Chapter 460: Discussion
Translator: imperfectluck
The Creator’s power was limitless. Creating a world would bring along countless lifeforms and abilities. It would be possible to create any event, twist karma and Time, create Main Gods, and create new species.
The Creator’s power was also limited. No matter how powerful the parent or how strict the parent’s rules, it would still be impossible to control their children’s accomplishments and growth. It would be impossible for even the Creator to know what their children would become like.
Back in the day, the Titans’ inconceivable amount of strength was because Creator Goddess Eich had given them the ability and responsibility of “Creating”. But, the original goal for them was that they would become the most outstanding artisans and craftsmen. And, the demons that had been given the abilities of “Evolution” and “Combat” should have been the best warriors and Eich’s dimensional guardians, yet demons were now as we all knew them today.
Parents were only capable of giving “a direction” for their children. The Creator was stronger, but would still only be able to give “abilities” as an additional gift. But, what the child ended up like and whether the child’s natural talents would be used as intended, what realm that individuals would reach or how a species’ culture would evolve, that all depended on an individual or species’ opportunities for development and how hard they worked. This would be impossible for anyone to know beforehand.
What I gave the Hell Dragons was the responsibility and power to be the messengers of Hell. Just as how Inferno Dragons made use of their natural dragon talents to travel through dimensions, typically becoming the representative messengers of the Hell’s Abyss in the mortal plane, the dragons of Hell would become the messengers of Death and Hell in the mortal plane.
And, to carry out this responsibility, the plane of Hell gave the Hell Dragons the right to spread death. This was why later in the future, the Hell Dragons became known by various names such as the “Representatives of Death”, “Hell’s Death Messengers”, “Death Notification Dragons”, and so on.
Their beautifully sculpted bodies were even stronger than normal Red Dragons by thirty percent. Their translucent wings of night made them appear like flying nightmares. Pitch-black mist swirled around them while only their bright red eyes could be seen shining clearly. This mist was actually a form of protection for lives in the mortal plane. As Hell Dragons were the incarnation of death, any weak lives that saw their true bodies would likely die instantly otherwise.
A large number of Hell Dragons were currently around the powerful Demon Lord. They used their breath attacks, which resembled slow black balls of mist that didn’t even seem as powerful as thunder-element dragons’ breath attacks. Only Sophocles himself knew that this Hades Mist breath attack was far more vicious and dangerous than any other type of dragon breath attack.
“Dimensional law of death? Dragon breath with the power of instant death? It would seem that I’m going to lose a lot here…”
The Main Gods were capable of resisting the dimensional law of death’s invasion into their bodies because of their outstanding personal abilities. They had long since gotten used to resisting against dimensional laws that were highly hostile to them. Yet, this didn’t mean that they could completely ignore the dimensional laws invading them, especially when this particular dimensional law was the law of death.
Normal lives that were invaded by this dimensional law of death would directly die. And even the Main Gods that didn’t want to be invaded by the dimensional law of death and remain here forever would have to avoid absorbing too much.
Every single attack meant that the death mist connected to the Demon Lord’s body as if it was an unshakeable fire. Sophocles’ gigantic body became the best target of all, and this penetrating Hades Mist was now attempting to transform the Demon Lord into the dead.
As one of the demons who was closest to devils in personality, Sophocles the Deceiver was only willing to work for the Chaos Abyss because of the excellent benefits that Cynthia had promised him. The most valuable payment that the Chaos Abyss could pay would be dimensional territory, as rich planes would equal concrete power and wealth, along with countless souls. But if Sophocles was trapped in this plane and became a devil like his mortal enemies, what meaning would any of this have to him?
Although he had fought for so long already, only one percent of him had been invaded. He was still far from being restrained by the dimensional law. Yet, Sophocles was already focusing almost entirely on defense and avoidance. It was quite obvious that he wasn’t the type to fight to the fullest, preferring to focus on safety first.
However, every single time that Sophocles counterattacked, no matter if he used a natural talent, magic spell, or physical attack, a Hell Dragon would end up howling in pain as it dropped from the sky. Sam felt like his heart was bleeding every time this happened, because most of the Hell Dragons here were his descendants and future tribe.
That’s right, the Hell Dragons weren’t undying like other members of Hell. There were always drawbacks to every advantage. Since Hell Dragons were half-living, half-dead and possessed the special ability to leave Hell as they wished, how could they possibly still have the advantage of being undying?
They received other abilities instead. As the messengers of Hell, they possessed innate abilities to summon and control undead souls. A large amount of undying undead were manipulated into attacking Sophocles. And, what place apart from Hell would possibly have stronger undead souls?
Yet, Sophocles was no idiot. After he noticed that these undead had low attack (towards a True God) and were undying, Sophocles unhesitatingly ignored the undead and focused instead on the Hell Dragons.
If you only looked at direct combat strength, Sophocles the Deceiver was probably the weakest Main God as he preferred to scheme rather than directly fight himself. Yet, he was still a Main God level Demon Lord whose combat strength was far superior to other existences. If it wasn’t for his inhibitions, he wouldn’t be suppressed here at all.
And when I focused my main attention on this battle, I was rather surprised and delighted to see how well the Hell Dragons were performing.
Considering that Cher wasn’t skilled at direct combat, I arranged for her to face the weakest Main God here. I even had the Hell Dragons assist her, but I didn’t expect that the Hell Dragons would be outstanding enough to actually force Sophocles to become passive.
