Chapter 467 - Lover
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu
Hell’s Seven Circles were now embroiled in an utterly chaotic battle where nobody would be able to predict what would happen next.
“How did he know…?”
When one of my incarnations informed me that Karwenz was actually right before the Pillar of Ice, I felt that it was inconceivable after my first reaction of shock.
The Four Pillars were the core support for Hell, along with being Hell’s only weakness. The main reason why all our dead individuals and existences were able to fight evenly against the Main Gods here was all because of Hell’s dimensional laws supporting us. The simplest and most direct dimensional law of being undying gave us the confidence to fight on no matter how many times we were killed.
However, becoming undying obviously had its price. Hell’s own support would also expose its secrets. Still, I intentionally concealed as much as I could, and I highly doubted that the Main Gods trapped within the Seven Circles would be able to find out about the true foundation of the dimension of Hell—the Four Pillars.
The Seven Circles of Hell, also known as the Seven Infernos, were sub-dimensions of Hell. Although they were all important, it would still be alright to sacrifice these sub-dimensions and reconstruct them if necessary.
The incredibly powerful and ridiculously difficult to kill Seven Kings (the Seven Sins) of Hell would doubtlessly be some of the best fighters in Hell. But if you looked at their overall strategic objective, they were nothing more than red herrings to mislead the Main Gods.
The Four Halls were the operating system for Hell. It would seem that the Four Halls had many functions, and the Hell Gods and devils were guarding the Four Halls, plus the Four Halls would be quite obvious to look at since they were connected to the Seven Circles. But, actually, the Four Halls could also be reconstructed if they were lost. Plus, the Four Halls supported and covered for each other, making them into the strongest fortress in all of Hell.
But, the Four Pillars…
“…Hell is still currently under construction. The Four Pillars right now are basically the providers for the four elements of hell (the construction materials). The Four Pillars are the source of all materials in Hell, along with being the core control panel. It will be possible to replace a destroyed Pillar after Hell is complete, but if we lose one right now, that will unbalance the elements, which will quite likely result in destroying the entirety of Hell that’s been created so far.”
Even without considering the chain reactions that were sure to occur, if we lost the Pillar of Ice, our undead would lose their physical bodies, greatly diminishing their combat strength. If we lost the Pillar of Death, our undying natures would be gone. If we lost the Pillar of Law, perhaps all of Hell would start collapsing as Law was the equivalent of Space in Hell. Since these Pillars were our greatest weakness, of course I would try to protect them.
Of the Four Pillars, the Pillar of Holy Light was at the very top of Hell. I had special arrangements there. Although it appeared defenseless, it was actually one of the safest. I wasn’t worried about that one at all.
The Pillar of Death was the very source of the Hades Mist, as well as the greatest foundational block of Hell. It would be impossible even for me to locate it unless all the other three Pillars were destroyed. This was by far the safest Pillar.
The Pillar of Law was surrounded and protected by the Four Halls. If this Pillar was lost, that would mean that the Four Halls and Seven Circles had all been broken through already. Trying to hold on anymore then would be meaningless.
It was only the Pillar of Ice that I needed to worry about… this Pillar was located deep within the Inferno which I presided over, the Indifference Inferno of Sloth. This was the fourth layer of the Seven Circles, the central layer. Every undead in all the Seven Circles would be given new lives and physical bodies by this Pillar of Ice.
Each Pillar had its own function. The Pillar of Holy Light was at the top of Hell, guiding the living and the dead at the boundary between life and death. The Pillar of Law illuminated the Four Halls, overseeing and ensuring a just enforcement of the laws. The Pillar of Ice gave lives and physical bodies to the undead in the Seven Circles. The Pillar of Death was the very foundation of Hell. These Four Pillars were just like different supports that created a house. It would be impossible to change their locations even if I wanted to.
By now, it should be apparent that I was able to arrange highly safe locations for three out of the Four Pillars. However, the Pillar of Ice was destined to be exposed on the battlefield.
I placed the Indifference Inferno of Sloth as the fourth and central layer, meaning that I would personally guard it. This would decrease the chances of exposing this weakness. And, I also intentionally changed locations to the Mountain Inferno because I had hoped that this would lower the chances of Karwenz discovering this weakness. Yet the Pillar of Ice was mysteriously exposed to him after all. Obviously, I would be shocked by this.
