Chapter 448 At the Gate

Night soon came in the game world, and it was time for Dave to move. He donned his Shadow Tiger Armor Set and headed out from the Inn, thanks to the thick shadows, the ability, Shadow Escape ability, he was able to move through them with ease. He made sure to practice first in the forest near the Devastator capital.

The first time he dove through a shadow, everything turned black and white, his vision changed and he was able to see shades bright as light and lit areas as dark as night, he could will himself to move from one shadow to another and appear on the other side.

"Damn this is neat," Dave commented and began shadow-diving. At night, while using the shadow dive ability, his speed went far beyond anything he ever used to move around, not even Onixya in flight could match the speed of Dave moving through the shadows.

Dave arrived at the city gates of Icathia, the capital of the Devastator kingdom in a matter of minutes.

The gate was easy to bypass, thank to it being open day and night, as the capital was the safest place of the western kingdom, no creature dared to infiltrate, or cause any problems, and the continuous mowing of low-level creatures around the capital prevented the spawn of even stronger ones.

Dave moved through the city streets, his mission required him to not be noticed or spotted by an NPC, so far it wasn't hard. Even if by some luck, players were able to see him, they would most likely think of him as a rogue class player doing a random quest and ignore him. Most players weren't so nosey.

Dave kept moving through the shadows, headed deeper into the capital, following a map that Dagla had given him. Suddenly he realized that his mission was not going to be as simple as he expected it to be.

He would have rather had the map guiding him to the Devastators HQ in the palace than the current spot he was moving toward.

"Damn, it had to be under the holy church, I guess, the Ash King is kinda smart, that's the only place that they'll never look for a demonic temple."

In front of Dave was the Cathedral of the Light God. Demiurge, it was the same as the Cathedral he visited last time with Nicholas and Demiurge himself.

The light god had the most followers, as all priest class had to go to one of these churches to become a healer. Yet unbeknownst to Demiurge himself, his temple was being used as a spawn of demons.

The church stood several stories high, with a grand decoration of the 'mighty' god Demiurge. Statues and ornamentations strewn all over the place, there was so much of it, that it made the place less beautiful than it is, a poser's temple, as would Nick had described it.

Still, Dave had to be very careful, the church was designed to pry off sloppy assassins, or any rogue class with bad intention toward it, the 'holy grounds' were filled with traps and lit with True Sight lamps.

Dave didn't want to lie to himself and believe he could bypass such security, he was not a professional rogue, and would never match the level of Mercy.

"Bud, your turn," Dave said.

A swirl of smoke materialized near Dave, "Yes, Lord."

"Here's the thing, there is a Demonic Temple under this church, and I can't get through with all these hurdles;"

The ghoul's eyes wandered for a few seconds, and said, "Lord, can you move through shadows?"

"Yeah, I got a similar skill to you," Dave replied.

"Then please follow me, I could get us in."

Dave nodded, and Bud dove into the ground, he didn't opt to enter from the church's front door but moved around the whole place. Dave followed Bud in the shadow world, bud looked like a giant boat compared to Dave's smaller size. Dave had not understood why at the time but didn't care never the less, there were more important things to do.

Bud moved around the temple and into the backyard. From the shadow world, Dave could see the temple, lighting the place in a dark color, it still looked like a picture rippling from the surface of a lake, blurry at times, and clear at times, yet never tangible.

"We go from here, my lord," Bud said, his voice going directly into Dave's mind. He then moved toward the sewers.

"Shouldn't the sewers be filled with traps for rogues," Dave asked, his voice also sounding hollow, and going straight toward Bud's mind.

"Usually, my lord, they should, and it won't surprise me, but we won't enter from the sewers, we'll go through the seams in the walls, and the cracks in the pipes, we are shadows, once we are in the shadow world, we can move through a needle's hole as easily as through an open door."

"That's kinda handy."

"Yes, my lord, now follow me," Bud said and moved his entire mass to latch onto the pipeline.

Suddenly, his mass began shrinking, like a tub once you open the valve, it began to such into a crack in a sewer pipe. It took Bud a couple of seconds to go through, signaling to Dave where to move. Dave followed and made his way through the crack.

