CH 123 Snakes Eating Each Other

If possible, few lords were willing to fight the Devil who claimed to be a "soul merchant". Those who could live in hell were not good people, but the Devil was definitely the one with the most murderous intentions among all the villains.

The huge black shadow rolled and hit, and all the mithril pillars it passed were broken by it. The Devil turned his wrist, and the black blood on the dragon bone sword that cut off the ancient python's head flew out obliquely. He stood in the center of the hall, surrounded by piles of corpses.

The army of snakes controlled by the Basilisk was practically annihilated by him.

Hiss.

The rest of the snakes did not rush to attack again, the Basilisk straightened up, and its golden pupils focused closely on the Devil standing in the pile of corpses. In the battle just now, the pair of arms holding sickles on the Basilisk's side were cut off by the Devil, and the flesh and blood on the wound slowly squirmed at this time. As the price, the Devil endured a bone spur stabbed from Manticore's long tail.

At this time, the hall was quite empty.

After the battle between the Devil and the Basilisk broke out, the rest of the minor lords were either swept into their battle or began fighting with the bloodkin and withdrew from the hall. The battle here was no longer something small soldiers like them could intervene. The two armies were fighting, and the biggest stage was given to the most brave and terrifying generals.

Drip, drip.

Blood dripped from the tail end of his suit coat, and the Devil slowly raised his head, with that mask-like smile still on his face.

The Basilisk was faintly startled. The authority bestowed by the King on the Devil was stronger than they imagined, and the Devil actually managed to withstand their group attack. In fact, the Devil even took the lead in being on the offensive, subtly suppressing them.

"Aha." The Trickster controlled the monster Manticore and retreated to the Basilisk's side. Its shriveled and wrinkled face had a pair of eyes that shone frighteningly, "Your Majesty, do you know the true nature of authority? Do you know that in hell, breaking one's word is the rule of conduct here?"

The Trickster glanced maliciously back and forth between the Devil and the King.

On the throne, the King sat with his wine goblet in hand and his eyes half-lidded, as if the fierce battle below had nothing to do with him. Countless black butterflies hovered beside him, and all the lords who approached the throne during the battle were stopped by them.

"It's not a wise choice for you to trust a soul merchant so much. Have you ever thought that——your knight doesn't want to need you to give him authority? It's not as comfortable as having it yourself rather than having others give it to you, right?"

The army of snakes slithered around, and the sword in the Devil's hand turned. He laughed cheerfully: "That's not the way to sow discord."

"I think, Your Majesty can be the judge of that." The Trickster said, with a soft and sweet tone, "Your Majesty, please listen, what has arrived——why did the reinforcements come so coincidentally?"

As soon as the Trickster finished speaking, there was a piercing sound from above his head, like thousands of legions descending from the sky. The sound was screechy and oppressive, it was no longer the flapping sound of different birds just now, but like scales rubbing against rocks.

The King sitting on the throne raised his head subconsciously.

"Close your eyes! Your Majesty!"

The Devil realized the change and shouted.

But it was a step too late.

The moment the King raised his head, the Trickster made eye contact with him.

There was a secret smile on the deceitful lord's face, and its pupils turned dark red at this moment. Countless spiral cracks were entrenched in its eyes, and those eyes were full of infinite attraction at this moment, like a vortex that could swallow everyone's soul, boundless malice surging out of that vortex.

Countless overlapping phantoms exploded in the King's mind. His ice-blue pupils expanded slightly, and his eyes became empty.

The flames of war, the color of blood, the killing…..Sorrowful cries echoed around the King. He felt as if he was walking at the end of a desolate world. There were countless bones under his feet. His royal robe was ripped, and blood flowed down his hands. His people had abandoned him…..he was betrayed, backstabbed.

A sword pierced through his heart, and he turned his head with force, wanting to see who betrayed him in the end.

Almost instantly, the Devil's already pale face became even paler. The black butterflies hovering around the throne suddenly became weaker, and each one seemed to have its strength pulled back and fell to the ground.

The lords who had been waiting for a long time seized this opportunity. They jumped up, broke through the defense of the black butterflies from the left and right sides like lightning, and stretched out their sharp claws towards the King on the throne.

The Devil turned around without hesitation, and rushed towards the King.

On the wrinkled monkey face of the Trickster, the smile became more and more mysterious. The patterns in its pupils swirled, and the malice in the swirl flooded the King's world.

.....The blade of the sword was so cold that it could freeze the soul, and blood dripped down. He turned his head forcefully, and the face of the traitor was reflected in his pupils.

——A pale face, a mask-like smile.

"No matter who it is, there will always be seeds of doubt hidden in the heart, especially that of the monarch."

