Chapter 110: Demon Trap
“So this is the Demons‘ hideout.”
I look out over the Demons‘ hideout from atop a cliff. It was the ruins of a fortress built in a large canyon.
Following the reaction of the marker I planted on the Demon, I arrived at their hideout.
At first, I thought about just popping over with teleportation magic and wiping them out quickly, but since I didn’t know what kind of place it was or how many Demons were there, I decided to come using flight magic instead.
If the destination turned out to be a populated area with many Demons, immediate combat would break out, carrying a high risk of causing casualties among the townspeople. Also, even if I hide myself with invisibility magic, using teleportation magic creates spatial distortions that could be seen, exposing my intrusion.
Above all, I’m tired of getting dragged into the Demons‘ secret maneuvers. So, if possible, I want to round them up all at once.
Fortunately, the place where the marker’s reaction stopped wasn’t that far from the town where we were staying. It was only a few hours away by flight magic at most.
Using search magic, I confirmed dozens of life signs moving around inside the fortress. It’s definitely decayed and abandoned, yet the presence of people is suspicious indeed.
“Still, building a fortress at the bottom of a valley is a strange location.”
This fortress seems to have been unused for a long time and looks tattered. However, minimal preservation magic seems to have been cast on it, so it looks usable if maintained.
“Hmm, it resembles the regional fortresses from when I was alive in my previous life. It looks broken; I wonder if it’s a ruin from the same era?”
Ah, come to think of it, the research facility built inside the cave the other day was a secret facility for defeating the demonic beast called the White Calamity. Maybe this fortress was also built at the bottom of the valley for a similar purpose.
“Well then, shall we go?”
Having already activated my invisibility magic, I headed towards the ruined fortress without hesitation.
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“The structure looks familiar after all.”
While advancing inside the fortress, I felt a sense of nostalgia from its architectural style and interior. During my hero days, I was often sent to fortresses like this to fight demonic beasts and Demons.
It was fine if the commander was good and coordinated with the army, making it easy to fight. But if it was someone obsessed with face or honor, they wouldn’t let us fight, trying to solve it themselves, which increased casualties and made things difficult.
And to protect the knights and soldiers who got caught in the crossfire, I secretly provided support from within the base using area magic like High Area Heal, so I could help even without sortie permission.
“Oops.”
While feeling nostalgic about the base inside the fortress, footsteps approached from ahead. Of course, the source of the presence wasn’t human.
It was a pair of Demons. They were likely patrolling the fortress. They walked towards me while chatting idly, looking bored.
“By the way, did you hear? About the group that went to attack the Dragon Emperor getting wiped out?”
“Huh!? What’s that? You mean they failed even with that large an army!?”
Ah, they’re talking about the Demons who attacked the town.
“Apparently, they were beaten back by the Dragon Emperor alone.”
“No way!? Is the Dragon Emperor that strong!?”
“No, with the Golden Dragon submitting to the Dragon Emperor, the higher-ups seem wary that the Dragon Knight Order might have been secretly revived. They think the Dragon Emperor might have lured us out by deliberately revealing the Golden Dragon‘s existence in this incident.”
“Are you saying we were the ones lured out!?”
“That possibility seems high. The talk is that they completed the rebuilding of the Dragon Knight Order and conducted large-scale practical training by luring us out.”
Umm, I don’t recall thinking anything like that. If anything, I just hurriedly prepared for interception.
“In fact, the town’s warrior group was apparently equipped with simple weapons clearly made from dragon materials.”
“Why simple?”
“Despite their shabby appearance, the performance was reportedly abnormally good.”
Eh? I don’t recall setting up anything like that. Those were strictly spare equipment for the people whose gear was under maintenance.
“I see, clearly a disguise then.”
“Yeah, pretending to be shabby equipment to deceive our eyes and round us up in one fell swoop.”
Umm, that’s a bit of a stretch… no, wait. Could that be it?
