Chapter 591: 69. Succubus
As Fisher pushed open the heavy doors of the Eil Castle, revealing the unchanging landscape of lava outside, he couldn’t help but let out a long sigh, feeling a twinge of guilt in his heart.
He still remembered that before setting out with Jasmine, he had promised Raphael that he wouldn’t do anything to Jasmine. But now it seemed he had broken his word; he hadn’t just done something to Jasmine, but quite a lot.
However, upon reflection, given the circumstances earlier, he really couldn’t have done much.
He had suffered a significant loss of soul power in order to awaken Eil, which left him weak and unable to resist; furthermore, with Hela’s mark on him, an awakened Eil was angry and wanted to punish him. Just as the punishment was escalating, it was unexpectedly interrupted by Jasmine’s sudden intrusion. Her long-simmering resentment and jealousy toward Eil spilled over, leading her to bind him and exact a thorough punishment.
Looking back on the entire process, Fisher felt quite helpless; it seemed that the accidents that occurred were beyond his control. No wonder he could blame himself for what he couldn’t help. If he hadn’t provoked Eil or Hela, this sudden disaster wouldn’t have occurred, right?
“You finally came out!”
Just as Fisher was reflecting internally, Emhart, with his dead fish eyes, quickly flew over from outside the castle. He glanced at Fisher, who looked refreshed and couldn’t help but sigh and make a sarcastic remark.
“I thought Jasmine would at least cause a big ruckus inside. I knew you weren’t coming out for a long time because you did something bad again.”
“…”
Emhart understood Fisher well enough, even the approximate duration of his bad deeds had become second nature to him.
Before Fisher could respond, the flushed Jasmine had already gotten dressed and stepped out under the bright sunlight, smiling as she greeted Emhart.
“Sir Book!”
“…”
Emhart opened his mouth, then weakly said, “Fisher, you’re really something else. If Raphael finds out about this, tsk tsk tsk.”
“I…”
Just as Fisher had felt conflicted when he first came out, he also thought that his previous actions were somewhat impulsive. Even if he were to act, he should have chosen a more appropriate time rather than rushing in like a forced embrace.
However, Jasmine was no longer the obedient pupil who listened to him. Her past behavior wasn’t under Fisher’s control. Now, being accused by Emhart, Jasmine clenched her little fists and proactively explained.
“Sir Book, I was just punishing Teacher Fisher! Plus, since Teacher Fisher returned, he has been with Raphael all the time and didn’t come to find me at all. He didn’t even keep his word!”
Emhart looked at her with his dead fish eyes, then shook his head as he nonchalantly replied, “Ah, right, right, right. But how did you suddenly become so combative? You weren’t like this back in Nali and Dragon Court.”
“It’s all Fisher’s fault! And the other women he knows keep bullying me!”
Fisher rubbed her head, stopping Jasmine, who was about to say something, allowing her to comfortably enjoy his affection while he strategically shifted the topic to the main point.
“We need to hurry. Eil has already decided to help us. With her assistance, we’ll have it easier. We’ve rested enough; there’s no time to lose, let’s set off quickly.”
Emhart glanced back at the empty palace but didn’t see the sleepy Demon God, and asked curiously, “Where’s Eil? Isn’t she coming with us?”
“We need to destroy the portal that Acares and Barbatos used to come here; that will delay them for a long time. Their palaces are located behind the ‘Curiosity Gate’ and the ‘Performance Gate’; setting out together would take too long. So she’s going to Acares first to close her portal, while we handle Barbatos’s.”
Emhart nodded and flew onto Fisher’s shoulder, then listened as Fisher pointed in a certain direction and continued.
“First, we meet up with Holland. He’s at the edge of the Competitive Gate. From there, we can head through the ‘Lust Gate’ and then we’ll arrive at the Performance Gate, Barbatos’s palace. As for the base, Jasmine seems to sense its presence nearby the ‘Gate of Knowledge.’ We’ll finally regroup with Eil there.”
“The Gate of Knowledge?”
Once that term slipped from Fisher’s mouth, Emhart couldn’t suppress a shudder, as if recalling some painful and terrifying memory.
“Isn’t Baemon’s palace over there?!”
After a moment of silence, that was the first thing he said.
