Chapter 26: Opposites Attract

  After several more days of travel, they finally reached the foot of the Mountain of Research and Development.

  To Justinian’s surprise, even before they entered the mountain’s territory, they found a very intriguing signpost pointing to this exact place.

  ‘It looks…,’ he thought, rubbing his eyes. ‘…just like the ones I remember from the Kingdom of Peace!’

  He was somewhat moved by this and now clearly wanted to go up the mountain for the sake of nostalgia alone.

  Aldona watched his reactions, not seeming very pleased. She even shook her head when she saw him approach and sigh at the old signpost.

  “Justinian… maybe…”

  “Let me enjoy this,” the young man silenced her, captivated.

  He didn’t mean to be rude. He simply believed that someone who hadn’t been deprived of their home could not comprehend what he was experiencing.

  Soon, they reached the entrance to the mountain, which was guarded by two sentries.

  ‘How similar they are to the guards from our kingdom!’ he marveled as the men nodded at them.

  They wore standard human attire, and their demonic ears were covered, which—along with their infernal aura—made them look like humans.

  The guards were initially surprised at the sight of him, but then they glanced at Aldona with understanding and nodded their heads in approval.

  The she-devil herself, somewhat irritated, ignored their gazes, and she, along with the silent Franciscus, proceeded up the mountain with Justinian.

  After a few hours of hiking, they finally reached a village.

  “What a fantastic place!” he said with admiration. His impression was certainly justified. For the first time since he had arrived in hell, he found himself… in a completely human village!

  The stone architecture was exactly the same as the buildings in his kingdom, and he immediately knew what he was looking at.

  “What a wonderful bakery!” he pointed his finger in a moment of blissful oblivion, nudging Aldona’s shoulder. “And that over there is a smithy! You can even see someone working inside!” he grew more and more excited.

  The she-devil smiled reluctantly at his behavior—after all, she had probably never seen him so happy. Upon closer inspection, however, a certain sad, painful note was visible in her expression.

  Justinian paid it no mind. For the first time in a long time, he felt truly happy. He finally started running towards the bakery, from which the beautiful aroma of freshly baked bread was wafting.

  Unfortunately, his terrible bad luck made itself known once again.

  As he ran without watching for obstacles, he tripped on the uneven ground and… fell at high speed. He tumbled over several times and landed in some bushes, where his back hit something hard.

  Luckily, it wasn’t a blade.

  “Ugh… what is this lever doing here?” he grunted, struggling to his feet.

  The metal device had been set in motion after he had fallen on it with his full weight, and now the sound of mechanisms shifting deep underground could be heard.

  Suddenly, he felt as if something in the air had changed. The distant views no longer seemed as familiar as before.

  ‘Is something wrong with my eyesight?’

  Unfortunately, this was not the end of the changes that took place on the mountain.

  The beautiful, sunny weather he remembered from the human dimension suddenly vanished as if it had never existed. In its place appeared a moldy fog and… horrifying screams!

  The beautiful aroma of baked bread no longer wafted from the bakery Justinian had been running towards.

  Now, it was the worst stench of sulfur, reeking also of tar and something burning.

  “What… what the hell is this?!” he shouted, terrified…

  Aldona, standing nearby, looked at him with eyes full of pain and sympathy. She had feared it would look just like this.

  They had arrived at the Mountain of Research and Development… on humans and against humans.

  As soon as the illusion completely dispersed, several devil adepts immediately ran down the mountain. Initially confused about what was happening, they quickly found the culprit of the whole affair.

  “A human has escaped!”

  “We have a fugitive!”

  “Notify the head adepts!”

  Some of them ran back the way they came, undoubtedly to file the appropriate report. Others, however, rushed to surround the uncomprehending Justinian.

  Eventually, they also turned their attention to Aldona. She was popular not only for her beauty and talent but also for another matter. Even if she wasn't among the absolute top adepts, she was still—hardly anyone would fail to recognize her.

