Chthonian Infernalis

by Don Orbit

After the server shutdown, a lone demonic player finds himself in a much larger dungeon than he's used to in a world, where the gods themselves have actually descended to the mortal realm. However when there was one thing this powerful player was familiar with it was RPG games. So it is quite fortunate that he got into a world with game like mechanics, right?

6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Is it wrong to go on an adventure with others?

---

"It's so boring..." Scyron said weakly as he basically laid on the back of his horse, while the convoy rode towards their destination, the village where the monster attacks happened and the last party of adventurers was wiped out. He had ridden on some mounts within YGGDRASIL before, however since humanity had barely enough resources to survive on Earth alone and the heavy pollution were there, that literally wiped out most of the planet's fauna and flora, safe for certain creatures that were also labeled as vermin, horses and other real mounts had gone extinct from the face of Earth quite some time ago. And Scyron liked not even a bit of his first real riding experience. At first he was a bit excited as he only knew these animals from pictures and old western movies, but he had no idea that riding a horse meant to be such a bumpy ride. And thanks to the fact that he had to travel with other people that also carried their stuff in a cart, he couldn't ride as fast as he would have wanted. Not to mention that they were travelling more on a dirt path than an actual road, making the ground uneven and the ride even more uncomfortable.

Of course, he could always summon one of his demons and use them as a mount or just fly to the village himself, however Scyron was not alone. A group of 12 other adventurers had gathered and answered the request of the village to make sure that the monster would no longer terrorize the area around the village. And with its lair being apparently not far from it, it was a search and destroy mission. Scyron had wanted to go alone to prevent his real identity to be seen by other people, if he needed to use something else than just simple spells and swords to kill it, however 4 missing and most likely dead adventurers were something very serious for the guild. Therefore, they couldn't afford any more casualties. Even less could they just have sent a complete green horn, who just showed up in the town to such a mission despite his achievements. Therefore, Scyron had to completely tune down his demonic abilities unless he wanted trouble to arise in Orario.

The missing of the other adventurers was why now 13 adventurers had set out to the village just a few hours after the messenger had barged in the guild. It made the player feel a bit nostalgic. In RPGs it was common for people to band together and fight powerful boss monsters for rare items. It had something of a classic fantasy story, where the protagonist would make companions along the journey or even before it actually began for assistance, but that was just the romantic view on it. A party was mostly made of the maximum of 6 players in which each player had to know the strengths and weaknesses of the other team members. In order to work correctly this needed to practice a lot and a great amount of trust was necessary to reveal everything of the own class build, preferences, spells, skills, and so on to fellow gamers.

That was something that Scyron was not sure if this group of people had to be honest.

While it was mostly not possible to keep an eye on everyone's HP and MP as well as individual skills and spells as well as their cooldown times and casting times, having a vague idea about what your companions could do and when they could use their abilities to their fullest potential could be vital in a raid boss fight. Surely these people knew each other and he had heard that they were part of the Dionysus Familia, however Scyron knew when a party was unbalanced and these people screamed that word basically and had it written all over their gear in bold capitals.

Most of the men and women wore light armor, but only a 3 of them carried staffs with them to cast magic. They would be the supporters and healers of the group with the main purpose of buffing allies, debuffing enemies and healing their colleagues when injured. The warriors of the group were also not that strong compared to the strongest monsters that Scyron had met so far in the dungeon. Even that giant boss monster from the 17th floor could probably mop the floor with them bloody and then use their corpses as a towel to clean up the mess all together. They all possessed different weapons ranging from longswords and maces to bows and daggers. Scyron could tell that only few tanks were among them with shields and heavy armor and most of them were specialized to strike fast and deal damage.

Though DPS (damage per second) was essential in RPGs, damage dealers in a raid party needed more than just powerful weapons. They also needed agility to dodge blows that could kill them as they were not as armored than the tanks, who should draw the attention of the enemy to them, as well as certain capabilities like supporting skills to enhance their stats, spells that could assist their allies and help them to survive the battle. Before a raid had even preparations had to be made very carefully. This raid party was made too fast. He knew that they came from the same familia, but with the items that they had they most likely would not survive very long.

What confused the devil in disguise was the power that monster must have had, if it just wiped the entire party out. If the adventurers were just as strong as those he was travelling with, it could be a weak monster compared to himself and just another hour of wasting his time, though he had to admit that riding in this green grassland and not being tailed by his stalkers was an enjoyable, different situation given the fact that in Orario at least a few thousand people lived and everyone seemed to haste from one place to another.

"What's the matter newbie? Are you going to be sick?" Someone laughed beside him. Scyron turned his head to a young man with short brown hair and a light metal armor. A few other people had started laughing along their friends/comrades as well, making the devil a bit flustered beneath his helmet as he sat up straight again.

"No. It's just a very uneventful ride. Though I enjoy the scenery, walking by foot would have been more relaxed than this." Scyron said as his fingers tightened their grip around the reigns of his horse.

"Not liking to ride huh? Well you'll get used to it." The brunette said.

'I hope so. Damn. Where are riders when you need them?' Scyron thought. The rider job class was a rather unpopular job class in YGGDRASIL, since it basically enhanced damage and other stats when riding on a mount next to providing one or the other skill, making it necessary to at least know a beast tamer as well to utilize this ability or to spend a lot of money on a mount that is most likely not worth the gold you paid. Scyron had come to know a few riders and with their enhanced speed and mobility, they could become quite difficult enemies to handle when facing them unprepared. On the other hand, one or two demon players in the Infernal League had been riders as well, which had shown him the upsides of having at least one as an ally.

"Anyway, we have been riding for hours already. How long will it take until we reach the village?" Scyron asked, trying to not show his annoyance.

"We won't reach it today. Until nightfall we should arrive not too far from it and make a camp to rest a little. Tomorrow we arrive at the village and investigate the area as well as the cave that was mentioned in the quest. After that we meet at the entrance and go in. And when the monster is dead we stay in the village to rest and deal with the injured ones. Then we go back to Orario and report our victory to the guild." A large muscular man said, earning cheerful laughs from some of the other adventurers.

However, Scyron had to stop himself from Screaming at the fact that they would be riding the whole day as well as shaking his head at this plan, if someone would call this even a plan. Though the idea was basically good in theory, the man also could have shortened the whole talk to 'We go in, kill that thing no matter what it is and go home as heroes.' As a seasoned Player of YGGDRASIL, who had fought worse than some orcs and imps in that dungeon or those dragons down at the 58th Floor that were weak compared to what he had fought, but at least stronger than most other monsters, he knew that whatever was inside that cave was more powerful than these men and women.

Their overconfidence in themselves would be their downfall, if he couldn't protect them.

It hadn't been too different in YGGDRASIL. As the game was really picky with giving the players information investigations had to be done before entering a dungeon or fighting a boss. Of course here was once more the concept trying goes over studying as someone had to try first and basically through oneself into danger, but in the end everyone took profit from the shared knowledge on forum pages.

This case was different because no one had an idea what kind of monster they would be facing. And most likely that only made it more thrilling for the adventurers of Orario and more concerning for the devil among them.

---

Nothing much happened after that as the sun slowly set at the horizon. The archdevil couldn't help, but look at the setting sun once in a while. Due the pollution on Earth he never had seen such things such as stars, sunsets and sunrises in real life. It was almost alien for him despite the fact that he had already spent weeks in this world. It was rather distracting of course as he almost wanted to ride with his horse to the sun only to realize that he was slightly off the dirt road, before correcting his mount's course.

'Some things simply don't change. Even when thrown into a whole new world.' Scyron thought to himself as he tried to keep his eyes on the road. When the sun completely disappeared behind the horizon, the group still rode a bit further until they had reached a plain where the adventurers began to build their tents up. Scyron watched them carefully as he simply had no idea how to build a tent. There was actually a lot of things that he had no idea about as he realized this.

When he had been a simple human on Earth he had been nothing but another small gear within the machinery of some large company. Besides sleeping, eating, playing YGGDRASIL whenever he had gotten the chance, he had done nothing, but work. Scyron sighed as he watched the surroundings for anything interesting. Despite the darkness of the night Scyron could see perfectly fine. A perk of being a demon or a high level player apparently. The blades of grass swayed gently in the wind and the clouds rushed silently over his head. There were no trees or other plants, that grew larger than the few bushes, in this meadow. It was good since this way nothing could ambush the adventurers, but it also meant that they couldn't hide from enemies with nightvision if necessary. Even without that, the campfire the other adventurers have set up was already enough to mark their location for every living being here. If that thing from the village would decide to go further into their direction they might even encounter it tonight.

"Hey aren't you going to build your tent or something?" Someone called out behind Scyron. Turning around he saw a man with reddish brown fox ears on his head.

"I'll stand on guard for the night. Don't worry about me." Scyron stated before turning back to the plains. The man grumbled something about 'being ungrateful that they even took him with them', but it would have fallen on deaf ears anyway. He didn't care for these people. They wanted revenge for the now dead/missing adventurers and the glory of avenging/rescuing their comrades as well as for slaying an unknown type of monster, while he simply wanted to not bore himself to death in that dungeon. Seeing the world was actually a bonus to this.

He actually made a list of things that he considered doing while being on watch. Of course he could sneak away and simply continue his experiments, but then he would leave these people unprotected for an emergency case. A small and quite part of him couldn't care less about that, however Scyron still had enough self-control to not do that. If he left a summon with them they would perhaps wake up and notice Scyron's absence. If he stayed there and kept watch for the group, he would miss a chance to test his magical capabilities.

Basically the same choice as always in both real life and video games. When you choose one thing, you give up another in exchange. Sighing to himself Scyron sat in his armor at the edge of the camp where he gazed around to look for anything that disturbed the scenery.

Just in that moment he heard something approaching him from behind. Instinctively grabbing a hold on his sword and turning around he came face to face with another adventurer. It was a woman with fair skin, brown hair and leather armor, but she had no weapon with her. She flinched and took a step back as Scyron's killing intent had been directed towards her. It was for a short moment as if all bloodlust in the world had been directed to her. Seeing the reaction of the human, Scyron put his sword back into the sheath and sighed.

"Sorry about that." He said.

"N-No it's fine." The woman said with a shaking voice. Her entire body still trembled in fear of the demon's wrath. "I-I just wanted to ask if you want to come over and eat something." Scyron said nothing for a moment, before replying.

"Thank you but I'm not hungry." Scyron replied as the woman's face fell slightly. A bit of guilt pushed itself like a thorn into his mind as he stood up. "Other than that I'll gladly join you guys." He said. The woman smiled and walked over to the other adventurers, that sat around the fireplace. Scyron simply followed as he took his time to actually look at the other people that had come from Orario as well.

After a small introduction Scyron familiarized himself with the others. The 12 group of adventurers had 3 female and 9 male members. the woman that had asked him to sit with the others around the fire was apparently called Paula and the young man earlier who had commented his lack of riding skills was Tobias. Both were human and seemed to be in their teens. Scyron estimated them both to be about 17 to 19.

Next to him to the right sat a tall and broad man in the mid-30s with short white hair and a well-kept mustache. Three scars ran over his cheek as if some monster had tried to swipe him with its claws, but only missed slightly. At his waist grew a white and black striped tail and on the head he had tiger ears. The so called weretigers were a race that Scyron had never seen in Orario, which could be due either him not looking at the adventurers directly to memorize their races or due them being a race that was not very common in the districts he had been before. Though the giant seemed to be a veteran warrior and probably had a lot of experience with monsters he was not even level 30. Instead he seemed to be around the early 20s. The man Konrad as he introduced himself was no stranger to danger. In his childhood he apparently got attacked by a wild monster which was why he had this scar on his face.

To the left Scyron looked at another young woman with maybe 19 or 20 years, who was apparently called Akira. She wore some light metal armor, had Long blonde hair tied into a ponytail and blue eyes. Her eyes had a somewhat cold look in them as she looked into the gathered round with a neutral face, reminding Scyron of a certain adventurer of the Loki Familia, but instead of Ais constant emotionless gaze, Akira had plenty of emotion in those eyes. Right now it seemed to be slight irritation and annoyance. Still she gave off a calm and collected aura. The demon player had seen a lot of female adventurers in his time in Orario and many of them were actually good looking women. To be completely honest, if he would still be a normal human being he'd probably have tried to flirt with one or two of them, but given that they would have kicked his ass back then it was better the way things currently were. Well, Akira was not looking bad at all as she still had nice curves and a pretty face despite her constant frown. If Scyron had to bet, he'd say she already had someone back in Orario.

However, that thought left as fast as it came as Scyron turned his gaze to a reddish-brown haired chientrope boy, who was laying on the ground, clutching his stomach in pain with a groan. His face was turned the other way, but the demon was sure he had probably deserved that one from Akira. Most likely through some stupid comment. A barking laugh caught Scyron's interest.

