The Record of Unusual Creatures - Chapter 409

Chapter 409: The Husky’s Creativity

 

The longer Hao Ren knew Y’zaks, the less demonic Y’zaks seemed to be. He was more like a thinker and a philosopher, and maybe even a scientist. The rough guy had more profound knowledge than many scholars—a result of constant exploration and the long-term influence by a real scholar. This had become part of him.

Even if it was a demon, focusing on one thing for several hundred years would cultivate an amazing habit.

The world Y’zaks was living was an explored world with incredible spatial structure. The space here wasn’t continual; the so-called ‘long distance travel’ concept was confined to a self-contained, limited bubble, or more sophisticated name called ‘crystal wall system’. Coming from Earth, Hao Ren had difficulty imagining how it was like in a discontinous space. But this space had obviously shaped the unique cultures contained in them. difference races lived seperately in the bubbles. Some stronger ones occupied a single or several bubbles. They built their countries in the land floating in the void, and accustomed to using teleportation gateway which was deemed a natural phenomenon and had been in existence since time immemorial.

The natives of this world thrived relying on the bubbles and teleportation gateways, the nature had thus formed a unique ecosystem: many animals migrated periodically through the large teleportation gateways; they were born in one bubble then reproduced or hibernated in another. Even some plants relied on the gateway to reporduced. Various intelligent races regarded the dimensional door as a long-term strategic resource, just like the strategic point on earth. the races actively explored the undiscovered gateway, and carefully travelled through these gateways to find the ‘new world’ with rich resources. Each race had their own set of exploratory technique, but generally they were similar and had three common features: the way to find the gateway; the technique to detect the situation behind the gateway; and way to destroy the gateway if great disaster was detected across the gateway.

The ease of exploration, and the belief that there were an unlimited amount of resources in the other dimensions made most races in the world complacent. They didn’t think it was necessary to develop their own territoty, they just needed to open the various gateways and they would get what they wanted. Drow Arcanum, one of the three arcana of elf, was a planet the size of the Earth where elves only occupied a large piece of forest in the planet. As the forest was always shrouded in noxious gases and toxic radiation, they set up a shield and became content. They found a teleporting gateway in the forest where they could travel to another dimensions. After a deliberation, they opined that it was safer to get resources from other dimensions than to exploit their own planet.

Many other races had the same thinking: why the hassle to explore the difficult-to-go places in their own dimension when there was the convenience of telepoting gateway to other dimensions?

Of course, they did study the structure of their own spatial bubble, and had come up with a superficial ‘spatial structure theory’ of their own. But overall, their exploration was only limited to the surrounding areas around the gateways.

There was no problem in this kind of survival. In the world of discontinual space, such development was normal; astronautical technology was deemed unnecessary, there weren’t going to be a lot of stars to be seen, and so people weren’t interested in the universe.

But the problem of this world was the races were over-reliant on the gateways. Before the appearance of the mad human alchemist, no one had ever questioned the boundary of the bubble zone or was interested in the knwledge of the dimensions of the universe. Their default thinking was that the adjoining self-contained bubbles was the entire universe itself. They had never thought of their ‘applied theory of teleporting gateway’ which was developed in the course of thousands of years might be only applicable in a small part of the universe.

Y’zaks was the first person who had a sense of crisis.

“Of course, I’m not the last.” Y’zaks smiled as he looked at the gateway far ahead. “Goddess Tawil once said the variability and curiosity of the intelligent races were precious, someone was destined to find the right path, it was just a matter of when. The old man who developed the bubble theory was still regarded as a mad man by the orthodox scholars a thousand years ago. But since a hundred years ago, his manuscripts were studied and revered. They would be someone who cared to measure the world and understood the importance of unity. Perhaps my war of unification had had its influence, it had broadened their perspective.”

“At least it was to prevent the emergence of a second Mad Demonic King.” Hao Ren patted Y’zaks on his arm and said, “Let’s not delve into the past. I can’t wait to go to Osidian Plain. And by the way, where is Osidian Plain?”

Lanina stretched out her neck and looked over the horizon at the mountain range and barren land, her succubus tail waving before the tip of the tial pointed at a direction: “There!”

Y’zaks nodded before he led everyone headed in the opposite direction. “Let’s go this way.”

Lanina said, “…my king… you don’t trust me?”

