“The right!”

 

“We’re not taking the right,” Lucy said with disdain. “We’re taking the left.”

 

“But the right would be quicker!” Scytale argued.

 

“Quicker if you mean a quicker way to end up in the jaws of a demonic beast,” she stated sarcastically.

 

“We’ll be fine,” he replied dismissively.

 

“We will not,” she stressed. “The right is more dangerous by almost ten times.”

 

“Have more faith. We’re both former Rank-7s, this should be a piece of cake for us,” Scytale said.

 

“Let me emphasize the former in that statement,” Lucille retorted. “If we go along with whatever hair-brained scheme you have in mind to cheat Stage 12, I have no doubt that it will result in us being at the worst possible disadvantage for the following stage.”

 

“You underestimate the mind of the great Truth-Seizing World-Ender,” Scytale replied haughtily. “For I know a way that will allow us to navigate the treacherous terrain of the forest, fool all its residents and-”

 

“You plan on antagonizing the Demon Beast Lord that’s near Count Valdin’s Stronghold and get it to destroy both Strongholds so everyone will ignore us, don’t you?” Lucy stated flatly.

 

Scytale stared at her. “How do you know that?”

 

Lucy put a hand to her forehead. “Because I’m your literal bond, you stupid snake! I can see your thoughts!” Then she pointed at him. “Don’t forget you told me how you passed the stages the last time, too…” She registered the blank look on his face and narrowed her eyes at him. “You’ve forgotten this. I bet you don’t have any memories of the stages outside of that one event.”

 

He hesitated. “Uh… no?”

 

She glared at him and he looked away. “Scytale, put aside the fact you’re just impatient to finish the stages and think for one second,” she said with exasperation. “We’re aiming for a perfect completion rate for each stage. The System may offer magical beasts more combat-related sub-objectives, but with us doing these stages together, we can’t afford to ruin our chances of completing some sub-objectives in the later stages.”

 

Lucy turned around and looked down at the branching path before them with a slight frown on her face. “We could always do a total reset of the stages if we hit a wall, but that defeats the purpose of coming out here to do these first three.”

 

Scytale closed his eyes and held his chin as he let out a long hum, as if he was posing to help him think better. Not that a single cohesive thought actually passed through the pea-sized brain of Lucy’s bond, in her very biased opinion.

 

The snake in human form snapped his fingers when he opened his gold eyes. “I’ve got it.” He turned to face the slope with her, looking out at the two ‘paths’: the steep incline down through the darker sections of the demonic woods, or a winding path that traced the outline of the Dominion, putting them in the main site of conflict between the two demon nobilities’ fiefdoms. “Let’s just make our own path!”

 

Lucille gazed dully at him. “What-”

 

“It’s the simplest way to resolve this, right?” her bond continued, ignoring her interruption. “It’s not like we can die here and we’ve already moved onto the second stage of the Demon Realm. You think the System’s going to throw us a few curveballs anyway, so let’s just go all in and explore uncharted lands. If we’re both dealing with new stuff they’ll be less arguments.”

 

“That’s an insane idea,” Lucy stated. She looked down at the slope and scowled. “I hate that it makes sense.”

 

Scytale had a smug grin on her face that made her feel mildly irritated, but he had enough self-preservation instinct to not discuss it further and only shrugged. “If we go by the logic of this stage, we’re not supposed to know the geography of the Dominion as we’re ‘foreigners’. I’m sure you’ve got the whole place mapped out in your stupidly powerful mind, so what do you think? Is it possible?”

 

Lucille crossed her arms as she looked down at the valley, thinking deeply. Eventually she answered, “It’s possible.”

 

“Righty-o! Let’s go then!” Scytale exclaimed. He stepped forward to begin taking a straight path through thick forest flora, but a firm hand on his shoulder stopped that.

 

“Oh no you don’t. Not yet.” Lucy turned him around and pointed at the skies above. “Look.”

 

Circling above the treetops were several red-eyed birds, looking awfully similar to the demonic raven that had attacked Scytale in the swamp. He scowled.

 

“Those birds report to the Viscount. If we don’t get rid of those spies, they’ll know where we’re going,” Lucille stated.

 

Scytale narrowed his eyes and clenched a fist. “Alright. Time for a rematch, birds.”

