The Demon King's Paladin Part 2. All Out War.

Chapter 417. Into The Cave

" I'm telling you, we need to leave, who knows what's going to happen when he hears about our failure."

" What are you so scared of? We overachieved on our orders. Everything we've done since finishing the job was just extra."

" That doesn't mean he's not going to furious that we lost so many soldiers."

" They were all weaklings anyways. The weak get eaten by the strong, it's always been that way."

" Even if that were true, tha-"

" Huh? Hey, what's the matte-"

* Stab! Thump!*

We walked into the cave and within a few steps, we found 2 more armored Demons, they must've been the guards who would take over the shift from the ones who were guarding the front. Thanks to the fact we've done this silently, they weren't able to prepare for us coming. They were even in the middle of some kind of a conversation about the current situation. It sounded like they had a big disagreement about their current situation. Regardless of that, Jessie stabbed the one, and I took out the other.

" We probably should've listened in for a few more minutes."

" We could've but the one you killed was going to turn around, we had to strike now. Besides, it's not like they were going to tell us names, they're scared of whoever " he" is."

" He, is probably Dardus, right?"

" I can't say. Whoever it is, it doesn't matter, " he" isn't here. They all but said it themselves, so at least we know the leader isn't here... But the leader that was put in charge of this group might just be."

Jessie seemed to think we gleamed all we could from their conversation, but both of them were beginning to anger at each other's arguments, they would've let something else slip, but it doesn't matter now, both of them were on the floor, one's head separated from his body and the other dead from choking on his own blood.

" We need to push deeper now, if they've only set up 4 guards here, maybe that means their forces aren't as big as we thought. Maybe we really can end this tonight?"

" Just remember to stick to the plan."

" I know, Jessie. I know."

Luke looked at the 2 bodies on the floor and seemed hopeful about this operation, but everyone else was less than optimistic. Especially when the memories of a few days ago entered our minds. I assume Jessie is thinking back to when we tried invading Diablos.

" There's no point in wondering, we need to go deeper whether we like it or not. Let's stay together and not split up, we need to do this as a group if we're going to succeed and if we do separate remember the plan."

Laura was ready to push on and she quickly reminded everyone about what we had to do in order for this all to work. Without much else to say, we all began to walk carefully deeper and deeper into the cave. Despite the fact that we were going farther and farther into the cave, there was never any darkness, it was strange, the cave was just illuminated without a light source. Obviously, it must've been done with some kind of magic. The question though, was if it was being done by a Demon, or if it's being done by captured Humans. If it was Humans, that means we'd need to free them and help them escape from this cave. That's not exactly a great thing if our goal is to either kill the Demons here or force them to escape.

" Yes, there is mana all around the walls. But it's all flowing deeper into the cave, whatever it is, it's not detecting us, so I don't think anyone is consciously using a spell. Maybe it's automated?"

Jaime examined the walls and found out a few things. With her report, we at least know that our enemies don't know that we're coming. It's a decent silver lining at least. We continued to walk and walk, deeper and deeper into the cave, until we found the end of the tunnel we found ourselves in. Once we were at the end, we were stunned by what we found. The first thing that we realized as we walked in, was the sound of running water. With the light being much brighter as we walked slowly out of the tunnel, it took a few seconds for our vision to adjust to it. It was like stepping outside during a sunny day. And that was the best way to describe what we found. It was like a nature preserve inside of the cave. We quickly looked around the area. Demons were all around, walking, talking, going about their day as if they were in a military camp. There were streams all around the tents that have been put up for them to sleep in. There were trees, flowers and other plant life, even fruit trees. We quickly noticed that there were some lookouts, and we quickly ran back into the tunnel.

" What the hell..."

" There's so many of them..."

Jessie and Luke couldn't help but spill their thoughts out as we all hid up against the left side wall of the tunnel.

" Let's just keep our voices down for now. We need to think of what's next... Quickly..."

Jaime was the next to speak, she was still trying to figure out what our next move was. She wasn't the only one, Laura was looking around trying to figure out what we could do. Ashley was pretty quiet, until she found something of interest and couldn't help calling it to our attention.

" Wait... Look above. Where the light's coming from."

We did as Ashley said and what we saw was amazing. There were bundles and bundles of shining crystals. They must be providing natural light since the plant life is growing so well. It was stunning to look at. If it wasn't for the fact that we were surrounded by enemies and in another world, I'd really want to take a picture of the crystals... My Mom would've loved to see something like this. No... I can't be thinking of things like this. I need to focus on what we can do. And the first thing that came to my mind made me quickly turn to Jaime.

" Can you destroy them?"

" What?"

Jaime didn't seem to understand what I meant.

" Can you hit them with a spell strong enough to dislodge them from the ceiling and crash down on the Demons? If you can, we can harm the forces of the enemy, blind them and make them form a panic."

To my question, Jaime thought about her answer for a time. Eventually she did give an answer after observing the crystals for a few seconds.

" I can't, well... I can, but the kind of spell I'd need to use will be too loud, the mana I channel would light this area up like a Christmas tree. Let alone the fact that any Demon with the ability to sense mana will immediately notice the mana I'm channeling and be able to stop me since I'd need to concentrate for the kind of spell I'd need to use."

" Seriously? You need that much firepower to destroy the crystals?"

Next was Luke asking a question. He seemed surprised at what Jaime had said, almost as if he expected her to just be able to life her finger to destroy the crystals. I can't tell if he's being an idiot or just that lost on what we've all been doing since trying to invade Diablos. Jaime, obviously hiding some annoyance from the question, began to answer.

" Yes, they're thick and giving off very strong mana, I'd need to use something that'd take up at least half of my mana in order to even have a chance at taking down the crystals... If anything, we should save that as a last resort to escape. I'll try to keep my mana around half full so I can do that."

" That'll do,"

To Jaime's explanation, Jessie agreed with her idea about using the spell to destroy the crystal as a last resort. Now with that out of the way, we still need to figure out what to do next. And with that, Laura finally spoke.

" We can't do anything without taking out the lookouts first. They're going to discover us before we're able to do anything about their friends on the grass in the middle of this giant area. We need to start with that no matter what."

" Do you have any idea how to do that, Laura?"

Jessie asked Laura a follow up question to her observation. The idea to attack the Demons is beginning to look less and less likely now. Either way, we're going to need to find an answer, we can't exactly return empty handed. The only question is if we're going to be able to do this safely or not. I can only hope that we'll be able to escape this unharmed.