“I trust you other than your sense of direction.” Y’zaks glanced back at his ex aide-de-camp. “And just call me Wang here.”

Lanina followed from behind, her mouth twitched and was muttering something. Hao Ren was amazed: succubus was supposed to be an evil creature, but every one he met seemed to be an oddball.

They descended from the hill and found the wilderness full of black gravel and strange plants ahead. Perhaps the continent itself was a remnant of a planet, the gravitational field was still ripping the land apart slowly with unstable geological environment. Canyons and smoking cracks were still pewing flame and smoke. Dar reed prickly vines grew stubbornly in the harsh terrain, making one wondering if this was actually a plant in the normal sense. There were occasionally weird creatures jumped out of the flame or even the lava, moving and hunting frenzily between the prickly vines. These monsters couldn’t be even considered as lower-demons. Each dimension had its own unique ecosystem, so did the demonic dimension.

“It’s hot.” They passed by a lava river. Vivian’s brow began to knit together. “Stick closer. I’m switching on the air-conditioner.”

A cold draft of air radiated out from Vivian. Hao Ren instantly felt like heaven in hell—Vivian was like a walking air-conditioner, maybe he could eat some ice-cream by the lava lake later if Nangong Wuyue could manage to extract some water out of the air.

Lily gazed into the distance at the lava flow, falling into deep thought. She suddenly yanked out her flame claw and walked toward the lava flow. Hao Ren quickly called out. “What’re you doing?”

Lily waved her claw excitedly. “I’m trying to the enhancement method as written in the book…”

No one could keep up with the husky’s line of thinking. Lily explained excitedly. “It’s written in the book. The magic weapons are forged in the abyss of fire, or the hell of magma. I feel that something is lacking with my claw, short of some enhancement. What do you think if I enhance it with teh lava of The Demonic Plane?”

Most likely the maiden had read too much fantasy novels. Hao Ren looked at her half-crying half-laughing. “You really believe things written in the novels? Do you think by just dipping the weapin into the demonic lava would be—”

Before Hao Ren finished, Lily had already ran to the lava flow. She squatted by the river like a child and dipped her flaming claw into the smolten rock and gave it a little stir. Vivian rolled her eyes. “Oh so now it really has become Flamejoy, eh?”

Lily tucked away her claw and frowned perplexingly. “It seems not working… but I think I felt something down there…”

Before her voice trailed off, the lava flow suddenly surged!

Chapter 410: Fishing In Troubled Waters

 

The lava flow suddenly surged, bubbles rose from the lava. Lily immediately jumped ten metres back. “What did I just stir up?”

Everyone eyed cautiously at the surging lava flow. Hao Ren activated his Steel Membrane Shield and stood in front of Nangong Wuyue: though the siren maiden was good in defense, but the high heat and dry environment made her the most vurnerable among them. The lava flow surged for about ten seconds before a rumble was heard and an ernomous monster rose up from the lava!

The monster had a figure of a human but was covered in hot lava and stood wobbly at four metres tall in the lava flow. The monster was without a face but appeared at a loss as it turned its head around frantically as if trying to sniff out something in the air. Lava was dripping down its body back into the lava flow with white smoke rising up.

Looking at the creature which was perspectively challenging, Hao Ren became nervous. “What’s that?”

“Don’t be afraid. It’s just a lava demon.” Lanina let everyone take a step back. She stared at the lava creature, brows knit together and asked unsurely, “Polu?”

The ernomous lava demon reacted when it heard the Lanina’s voice, bending down at where Laniana was and making a series of undiscernable grunt. Lanina took a few steps back to avoid lava dripping on her head before she made the same grunt to communicate with it.

“The two know each other?” Hao Ren nudged Y’zaks. “What are they saying?”

“I’ve no idea.” Y’zaks scraped his bald head. “Lava demon is a lower life form, very unintelligent. I used to train them as guards in various lava lakes. Lanina is the only one who can communicate with them, though I’ve no idea how she does it.”

Hao Ren looked on in astonishment as Lanina talked with the lava demon. “As a succubus, she is really weird.”

Y’zaks shrugged. “Perhaps there was something wrong with my teaching…”

After Lanina talked with Polu, the lava demon, it disappeared into the lava flow with a grunt. Then Lanina told them worriedly, “This place is basically under Serathon’s control. His forces and the allied army are in a stalemate near the Osidian Plain. It’s not known what they are fighthing for. His soldiers are everywhere.”

