Myths Reawakened

As long as the demons were unhappy, Wayne was happy.

Pride seemed like a good demon to befriend. He had selfishly protected Heaven’s reputation and the human world’s peace. He should be commended with a red flower.

After talking about the one entertainment in this chaos, Stolas brought up another demon lord, the Lord of Lust.

“The Lord of Lust hasn’t started a war, but because of her disappearance, the Lost Paradise of the Seventh Abyss is in continuous chaos...” Stolas glanced at Wayne. “Solsknar, what do you know about the Lord of Lust’s power as an original inhabitant of the Abyss?”

“I don’t know much about her since I’m not a lecher,” Wayne shook his head and said earnestly. “The Abyssal Python’s bad blood is with the Lord of Gluttony rather than the Lord of Lust. I’ve only heard of her scandalous name as a generous succubus. Everyone speaks of her convincing softness when they talk about her.”

Stolas nodded. The Lord of Lust was generous, and the number of demons she had straddled would at least be eight thousand, if not ten thousand. The Lord of Lust couldn’t just be chasing thrills—well, it was possible. As the head of the succubi, Lust wouldn’t be a pure demon.

Just look at the consequences of sleeping with her. None of the demons who had bedded her could resist her charm, and they always did whatever she requested, whether the request was reasonable.

Hit by the poison of lust, they spent their days struggling like the walking dead, with nothing but the Lord of Lust’s bosom—brain in mind. Only by sleeping with her again would their symptoms be alleviated.

No one expected the arrangement that was supposed to make everyone happy would turn out like this. Lust, after acquiring a consort, went from a bus to a personal vehicle exclusive to said consort. Hundreds of demons asked for an explanation in the Lost Paradise and demanded that Lust cleanse them of their poison. Many of them were stronger demons among the seventy-two demon lords.

The Lord of Lust never made an appearance, and regular succubi could not take care of the furious demons. It was pure chaos.

“Um...”

Wayne gaped, marveling at the existence of such a powerful demon that could even subdue a succubus like the Lord of Lust. Who was the consort? Did he have a magical third leg?

“What an incredible demon. Where did he come from?” Wayne blurted out with a hint of admiration.

“I don’t know...” Stolas smiled at Mattea, asking for her input.

“I don’t know, either. The Lord of Lust has hidden him so well that few knew of him.” Mattea shook her head. She had met the Bat Demon and even ridden him. Rather than a bat, he was more like an octopus. His hard work almost made her fall into an abyss of lust. It took days for her to recover.

When the Gate of Hell opened in Palis, Mattea found a vessel for the Lord of Lust. With an open gate and a ready vessel, her superior could descend at any time. However, her superior was so obsessed with the octopus that she had no interest in descending to the human world. The gate ended up benefiting the Lord of Envy instead.

It was later revealed that Auriel and Hesione were among the reincarnated angels, so it was a good thing that Lust hadn’t descended. However, her superior’s lack of motivation vexed Mattea.

She brought the vessel to the Lost Paradise and bowed down to offer her superior advice by the pool, trying to wake her superior from her induced stupor. Mattea was suddenly entrusted to take over the baton, though. The octopus dragged her into the water, and when she got out, she was hoisted up.

It was a terrible memory. Putting aside the scrumptious and mouth-watering feast, Mattea got a serious blow to her ego. She suspected that the Lord of Lust had lost every match and only shirked her responsibilities because she wouldn’t admit defeat.

Why would Lust get competitive with an octopus? If she couldn’t beat him, she couldn’t. Let others try. She should look at the demons waiting for their turn outside. If those made demons didn’t get what they wanted, they would sooner or later tear the Lost Paradise apart.

That was why Mattea wanted to test-drive Wayne. She had been looking for good stallions to offer to the Lord of Lust, helping her move on from her continuous losses and regain her confidence so that she would become the Lord of Lust that Mattea admired again.

Now, Lust was a boneless lump of flesh who was either all filled up or in the process of getting filled up. She was close to surrendering her title of Lust to the octopus.

Mattea couldn’t say that, though, or she would expose the fact that she had been serving the Lord of Lust.

Facing Wayne’s curiosity, she shook her head and said regretfully, “Solsknar, if you want to know the truth, I’ll introduce you to the Lost Paradise and arrange a meeting between you and the Lord of Lust.”

“Oh, no.” Wayne shook his head vehemently. “If I become one of her conquests, I’ll never be able to move on. I’ll pass this tourist site.”

He had two succubi to himself, and they were real succubi he could access at any time. There was no reason for him to covet the Lord of Lust, the head of the succubi.

He was self-aware enough to know that while he could take care of Purity, he could not do the same to Lust.

Mattea smiled and didn’t push. She planned to sleep with Wayne until he submitted after sending Stolas off.

“The Lord of Sloth has always been lazy, so his territory is a quiet place where things are allowed to run free. It’s one of the few sanctuaries in Hell.”

