Multiverse: Ragnarok's Beginning - The Hero King's Path

Are you joking?

Yet, from this human's eyes, Berial saw no lie.

Those narrowed eyes, with their dangerous glint flickering, even made his heart skip a beat.

In that moment, he, the King of Hell himself, felt a tangible pressure emanating from this human.

His pupils contracted. He also sensed from this human a power that no ordinary human should possess—magic.

If this human had some blood relation to the gods, that would be one thing, but as the King of Hell, he could tell at a glance that was not the case.

This human had twisted the common sense of the gods, touching the Divine Realm with a mortal body!

Chapter 027: The Heavenly Realm Has Always Ruled Hell

Touching the Divine Realm with a mortal body?

Though he now possessed magic, in the eyes of Berial, the King of Hell, it was pitifully weak.

If not for the forced master-servant relationship imposed by the summoning array, he could crush him with a wave of his hand.

"Heh heh heh, interesting. That guy gave you magic and the summoning array to call me, and now you're ready to betray him?"

Berial couldn't help but sneer, though he hadn't expected that guy to do such a thing, and succeed in giving a human magic.

But this shouldn't be right. Why would that guy bother researching how to grant magic to ordinary humans? Wasn't that just asking for trouble?

Once humans had magic, their minds grew more complex, harder to manage.

"Mr. Berial, let me correct you a bit. First, the magic and the summoning array that called you weren't given to me by that guy. Though they are somewhat related. I saw two pages from a book he had, studied them out of curiosity, and gained magic. Summoning you came along with it."

This human's explanation left Berial stunned. Was he lying?

No, he could tell this human was telling the truth.

In that moment, he no longer cast a disdainful glance. He no longer looked down on this human, but instead stared with disbelief.

On this human, he saw no divinity. That meant he was born an ordinary human, not a descendant of any god, not one with a Divine Bloodline.

And yet, such a human had touched the Divine Realm, completely overturning their understanding.

After all, in the past, there had been gods who tried to let humans master magic, but the result was that only humans born from the union of god and human could touch magic.

This person, however, had touched magic without relying on that, and had even directly touched the Root. That meant he had done what even gods could not.

In a sense, this human had surpassed the gods!

"As for betrayal? I've never believed in any so-called god, so where's the betrayal? On the contrary, they tried to stuff some hints into my brain without permission. That's not right. So, I want to stuff some random things into the gods' heads too."

The human before him spoke calmly, seemingly unangered, but Berial inexplicably felt a chill.

"So, Mr. Berial, what's your decision?"

The renewed invitation left Berial silent.

Now calmer, he had to think carefully. Was this human truly worth the risk of cooperating with him?

If he betrayed and failed, his fate would be utterly miserable.

He couldn't imagine what torment he would suffer then.

They probably wouldn't kill him, but they would make life worse than death.

But should he keep enduring?

He was sick of it!

Was his hatred for the gods simply because he was treated like a slave?

Of course not. There were deeper secrets involved.

His public identity was once the first angel born under God, once holding great glory as the Vice-Lord of the Heavenly Realm. He was arrogant, and pride became his original sin.

In the end, his arrogance led him to try to replace God, become the commander of the Dark Legion, the chief conspirator of the rebellion against heaven, and start a war.

But he lost, utterly defeated. He fled the Heavenly Realm, entered Hell, and became a Demon.

Thus, he became the Great Demon King of Hell, commanding countless Demons, opposing the Heavenly Realm, becoming its number one headache.

Yet, even as the Great Demon King of Hell, he was still manipulated by God. All of this was merely God's scheme.

He was just a pawn God used to control and rule the Demons.

On the surface, in the eyes of the gods, he seemed to have broken away from the Lord of Heaven's divine system, but in truth, the older Main Gods knew he was still a dog under that guy's command.

Moreover, his true identity was not that of a created Power Angel. He originally belonged to his own mythological system.

One day, that guy suddenly invaded, devouring his entire mythological system cleanly, as if it had never existed.

Replacing it was the mythological system called Heaven.

And there were many other divine systems devoured without warning like his. Lucifer and the other Fallen Angels originally had their own mythological systems, all suffering the same fate.

They were forcibly transformed into so-called angels, their past memories washed away, naively serving him as their creator.

But that technique to erase past memories, scrubbing the soul completely clean, was not perfect. They, the Fallen Angels, had recovered their past memories, which was why they raised the banner of rebellion.

Unfortunately, in the end, they were still just toys to be played with.

Furthermore, many of the demons in Hell were originally gods themselves; they were not transformed from angels but were directly corrupted into demons.

Among the Seventy-Two Pillars of Demons under his command, some were originally deities.

"Then what do you plan to do? How do we cooperate?"

This was Berial's reply after a long silence, and this answer had already made his stance clear.

If mere humans could have the courage to stand against the gods, would he truly be so cowardly?

Had his bravery become so pathetic? Was he even inferior to humans?

How laughable—when had he become such a timid wretch?

He had truly had enough of that endless, humiliating servitude; it was nothing more than being a walking corpse.

Let him just throw caution to the wind!