The smile on the Trickster's face was extremely joyful. It was short in stature, but after it was attached to the Manticore's back, it could still overlook the entire hall from a high position.

The Devil half-kneeled in front of the throne, and the corpses of the lords who had rushed to launch a surprise attack on the King fell around him, their heads neatly decapitated by his sword. But the head of the Devil who swung that stunning sword also slowly hung down——the snake tail of the Basilisk had pierced his heart.

Viscous blood flowed down the icy snake tail and fell to the ground like a trickle.

The deceitful lord looked at this scene triumphantly. In this world, there was no one who did not have a weakness in his heart, and as a lord who had mastered deceit, he was closer to the nature of a snake than even the Basilisk. There was no creature that could not be controlled by it. Human beings were the creatures with the most inner weaknesses in this world.

So what if he was the craziest Devil?

Didn't he still die under the horrifying power of the human heart?

The King's pupils were empty, his knight died in front of him, but he remained indifferent, sitting on the throne like an exquisite puppet.

The Basilisk pulled out its own snake tail, and it walked over the corpses on the ground, slowly approaching the throne, and its heart was filled with ecstasy. In the hall at this time, only it and the Trickster were left, and the rest, whether it was the army of snakes or the minor lords, were all dead, their bodies floating in a pool of blood.

As the Basilisk approached the throne, it suddenly opened its mouth wide, and the beak-like mouth tripled in size in an instant, as it was about to swallow the puppet-like King in one gulp.

Clang——

Sparks flew everywhere.

The smile on the Trickster's face froze slightly. When the Basilisk stepped forward to devour the King, it manipulated the Manticore to launch a sneak attack on the Basilisk. But the Basilisk seemed to have eyes on its back, and the arm hanging by its side swung violently, a shield blocking the blow that was determined to win.

"Did you think I'd be overwhelmed by joy and forget to be on guard?"

A gloomy voice sounded, and the Basilisk, who had just been dazzled by the power within reach, turned its head slowly, staring at the Trickster with diamond-shaped vertical pupils.

"Ho ho ho, how unexpected."

The Trickster wasn't ashamed at all. It laughed loudly, still staring at the Basilisk with a trace of dark red eyes.

"The Basilisk, known for recklessness, is actually so vigilant."

The allies just now turned into deadly enemies in an instant, and both the Basilisk and the Trickster were accustomed to this. In hell, this was no big deal, after all intrigue and cunning was what hell was about, wasn't it? What was ridiculous was the Devil who called himself a "soul merchant" being as loyal as a true knight in front of his monarch.

The Basilisk sneered, and pounced towards the Trickster without hesitation.

There was only one throne, and those who coveted the throne could only sit on it if they were the last one left after a fight to the death.

The Trickster's ability of control was indeed terrifying, but its body was too fragile. It was precisely because of this that after the battle broke out, the Trickster directly parasitized on the more powerful Manticore without hesitation. Seeing the Basilisk rushing towards him, the Trickster controlled the Manticore to back away without hesitation.

It blew a whistle vigorously.

After the sharp whistle sounded, a series of ear-piercing scraping sounds exploded. With a "boom", the huge black stone collapsed, and several figures descended from the sky and rushed towards the Basilisk.

The rest of the lords who did not participate in the banquet left the battlefield outside, left their soldiers and charged directly into the Blackstone Royal Castle.

"You guys actually believe it?!"

An arm on the Basilisk's left side was torn off, and it roared in shock and anger.

"It's impossible for Deceit to share the authority with you! If you align yourselves with it, just wait to be bitten back!"

"Of course, my allies are not fools, Mr. Basilisk." The Trickster hid outside the battlefield, "but have your brains been switched out by the humans? The denizens of hell, who of them are not a good hand at betrayal and backstabbing. We just think you are strong enough, and if the power falls into your hands, it will not be easy to redistribute it. Evenly distributing the power is better than not getting it at all, right?"

Its laughter was triumphant.

The wind poured down from the hole at the top of the hall, chilly and cold.

……………………

Griselda stood on the steel deck, the high-altitude wind made one feel that the cold was seeping in through the cracks in the bones.

The battleship flew at a high altitude where even the Walway pirates were a little terrified, quietly hiding in the thick dark clouds, like a lurking dragon. The Basilisk and the others felt that they recruited the army early enough and arranged it patiently enough, but the King was even earlier and more patient than them.

In fact, when the group of monster birds that besieged the Blackstone Royal Castle were disguised as clouds and entrenched in the sky, the Dragon Wing Battleships were already in the high-altitude clouds above their heads.