Maybe that request from the Guild was actually asked for that purpose? There was genuine disguised equipment prepared in the town, and they asked me to prepare a large number to add credibility to it.
I see, that makes sense! The reason the adventurers praised the makeshift equipment so highly might be because they were actually soldiers of the town’s defense force in disguise wearing the genuine equipment.
As expected of the defense force of the Dragon Country, Dragonia. Even without Dragon Knights, they were preparing against external enemies. Yeah, even without the Dragon Emperor, his will has been inherited.
While I was thinking such things, the chatting Demons passed right by me.
“Now, I need to check inside the fortress too.”
Since the fortress is already decayed, I don’t think I need to worry about involving humans, but it would be bad if there were hostages kidnapped from somewhere.
Also, there might be a teleportation gate leading to the Demons‘ main base. If I find that, I should inflict enough damage to prevent them from meddling with us humans for a while.
So, I walked around inside the fortress. With search magic, I know how many people are in the fortress and can distinguish to some extent whether they are human or something else. But there’s no doubt I need to confirm with my own eyes just in case.
“Even so, Demons really like using our ruins.”
I don’t know if building new ones is too much trouble, but maybe we should start charging rent?
“…Ah.”
The word “rent” gave me an idea.
“Yeah, that might be good.”
With that decided, I immediately start taking action. Fortunately, the structure of this fortress isn’t much different from general fortresses in my previous life.
“Probably this way… ah, found it.”
I arrived at my destination without taking much time. Since it’s this kind of place, search magic doesn’t pick up any Demon reactions either.
It was a large room, with a huge sphere sitting on a thin pillar in the center, and numerous thin pillars extending from the sphere to various parts of the room.
And the true identity of this round sphere is a Magic Power Reactor. As the name suggests, it’s a power source that runs on magical power.
In my previous life, a power source was needed to operate the fortress’s installed defense magic items to counter powerful or giant Demons. Human magic power alone couldn’t keep the defense facilities running constantly.
“Yeah, looks like this can be used if repaired.”
It’s a fortress that decayed a long time ago, but the state preservation magic inside seems to have been effective until recently, so it’s not very damaged. Since this area is the heart of the fortress, they probably put more effort into preservation compared to the exterior.
“Then, shall we start repairs?”
Just in case, I cast soundproofing magic inside the room to prevent sound from leaking out before starting work.
“I can substitute this part with materials I have on hand. For this one, I can manage by substituting a magic item.”
I proceed to repair the Magic Power Reactor by diverting materials and magic items I have. I’ll also modify the control device to make it easier to use.
“By the way, was this fortress used during the era of the last Dragon Emperor?”
In the story of the Dragon Emperor and Dragon Princess told by Ryune, there was talk of leading all Dragon Knights to battle.
If so, the soldiers of this fortress probably either went to that battle or fought here until the end. It’s ironic that it’s now being used as a hideout for Demons.
“But the structure of this device hasn’t changed much from my previous life’s era.”
Since I didn’t know about this fortress even recalling my previous life’s memories, there’s a high possibility this ruin was built after I died.
But the fact that there isn’t much progress in the equipment despite that suggests the Dragon Emperor‘s era wasn’t much different from the era when the previous me died.
“Alright, repairs complete!”
Since the repairs were completed relatively easily, I immediately tried starting up the Magic Power Reactor. Then, a slight vibration ran through the fortress. Since the work was done, I canceled the soundproofing magic, and the loud sound of a siren jumped into my ears. This is a siren alerting to enemy intrusion. Of course, the intruders the siren is alerting about are the Demons.
Screams presumably belonging to Demons can be heard from afar. At the same time, the reactions of the Demons detected by search magic disappear one after another.
“Yeah, looks like the defense system was properly alive.”
In my previous life, such fortresses were most vigilant against Demon intrusion. So, incorporating the unique wavelength of Demons into the defense system’s target list was a top priority.
