Chapter 434: Demons and Devils

“Demons and devils? Aren’t they just synonyms?”

Most mortals didn’t know the difference between demons and devils because it was far too rare for ordinary people to meet them. And if they really did come across a demon or a devil it didn’t matter which was which—they’d likely end up the same either way, as a soul dragged to the lower planes.

However, demons and devils were completely different species. Their personalities and habits couldn’t be more disparate, and they even viewed each other as mortal enemies. Most circumstances where the two met would end up in a life-and-death fight.

“Those sly devils? Their heads are filled with nothing but schemes and plots. Only weaklings need to rely on such things. In front of us magnificent demons, their weak bodies and useless little tricks are nothing but a joke.”

“The demons? Are you talking about those morons that have muscles for brains? Those foolish creatures are nothing more than a waste of space. The only thing they can be proud about is that they’re slightly more numerous than us devils. Oh, perhaps they can also be proud of their barbaric strength that’s equal to how ugly they look.”

From a certain standpoint, although they were both residents of the Abyss, they lived in very different locations. The demons resided in the “Endless Abyss” while the devils resided in “Hell’s Abyss.” [1] And if you looked only at their numbers, the demons didn’t outnumber the devils by just a little. There were at least more than ten times demons compared to devils. However, since the demons spent most of their time fighting with each other, this numerical advantage was meaningless.

“Sly like a devil.” Although this phrase had a negative connotation, it was still used as praise, but regardless it clearly indicated the devils’ most obvious trait—their slyness.

“Wisdom is treated as slyness.

“Shortsightedness is treated as decisiveness.

“True courage is treated as recklessness.

“Yet cowardice is treated as calmness.

“Don’t pay much mind to how ordinary mortals think.” —Devil Lord Kamiltias.

Your average mortal didn’t know the origin of devils. But, for ancient existences, it was no secret that the devils were fallen humans from the first generation of humans.

As a former part of the Order Faction, they maintained some habits from their time as first-generation Order creatures even after falling and joining the Chaos Abyss. The four oldest and most powerful members from the first generation of humans were still the rulers of the entire devil population, which helped even modern-day devils keep many customs and ranks from the past.

Although devils were on the side of Chaos, they valued ranks and order. Admittedly, they often warred among themselves, but they would also be able to come to each other’s assistance if it was necessary for the whole species. And for devils, it was natural to them that those with the highest abilities should stand at the top. If one’s abilities weren’t equal to one’s status, then a single successful scheme would be viewed as a great glory. After all, in devil society, if a weaker devil managed to overthrow a stronger devil then they would be judged at a higher level than before.

I felt that the devils’ society was similar to private companies from my original world. Every single person appeared to be working for the company, but they were only working for themselves. Everyone tried their hardest to scheme ways to get promoted. The easiest method would be to have the boss make a big mistake and report on others’ faults. Although devil society didn’t appear to be as bloody as demon society on the surface, it was tiring to be in and incredibly cruel. Not only that, the devils even enjoyed this type of “battle of brains.” [2]

It should be mentioned that also like the top-level private companies from my original world, the higher-ups were mostly stable. Unlike how Demon Lords and Nobles would constantly change, the nine Devil Lords had rarely been replaced. Many of the nine Devil Lords were even ancient existences from the first generation of humans.

Any Devil Lords would be an existence that would give any emperor or even True God a headache. They crafted countless schemes that destroyed an uncountable number of kingdoms and True Gods. Many people didn’t understand what these devils wanted to gain. But perhaps this was all simply because the veteran devils were just too bored. All they wanted to obtain was delight and pleasure from watching their schemes come to fruition.

And now these ancient Devil Lords that gave even the Gods headaches had all arrived before me. The bowed in unison and lowered their heads to me, despite having never given any God such respect.

“Little Roland, as according to the will of ‘that existence,’ from now on we shall listen to your commands. Please rest assured in using us as your tools. As long as you can grant our species’ wish, we shall venerate you as—”

” Cough —I understand.”

I stopped Kamiltias, the “Lord of Lies,” halfway through his words. This was because the White Dragons were still next to us, especially the Supreme Immemorial White Dragon Sam. He was currently observing us with great interest. However, his seemingly pure eyes had unconcealed astonishment.

Kamiltias was the oldest of the nine Devil Lords. Because of this, he also had the title of “Devil King” in addition to “Lord of Lies.” And such an existence was affectionately referred to by Ayer as Little Tias.

If you only judged by physical appearance, nobody would think that this polite middle-aged gentleman was actually a devil. He had a handlebar mustache, a monocle and a gentlemanly hat. He even held a book between his arm and his body. His expression appeared slightly cautious yet sincere. Anyone looking at him would assume him to be a noble scholar, a pure academic.

