The Paladin in the Abyss

"Should we follow them, Lancelot?"

Bruto reached out his hand, waving it in front of the human knight, who was staring blankly in the direction where the six-armed serpent demon had disappeared.

"What?" Lancelot snapped back from his reverie. "No, no need. Let's go to the Dwarf Temple first..."

"Are you alright?" Alamir also approached. "If Sonam's words have caused you any discomfort, you can always talk to me. You know, as a priest of Shuni, we are experts in love and sacrifice..."

"Don't worry, I'm fine." Lancelot averted his gaze with some guilt, "Let's keep moving, it's getting dark..."

"Everyone, come look at this!" Little Isha's cheerful voice came from the other side, "I found this on that seducer demon..."

While others' attention was drawn to the battle between the human knight and the six-armed serpent demon, the wanderer girl silently cleaned the battlefield. Besides a few coins, there was nothing special in the berserk demons' corpses. But on their commander, she found quite a few good things, including three rings encrusted with high-value gemstones, a small pouch of invisibility powder that makes the user invisible for a short time, and a large bottle of charm potion (though no one in the team was an expert on potions, Shuni's priest recognized it immediately).

For those familiar with such potions, its features are easily recognizable: rose-colored liquid with heart-shaped bubbles swirling inside. The effect makes the drinker see the first creature they encounter as their true love (if the race and gender are right). Normally, charm potions only contain a few small heart-shaped bubbles, but this bottle's bubbles were as large as knuckles, likely an enhanced version for demon physiology. Now that the bottle was half empty, it's reasonable to believe it was one of the seducer demon's command tools.

However, the most intriguing finds were the two magic wands pried from the corpse's palms. The fundamental principle of wands is similar to that of magic scrolls, pre-storing a particular spell. The difference is that scrolls require certain conditions from the user (such as literacy), while wands are used like a well-strung hand crossbow; all you need to know is how to pull the "trigger".

Through Kalalin's Identification Spell, the group quickly learned the effects of the two wands: one was the Dimensional Anchor Rod. It allows the user to shoot a ray, enveloping a creature hit by the ray in a unique force field that completely prevents cross-dimensional travel. In other words, it disables all teleportation spells. The force field itself is not offensive, but if used at the right moment, it can cause intense dizziness to the target, akin to suddenly hitting a very solid glass wall while running at full speed.

The other wand was the Rod of Capturing. It can release a magic rope to bind a creature not larger than giant size and unable to resist. The bound creature cannot move any limb except for their eyes, nor can they speak (unless permitted by the wand's user), for 12 hours. To break free, the bound one needs strength almost equivalent to an adult giant dragon, prompting Lancelot's curiosity about whether he could escape if he were the one tied.

Each wand can hold up to three charges, usable three times, with one charge restored every nightfall. Lancelot thought for a moment before storing the charm potion and other loot, while the wands were given to Little Isha. As a wanderer, Little Isha's advantage lies in choosing the right moment to strike, making her the most suitable to wield these wands.

After cleaning the battlefield, the group continued toward the Dwarf Temple. However, they soon realized that reaching their destination before sunset was impossible, due to a simple reason. During their time in the Fallen Shadow Netherworld, the terrain of the Shattered Mountain Range had shifted, moving the mountain where the Dwarf Temple was deeper into the range (not really noticeable from afar). This kind of terrain change in the Prime Material Plane often takes thousands of years to happen, but the Abyss clearly has its own rules.

Since it's out of reach for today, they should consider resting. The group wasn't worried about traveling the Plains of the Abyss at night — the Abyss is certainly dangerous, with countless wandering low-rank demons tormented to mental instability by their malformed bodies, attacking any creatures in sight. But for this adventurous team, low-rank demons pose no threat anymore. Nevertheless, no matter how strong adventurers are, they can experience a sharp decline in combat ability due to lack of rest, thus avoiding prolonged continuous combat and conserving energy for emergencies is crucial.

A ranger is very adept at finding suitable campsites in the wilderness. In their previous adventure with Androlina, their companion Elf Prince Acheron was a ranger. But now, with Acheron absent, relying on Lancelot's Spirit Perception to find a campsite worked just as well. The group quickly identified a suitable cave inhabited by some low-level demons. Lancelot emitted a hint of pure Abyssal Flavor, scaring off all demons inside. Then Kalalin "reluctantly" threw in a Fireball Technique to complete the campsite disinfection.

Dinner was quite sumptuous, not only including smoked meat, ham, eggs, but also fresh vegetables and fruits, gifts from their friends in Raventown, making it the best meal they had in weeks. Unfortunately, no one was really hungry (except Bruto), as their stomachs had been filled with the news learned during the day, only now finding a moment to digest it.

However, everyone was eagerly anticipating the post-dinner event: entering Tijana's half-plane. The Succubus Lord sent that handkerchief to Lancelot in the last moment, clearly of great importance to her, perhaps containing clues on how to resurrect her?

After setting up several formation spells for defense, concealment, and alerts, Lancelot unfolded the handkerchief by the campfire, revealing the entrance to the half-plane, and jumped in first. The peculiar gravity reversal occurred again — he was jumping into a portal on the ground, yet emerged from one on the wall. Fortunately, everyone was familiar with this conversion, allowing their just-consumed dinner to stay obediently in their stomachs.

The space inside the handkerchief was still that enclosed stone chamber. Passing through the exit on the other side of the chamber, the view within the half-plane unfolded completely before the group.

"By Moradin's beard..."

"Shuni above..."

"In the name of the Goddess of Magic..."

Three different exclamations arose simultaneously, only because what they witnessed was too overwhelming. Little Isha timidly tugged Lancelot's clothes and whispered:

"Brother, are these... Tijana Sister's dowry?"