Chapter 337: The Hell Kings (5)

Mammon seemed ready to prove himself to Gi-Gyu, but before that, he requested, “My fellow demons are tired. Would it be all right if we give them a little break before starting our conversation?”

Mammon was right. The lower-level demons, previously hiding in the subspace, looked tired. After all, their sorcerous energy wasn’t that strong, to begin with.

‘Hmm…’ Gi-Gyu noticed that some demons were pretty young. The young ones looked exhausted, partially because he had ripped the subspace and forced them out.

Gi-Gyu decided to do them a favor.

“Brun,” Gi-Gyu called out.

“Ta-da! Here I am!” A girl the size of a pixie appeared. She wore a pink dress and a gaudy crown.

“...!” Mammon’s eyes widened in shock when he saw the girl.

‘She looks ridiculous, but the power she holds…!’ Mammon, who had been feeling weak, jerked with greed.

“Who is residing inside Eden at the moment?” asked Gi-Gyu.

“Hmm… There aren’t that many high-level creatures at the moment, but… There is Hamiel and…” Mammon flinched again as Brunheart listed the residents.

‘Hamiel… Isn’t he the one who recently became Diablo?!’ Mammon recognized the name. Hamiel was now a famous figure among the demons. Diablo was an ancient demon of great power, and all high-level demons like Mammon knew about his rebirth. He had also heard that Hamiel had survived his battle against Gabriel, a being with God-like powers.

“There is also Lou and El… And Paimon is busy right now. Oh, and Botis is with Paimon right now! Ah! Michael is resting!”

Mammon turned pale. ‘Lucifer and Michael…? Botis and Paimon? And Michael must be the one Gabriel brought up.'

All the names she had mentioned shocked him. He had known about Gi-Gyu and his allies, but hearing about them personally still surprised him.

“But they are all busy. Umm…” Brun licked her finger and announced, “I’ll just do it myself!”

“Phew…” Mammon sighed in relief when Brunheart volunteered. ‘If Lucifer or Michael was assigned to care for my demons…’

Mammon didn’t want to even think about what might have happened. The young ones would have definitely died. After all, it was a known fact that Lucifer enjoyed feasting on young demons; Michael had massacred countless demons in the past wars between angels and demons. If either of them watched his low-level, fragile demons, the fear alone would be enough to kill them all.

“Thank you,” Mammon thanked the pixie, who also held an unreal amount of power.

“No problem!” Brun replied, and suddenly, the abundant energies inside Eden exploded.

“L-Lord Mammon!” the lower-level demons called out for help, but there was nothing Mammon could do. An invisible power pushed away the demons; before Mammon could even protest, giant stone walls materialized from the ground and swallowed the demons.

“All done!” the little girl announced adorably. “If your conversation with the master goes well, they will remain safe! So…”

Brun’s tiny wings fluttered. She flew and sat down on Mammon’s shoulder and whispered, “Make sure you don’t anger my Master.”

Mammon flinched, but ignoring him, Brun added, “Then see you later!”

The little girl disappeared like magic.

“Ugh…” Brun’s whisper had felt like a powerful magic attack to Mammon.

“Now, let’s talk,” Gi-Gyu suggested nonchalantly. Mammon tried his best to hide his shock and fear and began explaining.

***

‘Has Brun always been like that?’ Gi-Gyu wondered. Thinking back, he realized that she had always been kind, playful, and just plain lovely. Therefore, how she had behaved with Mammon had surprised him.

‘I can’t believe she even borrowed Eden’s power. All that just to bully Mammon?’ 

The enclosure she had built around the demons looked like a jail cell at first, but Brunheart was actually taking good care of them.

-I’ll feed you first!

Inside the walls, the weak demons were most likely resting comfortably.

‘But it looks like this guy has no clue.’ Gi-Gyu saw Mammon and his high-level demons looking at him nervously. From time to time, they glanced at the wall with panic in their eyes.

“Are you listening to me?” Mammon asked Gi-Gyu politely. Gi-Gyu could tell that Mammon wasn’t being polite for show.

“I am,” Gi-Gyu replied. He was interested in what was going on with Brunheart and the low-level demons, but Mammon’s story was also fascinating.

“So…” Gi-Gyu reminded himself of what Mammon had told him so far. “You’re telling me that Andras is dead?”

It was an unbelievable twist, so it took Gi-Gyu a long time to accept it.

Mammon explained, “To be more precise, no. He isn’t exactly dead, but you can safely consider him… departed.”

Andras was the culprit responsible for much turmoil on Earth. He had built the Caravan Guild, and with Hwang Chae-Il and Paimon on his side, he had controlled even the hell kings to cause much trouble. Gi-Gyu had also later found out that Andras was working with Kronos.

“I can’t believe Andras is dead.” Gi-Gyu couldn’t easily accept that someone he had resented for so long had just up and died.

“Let me repeat myself. He isn’t exactly dead,” said Mammon. “However, he has lost his mind and body, so he is pretty much exanimate.”

“And who did this?” asked Gi-Gyu because Mammon had failed to disclose this information.

Mammon bit his lips and gritted his teeth. There was anger, disappointment, and embarrassment on Mammon’s face as he explained, “I’m sure you know Ironshield…”

“...!”

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“Ironshield ate Andras.”

“W-what?” It was hard enough to believe that Andras was dead, but it was even more difficult to accept that Ironshield had done the deed.