"Oi! Stop whining Lorenz! You sound like a real kicked puppy now you punk!" A slightly drunk voice almost yelled, only to be interrupted by its own stupid laughter over nothing. The chienthrope looked up, revealing a pair of forest green eyes as he shot the man who had insulted him a glare. The chienthrope seemed to be quite younger. 14, maybe 15 years old, yet he didn't look innocent like a child his age should be. It was a man who appeared next to Konrad to be the oldest in the group somewhere in the late 20s or early 30s. His tone already told Scyron that he had something against the chienthrope boy. Was it because of the comment he had made and the demon had not heard? Or was this guy as much of a racist as he sounded like? Anyway, Scyron already couldn't stand this guy's guts.

"Screw you... Peterson..." Lorenz wheezed out, but the demon caught that one now that he was listening. Now knowing the name of that guy, the demon made a mental note to either confront him during the mission about that or to stay as far away from that guy as possible, depending on how this mission would proceed.

Now that he thought about it, there was really no telling what they were supposed to do and what awaited them. Sure the quest said something about a monster being in a cave nearby and destroying fields and stealing cattle, but there was absolutely nothing saying what kind of monster they were about to face or what it was capable of. The demon strategist didn't like any of this, but he could not change it now. For now, he'd had to wait and trust that this party would work out just fine, though he had serious doubts about that. Alone the constellation of those two men who were busy glaring/mocking each other was basically a death sentence in a real fight.

Scyron had stopped counting how many times his party members had been bickering with one another and only didn't kill each other as in YGGDRASIL friendly fire was not a thing. And each and every time they did so his party got into trouble. Surrounded by monsters, fell into a pitfall, got rolled over by some giant round boulder and so on went the list in moments Scyron wanted to sink into the ground in shame. It was not like he didn't like his party members, but sometimes as a heteromorph he had to pick what was possible as his kind got targeted all the time. He had to endure a lot of stupid questions like "Why have you not made a human or at least demihuman character?" or "Do you catch fire when you enter a church?". This type of people really just managed to piss him off for their own amusement, but usually he could tune their voices down and focus on what laid ahead.

Unfortunately, the drunken human had no mute button like a TV remote, because if he had the demon would just push it to make that annoying laughter end.

Sighing to himself he looked across the round further. As he looked around Paula was enough to tell him the names of the individuals that sat further away. The pallum with short red hair and blue eyes further was called Werner and talking to the black-haired werecat rogue Matthias. The black-haired elf, that observed the group or more specifically Scyron with critical eyes was apparently called Nox. A renard, a demi-human with fox ears on his head and a fox tail growing from the waist which was the same that had had acted a little arrogant back there with his comment was named Roku. There was another human boy about the same age as Tobias and Paula with blue hair named Keith, whose appearance reminded the devil of Bell, but the look in those chocolate brown eyes was colder, harder and less hopeful. Probably someone who had been through the hardships of adventuring already some time ago. And finally there was one last female member of the group with strangely silver colored hair. A human girl that didn't look much older than 15 or 16 named Seneca, which was busy looked nervous around herself.

The round was quite lively with the group talking a lot about trivial things like how bad the rations were compared to what they got in Orario or what they should do once they finished the job. No matter what kind of topic the men and women around the demon talked about, it was hardly interesting and he was thankful that his helmet was concealing his face as he was close to falling asleep when he suddenly heard something.

"Oi! Armored newbie!" Peterson called out as he looked even more drunk than before. "Why are you still wearing your armor? Take it off and relax will ya? I can't enjoy the wine with someone like that around." The man said annoyed. Scyron did as much as turn his head to the man to signal that he had registered what he had said, but other than that he didn't do anything to take off his armor. Instead he only looked at the man. "Oi! Are you deaf or something? Take that armor off newbie! Or are you afraid of showing your face, huh?"

"Peterson..." His comrades wanted to warn him, to stop him, but they did not even stand up. Instead they just looked at him with a certain kind of panic, fear or apathy to this scene. The man reached out with his hand to grab beneath the helmet to take it off.

KRGH?!

"AAHHH!"

Faster than the adventurers had seen, Scyron had grabbed the hand stood up, got behind the man and twisted his arm hard enough to make the tendons and muscle fibers groan audible in protest. If the devil was actually serious, he believed that he may even be capable of ripping the arm clean off. Right now it was enough when Peterson was on his knees, crying out in pain and dropping his bottle on the grassy ground with a soft thud.

"Don't touch stuff that doesn't belong to you." Scyron said in cold tone. Everyone even the drunk fool in front of Scyron felt a shiver crawling down their spine as if ice and frost had started to spread across their backs. Letting go of the drunk Peterson, Scyron watched the man scramble away immediately, while shooting the devil an angry look. However instead of lashing out verbally, he made his way to one of the tents and held his Twisted wrist carefully. An odd tension filled the fire place now as no one was sure what to do or say now. As for Scyron he felt a bit guilty and overwhelmed with how he had put Peterson back into his place. Sighing he looked at the fire a last time, before turning around and getting back to his spot where he was before.

All of the sudden, he didn't feel like bonding with the other adventurers right now. It was not like that feeling was one-sided. He could basically feel the stares that drilled their way into his backside as the other adventurers muttered something he didn't quite get, but didn't care for anyway. The rest of the night he spent with watching the grassland around them and the stars even after the fire faded away and the adventurers went into their tents to sleep. The devil was simply sitting in the darkness. A strange and familiar feeling bloomed in his chest as it seemed to tug on his heart.

It was the first time since he had come into this world that he ever felt that lonely. Above only the stars and the moon kept him company until they were leaving him for the night as well as thick clouds covered the sky.

---

Meanwhile

How long has it been since it had come to this place? How did it come here? Why did it come here? It couldn't tell as it could find a way out. Each and every tunnel was too small for it to fit through. Was it a week or maybe two? Perhaps a month? In the darkness of this cave the time seemed to flow slower. Every moment passed on with a snail's pace and day was crawling forward with the viscosity of honey. It was unbearable.

So it started to spent its time with finding a way out and finding something to eat. It sent out its minions and they crawled through the thin tunnels. They enlarged the tunnels, made them broader and higher as they brought back dead animals for it to eat. It didn't care where it came from or if there were more. It had to eat at least something. After a while the pile of bones underneath it began to fill the ground as it kept throwing the wastes of the last meal in there for its minions to eat what it couldn't.

And then came this human, telling him about the outside world, though only with some encouragement. It wasn't actually sad that it had to kill him, but it wasn't very happy about that either. It was a simple fact and somehow it created an alien feeling inside it. Anyway, soon the limestone cave would be broad enough for it to leave into the outside world. Then it could see it with its own eyes. Perhaps it was going to take its minions with it. Traveling alone was after all very lonely. And after all they had done for him they surely could need something like vacation.

---

On the next day

Scyron had not slept the night as he had kept watch over the camp. It had not rained and not a single monster or aggressive animal came much to his boredom to the campsite. It was still very alien to him that his demonic body needed no sleep though he had thought to have already adjusted to it completely. Perhaps it was the fact that he usually slept in the night in the inn. Instead he had been on guard while thinking about everything that had happened since he had arrived in this world. His arrival in the dungeon, the walks through Orario, his little walks through the dungeon, the times when he goes to the guild to get money for what is basically nothing to him. And before he knew it, it was morning again.

Inwardly he sighed. His life had taken a turn where he was almost too bored to keep going deeper into the dungeon. However, that was his goal. If he gave up on that, just because he got bored with what he did for a living in this world so far, it didn't make him any better than someone who simply gave up on something important for them. Like his former comrades on the League. Well, he could still work as something else like a guard of the City since he was still beating those thugs up in some way.

Flashback

"Now we got ya sorry-" A thug said as Scyron simply walked past him and his group like they didn't even existed. It took the group of 4 men a second to register what happened. "Oi! Wait!?" The leader shouted. Scyron sighed as he turned around to them as they ran up to him and stopped in front of him.

"What do you want?" Scyron asked.

"Isn't that clear already? We are going to pouch you-"

"No seriously. What is it that you want?" Scyron interrupted the man. "It's clear that you cannot beat me and yet you try again and again only to fail and get hurt. Isn't that kind of stupid? Also I got no time for you today. I got to meet with a few others. Got to do a quest on the country side." Scyron said before turning around again. "See ya next time, whenever that is." He said waving them off.

"GET YOUR SORRY ASS BACK HERE YOU-?!" One of them shouted as they launched themselves at the armored devil. The fight was over within a second.

BAM

WHACK

POW

SLAP

Those sounds rang loud through the alley as all four men laid unconscious on the ground as Scyron simply cracked his knuckles.

"Idiots."

Flashback end

Yup, old habits die hard.

He quickly helped the other adventurers to get ready to depart again as they took the tents and packed the utensils into the bags again. They looked at him strangely, most likely due to what had happened the evening before. Peterson was still a little bit in pain from his wrist almost snapped within a heartbeat. Still his help was a welcome one. It wasn't really surprising how much work such a big party made. If in YGGDRASIL such a thing like garbage would have existed in forms of empty vials and bottles or broken armor pieces, the nine realms probably would have suffocated in the waste of the people like Earth did long ago. Just the amount of food needed to make breakfast for the 13 of them was a bit much, but then again it was 13 of them and they had the wagon for that reason. It was a soup with vegetables and some pieces of dried meat. Why it was dried meat was due to the party members wanting to conserve money for more important things they wanted to buy for their familia. They didn't say what exactly that something more important was, but Scyron didn't mind at all. He was more bothered by the way the others stared at him when they were eating and Scyron ate through his helmet while turning away from the others. Though that might have been the reason for their stares the whole time since he had not once shown his face to them.

It took half an hour before the party started moving again after breakfast and so Scyron's torture continued. The ride to the village was as uneventful as uneventful could ever be as it took until midday to get there. During that time Scyron tried his best to not Forget the adventurers' names, until that bore him as well. The next thought that crossed him were once more the different demons he could summon. Some were good scouts for sure and others would be meat shields at best, but there were many other things that he wanted to experiment with them. For example, there were some demons with the ability to possess low level monsters while having rather weak bodies in exchange. The people he had met until now were very weak in comparison to the YGGDRASIL player and the gods did suppress their powers. He couldn't tell how strong they were and that made him unable to underestimate them, despite everything he had seen so far. Were they weaker or stronger than a level 100 player? Was there a being in this world that was stronger than a level 100 player? Could he himself exceed this old Limit and achieve new heights? The answers for these questions never came, but it was better to think about this than the boring ride. And with that his mind was again on the road.

'I swear, if I do have to sit on that damn horse for one more day, I'll eat it and just fly to that village.' He mentally groaned as the group came closer and closer to the borders of a nearby mountain range. Then Scyron could see a large wooden fence and a few roofs and walls of simple huts made of stone, wood and straw became visible. At the entrance stood a few men with bow and arrow, who smiled and waved at the wagons of the adventurers. The wooden gate was opened so that the adventurers could drive through it into the village. Once they were inside the gate was closed again and villagers of all ages began coming out their houses to greet the adventurers.

While the other adventurers familiarized themselves with the villagers, Scyron observed the entire village and the area around it. The first thing the strategist noticed was the state of the fence around the village. It seemed to be made not too long ago as there were no plants around the fence. Most likely the villagers had used the wood from the forest to make it, which would explain the cut down tree lines that Scyron and the others have seen on their way here. Still though the fence itself was a good idea to protect the village, it was in a rather poor shape that indicated the villager's panic. There were several gaps in the fence, that were big enough for certain animals to slip through. A few of them had been sealed with more wood, but not all of them.

Then Scyron noted the villagers. They were clad in simple clothes, not as elegant or expensive as those in Orario, but then again it was just a village and probably needed money more for taxes and goods than to buy everyone a nice pair of pants or a dress for each girl. Scyron was not very well educated about such things, but one of his old guildmates once told him that clothes were so expensive during the middle ages, that they were basically inherited by the following family members to prevent unnecessary costs as the people had already nothing.

His gaze wandered to the guards that now stood among the crowd and greeted some of the fighters of the party with a firm handshake. Scyron saw the short swords and hatchets strapped on their belts, most likely for the case of a monster coming too close to them, when bow and arrow didn't work. In general, was their weaponry more moderate than professional. Surely they were fathers and husbands, that worked as farmers, hunters, lumberjacks and blacksmiths, who already knew the weight of such tools in one's hands. They also had short daggers, that seemed to be for taking out killed prey like deers and boars and he even could see someone having a crossbow on his back. Still these weapons were not made to fight monsters.

