Six-Armed Serpent Demon

Page 37

The dragon priest no longer wanted to stay in this place ravaged by demons.

“Remember this well, you were promoted by the Ottokan family, El.” He warned El, “If my grand tour of the Fire Harbor, where I am to make my mark, is ruined in a few days, for example by this dock gang, or by the drow, the six-armed serpent demon, or something like that, and they suddenly show up and cause trouble… I swear in the name of the family, every day of your life thereafter will be filled with misery.”

“I know,” Al said, “which is why I need Berlik; I think he’ll be a great help to you.”

Losques remained silent, lost in thought.

El added, "Perhaps this incident is related to the demon."

The dragon priest was slightly moved.

“Alright,” he said, “I need you to allocate manpower to form a special operations unit to provide military support for my pilgrimage trip.”

"As for Berlik, we'll have a expedited four-hour trial. His sword will be broken, and he'll be stripped of his position as captain of the city guard. After that, you'll get a new subordinate. Do a good job, and don't mess it up."

Chapter 45 Aprilton Bronk

Although the six-armed serpent demon had excellent hearing, she had already crawled too far down the shaft and hadn't heard a single word of the conversation between the paladin in the tailor shop and the dragon priest as they left the shaft.

A rumbling sound came from above, and the paladins put the floor tiles back in their original positions.

The shaft was plunged back into complete darkness.

Before the echoes of the moving floor tiles in the shaft had subsided, the six-armed serpent demon left its hiding place and continued to climb down the crevice next to the protruding rock, arriving at the entrance of the stone cave where the faint light had been shimmering earlier, where it quietly lay in ambush.

She waited patiently for a moment, and finally a low voice rang out in the darkness of the cave: "Let's go, the city guards didn't find us."

Another voice gave a muffled "hmm".

The voice that came earlier said, "What happened? Why are you the only one back? Where's that guy?"

Another voice, unusually weak, said: "They're all dead... The other side said it was done by gang enemies, it's revenge."

"Avenge the Bronx? Who would dare to do that?"

"I don't know... take me to see the boss."

"Are they the snake-man mercenaries from the western legion of the city?"

"what?"

"Didn't you say that the six-armed snake people are bloodthirsty lunatics?"

“A demon,” the weak voice said, “I’m talking about a demon with six arms and a snake’s body.”

"Doesn't that mean I have one more pair of hands than that guy..."

With the faint sound of footsteps, the two voices gradually faded into the light.

The six-armed serpent demon silently poked its head out. A faint light shone from the cave, and two long shadows trailed on the ground as they slowly moved away.

It's less of a cave and more of a narrow crevice. The crevice had been carved, widened, and reinforced by someone unknown, forming a narrow tunnel wide enough for two people to walk side-by-side, yet it was still over ten meters high from the ground to the top of the crevice. The tunnel extended downwards at a gentle slope.

Using both her hands and feet, she slowly swam up to the crevice at the top of the cave.

In the inverted vision of the emerald green vertical pupils, two halflings clad in leather armor, one supporting the other, were slowly walking towards the other end of the tunnel, carrying dim oil lamps. Neither of them noticed the dark shadow that had appeared slowly moving in the crack in the cave ceiling.

The two half-humans walked for a long time.

The dim light of the oil lamp reflected off the stone walls, giving it a trembling, yellowish hue. The tunnel twisted and turned, with many dead ends, sometimes narrow, sometimes wide. Every time they passed a bend, another halfling sentinel would emerge from the shadows of a corner.

They didn't speak to each other, but exchanged a few hand gestures, and the sentry retreated back into the dark corner.

They eventually arrived at an ancient underground building.

The six-armed serpent demon saw a massive arcade ahead, which had stood there for countless years. Three halfling sentinels moved back and forth like ghosts behind the arcade, guarding a dilapidated bronze door. The left half of the door had fallen off and was leaning against the arcade, leaving a small gap for those to enter or exit.

Several metal frames stood on either side of the bronze door, with torches burning brightly on them.

In the flickering light of the torches, one could vaguely see a dozen or so small figures wrapped in cloaks, lying haphazardly on the ground, sleeping.

They were all Broncos assassins on standby.

The six-armed serpent demon made a rough estimate and concluded that it had annihilated about half of the core strength of Aprilton-Brown.

