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Chapter 293: The Devil Lord’s Confusion
In the giant dark throne chamber, the devil lord sat on his throne with his usual laid-back demeanor. However, only he knew how annoyed he truly felt about how things had turned out. The events in the Doria Empire were spiraling out of his control, and he hadn’t expected the entire devil network to be exposed instead.
Initially, he wanted all the devils and their assets in the empire to continue operating as they had before. After the war, there would be a crisis of faith among the nobles, the populace, and even the imperial family itself. The Doria Empire would be consumed by its own suspicions and eventually crumble from within.
However, things started to go south when their information network was suddenly compromised, and the emperor broke the Envy Devil’s curse. Everything began to collapse like a row of dominoes, spiraling out of control. Now, the devils’ operations in the Doria Empire have essentially come to a halt, with no devils or pawns remaining in strategic positions.
They had all been ransacked by the armies of the imperial family and the nobles who were not yet under his influence. In the end, he lost his grasp on the Doria Empire not long after the war.
To compensate, he decided to devise another plan in a different empire—one that also shares a border with the devils. Both the Doria Empire and the Vindas Empire had been heavily influenced by the devils, thanks to the numerous infiltrators and traitors the devils had brought to their side.
Although this plan in the Vindas empire was quite rushed, he was confident it would go undetected by others because some traitors held strategic positions to assist him. Even if someone discovered his plan this time, there would be nothing they could do, as the traitors would handle any threats.
Still, all these events stemmed from the outcome in the Doria Empire, which he had not anticipated.
"Where did it go wrong? What were the gaps that allowed those people to uncover our network in the empire?" the devil lord thought.
He recounted all the events during the war and its aftermath. The only things that stood out were the mysterious swordsman and the enigmatic alchemist who could create six-striped pills, known as Aldrian. These two individuals were the only ones who came to mind after all his plans had crumbled.
The mysterious swordsman had ended the war much earlier than he had intended, and the final outcome fell short of what he had desired. Although he could still brush it off since the war was merely a camouflage, the result lacked the chaos he had envisioned.
As for the man called Aldrian, he had learned of his existence from a report sent by the master of the Alchemist Association. A genius alchemist, previously unheard of, had emerged on the continent—an alchemist capable of creating six-striped pills. Not long after his arrival, everything began to spiral out of control, with the devil lord’s plans crumbling one by one.
He wanted to believe that all of this was just a coincidence, but he couldn’t. There was something suspicious about these two individuals who had appeared not long apart.
"Are they connected? Do they share some sort of relationship?" the devil lord pondered, certain that these two people were somehow linked.
"Or are they..." There was another possibility that sounded absurd, but not entirely impossible—at least, not for him. What if these two individuals were actually the same person? Although it sounded crazy, for others, it was a possibility, as he knew something like that could be achieved if that person possessed "that," just like himself. However, even if Aldrian had "that," it still did not answer some of the questions lingering in his mind. 𝓃ℴ𝓋𝓹𝓊𝓫.𝒸𝓸𝓂
In the midst of his pondering, he suddenly felt a tug in his soul. He frowned at this, for he sensed that his connection to several of his underlings had disappeared almost simultaneously! The number was in the tens, and this kind of occurrence was far from ordinary. Did something happen again?
As he was still pondering what had just happened, a black shadow emerged from the darkness of the throne chamber. The black silhouette knelt before him.
"My lord, we detected the life signs of many devils disappearing almost simultaneously. The number is 10,486 souls. We still don’t know the cause, but from the life sign tags, all of them are from Boraz Fortress," his hoarse voice resounded.
The devil lord’s frown deepened. Boraz Fortress? The fortress near the border of the devil territory and the Flamecrest Grand Duchy. Today was supposed to be the day when hell would break loose in the Flamecrest territory. Had something gone wrong again? If he truly lost the entire army at Boraz, then the territories facing Rivas and Flamecrest would be left defenseless. These areas would be vulnerable and open to attack from the two empires.
He had already tried to retake Sazim, but strangely, the environment there had suddenly changed. The atmosphere, once gloomy and filled with negative energy—ideal for the devils to cultivate—had disappeared. This was something that was normally impossible, due to how the devil territory had been covered in thick negative energy for millions of years.
Still, they couldn’t leave the area, so they built a camp for a new base near Sazim, where the environment remained the same as the rest of the devil territory. However, not long after, the devils there were killed once again by that mysterious swordsman. This time, he even killed the Envy Devil, his successor and one of the Seven Devils of Annihilation.
He didn’t understand how that mysterious swordsman could come and go within the devil territory without any hindrance or signs. It was as if he appeared and disappeared at will, almost like some form of teleportation or space-based movement.
The devil lord then looked at the shadow.
"Send Reis there to check the situation. I want to know what happened to that place. Tell him that he only needs to assess the situation and not take any action."
"Yes, my lord." The shadow responded before disappearing into the darkness.
The devil lord’s frown still hadn’t eased. He continued to think about the mysterious swordsman, the strange alchemist Aldrian, and all of the plans that seemed to have fallen apart since that man’s appearance. If Aldrian and the mysterious swordsman were the same person, combined with all of his strange abilities, then there was a possibility that he had "that."
However, if he had "that," why can he come here?! Did something happen "above"? The devil lord then mumbled something inaudible and suddenly looked ahead, as if observing something—something only he could see.
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In what used to be Boraz Fortress, Aldrian and Sylphia had not left yet, as they landed on the ground. From the memories he had read, Aldrian knew that there was another structure beneath the fortress. Like Sazim, there was a dungeon here to hold the captives. The dungeon entrance was inside one of the destroyed buildings.
After clearing the rubble on the surface, he found an entrance. The door had already been destroyed, and the path was buried, as the surface had collapsed after his attacks. This didn’t stop him; he simply pushed away the rubble and dirt using his earth element technique. Afterward, they were finally able to step onto the path leading to the dungeon.
As they continued walking downward, they could sense many presences in the dungeon. Aldrian already knew that some devils were still alive here. They were fortunate, as they had been guarding this area and not on the surface when he unleashed his technique.
It wasn’t long before they finally encountered a group of devils, who were confused by what was happening on the surface. They had only felt the sudden intense tremor of the ground, one that even collapsed the surface—was it an earthquake? But they were stunned when they saw two unknown figures entering the dungeon. Before they could make a move, their foreheads were pierced by arrows. Sylphia had already made her move; the devils in this place were nothing more than a piece of cake for her.
Every time they passed a group of devils, Sylphia instantly killed them. They passed many rooms, each stained with blood—witnesses to the suffering of those held here.
They continued walking until they finally arrived at a hallway lined with rows of cells. Here, they could sense many people who seemed to be the devils’ captives. Aldrian focused his senses on all of them and counted fifty in total, most of them women. With his will, he concentrated his energy on the locks of the cells, and with a surge, broke them all at once.
They could see that the people here needed immediate treatment, and that was exactly what Aldrian and Sylphia provided. They checked their conditions and treated them accordingly. The men were malnourished, with many torture wounds on their bodies, while the women were in even worse condition, with no decent piece of fabric to cover their bodies.
While treating them, Aldrian had a thought.
"This is it. I can use this event to not only completely cleanse the Flamecrest name but also elevate their position in the empire even further."
