Myths Reawakened-Chapter 198 (1): Book of Hell
The Seven Demon Lords! 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮
Marion’s surprising confession left everyone flabbergasted. Mona recovered the fastest and immediately said, “Boss, this is bad. We must immediately contact the Church of Heavenly Father.”
“Patience. Let’s clarify things first.” Wayne’s heart beat a little faster. He continued interrogating Marion. “Let’s make things clear. How did the divine power of the Seven Demon Lords descend, and how much has descended?”
“My family hopes to gain powerful magic and presence in the Ministry of Magic through Sir Obed. For that, we’re willing to pay any price. Sir Obed’s proposed hell as the solution...”
Marion explained blankly. The Snow family wanted to climb up the ladder too badly. To enter the magical world, they would willingly make a deal with demons.
Obed had been searching for demons in hell. The Snow family’s ambition attracted his attention, and he opened the gates of hell with an alchemy circle, drawing the divine power of the Seven Demon Lords into the human world to transform the members of the Snow family.
Marion, for example, was transformed after the Lord of Lust’s familiars. She thus gained the body of a succubus and some of the abilities of one. Disregarding her mediocre power, she was an actual succubus in the human world in terms of her appearance and skills.
The other members of the Snow family each corresponded to the familiars of the Seven Demon Lords. They were vessels that Obed had modified to contain the thoughts of the demon lords so that he could find a good business partner.
Marion didn’t know a lot about Obed, and she had limited knowledge of his plan. All this time, the head of the family, Adlai, had been communicating with Obed directly.
Wayne combined the information he had gathered and came to a conclusion: Obed’s plan failed!
Among the Seven Demon Lords, none gave him the time of day. Left with no other choice, Obed settled for the Thousand-Eyed Demon, a mediocre demon in hell. Then, finding and coming to covet Wayne, he dumped the Thousand-Eyed Demon.
Wayne sighed in relief after piecing together the overall story. “I knew it. If the gates to hell were so easy to open, the human world would be crawling with demons by now. The Snow family is only the guinea pig Obed experimented on for the summoning of demons, and they are failed experiments.”
“We can’t relax yet, Boss,” Mona warned.
“I know. Although the Seven Demon Lords didn’t respond to Obed, they did grant their divine power. They don’t mind having compatible vessels in the human world.”
Wayne nodded. A compatible vessel could bear more of their thoughts. He had seen the same thing happen many times. The Blood Tyrant had used dragon blood and someone with the holy spirit constitution. The Thousand-Eyed Demon had used a vessel that was half-human and half-millipede. Both had been prepared before their descent. A good vessel was crucial to a demon.
Even heaven and the other churches required someone of the holy spirit constitution for the descents of angels and their respective deities.
The fact was that the Seven Demon Lords had created vessels by granting their power despite the cold shoulder they gave Obed; they had marked the members of the Snow family. Left unchecked, they would be potential threats. They had to be taken out at once, or Wayne wouldn’t be able to rest easy.
Yes, the vessels required immediate erasure. It would be unwise to capture them alive and take them to Londan. None of the legendary mages of the Ministry of Magic had integrity. If Wayne turned the vessels in alive, they wouldn’t hesitate to claim Obed’s legacy and continue his research.
If the Seven Demon Lords descended to Londan one day, the legendary mages involved would be shot a hundred times over, and Wayne, at least twenty times.
To put it bluntly, legendary mages would do business with demons for their future, and the Queen likely wouldn’t mind keeping a few demonic vessels for her crown—those weren’t regular vessels, but ones for the Seven Demon Lords. Even the Pope would shudder at the sight.
“Come on, let’s find the Snow family!”
Wayne took a deep breath. He couldn’t believe that a simple investigation meant to justify the confiscation of properties would lead to such a large-scale conspiracy. It taught him more about the Ministry of Magic.
Auston had said that the Gold-ranked mages of the ministry would shed blood for Windsor, but not the legendary mages. At their rank, their personal interests were no longer dependent on the country, and Obed proved that right. For his own future, he would even create vessels for the Seven Demon Lords in Windsor.
That begged the question: if that was the case for Obed, what about the other legendary mages? Were they doing the same thing?
“That’s why we shouldn’t just investigate everything. Look how all the skeletons in the closet are coming out...”
Wayne glanced at Marion, who lay prone at his feet. He beckoned Mona over to deal with her. The demonic vessel should be killed, but the horns, wings, and tail should be delivered to the Queen. Whatever she did with them and whether a bigger mess followed wouldn’t be his concern.
“I’ll be making many enemies at once. Can Auston clean up the mess for me?”
