Chapter 245: Dekan’s Farewell (1/2) |
Faced with Dekan's question, Artis did not hesitate.
"I am a human."
Artis' eyes were exceptionally resolute.
Although she didn't know what Dekan's attitude was right now, nor why he asked her such a question.
But out of a will that had been firm in her heart for a long time.
Even if the Demon King asked her this question, she would answer the same way.
"Then what is your attitude towards this war between humans and demons?"
Dekan heaved a sigh of relief after confirming Artis' attitude, and asked again.
In the story background of the Shadow World at the very beginning, it was mentioned that demons and humans were currently engaged in a tragic war.
"I hope the war ends, and I hope the human side wins. This is a war initiated by the Demon Realm; even if the Demon Realm is destroyed, it deserves its punishment."
Artis said with a sorrowful expression.
"But if the Demon Realm loses, won't you suffer too?"
Dekan asked.
"I was born in a human kingdom and grew up with my mother since I was little. I also frequently transformed into a human and lived in human towns. It's just that after the war started, my identity..."
Speaking up to here, Artis' expression became incomparably bitter.
She clearly wasn't accepted by the human side; compared to trust, humans held more suspicion and wariness towards her, "Although there are humans willing to believe me, the majority... reject me and view me as a mortal enemy. Someone being willing to help me escape was already the greatest kindness towards me..."
Artis was clearly rejected by both humans and demons.
The Demon King didn't execute her but imprisoned her here, not out of any kindness, but purely because he valued her worth.
Although she had felt malice from the human side, she had also felt real kindness.
On the demon side, she could only feel malice.
It was only natural to love humans more.
Plus, she had regarded herself as human since childhood, growing up with her mother.
So naturally, she believed from the bottom of her heart that she was a human.
"Then can you detect a state called [Blood Mimicry] on me?"
Dekan looked at her and sighed helplessly.
He had confirmed Artis' stance.
She had absolutely no bad intentions and was even excessively kind.
"?"
Artis gently reached out her hand and touched Dekan's shoulder.
When she channeled magic power and carefully analyzed the state on Dekan's body, she quickly detected this exquisite camouflage magic of the Blood Clan.
"Could it be you are...?!"
Artis instantly retracted her hand as if electrocuted.
"Yes."
Dekan answered without waiting for her to finish.
Artis gazed at Dekan with a complicated expression.
But at this moment, everything was understood without words.
Her heart seemed extremely torn as she asked:
"You, do you want to rescue the Saintess of Darkness?"
After laying cards on the table.
Artis also roughly figured out many things.
Dekan risking danger to infiltrate this prison could only be for the purpose of rescuing the Saintess of Darkness and ending this war.
Also, some places that seemed incongruous to her were explained.
For example, why this little succubus and the profiteer could coordinate so well.
Probably they knew each other to begin with.
And this little succubus might be a human carefully selected by the human side, the one with a style most resembling a demon, a guy who couldn't be found out even if mixed among demons.
The human side was probably forced into a corner too, to attempt a plan with no hope of victory like rescuing the Saintess of Darkness from the Demon Realm.
"Yes."
Dekan affirmed.
Artis shook her head with a bitter expression and said:
"No, it's impossible. If you want to gain the Chief Warden's approval and complete the trial, it is possible. But if you want to take away the Saintess of Darkness, the Chief Warden will absolutely not tolerate it; she will only kill you without hesitation unless you can defeat the Chief Warden... But even adding up the wardens of the first eight layers, it's impossible to defeat the Chief Warden..."
"I know, but we must rescue the Saintess of Darkness; there is no retreat. Moreover, we need to escape the Demon Realm within 14 days."
Dekan also understood that the Chief Warden, this Tier 9 boss, was tough.
So he had been trying hard to collect intelligence on the Chief Warden through these few layers.
He felt this Shadow World was harder than the general Tier 7 Shadow Worlds he knew about.
Just from this boss alone, she was a bit invincible.
But even without considering some bug-abusing clearance behaviors, following the normal steps to conquer the Shadow World, it shouldn't be unsolvable.
So there must be a way to pass the Chief Warden boss.
"14 days?!"
