Hearing this, Ash jumped to his feet and quickly dressed. He found the sage waiting on him in the large meeting room that they had used on the first day. “Sage, I heard that you have received some word?” Ash asked, his words almost stumbling over each other.
“Calm down my lord,” the sage said as he signaled for Ash to take a seat next to him. Along with the sage Celina, Seia, and Silia were also in the room.
“My lord, a few of my spies have reported back some news. The king himself has declared you an outlaw. They will be trying to get the duchess to renounce you again, but from what we have heard, few believe that it will be effective. It will take time for the king to draft a letter and have it delivered, but during that time the King will start to gather forces to take over the Hawkwing lands by force.”
“So they have pulled back for now,” Ash said, more to himself than to the others. “How long before they attack?”
“It is hard to guess,” the sage said with a troubled look. “It could be as soon as a few weeks or a half a year. While the kingdom seems to have turned against your wife, the people have not. Every day more and more nonhumans have been arriving in the Hawkwing lands to fight, though it is still only a drop in the bucket when compared to what the king can muster. The reason I tell you this is to hear your orders my lord.”
Ash tried to think of something he could do to help Emelia, but he was too lacking in knowledge and experience. “I don’t know what to do,” Ash admitted shaking his head. “Do you have any ideas?”
“I would suggest you start to position your own people near the duchess so that they can protect her,” Silia said smiling.
“That is a good plan,” the sage agreed. “We can send in the Shad clan along with the Fienor clan. Is there any place outside the city that we could hide a large force? We have less than three thousand demons that can fly, so unless we get them in place before the battle starts, there will be no way that they will be able to help.”
“Well the Hawkwing duchy is fairly large with a number of forests and mountains, but I don’t think there is any place that can hide a large force for a long period of time,” Ash said as he scratched his head.
“My lord, can I make a suggestion,” Silia said as she batted her eyes seductively and leaned toward him.
“Y-yeah,” Ash said trying to move away but soon found Seia’s tail pulling him to her chest which made Silia laugh.
“We could have the Goren clan try to connect their tunnels to the duchy lands,” Silia said, her voice taking on a serious tone. “A few generations ago one of the Maoh’s had briefly thought about expanding and the Goren had started on that line, but it was abandoned. I have heard their clan head say that they could easily finish the plan if they were given a few weeks.”
“Excellent idea mistress Silia,” the sage said clapping his hands. “I had almost forgotten about the Goren clan.”
“I don’t blame you,” Silia said as if something distasteful had passed over her tongue. “They are an unsociable lot.”
“I see that you and lord Pern are still at odds,” the sage chuckled.
“Don’t speak of that oaf,” Silia said the look on her face full of disdain.
“Let us go with Silia’s idea,” Ash said, still not knowing fully what they were talking about but he knew that they had a lot more knowledge in this area than he did. “Can you organize everything?” Ash asked as he turned his attention back to the sage.
“I will see to it today my lord,” the sage said with a slight nod of his head.
“Just so I know, how long would it take for us to reach the Hawkwing capital if an emergency occurred?” Ash asked with a slightly pensive look.
“Do not worry my lord, even if we are at the far ends of the demon lands, it would at most take three days to arrive at the your ladies side.”
“Can the large birds really fly that long and far?”
“No my lord,” the sage replied, shaking his head. “At most the birds can fly for five hours while carrying a load, but we can exchange them when needed for fresh mounts,” he explained.
By the time all the details had been worked out, the sun had already risen into the sky. Just as before, the wedding ceremony was quick. Before Ash had a chance to wrap his mind around the fact that he had yet another wife, he was taken to the first floor of the labyrinth.
The first floor had an enemy that he had seen before, though it was slightly different. It was the slime, but unlike the slightly white jelly body before, this one was a dull green. Seia called it a poison slime and while its main attack was still a lunge, it would sometimes spit a green mucus at them that would bubble and boil wherever it landed. Other than the poison attacks, the slime was easily to deal with and died even with a weak strike.
Since he was not limited in his use of skills or abilities, Ash and the two women moved through the first fifteen floors of the labyrinth with ease. Not even the bosses gave them much trouble. A few times Ash had been struck by, poison but Seia neutralized it quickly. If it was an external poison she merely needed to touch it to render it useless and if it was internal she would bite Ash. Ash didn’t really enjoying being bitten, nor the warmth that rushed through his body afterwards but it was better than being poisoned.
As they progressed through the labyrinth, Ash learned more about Seia’s blood ability. Unlike Ash’s ability where he had to absorb numerous dead enemies to gain an ability, Seia only had to be struck by a poison once to be able to use it. Since four out of every five levels contained monsters that used poison, Seia had been training within it since an early age she had already gained poison from the first to the forty-fifth floor. Not only did she gain the use of the poison, but her body also produced a natural anti-poison that could cure anything she had encountered before. That ability alone made Seia a welcomed addition to his guard. As long as a poison couldn’t kill him within seconds, Seia could cure him.
At first Celina and Seia didn’t get alone, but with each passing floor they seemed to get along better. After reaching the boss room on the seventeenth floor they decided to exit the labyrinth. As soon as they were brought outside, Ash noticed that the sun still hung limply in the sky casting an orange glow over the horizon.
