The Ruler of Hell

These were the conversations of some people, who also looked at those using magic with envy.

What was going on?

Looking toward the royal palace, it seemed to have become demonic, transforming into a Demon Palace.

The people who entered quickly formed several teams again, each heading through a different entrance leading into the Demon Palace.

Following Sister Brunhilde toward one entrance, they witnessed another shocking sight.

"Bael!"

Inside the vast room, Brunhilde saw another Demon God, one of the Supreme Four Pillars.

One of the mighty Supreme Four Pillars actually appeared to have become a teacher, instructing humans on how to learn magic.

The rooms beyond the other doors were probably being taught by other Demon Gods as well.

Looking into the other rooms, it really was absurd. Not all of them were teaching magic either; some taught scientific knowledge and other subjects far more advanced than this era.

She then peeked into another room.

Hm? Was this room providing information about angels?

How should she put it? It was like a biology class modern humans would take at school, where they learned about the detailed structure, evolution, and other aspects of human beings.

Yet in this room, they were introducing the biological information of angels.

"To kill this type of angel, you must..."

The lesson even exposed angels' weaknesses and taught them how to kill angels.

This was insane. Goll listened until cold sweat poured down her body, biting her fingers to keep herself from making a sound.

The secrets of angels being taught here could be called taboo—secrets even Valkyries were not allowed to hear—yet they were being casually revealed to humans?

Ahhh, she hadn't heard anything.

Ah! W-wait, Sister Brunhilde!

She hurriedly chased after Sister Brunhilde, who was heading toward the next entrance.

"Mm—!"

Goll, who had been walking beside her, was instantly dragged away from the doorway with her mouth covered. Brunhilde, who had done this, was sweating as well.

At the end of the hall stood King Solomon, but that was not the important part. Several other Demon Gods were beside him, and she had even seen Demon God Baal.

That was no ordinary Demon God. He might notice them.

Although Goll had not clearly seen the people in that room, she could distinctly feel the oppressive aura emanating from it, as though a group of monsters had gathered inside.

Without lingering, Brunhilde took Goll away and headed for another area.

This was the Learning Zone. She had heard mentions of the Combat Zone and Practice Zone earlier, so they went to take a look.

They arrived in a spacious area, where both of them stared at the sight before them in stunned disbelief.

"Boom—!"

Before them, a group of demons was battling a group of humans in an exceptionally fierce fight.

Overall, though, the demons were almost effortlessly crushing the human magicians.

Of course, there were also a few outstanding individuals who appeared evenly matched with the demons they fought.

"Are they... training humans?"

Goll gazed blankly at the scene before her.

If human magicians trained by demons formed an army, it was hard to imagine any country in the Human World being able to resist them. Conquering the world would not be difficult, would it?

So was King Solomon preparing to conquer the entire world?

Was King Solomon planning to create a Magic Kingdom?

"Hehehehe, hahahaha...!"

Brunhilde began to laugh, her face twisting slightly.

She did not believe the people cultivated with the help of the Seventy-Two Pillars of Demons were meant to conquer the world. That would be a complete waste of their talents.

She had a thought that even she found hard to believe: Solomon's preparations seemed to be for a war against the gods.

If King Solomon had prepared all this to stand against the gods, could his ability to command Demon Gods truly have been bestowed by the gods?

Wouldn't that be like smashing their own feet with a stone?

Just how had he made the Seventy-Two Pillars of Demons submit?

She had to find the reason!

Rewind the historical footage and let her see the truth!!!

Commanding the King of Hell

To summon a demon, one first needed to possess magical power.

Thus, after learning through Revelation about this world's Phenomenon Manipulation Arts—namely, Magic—Bai Yue conducted many experiments and successfully gave himself magical power.

After becoming familiar with the flow of magical power, he began preparing the Summoning Ritual.

First, he spent several days completing the Demon Summoning Array.

Next, he only needed to activate the Demon Summoning Array with magical power and summon the corresponding demon.

However, because he was human, the capacity of his body could not compare to that of a god, so he could not inject enough power at once to activate the Magic Array.

Therefore, he needed to continuously pour magical power into it until it was sufficient, without any interruption during that time. Otherwise, he would have to start over.

But if the flow could not be interrupted, what would happen when the magical power in his body ran out?

Excessive depletion meant burning away his life force.

And even if he burned away all the life in his body, it still would not be enough to activate this Demon Summoning Array.

So naturally, he borrowed the power of the Cosmic Origin.

