The eighteen Devil Lords and Blood Child descended to the ground and stood at the underground tower's entrance.
"We need to completely hide our presence from the Blood Duke and the other two warriors, or else the entire plan will fail. Since we are all together, it is impossible to hide our combined energy radiation. Beneath us is the tower where I have lived for a long time, and it has cloaking mechanisms that an enraged individual's consciousness can not overcome."
Blood Child's words made perfect sense, and the Devil Lords understood the logic behind his instructions, but none of them entered the tunnel that led to the tower.
Blindly follow the orders of a man they did not know and entering a place that could very well be a trap was not something a devil would do willingly.
Zatiel understood the mind and nature of devils better than even an Archdevil, so he knew how to handle this group. Following the commands of the Neo-Demon, Blood Child focused on the Devil Count he had known the longest, Kita.
"You will go down with me and will carry a piece of the consciousness of every single Devil Lord." After he spoke those words, Blood Child focused on the Devil Marquises and completely ignored the startled Devil Count. "You can analyze the place and determine if there is a trap or not."
The Devil Marquises nodded after hearing Blood Child's proposition, and the rest of the Devil Counts were delighted.
However, Kita was not just going to accept that abuse without at least fighting back.
"Why must I take the part of the canary in a coal mine and go down there with you?." Kita was angry, but she did not dare to let her emotions control her and took a deep breath before asking that question in a respectful tone.
Blood Child stared at the Devil Count, and although she was questioning him, she did it properly, so he had no reason not to reply.
"Judging by your demonic bloodline, your battle style must be related to illusions, which are restricted in this dimension. That, plus your cultivation, makes you the weakest of all of us. The help that you will provide in our battle against the Blood Duke will be minimal." Blood Child made a pause at this point, and his aura became extremely sharp and bloodthirsty as he continued.
"If you are unable to perform this type of menial task, then what is the point of keeping you alive?. I should just eat you to become stronger."
Kita's heart grew cold, and she began to tremble after hearing Blood Child's words. She did not doubt for a second that he would eat her alive if she disobeyed.
The female Devil Count could not go against Blood Child or the Devil Marquises, and most of her fellow Counts were stronger than her, but there was someone she thought she could offend without consequences.
"Lord Blood Child, you say I am the weakest of all of us, but you are mistaken. That position falls in him." Kita pointed to a Devil Count that was at the border of the group.
Everybody followed her finger and saw the Shadow Frog, Severian. The Devil Lords had unknowingly ignored him this entire time, and it was only now that they focused on him.
Severian's soul force put him at the 1st Engraving Stage, but since he did not depend on illusions like Kita, it was not right to say he was weaker than the female Devil Count inside this dimension.
The Devil Marquises did not interfere and let Blood Child handle the situation. The Devil Counts did not say a word for fear of being indicated next and look away.
Blood Child focused on Severian and saw how this one adopted a submissive and cowardly posture. His eyes narrowed, and the next instant, he flashed to the Shadow Frog and performed a palm strike.
Everybody was surprised by Blood Child's actions. His attack came without any warning. The speed and strength it carried were so great that it would be impossible for someone at the 1st Engraving Stage to survive.
All the Devil Lords moved away from Blood Child. They began to mobilize their energy to respond to his murderous behavior, but what happened next astounded them.
Severian, who everybody thought would die, was able to respond with his fist. His hand had released a black smoke that devoured all the energy in a radius of thousands of meters to strengthen himself.
But things did not end there since once Severian's black fog touched Blood Child's palm, it was able to negate some of its power.
The clash between the two released a shock wave that pushed the Devil Counts away and made the earth tremble.
A peculiar expression appeared in Blood Child's face when the palm and fist collided. The attack he used had the same strength that broke all the bones in the Fiend Dragonborn's hand, even after this one had fused with his Law Avatar, burned his life force, and activated his trump card. And yet Severian was able to end up just fine.
The seventeen Devil Lords stared at the duo. Everybody's attention was not on the mighty Blood Child, but on the seemingly inoffensive Shadow Frog.
They felt the soul force that put him at the 4th Engraving Stage. However, the thing that provoked the biggest commotion was his mighty dominion over the laws.
"I knew you were hiding your strength, but who would have thought that your greatest asset is not your cultivator but your Law of Darkness that has reached the Minor Completion level. It seems that you will be instrumental in our battle against the Blood Duke."
Those words sounded like a compliment, but they did not make the Shadow Frog happy at all. If he had been able to hide his strength during the fight against the Blood Duke, he would have been much safer since no one would expect that someone at the 1st Engraving Stage could do much.
Severian nodded to Blood Child before staring with coldness at the rest of the Devil Lords, making them look away with fear. Since he no longer was hiding his power, there was no need to keep the facade of a coward.
Kita's face became pale since the Shadow Frog focused on her and did not hide his killing intent at all.
Regret filled Kita's heart as she felt the eyes of the Shadow Frog. Her situation remained the same, and she had earned a powerful enemy.
Severian may not be a Devil Marquess, but his Law of Darkness put his battle power near them, not to mention that his path to Rank 6 was already open.
Of course, to become a Devil Duke, you needed more than sheer strength, but someone that managed to hide his power for hundreds of years and accept mockery from devils that he could kill with a single strike was an extremely cunning and patient person.
The female Devil Count looked down as she attempted to see a way out of her predicament. The other Devil Lords did not care about her state of mind and just branded her body with pieces of their consciousness.
Blood Child grabbed Kita, and they went down the tunnel. In a matter of minutes, they reached the tower, and the devils' consciousness began to explore the place.
Although the thousands of devils trapped in the walls made the Devil Lords a little uneasy, they detected no trap at all, so they went down.
When everybody was inside, Blood Child used the runic formation's core to cloak the tower before making nineteen tentacles of blood energy rise from the ground.
"You can use it to restore your energy pools and push your bodies to their peak."
The Devil Marquises used their consciousness to analyze the blood energy. After detecting nothing wrong with it, they began to use it along with the Devil Counts.
Once they were all together around the runic formation, preparing themselves for the fight to come, Blood Child spoke again.
"I need that all of you tell me your laws and battle styles in detail. I will use that information to create a strategy."
None of the Devil Lords wanted to reveal that type of information, but since they would display it in the fight regardless, they did not hide it and told everything to Blood Child.
A few hours after they began sharing information and developing their strategy for the fight, they felt how the raging energies contaminating the sky calmed down.
"ROAR!"
"ROAR!"
"ROAR!"
The Devil Lords heard three distinctive roars, each of them full of killing intent and madness. The next second, the explosions began that made it seem like the world was going to end.
The battle between the Blood Duke and the two Runic Spirits had begun.