Fisher nodded in acknowledgment and added, “Eil has already been there before. Hela hasn’t returned to her palace for a long time; it’s almost abandoned. If she’s not keeping an eye on us now, she probably doesn’t know we’ve arrived at the Demon Dynasty.”
“Really?!”
“Yeah.”
In fact, Fisher was somewhat curious about Hela’s method of monitoring him. Unlike Renee and the Chaos Race, who resided in the Spirit Realm outside the world, and had very high ranks that made it normal for them to see his every move, how did Hela manage it?
Her rank was probably around the eighteenth to nineteenth rank; she shouldn’t have any particularly formidable surveillance methods that would allow her to monitor him at all times, right?
Nonetheless, at least Emhart calmed down, and then they set off, moving toward the edge of the Competitive Gate.
“Ah, guest, did you give my letter of thanks and gift to the Demon God Eil?”
When they leaped back to the previous place, the bandaged Solomon, resembling a skeleton, trembled as he emerged from his small, crude black stone house. Seeing the emptiness in Fisher’s hands, he visibly showed his delight.
Fisher nodded affirmatively, and Solomon grew even more excited. He stepped closer to Fisher, ready to fulfill his earlier promise.
“Okay, okay! So, is there anything you need help with? I might not be able to do much, but if you need anything, please don’t hesitate to ask.”
“…We don’t need any help; it’s just something we did on the way. I appreciate your kindness.”
Solomon nodded in response, then smiled while pointing to his chest, as if indicating the demon scroll on Fisher, and said, “Alright, if you want to know something, it’s actually all written clearly on that scroll I gave you earlier. If you have any questions or want to contact me, just tell these little demons beside you. Although they might not be able to communicate well, as long as you say my name, they will come find me.”
Fisher raised an eyebrow and couldn’t help but question, “You, a prisoner deceived by the Demon God Baal, can control these little demons?”
Solomon’s sunken face concealed by the bandages grimaced a little as he explained, “It’s not exactly controlling them; I just understand what these beasts are thinking. You can figure it out after spending some time with them.”
Jasmine, standing behind, rubbed Fisher’s hand, causing him to turn his head. He saw that she was also looking at the stone wall nearby, where the indistinct figures of those mindless little demons could be seen crawling and hiding. They all stared at their group with vacant yet glowing eyes, giving off an uncomfortable feeling.
“…Farewell.”
“Ah, please take care, guest.”
Fisher didn’t linger and turned, taking Jasmine to follow the direction Eil had indicated before.
He was of the mythical rank and had just recently enhanced his attributes through reproduction, making his body much more agile than before. Jasmine was also light on her feet, effortlessly leaping through the lava below them. Occasionally, they could see a palace that was less orderly than Eil’s and stylistically different, suggesting that it had once housed a Demon God.
Just as Eil had said, these demons had limited connections with each other. Aside from a few pairings like Barbatos and Cidi, or the close friendship between Acares and Eil, the rest of the demons mainly kept to themselves; even their palaces were separated by great distances.
“Speaking of which, Teacher Fisher, didn’t you say those two demons named, um, Barbatos and Acares were released by Baemon, driven by the promise of freedom among demons? I can understand why Barbatos would listen to her, as Sir Book mentioned he has a partner named ‘Cidi.’ What about Acares? Does she have a partner that needs rescuing?”
“No, Acares doesn’t have a partner.”
“Then why is Acares helping Baemon when it seems like these demons don’t get along very well?”
Standing on Fisher’s shoulder, Emhart shook his head and said. Fisher reflected for a moment and responded.
“Eil told me before that the relationships among demons are quite loose. Also, I didn’t know then that there were four highest-ranked ‘Kings’ among them, Baemon being one of them. But even so, these Kings generally don’t manage things and have little concern for their kin; they are only titled Kings due to their powerful strength and extensive knowledge. However, Acares is an exception. She has a significant interest in the matters within the dynasty. You could say, besides the four Kings, she is a decision-maker within the Demon Dynasty.
“She takes on responsibilities concerning matters unrelated to her, signifying her interest in participating in something she deems worthwhile. Therefore, she might have many close friends within the dynasty, with Eil being one of them. Otherwise, with her laid-back personality, she wouldn’t have agreed to leave the dynasty to hunt Erwind. It seems she values her friendships quite a lot; otherwise, she wouldn’t have accepted Hela’s invitation.”
