At that moment, Vandal and his allies reached the deepest point in Neinland. Detect Life got no hits from the dark stone passageway or anywhere it led. However, Detect Danger: Death did sense something.
“Traps?” Zulan asked.
“No, from the shape, I think it’s a barrier. Must be left down here by the hero,” Vandal said.
They had entered the passageway from the tunnel they burrowed open, proceeding with caution. Vandal fired off a weak Death Shot down the passageway. The empty tunnel was suddenly filled with a glimmering wall, throwing off sound and a glaring flash as it repelled the Death Shot.
“A barrier left by the Hero Neinroad!” Eleonora breathed.
“What!” Zulan exclaimed. “Your Death Shot bounced off it!”
“Time to turn that off, then.”
“Huh?!”
Eleonora and Zulan gasped. Vandal simply started to use his death attribute magic to break down the hero’s barrier.
He wasn’t doing anything too difficult. He was simply applying a burst of pressure, more than the barrier could take, smashing through it. Neinroad’s barrier held up for a respectable number of seconds, but in the end, it shattered with a sound like breaking glass.
“Phew,” Vandal said. “It was tougher than Ice Age’s ice, I’ll give it that. I used 300 million MP on that. Ah, can I have my snack now?”
“Uh, oh, sure.” Zulan still looked surprised as he fished out the flagon from his pack. It contained the fresh blood from one of the Guild Master’s bodyguards. The Guild Master had benefitted in many ways from working with the progenitors, which in turn had rolled downhill to his men. Their blood was delicious.
“Ahh! Nothing like a fresh pint after a hard day’s work.”
“Lord Vandal, I’m not entirely sure . . .”
“I know, I felt it. I’m only seven.”
“No, it isn’t that. You looked very cute, is all, like a child playing at grownups.”
“I see.” He slumped his shoulders a little and carried on without waiting for his MP to fully recover.
Kanata was on the way here, but Vandal’s Magical Power Auto Recovery skill gave him more than ten thousand MP back every second. It wouldn’t be a problem.
After passing through the barrier, they came into a wide underground crypt, quite unexpected from the narrow tunnel that led to this place. There were bones and husks all around in hollows large and small. It definitely didn’t look like a holy place. The air was unpleasantly damp and had something nasty about it. Detection magic did not indicate any life down here, and yet, there were soft moans that echoed about the cavern.
“Hmmm. I don’t see the princess yet,” Eleonora said.
“Hey! Princess Lebia! It’s me, Zulan! We have Princess Zandia . . . well, her hand here with us, the Lady Lefdia! Please, come out!” Zulan called out as well, taking Lefdia from Vandal and holding the hand aloft.
There was still no sign of Princess Lebia or any other spirits.
“There might be another barrier,” Eleonora suggested. “When sealing something in, people often use a double or even triple barrier, don’t you think?”
So they searched around some more, and they found what appeared to be exactly that. There was a silver coffin with a whip wrapped around it. That appeared to be the center of the barrier.
“ . . . Someone’s got a fetish,” Vandal said.
“Ah, Neinroad is said to have had Whip Proficiency. That’s probably what this is.”
“What do you think is inside that coffin?” Eleonora mused. “If it’s a progenitor, it might become a powerful ally for us . . . and it might not. It might be on the side of the Demon or Devil Gods.”
“We would get in trouble if something really nasty pops out,” Vandal agreed, still deciding to give it a go. He checked with Detect Danger: Death, but there was no real response. “It might just be empty. I’m going to try, anyway.”
He used the same method as he had on the first barrier. Before he was even finished, however, the coffin shredded the whip and opened from the inside.
“Lord Vandal!”
“No!” Eleonora and Zulan were quick to grab Vandal and fall back. Something that looked like a crimson amoeboid popped out the coffin, neck arching as it leered down at Vandal, and then closed in with the speed of a slithering snake.
Glug, glug, glug, glug . . . buuurp!
Just for Vandal to drink it down.
The two of them were stunned. Vandal licked his lips and put his hands together in thanks for the delicious meal.
“Lord Vandal!” Eleonora shouted. “What was that? And why would you drink it?!”
“Why? It practically climbed into my mouth.”
“One would normally, I would think, spit it out!”
“It’s wrong to waste food. Although I’m not sure I’d normally call blood that was sealed away by a hero 100 thousand years ago ‘food,’ exactly.”
“That’s what that was? Blood?”
“Could it have been—a part of the Demon King?” Eleonora exclaimed.
The Demon King Gudranis had famously been chopped into pieces after he was defeated by the heroes, who then sealed away each part. If this seal had been for nothing but a coffin of blood, the only possible source of that blood could be the Demon King.
Indeed, he had heard the announcement “Sucked the blood of the Demon King!” in his head. The two of them were so surprised, however, he wasn’t sure he should tell them.
Skill level increased to 10 for Suck Blood! Became the higher skill Drain Blood!
Skill level increased for Drain Blood, Death Attribute Magic, Brute Strength, Rapid Healing, Magical Power Auto Recovery, Resist Magic, Poison Dispersal (Claws, Fangs, Tongue), and Physical Length Change (Tongue)!
Acquired the Alias, Demon King Reborn!
Vandal really wasn’t happy about that last Alias there. He most certainly was not the Demon King reborn! However—