Chapter Twenty-Six - The Demon Lord

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Rosario discovered a small antechamber beyond the gates. It was a clean space, with couches and tables and a foyer, and somehow, despite the fantasy-setting and the style of the furniture, it still gave her the same vibes as an employee break room.

She brushed past that as she continued on.

There was no doubt on where to go next. There was only one door in this room, barred and made of thick wood.

She blew past it with a muttered [Disintegration Beam] aimed at the hinges, and then she was in a long, low tunnel with a floor that was sloped downwards slightly. She cast [Light] to illuminate her path. The space reeked. She found herself pulling a small cleaning cloth from her inventory and pressing it over her lower face to cover the smell. It was... deeply unpleasant. Porta-potty on a hot summer day, unpleasant. 

Still, she moved onwards.

Her master was there.

The passage ended with a cell. Iron bars, spaced evenly apart, with a cell door in their centre. Past them was a claustrophobic room. No windows. Just a small space, enough for a cot and small end table and little else.

The only light came from her spell. It was enough to illuminate the lone man in the room.

Slowly, he stood.

He had the appearance of an older gentleman who had been through too much. His frame was gaunt, but his skin spoke of old muscles lost to time. He had a beard, though it was short, and by the looks of it, both the beard and his hair had been regularly hacked off with little consideration for style.

He, of course, stank. She could smell him from afar. It was the sickly scent of the ill, of the feverish and dying. It was the scent of a hospice. 

“You came,” he said. 

His voice was a rasp, soft, tired, dry. Still, the man smiled, and for a moment, Rosario could well imagine how he had once been a rather handsome figure. She looked up, noting the two ugly nubs that had once likely been horns before someone sawed them off. She used [Inspect] despite it all.

Augustus Hellsreach

The Demon Lord

[King of Lithos] - Level 81

“My lord,” Rosario said. She reached into her inventory and pulled out a kettle. It had been used just last night and still had tea in it. She had been wanting to see if keeping things in her inventory kept them safe. It didn’t work that way. Still, a quick cast of a fire spell warmed it back up, and she poured the reheated tea into a cup. “For your voice,” she said.

He chuckled, hands reaching through the bars to take the cup. His hands shook, and some of the tea spilled, but he drank it nonetheless. “Thank you,” he said.

“Let’s see about getting you out of here, yes?” she asked.

She didn’t know what to do about this.

The fight earlier had been fun. It was so much more vivid than the game, but her reflexes kicked in and it was incredible to move so fast and with so much power. But that had been for fun. This felt... different. 

“Don’t bother,” he said.

She didn’t listen. A quick spell melted partway though the iron bars. She frowned, then cast again with a lot more power behind it. It took that effort to break the bars at their base. They were obviously made of something magically resistant. She squinted at the far side of the cage, finally noticing the tiny runework inscribed on the inside of the bars. 

Someone had gone through great lengths to keep this man here.

“Don’t bother,” she repeated.

He nodded, then slowly moved back to the bed and sat. His motions were slow, careful. “I’m happy that you came. My Faithful Maid. Ah. What a gamble that was.”

“You’re the reason I’m here?” she asked.

“Yes,” he said simply. He took another sip of tea. “This is the first tea I’ve had in sixty years... I missed it. I missed many things.”

“And yet you don’t want to leave?”

He looked up to her and it took some time for his eyes to focus on hers. “I’m broken,” he said.

She felt something twist inside her. There was a great deal of certainty in what he said. “My lord?” She asked. She wasn’t sure if she was still roleplaying or not. Part of her wasn’t. This was just some old, old man who deserved some amount of empathy. 

“I know what I am,” he said. “I’ve been here too long. I’m destined to die here. I’ve decided that already, and I don’t think I want my mind changed. I’m sorry, my Faithful Maid. But... there’s one final thing you could do for me. Please?”

“Of course,” she replied.

He licked his lips. “I’ve had some news from the outside. Whispers. Some of the guards gloat. Some were... closer to allies. Lithos is suffering. As expected. I don’t know if I even care anymore. Funny, how time does that to you, isn’t it?” He finished the tea, then set the cup down next to him before he slowly fell back onto his cot. “I’ve been waiting. And now you’re here, and my mind can’t seem to know what to do next. Forgive me.”

“You’re forgiven.”

He chuckled darkly. “A final order, then, my Faithful Maid.”

“Yes?”

“My sons were killed. All eight of them. Three of my daughters as well. But one... she made it away. I sensed it when she passed, but she had a child, a daughter, or so I’ve been told. Eleanor Hellsreach. She’s pretending to be another, but... there’s an academy, in Dawntown. Find her, would you?”

“I can do that,” she said. “But then what?”

“Be her Faithful Maid,” he said.

She nodded, slowly, even if she was aware that he couldn’t see. She felt something shift in the air.

“My ancestors,” he said suddenly, with a lot more vigor. “When they passed. They would burn their bodies. They have me here for my body. They take my hair, my blood. It’s valuable. It’s value is why I was able to summon you. Ah... I don’t want them to use me anymore. This is no order, for you are no longer my Faithful Maid, but... if you could be so kind? Light a final pyre for me, would you?”

“I can see what can be done,” she said.

She waited for more.

None came. Her ears flicked as she heard a final rattle come from the man’s chest.

Rosario didn’t quite know what to do, but there was an itch in her chest that was pulling her to somewhere far away. Her new master?

She... was not beholden to that. Coming here was mostly a whim, to see if she could and to satisfy her curiosity, and honestly? She had more questions than she started with. How had he summoned her here? At the moment, she could only question a corpse. 

Sighing, she turned and started to make her way up the slope, then she paused and looked back. He wanted a pyre, no?

She raised a hand, then pushed magic into a spell, then more, and more. She watched as a dozen intricate magical circles formed and shifted, locking into place as something grander than the sum of their parts.

“[Pillar of Hellfire].”

There was a suitable irony there.

At least, she thought so until some small part of her remembered how guns worked. A large explosion in an enclosed space with only one exit, with something (say, a maid) in the path of that explosion...

Rosario eeped as she was blasted out of the passage and into the room beyond. She was followed by a howling mass of flames that licked at the ceiling and walls and seemed to be determined to swallow the room.

The moment she found her footing, she darted out of the room, down the corridor, and back into the room with the pillars where she had fought the two Titled.

They were still there, being helped to their feet by a new team of guards.

The moment held for a moment as they stared at her and she stared back. Then she started to feel some warmth coming in from behind her. The fire was spreading.

“The Demon Lord is dead. Long live the Demon Lady,” she said. “Also, you may wish to consider evacuating the Castle.” She heard a boom behind her. Was the masonry failing already? “Perhaps the environs around it as well.”

She cast another spell. [Teleport to City].

Rosario appeared in the centre of Alpta, landing with a slight bend of her knees. A few people stared at her appearance, but not many. Most were turning their attention towards the Castle in the distance, or perhaps towards the growing pillar of spinning fire reaching out of the Castle and into the heavens. 

She patted down her skirts, wincing as soot and dust puffed out of the fabric.

Right, a quick change of clothes, then maybe a rain summoning spell to stop the city from going up, and then... well, it was about time she looked at her bank statement, wasn’t it?

***

I have noooo idea what to do next~ I've got a lot of scenes planned for later, once we have the princess around, but that's a ways off. Hmm...