## Chapter 1321 – Demon

The staircase leading underground wasn’t very wide.

“Damn narrow.”

It felt like things were getting serious from here on out. Like entering the interior of a warship? While the upper part was a fortress like a castle, the lower part felt exactly like that.

I went down, gripping and releasing the handrail, and soon arrived at what seemed to be the first basement level.

As usual, there were no enemies in sight.

There were no troops for guard duty, and no workers bustling about. If this wasn’t an automated facility, there should definitely be people moving around.

Where the hell are all these bastards?

“There’s hardly any sign of life.”
“They must have all evacuated or are hiding.”
“Hmm…”

It was certain that they had noticed our intrusion, at least.

It might seem obvious since they even sent an invitation, but the truth was that it hadn’t taken us very long to get here after going through the series of events.

That meant the personnel maintaining this aerial fortress were undergoing very rigorous training. They must have all fled to designated locations as soon as the order was given.

I was newly impressed by the abilities of the demons.

This was a professional army.
A near-modern one at that.

“They sure prepared diligently.”

But the important thing wasn’t technology or anything like that.

It was absolute.
And transcendent power.

Anyway, just as the staircase was narrow, the corridor on the first basement level was also cramped. It was just wide enough for Risha and me to walk side by side. And along the corridor were various doors.

It really felt like being inside a warship. The doors had small, round windows at head level, but when I looked inside, it was just dark. They even turned off the lights. But the corridor was lit.

“Risha, what do you think those lights are?”

I pointed to the lights on the ceiling of the corridor. They looked just like electric lights. It was kind of refreshing to see real electric lights like this in another world.

Well, the guys who were floating aerial warships and aerial fortresses couldn’t possibly not use electricity. Electricity and fuel. And the results of using magic together were exactly these things.

“Hoh… I hadn’t paid attention, but they seem to be quite peculiar objects. Such light sources are attached to the ceiling in a row.”
“You don’t know what they are either, right?”
“Please don’t assume that this lady knows everything in this world.”
“…”

I stared intently at Risha’s face.

“B-but don’t assume I don’t know anything either! Even so, this lady is a knowledgeable person who knows a lot!”
“Okay, okay.”

As Risha and I walked side by side.

ㅡThump!

I violently yanked open a door next to us.
Without much tension, I examined the inside.

“Oh. Is this a barracks?”

It was really typical.

A scene that looked like nothing other than a barracks came into view.

“A barracks, you say?”
“A place where the demons working in the fortress basement live. It seems like they sleep and get dressed here as a group.”
“In a place like this… living communally?”

Risha, who looked around the surprisingly cramped barracks, covered her mouth as if shocked. As expected of a princess, she was surprised by something like this.

It seemed even the lowest-ranking demon soldiers lived the same way.

“The demons… seem to have lived very hard lives.”
“I think that’s probably why they hate the surface.”
“That could be true.”

Anyway, the rooms in this vicinity all seemed to be barracks. I searched through their belongings, but other than clothes and daily necessities, nothing much came out.

“You fucking bastards!!!”

Suddenly, rage surged, and I overturned all the lockers inside the barracks and tore up the floor!!! Your personal belongings are the same!

ㅡThwack!!

I completely ransacked everything and detonated the Cheonma Myeolsalok with adjusted output, smashing everything to pieces!!!

“Hoo.”

I felt good, probably because I did something good.

“Hehehe, you’re playing a mischievous prank. The owners will be very perplexed when they see it.”

Risha laughed as if she found my actions funny and touched my head.

“Hehehe, they might despair.”

After finishing that, I came back outside. I wasn’t particularly interested in the other rooms. I resumed the search while looking for a passage to go further down.

* * *

ㅡPat.

While conducting the search, I suddenly felt something. I immediately stopped Risha and expanded my senses to find the source.

ㅡOooooong.

Something… like energy was felt.
It was quite large.

Of course, it wasn’t at a level that would satisfy me, but it was significantly large, so I decided I needed to check it out. Yeah. I have to check things like this.

“Risha. Do you feel it?”
“Hmm… I’m not sure.”
“I feel some powerful energy.”

It was quite powerful.

“Powerful energy, you say. Then perhaps.”
“Perhaps?”
“It might be the energy source that’s floating the fortress.”
“Oh. That’s plausible.”

Then is it the engine room?

Certainly, it would take a lot of energy to float something like this. But well. I don’t think there would be a Demon King in the engine room… No.

Maybe.

Could the Demon King be floating this fortress?

There was a possibility. The only one who possessed the power to pull up a fortress of this size was the Demon King. It seemed like a plausible thought. Although the probability of it being wrong was higher.

“It wouldn’t hurt to look. Let’s go.”
“Understood.”

Together with Risha, I headed in that direction.

I really walked diligently.

“Ah, damn… These bastards, why did they make it so well.”

Just walking was boring. These bastards made the fortress too well. Making the basement level like a maze like this.

“I feel like I want to just smash everything and tell Pellerzer to come out, but.”
“If you do that, the fortress will crash.”
“Yeah. That’s the problem.”

The crashed fortress would destroy the capital.

Of course, I had no choice but to act carefully.

I was now in enemy territory, and I had to fight while being careful not to destroy the enemy territory. This was damn sweet for the person defending. Because the convenient thing about fighting in enemy territory was that. You could run wild without worrying about your surroundings.

