Chapter 41: Demon Prince (1)

[Holy Church]

Pedonar's PoV:

The small house was made out of wood. Even the houses in the Demon Continent used cheap durable ores. The one who made this must have been a noob.

I stepped closer towards the small house and just as I was about to touch the door handle, I suddenly felt an ominous foreboding.

Should I stay out of this house?

My intuition told me that I should stay out of this yet why do I badly want to touch the door handle?

Did someone add an array to attract demons like me into touching the door handle to activate whatever array some array master had set?

From the intel that I had gathered, there weren't any array masters in the holy church's people and they were only capable of constructing a barrier, not an array.

It was very unlikely that there was an array master in the heroes' party since they were all too young except for the Elven hero and I doubt that there was someone in their party who had genius talent that would let that person understood the complexity of the array set-up.

It was very unlikely since all of the heroes rely on their cheat abilities.

After all, what made a hero different from common people was their cheat ability, not their personality because even if a hero had fallen to the dark side they would still be called a hero from the perspective of the people of the dark side.

Well, screw it! I'm going to open this and see what will happen.

"I wouldn't open that if I were you."

I switched my attention towards the source of the voice. She was a half-human half-wolf beastman. Her hair was long and it was silver-colored. She wore a black hooded cloak while holding a dagger in both of her hands.

How did she notice my presence? I did the best I could to prevent leaking out my presence including my mana.

"How did yo-"

I was about to ask her but she suddenly interrupted me.

"How did I found out about your presence? Your stealth was child's play so don't sneak in here and boast about your stealth in front of a master who specializes in assassination!"

What? My stealth was considered as child's play? That's insulting my 103 years of staying in this world!

I was known as a genius in terms of demonic magic and I started learning about magic when I was 3 years of age. Now I am 103 so don't tell me she's a prodigy?!

Or what if that she was just bluffing and just had found out about my presence by pure coincidence. If it was then why didn't I noticed her presence?

Now the goblin hero that had led their group wasn't here, now there was another monster? Was this batch of heroes geniuses or my intel was outdated?

"What? Are you pondering on why I am powerful? It's because of Axel hogging all the attention that my teammates and I didn't have any time to show our abilities. Despite his arrogance, he is a great leader, mentor, and comrade to have."

As I was about to reply, a half-human half-lion beastman clad in iron-plated armor with a sword on his waist came running towards the half-human half-wolf beastman.

"Sophie! I had attracted an opportunity that will allow me to capture a presence of a certain invader! What's more, was that he was using a spell that allowed him to pass through the barrier and hide his presence!"

"Your late, Zale. I already spotted the invader."

After the beastman who was called 'Sophie' replied to the beastman who was called 'Zale', Zale looked around for a while.

"I don't see anyone in here. Are you mistaken? Wait, no it can't be. Since you are the best when it comes to assassination techniques then let me guess. He used [stealth] right now to conceal his presence, right?"

"Good thing you weren't a dumbass or I would have to trouble explaining about the situation, unlike a certain goblin dumbass who decided on a whim to train somewhere and leave us behind including Aerin."

"He must have his reasons to do that. After all, considering that guy's personality, he wouldn't be irresponsible even if he was arrogant. He must have done this to test us and let us know that we shouldn't always rely on him."

"Yeah, you are right. So what will we do about the invader?"

As Sophie said that, she glanced at me before returning her gaze towards Zale.

"How would I know? I can't even see him or her."

"Wait a second."

As she said that, she cast [Stealth Dispel] towards me which dispelled the [Stealth] that I had applied into myself.

My presence was then released and even my demonic mana.

I used my black hooded cloak as a medium to cast [Substitute] and then activated [Conceal Presence] and [Stealth]. I cast [Short Distant Teleport] to let me teleport on top of the tree near the small house.

With my spells cast, I am sure that my presence will no longer be exposed.

As I was about to take a glance towards Sophie and Zale, they weren't there and I knew that something was wrong.

Sophie and Zale were now near the tree but 3 meters away from it.

Huh? That's weird. If they already knew that I was here, they would have bombarded me with magic skills or beaten me up.

Wait, don't tell me this tree was a trap!

I found out that there was an array that was placed in this tree and it was the [Tree Binding Array] but it was too late since I already triggered the array when I teleported on top of this tree.

Several branches of the tree started to move towards me like a slithering snake. They were acting like some sort of vines and those vines had wrapped my left foot.

I struggled to get the vine off me but it was useless after I took another glance at the array and another array was activated. It was [Improved Defense Array]. Isn't the array master behind this too cautious and prepared?

I formed a demonic fire sword using my demonic mana and slashed it towards the vines but I suddenly lost hope after seeing another array being triggered. It was [Magic Proof Array].

I struggled using my strength since magic was useless against this tree and I don't believe that the defense array that was cast into this tree was stronger than my attack stat.

********

15 minutes had passed and I still haven't got out of the array but was instead trapped while my body except my head was being wrapped.

"Is it cozy up there? I know what you are thinking. That Axel was so well prepared that even if you broke free, the [Grow Array] would be activated and we only need to water the tree and use sunlight to make the tree more durable and stronger than before."

Zale looked at me while speaking.

"I think it's time that we remove your cloak? After all, we need to know about your identity and report this to Axel so that he would decide on what to do with you. If you are a threat to us then we wouldn't hesitate to kill you."

Sophie said while appearing towards me. She used the daggers on both of her hands to perform a flashy move that had torn my cloak and left a dent on the vines that were wrapped around and bound me.

"Tch! Looks like Axel wasn't playing with his arrays! I even used [Multiple Quick Slash] and used 0.1% of my attack stat but it only left a dent!"

My face was revealed. My scarlet-colored hair, two horns protruding from my head, my pale skin, and my dark demonic armor set were revealed.

"Your looks aren't bad but your skills in the assassination were worst. I guess it wasn't your forte. I don't want to waste using 2% of my strength to destroy the vines that had bound you so wait for Axel to arrive."

"When will that guy is known as 'Axel' arrive?"

"Well... Judging by his personality I guess maybe several hours later? After all, you activated 'his' array so maybe he will postpone his training and head to here. He is overprotective of Aerin but he doesn't know that we knew about it. He might also speculate that you had harm Aerin so take all the blame and be his punching bag so he can vent all of his anger since you destroyed his arrays."

"Was he the one who made the array?"

"Well, yes. None of us would have the time to understand how to set an array and it is boring to learn about it."

The one who replied to me this time was Zale. He suddenly appeared beside Sophie before he replied to my question.

"How did he teach you suitable skills to use?"

"I'm sorry but that is confidential. Why are you still asking considering you are already our prisoner? You need to sleep."

As Zale said that, he suddenly disappeared and a strong force was struck on my nape.

I passed out.