Chapter 841 Heart of Fire
Cain smiled, staring at Astaroth burning with holy magic. "That's it, old warrior. Stand back up as the war isn't over yet." He lifted his hand, bursting with raw mana.
Astaroth looked at his wings and hands, "It's been a long time," He sighed, "I thought I had thrown the past behind me. Since AOs disappeared, we only had a limited source of divine magic. This power should have long disappeared."
"Really, it's not like AO is dead and not like you don't have other sources of divine magic," Cain replied with a smile.
"This isn't AO's divine magic. I can tell that much." At that moment, Astaroth gasped, "I see, this is your divine magic." His eyes opened wide.
Cain lifted his hands as the fire of his mana rose to the layer's ceiling. "OH! Fallen Archon, Astaroth! You feared my power, yet you forgot your prime. You said I could blow a layer of hell while the whole nine once feared your name."
Several wings grew from Astaroth's back as he consumed more of Cain's divine magic, his former power rapidly surfacing again.
"I came to the hells on an unknown mission, gathering those who once fought against the world's mortal enemies!" Cain shouted, "Stand up! Be strong! As he shall not return to a stained world,"
Astaroth's body burst with a violent mix of holy and cursed magic. With each step, the hells trembled as he approached Cain.
"OH! New overgod," Astaroth kneeled down, "Does the world really need us sinners back?"
"It more than does, go. Lucifer is waiting for you." Cain replied.
"You're more than right, he might have a divine spark unlike me, but his divine magic is by no means infinite. Do I have permission to use yours?" Astaroth lifted his head.
"You as much as you need, and give Lucifer access to it as well. I will send Beelzebub after you soon, but I need you to make sure one objective is achieved." Cain stared at Astaroth and the fallen archon smiled.
"We do not fight to win, but only to buy time." He giggled, "Until your lordship's power fully mature. Shall we meet under the new world, the new lord of the world?" Astaroth's wings expanded as he flapped them, bursting up through the hell's layers in the blink of an eye, leaving a hole.
Cain lifted his hand closing the holes quickly so no sinner falls to a more painful layer.
Cain cracked his neck and teleported back to hell lip's mansion, landing in front of Fierna and Astaroth's guards.
"Lord Astaroth," One of the devils growled.
"He's up with Asmodeus," Cain replied, "For now," He turned toward Fierna, "Get some devils to rule this place temporarily while they sort a new lord. I still have work to do so I will be going."
CLACK! Devils surrounded him, "That isn't an explanation, where is lord Astaroth?" Another devil shouted, "You aren't getting out of here alive,"
"You have felt it, didn't you?" Cain stared at them with a smile, "He regained his grace and accended back to the heavens. You might just get the same,"
"Damn it!" Devils cursed, moving away from Cain, "Just what are you?"
"Me?" Cain pointed at his face, "Just a random old man that happened to get lucky,"
"He's the overgod of the world." Fierna whispered to one of the devils, "One wrong move, and you're a past tense. Nessus's immortality won't save you from him."
"Cain-nya!" Selena (Maharaja) Called him, walking right through the mansion gate and breaking it.
The devils instantly recognized her and jumped back.
Fierna stared at her, confused, "Selena? You look. Older? and rough."
Unlike the Selena she knew, this one had more clear muscles, was a bit taller, and had chipped ears and tails. She could the faint traces of scares on her skin, and the glow in her eyes looked terrifying.
The devil Fierna whispered to whispered back to her, "Maharaja, the queen of the Rakshasa and the world eater. She's known for her nasty habit of eating everything that annoys her."
"She isn't the Selena you know," Cain replied with a smile as he approached Selena.
"You came to look for me?" He asked.
"Of course-nya. I felt you fighting, but you looked to be having fun-nya, so I didn't interfere-nya." She replied with a smile, "I will not spoil your hunt-nya."
