You have slain Dullahan lvl 83
Demons Slain: 6000/10000
“I just hit 6000,” I announced, sheathing my sword.
“Good,” replied Casimir. “Though at the rate we’re going, hitting 10000 is going to take a long time. How much mana do you have left?”
“About 8%.”
“Mmm. I’m afraid we’ll have to resort to demon blood after all.”
“Yeah, it’s gonna suck,” I lamented. “Where the hell did all the demons go? Why aren’t they respawning?”
“For the hundredth time, I don’t know,” he deadpanned.
“Shut up, I know, it was a rhetorical question.”
It had been a month and a half since I’d finished my basic training and we’d started hunting demons in earnest. At first, it had gone well, and we were able to kill a few hundred every day, but the longer we continued, the more spread out the demons became. Now, we were hardly finding any. The Dullahan I just killed had been only the twelfth demon we’d found in the past twenty four hours.
After the first week, when we first noticed the decrease in numbers of demons, I started to make a mental map of the Dungeon, and, unlike the one back in Bizet, this Dungeon didn’t shift as we passed through it. At this point, I had mapped out thousands of tunnels and caverns, and had noticed a few unsettling patterns.
First, the Dungeon was enormous. Even after mapping out all those tunnels, there were still hundreds that we had yet to explore.
Second, the demons seemed to be ordered by strength; in the upper tunnels, only imps could be found. Below that, the imps became less common and succubi, incubi, and fiends began appearing. The next level down contained the shedim, and the occasional Dullahan, and even further below that, the Dullahan traveled in organized groups. We had yet to venture beyond that point.
Third, the caverns only increased in size as we got deeper. Up at the imp levels, the biggest rooms were about the size of a suburbian two story cookie cutter house. Down at the levels where the Dullahan traveled in groups, they were large enough that even I could hardly see the opposite end.
Casimir and I had already leveled four times apiece, which was supposed to be rare for people of our level. Following Casimir’s advice, I had distributed my stat points evenly into Dexterity, Strength, and Agility, and even though he had a significant head start on me in putting points into those stats, the enormous amount of stat points that came with the Demon King class put me almost on par with him. His combat power with aura still completely outclassed mine, but the gap was narrowing.
“We need to go down further,” I concluded. “It will be dangerous, but at this point, we’ve pretty much cleared out all the weaker demons, and we’re running low on Dullahan too. I’m sure we could find a couple if we scoured the upper floors, but that would take a long time, and wouldn’t be all that helpful to our kill count.”
“I agree,” he said. “But we mustn’t be reckless. We need to proceed cautiously.”
“Of course.”
“I mean it.” He gave me a pointed look.
“What?”
“You know what.”
“Whatever. Let’s go.”
During our Dungeon dive, we had had a few… disagreements on the definition of the term “reckless”. I did agree with him that I was sometimes reckless and impulsive, but he seemed to think everything I did was reckless and impulsive. He was cautious to a fault, not willing to commit to any battle without first scouting everything out as thoroughly as possible and taking every single possible outcome into account. Now, I’m not at all against planning ahead and being prepared for different outcomes, but he took it way too far. If we did everything his way, we would be in this Dungeon for at least a year, if not longer.
The two of us left the dullahan corpses behind us and went into a tunnel on the opposite side of the room that sloped gently downward. The next room we came to was yet another dullahan troupe room. Casimir tried to spend time scouting and observing, I dove in after counting them, we slaughtered them all without taking any damage, he scolded me, and we moved on again.
This happened twice more before we finally reached a new kind of cavern. It was even larger than the previous rooms, I couldn’t see any of the other walls. The ceiling was covered in a glowing red fog that was perfectly uniform, aside from the occasional massive stalactite stabbing through it.
We didn’t have much time to look around though, because in front of us, a pair of horseless Dullahan were brandishing their swords while their heads blew horns somewhere behind them. We dispatched them quickly, but as the dust from the brief battle settled, we heard the sound of thundering hooves in the distance. The source of the disturbance was a group of nearly a hundred dullahan, led by an enormous humanoid riding a monstrous skeletal horse with a flaming mouth.
“I count 88 Dullahan, and they’re led by a new kind of Demon,” I said to my squinting partner. “It looks like an armored fiend, but obviously it’s not, since a fiend wouldn’t be able to lead Dullahan.”
