It begins

Four more years have passed and one more year left till Estefan's mission of reclaiming the lost City to prove his innocence. Estefan hasn't faltered as he has been training non-stop inside the cave, with the help of the Demon he was able to sustain himself since it was the Demon itself which told him about the cave where he trains since the Demon desired a true battle between equals rather than an unfair one.

While Estefan was preparing, his new found allies were the same. Under Commander Periyan who was now a one handed swordsman many new soldiers who can use their soul essence were born. The creation of a powerful army would be the greatest asset in terms of conquest. They didn't stop their hard work since they had to prove to Estefan that he had trustworthy and useful hunting dogs which could hunt down his foes.

Meanwhile back at the Palace, Carnel who was 18 now already married Erika who was 21. They also have a baby who she was pregnant with before their marriage showing Carnel would keep in touch with her while not being married at all while 17 year old Casius remained with Church's holy paladins, a force dedicated to fighting demons in the holy war happening at the Eastern part of the Continent.

Erika was in her room as she was laid on a chair with her baby who was laying on top of her and feeling the warmth of her bosom.

One of her maids would whisper "My Lady, young Lord Carnel is courting two women." There was no reaction from Erika but another one of her maids would chime in "I saw him take them two to his personal room, they sure were having fun while our lady is all by herself here, I hope they die." She had two maids allocated by the Butler Benjamin as per the orders of the Duke because Lady Cornelia refused to do anything for her daughter in law whom she hated.

"What's the point?" Erika asked, " The mother used me as a toy to harm Estefan who is now dead and made her actual son to fuck me like a toy... They see me as something to use and thrown away. I am sure they will remove it later as well... Sometimes I believe that I shouldn't have taken the offer to be the maid here, Estefan was better but he is now dead."

All of a sudden a vase was pushed to the floor where it fell and shattered which surprised everyone. They were shocked to see Carnel standing there while looking at them, Erika dismissed the maids to prevent them from getting targeted but Carnel grabbed one of them and ordered the other exit.

He held her hands with a firm grip, "Let her go." Erika requested while being sat on the bed as she couldn't move due to the baby who was sleeping. But Carnel didn't, he grabbed the maids mouth forcing it to open and pushed his tongue inside while facing Erika.

There was a smirk on his face while he slowly released his saliva down from his mouth to the maid's through his tongue. He also grabbed the maids breast through her clothes, as he would rashly grope them.

Erika continuously pleaded for the maid to be let go because she didn't want her maids to be attacked simply because they serve her but that simply encouraged him to do more which he did.

He wanted her to witness it, he slapped the maid by her face and then placed her in front of him where her face was visible to Erika. He would lift her skirt up and tear every bit of fabric under before pushing his penis into her dry vagina. It was forceful, there was no pleasure for them but only pain but that pain was a pleasure for him.

He enjoyed her screams and begs, because he knew he was in power. Both of them can't touch him or question him or even complain about him. He was the soon to be declared heir while the maid was irrelevant for the aristocracy and Erika was a lowly woman who got raped and later forced to marry her rapist because of his status and his father's orders.

A burden, they knew they had to serve him and after just a minute the man unleashed all his twisted pleasure in the form of liquid not inside her but on her face right in front of Erika who was forced to watch but held her baby close shutting the child's ears to prevent the baby from knowing how bad the world which she born into was.

Carnel walked near Erika as he wagged his penis in front of her face "This is not fun." Because of the reaction of Erika which was purely disgust. Carnel grabbed the maid by her hair and dragged her towards his personal room.

For an hour they heard screams of a woman being beaten, used and tortured. After some hours later the second maid appeared with a new one following her "My Lady, I'll introduce you to your new maid given to you by Lady Cornelia." But Erika asked "What happened to her?" For which the answer she received were "She was given to Young Lord Carnel as one of his personal maids in his own personal estate." Erika understood that the poor woman was taken as a toy just like her but with far worse fate.

"Does the Duke know?" She asked, "No, Benjamin specifically asked us to not tell the Duke or else the Lady would hurt you."

"I see." She whimpered while her hand was on top of her eyes to hide her tears which dripped down because of her everyone is hurt and it's all because of her wrong decisions.

She was the daughter of one of the personal guards of the Duke. She didn't need to be a maid in fact she was supposed to be a scholar.

