be able to deal with these people’. He was already managing to quickly march from one side of the balcony to the other. It was not really running yet, but was not too far either.

What was disturbing – he was almost one meter in height! That was nearly the size of a three year old child. But it took him less than two months! The steroids these freaks were pumping into him were too effective and it was no way there were no side effects. Nick was afraid his body would just collapse one day from overdose of some sort.

He needed to educate himself in the arts of alchemy and, if everything went according to his plan, he soon would have extensive training in that field. Then he could try to find a way out of this predicament.

When the grand elder came out of his replenishment session, even though he looked healthier and as if he gained some weight, he seemed to be in bad mood. Judging from the time he spent away, it looked as if he needed to increase the ‘dosage’ or frequency of the procedure.

After hearing all the reports and giving necessary orders, he turned to Nick for help again.

Nick met grand elder, who’s bold skeleton head currently looked more like that of a human and had rosier complexion, in the library.

‘This replenishment of his, or rather – murders, did have some serious positive effect on his health.’ Nick thought to himself.

“I already mentioned the Yin and Yang to you. Those are ancient powers your predecessors used before Qi was in this world. Or rather – one of the several power systems.” Nick opened his fairy tale pouch and started taking out words one by one, “I can tell you about this system and how it works. Also some ideas on how to implement it in your replenishment. Although as Primeval demon I don’t need such systems and because of the power of Hellfire I am basically eternal, I have seen quite a few similar during these millenniums. If it was hundred, may be eighty years ago, I could’ve given you, for a price of course, a fully working technique that could keep you up for two, may be two and a half thousand years. Unfortunately you can not switch anymore – your soul won’t be able to endure. If we make a deal later, I will explain why.”

As usual a long theatrical pause followed and then Nick continued, “What can you do is to implement the yin and yang principles in your system by yourself using trial and error, but it does not mean you will die in a case of an error. You will practice yin and yang in between replenishment sessions and gather the experience. Then you upgrade your own technique.”

Nick got up from his lying position, looked deeply at grand elder, “As I said, you won’t be able to change the technique itself, but the yin and yang are incredibly powerful! If you are successful in your research, you might add hundred, may be even hundred fifty years to your lifespan.”

“This sounds really interesting, I think you will enjoy elder Jan’s …” Grand elder become excited, Nick stopped him.

“No. That won’t work. Why would I settle for a second hand product?” Nick shook his head.

“Lord Baal, what do you mean? Elder Jan is the best alchemist we have, in fact he is the best in the whole Mainland!”

“Do you take me for a fool?” Nick smirked, “Jan is just a punk. How old is he? Or rather, how old is he compared to you? We will have the following deal: I will tell you the general idea of yin and yang principles and specifics that could help you implement that power into your own system. For that you personally will teach me alchemy for three months, three hours a day. If there is a day when you or I can not attend the lesson, then it will take place another day and the contract will be prolonged accordingly. For me to fully concentrate on studies, we will start lessons after the cold treatment has ended, otherwise I might get distracted. Of course, I will do my part right after we come to agreement – I can’t let you die of old age while you are still teaching me, right? Hahaha!” Nick started laughing in the end.

This was Nick’s plan – he could kill multiple birds with one stone. First – he invented fairy tale of yin and yang to entice grand elder, also he might at least alleviate the pain for the girls. Second – this way he was almost guaranteed to get at least five months of time to live. Third – while having genius teacher he could quickly grasp basics of incredibly difficult subject and may be find a way or at least direction to solve the steroid poisoning problem. Fourth – if he was lucky, he could have a lucky opportunity to kill off the old freak and get out of here. The last one was extremely unlikely, but still – there was a chance.

Grand elder laughed along albeit that was a shallow laugh.

“Lord Baal, you are most experienced person in the world who loves contracts. I’m sure you won’t let me suffer injustice.”

“But of course! You should already know – I like to have fun, tease you kids a bit, but you never actually suffered a real loss.” Nick pretended to get serious, “The highest level of making a contract is for it to be equally beneficial to the both sides. It is an art! Therefore for me it is always a question of honor. Oh, speaking of honor – let’s speak about penalties. As gentlemen we will stay true to our words, but penalizing institution is extremely important in any contract, even if it is symbolic. For this contract – the person who will not complete his part will have his genitalia dry up and fall off! Feel free to speak about the rules with your playmates and think them through, there are no loopholes anyway. Let’s meet in three days to finish our discussion.”

Nick left the shocked grand elder with his moth hanging wide open and went out to balcony. This was his favorite place in the current prison. The view was astonishing, the air – fresh and from time to time he could monitor the movements of the sect members below. Obviously there was no way he could escape for now, but hopefully that would change soon.