Was he joking?
Yet Berial saw no lie in this human's eyes.
Those narrowed eyes, gleaming with danger, actually made his heart tremble.
At that moment, he, the mighty King of Hell, felt a tangible pressure emanating from this human.
His pupils constricted. He also sensed a power from this human that humans absolutely could not possess—magic power.
It would have been one thing if this human had some blood relation to a god, but as the King of Hell, he could tell at a glance that he did not.
This human had twisted the gods' common sense and, with a human body, touched the Divine Realm!
He had touched the Divine Realm with a mortal body?
Though he possessed magic power, in Berial's eyes as the King of Hell, he was still pitifully weak.
If not for the summoning array's forcibly established master-servant relationship, Berial could have crushed him to death with a wave of his hand.
"Hehehe, interesting. That person gave you magic power and a Magic Array to summon me, and now you immediately want to turn around and betray them?"
Berial could not help but sneer. Still, he had not expected that person to do such a thing—and to successfully grant a human magic power.
But that should not have been possible. Why would that person deliberately research a way for ordinary humans to obtain magic power? Wasn't that just creating trouble for themselves?
Once humans possessed magic power, they would have more thoughts and become harder to manage.
"Mr. Berial, let me correct you slightly. First, neither the magic power nor the summoning array that summoned you was given to me by that person. Though they are somewhat related. I read two pages from the book in his hand, studied them out of curiosity, and gained magic power. Then, while I was at it, I summoned you."
This human's explanation stunned Berial. Was he lying?
No. He could tell this human was speaking the truth.
At that moment, he no longer looked down on this human with disdain. Instead, he looked at him in disbelief.
There was no divinity in this human, which meant he had been born an ordinary human, not the descendant of some god or a human carrying a Divine Bloodline.
Yet such a human had touched the Divine Realm. It completely overturned everything they knew.
One had to know that gods had attempted in the past to let humans wield magic. In the end, only humans born from the union of gods and humans could touch magic.
Yet this person had not relied on that to touch magic. He had directly touched the Root itself, which meant he had accomplished something even gods could not.
In a sense, this human had surpassed the gods!
"As for betrayal? I have never believed in any so-called god, so where would betrayal come from? On the contrary, they casually tried to stuff all sorts of suggestions into my mind. That behavior was wrong, so I want to stuff some messy things into the gods' heads too."
The human before him still spoke in such a gentle, amiable manner, as if he were not angry at all. Yet Berial inexplicably felt a chill.
"So, Mr. Berial, what do you think?"
The renewed invitation made Berial fall silent.
Now that he had calmed down, he had to think carefully. Was this human truly worth the risk of cooperating with?
If the betrayal failed, his fate would undoubtedly be utterly miserable.
He could not imagine what kind of torture he would suffer then.
They probably would not kill him, but they would make his life worse than death.
But was he supposed to keep enduring it?
He had truly had enough!
Was the reason he hated the gods so much simply because he had been used as a slave?
Of course not. There were also certain secrets involved.
His public identity was that he had once been the first angel born under God. He had once possessed immense glory and had been the Vice-Lord of Heaven. He had been exceedingly arrogant, and pride had thus become his original sin.
In the end, he had become so arrogant that he wanted to replace God. He became the commander of the Dark Legion, the chief instigator of the rebellion against Heaven, and started a war.
But he lost—lost utterly. He fled the Heavenly Realm, entered Hell, and became a demon.
He thus became the Great Demon King of Hell, commanding countless demons. He continued to oppose Heaven and became Heaven's most troublesome enemy.
Though he had become the Great Demon King of Hell, he was actually still controlled by God. It had all been nothing more than God's scheme.
He was merely a chess piece God used to control and rule the demons.
On the surface, to the gods, he appeared to have broken away from the Lord of Heaven's pantheon. In truth, some of the older Main Gods knew he was still the other's dog.
Furthermore, his true identity had not been that of a created Power Angel. He originally had his own mythological system.
Then one day, that person suddenly invaded and devoured the mythological system he belonged to completely, as though it had never existed.
In its place came the mythological system known as Heaven.
There were quite a few pantheons devoured without warning like his. Fallen Angels such as Lucifer had originally possessed their own mythological systems as well, and they had suffered the same fate.
They had been forcibly transformed into so-called angels, their past memories washed away, and had naively served that person as though he were their creator.
However, the spell that erased their past memories and thoroughly cleansed their souls was not perfect. Those Fallen Angels had recovered their old memories, which was why they had raised the banner of rebellion.
Unfortunately, in the end, they had still merely been played in the palm of that person's hand.
Also, many of the demons in Hell had originally been gods. They had not been transformed into angels, but had instead been directly corrupted into demons.
Among the Seventy-Two Pillars of Demons under his command, some had originally been deities.
"Then what do you intend to do? How will we cooperate?"
That was Berial's answer after his silence, and it already made his decision clear.
If a mere human could have the courage to oppose the gods, was he going to be a coward?
Had his courage become so pathetic? Was he now inferior even to a human?
How laughable. Since when had he become so timid?
He had truly had enough of that endless humiliation and servitude. That was nothing more than the existence of a walking corpse.