He changed into his winged serpent form and shot into the sky.

 

“Don’t use too much mana or you’ll attract attention!” Lucy called out. A mental response from her bond informed her that he had heard her, and she watched as he lashed out with his fangs to shred and tear at the wings of the demon beasts. Their bodies disintegrated into red light as they released pained cries in their last moments.

 

Lucille diverted her focus to scanning the next few kilometres of the Dominion and comparing it with their stage objectives.

 

[S.T.A.G.E.S | Stage 12: Blackbrook Woods]

 

Strongholds are the only locations that bear a resemblance to civilization in this damned realm. But you have been chased away from a Stronghold into the deadly woods outside of its borders, so what safety do you have?

None. But ahead you will have a choice: to take a path, one that leads to where you may find Count Valdin’s forces on the borders of Viscount Cressilin’s domain, or to navigate the treacherous woods to find the main base of the Count. Both have their trials, and both have their advantages: support or time.

But you must find this branching path in your future first before you can make your decision, for the subordinates of the demonic Viscount are still tracking you and are out for blood. Run fast, realm travellers.

 

[Collapse]

Main Quest (Rank-2: Demon Realm) Overall Objective:

• Last two weeks while being pursued by forces so that the stolen treasure you carry can be placed on the summoning ritual along with yourselves.

Sub-Objectives – Stage 12:

Compulsory:

• Find the branching path in the Blackbrook Woods before Viscount Cressilin’s forces catch up with you. (COMPLETED)

Optional:

• Slay one of Viscount Cressilin’s trackers.
• Traverse at least a quarter of the Blackbrook Woods before the next stage.

[]

 

[Completion Rate: 16%]

 

Lucy looked up and sent a message to her bond.

 

Scytale, are there any more raven demon beasts left? If so, please bring one down. Alive.

 

‘Ugh. There’s one more, but it will be a pain to catch alive.’

 

Please do it anyway.

 

A mixture of incoherent thoughts, most likely complaints, was sent to her through the bond but Scytale swooped and dived. The raven screeched and dodged his fangs but Scytale rammed into it with his body. As they tumbled through the air, he wrapped his body around the bird and managed to right himself, then fly back over with the raven.

 

“Here’s one live piece of Kentucky fried chicken.” He waited until Lucy had a firm grip on neck of the demon beast before he unravelled himself.

 

She ignored him to instead plunge Apophis into the neck of the bird. It went limp in her hand and then scattered into red light and Scytale flapped his wings indignantly.

 

[Sub-Objective Complete:

Slay one of Viscount Cressilin’s trackers.]

[Completion Rate: +1%]

 

[New! Completion Rate: 18%]

 

“Hey, what was the point of keeping it alive if you were just going to kill it?! Give me back my effort!”

 

“My optional sub-objective,” Lucy replied. “You probably had a similar objective because we were already at a 17% Completion Rate before I killed this. 6% between us for both of us arriving at this point, and another 1% each for killing a tracker.”

 

“Fiiiine.” Scytale turned to look down the slope. “So… do we start heading down this ‘third path’ then?”

 

She nodded. “Let’s go.”

 

…

 

The ‘third path’ they took was the most direct route to the next Stronghold, but also the least easy to traverse. While the other two paths had light trails worn into the ground as a guide, Lucille and Scytale had to make their way through the woods with no guiding landmarks in sight. If it weren’t for the fact that Lucy had memorised nearly the entire Dominion from her repeated attempts in the past at surviving the murderous demon beasts, it would’ve been hard for them to know where to go. There was no north, south, east or west in the Demon Realm, nor stars to navigate by.

 

The left path would’ve taken them past the conflict zones of the two demon nobilities’ armies on the outer edges of the woods, while the right path would’ve taken them deep into the valley with only one exit, and was where the most dangerous demon beasts lived. The path they were taking now followed along the top mountain edge of the valley, with two steep slopes on either side of a hundred-metre-wide strip of land.

 

A loud slap behind her alerted her to the fact Scytale had just squished a very large bug between his hands. He looked at the red stains on his palms with disgust. “Demonic mosquitos. Worst creatures to ever exist.”

 

Lucy stopped cutting her way through tall bushes with her blades and glanced back to eye the red marks. “Insects don’t have red blood. They must’ve drank some from somewhere.”

