The Record of Unusual Creature

After the banquet, Y’zaks led Hao Ren and the rest to a terrace on the upper parts of the castle. From there, they could see a good part of Helcrown. The city was massive, almost too massive as you could not have a full view of the city even from the highest point of the castle.

The circular city was a patchwork of districts. Within the great obsidian walls were 12 districts that were partitioned by high walls. From each district you could see each race’s unique buildings and black demonic towers. The citizens were however, not blocked by the high walls as they were equipped with gates and suspension bridges. The gates were powered by demonic energies and could be opened or closed at any time. This was probably for defense in case Helcrown came under attack. The attackers could be sealed within a district if they ever infiltrated. The castle itself stood tall in the center of the city upon a rocky hill.

Looking down, you could see giant elven trees alongside human hovels, and dwarven furnaces just across the beastmen’s gladiatorial grounds. The ethereal crystal towers were built upon the halflings’ burrows. A few hundred years of co-existance had changed the traditions and customs of the “demonic citizens”. As citizens of Helcrown, they were most influenced by Y’zaks vision. They had gotten used to getting along with each other. The Elves were not scornful of the beastmen’s brutish nature with their strong liquor and grilled meats, while the beastmen were willing to study the elven’s complicated, yet intricate woodwork. This was the true face of Helcrown.

Nonetheless, most could not see beyond the imposing obsidian walls.

Y’zaks crossed his arms as he looked on. “You mean you can move the entire city away?”

Hao Ren was not fazed. “Well, we’ve moved a few billion elves, and their floating islands before. Those islands were way bigger than your castle.”

“But we had a transportation fleet back then. Plus, the Aerym universe had a World Gate.” Y’zaks looked at Hao Ren. “This place has none of those. Our plan was to came for Y’lisabet. I never thought that we would still have a city full of people…”

Hao Ren shrugged. “I can’t ask you to abandon them, right?”

Y’zaks grinned and said nothing else.

“So, that settles it then.” Hao Ren pursed his lips. “Don’t worry too much about this. I have my own arrangements. The issue of the World Gate can be solved as well. I’ll submit a request to open a temporary gate. As for the migrants… don’t worry. I’ve got this.”

As soon as the words left Hao Ren’s mouth, both Vivian and Nangong Wuyue, who were beside them rolled their eyes. They immediately knew what that guy was referring to.

Vivian gazed upon the majestic city, and turned to Y’zaks curiously. “I’m rather bothered about something.. Are you really going to let all of this go?”

“I’ve done what I can, and I’ve lost. There’s no justifying sending everyone in this city to their deaths just because of my own obsession.” Y’zaks pointed down towards the city. “This is not a revival, this is akin to throwing these people into a meat grinder.”

“But some of your underlings may not share the same sentiment.” Hao Ren glanced at Y’zaks. “For instance, that Lamadenor.”

Y’zaks demurred for a moment and gently ruffled Y’lisabet’s hair. “It won’t be long before he leads some of the demons out of the city. Y’lisabet, be a dear and tell Zadamor to not stop him when the time comes.”

The little demoness nodded. Hao Ren on the other hand, was surprised. “You already knew?”

“We’ve known each other for thousands of years. I’ve fought alongside him even before the Unification Wars. There are a few other old coots too, I know them all very well.” Y’zaks smiled without much concern. “Rather than looking towards the stars or any other grand schemes, they are more interested in war. If I’m not wrong, they stayed back with Y’lisabet for a year just to prepare for a comeback, and now that that’s gone, they won’t be staying any longer.”

Y’zaks then sighed. “I can’t expect them to stay when our visions don’t align.”

Hao Ren looked on quizzically. “You’re sure accepting of this… even when you’ve known about it so long ago?”

“I’m not being accepting. I’m just using whatever tools I have at hand.” Y’zaks smiled. “I don’t need everyone to think like me, I just need their strength to be useful to me. Those who can fight, let them fight; those who can explore, let them scour the land; those who can research, let them do so. Lamadenor is your standard demon, so I just let him do what a standard demon does best. Since he isn’t receptive of the future I’ve planned, he’s free to go as he wishes.”

Vivian still had some questions to ask but Y’zaks did not seem to want to dwell on the topic any further. He looked at Y’lisabet, “That’s enough. Lets talk about the city, how did you solve the propulsion system issue?”

The little demon immediately puffed her chest up. “I did! We found a source of energy in the alternate dimension. It is in the power generator powering the city. Papa, you want to have a look?”

Y’zaks broke into a wide smile. “Of course. You guys wanna come along?”

The question was rather moot. How could Hao Ren and the rest miss out of this and the party was excited. Even Lil Pea was happily mumbling, “Kam Along! Kam Along!”

The group then departed for the power generator area inside Helcrown. It was right beneath the castle and Y’lisabet led the way. Hao Ren and the group circled the castle for a bit, going through winding corridors and security checkpoints before reaching a circular hall. The hall itself was rather different, and did not had any decorative items adorning the hall. The walls were however carved with series of crystalline and metallic leylines, almost as if they were runes. The mysterious runes glowed as it was driven by demonic energies. The lights seems to resonate with each other and there was a continuous hum of energy in the background.

Y’lisabet motioned everyone to stand in the obsidian platform in the middle of the hall and made a a series of weird motions towards the crystal above the hall. The obsidian platform shook for a bit and started descending.

So it was an elevator…

As the elevator descended, the group ended the most important place within Helcrown. Hao Ren realised he was descending through a long, translucent crystalline tube. Through the tube, they could see the inner working of Helcrown unknown to others. A massive, steam pipe of dwarven desgin snaked through the place. Thick bronze machinery chugged as it was powered by dwarven steam engines, providing the city above power. Beneath the steam piping was a dark red crystalline and silver grid. This grid was the buffer zone of the power generation zone. Further down was even more bizzare looking items, a series of dark green crystalline matrix with intricate spells and a forest-like metal structure. Heaven knows how long did Y’zaks took to modify the place to that it is today. Looking at the ungodly mixture of technology, magic, alchemy, demonic energies and steam-powered contraptions, Hao Ren now understood why the Allied Army could not take down the city.

This was as high tech as one could get here…

After a long descend, the platform finally came to a stop. The group had arrived in the deep area of Helcrown.

Y’lisabet led the group through a series of staircase and into a ring shaped corridor. The inner ring of the corridor were lined with rows upon rows of window arcs. Lily poked her head through one of the arcs and realised that the ring corridor was probably surrounding the power furnace.

The furnace was build directly using obsidian and the inner part was a giant circular hall. The staircase of the hall spiralled downwards and the circular rings made the place looked almost like the Colosseum. You could see countless glowing runes and silver circuits along every level of the steps. All of them were connected to the centre of the hall. In there a device made out of a few metal concentric rings were spinning rapidly, and in the middle of the device was a mysterious item had glowed in dark red.

On the steps above the power furnace, scores of workers were busy performing their duties. Aside from demons, there were blue skinned Ethereals and stout dwarfs, looking almost walk walking beer barrels as well.

Y’lisabet proudly introduced the place, “This is Helcrown’s Demonic Furnace!”

Hao Ren stared at the device for a good while before turning towards Y’zaks. “… Now I know the other reason of why everyone in the world wanted a piece of you.”

Y’zaks, “What?”

“You stick out like a bloody sore thumb everywhere you go!”