Your Majesty's money, why don't you engrave my name on it?

Unlike before, this time the attempt made Raslaufer start to look at the surrounding scenery. Although the visible range was not large, he could at least find the spatial location of the fortress in front of him in the etheric plane, and then the barrier appeared.

This is no ordinary magic array; its protective range even covers the same location in the ethereal plane, still shrouded in black and red spiritual light.

But this time, Raslaufer was not as helpless as he appeared to be.

Scales, tail, wings, and horns grew back, and this time, they seemed to resemble demons more, or more precisely, they resembled soul-devouring demons more.

From the moment he saw the barrier, Raslaufer felt as if something was luring him closer, trying to draw him in and touch it. But in front of von Dahl and his companions, he tried his best not to do so, and thus, the etheric surface became a place where he could experiment.

“What do you want to reveal to me? Fine, whatever,” Raslaufer stretched out his hand, which had transformed into claws, and pressed it against the barrier. “Then let me see it more clearly.”

As he pressed his palm against the barrier, it suddenly erupted with intense light, engulfing Reslaufer entirely. However, the Nightmare he was riding was not considered part of it; instead, it was repelled from the ethereal plane. Meanwhile, in the material plane…

The strange "protective array" vanished in an instant, along with a large section of the surrounding city wall, leaving the stunned crowd with nothing but ruins and rubble.

There were no dwarves left behind, nor any other creatures or reasons—the so-called magic circle was nothing more than an illusion, a smokescreen.

But Leslaufer truly disappeared from everyone's sight.

Chapter 743 Second Audience

What is this place?

As if being dragged into Avernus once again, Leslaufer felt as if he had undergone a long descent. If Avernus was the first level, then this fall was probably much longer and went much deeper.

It was even deeper than the one in the Deep Pit Magic Net.

This was not real depth, but merely an illusion created by physical sensation. However, in the extreme weightlessness, as his feet seemed to detach from the ethereal plane and land steadily on the ground once again, Raslaufer felt an unprecedented sense of... peace of mind.

Peace of mind?

It's as if he was born to be in this place.

"Annie? Daisy?" He looked around, the pitch-black environment making it hard for him to adjust. He could only subconsciously call out his companions' names, hoping they would appear, or perhaps they were hunters attracted by the sound... or prey.

But there was no response.

"Zhengling, are you there?"

The devil didn't make a sound—where on earth is this?

Like a predator on its hunt, Raslaufer fell silent. He crouched low, gripped his weapon tightly, and slowly made his way in a certain direction. In his icy blue eyes, red spots of light were gradually brightening, turning the area into a sinister purple shadow, which Dopler was completely unaware of.

Just as he hadn't noticed, the air here was so unusual, slowly changing his body and mind with each breath he took in and exhaled.

But this was not the so-called "abyssal corruption." Compared to those corrupted and confused creatures, Raslaufer did not feel any blurring of consciousness. In fact, on the contrary, he seemed to be even more lucid.

A warm sensation came from the inside of the armor and clothing around his neck, as if that patch of skin had been soaked in a hot spring. Reslaufer subconsciously reached out and touched it. A familiar but transparent pendant remained there quietly after a long silence; it had always been there.

Reslaufer subconsciously recited two lines of the goddess's prayer, part of her ritual. Although now was probably not the right time to perform the ritual, those words did offer Reslaufer a sliver of comfort in the darkness.

As he silently recited, it seemed as if the gods blessed him once again.

That was Edas's blessing—was it protecting itself?

Just as Raslaufer was considering whether he should express his gratitude to her, a soft chuckle flowed into his ears like a gentle breeze between graves. The familiar feeling made Dopler's hair stand on end. The next moment, as if he had a premonition, he looked in a certain direction and, enveloped in a faint fluorescent glow, a huge spider with a pair of red eye-like markings on its back appeared there.

“How lovely and innocent you are, aren’t you?” Few people dare or have the right to describe Leslaufer in this way, but that voice was certainly one of the “qualified ones.” “But unfortunately, I am much closer to you than that stream that may dry up at any moment.”

"Rose." The shock was so intense that Raslaufer's voice lost all emotion. How could the spider goddess, or rather, her avatar, be here?

“You just crossed my territory, child,” the laughter that could drive drow mad and make even non-drow like Raslaufer tremble rang out again. “I watched you cross and fall. How did it feel? Falling into the abyss is far more agonizing than you imagine when no one is there to protect you, isn’t it?”

