The Lake of Rage, one of the biggest bodies of water in Hell, according to Asmodeus.
“Before the demon kings had started to grow in power, this lake was occupied by water demons, their numbers increased to the point that their forces could rival even Wrath’s army,” Asmodeus spoke as they rode on Lily’s back, heading towards where the massive fire had erupted from. “Though Wrath had managed to conquer it despite that, but of course, I’ve had my eyes on the lake too, and in the end, it’s mine.”
“Who do you think is doing that?” Theodore guessed that maybe Wrath wanted his domain back, although causing a big commotion like this didn’t seem like a smart move for a great strategist Asmodeus had said Wrath was.
“Maybe it’s the rebellion group.”
“Rebellion group?”
“Demons are similar to humans, there are low-ranking demons comparable to earth's chimpanzees or gorillas, they aren’t as intelligent as us but they can speak and have their own personalities, though they’re mostly seen as slaves or laborers to the other demons.”
“If they aren’t intelligent, how can they rebel?”
Since Theodore was sitting behind Asmodeus, he couldn’t see her expression, but judging from the tone of her voice, it wasn’t hard to tell that she was angry. “Low-rank demons have a slim chance to evolve, then they’ll become Mid-rank demons, they will gain more power and can be considered a proper citizen of a kingdom.”
“So there’s a leader among them?”
Asmodeus huffed. “She dared use the name ‘Lilith’ to call herself, she’s very arrogant even for demon standards.”
Theodore glanced behind him, looking at Rhys who he dragged with them. “How strong are the low-ranks? Can he take them on?”
Asmodeus hummed as she thought about it for a moment. “For me, they’re like flies, I can kill them with a single strike, I guess they’re around…B rank? I can’t say for sure, you humans are the only race that uses this system.”
Rhys frowned with a tilt of his head, as if trying to look at Theodore. “Are you going to make me fight?”
“What else? I’ll work you until you die,” Theodore turned around and stared at the blonde with cold eyes. “Oh, and that reminds me of something, I still haven’t beaten you up for what you’ve done.”
Rhys swallowed down an invisible lump, fortunately for him, Lily was a fast swimmer and she’d managed to bring them to their destination in only a few minutes, meaning that his beating would have to be put on hold.
Asmodeus hopped down first, followed by Theodore then the hesitating Rhys. The demon king looked on ahead and saw amphibian humanoid creatures chasing each other around.
While each one of the mermaids have different-colored scales, they all have webbed fingers and feet, only a minority of them have the lower body of a fish, their ears were shaped like fins and their eyes were wide, seemingly gleaming in the darkness of the depths.
The surrounding area had pillars of flames shooting up from the floor, where the complex markings of a magic circle could be seen. These fires would sometimes hit an unlucky demon that was running without looking where they were going, making it easier for the chasers to catch up to them.
Worn-down stone buildings that made up a small town would be struck by these flames as well, some of them were even powerful enough to topple a part of tall buildings down, causing it to crash onto unfortunate passers.
“Y—Your majesty!” A demon child swam towards them as an older demon was chasing him.
Asmodeus lifted her whip and struck it vertically, the lasso arched around the kid and hit the head of the other demon behind him, decapitating the unlucky man in an instant.
The child cried as he clasped his hands together. “Thank you! Please go help my family too!”
“Don’t worry,” Asmodeus patted the kid softly, ruffling his dark brown hair. “We’ll help everyone here, could you tell me the details?”
“I…We were about to bring the construction materials over when Lilith came to stop us.” The child spoke, for such a young boy, he was doing a good job at keeping himself calm. “They wanted us to join her, but we refuse, and…and then they started killing us…grandpa…he—“
“That’s okay, you don’t need to speak anymore,” Asmodeus smiled softly, trying to reassure the boy. “What’s your name?”
“I am Kildread, my friends call me Killie.”
“Okay Killie, stay close to me okay? It’s going to be over soon.”
Kildread nodded his head before his eyes landed on Theodore and Rhys, his gaze lingered on them for a moment before his eyes widened, although it wasn’t with fear: He seemed ecstatic. “Your majesty! Are they humans?”
Asmodeus was surprised, she looked behind her and nodded with a smile. “Yes, well, one of them is.” She pointed towards Rhys. “The other one…You’ll know what he is after I announce it.”