“So this area was used to be Biggie’s territory?” Vivian’s brows pulled together. “What happened to your men?”

“Those who survived had fled to the other dimensions. The rest have become traitors.” Lanina said in an emotionless tone of voice. “Most middle and lower demons have no sense of loyalty. To them, who is more powerful, who will be their boss. So they are our enemies now. But then it’s a good thing: Serathon distrusts those turncoats, he gathered them around Red Peak which is near to Osidian Plain. So we’re not going to bump into them.”

Hao Ren let out a sigh of relief. Those turncoat demons were the biggest threats: they recognised Lanina, and could even sensed the presence of Y’zaks. Once engaged, those demons would be more dangerous than allied army.

“Serathon and allied army are in a stalemate in Osidian Plain?” Y’zaks rubbed his chin in thought. “Allied army is a formidable foe, a standoff means that Serathon must have sent his main forces. No wonder he has abandoned The Demonic Foundry.”

“After all the trouble, they were just after your daughter?” Hao Ren suddenly sensed something wasn’t quite right. The standoff between the demonic king and the allied army for over half a year for a kid just didn’t make sense.

Y’zaks’s emotion changed. He clenched his fists and said, “I don’t care what they are up to. I must go there.”

“Wait a second,” Vivian suddenly said, “Is the intel the lava demon provided trustable?”

“Absolutely.” Lanina smiled and said, “Lava demons aren’t intelligent, but they wouldn’t lie. They know the situation on the ground by way of the network of the magma in the crust of the earth. I’m the only one who could understand their language. No one else could master this web of intel.”

Hao Ren was doubtless about it. He led everyone leaving the hot lava flow and heading toward Osidian Plain.

As expected, they began to bump into the lower demons who were patrolling the area. As they drew near to Osidian Plain, they saw more demons and even armed Serathon’s soldiers. During their landing near the Demonic Foundry in Serathonian Plane previously, they were using the clouds in high altitude as a cover. But here, Hao Ren didn’t intend to go in discreetly—they were here to do reconnaissance, hiding themselves would only make the work difficult.

So everyone was making contact with the lower demons cautiously.

And there was a risk in doing so. But they had already agreed beforehand a way to disguise themselves. To make sense of the situation, they had to make contact with the enemy—it was a necessary risk. With their abilities, dealing with the lower demons was just a piece of cake, even if they risked getting exposed.

On the the desolute, scorched red land, two burly demon guards with a single horn on their forehead and their small team were passingby. The demon guards draped in armour of Serathon and despite their rock-like skins were exposed to the scorching heat, they seemed to enjoy the weather very much. They occasionally looked back at the demonspawns and the frightened humans behind them, and talked loudly among themselves. “It’s good weather. And it’s also a lucky day.”

“Definitely.”

Never have I thought of we could catch the fellows during the shift changes. It seems the allied army isn’t as strong as thought.”

“Definitely.”

“It’s said that the allied army has been searching in Osidian Plain for half a year. If they keep this longer, they would have died from noxious gas poisoning without needing our help. Could this be what Serathon has in his mind?”

“Definitely.”

“By then I might be able to retire, and become a captain. Then I can eat human at least once a week. Such a good life!”

“Definitely.”

“Tsk, I like your honesty.”

“Definitely.”

The two demon buddies were chatting as they walked, proving that demons were emotionally-capable creatures. Suddenly a group of humans appeared in front and stunned them. They raised their weapons instinctively. “It’s human!”

“Look carefully, idiot!” Lanina strutted toward the two demon guards. “A higher demon is here!”

Though the two demon guards were twice as tall as Lanina, the little succubus was talking to them like a boss. The two demon guards appeared not upset. They lowered their weapons as they saw a succubus was also taking a group of humans as prisoner. “It’s ma’am succubus.”

Succubi had low combat strength but their high intelligence and magic skills put them on the higher rank of demons. They were natural commanders and strategists, and revered by the grassroot soldiers.

“Are you going to Osidian Plain too?” Lanina asked loudly as if she was their superior, her tone of voice sounded so naturally.

“Yes.” The two demon guards were a little confused. “We inadvertently caught some spies of the allied army on the way. We’re taking them to the officer in the front line.”

