B2 Ch 94 - The Demons of Hell

Jester had already raced deep into the territory controlled by the demons. It was, quite frankly, a vast region, made up of broad stretches of open plains, sparse patches of forest, and enormous mounds of earth rising across the landscape. It was difficult terrain to cross on foot, especially because of how wide the entire region was and how little proper cover there was along the way.

According to the information he had gathered, the demons had established something like several layers of defensive walls to protect this enormous territory of theirs.

They were not literal walls like the city walls surrounding major towns. Instead, they were more like defensive camps, places where the demons gathered their forces, stored supplies, and maintained control over the surrounding land. Together, those camps formed a defensive network meant to protect the territory they had claimed.

The players, along with the knights under Rania's command, had been given the task of attacking these defensive camps. Whenever they successfully destroyed one, they would either keep pushing forward into the next defensive layer or retreat to recover, reorganize their forces, and prepare themselves for another campaign against the demons.

Now, since demons had become such an important part of this conflict, there was one question that needed to be answered first.

What exactly were demons? How were they different from ordinary monsters? And more importantly, why was driving them out of this land considered so important?

In Yunatea, the creatures that lived there, or more accurately, those that originally belonged to that world, were divided into two main groups. To put it simply, they could be called beasts and intelligent creatures. There was technically a third group that combined traits from both, but that was something to discuss another time.

Beasts were the creatures commonly found in the wilderness or inside dungeons, and players usually just called them monsters. They reproduced or spawned relatively easily, meaning their populations were constantly replenished no matter how many of them were hunted down. Because of that, monsters were generally easy to find and hunt on a regular basis.

Of course, the higher their grade and monster tier, the rarer they were, and the longer it usually took for them to appear again. Raid Bosses and World Bosses were obvious examples. More importantly, though, most monsters possessed little to no real intelligence. They acted mostly on instinct, almost as if they had been created from the very beginning to behave in certain ways.

The second group consisted of intelligent creatures, which included humans, elves, dwarves, dragon, beastkin, and, among several other races, demons.

Most players sometimes simply refer to creatures in this second category as NPCs. After all, they could usually speak, think for themselves, form societies, establish organizations, build kingdoms, and generally behave like people rather than creatures driven purely by instinct.

Demons belonged to this second category.

The important difference, however, was that demons did not normally live in Yunatea. In fact, they were not originally from this world at all. They had a world of their own, something similar to an alternate version of Yunatea. In Eternal Legacy, that world was known simply as Hell.

Imagine Yunatea as one enormous world containing several continents, kingdoms, and countless different territories. Somewhere apart from it existed another world that could almost be considered its counterpart, and that world was called Hell. That was where the demons originally lived.

The history of how demons ended up living in their own separate world, along with everything that had happened between Hell and Yunatea in the distant past, was considerably more complicated. Jester did not care enough to dig into something that detailed right now.

Hell had its own rulers and leaders. At the very top were beings known as the Seventy-Two Ranked Demons. Why seventy-two? Because there were literally seventy-two of them.

For the most part, demons were constantly searching for ways to escape Hell and reach Yunatea. Their reasons varied, but the results were rarely good. Invasions, wars, conquest, destruction, or whatever other disaster they happened to bring with them. Basically, demons filled the role one would expect from the classic antagonistic race in a fantasy game.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on NovelPhoenix. Report any occurrences.

So… If demons were currently occupying an area inside Valtherion's territory, what exactly did that mean?

It meant that, somehow, those demons had discovered a way out of Hell and successfully reached Yunatea. Not only that, they were already gathering forces, establishing defensive positions, and holding territory inside Valtherion. Whatever their ultimate objective was, building and maintaining a foothold like this clearly meant they intended to do something much bigger later.

That was how serious, urgent, and dangerous the presence of demons inside the kingdom truly was. Which was exactly why Jester had initially found it strange that the kingdom had not responded by sending a massive army to wipe them out as quickly as possible.

At least, that was how Jester saw the situation.

There might have been politics at a much higher level involved in all of this, circumstances and decisions he knew absolutely nothing about. Whatever was happening behind the scenes, though, it had somehow resulted in the strange situation they were dealing with now.