“Announce it?” Theodore frowned, but the two demons ignored him, Asmodeus just giggled and Kildread seemed to be more interested in Rhys.
The boy swam closer to the blonde,his webbed feet waddling against the soft current. “Wow! You really are a human! I’ve always wanted to see one!”
Rhys frowned, clearly angry that he was being treated like an animal in a zoo, he was about to speak when his eyes caught a glimpse of Theodore, who was staring at him coldly.
The message was clear: ‘Play nice.’
Rhys laughed nervously as he looked at Kildread with a bright smile. “Hey, I might be a human, but I’m strong you know? Don’t worry, I’ll protect you.”
Kildread smiled. “Thank you, big brother!”
Asmodeus turned towards Theodore now that she’d found a babysitter. “It seems like I’ve neglected the rebellious force for too long, I didn’t think they would dare kill their own kind.”
Theodore nodded and looked at the scene in front of them, not even children were spared in this death chase. “Let’s not waste anymore time then.”
“You take care of the weak ones, I’ll go find Lilith.” Asmodeus coiled her whip and walked into the battlefield.
Before Theodore would follow her though, he turned towards Rhys. “I’ll have you take care of the survivors, don’t even think about doing anything funny.”
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The blonde put his hands up defensively, ignoring Kildread who was clutching at his left leg. “Okay, okay! I can do anything anyway…”
He was still hesitant around Rhys, but at the moment, saving people was more important right now, he just needed to have a little more faith that the fear would keep Rhys’ behavior in check.
Theodore summoned Ophiuchus’ Staff and stepped forward.
.
.
.
It wasn’t hard to tell who was in the rebellion group since they were each wearing a red shirt that said ‘GIVE BACK THE LAKE!’, written in bold yellow letters.
A group of the revolution was surrounding three mermaids, one of them, a blue-scaled demon, was standing in front of the other while holding out a broken stick, his entire body was trembling but he stood his ground with his webbed feet digging into the sand. “Stay away! Why are you hurting the woman and children!?”
The minor rebellious group consisted of seven men, all having buffed physiques while three of them have shark-like lower halves, they were each holding a weapon, some a spear and some a short sword.
The one at the front smirked, his scales stood out the most among the crowd, it was pitch black, and with his legs being a shark’s tail, it gave him the look of a killer whale. He pointed his spear towards the daring demon and spoke. “It doesn’t matter if they’re man, woman, or children, those who do not follow true strength need to learn their lesson.”
“True strength?” The blue-scaled demon gritted his teeth and shouted in anger. “Her highness Asmodeus had saved us from Wrath! And yet you’re questioning her authority? You aren’t following strength! This is bullying!”
The killer whale laughed. “Bullying? That’s what all the weak ones say, you better make your decision now or else you along with your family will get skewered!”
“M—mom…!” The little girl wrapped her arms tightly around her mother, who was staring worryingly at her husband. She and her daughter had greenish scales.
“It’s okay Nythia,” The woman hugged the girl tighter. “Dad will protect us.”
“Protect you?” The killer whale laughed again. “This stick demon can’t even hold his weapon straight! How is he going to—“
“Ahhghhh! Boss!”
“Help…help!”
The black-scaled demon turned around and saw that five of his men had been killed, the wounds on their corpses varied between frost bites, burns, and simply decapitation or brute force. “Who the hell…?”
The only one left on the small team trembled as he stared wide-eyed at Theodore, who was radiating cold air from around his figure. In one hand he held his staff while in the other a small magic circle spun on top of his palm.
“He’s not wrong, you guys are just bullying them.”
With those words, the last lackie of the group stumbled forward, a large ice spear embedded in his back.
The killer whale glared at Theodore, he held his spear in front of him defensively but didn’t dare to attack, his demon instincts were screaming at him, as if telling him that he could never win against this man.
[The ‘Demon King of Pride’ is staring at Skirr (Ocean Demon).]
[Your authority over demons will inflict the ‘Fear’ status onto those that dare to oppose you!]
However, Skirr the demon fought through his fear and smirked with fake confidence. “Ha! Those guys you killed were just small fries! I’m not weak like them!”
“Huh.” Theodore’s eyes gleamed as if he was looking straight into the demon’s soul. “You’re only an above-average mid-rank demon, how strong can you actually be compared to Asmodeus?”
