After fighting with the monsters, everyone woke up rather late the next morning. They were still tired but immediately resumed their adventure, waiting for the next destination.
After a few days, the car arrived up on a cliff.
Kari stepped out of the car, leaving the others behind. Lifting her arm up, she didn't expect to sense any magic waves, but, to her surprise, she felt a slight tingling.
Quickly putting her arm down, she ran and jumped off the cliff. Taking off the moment she hit the ground, she dashed forward, completely stopping after a few metres.
She frowned. There was a huge stone wall in front of her. Anyone would have gone back once they saw something like that, but not Kari.
Especially when she felt that magic wave. She laid her hand on the wall, it felt real, but Kari pushed her hand a bit harder on the wall and it instantly went through.
Kari quickly took her hand back, grinning widely. Making her way back, she surprised the others with her results, "I've found it!"
Maida finally breathed a sigh of relief, "Thank god we found it. We can go back now! Let's rest here for a day and we can go back tomorrow." Her words immediately broke Kari's happy bubble, making her slump down.
Everyone agreed to her words while Kari made her way over to her room.
'Hmph! If they don't wanna go in. I will!' Kari made up her mind.
This was a once in a lifetime to see what a Demon King Castle looked like! Like hell, she would miss the opportunity!
And so, Kari made a plan.
She gave an excuse that she was going out to practice and other things. First, she needed the layout of the demon lord's castle. Who knows? Maybe the demons basically live like us. In a country.
Kari quickly made her way to the base of the illusion. Pushing her hand in, she slowly walked through the illusion with a bit of force.
She opened her eyes, not expecting what she had imagined. The demon country was much more advanced than she had thought. It wasn't dark and gloomy at all. It was actually...quite bright.
Unsurprisingly, the demons had different coloured horns sprouting out from their heads, ranging from one horn to six. There was a tail coming out from their back and some even had small wings which Kari found extremely cute.
They had different eye colours, some had the common red eyes, some purple, some yellow, and even pink. Instead of everyone having black hair, they had different colours of hair. Such as red, purple, black, blue and so more.
They basically looked...actually, pretty normal. The horns and tails are the only weird characteristic.
She could see demons of all ages strolling around or playing with each other. Some even were playing with their magic, throwing fire or ice balls at each other playfully.
There were shops everywhere and even a black fountain in the middle. It had a dragon head on the top which was spewing water from its mouth and would splash at people who were passing by.
Kari knew she would stand out, so she had to get a disguise. Quickly stepping out from the illusion, she opened up her status bar, making her way over to the shop option.
Kari quickly exchanged some of her money for the currency featured in her status which was ironically called God's Currency.
Scrolling through the shop, she came across a potion that allowed her to take the form of a demon as well as their aura. She grinned and was about to buy it when she saw the price.
She gaped at it as her finger hovered above the item. Wincing as she put her finger down. Giving a quiet sob, she opened the potion which gave off the smell of blood. Wrinkling her nose, she pinched it and chug the potion down in one swoop.
Choking, Kari suddenly felt something coming out from the front of her head along with her waist. Her snow-white hair darkened a bit to a grey shade. Kari opened the shop again and bought a mirror.
Taking a look at her new appearance, Kari whistled. These horns and wings looked pretty good on her. When she saw her current outfit, which was a tri-coloured oversized sweater that had the word beautiful sewn onto it, blue baggy jeans and pale pink and white sneakers, they didn't quite match up with her little cute and evil appearance.
Kari looked at the shop, spotting some outfits options. She grinned and bought them after some difficult time choosing. A pop-up notice asked 'Equip it?' and Kari pressed yes.
Kari nodded in approval of her new outfit, which was one suit with a cape attached to it, with some gold outlines. Closing the status screen, she breathed out. Walking into the illusion once again, she looked around excitedly.
Bouncing from place to place, she found out that demons were very friendly. After walking around for a while, she looked up to see a majestic and regal castle looming over her.
Gasping in awe and amazement, she stared at it for a few moments before turning to look at the entrance.
Unlike the white castles she normally saw in her kingdom, this one was completely monochrome from the outside. It had small purple flags on top of each tower.
Kari looked at her wings, 'Should I try flying...?' Kari pursued her lips before closing her eyes, trying to feel her body and start flapping her wings.
She soon felt a tug and she held onto it. She looked behind to see her wings flapping vigorously and that she was lifting a few feet above the ground.
