Chapter 500: Escaping Cinderfall

Thud!

Damian, Loyd and Fulgur descended silently into Duke Kol’s residence, their figures concealed from the eyes of everyone around them.

Damian landed first, his feet touching the polished floor without producing more than a faint sound, while Loyd and Fulgur followed immediately behind him. Yet the moment they entered the residence, Loyd’s expression changed.

Something was wrong.

The mansion was usually occupied by servants moving through their duties and guards maintaining the security expected of a Duke’s residence, but now people were running through the compound in every direction with barely concealed panic.

Some guards had blood smeared across their armor, while several servants had torn clothing and frightened expressions as they hurried toward the exits.

Loyd stared at the scene in confusion before finally asking, "What happened here?"

His question had barely left his mouth when a loud, terrified scream erupted from somewhere inside the mansion. Several more servants and guards immediately came rushing through the entrance, some stumbling over one another as they fled.

The sight made Fulgur narrow his eyes, while Loyd’s uneasiness deepened. Damian, however, barely reacted. He simply glanced toward the fleeing people before continuing deeper into the residence.

"I secured our escape route..." Damian shrugged, answering as though the chaos around them required no further explanation.

Loyd stared at him for a moment before understanding what he meant, and then he quickly followed. Fulgur had no choice but to follow as well, though his gaze remained fixed on the bloodied servants and guards they passed.

This was Damian’s second night in Cinderfall, which meant there were only three days remaining before he needed to return to Velmora if he wanted to maintain the timetable he had established for himself. He had no intention of allowing unexpected complications to consume what little time remained.

That was why Damian had stabbed him with the Weeping Tom dagger and it forced its victim to experience the psychological suffering associated with the six Demi-gods who had been burned to death by its samsara flames.

Damian had deliberately chosen that method because he could not afford to waste time fighting or killing the Duke outright.

As they entered the main hall, the source of the disturbance became obvious. Duke Kol was near the entrance, staggering in place while gripping his head with both hands. His enormous body shook violently as he screamed, his fingers digging so deeply into his own scalp that blood ran freely between them.

His clothes had become disordered, and deep claw marks covered his arms, chest and neck, several of the wounds still bleeding as he repeatedly scratched at himself in an attempt to escape whatever torment was consuming his mind. The fifteen foot tall Ifrit no longer resembled the proud Duke Damian had met only hours earlier. He looked like a beast trapped inside its own nightmare.

Several guards and servants stood at the opposite end of the entrance, pleading with him to calm down, but none dared approach. They had clearly witnessed what happened to the guards who had attempted to restrain him, and the blood staining their bodies was evidence enough that getting close to a demigod experiencing a psychological breakdown was a suicidal decision.

"Your Grace, please calm down!" one of the guards pleaded from a safe distance, his voice trembling as he kept both hands raised. "Please, we can get a healer!"

Kol responded with another agonized scream and slammed his fist against the wall, cracking the stone beneath his knuckles. The servants recoiled immediately.

Damian did not even slow down. He simply walked past the suffering Duke, with Fulgur and Loyd following closely behind him.

None of the terrified people in the hall noticed them. Damian reached the open doorway behind the group of fleeing servants and slipped through it, with the others immediately following. From there, Loyd led them through a series of corridors, turning through several rooms until they finally reached the empty chamber where the secret underground passage had originally been discovered.

The sight of the open entrance immediately caught Fulgur’s attention. The hidden door leading into the underground tunnel was already open, and the darkness beneath it revealed the stone staircase descending into the depths.

"What is this?" Fulgur asked, his expression hardening as he looked toward Loyd.

Loyd avoided his gaze, suddenly finding the floor far more interesting than the demigod staring directly at him.

"Apparently, you weren’t the only one plotting treason." Damian shrugged as he began descending the staircase without waiting for either of them.

Fulgur stared at his back for a moment before following, while Loyd hurried after them.

At the bottom of the staircase, Loth was waiting with Rin resting comfortably in her hands. She had been gently stroking the fox spirit’s fur while waiting for Damian to return, but the moment she saw him emerge from the darkness, her eyes widened. Then she noticed Fulgur walking behind him, and her expression immediately brightened.

She hurried forward, nearly forgetting to maintain the composure expected of someone in Damian’s position as she approached him.

"You succeeded?" she asked excitedly, relief obvious in her voice.

Damian chuckled and reached out to pat her hair, his fingers moving gently through it despite the bloodshed that had occurred only moments earlier.

"Of course. Whoever I choose to protect, not even God can harm them." His words carried complete confidence, and Loth’s expression softened as she looked up at him.

Damian then turned toward Fulgur and gestured toward her. "She’s my concubine... Loth."