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  “Honored Adept, let’s catch this dreadful escapee together!”

  The devils began to get excited, completely oblivious to the atmosphere of the scene.

  “Don’t you see who this is, for hell’s sake?!” she yelled at them, outraged.

  Unfortunately, it was too late to stop the catastrophe.

  One of them got a little too excited and, wanting to impress the rest, attacked the shocked Justinian!

  “You… what have you done here?!” the young man asked, still hearing the terrifying screams of suffering people.

  The attack from a much weaker devil didn't even make him stagger.

  Instead, he threw the attacker forward, sending the devil, who had only a single mark of cultivation, flying several meters.

  This, of course, provoked the others, who were on a similar power scale.

  “How dare you, convict?!”

  “You’ve just earned yourself a longer sentence!”

  They shouted, lunging at him.

  Despite their numerical advantage, however, they quickly discovered with horror that they could do nothing to him. Two, three, then four—all were knocked out and taken out of the fight.

  “What is going on here, Aldona?” the young man asked, his voice filled with pain and anger.

  The she-devil sighed heavily. But just as she was about to answer, someone else appeared amidst the chaos.

  “A valid question. What exactly is going on here?”

  A strong wind blew, and the foul-smelling air suddenly cleared. Even the dreadful fog began to dissipate. The clouds moved faster than moments before, and the sun once again broke through them.

  The voice belonged to a lazily observant young man with long black hair and a handsome face.

  “It’s the representative adept!”

  “Felix!”

  “Please help us!”

  The excited cries of the defeated devils immediately rang out. Aldona turned pale and also began to shout.

  “Don’t even think about getting involved in this!”

  The young devil, whose gaze had been very pleasant just a moment ago, was no longer paying them any attention.

  A moment ago, squinting his sleepy eyes at the village-trap, he had reached some obvious conclusions.

  ‘Adepts with one mark, beaten. Illusion broken. The perpetrator still at the scene of the crime,’ he assessed quickly. ‘Hmm… an angry human with… with 4 marks of Ki Gathering?’

  That particular fact was very unexpected.

  After all, humans in hell rarely cultivated, and Felix had not heard of anyone like that being held here. But this was no time for deep contemplation. Especially since the handsome devil saw something else…

  ‘Is he threatening Aldona?!’

  With a menacing glare and fury hidden in his eyes, he had no intention of waiting.

  “I advise you not to cause any more trouble,” he said to Justinian.

  Justinian frowned, decidedly not in the mood for this nonsense, and awaited an explanation.

  Aldona began to shout something again, but ultimately, she was too late.

  In the seconds that followed, events unfolded that shocked the cadets lying on the ground!

  First was the disappearance of Felix, who… appeared right in front of the fugitive, attacking him with a swift blow. The latter, however, was ready and countered with a strike from the iron hand of the law, his most powerful technique!

  A shockwave spread through the air, and Justinian… thrown back by the force of the attack, flew through the air several meters, tumbling painfully.

  The handsome devil didn’t even bother with him; after delivering his own blow, he simply vanished into thin air and appeared next to the lever that maintained the illusion. After restoring it to its desired state, he sighed lightly and appeared beside Aldona.

  “Is everything alright?” he asked, his voice full of feeling and concern.

  Without breaking a sweat, he had defeated the man who had recently won a duel against the nobleman Borowiak and left a wound on Orange Prince.

  For the slowly rising cadets, the reaction was not surprise, but awe.

  For they had just seen in action Felix Faustus—the most magnificent young talent of the dimension, only a step away from Foundation Stabilization.

  Aldona’s first reaction to the daring feat of Felix, the dream of the young adepts, turned out to be quite surprising. As soon as she realized what had just happened, she began… to curse.

  “You idiot!” she shouted, pushing the smiling talent away.

  This caused considerable shock among the observing adepts, but also… among the young devil himself.