At that moment, the two guides who had led the way helped each other through the half-open bronze door.

Inside the half-open bronze door was a square stone house, higher than the crack outside.

In the very center of the stone house stood a marble platform, its pale blue and light gray hues illuminated by the ever-burning flame. It was a platform in the mausoleum specifically used by nobles or kings to place their coffins.

However, a halfling dressed in a black robe was sitting by the marble platform, with several guards standing in front of him.

The halfling, Aprilton Bronk, wore a large black robe, was pale, had a buzz cut, and very thick eyebrows.

He sat lazily on the marble platform, his two large, hairy feet hanging down from it without shoes.

There was a monster chained up in front of him.

This monster is a gray bag beast, a large, bipedal creature with a clumsy appearance but a gentle temperament.

But this gray sac-like beast was different. It had a hunched back, thick, long arms covered in muscular muscles. Its body was hairless, with a smooth, gelatinous sheen. Six small, blood-red eyes adorned its ugly head. Its large mouth was filled with jet-black teeth. Two long tentacles, which flared wildly in the air, grew from its shoulders.

The leader of the Bronco gang sat in front of the monster, feeding it chunks of raw meat one by one.

On the stone platform next to Aprilton, there was a row of trumpet-shaped copper pipes.

The cacophony of sounds from the Dragon Horn Tavern was clearly coming through the brass pipes.

The six-armed serpent demon heard many people crying, probably the families of those who died in the tavern. Many people were comforting them, and some were arguing with the paladins.

Aprilton listened intently for a moment, then looked up at the halfling assassin who had narrowly escaped from the tavern.

He spoke softly, "My cousins, and the four-handed man, are all dead?"

The severely injured half-man couldn't help but tremble.

“Tell me,” Aprilton said, “how exactly did he die?”

The heavily wounded halfling stammered out the whole battle, interspersed with a lot of his own imagination.

But he didn't see how the demon-born drow died. By then, he and another assassin had already escaped back to the tailor shop.

He dared not lie to Aprilton about this.

Aprilton could hear anything coming from the Dragon Horn Tavern above through the brass pipes.

The heavily wounded halfling said, "She just stood there, staring at us as we fired, but our weapons were completely useless against her..."

Aprilton listened expressionlessly, remaining completely silent.

But all the halflings present felt a slight chill. No one noticed that, illuminated by the firelight, the once normal shadow of the halfling gang leader on the stone platform began to twist and deform, eventually becoming a large, tangled mass of strange tentacles.

He waited until the heavily wounded halfling finished speaking before thoughtfully speaking:

"Ordinary weapons are useless against demons, we need to use weapons of the good faction—we probably won't be able to use them—cold iron weapons will also work."

Cold Iron Weapons…

This reminded Aprilton of a strange southern adventure team that had appeared in town a few days earlier.

In that adventuring party was a roaming jungle savage who always carried a long spear. The spear looked old and plain, but Aprilton could tell at a glance that its tip was forged from cold iron, a testament to its superb craftsmanship. What was especially valuable was the aura of demonic blood it carried. Looking back now, they did resemble professional witchers.

Perhaps we should hire that adventure team.

But their captain looked like the kind of thug who was obsessed with money.

Demons are indeed difficult to deal with, but hiring such people at high prices seems somewhat unnecessary—most demons are merely projections temporarily summoned by the summoner from the Abyss, serving as the summoner's combat shield or support. Once the battle is over, they automatically return to the Abyss.

Aprilton stared blankly at the raw meat, while the gray bag beast in front of him waited for a while before baring its teeth and roaring angrily.

In the firelight, its shadow fluctuated with its emotions, sometimes appearing in its normal gray sac beast form, and sometimes transforming into a large, tangled mass of tentacles like Aprilton.

"I know I know."

Aprilton-Brown snapped out of his daze and tossed the meat to the gray sac beast in front of him, which had undergone some kind of mutation.

The gray sac beast immediately took it, tearing into the meat with gusto, and its shadow gradually returned to normal.

Suddenly, Aprilton's ears twitched, and he jerked his head up.

At some point, the area outside the bronze gate became deathly silent. Neither the halfling sentries he had deployed nor his dozen or so cloaked subordinates who were resting were utterly silent.

He was furious, staring intently at the two halflings supporting each other.

