Chapter 534: Demon King’s Temple

His journey took hours.

Clouds tore apart as a black figure blitzed through them and began to plummet, his cloak whipping upward and spreading behind him like a banner.

Like a black meteor, the Unknown King struck a valley below. The impact sent a roar across the land as water burst from shallow puddles around him, scattering into the air before raining back down.

All around him knelt sculptures of people, their hands raised as though they were pleading for something.

The Unknown King looked again and realised they weren’t sculptures at all.

They were people.

None of them wore clothes, and their bodies were unnaturally perfect, especially for so many people gathered in one place. Yet some were missing their lower jaws, while others had lost hands or other pieces of themselves, broken away by beasts or demons that had passed through the valley.

Grass had grown around their bases, and countless puddles surrounded them. There was too much water for it to have gathered here naturally.

Someone was regularly pouring water over them.

For what purpose?

The Unknown King raised his gaze towards a wall rising in the distance. He leapt, producing a thunderous boom as his silhouette tore through the clouds before beginning its descent.

The earth exploded beneath him when he landed, and a fierce gale swept outwards. As the dust and grass settled, the Unknown King lifted his eyes to a towering wall more than a hundred and fifty feet high.

Along its summit stood hulking humanoid creatures with tough blue skin and elephant-like tusks stained with a bloody sheen. Miasma drifted from their bodies like steam rising from a hot pool, while their low, angry growls carried down from the battlements.

Javelins were raised. Bows were drawn.

The Unknown King stared up at them.

"I am a God-King. Your actions are futile and will only end in your deaths. I came solely to meet your king. Take me to him."

A larger troll stepped to the front of the crenellation and looked down at him.

"So you are the one he’s expecting."

The troll turned and barked an order, miasma spilling from his mouth as he spoke.

"Open the gate."

The enormous gate opened, and the Unknown King passed beneath it to find ranks of demon soldiers assembled on the other side. The hulking troll who had given the order descended to meet him and gestured for him to follow.

"We shall take you to him."

The Unknown King nodded and followed, his golden eyes roaming across the streets around him.

A thin elf lay crumpled in one corner, his bones jutting through his flesh as miasma seeped from his body. Elsewhere, demons fought openly in the streets. Some conflicts involved only two of them, while others had entire groups tearing into one another.

Corpses littered the ground.

Other demons moved among the dead, gathering the bodies and feeding upon the miasma that still remained within them.

As he travelled deeper into the city, the Unknown King saw what the Alchemists had meant. Humans, elves, orcs, trolls, half-men and people from other worlds lived here, all of them transformed by the same corruption. Some still resembled what they had once been, while others had strayed so far from their original forms that they now carried additional limbs, distorted bodies and features that barely belonged to their former races.

Not every demon leaked miasma. Some appeared capable of restraining it within themselves, and perhaps that was why they had retained more of their sanity, though even their eyes carried the same devilish light.

The Unknown King continued through the disorder, observing without interfering.

There were places where order did not exist but could still be established. This was different. Here, Order itself would be suffocated almost as soon as it emerged; it could scarcely be born, much less take root and thrive.

He had not come to change that.

For now, he would focus on his objective.

***

Arthur stood among a crowd dressed almost entirely in black, his hands tucked into the pockets of his thick coat.

The city had gathered to pay its final respects to those who had died during the demon dungeon outbreak. Some had been slaughtered in their own homes, while others were fighters and law-enforcement officers who had paid with their lives protecting everyone else.

As the funeral drew to an end, Arthur looked across the mourning families gathered around him.

The loss had somehow brought Staten Island closer together. They had been hurt, certainly, but they had not reached their breaking point.

Not yet, at least.

His phone began to ring.

Arthur pulled it from his pocket and saw Mrs. Athens’ name on the caller ID, but just as he was about to answer, he noticed his daughter nearby.

She wore a black dress and was weaving through the crowd towards him.

"Dad."

His little girl wrapped her arms around him, and Arthur embraced her. It had been so long since he’d seen her that he would have wanted nothing more than to sit somewhere and talk, but he needed proper evidence for the woman calling him.

"Is he doing something about this?" Arthur asked.

Isolde smiled and nodded.

"He is."

Arthur exhaled in relief when he heard that.

"He went to their world to confront the Demon King."

The relief disappeared from Arthur’s face. "Don’t tell me he went alone."

His jaw tightened when Isolde didn’t answer. Her expression told him enough.

"Godfrey is not the Unknown King, Dad." Isolde blew out a sharp breath.

"They’re literally the same person," Arthur retorted. "And he’s become the hope of these people. I want something done about what happened here too, but I don’t want him marching straight into a God-King’s territory alone."

Isolde pressed her lips together. "He won’t fail."

"Isolde..."

"He won’t." She shook her head. "When you meet him, you’ll understand. He’s... different."

***

"Hahaha! You really came. You are either fearless or bloated with arrogance. Either, however, is good."

The Demon King’s voice reached the Unknown King as he stood before the palace.

Though calling it a palace hardly seemed appropriate. The structure before him resembled a temple far more than the home of a king.

"Please, come in. My daughters and I are waiting."

The enormous wooden doors slowly swung open.