“Fucking bastard.”

Those were the first words Tineya spoke when she woke up a few minutes after passing out. Tineya sat up while rubbing the back of her head that Micah slammed into the ground with all his might.

“Still won, though.”

Micah had wiped the blood off his face using a shirt from one of his underlings, but his face was still a little bruised and swollen.

“You call that a victory?”

“I’m standing, and you were out cold. What’s that if not a win?”

“Tch. I’ll play along for now, but I demand a rematch when we are done with this whole town thing.”

“Great.”

Micah’s smile annoyed Tienya more than she wanted to admit. Despite doing her best to pummel his face, he still hadn’t gotten ugly.

“So, what’s next?”

“We continue until the demons come to try and stop us. And after I’ve convinced them not to, we take over the town. And that’s when the real fun begins.”

“That sounds more like a dream than a plan, dude.”

“Well, what is Hell if not a palace where dreams come true?”

Tineya just sighed and gave up since she realized she didn’t understand Micah.

Tineya got up and dusted off her clothes.

“Lead the way, temporary boss.”

“If you call me that after I beat you again, I’m taking all your pol for a week, just so you know.”

“Yeah, yeah. Get a move on it already.”

Tineya playfully shoved Micah as she walked next to him toward the next group.

Tineya’s playful and respectless attitude earned her more than a couple of angry glares from Rego on their way to the next group of thugs.

Their target was about as strong as Tineya’s group, but unlike Tineya, who chose to settle it with a duel to save pol, time, and effort, they went for an all-out battle. And since they were up against both Tineya’s and Micah’s groups, they lost hard. And since they surrendered before Micah could even try and convince them, he kept all the looted pol for himself. He shared some with Tienya and all the underlings so that they didn’t feel left out. But he didn’t absorb any of the pol yet.

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In case they encountered an enemy that was too strong and ran over his men, Micah had to have enough pol to recover his men. But he was also worried that his ability would eat the pol he absorbed, which would render him as weak as a twig again.

He was quite weak, especially compared to the various group leaders they encountered. But he was still strong enough to use his techniques and tricks to fight and defeat them in the duels they challenged him to instead of engaging in all-out battles.

Of course, Micah didn’t have to accept the duels. But doing so would save on the pol that regenerating all his future followers would cost. Besides, it would be easier to make the other group leaders follow his command if he had shown he could and would kill them.

He hadn’t needed to do it against Tineya. But the group leaders who refused to submit even after passing out at Micah’s hands were instead killed mercilessly. Their troops also didn’t get to keep the pol they had on them.

That was Micah’s favorite outcome since he got more pol and an opportunity to turn the groups against their previous leaders, which would make them more inclined to follow him instead.

Unfortunately, it didn’t happen a lot, only twice out of four times, the second and third groups they targeted after taking over Tineya’s. The first chose an all-out battle and lost miserably, and the fourth surrendered without even trying to fight. Rumors were already spreading across town about Micah and how he was taking over the town a day after arriving in Hell.

Though since he hadn’t lost a single fight, people didn’t quite believe it was his first day in Hell. Most thought that he had somehow crossed the uninhabited parts of Hell and reached Vanitapolis with enough pol to make himself as strong as he needed to be in order to take over the town.

But that was only something those who hadn’t left town believed. There was a reason people didn’t try to escape the deathly boring life that was what awaited them for the rest of eternity inside Vanitapolis. It was because it was practically impossible to traverse Hell without using the correct methods.

Even using the proper methods was something the people of Vanitapolis couldn’t afford since it cost so much pol. And it wasn’t as if they could use the methods that allowed for travel between cities whenever they liked.

If Micah had used such a method to arrive at Vanitapollis, he wouldn’t have bothered going around using numbers to defeat everyone. He would have had enough pol to do everything himself.

Besides, who would believe that Micah would go through all that trouble for a shitty town like Vanitapolis, especially since it was still technically run by demons.

Micah showed great progress with his endeavor at the moment. But the demons would soon catch wind of what he was doing and stop him using whatever means it took. Maybe even quicker than anyone expected.

After defeating the fourth group, Micah and his direct followers, Artholomew, Rego, Dennis, and Tineya, counted their loot so far and divided it up amongst all the followers who had made contributions so far. Fortunately, not many underlings had done enough to warrant a special reward, so most of the pol went to Micah and his direct followers.

After making sure everyone was in line and ready to follow along, Micah started leading his group, nearly a hundred strong, toward the next target.

However, they didn’t get very far before a whip cracked down on the ground right in front of Micah’s feet.

“Playtime’s over, human. Disperse after you hand over all the pol, and I won’t kill you.”

“Ah, you must be Ystris. You finally showed up!”

Micah looked at the demon, who, aside from his pointy ears, didn’t look any different from a human.