 

Scytale’s eyes widened and he spun around, looking for bites on himself. “They bit me?! Crap, I’ll itch for days. Where is it, where is the mark?!”

 

She shook her head wryly. “You’re fine. Come on, we need to speed up the pace so we have enough time in the later stages in case we get lost.”

 

“Like that’s possible with you,” Scytale said.

 

“There’s a chance we’d be in danger if I used too large of a perception field,” Lucy replied lightly. “Demons are spiritual creatures and are much more adept at sensing the spiritual energies than magical beasts.”

 

He groaned. “What good are you if you can’t even use your all-powerful perception to cheat your way through this? I only brought you here because of your hacks, you know!”

 

Lucy slowly turned around to narrow her eyes at her bond. “You brought me here? That’s very, very incorrect, Scytale.”

 

“No, it’s not,” he argued. “I could’ve just ditched you and done things the same way as last time but nooo, someone was getting scared and so I benevolently allowed her to accompany me on my journey to epicness-”

 

“You joined me because we assumed the stages in this timeline would be different,” she stated flatly.

 

“Yeah, but do you believe my stages would be different?” Scytale exclaimed. “No, no you don’t. Because I already had a difference in my Beast Realm stages. It’s only because of your stages that I tagged along.”

 

Her expression twitched. “But there’s still a possibility that things might have changed for you, so it’s more efficient for us to-” Her eyes widened as she detected a shadow crossing the trees in a more distant part of her perception field and she pulled Scytale into a bush with her. “Hide!”

 

They both fell silent as they lay there on the ground, as still as possible. The flying beast overhead flew off in the direction of the left path, a rider on its back. As she was still unsure how strong the senses of the demon beast and its rider were, she spoke mentally to her bond.

 

That demon and demon beast is likely looking for us. I don’t think they expected us to be taking this route as they’re going over to the left side, but we have to be careful.

 

Scytale slowly nodded and they crept out of the bush. Or tried to as instead, Scytale stiffened up. He looked down at his ankle to see a tendril of the bush had wrapped around his ankle. He scowled as he tried to shake it off. “Stupid demon bush. Get lost!”

 

He yelped when it stuck red thorns into his skin. “Ow! That hurts!” The amphiptere morphed into his beast form so the thorns couldn’t pierce his scales but realised that was a terrible mistake when more thorny tendrils snuck out. He quickly became tangled up and began to panic as he moved over to the nearby edge of the mountain. “Lucy, help!”

 

Lucille frowned and knelt to slice the tendrils off with Ouroboros but then a shadow reappeared in the nearby treetops. She hastily tried to hide behind the bush even while trying to cut her bond out, but when tendrils started to inch towards her hair and arms she knew her hiding place was no longer safe. Her legs were hanging off of the small ledge of the mountain as she cut through the thickest stem of the tendrils.

 

Both Scytale and Lucy’s eyes widened as the tendril snapped back with uncanny force and the backlash pushed them off the edge. They began to slide down the steep surface of the mountain, on the left side instead of the right which would’ve led them into the dangerous valley.

 

Lucille fumbled with her daggers and tried to stab them into the rockface covered in crooked twisted black and red trees growing at right angles, but with the thorn vines wrapped around Scytale getting caught on her clothes, she was being dragged down before the blades could catch. Whip-like branches struck her face as she continued to gain momentum while going down the slope. Soon the fact that the slope turned into a cliff face became noticeable in her spiritual perception and she tried to find and possible way of stopping herself.

 

One thick, gnarled tree with no leaves and wood so black it looked burnt stood out to her as the most likely one capable of holding her weight, and she extended her blades with the hopes of getting them to catch onto the tree.

 

Her body crashed through the outer branches with ease and gave way with no resistance. Thick sticks snapped the few times she grabbed them until she managed to lodge Apophis sideways in a y-branching point. She gritted her teeth as her grip began to fail, with no other branch in reach of her left hand to haul herself up. The tree extended over the cliff face to show a dizzying drop below.

 

The fall had finally managed to cut off the worst of the thorn vines from Scytale’s body and he slithered up to wind his body around her wrist, the dagger handle, and the branch. She let out a sigh of relief when she was no longer in danger of falling, her bond using himself as a handcuff of sorts to tie her to the tree. “Thanks.”

