Myths Reawakened

The distant mountain ranges blended with the darkness, with red pulsing light and crackling currents. In the nearby black forest, phosphorescent light wobbled. Crimson rivers wove through piles of rubble. The pungent smell of sulfur, blood, and charred things permeated the air, making every inhale burn the lungs.

This was Hell!

In the center of the rubble was a sizable black castle still under construction. Green demons in tattered clothes transported the cut-up stones into the construction site with wooden carts.

They were the lowest-class demons in Hell with a protruding horn on their forehead, resembling goblins, the best companions of female mages, knights, and priests. The foremen were familiar faces, too: ogres, goblins’ more evolved relatives.

Wayne looked down at the boisterous construction site from the watchtower standing above the castle. His handsome face looked visibly sorrowful. He didn’t understand how Solsknar was able to do what the Lord of Envy had failed to do.

By sensing the spatial disturbances around him, though, he found his answer.

Solsknar had sent his thoughts to Hell and acquired a territory here, which spanned five hundred kilometers in radius with the castle in the center. It was a sizable territory that made him a lord. While he hadn’t gone to Hell himself, his thoughts remained. By contacting Hell through his main body, he had transported the space that Wayne occupied to Hell.

It was a losing bargain. His main body suffered serious damage, and his replica of thoughts in Hell died at once. Originally, it was supposed to be his trump card and insurance in case he ran into the rightful owners while stealing from the ruins. It made sure he had a way out. After being beaten by Wayne until he started questioning his life, though, he used the card on Wayne in the heat of the moment.

It was a trick that the demons of Hell couldn’t use. Even creatures of the Abyss were influenced by Heaven’s seal because the Abyss had become Hell’s back garden, thus compromising the cost-effectiveness of the move.

When he used it on an ally, he needed his ally to cooperate and keep their guard down; when he used it on an enemy, his rank had to be higher than theirs.

Wayne fit the criteria. While he had taken on the five of them on his own, beating up Solsknar and the other demigods one-sidedly, Solsknar was a true demigod, and Wayne wasn’t.

“Experience is power. The other demigods anticipated their defeat before they pursued victory and prioritized their lives instead.” Wayne shook his head. Yesterday he was chasing high with a Śār, and today, he had fallen to Hell. The great disparity left him particularly vexed.

He didn’t intend to stay just because he was here. He wanted to leave at once.

There was only one way for him to return to the human world from Hell: open the Gate of Hell!

“I’ve been on the frontline preventing the Gate of Hell from opening, but I’m going to open it now?” Wayne made a face. “What’s this... Karma?”

On the bright side, he didn’t have to open the Gate of Hell fully. As long as he projected his thoughts to the human world, he would be able to find Hesione in Londan, and, since Śārim could freely pass through the gate, she would be able to take him back.

The problem was how he would send his thoughts to the human world.

That was a subject demons had been studying for years. They each had their special methods and had come up with a complete SOP. Wayne only had to learn from their experience.

First, though...

“Let me break through the bottleneck to demigodhood first!”

Wayne plunged to the lava pool five meters below the castle, pushing against the Golden Triangle in his body. The Golden Triangle was a mark of Gold-ranked mages and legendary mages. The Gold rank was the starting point and the consolidation of the foundation, while the Legendary rank was the stage for accumulating a great amount of knowledge.

The consolidation of the foundation and the accumulation of knowledge completed the transitional stage, allowing one to attempt to overcome the bottleneck and ascend to demigodhood, thus transcending life.

Wayne inspected his unusually stable and resilient Golden Triangle. How sturdy a foundation he had.

Any other legendary mages would collapse and go into a vegetative state from having their Golden Triangle lose balance and fall apart if they took in too much knowledge at once. It had nothing to do with the purity of the knowledge and whether it was corrupted knowledge; the sheer quantity of it would make knowledge poisonous.