“Let’s retreat,” he said. “88 would be difficult, even for us, and we don’t know what the new kind is capable of.”
“Alright,” I said.
We wasted no time getting back into the tunnel and heading further up until the large cavern was out of our sight, and then kept going at a slower pace. However, the hooves did not slow, and soon, they were echoing off the tunnel walls behind us.
“Run!” Casimir shouted.
We sprinted as quickly as we could, but even at top speed, the hooves only got louder and louder. I activated [Demonic Aura] for the first time since we’d started our hunt, half expecting it not to work on these stronger demons, but to my surprise, as soon as I did, there was a deafening sound of armor, flesh, and bone on stone. It sounded like our pursuers had all stopped so suddenly that they had all crashed into each other and fallen over.
“They’re incapacitated!” I said. “Let’s go back!”
“No!” Casimir shouted as I sprinted back toward them.
“This is our best chance!” I called back.
From in front of me, I heard the demons struggling to get back to their feet, and from behind, Casimir cursed, then started lumbering after me. When I arrived, most of the Dullahan and horse were still struggling to disentangle themselves from the pile and find their heads, but the leader and about half a dozen of them had managed to extract themselves and were kneeling before me. I didn’t know why they were kneeling, but I decided not to let the opportunity go to waste; I drew my sword and raised it, planning to bring it down on the leader’s head, but stopped ten feet short when he spoke.
“Praise to the great Demon King!” he shouted. “I, Captain Sarduul, have failed to recognize you, and for that I deserve death! Please grant it to me, so that my shame may end!”
The massive demon bowed lower so that his forehead was on the ground, and the Dullahan held their heads out toward me.
“What?” I said.
“What’s going on?” asked Casimir.
“I don’t know,” I said. “You said your name was Captain Sarduul?”
“Yes, your majesty,” said the demon. “Sarduul is this lowly one’s name, and Captain is my lowly title.”
“What are you the captain of?”
“The 6th legion’s 2nd mounted division.”
“The 6th legion of what?”
“Of Count Bael’s army.”
“Is count Bael the ruler of this Dungeon?”
“Dungeon, your majesty?”
“Yes, Dungeon,” I said. “As in, the place we are in right now.”
“We are in a Dungeon?” asked Sarduul.
“Yes.”
“Then it must be as you say. Please forgive my ignorance.”
“Where did you think we were?” I asked.
“The Demon Realm, your majesty.”
“Then is Count Bael-” I started.
“Wait,” interrupted Casimir. “You say we are in the Demon Realm?”
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“It was my ignorance that led me to believe that,” replied Sarduul. “Please forgive me.”
“What is it?” I asked Casimir.
“I’ve had a strange feeling about this Dungeon for a while now,” he said. “It not having any mana was already odd, since Dungeons depend on mana to produce monsters, and what we’ve observed since entering only made my sense of unease grow. The demons didn’t respawn, the tunnels didn’t change, and the inhabitants are far too intelligent. I believe that we may actually be in the Demon Realm, not a Dungeon.”
You have learned the truth about the Cave of Ten Thousand Demons! Welcome to the Demon Realm
If you wish to escape, complete the following task: Sign a contract with the ruler of the area
“Sarduul, it seems you were correct,” I said after reading the notification. “We are in the Demon Realm after all.”
“Thank you, your majesty,” replied the prostrate demon.
“So this Count Bael is the ruler of the territory?”
“Yes, your majesty.”
“Alright, I’ll spare your life, but you must take me to meet him.”
“Of course, your majesty. Thank you for your mercy.”
By this point the rest of the Dullahan had successfully escaped the pileup, and were lined up behind Sarduul with their heads held out toward me like the ones in front of them. I waited for a few moments for Sarduul to move, but he and all his soldiers remained still as statues.
“Well, what are you waiting for?” I asked. “Let’s go.”
Sarduul leapt to his feet. “Apologies, your majesty. You had not given me permission to stand.”
“I don’t think this is a good idea,” said Casimir. “We should be more cautious. We still don’t know why the demons are so subservient to you.”
“True,” I conceded. “Sarduul, why are you so subservient to me?”
“It is impossible for a demon to oppose a Demon King,” he said.
“Completely impossible?”
“Yes, completely,” he confirmed. “The power of the Demon Kings is bestowed by the gods themselves. Only with the power of another Demon God or Demon King can they even make an attempt to be disobedient.”