'This is freaking cool!' Kari tried to manoeuvre her body but, instead of going in the direction she wanted to, she went the opposite!
She grumbled incessantly as she tried once again and, to her delight, she succeeded this time. She flew higher and higher until she was above the castle. Smiling in ecstasy, she went around for a few rounds with her newfound flight, getting a hang of it.
Once she had gotten used to it, she started to fly lower and nearer to the castle. Going a few rounds, she spotted a place where very few guards were seen. Curious, Kari carefully flew closer. Make sure she won't get spotted.
Since it was morning, the guards weren't that alert. They were thinking that no one would try to break in during the morning. After all, that would just be stupid.
'Did I bring a tranquillizer with me?' Kari thought.
She opened her space storage and looked around before spotting some small syringes in the corner.
Kari grabbed them and flew towards the bushes facing sideways to see if there were any guards. She hid inside some bushes and used an old times assassin's skill and sneaked up behind them.
She wrapped her arms around one of the guard's chests, pulled him behind and stabbed the syringe into his neck.
The guard's eyes couldn't be kept open as drowsiness soon overwhelmed his alertness. He fainted and Kari dragged him towards the bush.
She successfully applied the same attack on the other guard and managed to sneak in.
Going down the dark hallway, the place smelled like the sewers. You could see cobwebs hanging from the corner of the walls with spiders sitting on them, waiting for their prey. There was moss between the black bricks and the ground was soaked.
Kari frowned, 'This must be a dungeon...'
Kari soon walked further in and finally found the cells. Walking over to one of them, she tried peering inside but failed to do so, the cell seemed to be covered with some black fog that makes anyone outside unable to see what was inside.
Frowning, Kari closed her eyes and connected her mind to the space room. Calling for the spirit pets, they soon gathered around in the living room.
"What's wrong, master?" Zeke asked.
Kari projected the image of the cell filled with black fog.
They all stared at it for a while before Isabella suddenly cried out, "I remember this fog! It was used in the Spirit War to torture prisoners. It's an extremely poisonous master! Don't stick your hands through the bars!"
Kari pulled back her hand and took a few steps backwards.
'Do you know how to disable it?'
Everyone kept silent for a while.
"I think I can disable it." Psychic said.
'How so?'
"I have never used my powers for a long time before, but I remember one of the uses of my withered roses which only a withered rose fairy has. We were extremely valuable during the war due to our roses being able to suck in the black fog and even upgrade from them. Take me out, master."
Kari nodded and a summoning blue light shone before her.
Psychic appeared as he landed elegantly on the ground, reminding Kari of the description of one of those noble gentle second male leads in Chinese novels. Psychic closed his eyes and roses grew out from his hands, rushing towards the black fog.
Kari watched the fog slowly disappear, being sucked up by the roses that soon changed their colour...
"Do it for the other cells too, please!" Kari asked.
Psychic abided by her command and proceeded. Soon the roses around the cells had a bright blue colour to them and Psychic licked his lips in satisfaction.
He turned to Kari and gave a slight bow before disappearing into the blue fog.
"Thanks for your help Psychic." Kari said.
"It's my pleasure to help." Psychic answered back.
Kari peered into the cell only to find it empty. Still filled with curiosity, she looked from cell to cell until she stumbled upon something.
She saw a young black-haired boy with crimson-red eyes shining, chained to the wall behind him with numerous injuries on him. Kari got closer and bent down. The boy soon noticed Kari and looked up. His glistening crimson red eyes startled Kari. It was filled with guilt and hopelessness.
"W...Who...Who are you....?" The boy spoke, his rough and gnarly voice echoing around.
Kari gave him a small smile, "Kari! A pleasure to meet ya!" She winked at him in the process.
"What are you doing here?" Kari asked, eyeing the chains that bound him.
The boy kept silent as he lowered his head once more. Kari waited patiently for him to speak.
"I...I'm a dangerous person...you shouldn't get too close to me." The boy said softly.
Kari raised an eyebrow before laughing, "I'm considered dangerous myself! How about I free you from those ugly chains?"
"N-no! He will come out if you do!" The boy cried out.
Kari paused her actions. "Who?"
"Master, I think that Boy has a spirit of death and misery stalking him around. It's quite powerful actually. I didn't expect to see one here. From what I see, someone has cast a sealing light spell on those chains that keep the spirit unable to come out from the boy's body." Austin said.
'Can I take him out then? Will I be able to handle him?' She asked.
"You can just summon me, I will take care of it myself."