“I happen to go to Osidian Plain too.” Lanina pointed at Hao Ren and his company behind her. “I too have a few new servants. They haven’t been brainwashed completely. I will put them under your custody. Save me the trouble of looking after them.”

One of the demon guards nodded. But the other one suddenly said as if he had realised something. “Of course. But could you please show me your ID?”

Lanina took out a pack of half-empty chewing gum which she took from Hao Ren’s house earlier and waved it in front of the demon guard. Her eyes glowed in blue and her voice low like in sleepwalk. “This is my ID…”

Lanina had never really practiced her seduction ability. Trying to use this ability on the elite demons would be difficult but the lower demons would be easily susceptible to it. The two demon guards nodded impetuously.

So Hao ren and his men had infiltrated the small demonic convoy. Then they continued heading toward Osidian Plain.

The two demon guards began talking again.

“Do you think ordinary soldiers like us have chance to get a succubus as wife?”

“Definitely.”

“Get lost! I couldn’t stand your hypocricy.”

“Definitely.”

Hao Ren was listening to their conversation from behind. “…..”

Chapter 411: Encounter

 

The small convoy hustled through the desolate land as the two ordinary demon guards and a higher succubus leading in the way. Following behind were the demonspawns which looked like mutated dwafs, and a few humans. They just looked like a demonic convoy with humans prisoners.

At least that was how it appeared to be.

Lanina were walking with the two demon guards as she tried to fish intel from them. Hao Ren’s eyes were darting around as walking with the enemy under disguise was a new experience. If everything went smoothly, they would be able to reach Osidian Plain under the cover of the lower demons.

Walking beside him were a few sad-looking strangers whom the demons said were spies of the allied army. Hao Ren didn’t think these so-called spies were high-value personnel, they looked more like scout troops. Otherwise they wouldn’t have been captured by just a few lower demons.

One of the spies was a bearded, lightly-armoured, middle-aged man who looked like a vanguard—that was what was written on his chest after all.

He glanced at Hao Ren and his friends curiously, wondering if these people who draped in old coarse robes (they changed a while ago as a disguise) were already brainwashed by the succubus; they didn’t look frustrated nor angry despite being taken prisoner by the demons, and might have forgotten that they were once humans. So he didn’t bother to talk to them.

But Hao Ren stirred up a conversation. “You’re from the allied army?”

The beardy man’s brows knit together and replied with just a word, “Meh.” To him, these human minions who were controlled by the succubus were little different from demons; he didn’t want to talk to him.

“What is the allied army looking for in Osidian Plain?” Hao Ren asked curiously.

“Stop talking!” One of the leading demon guards shouted at them. But Linana quickly smiled in a seductive manner. “Let them talk. Let these useless humans make up their false sense of hope. It would be more interesting later when we begin to shatter their hope bit by bit…”

The demon guards immediately thought it was a great idea. “Ma’am Succubus is really experienced!”

The other demon guards nodded frantically. “You’re right.”

“Is the allied army looking for someone? Or treasure?” Lily immediately chimed in after Lanina. “What were you guys doing? How did you get captured?”

The beardy man’s brows knit together again. He vaguely felt that these brainwashed minions were different—they were too cheerful. But he still didn’t want to talk to them. “I have nothing to tell you. I know it’s the succubus to let you extract intel from me, isn’t it? Don’t waste your time. You’re just a bunch of pathetic people who couldn’t remember who you are.”

Hao Ren looked at the demonspawns around him. He discovered that these dwarf-like lower demons had low intelligence like what Lanina said. They stuck to the last order as long as there was no fresh one coming. So he wasn’t worried too much. He came near to the beardy man and said quietly, “I’m a warlock.”

The beardy guy was wide-eyed, his expression changed quickly as if he had suddenly had many thoughts in his mind. The beardy guy said cautiously, “Prove it.”

Hao Ren raised his hand and pointed at Lanina and muttered quietly, “She is stupid.”

Lanina sneezed immediately. She looked around as if she knew someone was cursing her behind her back.

The beardy guy began to trust what Hao Ren said. The reason was simple; the seduction ability of succubi was crude and simple, intelligent beings which were charmed would sing praises of the succubi and would do so even if the succubus ordered them to the contrary…

“So she is our servant?” the beardy guy glanced at Hao Ren, appearing surprised. He began to realise that these people weren’t under the influence of the succubus. So he asked, “You come to our rescue?”

