Jaco, Evelyn, and Sam walked alongside the road as they made their way toward the city. While they were walking, Jaco actually stayed a few steps behind the other two. For in the time it was taking for them to travel, there actually was something else that was temporarily occupying part of his attention.

Currently held between the Druid’s hand was his Cloak of Lesser Protection. For the mission ahead, he wanted to ensure that it was fully charged and ready for the challenges they might face. Though truthfully, Jaco wasn’t quite as confident in the cloak’s capabilities as he used to be. At least when it came to its future ability to handle threats that will just keep being higher and higher in Level with time.

It had done good for him so far at tanking for the first couple of big hits before he had to. But he wasn’t quite sure where its limits would be before it simply became like a paper wall. One that technically still absorbed a bit of impact in his stead, but not really by much at all.

Against the Minotaur, his cloak had been uncharged due to time constraints. So it never had the chance to even try to test itself against its attacks. That was why he didn’t know how it would perform against the hit of any other Demidemons near or equal to it in power.

But who knows, perhaps at some point he’ll be able to find an upgraded version of the artifact as a replacement. It was called the Lesser Cloak of Protection, after all. So one could logically assume that similar to the Lesser Revenant and Revenant, this might follow the same pattern. In the meantime, however, he’d just continue to rely on his cloak in conjunction with his other defensive Abilities.

While they were moving, the three of them did encounter some minor delays. But it was nothing that required Jaco’s involvement and needed him to stop recharging the cloak. All it was just more undead roaming the area between the city and the encampment. Fortunately for them, these were just the regular ones such as the Skeletons and not another case of Black Skeletons and the Revenant showing up. At least not yet.

These encounters didn’t require them to stop moving, at the very least. For as soon as the Skeletons entered their line of sight, Sam was able to blast them away with her magic. Something which Jaco had no problem with, since she was the lowest Level member of their small party. So she’d be a lot better off getting as much EXP as possible to eventually reach her Class Evolution.

When Jaco finished his work with the cloak, he put it back on. Some time had already passed by now. So it wouldn’t be much longer until they soon reached their intended destination. As they kept moving, once again, another small group of undead approached them from the side. There were around half a dozen Skeletons, one of which was a Skeleton Mage.

“I’ll take care of these ones,” Sam said as she readied her wand.

“You’ve already been calling all of them. You don’t need to keep pointing it out,” Evelyn remarked. The Mage turned back to her with a glowered expression.

“I’m just trying to be polite, even though some of us clearly need the Experience more than others,” Sam retorted. She then stomped ahead to unleash her magic and deal with the undead.

Jaco simply shook his head, but didn’t say anything. He just wanted to reach the city and see what was going on with the Gate of Hell. A part of him had already felt that Sam and Evelyn could likely end up a bad pairing, considering everything. But when both of them independently insisted on coming along, what was one meant to do?

Meanwhile, the Skeleton Mage threw out icicles at the woman attacking it. Though with Sam getting in the first hit as the opening attack, part of its body was already damaged. She managed to dodge the icicle by jumping to the side. But while moving, Sam pointed her wand at the air and shot out a ball of condensed Mana. One that quickly broke into a hail of smaller bolts as soon as it had flown right above the Skeleton’s head.

The undead tried to react by mounting a defense. It created a wall of reinforced ice above itself that would aim to block the magical bolts. Yet while it was forced to focus on that one action, another attack was already flying straight for its skull.

A few moments later, Sam was walking back toward them. She barely seemed to spare the former Chosen a glance, but nodded at Jaco.

“Another Level Up?” he asked. From the satisfied expression on her face, he assumed so.

“Yep,” she confirmed. “That one managed to push me to 25. But I think that now just about puts me on the edge of their Level range. There aren’t really any undead in the high 20s, right? It just jumps straight to the 30s with those Lesser Revenants you’ve encountered?”

“Generally speaking, yes. Though even the basic Skeletons that never reach Level 10 were in the 20s when I was inside the fortress. So you never know what things might look like now in the third stage,” Jaco said.

“You can always head back early if things get too rough for you to handle,” Evelyn added from the side. To which Sam immediately turned with a glare, and Jaco already knew what was about to happen next.

“I’ll be able to handle myself just fine, thank you very much. I can always avoid anything too dangerous and just on gaining Levels. But more than the monsters, I’m more concerned about if a certain someone will eventually decide to stab me in the back for some quick Experience,” she said while already turning back away.

But as Sam had turned, she didn’t see the way Evelyn had flinched back with that last statement. And how the redhead rapidly blinked as she looked down at the ground, silent.

Well shit. This actually might eventually turn into a problem, Jaco thought to himself. Though the back and forth ended there, the friction obviously remained as they continued their walk.

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Eventually, the three of them arrived at the outskirts of their destination. For their first order of business, they had decided to approach from an angle that was at a higher elevation. This way they would be able to observe the city from the high ground and get a better view of things from a safe distance. Yet even from just the outer edges, Jaco could already feel one difference.

Yeah, there’s definitely been a change to the feel of this Hellish aura covering everything. I can’t put my finger on exactly how it’s different though. Only that something about it’s shifted from how it was before, he thought to himself.

It was this indescribable difference that made the Druid hesitate to simply change into a hawk and fly up. Doing so would have allowed him to easily get a literal bird’s eye view of the city. But being the only bird in the entire sky felt like an exposed position. Exposed to what exactly, he couldn’t say. However, his gut instincts just told him that doing so now would be a bad idea.