Fierna sighed, looking at the devils beside her, "We're both dealing with a lot. But, my father doesn't have much to do lately so I will send him to you. I'm sure he would love to rule a city like hell's lip, even if temporarily."
"AH! Lord Belial?" The devil smiled, "He would fit the place."
As they talked, Arad walked toward the dungeon's entrance and stared at the guard with a smile. "Can I get inside?" He asked.
The guard stumbled back, "Of course," The two-headed inside as the devils and Fierna remained talking, it took them a while to notice Cain's disappearance.
Inside the dungeon, Cain and the guard walked past several cells filled to the brim with sinners. This is the place where the sickest and most dangerous figures of history are jailed, suffering for the rest of eternity for their sins.
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"It's quite packed," Cain said, looking at the sinners glaring at him.
"There been a bit more than usual in the past one thousand years. The more advanced humanoids get, the more they sink into sins and lose their sense of morality."
"I couldn't agree more, magic makes it far easier to harm others." Cain nodded as they reached the deepest part of the dungeon, "We're done." The devil looked at Cain, "I doubt there is anything to interest you here, except if you want to torture some sinners, that can be quite fun at times."
"My goal is something else." Cain replied, "This dungeon was built at the side of the volcano making it cook the sinners jailed inside slowly over time. I want to get deeper into the volcano."
The guard looked at him, "The only way I can think of you doing that is digging from here. There isn't an entrance to the volcano that I know of."
"CAIN!" Fierna rushed into the dungeon crying, she just realized that Cain had gone in without her. Even Maharaja had left back to the inn, leaving her alone with the devils.
Cain looked back, seeing her. "Took you a while," He smiled, "I'm going to start digging, we're getting someone out of the volcano,"
"Who?" Fierna asked.
"Tiamat,"
Both Fierna and the devil guard gasped, "Wait! I heard the dragon goddess was resurrected. Why is she here?" The devil gasped.
Cain scratched his chin, "To my understanding, there are three Tiamats now." He looked at them, "The one Kossuth killed, the one who took her place, and the current one. We're here to free the second one."
He turned toward the wall and touched it. Magic flowed from his fingers and turned the stones into dust, creating a tunnel as he walked forward.
After ten minutes of walking into the stones temperature started rising rapidly and Fierna could barely breathe. This was far worse than any heat she felt in Phlegethos, let alone any fire in the mortal world.
Cain reached into his pocket, pulling a steel sword.
The blade instantly turned red and then melted into a puddle of liquid metal. It started evaporating before everyone's eyes as the heat kept getting stronger and stronger.
"Forget melting steel, the heat here is almost three times as hot. It's enough to boil and evaporate it," Cain said as he kept walking forward.
"Cain," Fierna cried, "This is as far as I go, I'm not particularly a fire devil. I won't survive much longer in this heat."
He turned toward her, lifting his hand. "Fine, I will protect you." In the blink of an eye, he conjured a magical barrier around her, protecting her from the extreme heat.
The two kept walking into the volcano, and every few steps, Cain noted the temperature.
"Three times what's needed to melt steel," He said, still unaffected by it.
"Five times, seven times...Twenty times, thirty times...Seventy-one times what's needed to melt steel. And we're there." He stopped, touching the glowing red wall in front of him.
"Are we, there?" Fierna asked, looking at his back. She couldn't believe the heat they were standing in. He was protecting her with magic, but she still could barely breathe.
"Behind this wall, Tiamat is locked inside a large pocket of compressed lava." Cain expanded his magic inside but quickly felt it burn.
"Presurised molten gold, otherwise it would have evaporated long ago. She's curled into a ball inside like a fetus feeding off the heat and gold." He scratched his chin, "If we broke this shell, it could explode with enough power to level the whole city and parts of the nearby plains." He looked back.
"What could we do then?" Fierna asked.
"Well, there are other ways to break her out. First is dealing with this thing," He knocked on the wall, and a barrier emerged.
"Asmodeus locked the place with a protective barrier."
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