◇ I'll be dropping one bonus chapters for every 10 reviews.
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 100 Power Stones. or 500 Collections
◇ You can read 90 chapter ahead on P@treon of which 10 are free Chapters. if you're interested: patreon.com/Heroicverse
------------------------------------------------
"Alright, I'll have the Angel Legion on standby…"
"But what I want to tell you is, in this war with Hell, [Heaven] has never tried to win this war, and what can truly determine the direction of this war… is actually humanity itself!!"
With that, Remiel fiercely flapped the pair of pure white wings on his back, and with lightning speed, he flew into Paradise Gate before it officially closed.
A few seconds later, the huge gate emitting sacred light in the sky also disappeared.
"Tch, if Boss hadn't thought of a counter-strategy in advance, that birdman would have successfully fobbed him off just now."
Frank said disdainfully, "He keeps saying it's for humanity… but he's never tried to win in the thousands of years of fighting with Hell… So you two sides fight, and in the end, we humans are the consumables, huh?"
Logan Howlett also agreed, complaining, "Exactly, I stopped believing in these hypocritical things a long time ago."
"Sigh…"
Daimon Hellstorm, who obviously knew more insider information, sighed helplessly, "Actually, whether for [Heaven] or Hell, human souls are extremely important strategic resources."
"So it should be said that neither of them actually wants this huge war to end too soon."
"But the task Boss assigned is finally completed successfully. Now, let's just wait and see them two sides fight like dogs!"
Frank and Logan Howlett's faces immediately showed a look of schadenfreude.
"That's right, these fools probably won't even realize that everything is within Boss's plan…"
...
…
Time rewinds slightly to 5 minutes ago.
The Hell Dimension where Marduk Kurios is located.
"The Truce Agreement has finally begun…"
Marduk Kurios stood by the window, looking out at the huge teleportation gate connecting to Earth at the end of his sight, a triumphant sneer on his face.
"What do you think, when that old guy God learns that his strongest Seraph has been completely killed by a mere mortal, what kind of expression will appear on his face… Will it be anger, frustration, sorrow, or disappointment?"
In the grand hall, more than a dozen Demon Lords, also Fallen Angels, all showed eerie grotesque smiles upon hearing this.
"Hehehe, I'm afraid that old guy never dreamed that My Lord Marduk could come up with such a way to reasonably bypass the restrictions of the Truce Agreement to seize Earth, right?"
"That's right, first using that human wizard for assassination, then making him a scapegoat… This can both trigger the 'insurance mechanism' to permanently close Paradise Gate, and cut off [Heaven]'s reason for launching a full-scale attack on us afterwards, thus making them suffer a huge silent loss."
"My Lord Marduk's move… brilliant, truly brilliant!!"
"Hehe, all we have to do now is quietly wait for the Truce Agreement to end, and then after Paradise Gate is completely closed, we can brazenly invade the Human World."
"Haha, finally we can feast on delicious human souls."
The Demon Lords in the grand hall grew more and more excited as they spoke, all of them rubbing their fists, ready for a big fight.
Now, as soon as Marduk Kurios gives the order, they will immediately lead their respective forces to the Human World for slaughter.
"As long as this plan succeeds, then no one will be able to stop me from becoming the true Hell Lord."
Marduk Kurios looked at the Flame Legion, which had already assembled on the plain below the palace, and a heroic feeling immediately rose in his heart.
Since the complete Hell was shattered into several dimensional fragments, these damaged dimensional spaces became the focus of contention for various Demon Lords.
Finally, after long and fierce battles, several Demon Lords, including Marduk Kurios and Mephisto, emerged from the numerous competitors.
After successfully occupying these dimensional fragments, they were able to use the power of Hell to ascend from Demon Lords to true Hell Lords.
And among them, Marduk Kurios was not the only one who claimed to be Satan.
The other Hell Lords also all claimed it.
But only they themselves knew that they were not the true Satan.
Because before completely unifying all the Hell Dimension fragments and re-synthesizing them into a complete Hell, the true Hell Lord, Satan, could never be born!
Even when the Hell Lord Round Table Conference was held, even if the Demon Lords were only one step away from the Satan Throne in the center of Hell, no one dared to sit on it rashly.
They knew very well that without the approval of Hell's Will, anyone who sat on it would suffer a fatal backlash from Hell's power.
Moreover, before dealing with the other competing Demon Lords, the first person to sit on it would immediately be torn apart by other ambitious individuals.
Therefore, the competitors, including Marduk Kurios, who were qualified to contend for the Satan Throne, have been trying every possible way to accumulate power for themselves over the past thousands of years, just to unify Hell one day!
However.
A decisive key factor in increasing the overall strength of the Hell Dimension is the need for a large number of high-quality human souls.
But the problem is, ever since Kamar-Taj successfully rose, it used the powerful forces of Vishanti to establish three magic Sanctuaries on Earth that could isolate all Dimension Lords (including Hell Lords).
This also made it impossible for Marduk Kurios and other Hell Lords to brazenly create slaughter directly on Earth and harvest large quantities of souls as they did before.
From that time on, they had only two main ways to acquire human souls.
One was to salvage unqualified, inferior souls from the Styx River themselves.
But these souls could only be used to create some brainless, or even incomprehensible, low-level demons, and had no other purpose.
They were, to say the least, a complete waste.
The second was to spread disaster and fear (or greed, envy, etc.) in the Human World through their respective agents, thereby obtaining a large number of human souls.
However.
These two methods were simply bland and hard to swallow for the Hell Lords who had previously feasted to their heart's content.