 

Scytale tilted his head as he watched her swing below. “Do you need help, or…? I’m not sure if my body can actually carry you yet, or if I can fly while you’re on my back.”

 

“No, I think I have an idea.” She used her free left hand to unsheathe Ouroboros and let the sentient weapon levitate. The dagger extended into its longsword form and then snake-sword form. The handle went under her feet as the other segments enlarged and spread out to form footholds.

 

Scytale carefully released her and she touched down gently on the handle of Ouroboros. With her hands spread out on either side, she carefully stepped over a wide gap onto the next segment, which wavered lightly under her foot. A few more steps onto the segments allowed her to make her way to the area of thicker, unbroken branches in the tree and she pushed herself onto it with both hands on the branch near her waist.

 

Lucille thought about what to do for a moment and then focused on her Soul Cipher Orchestrator of Affray skill. She jumped up to catch a branch with both hands and swung herself up. She caught the next with the momentum and then used a series of intersecting branches as footholds to climb her way up, hopping from branch to branch.

 

Scytale slithered after her, exercising his innate talents as a tree snake as he wrapped around one branch and then the other. She made it to the gnarled trunk of the tree and bounced on the balls of her feet, testing the tree’s strength and her body’s own response to the sensation.

 

“Hye, don’t get overconfident,” Scytale warned. “You might have decent AGI now, but you should still be careful this high up.”

 

“I’m testing my balance,” she explained as she switched to one foot, focusing on her spatial awareness. “The new secondary skill is definitely showing its origins as being created from my technique of controlling my body. My balance is nigh-on impeccable with how I can use ‘strings’ of mana to control my limbs and posture.”

 

Lucy held out her hand and Ouroboros landed in her grip. She sunk the end of the longsword into the tree slightly and pushed herself up onto the round pommel of the blade. “Watch.” Holding out her arms, she suddenly jumped as if to do a front flip and instead did a handstand on the end of the upright pommel, one hand placed over the other.

 

Scytale eyed her curiously as she slowly raised one hand and did a one-armed handstand. “With just my own body control and constructs, my mind would eventually fray, my muscles would give out and I’d fall, but with the Soul Cipher Orchestrator I can almost maintain this indefinitely.”

 

“Huh… cool, I guess.” Scytale gestured to the steep slope above them with his nose. “But it’s probably time to begin the eternal climb of doom.”

 

She flipped onto the tree trunk and pulled Ouroboros out. Sheathing both her daggers, she began to walk down the black trunk to the rocky slope the tree was rooted to. She paused when something interesting appeared in her perception.

 

“Uh… Lucy? What’s going on?”

 

Lucille didn’t reply and instead observed the cracked surface in front of her. She rapped her knuckles against the stone and a dull echo sounded out.

 

“…wait, what?”

 

“Curious,” she muttered. She gripped the handle of Apophis tightly and then slashed the demonic weapon with all her might. It cleaved the stone before her face and she shielded her eyes from the stone shards, while Scytale shielded himself with his wings. Lucy removed her hand when the stone dust cleared up, revealing a hollow inside of the stone.

 

They exchanged looks. Scytale gestured to the hole with his head. “Want me to take a look?”

 

She nodded. “I detect plant life inside.”

 

Lucille raised Scytale up on her palms to let him stick his head in the hole. He looked from side to side. “Just wait a moment so my eyes can adjust and- woah.”

 

He fell silent, then pulled his head back. “Yeah… I think you’ve got to keep digging. You need to see this.”

 

Lucy slashed the rock again, sending chunks of stone deeper inside the hole and falling of an unseen ledge into who knows where, and then she did it once again for good measure. Not wishing to destroy the roots anchoring the tree to the slope in case they needed to return to it for some reason, she squeezed herself through the gap to find herself on what looked like an extension of the black tree trunk, except this one had branches covered in glowing green leaves extending from it.

 

Lucy walked out onto the trunk with Scytale behind her as she looked down and then stopped in her tracks.

 

The inside of the mountain was completely hollow, containing a massive chasm. And paradoxically, trees and bushes covered the rock walls of the chasm all the way to the bottom, where an underground river with liquid that reminded Lucy of a lava lamp flowed down. The demonic bird cries and other beast sounds echoed throughout the chasm, revealing that it contained just as much life as the mountains and valley outside did.

