The Paladin in the Abyss

The Elf Priest immediately understood the Scholar's meaning. He drew his Hammer of Dissolution, a trophy acquired from the Succubus Palace at Oasis Fort. In the past, whenever he held this weapon, it would emit a bright and warm light, but now there was nothing, as if it were just an ordinary weapon.

However, after he had walked about thirty yards, the hammer in his hand suddenly lit up again. The Elf took a few steps back, and the light on the Hardhead Hammer went out accordingly.

"That's about the right distance," Alamir returned to the others, "The range isn't that large, so if you plan to surprise the enemy with this, you'd better charge into the crowd first."

"Don't worry," Lancelot tucked the box into his chest, "If used well, this thing really can turn the tide."

As he closed the box, the weapon in the Elf's hand lit up once more. The group then got their equipment together and began to advance towards the distant Skeleton Tower.

On the way, they encountered several of the Demons' patrol teams, but when Lancelot showed them the spine emblem, the patrol teams waved them through, though their attitude was still very unpleasant.

As the sun was about to sink into the horizon, they finally arrived in front of the giant Skeleton Tower. Feeling the movement in his Dimensional Bag, Lancelot let out a little Vampire that had just woken up.

"Good afternoon, everyone!" Little Isha's cheerful voice appeared before she did.

"Turn around and look behind you," Lancelot said with a smile, patting the Vampire girl's head, "Such a view is not something you can see just anywhere."

Little Isha did as told, and she was immediately deeply shocked by the magnificent scene before her.

The Plains of the Abyss before her had split open. The ground abruptly vanished ahead, replaced by a vast rift. One could not discern the boundaries of this rift with the naked eye, as it stretched from one end of the horizon to the other. The waters of the Blood River poured down from the cliff's edge, forming massive waterfalls and filling the rift with red mist, obscuring any view of its bottom.

If it even had a bottom, that is.

"Welcome to the Great Abyss, also known as the Blood Rift, the true entrance to the Bottomless Abyss," Cromwell spoke up somberly, "There aren't many places in the whole Multiverse crummier than this. Now, please look to your right hand side, that is Kay-Oine, the famed Skeleton Tower."

Little Isha turned her head and the sight of the structure made her scalp tingle and stomach churn instantly.

If the Multiverse were to conduct a contest for evil architecture, the Skeleton Tower would certainly be in the top ten. This soaring spire was not a tower at all but the vertebral column of some colossal being, clinging like a centipede to the sheer cliffs of the Great Abyss. Its segmented structure was enough to awaken primal fears in any humanoid creature.

The part of the tower that rose above the ground had a radius of a thousand feet, and that was the thinnest part of "The Spine".

According to Elothysia's introduction, each segment of "The Spine" was actually a vast hall; some halls were torture chambers, prisons, birthing rooms for Demons, as well as Magic Laboratories, Meditation Rooms, and even libraries and map rooms, containing secrets unknown to anyone.

Winding stairs connected these halls, but climbing them one by one was an absolutely horrifying torture. If someone truly did that and wasn't killed by the guards or traps within the tower, then after descending twenty miles, they would emerge from the bottom of the tower and arrive at Mogrondale City, the next destination of their journey.

But not just anyone could enter the interior of Skeleton Tower. Lancelot narrowed his eyes and looked up at the top of the tower, his Spirit Perception alerting him to an exceptionally powerful presence, like a dark cloud looming over the peak of Skeleton Tower.

Some strange thoughts surfaced in the depths of his consciousness, whispering desires for pleasure and torture, but the small bamboo slip in his Divine Sense emitted a hazy green light, keeping those whispers lingering outside his Sea of Consciousness.

"Do you feel like there are darker thoughts in your mind?" Elothysia stepped over, "They are not your own thoughts, but those of the Lord of Kay-Oine. He sits atop Skeleton Tower on a throne known as the Throne of Malice, wielding the power of the tower. Anyone can ascend to challenge his position, and if you defeat him, you become the master of Skeleton Tower.

But unless the challenger is defeated, you will never be able to leave that throne, only sitting there, overlooking the kingdom that is nominally yours."

Lancelot shrugged. Naturally, he had no interest in challenging the so-called Lord of Kay-Oine; that fellow sounded more like a prisoner of the tower than its master.

Lancelot certainly didn't plan to walk down those steps. Not to mention the life-threatening dangers (or boredom) along the way, they first and foremost didn't have the qualifications to enter Skeleton Tower. The emblem given by the captain of the Demon patrol wasn't enough; only the nobility of Mogrondale City had the privilege to freely enter and exit the tower. Experience tales with My Virtual Library Empire

The other route to Mogrondale was even more despairing—twenty miles of vertical free climbing. It might not be too difficult for creatures with wings or those who could fly with the aid of magic, provided they could deal with the residents perched on the cliffs of the Great Abyss, mainly wild Kas Demons and Flomos.

This wasn't an unimaginable route. In fact, within the twenty miles between Mogrondale and the surface, there were numerous Portals distributed, leading to the various levels of the Abyss. Although these portals weren't the sole entry points to their corresponding levels, they were mostly guarded tightly.

The Demons serving as gatekeepers for the Abyssal Lords usually didn't welcome visitors. Unless given clear instructions, their everyday job was to attack any creature within their line of sight, although most were the unlucky ones who happened to fall in front of them.

The Great Abyss had another feature; Demons at the Lord Level couldn't enter it, at least not in their normal state. Some scholars believed the reason was the red mist pervasive throughout the Great Abyss, after all, it was the vaporized water of the Stygian River, while others insisted it was due to some energy related to the core of Demons themselves.

Furthermore, Teleportation Magic didn't work there, except for the naturally formed ones; the efficacy of Prophecy Magic was also severely suppressed within the Great Abyss, making it difficult to track any creature using it. With no Lord Level Demons, some of the stronger mortal Adventurers could be a bit more arrogant in the Great Abyss.

But only a bit.

Due to the absence of a powerful entity capable of suppressing all rebellion, the Demons' nature made it hard for them to control themselves and not attack others. The chaos within the Great Abyss far exceeded other levels, with battles occurring almost every moment.

Even though the Demon armies were fighting off Devils invaders overhead, these chaotic and evil creatures still reveled in an endless cycle of fratricide within the Great Abyss.

Of course, if the Demons could unite, the Multiverse would have been theirs long ago.