Chapter 64: Grand Duke Alze-beus
Just when the Devil was about to clash with Arthur, it paused mid-air in a weird position.
Arthur, who already had his sword in hand, also paused, looking at the Devil.
He really didn’t have time to deal with some stupid Devil from Hell. Tracking down the Nightmare World Seed was the priority here.
It was not something that should be left out in the open. It was dangerous and was at least a Divine-grade item.
Even [The Sleepless Sword] had been surprised to see something like it in a recently Awakened world like theirs.
Furthermore, with its innate hatred for the human race, it might bring some uncontrollable disaster or calamity upon the human cities; they had finally managed to establish little peace after years of struggle during the Dark Age, a time when people had given in to their inner darkness under the influence of the Nightmare Aspect.
According to ancient lore, yes, the Nightmare Aspect was originally a blessing to the planet and that was undeniably so.
It allowed humans to evolve and break the biological limitations set upon them by their star system (the Solar System).
But it was too huge a feast for humanity to eat all by themselves; they faced what could be called indigestion.
The blessings showered upon them were vastly more than what they as a fledgling civilization could bear, effectively turning the miraculous gift into a curse.
And that particular Seed was, for some unknown reason hell-bent on destroying any human that came near it.
When Arthur first acquired it in the Antarctic Region (Death Zone No. 1), he had nearly died from its excess energy and this was after it had already been suppressed by the restrictive laws of the newly Awakening world.
[The Sleepless Sword] had to use [God Descent] to personally seal it; only then had Arthur barely survived the encounter.
But he quickly realized the damn thing was rapidly eating through the divine seal. Apparently, it was furious that it had been sealed by a Human God. That was when they first noticed its hatred for humanity.
Fortunately, it had been suppressed heavily enough, becoming no different from a normal, mundane seed as soon as they brought it out of the Death Zone.
But now it was free in the wild again, possibly in the hands of The Ghost or something much worse. Arthur didn’t even want to think about what would happen if the Seed fell in the hands of a abomination like [Zethe-thoth].
The Devil slowly levitated, stood up straight on the ground and looked around.
It took another mouthful of ambient mana, then turned toward the direction of the Desert City, completely ignoring Arthur as if he didn’t even exist.
Just as it was about to make a dash, Arthur raised his sword, blocking its path.
Narrowing his eyes, Arthur asked coldly, "Where do you think you are going?"
Arthur had a pretty good idea of where it was heading, but he still wanted to confirm it.
After all, it was better not to pick a pointless fight with something from Hell that would just revive immediately after it was killed.
If it was a vengeful entity, he would have endless trouble ahead of him. And this one looked pretty damn vengeful, alright.
The Devil turned with a furious glare. "What do you think you are doing, human?"
Arthur shook his head, pasting on a fake smile as he tried to look as friendly as possible. "I just wanted to know. Maybe I could be of help to an esteemed existence such as yourself."
All the mouths on the Devil’s grotesque body curled into a mocking smile at the exact same time. "What makes you think you can be of any help?"
The veins on Arthur’s forehead bulged. What is wrong with the world today? First his brainless lackeys and now this Devil.
Maybe he is starting to develop sleeping problems, just like his Patron God, Arthur thought with a sigh.
Just then, he heard a panicked voice coming from his communication device.
"Chosen One! Chosen One... we sensed an energy disturbance near your location... Please be careful... it’s a Demigod-level threat! Please call us immediately if you need backup!"
Shit... These idiots STILL haven’t stopped using the Planetary Array!
And what the hell was wrong with these guys?! What could they possibly do against a Demigod? This thing was strong enough to snap all of them like dry twigs!
With a heavy sigh, Arthur replied into the comms, "I have successfully intercepted it... and also, all of you are officially banned from using the Planetary Array for an entire year."
The voice on the other end sounded elated, then immediately devastated: "Great! Wait... nooo, what?! Why?!..."
Beep.
He cut the connection, tired of dealing with their bullshit.
The Devil had clearly heard the loud voice from the communicator. "So, you did not come to help me, but to stop me from seeking my justice."
Arthur’s lips twitched. Inwardly, he thought: What justice? Did some human mug you in an alleyway or something?
Outwardly, however, he deepened his fake smile. "No, Sir, you have a deep misunderstanding."