“We’re independent merceneries. Just wanna help.” Hao Ren made it up based on what the intel Lanina had provided about the allied army. “We have just arrived. Not much we know. What are you guys looking for?”

The beardy guy lowered his head and said quietly, “Well, it’s not a secret—we’re searching for treasure.”

Y’zaks instantly halted in his step. “What?”

“It’s said that it’s the secret where the mad demonic king had garnered his power.” The beardy man continued. “The mad demonic king had turned from an ordinary warlord to become the strongest demonic king ever. He conquered the demonic world and half of the human world within a few hundred years. What’s more, he could also foresee where the hidden dimensional door and new planes were. All these ability came from the special treasure. I don’t know where the intel comes from. But it’s said that the bigwigs of the allied army has found the last words of the mad demonic king before he disappeared. The last words are about the secrets of his great strength which have been buried in the royal city in Osidian Plain.”

Y’zaks was all the more confused. He couldn’t remember when he had his ‘last words’. Of course he was more enraged by the fact that the allied army’s stay in Osidian Plain all this time wasn’t about his daugther but an illusory treasure! His facial expression changed for the worse. Hao Ren noticed that and quickly patted on his shoulder. “Hey, Wang, keep calm. The thing is, the situation is still unclear. We need to investigate further.”

Y’zaks calmed down very quickly—true to his past great stature. He nodded quietly.

The convoy moved forward for almost half a day before the black plain began to appear in the horizon. Silhouettes of countless structure, possibly of the barracks of Serathon or the defense positions of the allied army could be seen over the horizon. As they drew closer, they began to bump into more and more demonic guards and sometimes even small forces of Serathon.

But things went without incident—Lanina told them that the humans were her prisoners with the two demonic guards had sworn to back up her claim. Almost invariably, those demons they had met on the way were all awed by Lanina’s promiscuous appetite for man and woman a like.

It wasn’t know how the succubus mainden took the comments, especially when she was actually more like sexually apathetic.

So just like that, the convoy was arriving at the border of Osidian Plain. Hao Ren saw weird rocks sticking out like spikes on the terrain. He thought these must be the so-called osidians.

Just when Hao Ren had thought of taking out the demons and figured out a way to infiltrate the the allied army, a loud explosion suddenly came off on both side of the road.

At the same time a BOOM—a ball of fire burst in the air right ahead of the convoy. The demons fell into a state of confusion and chaos. Armoured human soldiers began to rush out from behind the osidian spikes!

Apparently the soldiers had been waiting for them. The convoy was surrounded and outnumbered by one to three.

The two leading demonic guards immediately raised their weapons and roared at the enemies. But they didn’t lunged out when they saw the numbers of enemy before them. One of the demonic guards glanced at Lanina. “Ma’am Succubus…”

The allied army was surprised to find a succubus in the convoy. The male soldiers ook several steps back instinctively. The leading officer clenched his weapon and shouted. “Be careful of the succubus…”

In a split second, Lanina yanked out a pair of black rapiers from her waist. She wielded her weapons and leapt up like a bird, and took out the two demonic guards before they knew it.

Then Lanina looked up at the human officer. “What?”

Human officer said back, “What?”

“What my foot!” Hao Ren suddenly yanked out his silver alloy spear and flung a demonspawn away. “Let’s finish them!”

Chapter 412: The Allied Army’s In Trouble?

 

The demons weren’t a threat at all, they were trifling in the demonic world. Even if they these demons were a lot stronger than humans, they were just child’s play in the eyes of these superhumans. As the two leading demons were taken out, the demonspawns which were a no more smarter than aninals were totally no match for the superhumans. They were dead before they could react; one was stabbed to death by Hao Ren, one was stabbed to death by Lily, one was slapped to death by Y’zaks, one was slapped to death by Y’zaks, one was slapped to death by Y’zaks—let’s cut to the chase: the rest of the demonspawns were finished off by Y’zaks singlehandedly.

The male officer raised his sword. But before he could say anything, the demons had crumbled from within. Bodies of demonspawns were strewn all over the place and quickly turning into hot ashes. The person who did this was no other than the succubus. The little officer had felt it too unreal, and things happened to be so good to be true…

Lanina wiped the blood stain off her rapiers and walked up to Hao Ren delectably. “Are you guys OK?”

