'Nothing.'
There was still nothing. Not even a whiff of other people. If Lokus wasn't so sure that Ibmund couldn't lie to him, he would have doubted the demon's directions. As it was, he could only endure and hope he would find something soon.
It seemed that since he had been banished, Lokus had been doing nothing but walking and fighting. It was monotonous, boring, and tedious, which honestly wasn't very different from his life before all of this, working in that cramped little shop.
During his trek, Lokus had gone back to practicing Opening of the Celestial Gateways, whereupon he discovered a curious little fact about the mask he wore thanks to the constant, rhythmic contractions and expansions of his Domain.
Somehow, the mask affected his Domain, and the way it did so was twofold. First, it added a meter in each direction to his overall range, which was the first thing he noticed as he regularly brushed up against this new boundary during practice.
This was also reflected in his status, as next to his Perception stat was a little "+1," which he assumed meant plus one meter.
Second, his Domain could now physically brush up against something. Before, even though it worked on touch, it didn't actually "touch" anything. In fact, no one would feel anything when a Domain was swept over them except for maybe a sensation of being watched.
But now, while he couldn't actually move anything, he could perform the equivalent of a light brush of his fingers with his Domain.
He had found this out by complete accident during one of his inhales while practicing Opening of the Celestial Gateways. Something about the way he drew his Domain into himself had triggered this ability, and he had felt a light graze of something that quickly disappeared.
It had taken him several tries to recreate the feat. The trick had been to imagine his Domain as a physical thing, which was what he had done when he used the ability on accident. His wandering thoughts had equated his Domain to a cloud of fog or mist, being sucked into the container that was his body before being pushed back out.
Now he could do it on command, but after playing around with it for a little bit, he quickly grew bored of it and stopped altogether in favor of training his Perception.
...…
'I'm starting to think Ibmund was wrong.'
As before, Lokus knew the demon was incapable of lying to him. It no longer had the decision-making ability necessary to do that, now that Lokus was its Ego.
But just because it couldn't lie didn't mean it couldn't be mistaken. For all Lokus knew, the direction it had pointed in had held humans before, but they had been killed off or had moved and the demon had never checked after finding them the first time.
Which made sense to him. They would probably attack Ibmund on sight just by virtue of being a demon, something he couldn't really blame them for. It did try to kill and eat him when they first met, after all.
A stomach-churning gurgle echoed out into the darkness, an expression of the demon's displeasure, but Lokus just glanced at it indifferently. Now that he knew what the sound came from, and had conquered its cause, it didn't unnerve him as much as it used to.
'Keep that up,' Lokus told the demon. It wasn't a taunt, but rather an order. Lokus had surmised that those gurgles were what kept the other demons away from them, and wasn't in the mood to fight yet another hungry beast.
It'd be nice to have his own personal guard demon.
Another gurgle sounded, indicating that Ibmund was doing as it was told, and Lokus continued to walk.
'This would be easier if I could see more than fifteen meters ahead of myself,' he grumbled inwardly. It was as dark as ever down here, and he suspected that if he could see in the dark, he'd see the civilization he was heading toward miles in advance.
But unfortunately, he couldn't. And so he wouldn't see the place until he was practically right on top of-.
'Oh, hey. Is that it?'
Something appeared within his Domain off to the side, causing him to slow in his steps as he examined it.
The general feel was that of stone, the same sort of stone underfoot, but slightly different, and its dimensions were unordinary as well. As Lokus drew closer, he identified it for what it was: the corner of a large stone wall that extended up to the very top of his Domain before stopping.
It stopped his Domain from going any further inside, so he had no way of seeing what was on the other side of the wall. Following the edge of the wall down one side, he stumbled upon a small metal door set into it and pulled at the handle.
'Locked.'
He banged on the door with the bottom of his bone axe. "Hello? Is anyone in there? …Hm."
'Is it abandoned?'
Just as he was about to turn and leave, looking for another way in, the door swung open with the loud screech of metal on stone.
Screeeeek!
Lokus winced at the sound, too used to hearing nothing but the sound of his own breathing and the occasional gurgles of Ibmund.
A short, gnarled middle-aged man scowled at him, his hand still on the door and ready to close it at any moment.
"Whaddya want?" He snarled, clearly in a bad mood.
"Is this a city?" Lokus asked the man. "I got lost down here, and I'm looking for a place to sleep or, better get out of here."
"Of course it's not a city, ya daft idiot," the man growled. "It's a fortress. Why the hell would a city be down here?"
"The door threw me off," Lokus said dryly. "From what I've heard, fortresses usually have a gate of some sort."
"This is the back entrance," the man said, equally as dryly. "That gate yer on about is on the other side. And we can't let people in through 'ere."
SLAM!
Lokus winced again as the door slammed in his face, rubbing at his ears in a futile attempt to soothe them.
'…Guess I should start walking.'
Lokus walked around the walls, gaining an appreciation for the size of the fortress. By his estimation, it was five kilometers from end to end, and roughly square in shape.
After a while, he found the gate the irate doorman had mentioned and approached its iron portcullis, which was currently closed. There was no line, which wasn't much of a surprise considering the location, but there also wasn't anyone Lokus could spot manning the gate.