The Lady saw her one day and seeing her beautiful figure, Lady Cornelia planned to use Erika to take control of Estefan and maybe even put him in trouble. Erika was told to seduce the young boy and take control of his heart with the promise that if she is able to make him her puppet she will be given money and status along with staying in the closer circle of the wife of the Duke which means a status boost.

But it failed the moment when the plans changed and she was used to defame Estefan.

At the monastery where she was admitted after getting raped by Carnel, she could have brought both Carnel and Cornelia down by accusing them of her rape but the Duke offered her two things if she accuse Estefan instead. It was a higher and administrative position for her father which had better pay and was not risky while the second one was her marriage to Carnel.

Marrying the future heir of a Duchy meant a lot and she even thought of controlling Carnel but unfortunately Carnel wasn't Estefan. Estefan was never lustful in fact he always kept a distance from everyone while Carnel would fuck anything which moves.

She failed to seduce him and he would torture her which he considers as a method of getting pleasure.

She did hear about the death of Estefan, she didn't cry or bother with it because she never truly loved him the way he did to her. In fact his death made her be in relief because Estefan surviving would mean that he will definitely come for revenge and would be an enemy of her so for her, his death was the best outcome.

After many wrong decisions, she got herself pregnant with his child and that did give her some value but it didn't change much of her status since her mother in law doesn't love her which meant the Palace which was practically under her control would also give less care for Erika.

All hope was lost especially when her child was a female, so less of an influence unless she gives birth to a male who can be the heir which would boost her status since she would become the mother of the next in line or so she hoped.

Meanwhile inside the Grey Zone at the Northernmost part of the region. The Group was named as the Bloodhounds after they pledged their loyalty toward Estefan. The group in total had a thousand strong members with 500 being Class Three swordsmen.

All of them wore black cloaks and a demonic mask to hide their identity. Gender was irrelevant for the group for what mattered was the strength, loyalty and discipline. Periyan discovered many Children who were left alone after their parents went to fight in the North. He gave all of them a choice to stay and train under him so he can take his revenge and they too can their revenge against the Demon and the Duchy.

Commander Periyan gathered his men and began moving towards the Cave and the Hill where Estefan was to regroup with him and plan for the recapture of the City alongside with further future plans.

The Grey Zone was controlled by three total groups. They were three villages who got some gifts from the Demon which allowed them to be dominant in the region. All the villagers had to do was hunt the humans sent by the Duke then give at least 50% of them to the Demon while the rest must be used as a food source by them.

This granted the Demon with more strength and influence because of the spread of demonic beliefs and worship. The three villages had their leaders blessed with powerful demonic strength and magic making them fearsome generals in case a war broke out to ensure the Demon had an upper hand rather than dealing everything by itself.

The Bloodhounds were all trained in a way to counter the villages because they needed to be neutralised or else they could be a troublesome annoyance in the plans to recapture the City.

They knew that Estefan would deal with the Demon by himself considering he was training for it, so their role would be to capture the entire region by themselves in his absence.

Since he is to deal with the Demon who is still a terrifying opponent for them to face against. The Demon focusing on Estefan will have to ignore the Villagers and Village in the process as well but at the end it depends on what Estefan wanted to do since he was their leader.

They finally reached the area where Estefan was training but they stumbled in front of a group of enemies who were part of the one of the said groups who serve and worship the demon.

The Bloodhounds didn't waste any time, one of them launched themselves towards the enemy. At peak Class Three the person easily beheaded all of them in under a second proving this new found force can make an incredible impact in the upcoming war against both the Demons and the Duchy or even other future unknown enemies.

They, led by the Commander, moved forward, the entire area where the hill was and they were shocked to see it.

The Hill was no longer there, what they found was just an empty space with signs of a powerful explosion. "Incredible... I can't believe that he managed to do something." Periyan was baffled by what he just saw, he could feel the heat "Seems like he carries his mother's legacy." He exclaimed to see the strength of Estefan.

But where was he? Periyan thought to himself before ordering his men to do a widespread search because he was worried that Estefan decided to attack by himself without the assistance of the Bloodhounds.

Periyan sighed "So it begins." He uttered as if he knew the war to recapture the City was about to commence or maybe have started already but he didn't want to be left out so he told his men to prepare planning to take the Grey Zone by themselves.