  In disbelief, he watched as the noblewoman ran to the man hanging from the cliff, completely ignoring her savior.

  His eyes widening, he also noticed that the man he had just pacified… was somehow still conscious. Such a combination of events was quite improbable, especially since he sensed an aura from him no stronger than 4 marks of Ki Gathering.

  ‘Did I hit him too lightly?’ he thought, frowning.

  Of course, he hadn’t used any technique, lest he accidentally kill the fugitive. After all, their mountain desperately needed humans for research, and such a cultivator was a unique specimen, the likes of which hadn't been seen in decades!

  But then he noticed another, much more incredible detail. The hand he had struck the human with… was tingling slightly!

  ‘Hmm, did he use some kind of artifact?’ As someone with an excellent sense for detail, he rarely needed to analyze them.

  ‘At the moment of attack, he launched a counter-strike… His hand had a strange texture then…,’ Felix pondered, quite surprised.

  He could have ignored all this if it had been caused by some weapon, but everything pointed to the use of a technique.

  As his expression grew more and more serious, Aldona reached the man who was trying to get back on his feet.

  “Are you alright?” she asked with a concern similar to what Felix had just shown her.

  This, of course, caused great consternation among the devils present.

  “Yes…” Justinian himself, having experienced the terrible power of the devil he had clashed with, had long since composed himself.

  He had no doubt that if there were any further confrontation… he probably wouldn't live to see the next morning! The powerful blow had effortlessly crushed his strongest strike, and it hadn’t even looked like a technique.

  He nodded to the young Aldona and wondered what to do to get away from this place with the she-devil—who was, after all, his acquaintance.

  “Adept Aldona! What is going on here?!”

  “Who is this man!”

  “Shouldn’t you be thanking the representative adept Felix?!”

  The young devil himself was pondering the same questions. Of course, even with his carefree expression, he seemed to exist in a completely different reality than the rest of those present. A light breeze framed his face, blowing his hair in a very handsome, heroic manner.

  Aldona sighed heavily.

  “He’s not a fugitive, he’s the representative adept from the Mountain of Plague and Misfortune!” she said, outraged. “How dare you tarnish our reputation like this?! Don’t you know it’s time for the sacred custom of the pilgrimage between the mountains?!”

  Her words were filled with fury, and the devils, quickly processing the information, realized that… she was right! At first, her behavior was incomprehensible, but there had indeed been rumors on the mountain that the fourth mountain had recently been revived and even had a human as its representative cadet.

  “Weren’t there rumors of a cruel human, more demonic than the nobility themselves?”

  “I heard something about Redlandia!”

  “They say he stole noblemen’s daughters!”

  What’s more, according to some rumors… this man was supposed to have won the hand of a nobleman’s daughter, Aldona, in a duel!

  The devils looked at each other, frightened; by attacking such a guest, they could have really gotten themselves into trouble.

  Felix was in a different mood. He nodded, his handsome face clearing up.

  ‘If he is a representative adept, it’s understandable that he has some skill. Even if his master is the Emptyhead,’ he concluded in his thoughts.

  “Haha, now I understand, that explains a lot!” he clapped his hands cheerfully.

  He then turned to Justinian and apologized with all sincerity. “Forgive my hasty actions; sometimes it is difficult to balance demonic virtue with our customs.”

  Once he heard the explanation, he completely stopped worrying about the human. The matter of his slightly tingling hand and Aldona’s behavior had been puzzling before, but the fact that he was a representative adept explained it.

  And as for the marriage rumors? Felix could only scoff; he had better sources than the average adepts and knew that no such thing had occurred.

  Justinian, seeing a chance to survive, had no intention of pressing the issue and also bowed. Then, Felix, sending one more smile toward the young noblewoman, disappeared as quickly as he had appeared. Not long after, however, the grim voice of the mountain's ruler pierced the air.

  “Justinian and Aldona Borowiak. You are to report to me in 10 minutes.”