Chapter Sixty-One: Between a Rock and a Hard Place

When Elayet returned to the camp, he made no attempt to conceal the deep worry etched on his face. This alone greatly surprised Ras and Divo, who had been waiting for news. Yet neither pressed him with questions; they waited until Elayet stepped into the camp, ordered the idlers away, and at last turned to the matter at hand.

“You don’t look well at all, Elayet,” Divo remarked, touching his long horns and narrowing his eyes as he studied the vampire count before him.

“Did something happen? You couldn’t find any trace of Elise, is that it? Don’t be so anxious—Brandon Stonehold isn’t that vast. If we split up and search the area, we’re bound to find some clues eventually.”

Elayet heaved a long sigh at his friend’s reassurance. He then lowered his head, shadows flickering across his face. Divo and Ras found this all the more puzzling. In Onyx Citadel, Elayet was always the calmest among them; even when Divo was livid and Ras’s roar threatened to shake the entire Underdark, Elayet would remain seated, wine glass in hand, unperturbed. It wasn’t that he didn’t care for others—on the contrary, his detachment, a trait of his half-vampire bloodline, had time and again guided them out of the Underdark’s deadly snares. In everyone’s eyes, Elayet was ever the cool-headed, steady presence. Yet now, seeing the wry, helpless smile on his face, it was hard to imagine this was the “Wise One,” one of the three giants of Onyx Citadel.

“What’s wrong? Did something happen to Elise?” Ras pressed.

“No, she’s fine.” Elayet drew a deep breath before answering. “I found Elise. She’s unharmed—no mind control, no brainwashing, not even a scratch. It’s just… I couldn’t bring her back.”

“How can that be?” Elayet’s explanation, instead of clarifying matters, left his companions more bewildered. From what he described, Elise was perfectly fine—so why couldn’t he bring her back? Seeing their questioning gazes, Elayet gave a helpless smile and recounted everything that had happened in detail. When he finished, both Ras and Divo were left stunned.

“So you’re saying someone took Elise in? And you couldn’t defeat him? That’s why Elise doesn’t dare return?” Ras asked incredulously.

“That’s about the size of it.” Elayet nodded. “I suspect Elise is afraid to come back for this reason. That person’s strength far exceeded my expectations. Honestly, if he hadn’t held back, I doubt I’d be standing here in one piece. Not only that—I suspect there’s a vast power behind him. Elise called him ‘Lord Castellan.’ That title alone is highly suspicious.”

Indeed, on the surface, it wouldn’t be strange for a city’s ruler to be called castellan. But in the Underdark, every city is practically an independent power, and the titles of their leaders are unique. The mind flayers have their Elder Brain, the drow their First Matron, the duergar their Consul. In other words, cities in the Underdark are less true cities and more gathering places for a single dominant race; naturally, leadership falls to that race. This is nothing like the surface cities, with their shifting populations and open doors to outsiders.

For such a neutral, raceless title as “Castellan” to appear in the Underdark was exceedingly curious.

“Who was he, then? A human?” Ras asked.

“I can’t say. He was shrouded in a robe from head to toe. The only detail I caught was his glasses. As for being human…” Elayet paused. “I don’t think so. He looked human enough, but his strength and speed were beyond anything mortal. Honestly, even a pure-blood vampire would struggle to match his physical prowess.”

“He’s really that terrifying? I still think it’s more likely he’s human. We all know how cunning and dangerous humans can be—maybe he’s just got some strange magical gear. I’m certain he’s from the surface; there’s no way an Underdark denizen would use the title ‘Castellan’…” Ras insisted.

“No, there is someone who fits that title.” For the first time, Divo interrupted, raising his head and glancing at the others with those lizardlike eyes. “In the Underdark, there is indeed one who deserves to be called the Dungeon Lord.”

The air turned heavy. The lesser folk under their command might know little of the rumors, but the three giants who had carved out their power in the Underdark had heard the tales many times. In fact, stories of the Dungeon were as common in the Underdark as dragon-slaying legends were among surface-dwellers.

But legends are one thing. When their subject steps out of myth and into reality, it becomes another matter entirely.

“Haha… That can’t be,” Ras forced a laugh, his disbelief plain. “It’s just a legend. There’s no proof at all…”

“No, Ras—this is something you snakefolk don’t understand. Tieflings are different—we bear the blood of fiends. This tale has been passed down among our kind for generations. A powerful, mysterious being, bearing a fiendish artifact, addressed by Elise as ‘Lord Castellan’—I’m almost certain that’s the Dungeon Lord!”

“And if it’s true, isn’t this a disaster? If I remember right, the legend says the Dungeon is the palace of a demon lord,” Elayet muttered.

“No, no, no!” To both Elayet’s and Ras’s surprise, Divo leapt to his feet, eyes alight with excitement. “You really don’t understand. These dungeons are nothing like ordinary demon lord palaces! Have you ever heard of a god descending in the flesh to live on the material plane? No, right? And just the same, you’ve never seen a demon lord leave the Abyss for the material world, have you? The truth is, these dungeons, while called demon lord palaces, aren’t truly the demon lords’ own—they belong to their progeny!”

“What…? I knew it couldn’t be a demon lord… Wait a minute, how do you know all this? Why didn’t you ever tell us before?”

“It’s a secret passed among tieflings. And since we’ve never had dealings with a dungeon, it simply never came up. But enough about that—you know why the demon lords’ progeny leave the Abyss and come to the Underdark?”

“How should I know? Exiled, maybe?” Ras guessed.

“Idiot!” Divo shot Ras a venomous glare before continuing.

“As distasteful as it is, you must have heard the surface legends of god-chosen children,” Divo went on.

Elayet and Ras nodded. The children of the gods—those born under divine favor, destined for power and luck, fated to face unthinkable trials and countless enemies, to emerge as heroes or saints in legend. Of course, in those stories, Elayet and his kind were always cast as the tragic, pitiable villains.

“We don’t know all the details, but the demon lords’ progeny are much the same. Legend has it that every so often, a terrifying, mysterious ritual is held—they open a way for the worthy sons of demon lords to enter the material plane, where they gather followers and launch attacks on the surface world. That’s why, every few centuries, the fiends wage war upon the surface. Truth be told, many tieflings were born of such wars.”

At this, Divo clenched his fists, excitement shining on his face.

“And do you know what happens? The victorious demon lord’s child claims the title of demon lord, and the most capable of his followers are taken back to the Abyss to become true fiends! If we could earn such a patron, Onyx Citadel would never fear disaster again! We would shed our awkward, outcast status and become the highest, most honored children of darkness!”

Elayet’s heart stirred at Divo’s words. As a half-vampire, his own status was little better than that of the tieflings—always overlooked for their mixed blood. If they could become true fiendish kin, all that would change.

“Still, not to spoil the mood…” Ras interjected, “But if Lady Elise was taken by the Dungeon Lord, doesn’t that mean our patrols provoked the Dungeon? That’s probably why she was seized. Under these circumstances, how do you expect to cooperate with this Lord Castellan?”

At this, both Elayet and Divo fell silent, the heated atmosphere cooling abruptly. Ras had a point—if things truly happened this way, what were they to do?

“Report!” Suddenly, a tense voice broke the silence as a scout stormed in, his face grave.

“Third patrol reports—they’ve been attacked by humans!”

“What?!”