Kaelgor stood frozen, the radiant light still pouring from his chest, his mind racing, his heart pounding.
With the fire law fragment, a devil with the fire elemental path could easily reach the peak-tier in less than a century!
Everything happened in an instant, but for Kaelgor and those around him, it had felt as if time stilled.
The world had frozen, the radiant light from his chest a frozen explosion of red, gold, and white. The greedy, malevolent eyes of hidden fiends a weight pressing down on his soul.
The ancient chuckle echoed in his mind in dark, patient amusement that seemed to stretch into eternity.
Then, with a violent jolt, time resumed its anxious flow.
Kaelgor's mind, forged by a century of survival and strategy, forcibly churned, processing the impossible information, understanding what was happening.
He was a decoy.
A living, walking piece of bait, designed to lure attention away from Adam and the nexus. The fire law fragment within him was a beacon, a signal fire that would draw every devil and demon within hundreds of miles to his location.
He moved.
Decisively.
Violently.
"Move! Now!" His roar was a thunderclap, a command that tolerated no delay, nor no hesitation.
"Back to Lord Gorael's nexus! Everyone, now!"
His voice cut through the chaos, snapping his subordinates out of their shock.
The berserker demons, their minds conditioned to absolute obedience, responded immediately, their massive, black-clad bodies turning and beginning to run, their heavy footsteps pounding against the scorched earth.
Kaelgor led the charge, his long, powerful strides eating up the ground, Kamir close behind him.
But his mind and heart were racing.
He quickly figured out what was inside of him: the shard of fire law, planted by Gorael, a contingency that had been waiting for this exact moment.
It was a brilliant, cruel, and utterly devastating move.
Fighting fire with fire.
The Arch Devil had not abandoned the first layer; he had simply found a more elegant way to clean up his mess.
By sacrificing Kaelgor, by turning him into a target, he was ensuring that the nexus's power, the anomaly of its existence, would be overshadowed by an even greater prize.
The shard of fire law was a lure that most devil could not resist.
Kaelgor had no choice but to play the part.
If he tried to hide, if he tried to suppress the fragment, it would only lead to him being surrounded.
The only path forward was to run, to lead the inevitable horde on a chase, to buy time and hope that somehow he could find a way to survive.
Only by reaching their fortress base, the nexus they had, could they hope of surviving!
Unless he wanted to be sieged by an unending horde, to be torn apart by greedy, desperate demons and devils, to have his soul consumed and his ashes scattered to the winds.
Even the devils at his side, the rogues he had gathered and the high-tier leaders he had recruited, seemed to have a greedy light gleaming in their eyes.
The fire law fragment was a treasure beyond measure, a shortcut to power that could shave centuries off their ascent.
Were it not that the strongest among them was only at the high-tier, that they were still outmatched by Kaelgor's peak-tier strength and century of experience, they would have probably already turned against him.
The only thing keeping them in line was fear.
As Kaelgor launched himself with every step, the rogue devils hesitated for a moment.
Kaelgor's earlier promises, his offers of freedom and choice, were now affected by this sudden, catastrophic change.
The high-tier devil, the one whose attribute was wood, flickered his gaze for a moment, assessing, calculating.
Then, with a decisive shake of his head, he turned and began to run in the opposite direction, disappearing into the swirling miasma.
The fire law fragment held no benefit for him.
Maybe if it were a full law rune, if he could study its laws and forcibly learn an additional law path: only then would it would be worth the risk.
But a fragment?
A shard of laws that could not be integrated into his own path? It was a death sentence with no reward.
It was a hefty check that he could not cash out.
Seeing him leave, half of the other devils also decided to depart. Their path's didn't align with the laws of flames, or they were too weak to be a part of this upcoming battle.
They were not even high-tier, not powerful enough to survive the onslaught.
Following Kaelgor could bring benefits, but only if they lived long enough to claim them.
They did not have the arrogance to believe they could weather the storm.
They scattered, their bodies vanishing into the hellish gloom, seeking safety in obscurity.
Those that remained were a handful of mid-tier devils as all the low-tiers escaped, but their eyes still gleamed with greed.
They mostly sought to fish for benefits, to see what would happen, to cling to the edges of the chaos and pick at the scraps.
Even if they couldn't obtain the fire law fragment, there would still be plenty of souls, equipment, and bodies to plunder!
Nobody truly thought of following Kaelgor at the moment.
Not that Kaelgor cared about them. His focus was on survival, on escape, on finding a way to outrun the consequences.
His massive form was a blur of motion, his army of berserkers following in his step. Each stride covered a dozen meters: his army was a black blur.
He was leading them towards Lord Gorael's nexus, towards the portal that could take him away from this nightmare.
But just as they crossed a couple of miles, over the basins furthest reach, he ran into something unexpected.
His eyes gleamed murderously as Malgrim stood at his path.
The gaunt, multi-armed devil was a silhouette against the hellish glow, his four green eyes gleaming with cold, predatory intelligence.
Behind him, his massive army of insectoid demons created a moving wall of chitin and muscle, their formation perfect; uncannily so.
"I have been waiting for this moment." Malgrim said, his voice a dry whisper that carried across the distance.