 

“Yeah… I don’t recall hearing about this before,” Scytale said.

 

“It has to have been discovered by someone, however,” Lucy mused. “Perhaps it doesn’t have an exit that would allow us to leave close to Count Valdin’s Stronghold.” She looked down. “Still, I always wondered why this Dominion in the stages was comparatively normal when it comes to areas of the Demon Realm. Now I know it’s just the same as any other part of the Demon Realm – illogical, nonsensical geography.”

 

“So…” Scytale looked down. “What do we do?”

 

Lucille considered it for a short moment and then turned to face him. “We expected there to be changes for our stages now. This might be part of it, it might not. But we wanted to explore uncharted lands, didn’t we?” She glanced down again. “At least climbing down might be marginally easier than climbing back up.”

 

Scytale raised his golden eyes to the ceiling to take in the view of a bunch of pointed stalactites dripping phosphorescent fluid onto the few plants that extended out that far. He shuddered. “Not a fan of the idea of climbing up. Okay then, downwards and onwards it is.”

…

 

The trees and plants inside of the mountain chasm seemed to be thriving better than the ones on the outside because they made for very sturdy footholds even with the acute angles of the chasm walls. Lucy climbed down at a steady pace, the extended 180-degree tree trunks almost forming stairs with how simple they were to climb down. Scytale seemed to be having fun using his tail to swing off of branches and the ends of trees while using his two pairs of wings to fly to any location that caught his interest. Of course, the chasm wasn’t without its dangers.

 

Lucille leaned back to avoid the screaming demonic lemur beast that leapt from its tree and fell into the chasm when it missed her by a hair. She continued with ease.

 

“This is a far more interesting journey than I expected for a second try of all the Demon Realm stages,” she began conversationally.

 

“I don’t know,” Scytale said sceptically. “I remember having fun when I took the right path in the last timeline.”

 

“Yes, but your definition of ‘fun’ consists of satisfying your adrenaline addiction and sufficiently violent deaths for your pursuers by the end of it all,” she replied. “While there is a time and place for chaos, now is not it. Not until we find out what the System wants from us in this timeline’s stages.”

 

“Just ask the Demon Emperor!” Scytale complained. He let himself free-fall from the tree high above her and then righted himself to land on her branch. “Isn’t that what your stupid contract is for in the first place?”

 

“That’s for the System to determine what I want, not the other way around,” she reminded him. “It wasn’t exactly a willing arrangement on my side.”

 

“Ugh. It’s been what, nearly five months now since the Banquet? Haven’t you sorted things out with that cranky ancient terror yet? I feel like that sort of thing is something that should’ve happened already.”

 

Her expression grew strange at the statement of ‘cranky ancient terror’ but she shook her head. “I’ve been waiting for when he loses some of his anger. After the last meeting with him… I decided I’d probably do something about it when we next meet.”

 

“You mean… in June?” He flew onto her shoulders and studied her closely.

 

Lucille glanced at him. “Yes.”

 

Scytale observed her silently and then nodded his head with solemnity. “I’ll make sure to come to your funeral.”

 

She rolled her eyes and shoved him off. “We’re almost at the bottom, so go fly down and inspect things for me before I jump down.”

 

“What am I, a servant?” he grumbled, but he still flew down to the soft grass at the bottom. He looked up and flapped his wings. “All good!”

 

Lucille nodded and then backed up slightly. Then she ran down the branch and leapt off the edge to avoid getting caught by branches on her trip down. The gemstone on her belt glowed dark blue as her energy repulsion shield spells activated and stalled her fall a metre above the ground. She touched down on the grass and knelt to look at it, running her hands through it. “Nice texture.”

 

“If I wasn’t sure that this was all a giant man-eating trap for magical serpent beasts and humans I’d be tempted to sleep here.” Scytale slithered along the grass as he headed deeper into the chasm in front of her, aiming to inspect the river. “Come on, time to explore!”

 

“Wait. Not just yet.” Lucy put up a hand and glanced at the notification that had appeared.

 

[Sub-Objective Complete:

Traverse at least a quarter of the Blackbrook Woods before the next stage.]

