The Immortal Demon (2)
It was a night when even the stars were hidden behind clouds.
A secluded cave, several hours’ walk from the village of Rengleton.
Two necromancers stood at the cave’s entrance, gazing up at the sky with bored expressions.
“Ugh, I’m so damn bored.”
One of them finally spoke.
“If only we had brought a skeleton soldier, we could at least have some fun.”
“Didn’t he say no? This place must remain hidden. Even if an herbalist or hunter stumbles upon us, we should appear as nothing more than ordinary bandits.”
“Why’s a demon so damn cautious?”
The necromancer grumbled, tossing back his hood to scratch his head.
Revealed was a gaunt face with hollow eyes—a young man with a nervous disposition.
“And what’s with demanding gold, jewels, and sacrifices? If he went himself, he could raze a village in no time, plundering treasures and gathering sacrifices. Two birds with one stone.”
“Once he regains his strength with enough sacrifices, he’ll act himself.”
“Enough? When’s that supposed to be? After we’re all old and dead? Damn it, I thought once we resurrected the demon, our time would come!”
“Watch your mouth! Haven’t you seen how powerful his curses are?”
The older necromancer raised his voice for the first time.
He stroked his beard to calm himself, then gently admonished his younger colleague, who was still grumbling behind him.
“He must have his reasons. He’s lived far longer than us, so it’s only natural he’s wise and cautious.”
The younger necromancer fell silent.
As a senior necromancer, his words seemed to have some effect.
“Just be patient. If we serve him well, soon enough…”
The older necromancer suddenly sensed something amiss.
The younger one hadn’t just stopped grumbling.
His presence, once felt behind him, had vanished entirely.
The man’s face twisted in frustration. That brat must have slipped into the cave again, tired of listening.
It was the same insolent habit he had when dealing with their master as a reckless boy.
“That damned brat…”
The necromancer turned, unable to contain his anger any longer.
As a senior, he was ready to give his junior a stern lecture.
And then he saw it.
His junior, strangled silently to death by a massive hand.
And the mercenary in armor, holding the lifeless body by the neck.
The mercenary’s dark eyes glinted in the flickering torchlight.
In that moment, the older necromancer felt a fear he’d never experienced, not even before a demon.
“Intrud—”
“Shh.”
A giant hand clamped over his face.
The words he tried to shout were crushed by the mercenary’s iron grip.
“Mmph!”
A muffled scream escaped as pain shot through his skull, feeling as if it would shatter.
Instinctively, he summoned his magic, forming a spell with his fingers.
The necromancy he’d practiced hundreds of times manifested instantly.
The younger necromancer, now a corpse, rose as an undead.
But that was all.
Crunch!
The mercenary’s brutal grip crushed the front of his skull, tearing through the necromancer’s brain.
As the man fell with half his head destroyed, the reanimated young necromancer also collapsed, lifeless once more.
Dalen drew his hand axe and split the undead’s head with ease.
The undead’s weakness was either the head or the heart.
The core of necromantic power shattered with a single blow, and the body crumpled.
Having swiftly dealt with the two necromancers, Dalen expanded his senses to check if anyone had noticed his attack.
The cave remained silent.
It seemed no one had.
“Using necromancers and dark wizards to gather sacrifices… it matches what I saw at the inn.”
With a flick, he cleaned the blood from his axe and sheathed it at his waist, pondering the words he’d overheard.
“Fortunately, the demon is still gathering strength. Things haven’t gotten too dire yet.”
When Dalen first heard the immortal demon had been unsealed, he thought this battle might become quite complicated.
Though the immortal demon was merely an “annoyance” in the later stages of the game, that was only when it had enough sacrifices.
With sufficient sacrifices, the demon was powerful enough to easily overpower even the demon Golakap, who sought to corrupt the holy sword.
But that was only when it had enough sacrifices.
Uniquely, the immortal demon was almost powerless without them.
“If it’s not seeking sacrifices itself, it means it’s still unsure of its strength.”
The young necromancer had been right.