The beardy guy and other men and women were nervous for a while. But when they saw the humble attitude of the succubus, they were convicned that Hao Ren was a real warlock. Though warlock was an occupation feared by many, it was on the human side, so they felt a sense of relief. Hao Ren came up to the human soldiers with his company and asked, “Are you from the allied army?”

The leading officer came to his sense. He began to eyeball and size them up before asking back. “Who are you people?”

“They’re friends.” The beardy man came up from behind and nodded to the officer. “If not for them, I’m afraid we would have been dead in the demonic barracks. He’s a warlock, and his servant a succubus. But you don’t have to worry about her.”

Lanina nodded immediately, looked very submissive. “Yes, I’m summoned by my lord…”

The succubus lied without even blinking an eye. Had the two dead demonic guards heard what she said, they would turned in their grave. But then again, the identity switch really came in handy.

There was an occupation called ‘warlock’ in this world. Warlock could summon and command demons, and had a great deal of knowledge about the demonic world.

Sometimes, warlocks could be used by demons as a tool to invade the human world. Normally a demonic lord would simply disguise himself as a lower demon and got summoned by the warlock to invade the human world, the warlock would then be intimidated to open a temporary teleporting gateway for them. That was the reason why warlocks were suspected by many.

But there are two sides to every coin. Even if warlocks were feared by people, it was a proper occupation recognised all over the world: these were the people who knew the inside out of demons, all races in the human world which wanted to wage war against the highly combative demons would need to go through the warlocks. And they also needed warlocks to open the gateway for them if they were to invade the demonic world. So warlocks became the indespensible experts and guides in war against the demons—it was an occupation arose in the early days for the purpose of fighting the demons.

Just that the some of the later generations had gone rogue.

This was warlock, a group of mysterious, revered yet feared taboo scholars. They sometimes became an accomplice of the demons. But most of the time, they were the biggest help the camp of order could garner. Hao Ren had agreed with Lanina beforehand that using warlock as disguise was the best bet: when facing with demons they would say Lanina was in control, when seeing humans they would say he himself was the boss. Both of them hadn’t really any sort of covenant between them after all, so they could say whatever they wanted…

The trick was so perfect that no one would have thought that demon and human would come to such mutual cooperation—thanks to the mad demonic king who had made history trying to unite all races of the world but only manage to prove that human and demon could never see eye to eye. That gave Hao Ren a perfect background of disguise.

When the human officer heard that Hao Ren was a warlock, he was fearful as well as revering him. But judging from the submissive behavior of the succubus and also the killing of the demons, he was convinced. He was only curious about one thing now. “Nowadays, when is a warlock into spear, eh?”

Hao Ren guffawed and clenched the spear in this hand and looked up into the sky. “I don’t know anything else…”

The human officer pursued the question no more: normally warlock would suffer mental shock after trying to take control of demons, their mind would become a little wobbling after performing a certain amount of demon summoning. And judging from the symptom of Hao Ren had manifested, he could be warlock master.

By now Vivian began speaking the mercenary narrative. “We had received call from the allied army and came to help but got separated from the convoy after passing through the gateway. We bumped into your men who were captured by the demons. Now can you bring us to the camp of the allied army?”

Lanina had observed the allied army for a certain time before she left this world. She had quite some solid intel about the allied army; though several months had passed the situation seemed to be not much changes. So they knew what to fudge.

The human officer carefully sized them up, confirming that aside from the succubus they were all normal human beings. He then nodded and said, “Follow me. We need people the most now. But please Mr. Warlock, look after your pet and don’t let it run astray lest she could be manslaughtered.”

They grouped into formation and left the place under the cover of Osidian forest, bypassed the patrolling demons and headed toward the allied army camp. The human spies naturally walked with the human soldiers. The beardy guy looked worried as he asked the officer. “It seems there are just you, where are the other races? Didn’t they send their people too??”

“I knew it from the beginning. There’s no need to feel disappointed.” The officer lamented as he looked at the beardy guy with respectfully. “It couldn’t go on like this. Even an important scholar like you were sent to collecting samples without even assigning a body guard, clearly it was…”

The beardy guy shook his head and said, “What can we do? It was just a loose coalition, a marriage of convenience. It’s already a miracle they could stick together for all these years. The mad demonic king has disappeared for more than half a year, I think it’s time they go their separate way.”

