The route was not nearly as confusing as it sounded, but Serenity could understand why the demon had a hard time describing it; there were no street signs or even straight streets. Instead, they were headed in a fairly consistent direction: towards the center of the city.
It was the direction he’d have guessed if he hadn’t gotten a guide and had to try to find the main City Node. Most cities started from a Settlement Crystal; more than that, the actual governing choices were made at one. That meant that the Lord’s residence was usually near the Settlement Crystal.
Cities didn’t always grow symmetrically and Serenity knew that some old cities were established before the Settlement Crystals formed; that was what was happening on Earth. Even so, the city government always seemed to be near the Settlement Crystal if the city was old enough, and near the center of the city was usually a good place to start. He’d have searched for ley lines and followed them if he had to.
Thankfully, this was easier.
Serenity knew they had to be close when they reached a pile of rubble that looked far more broken down than the rest of the city; it had clearly been left and not scavenged, but the remaining pieces looked like part of a large stone building. There was no clear path in; they had to climb over the rubble. It was slow going for Serenity, since the fallen stone shifted under his weight with each move forward.
It was a little ways away from the actual geometric center of the city, but Serenity could feel the ley line they’d entered.
A moment after the guard passed the broken wall, before Serenity found his way over the rubble, a voice spoke. It sounded deep and slow, the way Serenity imagined a giant turtle might speak. “Little guard. You are not where you belong. Why are you here?”
Serenity’s head cleared the top of the wall as he climbed. The source of the voice was large, almost as large as Serenity himself, but it definitely wasn’t a turtle. If anything, it looked like a giant inverted-color version of the obsession demon; it was predominantly red with black horns, claws, and wings. It was almost exactly what most people would draw if he told them to draw a “standard demon, and no I don’t mean a succubus.”
Sometimes he really wondered about Earth’s mythology. Yes, almost anything he could think of was actually out there somewhere, but even things that were recent in Earth’s mythos tended to actually match up with something by both appearance and characteristics.
Serenity kept moving forward.
The pig-demon coughed, clearing its throat. “Ah, the Greater Wrath Demon …” it seemed to look around for a moment before it found Serenity and pointed at him. “The Greater Wrath Demon is looking for the Calling Crystal. He told me to guide him.”
“Hmmmmmmmm.” The demon that was probably a Greater Obsession Demon of some sort almost seemed to hum rather than actually respond immediately. When it did speak, its pace was far faster than before. “I will take care of him from here. Get back to your post.”
The pig-demon started scrambling over rubble. It moved in a direction that took it more or less back the way it had come, but angled so that it wouldn’t get close to Serenity.
Serenity couldn’t help but be amused at that. He was even more amused when the pink pig-demon looked up at him and paled, shifting its movement to be even farther away. Apparently the grin of a Wrath Demon was somewhat terrifying; who knew?
“You were Called?” The Greater Obsession Demon’s voice had slowed down a little, but it was still close to the faster pace.
Serenity wasn’t certain what the best answer was, so he defaulted to the truth. “I’m looking for a City Node Crystal with off-planet teleport capability. When I described that, the guard said it was the Calling Crystal.”
“You know what it is? Hmmmmmmm.” The Greater Obsession Demons seemed to have slowed down all the way again. “Is that a Call or not? Hmmmmmmm.”
Serenity finished climbing over the rubble and found himself in a cleared area, probably a courtyard or training field originally. The important thing was that it was solid ground; he had the feeling that the Greater Obsession Demon was obsessed with the “Calling Crystal,” which meant that this might not be as simple as he’d hoped. “If you show me where it is, I’ll open a portal and leave.”
Serenity hoped the portal wasn’t set to require authorization for every trip; if it wasn’t owned, it couldn’t be. He’d expected it to be ownerless, since monsters generally didn’t own cities even if they captured them, but he had the sinking feeling that he might have been wrong.
He glanced around the open area but didn’t see the Node. If he had to guess, it was probably inside the building in front of him, past the Greater Obsession Demon. It was just sitting there humming a low rumbling note, so Serenity moved around it and headed towards the stairs leading up into the building. They were damaged but still traversable; he’d have to see if the building was full of rubble or open when he got there.
The rumbling cut off. “Called. Yes. I was Called. I was the last Called. No one else will be.”
[A Ruler’s Challenge has been issued]
[Challenger: Hj!vr, Called Ruler of Mornmot]
[Challenged: Serenity, Sovereign of Tzintrka, Sovereign of Earth, Lord of Serenity]
[Stake: Ruler status over Mornmot]
[Declared Rules: Death or submission (optional)]
[Failure to win the Challenge will bar you from using any Mornmot Node while Hj!vr is Ruler of Mornmot]
[Do you accept the Challenge?]
“Fucking hell.” Serenity hadn’t expected this at all. Worse, he didn’t have a good feel for how powerful the Greater Obsession Demon was.