Scyron turned around and watched over to the walls. Torches had been put on it to provide light in the night. As he looked over to the mountain he could already picture what had happened as he saw several large holes in the wall there. Some of them were big enough for a child to fit in. Something did come into that village as it pleased, even with the wall around it. As he looked further ahead he saw a bright green field of grass that reached the lower regions of the mountain, before the vegetation finally had to give up at a certain height. With the mountains so close it felt as if a giant was looming over the village and look with its unmoving gaze fixed on this village and its people. It was quite intimidating.

No wonder that the people had asked them to come in the first place. From Einya the demon had heard that some monsters lived hidden in caves, underground tunnels, deep forests and lakes only to attack people. And now livestock disappeared in this village. Turning away from the mountain Scyron looked back at the villagers who looked back at the group. Small children gathered around the people with their eyes sparkling with childish innocence. It was almost sad for Scyron to see such pure souls, that would one day be tainted by this cruel world. A little bit he was also jealous that they seemed to have a nice childhood, a luxury that he never had.

It made him wonder. What if he had chosen to be a human or at least a human or demi-human race instead of a heteromorphic one? What would have changed in YGGDRASIL? What would have changed in this world? What would still be the same? Scyron didn't knew the answer to it. What if he instead of an adventurer would use his skills for something else? For a more peaceful life? Could it work out? Would that even be possible for him? A demon in a world where the very gods have descended to the living world to escape their eternal boredom of heaven? Perhaps, but if he wanted to achieve this, he would have to work hard not only for himself, but others around him as well.

Scyron was a bit caught in his own mind as he didn't notice as the other adventurers had gone for a few huts, that had been prepared for them before by the villagers. He kept standing in the middle of the road as he looked up the mountains. Then a voice beside him shook him out his stupor.

"Impressive isn't it?" Scyron turned his head slightly to see a man, who seemed to be in his late 40s or maybe even 50s. He had a full beard and brown hair, which started to turn pale and gray at the roots, as he wore like the other villager's simple clothes. "When I was younger I always climbed up the mountains when I had time to do so." He said.

"Despite the monsters out there?" Scyron asked. The man nodded.

"I wasn't afraid of getting eaten by an orc or a goblin. What I was more afraid of where the heights and my parents scowling me for it." He chuckled. "By the way, my name is Paulo Wald. I'm the chief of this village." He said.

"Scyron. The pleasure is all mine." Scyron said with a nod. "I'll go to the others. There are a lot of preparations to be done." He said. The village chief nodded as he let Scyron walk away to the huts where the others were staying for a moment. As he made his way to the hut he couldn't help himself but think of this current situation. He was somewhere far away from Orario, yet he couldn't collect more information as long as he was on duty. Though talking to the chief might have added new intel to his current knowledge he would have like to finish the job first.

'In some sense I've got to thank that monster to show up and kill the livestock of the people here. Though it's bad for them I finally got the opportunity and see more of this world. Who knows, maybe I find something interesting while I travel around. It's definitely better than being stuck in that city for too long with all those stalkers. I hope that monster is a challenge, because it would be boring if it dies like the monsters in the dungeon after just a few hits.' Scyron thought, chuckling darkly at the thought of a hard battle.

However, his thoughts were completely brought off track as he saw a few tents next to the hut that the villagers had prepared for the adventurers from Orario. Quickly glancing around he noticed that the adventurers in the tents were all men. No Scyron would have noticed if one of the adventurers would have died by now or it would have been kidnapped quiet and silently, but that was not the case. What was the case however, was that all men simply had been disposed outside the hut. The devil rode his horse up to the scene, before getting off the animal and walked to the closest adventurer that happened to be Lorenz.

"What's going on?" He asked. The young chienthrope sighed.

"The women have locked us out so we have to stay outside while they get dressed." He said. Scyron found that a bit harsh from his female temporary colleagues, however he could already see how a couple of men tried to get inside the house by prying the door open, but it didn't budge a millimeter.

"Come on let us in!"

"Yeah! We promised already that we won't do anything!" A few guys yelled as a window opened and one of the women, which Scyron identified as Paula peeked outside.

"Shut up! You are only trying to look at our goods, you perverted sickos!" The men groaned in protest.

"That's not true!"

"Open the door already!"

"THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH LIKING WOMEN!" Someone yelled as the guys looked at him with a deadpan look. "What?"

"You didn't have to say that loud. How the hell are we now supposed to get in there to see them?" Scyron stood at the sidelines of all of this, asking himself how it ended up like this.

'So they were actually planning something like that! Why must I always end up with the people with zero respect for women? No wait, I don't end up with those guys all the time. Just once or twice already. Ugh I swear these guys are worse than most incubi.' He thought as he pushed himself to the door, before simply walking through it. The wood couldn't withstand the power that the demon used and exploded into many splinters as he made his way inside. The sound was incredibly loud as it easily made all heads to him or managed to get surprised screams from several adventurers. A second later the female adventurers were in the corridor to look what had happened. One of them (Akira) had stripped off their heavier armor and robes, leaving her in more or less exposed states. As for Scyron he cared little for that.

"W-What are you doing here?!" One of the women screamed.

"Waiting for the others to come. We better prepare for the attack now than later, so an actual meeting will be needed to be made." Scyron said completely oblivious to the women's claim to his actions. Instead he made his way to the living room where he found a chair. He then picked a book from his inventory and began to read in it, while the women were trying to barricade the destroyed door with furniture, while the other male adventurers tried to get in.

"Come on. We just want to get this over with and unload our stuff."

"You men can stay outside!"

"Nice clothes!"

"GYAH!" With an out of character high-pitched scream Akira vanished back into her room.

The whole ruckus made it impossible to read as Scyron stood up with an aura of anger flaring around him as he looked at the adventurers. He only took one deep breath before he voiced out his mind.

"SHUT THE HELL UP ALREADY! YOU FREAKING OUT PISSES ME OFF!" He shouted before turning to the men. "AND YOU BETTER DON'T DO ANYTHING FUNNY UNLESS YOU WANT ME TO THROW YOU RIGHT BACK TO ORARIO AND SEND YOUR CUT OFF LIMPS TO A ONE WAY TOUR TO NOWHERE WITH A HORSE! NOW PISS OFF!" The crowd of adventurers was silent for a minute as the women were leaving the scene without uttering another word and the men did the same, though they had their heads lowered and looked a little bit like dogs that got beaten for doing something they shouldn't have. "Retards..." Scyron sighed as he went back to his chair and began once more to read.

Sometimes being a demon with a scary aura, that could make even an adult dragon turn tail and run back to its mother, was a good thing.

---

Later, Dusk

The group finally made their way up to the cave, that the monster had chosen for shelter after the previous chaos had stopped. Scyron couldn't just repair the door so he gave the village elder some money to replace it after the whole ruckus had died down. The way up to the cave was not really that easy. The path leading up into the mountains was narrow and due the steep relief falling down from there might as well lead to a swift death if not to a number of broken bones. The demon in disguise thought that the mountainous area was indeed like a fortress, formed by nature itself.

On their way from the village to the cave they had been passing through the crop fields of the village. Inside it they had seen strange tracks. It was as if something simply walked through the fields, leaving a scar in the field. On the track were no tracks, but there was also no plant life. It was as if a snail had left its trail for the world to see and just eaten all the crops to the roots, leaving only barren soil in its wake.

At the stalls for the animals were the same strange traces, though they were older as the villagers built a fence around it like they did around the village. However, the fence wasn't in a good shape. Something seemed to have simply stripped the tree trunks from the outer layers of Wood as a plain surface was what was left. No claw marks or tooth prints. The wood was like polished without even a trace of dirt. On some points of the fence the monsters must have been more intensive as more layers of mood had been taken away. Still while the fence was still intact, the villagers still said that several farm animals simply had disappeared.

It all made Scyron think. YGGDRASIL had included so many details, but never that close to reality, that there were actually tracks of monsters or claw marks on trees to mark their territory unless they were part of the map. Also he wasn't the best with memorizing the different monster species' lores, that he couldn't summon, so he couldn't really think about a monster that could have done this. It was something he didn't knew and that was something that simply put him on edge. He didn't like it one bit. Imagine being in a dark room and using only the own sense of touch to find the switch and then you touch something completely alien. Scyron was no fan of such things, but he knew it was necessary if he wanted to defeat this monster and help the people around here.

The villagers mentioned that the monster or monsters (as none had seen the exact numbers and it could be speculated whether it is only one or many) didn't come every day. It was more like they came all two to three days and either attacked the livestock of the village or wildlife in the nearby forest. Both posed problem for the villagers as they relied on both their own livestock and the forest for food, wood and materials for the daily use. The problem with the forest was that the animals seemed to avoid the region on their village now, making the monster head to the village more often. The hunters of the village found traces of animals that just vanished when they crossed the strange track of the monster or traces of fights in form of broken twigs and branches, but other than that nothing that could tell whether it was a nest of Kobolds, goblins, imps or even something completely different.

"So how are we going to do this?" Tobias asked as the adventurers looked inside the cave.

"We can't seal it. That's for sure." Konrad said with a frown on his face.

"So we need to get inside and beat that thing. Hopefully worth all the trouble." Peterson said apparently burning for a fight.

"Hey we need to avenge those other adventurers and find any clue what could have happened to them!" Werner said, apparently having high spirits about the upcoming fight as well.

Scyron didn't listened to the worthless talk as he looked at the landscape beneath them with worry. The mountain threw its shadow right over the village and it was only a few minutes left until it would set completely. Normally Scyron would simply wait in the village and observe the monsters' approach the village to get a better idea of what they were actually dealing with. However, the vote for how to proceed was democratically and with only 3 others on his side against the other 8 the adventurers decided to just rush into the cave. According to Misha, the group has already fought monsters in their own lairs in the past and has survived the one or the other battle, however that only confirmed once more the extreme weakness of the monsters that originated from the dungeon in Orario in comparison to himself. If the monsters wouldn't be so simple minded and actually use their brain matter for something else than just walking around and biting other living beings, this party of adventurers wouldn't even have made it out of their first 'house visit' in one piece. However, Scyron had no time to argue with them about their absurd mix of luck, stupidity and ignorance. Instead he simply walked inside the cave, making the others stop talking as they followed him first with their eyes when he came into their field of view, before following him with their heads.

"Hey what are you doing? Come back!" Keith shouted after the devil.

"I'd rather have this finished as soon as possible. Come when you are done with arguing over nothing. That is if whatever lives inside of here hasn't died yet from your senseless talking." Scyron said over his shoulder, not even stopping as he walked deeper and deeper inside the mountain. Not long after he heard the other adventurers coming to his position as he kept walking with a lantern on his hip. He actually didn't need it, but if he told the adventurers that he had a perfect night vision that allowed him to see even in a place without light as clear as day, they probably would only ask more Questions that the devil didn't want to answer. A simple item from YGGDRASIL, but brighter than whatever light the others produced with their low ranked spells. The other adventurers had lamps as well, but those were made with magic stones from the dungeon.

Once again Scyron was fascinated about the possibilities of usage for those stones. It made him ask himself how they were manufactured once they were given to the guild or if it made a big difference whether a stone was bigger or from a different monster. Unfortunately, he had no idea who he could ask for such questions. Well except Hephaestus and her half dwarf berserker of a blacksmith, but going there immediately after last time would be a bit awkward for Scyron. He thought about talking to another crafting familia then, though he just needed their location.

While in thoughts, the group of 13 travelled deeper into the mountain. No one said a thing. The only sound ringing through the halls of stone were the rattling of armor, the shuffling of their boots against the floor and their breathing. However, soon straight tunnel ended and the group arrived at a triple junction. Two tunnels lead further inside the mountain.

"Huh? Looks like we have to split up." Nox said.

"We should split our party in half then." Roku muttered to himself more than the other adventurers.

"I don't think that is a wise idea." Scyron said, making the adventurers look at him. "Our party is unbalanced enough with the majority heavy armored individuals. Though they can take hits and deal damage they lack agility. Few of us have light armor and can deal damage more efficiently when the heavy armored tanks are backing them up and even fewer people around here can cast magic. Should a member get severely injured and we are split, the group might be unable to treat the wounds. The more important we have still no idea what we are dealing with." The devil pointed out. A few of the adventurers seemed to think about what he said or perhaps the MMO terms like tank and damage dealer were too much for them.

"What are you talking about? When we don't split up the monster could simply come through the other tunnel." Keith said, completely ignoring Scyron's argument.

"True, however we don't even know how many are down here. In the worst case we might get into tight places where they pincer attack us." Konrad said siding with Scyron. The demon gave the white weretiger a nod.

"How would you know that even?" Roku asked. "And you! You are just some newbie that got lucky so far in the dungeon, but you are not part of our familia or any at all. You may have made it far into the dungeon, but that doesn't mean you know everything." He snarled. Scyron really pitied that idiot as he turned away, seeing no point to argue with this renard.