“…A traitor? That’s almost impossible because so few know about this. In that case, does that mean that Karwenz is capable of instantly analyzing the foundational workings of Hell? That’s even more impossible—just how would he have so much knowledge on how dimensions function? Hell even involves my knowledge from Earth, which he couldn’t possibly know about.”
Schemers always had a bad habit. If anything went wrong with their plans, they would always overthink things. And, thinking too much on the battlefield would not only cause suspicion to be directed at one’s allies—even worse was that fact that overthinking would weaken one’s combat capabilities.
“Forget it, there’s no time to worry about that now! Ilmisya, go to the Pillar of Ice and stop that person!”
Apart from the Hell Gods and Devil King who were all currently sleeping and completing their transformations, one of the only high-level-combat-strength individuals left who was free was the Queen of Temptation and Allure Devils, Ilmisya.
As I was the master of Hell, only I possessed the ability to freely allow others to teleport as I wished. With one snap of my fingers, a teleportation portal appeared right before Ilmisya. She would easily be able to reach the Pillar of Ice before Karwenz as long as she stepped through this portal.
Of course, I didn’t count on her being able to truly stop Karwenz at all. I had given most of my Hades Mist to Kamiltias to help him complete his transformation from devil to Hell Devil. So, unfortunately for Ilmisya, she hadn’t transformed into a Hell Devil yet. That meant she could only be revived as an undead if she died in battle here.
The undead bloodline was definitely weaker than the devil bloodline. Plus, if anyone was forced into a transformation where your very traits, body, and bloodline were changed into a completely different type, that would obviously decrease one’s combat strength even further.
I had completely zero hopes for how long Ilmisya would be able to stall Karwenz, as she was well known already for being sly, unreliable, and never sticking to her promises.
“I can’t rely on others, so I have to deal with this enemy before me as quickly as possible… Omar, just how long do you intend to sleep for!”
My angry roar echoed throughout the Inferno. The danger to the Pillar of Ice put me on a time limit in the battle against Ladvioka here. By now, I absolutely wanted to kill the Lord of Putrefaction more than anything. I also mentally prepared myself to sacrifice the entire Mountain Inferno if need be. I didn’t have any free time to drag this fight out any longer.
“Love and peace! That’s what I believe in!” a thick masculine voice responded to my roar, arriving together while flashing his disgustingly shiny muscles.
Omar showed off his muscular body which resembled Hercules from my original world. He constantly flexed all the muscles on his chest, performing exercises to perfection. After Omar became a Hell King and gained the buffs of Hell, it could be said that he had changed both the most and the least.
Omar was now significantly taller, and his physical appearance became even more handsome and beautiful. He even wore a pair of gold-rimmed eyeglasses now, and his eyebrows gave him the scholarly aura of a literary girl… But, what didn’t change about him was his abnormal view of beauty, his even more ridiculous muscles, and how he loved to make all sorts of poses in nothing but his underwear! The abnormal fitness exercise routines he showed off as he twisted his body would make anyone witnessing the sight incredibly frustrated to the point where they would only want to throw a fit.
I had always felt that the unfortunate ones who were tossed into the Pride Mountain Inferno would be the unluckiest of all of Hell’s sinners. That was because these sinners would have to undergo a double punishment—the punishment of climbing the mountains and also being forced to witness such a Hell King’s antics. I felt that the second punishment was probably far harsher than the Mountain Inferno’s own mountain climbing punishment.
I felt stomach pains upon witnessing my Hell King suddenly jumping out of the mountains while loudly singing about love and peace. I took two deep breaths before I managed to calm myself. Only now did I learn that even the master of Hell wasn’t immune to the effects of wanting to vomit.
“How can this be?”
Ladvioka was astonished to see that Omar had broken free. While Ladvioka’s dimensional sealing spell wasn’t as strong as the Seal of the Four Elements, his dimensional sealing spell wouldn’t be weaker by much at all. Ladvioka even sensed that his seal hadn’t been broken, so just how did Omar come out of the seal?
“Kill Ladvioka!”
Of course, I wouldn’t be telling my enemy the answer. Since Ladvioka no longer had any subordinates, this was the best opportunity to kill him while he was down.
Ladvioka’s attacks and even seals were ineffective. He could just die for me while being afraid and confused.
“Ha, you fool! This is a wondrous strategy by my Father. He already knew that all of you would know how to use seals, so how could he possibly not be prepared? Right now, this is a special stage of Hell’s creation where we are in charge of guarding the Infernos. We are all a part of our Infernos. As long as we leave the Infernos for a certain period of time, our physical bodies will naturally collapse and die. After that, a new physical body for us will be born again within the Inferno! We are eternal, we are unstoppable, we are… Ouch! Father, why are you hitting me?”
