Winds had picked up in Hell, it blew ash all over the place.
Lia stood by the dead corpse of the Demon warlord Gorrath. She had recovered slightly after 2 hours of just laying on the ground.
Erythos had told her to look around the fort, and on the warlord for that special dimension item, so she could finally start taking some good items from everything she kills.
She looked over the dead warlord, he had no ring of him, no bracelets. He did have a necklace but nothing with magic on it.
'Go see if you can find his stash, should be here somewhere' the god said in her mind.
Lia walked into the fort, some demons still lingered around corners, she made short work of them with her chains. The first room she came across was a dining hall. It was filthy, skeletal remains everywhere, blood smeared on the walls and floor. And she didn't even know what the things were that hung from the ceilings in chains.
The rooms of the fort were mixed, there were a lot of bed chambers for the demons, storage for food and weapons.
She opened one door which seemed to be a more luxuries bedroom. Maybe one of the lieutenant's rooms. The room had a big double bed, a desk, fireplace. And a lot of statutes of the succubus.
"She seemed to have a big ego" Lia muttered while looking at the naked statues.
She searched through the drawers and chests in the room, a lot of gold and such. She left it there for now until she had found a dimensional item.
The other rooms were nothing special, the room of the elf had nothing, just bows and arrows. And the demon's room had blood and dead things in it, very cozy. She continued walking through the fort, finding some bits and pieces that could be useful.
'The warlord was a big fellow, look if there is a cellar or something.' Erythos said. Someplace where that guy could fit, there were no big halls in the fort. So must likely below ground.
Lia game across a doorway that looked like it had been smashed to fit someone bigger. 'this seems like the place' she thought as she walked down the stairs.
It was dark, and smelled weird, not bad as the other rooms. But strange, it smelled like herbs. as she walked down the staircase she finally saw where the smell came from.
The warlord seemed to have planted herbs down here, and he had cauldrons with some weird brew in it.
'That big guy did this?' she thought he would be the blood type, have his walls decorated with guts. But no the shelves were neatly organized. Books laid on workbenches, the plants were taken care of.
She looked through the items and herbs, Erythos gave words about what items were good and bad.
AT the end of a hallway there was a door, once opened revealed a stash room. 'Bingo' she thought as she looked at the mountain of gold, armor laid scattered. Books with weird titles and covers.
'some of those books are grimoires, very powerful magical books. Find the dimension items and stash as much as you can.'
Lia looked through the mountain of loot. Then in the corner of her eye was a pedestal. On it was a box. The box opened and reveled a bracelet and a ring.
"Are these the ones?" she asked the good as she held the items.
'The bracelet is a dimensional item, but the ring is not. It does have some kind of magic on it, but I'm unsure what it is.'
She put on the bracelet. Her gauntlet disappeared as she put it on. It was a simple bracelet with a blue gem, the bracelet itself had etched in rune looking writing. It looked old.
Once she wore it, she could feel it. she only focused on it and a small rift appeared over the bracelet. It looked like a wormhole but it was blue like the gem.
Lia put the ring inside the space, and to try to retrieve it she put her hand into the rift. She could feel the ring, she grabbed it and took it out. Still looked the same, she put it back in.
'Alright time to take as much as possible.' She said as she started her loot gathering. She picked up Books, gold, potions, herbs, armor, weapons. Stuff she herself would probably never use, but who knows.
The stash room became empty quick and she moved on to other rooms. The space held a lot of items, Erythos didn't know the maximum but so far so good.
It took about 2 hours to look through the whole fort of anything worth taking.
Apart from the gold, books and armor, she did find some interesting potions, she didn't know what they did. But could be useful. She also stored the hammer that Gorrath had, it did look interesting. Erythos also told her to grab his horns and the succubus horns.
The now laid down in the succubus bed, it was comfy. She didn't think much about what this bed was used for, or more so pretending not to know.
'Good work with the warlord' Erythos broke the silence.
Lia didn't know what to think, the first moments of the duel were in Gorrath's hands, he overpowered her. Almost played with her. But the motivation she felt when Erythos said that she was a knight, it felt like I could kill everything in this hell.
"Thanks" she answered.
Her eyes felt heavy as she laid there, she fell asleep.
Hours passed. Hell was in constant change, the weather, demons and other things could change in a matter of hours.
Lia was awakened by her senses, something was just outside the fort, sneaking.
'Something is coming' Erythos said in her mind. 'You slept for 12 hours btw'
'I thought you said I wouldn't need sleep' she asked in her mind not to talk loud for someone to hear.
She stood by the window in the room, trying to she what was trying to sneak in. she saw a couple of figures.
'You don't need to sleep, but you can still fall asleep, just like normal.' Erythos explained. 'And I don't think those are Stinkers, they are way to sneaky for that'
Lia moved to the door of the room, peeking out from it trying to see if anyone made their way inside already. It was quiet.
She made her way to the door leading outside, she now stood over the inside courtyard of the fort, overlooking it she could see that they haven't entered yet. She looked out from her cover and could she 6 hooded figures walking past the broken door.
