Covering themselves in a bubble of dark magic shield, Haruki and his companions traversed through the Scorchen land, and finally arrived at what appeared to be a settlement. Scattered throughout the area were huts of cackling red rocks with hunched-over gremlins going in and out.
Thankfully, not having encountered any more wisps, their mask of invisibility was keeping them hidden. And even as they walked through the giant flame passionately burning in the very middle of the hamlet, none of the ratty ghouls noticed their presence.
'These guys seem strong enough for the monsters back in the dungeon to farm levels.' Talking to his companions, Haruki wanted their opinion on the matter.
Scanning around the town, they saw the monsters divided into groups of two. One went out hunting and brought disfigured animals for the town while I others lagged behind and took care of the children and worked on equipment and attires.
Although much smaller, just like a human town, the lone street was filled with the sight of razor-toothed blacksmiths, leather workers, and even mud ground for children to learn to play around and hunt.
'On second thought, maybe forming an alliance with these people would be a better way to do this.' Seeing in them the same hint of constructive passion as the goblin queen, Haruki knew he couldn't let that go to waste especially since he's once again going to be in charge of a kingdom after such a long time.
'I think so too, but we should keep moving for now. The distraction back home won't last forever after all.' Marking the location on a charted map, Riley convinced the other two to come back later since they only had a limited time to reach Asmodia's body.
'Alright, let's keep moving then.' Haruki replied before they made their way further. Upon passing the town, however, they noticed some of the gremlins washing themselves up in a river of molten lava. Like water, they filled up stone buckets after a while and even started carrying them back toward the town. 'I guess we're gonna need lava to quench their thirst if we intend to have them join us.'
Turning his back to the two, Haruki then ventured through a forest of barren trees with sickly branches and no sight of any leaves. Ever so often his party would hear the creaking sounds of branches, and they could've all sworn to have seen the trees slightly shifting in position.
"This place is creeper than I thought it would be…" With the sounds of grunting beasts surrounding them everywhere they went, Asuka had started to grow a little anxious.
"Yeah, as if that's not enough, I feel like something's been whispering into my ears too," Riley added, her skin crawling from a lingering presence around her.
"We still have a lot of ground to cover, let's just keep movi-" Noticing a sudden sound coming from within the dense forest, Haruki moved his hand before the others to stop them in their tracks.
'Something's there,' he told the two. Not so confident in their invisibility, he put up yet another layer of magic shield bubbles around them before slowly making his way forward. That's when he felt it, the same attack that had left Riley unconscious. Despite not being able to see, he knew how to counter it this time.
"Devouring demon!" Shooting out of his hands was a razor-toothed shadow that could sniff out any threat be they visible or not.
Leaping forward, it opened its mouth wide and chomped down on the invisible attack. Crushed under the force of its bite, the spell gave off lightning before being devoured by the wolfish creature. Raising its head again, the devouring demons sniffed around and rushed towards the other end of a thorn bush.
"Let's see how tough these things really are," flying forward behind the demon, Haruki saw a cliff hidden behind the bushes. Peering down from above he noticed the devouring demons wrestling with a ball of light crushed between its teeth. "Tormentous dungeon!"
Before the demon could kill it, however, Haruki forced it into a dungeon pocket so that the goblin queen could make a species control ring to control the invisible wisps.
'Perhaps, catching one of the Gremlins and making a species control ring out of them would be a good idea as well in case they don't agree to the alliance.' Creating those mental notes to bring up with the goblin queen, Haruki gets down to the ground with Asuka and Riley following him right behind.
Looking on forward, they noticed a sea of writhing vines laden with a stretch of flowers blocking their path forward. While they would've appeared alluring to any human, but to demons with a better sense of threat, they saw right through that illusion.
"None of us know fire magic, right?" Turning to his companions, Haruki asked with a bright smile.
Without another word, the two knew exactly where he was getting at.
"Clone: Roselia Ironfrost, dragon form!" Creating multiple of the dragoness's clones, he was ready to burn it all down to reach his eventual goal.
As the clones of the dragoness burned the vines and flowers, those pesky creatures began scurrying away and some of them even buried themselves under the burning ground. Taking to the air once more, Haruki flew up high to find the beacon of Asmodia's tomb barely visible after he'd crossed the charred vines.
"There it is," he mumbled, pointing at a structure akin to a clock tower.
Light up with a single light at the very top, the structure almost served as a lighthouse for anyone looking to find Asmodia's tomb.
"Asmodia told me that there are plenty of guards by the tomb," turning to his companions once more, he looked them in the eye. "We should try and gather intel before going in, and getting some rest in the dungeon would be ideal as well."
With an outlook for absolute pragmatism, Haruki was trying to make sure that this time nothing unexpected would mess up his plans.
'I haven't seen any demons other than us or that many monsters either.' Wondering if the guards were constantly surveying the surrounding and whittling down the number of monsters, Haruki made the dragons disappear but not before starting a fire through the withered forest to elude the guards to suspect a forest fire to be the cause.
"Back to the dungeon then, this would probably be the last time of this back and forth so let's make sure we're ready to face whatever comes our way before heading into that tower," with a stern look on his face, Haruki was determined to take on anything if it meant being from the strings that had controlled him his entire life.
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