Chapter 28: First Encounter

 Raphilia gasped, her breath catching in her throat as she frantically scanned her surroundings.

She had landed in the middle of a dark staircase, completely alone. None of her companions were in sight.

“Could there be a spell on the gate…?” she wondered aloud.

This wasn’t their territory; it was a demon’s domain. Being isolated within the unknown fortress was incredibly dangerous.

A low, unsettling groan echoed through the fortress, shaking her resolve.

Raphilia gripped her bow, cautiously ascending the stairs.

Then, she remembered the bracelet Rui had given her.

“That’s right,” she murmured.

Rui had said it contained a spell to track Aswell’s location.

“Did she know this would happen…?”

No, that was impossible. It was either pure coincidence or a testament to Rui’s meticulous and calculating nature.

The realization calmed her racing heart.

Flash!

As Raphilia touched the bracelet, a golden arrow materialized, spinning rapidly before pointing in a specific direction.

Was Aswell that way?

She cautiously moved forward. The arrow subtly adjusted its direction, maintaining its course. The slight, constant adjustments suggested Aswell was also moving.

In this unfamiliar space, knowing her objective was a huge relief. It renewed her determination.

“Everyone, be careful,” she whispered to herself.

This was a demon’s lair.

“Now… which way is this corridor?” Rui wondered aloud.

The hero’s party had been scattered by a spell within the Twilight Fortress.

Rui found herself in a long, dark corridor.

‘It would have been better to dispel the spell itself,’ she mused.

But that would have taken too long. The tracking bracelets were a more practical solution.

Aswell, Aria, Serin, and Raphilia would be searching for each other.

In situations like this, non-combatants were typically at the greatest disadvantage. Logically, Rui should prioritize finding Aria.

However, this was a demon-made fortress. And Aria, as the Saintess, wielded the holy power that demons abhorred.

Even her footsteps left traces of holy power, repelling lesser demons. Only the demon lord of the fortress, or a similarly powerful demon, would pose a direct threat to her.

And such powerful demons were usually too arrogant to act directly. Besides, unlike in the original story, Rui had given them tracking bracelets. Aswell would find Aria quickly.

Serin and Raphilia were both capable fighters, so she didn’t need to worry too much about them either.

“Right, then,” Rui said, straightening up.

What should she do in the meantime?

Gather information on the fortress. Specifically, find a way to bring it down.

“The bricks of this fortress are made in the demon realm,” Rui recalled.

She set up her Master Key as a makeshift workbench and crafted a small, drill-like magic tool.

“Extract,” she commanded.

Whirr!

The drill bit into the wall of the fortress, extracting a small sample.

Rui began analyzing the debris with her Master Key.

The results could prove invaluable to the hero’s party.

Beep.

The analysis of the black brick was complete.

“…What a peculiar taste,” Rui muttered, grimacing.

The brick was composed of a substance resembling demon realm soil, a red liquid, and a soft organic material.

In simpler terms, it was a mixture of corpses and blood.

And the corpses included human remains.

This fortress was essentially built from the dead. This information hadn’t been in the original novel, so even Rui was surprised.

She deactivated the analysis device, retrieved her Master Key, and began walking down the corridor.

‘The original story barely described the fortress,’ she recalled.

The separation of the hero’s party had taken up most of the narrative, focusing on their individual struggles against monsters and demons. There was little information about the fortress itself.

Rui would have to discover it herself.

“To destroy a domain like this… there are two main methods,” Rui mused.

Attack the caster who created the domain, or exploit its weaknesses.

She had to aim for the latter.

Clatter.

Rui retrieved two small orbs from her subspace pocket and tossed them in opposite directions.

“Synchronize,” she commanded, drawing a large dot and two smaller dots in the air with her pen.

The two orbs glowed and began to move down their respective corridors. The corresponding dots on her makeshift map mimicked their movements.

These were small mapping tools, not perfect, but they would provide a basic layout of the fortress.

‘I’ll need to refine them further for intersections,’ Rui thought.

Currently, they could only follow a single path. She wouldn’t be able to map the entire fortress, but it was better than nothing.

“If I hadn’t made these beforehand, I would have had to search every nook and cranny myself…” Rui murmured.

