âDonât you think your anti-magic skill is too powerful, Rozan? They canât even do anything around you,â Jeanne asked as she stared at dozens of men and women laying down on the floor in the castle in old fancy outfits.
âWell, Mykel told me the Asmodeus Tower is going to be easy for me. Thatâs why he sent me here, but those demon lords that we encountered back there, that didnât count,â Rozan said as he looked at the portal in front of him. âShould we go now or do you want to go somewhere else first?â Rozan asked.
Jeanne looked at Edith and asked if she got any vision of a secret room, but Edith couldnât see anything. They then entered through a portal to the nineteenth floor.
It was as Rozan said, they all went back to the real world, and the city was more of a mess but peaceful. They came out of the castle and immediately got ambushed by the knights who were in fear.
âStop right there! Who are you?! How did you get into the castle!â One of the knights asked as he pointed his halberd at Jeanne with his hand trembling. They noticed the halberds were made of silver.
âWe came to save your world. We are from a different world and we are here to kill Demon Lord Kathryx,â Jeanne answered as she raised her hands to show that she was friendly.
The knights looked at the rest of them and noticed their weird outfits. They didnât want to believe them, but they were desperate and scared at the same time. A tiny bit of hope or false hope was enough to move them.
âAlright, stay right there. I will tell the lord,â The knight said.
âOf course, we will wait,â Jeanne answered as she nodded her head with her hands still up in the air.
The knight hurriedly ran to the street as the other knight was still pointing his halberd at Jeanne and the others with his trembling hands. Jeanne looked at him and gently smiled at him so he could feel a bit at ease.
âCan you put it down? You make me tired by watching you pointing your weapon at us,â Beldathiel said as she stared at the knight.
The knight moved his halberd toward Beldathiel but then realized how beautiful she was and how tired she looked. The knight instantly lowered his halberd as he kept staring at her, and then looked at the two tall women right behind her who were also beautiful.
âCan you tell us what happened here? Why the lord doesnât live in the castle?â Edith asked calmly.
âNobody wants to live in this haunted and damned castle. Everyone who enters this castle always ended up dead or missing,â The knight answered as he looked at the giant castle in front of him. âHow did you end up in there?â The knight asked.
âWe came from here, but from a different dimension,â Rozan answered.
âDimension? Whatâs that?â The knight asked.
âNever mind, itâs hard to explain. The point is we came from the world where the werewolves and the vampires live. We took care of them, and now we are here, and we are going to the Asmodeus Tower to kill the Demon Lord,â Rozan answered as he looked at the knight.
âYou took care of those creatures?!â The knight asked with a shocked expression.
âWe did, and thatâs why we are here right now because we took care of all of them,â Rozan answered.
âNot all of them,â The knight said as he looked at the castle. âThereâs something up there in the castle, laughter every night. We donât know whatâs up there, but whatever that is, it sounds petrifying,â The knight continued as he looked at the tower of the castle.
Jeanne and the others looked at the tower that the knight was staring at, but they didnât hear anything at all no matter how long they waited to hear the laughter. The lord came with a bunch of knights with him. A man with long white hair with a fine outfit like the one that the vampires wore, the outfit of the nobles.
âGood evening, people from another world. Let me introduce myself, my name is Joseph, the lord of this city, or you could say the only lord left in this world,â Joseph said as he looked around.
âTell us what happened to Clessirea World? Where are the rest of the people?â Jeanne asked.
âSlaughtered, eaten, cursed, captured, turned into monsters. You name it, nothing good had happened to us for the past decade. We are here just praying to the Gods and hope we would survive,â Joseph answered. âThe demons had killed most of us, and we arenât able to do anything to protect ourselves,â
âDonât you have people like? People with abilities?â Jeanne asked.
âWe had, but they all died protecting or turned into werewolves or vampires. We donât have anything but silver, but whatâs the point of possessing such a powerful item without the strength to protect ourselves,â Joseph answered with a sorrowful expression.
âHow far can you go in this place?â Rozan asked.
âYou see those hills? Thatâs as far as we can go. Why?â Joseph replied with his eyes squinted.
âDo you think how many of them out there?â Rozan asked.
âThere should be a few of them over there down south, and we heard howlings on the east and north. The west side is safe and thatâs the only place we breed cows and chickens, but sometimes those creatures killed our livestock,â Joseph answered.
âAlright. Nagy, you take the east, Rozan and Miss Edith should check the north, then go to the west once you took care of them on the north and check the area. I and the rest will take care the ones in the south. Letâs move,â Jeanne said as she looked at everyone.
(On the seventeenth floor of the Silian World)
âYouâre right. This is faster than I expected,â Agnez said as she looked at the portal in front of her.
âYes, but something isnât right about all this. We did nothing at all and just followed the path, and the portal is right in front of us for some reason without any notification. Do you think this portal is a trap or something?â Asmond asked as he looked at Agnez.
âAnd what do you want to do?â Agnez asked as she leaned on the bookshelf.
âWe should try and keep going. We will leave marks on our way, so we know how to go back here,â Asmond answered.
âAlright, lead the way,â Agnez said as she pushed herself up.
They explored the maze for hours, and there was nothing during their exploration until they stumbled into another portal. They all started to believe Asmond about fake portals that might have led them somewhere dangerous.
They decided to keep going and hoped they would find a demon or anything that they could interact with. After hours of exploring, they stumbled on four portals, but not a single demon or clues on what they needed to do on that floor.
âThis is pointless, Iâm considering on using brute force,â Asmond said as he looked at Agnez.
âOh, you do now? Does that mean you want us to destroy this whole place down?â Agnez asked.
âYeah, go crazy?â Asmond replied with his eyebrows raised.
âWell then, give me my sword back. I canât use this sword if itâs not for killing,â Agnez said as she reached her hand at Asmond.
Asmond gave back Agnezâs sword, and then Agnez immediately drew her sword and started cutting the bookshelves in half with projectile attacks. Vincze and Sven joined Agnez, and they opened the path so quickly.
They heard a growl in the distance and heard the bookshelves being destroyed in the distance.
âLooks like we pissed someone that lives here,â Agnez said as she stared at the bookshelf in front of her.
They couldnât hear any footsteps, but the ground shook because the bookshelves were being pushed down by something. Agnez knew where the sound was coming from, and she swung her sword upward in that direction.
The bookshelves were cut in half, and then they saw it, the demon that looked like a snake. A snake that wore a robe and a weird-shaped hat like a mortarboard hat.
âWhatâs that? A bookworm?â Sven asked.
âThatâs our way out, letâs kill it,â Agnez said as she drew Dainsleif from her scabbard.