“Asmodeus?” Skirr chuckled. “She’s weak! Wrath only lost simply because he was caught off guard! If he wasn’t resting from his previous battle—“
Theodore interrupted the demon with an amused laughter, causing Rhys who’d been following behind him to flinch, the blonde wasn’t familiar with him, but he knew that Theodore wasn’t the type to laugh easily, he wasn’t ticklish and jokes usually passed through his ears.
But his laughter now had sent chills down Rhys’ spine, as if he felt that something was wrong with it.
“That’s the excuse of the weak though,” Theodore spoke, a light smile still lingered on his face, he found the black demon’s words very funny—ironic, to be exact. “Your name is Skirr, right? You said you are strong? If you land a single hit on me then I’ll back down.”
Skirr pursed his lips, his grip on the spear tightened slightly as he adjusted his stance, now he was ready to attack. “I don’t know how you got my name, but since I am strong, I accept this challenge.”
Theodore wanted to use Skirr as his testing dummy, he didn’t know the right time to use the Ophiuchus’ Staff’s abilities, but this little spar would be a perfect test.
Skirr charged forward with his spear held firmly in front of him, Theodore easily weaved to the side and activated the staff’s skill.
[Serpent Bearer’s Venom.]
< Rank: S Origin: Ophiuchus’ Staff Type: Active Skill Cooldown: 40 Seconds Description: The staff will use up the mana stored within [Serpent’s Tenacity] to create powerful bolts of attacks that could inflict a multitude of debuffs onto the enemies depending on their ranking and resistance to attacks. These status effects range from [Paralysis] to [Decay], however, because of your status, your attack’s debuffs can be changed to [Discord] and its sub-variety when used with the Bloodline Skill: Embodiment of Chaos.>> < Rank: S Origin: Ophiuchus’ Staff Type: Passive Skill Cooldown: None Description: The best hunter is always cautious, so the staff will constantly fill itself up with mana from its surroundings, whether it would be traces from a spell or the magic aura of the user or the enemy. The stored mana can be used to refill your own mana by a maximum of 500 Points or to fuel [Serpent Bearer’s Venom], which consumes 5 Mana Points per attack. Bonus Effect: Out of battle, you’ll start recovering 8% of your Health Points and Mana Points per second.>> Multiple sharp projectiles manifested from the green gemstone of the staff and made their way towards Skirr, gleaming a deadly emerald as they whisked through the water at high speeds. It was way too fast for the black demon to react and all twelve of the spikes embedded themselves into him, passing through his scales’ defenses easily. He cursed out loud and glared at Theodore. “F*CK! YOU DARE…!” Skirr rushed towards him again, but Theodore simply stood there and watched as the tip of the spear reached his neck. Then it suddenly stopped. [The target, Skirr (Ocean Demon), has been inflicted with the Status Condition: ‘Paralysis’!] “…!” Skirr glared at Theodore with gritted teeth. “Poison? You used such a cowardly method!?” The black demon’s hold around his weapon had loosened to the point that Theodore could simply pull it out of his grasp with his free hand. “Cowardly? You gathered six more of your men to fight three unarmed people, don’t lecture me about chivalry, coward.” Theodore spun the spear in his hand until the spearhead was pointing towards the ground, he then spent it arching towards Skirr’s back, impaling right through his heart, causing blood to dye the water around his wound red. He unsummoned his staff and turned towards the other demons as Skirr’s body slowly fell. “Are any of you injured?” “Dad!” Kildread quickly swam from behind Rhys and tackled the blue demon in the chest, the older man immediately hugged his son as the young boy wailed in his embrace. “I’m sorry! I won’t wander off again!” “Kildread!” The mother got up and ran towards Theodore and gave him a low bow. “Thank you so much for helping us!” “It’s okay,” Theodore had always been bad with this sort of thing, since his only source of social interaction was Merlin, he wasn’t used to getting compliments or thanks. “You should head west, I sent a bunch of people there already.” “Thank you again, can we get your name?” The father spoke this time, still holding onto Kildread. “Ah, I’m Theodore.” “The name’s Koldez, if you need anything just come to me.” “I’m Silver, and this girl is Sally.” The silver-haired demon looked at her daughter. “I—I’m Sally! Thank you for helping us!” She spoke shyly as she hid behind the woman. Theodore couldn’t help but smile at the scene, it felt nice to know that he’d saved such a nice family from