“Well, there you have it,” I said to Casimir.
“What if they are already working for one of the other Demon Kings though,” Casimir suggested. “This could be a trap.”
“Then we’ll just have to deal with it,” I said. “You saw the System notification, right? We need to go there anyway.”
“Yes, but it couldn’t hurt to be more cautious.”
“Yes, it could,” I countered. “We would have to drink demon blood, and I refuse to do that if I have another option.”
“That is no reason to-”
“Sarduul, let’s go,” I interrupted.
“Yes, your majesty.” The demon turned to his soldiers. “Form up! Give the Demon King an honor guard! If any of the wild ones so much as breathe on the king, I will offer your head to her myself!”
The Dullahan held their hands over their necks in a salute, then hurried back to their horses, which were waiting nervously nearby. The tunnels were just barely wide enough for Casimir and I to walk side by side with a single file line of Dullahan flanking us. Sarduul walked behind us, towering over even Casimir.
“What exactly did you mean when you said “wild ones” earlier?” I asked as we walked.
“Young demons,” responded Sarduul. “Infants from the most recent Hatching.”
“Hatching?”
“Yes. In the demon realm, there is periodically an event known as the Hatching, where the ground opens and large stones appear. After some time, the stones break open, and new demons are released. These demons are young and weak, and completely slave to their instincts. They cannot think or feel. They can only kill and eat.”
“So… we’ve been killing infants?” I asked.
Casimir frowned.
“Yes,” said Sarduul. “It is their misfortune to have attacked such a powerful foe. Usually we try to ignore them, and let them fight and level, but it is inevitable for some to die after attacking the wrong target.”
“That’s…” I trailed off. “Do you not try to take them in and raise them instead of letting them die?”
“Why would we do that?”
“...Nevermind,” I said.
I didn’t turn around, but I could feel Sarduul’s eyes on me from behind.
“Forgive me if this is an impertinent question,” he began, “But is it different outside of the Demon Realm?”
“Very,” I said. “Children are born to parents, who then must care for them and raise them and teach them how to live.”
“Born to parents?”
“Yes. When a man and a woman… procreate, a baby will begin to grow in the woman’s stomach, and after a certain amount of time, the baby will… emerge. The parents, the man and the woman, must then care for the child until it is old enough to care for itself.”
“It grows in her stomach?” asked Sarduul sounding flabbergasted. “Like a parasite.”
“...I suppose, but that’s a very reductive term.”
“Apologies.”
“It’s fine.”
“...How do they procreate?”
For a few seconds I struggled with how to properly describe “procreation” to a species who apparently don’t reproduce at all, but then a sudden thought popped into my head.
“Wait, you have succubi and incubi, don’t you?”
“I only have succubi, but both are popular commodities among the wealthier folk,” replied Sarduul.
“Commodi-? No, nevermind. What do you use your succubi for?”
“To satisfy my carnal needs,” he said, sounding confused. “What do you use your succubi for?”
“We don’t have them,” I said. “But the process of ‘satisfying your carnal desires’, as you put it; that is procreation.”
“But-? Then-? What? How do you survive if every time you fuck you start growing a parasite? I mean- an infant.”
Taken aback by the sudden swearing after all the respectful speech, I took me a moment to answer him.
“There are ways to prevent pregnancy,” I said. “And fucking is not necessary for survival.”
“It’s not?”
“This conversation is making me uncomfortable,” interjected Casimir.
I looked up at him and saw that his cheeks were turning red, which I didn’t know was possible for an undead without using [Imitate Life].
“Yes, it’s not very comfortable for me either,” I agreed.
“Please forgive me,” said Sarduul. “I meant no offense.”
“It’s fine,” I said. “Let’s change the subject though. Tell me about Count Bael.”
“Count Bael is the third strongest demon in the upper southwestern octant of the Demon realm. He received his title after slaying the previous Count 432 years ago and has held his position ever since. There is talk that he may make an attempt on the life of an earl in the near future, but for now, that is merely hearsay.”
“You can just take someone else’s title by killing him?” asked Casimir.
“Yes,” said Sarduul. “But only for positions below duke. You need not worry about challengers, your majesty.”
“Wonderful,” I said sarcastically.
