Shadow was backing away as the red light on the floor formed a circular wall encircling both him and the demon. The circle slowly became smaller leaving less space for both Shadow and the demon. the red-light wall became darker as it shrinked. Balthazar was a bit flustered when he saw that the light from the array surrounded both him and the demon.
Due to his unique weapons and skills, he didn't find the quest very hard and suspected that Faroon might be an enemy when he saw the light surround him along with the demon. But as he reached to touch the light wall, it passed through him as if he was not there.
The demon on the other hand was actively moving away from the wall and reached the centre of the circular wall. When the circle became small enough that it had a radius of only a few feet, it started to change shape forming a hemisphere and trapping the demon in it.
"You might have trapped me here, but I would like to see how long you would be able to maintain it," said the demon in a scornful manner.
"I suggest that you be nice and tell us whatever we want to know," said deacon Faroon as chanted some spell while writing on a wooden board which controlled the barrier. A tendril of red light shot out of the red spherical barrier onto the demon. As it touched the demon, the black gas protecting it simply gave way to the light like it was running away the tendril. When it touched the demon, the demon screeched in pain like it did when he put his dagger through its head.
"You!" shouted the demon pointing at Faroon and Shadow. "How is this possible. This can't be a demonbane barrier", it shouted.
"Of course, it is not a demonbane barrier, but it is enough to deal with minor demons like you," said Faroon as he repeated the attack causing the demon to screech again.
"Hahaha. That paladin. He did this. He was one of the detainers. I should have expected this," the demon started talking to itself. It made no sense to Shadow what the demon was raving on about.
"Anyway, you can't trap me in this," it said turning to look at both Faroon and Shadow with a weird smile on its face.
Then suddenly the black smoke that covered its body started to go into its body and it started bulging up again. The demon inside began to laugh hysterically.
"Is it going to get stronger again?" Shadow asked Faroon who also took immediate action and used the red light to attack it again. Unfortunately, this time the attacks didn't garner any response from the demon. It continued to increase in size and didn't have enough space to be in the spherical barrier surrounding it. Its body became so large that it started to push against the spherical barrier.
As soon as its body touched the barrier, the body corroded like acid or some other corrosive substance was poured on it. But it still continued to do the same and was still laughing. Balthazar was sure that the demon would break out and start attacking them again.
He quickly pulled out some bread, water and other consumables to fill up on his health and mana. Both Faroon and Shadow stepped back towards the exit when suddenly the entire body of the demon inside exploded with a loud blasting sound.
The only thing that was left in the translucent spherical red-light barrier was the black smoke moving as around as if it had a consciousness.
"I told you that I can contain it," said Faroon suddenly looking confident. "It even tried to self-detonate but it couldn't break the barrier."
"You sure there is nothing hiding in the smoke there," said Shadow wanting to make sure that the demon was killed.
Faroon immediately used his control board to send a bunch of light tendrils into the smoke to clear it away. A couple of minutes later, they found nothing in the barrier except for a dark bluish black bony skull that looked quite similar to the head of the demon.
Faroon quickly went out to get a large canister made of some transparent glass like crystalline material. He chanted something and used the board as the red spherical barrier slowly dissipated. After that he chanted another spell to cover his hand with some kind of white light and he pulled the the skull into the canister.
Quest Updated: Help deacon Faroon at the Jarko town. (Difficulty: High)
Description: Return the package to the baron and take back the canister with the demon skull to Luciophel.
Progress: Successfully lured the demon and captured it.
"The demon tried to break out but failed going into a state of hibernation," said Faroon giving him the canister having the demon skull. "It is a skill usually seen in higher demons. I can't revive it but I believe that the great priest, Luciophel could be of help."
"Received quest item: Barakdoros' skull"
"Ok, I will pass this on to him," said Shadow taking the canister from the deacon.
"Let us meet the baron for the map," said Faroon going out of the room.
Shadow took one last look at the room and took a picture of it before he followed the deacon. The deacon took him out of the room and towards the baron's mansion. The guards were quite accommodating of both of them this time and Baskel came to lead them to the baron.
The baron was in his study where Baskel took both of them. The baron was waiting for them and was browsing over some books on demons. "He wanted to take care of the demon. Talk of a demon in the town would put a lot of fear in the merchants. So, he wanted to take precautions against further attacks to assuage any malcontents."
"I hope you have managed to take care of the demon that was after me," said the baron looking at Faroon and Shadow.
"We have done that. I just came back to return this to you," said Shadow as gave the pouch back to the baron. "I also wanted to ask you for a favor."
"Please, continue," said the baron as he went to the bookshelf to hide the red box in the pouch back from where he previously retrieved it.
