The Paladin in the Abyss

The group carefully continued forward, entering a cave with a fork in the road.

On the ground lay the corpses of three Werewolf beings, the source of the bloody smell.

"They've been dead for at least an hour, must be the work of those Demons," Old Reap crouched to inspect the bodies, announcing to everyone.

For Lancelot, it was his first time seeing such creatures that were said to be like the plague. The Werewolves were very tall, capable of reaching over 7 feet if they stood straight, but they had severe hunchbacks, their spines bent at almost right angles.

They had hooves like wild beasts, hands resembling those of humanoid creatures, and atop their necks were hyena-like heads, even in death their expressions remained vicious and malevolent.

Their weapons and armor were clearly stolen from other beings, but evidently, this was not enough to stand against the Steel Demon's Cold Iron Greatsword. Judging from the nearly bisected corpses, these Werewolves never had a chance to fight back.

"The Demons clearly knew of this secret passage, handled these blokes blocking the way without breaking a sweat," Phil commented, "I thought this secret passage was really hidden."

"There are still a few who know of this secret passage. If the Demons got to one of them, I believe they would sell out this secret without hesitation for any insignificant reward," Old Reap sighed, "And it might well be that the spy was sent by the Demons themselves, having already figured out everything about Oasis Fort."

"What about Twin Bridges Town?" Bruto asked, "Are there spy Demons there too?"

"Definitely, it's inevitable. Demons are masters of seducing others into their service. Not just Blood War Mercenaries, even Demons have been foolish enough to be tempted," the Werewolf explained, "But no matter how hard we try, there are always new fools ready to sell their souls to the Demons for a bit of gold. We can't even count the number of 'rats' we catch each year."

"And this guy has won the rat-catching contest many times. I've always thought it had something to do with his... keen sense of smell," Phil was about to say the word "dog nose" again, but he stopped himself just in time. "Twin Bridges Town has always been a key military supplier for Tanari and a major infiltration target for Demons. Speaking of which, there's a joke on that topic. Want to hear it?"

"Oh, let's not, that bit is too old," Old Reap shook his head, "And they've definitely heard it already."

"I haven't, I haven't!" Koula expressed what was on Lancelot and the others' minds, "What's the joke?"

"It goes like this; one day, the lady Sonam of the Mercenary Hall seeks an audience with Tijana, the Lord of Twin Bridges Town, saying she's caught a high-ranking Demon spy hiss, and asks how to deal with him, hiss. Do we skin him and plaster it over the town gates, hiss? Or chop off his limbs and jar them, hiss?"

"Upon hearing this, Tijana angrily states: Oh~ my dear Sonam, bring this poor fellow to me. If you kill him, who will tell us what last month's exact output was?"

The Goblin mimicked the voice of the Serpent Demon and the Succubus Lord, causing everyone to burst into laughter, which eased the tension quite a bit.

"Alright, alright, that's a stale old joke," the Werewolf rolled his eyes, "Let's keep moving."

"Which way?" the Goblin asked, "I mean, which way can we avoid the lair of those Werewolves?"

"Can't avoid it either way," the Werewolf shook his head, "And from the smell, there are even more Werewolves ahead, the dead kind. The left path leads to the surface more quickly if that's what you're concerned about."

"Let's take the left path, we'd better get back to the ground as soon as possible," Lancelot said. Their mission had been completed, and they should meet up with Iados who was responsible for the rendezvous as soon as possible.

The group no longer spoke and continued on from the left fork.

Just as old Reap had said, every now and then, they would come across the mutilated corpse of a werewolf, with blood splattered all over the walls on either side of the passage. The scent in the air was simply nauseating.

However, the agony didn't last long. After walking for about ten minutes, they once again saw the open sky above them.

Lancelot kept an eye on the surroundings. The situation was as he had expected, with plenty of freshly chopped conifer stumps nearby, clearly felled by Demons to build siege engines. But fortunately, there were no signs of Demons nearby; it seemed the Demons had not planned for a prolonged siege, or else they would have left some forces to watch over this 'resource point'.

They were about three miles from Oasis Fort, with flames reaching to the sky, dyeing half of it a dark red. The sounds of battle carried over were now very faint, but if one concentrated True Qi to their eyes, one could still roughly make out the situation of the fight.

Several sections of the wall had been completely destroyed, but it seemed the Demons were still resisting. Lancelot also saw the Demons' siege engines, giant catapults placed between this small forest and Oasis Fort, but most had been burned down, with only a few still operational.

It seemed the Bone Demon he had killed might indeed have been the Demons' backup plan. Without the support of the Skeleton Sea, the Demons would probably pay a much heavier price than originally planned. If the Demons managed to luckily hold Oasis Fort, then those treasures looted from the Succubus Palace could be considered Molo's compensation to him, Lancelot thought silently to himself.

"I never thought I'd say this, but not having a few thousand tons of rocks above my head does make me feel a lot lighter," Bruto stretched his body, "So, where is that Brezu Demon named Iados? Goblin, do you know how to contact that guy?"
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"No need to go looking for him specifically," Phil shook his head, "We just need to make a round, and he'll come to find us. If he doesn't show up, then we'll just go straight to the backup rendezvous point."

So the group moved cautiously through the woods, but there was no sight of Iados. Lancelot extended his Spiritual Sense to its limit and likewise detected no sign of the Brezu Demon, so they had likely withdrawn to the backup rendezvous point upon discovering the Demon army two days earlier.

Lancelot had actually expected this. It was no big deal for Iados's men to ambush a few guards at Oasis Fort, but it would be foolish to directly confront the Demon army. If that were the case, he would have to greatly downgrade his estimate of Iados.

Just then, his Spiritual Sense was suddenly triggered, and he turned his head to look up at the sky above the Demon catapults' position.

A humanoid creature with two gigantic wings was circling in the sky. The creature was so beautiful, just like the Angels of legend.

But upon closer inspection, it was clear that this was not any holy creature from the Heavens. Her wings were a deep, near-black red, like those of a vulture, not the pure white of an Angel's.

Although Lancelot knew little about Demons, he had heard of this creature's notoriety.

It was an Enreyes, more commonly known as a Lust Demon, a Fallen Angel or their offspring. While their beauty was by no means inferior to that of the Succubi of Tanari, it was the desire for battle and slaughter that dominated them, making them the fiercest and most disciplined Warriors of Bartez.