King Porter Forbes and Queen Clarice spent the entire day with Chanel, who was miraculously cured by someone. The ministers were speechless to see Chanel walking out of her room fully healed. The King and Queen went with the story that the curse suddenly disappeared from Chanel's soul. As much as the monsters and the nobles doubted Porter's words, they had no other explanation. The possibility of the Dark Lord entering the castle and lifting the curse had never come across their minds. That day, King Porter ordered the servants to prepare a lavish feast, celebrating Chanel's recovery. The evening sun cast long shadows upon Kingdom Kethern. As the slanting rays of the setting sun gave a warm orange tinge to the horizon, the darkness slowly shrouded the rest of the world. Soon, Rosegate was aglow with bright city lights, and the castle stood atop the jill like a fully decorated Christmas tree.

When everyone in the castle returned to their rooms to cultivate and sleep, King Porter and Queen Clarice sat on the edge of their beds, holding each other's hands. They looked exhausted and nervous. Their eyes frantically moved around the room as though they were searching for someone.

"Where is he?" Queen Clarice muttered.

"He said he would meet us here at midnight," King Porter said. Since Chanel was cured, his eyes looked lively and filled with life. Unlike when he was in Chanel's room, Porter looked like a proper king now, with his hair neatly combed and embroidered royal red robes. Despite the concerns in their hearts, they remained silent, waiting for the Dark Lord. Silence swept across the room, and a wolf's howl in the distance kept them company. Eventually, the light orbs in the room started to flicker just like the orbs in Chanel's room when the Dark Lord arrived.

Suddenly, the light radiating from the orbs got snuffed out as darkness completely took over the room. Their hearts shuddered and prepared to meet the Dark Lord. In a blink of an eye, the orbs lit up again. Although King Porter and queen Clarice expected the Dark Lord to arrive, they still felt a bolt of shock running down their spines when they saw him sitting on a throne made of skulls and bones before them.

Their bodies jolted up from the bed as if the bed was on fire.

"How is the princess?" Michael asked King Porter and Queen Clarice. They were surprised to hear the humanity in his voice, unlike before.

"She is doing good," King Porter answered.

"Under any other circumstances, I would have lifted the curse for no payment. But even I have some obligations. As a ruler, I think you would understand," said Michael.

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They lived long enough to apprehend whether someone was speaking from their heart or just tallying through the teeth. Hence, his words actually surprised both the Queen and King because they sounded genuine.

"Please take this," King Porter slowly removed the space ring from his finger and extended it toward the Dark Lord. The ring ascended into the air, floating toward him.

Michael quickly took a look inside the space ring and saw stacks of gold coins. The system scanned the space ring and confirmed the amount inside, two hundred million.

"I ordered my men to leave the portal room as you said," said King Porter. After seeing Chanel laugh once again when he thought they had lost her, King Porter didn't regret making a deal with the Dark Lord at all. Deep down, they felt grateful to the Dark Lord because if it wasn't for him, Chanel would never have been cured. It was he who answered their prayers. So no matter what the world said about him, to them, he was a man who saved their daughter. Besides, he just asked for two hundred million and a portal which was practically nothing to a King. The only problem was King Porter had to deal with the generals and the ministers about the sudden disappearance of the portal. He just hoped the Guardians or Noah wouldn't become suspicious of his dealing with the Dark Lord.

Elidyr and his minions were dismantling the portal and teleporting the parts as they were speaking. Instead of building a new portal that would cost three hundred million, Elidyr suggested Michael get an existing one. Then, he could modify the portal to connect the castle to the forge using the copper ring left behind by the past Dark Lord. Luckily for Michael, King Porter had recently built a teleportation portal with the help of Ice Fair duke.

"Just remember one thing, King Porter, every coin has two sides. Do not believe everything you hear," said the Dark Lord, rising from his throne. He strolled to the wind with his hands stuffed in his pants pockets.

"What should we do if the elf wants to harm Chanel again?" asked Queen Clarice. Since the Dark Lord was kind enough to lift the curse, she hoped he would discreetly do something about the elves. But what she really wanted was for the elf who cursed Chanel to die because as long as the elf was alive, Chanel's life would always be in danger. As a mother and a queen, she had to protect Chanel, even if that meant striking another deal with the Dark Lord.