Ash wanted nothing else than to rest since he had pushed himself far harder than normal, but it didn’t seem like Celina and Seia were going to let him. Giggling, the two girls each grabbed a hand and pulled Ash back to the room. Like a pig being leg to his slaughter, Ash tried to reason with the two young ladies but they replied with silence and twisted grins.
The next morning, Ash left the room well before the two evil monsters were awoken from their slumber. Outside Ash enjoyed to cold air on his skin and noticed that snow had once again covered the ground. With a smile, Ash let out a deep breath and watched as it came out as a white puff of air.
“It’s cold,” Seia said exiting the underground tunnels and coming to stand beside Ash. Feeling slightly bad, Ash pulled a blanket from his inventory and placed it around Seia’s shaking shoulders. Seia grabbed the ends of the blanket and pulled it tight around herself. “You were supposed to offer to warm me up,” Seia said with puffed out cheeks while Celina laughed from behind them.
Rolling his eyes Ash ignored the two women and headed in the direction of the labyrinth to fight. The more time he spent with women the less he understood about them. Ash doubted that if he lived ten lives he would be able to gain that often sought after knowledge.
The small group quickly passed through to the twenty-fourth floor without trouble but that was where their luck ended.
The twenty fifth floor was a large forest and as soon as they entered he head Seia groan. Turning his head he couldn’t help himself. “What?”
“I remember this floor,” she said with an expression of revolution on her face.
“Don’t just end it like that,” Ash said with a slightly annoyed expression when Seia didn’t say anything further. “If you know it is going to be troublesome, then wou
ldn’t it be best to tell us what you already know.”
“This is the floor that gave me the most trouble out of all the others when I was in training. It is inhabited by the calius flower.”
“Calius flower?” Celina asked tilting her head cutely to the side.
“It has a unique poison that even gives the Liam tribe a hard time. Unlike other poisons, it doesn’t deal damage but instead blocks the person from using any MP or SP related skills or abilities. It even blocks my neutralize ability. So if I am hit, I can’t cure either of you from it either.”
“If you have been attacked by it before then shouldn’t you be able to use it as well?” Ash asked, thinking the ability would be useful in combat.
“That is true of most poisons, but we have learned that if we absorb the poison, it is constantly active within our bodies and for the rest of our lives we can no longer use abilities or skills. It is the only poison that I know of that we are warned against ever absorbing…Well there are a few others, but that is for different reasons.”
“Others…Like what?” Ash asked after having his curiosity piqued. What other poisons would be as dangerous as the one they currently faced.
As soon as he asked, Seia’s faced turned bright red and she shifted back and forth as her tail started to kick up dust from the ground. “Well, there are some poisons that effect the human body’s hormones. If we absorb them, then it tends to make us go a little crazy.”
“Huh,” Ash said, not understanding Seia’s meaning but when he noticed her red face and Celina’s impish smile it donned on him. “Ohh…” Ash said his eyes going wide. “Your mother must have absorbed some over the years then,” Ash said half-jokingly.
Seia nodded her head with a thin smile. “I never thought of it before, but she just might have,” she said with a serious expression. “It would explain a lot of her actions.”
The seriousness of Seia’s words left Ash slightly white faced, but he quickly recovered. “Now that we know the monsters troubling abilities, we are forewarned. Why don’t we go pick some flowers?”
The calius flower looked nothing like Ash had expected. It had a rotund body with a thick dark brown stem that looked almost human with a pale pink flower sprouting from the top. Thankfully the monsters was over four feet tall so it was easily to identify among the other plants in the area.
Ash led the group with Celina near his left side while Seia held the rear. They had used this formation during all the battles and it had thus far worked out well. Seia was skilled with her bow, but it was weak against plant style monsters. Fire would be the best choice and with both Ash and Celina able to use it, Ash didn’t overtly worry about the battle.
When they got close, the flower shifted its body slightly and three globs of white liquid shot from its center at the three of them. Ash twisted to the side allowing the poison to fly past while Celina used her magic to create a shield but as soon as the poison touched it, her shield dissolved. Thankfully she was already moving and the white liquid barely missed her. Seia on the other hand dropped forward, letting it pass over her. With the lower half of a snake, Seia had a range of movements that the other two couldn’t match and Ash had to admit that she had proven to be more than useful thus far.
After launching the poison, the flower started to move its body and a number of thin thorny vines erupted from its body lashing out at Ash and Celina who were nearing. Almost at the same time Ash and Celina used their abilities. Ash cast fire lance while Celina threw two daggers that looked to be made of white flames. The daggers hit first, each one of them doing 20% damage to the flowers HP. Ash’s flame lance hit last doing a paltry 25% damage in comparison. The damage honestly wasn’t bad considering it was still a level 1 ability. If not for his high levels in intelligence and wisdom, Ash figured that it wouldn’t have even made a mark on the creature. Feeling slightly defeated, Ash cast fire lance again while Celina finished it off with a final fire attack.
