“Ugh,” Anna groaned as soon as she woke up and grabbed her head aching with a dull pain. Groaning painfully, she slowly winked open her eyes and found herself in an empty room lying on top of a clean olive green bed.
Glancing at the strands of white hair dangling down her head and remembering the gargantuan finger that had pressed down on her, a feeling of alertness and fear crept up her heart as the spirits around her immediately responded to her call. But as she did so, a dull pain erupted from her soul and hissed in response.
The spirits scattered around her in confusion as they watched the almighty girl clutch her chest. Closing her eyes and calming herself down, Anna carefully inspected her soul and saw a colorful glob riddled with minor cracks and spiritual wounds, which was the most likely cause of the sharp pain she felt a few moments prior.
This… Sighing helplessly, she moved her focus away from her soul to instead survey the normal and floral room she found herself in.
Bookshelves lined across the bedroom walls with a heavy theme for plants and forests. Olive green bedsheets, wooden tables and chairs, a mug of tea made out of wood, wooden walls and wooden floors, even the lights appeared rather plant-ish with the bulb being replaced by a flower-shaped light diffuser.
Her eyes then moved to the bed right beside her where a young man rested peacefully. At a glance, Anna recognized the young man as Noel Crowley, the same person who had just lost all four of his limbs during the fight against Mammon and Winston.
She sighed once again as the conversation she had with the world spirit of Tyr replayed in her mind. Now with meta-knowledge of the behind-the-scenes, she finally knew with certainty that she was a protagonist, a fated person, while Noel was her…
She didn’t even want to think about it unless she wanted to ram her head right against the wall and knock herself unconscious again into another coma. As for how she knew she was in a coma, the leafy calendar placed opposite her bed showing the current date couldn’t be more obvious.
A month had already passed since then… Feeling her heart skip a beat, she ordered a spirit of wind to carry the stack of newspaper placed on the desk near her and grabbed it quickly to see recent news.
[After the unfortunate death of Arivil Bloodthorn, Lance Bloodthorn had officially ascended the throne as the new Duke Bloodthorn! Proving his might, he had defeated several vampires who had doubted his strength and showed the almighty prowess of a Vampire Duke in all its glory!]
[A recent interview with Crown Prince Kain Vizwel revealed that he plans on fully supporting Lance Bloodthorn and his new plans for those of vampiric lineage. More to be announced later.]
[Shocking! Duke Bloodthorn and Duke Convir had revealed plans of working with each other and pushing forth a brand new era for the vampires and werewolves within the empire! Surprisingly, Emperor Vizwel revealed no animosity against their obvious plans of gaining more influence in the empire, and even seemed to subtly support it.]
[Masked Singer Trixy had revealed in her most recent concert some shocking news! In cooperation with Simon Belford, Leo Regulus, and Melvin Dolton, they’re planning on establishing a new company with “products that would revolutionize the entire world”!]
[The youngest Grandmaster Alchemist in the current world—Rob Fortune! With his revolutionary Fat Burner potion, any noble lasses can now enjoy a delicious meal without any worries!]
[Learn more about Holly Herbs and Temporal Fields if you want to become the new youngest Grandmaster Alchemist! With these two at hand, you’ll also be unrivaled in the world of alchemy!]
As she read through one article after the other, a strange feeling bloomed in her heart over the events that had transpired in the month she was gone. The most shocking part is Lance Bloodthorn being the new Duke of the vampires!
Even though something similar had happened in the game and it was one of the fastest ways to gain an Arch-level ally, the chain of events that led to this is far from what should have happened.
In the first place, the one that would have killed Arvil Bloodthorn would be one of the Seven Dukes of Grim Hallow, not Mammon. And for Lance to become a Vampire Duke, he must have sucked the blood of Arvil… but how?
Wait, Mammon clearly knew this would have happened since he knows about the existence of the world spirit and even fate, so why didn’t he stop Lance from becoming a Vampire Duke? Why did he even want to kill Arvil in the first place? He could have had other ways to lure me into his trap…
Tsk, it’s the same all over again! I have no idea what his goal is, what he wants to do, and what he gains from it! This means I’ll have to keep a closer eye on what happens to Lance in the future unless I want whatever his plan is to succeed again.
Clicking her tongue, she caressed her hair and planned on standing up when the door abruptly opened. Quickly looking to the side, her eyes widened in surprise when she saw a young elven girl walking in carrying a tray of biscuits and tea.
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A name quickly popped into her mind as to who the girl was—Nuela Elmaer, the fourth princess of the Elven Royal Family and a student of Vizwel’s Royal Academy Class 1-A. However, that isn’t public knowledge because her true identity is supposed to be a secret.
The reason she was even here rather than studying back home in the western continent, was because of the tense political situation in the elven royal family. With her unique status as the fourth and youngest princess of the elven royal family, she knew she didn’t stand a chance against any of her older siblings so she simply pleaded for her dear parents to allow her to study with the humans and perhaps gain greater prospects from there.
She was known for her great aptitude with wood magic and she even felt that she could reach the level of a quasi-Archmage given enough training. Since she wouldn’t be able to train and study in peace at home, and she had already basically learned most of the royal family’s special magic training techniques and knowledge, she went on to broaden her horizon in this hubbub of arcane knowledge.