Artis asked in great surprise.
"What's wrong? Is it very difficult?"
Dekan frowned.
After buying the map on the first layer, he felt this time wasn't particularly harsh.
"Very difficult."
Artis shook her head bitterly and took out a folded roll of a huge Demon Realm map from the bookshelf.
She spread it out on the table so Dekan and Morion could see.
This was many times more detailed than the map Dekan bought on the first layer; even terrain areas were clearly marked.
It was just that this roll wasn't portable.
The map was full of Artis' marks; it seemed she had also planned routes to escape the Demon Realm long ago.
Artis: "Leaving aside whether you can rescue the Saintess of Darkness, even if you can really take her away from the Chief Warden, this time limit is far harder than you imagine. Although judging from the distance, with the help of vehicles, ten days is enough for you to reach the Demon Realm border from the Demon Realm Prison, you will inevitably be in a wanted state after escaping. There will be many pursuing troops and interceptions everywhere along the way."
Dekan: "So?"
Artis: "If you can't rescue the Saintess of Darkness today, it will probably be very hard. Rescue her today, and even if there are obstacles on the way, there is a great hope of taking her away on time. For every day late, the success rate will decrease by more than ninety percent."
"This mission seems harder than I thought..."
Dekan felt the difficulty of this Tier 7 Shadow World really far exceeded ordinary Tier 7 Shadow Worlds.
Even calling a few Tier 8s might not guarantee a pass.
Besides the Chief Warden, a boss that couldn't be killed by force, there was also a severe time limit.
"I can't help you with anything else, but if you can save the Saintess of Darkness, remember to follow this route. According to my understanding of the Demon Realm's terrain and the layout of the provinces, walking this way is the safest and fastest. Also, there are alternative plans..."
After speaking, Artis earnestly drew it out on the map with a pen.
Dekan also recorded the key points mentioned by Artis on his portable small map.
Before long, Dekan basically figured out the route to leave the Demon Realm from the Demon Realm Prison.
"Thank you, that's a huge help."
Dekan said.
The route planned by Artis could almost ensure Dekan left the Demon Realm within 14 days.
Otherwise, in the original plan, even if Dekan rescued the Saintess of Darkness, it would be very difficult to take her away from the Demon Realm on time.
At that time, the adventure travelogue in the Demon Realm would probably be full of difficulties.
"I can only help you this much."
Artis smiled bitterly.
How could she not want to leave with Dekan and the others?
But after being given the identity of Warden, she had no hope of leaving here anymore.
Unless one day the Demon King was defeated.
But if one day even the Demon King was defeated, she wasn't sure if she could still survive.
"By the way, is there any other intelligence about the Chief Warden? Even if it seems useless."
PART 2
Dekan asked sincerely.
Now both Artis and Dekan's attitudes had shifted.
Their positions were completely aligned, and Dekan acknowledged Artis' character.
In the face of major issues, petty personal conflicts or misunderstandings weren't worth mentioning.
Artis propped her chin up and thought for a while, seeming to have a sudden flash of inspiration as she said:
"There is one piece of intelligence, I don't know if it's useful..."
"Please speak."
"I heard that the Chief Warden was once defeated by a Tier 8 Holy Knight."
"Lost in a duel?"
Dekan was somewhat surprised.
But hearing this intelligence brought more joy than anything.
Artis: "Yes... but I don't know the relevant information about that Holy Knight, nor how he defeated the Chief Warden."
Dekan: "It doesn't matter, it's already very important."
Although this intelligence wasn't particularly useful.
But it at least proved one point—
There must be a fatal weakness in the Chief Warden.
Even with Tier 8 combat power, one could pass the Chief Warden's stage!
Perhaps precisely because the Chief Warden possessed some extremely serious flaw.
That was why, when the war situation was so tense, the Demon King would place such a Tier 9 Great Demon in the rear to guard the prison instead of sending her to the front lines.
...
After the conversation ended.
Dekan prepared to leave this layer quickly, taking Morion and Cat Teacher deeper into the prison.
Having successfully cleared the first four layers in just a few hours, the progress was completely abundant.