Then he would go all in!
"It is simple. I need you to teach humans all kinds of secret arts and magic, train human soldiers, teach them how to hunt angels, and even how to slay gods!"
The human's words left Berial stunned.
"Human soldiers?"
"Yes. I will let more people possess magic power."
"But even with magic power, humans ultimately cannot escape the limitations of a human lifespan. I do not believe a mere few decades would be enough to train a force capable of rivaling Heaven's angel army."
Not to mention Heaven—even the army commanded by any one of the Seventy-Two Pillars of Demons under him would likely be too much for them.
"Indeed. But a few decades definitely will not be enough, so—"
After hearing the human say that, Berial's expression suddenly changed slightly. He sensed another presence intruding into the hall.
Was it God? No, that was not right. The other party was not that powerful.
Someone in another time was peering into this era from the future!
At the same time, the human, seemingly sensing it as well, stopped speaking.
Thus, Berial did not hesitate to unleash a terrifying force toward the location of the intruder. He absolutely could not let them leave!
King Solomon Could Peer Into the Future?
Rewinding the historical imagery and looking around, Brunhilde finally found him.
King Solomon was conducting an extremely mysterious ritual in a hall deep within a palace, seemingly summoning a demon.
Judging from the complexity and mystery of the Demon Summoning Array, the target was clearly no ordinary demon.
The summoned target should have been one of the Seventy-Two Pillars of Demons.
When the Demon Summoning Array erupted with light, Brunhilde also felt an aura that made her heart tremble.
Then, a figure that shocked her emerged from the Hell Passage. It was King of Hell Berial.
It was not that she had never considered the possibility of summoning this figure, but she had thought the odds were far too low.
Though King Solomon possessed magic power, compared to figures from mythology, he was still far too weak. No matter how she looked at it, he should not have been capable of summoning an existence of this level.
Moreover, Berial was the Lord of Hell, such a proud Demon King. How could he casually respond to a human's summons?
It was like an ordinary farmer in a country summoning the king. It was simply something that should have been impossible.
Yet it happened right before her eyes.
So Berial's appearance should have been forced, perhaps by that god's command.
But then again, wasn't Berial hostile to that god? How could he obey that god's orders?
For Brunhilde, who sought to deal with the gods, deeper investigation had revealed more information. Berial had never actually escaped that god's control.
After becoming a demon, Berial's identity made it convenient for that god to use him for certain unsavory tasks.
However, Berial's reaction after appearing, along with his conversation with Solomon, overturned Brunhilde's speculation. Berial had not been driven by a god's command.
Berial had been summoned by King Solomon himself.
What shocked Brunhilde most was that King Solomon had confidently understood and deciphered two pages of the holy book, then made them his own.
It was as unbelievable as a pig solving a mathematical problem that modern human society had yet to solve. It was that absurd.
Now, King Solomon seemed to have successfully invited Berial into a conspiracy.
If that was the case, then the Seventy-Two Pillars of Demons under Berial would also obey King Solomon's commands, right?
"Achoo~!"
A sudden sneeze escaped Goll. In this great hall, the sound was exceptionally clear.
Brunhilde's expression changed drastically at that reaction. Without hesitation, she grabbed Goll and prepared to flee the hall.
No, that was wrong!!!
She should have immediately withdrawn from this history. So she summoned the Akasha System, intending to log out into reality as if she were in a virtual game.
However, when she realized her response was wrong and tried to correct it, it was already too late to log out.
A terrifying power erupted from King of Hell Berial. In an instant, it swallowed the place where she was.
At that moment, the power passed through the barrier of time and space and held her tightly.
Calling it a penetration of the time-space barrier was not quite right. It was more like a hand grabbing her through a sheet of plastic. Though it could not pull her through to the other side, it could pin her firmly here and prevent her from leaving.
At that moment, it felt as though she had been forcibly dragged into deep water and was enduring immense pressure.
"Oh? I was wondering who it was. Two demigods are using Akasha's Chamber?"
King of Hell Berial spoke in an amused yet chilling voice.
Normally, demigods were not permitted to enter Akasha's Chamber freely. So what was going on with these two demigods? Berial was rather curious.
As he increased his power, irregular ripples appeared in the space that had seemed empty within his sight.
As the ripples intensified, two figures gradually appeared. They were two transparent figures.
Or perhaps a more fitting description would be two swaying figures formed from water.
Though he could not completely discern their true identities, Berial still roughly deduced the pantheon they belonged to.
"Valkyries of Norse?"
Though he could not directly pull them into this era, he could keep them fixed within this Time-Space Interlayer, preventing them from returning to normal time and space.
Berial narrowed his eyes, and his gaze turned savage.
Normally, after being restrained by him, two mere Valkyries should have panicked helplessly. Indeed, one of the little Valkyries was panicking helplessly.
But the older Valkyrie was rather calm. Did that mean she had some backup plan?
Were there others in Akasha's Chamber?
A Main God of Norse? Could they pull them back at any time?
No matter what, whether these two had heard their conversation or not, they had to be dealt with.
Before you continue