The Twilight Fortress was much larger on the inside than it appeared from the outside. It was impossible to traverse on foot. That was one of the reasons the hero’s party had remained separated for so long in the original story.

Beep.

The orb ahead of her detected an intersection.

Whether it led to another corridor or a room, Rui would have to see for herself.

Following the orb’s signal, Rui arrived at a dimly lit room.

“That smell…” she wrinkled her nose.

The source of the putrid odor was dozens of large vats filling the room. A horrific stench emanated from the pristine white containers.

Rui opened one of the vats and immediately recognized the contents.

Blood.

“…A pantry?” she muttered.

The demons of this fortress had a fondness for blood.

They drank it for sustenance, used it for rituals, and reveled in its scent.

A room filled with blood, their primary source of nourishment, would be of great importance to them.

“I should leave before they…”

“Huh?”

Rui froze. A demon stood at the entrance of the room, blocking her exit.

A humanoid demon with pale skin and sharp, white fangs.

“A human,” the demon hissed.

A vampire.

As depicted in many stories, vampires were among the elite of demonkind.

Bang!

The vampire gestured dismissively, and Rui’s robe’s protective barrier activated.

“So, you’re not just a lost little lamb who wandered in?” the vampire sneered.

‘Three spells with a single gesture,’ Rui noted.

As expected of a demon.

“Not just a snack, then. A pity,” the vampire chuckled, running a hand through his hair.

Despite his casual demeanor, Rui sensed a bruised ego.

Vampires in this world could be summarized as: puddles of blood steeped in pride and arrogance.

Their magical prowess far surpassed that of humans, as evidenced by the vampire’s effortless casting of three spells.

But Rui, whom he had mistaken for an ordinary human, had completely nullified his attack. His magical pride had been dealt a blow.

The slight throbbing of the veins beneath his pale skin confirmed it.

“I’m not an ordinary human,” Rui stated.

“Not an ordinary human… then what are you? Ah, I overheard something earlier… let me see…” the vampire trailed off, muttering to himself before grinning at Rui.

“You’re with the hero’s party, aren’t you?” he asked.

“Yes,” Rui confirmed.

Bang!

The vampire attacked again, his magic repelled by Rui’s robe’s barrier.

Rui quickly dispelled the resulting smoke with her pen.

“I should have listened more carefully. I don’t have any information on you,” the vampire said, annoyed.

“My condolences,” Rui replied dryly.

“I heard the hero is a man… so you must be one of his lackeys,” the vampire sneered.

Crack!

“That’s right. How about we change positions? What’s behind you isn’t exactly your food supply,” Rui said, retrieving a large object from her subspace pocket and hurling it at the vampire.

Thud!

It was the Sky Piercer, the same weapon she had used to dismantle Akturas back in Intrell Village.

Unfortunately, unlike Akturas, vampires possessed superior physical abilities.

Their mana sensitivity, magical power, and physical strength were all exceptional.

“Good point,” the vampire said, unfazed as he plucked the Sky Piercer from the wall where it had embedded itself.

He hurled it back at Rui.

Rui opened her subspace pocket and caught the weapon, just as the vampire emerged from the debris in the wall, seemingly unharmed.

Even the weapon that had crushed another demon had little effect on him.

‘I knew it wouldn’t be very effective, but this is…’ Rui thought, reevaluating her assessment of the vampire’s strength.

“Master Key,” she said, recalling her pen and drawing her staff.

The vampire finally introduced himself.

“Aled. Third bloodline of the noble Blood Clan,” he announced.

Third bloodline. It was a ranking system among vampires, with lower numbers signifying greater power.

The demon lord of the fortress was the first bloodline. This meant Aled was the third strongest vampire here.

‘This might be more difficult than I thought,’ Rui realized.

The hero and the heroines had ways to destroy demons, but she didn’t have any effective means of permanently eliminating a vampire, especially one with such powerful regenerative abilities.

Still, she had to fight.

“Rui. Mage of the hero’s party,” she introduced herself.

“Rui. A name that suggests sweet blood. And a mage, too. Excellent,” Aled grinned, snapping his fingers.

“Now, struggle as much as you like.”

The walls of the room began to shift and undulate.