Demon Lord Lenn tried to put his plan of possessing Lord Aaron into perspective. "My revenge can only come true if I am able to find the characters of my tormentors in this game, but how can I unravel this puzzle if there is no direct connection between these worlds? I need to pick up on every clue, no matter how small or unimportant it may seem. It will be much easier to gain their trust if I hide my demon from from them."
Abruptly, a different thread wove into Lenn's thoughts.. "Ivy mentioned that she likes these VR games, before we parted ways. Maybe she is also here. In this life I will leave no stone unturned to make her mine. No matter the cost."
Lafaar noticed the contemplative nature of his master that contrasted Lenn's bestial body. "No matter what your plans are," he started to say with a calming voice "you should first enter your pact with Lord Aaron."
"But how are we even going to find him? We don't know his whereabouts yet" Lenn asked.
"I noticed a few details in the scenery that gave me reason to believe that Lord Aaron is residing in the Maple Village. A secluded oasis of the affluent and those pretending to be..."
"Obviously we can't just walk into town like that" Lenn resigned and sat back down on his throne, noticing how the slate block it was carved into had tiny engravings of archaic symbols. "Lafaar, I will send you to find him. All they see in you is a regular cat."
Lafaar looked offended and twitched his whiskers "Me? A regular cat?"
Lenn did not even pay attention to his servant's vanity "If you know his exact location, you return to this castle. We will set out to fly there after nightfall."
"As you command, my master" Lafaar said and immediately vanished out of Lenn's sight.
"How does he always do that?" Lenn thought before he decided to use the time to explore the Undying Fortress, the place he now called home. As soon as he left the throne hall through a colossal wooden door that he swung wide open, he entered an endless breezy torch-lit hallway where not a single ray of sunlight made it through the castle walls.
The first chamber next to the throne hall was a parlor with a long table and five skull-adorned seats placed right in the middle of the circular room.
The second chamber was entirely made up of marble, containing a renaissance statue of a kneeling blindfolded angel holding a white porcelain dagger in her right hand.
The statue was a pearl white display of the pure naked body of the angel. The delicate female figure pressed her curvaceous thighs together while sitting on the socket in a praying position. Her denuded nipples were stiff and bent slightly upwards, pointing at her innocent face with thin graceful lips.
In front of the statue stood a basin filled with an opaque jet black liquid.
Lenn walked up to the statue, lured in by her intense erotic aura, before the feeling turned into an unexpected dizziness.
There was something else in this room.
A formless figure surrounded Lenn that slowly creeped into him, infecting his subconsciousness like a virus. This otherworldy presence was whispering to him with a thousand tongues, talking in all languages that ever were and will be, while Lenn had the impression that two hands entered his field of vision from behind his head, similar to the hallucinations of sleep deprived people seeing shapes appear in their peripheral vision.
Lenn's eyes were wide open and he breathed heavily as he rushed out the door and immediately slammed it shut.
"What are you?" he shouted at the door with a shaky voice, fearing an answer from the other side. While Lenn listened anxiously, the torches started to flicker and the wind started to blow even stronger. Lenn was paralyzed waiting for a sign.
But there was none, not even a single sound.
After a few moments everything seemed like nothing happened and Lenn could try to calm down again.
"Whatever this was, that's enough exploring for now", Lenn returned to the throne hall and was left pondering whether he was ready for his new life. Resting on his throne, he was trying to make sense of everything he had seen so far.
After a brief time of relaxation and without any indication Lafaar abruptly appeared in front of Lenn.
"I'm back and I got good news" the cat came sprinting at him and stuck out his tongue, visibly out of breath.
"Then don't keep me guessing," Lenn said, still tense from his previous encounter.
"I was able to track our vessel down. I know exactly in which mansion we can find him and I even know which bedroom he sleeps in. He is with his uncle, Earl Burton, and a bunch of servants. So we need to be really careful if we don't want to sow suspicion right from the start. I suggest we set out at midnight, if we fly there it should not take too long."
Lenn agreed and when the time had come, the two left the throne hall, went through the hallway and past the mysterious chamber, until they arrived at a portcullis. Lafaar operated a lever, setting a steam-engine driven mechanism in motion that automatically opened the heavy sliding gate.
Standing outside the castle for the first time Lenn could see the monumental architecture of the Undying Fortress. The east wing of the gigantic structure was enthroned on a cliff which was relentlessly pounded by the roaring tides. The west wing bordered a large grass meadow and a forest, from which a distant howl rang out.
The Undying Fortress was a building garnished with dozens of turrets that seemed to pierce the gray clouds above the castle. The baroque arches, the ionic columns supporting numerous balconies and the ornate archways looked surreal in the pale moonlight of the witching hour.
"We ought to go" Lenn said and placed his claw down on the ground for Lafaar to jump in.
The cat fit perfectly into it and looked at Lenn "Don't drop me, master."
"Don't worry" Lenn said and spread his wings on his back resembling the feather coat of a raven. Gusts from his heavy slowly flapping wings were tickling the back of his neck and soon his feet did not touch the ground any longer.
This time Lenn was not just floating closely above the ground but he had to exert more energy to lift his body high up into the air. As he rose up the air pressure changed and the strong wind altered his direction unpredictably. First Lenn moved his arms and legs clumsily but after the turbulent start Lenn regained his balance and was gliding safely and steadily through the air. Lenn was happy he figured it out quickly, "I'm a natural at this" he thought.
The demon used his buoyancy to fly even higher and the world under him was shrinking. When Lenn reached a height where he felt he could use beneficial air currents to accelerate he asked his companion Lafaar to help him navigate.
"We can fly directly over the Silver Bay," Lafaar said. "This is the shortest way" and his tiny paw pointed at the stormy sea.
Lenn nodded briefly and realigned his direction. The sea breeze of the Silver Bay was strong, drawing out cries of seagulls and the thunderous waves.
Lenn glided mightily across the sea, occasionally catching sight of a fishing boat's light in the distance. He heard the foghorn of a lighthouse illuminating the darkness of the night. Approaching the shore, Lenn caught a glimpse of a gigantic passenger liner with hundreds of portholes looking warmly at him and heard the sounds of even more steamships from behind it.
When the air became dustier and the night sky brighter, the silhouette of the city's coastline emerged on the horizon, alongside uncountably many cargo ships, wooden piers and brick houses elbowing each other close to the water.
Lafaar purred with excitement "Welcome to Harberton!"