But I can’t do that.

Anyway, as I was walking, I felt like I was gradually getting used to this aerial fortress. As evidence, various energies were being felt a little more clearly.

If I just finish adapting, can’t I find it right away?

“Risha. I think I found something.”

I roughly grasped where this large energy was being felt. Now I could feel it clearly.

“Let’s go quickly.”

I immediately picked up Risha and sprinted towards that place.

And we.

“Is this it.”

Came to face a rather large door.

“Certainly. Unlike the other doors, it’s quite large. The ceiling… is also higher in this part.”
“That means there’s something important inside.”

I could hear sounds too.

ㅡThwack!

I immediately smashed the door. Doors were nothing in front of me. The moment I went inside like that.

“Huh.”

A strange sight.

“This is.”

Came into view.

ㅡWhoosh.
ㅡWhoooooooooosh.

Demons wearing what looked like gas masks were diligently doing something. And that too… with an attitude as if they didn’t care at all that we had smashed the door and come in.

But the strange thing wasn’t that.

“These bastards.”

It was a fairly large space.

And this space felt like some kind of mad science facility. That’s because there were huge glass tubes placed everywhere.

“T-this is…”

Risha covered her mouth with her hand.

“They were all clones.”

Inside the glass tubes were naked demons. Curled up as if they were in their mother’s womb, they were sleeping inside a see-through, light green liquid… as if they were very comfortable.

One demon per glass tube.

And whether they were growing inside or not, they were all divided by zone into young demons. Teenage demons. And adult demons. Anyway, they were just closing their eyes inside without even wearing a common oxygen mask.

“The demons were all clones.”

Was this what these bastards were?
It was truly insane.

“Amazing… what is this?”

Risha also looked at the glass tubes in amazement.

I watched other places. The demons wearing those face masks who were managing this facility. Those bastards were still not paying attention to us and were only doing their own thing.

“Where did they acquire such technology?”

It was grotesque and bizarre.

I was in a state of considerable shock… such clone technology. It was very unique. The demons got their hands on something like this in just a few hundred years? I didn’t know. And it was damn terrible.

The demons.

After being defeated in the Idol War, they moved their residence to a strange place. And in that place… they developed such technology and prepared for the war to rise again. Demon soldiers made of clones? It was cool, but it wasn’t a very good way to increase the number of individuals.

Yeah.

Still, for the remaining Demon King’s army… this was the only way. Since they couldn’t increase the number of demons any more, they increased it in this way. Because there would be limitations with general methods.

“It seems that this is… a device to recover the demons.”
“Recover?”

Risha, who was examining the glass tubes, completely missed the mark.

“I don’t know what happened that they’re being treated like this… No. There’s one thing that comes to mind. They may have been shocked by crossing the dimensional barrier.”

I decided to tell Risha, who was confidently reasoning with a serious face while not knowing anything, the terrible truth.

“Risha. This isn’t for recovery, it’s like a surrogate uterus.”
“What?”
“Those demons are growing up inside there. They’re born there.”
“W-what on earth are you talking about?”

Risha asked as if wondering what the hell I was talking about.

Ah.

She doesn’t know the concept of a clone?
She might not.

“In other words, it’s a hatchery. Lower-ranking demons are born inside those glass tubes. They grow up into adults and then come out.”
“T-there’s no way such a ridiculous thing could happen? No. In the first place, how can you be so sure of that?”
“I can tell just by looking.”
“M-my goodness… such a thing!”

Risha covered her mouth and was shocked.

I patted her on the shoulder.

“Hey guys.”

I used my power on the demons who were working.

“The Cheonma Shin-gyo came for an audit. Stop working and quickly call the person in charge. This is a complete mess? Do you want to be shut down? Why isn’t the person in charge coming out?”

ㅡWhoosh.
ㅡWhoooooooooosh.

But the demons wearing face masks just repeated what they were doing as if they couldn’t hear our voices.

ㅡDrrrrrrr.

So I targeted the guy pulling the cart in front.

“You son of a bitch.”

ㅡPow!

I hit him in the back of the head.

ㅡThwack!

The guy who fell over stopped moving.

“Dead? Hey. Are you dead? Aren’t you getting up?”

He couldn’t get up and just convulsed. He didn’t say a word, but I didn’t care if the demon died.

“Person in charge!!! Come out!!! Before I destroy everything!!!”

ㅡKhaaaaaaaa!!

So I shouted like a roar. If this was a hatchery of evil demons. I can smash everything without hesitation. I couldn’t find Pellerzer, but I found the future of the demons here. I’ll smash that future.

“Come out in three seconds.”

At that moment when I gave the last chance to surrender.

ㅡSwish.

A demon wearing a different type of face mask started walking out from over there with his hands behind his back… Who is that bastard?

“I am Marcus Ruperdal, the person in charge here.”

The approaching man took off his gas mask and bowed politely. His face was just a normal demon. Except that he looked old. And his hairstyle was like Kiyoung from Black Rubber Shoes, with his hair sticking up. Of course, it was white. He was wearing a gown.

“Welcome to the hatchery.”

So it was a hatchery.

“Ancient Warrior and Princess.”
“He knows Risha?”