The Paladin in the Abyss

A fierce light burst from that small clay bottle, blinding all the enticing demons instantly with its brilliance. At the same time, a loud bang echoed in their ears.

The demons, stricken with fear, threw themselves backward, dodging the violent explosion they imagined was coming.

Mud splattered on them as the ground undulated like the surface of a lake swept by a fierce wind. It took quite some time before the enticing demons recovered their vision. They lifted their heads and discovered that where the human knight had stood, there was now a large pit, and the prisoner the Abyssal Lord had ordered them to bring back had vanished without a trace.

"It's all your fault, you idiot! It's because of you that we couldn't bring back the child!"

"Exactly! It's your responsibility, and we will report today's situation 'verbatim'..."

"Prepare for Lord Cang Ye's wrath!"

...

The already fragile unity among the demons quickly crumbled. They started arguing over who should bear the responsibility for the failure, but unlike the trip there, there was no common goal to distract them now.

Without a doubt, the quarrel would soon escalate into a brawl, and probably only half of the enticing demons would survive and make it back to Bone Castle, pinning the blame for the failure entirely on their dead companions.

But none of these matters concerned the human knight who had made a miraculous escape anymore. Hundreds of feet away from the 'explosion' center, Lancelot was sprinting through the dense forest, his peculiar form gliding past like a wisp of blue smoke.

Of course, he wasn't about to commit suicide. The so-called bomb was just one of Koula's flash bombs. The trick played by the Dark Weaver a moment ago had inspired him; using the intense light from the flash bomb's explosion, Lancelot utilized the Shadow Jump he had just mastered, transporting himself instantly more than a hundred feet beyond the demons' encirclement. Stay connected via My Virtual Library Empire

As for his claim that the explosion would vaporize him completely, naturally, it was just a bluff to mislead the demons. As a knight from a humble noble family in the countryside, Lancelot was never the stiff type. He had his own views on the 'honesty' aspect of the knightly codes—especially that it didn't apply to enemies, which is something any battle-hardened person would understand.

If Lancelot had simply disappeared after the bright light, the demons' first reaction would naturally be to immediately search for his traces. They might have caught up with him again or even discovered the traces left by Bruto and his team, which would have been an even worse scenario.

Therefore, Lancelot deliberately deceived the demons with his righteous and ready-to-die bravado. Before escaping, he used the Earthquake Technique to create the illusion of an explosion, just to convince the enemy that he had indeed died and the mission to bring back the prisoner had failed.

As he had anticipated, the deceitful demons, known for their trickery, completely fell for his tall tale and had already begun to erupt into conflict over who should bear the responsibility for their failure. The demons were not foolish creatures; they were duped not because of Lancelot's exceptional lying skills (which were actually pretty bad), but because of their own pride.

Demons themselves believed that, compared to falling into their hands, choosing the self-destruction of the body in exchange for the freedom of the soul was indeed the best choice. It was precisely because the demons believed that their own strength far surpassed that of their opponent and were convinced that this human had truly reached a dead end, that they subconsciously believed he had committed suicide.

As for why there was no corpse left? Well, it was simply vaporized by the powerful bomb.

Perhaps on the way back to Bone Castle, there might be some clever, and also sufficiently lucky (thus still alive) individual who would realize the unreasonableness in the entire event. For instance, Lancelot had just inadvertently revealed that his armor was made of mithril. If such a small bomb could vaporize mithril, how terrifyingly powerful would it have to be? And how could the demons standing so close to him have been merely splattered with mud?

Moreover, the human knight not only killed Valasti but also withstood so many Earthquake Techniques without any apparent injury, which all indicated his tremendous strength. And for the sake of rescuing the red-haired little girl, he dared to enter Miasma Swamp alone. How could such a warrior possibly choose to commit suicide without even trying, and not in a manner where he takes his enemies with him?

But even if some cunning demon did figure all this out, it wouldn't publicize the information. At most, it would quietly remember it, seeing if there was a chance to use this intelligence to cause a big loss to a rival.

Revenge? Well… that guy is kind of strong right now, and the demons have too many other things to worry about. The life of a human is so short; time would take care of him for them.

A moment later, Lancelot confirmed that the Spirit Perception no longer detected any demonic presence; he had successfully completed his delaying task. He stopped by a tree trunk, reached for his Dimensional Bag at his waist, and pulled out the nervously anxious little vampire.

"Wow! Have we already escaped? That's so great!" Little Isa looked around and finally relaxed completely. Despite her great confidence in Lancelot, the young girl was genuinely scared that the next hand to reach in might not be Lancelot's.

"Hm, the plan was a success, and you cooperated very well," Lancelot said, smiling as he pattered the little girl's head, "I pulled you out just to reassure you. We're about to leave this dense forest, and it's daytime right now; you should go back into the bag and rest for now. You can come out again tonight."

"I don't wanna…" Little Isa pouted, "I want to stay outside a little longer, let's go back when we reach the edge of the dense forest…"

"Uh… alright then," Lancelot thought for a moment and felt it should be relatively safe, so he nodded. "Bruto and the others should have gone quite far by now, but we should be safe after crossing the river, so there's no need to rush after them."

The two of them moved through the dense forest calmly but in entirely different states. Lancelot walked as if he were a noble lord strolling after dinner, leisurely striding across the muddy swamp as though he was in the garden of his own castle. Whereas little Isa was like a… puppy full of curiosity about the world, darting around Lancelot, exploring every corner that caught her attention.

Gradually, the tree canopy above began to thin, and occasionally a slender ray of sunlight would make its way through the leaves' gaps. If an inattentive little vampire touched it, she would let out a cry of pain as if scalded by hot water.

"How can you be so careless?"

Lancelot shook his head and draped a piece of Shadow Armor over little Isa. Although this thing also feared sunlight, it could at least block it a bit, preventing her from, without a care, turning herself into a pile of ashes, which would be too embarrassing for a vampire.