"We can either fight each other or whatever is in this cave. and since I'm very sure that fights among ourselves would put us into a disadvantage which we may cannot make up later, I suggest we try to work together." Scyron said as he looked at the adventurers who all seemed to agree, while Roku made a sound of disgust. "So let's do a vote. I am for staying together." Scyron said raising his hand. A few others did the same. Scyron put his hand down. "Who's against it?" He asked as more hands than earlier rose up. He sighed. "Very well then. Split up and decide where you want to put me. I'll be accepting that." He said.

The group was indeed split in half against Scyron's opinion. He just hoped that everything was going to be okay.

---

"Mhm? Another party of intruders? I see, they must be here because the others didn't return. Actually I would prefer not to fight. Especially now when I'm almost out of this place. But if they see me they'll be like the others and hunt me down. I did something bad. I didn't want to kill others. I don't want to kill them either. I'm sorry, but I cannot let them leave. This mountain will be your tombstone. I hope they will be the last."

---

For about 20 minutes the party of 7 had been walking through the tunnels. Along Scyron were Matthias, Werner, Seneca, Roku, Tobias and much to his displeasure Peterson. Along the way the group had most held itself to the left side of the tunnels to make it easier to get back out and not to get lost in the labyrinth of tunnels. The YGGDRASIL player really missed his minimap and HUD in this moment as he really could use some advices right now. Not to mention that they could easily lose their way if they were forced to retreat quickly into the tunnels behind them. The tunnel itself was just broad enough for three men to walk next to one another, meaning two could be standing in the front while the other were at the back, supporting the front fighters. The ceiling was also quite high with about 4 meters. Seneca was looking around in panic, while the men seemed to be relaxed and full of themselves that they could take on whatever had made these tunnels, but Scyron doubted that. He had taken off one of his gauntlets and ran his fingers over the surface of the tunnels, before rubbing his fingers against one another.

"Oi! Are you trying to fall back and run or are you talking to the rocks?" Came the half annoyed comment from Peterson who was at the front of the group. The devil was not even 2 meters away from the others and that man already began to get on Scyron's nerves again. But instead of firing back he took a deep breath and replied calmly as he slipped his gauntlet back on.

"No. I have simply noted something strange about these tunnels." The devil said as he walked to the others.

"What is it then?" Matthias asked curious as his ears perked up. He wondered if all werecats were so easily to read, though he kicked himself for being a little bit racist there.

"The walls are too smooth." Scyron said, running his fingers over the cool surface of the wall again.

"The walls?" Seneca asked.

"The rocks around here are hard and would break leaving normally sharp edges, yet the tunnels we have been going through all have smooth surfaces like polished wood. Also the depth we are in is strange. Normally miners dig tunnels up to provide air to the lower levels as it is hard to breath down there without any plants providing the necessary oxygen. While we may have ventured already deep into the earth we never had a problem with breathing. That means that whatever dug these tunnels must have enough intelligence to know that..." Scyron's explanation was cut off by the rude man known as Peterson.

"And if it is smart enough to talk and write, it killed a group of adventurers and it's our job to bring it down and avenge our fallen comrades. So stop babbling around and keep the talk for the celebration later." With that the self-appointed leader kept leading the group onward into the darkness. Scyron sighed quietly, not wanting to get into a confrontation with that guy. Now he really wondered how this guy managed to not get himself killed in the dungeon yet when he only used brute strength. Not that he doubted his capabilities as a tank, but given how long it took for an adventurer to level up and gaining a boost of their stats, which was for level 1 beginners at least a year in the regular case, this guy must either have been so hardened by battle, that he simply fell those orcs and imps with that axe of his or that he had help from comrades.

Either way he was just rude and getting on Scyron's nerves. Like a lot. Instead of wasting anymore energy on thinking how he could dispose Peterson's corpse without anyone missing him afterwards, he focused on something more important. The whole setting worked not in his favor. While the tunnels were big and allowed movement beyond shuffling against one another, most of Scyron's spells were quite powerful and he had no intention on testing how stable these tunnels actually were. So he made a mental note to first use his weapons, before resorting to magic when he suddenly felt someone tapping against his side. Turning around he saw Seneca looking timidly at him. Once again Scyron thought about a certain boy in Orario who had more similarities to an albino bunny than a hero.

"Are you alright Scyron-san?" Seneca asked.

"I'm fine. Just disappointed that's all." The devil said as he crossed his arms and lowered his head as he glared at the human in front.

CRICK CRACK

Suddenly there was a strange sound, that echoed through the narrow tunnels. It was as if someone crumbled biscuits between oneself's fingers and let the crumbs fall to a stone tiled floor with enhanced volume, however as the sound grew in volume it turned from crumbling biscuits into a sound of rocks breaking apart accompanied with a slightly hissing sound. It was no steps, but the sound just grew louder, signaling the party that the monster or the monsters came closer.

The group froze in their tracks once they heard the sound. Muscles tensed up and the breath of the others became suddenly shallow as if they were frightened to no end. The grip on their weapons tightened. Scyron meanwhile calmly observed the situation as he suddenly had the feeling of deja vu. He couldn't really put a finger on it, but this situation felt very familiar for him. Of course the player never had been with a party of armed men and women in some tunnel within a mountain range in real life, however he still had the feeling that even without the adventurers steeling themselves for this encounter, which was a lot like players from YGGDRASIL tried to show off before fighting a boss monster, he had at least once been in a similar situation.

Then monster came around the corner ahead and into light of the lamp. In front of them appeared a lemon yellow mass of half solid, half liquid, shiny jelly. It sported no mouth, eyes, ears or a face to begin with. It was just a large mass of plasma. Scyron immediately knew what this was, but he was stupefied by the monster's appearance, rendering him unable to say anything.

'Tha-That is...!' Scyron thought as his thoughts clicked into the right places. The traces that even eroded the soil and plant life. The smooth surface of the tunnels and the holes in the barricade around the village. The missing traces of vanished cattle and fleeing animals in the forests. But as he was thinking, one of the other adventurers got ready to engage.

"Huh. So that's the thing that defeated the other adventurers. I'll cut it down." Matthias said as he dashed towards the slime. Immediately Scyron shook out his stupor, but he couldn't move with the other adventurers in the way.

"YOU FOOL! GET BACK HERE!" He shouted, but the cat person didn't hear him. Instead he had already his short sword brandished and sliced down the slime. The creature's body split like butter making yellow plasma splatter against the walls and the cat person.

"Huh is that it- UGAH!" The cocky comment of the black-haired cat person was interrupted when a burning pain shot through his body, making him jump backwards, stumble and fall on his back as he rolled on the ground as if he was on fire.

"Matthias!" Seneca shouted worried as the others rushed over to him only to stop as they saw the reason for the pain. The spots that the yellow liquid had touched began to be eaten away by the acid. Clothes, skin and flesh began to be eaten away. Blood poured out the holes as the fragments of the slime simply ate their way through their victim. The mage immediately tried to cast a water spell to wash off the slime, but before she could finish the chant to even make that happen, a long yellow tentacle had wrapped around Matthias' ankle and threw it back to the slime. The large gap now was like a maw of a venusfly trap as it closed around the captured prey. Through the semitransparent body the adventurers saw how Matthias screamed in pain, before his struggle stopped after a second and skin, flesh, bone and even the metal of his armor and sword got eaten away by the slime, leaving it as a semitransparent lemon yellow mass of liquid.

Some could not handle the pressure as they froze on the spot, tears leaking out of the eyes and Peterson, who previously had such bravado that it was agonizing for the devil to watch, even vomited on the ground.

Scyron reacted as the fastest when the slime crawled towards the party like a slug after having finished its first victim off. Running alongside the wall he got in front of the group, before pointing at the slime with one finger.

"[Dragon Lightning]!" Arches of electricity came into being around the index finger as they shot out as a serpent/dragon shaped lightning. The slime recoiled in pain, but the electric attack was too much for it to handle. For a moment it was paralyzed, emitting sparks before exploding into quickly vaporizing liquid. Scyron's armor got sprinkled a little, but the acidic nature of the slime did as much as removing the dust and dirt from the white armor.

'What the hell was that? Why was a monster from YGGDRASIL, a level 35 slime down here? What's going on?' Scyron thought. He turned to the traumatized Party, that had yet to piece together what had happened before their eyes. "Alright listen up. We got to get out of he-"

BOOM CRACK

Scyron's comment was drowned in a sudden explosion behind the group, the panicked shouts of the party members and a thick cloud of dust, that suddenly swept through the tunnel. Dust and pebbles shot through the air as the Tremors subsided. When it settled down, the adventurers coughed the dust out of their lungs and saw that the tunnel which they came from was buried under tons of rock material.

"NO!" Came a terrorized shout from Seneca as she tried to push the rocks away, but in vain. Shouts for help would not move the rocks, nor would they change anything and neither could those guys move around the tons of stone. It was simply an expression of the despair and fear she was feeling in this moment. In that moment Scyron still ignored all the shouts and screams as he looked towards the tunnel where the slime came from. He had a really bad feeling about this. However, what was also important were the adventurers that had come with him.

They were in a pitiful state. Cowering in fear. Desperate. The complete opposite from what they should be like after seeing their comrade die with their own two eyes. The archdevil could tell that it was difficult for them and he himself felt a bit guilty as well, but they needed to get out of this place. And if the way they came was sealed for now they had to find another one by going down first.

"Fuck... FUCK!?" Roku shouted as he slammed his weapon, a dagger against the boulders that now blocked the way as if it was a pickaxe to dig his way out of this prison. Unsurprisingly, it didn't work. Surprisingly, it didn't break. Werner and Peterson looked at one another and shouted something at each other, but Scyron was deaf for it. Seneca was wailing in horror and despair now, cowering on the ground like a frightened animal.

So Scyron did the first thing he came up with when he saw that. The devil stomped over to the others, grabbed Seneca by their shoulder, lifting her up from the Ground. Then he grabbed Roku's shoulder and pulled him away from the boulders. And finally he punched both Peterson and Werner in the face, making them stop bickering.

"GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF!?" He shouted in their faces. "Right now we need to go on and find a way out of here. And I doubt that monster was the only one in this place."

"How the hell would you know that, huh?!" Peterson shouted in rage as he grabbed the devil's armor by the collar. "You killed that Thing like it was Nothing. So why did you not save Matthias? Did you want him to die? Is that why you always work alone? Because you kill your coworkers all the time? Answer me-"

SLAP!

A harsh slap by the devil that probably could have broken the man's neck sent Peterson flying to the ground.

"You are not wrong. I could have saved him if I had been faster. But now is not the time to argue about what could have been, but to focus to get out of this place as None of your guys stand a chance against those things." Scyron said as he towered over the other adventurers.

"So you know what those Things are?" Tobias asked. The devil gave the Boy a nod.

"They are called slimes. Slimes are basically walking stomachs. They lack internal organs, skin and bones and devour other things by engulfing them and dissolving them with their acid. That's why most physical attacks are useless against them. You may as well keep your swords sheathed as those things will just eat them alongside with you. Only magic weapons or spells are efficiently capable of hurting and killing them." Scyron turned to Seneca, who made a timid sound like that of a startled/frightened mouse. The devil side in Scyron almost made him chuckle at her display of fear.

"Since we have only that much magic casters with us we are in the disadvantage. More importantly, slimes simply split in half to reproduce when they have grown enough mass. A physical hit that doesn't destroy them only creates more slimes to fight. Since the animals and the livestock of this village is almost gone, it is clear that this slime was far too small to be the only one in here. I'd say that a whole nest of these things is down here and that the other group will encounter them as well. When that happens, nothing will remain of them to be buried." Scyron said, making the adventurers go pale. "Now let's go further. If we stay here we will be stuck in a dead end and swarmed." The devil then walked further inside the cave.

Silently the adventurers followed behind him with Seneca being in the rare. With one magic casters at each end of the group, they could defend the other 4 in the most efficient way. However, there was one problem. By the looks of it, these people have never seen slimes before. With other words they had no routine how to fight them or what to do. Now that he thought about it, Eina also never mentioned this basic type of monsters from YGGDRASIL and other RPGs. Not once. With other words, they were something that should not exist in this world, yet did now. Just like himself.

Scyron's train was derailed when more yellow slimes came crawling out from the tunnel ahead. The adventurers tensed up behind him. He could feel their fear as their gripped their weapons tightly for the case that they would make it past the devil. He didn't wonder why they did what they did even when he had told them that physical attacks were useless against them. It was clear that despite what they had witnessed they had not given up on living yet, so they were clinging to their arms as if they could provide them with some more time living.