They looked down at the corpses, they moved silently, checking very corner.
One of them stood before the warlord's corpse. The others looked at it as well.
Then another figure entered the courtyard, also hooded. But it walked with more steady grace, the figure didn't seem to care if anything was still left.
'That one is strong' The god told her.
The figures all stood around the warlord's corpse. Then the figure who entered last looked up at the position Lia stood in, she didn't try to hide herself. She meets the figures gaze. The others reacted, pulling out their weapons.
Lia stepped forward more. She now looked down upon the figures in the courtyard. Her eyes glowed gold, her white armor almost radiating.
"Greeting to you Knight of Hell" the figure said, he pulled down his hood.
'An Dark elf?' the dark elf was old, his gray hair long, and pointy ears showing scars.
The others didn't lower their weapons yet.
'He's an elder, a leader for their elf clan.' Erythos said.
Lia looked at the dark elf for a moment before saying, "Greeting elder elf."
The elf seemed pleased by this. He didn't show any intention of attacking, he seemed calm. "I take it that you killed these demons?"
Lia nodded. "I did." She started walking down the stairs towards the courtyard, the other elf's seems to have gotten a bit jumpy as they still aimed their weapons on her.
The man held up a hand. "Lower your weapons, you wouldn't be able to kill her anyway." He ordered the other elfs. They hesitated but lowered their weapons. They started removing their hoods, some female but most were men.
Her eyes got stuck on the closets female elf, she had blond hair. Her skin wasn't dark like the others. She was beautiful.
"Then I assume you have looked at the things this demon had?" the elf asked, he seemed to be looking for something.
Lia thought about it, if they needed something and I had it, it could be a way to get some allies. "I did look through the things yes, what are you looking for?" She asked, there was no point I playing dumb she knew that they were looking for something.
The old elf laughed. "It seems my intention wasn't hidden very well, but yes we are looking for something." He paused for a moment and looked at the demon. "He attacked us a while ago and stole something very dear to us. A ring from my wife. It was supposed to go to my daughter here." he pointed his hand towards the elf Lia had looked at before. "But he came before I could give it."
'Do I need the ring?' Lia asked the god. Erythos sent a negative.
Lia opened her dimensional bracelet and put her hand into it. she soon after pulled out the ring. "This ring?" she asked as she held it out towards him.
The mans smile could reach his ears, and the lady elf looked happy as well.
"What would you like in return for this ring?" the man asked, he seemed nervous.
Lia shock her head, "as long as you don't consider me your enemy, that in return is good enough for me." She didn't really have a use for the ring anyway. She held out the ring towards the man.
He picked it up gracefully. And turned towards the girl elf.
Lia's helmet disappeared as she looked on, the others reacted with wide eyes. Even the man turned to see.
Lia watched as the ring was put onto the girl's finger. She looked happy, she looked at the ring for a moment and then turned to look to Lia. She walk towards her and stood before her.
"Knight, may I ask your name?" She asked sofly, but her voice was steady, she seemed to be a leader born and raised.
"My name is Lia Flamme" She answer still looking into the elfs eyes. The elf was a bit taller than her so she had to look up a little.
The elf smiled. "Thank you, Lia, my name is Ryn." She bowed slightly. "And this is my father and the elder of out clan, Vaeris." The elder nodded lightly. "I would like to invite you to our village" she added.
This seemed to have gotten the attention of the other elfs as they started murmuring to each other. But Vaeris didn't have any of it. he held up his hand and they stopped immediately.
"Excuse these young elfs, they seem to have forgotten their manners at home. You are most welcome Knight Lia." Vaeris said, the first words were sharp and directed to the other elfs to learn.
Lia thought about it and nodded. "I accept your invention."
Vaeris looked please. "Very good, lets search the fort for anything useful first and then we will head back together." The other elf started searching the fort. Vaeris looked down at the dead warlord and then looked at the hole in the world.
"I'm guessing this happen between you two?"
Lia smiled, "Yes, he hammered my threw the wall then threw me back in."
Ryn who stood beside Vaeris looked shocked, "You survived that hammer?" Vaeris chuckled.
"It seems I have forgotten to teach my daughter about the Knights of hell." Vaeris said as he looked at Ryn, she looked at him confused. He looked at her. "I will explain once we return to the village."
The elfs searched the fort for about an hour, they found some good things. Even gold that she didn't take. Even some weapons and the elfs bedroom seems to have been a favorite as the walked out with all the arrows and bows.
They loaded up all on their horses, the horses looked different. They were different colors with two horns. They had a couple spare it seems.
'shame, wanted to ride with Ryn' she thought as she climbed up on her red horse, or whatever it was called.
Vaeris looked at the mounted group, "Very good, lets go." With that the group moved out.
Lia looked at the group, some still seemed to give her weird looks. Well, it wasn't surprising, they probably have never seen a human, or if they have its probably not a good interaction. The only humans they should have seen here would be world-knight that have enter a dungeon.