He almost cringed internally but miraculously managed to say ’Sir’ with a straight face.
The Devil looked amused. "Ohh, pesky human. Do you really think I am so dumb as to fall for a ’misunderstanding’?"
Arthur’s smile almost broke. Weren’t you the one who blindly jumped at me the exact second we met?!
"No, no, it is a misunderstanding on our part. My colleague completely misunderstood Your Highness’s intentions," Arthur corrected smoothly.
The Devil surprisingly shivered when it heard that last word. It hurriedly clarified, "I am no High... Highness."
Standing imposingly, it puffed out its chest and declared, "I am Grand Duke Alze-beus, one of the Twelve Grand Dukes under the direct command of His Highness, the Devil Monarch Aathan!"
It made sure to say the last part a pitch higher, almost as if it was terrified the Monarch might be listening and wanted to ensure the proper respect was heard.
Arthur thought curiously: So the ruler of Hell is called Aathan, and this is just one of his underlings. Just one lackey is already a Demigod, while we humans don’t even have a single person at that rank yet.
And this was after all of the World Council members had been fighting day and night, frantically leveling up in almost every single dangerous place on Earth, except the Death Zones.
He had tried from the very beginning not to be biased, intentionally giving every talented human the opportunity to excel, regardless of whether their moral compass was good or bad.
He was okay with their shady business as long as they kept it strictly in private. He had kept one eye closed to such messy cases and still, humanity had failed to produce a single Demigod in seven years.
At this rate, they might really not survive the Merger.
Alze-beus huffed indignantly, "How dare you daydream in my presence!"
Arthur snapped out of his daze.
As the Merger kept drawing closer, he often found himself prone to zoning out, consumed by worries about the future. It was truly not easy bearing the burden of protecting the entire world.
Many times, he felt like just giving up and letting someone else take the leading role.
But every single time he made up his mind to quit, some idiot like his lackeys would inevitably show up, making him realize exactly how unreliable the rest of the world was..
Well, maybe except for his cute sister, Zora. But the rest were idiots for sure.
Alze-beus roared furiously, "There you go again!"
Stunned, Arthur realized it was very unlikely for him to lose focus twice in a row in front of a enemy.
Then, he heard [The Sleepless Sword]’s sleepy voice echo in his head.
["Child, get a hold of yourself. This adversary is no joke. It holds a blessing from a God, similar to yourself."]
Puzzled, Arthur focused all his senses on the Devil... What was its name again? Alzeee... beus?
He realized he had been so lost in his own head that he had failed to notice the divine blessing it had been carrying this whole time.
Arthur guessed grimly: Did that [Zethe-thoth] fellow manage to do something to my mind? Otherwise, how could I possibly be this careless?
Alze-beus sneered, "How dare you ignore me again. I have had enough of you ignoring me time and time again!"
All of its mouths sucked inward simultaneously.
Immediately, all the ambient mana within a one-kilometer radius vanished.
And this was after the devil was suppressed by the daylight from The Great Heaven and the natural laws of Earth.
A huge yellow ball of condensed energy gathered in front of it. It released the projectile point-blank at Arthur as it screamed, [Yellow Bomb]!
Arthur quickly dodged by kicking off the ground and launching himself high into the air.
He looked down and saw that tens of kilometers of the desert had been instantly destroyed.
The intense heat had turned most of the sand into crystal glass.
He thought, That was just a casual attack from a Demigod Devil and it was during the restrictive daylight!
He didn’t even want to think about what this monstrous thing could do during the nighttime, when its power were less suppressed.
Alze-beus was puzzled when he saw the human still seemingly ignoring him, floating up there and pondering something even after he had just made such a serious statement.
The Devil thought to itself: Did leaving Hell somehow make me lose all my charisma?
And what the heck is with this awful luck?
First, a pesky kid finds and kills my infant incarnation using some weird black fog just when I was about to successfully form a body in that human city.
And now, this random man, who carries faint traces of that same black fog, jntercepts me the very moment I bring a Demigod-level incarnation to the surface.
And this one is actually arrogant enough to repeatedly take me so lightly!
This simply will not do.
If things go on like this, how am I supposed to perform my infiltration mission if my incarnations repeatedly get intercepted the moment they arrive?
Looking up at Arthur, Alze-beus quickly formed a devious idea.
