The Paladin in the Abyss

After wandering through the twisted and oppressive streets of Twin Bridges Town for two hours, Lancelot and Dingke found themselves back in front of Tijana's statue.

The intelligence and language abilities of the Quasimodo Demon were not great, and it couldn't quite fulfill the role of a tour guide. Luckily, Lancelot was able to read its thoughts directly, eventually getting a rough understanding of the situation in Twin Bridges Town.

This town, built on Riverheart Island, was not small, equivalent in size to a county seat in the human realm. According to their main functions, the entire town could roughly be divided into four areas:

First was the blacksmith district, where a large number of craftsmen shielded by Tijana gathered, including dwarves, humans, goblins, and other odd races, tirelessly producing goods day and night for her weapons trade business.

In that area, Barrend met several of his former "prison mates," who were now inquiring about the local working conditions, while Bruto stayed there with his old man.

Then there was the trade zone, where most of the "shop owners" were sales agents sent by the Demon Lord to deal with the spoils of war. There were also members of the mortal races from the higher planes. Lancelot regretfully learned that they all belonged to certain organizations, brought here in the form of a summon by his predecessor. They would automatically return to their original world when their time was up, receiving a substantial allowance for their externship in the dangerous zone.

The merchandise here included treasures with potent curse effects, various toxic substances that even demons could not immunise against, and even jars of human-faced worms that wailed; basically, there was nothing he could use, except for one human shop whose employees dressed in red robes. The enchanted equipment and magic scrolls inside seemed quite practical.

The street they had just passed was part of the mercenary quarters. This area was filled with plenty of taverns, inns, and residences of local inhabitants (some more accurately called dens), some of which were even available for rent. Types included single rooms above taverns, villas with gardens, dungeons, and interrogation rooms, tombs under mass graves, channels that lead directly to the Stygian River, and cesspits connected to all the public toilets—essentially, most races could find a place that met their needs here.

However, the most important building was a mercenary hall, akin to an arena, offering services to the foolhardy adventurers who dared enter the Abyss. They could accept various dangerous missions, with rewards so substantial that one would take any risk, though of course, no reward is worth anything if you're dead (though in some cases, taking the form of undead or spirits also works).

Finally, there was the military area with Tijana's red castle at its core. The castle was surrounded by the barracks of the Succubus Lord's army, the exact number of troops stationed there was undetermined, composed of various types of soldiers including Berserk Demons, iron cavalry demons, Flomos, and other low-level demons. The commanders, according to Dingke, were "several snake women with lots of hands," but Lancelot noticed a lava lake behind the chaotic and dense barracks, empty for a hundred feet around, conspicuously noticeable, which reminded him of a particularly terrifying high-level demon recorded by the Elves.

No one knew what happened inside the castle, but Tijana occasionally held banquets there. The guests would discover lavish food and fiery Succubus Maids; everyone would leave fulfilled, and always a few male guests mystically disappeared from the feast. Most of the missing would be found a few days later in some dark sewer, sapped of will and claiming to have lost the past week, but at least they hadn't lost their lives. As for what actually happened, everyone politely kept to themselves, secretly hoping they would be the next to disappear.

Lancelot also learned many things about demons from Dingke, such as the fact that demons actually don't need to eat. They merely enjoy the sensation of eating, and making bystanders uncomfortable (such as a bystander's companion) while eating particular things. Demons also don't need sleep; if you find a demon deep in slumber, it's likely already aware of you, and waiting for you to be the fool who tries a sneak attack.

The essence of demons are fallen mortal souls that have plunged into the Stygian River and have been washed ashore as worms in some corner of the Abyss. Most of their memories as mortals have vanished, but the instincts are preserved, hence, none of the seven deadly sins—pride, envy, wrath, sloth, greed, gluttony, and lust—are missing. These seven desires are magnified countless times after becoming a demon, completely dominating their behavior, with only the fear of death to counterbalance it.

They are always enthusiastic about invading the mortal realm because it is a place where they can indulge in their destructive desires, and even if they are killed by the heroes of the Mortal Realm, their true forms will be revived immediately in some corner of the Abyss.

Lancelot acutely realized how dangerous the portal he had shut down was.

It was a very rare, semi-permanent giant portal that required a vast amount of resources to build. The biggest difficulty in constructing such a portal was that it was almost impossible to be that foolish, yet his world had done it not just once, but twice. The only explanation was that his world must be bobbing in some corner of the Multiverse, with even the gods unaware of its existence.

Otherwise, they would have inflicted divine punishment to destroy this world by now, just to concede no connection to this level of stupidity.

Apart from those seven desires inherited from mortals, the greatest craving for most demons is promotion, to ascend into a higher-class demon. There are many ways to ascend, with the most common being slaying a demon of the same rank and absorbing their demonic energy to promote oneself. This process is long, bloody, and cruel, directly leading to the high-class demons' fondness for wantonly slaughtering low-level demons for fun—of course, in the Abyss, causation can often be interchanged.

Another common method is for higher-class demons to directly promote lower ones at the cost of expending magic power, but this approach is generally used to create cannon fodder; demons don't actually look forward to this type of promotion.

Sometimes, the Abyss itself directly "blesses" a demon, which wholly depends on the Abyss's own chaotic and insane will. Dingke had a multitude of memories where, at some place and time, a peculiar wind blew, or a bolt of lightning struck, or a surge of lava erupted, and a Quasimodo Demon was instantly transformed into a higher-class demon.

This made Lancelot unable to resist the surge of another idea, and he signaled Dingke to come over.

"Master, what do you command?"

"You've served well today, come with me."

Lancelot found a deserted street corner and ordered Dingke:

"Kneel down, I'm going to bestow a reward upon you."

On hearing the word "reward," an overwhelming fear welled up in Dingke's heart, which Lancelot felt clearly.

In the context of the Abyss, this was not a good word at all. Owing to the demons' cruel sense of humor, a "reward" usually preceded phrases like "eternal slumber" or "endless agony."

The skin color of the Quasimodo Demon directly reflected its psychological changes; it turned ashen grey, like cinders. But still, it knelt down, unable to resist because of the red orb Lancelot held in his hand.

"No, Master! What did Dingke do wrong ... Dingke has treasures, more treasures to offer the master!"

"What nonsense are you thinking, kneel properly!"

Lancelot placed his hand on Dingke's head.