The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 170: Playing with fire in a more arsonist way

Chapter 170: Playing with fire in a more arsonist way

Did the Salamander...miniaturized itself after watching Jade?

"Hey!" it called again as I was frozen in stun.

I blinked, looking at the lizard that admittedly, looked more adorable. It had a whitish flame coming out of its bright orange head, looking like hairs. And the previously crimson eyes were now turning blue, blazing like the hottest flame.

"A name!" it insisted again, snapping me out of my trance.

"You don’t have a name?"

"No," the Salamander said, and while I couldn’t see it, it seemed to be pouting. "A name is given by others. Who would give me a name if no one ever came here?"

Oh, look--it was sulking again. I held myself back from laughing though, because its concern was a serious one. A name...yeah, a name was an important thing because it gave part of your identity.

Although, in my case, it could turn ironic.

Anyway...a name, huh?

"Hurry up!"

Whew, so impatient. "I’m thinking," I said, looking at the flaming gecko. "Uhh...Ignis?"

"’Ignis’?" the gecko raised its head, blue eyes blinking and glowing brightly. "Is that my name?"

"If you like--"

"Ignis!" the Salamander suddenly exclaimed, the loud sound echoing throughout the crater.

[Fire has a name, now?]

Jade rolled closer to us, looking at the gecko with beady green eyes.

"I’m Ignis!" the lizard repeated, still loudly, looking as excited as Jade when the bird saw candy.

[Ignis!] and now the little bird followed with a loud chirp. Damn boys--what if you invited unsavory guests?

Talking about that...

"Hey...I thought you said we might be getting attacked?" I asked the gecko that was running up and down my arm in excitement, and it paused with a tilted head.

"We did, but someone else took care of it."

I turned to look at Natha, who casually responded with a shrug. "What’s the use of bringing those two if they couldn’t even take care of a few abyssal monsters."

Ah...so he told Caba and Opti to take action rather than observe.

"That being said," he reached out to ask for my hand, which I gave him. "It started to get too much for them, so we better take a look."

I thought we were going to teleport again, but he merely took my hand and we walked toward that opening; the exit--or was it entrance? With Ignis on my shoulder and Jade hovering inside the energy ball behind us. As we got closer to the gap, I could hear noises.

Noises of fights; the clashing of weapons, the sound of explosions, a growl--growls. Finally, for the first time, I could see abyssal monsters with my own eyes; creatures born from accumulated mana pollution. They looked grotesque, to be honest, and most were horrid mutations of animals in the environment.

But the numbers...

"Could it be the underground turned into a dungeon?" I asked Natha. If bad mana accumulated too much, it would create a hazardous environment where abyssal monsters and corrupted beasts spawned. That was what this world called a dungeon.

"There’s a possibility," he nodded. "We never check deep into the ground due to the lack of access, so dungeon forming will always be inevitable. We’ll see what Lesta found about this once we got back."

"Mm..."

[Master! Master! Baldie not Baldie anymore!]

Jade’s scream brought me back to the fight, and I understood now why Caba was being called the ’hound’. So...basically, he turned into a big big dog. Like a car-size hound with crimson eyes and fur.

So why would he be bald?

Opti, meanwhile, chose to not shapeshift and used his agile youth figure to dart here and there, taking the monster’s attention while Caba attacked them as they got distracted. The Pathfinder girl, meanwhile, came out of her hiding place and ran in our direction.

[Go Shortie! Go Baldie! Go Go Go!!]

...where did this bird learn to chant? The cavern where the fight took place was now filled with Jade’s loud chirping.

[Bite them! Bite them!]

"Jade, violence is bad," I told the bird, who was spectating the fight from the energy ball.

[Fight no good?] the little bird tilted its head. [But Baldie and Shortie fight?]

"You may only fight with bad guys," I pointed at the abyssal monsters and corrupted beasts. "Like those. But you should not attack the good ones."

[Okay! Jade no fight good people!]

"Master, shall I show you what I can do?" the flaming gecko in my shoulder chimed in. "I’ll take care of these uglies so we can go faster."

So that was your motivation? To go down the mountain quickly? Teenager...

"Didn’t you say you were resting earlier? Are you fine, now?"

The little gecko scoffed. "Humph! Do you think these uglies will be enough to tire me out? Of course, I’m fine! I’m the great Salamander!"

You’re a gecko now, though.

