Myths Reawakened

Underground catacombs.

Palis’s underground catacombs occupied a large space. Under Headless Knight Rognes’s years of tireless construction, it had become a well-connected world that seemed to exist independently.

It was indeed a standalone world. The underground space under Rognes’s rule was just like a domain formed by a Philosopher’s Stone. The world of magic in Franc, namely the four churches that had influence in the country, had only ever entered the outer rim, never stepping into the heart of the catacombs.

After the demon alliance claimed the catacombs, they doubled its scale with another renovation. It was hard to say whether the catacombs were bigger than Palis itself.

At the western entrance, Wayne led a group of women in, including Hesione, who stood by his side, Hestia, and the Holy Maidens of the three churches.

Corte and Galen both had access to divine arts and could summon the goddesses to fight in their stead when they needed, making them formidable combatants as long as they weren’t fighting their own knights. Sukra, with the divine power Wayne injected back into her after she handed the Goddess of Death’s thoughts over to him, could dish out incredible damage until she ran out of mana. These women were as powerful as they were beautiful. Wayne wasn’t worried about them.

He had left the other ladies behind. Isabella’s only strength was her appetite. A gold-ranked mage like her would only be marching to her death. Sandrine had mediocre power and couldn’t even put up a resistance against the Holy Maidens. Givenchy was competent, but the underground catacombs were still too high-level for a newcomer of the Void like her. They stayed above ground with the elites of the Church of Nature that Sandrine had gathered in case the demons cheated and attempted to take the general public with them.

Wayne closed his eyes and extended his thoughts to map out the tunnels in the catacombs. He had entered the catacombs in the inner world and inspected it so that he could remember the map for an eventual raid and a fair duel with the Headless Knight. Unfortunately, it had been his wishful thinking that the knowledge would apply.

The Headless Knight didn’t exist in the inner world, and the catacombs, without his touch, were completely different. Moreover, the demon alliance had renovated these catacombs, making them completely unrecognizable.

“Stop touching me, Boss. Time to get to work.”

Hesione peeled Wayne’s hand from her backside. For some reason, Mona hadn’t taken over even once these past few days, making her take all the output from him. That would’ve been fine since they had already gotten to know each other, but now that Wayne was revealed to be the Anointed One, he felt like a stranger to her, and she once again became timid about getting intimate with him.

To make things worse, she couldn’t pretend to be Mona now. It had become a real problem.

It didn’t help that Wayne loved to tease her when there were more people around, like right now. She didn’t even have to turn around to sense the derisive gazes on her. Hestia and Corte, especially, might as well be breathing fire.

Life was hard!

If she had known that she would encounter these many infuriating things in her search for the Anointed One—no, if she had known the kind of person the Anointed One would turn out to be, she wouldn’t have reincarnated into the human world at all.

Wayne put his hands behind his back, with bright light bursting from his eyes. From afar, he watched the crimson clouds cascade to the ground, followed by three streaks of white light. After five minutes, he led the group into the catacombs.

“Let me say again: follow my orders and do not act on your own—”

Hesione and Hestia were already gone.

They hadn’t hurried off to take care of the demons, but had instead been teleported away. With their lack of information, they hadn’t expected the demons to have measures against reincarnated angels in place.

“How troublesome.” Wayne looked around at the three Holy Maidens. “Go into your elven forms. We have been made. Let’s just enter through the front door.”

At the same time, he reached out to Hesione with his thoughts to zero in on her location. Not good. The reincarnated angels were together, surrounded by the demon alliance, and they were led by the Lord of Envy!

“That’s quick!”

Wayne snapped his fingers. He and Sukra took point, with Corte and Galen right behind them.

All three Holy Maidens had transformed. The sun elf and moonlight elf were a familiar sight to Wayne. Since the two Holy Maidens had been beautiful to begin with, their appeal became even greater after turning into elves. He couldn’t help but throw them a few more glances.

Sukra had become an elf, too. She didn’t look like a grey-skinned elf as Wayne had imagined based on rumors. With her faith in the Goddess of Death, she had become a death elf with pale, smooth skin that looked like jade. She was so pale that she looked cold to the touch.

With Wayne’s eyesight, he could even see the blueish purple vessels under her skin, which could get disturbing after a while.

“Not too bad. I thought it would be creepier. At least it’s better than a skeleton...”

The four of them traveled incredibly fast, moving a hundred meters in the blink of an eye. Four-colored currents swept along the empty tunnel, generating an eerie, ghostly cry.

Boom!!

Following the noise, three layers of vitality fields formed. Three strangely-shaped demons were in their way, two tall and one short. Their human vessels had turned so deformed due to the corruption that they were beyond simple description. Before Wayne could see them clearly, a wave of thick mist swept up to cut off all escape routes, leaving no holes unfilled.

“Four demons...”

“Hahaha—” x3

The three demons blocking their way weren’t just any demons, but demons who had made a name for themselves in Hell. The Sleep Demon, the Dream-eater, and the Heart-eater were triplets. Behind them was the Mist Demon.