Is this a certain plane within the bottomless abyss? Raslaufer vaguely guessed this fact, and at the same time, memories of his previous "spiritual journey" slowly surfaced. Last time, his arrival was due to Rose's guidance, but this time, he himself was drawn to this place by the power of that strange magic circle.

"Where exactly is this?" he asked, trying to bump into the Spurs, but Nightmare didn't appear in time to take him away. "Is this part of your plan?"

“My plan? Heh... Hahahaha,” the spider’s fur trembled as it laughed. “No, no, this is your plan, do you understand? Yours.”

"You set this trap yourself. No one knows you better than yourself, so no one can save you. Heaven Mountain? Fairy Wilderness? The First Society? Even your devilish friends? No, no, they can't do it."

"However, I can, for the sake of being a 'neighbor'."

Raslaufer almost wanted to gouge out his ears to block out the mocking laughter, but he was certain that even if he could, the other party would have a thousand ways to torment his mind. Rose, this ancient deity, was never short of methods.

Although He Himself vehemently denied any involvement, even a fool could have imagined that He had made extensive preparations for this, even if it wasn't a trap He had set.

It's like a spider using a discarded web to build its nest.

“I thought I had repaid my obligations to you.” He gripped the greatsword cautiously, considering whether taking action would lead to irreversible consequences.

Upon hearing his words, Rose's laughter quickly subsided, turning cold and ruthless: "Indeed, that's what you think. Mortal, do you really believe that my handmaids and my retinue are objects you can easily slaughter, deceive, or even manipulate? Don't you think you'll have to pay the price for this?"

“Even spiders aren’t immune to the dangers of their webs, let alone you. However, I always have plenty of patience—provided you’re willing to acknowledge and take responsibility for your debts.”

“Apologize to me, it will please me, and you will benefit. Want to know what this place is? Want to know what you should do? I can answer all your questions.”

Leslaufer remained silent, neither moving nor speaking, simply gazing at the spider bathed in the dim light, staring at its red markings as if looking into the eyes of the Demon Queen.

He seemed to see the god enthroned on the throne, but around that seat, other shadows seemed to be lurking. Raslaufer didn't know what they were; perhaps they were Rose's subjects, or perhaps the opposite.

"Don't rush to obey her will."

Like a person who has been staring at light for too long in the dark and is feeling dizzy, Raslaufer seemed to glimpse a soft, shifting silver light. In that light, a will was urgently and gently conveyed, calming Doples's impending answer.

"Please remember that for you, there are far more choices and they are more important than you think."

"Don't rush into a decision, don't... yield to my mother, Rose."

Chapter 744 The Laboratory in the Abyss

Iristris—Leslaufer had heard of this deity, but that didn't mean he could actually match the name with the voice at this moment. Nevertheless, the sudden appearance of the voice made him regain his composure, and he ultimately shook his head at the avatar of Rose.

"No, if I believe I don't owe you anything, then that's the truth. Even here, you can't fool me."

A mocking smile suddenly appeared on Raslaufer's lips: "You know what? I've suddenly realized something: if you're really as powerful as you claim, why don't you just kill me? Or turn me into a slave, a puppet... whatever you want. There's only one reason: you can't do that."

"Whatever you need me to do, it has to be me who does it, unless you don't want anything at all."

The spider hissed, "You'll regret this decision, I can assure you."

“You boast about your patience,” Dople scoffed. “Why not wait a little longer? Maybe I’ll actually side with you once I’ve figured everything out. If you force me, it won’t do anyone any good.”

If Rose could tolerate such an offense, there was only one possibility: what she desired was far more important than Leslaufer could imagine.

The spider's eight single eyes coldly stared at the mortal, and in the end it did not choose to pounce: "...Alright, I can wait a little longer, and I can even raise the stakes, but if you try to play me, the spider will retaliate. I always keep my word."

Leslaufer was about to say something more, but the next second, as if everything that had just happened was an illusion, the spider simply vanished from his sight, as if it had never been there at all.

Darkness and silence descended once more.

But the recent incident reminded Raslaufer, and he immediately took out the pendant. As the artifact glowed with a soft blue-green light, Raslaufer was finally able to see his surroundings clearly.

It looked like the interior of a building, with long corridors and countless houses and doors arranged in a regular pattern on both sides. The walls, floors, and ceilings were all an unusually clean, pure white. If it weren't for Rose's words that this was also part of the Abyss, and the fact that the Nightmare didn't respond to his summons, Raslaufer would have almost wondered if he had been transported to some fantastical dimension.

Is this the abyss of "chaos"?

