Chapter 944
Episode 234: To Hell (4)
Two days ago, near the Seventh Fortress of Belgashium in the Abyss of the True Demon Realm, within the Forest of Souls.
“Hah… hah…”
Bassett was gasping for breath, his chest heaving.
Three days prior, a sudden great war had erupted in the True Demon Realm. Because of this, the desperate soldiers of Biceps, who had left their hideout to prepare for the decisive battle against Jito, were caught up in the conflict and struggling day after day.
“Are you alright, sir?”
“Bassett, your injuries are serious. You need to be treated by Silkia.”
Tilias and Misol stood beside Bassett, their concern evident.
Bassett had been wounded while protecting the non-combatants during their migration. Nearly a million souls had been under his sole protection—fending off ten Demon Lords, over fifty Grand Generals, and countless soldiers.
The reason Bassett alone could handle so many enemies was that, unlike before, they no longer targeted only Biceps.
Jito’s subordinates—or rather, the demons who had once been his followers—showed no mercy, killing everything in sight. Not only enemies but even comrades within the same unit were slaughtered.
Nearby, the other members watched from a distance, their eyes filled with a mix of guilt and respect. Bassett believed that protecting them from Jito was the very reason for his existence.
“Silkia can’t be involved. Her power must not be wasted on this.”
“But, Bassett—”
“I said no. We have a few hours to spare anyway. If I can just hold on until then…”
The soldiers showed their respect to Bassett, but also spat and cursed at the countless corpses littering the area.
Until now, the True Demon Realm’s forces had been nothing but cruel oppressors to Biceps. The members of Biceps had always lived on the run, fighting for survival, and every single one had lost someone precious to Jito’s followers.
So hatred was inevitable. Without it, without clinging to that accumulated rage every time the cycle of forgetting came, they would have gone mad long ago.
Bassett struggled to suppress the despair he felt watching his comrades trample over corpses and curse.
“Tilias, how can I possibly tell them the truth?”
“Sir…”
“We ourselves found it hard to believe the story we heard from Jin Runcandel. But Jito has unleashed a slaughter unlike any other, and those we believed to be our enemies… were all just victims of Jito as well.”
The brainwashing wasn’t limited to the Demon Lords and Grand Generals.
Jito had hypnotized the entire True Demon Realm army. The reason this wasn’t revealed by Valeria’s record magic was that the ordinary demons first brainwashed by Jito were all dead.
The current rank-and-file soldiers were born and raised under brainwashed parents and commanders.
There was no need to brainwash them again. In such an absolute environment, the demons had no choice but to become Jito’s dogs.
Only Biceps had escaped Jito’s control. That was why they had resisted the oppressors all this time.
“Hah…”
“We all suspected it at some point. Perhaps Jito intended to use even his most loyal followers as disposable tools for his own pleasure.”
But no one had expected him to use his closest aides like Paelito and Sachiel in such a way.
“Governance requires administrators, and before that, it requires subjects. But what Jito has done doesn’t fit that at all. He’s driven the people mad, making them kill each other, and discarded those who should have been his managers like trash.”
“This isn’t right. We thought that bastard wanted to rule the world, but all he wanted was destruction. Or maybe a conclusion where only a tiny chosen few survive. The entire True Demon Realm is engulfed in war; hundreds of millions must have already died…”
Now, Biceps had to protect not only their own members but even Jito’s former followers.
What Biceps had longed for was not just the safety and freedom of their own, but peace for the entire True Demon Realm.
Yet the soldiers cursed the dead followers of Jito, and the hatred showed no sign of abating.
“How can the soldiers—and even those others—accept the truth that the entire True Demon Realm were victims? The blood on their hands can’t be washed away, and the dead will never return.”
Bassett’s spirit was breaking.
Countless True Demon Realm soldiers had died by his hand, and spies like Tilias had tortured and killed captured comrades to maintain secrecy.
No matter how this ended, Biceps could not hope for a bright future. Only cruel truths heavier than life itself and wounds that would never heal awaited the demons.
“We still have to tell them. And we have to fight. Even if we collapse because we can’t accept the truth, we have no choice but to move forward, sir.”
“Yes… I suppose you’re right.”
“By now, Jin Runcandel must have arrived in the True Demon Realm to confront Jito. Our task is to stop the Artificial Sun before he meets Jito.”
The Artificial Sun—a massive device created by the True Demon Realm after the death of the Sun God to ensure survival.
