Chapter 1170: Greater Infernal Predator [Part 3]

Chapter 1170 – Greater Infernal Predator [Part 3]

Gormaw burped.

The sound rolled through the forest like distant thunder.

Lux’s smile disappeared. "Okay, almost excellent."

The enormous Gluttony creature happily licked one of its own tentacles clean with another mouth, which somehow made the situation worse. Lux decided he’d seen enough biological violations for one evening.

He snapped his fingers.

"Return."

A black-gold summoning formation opened beneath Gormaw.

The creature immediately sank into it, tentacles disappearing one after another. The final tentacle waved enthusiastically at Lux before slipping beneath the formation.

Then it was gone.

Silence returned.

Lux inhaled.

Fresh forest air.

Well.

Mostly fresh.

There remained a faint smell that Lux suspected would permanently traumatize several trees.

He took unconscious Runa back into his arms.

"Now..."

Another portal opened.

Warm golden light spilled between the trees, revealing the familiar interior of his mansion beyond it.

"Let’s go home."

Lux walked through.

One step.

Two.

Then stopped.

Something felt wrong.

He looked over his shoulder.

Vaelor and Eve were still standing outside.

Lux stared at them through the portal.

They stared back.

"Why are you still there?"

Vaelor hesitated.

"Come with me."

The enormous former knight looked down at himself.

Broken horn.

Gray skin.

Claws.

Ancient armor fused with parts of his transformed body.

He tightened his arms around Eve.

"But... I’m a monster."

Lux physically cringed. His face twisted like Vaelor had just said something offensively stupid about compound interest.

"A monster?"

Vaelor nodded. "A demon."

Lux slowly looked at himself.

Horns.

Tail.

Wings.

Black-crimson demonic armor.

Then he looked back at Vaelor.

"What do you think I am?" Lux raised an eyebrow. "A saint?"

Eve made the tiniest sound.

It might have been a laugh.

Lux pointed through the portal. "C’mon."

Vaelor still hesitated.

Lux sighed. "Half the people in that mansion have horns, wings, tails, fangs, questionable ancestry, criminally powerful magic, or some combination of the above. You’re not going to ruin the aesthetic."

That finally did it.

Vaelor stepped through.

Eve remained safely against his chest.

The portal closed behind them.

And Lux immediately realized his living room had apparently become an emergency refugee processing center.

Servants were already standing by.

Blankets.

Medical supplies.

Water.

Food.

Several healing potions.

Someone had even prepared tea.

Lyra stood near the center issuing instructions with the calm efficiency of someone who had accepted hours ago that today would not involve anything remotely normal.

Sira’s team had returned.

Gula’s team too.

And...

Lux stopped.

His red eyes moved toward the sofa.

Then toward an armchair.

Then back toward the sofa.

There were two additional people in his living room.

One appeared to be a slime.

A translucent, vaguely feminine slime.

Lux narrowed his eyes.

It reminded him immediately of Zehar’s slime form, except this creature’s body had settled into something that vaguely suggested a woman.

Maybe.

Lux wasn’t willing to commit professionally to that assessment.

It was sitting in an armchair.

Drinking coffee.

Lux watched the cup tilt.

The coffee vanished somewhere into its translucent body.

He stared.

Then his gaze moved to the sofa.

There was a woman lying there.

Completely motionless.

Hands resting over her stomach.

Eyes closed.

Pale face.

No visible movement.

Lux stared longer.

Uh... Corpse?

He tilted his head.

No, wait.

Breathing.

Very slowly.

So not a corpse.

Excellent.

Apparently this woman had simply decided the best response to being rescued from a royal prison was to lie on his sofa like she was auditioning for an extremely luxurious coffin.

Lux looked around.

Nobody seemed concerned.

Which somehow concerned him more.

Before he could ask, Vaelor stepped farther into the room.

The servants noticed him.

Several froze.

To be fair, Vaelor looked like the final boss of an abandoned cathedral.

Vaelor immediately lowered his head. "Please don’t be afraid of me." His voice became awkwardly gentle. "I’m not as bad as I look. I’m a good demon."

Sira looked at him. "Then who do you think we are?"

Vaelor slowly raised his head.

Sira gestured around the room. "This is literally a demon’s mansion."

"Oh."

Gula’s attention had already gone elsewhere.

Specifically Eve.

Then Vaelor.

She counted with her fingers. Her eyes narrowed accusingly at Lux. "Why did you bring two while we brought one each?"

Lux frowned. "This wasn’t a competition."

Gula folded her arms. "Sounds like something the winner would say."

"I didn’t win anything."

"You brought two."

Lux stared at her. Then pointed at the sofa. "My question is why there is a corpse on my sofa and another Zehar drinking coffee over there."

The slime paused mid-sip.

Sira answered casually. "Me and Gula released them from the king’s prisons."

Lux knew that, of course.

That had been the entire point of splitting into teams.

The problem wasn’t why they were here. The problem was that these two were somehow even weirder than Eve and Vaelor.

Lux glanced toward the enormous gray-skinned knight with a broken horn and ancient armor fused into his body.

Then toward the beautiful silver-haired princess who had spent centuries chained inside a life-force extraction formation because her blood could heal people.

He paused.

Actually...

A princess with miraculous healing blood and a knight forcibly transformed into an immortal demonic monster weren’t exactly normal either.

Lux’s standards might have become slightly distorted.

He probably shouldn’t complain.

At this point, normal would have been the suspicious one.

Gula pointed toward the sleeping woman.

"That’s Terra."

Lux looked at her.

Terra appeared perhaps thirty, though with ancient beings that meant absolutely nothing. Long earthy-brown hair spread across the sofa cushions. Faint green-gold patterns covered her arms like veins made from roots.

"She sleeps a lot," Gula added.

"She’s been here how long?"

"Forty minutes."

"And she’s been asleep for?"

"Thirty-nine."

Reasonable.

Gula continued, "Her mana is connected to this realm’s core."

Lux’s expression changed. "The Mortal Realm?"

Gula nodded.

Lux looked at Terra again.

That explained Kaelmor imprisoning her.

Why steal from a bank when you could chain the geological equivalent of its central reserve?

Sira pointed toward the slime. "And that is Slimy."

Lux stared.

The slime raised its coffee cup politely.

Lux stared harder. "Slimy?"

"Yes."

"That’s its name?" Lux said in disbelief.

"It is now."