A few minutes passed. Dignitas still could not make sense of the place he was thrust into.
In the first minute, he managed to find an exit that led outside of the courtroom. He followed the narrow hallway, wondering where it would take him.
The Domain seemed to be devoid of life–arguably something uncharacteristic for a demon. After all, demons thrived on the pain and havoc they caused. But with no entities to experience said pain, they would be powerless.
"Isn't this… an archive?"
Even the long passage seemed to have an end. A sudden turn prompted Dignitas to follow, leading him into a room he did not expect to see. Rows upon rows of stacked bookshelves, similar to the ones in Bigsby's shop, stood tall all around.
Unlike the ones in the one-eyed veteran's shop, however, they were filled with a seemingly infinite number of old, dusty books. Judging based off the sheer amount of dust polluting the air, they had been sitting here for quite a considerable amount of time.
Dignitas approached the closest bookshelf and took a book at random. He stared at the book's cover– instead of having a title, it depicted two figures: a blonde man clad in shining silver armor and a great, big demon three times his size.
The two figures seemed to be at odds with each other. The blonde man, who Dignitas just now realized was Barion II, wielded a beautiful golden sword that shone with holy light.
Indeed, Barion was the original wielder of Excalibur. That artifact had resided in Midania ever since it was created, coming up often in children's stories and the like.
"Barion II didn't have blonde hair. I did model him to be like King Arthur, but his hair was colored brown." Dignitas furrowed his brows as he inspected the cover
.
The entity Barion was clashing with seemed to be what the demons believed to be the Demon King. Standing multiple times higher than Barion, it was drawn in the appearance of a stone gargoyle.
Behind the Demon King's hulking figure, there were two gigantic wings similar to those of bats.
"And the Demon King never once shapeshifted to become a gargoyle. Pretty sure he kept his human form on."
Even if Dignitas hadn't managed to finish The Academy's Regressor before he died, the Demon King had made a few appearances here and there, albeit John never actually had the chance to see him.
Ignoring all the errors he had found on the cover, Dignitas flipped it open and skimmed through the entire book. His superhuman senses—a gift all people who could wield mana enjoyed—helped greatly. In just ten minutes, he had finished the book.
Putting aside the glaring flaws that made the book seem like a children's book, the article seemed to be rather accurate. The book wasn't created to tell a story, but to record various demonic species.
It was a demonic encyclopedia!
Everything from lower hellspawn like Imps or devil hounds were listed in great detail, showing their racial traits, anatomy, and even magical attunements.
"Interesting… it even includes the demonized versions of normal races."
Indeed, everything from the corrupted goblins Dignitas had fought during his stay in the castle to elves tainted by Devil Ashra– Wrath Elves, were assigned their own pages.
Dignitas knew that he couldn't bring this with him outside since everything was happening within Makarov's Lockheart. He took advantage of the time given to him and skimmed through the many other books hidden throughout the archives.
It was a large place, having multiple floors akin to a library. Dignitas barely even had enough time to finish a handful of books before he realized how little he had gone through. No matter how many he tried to read, the number of books in the area never seemed to decrease. A hopeless effort, to say the least.
Just as he was about to push through the mental fatigue In his head, Dignitas was alerted by a change in the atmosphere. The lights in the area suddenly began flickering, some parts of the walls were shaking. A thundering rumble instantly descended upon the area, shaking the entire archives.
Then, without warning, the whole area turned black. Before Dignitas could even register what had happened, he was already back in the same hallway as earlier.
And not without a gift, as well. Something stirred in his mind, prompting him to say out loud, "Status."
Dignitas didn't even need to stare at his screen for a few seconds. He instantly saw what had changed. In the skills section, something new had popped up.
_____
[ Author's Insight ] [ ? ]
Blessed by the [Divine Guide To Demonology By Anonymous], this skill allows the user to analyze, into great detail, the Status of a demon. A skill gifted by [ ¿?¿? ].
_____
It wasn't even the sudden appearance of a new skill that had surprised Dignitas. Nor was it the fact that he had supposedly received it from reading a certain book. No, the thing that had made his mind go blank was that the skill was gifted to him by some random person.
"Was it when I read the first book? The one with Barion II and the Demon King?" He asked himself. "No, forget that! Why is it another non-combat skill?! I've had enough of this godforsaken system."
Until now, the only skills Dignitas had were Distortion Slash and Affinity Wave, the latter being mostly used for Reality Construction. His technique with the second skill was something he was still working on, but with the first exam being just a few weeks or so around the corner, he wasn't confident that a breakthrough could be made.
"Ngh… no use whining about it. Guess I'll try it out when I run into a demon."
With an unsatisfied expression on his face, Dignitas continued walking. He had spent way too much time reading in the archives, and it was now time to find John.
***
The castle's choice of architecture was weird. Hallways that should've led into other passages would oftentimes end right beside a door, forcing Dignitas to backtrack. Stairs that should've gone up mysteriously headed down, and doors that should've opened up into rooms instead opened into nothingness.
Was the owner of this castle a sadist? Did they delight in seeing their visitors gradually lose their minds from walking the haunted castle for extended periods of time?
Dignitas wasn't sure. But what he was sure of though, was that he had finally found the place where John was. By some manner of luck, he had found a staircase that descended into the underground dungeons.
The moans and cries of pain they had heard from the moment they entered the castle had now grown loud, almost to an unbearable degree.
Dignitas approached the large wooden door In front of him. Behind these doors, horrors he didn't think were possible were most likely being committed by the second. All sorts of torture would no doubt be at play. Even if he knew this was all fake– John most likely couldn't withstand leaving them alone.
Now, the only thing that he needed to do was walk through. Taking a deep breath, he recalled Lorelai's lessons, and listened to the wind. He focused on drowning out the screams of pain, and only allowed the calmness of the wind to enter his head.
The familiar scent of John's mana was present in the vicinity, even managing to seep through the cracks in the door. It was a sign that he was currently engaged in a fight, probably with the demon that had landed a hit on him.
Not wasting any more time, Dignitas gathered his strength, before pushing open the doors. They creaked loudly as he huffed, but offered no resistance.
He regretted his decision instantly.
Without even noticing it, something pushed him from behind. And in the blink of an eye, the doors shut, at a speed uncharacteristic of their large size.
Dignitas looked around him. Immediately, his expression turned into one filled with panic.
"This isn't a torture chamber... It's a goddamn mental trap!"
He wasn't too far off the mark. While it was indeed a trap designed to lure him and John, it was still a torture chamber. Just that, they were the ones being tortured.