“Do you think I can learn the poison skill?” Ash asked as he looked down at the now dead enemy.
“I don’t know,” Seia admitted. “After learning the drawbacks to the Liam, none of the previous Maoh have ever attempted to learn it. The risk of losing everything wasn’t worth it.”
It was true there was a risk but the ability was also very tempting. “The poisons you absorb stay in your body?” Ash asked as he tried to work though the problem.
“Yes,” Seia said hesitantly. “Like snakes we have a gland that secrets poison so we can make a limited amount without using SP or MP. That is even true after being effected by the null poison that the flower has.”
“I think that it is because that it stays in your body that it affects you that way. All the poisons I make have to be made purely with MP so I don’t think it will have the same affect,” Ash said after thinking it through. “Either way, I want to give it a try. An ability like that would come in useful in any number of situations.”
Hearing his words, Celina nodded her head but Seia still seemed worried though she didn’t voice her concerns.
Within an hour of fighting, Ash heard the welcomed sound that he had been waiting for.
“Tring.”
[You have reached the absorption level for the calius flower. Abilities available; sealing poison (active), and thorn strike (active).]
“Tring.”
[You have randomly received the ability sealing poison.]
[Sealing poison-cost 60MP 10SP: seals all MP and SP based abilities and skills for 120 seconds. Level 1-0%.]
“Got it,” Ash said happily.
“Can you still use your other abilities?” Seia asked her brow pinched in worry.
With a sense of dread Ash invoked “stab,” since it had the lowest activation cost. Ash’s right arm jumped forward as the ability was successfully used and Ash let out the breath he had been unknowingly holding in. “Everything still works fine,” Ash said as he clinched his fist.
After gaining the ability, he wanted Ash pushed forward and was able to make it to the twenty fifth floor before having to leave the labyrinth. Ash thought about how easy it was to move from floor to floor and couldn’t help but remember his first visits to a labyrinth. He had fought hard and desperately to reach the same level. It almost seemed as if the universe was having one big laugh at him.
The last day of fighting in the labyrinth was much harder as the monsters got stronger and stronger. Ash knew that if he had more people he could easily make it to the fortieth floor, but for now there were only three of them. Of course there were also three high level guards but they refused to fight unless Ash or one of the girls were in serious trouble and so far that had not come about. The truth was that they remained silent and stayed so far back most the time Ash forgot that they were even present.
In the end the three were only able to make it to the thirty-third flood of the labyrinth but that was still far better than Ash had ever done before. Both the girls were higher level than Ash and as the sage had said they had a better understanding of their own abilities so they fought at a much higher level with them. When it came to only swords, Ash was sure that he could beat them but when abilities were involved all bets were off especially when it came to Seia. Some of her poisons were so dreadful, Ash even felt bad for the monsters that they were used on.
Demon's Legacy #9-7
Once again Ash was flying through the sky, now with an extra person following him. So far he had enjoyed his time in the demon lands, but not enough that he had forgotten Emelia, Shina, Yuki and the others and every so often a feeling of longing would well up inside him.
To help pass the time and to alleviate some of the guilt and fear that pressed in on him, Ash started to think of what the next demon race might look like. From what he had seen at first they all looked human so he just expected to see slight differences like among the beast tribe but after meeting the Liam clan, that thought had been erased.
The sage had said that the each clan was modeled after a certain gr
oup of monsters that had been cultivated within labyrinths. He had fought a large number of such creatures and read about even more when he was researching abilities. He knew that there were forty-two main clans and another two-hundred and ten sub-clans. Each clan was large but even with all its members wouldn’t be a fifth the size of the capital city. The real difference was that every one of them had been born and trained to fight.
Out of all the demons that Ash wanted to see, it was ones who could fly he wanted to see the most. The sage had said that there were not many clans that could fly and only one main clan had such power. The rest were of sub-clans and could only fly for a short amount of time having been mixed with the imp race of monsters.
Ash couldn’t help but think about many of the things he had learned while he had been in demon lands. It was all so different from what he had read when he was back at Emelia’s but then again, history often changed depending on who wrote them.
This time it was much easier to see when they approached the next clan as there were a number of houses that glittered in the morning sun. As they drew closer, Ash noticed that it was not snow or frost that made the houses shine but the fact they looked to be made purely out of ice. Flying behind Seia, Ash could see that her shoulders were already shivering. He wanted to move closer to her but unlike horses, the large birds needed room to fly and even if he could get close, the sound of the wind rushing passed drowned everything else out. It was so bad at times that Celina used an invisible shield to wrap their heads while they flew.
Once again when they landed, they were greeted by a large group of people. Ash had to blink his eyes a number of times before he was sure what was standing before him was real. He had seen a number of beautiful women before, but even the men seemed to radiate unfathomable beauty.
A large man at least eight feet tall with pale blue skin, bright blue eyes, and white hair stepped forward while a woman who was nearly as tall with the same crystalline features stood close behind him. “Welcome, my lord, to our humble home,” the man said in a deep booming voice. “I am the head of the Icsorth clan, Belgan. This is my niece Tolarea who has been chosen as your bride.”
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