Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

In a way, we were fortunate. At the very least, we learned about the devils’ scheme beforehand, and were able to find the devils’ spies among the unfortunate outsiders jailed as criminals.

But in a way, we were also unfortunate because from the very start, we had unintentionally taken more trouble upon ourselves. This time, the devils weren’t even targeting us, or, more accurately, were not completely targeting us.

“Elemental war? What a joke, at such a time?”

From amongst the one hundred-ish prisoners, we discovered 32 who were actually those noodle-like devils. Through these devils, we learned their devil species’ official name and title—they were the high-level devils species, Sosolian Devils, which in the devils’ language translated to “illusion face” devils, meaning that they were capable of constructing any face they wanted.

They were a special devil species especially prepared for this Holy War, an ace troop type meant to become spies among their enemies’ ranks. This devil species was an entirely new one, born less than five years ago.

Illusion face devils had all sorts of unique abilities, which meant that they weren’t low-level at all. It would require a mid-level devil to promote into this job class. Naturally, being able to send out so many high-level devils at once, and even equip them with anti-detection magical items, meant that only a Devil Lord could possibly be responsible.

As for which Devil Lord had specifically sent them here? These high-level devils before me didn’t know. Devil society was as such: scams and schemes would never stop. Orders would be given from those of higher rank to those of lower rank. Anyone who was lower rank could only obey the order which came from directly above them. Behaving too foolishly or too proactively would both lead to death in devil society.

The true mastermind behind the scenes and their goal would never be revealed until the final moment in these situations. However, the preliminary objective was known to these devils. They at least knew what they were supposed to do here.

“The Fire Elemental Lords are going to attack the Ice Elemental Plane? They requested you devils to provide a bridge for them? Doesn’t this seem like the wrong edition? Shouldn’t the elemental wars have ended long ago?”

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. I originally thought that the devils had come here to stir up trouble for the Mist Alliance, or to at least try and take revenge on me, yet it was about something completely unrelated instead.

Still, I at least understood things quite clearly now thanks to what I learned from the unfortunate captive devils.

It was the innate nature of the elements to war against each other. Ever since the creation of the world, wind and earth had eternally warred against each other. The same eternal war had also raged on for all this time between fire and water. All four Elemental Planes were indestructible, so the wars between them would never end.

But due to the establishment of Hell, four new Elemental Planes were gradually being formed for Hell’s associated four elements. The first new Elemental Plane to be completed was the Ice Elemental Plane, which had been created using the Great Snow Mountain Magical Realm as the foundation.

Although I viewed the creation of new Elemental Planes as a natural result, the Elemental Lords would view this as a brand-new threat, with new enemies who broke the eternal balance between the elements for the first time.

This would be even more so the case for those of the Fire Elemental Plane. Back when the Elemental Gods were revived, the Fire Elemental God was the only one who hadn’t successfully done so. This was why the Fire Elemental Plane had been unusually quiet back when the other three Elemental Gods and their planes were stirring up such a ruckus with their wars.

This quietness was really unnatural because fire elementals had always been the elemental creatures with the worst tempers. They had a good relationship with demons and devils. In fact, they were even “blood-related” for the most powerful individuals. There were plenty of demons and devils who were half elemental. There were several very famous Demon Lords who would simultaneously be Elemental Lords. Flame Sea Marchioness Elisa and Chaos Main God Ladvioka both had fire elemental bloodlines as well. Moreover, if you looked only at overall combat strength of an elemental plane, the Fire Elemental Plane would unmistakably have the strongest combat strength out of the four elemental planes.

Due to the increase in the Elemental Tide, all the Fire Elemental Lords naturally saw their power levels massively increase. There were now actually almost 100 Fire Elemental Lords competing for the vacant throne of Fire Elemental God. Their internal wars had been constantly raging without pause.

Originally, the Fire Elemental Lords hadn’t cared about the rise of the new Ice Elemental Plane, as they preferred to focus on their internal battles, but soon, the Fire Elemental Lords discovered to their astonishment that the fire element’s increase in power level growth was rapidly decreasing. The Fire Elemental Lords could no longer tolerate this.