"I would like to have a look at a map of this surrounding area. I mainly want to see the route from here to the White Heart city, but also want to know of the surrounding terrain of the town," said Shadow.
"You involved in any trading or have any contacts?" asked the baron.
"No. I don't have any such interests, but I think that a lot of areas around the town could be cleared of monsters and there is a good chance for development," said Shadow.
"Well, adventurers have their own tricks and plans. I can't deny that. I will provide you with the any information you want and a map. But I want to know what happened to the demon. The last time, the members of the temple came, they told me that they had the situation under control, but here we are with a demon that almost killed me. So, I want the truth from you," said the baron.
Balthazar knew that he had completed the quest already and he just needed to teleport back to the White Heart City and meet the great priest, Luciophel to finish it. So, currently he only cared about gathering more information from the NPCs local to the town.
"We captured the demon. It tried to explode itself and the only remaining part of it, is its skull. We think that the great priest could get more information from the skull," said Shadow.
"Oh! You managed to capture the demon?" asked the baron evidently surprised.
"We lured it into a trap. Else, it would have been impossible," said Faroon. "It was set by your uncle and he told me and Bistam to use it incase the demon attacks the temple during his journey. It was left abandoned after we thought that the issue was handled."
"I will be asking the temple for an explanation of it. I want to know why the ones that came before considered the demon problem to be solved," said the baron glaring at Faroon.
"You can leave a trail that I took the box back to the White Heart City. Even if any straggler demons are left, they would follow me and the White Heart City has better resources to handle them," said Shadow.
"Hahaha," laughed both Baskel and the baron. "Aren't you a bit too caring?" said the baron. "We can't have that. If any stragglers are left or if someone higher in the hierarchy of those demons want it. It is best that they think it is with us. That is the reason I asked you to bring back the box to me."
"Why would you want them to think that?" asked Balthazar confused.
"Isn't it simple. If they think it is with us. They will send someone smaller whom we have a chance to fight. Else, there is a good chance that they will assemble a stronger force."
"And the demons being vengeful species they are, will try to kill us all on the way to the capital," added Baskel.
"Yes, that is true," agreed Faroon.
"But you realize that they almost killed all of you," said Shadow. It is fine if they can hold back against the demons, but if they are weak, it won't be of much help to anyone. They won't even be able to send a message and could be overwhelmed by the demons if a stronger group of demons come.
"That is just because we thought that they were all killed before. As there haven't been any incident for a long time, we became careless and weren't prepared as we didn't put much focus on it. I won't let that happen again and will make sure my successors are also aware of the situation," said the baron waving his hands indicating that Shadow needn't be concerned.
He looked at Shadow in contemplative manner. "Come on, adventurer, I shall show you the map you want to see," said the baron and led him to one end of the study and slid the wood paneling on the wall revealing a small compartment with a table and number of sheets. There were a bunch of rolled up maps placed on the cabinets lining the walls of the compartment. There was a particularly large map that was hung on the wall of the compartment neatly spread showing a lot of details.
System: Relationship status with the baron to friendly.
"This is where I keep my maps. This collection was made by my family since we settled in this town," said the baron as he went to a cabinet and pulled out a map. "That one was made by me and Baskel," he said pointing to the map fixed on the wall.
"This has the safe routes from here to the White Heart City. Apart from that it also details routes to the Black wall fort further in the west. Depicts all terrain in this area. Made many a journey in my early days as a baron to set this up."
Shadow immediately went to the map and started taking pictures of it. It was about 8 feet long and 5 feet wide. As the baron told him, it had a lot of details of the various structures natural and man-made. It had enough details for him to draw details of a large area to the west of the White Heart City up to the Black wall fort which was a one of the strongholds of the army of the kingdom and an important station that allows one to resupply. There was a large mountains to the west of the fort which form a border of the kingdom. The map had covered areas from level 10 to level 30. Making a good note of these details would help his guild for quite some time.
"I should make sure that these maps are only seen by Rudra, Slaine and Lizzie," thought Balthazar as he was taking pictures of the map. "It is best if others don't know. There is always a chance of things leaking out. Maybe it is best, if I keep this to myself," he thought.
As he was taking pictures, he realized the location of the town. It matched most of the terrain of the town that he had thought of. "A river through the town, between the White Heart City and the Black wall fort, in a level 20 area, this is definitely the Star mine town," thought Balthazar. "It seems like I am going to take most of the thing that belonged to Foedus Rex, in this life," he thought as a smile crept up his lips.
"This map would probably interest you more," said the baron who had spread map that he pulled from the shelf. Shadow made sure that he took pictures so that the entire map on the wall was copied before he went to the baron.