Chapter 132 Picking Up The Pieces 4 (1/2)
Sekkin carried Zero on his back as they got out of the carriage. Wiser didn't know if he should be relieved that the carriage has stopped or fearful that they've finally arrived at the castle. Qin Yun appeared relaxed while Amaraline stayed close to Sekkin and Coux. The small escort party waited by the barbed gates of Lord Baal's entrance. The rat familiar left as soon as the guests alighted and nobody knew what to expect.
Five minutes later, Wiser regretted his decision to follow the group. Instead of having someone welcome them at the gate, they found themselves screaming for their lives and falling into a dark portal that opened beneath their feet. Sekkin immediately recognised the shadow magic and shifted Zero into a position so that he could easily shield the helpless brunet from harm.
Thankfully none of them had to worry about getting seriously hurt. No one could see what was happening but they certainly felt the magic that broke their plummet.
With a snap of his fingers, the room lit up and the party found themselves levitating in the middle of a grand throne hall. Coux was speechless. She was invited to meet royalty on Earth several times but none of those throne halls could compare to this.
Heavy black curtains lined the sides and the room was lit by hellfire torches. The throne was artfully crafted from bones and gold on top of the steps. The distance from where they were to the throne was at least fifty paces. However, the thing that caught the trader's attention was a young boy with black hair and eyes who yawned sleepily on top of that throne.
Whatever humans imagined Demon King Baal to look like, it was most definitely not a small boy with pale skin that looked almost white. His pitch black eyes and hair looked relatively normal and the only indication that he wasn't human was the single black horn protruding from the middle of his forehead.
With the wave of his hand, the magic was cancelled and gravity took control once more, sending everyone to the ground. Wiser and Amaraline landed clumsily on their bottom. Coux and Qin Yun had more grace and fell onto the balls of their feet, sustaining no injury. Sekkin flipped mid-air to right himself so that Zero wouldn't hit the ground when he landed. All in all, it was quite the invitation that nobody expected.
Exercising courtesy befitting of royalty, Coux bowed and introduced themselves. Strangely, she was stopped not even two sentences into her greeting by Baal who looked slightly annoyed.
”Let's not go into all that. This is hell and you are in my castle. Basically, I make the rules and I say to hell with formalities. No pun intended.”
Wiser raised a brow at the dry humour. He had an idea or two about who that brazen child on the throne was but his brain lagged so badly trying to process that huge gap between what he knew and what he saw. So he continued to gape like a fish out of water.
”Your Highness,” Qin Yun began but was cut off by Baal's scowl.
”Just Baal will do. Belphegor is fine as well. I'm not good with the formal titles unless I'm meeting with the other Demon Lords. While I would love to entertain you with a feast upon arrival, I believe Zero's condition takes precedence. Let's head over to the Spring of Vitality now.”
Nobody objected and Sekkin looked slightly relieved. Who knew that Baal would be so understanding and easy to talk to? Qin Yun didn't comment but she looked slightly uncomfortable at Baal's casual behaviour. As the mother of all fox demons, she was more cautious than anyone in the party. Baal had quite the reputation even in hell. His tantrums were often unexpected and merciless despite his lackadaisical attitude.
They were led down a twist of corridors and passageways including a secret trapdoor that didn't seem like common knowledge. Coux could only wonder where the servants were. It was a huge castle and they've seen a lot of the castle. It would have been normal to come across a few servants scuttling around, busying away. However, there were none and the trader felt very uncomfortable. Sekkin held onto Zero tighter when they were led down the trapdoor in what looked like a garden.
Amaraline stared at the carnivorous plants with interest before they descended down the secret passageway. Wiser huffed and did his best to keep up. For such a short Demon King, Baal walked fast. Sometimes, it looked as if he was floating. Without any way to tell the time, the party walked for what felt like hours before they heard the sound of water bubbling in the distance.
The trapdoor led them outside of the castle. They only discovered this after travelling for a bit and discovered that the castle was behind them like a backdrop against the red sky. The forest they entered was dead in a literal way. Other than ravens with glowing red eyes perched on dead gnarly branches, there no other signs of life around. Wiser half expected to see pools of lava lying around randomly to complete the image of hell but there were none. Baal would occasionally give a short introduction about where they were. Apparently, the abyss was old. Many things had long histories and Wiser could only imagine how old Baal really was.
The one thing Wiser took away from Baal's short lectures was how he shouldn't take anything in the abyss at face value. After tripping over a dried root on the ground, Wiser was about to grab onto a low hanging branch for support to get up when he was stopped by the Demon Lord who moved faster than one could blink.
”That's the antler of a tubeworm demon you were going to grab. Unless you want to alert it that dinner is here, I suggest you don't touch it. Nothing in the abyss is harmless.”
Wiser paled and thanked Baal numbly as they continued the rest of their hike through the dead tree forest without incident. The red sky faded into a melancholic blue and that was when they heard the bubbling of water in the distance. The scenery slowly transformed into something creepier. There was a thin layer of fog as they became closer to the spring. Wiser was utterly exhausted from the long walk, unused to such intense physical activity.
”We're almost there,” Baal told them.
Amaraline shivered. The air was getting colder and for some reason, Qin Yun had all nine of her tails out. She was looking more fox than human as they got closer. In fact, she wasn't the only one. Sekkin's eyes turned yellow and his arms were covered in thick black hair. Nobody commented when extra limbs protruded from his back. The cockatrice descendant knew that Sekkin was a spider demon but it was the first time she saw his transformation. According to Mitchnew, he hated his demon appearance and felt more comfortable in his human form. Coux was mildly surprised when the air tingled. There was a very strong flow of magic that only those with demon blood could sense. Unlike Qin Yun and Sekkin, her demon blood was very watered down so there was no forced transformation.
The Spring of Vitality was a huge lake in the middle of nowhere. Wiser didn't know what to think of such an anti-climatic reveal. The fog was very thick above the water and he wasn't sure how deep it was. Baal started shedding his clothes without hesitation and told them to do the same.