However, if one made a list of all the heroes, commoners, nobles and kings he had fooled before, it would end up being thicker than a dictionary. The most ridiculous part was that it was impossible to find out just how powerful he was or what he excelled in. Basically, there were no records in the mortal plane of Kamiltias personally taking action. This meant that either everyone who witnessed his true strength was dead or that he didn’t even need to fight to kill anyone he wanted. The first part was understandable if that was the case, but if it was the second, then that would make him even more difficult to deal with. And, with the information I happened to obtain from Ayer, it seemed far more likely that Kamiltias was the type who didn’t need to personally take action.

“Mortal, your plan has moved me. Even if you fail, I shall keep a position for you by my side. However, I hope it won’t be necessary.”

Marshan, the “Lord of Rebellion,” was another male Devil Lord. But unlike the Lord of Lies who preferred human form Marshan remained in his devil form. His favorite hobby was to incite others to rebel and overthrow whoever ruled them.

As for what he looked like? Even while cranking my neck, I could only see up to his knees. A dark mist made it impossible to see his appearance and body shape. He was just like a dark monster hidden within a tornado, but I could see his emerald green eyes shining with an evil gleam. His booming voice echoed throughout the entire canyon, giving me an earache with the reverberations. He indeed seemed like an emperor type.

“Don’t be so coarse, Marshan. It’s rude to scare the newcomer. My dear Roland, could you please tell Sister Yiyi about your past stories? Although I heard some stories from ‘him,’ I’d like to hear more from you… personally.”

Ilmisya, the “Lord of Temptations,” Queen of Allure Devils. Perhaps Allure Devils weren’t very famous despite being highly skilled at tempting and scamming others. However, this wasn’t due to their lack of abilities. This was because whenever Allure Devils acted in the mortal plane they blamed whatever they did on the succubi, who greatly resembled Allure Devils.

Her voice sounded as if she was my best friend. Although Ilmisya appeared to be a gentle and cute woman, she was probably the most troublesome Devil Lord of all when I thought about how she was capable of making people think about sex with her voice alone. Did I mention that she had several hundred lovers? After all, the other Devil Lords wouldn’t intentionally give me any trouble at this critical point in time with our agreement. But if Ilmisya got even the slightest bit close to me, an endless amount of trouble would be in store for me.

This famed queen was slightly more than three meters tall. With perfect curves and proportions with no unnecessary fat whatsoever, without a doubt her alluring body made for the best foundation with which to tempt others. Her seemingly pure face made her appear angelic, a perfect example of the phrase “angelic face, devilish body.”

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I could sense an alluring fragrance right in front of me. I nodded but directly took two steps back, expressing in the most direct fashion that I wanted to keep my distance.

This wasn’t because I had a distaste for her fragrance or anything like that. I stepped back because the glare from the maid behind me was giving me a huge headache.

That’s right, maid. She was still a maid.

I had tried to imagine what Elisa in her demon form would become as she abandoned everything else for the sake of power. My most conservative estimate inferred that she would be a tremendous demon over one hundred meters tall.

This wasn’t because of any racial prejudice I had against the demons. It was that demons, as pure creatures of chaos, were chaotic to the very core. Unlike demons, devils had a pyramid-like societal structure where lower ranked devils could use their “hard work” to make achievements that obtained their bosses’ recognition and “promotions,” even if the process sometimes took several centuries.

But there were only two methods for demons to obtain a higher status and more power: killing and eating.

Demons would kill everything they saw that moved, transforming their combat experience into actual improved power. This part was understandable. However, the truly troublesome part was how demons would even devour their own kind. Every single demon possessed the ability to devour those weaker or those it defeated. The devoured demons would become nutrition, with their strengths absorbed by the devourer. The devourer would constantly get stronger and stronger by repeating this cycle.

This natural racial talent of demons appeared to be quite strong. And I must say that it was, indeed, strong. However, this trait of theirs made it so that the demons had never stopped their internal wars for even one moment in history. In fact, most demons viewed their own kind as their biggest mortal enemies. Ninety percent of every demon’s life was spent fighting against other demons.

However, precisely because of this racial talent of evolving through devouring the demons became the overall strongest species throughout the myriad planes. Demons also had it easiest amongst powerful species at mass-producing themselves. Demon Lords would automatically be produced as long as there was enough fighting and devouring between the high-level demons. And as long as there were enough mid-level demons, there would be plenty of high-level demons produced.

This type of growth process that all demons underwent was filled with unpredictable mutations and unexpected situations. Not a single demon would have powers or a body identical to another. Not even the demons themselves would be able to explain how they “ate” to their current level. By the way, I should mention that Elisa’s Soul Imprint of Devouring was intricately connected to her identity as a child of the Abyss and her Demon Bloodline.

Due to the demons’ racial talent that naturally made them follow the law of the jungle where only the strong survived, all demons would start fighting from the moment of their birth. They would constantly fight from the level of the weakest tiny demon to a Demon Lord. Demons were very skilled at fighting and loved to fight, and those at the standard power levels of Gold, Legend and so on would almost always be superior to other species at the same rank.

There was a joke in Eich that went like this: if one put an angel, demon and a devil with the same power level together where only the winner would be able to leave, then the demon would definitely win the fight and the devil would be the final survivor. As for the angel… how about asking the demon and devil if they liked that chicken wing meal?

