Chapter 1154: The Demon and The Sorcerer [Part 4]

Chapter 1154 – The Demon and The Sorcerer [Part 4]

Pieces of stone were still falling from the pillar Runa had demolished.

-Clack! -Clack!

A particularly large chunk hit the floor.

Lux looked around.

Bodies littered the passage. Black blood stained the ancient stone, while fading demonic cores released wisps of dark energy that were immediately absorbed by the fortress’s oppressive atmosphere.

Runa stood among them, breathing harder than necessary.

Her fists were stained black.

More importantly, some of the anger had left her face.

Not all.

Lux doubted killing a few feral demons could erase what Kaelmor had done to her.

But the pressure had found somewhere to go.

She caught Lux watching her. "What?"

"Feeling better?"

"No." A pause. "A little."

"Thought so."

Lux flicked the blood from one dagger.

Runa walked back toward him, stepping over a corpse.

"You said kill them. So don’t complain."

"I wasn’t complaining."

She stared at him.

"We’ve made too much noise," he reminded her.

Runa’s expression sharpened immediately.

"We have to move fast now." Lux turned toward the descending staircase.

His twin daggers remained in his hands. "If there are actual guards below, they’ve already been alerted. Best case, they’re preparing for us."

"And worst?"

"They move the prisoner."

Runa’s jaw tightened. "Or hurt them."

"Exactly."

That possibility bothered Lux considerably more than an ambush.

He had seen how Kaelmor operated.

Prisoners weren’t people to him.

They were resources.

Leverage.

Batteries.

Possessions.

And a man who believed everything belonged to him might destroy an asset rather than allow someone else to take it.

Lux spread his senses through the lower levels.

The dark power became thicker beneath them.

Much thicker.

His system reacted immediately.

[Multiple layered barriers detected.]

[Spatial interference increasing.]

[Unknown energy signature detected below.]

Lux stopped.

Runa nearly walked into his wing. "What?"

He stared downward.

There.

Very faint.

Behind all that dark energy.

Something else.

Something powerful.

Weak now, perhaps.

Suppressed.

But definitely alive.

Lux’s smile slowly returned. "Well."

Runa’s ears lifted. "You found something?"

"Someone. Or something."

He stepped onto the first stair.

This time there was no joking in his eyes.

"Stay close. We don’t know what Kaelmor imprisoned down there, and we definitely don’t know what condition they’re in."

Runa moved beside him.

They descended.

The staircase went much deeper than the fortress above had any reasonable right to allow.

Lux counted four turns before deciding the architecture had stopped caring about mortal geometry. The walls gradually changed from old stone into smooth black rock, polished until it reflected distorted silhouettes of them as they passed. Thin crimson veins ran through the material like buried arteries, pulsing faintly with every surge of dark energy from below.

The air changed too.

Warmer.

Heavier.

Every breath carried concentrated demonic energy.

Ancient formations had been carved into the floor at regular intervals, their symbols overlapping in layers. Some restrained power. Others redirected it. A few were unfamiliar even to Lux.

Which irritated him.

He liked knowing things.

Especially dangerous things trying to kill him.

[Environmental demonic-energy concentration has increased by 312%.]

The staircase finally ended.

A massive underground corridor stretched ahead, easily wide enough for ten people to walk abreast. Arches supported a ceiling lost in darkness. Chains hung between several pillars, though nothing remained attached to them.

Along both sides were alcoves.

And inside those alcoves...

Eyes opened.

Lux sighed. "Oh, come on."

Growls answered him.

One demon crawled from an opening.

Then another.

Then five.

Then...

Lux stopped counting.

They poured from cracks, chambers, broken passages and abandoned maintenance tunnels. Some were vaguely humanoid. Others moved on four or six limbs. One looked like an enormous hairless hound whose mouth opened vertically rather than horizontally.

Runa stared. "More?"

"Apparently this place offers excellent accommodation."

These weren’t guards either.

Lux could tell immediately.

No contracts.

Just more low-level demons attracted to the ridiculous concentration of power below.

The fortress was essentially a free buffet for every stray demon wandering through the Mortal Realm.

The first demon charged.

Lux didn’t stop walking.

His right dagger flashed upward.

The creature passed him.

Its head didn’t.

Runa stepped around the collapsing body without even looking down.

Another demon leaped from an alcove.

She punched it sideways.

-BAM!

Its body disappeared into darkness.

Lux and Runa kept moving.

That was the difference now.

Earlier, they had taken time to deal with the creatures.

Now?

They didn’t have time.

A claw swept toward Lux’s head.

He leaned backward just enough for it to miss his nose, drove his left dagger through the demon’s forearm, twisted, then buried his second blade into its chest.

Core destroyed.

He pulled both daggers free without breaking stride.

Runa was beside him.

A creature came from her right.

She caught its throat and slammed it face-first into the floor while continuing forward.

-CRACK!

One stomp finished its core.

Another dropped from the ceiling.

Lux’s tail whipped around its ankle before it reached him.

He swung it into a pillar.

Runa punched through its chest as they passed.

"Teamwork," she muttered.

"Beautiful, isn’t it?"

Three demons blocked the corridor ahead.

Lux’s wings opened.

A violent gust of demonic energy exploded outward.

The first creature staggered.

Bad idea.

Lux teleported.

He appeared behind it, crossed his daggers through its core, then immediately twisted aside as the second attacked.

Runa took that one.

Her fist struck beneath its jaw.

Its feet left the floor.

The third hesitated.

Lux and Runa walked toward it.

The demon looked at the bodies.

Then at them.

It made the smartest decision any low-level demon had made today.

It ran.

"Leave it," Lux said.

Runa didn’t chase.

They continued deeper.

More came.

They died.

There was no dramatic pause anymore.

Only movement.

Lux’s twin daggers became flashes of black steel through the dim corridor. Throat. Tendon. Core. Step forward. Turn. Core again.

Runa fought differently.

Brutally.

Directly.

Anything that entered her reach discovered exactly how unfortunate that decision had been.

Their pace barely slowed.

Bodies accumulated behind them while the darkness ahead became progressively heavier.

Then Lux noticed something.

The demons stopped coming.

Not gradually.

Completely.