Following the Troll and the One-eyed Demon’s defeat, the Mist Demon was now in charge of patrolling the underground catacombs.

Sukra told Wayne the four demons’ power telepathically: “Sleep Demon, Dream-eater, and Heart-eater are brothers. The oldest, Dream Demon, is the most powerful, while his two brothers specialize in psychic attack and physical attack, respectively. They never leave behind an intact body after they’re done with their enemies...”

“The Mist Demon is a mysterious one that I do not know well. Be careful. This isn’t mist, but the demon’s body, with incredible parasitizing power...”

Wayne didn’t need her explanation since he was an accomplished scholar in the study of Hell in his own right. He had also been studying with Hesione, a living encyclopedia of Hell, every night lately, further expanding his knowledge.

“Four on four, perfect,” the Sleep Demon said. It was a good example of the rules of the jungle in Hell—whoever was the strongest had the final say.

“No, it’s one against four. I’m in a hurry, so just attack together.” Wayne covered his right eye with a hand. He hadn’t had the chance to use his newly acquired skill, and these four would be the perfect test subjects.

When he revealed his right eye again, the grey of Death clawed out, and a doorway of skeletons and rusty metal emerged in the three demons’ vitality fields, leading to the Underworld.

At that moment, the omnipresent mist swept toward Wayne and the three Holy Maidens. It didn’t consist of vapor, but particles too small to be measured. A handful would contain hundreds of billions.

“I said it’s one against four, including you.”

Wayne exhaled before inhaling deeply, his lung capacity so great that he was able to take all the mist into his body like a bottomless pit. The Mist Demon couldn’t be happier to meet someone this arrogant. That was exactly what he wanted.

He didn’t even have to use his vitality field. Allowing Wayne’s body to take him in, he was going to claim it for himself.

He had it all planned out. He would feign defeat and pretend that he had been devoured by Wayne, biding his time to take out the three female elves one by one.

Huh? Why is this body... different from a human’s?

The Mist Demon didn’t understand. All he could see were layers upon layers of pale white flesh, forming a complicated structure in Wayne’s body. It was as if he had entered another underground catacomb.

He couldn’t stay here!

“You’re here already. Why don’t you hear me out?”

Endless whispers surrounded the Mist Demon, breaking the mist down. On the fringe of the sea of mist, the originally intangible mist gradually took the concrete form of tiny white particles.

The sea of mist roared in terror as countless mouths rushed in all directions, looking for a way out. However, the pale cavernous world seemed infinite, and the Mist Demon couldn’t find any light no matter where he went. As the whispers grew increasingly eerie and incomprehensible, the cave system began to writhe, manifesting white, featureless faces.

“I was going to give you a note. You demons don’t know how to laugh right. Listen now. I’ll show you how a professional laughs...” xN

“Kekekeke—” xN

Endless laughter smothered the sea of mist with sonic waves, turning it white. The Seven Deadly Sins attempted to corrupt the paleness, but vanished under the sweeping white foam.

Gulp.

The Book of Greed opened its large eyeball wide. It was finally its turn to feast at the buffet!

***

Boom!!!

A pillar of white light pierced through the ground and reached the depths of the underground catacombs. After a brief explosion, an incredible echoing wave rippled through the tunnels. The volatile currents and violent shockwaves were only a greeting, but already made the catacombs boil. The demons at the heart of the catacombs lunged forward. Then, realizing that the trouble was bigger than anticipated, they lurched backward.

The beam of light faded. Three figures unfolded their wings and hovered in the air. Olga and Fred only had a pair, while Auriel had three pairs—that was what had quieted the demons down.

I can’t beat you. You’re the master here!

Among the cowards, only three demons had not taken a step back: the Big Three of the demon alliance, Stolas the Lord of Night, Enguema the Lord of Blood, and Mattea the Abyssal Spider Queen. They each represented the brain, the brawn, and the boobs.

Those were the three ways to survive in the world!

Stolas and Mattea noted Auriel’s six wings and familiar energy, both caught off guard. They couldn’t figure out why a Śār would be among the reincarnated angels. Had Heaven foreseen the opening of the Gate of Hell and thus sent the Śār in advance?

Stolas was the most quick-witted among them. Since the Gate of Hell hadn’t opened fully, the three of them combined wouldn’t be Auriel’s match even with the Authorities granted by their territories.

The only ones who could take on a Śār were the Seven Demon Lords!

Stolas sent a trace of thoughts to Hell: Śār here. Hurry.

It took no time for the Lord of Envy to make a mad dash through the half-open Gate of Hell and push a large amount of thoughts into the underground catacombs.

Envy burst out laughing, pointing at the six-winged figure before him. “Hesione, I finally got—huh? Auriel, why are you here?”

After a pause, he turned to Stolas with a glare. Where was the Śār he was talking about?

Stolas sighed. Auriel was a Śār!

Don’t tell me you’re still hung up on the heavenly joke no one bought!