The Divine Armor of the Old Century（Book 1）

Chapter 28

"The demons... Despite the endless struggle between us, we still don't understand what they truly are, where they come from, what they are made of, or why..."

Lloyd whispered the ancient secrets, and just recounting the story put pressure on the girl.

Breathing heavily, the girl struggled to maintain her silence, listening to Lloyd's words but refraining from saying much herself. As Lloyd had mentioned, this was forbidden knowledge, and given Eve's current state, it was best not to delve too deep.

"Is that... the exit?"

As the light ahead grew brighter in this moment of despair, Eve felt a glimmer of hope. Pushing herself with the last reserves of her strength, she ran towards it, eager to leave this nightmare behind. But just as she was about to reach the light, Lloyd tackled her to the ground, his hand firmly covering her mouth.

"Don't make a sound. Something's not right."

Lloyd's voice was calm, his eyes betraying no hint of excitement despite his physical agitation.

Eve didn't resist much, subdued by Lloyd's restraint, only hearing his cold voice in the darkness.

"When facing madness, all you can do is maintain your sanity. Absolute sanity. Do you understand?"

With a stern admonition, Lloyd had experienced situations like this many times before. After enduring immense pressure in the darkness, everyone tended to lose their sanity when they saw the light, much like how those accustomed to living underground eagerly embraced the sunlight upon reaching the surface.

But such endings were not always pleasant; the intense sunlight could instantly burn the eyes accustomed to darkness. In the brightness after leaving the darkness, perhaps Eve would encounter even more terrifying monsters.

Under Lloyd's control, the two moved forward slowly. Finally, Eve's gaze shifted to the light ahead.

There was nothing to be wary of, nothing like what Lloyd had cautioned about. It was simply a deep pit, with the passage they were in now connected to it by a staircase along its wall.

Eve had thought the grand hall of the banquet was the largest underground space in this dungeon, but it was clear that this pit was much larger.

Endless light poured down from above, seemingly from high-intensity electric lamps. The brightness was so intense that they could barely look up without feeling blinded.

The entire pit was illuminated, at least several dozen meters deep, with torches lit around its walls for no apparent reason. The bottom of the pit was covered in a misty, blood-red fog, obscuring any clear view.

"I guess this is some sort of sacrificial site," Lloyd remarked, looking down into the depths of the pit, his experience alerting him to potential dangers despite the fog cover.

"So, your job back in Feirenze was... fighting against these things?"

Eve spoke slowly, instinctively avoiding the mention of demons. Even though she had only glimpsed one, the impact of the encounter had been profound.

"Yes, but not exclusively. We had a well-established system for hunting them. Before people fully transformed into demons, we would hunt them down, before they became full-fledged demons."

Like Wol, as long as a person hadn't fully transformed into a demon, they were still essentially human and could be easily killed with a sword or gun. But once the transformation was complete, they became something inhuman, requiring inhuman methods.

"Is that why a priest like you knows swordsmanship?"

Eve suddenly found Lloyd's life story somewhat legendary.