Chương 1251: 1250. Force them Quawk by Quawk

---Pakkonaia ----"What a curious thing..." he mumbled as he rolled the cracked sphere in his hands "... and this was flying and surveying the forest?" he asked the subordinate kneeling on the ground. The Veil Ranger, who had his face covered with a black cloth just nodded silently. He then lifted his hand, showing several numbers.

"There were 87 of these?" the figure asked surprised, almost standing up from his throne.

"Where did they come from?" he asked. The ranger looked at the ground, troubled. The veil fell forward, exposing a smooth skin. They smacked their fist against the leather chest plate twice.

"You are allowed to speak," he agreed to the request. usually, these rangers were silent and not allowed to speak without permission, only communicating with hand signs. Even with the permission, the ranger's lips did not split. ~We found most of them in the vicinity of the terror tree. We suspect they came from the world beyond the hell gate. ~ the guard transmitted telepathically.

The Terror Tree, an existence that had completely dissembled their Hell Gate station, and now there was something coming from the overgrown gate?

"Interesting, that means someone from that side dares to show curiosity in our world. keep watch of the tree in case more of these appear, or maybe someone. I want a group of guards on standby to welcome them."

"As you wish, my Lord." the rangers rose from their knees, bowed again and left, to share the orders of their master.... ---Delta--- The next day, Al and Seth sat together to decide which gate they should start with. the three remaining gates were very different from the first four, but also from each other. Between the three gates, one was darkness, another was a lush forest set in twilight and the last one gave a view to a bleak and dreary landscape with some trees and bushes, but nothing else.

"I think we should take this one last. The scout golems are still mapping it," the sorceress commented on the gate of darkness. From their side, there was nothing visible past the surface of the portal. It was simply like a big black disk that used to spit out demonic beasts. But thanks to the golem eyes they sent in, they knew that there was a vast cave system past this gate, which explained the insurmountable darkness beyond.

The golems had mapped a huge, complicated system of tunnels and caverns, but were yet to find the birthing pools or any demon at all.

"That leaves this bleak swamp-looking place or the lush twilight forest. I would like to start with the latter, but we lost contact with the golems there. It might be quite dangerous and could take a while;" the blacksmith mentioned their other options.

"hmhm, I thought the same," Al agreed, " Then let's go with door number swamp!" the spicy sorceress joked.

"Did you watch old game shows again?" Seth asked dryly. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"Stop being so grumpy, let's go," she said and stood up. using the towers teleport system, they arrived instantly at the entrance to the bleak-looking plain. The golem eyes had already scouted the place and found that this place was really a wet plain that stretched for miles before bordering a couple of smaller hills and mountains. Beyond those mountains were other wet plains like this. It seemed like the whole world was a dreary wet blanket with little vegetation.

They stepped through the portal into the cavity of the tree on the other side. Even the air in this place smelled foul and old. Seth took a moment to orient himself, using the map and the directions of the golem eyes. The scout devices had found a structure like the birthing pools embedded into the mountains bordering these moist plains. The two of them got onto Vegr and took to the skies. Looking at this world from above made it look even more desolate. Another miss when it came to the question of food production.

Seth couldn't imagine anything proper growing in this foul atmosphere and soil. At least the birthing pool that the golems found was not very far away. 45 Minutes on the golem griffin later, they reached the location of the golem eye that found the demon-spawning structure. It was like a festering boil growing on the side of a relatively steep hillside. Something about it looked off when compared to the ones they saw so far. Was it a local difference based on the climate and demons?

Things quickly unraveled when Vegr tried to land on the plain in front of the structure. The griffin's paws started sinking into the ground with ark, putrid-smelling sludge bubbling up around them. The golem quickly flapped its wing, but something actually rose from the ground and grabbed its ankles, trying to pull Vegr down. Without communication, both evicted the steed. Al'Zalsar floated up, while Seth jumped off its back. The moment Seth set foot on the ground, he could feel the energy of his cuisse activate.

Something remotely resembling a hand grabbed onto his ankle too, but none of its pulling could move the blacksmith's feet.

"This isn't a swamp," he commented, looking at how he was not actually standing on solid ground, but on the water surface thanks to <Water Walking>. <Vepar's Protection> had also activated improving his defense by 25%, as he was an "armored vessel laden with weapons". The hand on his ankle was just pulling his foot against the solid ground for him.

Seth realized that these vast plains the golems had scouted were actually huge bodies of water with small islands and patches of dirt floating on top, making it look like solid ground. Yet, the moment one stepped on them, they started to sink as they supported no weight. In the moment it took Seth to return Vegr to his inventory and save the golem from the moist grasp, more and more weird appendages surfaced from the rotten, chunky water under his feet.

But before the blacksmith could act, Al'Zalsar had already cast a spell. A grid of bright red lasers appeared on the surface of the swamp, encompassing the hundreds of limbs that were reaching out from the depth to catch Seth. With a simple, quick 90° turn of the grid, all limbs were magically severed right above the water surface. All except the ones directly holding onto Seth. The blacksmith didn't even comment on it. With a snap, the tentacle-like hand holding his ankles burst into bright red draconic flames.

A bunch of bubbles were accompanied by a screech that could even be heard above the water's surface and the appendages let go, pulling back into the depths. Although the things couldn't pull him down, he still quickly walked to the perceived shore. He made a mental note to make sure that golem eyes would also check ground integrity in the future. At least now, the weird look of the birthing pools made sense. At least half of the structure was probably submerged in the treacherous lake.

Who knew what kind of disgusting horrors these birthing pools spat into the murky darkness of these waters? Seth suddenly had even less motivation to try and strike a deal with any residents of this world. After all, this was their doing. They made the world look like this, which was just bad taste in Seth's opinion.

"Quawk!" A slimy orifice suddenly opened at the side of the birthing pool, with slime dripping down and running along its edges. A created with human legs and the distorted upper body of a deep sea fish charged out. It had a pair of slimy arms, that held onto a crude spear. The giant head was turned toward Seth as its maw with many needle-like teeth opened and made a dissonant sound. The big pale eyes looked in his general direction.

Their eyes met, probably, although Seth wanted to turn away because of the beast's putrid breath. How was anyone even supposed to hold negotiations with something like that?

"Hello, can you-" Seth tried to talk to it, but it attacked him mid-sentence, Seth evaded the crude spear and the next moment a bullet of dark fire was shot straight through the beast's human knee, causing it to fall to the floor. This was a spell from Ar'eth's 42 Fire Cantrips called Dark Flame Bullet. Thanks to <Double Cast> of the Cloak of Hekate, the next round was already in the chamber.

Seth grabbed and threw away its spear before he crouched down beside the demon, pushing the tip of his gloved hand against the fish head's temple and speaking in his rough demon tongue.

"Can you understand me?" he asked, <Voice of Seth> making it clear that the next target for the cantrip was its life. It didn't talk, but it nodded. It was a start.