Chapter 8: Make the Demon Lord Pay!
ALICE’S party proceeded onward.
“Not a single monster in sight,” Alice noted.
“Bet they just didn’t expect us ‘mere’ humans to ever get past the dragon! Arrogant lot,” Hatta remarked.
Onion Boy wasn’t even shivering for once, and that was saying something.
“I sure hope so. Also, this place is huge, isn’t it?”
The number of forks in the road made them a little concerned wondering if they were actually going the right way.
“Stand back, my lady,” Seb said. “It appears we’ve been going the right way.”
They peered around the hallway corner, gazing upon a band of monsters huddled around what was presumably the throne room door.
“What now, Alice?” Hatta asked.
“Let’s find someplace to plant bombs like we planned,” she responded coolly.
“We lure them away then just waltz in, all sneaky-like. Gotcha.”
They went back the way they came in search of the perfect place to plant bombs. They had to choose wisely. Failure to do so might leave them with no time to retreat.
“Lookie there,” Hatta said, pointing to a row of identical doors that led up to a passage which, upon further inspection, seemed to branch back into the main path.
“Any one of these rooms should do the trick. We’ll set off the bombs, grab their attention, then circle back to the throne room.”
“What’re we waiting for, then?”
They entered the first door.
“Would you look at all those precious books, Alice?!” Haigha exclaimed, a glimmer in her eyes. “Simply breathtaking!”
“Is it?” Alice pulled out a book from a nearby shelf titled What Is Love? “I don’t see what’s so breathtaking about this,” she said, flipping to a bookmarked page. “Love is the most elusive creature of all,” she read out an underlined quote. “Looks like we’ve got a love-struck monster on our hands.”
Little did Alice know that this love-struck monster was the Demon Lord himself.
“Can we go plant the bombs somewhere else, please, Alice?” Haigha pleaded.
“Funnily enough, I just had an inexplicably strong urge to burn the whole place down to the ground, but, if you insist…”
They moved on to the next room, chock-full of historical artifacts and other valuable knick-knacks.
“Alice, we simply can’t plant the bombs here,” Hatta exclaimed, a glimmer in his eye. “This place is a straight-up gold mine! Everything you see here goes for a fortune!”
They stumbled upon the treasury, which likely wasn’t locked as no one would be foolish enough to steal from the Demon Lord.
“Everything?” Alice repeated, staring at a filthy wreath behind a glass case, protected by layers upon layers of strict security measures as though it was some kind of national treasure. “Can’t say I’ve ever heard of this thing.”
That was because it was something her brother Jean had made for the Demon Lord, not a historical artifact.
“It makes me deeply uncomfortable for some reason,” Alice continued, “almost like it’s cursed or something. But I suppose we should go through all the rooms first before making any hasty decisions.”
They moved on to the next room, their eyes instantly glued to a comically large portrait of the Demon Lord hanging from the wall. He looked hot, Alice thought, but his facial expression in this particular piece was just the most insufferable thing ever. Hatta stuck a bomb to the portrait’s face without any second thoughts.
“Couldn’t have done it better myself,” Alice praised.
“I knew you’d do the right thing, Hatta,” cheered Haigha.
“Fine work,” remarked Seb.
They all felt the exact same way.
“Tell me something about this bomb of yours,” Alice said.
“It’s a prototype I’ve been working on for the past few days. The impact is minimal, but you’d think we just blew a hole through an entire room with how loud the explosion is,” Hatta said proudly. “I’ve made four in total, each with their own separate timer set for thirty minutes by default.”
“Why thirty?”
“You can change it if you’d like.”
“How would I go about doing that?”
“Just hit the circle buttons underneath the numbers to set your preferred time, then push the square button to confirm.”
“Don’t mind if I do.” Alice set the timer to three seconds.
“Are you out of your mind?!” Hatta clasped his hands over his ears, leaping away.
Seb moved Alice out of the way as an ear-piercing explosion reverberated throughout the room.
“That was…certainly something,” Alice said with indifference.
“What’s the matter with you, Alice?!” Hatta cried.
“Don’t blame me! Blame the person who came up with this lousy idea.”
“I’m staring at her!”
“Who? Me? Lies.”
Seb ran out of the room, ignoring the pair’s heated exchange.
“They’re coming. We must leave at once, my lady.”