Fulgur was taken aback. The news that had reached him about Damian’s reign in Velmora had been filled with stories of tyranny, executions, bloodshed and the destruction of anyone who dared oppose him. He had expected the Prince of Lust to behave like the monster described by the reports, perhaps even toward those closest to him. Yet the demon standing before him seemed completely relaxed in Damian’s presence.

There was no terror in her expression, no visible hesitation when he touched her head, and no indication that she believed she was standing beside a tyrant who might kill her at the slightest mistake. Fulgur could not reconcile the rumors with what he was seeing. If Damian truly treated everyone around him with the cruelty the reports described, then why did this woman look so comfortable beside him?

Fulgur finally straightened and gave Loth a respectful bow.

"Your Highness."

The gesture startled Loth slightly because she was far more accustomed to being the one bowing before others, especially those of higher status.

She quickly raised her hands in embarrassment and shook her head. "No, it’s okay, you don’t have to bow."

She muttered, clearly unsure how to respond to the respect being offered to her. Fulgur gave a faint nod, still observing her with curiosity, but Damian did not give either of them enough time to continue the conversation. He turned toward Loyd and clapped his hands once to regain his attention.

"Lead the way." Loyd immediately straightened.

"Yes, sire!" he replied without hesitation.

The group began moving through the tunnels at once. Loyd took the lead while Damian followed closely behind, with Fulgur and Loth moving alongside him. The passage stretched beneath the earth for what seemed like miles, branching repeatedly as Loyd navigated through the underground network with the confidence of someone who had travelled through it many times.

The journey lasted several hours, and the deeper they travelled.

Eventually, Loyd stopped before another staircase. He pushed open the concealed exit, and the group emerged through a hidden doorway buried beneath the roots of a heavily forested region outside the border town.

Thick trees surrounded them on all sides, their branches obscuring the doorway so thoroughly that someone passing nearby would never have realized an entrance existed beneath the earth.

Loyd stepped outside and immediately looked toward the distant horizon.

"Not too far, northeast is the Stone Gate." He explained, pointing through the trees toward the direction of the border town.

Damian nodded, already preparing to move, but before he could respond, a violent crimson ripple suddenly spread across the sky.

The entire forest seemed to tremble.

"THAT DAMN FOX DARES ENTER MY REALM?! FIND HIMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!" Kaizer’s voice boomed across Cinderfall with such force that the trees shook beneath the pressure.

Birds and lesser creatures scattered from the forest while the distant city erupted into movement. The Prince of Wrath’s voice carried across the entire realm. Damian merely raised a brow and a small smile tugged at the corner of his lips.

Nobody knew about the underground network connecting the provinces. As far as Kaizer’s forces were concerned, Damian had only just destroyed Lord Mier’s estate and disappeared from the western province.

Their immediate assumption would naturally be that he was still somewhere within the region, perhaps hiding in the city or attempting to slip through one of the known routes out of the province. Kaizer would therefore tighten the existing security, deploy more soldiers and likely triple the number of patrols around the known exits.

Damian stepped forward with his hands placed behind his back, his expression calm as he began walking toward the Stone Gate. Fulgur, Loth and Loyd followed behind him, while Rin remained comfortably in Loth’s arms.

As they finally approached the gate, Damian’s couldn’t help but frown. Approximately five legions had been deployed around the massive structure, all of them heavily armed and arranged with a level of organization that immediately caught his attention. Their armor was reinforced with demonic arrays, and several artillery weapons had been positioned around the gate to bombard anyone attempting to force their way through. There were no demigods among them, which initially made the army appear less threatening than the groups Damian had already destroyed during his arrival in Cinderfall. Yet something about their formation made him pause.

The soldiers were not standing around aimlessly.

They were divided into organized teams of five, with each group assigned specific positions and responsibilities. Some watched the Stone Gate itself while others monitored the surrounding forest.

Several teams maintained overlapping fields of vision, ensuring that there were no obvious blind spots, while others remained close to the artillery weapons and appeared prepared to provide immediate support if an enemy breached the outer formation.

Damian’s eyes slowly travelled across the formation, and an unfamiliar sensation settled in his mind.

He sensed more danger from these organized elite demons than he had from the disorganized groups commanded by demigods whom he had already destroyed on his way into Cinderfall.

That realization brought back Astaroth’s earlier warning. During their discussion about Duke Darbin’s execution, the leader of the Council of Elders had spoken about the order of demons invasion and facing a properly organized army.

Now, standing before five legions whose movements were synchronized despite the absence of a single demigod among them, he finally had the opportunity to see whether Astaroth’s words had any real weight.

Damian’s smile widened slightly.

"I guess we will see what an organized army can do." He chuckled confidently as he continued walking toward the Stone Gate, his hands still resting behind his back.