Cassandra

Year 820 | Month 5 | Day 8

Fortunately for me, my transformation lasts right up until I get out of sight of the demons at the front gate. At which point I turn back into my regular form before flying away for a bit longer. Still largely covered by my cloak in the process.

And when I get far enough away from the city, I go ahead and stop moving in order to sit down and read.

What I find in the history books, though, is not exactly what I was expecting.

This is indeed the Fallen Plane of Hell, not that there was any doubts about that before, but what answers one of my questions is the part that says that the demons are the indigenous species of the Plane of Hell. And that the Guardians were, in fact, the archdemons.

Were being the key word here.

The history books I’m reading right now don’t seem to be accessible by any random demon judging by the security outside of that library, so most of this information isn’t likely available to the public. But despite that, there still isn’t any mention of a System anywhere inside of the books.

Which is rather surprising to say the least.

Their history books go all the way back to the first year of the current era on the plane. What they call the ‘Era of Chaos’. Since the era began when their Protector was killed.

Although they don’t call him their ‘Protector’. They seem to just refer to the man as the ‘previous Demon King,’ with their current demon king being his descendant but far weaker. And their previous Demon King being killed by an Irregular known as The Reaper.

Now that story I recognize. Albeit instead of saying the Demon King I heard it about the Protector of the Plane being killed by him.

I continue reading about everything that’s happened since. About how the society within the plane began to fall apart after that. How connection with the other Planes crumbled, leaving anyone who was currently inside of the plane stranded. Especially the angels who were at war with the demons at the time. And how the former Demon King’s son ascended the throne and tried to rebuild things.

A process that took a very long time to get anywhere.

Even now they technically still haven’t finished rebuilding everything they once had.

I continue reading the history book about their kingdom’s origins till the end, only to freeze up a little when I finally find two names listed there. The name of the Demon King, which I’d already guessed before was the archdemon I met when I arrived at the plane, Val-kon Relsas.

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And the name of the Irregular. Of The Reaper.

Sylvester val Ruth.

The very same name that the lich I had met back in Midgard had.

I gently close the book from my place sitting inside of a small cavern before blankly staring at the book.

Sylvester… I remember suspecting a while back that he may be protecting and helping me. But if he’s really The Reaper, then why is he in Midgard? And why is he a lich? It said in the history book that he was a human.

At the very least, he seemed to be powerful enough to do it. To fight a Protector. Since his level was suppressed quite a bit from what I saw.

Maybe.

I continue to stare at the book for several minutes, only to eventually sigh.

There are more books to read, so I’ll just table this thought for later.

And with that, I begin reading the books about the kingdom itself. About the politics of the place, the hierarchy of the demons, and the different cities located across the plane.

According to this, there are seven different types of demon.

There’s the lesser demons, the minor demons, the mid demons, the warrior demons, the greater demons, the high demons, and the archdemons. And each one of them is separated very strongly by hierarchy, with the lesser demons being at the very bottom of the hierarchy and the archdemons being at the top.

As for the Demon King himself, he is also an archdemon. And the laws for the plane generally revolve around the hierarchy, making it so that it’s not illegal for a demon of a higher place on the hierarchy to break the laws involving a lower rank demon.

So a warrior demon for example could slaughter dozens of lesser demons and not even get noticed, much less punished.

On the other hand, if a lesser demon took advantage of and killed a warrior demon, they’d be sent to jail and executed after a few rounds of torture.

Overall, not a very pleasant place to live for those at the bottom of the hierarchy.

As for the rankings amongst demons, appearance doesn’t really seem to matter for that since they judge a demon’s species by the amount of Wrath energy they have.

So it really doesn’t matter that my transformation has run out. They’ll still recognize me as an archdemon simply because of my Wrath energy.

After all, no one has more Wrath energy than Wrath.

I should still test that though, since it would probably still be noticeable if an archdemon with an actual face were walking around instead of a bonehead.

Next up is the politics for the plane between different cities.

The Demon King likes to let everyone fight it out on their own and even rewards the victors, so the man seems to like chaos and war. Which makes sense considering his title.

That aside, I can’t help but wonder though. The previous Demon King must’ve been a different species from the arch demons, but they don’t list that in the history books either. He was a Protector after all.

But all they really mention about him is that the Demon King was killed by Sylvester, the Irregular. One of the sole beings in the planes who has made it to level one hundred – the same level as the Protectors – without being a Protector himself.

And nothing else about the former Demon King is stated.

Makes me wonder if the new Demon King decided to wipe the slate clean for an easier ruling or something.

Probably.

Not my problem though.

I continue reading before frowning at something.

Huh. So that’s why they wanted angels.