The Golden Triangle consisted of life, void, and self. They could simply correspond to one’s life essence, knowledge, and thoughts. When too much knowledge rushed in, the thoughts would fail to process everything, and the excess knowledge would change one’s life essence and thoughts.

Like dominoes, the chain of events would make one’s thoughts collapse completely, and their life essence would change under the abuse of the knowledge.

That would be no different from being corrupted by a vitality domain—or being bestowed with evolution.

The one difference was that vitality domains were an active skill. Demigods created their vassals at their own discretion, avoiding feeding them too much until they burst.

Wayne’s Golden Triangle was too stable, and whatever knowledge he took in, the knowledge would be the one to chase after his life essence and thoughts. Unless an ancient god personally lectured him, his life essence would never change. It would continue to go down his path of evolution!

What he had to do now was to extract the Laws stored in the Book of Greed to deal his Golden Triangle a hard enough blow to crush and integrate it. Demigod was a complete being that had integrated the life, void, and self components to form a universe of independent self, transcending the mundane concept of life.

Those were Wayne’s findings from his study of Hesione. He had collected a great amount of data with his thoughts.

He would have no problem copying her homework. If he ever failed, it would only be because he hadn’t stolen enough knowledge!

***

Two days later, June first in the Chosen Land.

A pale figure emerged from the lava with faint energy that seemed transparent. He existed and could be perceived by the naked eye, but he repelled attention and eluded senses.

After a wobble, Wayne returned to the world and became a concrete existence.

He got lucky. The combined investments from Ines, Kaleb, and Siluk, as well as the knowledge he received from the Abyssal Sword and all of the legacy of the Life Alliance, were just enough to break his stable Golden Triangle. If he missed even one of those things, he would fail to rank up.

If he hadn’t raided the Papal State and set up the Church of Death to take their Philosopher’s Stone, he wouldn’t have overcome the bottleneck.

“If becoming a demigod requires this much, where am I going to get enough resources to become a god?”

The Astral Plane?

Wayne sighed. That was an option. The Astral Plane was a great source of knowledge with innumerable Laws, but he had such a large appetite that fine dining served slowly would only make him hungrier as he ate. In the end, he concluded that he had to exploit the goddesses for his needs.

“There’s also Heaven and Hell. I haven’t taken all of the Golden Law and Seven Deadly Sins!”

Wayne pondered with a frown. Perhaps it was a good thing for him to be in Hell. He had to come sooner or later for his progress. He sought knowledge, and the demon lords had knowledge. They were a perfect match!

“It’s even easier to go to Heaven. Once the reincarnated angels find the real Anointed One, I’ll be able to ride on Hesione’s bandwagon to Heaven.”

It wouldn’t be an issue. After some consideration, he decided to test the Seven Demon Lords to learn where he stood. If the Seven Demon Lords presented no challenge, justice shall prevail as it always did. He, an agent of justice, would uphold the universal, unquestionable truth.

If the Seven Demon Lords lived up to their reputation, he would step back and avoid them for now. It was true wisdom to know when to lay low to grow one’s power. Only those who could lower their pride when necessary would amount to something.

In a flash, Wayne transformed into Solsknar, landing in the construction site.

“Hey, you, perverted goblin... I’m talking to you. I have some questions to ask you.”

“Milord, I’m not a perverted goblin. This used to be the territory of the Lord of Gluttony.”

“A gluttonous goblin, then. Same difference.”

“I’m not a go—”

“Then a gluttonous ogre. Cut the crap!” Wayne interrupted with a wave, hitting the ogre with a thread of thoughts to extract the answers he wanted with his eloquence and extraordinary looks.

First, this used to be the Lord of Gluttony’s territory. Second, there was an ongoing war that left the land restless.

Hell had always been a chaotic place where restless battles took place. It was part of Hell’s culture, which would be the highlights listed on a tourist brochure if there were tourists in Hell.

Things were different this time, though. Gluttony and Wrath of the Seven Demon Lords had suddenly violated the non-aggression treaty and conquered the smaller territories in the buffer zone between their territories, entering an incessant war.