Hao Ren was listening attentively from behind and got an insight: the beardy guy who appeared like other ordinary folk wasn’t actually a soldier, most likely he was someone in disguise, someone of importance. But it wasn’t known what had gone wrong with the allied army that he was sent out and left to die—almost.

So it was now easier to explain about the human soldiers. They were here ambushing the lower demons just because they wanted to rescue the beardy guy and the rest. Coupled with the fact that there were only human soldiers without other races joining the operation, it further reinforced the notion that trouble was brewing inside the allied army.

The convoy threaded carefully. They changed course constantly but in an orderly manner, circumventing the strongholds of the demons around the osidian forest. Some of the human soldiers dressed like priests who were were laying close-range barrier along the way to get rid of or disguise the scents that they had left behind. Obviously these veterans who had been working in the demonic space for many months were experienced.

Meanwhile, Hao Ren and the rest deliberately walked at the rear of the group. Vivian muttered to Y’zaks. “Now we’re headed to the territory of the allied army. Do you feel the dilemma?”

“What dilemma?” Y’zaks was confused.

“They’re your sworn enemy!” Nangong Wuyue chimed in. “Your foes who banished your back then?”

Y’zaks smiled wryly as if he couldn’t care less. “Aren’t demons also my enemy? It doesn’t matter where I go, the world is already against me.”

Hao Ren could feel his lofty aspiration in his words—only great man like Y’zaks could have uttered ‘the world is agaisnt me’ so lightly, so carelessly. This words were far more meaningful than what the hotheaded chaps who had done nothing but complained about the unjust of the world. What Y’zaks said was indeed a condensed thought of his epic past of being pursued by the whole world—truly a bloody meaningful word.

Chapter 413: The Ten-Year War

 

If possible, Hao Ren wouldn’t want to meet the allied army nor the demons in the demonic plane. He would rather stick to his ideal plan: get in to Osidian Plain discreetly, rescue Y’zaks’ daughter smoothly, then exfiltrate back to Earth; the whole operation wouldn’t be on the sly.

This was truly a if-you’re-not-with-me-you’re-against-me kind of world. If Y’zaks was exposed, the whole world would hunt them down. Hao Ren wasn’t prepared to experience the resurrection trick of Raven 12345 just yet; he was afraid to lose a limbs or two, or get additional ‘spare parts’ added to him if he were resurrected.

But plan would never catch up with changes. When putting action on the ground things wouldn’t be as smooth sailing: Curia coalition forces had encircled Osidian Plain and was having battles with several legions of army of Serathon. Under such circumstances, it was practically impossible to go in without getting spotted. So they had no choice but to infiltrate into enemy’s group.

But it was more comfortable to live with the allied army than the demons—at least aesthetically.

They went around the cordons of army of Serathon into Osidian Plain where buildings of human, elf, and dwarf could be found. Some of the demonic sentry posts had been modified into houses for human. This was the territory of the allied army. The land had almost been developed into a city with constructions were still ongoing.

Hao Ren began to recall what Lanina and Y’zaks had told him about the war back then.

Many years ago, the allied army had gathered the forces of the entire world and spent seven years before fianlly defeating Y’zaks, the mad demonic king who had sent people into the human world. With much sacrifice, they then forcibly opened the seventh teleporting gateway and fought a further three years of war in the purgatory of the demonic land and won. Ten years, countless of humans, elves, dwarfs, and orcs thronged the demonic world to fight the invincible demonic forces. Heroes rose and fell. Every race had their own heroes—Warriors of Light, Knights of Justice, the Saint Ladies, Knights of Lion Heart—but all of them had perished.

The last three years of the ten-year war was fought in the Demonic Plane. All races fought in the scorched earth where short-lived towns and entrepots appeared but were now abandoned. The ruins of human architecture could still be found along the way from the gateway to Osidian Plain—the ruins left behind by the ten-year war.

The final battleground of the war was in Osidian Plain.

Even Y’zaks couldn’t help but lament that it was the worst battle of his life. An incalculable army of the coalition surrounded Osidian Plain. They crushed the various lines of defense in the plain like a tsunami and eventually approached the last strongholds of Y’zaks—the demonic royal city in the centre of the plain and The Osidian Throne twenty kilometres away.

Y’zaks was stationed at the fortress called ‘The Osidian Throne’ at that time.

