"Speak!" Adam's repeated, his patience long run dry.
He was in no mood, and had no time, to entertain these 'guests'.
Every second they wasted was a second the chaos outside grew, a second the size of the horde of devils and demons grew.
Every second his plans, his fate, slipped further from his grasp.
His red eyes, burning with barely contained fury, swept over the trio of rogue devils. His body was still posed for attack, his hand lowered at his side, but already ready to flick and send the nexus's forbidden power out at any moment.
Whether he could evade the rune's prowess at such proximity to the three didn't enter his mind.
Rage born of helplessness wanted nothing more than to reduce them, him, all of his problems to ashes at once. To bring those bastards who had cornered him down with him.
Nyx took a deep breath, feeling his rage rising dangerously.
Her forked tongue flickered between her lips, tasting the air, tasting the tension.
Tasting the fear that clung to her like a shroud.
Moments of this current lifetime flashed by in her mind.
The first time she had seen Adam, the rejection, the days of patient digging, the sudden, catastrophic chaos that had upended all their plans…
From awakening as a devil, to devouring souls of her prey, to running like a rat in the face of Kaelgor's overwhelming strength.
To the faint memories, nearly faded, of those times in her previous life; to the events and emotions that allowed her to be reborn.
Like a snap, all of it dissolved; any lingering doubts or hesitation fading like mist in the rising sun.
She stepped forward, her smooth gray skin gleamed in the hellish light, and dropped to one knee.
"Lord Adam," She said, her tone even and steady, "We wish to pledge our allegiance to you. We wish to follow you. To share in your fortune and your future."
Letras and Borog also silently knelt after her words.
'You have to be kidding, right?' Adam thought, his mind reeling with disbelief.
He had been ready for a fight, ready for a desperate, bloody struggle that would leave him dead or victorious.
He had not been ready for this.
For a pledge of loyalty from three devils who had been, until not long ago, intent on killing him.
Nope.
Her expression was serious, her eyes fixed on his, her body bowed to showing her willingness to concede her status, as a show of submission. It was a gesture that was completely at odds with her predatory nature, with the nature of devils.
She was not joking, none of them were.
A devil who had reached the high-tier in under a month. A devil who had obtained a nexus: a super-powered, forbidden nexus at that. A devil who had conquered two female devils, had gone against Kaelgor and Lord Gorael, had survived assassination attempts and divine interventions.
All of these accolades, all of these impossible feats, had not gone unnoticed.
In the eyes of fiends, encountering such misfortune after misfortune was a bad omen, but only if they succumbed to it.
Overcoming such difficult circumstances, or even just living through these wild scenarios, only made Adam's future look more unpredictable.
More promising.
He was a rising star, a comet blazing through the shroud of hell, and those who attached themselves to him might rise with him.
As mentioned before, when those demons had seen Adam interacting with Lord Gorael, an Arch Devil that was equal to, or even above, a god; they had seen a bright future in him.
Even if he was merely talking, being threatened, or even ridiculed, it was still an extremely rare encounter.
Not just anyone could see a shadow of such a powerful being, could stand in the presence of an Arch Devil, and live to tell the tale.
The memory of that encounter, the weight of that experience, had left an indelible mark on all who had witnessed it.
Nyx and the others started to subtly grasp the current circumstance that Adam was in. The aura of fortune and disaster mixed into one.
Yet there he stood, alive and well.
Thus, they felt that following Adam would be a great investment.
His talent, luck, and his treasures were enough for them to take a gamble on him.
If they succeeded, they could cruise towards higher realms, riding his coattails to power and glory.
If not, they could always leave, slip away into the chaos and find another lord or go back to being rogue.
So for now, they decided to stay by his side, even as subordinates.
After all, even if all devils were royalty and demanded respect, there was still a difference among royalty, wasn't there?
Either follow him, or they could try escaping from the incoming mayhem.
Unless they wanted to try their luck in fighting for the law fragment.
The radiant light still burned in the distance.
A beacon of temptation that drew every greedy eye in the region and what lay beyond.
But in their eyes, the law fragment might be enticing, but looking out from in, it seemed more like a distraction.
And it was a distraction indeed.
Even now, as they knelt before Adam, they could hear the distant roar of battle, the clash of steel and magic, the roars of withering demons and devils alike.
The law fragment had done its job, drawing all eyes away from the nexus, away from Adam, away from the true prize.
And they had been smart enough to see through the deception.
Granted, they were the only ones to have felt the nexus's completions energy.
Adam stared at Nyx, at the three kneeling figures before him, as the weight of their words bore down on him.
The hesitation was a physical weight, a straight jacket that made breathing hard, his movements stifled.
He hated that feeling, that paralysis of doubt, because he knew with brutal, unforgiving clarity, that he had no time to hesitate.
Every second he spent weighing options, calculating risks, second-guessing his instincts; it was a second the chaos outside grew, a second the horde of devils and demons drew closer, more numerous.
A second his plans slipped further and further from his grasp.
He glanced at his side, towards Saphira.
While she was shocked, her glimmering molten eyes wide with disbelief.
She was looking at the trio of kneeling devils as if they had grown second heads, her mind struggling to process the sudden turn of events.
Her life in hell was more a more educated and traditional one compared to newborns. Therefore, she understood more.
Devil's following stronger, higher devil's was the norm.
But even after all she experienced with Adam, knowing he was different, she didn't think that there would be devils who would see potential in him and choose to follow.
His demons were even more confused.
Agri and Blair exchanged glances, their expressions a mixture of bewilderment and wariness.
They had been ready for battle, had been preparing to fight alongside their master against these unexpected intruders. Now, they were left standing in awkward silence, their bodies tense with unresolved adrenaline.
Only Roh still held his stolen halberd in hand, his arms steady, his eyes fixed on the trio with a cold, unblinking vigilance.
He didn't need to think.
He just followed orders.
In return, he was in charge of hundreds of demons.
Then, looking at Lyra, Adam saw something that he hadn't seen since arriving in hell.
Heck, even as the last images of his previous life entered his mind, he couldn't recall seeing such a thing.
Innocence.
Not the innocence of fault, of being a good person, of some moral purity that had no place in the sin-saturated depths of hell.
No, it was something else entirely.
She was completely clueless on the entire matter, seemingly even uncaring if the devils before them were speaking the truth or not.
The whole ordeal was too complicated and had too many variables and outcomes. Trying to understand and predicted what will be was too much, too difficult to do in the current circumstances. Trying to answer this dilemma was beyond difficult.
So instead, her beautiful silver eyes were staring at him, awaiting his answer.
Her pupil-less, silver eyes were clear; unclouded by doubt or fear or calculation.
She didn't know how to deal with this situation, so she didn't bother trying, instead completely relying on Adam to answer this seemingly difficult problem.
No doubt, no fear, nor no confusion.
Just like an innocent little girl awaiting to be told what to do, awaiting an answer to a question she had.
Even Lyra herself didn't realize that her actions were abnormal.
She had left the choices of this matter completely in the hands of Adam. In the same way a spoiled princess would allow for her king to do everything and anything to keep her safe and sated.
Adam, feeling her unwavering confidence, felt the tension in his shoulders ease.
A small, genuine smile touched his lips.
He dispersed his demonic mana, the dark, churning energy fading like mist in the morning sun, and reached out his hand to the still kneeling Nyx.
"Stand."