Raslaufer himself dismissed the idea. It wasn't that he hadn't seen, fought, and killed demons before. He had also caught a glimpse of the deep pit's magic network and some other layers when Rose pulled him into the abyss once before, but none of them looked like this.

Raslaufer walked from one side of the corridor to the other, the whole way quiet, as if the entire building were empty. Looking at the stairwell, which was almost symmetrical to the one he had come from, Raslaufer turned back and suddenly pulled away, smashing open the door of the nearest room with the hilt of his greatsword.

demon.

Raslaufer immediately assumed a fighting stance, his greatsword raised high above his head, the tip pointing diagonally downwards, ready to shift between attack and defense at any moment. With each movement of his footwork, neither the enemies inside the room nor those who might emerge from the corridor could possibly defeat him. However, when he saw what the dozen or so demons of varying sizes inside the room were doing, Raslaufer's eyes widened in astonishment, almost unable to believe his eyes.

Unlike the complete darkness of the corridor, the light in the enclosed room was almost blinding. Demons, dressed in different yet uniform uniforms, busied themselves with clearly defined tasks. Smaller demons washed containers in pools filled with an unknown substance, drying them before handing them to the larger demons, who were roughly the size of humans. The larger demons mostly stood in front of workbenches, some seemingly heating things, others extracting or receiving something.

Leslaufer also saw a large demon, which looked like a hunchbacked minotaur, vigorously wielding a pestle and grinding grains in a huge mortar.

These demons each performed similar yet different tasks, but what they had in common was that when Leslaufer suddenly barged in, none of the demons paid any attention to him, as if no one had ever entered this strange scene at all.

Reslaufer suppressed the urge to try and cut down one of the demons closest to him as a test, and cautiously retreated, then smashed open another heavy metal door.

Here, the demons huddled around several beds without blankets, various creatures bound to them, at their mercy. But this was not a chaotic, indiscriminate slaughter. In Raslaufer's view, he saw an elf with her teeth bound by strings, forcing her mouth open; a demon extended pincers to rip out her tongue, while others were using knives to cut open the elf's throat, peeling back the fascia, and slicing through her tissues.

Leslaufer watched helplessly as a tube was inserted into the elf's vein, and the elf seemed to be paralyzed and unconscious, completely unaware of what was happening to him.

Doble retreated again. He opened door after door, seeing scenes that were all very similar. Clearly, the demons here were conducting some kind of experiment, but unlike the demons Reslaufer knew, they were clean and tidy, even their methods seemed unusually cautious and efficient, utterly unlike demons. If a comparison had to be made, perhaps even some demons didn't revere order as much as they did.

But... is this possible? Or is this reasonable? Raslaufer witnessed a Babu demon wrapping its emaciated skeleton tightly around itself, just to prevent the slime on its body from dripping and affecting some kind of powder it was processing. This seemed completely out of character for a demon.

Unless, it is due to the influence of some external force.

When he opened another door, Raslaufer's attention was drawn to the three demons in the room. Although they were of different types and had different appearances and occupations, Raslaufer saw a device above their heads that was exactly the same as, and even identical to, that found in the demons in the other rooms. The device was made of silver-white metal and was semi-embedded around the top of the demons' heads. If he hadn't seen more than a dozen rooms and hundreds of demons, Raslaufer would have had a hard time spotting it.

But once you notice it, it becomes very difficult to ignore it.

Is it this kind of thing that influenced these demons and made them look like this?

Raslaufer was unaware of this, but he swung his greatsword and decided to do as the locals do and conduct his own experiment in this place that looked like a laboratory.

Chapter 745 The Old Man in the Abyss

"Ah-"

The greatsword sliced ​​across the forehead of a demon, prying open the semi-circular bone and its contents. Caught off guard by the sudden attack, the demon immediately collapsed onto what could be called an "operating table," pinning down the subject who had been strapped to it.

The surrounding demons did react quite well, but they paid no heed to Raslaufer. Instead, they worked together to drag away the demon's corpse, wipe the contaminated table, and the other demons quickly prepared a tincture and tried to inject it into the poor wretch who was close to death because of Raslaufer's meddling.

It looked like a halfling, but its face was ferocious, its mouth was full of sharp teeth, and its flesh reeked of a foul, fishy stench.

Instead of continuing to attack the demons, Raslaufer reached out and, just as one of the demons holding a glass vessel had finished preparing a potion, Dopler suddenly snatched the potion—whether precious or cheap—from his hand and threw it to the ground.