"He was eating the purified energy that you make, so he is fine now," Natha informed me. "He’s probably stronger than before he contracted to you."

"I’m already strong from the start!" the Salamander said with the same vigor Jade said when Natha called it a brat. "But yes, I think I get stronger, so I want to test it. Let’s go, new Master."

Natha stroked his chin in contemplation while looking at the whole battlefield. While the two vassals kept killing one after another, more monsters were pouring out from the ground. It was as if the whole horde of a dungeon come together to this mountain. I could see that Caba and Opti were starting to get tired.

"The sun almost set now, so let’s just finish this in one go," Natha said, shifting his gaze from the battlefield to the gecko. "If I stopped their movement, can you strike them all at once?"

The gecko blinked its glowing blue eyes. "The whole mountain? Can you really do that?"

"Can you?" Natha replies with a challenging smirk.

The gecko stomped its tiny feet on my shoulder. "Of course I can!"

Gah! Talk about loud.

"Good, let’s start then," Natha smiled deeply, the silver eyes glinting as he raised his arm forward. The gecko responded by gathering mana in its eyes, making them grow bluer and hotter, flame dancing from its pupil and slightly scorched skin.

It felt like a thud, like a world suddenly plunged into numbing, cold darkness. I only felt it for a fraction of a second though, before everything went back to normal. For me, that is.

Not for the monsters. They still experience that cold and numbing sensation, and they stopped moving. It wasn’t like the time getting stopped or anything, but those creatures were petrified with shaking eyes and trembling limbs. Those who were in the middle of attacking were the ones that got hit the worst--they fell to the ground and curled up, shrieking in agony; caught by paralyzing fear.

The boy and the hound jumped back to our side, as crackles of lightning started to spread through the air. I blinked once, and the lightning struck the creatures simultaneously, burning them and filling the mountain with their miserable scream.

I grabbed Jade and closed the little bird’s eyes and ears. Nuh-uh; I was not going to let my baby spectate this.

"This is more brutal than I expected," I muttered.

"Hyaa--been a long time since His Lordship joined the fight," Opti laughed as he approached us. "But the lightning and fire...is it you, Young Master?"

"That’s me!" the flaming gecko announced haughtily, prompting the shapeshifter and giant hound to look at my shoulder.

The hound growled inquisitively, and Opti voiced it out. "What is that? You don’t have that before, Young Master."

"I’m not ’that’! I’m Ignis!"

This salamander really liked the name, huh?

Opti tilted his head and, being quick-witted as he was, widened his eyes in realization. "The Salamander?"

"Hmph! So you finally know of my greatness!"

"Yes, yes, Ignis is very strong, isn’t he?" I wanted to pat the flaming head in appreciation, but my hands were occupied with censoring the brutality to my four-month-old familiar.

The gecko laughed, its tail slapping my shoulder in what I assumed was a show of happiness.

"...how?"

I had never seen Opti so flabbergasted before. Caba turned back into a demon, the grey fur falling to the ground and leaving him bald again. And he had the same expression as Opti as he stared at the tiny Salamander.

"He made a contract with Val," Natha explained to his vassals.

The Pathfinder daughter gasped. "The legendary beast made a contract? What would happen to the mountain?"

Natha explained to her what we had talked about earlier then, and that the path around the mountain to the realm of wrath would not be affected. She breathed a sigh of relief, but Opti raised another concern.

"But how do you know the mountain is full again? Don’t you need to check it from time to time, then?"

"Oh! That’s right..."

"Hmph! Small matter for the great me," the gecko--I mean, Great Salamander scoffed and suddenly, casually, ripped off its own tail.

"H-huh?"

I almost jumped in fright as it did that, but the gecko immediately grew another tail, as if nothing happened. The severed tail, however, was covered in flame as it dropped to the ground. And when it finally hit the ground, the tail had grown into the shape of a flaming salamander--a bit smaller than Ignis’s real form, but a clone of it either way.

"Whoa..."

The clone salamander moved and pranced around us for a bit, before Ignis sent it to go toward the crater.

"That will act as a beacon. It’ll stay here and tell me if there’s a disturbance in the mountain or if the elemental mana is full," Ignis explained proudly.

"Wow...you’re truly great, Ignis!" I praised him genuinely with a laugh, watching the flame clone walking haughtily into the crater’s entrance.

"Of-of course! I told you I’m great!"

I had no idea that geckos could blush, but apparently, this one could.