Dismissing the thoughts that popped into her mind, Anna uncertainly said, “Hello?”
…
“So this is the empire of the devils.” Mammon grinned as he looked down at the vast landscape beneath him. Within the gargantuan circular walls of the kingdom, buildings and man-made infrastructure covered the land, with the spherical barrier made of magic protecting the kingdom from the stretch of toxic mist covering the entirety of the Southern Continent.
This was simply just one of the many settlements of devils though, as with time, their population slowly grew and their need for more land increased as well. The one he was seeing right now was one of the many kingdoms they had in place that were governed by the Seven Dukes of Sin.
Beside him was a young woman with pink-colored skin, velvety red hair, jet-black wings, and a tail with a heart-shaped tip. She wore revealing, black leather clothes that accentuated her curves and natural sexual appeal that could easily arouse any normal man or devil, both men and women.
She was Milze, the Duke of Lust.
“Yes, this is our empire… our home,” she said with a wary tone. Even with the aura of a demigod radiating off her body, there was still a certain fear in her eyes.
But if one knew who the person was floating right beside her, then they would easily understand why she was so scared and wary.
A month ago, back when she was still opening one dungeon to another in the labyrinths below the royal capital to mask their activities in the heart of humanity’s biggest empire, and causing the monsters to go on a constant rampage with her magic, a pillar of golden light abruptly appeared from nowhere and even almost killed her.
Up till now, her soul remained damaged and covered in minor cracks, causing an uncomfortable feeling for her in every moment that she breathed and lived.
That same pillar of golden light then went on to kill everything in sight, sucking out their souls and causing various disasters to erupt. Volcanoes exploded, earthquakes ran rampant, storms brewed, tornadoes ravaged distant lands, and tsunamis formed and brought forth destruction; just remembering all those tumultuous events caused a heavy fear to form in her heart.
Now, that same man who had caused those chain of events was standing in the home of the devils, her race, her family.
“Relax!” Mammon waved his arm and chuckled softly. “If I wanted to, I could have destroyed this entire place already, so it still being fine means I don’t have any bad intentions. I wasn’t joking when I said I wanted to partner up with you guys back when we met last month.”
“And we’re also sincere in cooperating with you… Mammon,” she said softly.
“Well, I bet being surrounded by seven Demigods wouldn’t really be considered sincere now, eh?” Mammon chuckled as the space around him flickered. “But let’s just act like nothing is happening right now. Let’s just say that it’s just you and me, the representative of the devils, and me, Mammon Heist, a Demigod and leader of Golden Clover, wanting to cooperate with Grim Hallow.”
“Our dearest apologies…” She bowed her head respectfully before taking a deep breath and continuing on with the conversation. “So, first, we need to understand why you want to even help us?”
“Well, hmm… Think of it as just me being a good samaritan and wanting to help the Devils become a more prosperous empire. Who knows, maybe all the good karma I’ll have accumulated will help me one day,” Mammon answered ambiguously, but with her unique magic, she could tell that he wasn’t lying at all when he said he wanted to sincerely help them.
“Okay, let’s just say you want to help us from the kindness of your heart… Next is, how will you even help us?” Milze asked.
“I could help in many ways actually, but the most straightforward way I can help you is this.” Snapping his hands, a titanic spiritual pressure erupted from his soul as massive clouds of toxic fumes gathered above him to form a giant cloud. Then, a greater power suffused from his fingertips as light streaked across the night sky.
The other dukes hiding in plain sight held back the urge to attack as their instincts warned them not to do anything stupid and watch.
The massive cloud of toxic fumes soon reformed into giant chunks of different materials. From precious ores and crystals, even weapons and armor, books and scrolls… even an ignorant person could tell the value of the materials in the sky was beyond precious.
“Ah, that took a bit of energy from my stone… but a dramatic display of power is worth it, am I right?” Mammon said playfully as all of the items floating in the sky abruptly disappeared with a ring popping into existence.
As the ring flew into Milze’s hands, she took a deep breath and directed her consciousness into it. Soon, her eyes widened in utter shock as her whole body trembled from… excitement.
“This… this…!” She mumbled with a shaky voice, unable to comprehend the value of the items in her hands right now.
Arcane secrets, top-level magical knowledge, books on martial arts, precious alchemical recipes… all of these were treasures to be prized by entire nations, but the literal list of things Mammon can provide help for them was just astounding.
Just gaining the literal help of a peak-level Demigod like him is one thing, but take into account his ability to remove the toxic fumes that hindered their progress and transform them into literal gold—only a fool would reject his offer right now.
Fuck his mysterious objective, just the value of his help is well worth the risk they’ll have to pay!
The other dukes agreed in unison as they received the secret message transmitted by Milze.
In fact, some were even more enthusiastic than her about roping Mammon into their group as his value as a person skyrocketed.
Smiling softly, a golden light shimmered in his glasses as Mammon thought, Gluttony, you bastard, you’re about to finally be born. That only leaves Wrath, that little sea bugger.