Chapter 458 Ash King's Keep

Dave moved slowly and carefully through the pathway leading out of the library, watching for any Imp or demonic being that was hidden or in plain sight. Through some paths, he had to be extra careful and wait for the group of Imps to finish dusting and cleaning the books before he moved.

At first, killing them sounded like a good idea, but once he realized that if one of these Imps went missing, or even made a tiny squeal, his location will be compromised and his mission will be bound to failure.

Dave made sure that every step he took was carefully calculated, every turn, inspected before taken. He never would have believed himself being sent on a spy mission while he was a warrior class. But for the Abyssal Knight ascension, a simple fight against another abyssal Knight was not much of a challenge, even if it actually was hard to beat them. For Dave, he knew that to be one of the Abyssal Knights, one didn't just simply need to prove how strong they are.

Take Drahma for example, the giant was ridiculously strong and powerful, however, he wouldn't match any of the abyssal Knights that boasted with similar power, plus additional abilities, such as speed for Dementi, Savagery for Dortha, Stealth for Samael, the infinite magical powers of the Arch Lich Dagla, the charms of Lilith and the mystics of Marik. These Abyssal Knights were all, powerful, physically, but the additional quirks they had set them apart from other knights of the legion.

Dave had the power and the brains, and he was entitled to vie for the rank of an abyssal Knight, thus simple combat was not enough, he needed to prove himself, one last time.

Dave's current mission was undoubtedly the hardest, if not the most crucial in all of his gaming career. He needed to make sure that it is done perfectly.

The library felt like a maze, and the size of it only increased the duration of how long Dave had to take before leaving it. The Imps, however, grew scarcer in number once he was at the library's entrance. There were a couple of Imps working near the entrance, Dave didn't have any mean to go past them without them seeing them.

Looking around, Dave picked up one of the books and threw it far away. It knocked into another shelf and dropped with it several other books. The fallen collection made a good deal of noise, but it notified the two imps near it to action. Once the two creatures skittered their way to replace the book, fear appearing in their eyes as they most likely will get punished for this 'neglect'.

Dave took the chance once the two were occupied and left the library. Exiting into an even larger room. He doubted that the building he was in would even be a tenth of the size of this room. This whole thing was most likely a dimension inside the cathedral-like building.

The room he was in was larger than a dozen football fields placed next to each other. It had a sky of its own, green lands with waist-high grass, an extreme contrast to the dead scorched lands right outside this area.

The green lands had hundreds of small houses, barracks, and training grounds. Demons walked across the area with little regard to the nature around them. Their foot scorched the grass, but it magically repaired itself the moment they moved their feet off.

Every few hundred meters to the side of Dave, and in a circular positioning, was a pillar. Quite similar to the pillar he saw in the Ash King's temple. Dave looked behind him at the library's entrance and realized that the whole thing had disappeared, and was replaced with a pillar that he could enter through.

"Now I get it, I guess this whole thing is built like this. I always wondered where would the Ash-King's army fit if it was just this relatively small cathedral building."

It was of course as Dave had predicted, each and every pillar led to a different dimension, where the Ash King kept his things, army, perhaps even treasures and rare findings. Dave and the security system to these things were the thousands upon thousands of demon beings moving about in this large clearing

Dave opened his map and marked his current location, the last thing he wanted was to lose his point of entry. Once he marked everything, Dave crouched low and began thinking of what to do next.

"The Chosen of the Ash King must be in one of these pillars, but I didn't get any info regarding which pillar it is. Samael must have had it easy to find the damned thing due to his ability to go unnoticed, but I'll most likely have to check these, one by one without being seen once. This just keeps on getting more and more interesting." Dave grinned at the challenge ahead and began moving.

Laying low, Dave camouflaged himself in the grass and kept moving toward the nearest pillar, a few Demons were marching nearby, but they were like robots, following a certain specific path and never veering off. This gave Dave ample time to analyze their movement and how they acted.

After a long period, Dave was sure the demon wouldn't take another rout and waited for them to go past him. Once they moved, he moved slowly behind the demon and entered the pillar without being noticed.

Dave found himself in a prison room. The moaning of prisoners and screams of pain pervaded the area. Dave instantly left the room and went back to the outside, he didn't believe that the Chosen of the Ash King will be toying with prisoners right now. And he didn't have the luxury to save them.

He crouched low and kept moving ahead, repeating the same process, over and over again. He teleported into garrisons, arsenal chambers, even into a Sworn Stalwart's den that was filled with said creatures, all lazing around, asleep. This one Dave left as soon as he walked into, even if the Chosen One was there, and even if he had seen the Bolt there, he would have never taken another step there. No matter how 'Lucky' he could be, he will never have enough luck to face against all of these.

Dave walked into another pillar where he was face to face with another Demon, the two of them were startled for a second, before Dave's sword ripped through the demon's head, decapitating it as it was going to shout an alarm.

He opened the jaws on Ajax and placed the demon's body in it. A missing demon is better than a dead demon's body. Dave looked around, it was just another barrack of demons he set foot in and didn't have anything of interest.

It was quite sad that he couldn't go on exploring the area for treasures and loot, in fear of messing up and exposing himself.

Dave kept moving, thinking to himself that he probably had missed the bolt due to his quick checks and arbitrary judgment on the rooms without doing a proper clear search. Yet once he entered this room, all his doubts were void. An item he had and had forgotten it existed vibrated in his inventory.

***

The Demonograph has sensed the presence of a powerful Demonling!

Chosen one detected!

Take the utmost caution when facing such a foe!"

***

"It's here!" Dave muttered and took a sweeping glance through the area.

It was a room that had only one item stored in a glass container, a small rusty crossbow bolt, held on a dais, and next to it was a woman sitting on the ground with a large thorn whip to her left.

The woman had large horns and crimson red skin. The whole room was about a couple of hundreds of meters in length and width with a high ceiling. It had several other small doors that Dave believed to be what brought Samael's ruin. These doors were most likely access points for other demons to join the female in the fight to protect the bolt.

Dave inspected the Demon.

***

La-Lina (Chosen of the Demon King)

Level: 550

Tier: Mythic

Base damage: 150,000-190,000

Danger Level: ☠

HP: 200,000

PD: 150,000

MD:150,000

Skills:

[Blessed One] (Passive) Unknown Effects.

Lore

Most warrior demons are males, but a rare few, as for the chosen ones none are female but her. The chosen of the Ash King, La-Lina, the only female demon that has earned the right to be among his chosen's and had received his blessing to never fall in battle. La-Lina is powerful without doubt, and any who questions her power based on her gender is doomed to meet a grueling death.

***

"Nice try on the anti-sexism, Albert, but I believe in gender equality and wouldn't mind doing a dropkick on a girl if she deserves it," Dave snorted and moved toward the demon.

H had a plan in mind, little that he knew, he was rubbing his beard as he walked forward.