"You should ask this to Noah. He will deal with the elves. As much as I'd like to rip apart the elf who cursed the princess, it's better for Noah to deal with them instead of me, Because the less I involve in your lives, the better," said Michael. Dealing with the elves was not a big matter to Michael. In fact, he had multiple ways of dealing with them. Option number one, he could put a hit on the elf with Aria. Option number two, he could ask the empress herself to keep the elves in check. But instead of choosing the first two options, Michael went with option number three, let Noah deal with the elves, which would undoubtedly lead to Noah pissing off the elves. As a result, Noah would become an enemy of the elves, and the more enemies he had, the better for Michael. Down the road, Michael could even team up with the elves in the battle against Noah.

"They say I am evil, but I never tortured a girl before her parents' eyes and intended them to see their daughter slowly die," Michael shrugged.

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"Anyways, if I were you, I'd keep Chanel out of Awor and seek the Guardian Guild's help. Elves are vengeful creatures. You should be more careful dealing with them in the future," With a flick of his wrist, Michael took out a card with the skull embossed in the center. He put the card on the table beside him and turned his gaze back to King Porter and Queen Clarice.

"Keep this hidden if you want to contact me again. But if you don't feel like it, throw it away," said Michael.

Michael was about to use the runic teleportation to leave the castle when King Porter stepped forward,

"Dark Lord," Porter called out to Michael.

"Thank you," When Michael turned around, King Porter lowered his head.

"We are grateful for what you did for our daughter," Queen Clarice slowly said.

"You are good people. You don't deserve such punishment," As he said, Michael willed the system to teleport him back to the dark castle, leaving Queen Clarice and King Porter behind. After he left, the throne vanished into thin air as King Porter and Queen Clarice exhaled heavily.

*****************************************************

Back in the castle, Elidyr was running back and forth inside an empty hall that was still reeked of fresh wood and marble. Grand chandeliers lit the room brightly and illuminated the giant circular portal in the center of the room. The portal's outer structure was made of pure silver, and the dwarves built the steps with marble. At that moment, Elidyr was busy carving runes on the silver ring while the copper ring Michael gave him was lying on the floor.

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"You are back," Elidyr noticed Michael entering the room and stopped what he was doing. Seeing the proud elf bow toward him despite his busy work was surprising to Michael. When Michael approached the portal, he noticed the runes dimly glowing and pulsating energy.

"So everything went well?" asked Michael.

"The portal hall was empty, as you told us. I assume King of Kethern won't become a problem for us in the future?" asked Elidyr as Michael motioned him to continue his work.

"I don't think so. You know the Queen asked me if I could help them with the elves situation," Michael talked to Elidyr while the elf was carving runes on the portal.

"What did you tell her? They all hate and loathe you until they need your help huh, Elidyr snickered.

"I said let Noah deal with the elves. It's his job as the Supreme Guardian to keep his people safe. Besides, I have a feeling Noah would piss off the elves and make an enemy out of them like he always does," Michael chuckled.

"As long as Andreas is with him, we cannot predict Noah's behavior. The Andreas I know is a rebel and a man with an iron will. If he sets his mind to do something, he will do it no matter what. Suppose he wasn't there three thousand years ago, we could have destroyed the great eight clans in a few weeks. That bastard ruined everything," Elidyr snarled.

"I wasn't there three thousand years ago, was I? I would like to see him try that again," Michael cracked his fingers,

"After we finish the portal, we should go to the forge and complete our new weapon for Big Bertha," said Michael.

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"Hmm. I looked into the design and came up with the necessary runes. But those runes require a huge amount of energy. At one point, you have to come up with an alternative for arch energy crystals,"

"One problem at a time, Elidyr. We still haven't mined a quarter of the crystals in the mountain," said Michael. As far as Michael was concerned, Mugashuku's energy radiation would continue to form crystals in the Stormville mountain, and that hydra wasn't going anywhere soon. So Michael didn't need to worry about the arch energy crystals running out.