It drew power from the ‘Land of the Sun,’ deep within the True Demon Realm. Biceps judged that as long as the Artificial Sun existed, even a godlike being ascending to the pinnacle could never kill Jito.
This was why, when Tilias first met Jin, the alliance said that without joining forces with Biceps, Jito could not be defeated.
Currently, near the Land of the Sun, Biceps’ spy Ridolos Trinak was waiting.
“Once the Belgashium forces pass through the battlefield, we’ll send Ridolos to meet them. If he hands over this key, which Paelito once copied into the Abyss, the Artificial Sun will be destroyed, and Jin Runcandel will win…”
“Yes, sir. That’s when we start over. Somehow, again. That’s why you’re saving Silkia’s power, isn’t it? The liberation is near. Focus on your recovery. I’ll take care of the soldiers.”
Bassett tended to his internal injuries for five hours. Scouts returned, reporting that the Belgashium forces had left the battlefield.
“Sir Bassett, the Belgashium army has exited the outskirts of the Abyss.”
“Understood. We must prepare to move.”
“But, sir, unlike the other units, the Belgashium forces didn’t kill each other.”
“…What?”
“They were moving under the command of Layla Belgashium. Even when clashing with other units, only the Belgashium forces fought normally, as if unaffected. They didn’t panic even when their own comrades attacked them like madmen.”
“So Layla Belgashium must have anticipated this outcome. Where did the army head?”
“Not near Jito’s lair, it seems. We suspect the Poison Demon Fortress.”
“The Poison Demon Fortress, huh? Then that one must have gone under Keliak Ziphl’s command. Those who betrayed Jito and sided with Keliak are immune to Jito’s mind control.”
Bassett pondered briefly, then nodded.
“Immediately send scouts to the Poison Demon Fortress to assess the situation. Even if we don’t know about Lagal, if someone like Layla has been recruited, they may already control over ten percent of the True Demon Realm army. And that one will try to oppress and use us just like Jito.”
Even if the high-ranking demons allied with Keliak were beyond their reach, they had to prevent ordinary people from becoming pawns in someone else’s war without understanding why.
“Yes, Sir Bassett.”
Biceps began moving again. In about ten hours, they would reach the entrance to the Land of the Sun.
Every step crushed corpses beneath their feet. Mountains of bodies and rivers of blood replaced the roads that should have been there.
And once the Artificial Sun was destroyed, the True Demon Realm could begin anew.
Though it would be a dark world without even false light, and though hearts were already broken and filled with irreversible sorrow, it would still be incomparable to life under Jito’s rule.
“…Sir, something’s wrong.”
As they neared the Sun’s path, Tilias scanned the surroundings.
“What is it?”
“The traces of the corpses have changed. There are signs of ordinary soldiers fighting to the death, but it looks like a powerful force suddenly entered the battlefield.”
“I sensed it too. It seems a Demon Lord under mind control was mixed in the units. Or perhaps a Demon Lord who survived after wiping out other units wandered the Abyss and encountered another group.”
Though he answered calmly, Bassett’s officers felt uneasy.
They had seen battlefields where Demon Lords had rampaged indiscriminately before, but never one where a single individual’s presence was so overwhelmingly evident.
This was the mark of a transcendent being at least as powerful as Layla.
“Well observed, Tilias.”
A sudden voice made the officers flinch and look around. There stood Ridolos Trinak—a demon with a single unusually long horn and a massive greatsword slung over his shoulder.
“Sir Ridolos?”
“Ah! You startled me, Sir Ridolos!”
“Ridolos? When did you join our ranks? Why didn’t we hear you coming…?”
“There were too many passing demons, so I blended in among the corpses. Sorry if I scared you. Now, hand me the key. I’ll go destroy my Artificial Sun.”
Bassett and his officers stared at Ridolos’ outstretched hand for a long moment.
His hand was stained with the blood of demons, still smeared with shattered bone and torn flesh—as if he had just crushed someone’s skull in his grip.
“…Ridolos. You don’t mean to say you killed all these demons here?”
Ridolos didn’t bother hiding the truth.
He simply nodded.
“Yes. Just hand over the key. Considering our past, I’ll give your officers a chance to live.”
“Ridolos! What is the meaning of this…!”
Bassett shouted, but Ridolos tilted his head with a mocking smile and laughed.
“You do realize that even you and all your lackeys combined can’t take me down, right? Seems like you’re pretty shocked. Since you don’t seem willing to hand it over peacefully, I’ll just have to wipe you all out and take the key by force.”