"Hello?" He called out into the darkness. "I'd like to enter."
A rustling noise sounded from somewhere along the walls behind the gate, out of view of his Domain, and a man appeared behind the portcullis. He was armored in a helmet made of bone and rather bulky gauntlets of the same material, and squinted at Lokus in the darkness.
"The hell…?"
The man, unlike the doorman from before, was obviously taken aback by Lokus' appearance. Even without his eyesight, Lokus' blood- and vomit-covered skin, raggedy pants, frozen bite marks, and the uncannily inhuman human-like mask were on full display to the man's Domain.
For a moment, he wondered if he had gone mad in the dark, or if this was some new kind of demon trying to trick its way into the fortress and eat them all while they slept. When he got to this point in his thoughts, his expression hardened, remembering his duty.
"State your name and purpose," the man demanded, his hand tightening on the spear in his hands. If worse came to worst, he could jab at the foul thing through the safety of the portcullis until it fled.
"Lokus. I'm just looking for a safe place to sleep, and maybe a way to get out of these caves."
"How do I know you're not a demon? That mask looks awfully like a masked demon's mask."
Lokus just shrugged, taking his mask off and revealing his face. "Does this look like the face of a demon?"
The man pressed his lips into a thin line, fingering the haft of his spear. "You can never tell with those things. If you've managed to find your way down here, then you're either a Monarch or a demon by my reckoning. But you can speak Talzen, so…"
The man scratched his chin as he leaned on his spear, not knowing what to think.
"Maybe this will help?" Lokus asked the man, untying the bag from his thigh and pulling out a handful of the demon claws within. This time, he knew to use his Domain and only pulled out five Minor Prince claws.
The man squinted, scratching his chin some more in thought as he weighed his options.
"Still doesn't prove you aren't a demon in disguise."
"Have you ever seen a demon wear pants?"
"…No, I suppose I haven't. But at the same time, humans wandering Grimn's Nerves are rare, so you'll excuse me for being skeptical. Let me go ask my boss, I can't just let anyone inside."
The man disappeared around the corner, leaving Lokus alone with his invisible guard demon.
'They seem awfully paranoid here,' he thought to himself. 'I didn't know demons could look like humans. Then again, I've only met what? Four of them? …Wait, what did he call this place?"
Before Lokus could ponder the potential connections between the name of this place and his Grimn bloodline, the man came back with another in tow.
This new man was clothed in much nicer raiment than his companion, with a well-trimmed handlebar mustache and a piercing gaze that demanded respect even in the dark of the caves.
A sword fashioned from bone hung at his belt, and a leather cape from his shoulders, but unlike the first man, he wore no armor.
"What the hell happened to you?" the well-dressed man said immediately upon seeing Lokus.
"Demons," Lokus said simply. "What else?"
The man snorted. "Based on the way you still have your wits about you, you're either a demon or a Monarch. So, which is it?"
"I don't know what a Monarch is," Lokus said. "But I am a Prince. See?"
He raised his hand, and ice crept down his fingers at a noticeable rate. When he stopped fueling the process with Majesty, the thin layer of frost quickly melted, and he wiped his damp hands off on his pants.
"A Prince IS a Monarch," the mustachioed man said with narrowed eyes. "Strange that you don't know that. And what's that mask in your hand there?"
"Got it from a demon. Why?"
"It looks like the work of a masked demon."
"That's what I said, sir," the other man chimed in. "Should we let him in?"
"Hm…" The man with the mustache took some time to think it over. He had the safety of everyone else in the fortress to consider, and if this man was a demon in disguise, the resulting deaths would be on his shoulders. "Let him in."
"You sure, sir?"
"Yes." He turned to Lokus in the darkness, his gaze seeming to see him even in the gloom. "But we'll be watching you. If you stir up trouble, we won't hesitate to put you to the sword. We'll also need that weapon you have there. You'll get it back when we know we can trust you. Got that?"
"Understood," Lokus replied.
Donning his mask once more, he strode under the portcullis after it opened, grimacing as the metal contraption fell back down behind him with a loud CLANG that shook the cavern. As he handed them his axe, he asked the men a question.
"Where can I go to get something to eat?" He hadn't eaten since he fell down here, and his stomach was beginning to protest at this fact.
"There's the mess hall about two hundred meters that way," said the helmeted man, who pointed a finger in a certain direction. "As for where you'll be resting your head, you'll have to figure that one out yourself. Our barracks are full."
"Thanks." With that, Lokus headed further into the fortress, marveling at his surroundings while he walked.
Rather than a castle like he was expecting, the fortress was more like a miniature city, with individual buildings and passersby everywhere he looked. Nothing really looked like a house, and everything was made from the same stone as the fortress's walls.
It wasn't long before he found what he was looking for, a squat, long stone building with a sign hanging above its door that said, in raised letters so as to be legible with one's Domain, "MESS HALL."
Lokus opened the door, taking a step inside.
Anda mungkin juga menyukai
Komentar Paragraf
Fitur komentar paragraf sekarang ada di Web! Arahkan kursor ke atas paragraf apa pun dan klik ikon untuk menambahkan komentar Anda.
Selain itu, Anda selalu dapat menonaktifkannya atau mengaktifkannya di Pengaturan.
MENGERTI