Rogue Villain-Chapter 326: Fresh Air

The next part of the yellow-colored stone construction built to seal the demon in the Alchemaze wasn’t as symbolic as an arrangement of dead knights. It was simply massive slabs of the yellow-colored, demon-suppressing stone creating a large cube in the middle of a grand hall.

Karandiel shed light upon the hall, illuminating the cube with all its inscriptions and the walls with their paintings. By piecing together everything in the room, Ackster and the others quickly realized that the demon was sealed inside the stone.

The inscriptions had lost their effect, if they had any from the beginning, as was evidenced by the stone being almost pitch black instead of the clear yellow color it was originally. But the cube was still intact, and there were a few hues left before miasma completely overtook the stone.

On the walls were warnings and depictions of the demon inside. According to the murals, the demon used poison and curses to ruin everything around it and in its wake.

Fortunately, there weren’t any demonic beasts. Only the dogs had survived the trek through the ant nest and to the bottom before being corrupted by the miasma.

The miasma was so thick inside the room that Makkel had trouble breathing. The others were mostly fine. But Ackster still gave the others a touch of his Ichor to boost them and make sure they didn’t turn into mindless demonic humans. He was completely fine.

Ackster’s own resistance aside, he had Smelting Furnace, so he just had to consume all the miasma and stuff it in there. He also had his Demon Sword, which was happier than ever to be in a miasma-rich environment like the sealing place of another demon.

Ackster stopped in front of the cube.

"Look at all the murals and learn about the demon."

That was their first clue to what Ackster was doing. But that was all they needed. Everyone except Makkel and Mastrax knew Ackster well enough to know what he was planning. And the chill that ran down Makkel’s spine was enough to include him in that knowledge.

Mastrax was just smart enough to know that Ackster was crazy. Of course, he was going to fight the demon that an ancient civilization had gone to great lengths to seal.

Ackster glanced at his sword after raising it in front of himself.

"Remember to share. If you don’t, you’re not getting shit."

The Demon Sword was aware enough to know that Ackster wasn’t playing around.

So, when Ackster pierced the stone with the sword, the sword funneled some of the miasma it drained into Ackster’s Smelting Furnace.

Ackster coughed.

The miasma inside the stone was far above the miasma outside in terms of both quality and quantity. It clogged up Ackster’s insides, and even his Smelting Furnace had to work overtime to fan the blue sun and the Sun God Token’s flames.

Ackster snorted and sent the fumes of impurities out of his nose in two streams of grey. He smiled.

Even without Limit Breaker, he could start refining the miasma. The blue sun and the Sun God Token just needed a little motivation and a wake-up call. The miasma intruded on their turf. Just a little bit hadn’t been enough to cause a stir. But when dark grey miasma flooded the Smelting Furnace like storm clouds, the blue sun and the Sun God Token’s heat clashed with the miasma and unleashed a torrential rain of fire upon it.

The Sun God Token and the blue sun that had been fighting for dominance over the Smelting Furnace united in the face of a common enemy. Smelting Furnace also took the opportunity to weave its own fires into the mix, finally regaining some of the autonomy and control it had over what went on inside itself.

Ackster watched over the proceedings inside Smelting Furnace as he absorbed more and more of the demon’s miasma through his sword. However, a loud cracking sound forced him to face reality again.

The yellow stone, after enduring countless millennia of the demon’s miasma, could finally no longer hold out as all the miasma forcefully drained out of it. The sudden change and movement of energy was too much, and cracks began spreading all over the stone cube like cobwebs.

"Here we go. I hope everyone’s ready."

Ackster slashed the cube with his sword. He didn’t even need to use his martial arts to turn it into a pile of rubble.

The others lined up in a V-formation behind Ackster. Kargas and Mastrax took either side of Ackster, and Karandiel and Wilma came next to protect Mara and Makkel.

After the crashing and rumbling sounds of the stone cube collapsing to the ground finished echoing through the room and hallways, the dust settled and revealed the demon.

Ackster and his party all had their gazes locked on to the silhouette that gradually became clearer as the dust settled and the miasma returned to the demon. Everyone’s eyes widened.

In the various murals, the demon had been depicted as a horrible and terrifying monster that scared children to their deaths with his mere appearance.

That couldn’t be further from the truth presented to them.

A black-haired man with pale skin and purple eyes sat on a raised stone slab that had been like a bed. There were four holes through the corners of the slab, leading to the floor, where broken chains lay in piles. The demon’s four limbs had been stretched taut over the slab when it had still been imprisoned.

Of course, it was not imprisoned anymore. It sat cross-legged and looked at Ackster and the others with an ominous smile and gleaming eyes. He propped up his head with his arm that rested on his leg.

"Ahh~ The smell of fresh air after such a long time...And the scent of humans, too. Lovely!"

The demon inhaled deeply with his nose, sending chills down their backs as it spoke. It looked at Mastrax, Mara, Karandiel, and Ackster.

"And not just humans. Ah, what a delicacy! Dragon! I almost want to thank you for offering yourselves to me. Almost."

The demon smiled.