Ten Lucky Draws: I Became OP - Chapter 349: The Mars Plane - Dex Asmodei

Chapter 349: The Mars Plane – Dex Asmodei

When they appeared on the other side of the Dimensional Gate, they were effectively in the Middle Dimension of The Maw… which was called the Mars Plane.

The shift was jarring—less like walking through a gate and more like being hurled out of one world and swallowed whole by another.

They landed in the exact center of a vast plaza; its obsidian tiles threaded with veins of glowing crimson.

Overhead loomed a sky that wasn’t truly a sky; aside from its colors, it mirrored the one over the Earth Plane—the Middle Dimension of the Ninth Organism.

Black and red clouds twisted in slow, intentional spirals, rising into a flawless vertical tunnel that disappeared into the darkness above.

Every so often, distant flashes of blood-red, silent lightning lit up the tunnel walls.

Far ahead, somewhere deep in that dark crimson tunnel, the Ninety-Ninth Heaven awaited. The plaza bustled with life and motion.

As the woman’s eyes swept across the plaza, one thing was clear—shadows ruled every corner.

Demons with obsidian skin and midnight eyes lingered in doorways.

Devils in sharp black suits stood tall, their horns gleaming like polished glass.

Tieflings with cracked porcelain faces and ember-lit mouths laughed too loudly, passing around bottles that hissed and smoked when opened.

Even the humans carried an unsettling darkness. With their skin drawn tight over sharp bones, eyes rimmed in black, and smiles that revealed far too many teeth.

At first, no one paid Aurora and Isis any mind.

Then, they did.

Heads turned slowly—eyes narrowing, nostrils flaring—as the two beautiful women stood in the heart of a brand-new world… or more accurately, a new plane.

Aurora wore a simple white dress, while Isis, in light clothing, let her tail flick once in irritation, her slitted eyes sweeping over every face in sight.

Aurora tilted her head, her white-blue hair catching the red-black light. Before the filthy gazes lingered too long, she hummed softly and drew attention elsewhere before speaking.

“…Why does this place feel… so chaotic?” she asked gently.

Isis’s tail-tip flicked again, sharper this time.

“I’m not sure…” she murmured. “But let’s keep moving—the longer we stay, the more likely we’ll find trouble we can’t handle.”

Aurora shot her a sideways glance, golden eyes glinting.

“Hehe, are you scared?”

Isis let out a short, humorless snort.

“Never… I wasn’t born yesterday. We’re weak…” she said, starting to move while casting another glance at Aurora.

’I still can’t read her rank… let alone sense any aura,’ she thought as she spoke.

“I’m not sure how much you know about the ranks… but I’m only Early Transcendent—rock bottom. We need power… information… allies.”

Her voice faded, the message unmistakable.

Aurora nodded, “You’re right,” she said softly. “But we don’t have to look strong yet. We just have to look like we belong.”

She slipped her hand into Isis’s and tugged her forward.

“Come on…. I know of a little trick. It’ll conceal us for a while.”

In that moment she activated her power, song of birth and a necklace appeared around her neck that was invisible to everyone but her.

It was a simple conceptual creation that helps with concealment.

Isis stiffened at the touch—but didn’t pull away. After a heartbeat she exhaled through her nose and let Aurora lead.

They moved together through the plaza—as two beautiful figures were swallowed by the dark tide of bodies.

No one followed at first….

The demons and devils were too busy bartering souls, the tieflings too drunk on smoking liquor, the dark-edged humans too focused on their own quiet schemes.

But someone did see them… or more accurately, had been seeing them for quite a while.

He emerged from a ripple in space just behind where they’d first appeared—silent, unseen.

Tall, lean, and impossibly handsome in the way only certain devil breeds could be, he had skin the shade of aged port wine, eyes of solid gold with narrow black slits, and hair the deep red of fresh blood, slicked back from sharp horns that curved like a regal crown.

A tailored black velvet coat lined with crimson silk hung open to reveal lean muscle and a thin silver chain disappearing beneath his collar.

His name was Dex Asmodei.

And he had been tailing Aurora since the Masque.

He had seen her from across the ballroom floor—white dress… and the gentle smile that didn’t belong in a place like that.

Something in him had stirred to life. It wasn’t lust or greed, but pure infatuation.

He’d tracked her scent through the Masque’s chaos—never approaching, never speaking—happy just to watch from the shadows. When she slipped through the gate with the dragon princess, he’d counted exactly three heartbeats before following.

He stood in the Mars Plane plaza, golden eyes fixed on the two figures walking away.

When Aurora laughed at something Isis said, it reached him like a bell tolling in the dark. Dex’s pupils narrowed to slits, and he slowly, deliberately licked his lower lip.

“I must have her,” he murmured. “She will be my Empress… the mother of my future heirs.”

His long, prehensile, spade-tipped tail flicked once before he slipped back into the crowd—silent, patient, invisible.

Though her trail had faded, patience was all he needed; once he caught someone’s scent, escape was impossible.

For now, it was gone, but he knew, as always, “It will return… it always does,” he said, vanishing completely.

—–

As Isis and Aurora moved through the plaza, the Dragon noticed how they weren’t even being looked at anymore.

Isis’s tail flicked once—then settled close to her leg again.

Though she found such a change weird… she didn’t comment on it.

She simply took the lead, shoulders squared, eyes scanning every alley mouth, every shadowed overhang, every glowing signpost written in shifting infernal script.

Aurora now followed half a step behind, she didn’t speak as she was focused on the new things around her; she simply matched Isis’s pace and watched—golden eyes bright, attentive, quietly cataloguing everything.

The streets tightened as they left the main plaza behind, and Isis paused at the entrance to a narrow lane.

At its end crouched a low building of blackened stone, three stories high, its windows thin as arrow slits and its door framed in rusted iron shaped like interlocking jaws.

Above the entrance hung not a sign, but a single vertical eye carved from red crystal, blinking slowly. Beneath it, words in red script read.

“Truth for a Toll — Speak or Bleed.”

Isis’s lip twitched at the sight.

“And this… is where my information ends,” she said quietly. “Apparently, this is an information broker. They don’t care who you are, as long as you pay—no questions asked.”

Aurora tilted her head, studying the blinking eye.

“Sounds interesting… and judging by the sign, I’m guessing they don’t take Mana Stones?”

“How would I know?” Isis shot her a glance. “Besides, you don’t have to come in. I can—”

But Aurora was already slipping past, her hand brushing lightly against Isis’s forearm.

“Yeah, yeah,” she said with a shrug. “Let’s get going… the creepy building’s not going to move itself.”

Isis stared for a beat.

Then—almost unwillingly—a tiny smirk tugged at the corner of her mouth.

“…You’re impossible.”

Aurora’s smile was soft, playful.

“You’ve said that before.”

Then… they stepped inside together.