"[Lightning]." The devil said as another lightning shot at the slimes. It was a weaker spell than before, merely stunning the slime it hit as the others rushed across the walls with surprisingly high speed at the devil and the adventurers. But that was exactly what the devil wanted them to do. "[Fireball]!" From Scyron's hand shot a ball made of fire not bigger than a tennis ball at the smiles. When it hit, it burst into a raging inferno and evaporated the slimes, leaving nothing, but charred black stone. Even the paralyzed slime was killed in the large radius of the blast.

Unfortunately, it had been quite counterproductive. A lot of oxygen had been burnt away and judging by the coughing of the adventurers behind him, Scyron mused that they must have inhaled the smoke. Not only that, but he had also felt the entire tunnel vibrate under the impact of his [Fireball]. Without a doubt he must have attracted the monsters deeper down or at least made himself known to them. A hairline of cracks was now visible on the walls around the blast.

'Okay, that is bad. No more AoE attacks and no strong attacks either. [Dragon Lightning] seems to be fine though. I should probably stick to that.' The devil thought as he turned around. "We need to go. Now!" Scyron told the other adventurers.

"What? Why?" Roku asked.

"Those things now know that we are here and fighting back. No doubt that they will swarm the tunnel once given a chance. Seneca, if a slime appears behind us I want you to use a fire spell on them. They seem to be weak to it. Try to not hit the walls though. Last thing we need is being buried under tons of rocks." The devil said. The timid girl gulped loudly at this. Then the party quickly ran further down the tunnel. Scyron did not care for the walls of the tunnels anymore or the strange fact that they were still able to breathe normally. Right now they had to find the first turn to get out of this cavern.

Along the way more slimes kept pouring out of the tunnel, but a [Dragon Lightning] made them before being able to approach the adventurers running straight into them. Unfortunately, the devil knew all too well that he could not keep that up forever. Even he could only use the spell as long as he had MP and once that ran out, he'd have to engage the slimes in close combat with his weapons even if it meant to leave the defense to Seneca.

They kept running like that for 5 more minutes, never stopping and never looking back as they heard the slimes apparently coming somehow from behind as well now. The only question was how when there was no tunnel connecting to this one yet. They all shook the thought out of their heads right away, not wanting to know the answer in truth. The group was forced to stop as Seneca who was supposed to have the back of the group simply was not meant for such tasks that required stamina.

"Dammit! How long is that damn tunnel?" Peterson cursed as the man tried to catch his breath alongside Roku, Tobias and Werner.

"No idea." Roku wheezed out.

"But we can't rest for long." Werner said.

"And what are we supposed to do?! We are going to die here. We are going to die. We are going to die..." Tobias said as he grabbed his head, his eye wide in horror and a string of salvia dripping from his chin.

"Hey! Calm down Tobi. We are not dead yet." Peterson said as he put a hand on the boy's shoulder. A bad choice. Right at the contact, the brunette boy jumped backwards and glared daggers at the man.

"DON'T TOUCH ME! IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN YOU WHO GOT EATEN BY THAT THING!" Tobias cried out loud, making the other adventurers look shocked at this statement.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean you little punk? Huh?!" Peterson said as he took a step forward as if challenging the fight to escalate even further.

"P-Please don't..." Seneca said, as tears streamed down her face. Werner said nothing, but crossed his arms as he gave the boy a glare.

"EXACTLY WHAT I JUST SAID! YOU ALWAYS ACT SO HIGH AND MIGHTY AS IF YOU OWE THE WORLD AND IN THE END YOU ARE NOTHING BUT A BIG TALKER AND NOTHING ELSE!" Tobias cried out. "You always harass our party members when they are beast human and flirt around with the women in our parties. Hell I even caught you when you with that one girl back on the 18th floor that night!" Tobias said pointing at the man, who looked a little uneasy as the pallum was shooting his fellow familia member a glare.

"Very professional Peterson." Werner said. Roku said nothing to that as he was busy catching his breath.

"Wait? You believe that kid?! He has no proof at all!" The man shouted.

"Your face just now was more proof than necessary." The pallum said, dismissing Peterson's outburst.

Scyron didn't like where this was going. The pressure was too much for all of them, but the boy had to literally burn the fuse of a barrel full of dynamite. He had an idea that things were not going all that well with Peterson and he had no idea how the familia dealt with stuff like that, but given the reactions they were no friends of such things, most likely it would reflect bad on the god at the head of the familia as well. He turned to Werner who was leaning against a wall now with his arms crossed and his head lowered in thought. Tobias and Peterson were still clashing with insults and claims, that probably were true given the older adventurers expression. Roku had pushed himself off the wall as he stood on shaking legs and his ears perked up as if to try and catch any sounds. And then there was the little girl that was supposed to protect the group in tears and shaking in fear and sadness. Unfortunately, Scyron had no idea how to get them out of this mess now. For now, he had to find a way to get the 5 remaining adventurers out of here.

That was when they suddenly heard screams far away, echoing through the tunnels. It sounded very feminine.

"That was Nox!" Werner pushed himself off the wall at this point. Scyron needed to take a double take at this. The male black haired elf guy screamed like that? He really needed to wash his ears or something was wrong with the acoustic of this tunnel complex.

"Then they have found the others as well." Scyron said as he grabbed Seneca's hand, lifting her to her feet. Roku was ready to run a bit more as well as he stood already next to her. The other two adventurers snapped out of it as Tobias was once again curling up like little child as his face was a grimace of fear. Scyron groaned as he walked over to the two.

But in that moment the ground beneath the two cracked and broke apart, revealing yellow tentacles that grabbed the two stupefied adventurers and dragged them into the darkness below. Scyron wanted to reach out and drag them up only to see that they were already half digested inside the slimes as they crawled up the new hole in the ground. Behind them more slimes came slowly crawling towards Werner, Scyron and Seneca as if they were trying to be even more menacing for the adventurers of Orario. The devil felt a rage unknown to him until now burning inside him as he lost himself in the rage. The rational part of his brain shut down as hatred overcame it.

"[Fireball]!" Scyron shouted as a barrage of fireballs now at the size of soccer balls shot at the yellow monsters. The explosions rocked the tunnel as a whole as pebbled and stones rained down the ceiling. Immediately afterwards, Scyron's mind clicked back into its right place as he realized what kind of mistake he had made as the cracks above him got bigger and wider. "Oh no!" Dashing backwards, he tugged Werner and Roku under his left arm and grabbed Seneca by her hand, before he rushed with them through the tunnel as if they were ragdolls. "Run for your lives!" He shouted despite carrying the two other male adventurers

As he shouted that the thundering sound of the tunnel collapsing made him accelerate, lifting Seneca and Werner off their feet as the devil ran faster than the human he pretended to be should be able to. Not that they were thinking that to themselves in that moment. Right now they only had one objective. Getting out the hell of there without being crushed like cockroaches by the collapsing tunnel. Scyron himself didn't even care if he was to run into more slimes, which he luckily didn't. He was basically running across the vertical walls of the tunnels as the collapsing tunnel almost seemed to chase after them with a large cloud of dust rushing ahead and giving the quartet of adventurers chase.

And then the devil saw a light at the end of the tunnel. Accelerating one last time, the devil let out a scream of sheer determination as he threw himself and the other three adventurers out of the tunnel just before a large boulder smashed in front of the exit, blocking it completely. Still too fast, Scyron was about to smash face first into a wall as he hugged the other adventurers close to him as he turned his back to the wall. He hit it with full force, punching the wind out of Werner, Roku and Seneca's lungs as they smashed against his chest plate hard. One could have heard their screams if it was not for the ringing in their ears from the crash.

Slowly peeling himself out of the wall, Scyron let go of the other three as they looked around the new place they were in. The light they saw was emitted by a few bar shaped crystals that grew out of the lime stones in small bushes of 6 or 7 bars each as they emitted a faint blue light. Now Scyron was not a master geologist, but he was sure that not even the gemstones should be glowing like that. Ignoring that he looked at Seneca and Roku who were laughing in relief just to have survived. Werner just sighed in relief. The renard was then hugged by his female coworker, basically pressing her ample chest into his face. That made Werner snort quietly, muttering "Lucky bastard." to himself: At the same time Scyron scoffed at the picture of the two adventurers stop moving for a moment, before Seneca pushed Roku away from her blushing crimson. "Sly fox." He muttered to himself, but more in amusement than annoyance.

He looked around him once again. It was a small room with a roughly diamond or oval shape. If all 13 adventurers were in this room together, each of them would only have about half a meter to move around. With only 3 it was fine, but that brought back something else. The screams from earlier were faint, but it meant that the others or only Nox had encountered the slimes as well. Maybe there was even something worse in these tunnels or perhaps Nox wandered off on his own for some reason? Scyron couldn't tell, but for now he had to take into consideration the worst case.

The devil looked over to the other adventurers again, which had picked themselves off the ground and looked at the crystals with fascination. The pallum even broke on off from a cluster and inspected it with a critical eye.

'Perhaps he knows what that stuff is.' Scyron wondered as he mentally slapped himself. 'Stop it already! I need to get them out as fast as possible!' He thought to himself as he approached them. "We seem to be safe for now. However, it might be that the slimes will find us here as well. After all they seem to have dug their way all the way to our position when we were resting just now. We should keep moving." He said. The other two adventurers nodded as an awful tension spread around the three of them once more as they ventured out the room. Having lost orientation, Scyron hoped he had picked the right way as they walked in the tunnels again.

It all had happened so fast. Matthias, Tobias and Peterson had been swallowed whole by those slimes and digested within seconds. The devil clenched his fists almost painfully at the thought of those that had died. He had not known them for long, but he could certainly that the adventurers deserved better than such a cruel fate.

In silence the devil kept walking through the tunnels. All was silent. No slimes. Only their own footsteps and breaths.

Then around a corner, the group spotted a light. It was not the faint blue light of the crystals growing in this cave, but the warm orange-yellow light of a magic stone powered lamp. With other words, it was part of any adventurer's equipment into the dungeon who could afford such a thing and was well prepared. For obvious reasons, the adventurers were on high alert. It could indeed mean that their companions had somehow managed to escape from the slimes, but the lack of noise was unsettling for all of them. Slowly the group crept to the corner with Scyron in the front as he slowly peered around. Behind him were Roku, Seneca and Werner.

He looked into another tunnel like the one they were in right now. On the ground the lamp laid. Signaling the others that it was okay, the Group walked slowly and carefully over as they scanned the tunnel for any slimes hiding in the darkness. Despite seeing none of them around, the group was only slightly relaxed, knowing that these monsters were capable of simply eating their way through the hard rocks. Scyron carefully picked up the lamp. The glass was broken and the metal case around the magic stone was dented. Also the stone's glow was dimmed from what he saw in Orario so it was like the one they were carrying with them. The stone was slowly, but surely loosing its power.

That was actually a discovery the demon had made some time ago. While storing lots of energy, the magic stones cannot replenish that energy on their own. Scyron could charge them up with his own demonic magic power, but that mostly resulted in violent explosions. So the adventurers had to constantly bring such stones to the Guild, which sold them as raw materials to manufactures who would make such items. Meaning that it would need a steady flow of these stones into the Guild to ensure mass production.

Shaking his head at this, it was clear that the lamp was the one of one of the party members he came in with.

"Any idea whose lamp this is?" Scyron asked.

"No. Why do you ask? It's not that we decorate them." Roku said. "Why do you ask?"

"I thought you may would have an idea about the person that had this item with them before being attacked and running off."

"What makes you think they managed to run away? Those... 'slimes' as you call them are quite fast." Werner said. Scyron pointed up at the ceiling as he shined some light onto them with the broken lamp.

"Look at this. There are traces on the walls and ceilings." Scyron said pointing at oval and round depths in the tunnel walls. "It would seem the creature was not moving from the spot but rather tried to attack with its tentacles." The devil continued as he showed more line like marks in the walls, stretching towards the darkness they were heading. "Judging by these, I'd say the slimes failed to catch their victim and chased it further down the tunnel. Most likely we will run into more of them when we go further down this tunnel, so be ready." Scyron said as he took the lamp with him.

"You really are smart for a newbie." Roku remarked finding no counterarguments against what Scyron had said. The other two were equally impressed as well. "Are you sure you just came to Orario a month ago?" The Renard asked.

"I'm positive. I have however killed lots of monsters during my travels before all of this." Scyron said as he tried to get the slight blush of his face when he heard the compliment. That was one thing he really couldn't deal with. An actually honest praise. And it didn't matter if that came from a guy, who earlier had been a complete jerk to him.

"A-Anyway, we should keep going." Scyron said as the other nodded, not wanting to stay in this mountain any longer than necessary to find a way out. Once again they were walking through the tunnels for what seemed to be hours.

