Krul Tepes has never felt so powerless.

Ever since she had become a vampire she has lived in a different world.

No longer was she weak, no longer was she exposed to danger at every turn.

She was strong, strong enough that she could count those who could rival her on one hand and yet… here she was… crawling on the ground, desperately trying to reach for safety.

She was over a thousand years old, never knowing defeat she spent her long days idly.

Today however was other than those before, her downfall had come.

It wasn't even a battle.

It was a massacre.

She laid there, only her head moving about as her limbs were scattered in every direction several meters away.

She struggled. She fought with all her might, but it proved to be meaningless as the devil stomping down on her only brought more suffering — to the archdevil's great delight.

The world was a cruel place she knew this well. It has been over a thousand years, still she recalled her humble beginnings.

She was but a human back then, a child of nobility.

She recalled her estate overlooking her hometown. It was a magnificent castle.

She did not forget the blissful days she had spent with her brother Ashera, chasing each other in the extensive gardens surrounding the estate; but eventually all things must come to an end.

One day when she returned home, she was greeted with their house on fire, lit by angry townsfolk.

She saw her mother get impaled by a spear through the chest before the angry mob caught her.

After that day light shone no more. She experienced men's cruelty first person as the townspeople decided to sell her off as a slave thus condemning her alongside her brother.

She didn't spend much time as a slave though, what awaited her was a fate worse than that… at least most would attest to that.

She was found by a noble. A ruler of the night, the first progenitor. He had seen something in her and turned her alongside with her brother into a night creature. Although hesitant at first, she complied and followed in the footsteps of the vampire, but the creature had other plans. He had separated her from her dear brother… an act that haunted her to this day.

Ever since then she was searching…

Desperately looking for Ashera she had travelled the continent through the centuries, — all in vain.

She never found him… she never found her dear brother.

Fate had played a cruel trick on her, she may have been an immortal, a ruler of the night, a queen, but what does it all matter when you cannot see your family? When you cannot have the one thing you care all about?

Krul felt her eyes tearing up at the thought.

She would never see her family again.

She could never tell her brother how much he truly meant to her.

Up until now some faint hope still lingered inside of her, but now she awakened. She realized that this was the end for her… that no matter what she did her fate would be yet again decided by others.

She summoned her reserves as she lifted her head to look at her Mika one last time. Although she had turned the boy only because he was a Seraph, a being capable of triumphing above demons, but she had to realized that throughout the years she had grown attached to the human child.

'This is farewell Mika. I hope you find Yu. I sincerely do.'

She felt the last of her strength rapidly leaving her, but just before her mind slipped away into oblivion something caught her attention.

A pressure unlike anything she had experienced before descended upon the area, forcing her body to crash violently into the ground creating a small crater in the process. She couldn't move, not one muscle. This overwhelming aura was nothing like she had felt prior form the fiend. This was something else, something more subtle, something more primal.

Despair.

It weighted down the occupants of the chamber, denying even the slightest of movements.

Krul felt the devil's tail exiting her torso as the fiend struggle to keep its bearings.

Overwhelming despair permeated the air, and yet she felt something else instead.

Hope.

Her dull eyes were brought alight, as a new challenger arose.

Krul couldn't help it but cheer inside… this new being might just give her a chance to escape. A chance to leave this place and return to her original objective and look for her brother. She didn't believe it herself, but her lips formed to pray, to pray that whatever has arrived was here to help her.

However, all dreams must come to an end. Her hopes were mercilessly ripped away, her heart plunged into bottomless despair as the voice registered in her ears.

"Demiurge? Is that you?" The being questioned in an adamant voice.

The last of colors drained from her pale face.

He knew the fiend; he knew the devil!

This was it. She was done for, she realized it then and there.

If these two impossibly powerful beings weren't opposing each other but in fact were on the same side, then there was no use struggling. The world would lay at their feet.

Krul already knew that she had no chance to escape the grasp of the devil, maybe after all this time she would pay for the atrocities she had committed as a vampire, maybe she deserved it. She had lived a long life, it wouldn't matter if she died right here and now, — she told herself. However, try as she may, she couldn't lie to herself. She would very much mind it.

It brought her agony, knowing she would die before she could reunite with her brother.

All she ever wanted… all she ever wished for was to see her brother again…

Just to see him one final time.

Finally, she blacked out due to blood loss.

…

When she came to, she expected to be holed up in some kind of a fiendish torture chamber fitting for a devil but instead she found herself lying in bed.

Weird.

She could have sworn that she was on the verge of death at the hands of a great demon, but it didn't seem to be the case. In fact, it all seemed too impossible to be the case.

She slowly gathered herself and left the chamber, peaking carefully over the corridors stretching endlessly in both directions she weighted her options.

Looking around she confirmed her suspicious. Not a soul was standing guard before her royal chamber. Something must have happened while she was out.

Should she leave and search for the others, or not?