Wayne asked himself the question. Auston wouldn’t so much be cleaning up messes but mending the large, glaring holes he created with his actions, and it would be on the scale of Nüwa patching the holes in heaven[1].
After some consideration, he concluded that it would be too much for Auston. While Wayne enjoyed the sight of Auston flying away like a human cannonball, he didn’t actually want to get Auston killed. He decided to make a call first.
In the first-floor living room, Mona carried a suitcase in, containing the loot she had gained earlier: a pair of succubus horns, two wings, and one tail. The sensual and tempting Miss Marion was dead. She was the first full succubus Wayne had ever encountered, and because he hadn’t completely lost his moral compass, he didn’t end up consummating a relationship irreversibly.
“That’s what happened. What are you going to do?” Wayne waited for Auston to respond.
Veronica leaned over and listened in on their conversation, wondering how Scumbag Sr. and Scumbag Jr. communicate.
On the other end of the line, Auston was silent for a long moment. “I can’t make the decision. Her Majesty has to make the call. Wait for my response.”
“Wait, if Her Majesty wants them alive, am I going to take the members of the Snow family back to Londan?”
“The moment I tell Her Majesty the situation, she will have lost the choice to keep them alive...”
Auston sighed. At the end of the day, they had to maintain a bottom line, no matter the intentions. If the Minister of Magic made an exception, the legendary mages would follow suit; they would stop even trying to hide their misdeeds.
It was about setting an example!
“I understand. I’ll wait for your call.” Wayne hung up.
Aggravated, Mona telepathically listed the many crimes of the Windsor royal family to her master; to sum up, Windsor was a professional in inhuman actions.
Wayne shrugged. History went in cycles, he would say. The clashes of human natures led to tragedy after tragedy, and looking back in history, those who came later actively repeated the same cycles.
Everyone knew that trading with demons never led to anything good, but because of one reason or another, they still chose to make a deal with demons.
Why did the Seven Demon Lords ignore Obed? Because they looked down on the legendary mage’s power? Not necessarily. It might simply be because they had found better partners.
“It’s dark, isn’t it? It’s more complicated than you think. Just enjoy being a young lady and don’t push yourself to get involved.” Wayne patted Veronica on the shoulder, who lowered her head silently.
Twenty minutes later, the phone rang. Auston conveyed the Queen’s order concisely: all of the Snow family were to be killed, and only the parts and confiscated goods needed to be turned in to the Ministry of Magic.
“Should’ve done that already. I like the simple and effective method.” Wayne huffed, beckoning Mona over to head out.
“Wait, I’m going, too.” Veronica grabbed Wayne’s sleeve.
“Didn’t I just tell you not to get involved?”
“I can’t be involved in the planning stage, but I can execute the plan,” Veronica insisted. She didn’t want to become simple eye candy, easily replaceable.
“Fine, but don’t tell Auston, or he’ll be after my hide.” Wayne nodded. Glancing at an excited Vera, he paired her and Veronica up. Then he arranged the tea cups on the table into a hexagram.
“The Snow family’s estate is a magical fortress with a hexagram layout for defense. Break any of the points, and the hexagram will fall apart.”
He glanced at Veronica. “It’s up to you how you do that. Don’t ask me for an answer. Remember, if you fail, Mona and I may lose our lives.”
With a serious nod, Veronica grabbed Vera and walked out. There was one thing she didn’t say to him: the two scumbags were so similar that at one point, their figures seemed to overlap. It gave her... a strange feeling. A feeling that perhaps Auston and Wayne were father and son, while she was a stray her parents had picked up elsewhere.
“Veronica, is it possible that Wayne is your brother?” Vera asked seriously. “Maybe Mr. Lando had Wayne with another woman, but because of the complicated feuds within the extended family, he had to hide Wayne’s true identity.‘
“Shut up, don’t try to mislead me!” Veronica hand-chopped Vera’s forehead, retorting in exasperation. “He’s made the heir of the Lando family, already finalized with no possibility of retraction. You should learn from Senior Kristen. She never plays dumb like you do.”
“I am learning from Senior...” Vera held her head with both hands. “You believe Senior won’t do it, but I think Senior has already gotten to the second base. Their tutoring sessions are getting longer and longer. Something must be wrong.”
“Shut it. That’s not the kind of person Senior is!”
Veronica knocked on Vera’s head again, forbidding her from talking behind her idol’s back.
1. A reference to the mythology of the goddess Nüwa replacing the pillars supporting heaven and mending the holes left in the aftermath of a great battle between gods. ☜
