บท 20: Guard Demon
'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.'
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