[Completion Rate: +1%]

 

[New! Completion Rate: 20%]

 

[Stage 12 complete. Transferring Users…]

 

“Let’s continue this in the next stage,” she explained.

 

…

 

[S.T.A.G.E.S | Stage 13: Haven of the Heathen]

 

Loyal subordinates of your Marquess on your home world. That is what you’ve pretended to be all this time so you could grow close to the Marquess and obtain access to his resources. But you both secretly never came here to get the Marquess a reward… no, you were looking for traces. Traces that would lead you to find a greater secret than any explorer of the Demon Realm before.

The Marquess intended to betray you all along, and you knew this. But all was to find the secret you’ve long known about. And you just found the entrance.

Navigate this chasm and find the tunnel. For your future is changing fast, in ways not even the Primordial Demon could expect.

 

[Collapse]

Main Quest (Rank-2: Demon Realm) Overall Objective:

• Last two weeks while being pursued by forces so that the stolen treasure you carry can be placed on the summoning ritual along with yourselves.

Sub-Objectives – Stage 13:

Compulsory:

• Find the tunnel opening.

Optional:

• Obtain a water sample of the Blackbrook.

HIDDEN:

•  

[]

 

[Completion Rate: 20%]

 

Lucille and Scytale silently studied the Stage 13 description. Scytale, in his human form, nodded sagely. “Yep, we’re done for. All of our past knowledge should be thrown out! The System is changing everything up. We may as well be going in blind now.”

 

“Don’t be ridiculous. Our main objective hasn’t changed, see?” Lucy pointed at the line on the screen. “Clearly we still have to head for Count Valdin’s Stronghold. The process we do it by might just be different. That’s all.”

 

“Yeah, yeah. I still think we’re going to die, like, a bajillion times.” Scytale paused for a second and then a wicked grin formed on his face. “Hey, we may as well start now!”

 

Lucy stared at him. “What-”

 

The humanoid snake bolted for the glowing orange river’s edge and jumped in. “Geronimo!”

 

Lucille’s eyes widened and she stretched out a hand. “Don’t-”

 

A pained scream escaped from her bond and the world around them fizzled out. The System limbo returned and Lucy saw her bond just lying there on the ground, panting.

 

“I have a regret,” he stated. “Potentially many, but at this moment, I can only think of one.”

 

“You could’ve just asked and I would’ve told you it’s a type of acid,” Lucille said with exasperation. “One with a very high temperature, at that.”

 

“Well, you only live once and all that… wait, that doesn’t work in this context.” He paused to think about it. “You only live as many times as you die?”

 

Lucy suppressed a groan and tapped on a screen to send them back. “Stop trying to kill yourself for the thrill of it or else I’ll lock you up in the Library with Ashale’viaf whenever I need to go somewhere.”

 

He shuddered and looked at her with horror. “What kind of demented mind do you have to think of such a horrible concept? Sealing me in with only that spirit and thick books for company…”

 

“Please, just shut up,” she said wearily. They returned to having grass underfoot and this time, Scytale walked beside her as she slowly approached the luminous river.

 

“A sample…” she mused. She turned to look at her bond. “Scytale, do you have the ‘treasure’ on you?”

 

“Treasure?” he repeated, confused. Then he blinked. “Oh, wait.” He reached into a satchel on him that stored the poison and darts and handed her a silver goblet. “Here you go.”

 

“Thank you.” She studied the goblet for a moment and then dipped the cup half of the item into the pool. Being careful not to get any acid on herself, she scooped up some of the liquid and watched as it slowly turned black inside of the cup.

 

[Sub-Objective Complete:

Obtain a water sample of the Blackbrook.]

[Completion Rate: +1%]

 

[New! Completion Rate: 21%]

 

“Was wondering why this whole place is called ‘Blackbrook’ when there’s no brook,” Scytale said with surprise. “Guess we know now, huh.”

 

Lucy stood up and tested the abilities of the goblet by tipping it upside down again. Nothing escaped and she threw the goblet back to her bond for him to store.

 

He eyed the goblet with caution and let out a sigh of relief when the black substance didn’t leak into his satchel. He followed Lucy as she walked alongside the river.

 

“What does the goblet do again?” Scytale asked.

 

“I don’t know,” she replied calmly. “I never cared much because from what I discovered, the Marquess intends to use the goblet in a complex scheme to poison a political rival.”