"Damn, how long is this tunnel?" Roku said to himself looking around. "I doubt even those killer ants back in the dungeon dig this many tunnels."

"That's true. This place is far worse than the lower floors." Werner agreed.

"What do we do when we get out of here?" Roku asked.

"Well, first we got to inform Dionysus and the Guild of the ones we have lost and what attacked us. According to what Scyron said and what we have seen these things can be beaten with magic, so I guess the Guild will dispatch a much more skilled party of adventurers to get this all under control and eventually kill the monsters." A gloomy atmosphere hung over the group as they travelled as Scyron thought about what the pallum had said.

Normally it would be the best possible outcome. The Guild managed quests and missions regarding the dungeon and monsters in both Orario and the surrounding area as monsters not only lived in the dungeon but also managed to escape to the surface, where they are much weaker, but still more dangerous than ordinary animals. However, the slimes that lived in this cave were clearly monsters from YGGDRASIL and by this world's standards quite powerful ones. Though the devil doubted that they could kill a dragon from the 58th Floor without literally dogpiling it, some monster rexes would have bitten the dust against these slimes. Even Ais and the others of the Loki familia would have quite some trouble dealing with that.

Not to mention that the tunnels most likely would mess up the dynamic of the parties and magic casters were rare in Orario. Most people that became adventurers specialized on using weapons as it was more efficient and only few that did learn magic afterwards to support themselves. Those that had a magic talent since the day they were born in this world were fewer in numbers than the common people, yet magic could be learned as long as the ability existed. So the time the Guild would need to just make out a sufficient number of magic casters with enough potential to deal with this threat as well as adventurers to guard them, assemble them, make item to use against the slimes and then putting a payment on top of everything would be quite long.

In that time the slimes would continue to eat, multiply and venture beyond the village. Also the payment for the job would need to be very high considering the risk and the fact that these slimes were by the guild standard probably on level 5 or 6 if not higher. The Guild standard to determine the level of a monster was the same as that of the falna. Basically when an adventurer could deal with that type of monster without much trouble, they were put into that category. For example, the Kobolds and imps were level 1 monsters, while the minotaur that attacked Bell was a level 2 monster.

So with other words, the Guild would make a huge loss of money and resources and most likely adventurers through failed attempts with this business concerning a threat that was far greater than the monsters in the dungeon. It might even come the case that the Guild would become bankrupt and would simply deny help by not making such a quest at all as the costs would be too high. Scyron knew that Eina and Misha wouldn't be that heartless, but they were secretaries and not CEOs. It was not that unlikely given his own experiences with such people. How many times had he mentioned problems whenever they built a house and the safety measures were insufficient? The same number as his claims were turned down and ignored. The same could be the case with whoever ran this Guild. Eina did mention those three monsters that left the dungeon in ancient times. The Black Dragon was still alive according to what people said and there was certainly the possibility that it still tormented people far away. Such people would go to Orario, where the most skilled adventurers were and ask for help. But given the threat that this dragon managed to wipe out the Zeus Familia, the strongest familia before Loki and Freya took over and kicked Zeus out of Orario, the devil had no doubts that the guild may as well ignored the quest or denied making on to prevent another bloodshed like this.

Only problem with that was that monsters did not age or die from old age. Their magic stones, even when outside the dungeon, still powered them indefinitely. More importantly, they multiplied through splitting like bacteria and thus could become even more of a problem over time. Adventurers could die. They were all mortal beings and so far Scyron has not seen a single immortal or god being a fighter in a familia, though that was most likely since gods were forbidden to enter the dungeon for some reason.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, Scyron kept walking through the tunnels when suddenly saw something in the faint light of the lamps. It reflected the light well, throwing it back at the wall next to it. The group noticed that and slowly crept forward as the group entered a small oval shaped room. At the wall he saw the object reflecting the light. It was a metal shield or rather what was left of it. A large piece of it was apparently missing as if it was melted away. The other adventurers looked in shock at the shield.

"That's Konrad's." Roku said dreadfully as his fox ears laid flat against his head. Seneca was about to cry and Werner clenched his fists in anger. Scyron lowered his head slightly as he remembered the white haired weretiger. It was a shame, but that was how the world was like for people like them. It was kill or be killed. Death may await them just around the next corner. It was harsh and cold to say it like that, but it was the truth they had to accept. He felt bad for these 7 who had died without having a chance to make it out alive. They all must have died in the realization that they simply couldn't have beaten them. A sad and horrible thought.

Then he heard a faint cracking sound. The others heard it as well and immediately stopped mourning as they looked around themselves. The sound was close and didn't seem to come from the ground or the walls as they kept standing on the same spot. Then it dawned Scyron. He mentioned the adventurers to come along quietly. Unfortunately, Seneca seemed to not get that as she lifted her lamp higher to look at the source of the noise.

Above the 4 adventurers the slimes hung from the ceiling like bats. Their yellow bodies reflected the like a puddle in the sunlight. Her face contorted into one of fear as she gazed up upon the dozens of slimes crawling over the ceiling.

"Seneca..." Scyron said quietly. the girl looked over to him as well as Werner and Roku who were standing next to him at the exit of the room. "Come over. Don't startle them with the light." The devil said. The girl lowered her lamp as she quietly made her way over to her comrades. But destiny had other plans.

SPLASH

A sound in the darkness made the girl freeze up in fear. Her hair stood up to all ends.

"No... don't turn around..." Scyron whispered louder this time. But the girl didn't listen. Instead she turned around and saw the blob of slime being only an arm's length away. The slime stretched out its tendrils to reach out to the girl. In that moment a hand on her shoulder pulled her back. It was Werner. The slime noticed that and so did the other slimes too as they came down from the ceiling. Some crawled alongside the walls. Others simply dropped into the room.

"Run!" Werner shouted as the group was running once more. Quickly running away, they managed to outrun the slimes, but they kept running just for safety. And then, the Ground below them suddenly gave way.

"What the hell!" Scyron cursed as he fell alongside the other adventurers down. There was no slime below them at all, but only a pitfall. Only a few meters below, the 4 made Impact on a hard ground. Seneca cried out in pain as she seemed to have broken something. The other two groaned in pain, when suddenly the hissing Sound came back. From the top the slimes came crawling down along the walls. A few of them even jumped right into the pitfall.

Scyron jumped on his feet again as electricity sparked to life between his fingers as Roku, Werner and Seneca were standing as well as they rushed to the demon's side, forming a loose ring of four people.

"There are like 20, maybe 30 of those Things. And still coming more. You guys better stay back for this one." Scyron said as the lightning in his hands cracked almost threatening. "Seneca, you need to protect the others while I'm dealing with most of them. I can't target that many at once. Remember they can only be wounded by magic so they can't hold them off for you to buy you time." The devil said.

"B-but the chant alone…" Seneca sputtered out.

"No buts! It's either fighting or dying. You make sure you and the others are fine. I'll deal with the main forces." He said as he took a step forward."[Dragon Lightning]!" Spreading both arms from his body, the devil unleashed two lightning, that killed every slime in a row that was hit. Immediately the monsters took notice of the threat the devil posed and attacked with their tendrils. "[Firewall]!" A wall of flames burst to life in front of the devil, vaporizing the Incoming attack. The adventurers were so captured by this display of power that Seneca only noticed the slimes rushing to them when they had reached the bottom of the pit.

"[Firebolt]!" The mage cried out without a chant at all as a small fireball flew against one of the slimes. It pushed the creature's upper body about 10 centimeters backwards, before the sizzling of the slime ceased. Leaning back forward it moved towards the adventurers again. "Eh! It didn't hurt it at all!" Seneca cried out in fear.

"Of course not!" Scyron said as he charged up another [Dragon Lightning]. "Weak spells like that don't work on such strong monsters." He said firing the next shot at another mass of slime that moved towards the trio of adventurers. The slimes sizzled and evaporated. "You need to cast stronger magic!" Seneca looked at Scyron for a moment with wide eyes, before she took a deep breath and lowered her head.

"Oh fire. Be heat. Be violent. Flicker in the sunset of life. Warm my soul. Devour all before you. Heed my call and burn my enemies. My name is Ifrit. [Iris Fatale]!" With that suddenly a much larger fireball shot towards the slimes. Its size was about that of a watermelon or a basketball. for a moment, it seemed to Scyron as if a miniature sun had appeared in the room in the corner of his eye.

FWOOOMM BRRROOOOOOMMM

Then the burning sound of flames and the vibrations in the air caused by the explosion, that drowned a large number of the slimes in a raging torrent of flames, drowned all other sounds as the light suddenly got much brighter in the caves for a short moment, before it all returned to darkness. Looking at the work of the young mage, Scyron had to tip his proverbial hat for the girl. The slimes may have had not been killed and still advanced towards the group, but they had been scorched black by the spell and were now so wounded that their already slow movements now seemed even sluggish for them. Basically a rock thrown with enough speed could kill these slimes now.

THUD

Unfortunately, his joy for the girl's accomplishment was short-lived as Seneca fell to the ground head first. Roku and Werner quickly went up to her and checked on her condition. As for Scyron he was panicking on the inside, but on the outside still murdering the slimes coming for him.

'What the hell was that? Why did she just fall over? Was she hit by one of the slimes? No, I'd have noticed that. It must be something else. But first...' the devil thought. "[Fire Stream]!" A torrent of flames shot out of his palm as he killed every slime that was in a 10-meter radius around him and the group. After that he jumped backwards to Roku and Werner who still hovered over the girl. Now Scyron could take a closer look on her. Her skin was pale, her breath shallow and her heart seemed almost to jump out of her chest. Droplets of sweat ran down her pale skin. "What is this? An illness?" Scyron thought to himself, but Werner provided him with an answer.

"Hardly. It's what we call Ignis Fatuus. It occurs when a spell becomes too powerful for the mage to control and explodes. It backlashes on the user and causes them harm. That spell she used was something she just recently learned. She had no routine or training in that thing." The pallum said as he eyed the remaining slimes going down the pitfall. "We have to get her out of here as soon as possible." He added.

"Agreed. Werner, Roku, you take her and get behind me. I'll deal with this once and for all." Scyron said as he clasped his hands together. Pulling them apart a much more potent lightning cracked between his fingers than before. It struck the ground around the devil, causing splinters of limerock to crack from the ground and explode. The two adventurers took a few steps backwards with their unconscious teammate as they feared they could have gotten hit. The slimes didn't seem to notice the danger as they simply came towards the adventurers in their blind chase.

'This is going to be FUN!' A voice in Scyron's head shouted as he unleashed his spell. "[Maximize Magic: Thunder Wolf Howl]!" The lightning shot forth from the hands as it took the shape of a wolf or a dog like creature as it shot towards the slimes. The yellow mass of plasma didn't know what hit it as the lightning was unleashed all around the center of a circular explosion. Some lightning strayed from the sphere and struck the ceiling, the walls and the ground, causing pebbles and rocks to fall down the pitfall, but the ceiling was still intact. The sound of a howling wolf seemed to echo through the tunnel as the spell unleashed it destructive effect. Dust was kicked up in the pitfall, covering the view as the thundering sound of the spell slowly dispersed. The dust settled again and no slime was still alive

"Alright that should be-" Scyron gasped as he looked at the other 3 adventurers or rather where they were. They were not there anymore. They were gone. Looking around panicking the devil looked around himself multiple times until suddenly a yellow tentacle latched onto his helmet, trying to crawl inside the armor. Following the tendril, he saw that it came from a single tunnel connected to the bottom of the pitfall. Grabbing the slime, he pulled it out only to see that a triple of legs was the last Thing sticking out of it from its last meal. The slime tried slurping them up like spaghetti, but the devil electrocuted the slime with a [Lightning] as he held the creature in a firm grip. It withered and trashed around in silent agony, buy was reduced to ashes anyway. Scyron knew what had happened with the other adventurers. In the moment of blindness, the slime had come out its hiding spot and taken in the other three, whose legs were now laying on the ground, bleeding from the stumps and being slightly charred black from the spell.

Scyron stood there looking at the severed appendages.

Earlier the slimes had devoured the other group of 7 because they couldn't fight back properly. It had been easy for them to ambush and overwhelm them.

Then they killed Matthias in his recklessness.

Then Tobias and Lorenz from below as they were facing a breakdown.

And now Roku, Seneca and Werner, because of his own recklessness.

All of the other adventurers were now dead. Digested alive by these slimes.

Scyron was frozen. Frozen in shock. Frozen in fear. Frozen in rage. Frozen and paralyzed from the weight of the Situation crashing down on him.

He had failed them.

Again.

It was just like back then.

Because of his incompetence his guild had been wiped out.

The dungeon had been taken from him.

And because of him the League disbanded.