Actually, when this boring joke started spreading in Eich, some Devil Lords that were super bored actually performed some experiments on this topic by capturing angels, demons and devils of the same power level and forcing them into three-way fights. But the end result after a hundred experiments was that the demon would win more than seventy percent of the time and that the angel would win more than twenty percent of the time. A devil’s so-called intelligence against the completely unreasonable demons would be the equivalent of a scholar meeting a brute of a soldier. The demon would typically go kill the devil first before fighting the angel. There was quite a high chance that the demon would be capable of killing both the devil and angel by itself. However, even if the devil managed to somehow barely defeat the demon, the devil would usually end up dying to the angel.

Cough—getting back on topic, demons had the innate ability to devour others in order to evolve and become stronger. And so their evolutions always went in the direction of becoming as strong, as vicious, and as muscular as possible. Although they achieved what they wanted in obtaining physical bodies capable of withstanding their abilities and requirements, this almost always ended up with the negative side effect of becoming uglier the more powerful the demon was. Apart from unique demon species like the succubi which had better appearances, most Demon Lords looked like the most horrifying monsters one could imagine. It was also impossible to know what strange abilities they possessed. By the time one learned, they’d likely be dead.

I imagined the Demon Marchioness’s true form to be more than one hundred meters tall, with four or six legs, green inferno flames all over her body and a voice like booming thunder. She would cause earthquakes upon moving, summon volcanos as she walked and create a canyon if she accidentally tripped…

“I never expected she’d still have such an appearance.”

The current Elisa had gold-rimmed eyeglasses. Under her familiar silver hair was a pair of elven sharp ears. Her black and white maid attire was the same as it was in the past. However, it seemed that the skirt I designed for her was now slightly longer… Cough—compared to the past, my maid now appeared even more humanlike now that she no longer had the inferno-lizard traits of her tail and claws. At the very least, it was impossible for me to find any hints of her being a demon at all from her physical appearance.

Of course, this meant that she had definitely evolved her physical body… But I was no idiot who would ask her about that out loud.

The moment she walked out of the Dimensional Door, I didn’t even get a chance to greet her when she silently started standing behind me in that form of hers. Although her friendliness on the surface gave me a great amount of a face, her demon subordinates that came with her looked to be in complete chaos when they saw how their master treated me. One Berserk Demon even viciously swiped at his own face, losing one eye because of it.

I also felt slightly proud when I saw how the Devil Lords had expressions filled with vigilance and caution when they saw Elisa. But judging from the familiar look in her eyes that grew icier by the second, I felt like I had unknowingly angered her yet again.

“…I’m so sorry I’m not one hundred meters tall with four legs. It’s truly regrettable that I’m unable to accidentally step on you to death. I do know a Volcano Lord who fits your requirements. It’s said that he weighs more than two thousand tons, he’s more than three hundred meters tall and every step he takes leaves magma behind. Would you like me to introduce him to you? Hmph! As expected of brothers. Your interests are becoming more like Beifeng’s every day.”

Ah, that familiar venomous tongue of hers sure did bring back memories. But I needed to seriously state that I had no relationship to Beifeng. One man like him was more than enough for the world. Another of him wouldn’t even fit into the Calamity Rankings. I was clearly a normal person!

“Hmph! A tree (Amelia), a Slime cat and your half-demon relative (Reyne). Your tastes are even heavier than Beifeng’s.”

“You—you—are you… saying I have even heavier tastes than Beifeng…?”

This gave me such a heavy impact I had to arch my back and begin doubting my very life. But considering that many important guests were before me, and that this wasn’t a time where I could act ridiculously, I didn’t allow the serious expression on my face to change one bit.

“Where’s the Lord of Despair?”

“His incarnation is currently out on another task. He’ll probably be late. You know what task he’s on.”

I nodded in agreement. Four of the Devil Lords had allied with me, and three of them had come. They came in their true bodies, which showed their utmost sincerity. The fourth was also acting as planned, carrying out a task that was agreed upon beforehand. It would seem that we could now enter the next step of the grand scheme.

“Notify Orloss and Ayer. It’s time to activate our grand—”

I didn’t get a chance to finish talking as the skies suddenly darkened. A colossal Black Dragon appeared in the skies and blew away the clouds with his scorching dragonbreath. Dragons—a huge horde of them—descended from the skies. It seemed they had finally noticed that the situation wasn’t what they expected, so they were here to question me.

“…Well, I guess I have to first deal with this small trouble before me.”

Note:

[1] ED/N: From my understanding after reading this chapter, both the Endless Abyss and the Hell’s Abyss exist in the Chaos Abyss (or just Abyss). Endless Abyss and Chaos Abyss were kinda used interchangeably because almost all instances in the past referred to demons. Devils are said to come from Hell, which is another way of writing Hell’s Abyss or Abyss of Hell.

[2] TL/N: Yeah, there are actually quite a number of Chinese companies that are actually like this. Let’s just say that things are more… cutthroat over there.