"Simple. I need you to teach humans all kinds of secret arts and magic, train human soldiers, and teach them how to hunt angels—even slay gods!"

These words from the human left Berial stunned.

"Human soldiers?"

"Yes. I will enable more people to possess magical power as well."

"But even with magical power, humans can never escape the limits of their lifespans. I don't believe a mere few decades is enough to train a force capable of rivaling the armies of Heaven."

Let alone Heaven—they probably couldn't even defeat the army commanded by any one of his Demon Gods among the Seventy-Two Pillars.

"True, but a few decades certainly isn't enough, so—"

As the human spoke up to this point, Berial's expression suddenly shifted. He sensed another presence intruding into this great hall.

Was it God? No, that wasn't right. The other party wasn't that powerful.

Someone was in another time, peering into this era from the future!

At the same time, the human, as if also sensing something, stopped speaking.

Without hesitation, Berial unleashed a terrifying surge of power toward the location of that intruder. There was no way he would let them escape!

Chapter 028: King Solomon Can See the Future?

Rewinding the historical images and moving around, Brunhilde finally found what she was looking for.

King Solomon was deep inside a palace, conducting a very mysterious ritual in a great hall, seemingly summoning a demon.

From the complexity and mystique of that Demon Summoning Array, it was clear the target of the summoning was no ordinary demon.

The target was likely one of the Seventy-Two Pillars of Demons.

When the Demon Summoning Array burst into light, Brunhilde also felt a chilling aura.

Then, from the Hell Passage, a figure emerged that left her stunned—it was the King of Hell, Berial.

She had considered the possibility of him being summoned, but she thought the odds were far too low.

Although King Solomon had mastered magical power, compared to the figures in mythology, he was still far too weak. It didn't seem plausible that he could summon an existence of this level.

Moreover, as the Lord of Hell, Berial was such an arrogant Demon King. Why would he casually answer the call of a mere human?

It was like an ordinary farmer in a country summoning the king—something that was virtually impossible.

Yet this very thing was happening right before her eyes.

So, Berial's appearance must have been out of necessity, perhaps on the orders of that God.

But wait—wasn't Berial hostile to that God? How could he obey such a command?

For Brunhilde, who sought to oppose the gods, her deep investigation had uncovered some deeper truths. In reality, Berial had never truly escaped that God's control.

After becoming a demon, this identity made it convenient for that God to use him for unsavory tasks.

However, Berial's reaction upon appearing and his conversation with Solomon overturned Brunhilde's speculation. Berial was not acting on God's orders.

Berial had been summoned by King Solomon himself.

What shocked Brunhilde the most was that King Solomon had confidently understood two pages of the Holy Scripture, deciphered them, and made them his own.

Such an unbelievable feat was like a pig solving the world's most difficult mathematical problems in human society—utterly absurd.

Now, it seemed King Solomon had successfully invited Berial to conspire with him.

If so, then the Seventy-Two Pillars of Demons under Berial's command would also obey King Solomon's orders.

"Ah-choo!"

An unexpected sneeze—Goll couldn't help it—rang out with unusual clarity in the great hall.

This reaction made Brunhilde's face change instantly. Without a second thought, she grabbed Goll and prepared to flee the hall.

No, wrong!!!

She should immediately exit this history. So she summoned the Akasha System, like logging out of a virtual game back to reality.

However, realizing her reaction was mistaken and needing to correct it immediately, it was already too late to log out.

A terrifying force erupted from the King of Hell, Berial. In an instant, it engulfed her completely.

At this moment, that force pierced through the barriers of time and space, yanking her firmly in place.

Calling it a penetration of the time-space barrier wasn't quite right either. It was more like a hand grabbing her through a plastic film—unable to pull her to the other side of the membrane, but able to pin her here, unable to leave.

At this moment, it was as if someone had forcibly dragged her into deep water, bearing the crushing pressure.

"Oh? And who might this be? Two Demigods actually using Akasha's Chamber?"

The King of Hell Berial let out a voice that was both amused and icy.

Normally, Akasha's Chamber wasn't open to just any demigod. So what was the deal with these two? Berial was a little curious.

And as he increased his strength, the space that had been empty in his vision began to ripple irregularly.

As the ripples intensified, two figures gradually emerged—two transparent silhouettes.

Or perhaps it was more accurate to describe them as two wavering forms condensed from water.

Though he couldn't fully discern their true identities, Berial could roughly deduce which pantheon they belonged to.

"Norse Valkyries?"

Even if he couldn't drag them directly into this era, he could keep them fixed in this Time-Space Interlayer, preventing them from returning to their proper timeline.

His eyes narrowed, and Berial's gaze turned vicious.

Normally, once restrained by him, a mere two Valkyries should be panicking in confusion. And indeed, one of them—a little girl Valkyrie—was panicking in confusion.

But the older Valkyrie remained somewhat composed. That meant there was some kind of backup plan?

Was there someone else in Akasha's Chamber?

A Norse Main God? Someone who could pull them back at any moment?

No matter what, whether or not these two had overheard their conversation, they had to be dealt with.