6
Kari nodded and summoned him, scaring the poor boy. Kari made her way over to the cell.
Looking at the keyhole, Kari opened her space storage and took out a black hairpin. She put the hairpin in, making a few twists and turns.
After a while, Kari managed to open it, she walked closer to the boy and he desperately tried to stop her from removing the chains but she paid no mind to his struggle. Forcefully taking his wrists, she quickly unlocked the chains.
As soon as the chains hit the ground, a gas like skinny bone figure appeared behind the boy. He was covered in brown rotting bandages and had no face, he was about to attack Kari until Austin came in and interrupted his attack. Kari quickly took the boy as Austin fought with the spirit, spinning his scythe constantly and slicing the spirit's weak spots.
Austin grabbed the spirit's hand and activated his power and its hand completely melted away. The spirit suddenly cried out, "Ow! Ow! Ow! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Don't attack me anymore! I will be good." It's a high pitched voice made Kari snicker as she was not expecting it to sound like a 3-year-old girl.
The boy gaped at the scene, he had never seen his spirit cowered under someone before. He soon found it comical and covered his mouth, letting out a small giggle.
The spirit turned to look at the boy. If he had a face, he would be glaring at him harshly.
The boy hid behind Kari, holding onto her cape tightly and stuck out a tongue at the spirit.
"Austin, take care of the spirit. But don't kill it." Austin nodded, taking out a reflective black box, he tossed it into the air.
"No no no no noooooo!!! I'M CLAUSTROPHOBIC!" It hovered for a short while before shaping itself into a diamond with a hole in the middle and sucking the spirit in.
The black box gently landed back on Austin's hands and he tossed it towards Kari who easily caught the box.
Kari gestured that Austin could go back and he disappeared into black smoke. The boy peeked from behind Kari, eyeing the black box in her hands.
Kari turned to look at the boy and bent down to reach his height. "What's your name and how old are you?" She asked with a smile.
"Cyox...I'm 11 this year.." The boy murmured.
"Ok, Cyox. What were you doing in this dungeon?"
The boy kept silent for a while.
"I'm...dangerous...or used to be...I killed all the people in my village before and I was brought here to not endanger others." The boy said, looking down, feeling guilty.
"Do you have anywhere to go?" Kari asked.
The boy shakes his head. Where should he go then? Kari ponders for a while, "Do you wanna stay with me?" She then asked.
The boy nodded without hesitation.
Kari grinned, "Great! I am also taking care of a boy your age. You can make his company. Here, hold my hand and close your hands. Don't panic whatsoever, okay?"
The boy took Kari's hand and closed his eyes, reminding himself to stay calm.
Kari bought Cyox into the space room, Kari nudged Cyox, "You can open your eyes now. C'mon."
Cyox opened his eyes, letting out a small 'Woah'. He looked around, seeing all the unfamiliar devices. He had been imprisoned since he was young and never got the chance to see any electronics.
Kari chuckled, "How about I bring you over to your friend?" Cyox nodded excitedly. Kari brought Cyox over to the forest room.
Gently opening the door, she and Cyox stepped inside the greenery wonderland. Kari led Cyox to the familiar small wooden house and knocked on the door.
"Yes! Who is it???" Sazuki opened the door, his eyes brightening up as he sees Kari. However,. It soon turned to curiosity as he spotted the black-haired boy next to her, looking at him shyly.
"Big sis, who is that boy?" Sazuki asked as he took a seat on the wooden stool, looking at Cyox.
Kari gestured towards Cyox, "This is Cyox. I found him in a dungeon. Since I'm away most of the time. I decided to let him stay here with you if you. Do you mind?"
Sazuki shook his head with a wide smile. He was going to get a friend! His very first friend. He hurriedly grasped Cyox's hands with a bright look in his eyes. Before Cyox could say anything, Sazuki dragged him outside to meet the animals. Kari laughed at the scene.
She then got up, telling them she was gonna go off, leaving only after asking Cyox a particular question.
"Cyox, is the dungeon connected to the castle?" Cyox paused, in his thoughts before nodding.
"Someone always brings me food every day at 12 pm. The kitchen is connected to the dungeon. You can probably get into the castle from there. The entrance to the kitchen is a bit further into the dungeon. You turn left and you will see it."
Cyox gave directions which Kari recorded down in her head.
She nodded and thanked Cyox for his help. Getting out of her space room. She returned to the dungeon. A devilish smirk spread across her lips as she went her way in.