Later, to make matters worse, the well-fed Heaven Faction also turned its attention to several Hell Dimensions and launched an endless, long war with them.
Since the Hell Lords were not the true Satan, they did not possess the authority to "resurrect" demons below the level of Archdemons.
(Note: The souls of high-level demons are recognized and protected by the Hell Dimension, so after death, when their souls return to the dimensional space, they can reshape their bodies after a certain period of condensation.)
Thus, as one side waxed and the other waned, several Hell Lords, including Marduk Kurios, were all forced to live off their reserves.
But despite their anxiety, they had no way to break the deadlock.
Mephisto was so anxious that he personally went to the Human World from time to time using Astral Projection to swindle and deceive.
Other Demon Lords also wanted to do the same, but they were a bit too proud to stoop to that.
So they could only mock Mephisto for being indiscriminate and lacking the demeanor of a Lord, while secretly observing how many high-quality human souls he had tricked again.
But Marduk Kurios was completely different from these guys.
As a Fallen Angel, he had a grander and more magnificent ambition and pursuit.
He wanted to reach the very top step by step, he wanted to be Zhao Gao… ah no, he wanted to be the true Hell Lord!!
It was out of this ambition that he secretly orchestrated this conspiracy.
As for whether such a large-scale invasion of the Human World would trigger Kamar-Taj's suppression… he was already prepared for that.
Last time on Belle Isle, Lilith successfully opened a dimensional portal through human sacrifice, releasing tens of thousands of low-level demons.
Although many sorcerers, including Sorcerer Supreme Ancient One, later intervened to stop them, a large number of demons still successfully escaped into the Human World.
And those more intelligent demons mixed among them all came from the Flame Legion.
They successfully infiltrated by devouring human flesh and transforming into human appearances.
To track down these demons, Kamar-Taj dispatched a large number of personnel during this period… That's right, Marduk Kurios wanted to use this method to make Kamar-Taj too busy to deal with him.
And through this period of testing, he had roughly ascertained the scale of Kamar-Taj.
So, all he needed to do next was to break the Flame Legion into several battle groups, far exceeding Kamar-Taj's handling limit, and then enter Earth from different areas, which could easily solve this problem.
In other words: sacrifice the small to preserve the large!
Actively sacrifice a certain number of battle groups to tie down Kamar-Taj's sorcerers, and then other battle groups would take the opportunity to frantically harvest human souls.
Even if Ancient One reacted in the end, it would be too late!
Because as long as a large number of human souls were gained, Marduk Kurios could obtain more powerful blessings from Hell's Will and create more high-level demon commanders.
Then he would take the opportunity to flatten the other Hell Lords, annex their dimensions… and finally sit on the Satan Throne!!
So no matter how you look at it, this is a winning situation, isn't it?
Marduk Kurios had even begun to fantasize about the beautiful scene of other Demon Lords kneeling and submitting when he sat on the Satan Throne.
How satisfying!!
"Tch, a bunch of arrogant clowns. I wonder if you'll still be laughing when you come out later?"
In the corner, Satana Hellstrom lazily leaned her upper body on a small white round table made of the carapace of some unknown creature, fiddling with the colorful "Warp bead" while unenthusiastically enjoying the "monkey show" in the grand hall.
Especially when she saw the enthusiastic look on her scoundrel father's face, ready to make a grand display, the half-demoness almost burst out laughing on the spot.
"Hehehe, I never thought that my scoundrel father, who fancies himself a great strategist and is determined to become the Hell Lord, would also have a day when he's played for a fool?"
"No, no, my scoundrel father isn't stupid at all, it's just that man is too smart…"
"Oh my, I really want to know what that man will do? I'm sure the process will be very exciting and interesting, right?"
"Conspiring against both [Heaven] and Hell at the same time, he's truly bold!"
"But only such a man is truly captivating."
As soon as she thought of Karl, Satana no longer felt bored or tedious.
She decided that after this mission, she would definitely make her brother recount the entire process in detail… No, he had to tell her several times.
"My Lord Satan, something bad has happened!!"
Just then, a high-level demon with a pair of black bat wings on his back suddenly flew into the grand hall. He didn't even bother with proper salutations, wailing as if he had lost his parents, "My Lord Bruise has been killed!!"
The lively discussions in the grand hall immediately ceased, and all the Demon Lords looked at the bat demon with stunned expressions.
In the corner, Satana Hellstorm blinked her enchanting eyes, excitedly preparing to enjoy the drama.
"What did you say?"
Marduk Kurios's face changed drastically upon hearing this. He reached out and grabbed the bat demon by the neck, pulling him closer, and demanded fiercely:
"Quick, tell me, what happened? Who did it?"
"It… it was that human wizard's doing."
The bat demon said tremblingly, "He first killed Michael as planned, and then, somehow, after saying a few words to My Lord Bruise, he directly launched a sneak attack…"
"Then, after killing My Lord Bruise, he took that dark book · fragment and escaped by burrowing into the ground."
"After that, we were attacked by the Angel Legion… I saw that victory was hopeless and thought I had to report this important news to My Lord Satan alive, so I hid in the chaos and managed to escape."
"It was Necrodamus… How could that lowly human ant be so bold?"
After hearing the full story, Marduk Kurios instead calmed down. Things didn't seem to be developing in the worst direction.
He waved his hand, flinging the bat demon away, then pinched his chin and frowned in thought:
"He killed Michael first, and then acted against Bruise… Could it be that he guessed I would move against him afterwards, so he took the opportunity to backstab, kill Bruise, and steal that dark book · fragment?"
"That possibility cannot be ruled out… Hmm, wait a minute?!"