He also wasn’t certain how to even pronounce Hj!vr. He probably shouldn’t be distracted by that right now, but it was exactly the sort of niggling irritation that would make him angry.
Not that that was needed. He was already pissed at the demon for getting in the way. He was ready to leave, why the fuck was someone always in the way?
“Yes.” Serenity growled and swung around towards the Obsession Demon. The moment he could see it, he started off with his strongest attack, a Death Magebolt.
It went straight through the demon.
Serenity growled but took a moment to examine the spot more carefully. There was no substance there; he could see the demon, but there was no solidity behind the image. “Damned illusionist.”
Illusionists sucked to fight. They usually didn’t have the capacity to do incredible amounts of damage, but a good illusionist could wear down multiple standard fighters or mages with the clever use of illusions, using small attacks while making the other side waste their resources to accomplish nothing. He’d already fallen for one trick in his anger; he needed to make sure he didn’t fall for another.
Of course, that could also be a way that an illusionist would win. They were excellent at stalling tactics as they made you doubt your eyes. Serenity had an advantage since he could see solidity like his old Eyeless Sight, but separating solidity from colors took a moment.
Unless. Serenity paused as an idea occurred to him that he should probably have done earlier.
“Aide, flag anything where the solidity and image are incongruent. Either way. Different colors or something.” He wasn’t polite about it; speed was important right now, not manners.
Aide didn’t reply verbally but several areas surrounding Serenity suddenly changed color. It looked like Aide was using a pale blue for things that looked like they were there and a bright orange for things that were being hidden by an illusion.
Serenity noticed several pitfalls, at least two piles of rubble, and at the far end of the cleared area was a demon. It was bright orange but had the same general shape as the Greater Obsession Demon so Serenity assumed it was the same demon; there was no other reason for it to be hiding, invisible, after all.
He grinned widely but decided that he should probably keep his ability to see the demon hidden for now. It would be more costly, but he did have exactly the sort of Path that illusionists hated fighting.
Serenity dropped a Death Field on the entire courtyard. Any Skill was controllable, at least somewhat, so he yanked at it to concentrate its power on the mage’s actual location, leaving the rest of the area visibly darkened but far less deadly. If he’d used the Skill to cover the entire area at full power, even his mana supply wouldn’t last long enough to actually kill anything.
It wasn’t like he was in an area with a lot of Death mana he could steal with Eat Death, after all. In that sort of area, he could keep a spell like this up for a very long time.
The demon mage moved; Serenity had to concentrate all of his attention on keeping the Death Field focused on the mage without releasing the rest of the area. The spell wasn’t really designed for this, and stretching a Skill wasn’t all that easy. He knew how and had done it many times before, but this was still the first time he’d stressed Death Field this way.
If the mage would just stand still, Serenity could blast it with a Death Magebolt! It might not be enough, but it would certainly speed up this process.
For a moment, a light blue humanoid figure appeared where the demon stood. Serenity didn’t spare any attention to think about the obvious illusion; this was exactly why Aide’s help was so valuable right now. Serenity probably wouldn’t have fallen for a trick for long since he knew none of his friends were even potentially nearby, but even a moment of hesitation could have given the illusionist an opening.
The demon ruler tried several other illusions while he moved and tried to find a safe place to stop. Serenity didn’t let them influence his actions; Aide’s comparisons were fast enough that he usually didn’t see more than a vague outline of whatever the illusion was.
“Enough!” yelled the Greater Obsession Demon. “If you won’t move, you will die!”
The fire that washed over Serenity was definitely not an illusion. It was enough to sting and might have done some real damage if it had hit his face, but his Heat Resistance was high enough that all it did was destroy some of his wiry defensive fur. It was mostly on the armor rather than his Greater Demon of Righteous Retribution form anyway.
Serenity wanted to move but he also knew that if he did he’d have to either cancel the Skill or allow it to spread to the full area at full power. He couldn’t afford to allow it to spread out; as it was, the mana cost was higher than he liked.
Serenity held on to the last scraps of his self-control. The Death Field was working, it just needed time; he could see the demon slowing down as it damaged him in hard to repair ways. Death magic took time when it wasn’t strong enough to outright kill, but all he had to do was wait and hold the spell and the Greater Obsession Demon would fall.
He didn’t like being just a target. He didn’t like that at all.
When the illusionist hit him with a blast of cold that was even less effective than the fire despite Serenity’s lower Cold Resistance, Serenity roared in anger and dropped the spell as he charged directly at the mage.
It was mocking him. “Always so easy. Enrage Wrath, intimidate Fear, there’s always-”
The illusionist suddenly seemed to realize that Serenity was charging directly at it. It turned to dodge but Serenity was faster. One good bite was all he needed.
Greater Obsession Demons were, as it turned out, delicious.
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