"What am I, anyway? Just a lucky upstart who rose to prominence out of nowhere. Demons like me may not be common in the Abyss, but there are definitely plenty of them! There's nothing remarkable about it! Not every demon that suddenly rises to power becomes Demogorgon!"
The Abyss had always been a place of constant upheaval. Every year—indeed, every day—demons rose to prominence. A demon like Solam, who had suddenly emerged, was truly nothing unusual in the Abyss. What was truly unusual was a rise like Demogorgon's.
To be honest, Solam had indeed risen very quickly, and with great momentum. But in the eyes of many major powers, Solam was really nothing unless he possessed the kind of overwhelming strength Demogorgon had—the power to disregard everything. Before that, Solam had one enormous disadvantage: he lacked a foundation.
That foundation represented many things, too many to explain in just a sentence or two. In short, to others, Solam was merely a lucky man whose rise was sudden and whose fall could be just as sudden. He had yet to truly secure his footing.
Bel saw it the same way. Solam's accomplishments were dazzling, but that was all. To devils, the true great enemies would always be existences like Demogorgon, who could change the course of the Blood War on their own.
Even setting Demogorgon aside, the Queen of Chaos's great name alone was enough to crush Solam, and Obox-ob was even more so. As for Graz'zt and Malcanthet, they had genuinely won through the depth of their foundations.
Did Solam have as many allies as Malcanthet? Did Solam have as vast an army as Graz'zt?
The answer was obvious!
So, to Bel, Solam was not the real problem.
And just as Solam had said, Bel understood demons very well. Demons