The immortal demon was uncharacteristically cautious.
Defeated and sealed by the Holy Knights three hundred years ago, its past had shaped its behavior.
In any case, the fact that it still wanted to remain holed up in this cave was good news.
With Dalen’s current strength, he could handle it quite easily.
Dalen tightened the straps of his armor, loosened from the long journey. He checked his weapons with minimal, practiced movements.
The holy sword on his back. The sword and dagger at his left hip, the axe at his right.
And the pouch at his waist, containing a long-corrupted chain relic.
With his preparations complete, Dalen silently entered the cave.
It was time to put a leash on the demon.
“Intruder! There’s an intruder!”
“What were the guards doing?”
The cave echoed with shouts and screams.
The cries of necromancers and the howls of the undead reverberated off the walls.
“Form a defensive line with the undead! Block the narrow passage!”
“Temom—Tareon!”
Corpses scattered about rose under the power of spells, and scattered bones assembled themselves.
The undead and skeleton soldiers, armed with swords, shields, and spears, rushed to block the cave’s passage.
“Build a wall! Raise something bigger!”
“The undead soldiers can’t hold for a second! Fall back and buy time—urk!”
A necromancer running through the cave let out a short scream and fell forward.
A long wooden handle protruded from the back of his head.
It was a hand axe.
“Eek!”
The dark wizard running beside him collapsed, his legs giving way. Instinctively, he looked toward the cave entrance where the axe had come from.
A massive warrior was cutting through the wave of undead and skeleton soldiers blocking the narrowest part of the cave.
“A monster…”
The word slipped from his mouth.
It was ironic, considering the speaker was a dark wizard who summoned monsters and demons.
As soon as the word left his lips, the warrior’s gaze met his.
The warrior grinned.
And then there was a flash.
Boom!
A thunderous roar shook the cave.
The flash of light shattered the wave of undead and crushed the dark wizard’s body.
Dalen rotated his slightly stiff shoulder a few times to loosen it, then walked past the remains of flesh and bone.
“Temom—Skerid!”
“Kampf—Se Glam!”
The curse-breaking sigil glowed, dispelling the binding curse.
With a single punch, he crushed several imps that had emerged from the shards of a hell gate.
Grrr.
Grrr.
A massive wolf stitched together with flesh and entrails, and a three-meter-tall skeleton giant made of bone fragments blocked his path.
Boom!
With a thunderous roar, the flash from Dalen’s fist obliterated everything, sweeping away the necromancers behind them.
“Ugh, ugh.”
“Ugh! Ugh…”
The necromancers who were unlucky enough not to die instantly groaned, parts of their bodies mangled.
Dalen walked among them, swinging his hand axe to end their suffering.
Less than an hour after entering the cave, the hideout of nearly fifty necromancers and dark wizards had fallen to a single warrior.
“Hmm.”
Having dealt with the remaining dark wizards, Dalen opened his status window for the first time in a while.
Since capturing the witch, Dalen’s experience bar had barely inched past the halfway mark. But his focus wasn’t on the experience points; it was on the skill list far below.
Dalen stroked his chin thoughtfully as he opened the details of one particular skill.
[Dehaman’s Armored Combat (D)]
A martial art created by Dehaman, the former commander of the Imperial Knights. He developed it after witnessing his knights become defenseless as empty cans when they lost their weapons. It involves using armor as both shield and weapon.
Proficiency: 99%
This was the first skill Dalen acquired after arriving in this world, and until he obtained the Crushing Sword, it was his only combat skill. Its proficiency was now nearing a perfect hundred percent.
Reaching that perfect score would make it the second skill, after his night vision, to achieve maximum proficiency. And recently, the concept of maximum proficiency had taken on a new meaning for Dalen.
“When my night vision reached its peak, I was able to integrate the skill into my domain.”
The result was more than just seeing through the darkness of dawn; it was the ability to peer into secrets hidden by spells and mysteries. When he used that vision to locate the witch’s true form, Dalen realized something profound.
“The idea of using a domain encompasses far more possibilities than I ever imagined.”