Stolas summarized before talking about the last source of chaos: Gluttony, Wrath, and the flip-flopping Greed.

“The war between the Lord of Gluttony and the Lord of Wrath is suspicious. They had an amicable relationship, but suddenly started fighting. The war seems to have something to do with their soldier factories.”

“Soldier factories?”

Wayne’s curiosity was piqued. Had the demon lords started the industrialization of Hell after broadening their horizons in the human world? If so, he had to say that the two demon lords were too bright to be allowed to live.

After acquiring information on the evolution of Mechanical Augmentation, Wayne fully recognized the path’s potential. Its strength lay in its self-evolution, which allowed one to match the power of a strong opponent. The one evolving didn’t have to do anything for the Laws to iterate on its own.

The Pale Knight could already conjure missiles. With long-distance launchers, he would be able to make a precise strike at the Frozen Land from the Chosen Land. The attack wouldn’t even come with any mana disturbance. It would be unstoppable in the current world of magic.

Wayne remembered that Gluttony and Wrath had fought for Mechanical Augmentation, too, but left with nothing after Wayne claimed the evolution first. He speculated that they had initiated the industrialization of Hell after seeing the prospects of Mechanical Augmentation.

It was a nice idea, but the path was a difficult one. Without the automatically reiterating Law, it would take decades to even complete an industrial framework.

Wayne didn’t think the demon lords would be patient enough to do that. They were most likely fighting over each other’s factories for free use of the extra lathes.

[lol.jpg]

“Many strange weapons suddenly appeared in the territories of the Lord of Gluttony and the Lord of Wrath. Their familiars, especially, had abandoned their original forms and took the shapes of the jets and tanks seen in the human world—”

“Wait a minute. I didn’t get that clearly. Would you tell me more?”

Wayne’s smile stiffened, and his heart sank.

“Have you seen the flying machines and the armored vehicles in the human world, Solsknar? There’s no flesh and blood, just pure machines...” Stolas didn’t know it very well, so he roughly described what he had seen.

Wayne’s eyes widened in shock. It was impossible. He had acquired the Law of Mechanical Augmentation while Gluttony and Wrath had gotten nothing. What had they been corrupting their familiars with? Where did the Law come from?

Cold sweat dripped down from Wayne’s forehead. His instinct told him that there was more to the story. He was certain that he had acquired the full information on Mechanical Augmentation, leaving nothing behind. Because of him, Prussia no longer had a way to achieve machine ascension.

The source was in his hand. But Gluttony and Wrath... Were there three sources for Mechanical Augmentation? Was the true evolution path only forged once all three information sources were combined, and that was why Gluttony and Wrath had been fighting?

That would be the best-case scenario. If that wasn’t the case, the truth would only be worse.

Wayne wiped his forehead with his sleeve. Could it be that Gluttony and Wrath didn’t have the source of the evolution, and they had been corrupted when they thought that they had gotten what they wanted?

It won’t be a big problem. I have the Book of Greed, so I’ll get it all without paying a price or becoming corrupted, Wayne thought to himself and took a deep breath, barely calming himself. He had always been confident in his own life essence. He was always the one to corrupt others rather than the other way around.

Unless it was an ancient god!

Technically, his corruption had only failed once: with the mysterious monster in the inner world. He had tried to corrupt it and failed miserably.

He had corrupted parts of Ines’s thoughts. It only looked like a failure because the Goddess of Darkness was so strong that She could isolate the corrupted portion.

That was then. Things were different now. Wayne was certain that if he tried again, Ines wouldn’t have such an easy time.

Just like what he had done to the thoughts of the Goddess of Death in his right eye, Wayne, after becoming a demigod, was able to corrupt those with a substantially greater life essence and do it much more quickly. Perhaps he could even corrupt the monster in the inner world now.

In life essence alone, Wayne wasn’t intimidated by anyone but ancient gods.

“You seem concerned about Gluttony and Wrath in particular, Solsknar.”

“They’re fine. Tell me about the Lord of Greed. What about him?”

“He’s profiting off the war...”

***

In the topmost clouds in the boundless darkness, Enguema hadn’t found his father, the Lord of Greed, but the Lord of Envy, who had come as a guest.

Enguema’s face stiffened with the effort not to laugh.

“Enguema, what are you doing here? Since when are you so close to your father?”

Pfft!

“...”

Soon after, the Lord of Blood lay prone on the ground, paying the price for offending one of the Seven Demon Lords.

Meanwhile, a doorway of darkness opened, and out walked the Lord of Greed and a scowling bald man.

Solsknar!

A part of his thoughts had come to Hell to seek the Lord of Greed for help in eliminating Wayne.

“That’s what happened. A human named Wayne is in my territory. He’s incredibly powerful...”

“What? Wayne?”

Envy’s face stiffened. He went up to grab Solsknar’s shoulders and said in a trembling voice, “What’s his name again?”