Jester continued exploring through the night until, amid the darkness stretching across the land, he finally noticed a faint glow flickering in the distance. The source seemed to be somewhere near the base of a tall hill, where several structures and scattered lights formed what looked like a small encampment.

“Can you confirm if that’s where the demons are, Shade?” he murmured quietly as Fang came to a stop beneath him.

“There are more than a hundred demons gathered there, Your Highness. Their levels appear quite high. Most are at least around Level 150, and there may even be some above Level 200 among them.”

“More than a hundred demons?” Jester repeated.

He continued. “I overheard them saying they intend to attack three different locations tonight. They’ll divide their forces into two groups for the first two attacks, then launch the third once those two are finished. Is this supposed to be one of the forces assigned to those attacks?”

Shade said. “Judging from the number of troops gathered here, their force is relatively small. So this is most likely just one of the demons’ smaller outposts.”

“Just a small outpost, and they still have guys above Level 200 here?”

Jester swallowed as he suddenly realized just how badly he did not belong in this area. Seriously, what level was he right now?

[Jester Lv. 67 - Evil Clown]

[HP: 2,378 | Mana: 1,227]

[Strength: 152 | Agility: 151 | Magic: 144 | Constitution: 182 | Stamina: 153]

[Luck: 20]

[Available Stats: 0]

[Weight: 145 / 912]

[Chaos: 1,645]

Level 67. That was it.

He had not even reached Level 100 yet, much less the minimum average level of the players participating in tonight’s attacks. Even so, Jester was not particularly worried. After all, the three figures accompanying him tonight were on an entirely different level from him.

Fang, Shade, and Michel.

“Your Highness.” Shade spoke again, though her voice sounded more like a whisper directly beside his ear than someone actually speaking. “May I ask if you already have a plan for what you intend to do here?”

Jester merely smiled at the question.

“Of course I have a plan. Do you really think I came all the way out here in the middle of the night just to wander around looking for entertainment?”

“My apologies, Your Highness. I didn’t mean to question you. I was only wondering what you planned to do next,” she replied politely.

Jester lightly kicked his heels against Fang’s sides afterward.

“Come on, Fang. Let’s head the other way.”

Fang turned and took off across the open plains beneath the pale moonlight. As they rode, Jester pulled up Eternal Legacy’s streaming channel through his game panel and started looking through the players who were live.

Players loved streaming whenever something interesting was happening, especially battles, raids, or large campaigns. Tonight was no different. It did not take Jester long to find several streams from players currently fighting their way through the Ashfall region.

After searching through the streams for some time, Jester eventually slowed Fang down again. Through the darkness ahead, he could make out a group of players marching together across the terrain, moving in a fairly organized formation.

From one of the livestreams Jester had been watching, he had already found some information about them. They belonged to a guild called AlwaysHappy.

“What kind of guild calls themselves AlwaysHappy?” Jester muttered. “That sounds suspiciously optimistic.”

Still, at least their livestream had given him enough information to understand what they were doing.

“They’re not traveling with Princess Rania’s main campaign force. That’s probably why they’re targeting one of the demons’ smaller outposts instead. They’re hunting on their own, looking for something their guild can handle without competing with the larger groups.”

“What level are those players on average, Your Highness?” Shade asked.

“Judging from the information they’ve made public, they should be somewhere around Level 170, at least.” Jester glanced over the marching group again. “They’re not a major guild either, and it doesn’t look like they have more than forty players with them.”

Jester kicked his heels against Fang’s sides once again, directing him to turn back toward the demon outpost they had discovered earlier.

“Come on, Fang. It’s time to get things started. This is going to be a long night,” he said, his gaze sharpening as a mischievous smile slowly spread across his face.

Fang immediately surged forward, racing across the open land beneath the dark night sky. In the distance ahead, several tiny shapes that had initially been difficult to notice gradually grew larger and clearer as they approached.

A group of figures. They were not players this time, but something entirely different.

Jester’s smile widened slightly.

“Okay, let’s see how my first meeting with the demons is going to turn out.”