 

“Uh huh…” Scytale said.

 

Lucy glanced at him. “That was my sub-objective, if that wasn’t obvious. Do you have any unique sub-objectives to complete?”

 

He glanced at the screen. “Um… no, no optional sub-objectives, actually. Just the compulsory one to find the tunnel.”

 

“…I see,” Lucy said. She pointed ahead. “Well, here’s your opportunity to complete it. Because if that semi-circle of demonic script on the wall doesn’t scream ‘secret tunnel’ to you, then I don’t know what will.”

 

“…demonic script?” Scytale blinked and stared at the flat wall of polished black stone, engraved with eight dull glowing red demonic symbols arranged in a semi-circle.

 

[Sub-Objective Complete:

Find the tunnel opening.]

[Completion Rate: +1%]

 

[New! Completion Rate: 27%]

 

“Oh, okay, cool. Totally not menacing and likely to kill me if I touch it, not at all.” He glanced at Lucy when she walked past. “What are you doing now?”

 

Lucy walked up to the wall and considered what to do. Normally for a demonic seal like the one before her, she’d use demonic materials to deactivate it, but she didn’t have any on her. The only source of demonic power she had was Apophis, but her dagger didn’t have any demonic sigils, so the only option left was… she looked down at her left hand, unpeeled the glove and then placed her hand on the wall.

 

Rings of red demonic script expanded outwards across the wall and were absorbed into the eight large symbols. They lit up with a brilliant red glow as some of the glossy polished stone seemed to melt away and liquidize. She stepped away as an archway leading into pitch-black darkness was revealed.

 

[HIDDEN Sub-Objective Complete:

Unseal the tunnel entrance.]

[Completion Rate: +3%]

 

[New! Completion Rate: 30%]

 

[Stage 13 complete. Transferring Users…]

 

“…let’s leave the exploration of this tunnel for our next visit here,” Lucy slowly stated.

 

…

 

Lucy and Scytale split up once they reached the Aurelian Commission Headquarters again. She walked into her sitting room as her bond left for his own bedroom. Vincent was sitting inside, reading documents. He looked up.

 

“Ah, you’ve returned. A successful trip?” he asked politely.

 

“A… unique one,” Lucy replied. “I chose to complete the stages in a team with Scytale. Whether that was a mistake remains to be seen.”

 

“Yes, I could see why you’d think that,” he said with amusement. “By the way, the Alichanteu craftsmen have been very eager to talk to you and-”

 

“Sir Evisenhardt, Count Goldcroft. Please excuse my interruption.”

 

The call of a dark-haired and dark-eyed staff member made them look up and glance at the open doorway. The woman was standing there, holding a black envelope in her hands. “I have a letter for you, Count Goldcroft.”

 

“…Count?” Vincent narrowed his eyes at the woman.

 

Lucy stared at the woman for two seconds before hurriedly standing up and taking the letter from her. Lucille opened the letter and her eyes widened while Vincent frowned. The woman walked off.

 

“Why is that staff member calling you ‘Count’? The correct etiquette would be ‘Commission Head’,” Vincent stated crossly. Then he frowned. “Actually, I don’t recall ever seeing that person before. Who…”

 

“It’s not important,” Lucy said. “What is important is…” She fell silent again.

 

Vincent raised an eyebrow. “Is?”

 

When she didn’t reply he stood up from the couch and walked over. He gave the letter in her hands a curious look. “What is that?”

 

“An invitation.” She replaced the black paper with silver ink back in its black envelope.

 

“To… what exactly?” Vincent asked, still curious.

 

“An invitation to celebrate in a couple of weeks time, the relocation of… an orphanage.” She gave the envelope in her hands one last look and then placed it in her suit jacket pocket. “It would be a lie if I were to say this was unexpected, but for this to be so soon…” The corner of her lips quirked up in a strange smile but she turned away and sat down on the couch. “You were saying something about the Alichanteu craftsmen?”

 

Vincent blinked. “Ah, yes.” He adjusted his glasses and sat down opposite her. “The leading member of the neutral faction, a member of a dwarven clan, will be arriving for the external debut and plans to stay a while afterwards to discuss the ‘trains’ and potentially the airships….”