Only this time it was no game. It was real. There was no respawn. Only death.

He should have brought them all out with Teleportation. He shouldn't have kept this power a secret. He shouldn't have let this fear of being discovered control him.

In the end, it was all his fault once again.

New slimes came from the top of the pitfall and through the walls.

Apparently they had been lured in by the explosion.

The slimes drew closer. Scyron's body shook violently as the legs on the ground simply disappeared in a flash of light.

And then an explosion vaporized the slimes. No, it was not an explosion spell. It was Scyron's hellfire aura that literally burnt everything around him into a crisp. Rocks were charred black and cracked up. Slimes evaporated under the tremendous heat. The air itself seemed to burn due to the rapid rise of temperature. and in its midst stood a white armored knight with red glowing eyes peering through his helmet.

"I'LL BURN YOU ASUNDER?!" He screamed in a not human sounding voice as he jumped out the trap and drew his weapon as it was coated in lightning. The blade cut through the new slimes like a hot knife through butter as the knight mad in rage stormed into the mass of enemies without thinking about his own safety at all.

---

The creature in the cave asked itself. What the hell! Something is wrong! What is this...pressure? Incapable of understanding, yet feeling the dread of being endangered all other creatures would seek to run away. And so did this being as well. However, it could not run away. It was trapped ever since it was inside this cave! There was no escape. All it could do was to hope that the danger would simply pass by. But it knew already, that this was not going to be the case.

---

Scyron had completely lost himself in his rampage. Like a blazing comet of death, he flew through the tunnels, cleaving every slime into bits, that didn't immediately scurry away or was vaporized by his hellfire aura. It was like a star engulfed the rampaging demon as he tore the slimes apart even with his bare hands.

"RAAAAHHHHH!?" He roared in an inhumane voice as his sword left deep cuts in the limestone around him. Having cleared another tunnel, he flew with full speed through the tunnels like a snake trying to find the rats inside. In his wake he only left death and destruction. Using [Life Essence] he basically saw where the monsters were inside the tunnels as they could run, but not hide from the wrath of the devil.

A while passed until the devil eventually stood within a completely scorched room in the tunnels. Crystals and rocks had been broken and now their fragments littered as pebbles the ground. The fire around him slowly dimmed down as he finally calmed down again. He collapsed on his knees as he panted and shuddered in his turmoil.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." He whimpered sinking even deeper into his own self-pity. But he felt like he needed to let it out. He was in that cave for about 2 minutes until he finally calmed himself down again, refusing to cry now of all places. Retracting his wings and putting his helmet back on, he stood up and used [Life Essence] once again. What he saw was a strong aura, much stronger than that of his comrades and the slimes. And it was close by. So he wordlessly walked towards it.

'No matter what, I have to finish this. Not for my sake, but for them.' He thought as he was met with a large wall blocking the entrance to another tunnel. This time the slimes were not yellow, but had a dark blue color. Scyron shot a [Lightning] at the slimes to test whether his feeling was right or not. Then the dust settled down that had been kicked up through the blast, it revealed the slimes completely unharmed. 'I guess I was right. These slimes had in YGGDRASIL already a higher magic resistance. If it was for most of the people of this world this would basically be a near impossible to breach wall. However, I'm not most people nor am I from this world.' He thought as he pointed at the slimes one more time. "[Maximize Magic: Explosion]." Within a short moment, not lasting more than a few milliseconds the 7th tier spell created a small white spot in front of the slimes. In the next moment a massive explosion shook the entire tunnel as it bathed everything inside of it in dust. The walls and ceiling cracked menacingly, but were still intact. And the slime wall was gone. 'Huh. Maybe I should have become a construction worker again. Well deconstruction this time.' Scyron mused.

After blasting his way through the slimes, Scyron walked through a rather long and steep tunnel, before he arrived at a large room of the cave system. The floor itself was more like a pitfall as the ground was about 4 meters above the exit Scyron had arrived at. The devil got a sudden attack of nostalgia as this looked like some sort of boss monster room. He couldn't see a living creature, but there were lots of bones down there. Scyron then simply jumped out the hole and landed in the water around the small island made of the remains of other beings. Looking around the devil saw that the circular room was littered with bones of various animals like wolves, deers and boars, but also domesticated animals like cows, pigs, goats and chicken. What caught his interest as well where multiple swords stabbed into the bone hill. All had a different design and somewhere bigger or broader than other, but all of them looked fancier than the gear the adventurers Scyron had met in Orario used. The room was barely lit with only the few crystals in the walls emitting a soft azure light into the room, but Scyron couldn't see the ceiling as the area above the crystals was pitch black. There was also the floor being flooded with water, reaching his lower legs.

"Who is there?" Came a voice from above as Scyron heard suddenly how something climbed down from above. A few Stones came off the wall on the closest one to the devil, making him instinctively jump backwards as he heard the splashing noises they caused when they hit the water. The creature then came into the light about 3 meters above the ground where it stopped and the demon had to blink a few times to take in the appearance of the creature in front of him. The creature looked like a massive velvet worm or a caterpillar with what seemed to be 2 or 3 meters in length. 2 red eyes at each side of the head and three more where the forehead would be. It had a long segmented body with multiple long and thin tendrils, holding itself up on the wall with several suction cup like feet, and a pair of sharp mandibles forming like a beak like mouth. A long and thin tendril, which Scyron presumed to be the tongue, came out the mandibles as it moved like snake in the air for a moment before retracting. For obvious reasons, Scyron was reminded of those caterpillar monsters that attacked the Loki familia. "Mhm? You smell different from the others." The insect said in a deep voice, which boomed through the halls of the cave. It stretched its long tentacles out from its back, making Scyron instinctively take a step insect reared its head up like a cobra ready to strike. Scyron could see that near the head were indeed small legs like a caterpillar had them. "However, I cannot allow you to leave. Others would come back for me even if I got out of here. I am sorry for this, but I have to defeat you now. [Acid Javelin]." 7 lime green orbs of some semi translucent fluid appeared next to the worm as it fired them as long stretched projectiles. Scyron jumped backwards as each impact made bones fly and water and acid splash around. Wherever acid landed it began sizzling to eat away the bones that littered the ground.

'Such power. Of course it is stronger than those slimes. I knew that the monster must have been strong, but this is really a very unexpected turn of events.' Scyron thought in shock. However, what disturbed the player the most wasn't the appearance or the magic power of the being, but the amount of HP and MP that this creature had. And then there was [Acid Javelin], a low tier spell that could deal continuous damage for a small amount of time as well as damage equipment of other players.

Scyron had an idea now what this being was, but he had to confirm his hypothesis first. And he already had an idea how to do that. Unsheathing his sword, Scyron dashed towards the worm like creature. Immediately the creature threw its tendrils at the demon, hitting the spot where Scyron had been, but never the demon itself. However, it was clear that he was not the target of the 'assault'. It was a faint as other tendrils aimed for the swords stabbed into the bone covered ground. The devil however didn't care for that as his goal was something else.

Jumping towards the worm, Scyron slashed at the insect type creature with his longsword, but the tendrils came just back in time to parry the blow with 3 different blades as 2 others tried to cut the devil, who back flipped, making the attack miss. Scyron landed with his back in the pile of bones, before rolling backwards, dodging another sword thrown at him to stab him.

"I see you know how to swing a sword." Scyron said. 'And that quite well. Though I can tell this is not some knight type monster it can easily throw stuff and knows how to parry a blow. Not to mention its magic power. There is absolutely no doubt. Even if those guys would have made it here, they all would have been killed.' The worm chuckled dryly.

"What if I told you that I was the one who made these blades?" It said.

"Well that would be a surprise. However, you made one mistake." Scyron said as he held up a finger to the worm. Confused it cocked its head sideways, until suddenly a floating orange sphere appeared in front of the worm's face. Quickly it tried to shield itself with the tentacles, but then it exploded like dynamite. "[Maximize Magic: Floating Mine]. Sorry for the burns, but you should keep some people away from you more often." Scyron said as his voice got drowned in the pain filled scream of the worm. A shrieking sound accompanied with it falling into the ground.

When it got up, small amounts of the carapace got burnt and small amounts of red blood dropped down on the white bones and the clear blue water.

"Teme..." The worm grumbled. Scyron narrowed his eyes at this. He might not be the best when it came to Japanese, but the word for bastard was something he had heard a lot of times in the game, mostly directed towards himself.

There was no doubt anymore. This insect was a YGGDRASIL player! And a strong one at that. By Scyron's estimation this player was about level 80 to 85. In comparison to 100 that was like a bad joke, but when taking into account that everything in this world was so much weaker, this player could easily reduce Orario to a ruined ghost town with those slimes. The same was the case for Scyron, but the devil had yet to kill adventurers.

"[Maximize Magic: Geyser Eruption]!" The worm said as Scyron felt the ground shake around him. Quickly he jumped to the side before a large fountain erupted from where he stood, throwing bones through the air like toys as four tendrils tried to stab the devil. Grabbing his greatsword he managed to parry the blows, but his other sword fell to the ground at this.

'That was a stronger spell. Probably this guy has more water element spells in his sleeves, but I can't let him go off like that.' Scyron thought as he was fighting the urge to kill this person right there and then. He had no desire to do so. After all it was someone like him. Yet in his mind the voice from earlier whispered things into his ear.

'He killed them! He made those slimes devour them and those before us. He Needs to pay! He Needs to bleed! HE NEEDS TO SUFFER AND DIE!'

'No! Shut up!' Scyron mentally cursed as he quickly dodged another Sword and [Acid Javelin] shot right at him. The worm roared as its tendrils chased after the devil, trying to cut him with those swords, though they were not of really good quality. They looked good, but were nowhere near Legacy Class items.

'It caused us pain!'

'He's one of us!'

'He knew what he did!'

'I won't kill him.'

'AVENGE THEIR DEATHS!?'

'I'LL AT LEAST SAVE ONE PERSON HERE!'

Then there was finally silence in his head, but it was distracting him too much to not nuke the worm like monster to kingdom come. It grabbed his ankle and threw him against the Ground several times. It didn't hurt Scyron, but he was sure he would Need to repair his armor after this was over. Then it let go of him.

"I'm sorry, but this will hurt. [Crystal Prison]." Suddenly large colorless crystals began to grow around the grounded devil, encasing him in a half spherical cocoon of that material.

'Earth Magic huh? Looks like he couldn't decide what he wanted to have. Well in that case...' Scyron thought. "[Negative Burst]!" Within a heartbeat, a wave of dark energy burst from the demon's body in a circular manner. At first it painted the colorless crystals black, before tearing them apart from the inside out. The worm like creature looked wary at the destroyed prison as crystal shards flew through the air and Scyron stood up from the place where he was kept for a moment. 'I have to confess, if one of the others would have been hit by this 6th tier spell, they'd never made it out alive. [Crystal Prison], a spell trapping the target in one place by growing crystals around it to stop its movement. It surely is more efficient than simply freezing the place all over, but still if he really hasn't noticed the difference in power between us yet, he'll keep using stronger attacks with every spell used. Eventually he might even end up exhausted from the Depletion of mana… if that Ignis Fatale Thing applies for us as well that is.' Scyron thought to himself.

The monster before him circled around him like a lion or a tiger, never turning away from the devil. Its tendrils still held the swords firmly in their grasp and each step emitted a cracking sound of the bones crushed beneath its weight like twigs. Scyron circled around the worm as well as he picked up his shakusho again. He swore he heard a deep growling sound, but he was unsure whether it was him or the insect player.

'I need to convince him that I am not an enemy. But how do I do that? And why is he attacking adventurers in the first place? Did something happen safe for the whole transportation thing? Is this behavior a result of the race this guy has chosen?' Scyron then sheathed his sword and got more relaxed. "There is no more need for us to fight. Put your swords away, so we can talk on even ground. I know what you are." Scyron said. The worm like being cocked its head sideways like an owl, that didn't understand something.

"And how is that? Who are you?" It said as it was about 4 meters away from the demon. It looked a little like a crocodile seizing up a much smaller bird. It came closer as Scyron made his weapons disappear into his inventory. The worm took a couple of steps back in shock at this. "H-How can this be? Impossible."

"More like very possible. Or have you never thought about the possibility of other players being here in this world as well?" Scyron replied. The insect remained silent for a moment. "Yes, I'm a YGGDRASIL player like yourself." The devil finally dropped the bomb. "And I can tell just by looking at you, that you are a player as well. Or perhaps a NPC, but no simple monster. But that matters little right now." With that Scyron was engulfed by flames as he flew up into the air only for the dispersing flames to reveal his true self. Back in his six-winged demon form he looked down on the worm as he made two spears made of dark flames appear in his hands. The insect player shook, most likely in fear and panic as the devil glared down at him. Meanwhile inside his head, his demonic nature seized control over his body once more.