Looking at the confused Jasmine behind him, Fisher smiled slightly and turned to ask her, “Uh, didn’t your mother ever talk to you about these things?”
Fisher instinctively thought to say “Aunt Xu,” but for some reason, the faces of Gouwen brothers popped into his mind. Considering Xu was his wife, it felt a bit strange to refer to her that way, so he opted for a more nonspecific designation.
“Um, no. Mom never mentioned the Demon Dynasty, but she might have been there before, as I have a broken short knife with a strange aura at home. Mom said that thing is a creation of the demons, what was it called… runes?”
A short knife? Runes?
Listening to those two familiar concepts, Fisher suddenly raised an eyebrow, feeling somewhat incredulous, and tentatively asked, “Are you saying it’s a death rune?”
“…Um, I think it is called that, but I don’t feel any death aura coming from it.”
“…”
Of course, you wouldn’t feel it, because that thing had already been used. After all, when Fisher had deeply plunged it into Erwind’s body in the Northern Region, the death aura from that thing instantly transferred to Erwind and himself, rendering that rune into a worthless knife.
But, did Acares’s first death rune end up with Xu?
What was it originally used against, and how did it end up with Xu?
Fisher felt puzzled but saw that Jasmine was just as baffled now. Clearly, at that time, she didn’t have a deep impression of the “little ornament” that her destructive mother kept at home and didn’t realize the terrifying powers symbolized by those items and Xu’s glorious achievements.
“Fisher, look! We seem to be nearing the edge of the Competitive Gate!”
Fisher stopped pressing for answers, yet Emhart, who was still watching the road from his shoulder, suddenly spoke up. Following his voice to look ahead, Fisher and Jasmine quickly spotted a hint of hazy pink at the end of the increasingly narrowing gorge.
In the lava cave they were in, aside from the deeper red magma, the most distinctive feature was the black rocks that resembled obsidian. But at the end of the vast road beyond the large stone gate stood stones that appeared white with a slight hint of pink, reminiscent of paradise, radiating the fragrance of flowers, contrasting sharply with the burnt lava nearby.
“That must be the Lust Gate? But where did the Death Lord go? Didn’t Eil say he was nearby?”
Fisher murmured; he didn’t immediately assess the perfect scenery of the palace that matched its name but instead looked around for the tall Cardu.
“Hey, where are you going? Don’t run away~”
“Come play with us, sir~”
“Ah! So naughty!”
At that moment, a seductive melody floated from beyond the gates. The sound was charming, as if strumming the strings of one’s heart. Just hearing it made Jasmine’s cheeks flush, and she began to imagine what kind of scene that could be.
Fisher raised an eyebrow, then led Jasmine forward. Soon, they spotted numerous female figures beyond the gates.
Each of those figures varied in height and shape, yet all shared an almost identical allure and grace. Their appearances were stunning, and if they were in Nali, one could only imagine how they would be treated. Their hair varied in colors and lengths, and even those without voluptuous figures had smooth curves that made one’s imagination run wild.
Each of them had a pair of bat-like wings, and unlike Eil’s robust arrow-like tail, their tails were more delicate and cute, tapering into heart shapes at the ends, with small flames of consciousness burning above them.
Just by seeing them, Fisher felt the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans in his chest begin to heat up. They were merely a type of demon, yet it stirred an unusual excitement within him; he wasn’t sure which nerve had been poked.
“Are those demon attendants?”
Their revealing outfits seemed as if they were afraid of the heat or simply too poor to buy proper fabric, with short skirts and tiny strips of cloth barely concealing their marvelous forms, making one’s blood rush.
“Ah, and they are demon attendants behind the Lust Gate, commonly referred to by you humans as ‘Succubi.’ Their nature is to rely on lust for sustenance, drawing from fallen natures.”
Emhart sighed, then turned to Fisher beside him and remarked, “Why don’t you become a succubus? It seems fitting for you, oh!”
Fisher, expressionless, gave him a light slap, sending his lewd insinuations back into his own mind. Before Emhart could flare up, Fisher was already the first to speak.
“The Death Lord is just over there.”
“Where? I don’t see anything!”
Emhart looked around but only saw those flirtatious figures without spotting that stand-out silhouette.
But Fisher squinted his eyes, looking toward the center of the group of succubi. After a moment of silence, he said, “He’s underneath them.”
