Chapter 149: Stranger From The Dungeon
Joe Joe remained in the tunnels, now he had begun to hear distinct laughter as he inched closer to the the castle dungeons, the air was thick, almost stagnant. He could already smell the scent of damp stone, and rotting organic matter as he moved closer.
He finally reached a small iron gate, beyond it was a small red light emanating from a room in the distance, laughter filled the said room. From his deductions, there were about three figures in the room, judging by the sounds of the voices and the shadows that spread on the floor.
Luckily, the gate was open, suggesting that it had been used much recently, so he didn’t need to break any locks and alert them of his presence.
The gate swung open easily as he pushed it slowly, careful enough so that it didn’t creak or whine.
He stepped one foot into the darkness and moved slowly to the room. He was careful, he tiptoed lightly, even the water beneath his feet stayed silent with how carefully he moved.
When he finally reached the room, he peered inside after ascertaining that there were no others around. He could see some cages, most likely built for prisoners.
Sure enough, there were three burly demons in the room, these ones looked nothing like Xani, Xani looked more like a small man than a demon. These ones were grotesque, tall, had large stomach and sharp teeth.
They seemed more like monsters than the type of demons he was familiar with. He held his rapier close to his lips and picked a pebble out of his pocket, throwing it onto the floor.
The pebble made a splash in the water, diverting the attention of the three demons in the room.
"Who’s there?" One of them asked, but there was no response. He waved to his comrades to stay out while he went to scope out the area.
Joe Joe hid in the shadows.
The large demon walked out of the room, every step almost causing an earthquake as he moved his large body. The other two remained silent as they watched keenly, staying on their guard.
"I said who’s there! Better show yourself before I—" The demon’s voice trailed off, nothing could be heard from him again.
The other two looked at each other, confused about what had just happened, silence filled the air.
One of them eventually broke the silence. "Boss? Boss!?" He scratched his head as he wondered if the demon was playing a prank on them.
"Boss this isn’t funny, where did you go."
"He always plays jokes like this."
They both were beginning to get frustrated, their breathing ragged as they looked outside into the darkness.
They could suddenly hear footsteps, not as heavy as their their boss’s but they weren’t concerned with that at the moment.
"Finally, I thought you were playing a silly prank on us again." The one on the left said, he had no hair on his head. The both of them had lowered their guards and had already begun to drop their axes back in their original positions.
"Who said anything about a pranks." Joe Joe said as he stood in the door way, his rapier covered in demon blood. He was smiling mischievously as he looked at the two demons.
Upon hearing his voice, the demons raised their heads instinctively, their eyes widened as they saw the man standing in the door way, holding the head of their boss.
Before they could even blink, Joe Joe dashed towards them with unbelievable speed, the rapier sliced through their necks like bread. Their headless bodies fell to the ground, blood spitting out of their disconnected necks.
Joe Joe turned around and looked at the table, sitting on it was a bunch of keys.
’I guess these were the jailers, I still expect I’d meet some kind of resistance ahead. But first I have to figure out how to get to the main building.’ He mused as he picked up the key.
As he walked towards the cages, he could hear all kinds of sounds; snarling, snapping, gnawing and gnashing.
It felt like he was taking a walk through hell, except he wasn’t in agony, everyone else was.
A creature banged on the iron bars. "S-Save m-me." The creature said in a shrill voice. When Joe Joe looked at it, he could not help but look away as the creature resembled something that had rolled around in a very toxic form of acid, it was hideous.
It took a lot of willpower to not respond and try to render help, their situation was far gone, but maybe he could save a lot more. He assured himself and kept moving.
Just as he reached a door on the end on the walkway. He heard a voice.
"I wouldn’t take that route if I was you. It’s the quickest way to damnation." A man said from inside one of the cages, Joe Joe lit up his hand and walked towards the cage slowly. He could not see anything due to the darkness.
When he was finally close enough to see, it was a man, he was covered in dirt and his hair was long and gray, even though he looked very young.
He sat on the floor, his body covered in sticky sweat. Even though his nose was covered with a cloth, he still covered his nose as he saw the man.
"If you don’t want to end up like me, don’t go up those stairs." The man said again. It was obvious enough that this person had been here a long time, not as long as the others, but he had been here a while.
Joe Joe studied him, he didn’t have no weapons, and he was chained to the walls, beside him was a dried up skeleton, most likely the prisoner who had died in there before he was thrown in.
The man breathed through his very chapped mouth, and he had purple circles under his eyes.
"Who are you?" Joe Joe asked.