"The Material Plane... is in turmoil..."
After his Chip clone returned to the temple, in the sixth layer of Hell, Malbolge, Leilin's
As the sixth layer of Hell, Malbolge had always been an endless plane with a perpetual incline, where boulders rolled everywhere and even demon castles drifted along the slope's arc.
Of course, all of this had now vanished, because the demon-hunting army—dense as swarms of insects—had blanketed the layer, driving the demons out entirely.
Regrettably, in Malbolge's largest lord's castle, Leilin found no trace of
This cunning and beautiful Succubus Queen possessed incredible decisiveness, sacrificing her dignity as a Hell Lord without hesitation, abandoning all of Malbolge to Leilin and fleeing alone to a deeper layer of Hell.
"Demons without a Hell Lord to command them are like a giant without a head, a hive without a queen—completely disorganized..."
Thanks to Glasya's discretion, Leilin had encountered absolutely no trouble taking over Malbolge, yet his face showed not a trace of excitement or elation.
On the contrary, Leilin's brows were slightly furrowed, and a hint of gloom shadowed his features.
"If they want to stop me, this is the perfect place. The deeper I go, the stronger my power becomes, while the demons' strength is continuously weakened..."
From their retreat, Leilin smelled the unmistakable scent of conspiracy.
He wasn't afraid of the demons uniting in resistance. What he feared most was that the Hell Lords would simply abandon Hell entirely, retreating into the endless void and the multiverse—that would be when real trouble began.
Of course, that was no easy feat.
Abandoning Hell meant being forsaken by Hell's Primordial Force, and even worse, losing the authority of a Hell Lord and falling out of the Realm of Rules.
As long as there remained even a sliver of hope, the demon lords would not resort to that.
But Glasya's current decisiveness made Leilin sense something amiss.
"This can't continue any longer, or things will spiral into major variables... the Twisted Shadow is still watching like a tiger..."
Leilin gazed at the entirety of the sixth layer he had already conquered, and suddenly smiled: "Still, when something is handed to me on a silver platter, it would be rude not to accept..."
Boom! A layer of golden light suddenly cascaded downward from the fifth-layer Divine Kingdom, enveloping the entirety of Malbolge.
Golden radiance filled the sky as, amid the demon hunters' prayers, the infinite rules of the Divine Kingdom began merging with Malbolge, carrying out powerful transformations.
Rumble! Rumble!
The earth trembled, the entire tectonic plate issuing a tremendous roar. Under Leilin's intervention, Malbolge's tilt—which had existed since the birth of Hell—was swiftly corrected. The land returned to flatness, and the boulders that had once rolled everywhere lost their momentum, settling quietly in place.
In the end, all six layers of Hell began to merge, radiating the boundless light of divinity.
Under that radiance, the remaining three layers of Hell appeared so fragile and insignificant, nearly drowned out by the infinite divine light.
...
"Pfft!"
Just as all of Malbolge was being absorbed, in the ninth layer of Hell, Nessus.
The beautiful Succubus Queen screamed, vomiting mouthfuls of filthy, black blood.
The blood turned to smoke in midair, faintly forming more grotesque shapes of life before hitting the ground and rapidly becoming pus, leaving terrifying furrows across the earth.
"Malbolge has been completely devoured by him..."
Glasya's face was ghastly pale. Having lost her domain, this Hell Lord was left with nothing but an empty title.
That wasn't even the worst of it.
Having lost the support of Hell's Primordial Force, Glasya could feel her power constantly regressing, nearly falling out of the Realm of Rules.
Crash! Crash!
At that moment, within the chasm of Nessus, the Hell fortress Malshem suddenly exploded. A demon hand large enough to blot out the sky reached out, crushing with a single grasp the million demons who had lived within the fortress. The sky rained flesh and blood, mingled with the demons' screams and wails and their twisted souls, forming a dazzling bolt of black lightning that plunged into Glasya's back.
"Hsss..."
A layer of horrifying scales surfaced across Glasya's body, and behind her spread an infinite curtain of darkness, within which one could faintly hear demons weeping and struggling.