As the leader of the birds, the Basilisk was used to controlling monster birds to launch raids from the sky. It never thought that there were people who could fly higher than the birds.

Griselda wore special glasses and looked down. When the monster birds attacked the castle, the Dragon Wing Battleships set off silently, traveling all the way through the perpetual dark clouds in the dark red sky, which was the best protective cover for the battleships.

"Snakes eating each other."

She sighed softly.

From Jenny, Griselda learned about the "Old Covenant of Hell" and the ancient curse that destined chaos in hell. Griselda, who was flying high in the sky overlooking everything, felt the existence of that curse more clearly than anyone else.

When the one-third of the lords who did not attend the banquet led the army out to attack the Blackstone Royal Castle, Griselda saw another army come out of the abyss and invade the territories of these lords in mighty force. The strength of the hell lord was composed of "domain" and "authority", no matter which one was lost, it would severely suffer damage.

"Whose troops are those?"

Griselda asked Hawkins.

"The Trickster." Captain Hawkins casually chewed a piece of grass  in his mouth, and opened the King's order sent by a bat, "His Majesty has an order——"

"Attack!"

The Dragon Wing Battleship folded its wings, swooped down from the sky, and swept towards the Trickster's territory.

………………

The smell of blood in the Blackstone Royal Castle was so strong that it was nauseating.

"What a pity. It's time for everyone to call a curtain call together."

The Trickster climbed off the Manticore's back, and it bowed towards the corpses on the ground in a pretentious manner.

The battle between the lords who arrived later and the Basilisk was as fierce as the previous battle between the Devil and the lords. The Basilisk, who had turned into a trapped beast, had to use all its strength to survive. More than half of the lords who thought they could easily deal with the Basilisk were torn to pieces by it.

"What have you done?!"

Before the lord of doom was about to die, it asked in astonishment. It had thought that it was careful enough, and was always on guard against any sneak attacks from the Trickster after killing the Basilisk. But who would have thought, the Lord of Deceit directly launched a frontal attack, and at the moment it attacked, the Lord of Doom felt that most of its strength had suddenly been lost.

"A failed sneak attack only needs to be done once." The Lord of Deceit smiled, and it bowed to the Lord of Doom again, "Thank you for your selfless help, I will accept your territory with a smile."

The Lord of Doom's eyes widened. Just before it died, it suddenly remembered that before attending the King's banquet, the Trickster was the most active one in participating in the agreement. It was not that there were no lords who were not afraid of the ancient curse, but the Trickster spared no effort in fueling the flames. Finally, with today's battle situation as the end result.

Two-thirds of the lords came to the castle without a single soldier, lulling the vigilance of the King and the Devil. After the battle broke out inside the castle, the remaining lords then attacked the King's territory with all their strength, weakening the authority granted to the King by the Old Covenant of Hell.

"I didn't expect that you would actually come out in full force." The Trickster lamented hypocritically, "Who would believe that my little army could occupy one-third of the territory of hell."

Its tone should have been a little more hypocritical, but it was so gleeful that its voice couldn't help revealing a piercing quality like a night owl's screech.

The Lord of Deceit stepped over the corpse of the Lord of Doom. It was so small that it didn't even reach the chest of an ordinary person. Its monkey-like paws dragged a sword, and it walked towards the throne, clanging all the way.

"Gentlemen, I hope you can remember——in this world, strength is not the most powerful."

It sang like a bard, baring its white teeth.

Just like there were so many powerful existences in the Wall of Insects back then, but in the end it was a short, deformed guy like it that crawled out.

On the throne, the silver-haired monarch of the Rose family looked down at the knight who died in front of him.

After the death of the Devil, the Trickster loosened its mind control over the King——after all, the old covenant still existed, and using that ability to control the monarch for a long time was also a great burden for the Trickster.

The King, who had regained consciousness, did not say a word during the ensuing melee. He just stretched out his hand and placed it on top of the dead Devil's head, his fingers entangled into the Devil's black hair.

From the beginning to the end, no lord spared him any mind.

Without the Devil, in this hell, a mortal king would not even be able to run, anyone could easily crush him to death. Probably because of this, after the death of the Devil, the King simply sat on the throne and watched silently, waiting for the birth of the final kingslayer.

Mortals, oh mortals, they were oh so sad.

"I believe that the crown on your head will suit me more."

The Trickster grinned at the King, and it raised its giant sword high.

The King looked at it calmly, his icy blue pupils like the extreme north sea in winter night.

"Sorry, my good sir, but I don't think it will suit you at all."

An exceptionally polite voice sounded, and this voice could be considered quite familiar to the deceitful lord.

"In addition, I sincerely suggest that you learn how to sow dissension in a more qualified way."