He just didn't expect the difficulty of this mission to be so high compared to other Tier 7 Shadow Worlds he knew.
As for the farewell with Artis.
Forget it.
Although to some extent, Artis could be counted as his friend.
He was grateful for Artis' help and acknowledged her character.
But saying goodbye to a character in the Shadow World... Dekan still felt somewhat difficult to express his feelings.
Artis was destined unable to escape the Demon King's bindings and would remain on this layer.
Dekan could tell she really wanted to leave, wanted to return to her hometown.
But knowing clearly she couldn't leave, she still hoped to help the Saintess of Darkness escape.
It was hard to imagine with what kind of mood she planned out such a series of Demon Realm escape routes and gave them to Dekan.
Dekan didn't know what Artis' ending would be in true history after this Shadow World, nor did he know if the role he was playing now truly had such a friendship with Artis in real history.
All precious things, the more illusory they are, the more regrettable they are.
Not getting too deep into the Shadow World was what Professor Anno taught him when he first arrived at Heavenlit Academy.
"By the way, among these subjects, isn't there one you are particularly bad at?"
Dekan stopped his steps and turned back to ask.
Just out of personal curiosity, Dekan wanted to clarify which subject one should choose for the third round of the exam according to the normal strategy route of this prison layer.
And to remember some stories about this friend of his across time and space.
"How did you know?"
Artis seemed somewhat surprised, but quickly lowered her head, twisting the corner of her clothes shyly.
"Guessed. I'm just purely curious about where my original chance of winning lay in this fair duel."
Actually, Dekan didn't need to explain much.
Since Artis admitted earlier that this would be a fair duel.
It was impossible to propose a rule where she won one hundred percent.
Artis pointed to a box on the desk.
Written on it clearly was [Painting].
"You can't paint?"
Dekan didn't expect Morion to have guessed correctly.
This old fox's intuition was something else.
"Mhm..."
Artis admitted.
"You studied hard for so long, and still couldn't learn it?"
"If it's copying someone else's work, I can still do it, but if you let me create my own..."
Artis spoke halfway, then found it hard to say the rest.
"What would happen?"
"Last time I drew a demonic dragon, but all the demons thought I drew a venomous slime..."
Artis said extremely awkwardly.
"Pfft."
Dekan finally couldn't help laughing out loud.
Fortunately, in the era of this Shadow World, there was no magic card making technology.
Otherwise, with Artis' thirst for knowledge and intelligence, she would definitely become a Card Making Master.
Dekan could imagine, if Artis were a Card Maker, she would probably refuse to make a Summon Card even if beaten to death because of her painting talent.
Because the Summon Card summoned would definitely be laughed at by people.
"Sorry, didn't mean to laugh at you on purpose, just felt very surprised that a person like you would actually have something you aren't good at."
Dekan saw Artis' embarrassed look and quickly waved his hand to say.
This was his most stress-relieving moment on the fourth layer.
However, hearing Dekan's words, Artis, who was originally still somewhat awkward, froze directly on the spot.
A moment later, she asked with trembling lips:
"A person... like me?"
Dekan nodded and asked doubtfully:
"Yeah, what's wrong?"
"In your eyes, am I a person, rather than a demon?"
Artis placed her hand on her chest and asked with somewhat emotional agitation.
"Undoubtedly, you are a human worthy of respect, not a demon. At least in my eyes, it is so."
Dekan nodded again and said very affirmatively.
This time he was looking at Artis seriously, treating her as a true friend.
Artis smiled and cried.
Tears glistened in her eyes, but she still wore a smile on her face.
Soon, Artis wiped her tears and said:
"Can you tell me your name? I want to remember you."
Dekan thought for a moment.
Logically speaking, out of respect for Artis, he should give his real name.
But giving his real name in the Shadow World had no meaning anyway.
Blame Morion for taking his name.
For a moment, he couldn't directly give the name Dekan.
Also, with his current appearance, giving a male name would seem a bit like using an alias to deceive Artis.
Suddenly, for some reason, Dekan felt a name was very suitable.
His current appearance might be exceptionally fitting for his other true name.
"My name is Talomati."
Dekan looked at Artis seriously and answered.