The trio then continued to move on foot toward a good spot to observe the city from. They climbed up to a high position, one that allowed them to see the streets below that led deeper in. Once upon a time, such a thing would have been impossible with all the buildings that blocked the way. But with many of them now either completely destroyed or reduced in size, things were different.

With his enhanced vision, the Druid quickly began to scan the area. His eyes quickly widened though at the monsters he saw patrolling the streets. They weren’t Skeletons, Ghouls, nor any other kind of undead. Instead, what he saw were the familiar creatures with vaguely humanoid forms with largely bullish features.

Just from where they stood, he was already able to see well over a dozen Demidemons. The majority of which were the smaller Taurlings. However, mixed in were a couple of Minotaurs as well that seemed to be taking charge and ordering the weaker Demidemons around.

“Well shit, that pair are definitely Minotaurs,” Sam said from beside him. She had to squint, and even then the monsters were likely too far for her to clearly see them. But with how large and distinct the forms of the Minotaurs were, she’d still be able to recognize what she was looking at.

“Mhmm, it’s a good thing we didn’t just walk straight in there. But I think we’ll be fine as-” Jaco’s words were cut off as he saw something moving in the corner of his vision. He turned up to the air to see what was flying through the sky, heading right in the direction of the fort. Upon seeing it, his mouth dumbly widened.

“Jaco?” Sam asked with a frown. She was clearly worried about his sudden reaction, but he barely even heard her.

The monster was too far for him to identify it with the System. But he didn’t need the confirmation to know exactly what he was looking at. Even from this distance, just seeing its far off back had been enough to run his blood ice cold.

It was big, easily as large as a Minotaur if not even bigger. Its glistening red skin only seemed all the more gross while under the once again orange-red light from the clouds above. The monster’s three pairs of leathery, bat-like wings flapped through the air as it flew. With their size and number, they prevented him from seeing more abouts its body.

He’d seen plenty of them within the murals of the fort’s chamber. So though they’d been shown to come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, Jaco could still recognize it. Heck, even without the murals, common sense would have likely been enough to point toward the same conclusion anyway.

“There’s a Demon flying straight for the fort. An actual, bonafide Demon,” Jaco said with no small amount of legitimate fear. His voice was hushed, as if the monster from Hell would somehow be able to hear him even from this far away.

Both Sam and Evelyn’s widened. The former glanced in the direction they had just been looking at, and then back at the Druid. While the latter just tried to swallow, but seemed to struggle as she visibly paled.

“There’s now way we’re going anywhere near the city center, right?” Evelyn then asked.

Jaco pressed his lips together as he was unsure how to respond. On one hand, their goal was to investigate the changes to the Gate of Hell brought by the third stage. Something which could only be done by going as close as possible to the crater where the giant fortress was built. But that was just one part of him that wanted to push ahead, which was a small voice compared to both the survival instincts and common sense screaming over it.

Their fears were certainly well founded. Jaco especially knew just how bad this could potentially be. Not just for the three of them now, but also for every survivor in the entire local region. When he fought the Minotaur, it’d been Level 50 while he was at Level 38.

A gap of a dozen Levels, something which he’d only been able to make up for by turning his body into a toxic cocktail of Hell Elixirs and Potions. And even then, it had been a rather close fight and could have easily swung the Minotaur’s way had he screwed up at any point.

But how strong was the Demon in comparison? Without being close to check its Level with the System, it was hard to say for certain. However, it felt safe to assume that it could be Level 60. Though that could be a lowball, and it could just as easily be even higher than that. Though even assuming it was actually Level 60, there was no way in Hell that Jaco would be able to win that battle. Trying to take on the Demon by himself would almost certainly be a one-sided slaughter where it tore him apart limb from limb.

If it was Level 64, hypothetically, then that would put it a whole 20 Levels above him. The extra Stats from his Secondary Class and the 17 Level he’s gained it would partially make up for that. But he wasn’t nearly delusional enough to think that it’d be anywhere near enough to actually matter.

Even with the Potions and Hell Elixirs still inside his Bag of Holding, Jaco had little confidence in thinking they would be enough either. The benefit of gaining the Devil’s Essence for himself meant he should be able to now use the Infernal artifacts without causing him pain or killing him from within. Yet even taking that positive into account, he doubted that it would make a real difference.

Both Sam and Evelyn would effectively just be cannon fodder in the face of that Demon. If they tried to help, anyway. Jaco wouldn’t ask such a thing of them, not when it would mean a guaranteed and otherwise avoidable death.

“There is a problem,” Jaco then said after dealing with his own thoughts. “The System notification only mentioned that Demidemons would be able to commonly come over. It said nothing about any actual Demons as well. There’s just too much that we don’t know, especially for something as important as this.”

Sam frowned. “What are we supposed to do then? Keep going and learn more? Or immediately head back and just let the others know about the Demon?”

“Well… that’s a good question,” he admitted.

There was always the possibility that they could find out more info without running into the Demon. And frankly, the number of Demidemons that were around would act as a wonderful farm of Experience Points to quickly boost his Levels. But the longer they stuck around, went deeper in, or made any big movements like fighting, the higher the chances of getting the Demon’s attention.

It was a big decision that they would need to make now. And as the person who was effectively the one in charge, it seemed Jaco was going to have to be the one to make it.