Chapter 970: Demon City
Translator: TransN Editor: TransN
"Is this... the city of the demons?"
Roland could not help but feel amazed. He thought the memory fragments would be connected to a certain decisive battlefield. He did not expect to have the opportunity to face the enemy's lair.
However, the scene in front of him had many differences from the mirage that was seen by the Witch Cooperation Association.
At least, he had taken a good look around but did not find that most prominent main tower which was the core—the giant Obelisk that was made using the mineral vein of the God's Stone and that could grow and create red Mist.
After all, there were too many towers here.
Some were even standing above the cliffs. Most of the towers leaned outward, just like apartments floating in the sky.
How did they manage to build such a magnificent complex?
And this was not the city complex that Leaf had seen, so where could that be?
Or could it have been located in a more distant place... for example, the rumored birthplace of the demons?
Just then, Roland noticed that there was a flash of light at the sinkhole near the Red Mist Lake.
Unlike the glittering mist, that seemed to be a natural burning flame.
He was a bit surprised to find that the Red Mist could burn since an open fire should have been banned in the city of the demons.
He decided to go down to the bottom of the pit to satisfy his curiosity—judging by the architectural style of the opening, he should be able to find the stairs leading down or a hanging basket nearby.
However, Roland suddenly stopped before even walking a hundred steps as all the muscles in his body started to tense up!
A team of demons actually walked out from around the corner!
Judging by their appearance, they should all be Mad Demons. They had bone armors and held short spears. The two in front even wore gloves, and their burly figures almost blocked half of his path.
The distance from the two of them was less than ten steps away!
"Wait a minute... How could there be living creatures in the memory fragments?"
He had never seen a knight from the Judgement Army nor a priest of the church when he was wandering in the Hermes Cathedral at home!
This accidental encounter left Roland a bit shocked, and unsure of how to react.
"Should I escape?"
He had seen the strength and precision of the Mad Demon's spear throwing skills, so running away from the enemy was undoubtedly a dead end.
Charge and overthrow them?
The Dream World's power was still running in his body, so his skills at the moment were stronger than those of ordinary people. However, compared with these bloodthirsty monsters, his fighting skills still remained at the level of street fighting. He could probably deal with an opponent one on one, but dealing with six Mad Demons? He felt that the odds of winning were very slim, especially against the leading Ironhand demon, as its powerful electric shock ability was definitely the nemesis of close combat.
However, before he could make a decision, something astonishing happened again.
The demons did not seem to realize the existence of the uninvited guest, and they walked straight past him without pausing.
Roland was stunned, then subconsciously turned around to touch one of the Mad Demon's arms.
His finger passed through its skin, but his fingertips did not feel anything as if he was touching a phantom.
"So... it's like this?"
He thoughtfully recovered his hand and bent over to touch the ground.
His palm could clearly feel the dampness of the black soil eroded by the Red Mist.
Roland had a faint idea of the answer.
It appeared that the devoured person's resistance would determine the extent of the memory fragments, and it could also affect what would be displayed in the scene—the content saved in this memory was obviously much more than that left by Zero.
If he thought along these lines, his mind naturally came up with two new doubts.
One was the question of the church warrior who deliberately sacrificed himself to save Zero. To what extent could his memory be enriched? Was it impossible to talk to the dead after entering the memory fragment?
And the next was Zero's level of resistance—how much hate and unwillingness did she have after being defeated by him? It was even stronger than that of the demon.
Suddenly, he had an urge to go back to the house and lift the little girl up to smack her butt.
Roland took a deep breath, put away his distracting thoughts and hastened his steps back to the destination.
...
Just as he expected, there were many ramps and stone steps leading to the pit at the edge of the circular cliff. Some of them were very spacious and did not lose to the main roads at Neverwinter.
The more he walked down, the more he was impressed about the size of the Red Mist Lake.
Even if the upper half of the Western Region's Great Snow Mountain was flattened, it would not be that wide. Standing on the cliff, he could not help but feel how small he was. He felt as if the whole world was far away from him, leaving only the turbulent red mist and the looming stone towers that could be seen on and off.
It was hard to imagine how this sinkhole could form naturally.
What was more incredible was that the demons had transformed this place to become their permanent residence.
How many hundreds of years would it take to dig this deep and even leave roads for carriage access as well as coat these roads with a hard black stone layer?
If this was a measure of the demon's technical level and social organizational skills, this meant they could be regarded as an extremely difficult enemy.
The humans today would not be able to win by chance. If they want to win the Battle of Divine Will, the Four Kingdoms will have to give it their all.
As he got closer to the flames, Roland noticed that there were more demons showing up on the roads.
Not all of them were armed. Most of them wore skins or robes, and their appearance and sizes were more varied. It was hard to imagine they were all of the same species.
As mentioned in Pasha's report, the Union had once captured some demons that had no magic power and were not combat trained. But it was still not certain whether they were a part of the demons or a slave tribe enslaved by the demons.
However, Roland did not find any superior demons of a supervisory level around him. Their actions seemed completely spontaneous, which meant that the answer should be the former.
This division seemed to be more thorough than the division between witches and normal humans. They were not only differentiated by ability, but even their form had a complete change.
It was still not clear whether they were born from the same origin, or were born with different methods or parents, without a possibility of changing between the forms.
"Do the demons have masculine and feminine forms?"
"Or, was their reproduction completely different from that of mankind and therefore could not be generalized?"
Armed with these thoughts, Roland finally arrived at the bottom of the sinkhole.
He discovered that the source of the fire came from a bonfire—he could see a stone bridge hanging on the side of the cliff, that was connected to a circular island.
Although it was an island, there was no support below, and it seemed like it was supported directly by the slender stone bridge. It looked so unstable that you would worry that it might fall at any time. The bonfire was set up around the island. When the mist soared, the top of the flame would burn brightly, as if it were echoing the roar of the mist lake. Sometimes the flame would rise up to 10 meters in height, and that was why Roland noticed the blinking below.
It seemed that although the Red Mist could burn, it was not something that would burn instantly.
In the vicinity, there were at least tens of thousands of demons. They densely occupied all the ramps on the rock walls, platforms, and caves. Colored pennants were flying up and down in the wild wind, and the unidentified howls almost covered the roar of the air flow in the hole.
Roland blinked his eyes in shock.
"Were the demons... carrying out a ceremony?"