They circled back to the main path and made a beeline for the throne room.
“We made it, and it’s all thanks to you, Hatta,” Alice said happily.
“Don’t mention it…”
The monsters went straight for the source of the explosion down the main path, just as expected. Despite this ideal outcome, however, Hatta was understandably a little peeved.
“In we g— Huh?” Alice noticed something off about the door. “There’s no keyhole. What’s going on here, Seb?”
“We might’ve just picked the wrong door.”
“Haigha, can you feel anything?”
“I can feel…a powerful magical aura. One that could only belong to the Demon Lord, I think.”
“So…what do we do now?”
“Could I see those keys for just a moment, my lady?” Seb examined each individual key one by one and noticed that they gave off a faint glow. “Oh, I see.” He gave the door a light nudge with the keys firmly in his grip as it creaked open.
“What happened here?”
“The keyhole isn’t missing, my lady; it just isn’t needed. Notice that faint glow coming off them? That’s the magic needed to get the door open.”
“I see. In we go, then.”
They set foot inside the throne room, bracing themselves for the final battle, only to be greeted by an empty space.
“The perfect size for a Boundary Stone,” Alice declared. “Now, if only there was a Demon Lord to use it on. Haigha, can you trace his presence?”
“He’s deeper inside.”
They advanced all the way to the throne, and yet, no Demon Lord in sight.
“Might as well.” Alice sat down on the throne, crossed her legs, and grinned evilly. For a moment, Hatta thought he had just seen the birth of a new Demon Lord, a shiver running down his spine. “Not bad…but this is not what I came here for. Seb, any idea as to the Demon Lord’s whereabouts?”
“There’s a door right behind you, my lady.”
“A door?”
Alice stood up and noticed an indiscreet door tucked away behind the throne and a familiar voice coming from inside.
“HELP!”
Hatta’s and Haigha’s faces tensed up as Jean’s incessant shrieking pierced their ears.
Alice opened the door, slowly and carefully. A half-naked Demon Lord atop Jean in a disheveled dress came into view. Alice quickly closed the door.
“Nobody’s home! Let’s head back.”
The three quietly nodded in agreement, turning around.
“H-Hold up!” Jean burst through the door, clinging to Alice’s feet. “I knew you’d come to save me, Alice! Tell him I’m a guy! He refuses to believe a word I—”
“Silence, you mutt!” Alice sneered, dragging her heels across Jean’s face. “I came here to teach the Demon Lord a lesson, not listen to you slobber.”
“Th-That’s just your way of saying you’re happy to see me, right? RIGHT?!”
He tried to delude himself as Alice kept dragging her heels across his face over and over. The sight was so sad, Hatta and Haigha had to avert their eyes.
“Stop this madness!” The Demon Lord burst out of the room, taking Jean inside his loving arms, away from Alice’s wrath. He even took the time to get dressed. How thoughtful of him, Alice thought. “Are you all right?”
“I-I’m fine.”
They looked each other in the eyes like lovers out of a tragic romance novel.
“How…how dare you do this to my beloved Jean!” the Demon Lord snarled, a black aura enveloping him. “Let’s see how you like it when I’m done turning you to ash!” He went straight for Alice, only to be intercepted by Seb.
“You’ll have to get through me first, I’m afraid.”
“You’re that guy I saw back in the castle. Who are you to intercept my attack?”
“I’m just a humble, devoted butler.”
They sized each other up in the middle of the throne room.
“Hatta, keep him safe.” Haigha handed Hatta Onion Boy as he and Alice retreated to the corner of the room.
Haigha hid behind Seb, Boundary Stone and Holy Water in hand.
“First,” she declared, “I add a single drop of Holy Water. Then I direct my magical energy to where the light refracts brightest. Once it starts glowing, I lift the stone overhead and charge it with a burst of magical energy!”
A dome of light clocking in at a diameter of twenty meters surrounded the Demon Lord, Seb, Jean, and Haigha, trapping them inside.
“A Boundary Stone; how cute,” snarked the Demon Lord. “You just dug your own graves without even realizing it. The bubble completely separates us from the castle, allowing me to use my full power without reservation. But enough talk…have at you!” he said, lunging at Seb.
Seb warded off the Demon Lord’s attack and responded with one of his own, the sheer fluidity of his movements taking away Jean’s and Haigha’s breath.