a tragic end. “No problem, Asmodeus will soon clear this up so this won’t happen again.” “You know Her majesty?” Koldez asked, surprised. “Ah, we’re friends,” Theodore waved, as if saying that it wasn’t a big deal. “We’ll probably be seeing each other from now on, she asked me to take care of this place until her palace is built.” Kildread leaned his head back, still holding onto his father. “I will get to play with you again right?” The boy was specifically talking about Rhys since he was looking straight at him. “Ah…Sure!” “Alright, let’s not trouble them anymore for now,” Silver spoke with a soft smile. “Are the others okay, Mister Theodore?” Theo nodded in response. “Yes, there’s probably only a few of the rebellion force left, but I’ll take care of them.” Right on queue, another flaming pillar shot up from the floor, accompanied by the terrified cries of a few people. He turned his head towards that direction with a slight frown. “…Let’s talk later.” Without looking back, Theodore made his way over to where the source of the magic was. . . . The corpses of charred demons slowly fell onto the lake floor as Theodore canceled the ‘Wild Thunder’ skill, causing the lightning bolts around his body to slowly dissipate. The demons that were attacked had already fled the sight after Theodore had taken the rebellion’s attention away from them, so now it was just him and Rhys within the small gap between two, burnt and broken buildings. He would’ve continued to ponder about how magic like fire and lightning was able to travel underwater if he wasn’t currently being held at swordpoint. “…So this is when you’re attacking me?” Theodore spoke calmly as he stood still, feeling the tip of Rhys’ sword behind him. The blonde chuckled, amused. “I don’t care how strong you’ve become, I’m confident that I can take you on.” Theodore smiled. “Huh, but you got your ass kicked back then.” “I was caught off guard,” Rhys said through gritted teeth, clearly annoyed by his provocation. “But now I have the upper hand.” Rhys was covered in thick golden armor from head to toe, leaving only his head visible, his sword had gotten slightly longer and the blade was encased in bright yellow flames, in his other hand, he held a translucent blue cube which was giving off a soft glow. Theodore sighed. “Really? Just because you’re cosplaying as Bruce Wayne doesn’t mean you’re good.” Rhys frowned, now unable to hold back his anger, he immediately lunged forward, hoping that his sword would automatically pierce his heart on the spot. But it was preferable for Theodore that Rhys acted like this, as soon as he sensed the blonde’s muscles moving, he shifted into his snake form and used his agility to easily weave through the attack, causing a powerful wave made from his movement to push Rhys back. ‘I’m too big to move properly…’ Theodore changed back into a human right afterward, while snakes are good at maneuvering underwater, that only goes for regular snakes, not a monster like him. “Tch.” Rhys clicked his tongue in annoyance, though he didn’t say anything else and instantly casted a spell, his entire body began to glow red and his aura suddenly became more powerful, it was a Spellblade’s signature skill: War Lord. Theodore narrowed his eyes and called Ophiuchus’ Staff into his hand, his skill ‘True Dragons Eye’ was giving him every detail of Rhys’ equipment. Lines were drawn from one armor piece and its name was written beside it, if he focused on a particular thing, a separate window would appear in front of him. < Rarity: S Durability: Great Type: Defensive. Buff. Source: Crafted Overall Stats: [+100 Magic Resistance] [+100 Physical Resistance] [+30 Holy Damage] [+20 Charm] [+10% Mana Recovery] Passive Skills: [Knight’s Might] [Blessed One] Active Skill: -None- Description: One of the best sets of armor created by man, it took multiple blacksmiths seven days and seven nights to craft such a beautiful masterpiece, it was then blessed by ten Priests and was designated as the first S rank equipment found by humans.>> Theodore didn’t even want to read the whole thing, he just saw how many buffs the armor gave and then dismissed the window, he stared at Rhys with a mixture of awe and disgust. “Wow, did you burn all of your lunch money to buy that?” Rhys smirked. “So you know how great this armor is, I didn’t get the chance to use them since you surprised me.” The blonde held out his sword and the flames burned brighter, Theodore could tell at a single glance that it was holy fire. “You’ve humiliated me for long enough.” Rhys suddenly lunged forward again, this time his speed was far greater, it seemed that he was going all-out on this fight. “This time, you better stay dead.”