Thankfully, there was no smell or odor once you are in the shadow world, otherwise, the smell of human filth would have driven Dave to gag.

They moved through the dark pipes and out into a toilet that was thankfully not in use.

"Lord, from here down, it will be much more difficult, we'll need to act swiftly."

"Don't worry, let's keep going, the entrance to the Demonic Temple should be at the lowest floor of the Cathedral, last time I was in one of these places, I saw a locked trapdoor in their flagellation chambers."

"Do you know the way to the chambers, my lord?" Bud asked.

"Yeah, I just need to get to the main hall, then it's a straight spiral way down, let's get moving," Dave said and the two moved at once.

Within the cathedral hallways, there was no need or even possibility to use shadow escape. The whole place was lit from within, candles or magic light lit up space, making it impossible for the two to move in stealth.

"This is going to be a problem," Dave said.

"Yes, Lord, I won't be able to follow you anymore," Bud replied, and it was true as the two of them had just realized, Bud's size was too great for him to move stealthily in well-lit areas.

"You can go, I'll summon you when I need you. I can go the rest of the way by myself," Dave nodded.

"As you wish," bud retreated into the toilets and merged with the shadows there.

Dave began walking through the hallways, thankfully, the church was not a prison or a high security guarded place. Most of the NPC paladins would be sound asleep now, with the exceptions of the ones on guard duty outside of the church.

The rest of the NPCs would be doing their prayers, or in their rooms, asleep or preparing to. As for the high order of the Church, Dave didn't want to even think about those self-righteous claiming people.

Dave moved through the hallways. His footsteps were muted, all thanks to the great gear he was wearing. The boots muffled his footsteps and made his move more agilely than ever. One Dave arrived at the middle hall, he had to stop, a nun was moving from chamber to chamber with a small candle in hand, she was probably checking on sleeping people.

He waited for the nun to fully enter one of the rooms before he moved behind her, without her notice. His goal was the flagellation chambers that were on the other side of the hall he was in.

He kept moving while keeping in mind to check behind his back. After making it clear, and into the spiral staircase, he finally realized that his heart was beating rather loudly.

He took a moment to breath and calm his nerves then moved down the staircase. The area was darker than upstairs, but not enough for him to move through shadows.

Once he was down, he heard the sounds of pained moans coming from the chambers. Unfortunately for Dave, the door was locked tight and he couldn't get in. He could go through the small space under the door, but the light coming from the other side of the chambers advised him otherwise. As the moment he would go through, he will become a solid form and will be discovered. Dave had to wait, there was only one way for him to go in, and that was to wait for the lights to turn off, meaning that he needed to wait and listen to the pained screams of people until the flagellators decide it was enough and called it a night.

"Damn these assholes, still doing the same crap even after Demiurge came down."

Dave had to wait for hours, enough that his teeth began grating over each other. The game made the feelings and reactions of people rather too vividly that it made Dave wrathful at the church's behavior.

"Soon," Dave kept calming himself with the same phrase over and over again.

And thankfully, the pained sounds stopped, changed to defeated weeping.

"Let's go, these infidels had enough for the day," a man spoke up.

Soon, the door opened up, while Dave was on the other side of it. He waited for everyone to exit the room before he shadow-moved under it and into the now locked chamber.

He didn't want to expose himself to the people in the chamber, they could ask him for help, beg or even cry out; notifying the guards.

'Sorry, I'll come for you later,' Dave made a promise and moved ahead.

He was soon above the trapdoor. It was still locked the same way it was when he first saw it.

"Now then," Dave spoke and melted into a shadow to go through the thin dividers of the trapdoor.

Once on the other side, Dave regained his form, he could not see anything so he switched to his Undead avatar, immediately gaining Dark Vision.

He found himself inside a steep tunnel that led down. He began moving ahead. The farther he moved the hotter it became, reminding him of the depths of the underworld.

Soon, he arrived at the doorways of a gate, there was a demonic head on the top of the gate, and hundreds of magical inscriptions on it.

Dave touched the gate and a notification appeared in front of him.

***

You have discovered one of the four temples of the Ash King.

Once you go through, you will have 24 hours before the world knows of the exact location of the temple, move with haste.

***

"Right then, let's do this," Dave pressed his hand against the gate…