Elder wizard Felber Valinteno of the Elgaia Magic Tower once defined a domain as an alternate universe where nothing is impossible. Over the past few weeks, Dalen had been delving into the properties of this mysterious space whenever he had the chance.
What he discovered was that his domain served as a vessel for power beyond mortality. At the same time, it was an incubator for the endless possibilities that power held.
“The thunderous strike accompanied by lightning was the manifestation of my strength surpassing its threshold, aligning with my imagination.”
The same applied to his vision that pierced through spells and mysteries. It was the maximized potential of the essence of “seeing through” that his night vision skill held at its peak.
Of course, not every skill or attribute could be integrated into a domain just because it had potential. The conditions for potential to sprout began when an ability approached a certain threshold.
Incredible strength that could break the sound barrier with a human body. Or a skill like night vision that had reached maximum proficiency. And now, with Dehaman’s Armored Combat nearing a hundred percent proficiency, the primary condition for domain integration was met.
All that remained was the realization of potential and practical application. In fact, Dalen was already beginning to grasp the threads of understanding.
Since his proficiency entered the high nineties, fragments of insight had been tickling his mind. Just like when he struck the archbishop with a thunderous blow. And when he saw through the witch’s true form hidden behind ashen clouds.
Dalen slowly unraveled the threads of understanding forming in his mind. His high intelligence guided his steps unerringly deeper into the cave, even amidst deep contemplation.
The demon’s lair wasn’t far. After walking for about five more minutes into the cave, Dalen heard a voice echoing loudly, prompting him to silence his footsteps and proceed cautiously.
“Bring more sacrifices immediately! Did I not demand offerings?”
“B-but, my lord demon, an intruder has just entered the cave. It is no longer safe to offer sacrifices here.”
“How dare you! With me here, how can you utter such nonsense about safety? Must your tongue rot before you come to your senses?”
“P-please, my lord demon…!”
In a small chamber, a black-robed necromancer was bowing deeply, hands clasped together. Before him stood a massive shadow.
Dalen hid behind a rock, watching the living, writhing mass of shadow.
‘That’s the one.’
It looked like the shadow of a giant tree had risen from the ground, gaining consciousness. At the same time, it resembled a dark, amorphous cloud, shifting like a giant several meters tall.
“Do you know fear? Do you know terror? Should I show you who will become the most cursed being to you?”
As the creature roared in anger, red energy crackled through its amorphous cloud body. An ominous mist began to seep from it.
The creature bellowed, “If there is an intruder, you should prepare for battle and offer sacrifices to earn my favor! A heretic like you deserves to be devoured!”
“P-please, anything but that…!”
The necromancer, realizing too late that the mist was approaching him, fell backward in terror. The dark mist pounced on him like a predator on its prey.
“Aaaah!”
Wherever the mist touched, black mold and fungus sprouted. Clothes rotted away, revealing flesh beneath that oozed pus and blood. The necromancer, screaming with a mouth bubbling with green foam, soon went limp.
His dead body began to dissolve, skin, muscles, and organs absorbed into the black mist.
“Mmm. Yes, corrupted magic is indeed the finest delicacy.”
Having consumed both soul and body, the demon smacked its lips in satisfaction. There was no need to watch any longer. Dalen stepped out from behind the rock.
“Hmm?”
The demon, having tossed aside the necromancer’s cursed remains, turned to Dalen, sensing his presence.
“So, you are the intruder?”
Dalen didn’t respond. He simply reached behind his back.
A soft metallic sound filled the air as a chain, glowing with a faint purple light, wrapped itself around his hand and wrist like a living serpent.
“Th-that is…!”
The demon’s eyes widened at the sight of the chain. Seeing its shock, Dalen slowly curled his lips into a smile.
It was time to use the advance payment for this mission, which he had received from Lucia at the Paladin Order’s branch in the labyrinth city and had kept tucked away in his pocket. The long-lost corrupted relic of the Paladin Order, ‘Halman’s Chain,’ was finally going to be put to use.