Chapter 1096: Section 1097: Beside the Magma Pool

The situation on the ground was completely different from the fierce battle above the floating ice.

After the flames had disappeared, all that was left of the outside world was scorched earth, and thick smoke billowed everywhere.

In the midst of the smoke, a shining light suddenly flashed. Upon closer inspection, one would find that it was a small metallic sphere, resembling an eye with little wings.

The small sphere bobbed up and down in the thick smoke, its eyelids opening and closing with a flicker of light.

At that moment, within the Domain of Wind, Angel was closing his eyes and sensing his surroundings through the position of the small sphere.

The sphere was a Scouting Puppet, an extension of the wizard’s eyes. Wherever it went, it could see everything… In fact, its effect was completely the same as the Second-Level Trick “Wizard’s Eye”.

However, the range the Wizard’s Eye could explore was vast, while the Scouting Puppet, even after being modified by Angel, could not probe beyond five kilometers.

But the Scouting Puppet had its advantages. If the Wizard’s Eye were dispelled, the wizard himself would suffer injuries, but if the Scout Puppet were shattered, the controller would feel only a sting of spiritual power, with negligible damage to themselves.

Previously, the interference of the Domain of Wind combined with the fierce flames outside meant that, even if Angel released the Scouting Puppet, it couldn’t transmit the images back in real-time. But now, with the flames extinguished and Fafnir having granted permission, he could do much more.

Originally, he had wanted to send the Scouting Puppet upwards to get closer to the floating ice and observe the situation. But before it could ascend a hundred meters, it was caught by a Bone Wing Demon that sprang out from nowhere, and after a moment of confusion, muttered some unintelligible words and crushed the Scouting Puppet into pieces.

After that, Angel released two more Scouting Puppets, but they both ended up scrapped as soon as they took to the sky. In the end, he decided not to fly towards the floating ice and let the Scouting Puppet roam Lassudral instead.

With the cover of thick smoke, the Scouting Puppet wandered through the city areas, which was much safer than flying high in the sky. It traveled virtually unobstructed, but unfortunately, since the Scout Puppet could only travel so far, Angel could only roam near the southern suburbs.

Ironically, Angel hadn’t dared to wander out when Lassudral was still calm. But now that Lassudral had fallen into war, he had the chance to experience this demon city that stood eternally in the Void.

While observing the aftermath of the battle in Lassudral, Angel also searched for any traces of humans. If possible, it would be ideal to find Sinafa, who had left earlier.

However, to Angel’s surprise, the current Lassudral was devoid not only of humans but even demons seemed to have disappeared; the entire city felt as though it had been purged.

The silence was eerie.

“Strange, whenever I fly towards the sky, demons appear… But now, after flying so long on the ground, I haven’t seen a single demon. Where are they all hiding?” Angel muttered in confusion as he controlled the Scouting Puppet to fly towards the central city area.

After flying for a while longer, aside from the scorched earth, the occasional fiery meteor crater, and the omnipresent billowing smoke, Angel didn’t find any other signs of life.

Just when he was about to try a different direction, he saw a mist of clouds that arose out of nowhere in the sky nearby.

That mysterious low cloud enveloped a section of the smoke-covered area.

From afar, Angel could see that the area under the cloud was obscured and hazy, and nothing was visible, as if it were a natural prison sealed by smoke and low cloud.

As he got a little closer, he could hear the pitter-patter of rain and, from within the smoke, came bursts of explosions and the sounds of combat.

Apparently, there was a battle going on inside?

Unfortunately, the Scout Puppet, having been modified by him, would distort any sounds and images if there was energy interference. He could hear the noises, but due to the chaotic energy inside, he couldn’t discern the specifics of the situation.

If there was a fight at this time, it was definitely not a demon squabble; it had to be a battle between the human camp and the demons.

Being so close to the southern suburbs, Angel wondered if perhaps Sinafa had encountered more demons after escaping?

Angel wanted to enter and see the situation for himself, but just as he was about to move forward, his peripheral vision caught a glimpse of a building ruin nearby.

He thought he saw a flash of red light there.

Now fearless of exposure—since he had more Scout Puppets to spare—Angel crept quietly in the direction of the red light after a moment’s consideration.

As for the area beneath the rain cloud, Angel planned to send another Scouting Puppet nearby to go inside.

The Scouting Puppet disappeared into the smoke, following the previous red light into the ruinous building complex. However, once inside, Angel didn’t see the red light anymore; aside from the vast ruins and a smoke-covered alleyway, there was nothing else.

It seemed as if the red light had been an illusion.