But in the end, the royal city and The Osidian Throne fell.

Knowing that it was impossible to break the line of defense of the demonic royal city, the most powerful magicians of the allied army began to construct a huge magic tower outside the city and cast an imprisonment spell, created an unprecedentedly massive dimensional crack, and sent the royal city and The Osidian Throne into the space storm.

What was left now was a one-hundred-twenty-kilometre long, thirty-kilometre wide crater where the allied army had set up their command centre.

No one would want to use such imprisonment spell in the human world because even the pope who formulated this plan couldn’t even be sure they could confidently control it, some were even worried that once thing got out of hand the entire space dimension might collapse—but since this was the demonic world, who cares?

Toward the end of the ten-year war, the warriors became almost fanatical, probably as a result of long-term stress from the war and the terror of the army of the demonic king, or it might also be that the negative energy in the dimension was consuming the mind of those veteran warriors. In short, those sacred warriors who were hailed as ‘the bravest and the most righteous’ were as paranoid as madmen; as long as the mad demonic king could be defeated, they didn’t mind to perish together with the entire demonic dimension.

The imprisonment spell was cast in the frenzy driven by vengeance. But luckily it hadn’t gone out of control and the war ended just like expected.

Now, it was just a year since the ten-year war had ended.

The allied army were the most massive military alliance in history. Though they were in the world of the demons, and Serathon was determined to become the second demonic king, the latter hadn’t been able to chase those suicide squads out of The Demonic Plane and could only hold the allied army in a standoff in Osidian Plain.

The allied army had controlled eight-tenth of Osidian Plain and several other places. Though they were short of getting total control of the entire remnant of the planet, they had built an unshakable foundation. Serathon had deployed his forces in the buffer zone between the gateway and Osidian Plain; for one, he wanted to repel the tired allied army and also to prevent them from launching a surprise attack in The Demonic Plane. So both sides were in a deadlock and Osidian Plain was never peaceful because of that.

Under the cover of mercenary, Hao Ren and others had an easy way in infiltrating the camp of the allied army. They were expecting rigorous checks, at least demanding for identity proof or something. But they went through various checkpoints without issue: the beardy guy acted as their guarantor and they were waived from being checked at most security checkpoints.

A few soldiers brought them to an open new barracks and pointed at a house. “You guys take a rest in there and don’t wander around. If there is an operation you will be informed. All the dos and don’ts are hung on the closet. New recuits keep coming in from the human world recently, we’ve no time to go throught that one by one with you. So help yourselves.”

Before they went, the leading soldier smiled wryly and said, “I hope you wouldn’t be like those spoilt brats who had just gone back a few days ago. The demonic world isn’t a place for holiday, the weather alone is already difficult enough.”

Hao Ren led the others into the barrack which was built of stones—stone was the most abundant construction material in here. The interior of the house was simple: wide beds, a few cabinets and that was it. The demonic world hadn’t much craft materials for human use. Ordinary soldiers could only stay in such places.

Though the environment was harsh, the stone house interior was cool. Everyone instantly felt refreshed once inside: they had had enough of the scorching heat outside.

“Why is the security lax?” Hao Ren found a low cabinet and sat on it. “Why there was no one asking for ID?”

Nangong Wuyue lay on the bed listlessly, sticking out her tongue and hissing. Without looking up, she said, “It’s not that they were lax, it was just that we looked too insignificant. To be frank, Serathon is the only threat to the allied army, none of us look like demonic spies. The only demonic king who had ever trained humans as his soldiers was ‘dead’. Now we’re thought to be on their side.”

Vivian split out a swarm of bats to fan herself and made the surrounding air chilled as she told about her analysis. “There’s another reason; as the war has ended a year ago, the coalition which is just an alliance of convenience to wage war against the mad demonic king has lost its purpose of existence, those who stay back are just merely treasure-hunters, I don’t see how united they are.”

“We will scout around the nearby area tonight. Vivian, send your bats out there and see if they could find some useful Intel, at least we should know what the coalition forces are up to.” While Hao Ren briefed everyone about what to do next, his sight inadvertently landed on Nangong Wuyue who was just beside him. “Wuyue, you…”

“I’m dehydrated.” The siren couldn’t even sit up. “I think I’m going to die…”

“OK, maybe you and Vivian should find way to make some shaved ice…”