Leilin regarded himself in the mirror, quite satisfied with his new appearance.
Originally, in the World of the
But now, the golden curls had all turned black, his eyes filled with a dense, impenetrable darkness—even the whites had turned blood-red, and an aura of evil constantly radiated from his body.
"At this level, I'm afraid no one would be able to connect me with the young master of the Faolan family..."
Leilin placed a silver, grotesque mask over his face, and his entire figure vanished into the darkness.
Disguising his appearance alone was, of course, far from enough.
Therefore, when Leilin emerged from the darkness, his entire body underwent an even more terrifying transformation.
A thread of something mysterious beyond mystery, yet carrying a dark, luminous power, constantly drifted around his body, suffused with the faint resonance of the power of rules.
Once this thread of radiance fused with his being, Leilin now resembled a devil from Hell itself—even his soul signature had changed.
A sense of overwhelming power and danger continuously emanated from him.
The air around him slightly collapsed inward, as though being directly devoured by something.
Divinity! Only the power of divinity could accomplish this!
And Leilin had now become a divine being who wielded a sliver of the Devouring Divinity!
"Mm! A fine imitation!" Leilin appraised himself with a satisfied nod.
His comprehension of the Devouring Rule had already reached an exceedingly profound level—he needed only the last sliver of
Insight into the laws did not vanish with reincarnation.
While condensing divinity from nothing was still extraordinarily difficult, simulating the bearing and appearance of a divine being possessing the Devouring Divinity was child's play for Leilin, who had the Chip.
"In the World of the Gods, I absolutely cannot ascend to godhood through the Devouring Rule—that would far too easily draw the gods' vigilance and attention. Moreover, in this world, the power of Devouring has been cast into the camp of devils. The moment I successfully ascend, I'll likely be dragged into Hell. I'll have to go there eventually, but I can't afford to be so passive about it..."
Furthermore, assuming this form had yet another advantage.
Divine beings always possessed strong resistance to divination magic, and Leilin was an otherworldly visitor to boot—for anyone to try and obtain specific information about him through prophecy and divination would be nothing short of a pipe dream.
"The performance begins..."
Leilin gazed at the luminous moon hanging in the sky, and his figure suddenly wavered, dissolving into the darkness.
Beelzebub, the
Every method of contact, every personality quirk and habit, even the full roster of bishops and devil priests across the regions of the Material World—all of it was stored within Leilin's Chip.
To him, Beelzebub's followers had nowhere to hide.
During the day, Leilin had simply strolled around Dark Night Forest Castle a few times, and by then he already had everything mapped out in his mind.
Now, disguised as a divine being, Leilin arrived before a sprawling estate.
Even the guards at the gate stood loyal sentinel, faithfully performing their duty.
"So even the magistrate has been corrupted—no wonder they're so brazen. They're even planning a blood sacrifice of an entire city..."
Leilin clasped his hands behind his back and strode boldly into the manor.
The moment he entered the manor's grounds, the stench of evil compelled Leilin to take a deep breath.
This kind of refined soul perception—had he not been carrying the Devouring Divinity at this very moment, he would have been completely unable to detect it.
The evil power constantly lingered around Leilin's body, making his radiance burn even brighter—especially that thread of false divinity, which was actually trending toward becoming real.
[Divine Sight Unreachable]!
Through the power of his magical divinity, Leilin directly activated a quasi-spell ability, rendering all the stringent security measures blind to his presence.
After slipping past the outer guards, Leilin followed his instincts and found a downward passage concealed behind an obvious decoy rockery in the garden.
"The scent of human blood... and... the presence of low-ranking devils..."
Leilin twitched his nose but descended the passage without a moment's hesitation.
"Who goes there?"
This movement finally disturbed one of the sentries, whose voice was deliberately suppressed, clearly not wanting to cause a commotion.
But in the shadows, several otherworldly creatures had already crept over in silence, clearly intending to ambush him.
When these creatures drew close to Leilin, he couldn't help but feel a mix of exasperation and amusement. "This is what you rely on? Devil priests? Nothing but these wretched lemures? This is practically an insult to me!!!"
Through his darkvision, he had already seen what the attackers were—mutilated human torsos and heads that looked like enormous lumps of flesh.
These were lemures, the lowest tier of devils, and the most common cannon fodder throughout all nine layers of Hell.
The Chip now fed back information about them.
