The Paladin in the Abyss

The corpses of the demons fell to the left and the right, revealing a skeleton head behind them slowly retracting a bone spear it had "swallowed." It was the one who had launched the surprise attack from behind the enemy. Lancelot had encountered a demon squad in the subway of Oasis Fort, and that very bone spear was the tail he had chopped off from the rear of a Bone Demon.

"The way you've got a cylinder stuck in your mouth is kind of disgusting," Lancelot said to Cromwell with a sense of helplessness. "I really should find you a mirror to see if you can retract it any faster…"

"Don't you think it's pretty cool?" came Cromwell's proud voice through their mental link. "If it weren't for my sudden strike from the back, it could have struggled for quite a while."

"Not bad, not bad, you take the lead credit, but there's no reward," Lancelot said, ignoring the skeleton head that was posing and instead began searching the enemie's corpses for spoils of war. As with most humanoid monsters, both of the allure demons had several small bags hanging from their waists, and within them, Lancelot found several dozen gold coins, along with a few red and amber gemstones.

Lancelot was no gemstone appraisal expert, but he did have plenty of gemstones worth over a thousand gold coins each in his pocket. However, these few clearly weren't as pretty as those more expensive ones, and their combined value was probably only a few hundred gold coins at most.

The spoils were less than he had hoped for, but this was the den of the Mother of Demons. It made no sense for two patrols to carry their entire fortunes on them, and he wasn't keen on wasting time searching for an ownerless treasure somewhere.

There was a noble lady waiting for him to rescue, wasn't that what knights were supposed to do?

Of course, reality was always more complicated, such as this noble lady already having an owner, and the fact that he had just recently been rescued by another noble lady, who took a kiss as her reward…

Right, this was the Abyss, and it was best not to expect things to progress in a normal fashion.

"I still don't understand why we had to fight this battle," Cromwell finally said as he fully retracted the bone spear. "Couldn't we have just circumvented them, those two were really poor…"

"You really don't know the riches you're standing on," Lancelot shook his head as he pulled Frostslash from the ground and slid it back into the sheath on his back.

"What?" Cromwell looked at Lancelot quizzically. "Where do you come up with these words from… riches? I don't see any."

"Just look around you," said Lancelot as he walked up to the painting with the image of a group of elven archers. He crafted a Dharma Decree with his hands and summoned tiny ivies on the surrounding walls to take down the picture.

"Ah, you're referring to this..." The skull lingered in midair for a moment, its tone turning passionate, "Just how many are there? A few hundred? A few thousand? My God, you're going to bring back an entire legion for those Protectors!"

"That's why I say we're literally sitting on a treasure trove. It's also the reason why I had to take down those two patrol seducers, so we could empty out this treasure mountain without disturbance." Lancelot again performed the Dharma Decree, this time removing two portraits simultaneously, "But speaking of which, what's the deal with this state? Is it just because we saw Cang Ye's face?"

"To be precise, you were first petrified on the spot by the face of the Mother of Demons. Remember that shock you felt when you first saw the Giant Skull Demon? Did you think for a moment that it represented the most perfect form of life in the world?" The skull rolled its eyes, looking both terrifying and amusing, "All Obyrith Demons possess an ability known as Madness Stance, which tests the minds of mortals who witness their true forms. If you can't resist it, you go mad."

"Their appearance is indeed very... illogical." Lancelot crouched to the ground, dismantling the edge of the giant painting's frame, pleased to find that the canvas with the human likeness wasn't very thick, "We must have seen her true face, but we just can't remember it. But isn't this power too great? In battle, couldn't she become invincible just by taking off the scarf covering her face?"

"Heh, because that face is truly ugly. So, the Mother of Demons is invincible as long as she's shameless," the skull joked perilously, watching Lancelot stack the portraits and put them into the Dimensional Bag, "It's said that the Mother of Demons' face is the embodiment of chaos, distortion, evil, corruption, and all such negative concepts. I even wonder if the gods themselves could bear to look upon her face, of course, except for that one known in legend as the Dark Sun…"

"And those who see such an image fall into mental collapse, right?" Lancelot summoned more vines and started disassembling the remaining portraits along the corridor, "But how did we end up in this... flat state?"

"It is said that the flowing robe worn by Cang Ye can stretch at will, wrapping around immobilized enemies. When the Mother of Demons retrieves her robe, those inside have become paper-thin, a part of the ancient Abyssal Lord's myriad collection." Clone Well floated above the stacked portraits, watching as the vines continuously delivered the Mother of Demons' collection, "That's called the Embrace of Cang Ye, similar in effect to an 8th circle Transformation System spell named Eternal Stasis. For those affected, time seems to stop; they no longer age, all their physiological states are frozen, and they are immune to all forms of damage. My guess is that the mirror that wreaked havoc on us not only transmits images but can also allow some inanimate objects to pass through, like some beauty's burial shroud."

"You sure know a lot," Lancelot glanced at the skull, "You say that those under the spell are immune to all harm? So if I draped these portraits over myself, wouldn't I be invincible?"

The floating skull clearly stumbled for a moment, as if puzzled why no one had thought of this idea before. But eventually, it found an answer to the question:

"Because attacks would pass directly through these images…"
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"Alright, a reasonable explanation." Lancelot closed his eyes to sense a moment, then said to the skull, "Move aside a little, we don't have much time left."

"I'm not in your way, am I?" The skull argued while obediently drifting to the side, "But you're right, there are too many portraits here. It would take at least a whole day to move them all..."

The skull couldn't finish its sentence, as it suddenly sensed an extremely powerful force emanating from Lancelot. Then, countless large vines burst out from the floor around them, writhing as they pulled all the portraits off the walls. With a rumbling noise that didn't stop, these green plants, incongruous with the Abyss environment, tore through walls and holes, delivering the sealed figures of unknown heroes to the Human Knight.