“The Kings and Dukes are appointed by the gods themselves, and cannot be replaced so easily,” Sarduul continued. “But returning to the subject of Count Bael: He was born an imp, but he has since evolved into a unique demon. He is still small, and physically, he is not a match for even me, but he is clever, and his other powers more than make up for his stature.”
“And what are those powers?” I asked.
“I do not know,” said Sarduul.
“Then how do you know he has them?”
“Because if he didn’t I would have been able to kill him.”
“You tried to kill him?”
“Of course,” said Sarduul. “I desired his position. I lost, obviously, but I can’t remember how. I remember attacking him while he was eating, and then suddenly I woke up back in my cave with a new assignment to take my troops and patrol the entrances to the upper caves.”
“I see…” I said.
By this time, we had made it a fair distance into the rocky plains of the enormous cavern, and in the distance ahead of us, I could see a cluster of enormous stalagmites, around which tiny motes of darkness seemed to be moving.
“Is that where we are headed,” I asked.
“Oh, can you already see it?” asked Sarduul. “As expected of a Demon King. Your abilities are truly wondrous.”
“Thanks… Can we speed up a bit? It looks like we won’t make it for another two hours at this rate.”
“As you command, your majesty,” he said with a bow. Then, he pointed at a nearby Dullahan. “Dismount, and give your horse to the Demon King’s servant. And your majesty, you may have my mount. His name is Maldus. I made him myself, and if you don’t mind me flattering myself, I did a very good job. You’d be hard pressed to find a faster horse in any of the upper octants.”
I wanted to ask him what he meant by ‘made’, but decided it was more important to talk to Bael and get back somewhere with mana than it was to learn every little secret to the Demon Realm. I was still very curious, but it could wait until later. I could always come back and break into the false Dungeon again if I just had to know.
“Thank you,” I said
I walked over to the enormous flaming skeleton and hopped on from behind. The saddle was large enough that if I leaned back, I could lay all the way down without my head reaching the edge, but it was comfortable enough. The horse didn’t seem to even notice my weight, and continued to plod along at the same walking speed as everyone else. Meanwhile, Casimir mounted the Dullahan’s horse behind me, experiencing the opposite saddle situation that I was.
“Simply flick the reins, and he will run,” said Sarduul. “He is designed to respond to the rider’s will, so he will go as fast or slow as you want. My Dullahan and I will follow as closely behind as we can, but if you desire, you may leave us behind and meet with the Count on your own.”
“Thank you,” I said again. “Casimir, come. I will match your horse’s pace.”
“Ok,” he said.
Together we began galloping, and the Dullahan copied our actions. The dismounted Dullahan fell behind almost immediately, but Sarduul didn’t have any trouble keeping up on foot. In fact, he matched our pace so easily that I began to wonder why he even had a horse in the first place. Maldus, must have been pretty damn fast indeed to be worth it for him.
At that speed, it took only another fifteen minutes to reach the stalagmites, forcing us to slow down as we entered what looked like a homeless den for demons. There were tents made of demon skin, and tiny caves carved into the enormous spires of rock, all sheltering demons of all shapes and sizes. There were the ones we had seen before– succubi, incubi, fiends, imps, and shedim– and many more that we hadn’t.
As soon as I got within range, and they felt my [Demonic Aura], they all prostrated themselves before me, most not daring to even look at me. We passed by the homeless demons silently, and proceeded further into the stalagmite forest. As we walked, the shelters became progressively nicer, and the demons looked less ragged. When we finally reached the center, there were entire stalagmites carved with intricate designs into houses, and there were only a few demons on the streets, all dressed in what appeared to be fine clothing. They too prostrated themselves, but there was much less urgency and more reluctance in the process.
At the center of the demon city, one enormous spire stood out above all the rest. It was so completely carved up that it was hardly recognizable as a stalagmite anymore, and it looked much closer to a castle. There were a few guards Sarduul’s side standing at the gates, but like all the others, they bowed before me, and the gates opened without me needing to say a word.
A small group of demons was waiting in the courtyard. The one in the center was obviously the most important of the bunch, judging by the way he and those around him stood. He looked very similar to the imps I had seen, but his eyes were pitch black and pupilless, and he had a pair of horns on his head that added nearly three feet to the top of his head. Without the horns, he would only come up to my stomach.
“I greet the great Demon King of Pride,” he said, bowing down so low his horns scraped the ground. “I am Count Bael. How may I be of service to your majesty?”