Mammon continued, “Ironshield was Andras’ invention. Andras combined Paimon’s techniques, some anthropomorphic procedures, and the bit of Chaos he got from Kronos to create him.”

After a short pause, Mammon added, “You were Andras’ muse in creating Ironshield, the ultimate weapon.”

The new information sent Gi-Gyu into a thinking spiral. So Andras wanted a weapon similar to Gi-Gyu. Gi-Gyu could only think of one skill that Andras would want to copy from him: The sync.

“That’s right.” It seemed that Mammon had read Gi-Gyu’s mind. “And Andras succeeded in gaining an ability similar to your sync skill.”

“...!” Gi-Gyu’s eyes widened.

***

Gi-Gyu finished his conversation with Mammon. Mammon and his demons were allowed to rest for a while somewhere inside Eden. Mammon was exhausted as well. Gi-Gyu never knew that a hell king, an original and not a clone, could get this tired.

With Mammon’s arrival, Gi-Gyu had learned a lot.

Firstly, he had found out why the hell kings obeyed Andras.

Mammon had explained earlier, “We obeyed Andras because only he could transport our bodies to Earth. And also because he had Kronos’ support.”

The Tower had absorbed hell, essentially destroying it. Consequently, numerous demons and seatholders had lost their home. The same was true for the hell kings, who had nowhere to go except their gates. Moreover, after hell had been absorbed, the demons found themselves weakening.

All demons needed to hunt and eat something to survive. After hell was gone, they had no other source of fresh sorcerous energy.

‘So the only thing left for them was death,’ Gi-Gyu quickly realized this. Like any other race, the hell kings were obsessed with making the demon kind thrive. Just when they had thought there was no way out, Andras had approached them inside their respective gate.

“Andras promised to rebuild hell. And we knew he had the power to accomplish this,” said Mammon. By then, the hell kings had learned that Kronos was behind the Tower’s creation, God’s death, and everything else afterward. Therefore, it was logical to believe that Kronos could rebuild hell.

The hell kings, whose only other choice had been death, had accepted Andras’ offer and had come to Earth.

“But your presence was a variable none of us expected.” Mammon had explained how they had no idea Lucifer and Michael were serving a guy on Earth. Lucifer was the name demons feared even mentioning, and Michael was their nemesis.

They had come to Earth believing that everything would work out easily. Considering how powerful the hell kings were, this was logical. However, as time passed, their troubles only increased, and many demons under Mammon died.

Andras repeatedly failed, which frustrated the hell kings to no end. Furthermore, they couldn’t even protest because they were bound by a contract.

Then, something major happened.

Mammon said angrily, “Andras secretly killed Belphegor and began preparing to clone the kings. He used Leviathan’s skill to perfect this technique.”

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It was then that the other hell kings began feeling threatened. And not long after that, Gi-Gyu had killed Asmodeus.

“Finally, it was just myself and Beelzebub who were still alive.”

By this point in time, they couldn’t even maintain their authority and power. They had simply become Andras’ puppets.

“We could only survive because of Beelzebub’s Gluttony skill. Andras needed it for his experiment, and… I had taken the role of leading the entire Caravan Guild. So Andras needed both of us.”

Mammon explained that this was how he and Beelzebub had survived.

“We believed that once hell was rebuilt, everything would go back to normal,” said Mammon. Apparently, Andras had been passionate about restoring hell, which was why the two hell kings had continued to endure everything. Gi-Gyu agreed that if Kronos had gained a suitable physical form, Mammon might have gotten what he wanted.

“But one day, Andras died. Our contract was broken, which is my proof.” Mammon added, “On top of this, Beelzebub went missing.”

Mammon guessed that Ironshiel had eaten Beelzebub as well. Andras had spared no effort in perfecting Ironshield, and in the end, Ironshield had destroyed Andras’ entire laboratory and ate Andras along with countless other demons. This had helped Mammon realize the truth.

“I realized that the demon race would go extinct at this rate.”

This was why he had taken all demons willing to follow him and had decided to surrender to Gi-Gyu.

“...” Gi-Gyu remained quiet. He had been planning to kill Ironshield for a long time, but because he had hidden behind Andras, Gi-Gyu couldn’t find him.

“And then he up and eats Andras and many other demons,” Gi-Gyu muttered.

Andras wasn’t a simple seatholder demon. Perhaps he was in the past, but after making a deal with Kronos, Andras had apparently gained a special power.

And now, it appeared that Ironshield had eaten Andras and his power.

Gi-Gyu asked Mammon, “What about Kronos?”

“He…” Mammon answered, “It looks like he predicted all of it.”

Mammon stated that he had met Kronos by chance. Then, he had realized that Kronos had anticipated everything that had happened. He had looked as calm as ever.

“Perhaps he orchestrated everything. Maybe he was the one who made all of it happen.” Mammon thought Kronos might have been behind it all.

The situation was changing fast. Mammon added, “After that, Ironshield headed toward the Tower.”

The last information Mammon had obtained before coming here was that Ironshield believed there was a power inside the Tower that could make him perfect.

Apparently, Gluttony, Beelzebub’s skill, was similar to the sync but was lacking in some aspects. To complete this skill—i.e., remove the gap between Gluttony and the sync—Ironshield was looking for some power in the Tower.

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