The next instant, a tall man, appeared behind the Vice-Captain and smiled at Hogg.
He looked around 40 years old, wore a blue robe with a devil skull symbol embroidered, and even had a unique purplish gem-embedded ring on his left hand. He had russet brown eyes, brown hair, a square face, and was around 183 cm tall.
As Hogg turned his gaze towards the tall man, he asked with a wary look, "Who are you?"
At the same time, he took two steps back and walked out of the magic rune circle.
On the other hand, the Vice-Captain felt a sharp pain in his nape and lost control of his body.
Buzzzzzzz! Spark!
Simultaneously, the rune circle inscribed in the hall became unstable and began to crack, leaving electric sparks behind.
"Where did you find this high-level spell scroll?" Without minding the electric sparks, the tall man walked near the magic rune circle, inspected it for a second, and waved his hand.
A second later, the unstable magic rune circle began to calm down and soon broke into millions of sparks, leaving a small deep blue crystal behind.
"Y-You are a necromancer!" Hogg suddenly recognized the skull symbol in the tall man's robe and shouted with a horrified look.
He also remembered this guy's face from the Orchid auction house incident and became deadly pale.
'Why is he here?'
"Hohoho, not bad. Let's see who you are working for." That tall man walked towards Hogg and gripped his neck. He didn't even allow Hogg to blink and peered into his eyes.
"Why did you leave me alone in the woods, Rilos?"
At that moment, a female figure, who appeared to be around 40 years old, suddenly kicked open the closed door and entered the room with an annoying face.
"Wait a minute, Yalya," Rilos said and focused his full attention on Hogg.
"Oh? These two rats are the ones who caused that earlier elemental fluctuation, huh?" While playing with her gray frizzy hair, Yalya arrived near Hogg and stared at him curiously.
Meanwhile, Necromancer Rilos nodded his head and cast a death spell.
Black nether energy came out of his hand like a cloud of smoke and entered Hogg's mouth. Following that, Rilos closed his eyes and soon found himself inside Hogg's mind, filled with nothing but blackness.
AHHHHHHH!
At that moment, Hogg let out an ear-piercing screech, and soon, both of his eyes had a doll-like expression.
"Strange. Something is blocking me from entering his Sea of Consciousness." Rilos frowned deeply. He then looked around at the empty darkness and soon saw a monstrous red snake figure moving in his direction while letting out a sharp hiss.
'Danger!' Rilos's russet brown eyes flashed in a cold light. Without any hesitation, he dismissed the death spell and opened his eyes.
BAM!
Simultaneously, Hogg's head exploded with a bang, sending scarlet blood everywhere.
Slowly, the headless body danced in the air and fell with a loud thud.
"What the hell was that?" Yalya yelled out in surprise and looked at the headless body.
There was no sign of fear or anxiety in her eyes.
Instead, both of her black eyes were filled with craziness and curiosity.
"Yalya, I saw a demon snake in his Link Space," Rilos said solemnly and slowly turned his gaze towards the headless body.
"Demon snake? You mean this incident is a demon's work?" Yalya's eyes glittered as she asked the question and then shifted her gaze towards the south. While she only glanced at the wall, her spirit power spread quickly toward the woods, and soon she searched the Royal City's outer wall.
"Let's check it out!" Rilos said as he turned around and started walking towards the house's exit.
The pair soon walked out of the lone house and started heading toward the royal capital.
…
Meanwhile,
At the Royal Palace Garden.
As Demon Susur looked up at the dark sky, it noticed the unstable spatial fluctuation had begun to gradually disappear.
'He undid the 'Dimensional Lock' spell!' It regained its composure and stood up steadily.
Then, Susur retraced all fifteen black chains back to its body and stared intently at Abium's group.
Although demon Susur's original plan was messed up due to the mage's arrival, somehow, it managed to get the stone tablet.
With this final mission, its master would reward something big!
Susur planned to ask for a great reward from Her Majesty Scylla!
Where did that slave run off to? He has one madness divine shard.'