The creation of Hell meant that an entire new mortal plane and four associated elemental planes had been created, all becoming connected together and rebalancing the elements. The Elemental Tide would naturally work on readjusting the power balance between the elements. This was a period of fluctuation, and with a balance adjustment, there would naturally be those who gained and those who lost out. Since the Fire Elemental Plane now had two enemy element planes instead of one with the establishment of the Ice Elemental Plane, the Fire Elemental Lords became the biggest losers of this new balance patch.

The Fire Elemental Lords were easily able to discover the natural enmity between the fire element and ice element through simple investigation. The high temperature of fire and low temperature of ice were fundamentally incompatible. In fact, the enmity between fire and ice was even greater than the enmity between fire and water.

And so, the Fire Elemental Lords gained a new enemy element out of nowhere. When they discovered that the master of the Pillar of Ice was the former Water Elemental Goddess, they combined old grudges with new, and practical benefits with old hatred. It was quite understandable that they would attack the Ice Elemental Plane.

The eternal war between wind and earth, as well as fire and water, would actually be about fighting over obtaining more power from the Elemental Tide and improving one’s own faction. Since the Fire Elemental Lords were now faced with a new enemy elemental faction, they instantly found a new target to attack as they already intended to do something in this Holy War in the first place.

However, there was a problem with attacking the Ice Elemental Plane. The Ice Elemental Plane had yet to become completely independent and formed. This meant that the Fire Elemental Lords were unable to find a way to directly attack this newly born elemental plane.

And so, the devils contacted the Fire Elemental Lords… The devils would only need to do some work behind the scenes and preparatory work, and would be able to see chaos everywhere. This would lead to their enemies’ misfortune and their own gains, and was a style perfect for the devils.

“…Borrowing others’ strength to attack their enemies. Should I say that it’s to be expected of the devils? But, you seem to have forgotten some things, such as, where is the beast stampede right now? Also, why would the Fire Elemental Lords think that the frigid Northlands are a perfect battleground for them?”

The Fire Elemental Lords were no idiots. Even with the biggest grudges and endless potential benefits, it would be suicidal for them to fight a battle with no hope of winning.

There would be no need for me to talk about how cold it was here in the Northlands. This place would naturally be advantageous for the ice element. In fact, for quite a long time to come, most of the ice element creatures of the world would be residing here. Starting an elemental war by attacking an elemental plane’s home base? Even if the Ice Elemental Plane was only newly born, the Fire Elemental Lords probably weren’t so foolish.

“…Do you think that I would know? We devils…”

The noodle-like devil that I was interrogating was still maintaining her humanoid form. Although she had taken the form of a blonde-haired female elf with voluptuous breasts, I only felt my stomach churn when I thought of her real appearance which was so ambiguously noodle-like. According to the jail’s records, she had been arrested for attempted prostitution. I suddenly felt sympathy for whomever she had tried to prostitute herself to.

“Perhaps I should record ‘her’ true appearance and send it to that unfortunate individual. He’ll probably have lots of fun vomiting…”

As for her claim that she didn’t know? According to my understanding of devils, this would be quite normal in devil society. Lower-ranking devils would be nothing more than expendable chess pieces to the higher-ranking devils. A chess piece that knew too much would have their own ideas, but…

I pressed my right arm against her neck, using some more force which distorted her soft and slender neck completely. After a flash of light, her neck transformed into an even “skinnier” noodle.

“…Would I believe a devil’s words? Do you think that I’m an idiot? It’s far faster for me to directly ask your soul.”

I unhesitatingly used soul searching undead magic in front of the other illusion face devils. A black smoke gathered around my arm as I tugged on the devil’s soul which howled in pain. Countless amounts of information flashed before my eyes. Soon, the power of death drained the devil’s soul into nothing more than soul shards. I browsed her memories as I pleased, but then finally shook my head slowly. When I looked over at the other captive devils, they actually began to tremble in fear while trying to retreat into corners.