Of course, if this combat situation continued, either the Hell Dragons would suffer unacceptable losses and all collapse, or Sophocles would be forced to the brink, revealing his true demon nature and beginning to slaughter everything without caring about the consequences. I found it highly doubtful that these newly transformed Hell Dragons would truly be able to corrode this Demon Lord with the dimensional law of death.
“Perhaps we can have a discussion.”
My voice echoed in the empty space as the Demon Lord actually increased the intensity of his attacks. Sophocles suddenly tossed out a magical spear which sliced through the air and directly pierced through a dragon which was gliding in circles. Sophocles then immediately dragged the Hell Dragon over to himself with the spear’s chain and swallowed it whole. The Demon Lord’s murky yellow eyes even stared at my incarnation while he swallowed.
Everything happened right at the moment that I spoke. There was no time at all to save the Hell Dragon.
“YOU!”
Sam roared in fury, yet he didn’t counterattack for revenge. He was also a veteran who instantly understood what all this meant after his fury subsided.
The Demon Lord’s sudden attack wasn’t because of his vicious nature. It was to represent that he would be unafraid to continue battling. And, a show of force would always be one of the most effective negotiation chips at any negotiation. This was the best evidence that Sophocles was indeed willing to negotiate. Continuing to battle would only cause the new species of Hell Dragons to suffer even more losses.
Yet, I still shook my head. I would have had a higher opinion of Sam if only he had been willing to charge forward.
“Come, fight for me once more, my servant.”
I pointed and corroded the dragon corpses on the ground with Hades Mist, transforming them into Ghost Dragons and Bone Dragons. The ice and snow of Hell provided them with even stronger physical bodies. These revived dragons roared out in anger, greatly improving the Hell Dragons’ morale.
What could be more reassuring than having the Hell God personally stand behind you? Death wasn’t the end. The chance to live yet again would be better than any reinforcements.
Of course, since they were no longer Hell Dragons, they also lost most of the Hell Dragons’ abilities and the power to leave Hell. Still, this little trick of mine gave Sophocles a significant amount of pressure. If these Hell Dragons no longer had to worry about death and went all-out in an attempt to corrode his physical body, it was indeed possible that he would be forced to remain here forever.
“…Perhaps we can indeed have a discussion.”
I nodded my head slowly with a cold expression, but I was actually quite satisfied with this inside.
Dividing my enemies wasn’t only to enact the strategy of divide and conquer. It was also to obtain chances to bribe them to join my side since they were no longer under the watchful eye of their bosses. Since these Main Gods were the equivalent of temporarily hired mercenaries to begin with, how much motivation would they really have to go all-out and fight here? Especially when I had sufficient chips that I could bribe the Main Gods with.
As long as I could achieve even some results through discussion, even if it was only a verbal promise to remain neutral, I would be able to use an entire Circle of Hell’s combat strength to deal with other enemies instead. The final advantage I’d receive in the end would be like a constantly increasing snowball effect. Everything was for the sake of overall victory. Otherwise, even if I forcefully defeated all my enemies here through direct battles, it was highly doubtful just how many benefits I’d be able to obtain.
From the very start, my main goal in dividing them was to obtain this chance to have a “discussion” with them!
Still, out of the seven Main Gods present, I only felt it would be possible to negotiate with two of them. I felt that it would be impossible to negotiate with the other five.
And so, the exact same thing was happening on another battlefield. In the Fourth Circle of Hell, the Endless Greed Inferno, Harloys was simply playing chess and drinking tea together with the smiling God of Wisdom Kalumandas. It appeared as if this Order Main God had zero intentions of starting a fight.
The reason? This was actually due to Harloys’ identity. She was the last Gold Elf, the final pure elf ruler who existed. And, Kalumandas was actually a half-elf. If one thought about his ancient age, it was evident that he was alive as a mortal back when the Gold Elves ruled the world.
Half of Kalumandas’ bloodline originated from the “scholarly age” known as the Haletdam generation. Yet, the other half of his bloodline was from a lowly Wild Elf. While the former gave him an endless amount of knowledge and memories, the latter made the elves view him with great enmity. Yet, it was his Wild Elf bloodline that helped him to escape the destruction of the Haletdam generation.
It was said that the main reason Kalumandas was able to escape the True Gods’ slaughter of the Haletdam generation scholars was primarily due to the protection of the Gold Elf Emperor at the time. The Gold Elf Emperor claimed that he was merely protecting a fellow elf, although it was impossible to know if that was really for the sake of protecting a fellow elf or simply wanting to obtain the Haletdam generation’s technology. But at the very least, this God of Wisdom indeed owed a favor to the Gold Elves.
Alright then, I admit that I heard this entire “story” from Harloys. This God of Wisdom, Witches, and Libraries had indeed secretly taken care of her to help return the favor he owed to the Gold Elf Emperor. Otherwise, the Elf Gods would have long since gotten rid of the final threat. Why else would the Elf Gods allow the final Gold Elf, Harloys, to act as she pleased in the mortal plane and wreak so much havoc?
Of course, the price for this was that the God of Wisdom would be unable to give Harloys too much direct assistance.
Once I heard about this relationship between them from Harloys, and when she volunteered of her own volition to talk to Kalumandas, I was astonished and delighted. An excellent personal relationship? Without a doubt, that would be the best way to start any negotiation.
“Perhaps we’ll be able to talk to Kalumandas.”
And so, yet another Wumianzhe incarnation appeared in front of Kalumandas and Harloys. This time, I even tried my best to put on a friendly smile.
Still, Kalumandas’ first sentence managed to surprise me.
“Discuss? Of course that’s fine, that’s exactly what I came here for. Still, you must first allow me to meet my tribe, the remaining survivor that’s also from the Haletdam scholars generation.”