'Tsk, I will ask the other Red Python members to retrieve it from him. Anyway, I have to escape from this place before the Mages return.' Susur thought inwardly.
It then opened its snake mouth and began to chant in an abyssal tongue. Additionally, it focused all its attention on the madness divine shard hidden within its body and tried to connect it with its true owner.
As its consciousness touched the divine shard, a small bluish spatial crack appeared on its left side and soon formed into a two-meter tall portal!
Upon seeing the portal, Susur ran forward, leaped into it, and soon disappeared into the void.
The demon Susur noticed that a strange suction force pulled its body somewhere and dragged its body deep into the void.
Before it could even look at the surroundings, Susur felt blurry and found itself falling on a concrete floor with a loud thud.
Even though demon Susur's body was hard enough to withstand the pressure, it still got injured internally.
Slowly, demon Susur lifted its snakehead and saw a black-haired lady sitting on the crimson throne. She had a pale white face, pitch-black eyes, dark lips, and a lean body.
At that moment, the black-haired lady also turned her head and gazed at the demon up and down.
She wore a fabulous black gown, dark-blue shoes, red gem-embedded gloves, and a slim silver crown with a single abyssal diamond at the center.
'Why am I in the throne hall? Aren't I supposed to be transported to one of the Abyssal Rifts? Is this Her Majesty Scylla's doing?' Demon Susur got deeply startled inside and tried 'his' best to stand up hurriedly.
Susur knew that she must have been waiting for him to complete the mission all this time and acted quickly.
Scylla opened her mouth and asked in a chilling tone.
"Did you get the stone tablet, Susur?"
At that moment, all her long black hair suddenly became active and started to move on its own, causing her to frown a little. Every strand of her hair seemed to have its own life and looked like countless minute snakes. All those thin snakes were hissing at each other and soon shifted their gazes towards demon Susur.
It appeared more like they were discussing what to do with this demon.
"Silence!" The black-haired lady moved her black lips and spoke coldly, making all those snakes shut their hissing mouths.
Nodding, she quietly looked down from the elevated platform, crossed her long shiny legs together, and ordered impatiently.
"Take out the materials."
A strange domineering power appeared in the hall and caused Susur to tremble uncontrollably. After a short pause, Susur bowed his head and responded in a flattering tone.
"You must punish that goblin once he returns from his mission, Your Majesty. I almost failed this mission because of his incompetence in not gathering information. Yet I risked my life to get the stone table!" The once proud and arrogant greater demon shuddered in front of the black-clad woman and spoke in a timid tone.
Susur quickly touched his spatial ring and checked the materials inside.
But a second later, the demon Susur's snake face suddenly stiffened up.
'What is this? Why are there only half the materials here?' The demon broke into cold sweats.
'Impossible. No! No!! Where are those materials?! What should I do now?' Demon Susur trembled all of a sudden.
Meanwhile, the black-dressed lady named Scylla gave an annoyed look and ordered.
"What are you doing? Take out those materials."
On the other hand, Susur flinched at her words and opened his mouth to say something, but no words came out.
If Susur didn't take out those materials now, he knew very well that this black-dressed lady would kill him or make his life more miserable.
After all, Lady Scylla was one of the Demon Generals of Demon Lord Lith and controlled almost one-fifth of the 45th Abyss layer!
Susur remained standing on the concrete floor for the next few seconds and finally chose to face reality.
"M-My L-Lady... It seems someone stole half of those materials!" He stuttered while talking out the remaining materials from his space ring and placed them on the floor.
"WHAT?!" An enraging voice echoed inside the Throne Hall, causing all those demons in the Demon Castle to quiver in fear.
Rumble! Buzz!
Simultaneously, a pure form of corrupted energy oozed out of Scylla's body, created countless ripples in the nearby space, and made the entire building shake. Decorative glasses, chandeliers, window glasses, tables, and other nearby materials started falling and breaking into multiple pieces.
At that moment, the demons also felt the crushing power and knelt on the ground while screaming in pain.
After a long silence, she locked her gaze on the trembling Susur and asked.
"Do you know what you have done?"