Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

The pair of crimson pupils silently watched them before revealing a hard to describe emotion.

Eight silently gulped and compelled his body to move to forward, Eleven followed his lead and arrived in front of the being who can only be described with two words Demon Noble.

"Your Lordship" they bowed their heads and got on one knee.

As if liking their etiquette, the Demon noble smiled and slowly walked towards them. When the figure of the demon Noble came in front of the torchlight, they could finally see his face and expression that seemed to be smiling.

In terms of purely looks, the man in front could be certainly called devilishly handsome if not for the heavy foreboding and dark aura that he was constantly releasing.

"Hoho, I thought I would have to wait a little longer but you two have arrived earlier than I have expected" the Demon Noble said observing the two.

Eight hurriedly shook his head commenting "How can that be, even if we have ten times the gall, we would never dare make a Demon Earl such as your lordship wait". 

The Demon Noble who was in the truest sense a nobility amongst the Demon Nobles, laughed.

"It seems that the city above is in a festive mood? Their happy peals of laughter, joy and merriness makes me want to… plunge the city in despair hehehe" the Demon Earl looked at the ceiling or more specifically, the city above him and a twisted expression surfaced on his face.

Hearing those words and feeling the presence the demon was emitting, Eight and Eleven had their nerves taught and their faces under the mask, had gone pale. The demon did not hide his desires and said them in an extremely offhanded and trivial manner.

"That.." Eight tried to form some words, but felt like his throat was so dry that he couldn't even speak.

"Hehehe, relax I'm just kidding. I have no desire to start a war with that guy".

Eight felt his nerves that had been stretched taut by all the tension, relax at that moment and he surreptitiously released a breath of relief. He was more than aware that if not for the presence of that person, this twisted demon would have certainly done what he have said.

Eight gave a dry cough and moisten his throat before asking in a hoarse voice "I'm sorry if my words seem impudent, but has your lordship been discovered when entering the city?".

The Demon Earl who was up until now enjoying teasing them, knitted his brows all of a sudden. His extremely glaring eyes radiated an even more frightening aura that pressured the two in front of him.

"Hmph, at first I thought sneaking into this city would be as easy as flipping my palm, however, the barrier that is surrounding the city, appeared to be more of a challenge than I thought. Since the barriers restricted any intruders, I had to break it forcefully".

The demon narrated clearly a little angry that he was not able to deal with a barrier of such level.

The two humans kneeling in front of him, Eight and Eleven, had shocked expressions plastered on their faces if one could see through their masks. Why wouldn't they be? After all, the barrier that had been set by an ancestor of this kingdom and one of the strongest humans around this area, was evaluated by this demon as only challenging.

Although the barrier had been created and inlaid for more than 800 years ago, it still retained more than 80% of its power to this day.

Those words once again solidified how insanely powerful the demon in front of him was. However, in the next second, the implication of forcefully breaking a city-wide barrier dawned on him and he hurriedly asked:

"Your Lordship, please pardon my offence but since you have broken the barrier, that must mean that… you have been discove…?!".

Before Eight could complete his sentence, he felt a terrifying set of eyes pause on him. His body, no his senses at this moment told him not to speak even a word more if he wanted to live.

His guess was spot on since the mood of the Demon earl was fluctuating like crazy whenever he mentioned the barrier.

"Tch, the likes of you do not need to worry about that. How can the puny brains of you humans be able to understand the greatness of a demon earl? Even if they felt the vibrations of me entering forcefully through the barrier, I was careful enough to mask my presence. With their intelligence, they should only be able to find insignificant clues" The demon earl boasted, his words were laced with disdain for the race.

Eleven clenched his fists tight, he felt extremely indignant when the race he belonged to, was ridiculed like that. Nonetheless, he was not so naïve as to act out on those emotions or else he wouldn't have reached the position he was currently in.

Although he felt unresigned and repulsed internally, he did not allow it to show through his body language and suppressed the feeling internally. Right now his topmost priority and order was to get the item from the demon.

The Demon earl looked at Eleven enthusiastically but lost interest after a while when he saw the latter not falling for his bait. He then shifted his eyes on Eight who had been meticulous enough to keep his emotions in check from the start.

"I have already ascertained that you have been sent by that guy. Tch, the nerve of him to send his lackeys to me instead of coming personally. Anyways, you are here for that item right.. then did you bring the thing I asked?" The Demon Earl complained in a foul mood.

"Please appease your anger, your Lordship Demon Earl Avrox. Our master would have certainly come to receive you but him coming here would cause a chain of events in the city and hence he had sent the two of us instead. As for the item, it is here" Eight replied tactfully and passed a space ring.

The Demon named Avrox, scanned the contents of the ring once and a wicked smile inborn to demons, crept up to his face.

"Not bad… that guy has kept the end of his bargain. It is natural that I do so too but given the strength of you two I can simply kill you here and make my way back".

Eight stood still, the way he seemed unfazed, told Avrox that his teasing did not work.

"In that case, our master will give a visit to your dungeon when the time comes" he replied calmly.

Avrox revealed his deck of sharp incisive teeth and smiled widely "You are quite cheeky for an underling. Such a waste, if you were a demon noble, I wouldn't mind taking you as my own subordinate".

Saying that, Avrox brought out a small box the size of a brick and tossed it towards the grey-robed man.

Not minding his words, Eight caught the box and gave its contents a go through before immediately keeping it inside his space ring. He then along with Eleven bowed towards the demon one last time before turning around to leave through the entrance they came from.

"Wait..."

Just when they were about to reach the Circular concrete lid, the coarse voice of the Demon Earl echoed around the empty space. The two of them turned around unsure why the Demon would them all of a sudden.

ZzzSssTT… with a burst of thunder, a black figure suddenly appeared in front of them as if teleporting. The speed was so absurd that they did not even have time to blink their eyes before the very person who was supposed to be more than a few dozen meters away from them, was suddenly in front of their face.

"Hmmm?!" Avrox caressed his chin with one of his hands and his eyes intensely observed the grey-robed man. An unknown pressure that made it difficult for Eight to breathe, descended onto his entire body making him feel like wax in front of a flame.

"W-what's wro.." Eleven tried to interfere; however, with just the gesture of the hand, he was slammed into the wall by Avrox.

"Why is it that I feel the aura of Demon Noble on you? Judging from its purity, it should be a Demon viscount no less" He questioned, pressuring the other party with his gaze. It was clear that he would not take any excuse as an answer.

Eight who was suddenly thrown into such a bizarre situation thought over the question carefully. Nevertheless, nothing seemed to come to his mind.

Looking at his confused face, Avrox frowned and mumbled "It looks like you are not lying. But how is it so that I can feel the trace of a Demon Viscount on you? Although the trace is very faint, it was left not more than a month ago".

When the Demon earl gripped him by the neck and suspended him in the air, Eight replied in between his gasps for air.

"Y-your Lordship... I haven't…met any…Demon Viscount…..recently".

"Hehh" Avrox put him down before absorbing his aura back. It seemed that he had used a skill to determine the authenticity of Eight's words.

The Demon earl then disappeared into the dark room while mumbling something. Soon all the torches that were illuminating the place, went off one after the other and not even a trace of light could be found in this wide dark space.

"Cough..cough… you alright?" Eight propped himself up and walked his exhausted body towards Eleven who had been plastered onto the wall quite deeply.

Seeing that his companion was still conscious, he sighed a breath of relief. A deep sense of exhaustion of avoiding a crisis, brushed over his body.

"Still what did he mean by those words? When did I come in contact with a Demon Viscount?".