She bit down on her nails as she hesitated for a moment before fully leaving the room and going looking for others.

Krul passed several doors on her way, although she had looked inside each, but she found no-one. Every door opened to an utterly empty room leaving her guessing as to what had happened here.

She had already decided that her dream was too surreal to be reality, it was but a cruel nightmare, after all there was no way that such a demon existed that could play around with her.

It just wasn't possible.

She examined the throne room before finally leaving the protection of the corridors and walking straight up to the throne. Her throne.

There was no-one here. This place was utterly vacant.

Whatever had happened here had driven away all the guards, all the residents of her palace.

She sat atop the white throne as she overlooked the massive chamber. There was no-one here, no soldiers, no nobles, not even her trusted guards…

Her expression soured as she bit down hard on her fingernails drawing blood in the process.

How dare they? Have they gone mad?

Leaving behind one's sovereign? Utterly shameful.

When they come back, she will give them a piece of her mind that's for sure.

However, as she kept staring at the vacant chamber, she couldn't help but be unnerved.

She started to grow agitated when footsteps echoed in the massive room. Someone was coming.

Finally. She thought. She would give them a piece of her mind and order them to gather the others.

They misbehaved, as such it was only fitting for a punishment to be allocated.

However, when she finally laid eyes on the figures entering the room her smile faltered.

There in front of her stood a boy, a human child she had previously met, but that wasn't what threw her off. It was the shadow behind the child's back.

Five steps behind the child followed a demon, a nightmare. The nightmare. One of elegance and of cruelty. A manifestation of the word evil itself.

Step by step they continued to draw closer and closer, and Krul could swear her heart was speeding up with each echo of a sound, and yet that was impossible. A vampire heart was cold, unmoving, dead. It didn't react to emotions, no matter the circumstance and yet Krul could feel it. Beating faster and faster in exasperation.

The tormentor of her nightmares was here, and if it wasn't enough. It was acting like a good old lap dog following around a human child.

Ridiculous.

And yet it was true.

It took all Krul had not to burst out in utter disbelief

She had no disillusions about her own capabilities. She could not run away, the fiend's steely gaze rooted her in place.

The nightmare had shown enough that she knew she stood no chance, it wasn't worth the ire she would surely gather. She was certain that the fiend would make her life a living hell if she somehow disrespected the child and in extension him.

The sounds ceased as the child known as Sato came to a stop a few meters before her throne. The devil dutifully stood by its master's side waiting for his command.

Many thoughts ran through Krul's mind such as How was this happening? Why would the fiend bend the knee to a weak human? What was their objective? What did they want? What are they going to do to her? Her lips thinned as she thought back to the memories.

Brief flashes of horrors, thought to be nothing more but a figment of imagination, a passing nightmare. Evidently the situation was far worse than that. The lack of personnel could attest to that.

She felt her rage rise, fury ready to burst aflame and destroy everything around her, but as she saw the cruel glint of the fiend's crystalline orbs her conviction faltered, and her complexion paled.

The steadily rising fury extinguished, she had a moment of clarity to think clearly.

The cruel devil was taunting her, it wanted her to act out of turn.

"Krul Tepes…" Came the voice of the child.

"We had a deal if I recall correctly." Seeing that she was yet to grasp the meaning of his words the child elaborated.

"Now the deal was about my safety in exchange for picking my brain in certain matters…"

The archfiend's face contorted, and malice rolled off his figure in waves, dying red the surroundings.

Krul could feel her senses going haywire beckoning her to flee, but she could not. Not under the watch of such a malicious gaze. She could see it well that the only thing stopping the devil from tearing into her flesh was a seemingly harmless child.

What terror hid behind that innocent face she could only guess. It must have been incomprehensible for her if it demanded such subservience from a devil of this overwhelming might.

"Demiurge control yourself."

And just like that the devil's aura dispersed and he regained his mocking smile.

Definitely an otherworldly terror, a forgotten disaster. It must be hiding inside that child, to what end she could only guess. What else could possibly command a devil this powerful with such ease?

"Now then, as I was saying… how about this, in light of your willingness to listen I offer you the same deal with a minor change, you could call it fair even."

"I shall protect you, as you would have protected me…"

Ainz did not forget how Krul had shielded him from Ferid, and he had no doubt that she would have done right by their deal, as such he decided to spare her whatever Demiurge had planned for her.

"… and in exchange you will provide me with all the information you have. This is the deal, take it or leave it."

Although Sato said that it was clear to Krul that there was no real option here. She would have to share the knowledge of a millennia and become subservient to evil if she wished to live.

She however had a goal, a wish above all, to find her brother. If it meant that her search could carry on in hopes of one day reuniting with her brother, then so be it… she would agree.

She stood up and descended the stairs until she was just in arm's reach to the child.

There she fell to her knees, head bowed deep.

There was no need for words here. She was his to command.

The devil's ever stretching grin remained unnoticed as she pressed her head against the cold marble floor, swearing absolute subservience.