Epic Of The Demonic Sage

Lucius' words were like the holy decree that had descended upon the earth. An imposing presence exuded off his body and pressured Doyle to no extend.

At this movement, Lucius was the most terrifying thing to Doyle in the world. If before he was just showing interest and thus acting according to Lucius, now he was doing it because of a fear that came from the depths of his soul.

Even though most of Doyle's intellect had faded away, there were still the self preservation instincts that were left intact within his body. It was these instincts that were telling him to obey the words of the man in front of him.

They told him that if he did not obey him, his life would be snuffed out in the blink of an eye.

As a surprise to Kiana, the violent looking Doyle suddenly kneeled down and became every subservient to Lucius. It did not even dare look up and had its head buried in the ground.

His kneeling was strong enough to have created cracks on the stone floor. 

Lucius kept his posture and expression as he stared down at Doyle without moving his gaze. The longer he stared the more terrified Doyle felt. After a few seconds, he couldn't help but start to shiver and Kiana felt even more surprised.

She could tell that the thing in front of her was scare of Lucius. 

'No… not just scared… it's terrified out of its wits…' Kiana thought to herself.

She couldn't help but take a look at Lucius only to find him looking normal.

'Huh… so it is just the effect of his gift due to which this thing is acting like that. But if it really is like that then what will happen to Keith? Will he be controllable for Lucius too?" Kiana couldn't help but wonder to herself.

With Doyle's submissions, Lucius felt pleased internally and knew that the suppression of the hell energy was the same as that of his last world. Since it was Lucius's own hell energy that had caused the transformation, it was obvious that Doyle would be extra sensitive to it.

Plus, the Lost desired Hell energy and fed on it for sustenance. They had the uncanny ability to find out sources of Hell energy in the world and they would often be found wandering areas that were either corrupted by hell energy or areas with spatial rifts.

This was the case for the natural born Lost. As for the ones that were artificially created, they would obey anyone that gave them hell energy. Though the effect would be the strongest in someone who was created by a specific person's hell energy.

'Hmm… the response was faster than I expected. The intelligence should also be higher than an average lost then.' Lucius assessed.

About a minute passed like this, during which Lucius just gazed at Doyle and measured his reactions by the eye. The Lost was mostly unmoving and stayed in the Kneeling posture, but the tremors that arrived from time to time were also present.

'He might be smart enough to become a Lost Thrall. If he does, then that will be a nice upgrade to all this.' Lucius thought to himself as a smile appeared on his face.

The Lost had their own ranking with the Generals at the very top. At the bottom were the newly made Lost and were unranked. Another rank above them were those that had slightly better intelligence and could understand orders in greater depth.

These Lost were given the rank called Thralls. They were often used to send messages and items to others and were mostly like servants. Most of the members of the Great Barrom clan had their own Thralls, but still preferred the human servants over them.

After all, the humans had a better appearance and could be used in more ways than just one. Plus, the Lost Thralls were only good for basic tasks that required little thinking. 

After all, the true bloods couldn't ask a Thrall to open and serve a bottle of high quality magic wine, could they? It would just end up in a mess and loss of good wine if that ever happened. 

"Stand up," Lucius ordered after another minute.

The tendons of the newly made Lost snapped as his limbs moved. Just from this, one could understand how tense the creature was. 

"You shall keep the name Doyle, but know that from now on I shall be your master!" Lucius said before placing his hand on the head of the Lost.

Doyle didn't dare move and let Lucius's hand land on his head. But once it was on his head, the fear that the Lost was feeling this entire time vanished. Instead, what replaced it was pleasure along with attachment.

Lucius's hand was glowing with a red light as a small amount of Hell energy was injected into the body of Doyle. Lucius hadn't just done this to feed the being who had probably exhausted a lot of energy and nutrients and breaking out from its restraints, but rather because Lucius was also embedding the iron clad rules into the soul of this Lost.

The rules dictated nothing but absolute loyalty to Lucius and only him. He did leave some leeway for others to command the Lost in absence of him, but that was only when Lucius himself had allocated the Lost to another person.

After all, there was only him who could use hell energy in this world and he didn't have plans of introducing this thing to others. Not only would it be dubious, but would also bring about the churchs' eye. And if the churches suspected something and made him into a villain right away, Lucius would have no way of surviving it.

Even Kiana, who had the mark of loyalty from Lucius, was told that this was due to Lucius's gift and not actually something completely different. To the people of this world, Aether was the sole energy that existed and no other thing such as mana or hell energy was in existence.

Lucius took a deep breath as he lifted his hand from the head of the Lost.

Doyle also calmed down extensively after that and managed to lift his head to look at Lucius and then Kiana. 

"That is a vast difference," Kiana couldn't help but say upon seeing the current face of Doyle.

It was no longer as agitated as before, and the veins were not popping out. Even his eyes that had different colors than normal people seemed to be relaxed and were not pin point anymore. 

"Indeed. Now we should have no problem with him." Lucius spoke.

"Does that mean you have control over him?" Kiana questioned.

"Not just control… I can dictate its life or death if I want to… I can feel it in my gift." Lucius answered.

Kiana's eyes flickered upon hearing this, and an awed expression dressed her face. 

'A gift that can control others to this extent… not even legendary gifts can reach this point, can they?' Kiana wondered to herself.

While Kiana was lost in her fantasy for the time being, Lucius decided to test out the responsiveness of Doyle.

"Go there," he ordered.

Doyle's steps resound in the room as he moved according to Lucius's directions.

"Go left," Lucius ordered a gain.

"Turn around and take ten steps," 

Lucius couldn't help but narrow his eyes upon seeing the amount of noise the foot steps of Doyle made.

'This might be too much for others. If I want to let him operate in the open, it will need to hide a lot of things and disguise well. But the steps will give him away no matter what and people will be suspicious. Even a heavy knight in full armor does not make this much noise and vibrations.' Lucius thought to himself.

"Lighter! You need to step lighter! Use gentle foot steps!" Lucius directed the Lost.

Doyle stopped for a moment and gazed at Lucius as if trying to comprehend his orders. 

Lucius didn't mind this and knew that it would take the Lost a while to get adapted to everything. He let the being look at him and comprehend the order.

The way the Lost operated and thought was also a bit different. The reason why Doyle was looking at Lucius was not just because he had heard him, but because it was trying to understand the emotions behind Lucius's orders.

As a newly made lost, Doyle could not pick up emotions, tones, and intentions from just the voice and needed to see the expression of his master to get the most appropriate response. Without it, there was a great chance it might make a mistake.

And that was not something they wanted after all. 

After staring at Lucius for about thirty seconds, Doyle turned around and started to walk again.