Salvos (A Monster Evolution LitRPG)

Chapter 640: Hell's Terror

640. Hell's Terror

***

Ultis, Aliq, and Quid rushed through the tunnel, hearing the commotion that was up ahead. They left the corpse of the [Hellterror] behind, unable to investigate it further. There was shouting. Loud voices. Angry voices.

Was there fighting? Was there screaming? Ultis couldn’t quite tell. But with her heightened nerves, she wanted to get back to the others quickly— to warn them of what she saw.

She led the way, followed by the twins as she sprinted through the dark tunnel, until she spotted a bright light ahead. She immediately recognized it. It was the purple glow of Asto’s flaming spear. So the others had to be close.

The three of them exploded out into a circular cave chamber as Ultis prepared herself for a battle. But when she stepped out of the tunnel, all she heard was a loud bickering

“—and you’re our tracker so you should find them!”

“And I am telling you that I can’t!”

Asto and Liquis were standing in the middle of the room and shouting at each other. Ocbu and Incol were standing to the side with their arms crossed.

Incol scowled, and even Ocbu seemed slightly irritated. Ultis blinked as she glanced between the other Deathsquad Hunters, before slowly walking forward.

“What’s going on?”

She asked as Asto shook the Tablet of Tracking and cursed under his breath.

“This damn thing must be broken…”

He didn’t even hear her question. He just knocked the side of the artifact as if he was trying to get it to work. Ultis turned to Liquis with a frown. The tracker shook his head.

“They’re gone.”

“Who’s gone?”

Quid spoke up, stepping forward. Liquis folded his arms across his chest and scoffed.

“Are you stupid? Who do you think? The Archdemons— they disappeared from the Tablet of Tracking.”

“What?”

Aliq’s jaw dropped. He stared with wide eyes as Ultis pursed her lips.

“This is a trap… I knew it…”

She whispered quietly to herself as she glanced back down the tunnel where she had seen the dead [Hellterror]. But she turned back to face Aliq as he protested.

“How could they just disappear? That’s not possible.”

“Well, it happened. So don’t look at me. I have no explanation for this.”

Liquis spoke in an annoyed voice as he raised his chin. Asto gritted his teeth, slowly lowering the Tablet of Tracking.

“We can’t return back empty handed. Regnorex will have us all killed. This is your fault.”

Asto’s eyes darted towards the tracker. Liquis shrugged, raising his empty hands.

“They escaped the Tablet of Tracking before. It is only a given they can do it again.”

“And what about their tracks?”

Quid asked with a hand on his chin. He gestured at the ground as he eyed Liquis.

“Can’t you track where they went?”

“That’s the thing— this is where their tracks end.”

Liquis answered simply as he pointed to his feet.

“They were waiting here for us, then they disappeared. Don’t ask me how. But they did.”

The twins exchanged a puzzled glance. They seemed to be completely perplexed by what was going on. Ultis didn’t understand it either. The only way the Archdemons could have escaped was through some kind of teleportation spell.

But they would have still shown up on the Tablet of Tracking. Just in a different location.

It was the same mystery as before. Except, now it had happened right before them. And Ultis didn’t know what to think. But remembering the dead [Hellterror], she knew there was only one course of action for the Deathsquad Hunters to take right now.”

“We need to get out of here.”

Ultis spoke up, her voice echoing in the room. Asto blinked as he turned towards her, confusion on his face for a moment, before morphing to irritation.

“And who made you in charge? Last I checked, you were not a Captain of the Deathsquad Hunters. I am.”

Asto glared at her, but she shook her head.

“This is a trap, Asto. We’ve been fooled. We have been lured in here by the three Archdemons, but they were just bait. We need to leave right this instant.”

“You’re saying this is a trap?”

Asto raised an amused brow at her. His anger was gone, replaced by a condescending gaze. He crossed his arms as he took a step back.

“And how do you know this is a trap? What, is it because of your ‘uneasy’ feeling from earlier? Did you suddenly gain a new Skill— something like [Trapsense] or [Ambush Perception]?”

He grinned mockingly back at her. Ultis shook her head, speaking in a low voice.

“There was a wild Demon— a [Hellterror]. Aliq and Quid can attest to this. We found its corpse hanging from the ceiling.”

She turned towards the twins. They blinked back at her, before slowly nodding. Asto’s brows snapped together as he peered at her.

“A [Hellterror]? You mean the Archdemon evolution of a [Hellbeast]?”

“That’s right.”

Ultis nodded. She opened her mouth as she gestured down the tunnel they came from.

“It was killed like it was nothing. And it was fresh, too. We have to—”

“You can’t be serious, right?”

Asto guffawed, cutting her off. He took a step back as he placed a hand on his chest.

“You expect me to be scared of a dead [Hellterror]? Maybe if it were a dead [Hellabomination], I’d be a little bit afraid…”

He wiped a single teardrop from his cheek, and Ultis tried to protest.

“That’s not what I’m—”

“Do you not realize who we are? I understand that you are still new here. But we are the Deathsquad Hunters. We are not afraid of anything. I am not afraid of anything. So what if this is a trap?”