Alright then, if it wasn’t for the current situation, not only would I be hitting him, I would even want to kill him.
Should I say that it was to be expected of the incarnation of Pride? He was definitely an expert on how antagonists always died because they talked too much. Not only did he explain the reason why he wasn’t afraid of seals, he even revealed his weakness that he wouldn’t be able to leave his Inferno for an extended period of time.
But judging from Ladvioka’s expression of shock, just knowing the reason and weakness alone wouldn’t mean that he would be able to deal with the threat before him. Since it was shockingly impossible to seal away his undying opponent, that meant he was being forced to the very brink.
“It’s time to connect. Let this idiot know just how amazing you brothers are.”
Of course, I didn’t wake Omar up just to listen to him revealing all his own weaknesses. Envy and Pride were a pair of unique Concepts where the former stole from others to power up himself, while the latter ruled over others, strengthening himself and his subordinates. Their abilities weren’t contradictory at all. In fact, from the very start, they would be able to complement and power each other up!
The bone giant lowered his head and swallowed Omar whole. The next instant, mysterious changes started happening within the bone giant as the Envy Transformer evolved once again!
As Roland went all out, intending on making Ladvioka become the first Chaos Main God to die here, Karwenz was currently smiling as he walked on a snowy path in the Fourth Circle of Hell, the Indifference Inferno of Sloth.
“This time, I’ve finally succeeded in scamming him!”
That’s right, when Roland tossed out a teleportation portal in an effort to fool Karwenz into entering, Karwenz hadn’t entered the portal at all. Instead, he only had an incarnation enter the portal, while his real body was traipsing through the endless amount of snow and ice in the Indifference Inferno, searching for the Tower of Ice.
Roland hid things quite carefully. The Tower of Ice was deep within the snow mountains, where the ice and snow were the thickest. Even if one had internal information from a spy guiding them, it would be quite difficult and time-consuming to locate the Tower of Ice in the incredibly large Sloth Inferno. This was all the more so with the fact that the Indifference Inferno’s dimensional laws were highly unfriendly towards finding your way.
The Indifference Inferno, just as its name suggested, was a place to punish sinners who were overly cold, slothful, unfilial, and ignored their friends’ and families’ feelings, causing others to feel pain. The punishment that Roland set for the sinners here was incredibly cruel—to find one’s own heart in their confusion.
“You don’t understand how to love others or accept others’ love. Then, what need do you have of memories and your heart?”
This entire Inferno was a snow-covered land with plains, snow mountains, and hills. However, the entire environment and scenery was all of one color. No matter where you looked, you would only see snow white. This was a natural maze.
And, the sinners’ hearts would be cut up into countless tiny pieces that the devils would then randomly throw into different locations. The souls that lost their hearts would also constantly lose their memories. They would have to locate all the pieces of their heart before they completely forgot who they were. Only then would they be able to recover their past memories.
As for whether anyone ever managed to find all the pieces of their heart? That would probably be no one.
This punishment didn’t appear to be that cruel at all. But in the future, it became known as the cruelest punishment in the Seven Circles of Hell. For now, there was no need to go into its cruelties and the designer’s vicious intentions, since that wouldn’t be the focus of the story right now. Just this natural maze alone made Karwenz, who had poor sense of direction, have great difficulties.
Right before he exploded in anger due to the constant unchanging snow before him, Karwenz finally met the first person who voluntarily greeted him. The tall Queen of Allure Devils smiled and waved at him. Just the waves she sent out from her hand waving dispelled the ice and snow that was present everywhere.
“Ha, I’ve finally met someone. Could you please take me to the Tower of Ice, dear beauty?”
As I watched this scene through an incarnation, Karwenz appeared to be smiling quite foolishly. His words sounded like a taunt that would certainly earn him Ilmisya’s ire. However, what happened next made me feel like I was the true idiot instead.
Ilmisya, the Queen of Temptation, answered quite directly. She directly jumped on Karwenz, but in a gentle hug of his shorter body. She then directly lowered her head and kissed him.
I was shocked by the amount of tongue they shared with each other in that passionate kiss. Ilmisya’s next lovey-dovey response made me almost choke to death.
“Of course I can. I’m waiting here just to show you the way, my dear prince, my most intimate boyfriend, my cutest lover.”