The demon, whose reagent had been stolen, paused for a moment. Leslaufer stared intently into its eyes, as if something was about to crawl out. But the next second, the demon returned to its dazed state, turned away expressionlessly, and began preparing the next dose of medicine.

It was as if everything that had just happened didn't exist for it.

interesting.

Raslaw became interested and decided to try again to see if these guys were really so callous.

If they can disregard their companions and reagents... then at least they should care about the subject they are about to experiment on, right?

Dobler waited, and as the second dose of the potion was prepared, just as the demon raised a needle, about to inject it into the halfling's body, Raslaufer moved again. He stood behind the halfling, wrapped his arms around the halfling's jaw, and twisted it sharply with a "crack." Even the most miraculous medicine would likely have been unable to bring him back to life.

Let's see what you can do now.

Leslaufer took two steps back, waiting for these demons to roar and howl at him before launching their attack. He could already see those visions before his eyes—one after another, experiments with flesh and blood flying everywhere.

All the demons, just like the one before, were stunned by the death of the halfling. The original process was forcibly interrupted, causing them to simultaneously shift their attention from the halfling's corpse and subconsciously look at Raslaufer, who had appeared beside the operating table.

However, just as Leslaufer thought they would attack him immediately, the silver ornaments on their heads suddenly flashed. The next moment, the demons lowered their heads again and began to focus on dealing with the one-meter-tall corpse, preparing to replace it with another one.

"Don't waste your energy. No matter what you do, they won't be affected at all."

An aged voice sounded indifferently from behind Reslaufer: "They will perform tasks and take actions according to the established rules, with almost no additional losses. The entire system can complete a closed loop and operate on its own within a reasonable range until the goal is changed and the process is re-optimized or iterated."

"And this is order."

"Then why did you come out?"

Raslaufer had already spoken before turning around, but when he pointed his sword at the doorway, he paused slightly: the figure standing there was not the demon he had expected.

The other person looked neither like Baltazhu nor any demon that Leslauver had ever seen or heard of. He wore a plain white robe, was hunched over, and had a face full of wrinkles. If it weren't for his heterochromatic, cloudy eyes and the horns growing from his head, Leslauver would have almost thought he was just an old mortal.

Even if he had horns, it wouldn't matter much; he could easily be a Typhoon, a Campion... in short, he's unlikely to be a demon.

Unless, of course, he stands in this building full of demons, looking high and mighty.

“You didn’t hear what I said clearly,” the old man shook his head as if regretful. “Reslaufer, I know you. I have been observing you for a very long time. Although you have changed in ways I never expected, you are still as dull as these demons were before they were ‘tamed’.”

"The reason I'm here is because your landing point was outside my plan; you disrupted their established process. According to the original calculations, you should have landed outside my experimental building. At the edge of this abyss, I will settle accounts with you for the last time."

Leslaufer's eyes widened: "You? Liquidation?"

What a joke! Even if this old man were ten times stronger, he could still crush him with two fingers!

“The nature of a demon is so difficult to change that in order to pursue order and law, I have to give up many things,” the old man said calmly, as if he could see through the thoughts of most of the strong people that Leslaufer had encountered. “One of them is that I have to give up the body that I have obtained through countless battles from the bottom.”

In the shadows unseen by Leslaufer, a longing flickered in the old man's heterochromatic eyes, but it did not stem from yearning for something that did not belong to him; rather, it was more like... a longing for what he had lost.

“You may not know how many unexpected changes my plan encountered because of abandoning this part,” the old man shook his head and sighed. “For a long time, I was unable to pay attention to what was happening outside. At that time, I was just an ordinary old man, overthrown, crushed underfoot, and bullied at will by my own subordinates.”

"If I hadn't still held onto this abyss and other treasures, I probably would have failed long ago and returned to being a maggot at the very bottom. But thankfully, I succeeded in the end, almost completely."

The elderly man, who appeared to be a demon lord, beckoned to Leslaufer, signaling him to follow him, before turning and leaving the room. Driven by curiosity, Leslaufer followed him through the corridor and stairs, finally stopping in front of another door. He watched as the man reached out his hand, chanting some incantation, and then slammed the door open.

Inside this building, there were no strangely behaving demons, only a huge jar filled with an unknown liquid in the center. Inside the jar, a demon's torso, only two-thirds of which remained, was submerged. Tubes and syringes maintained its existence, or rather, suppressed it, making it impossible for it to escape or die.

Montgomery.

Leslaufer froze, before the old man could speak. He almost blurted out a name that was completely unfamiliar to him.