Glasya screamed, yet the fluctuations around her body eerily stabilized, and she narrowly avoided falling out of the Realm of Rules.
"Father! I have failed..."
Standing upon the giant hand like a black night-bat, Glasya gazed at the phantom of an old demon before her.
In
"You have not failed... my daughter..."
After a long pause, this mysterious Lord of the Nine Hells slowly closed the massive parchment volume in his hands, a profound smile on his face: "To survive is the greatest victory! The second Twilight of the
"Could it be..."
Glasya faintly grasped at Asmodeus's intentions. This Lord of the Nine Hells had always appeared only through avatars, concealing himself behind the deepest curtain of darkness.
And now, he seemed to finally be revealing a trace of his true ambition!
"Could it be... could it be that you wish to... ascend to godhood?!"
Glasya's voice trembled. Ascending to godhood from the position of a Hell Lord! Asmodeus's goal was certainly nothing as simple as becoming a Minor Deity!
His ultimate objective was undoubtedly to become the supreme ruler of demons, the God of Dominion, the Master of Power—a True God of the Nine Hells!
That was the pinnacle of Greater Deity, and at this moment, his most formidable competitor was the God of Slaughter who already occupied six layers of Hell, the Lord of Original Sin—Leilin Farell!
"The God of Slaughter's main body is a Wizard—he will inevitably face the enmity and siege of all the gods, not to mention he caused the death of the
"But..." A look of clear hesitation crossed Glasya's face.
In her estimation, they might not live long enough to see Leilin become the target of all the gods. He would likely have already charged through and killed them in one overwhelming assault.
"Nessus is different from the other eight layers of Hell. This is the deepest level of Bator, the ultimate seat of evil, where I have made many preparations over the years..."
A look of resolve appeared on Asmodeus's face.
"With the power of my true body, combined with the abilities of you three Hell Lords, we can sever Nessus entirely and seal it for over a thousand years..."
"Seal all of Nessus?"
Glasya felt that all the shocks she had experienced in her life combined could not match what she felt today.
A sealed layer of Hell meant no more influx of fallen souls, and would gradually be forgotten by the world.
Not to mention the enormous cost of severing Nessus from the rest of Hell.
"Heh heh... Don't worry, my daughter. I have long stored sufficient soul wealth within Nessus to sustain us for over a thousand years. Moreover, this creates an obstacle for the God of Slaughter..."
Asmodeus grinned hideously, his eyes gleaming with shrewdness and cunning.
"To ascend to Greater Deity, he must unify all nine layers of Hell and obtain our power..."
"But once Nessus is separated from Hell, the blow to him will be catastrophic. Moreover... with my modifications and the empowerment of three Hell Lords, the sealed Nessus's defenses will rival those of a Greater Deity's Divine Kingdom..."
"Once he loses this most critical foothold, his plans for rapid ascension will inevitably fall apart, and he will finally perish under the gods' siege!"
Asmodeus was utterly confident in this.
"His only path to survival lies in unifying Hell as quickly as possible and killing us, then?"
Glasya looked at Asmodeus before her, feeling he had become a complete stranger.
"And... how do you know so much about the affairs of Wizards?"
"Allow me to answer that question!"
A twisted shadow materialized upon the great demon hand, causing Glasya's face to fill with alarm—she had detected absolutely no fluctuations from the being beforehand, and to approach so easily was nearly inconceivable for a Seventh-rank Hell Lord.
"You're... a Wizard!!!" Glasya sensed the utterly different aura and fluctuations emanating from the being and screamed.
"Heh heh... Now we are allies, for we share a common enemy!"
The Twisted Shadow said coldly.
At the same time, he looked toward Asmodeus: "I have successfully persuaded Belupeolu and
"Of course... you must also guarantee that you will help them recover to Hell Lord-level power and not harm them!"
"Agreed! My honor and adherence to contracts are innate!"
Asmodeus made his vow.
"So be it!"
With two voices speaking in unison, the figures of Belupeolu and Mephistopheles also appeared in the void.
Belupeolu took the form of a massive, repulsive worm, while Mephistopheles had a human appearance, complete with demon wings and horns, holding a burning fire-fork in his hand.