Thus, with the restoration of the fortress’s power, the defense system that wasn’t broken yet reactivated and began exterminating the Demons who intruded into the fortress. The Demons must be surprised to be suddenly attacked by a fortress they thought was broken.
“You guys use ruins from our era every single time. I think having a painful experience once in a while will be a good lesson.”
And so, after a while, all reactions disappeared from inside the fortress.
“It seems there were no humans.”
Yes, even if this fortress is a military facility strict with intruders, it doesn’t suddenly kill humans, who are fellow kin. It would capture them to investigate their identity first. The fact that every single reaction in the base disappeared is proof that there were no humans in this fortress.
And as the Demons‘ reactions disappeared, the siren also finished ringing.
“With this, the Demons inside the fortress are wiped out!”
People who settle down without permission and without paying rent can’t complain if they are kicked out by force.
By the way, there’s a reason why the fortress defense system didn’t react to me, an unauthorized person. That’s because when I was repairing the Magic Power Reactor earlier, I hacked into the core of the fortress’s defense system from a nearby control terminal and registered myself as authorized personnel of this base.
Man, the spell security of the control device was lax; it saved me. Why was I able to do that?
That’s because the one who first created the Magic Architecture, which incorporates and manages magic items in buildings, was me from the life before my previous one.
In the life before my previous one, I was ordered by the King at the time to create a semi-automated fortress incorporating magic items that could be operated like a large fortress even with a small number of people.
Due to such circumstances, I, who knew the basics of Magic Architecture, immediately realized it was an advanced version of the control device I once created.
Once you know the basics, the rest is easy. The device, whose structure was surprisingly similar to the one I made in the life before my previous one, was easy to understand, and I immediately changed the fortress’s administrative authority from the administrator at the time to me.
“Now then, I suppose I should resume exploring the interior of the fortress. It would be nice if there was a gate leading to the Demons‘ main base.”
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Having decided to subjugate all the Demons, I explored the fortress from corner to corner. However, unfortunately, a teleportation gate capable of going to the Demons‘ main base did not exist.
“As expected, the most important facility is in another location, huh.”
It’s a bit disappointing, but natural. This is a place the Demons were using as a temporary base. If they were to install a gate to go to the main base, it would normally be in a main fortress where they put more effort into defense facilities.
“Can’t be helped. Let’s just consider it good that I was able to annihilate the Demons in the fortress this time!”
By the way, the Demon I had planted the marker on was also lying down inside the base. He didn’t escape; I just defeated him normally.
“Well then, I guess I’ll head back for now.”
I activate teleportation magic to return to the town where everyone is waiting.
“I’ll leave the rest to the Demon Trap.”
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That place was hell.
“GYAAAAAAAA!”
We came to the decayed fortress of Dragonia to investigate the safety of our brethren with whom we lost contact.
“Cordel got hit!”
And as we advanced deeper without finding anyone, suddenly a scream rose from behind. That was the gong signaling the beginning of hell.
“Guwaaaa!”
“Razam!!”
Surprisingly, the fortress defense system, which should have decayed and stopped working, had resumed activity and suddenly attacked us.
“Damn! Damn it!”
A brother launched an attack on the defense device, but it seemed a magic item activating defense magic was incorporated into this device, and damage didn’t go through properly.
“R-Run! Anyway, run outsideeeee!”
I see, this was a trap. A terrifying trap that strikes from behind with full force the moment foolish intruders who have penetrated deep into the fortress let their guard down.
“Who on earth set such a tasteless trap!”
While letting us pass on the way in as if nothing was wrong, an astonishing number of defense devices intercept us to prevent our escape on the way out.
Thus, we were annihilated without reaching the exit, and the brethren who came to investigate after that followed the same fate as us.
And after failing several investigations, the brethren finally judged that this fortress had revived its functions by some chance, gave up further investigation, and abandoned the fortress—but it was a decision too late for us who had already died.
