“Wh-what are they doing?” Lord Aberis frowned as the two horses turned to the side.

First, he watched with curiosity, but then his eyes flashed in shock as the entire army turned toward him. His group only consisted of the slaves holding his palanquin, one of his generals, Calypso, and the convenient blue mage Siti. Blue mages weren’t that rare, but they often had a lot of limitations. For example, most needed to draw extensive runes on the ground. Few had reached a level where they could casually make a portal, let alone one large enough and long enough to move an entire army.

Finding her had nearly changed everything for Lord Aberis. With her assistance, conquering Aberis would be much easier. Back in his age, artifacts that blocked portals were extremely common. It was likely true that up in the Imperial Cloud Meadow that such artifacts protected every major city. The same was not true down here, where the number of Blue Mage’s of Siti’s ability could probably be counted on one hand. Well, finding any higher-tiered people in Aberis was rare. Even that Grand Magician that was considered the best in Aberis was only mediocre compared to some of the mages of the past.

It was the dungeon curses. Once, humanity had been good about destroying them, but they stopped being able to do so. The more dungeons, the more mana got eaten. The less mana, the harder it was to level. Only by going into dungeons could someone level rapidly, and few people were willing to truly risk their lives doing this, where death was permanent.

This only led to more dungeons, less mana, and eventually a population that had a lower average level than they once had. It was once considered normal for people to reach level 100. The system had been created with the idea that a normal artisan, living their entire life, would reach level 100, a master, in whatever field they excelled in, by the point they died. That alone should show how much the human realm had declined due to dungeons. Most laughably, none of them had any clue this was the reason, and likely didn’t even remember a period where third tier and fourth tier jobs were far more common. To Lord Aberis, these people were nothing but worms.

That’s why he glared at them with disdain. “Making such a display just to fool me? They are the fools. Our position is defensible. Even with both armies, they won’t be able to harm us. What is he even charging for? Does he want to make me run like I’m afraid? Well, anyone would leave when facing a literal army solo. Your little display only exhausts your men. You would have been better off hiding in your city. Siti, return us to the gorge. We need to prepare.”

“Uh… Master… I don’t think…”

Aberis spun angrily. “You dare defy me? I’ll have you whipped. Open up the porta-”

His voice caught in his through as he caught something in his peripheral vision. He slowly turned, only to see the gorge behind him. His army was right there, but they had bunkered down in their camps, awaiting his orders. They were only just starting to realize an army was charging them, and they were scrambling to put together defenses.

“Wha-”

Just as he was about to ask what was going on, there were numerous explosions. His vision caught rock men scattered through the gorge. They had literally been hiding as rocks until they suddenly stood up, and then exploded. Most of them were strategically placed, causing the gorge to turn into a death trap. Rock rained down in landslides. The army, at least those smart enough to live, raced out of the gorge in his direction. Upon seeing their master, they began to charge to this place, fleeing the collapsing gorge in the process. When the majority had left, the gorge vanished like it was a lie.

“Compressed space… this is high-end Blue Magic. Even I couldn’t do that…” Siti spoke with her mouth open.

“Master, orders?” The general cried out, looking back and forth between the decimated army and the charging army.

“Attack them! Kill them! Block them!” Lord Aberis cried out, backing up.

A voice suddenly burst out laughing. Aberis looked down to see Calypso bent over with tears rolling down her eyes.

“You… shut it!”

She looked up and grinned. “We’re in his dungeon. It looks like there is a new Master in town.”

Aberis frowned, and then began to feel the space around them close. She was right. They were in a dungeon.

“You may think you’ve trapped me, Deeks! However, you’ve only trapped yourself in with me. It’s time I showed you the true power of a Demon Lord!”

His body began to erupt with power. Even Calypso could only gasp in shock as the horns on his head grew, and his body became more demonic. He had just gone into Demon Lord mode!