Chapter 1412: The Demon ’Sanctuary’
With the Demonic Core’s energy wrapped around me, it seems like I can negate the effects of this place and stop it from turning me into one of those Abhorrents.
The good thing is that it’s not expending the limited energy inside the core so I don’t need to worry about it running out.
The bad thing is that I only have two of these and each one can only be used for a single person… Which means I can’t bring all my girls with me even if I wanted to…
The girls decided to draw lots to decide who would go with me and the winner ended up being Lisa who immediately latched herself onto my arm when she drew the winning lot.
“Ehehehe~ It’s a date, Aster!” She giggled.
“Ahem… In case you forgot, we’re dealing with demons trying to summon their Demon Lord right now…”
“Mmmm~ It’s a date where we go and stop demons from summoning their Demon Lord~ What difference does it make?”
At least she’s optimistic about it I guess?
But well… Her ’date’ plans were ruined when Ira went up to the boundary, took a sniff at it, and then stepped inside.
I was about to panic and stop her when I realised nothing was happening to her.
She looked at me with a nonchalant expression, “You mentioned that this is ineffective against demons and cladding yourself in their mana protects you, right?”
Oh wait… I almost forgot, she had associated herself with them before and learned Infernalmancy as well. And apparently she’s part demon or something? I’m not too sure about that part.
Lisa scowled at her, “Why did you participate in the lot drawing in that case? You could have just said so and refrained from participating in the lot drawing.”
“Hmm? If I could draw the winning lot and then have Aster for myself, why wouldn’t I?”
My Infrid lover clucked her tongue at her but said nothing more.
Probably because I also know that if the positions were reversed, Lisa would totally do the same thing as well.
Unfortunately, the rest of my girls would have to wait and while I don’t fancy leaving them outside here where other Abhorrents could still attack them… They assured me that they would be fine and would run away if things get too dangerous.
Thus, my team consisting of myself, Lisa, Ira, the Mayor and the six succubi that I ’tamed’ proceeded in the direction of the settlement near the tree.
I was half expecting someone to come and stop us or something but we crossed the entire stretch of land without anyone coming to stop us.
In fact, I realised there was also a distinct lack of Abhorrents here and it was just a large stretch of empty land between.
But as we got close to the settlement, our presence was finally noticed and a figure flew out from the town and dove towards us.
Both Lisa and I had already hid the Demonic Cores in a bag we each carried so it doesn’t look like we were carrying around two orbs of Demonic energy.
The figure revealed themselves to be a black skinned demoness with purple horns growing out of her forehead and black leathery wings flapping behind her back.
“Hello!” She greeted us with a friendly wave. “Are you newcomers? Don’t worry, you’re safe here!”
I’m guessing she thinks we’re all demons or something, which I suppose makes sense seeing that we were unaffected by whatever it was that turned things into Abhorrents here.
I looked at the Mayor and gave her a curt nod, indicating she should take the lead.
At least even if she drew attention, people would still see her as a succubus instead of someone pretending to be one.
Worst comes to worst, I can get the Smith succubus to support her as well.
The Mayor stepped forward, “We apologise but… We aren’t sure what this place is. We only heard that there were demons here and we came to take a look. What is this place?”
The demoness floated down to land in front of her with her arms outstretched in a welcoming gesture.
“You will like it here! This is a safe place that we have managed to carve for ourselves! We don’t need to worry about being hunted or enslaved here! You are safe here!”
Why does she keep emphasising that it’s safe?
The Mayor peeked past the demoness to look at the town behind her, “Is there some kind of rule we have to follow before we can enter?”
“Not at all! It’s a safe haven for us demons! You can just come on in!”
“Really? No responsibilities? No rules? Nothing? I’m pretty sure there’s at least something that we need to do while inside, right?”
The demoness giggled, “Ehehe~ Of course there is. Don’t worry, we will be able to find something for everyone to do~ After all, we are all working towards an even bigger purpose!”
“Does it have something to do with the Demon Lord?”
The demoness gasped, “Oh! You already know? That’s perfect then! That’s right, we are trying to summon the Demon Lord to this world! Once the Demon Lord is here, this world will be ours! We will no longer need to cower and hide anymore! We will be the true rulers of this world!”
Well… At least we’ve already heard this from the Smith succubus beforehand so we weren’t surprised to hear it again.
The Mayor then clasped her hands together, “That sounds perfect! Please let us join you!”
“Ehehe~ In that case, follow me!”
She led us towards the entrance of the town which was marked by two wooden towers with a gate in between them.
A magic circle appeared on the gate as we got close to it before the gate swung inwards to open for us.
Another demon, this time a red skinned creature with long limbs with a curved head and souless, black eyes, was standing there to greet us with a wide smile on its face.
If it was trying to be friendly, the fact that its teeth were like a shark’s did not help.
“What’s this? Do we have newcomers? Welcome, welcome! Welcome to the New Demon Lord’s army! The place where the new world order will be established! Come right in!”
No one said anything as we stepped past the gates and into the demon town proper.
The gates closed behind us and our two demon guides led us deeper into the town.
The red skinned demon turned and continued smiling at us, “Forgive me for asking this but from which Plane of Hell did you originate from?”
I could feel a small panic rising up in my chest but the Mayor expertly waved her hand to direct their attention to her.
“If you don’t mind… We would rather not talk about it.”
The red demon nodded as though it understood, “I see, I see. That’s fine, that’s fine~ I suppose this is the first demon settlement that you have come across?”
The Mayor nodded, “That is correct.”
“Then I would like to lay out some ground rules first, if you don’t mind? I’m assuming you are the leader of this group?”
The Mayor nodded her head, “Sure, go ahead.”
The demon’s demeanour changed suddenly and his smile that was trying to look friendly turned devious.
“We operate on merit here. The strong rules and the weak obey. If you are weak, then your place is at the bottom~ And once you come in here, you can never go out without our say so~”
I also realised that the black demoness who had looked so friendly before was also now smirking at us as though she was satisfied that we fell into a trap.
Seriously? You guys are treating other demons like that?
I mean… From what they’ve said, I can only assume that demons are being mistreated and hunted down by the people here which made them seek out places where they can seek refuge.
They find this place which advertises itself as a saf haven for demons in this World, only to exploit and denigrate those that were weaker than they are.
Damn… That’s pretty screwed up…
Looking around the place, it was easy to see which demons belong to the ’strong’ category since they were strutting around like they owned the place, a few of them even dragging along other demons with a chain.
The ones who were weak were cowering in the darker corners of the town and just trying their best to keep out of the other demons’ way.
This might be a sanctuary for the stronger demons but it’s definitely another prison for the weaker demons.
The Mayor puffed up her chest, “Fine then, where do we go to establish our place?”
The two demons looked at her for a moment before letting out a bark of laughter.
“Ahahaha!! A succubus… A succubus thinks she stands a chance!!”
“Ahahaha!! This is too funny!! Ahahahaha!! You should just accept your role beneath us instead of struggling!!”
Umm… Is there something they know that we don’t?