Though borrowing the power of the Cosmic Origin seemed to grant him an endless output of magical power, that was not a good thing.

If a human body borrowed too much of it, it would only be eroded and assimilated by that power.

"It's finally almost done."

After enduring for a week, he had finally nearly fed the Demon Summoning Array enough.

The enormous Demon Summoning Array before him was now glowing, releasing a dark blue mist of light.

Out of the corner of his eye, he looked at the hand pressed against the Demon Summoning Array. Strange, twisted mystical patterns and black spots had spread over it, extending from his palm to his arm and chest. There were probably some on one side of his cheek as well.

These were the signs of his excessive use of the Root's power.

Suddenly, the Demon Summoning Array's dark blue light instantly turned blackish-red. The sight made him curl his lips into a smile. It was filled with magical power.

At that moment, he sensed a faint connection. He sensed Hell, and the entrance to Hell was opening.

The space above the Demon Summoning Array twisted, forming a black spherical vortex like a black hole.

The counterclockwise-spinning black hole suddenly stopped, then began spinning in reverse, erupting with a powerful current of air.

At that point, the Hell Passage was officially connected.

Immediately afterward, the black hole shook once and began to twist unnaturally.

No, it was not twisting. It seemed to be changing shape.

In the blink of an eye, a demon with four wings on his back appeared before him. No, more accurately, he was a Fallen Angel with four black feathered wings.

This Fallen Angel—Berial—had once been a Power Angel. Rumor had it he was the first angel created by God. After falling, he became one of the Seven Lords of Hell, the Sloth Demon Lord, and the master of the Seventy-Two Pillars of Demons.

He was bowing his head, kneeling on one knee.

"My lord, what are your orders?"

Berial, the Great Demon King of Hell and master of the Seventy-Two Pillars of Demons, lowered his proud head and spoke with reverence.

In this world, the only person who could make him so humble was his lord.

In this world, the only person who could use this Demon Summoning Array to summon him—no, enslave him—was his lord.

However, this Demon Summoning Array was fundamentally a Slave Summoning Array, so he could only obey that lord unconditionally.

Whatever his lord wanted him to do, he could only do it.

So what was his lord summoning him for this time?

Hm? Something was wrong!

There was no holy aura in the surrounding space at all. He did not seem to be in Heaven. Instead, he seemed to have appeared in the Earthly World.

With his head lowered, his eyes looked upward. He saw a pair of legs, and sensed no divine aura from their owner—only the aura of a human.

Hm? It was a somewhat unusual human aura.

He abruptly raised his head. The person before him was indeed a human, not the lord he had imagined.

Since this person was not his lord, then naturally, he had no right to receive Berial's kneeling worship.

On the contrary, kneeling to a human for no reason was a humiliation to his dignity as the King of Hell.

As he stood, his height exceeded three meters. He looked down upon the human before him with a lofty, disdainful gaze.

"Human, you—"

"Could you sit down? You're too tall. If I have to look up to talk to you, my neck will get sore."

In an instant, an irresistible force compelled Berial to sit down.

For a moment, Berial was dumbfounded.

He had been ordered around by a human?

Anger made him ready to unleash his killing intent, to leap up and seize the human before him. Yet just as his hand was about to touch the human, it was as though an invisible wall had appeared and blocked it.

More precisely, a compulsive force was preventing him from harming this human.

It was as if this human had become his master.

What was going on?

It seemed this human had used a Summoning Array targeting him to summon him from Hell?

Realizing this, Berial revealed a stunned expression.

"Damn that lord! That bastard actually made me serve a human!!!"

Berial truly could not endure it any longer. He began cursing outright, no longer concealing his killing intent. It was so fierce that even the air seemed to hum and tremble.

He had had enough!

"By the way, could you calm down? Are you misunderstanding something?"

The human's unhurried attitude made Berial glare at him fiercely.

"A misunderstanding? You're merely a human. What right—"

"Please be quiet!"

Restrained by the compulsory force of the Demon Summoning Array, Berial could only shut his mouth.

"Berial, judging by your expression, you deeply hate that lord?"

"Hmph!"

"So, would you like to cooperate?"

The human's proposal made Berial, who had been snorting coldly, freeze for a moment.

"Cooperate in what?"

A mere human wanted to cooperate with him? Especially after understanding that he hated that person?

How laughable. Could this human possibly want to cooperate with him to rebel?

"How about working with me to slay a god?"

What had this human said? Had he heard correctly? Slay a god?