“Oh my, she actually wasn’t lying. She really didn’t know anything… Alright, so it’s everyone else’s turn next. Don’t be afraid, it won’t hurt. Besides, you guys don’t even have bones or nerves, so you probably won’t feel any pain to begin with.”

A cold breeze blew past as ice began to appear in the jail. The devils began to receive frostbite. But, what made them the most afraid was the black shadow of death behind me. I was releasing my full aura as an Undead Emperor, without even the slightest attempt to hide my vicious intentions for the devils.

I did my very best to smile in the most friendly fashion I could imagine so that I could enjoy the show. The only response I received were hysteric screams. Devils, whom ordinary people viewed as their nightmares, would actually be afraid of death? This was truly a rare sight.

“Hey, aren’t you supposed to be unafraid of death? ‘Killing me will only cause me to be reborn in the lower planes’ is supposed to be one of your most famous catchphrases, isn’t it?”

It was highly difficult to truly kill an existence from the lower planes. It would be commonplace for someone to escape with their soul down to the lower planes for rebirth after having their physical body destroyed. The most pitiful death for a devil was probably being returned to the River Styx, meaning that their next rebirth would be completely unrelated to their past self, with all accumulated memories and knowledge being wiped clean.

“…Wait a moment, I’ll tell you everything…”

The devil who pleaded for his life stopped midway as his surprised expression vanished into nothingness. I had already dragged out his soul. This was because I had no intentions of listening to the devils’ “art of lying”. There would be absolutely no mistake in killing the devil first and interrogating his soul.

Ice froze over all the remaining devils’ feet, preventing them from escaping. It was precisely because I knew how skilled the devils were at scamming and lying that I didn’t intend on giving them even a chance to perform.

The devils started attacking me with their full force in their despair. The various spells and curses they used allowed me to see the true combat strength of this unique devil species. However, in front of me who had gotten serious, their spells were akin to nothing more than tiny matches pretending to be fireworks. A snap of my fingers was all it took to eliminate everything they used.

“You’re all so weak. I think that even the low-level Ironfeather Devil species is stronger in combat than you all…”

The illusion face devils’ noodle-like bodies were incapable of performing any type of martial arts. Their magic specialties focused on darkness and witchcraft, but nothing high in level. Their only strength worth mentioning was that they actually had significant mental spirit abilities, but not only would those be worthless against me, they would also be worthless against Justice Knights or Antiholy Knights who had strong wills. But, when used against ordinary humans, these devils’ mental spirit abilities would make them irresistible masters of hypnotism. It seemed that these devils also possessed some power to read minds and memories.

Evidently, these illusion face devils were a special devil species cultivated for the sake of espionage. Their direct combat abilities were quite weak. However, their ability to wreak havoc on the enemy from within would be absolutely devastating. Inciting riots, creating chaos, hiring more human spies, disguising themselves as key personnel, and so on were already a headache to just imagine.

I also found their devices that allowed them to evade the star net’s detection system. They all had pitch-black monkey paw necklaces with anti-detection capabilities. But, even with those on their bodies, they could still be detected as devils by checking with a Hero’s Armlet within one meter. The anti-detection capabilities were only average. However, any ordinary person who touched this necklace would feel a mysterious sense of fear and panic. When crushed, the necklace would even give off sounds of monkeys screeching. It seemed that some powerful devil had likely paid quite a price before to mass-produce these cursed items in one go.

Large amounts of memories filled my mind. Many of these devils were individuals at least 300-400 years old. Stealing, scamming, lying, and all sorts of similar memories all mixed together. Some of them hadn’t been weak at all. In fact, some of them had been overly strong and displayed too much ambition, thus leading their devil superiors to force them to join the illusion face devil job class.

I allowed all of these numerous memories to scatter in the wind. The devils’ souls that I released were returning to the River Styx. I had no time left to organize the information. I directly abandoned any information unrelated to the Northlands, and only searched through the devils’ recent and important memories. I highly doubted that the devils wouldn’t try to discern their boss’s real objective. Finally, a name of a certain location caught my attention.

“Shawen Free States, the mixed-blood free states? How did they get involved…”