The group rode across the wasteland in silence, the wind howling faintly through the ash plains. Lia's mount snorted and kicked up clouds of dust as it followed behind the elves. The red creature was strong, its hide warm to the touch, not quite a horse, more like a beast bred to survive this cursed land.
The landscape changed as they rode. The endless flat ash began to fade into darker soil, and jagged rocks jutted out of the ground like black teeth. The air grew colder, almost peaceful compared to the heat near Gorrath's domain.
Ryn rode beside her now. Her golden hair shimmered faintly under the blood-red sky. "You don't speak much," she said softly.
Lia turned her head slightly. "Not much to say. You're the first people I've met here who haven't tried to kill me."
Ryn looked at Lia as they rode beside each other. She seemed to want to ask something but held back. "Do you want to ask something?" Lia asked out. This made Ryn blush.
"hehe… isn't that armor heavy? And why wear the helmet all the time?"
Lia thought about the question, "No the armor isn't heavy, sometime I forget that I'm even wearing it, as for the helmet is the same. but it does make me feel safer, and it looks cool."
This made Ryn laugh, she held her hand before her mouth as she laughed. "You do look frightening. Most would call it suicide to walk around with white armor like that."
The two continued to have small talk while traveling, Lia had asked how long it would take and apparently It would take about 1,5 days. They would have to stop and rest about halfway. 'This is going to be a long journey' Lia thought as she looked out over the changing landscape. One thing she was happy about, they were leaving the wasteland.
The day turned to night in Hell. The group had stopped under a big boulder, the horses resting and drinking from a nasty looking river.
They sat around a fire, the elfs still looked towards her with worried looks.
"Father, can you tell me now about the knights?" Ryn asked cutting the silence
Vaeris nodded. "Of course. Lia if I say something untrue please do correct me" he straightened his back and cleared his throat before speaking. "Lia here is what's called a Hell-Knight, a knight selected by a god to fight in Hell. They are sent here alone to kill any demons they find, and can only return ones they have completed that task." He continued speaking sometimes looking at Lia for confirmation, and Lia answered with a nod.
Vaeris turned to her again. "How long has it been since you came her Lia?"
This made Lia think, she had completely forgot about time. "2 or 3 days I think"
Ryn who sat beside her looked at her with what seemed like pity. "So you are stuck here until you have killed every single demon in this land.?"
She nodded.
The silence that came after was deafening, they all realized how big and impossible this task was, they had all grown up here and knew the size and of the horrors of the Hell the lived in.
"Were you scared, when you became a knight?" one of the elfs said, Lia had come to know him as Lior, he had short black hair, pretty muscular. He looked like he would he a typical football player on terra.
"Yes, I was terrified." She said softly. She then turned to Vaeris "How do you know this much about Hell-Knights?"
Vaeris looked like he had expected me to ask this. "I once long ago met another Hell-Knight." He took a sip of his tea. "He told me the things I knew, we met in a war against a orc faction in my youth."
'Ask for his name' Erythos said in her mind.
"What was his name?"
He shock his head, "He never told me, and before your god asks, his armor had what he called a lion on it" he finished. He knew Erythos was going to ask about that.
'A lion? My be some chosen of one of the Greek gods.' The god said.
Lia turned and looked into the dark. 'Something is coming' she thought as she scanned the dark. She stood up and took a few steps. Ryn looked confused at Lia and turned to her father. He did the hand signal to sit down and wait.
Her eyes glowed golden as she looked into the darkness of hell. 'it's a prowler' Erythos said. 'nasty night creatures, lurking until their prey are unsuspecting, charge it'
As soon as he said charge, Lia had already disappeared into the night. Dust and sand had gotten kicked up as she disappeared.
The elfs around the campfire sat silent, listening. and soon enough screeches could be heard, and then nothing. The silence was horrifying. "Father what it going on? Where did she go?"
Her father sat on the ground and sipped his tea calmly, "No need to worry, she just went to take care of our uninvited guests." This made Ryn even more confused and worried. But she soon heard footsteps approaching the camp.
Out of the darkness appeared Lia, her once white armor now red, stained with blood. behind her she dragged a dead prowler. A spider looking thing with four legs, the body of a spider and head of a rat almost. They hunted during the night, could climb on walls and were very fast.
After killing it Erythos had given her an advice to bring it close to the camp, this would make other prowlers afraid.
The others looked on in shock as Lia had just dropped it and sat down at the campfire again. "we can rest easy tonight now." She said to the group.
Vaeris chuckled, "do you need sleep Lia?" She Shock her head to this.
After that he told everyone to rest now, Lia would stay up as she didn't need sleep. She didn't complain, it was nice to breath the air that wasn't filled with ash now. The wind that blew was also cooler making it feel like a late summer night.
Lia looked at Ryn who laid beside her.
Ryn who had been staring at the knight blushed and turned to face the other direction.
'Goodnight' Lia thought.