After wandering amid the ruins for a while and seeing only a demon corpse that had likely been crushed by a fiery meteor, nothing else was found.

After some thought, Angel turned his gaze to the alleyway covered by smoke.

Since there was no ruin, the only path that could be taken here must be this alleyway. Perhaps something could be discovered within it.

With this in mind, the Scout Puppet entered the alleyway.

The alley wasn’t long, and Angel soon reached the end.

There was still no trace of the “Red Light” at the end, but Angel saw a door that had been opened.

This door was installed directly into the ground, with a pitch-black staircase visible inside, leading to the unknown depths below.

This was a deep and long corridor, which initially sloped downwards as Angel noticed, but as the Scout Puppet ventured further, the passage gradually began to ascend.

Throughout this corridor, Angel could see footprints on the stairs. These footprints weren’t covered in dust, indicating that some life form had passed through here not long ago—perhaps it was the “Red Light” entity that Angel had caught a glimpse of earlier.

Angel continued to explore forward; the terrain was now ascending. After not flying for long, Angel saw the exit—

As soon as the Scout Puppet emerged from the exit, the image transmitted back to Angel experienced a momentary distortion… Angel carefully determined the cause, only to realize it was caused by the severe high temperatures, resulting in some degree of damage to the Scout Puppet’s imaging.

The source of the intense heat was the large lava pool behind the exit.

At present, the Scout Puppet was near a vast lava pool, radiating a rolling red glow. The intense heat had deformed the very air.

It was clear this lava pool was not formed by flowing fire; it must have existed before the calamity struck Lassudral.

Through the Scout Puppet’s eyes, Angel could clearly see that the lava pool was distributed in blocks. Near each block, there was a large forge.

Around each forge, there were piles of various metals and tools needed for forging.

“Could this be Lassudral’s blacksmith shop?” Angel murmured in doubt; the arrangement here was clearly for the forging of weapons and armor.

Due to the extremely high temperature, the image kept distorting, so Angel could only have the Scout Puppet fly higher. However, when the Scout Puppet flew up, Angel was shocked to discover that within the range of the entire lava pool there were all sorts of odd-shaped weapons scattered around.

There were enormous axes, pikes, and long spears… as well as gigantic choppers.

These wildly-looking weapons were stacked everywhere.

As an Alchemist, Angel could easily determine that the quality of these weapons was quite good—they were at least of entry-level grade. In fact, some of the weapons could even rival Intermediate Rank Alchemy creations.

Moreover, most importantly, he could tell that these weapons weren’t newly forged; rather, they seemed as though they had been refined countless times and cherished by their owners.

Yet these weapons were now carelessly thrown on the ground; their owners were nowhere to be seen.

“Huh?” Angel raised an eyebrow as he seemed to have noticed something.

Controlling the Scout Puppet to descend, Angel’s gaze shifted towards a massive cleaver, or to be precise, the ground near the cleaver… there was a clump of dark, smudged traces.

Although he could not smell it or feel its texture, Angel had an intuition that this might be a pool of blood.

Subsequently, he saw similar black traces next to other weapons. If his conjecture was correct, these could all be the bloodstains of the weapons’ owners. But if the weapons remained here, where had their owners gone? Could they have been killed? But even in death, why were there no remains, just pools of blood?

The bodies of Demons, although not highly valuable, were still somewhat worthwhile. After battles with Demons, human Wizards generally would collect their bodies, which could add to their income if an opportunity to sell them arose later.

But if it really was the work of humans, these weapons would not have been left behind, right?

Even if Wizards held the value of these weapons in contempt, the materials used to craft them were extremely rare metals from the Abyss.

So, it might not have been the work of humans after all. But if it wasn’t humans, what was the situation at the scene?

“It couldn’t be that they were eaten by some creature, could it?” Angel murmured to himself.

As Angel pondered, unsure of what to make of it, suddenly from behind a large forge not far away, there came a clattering noise, followed by a voice speaking in Demon Language with a tone that was frivolous and mocking:

“Indeed, I wasn’t wrong. There’s still a fish that escaped the net… no wonder that greedy old fellow wouldn’t let me eat the other Demon bodies, all because of you!”

Following that voice, Angel heard another frequency of Demon Language, this time urgent and filled with terror:

“Don’t come any closer! Ah—spare me, please spare me—” it began as a plea, but as the clattering noise continued, the pleas turned into screams, “Hua Que, why would you do this, even though it was Kaido who saved you, you actually killed it! And you even killed all of our clan… I won’t let you off even in death. The Purgatory Flame Slave will be reborn in flames. I will kill you, I swear I will kill you!”