[Lemure — Strength: 3, Agility: 1, Constitution: 5, Spirit: 0.1. Description: The most common monster in Hell, typically transformed from cunning human souls. Mindless, equivalent to intellectual cripples, easily controlled by high-ranking devils. Innate abilities: 1. Immunity to fire and poison damage. 2. Cold resistance. 3. Acidic attack.]
"Get back! You insignificant ants!"
Leilin spoke coldly, in the devils' tongue of Hell.
Those lemures, facing Leilin who now resembled half a Devil Duke, could not resist at all—they were directly seized and turned against their master, prompting a cry of alarm: "You... who exactly are you?!"
"You don't have the right to know!"
Leilin did not break stride, and the other party dared not make another move.
Of course, it was likely that the other party had also sensed the devilish essence upon him.
After pushing open an iron door covered in blood curses, a room resembling a dining hall appeared before Leilin.
On the long table sat fresh, steaming flesh and blood. Numerous devil cultists looked up in astonishment at Leilin, the uninvited guest—some didn't even have time to wipe the blood from their lips.
"What's going on? Sebalar, why did you let an outsider in?"
A fat nobleman sitting at the center spoke in an annoyed tone, his face showing intense displeasure at the interruption.
"So this is another of Beelzebub's favorite rituals—the Bloody Banquet!" Leilin recognized the devilish ceremony they were conducting.
"You miserable maggots—can't you even recognize it?"
Leilin's voice was low and deep as the divine power upon him erupted forth.
"This... this is the divine power of our Lord!" A devil priest clad in black robes exclaimed, his face filled with excitement.
All those present at the banquet were, of course, Beelzebub's followers. Upon witnessing the divine power emanating from Leilin, they one by one knelt and prostrated themselves under the priest's lead.
"Our Lord... it has been twenty years since you last communicated with your followers..." The priest wept with tears streaming down his weathered face.
"I have received our Lord's blessing, becoming its Chosen One and proxy, and have come to lead you all! Does anyone object?"
Leilin declared without a shred of politeness.
Impersonating Beelzebub's Chosen One and divine agent, and taking over all of the demon lord's followers and priestly network in the Material World—that was Leilin's objective!
A Devil Duke's tens of thousands of years of accumulated enterprise—especially with the Mandehok Disk at his disposal—meant that even after suffering several blows, his holdings in the World of the Gods were still enough to make Leilin covetous.
"No objections!"
The priest who served as Beelzebub's chief worshipper was the first to pledge allegiance, immediately throwing himself at Leilin's feet and kissing his boots.
"Wait... even if he has received our Lord's grace and obtained divinity, how can he simply take direct control of us?"
A nobleman whose vested interests were threatened stood up directly.
But in the next instant, he could no longer speak a word.
A blood-red dagger had already been driven straight through his throat, and a terrifying devouring force reduced him to a desiccated husk in an instant.
The sound of gulping filled the room, along with gasps of alarm from the other cultists: "A Devil's Blood Dagger!"
"Anyone else object?" The blood-red dagger flew back to Leilin's hand. The desiccated corpse on the ground immediately crumbled to ash. Leilin swept his gaze across the room and met nothing but reverent eyes.
As Beelzebub's followers, they naturally knew full well what a Devil's Blood Dagger was.
This terrifying devil bestowal required, at minimum, the sacrifice of a slain high-ranking enemy priest and the flesh and blood of over ten thousand people!
To be able to complete such a ritual and still be alive today—that represented true power!
Not to mention, with a Devil's Blood Dagger, his strength was beyond question.
"Great Chosen One, we submit to you!"
The assembled cultists declared in unison.
"Good! Our Lord has sustained injuries and must undergo a period of recovery. My task is to act in its stead, consolidate the Church's forces in the Material World, and provide sufficient faith for our Lord's restoration..."
Leilin said, mixing truth with fabrication.
"So that's how it is..." These priests had long suspected that Beelzebub had fallen gravely wounded—though they had long since boarded the ship and had no way to get off.
"Now, I shall issue the first task... a group of Paladins will be arriving soon, and I need you to..."
Possessing divinity elevated one to the status of a Chosen One within the Church—sometimes even outweighing the Pope's authority!
Once his identity was confirmed, Leilin wasted no time in issuing orders, tasking these followers with stalling the Paladins.
While they were certainly no match for the Paladins in a head-on confrontation, when it came to scheming, deception, and stalling for time—that was where devil cultists truly excelled.