Before, conflicts had never escalated beyond localized skirmishes, and the Seven Demon Lords remained aloof, claiming that they were on the side of justice. Their sudden involvement thus aroused concerns.

Another arousing matter was the territory of the Lord of Lust. Lust, who had been the object of many’s desire, hadn’t made an appearance for a long time. Those enthralled by Lust’s beauty were close to having a mental breakdown.

The Lord of Envy’s territory had also been chaotic lately. The Great Lord of Clowns, Lord of Laughingstock, and the champion of all hellish jokes furiously swore to fight the Lord of Pride until one of them met their end. He was currently under one-sided abuse.

He couldn’t defeat Pride, but he refused to admit it!

Things were troublesome with five of the Seven Demon Lords, leaving only the territories of Sloth and Greed at peace. Sloth’s situation was simple: he was too lazy to move. The Lord of Greed, on the other hand, saw all the wars as an opportunity for profit and had been sitting on the fence between Gluttony and Wrath; whoever made him the bigger offer would secure his support.

Because the Seven Demon Lords were on the move, the other sixty-five demons had to get moving, too. Five-sevenths of Hell was currently at war. It was complete chaos.

“Tell me more about the Lord of Laughingstock and the champion of hellish jokes. I have a friend who’s curious about it,” Wayne said gleefully. His instinct told him that it would be an exciting story.

“Milord, I do not know many jokes. You may ask the demon lord next door.”

“Who is it?”

“Enguema, the Lord of Blood.”

“Him...” Wayne raised an eyebrow. That was an acquaintance of his. There was no point in bothering others when he had a clear target. He would visit Enguema now to entertain—to test the demon lord’s strength. He would like to know how strong a top demon below the Seven Demon Lords was, in case the Seven Demon Lords were so strong that he ended up recruiting a superior by challenging one of them.

He rubbed his bald head—Solsknar’s bald head—and took flight, heading to the crimson ocean in the distance. Mid-air, he suddenly remembered something. “Wait, haven’t I forgotten something?”

He frowned for a moment, finally realizing that he had forgotten an important ‘person’.

The Bat Demon!!

The Bat Demon had been lost for two years, falling straight to Hell not long after his birth. Wayne didn’t remember him very well. Given how weak he was, Wayne suspected that the unlucky demon was already killed.

He tried to sense him and found out to his surprise that the Bat Demon was still alive. Due to the long distance, though, the signal was weak, and his connection kept stuttering.

Wayne tried to switch to the Bat Demon’s vision to get a clear look around, but the transmission fell short. All he could hear were short, low cries of pain. His vision was also covered.

The Bat Demon wasn’t in good condition. It felt like he was trapped in a marsh and restricted by a powerful suction, as if he had fallen into a hell of reincarnation with unpredictable ups and downs, stranded and helpless. The Bat Demon could not respond to Wayne’s call.

“How terrible. He seems to be in great trouble... Has he been sealed?”

Wayne frowned. At the end of the day, the Bat Demon was his replica, so he should rescue him.

“I’ll find out more from the Blood Tyrant’s territory and seek out a demon lord to test the water. Then I’ll rescue the Bat Demon before finding a way back to the human world.”

Wayne quickly hashed out a plan. In a few flashes, he reached an ocean of blood.

The roiling waves generated no white bubbles. The shimmering ripples smelled thickly of blood. Within the crimson ocean that represented pain and sins were bobbing chunks of what had been ships, their sails stained with blood and filth. With every violent wave, the broken limbs and remains of unknown creatures would fly into the sky.

The straightforward fear created a striking visual with a great amount of blood, eliciting a physical and psychological aversion. Wayne covered his nose and stopped breathing. Compared to the pungent smell in Hell, the smog in Londan was quite enjoyable. It smelled of industrial pollution. It smelled of civilization. It was free and classy!

The ocean of blood was too primitive.