Asto scoffed, shaking his head. He raised his head dangerously as his eyes flickered with a purple glint.

“I have killed tens of thousands of damned traitors before. Never once have I failed my King. And I will not give up here just because you’re afraid of a dead Archdemon.”

“I…”

Ultis bit her lower lip, cutting herself off. She realized that there was no point arguing with Asto. He was dead set on ignoring every point she tried to make. She glanced back towards the twins, then looked towards Ocbu and Incol. It didn’t look like anyone was on her side.

Ocbu wore the same apathetic expression as usual. Incol seemed bored, while the twins were still skeptical of her. Even Liquis didn’t appear to be on her side, looking more annoyed than anything.

Ultis closed her eyes as the understanding that nothing she said would convince any of them settled in. The uneasy sensation she felt refused to go away, and she decided to trust her instincts over obeying orders.

“Fine.”

She spun around and started towards the exit tunnel.

“If you all want to die here, then go ahead. Be my guest. But I am leaving this deathtrap.”

“Oh, really?”

Asto raised a brow as she took a step forward. She didn’t even face him as she began to reply.

“Yes—”

And she froze as a purple beam shot past her, barely missing her head. Her eyes went wide when she saw the beam strike the wall, leaving behind a burning hole that shot through the mountain.

“What?”

Ultis stared for a moment as Ocbu and Incol raised their heads in confusion. Slowly, Ultis craned her neck back to face Asto standing in the center of the room, a hand raised and pointed at her back.

“That was a warning shot. The next one is going straight through your head if you dare take another step forward.”

“What are you doing, Asto?”

Ultis asked in horror. The Captain of the Deathsquad Hunters simply smirked back at her.

“If you dare leave this mountain, you are abandoning your duty as a Deathsquad Hunter, which makes you a defector. And if you don’t do your duty, then I will do mine.”

“And you’ll kill me?”

She stared back at him with round eyes. He didn’t give an immediate response. Instead, a fiery ball blinked into existence on the palm of his hand.

“Do not make me repeat myself.”

Ultis clenched a fist at his reply. But she didn’t argue back. Asto swept his gaze over the room, eyeing the twins first, then looking towards Obcu and Incol.

“The same goes for the rest of you. If any of you dare disobey any of my commands, I will ensure that you will not leave this cavern alive. Is that understood?”

The other Deathsquad Hunters all nodded, except for Liquis. Asto finally faced the tracker and glared.

“And as for you—”

“What? Do you want me to magically make these missing Archdemons reappear? Because I can’t do that.”

Liquis scoffed, but Asto didn’t care. The Captain took a dangerous step forward as he pointed at the tracker.

“I do not care about what you can or cannot do. All that matters is what you must do. And you must find these Archdemons, otherwise you are refusing to adhere to your duty.”

Asto spoke threateningly, and Liquis narrowed his eyes. Ultis pursed her lips, feeling the tension in the room. It was palpable, and she didn’t know what to do. She was certain this was a trap. But Asto refused to listen to reason.

He had threatened everyone in the room, and he could follow-up on his threats. After all, he was Level 182 [Fiend], while the next highest-leveled person in the room was Liquis at Level 170. Asto could have slaughtered them all by himself if he really wanted to.

“I don’t think any of you seem to understand this…”

Asto spoke dangerously as he cast his gaze over the room.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

“But we are the Deathsquad Hunters. We do not care about our own lives. We live only to serve our King— to hunt down those who have betrayed him and make them pay! If you do not understand this, then you are the same as those damn traitors we were sent here to slay!”

His voice echoed in the room, making Ultis flinch. She listened as Asto raised his flaming spear and walked forward, speaking in a softer voice.

“And if you are all too inadequate to do your duty as a Deathsquad Hunter, then I shall do it alone if I must—”

But before Asto could finish, the ground beneath him exploded. Ultis recoiled as a giant creature emerged from the earth, tossing Asto into the air. The shockwave knocked the other Deathsquad Hunters off their feet as a long and undulating figure continued to rise up after their Captain.

It was a terrible creature. Ultis had never seen anything like it before. It had hundreds of legs, and its body was covered in a kind of plated armor. Like some sort of chitin. And it was massive. Colossally huge.

Its body continued to pour out of the ground as it opened a pair of scythe-like mandibles over Asto’s screaming body. The creature’s body flickered with an iridescent aura, before its mouth shone with a darkness that snuffed out all light in the room.

Ultis heard a crunch, and the screaming stopped. The purple light of Asto’s flaming spear lit up the room as the weapon dropped to the ground before Ultis. She looked up, but the creature was gone. All that remained was a gaping hole in the ceiling.

“What… was that?”

Ocbu whispered, her stoic demeanor having shattered, replaced by a look of horror. All the remaining Deathsquad Hunters just stared at the empty ceiling, before the mountain trembled. Ultis got back to her feet as she felt the ground beneath her shaking.

And then she heard a loud groaning coming from the hole in the ceiling.

The realization began to sink in. She might not know what that monster was, and they might have been the Deathsquad Hunters, but right here, right now, in this dark cavern...

They were the ones being hunted.

Author's Notes:

What thonk?

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