The two halflings were initially confused, then stared in disbelief as the eldest's eyes changed. The black pupils gradually enlarged to fill the entire eyeballs, then began to sunken in. Finally, the two eyes became two dark holes.

Countless thin, long, dark green "whips" suddenly sprang out from the eye holes and wrapped around their heads and necks.

The two halflings struggled in agony, but tentacles burrowed into their mouths and noses.

They screamed and begged for mercy, but neither Bronk nor his guards paid them any attention.

As the tentacles retracted into their eye sockets, the two halflings collapsed to the ground, their faces covered in thin, branding scars. Their skin was withered, their hair thinned and sparse, making them appear as if they had aged fifty years in an instant. They trembled and then breathed their last.

"Two hopeless idiots."

Aprilton-Brown hissed, his words becoming slurred and his tongue scattering into a tangle of tentacles waving in the air.

"We've lured the enemy to our doorstep without even realizing it. Prepare to fight!"

Chapter 46 Demon Master

The six-armed serpent demon reborn nimbly swam past the half-human corpses scattered on the ground and came to the back of the half-bronze door.

The four swords in her hands were dripping blood continuously.

Just then, an inextinguishable flame was thrown out from the half-open bronze door, landed on the tunnel wall, and bounced back to her side.

In an instant, she saw her own shadow—half-snake, half-human, with six arms—dragging clearly down the tunnel floor. As the undying flames rolled, the shadow grew longer and shorter, swaying back and forth, causing a commotion inside the bronze door.

—The raid failed.

She felt a pang of regret.

—In that case, why not send in a projection spell to test the waters first?

Just then, the voice of the halfling leader came from inside the bronze door, and it was surprisingly clear and articulate in the Abyss language: "Please come in, uninvited guest."

There was an indescribable power in his voice that made her feel a little dazed.

When Aprilton Bronk said this, he had already moved behind the stone platform, slightly hunched over, with only half of his head showing.

He gripped his staff tightly beneath his black robe.

He wasn't as carefree as he appeared.

Five halfling guards stood beside him. They too were crouched behind the stone platform, their crossbows resting on it, pointing at the hole beside the half-open bronze door. All of them were tense, their eyes fixed on the swaying, demonic shadow in the arcade outside the bronze door.

A six-armed, snake-bodied demon appeared beside the bronze door at the entrance to the stone chamber.

Her stunningly beautiful upper body and terrifyingly grotesque lower body made everyone hold their breath.

Her emerald green vertical pupils silently scanned them, vaguely puzzled by her own rash acceptance of the invitation.

Something seems off.

Before she could think further, the gray-bag beast tied to the stone platform let out a furious roar that shook the stone chamber.

Dust immediately began to fall from the ceiling.

The gray sac beast's tentacles flared wildly as it lunged at her with its hands and feet—its halfling master had already unlocked its chains before she even appeared.

With a nimble turn, the six-armed serpent demon slashed its greatsword across the neck of the giant monster that was lunging at it, and then swung its tail, swatting the gray bag beast aside.

The gray sac-beast rolled over and jumped up again.

To the six-armed serpent demon's astonishment, the gray sack beast's head rolled off its shoulders and drooped across its chest. The bones and muscles of its neck had been almost completely severed by the sword, held together only by a thin layer of skin. Its head swung back and forth across its chest with each movement. The wound on its neck gushed not blood, but a fluorescent green pus.

Countless fine, dark green tentacles, accompanied by green pus, emerged from the wound on the gray kangaroo's shoulder, dancing and extending in the air before finding their way to the head hanging in front of its chest. The dark green tentacles burrowed into the head, then pulled it back into place, where it regrowed together with the neck.

In less than a few seconds, the gray sac beast was restored to its original state.

Although the wound had healed, the gray burr growled uneasily and kept backing away, no longer daring to approach her.

The six-armed serpent demon's chest heaved as he took a deep breath, then turned his gaze to the halfling leader opposite him.

—What happened? I didn't intend to use projection magic, so how did I get into the stone chamber so easily?

Before she could figure it out, Aprilton spoke again.

[So that's it, the true form of a demon summoned to this world.]

This time, the halfling communicated with her directly through telepathy. [If this were a summoned demonic projection, you should have already returned to the Abyss.]

His voice echoed in her mind, soft and magnetic, filled with a dark allure.

It made her feel a tingling sensation in her brain and spine.