"You know what you did. You killed a lot of people with your slimes, but they all are on a low level. You summoned them to do your dirty work, didn't you?" Scyron said as he flew closer with a tone that held no expression. The worm took several steps backwards as his long body had to in order to move the body at least a bit backwards in this place. "[Piercing Icicle]." Scyron said as multiple large icicles appeared in the air, each about the same length and thickness of a human arm. With a wave of his hand they shot with neck breaking speed at the worm. It tried to parry the blows, but its sword broke apart upon contact as the icy projectiles pierced the carapace of the worm, making it cry out in pain.

'No! Stop! I don't want this!' The normal part of Scyron cried out inside his head, trying to take over his Body again, but it was as if he was submerged in darkness, unable to move at all as he could only watch his body doing what it was doing.

"First you took a few animals, but when you took those of the local farms they sent adventurers. And even now you send those things out to do your clean up work don't you? What was it that motivated you? Wanting to know how it feels to kill someone?" Scyron's aura exploded at this point out of the devil player as he came closer to the worm again, who now dropped his ruined swords.

"N-No nothing like that! J-Just wait a minute! I can explain. I swear on my life!" The worm said. Scyron landed on the ground, but where he stepped his footprints set the bones on fire and his spine like tail was now in a position similiar to a cobra or a scorpion ready for the strike. Fireballs appeared around his body as if he was going to use [Hinotama] again. He pointed one spear at the worm, who was basically only a couple steps away now. The worm held up his tentacles as if they were Hands in a surrendering manner.

'I SAID STOP!' Scyron's mind cried out as the devil was suddenly hit by a massive headache. Gripping his head and groaning in pain, the spear in the devil's Hand vanished.

'HE NEEDS TO SUFFER FOR WHAT HE DID! WE ARE A DEMON NOW! UNLEASH SOME HELL!?' The voice in his head slipped back into the back of his mind as the Player took Control over his Body once more. He had an idea that what he was Hearing and what was possessing him was sometimes his demonic nature or the aspects of the 7 deadly sins.

'We Need to be better than this...' Scyron replied, before the voice faded back into silence. A long moment of silence filled the room. A minute that felt like it lasted hours crawled slowly away. Scyron took his eyes never from the worm like being, before he stood up again and his aura and the fireballs dispersed in embers in a nonexistent wind.

"Fine. Then talk before I change my mind and punish you for killing all these innocent people." He said in a commanding voice, trying to play off the incident just now. 'Step 1 - Intimidation: Successful! Though this whole thing was weird. I need to get a better grip on myself.' He thought concerned about his condition. He already knew that this guy was not able to pose a threat to him. He also could say that this worm had no intention on actually harming others. It was in his intuition. While the insect player's eyes held no emotions as were they made of glass, Scyron could already read in this guy like in an open book.

This player was not the coldhearted murderer he had pretended to be. Yes, he had killed, but he was not an actual evil person. Probably he acted more out of panic than common sense and the fact that he had blood on his hands was much more a problem for him than that god who just lost another 12 of his children.

"A-Alright. I suddenly woke up here in this cave with the few monsters that I had with me in the game. I was alone and hungry so I let the slimes explore the tunnels as I couldn't. The hunger became unbearable and then a few of them offered to get eaten to satisfy my hunger so I did, while the others went exploring. I don't know how Long I've been down here to be honest. I got no Feeling for time down here without a clock or anything. But one day the slimes managed to get out this maze of tunnels. They brought me food and I was so hungry. I was just grateful to have gotten something to eat that I didn't care from where it came. And then these people came and wanted to kill me for some reason. Though I guess that I know the reason why now." The massive caterpillar said, waving its many stubby legs around. Scyron looked at the whole thing sweat dropping.

'I'm...not sure if I can kill this guy after all now. I mean I didn't plan to anyway, but this is just...' Scyron thought to himself. "I see." He said. The caterpillar like insect sighed in relief.

"Thank y-"

BOOM

A sudden explosion in the face made the insect type Player fly backwards as an unexpected [Lightning] hit him right in the midsection of his body. The worm trashed around in pain as its carapace got scorched black and burnt as the Player finally picked himself up.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR? Ugh!" The worm gasped as Scyron took off his helmet and looked at the worm for the first time directly, showing the insect a completely pissed off face Expression.

"That's for killing all those innocent people! You are lucky that I don't blast you to kingdom come and rip your head off to show it the god whose children you have slaughtered and then Hand it over the next fireplace I find like a Hunting trophy! Call it compensation for me not beating the shit out of you!" Scyron shouted enraged before his eyes widened in shock as he realized what he had just said. 'This is getting out of Hand. What the hell is wrong with me? I only wanted to shout at him and hit him with a [Lightning] and not a [Magic Mine]. I... I Need a break from all of this.' The worm looked down and took several steps backwards.

"I... I know what I did was wrong. I cannot say that I'm sorry enough times to express how sorry I am. It... really sucks you know? Not having control over the consequences of one's actions. Killing me would probably be the better punishment for me...UGAH!"

In that moment, Scyron really lost it and kicked the worm right against his jaws, sending it sprawled on his back on the ground.

"SHUT UP ALREADY!" Scyron shouted, glaring at the worm player. "You say you feel bad for those you have killed. But what good does killing you do to them or those left behind? Does it bring them back? Huh?!" The devil said as the tears he had held back earlier now ran down his face, but he didn't care about his vision going blurry all of the sudden. His rage and sadness mixed together in a turmoil he simply had to let out or else it would consume him from within like an illness. "If you want to make it up to those you have killed and those I couldn't safe, you better do something to prevent shit like that from happening ever again instead of taking the easy way out by just dying! Get up and be a man for once or has your personality turned as spineless as your body?" Scyron said as his wings unfolded in a somewhat dramatic manner.

"When you really want to make it for what you did, help me fix what you have broken and prevent suffering like that from happening again! Conquer that fear of yours, drag yourself out of that bog of self-pity and do something so this place doesn't end up as shitty as our old world!" Scyron roared the last part, before he simply looked at the worm Player, who was staring back at the devil.

"I... I will try to make it up... Even if I got no idea how yet. But I think I could do it... with a little help." The worm player said, sounding less distressed than before. The devil sighed.

"Alright listen up. I'll help you to get out of this place, but in exchange I want you to follow me and do as I say. That is the only way I can guarantee you don't do this Kind of stuff again."

"Oi! I already said I wouldn't do that stuff anymore! Can't you at least trust me as a fellow player?" The insect exclaimed.

"No." Was the cold response of the devil as the worm felt suddenly the temperature drop to the freezing point. Scyron then turned around. "Well, I guess you want to stay in here forever then."

"Hey! Hey! Hey! Wait! I thought you can get me out of here!" The other player exclaimed as the devil shot him a sly smile. "You damn son of a-" The worm held it in as he walked over to the devil, before lowering one of the tendrils as if offering a hand to shake. "By the way, my name is Rentaro Kojima, but in the game I was called Reiji." Scyron nodded at this as he grabbed the tendril a small smile appeared in his lips.

"Scyron Infernalis. The pleasure is all mine. Now then, let's get out of here. We got much work to do now." The devil said. "[Widen Magic: Teleportation]!" With a flash of light, the player duo vanished from the caves.

---

Omake: Property Issues

"Any idea whose lamp this is?" Scyron asked.

"No. Why do you ask? It's not that we decorate them." Roku said. "Why do you ask?"

Scyron then turns the lamp around and Shows the Name Nox written all over it in bold capital letters.

"Oh..." The other adventurers thought sweatdropping.

---

Omake: Useless Party

"IAHH!?" Akira, Seneca and Paula cried out when the slimes attacked them. Unfortunately, before the first spell could be cast, the slimes had wrapped their tentacles around the female adventurers and lifted them off the ground like puppets.

"Hey! Don't just stand there and help us already!" Paula shouted at the male party members on the ground before she noticed that they were all looking at their immobilized comrades with faint blushes on their faces and smiles. Confused the adventurer looked down to see that the slime was starting to dissolve not only the weapons, but also the clothes of the female adventurers. The faces of the three girls erupted in crimson blushes at this point

"NO!" They cried out, but no one even thought about giving the girls any attention as they were too busy watching. Scyron sat outside the cave as the others told him that they 'got this' and didn't need dead weight.

After 3 Hours the adventurers came out of the cave with the girls being traumatized for their lives, which then retired from being adventurers. The monster threat was later dealt with by a more professional group of adventurers under Scyron's command.

---

Omake: Inner conflict

In blank white void stood a round table with 8 people sitting around it. All of them looked a lot like Scyron, but yet differed in some aspects. The first one looked like Scyron's human disguise. The 2nd one was wearing a pair of black pants and had small horns on his forehead like an oni. The 3rd had a snake like tail. The 4th had bear-like paws and was eating a bucked full with fried chicken on his own. The 5th was wearing a snorlax onesie and laying on top of the table with his upper body. The 6th had flames for hair and large bat wings on his back as well as a tail that looked like it belonged to a stegosaurus. Also he was larger than the others and wore a stern expression on his face. The 7th wore a monocle and had ram-like horns on his head. Finally, the 8thhad a rat-like tail and wore a pair of glasses.

That were the personalities within Scyron. Human, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Sloth, Wrath, Pride and Greed.

"Can we please throw bondage guy out? He's weirding me out." Asked Envy.

"I agree on that." Pride stated.

"Don't care as long as I can sleep." Sloth said.

"We are all the same person." Human said hanging his head low.

"Why are we here again?" Wrath asked.

"Because we wanted to discuss what girls we are going to seduce." Lust stated happily.

"Wait a second! Who said something about multiple girls?!" Envy exclaimed blushing furiously.

"I just did. Duh! We are demons. We should build a harem!" Lust said doing a Captain Morgan pose by standing with one foot on the table.

"WHO ASKED YOU, YOU PERVERT?!" Wrath shouted.

"YOU WANT SOME KNUCKLE HEAD?" Lust shouted back.

"ALL OF YOU JUST SHUT UP!" Sloth said going between the two other Scyrons. "I'm trying to sleep here." He said slamming face down on the table, before starting to snore. And once again the other 6 demons started bickering, while the human side tried to calm them down.

"How about we just make a list of people we would consider as potential partners okay?" Human finally suggested.

"Fine. I'll go first then." Lust said, before striking another dramatic pose. "I say we bone everyone woman." Lust was then smacked over the head by a paper fan.

"Okay and now an answer of someone who is not a complete retard." Human said holding the paper fan.

"I say Chloe so we can sleep all day long with someone." Sloth said half asleep.

"She's a shotacon though." Wrath said. "Wait since when are you interested in anything that is not lazing around?"

"She'd be there to warm one up." Sloth said before falling asleep again.

"I don't have any interest in any of the girls yet. Too weak and too pathetic." Wrath said, throwing his two cents in the ring.

"The same goes for me." Pride stated calmly.

"I'd say we take Hephaestus in for a solid income." Greed stated. "After all, money is what is running the world. If we could get into her company and take it over from within, our money problems would be solved forever with her talent as a deity of blacksmithing and our resources."

"Perhaps Loki is a good candidate. She has a lot of influence in Orario. Given her position it might turn out well for us." Envy stated.

"And we get access to her girls too! Pajama Party Boys!"

SMACK!

And Lust was down again.

"Maybe we should tie him up somewhere and say we didn't come to a conclusion yet." Human suggested.

"I agree on the last part." Wrath said.

"Though Lust would probably find the first thing good himself." Envy stated with disgust in his voice.

"Fucking weirdo." Pride said.

"We are all the same person, guys." Human said sweatdropping.

"AS IF!?" The 5 conscious demons representing the deadly sins shouted as the room once more was turned into a battlefield.

Sloth slept through the whole thing, dreaming of sleeping and creating thus and infinite loop of dreams within dreams in which he does what he does best: sleeping.

---

Finally finished that chapter! I can't believe it took me so goddamn long! VICTORY!?

You know, even when the plot is already decided and worked on as a concept in your head, it is still not easy to get it down on paper or rather data. Not to mention to make all those characters that were killed in this chapter. That was not as easy as you may think it was as it took me MONTHS to do that.

Along the last one and a half year since the last update on the 17th of December 2017 a lot of stuff happened. Unfortunately, this was the very last well prepared chapter I have made from my less stressful time as I still have a mountain of work to do, that is now even bigger than the last one.

So I'll be off for quite a while.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Write your comments and suggestions into the reviews like usually. I can only try to make time to keep writing on any of my stories. I may release one or the other oneshot that may become a full-fledged story later, but it will take a lot of time until it comes to that.

So with all that being said and done, I'll go now. So until next time (whenever and wherever that will be), have a nice day ;)