Mephistopheles?
Hill blinked.
Had that fellow stayed after sending Draculus in, camping outside to watch the show?
Even with the difference in time between the inside and outside, that was still quite a while!
Hill had long known that Mephistopheles was intensely interested in Asmodeus... honestly, he showed even more concern for the Lord of Hell than Bisozeya did.
But camping outside a little world, watching with such relish for all these years...
If that wasn't love, what was?
After all, Asmodeus hadn't appeared in this world very often.
Still, Hill could guess that Mephistopheles had chosen to intercept Lathander for Asmodeus because he didn't want anyone to find out whom he had sent into this world.
Rather than expose Draculus, he would sooner act as the muscle himself.
As long as he could add a little trouble to Asmodeus's future, Mephistopheles could swallow any humiliation.
Besides, Asmodeus might have hinted at a wonderful future... even without mentioning an attack on Mount Celestia, merely bringing up making those Order Gods feel the power of Hell would be enough to make Mephistopheles fight ferociously.
The devils of Hell and the demons of the Abyss both believed a certain rumor... that the Blood War had begun as a conspiracy by the Order Gods.
Hill didn't know whether it was true, either, but the rumor benefited Asmodeus immensely, so he had probably embellished it a little himself.
Still, to be honest, it was rather strange that the most lawless types of demons would run into the most unscrupulous, ruthless devils as soon as they rushed out of the Abyss... and that both sides happened to have members of their respective royal families backing them.
One could say that fate had brought them together, and that Hell and the Abyss didn't deserve power structures