Chapter 681: Demonic War.
"This is a fucking mess," Natashia grumbled.
"Natashia, language," Aphrodite spoke.
"Fuck the language."
"...." Aphrodite just facepalmed and sighed.
"The battlefield is more chaotic than I thought," Scathach commented.
On a hill far away from the battle were Natashia, Scathach, Kaguya, Aphrodite, Alexios, and Vlad.
All of them were in full armor with only their heads exposed, except for Vlad, Alexios, and Aphrodite, who was in her divine robes.
They were looking at a bloody battlefield.
Angels, Demons, and Werewolves, all these beings were on the battlefield, and casualties were already taking place on all sides.
"I don't understand. Why is Volk meddling in this mess?" Vlad asked aloud.
Ever since he received the report from Alexios about Victor becoming the literal King of Hell and that he needed the Key to Hell, which was in Diablo's possession.
Vlad felt an urge in his heart, an urge that said he must get involved in this and that Victor would become a great ally in the future.
Caution also grew in Vlad's body, much more than before. After all, he knew from Alexios' descriptions that Victor was much more mature and experienced in dealing with the power of the world tree and his own power.
Not to mention that he should be much stronger after consuming thousands of demons in the war that led him to become the king of demons.
And knowing the man, he knew he wasn't going to sit idle in hell. He was definitely training; he was a lot like Scathach, after all.
'... This man has again exceeded my expectations... I can only deduce how strong he is now.'
Victor was definitely a threat that couldn't be provoked, now? He was practically untouchable.
Only pantheon kings and demon kings could match the military power he now has.
Casualties didn't matter to demons. As long as there was a hell, demons will always be a massive military power that was rivaled only by ancient pantheons.
Vlad felt a chill run down his spine when he heard the news, the man had gone from Second Progenitor to King of Hell.
'Fuck Diablo, you and your unnecessary intervention.' Vlad was very much in the mood to hit Diablo.
"This is a full-scale war, we cannot intervene, or we will have to choose sides." Alexios assessed as he looked up at the sky as several bursts of light energy and miasma were seen.
Under Baal's leadership, the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th rank pillars of hell were fighting with two of the seven virtues, with Baal personally fighting Ariel.
Even though Baal was strong, he could not hold his own in a fight against angels, who are the opposite of demons. Any mistake would lead to his destruction, and because of that, the demon was using his true form while fighting Ariel, one of the seven virtues.
"Not counting that damned dragon."
ROOOOOOOOOAR.
The group looked at a 50 meter long black dragon using its breath to eliminate several angels; on top of the dragon was a tall woman with long white hair and dead eyes with crossed arms.
Lilith, the mother goddess of demons.
A ray of Light appeared in front of the dragon, and an angel wielding a sword with a golden aura attacked the dragon.
A roar of pain was heard, and the attack seemed to stun the dragon.
" Lilith, are you supporting this mess!? Of course, you would be. You always hated our father!"
"..." Lilith just looked with the same dead eyes at Michael, and made a gesture with her hands, then several spikes of pure Miasma flew toward the angel.
" Tsk." Michael dodged the various attacks while looking at the woman with strange eyes. 'What's wrong with this woman? I'm not feeling anything from her. It's like she's dead.'
Despite the obvious disadvantage of elites, it was obvious that the demons were being pressured, proof of which was that they needed several pillars just to deal with two seraphs of the seven virtues, and they were losing badly.
But it wasn't like the demons were on the losing side either. The Deadly Sins still didn't show up; they were by Diablo's side throughout the whole war.
[Gabriel!]
[What is it, Brother?]
[Take over the dragon and Lilith. These two can't diminish our numbers any further; keep them busy while I take over the leadership of the angels.]
[Very Well.]
A golden light appeared in front of Michael, and a man with a golden sword in his hand appeared.
"Take care, Brother. She is not normal."
"She was never normal, Brother."
"Just be careful."
"Okay."
Gabriel and Michael were the commander and vice-commander of the angels, and they could switch positions very easily on the battlefield. They were used to each other, and as inseparable brothers, they understood each other better than many angels.
"Lilith, our father should have eliminated you at the beginning of Genesis; then this mess would never have happened."
Lilith didn't answer. The one who responded was the dragon, who turned his massive face towards Gabriel with visible anger.
Dark power began to leak from the dragon's mouth, and soon, a massive roar was heard as pure miasma poured out of the dragon's mouth.
Gabriel flapped his wings and dodged flying into the sky, then he went to play his role in attracting Lilith and the dragon.
"A damned demonic dragon and an elder class one! Fuck, where did he hide that dragon!? Weren't all of them eliminated?" Natashia was incredulous with what she was seeing.
"Hell is massive, Natashia. It's not hard to hide something." Vlad spoke.
"… Is it really wise to interfere in this mess?" Kaguya asked with concern visible in her tone. She hadn't expected such a large-scale battle.
"As Victor said, we don't need to fight. We just need to get the key to hell." Scathach explained calmly.
"...." Vlad looked at Scathach strangely.
"What is it, Vlad?"
"Just finding it odd that you deny participating in a war."
"I have priorities, Vlad. Although it's fun to fight so many strong beings, it will put the Vampire Nobles in a bad position, not to mention that I need to retrieve my disciple."
"This is not a war that I can act like a child in… Even though I really want to." She mumbled the final part.
"..." Vlad was looking at Scathach like she'd grown a second head or something.
"We can't interfere, not yet... Diablo is being protected by the seven deadly sins." Kaguya narrowed her eyes as she looked towards a large demon.
"He is not being protected." Aphrodite pointed.
"He is expecting something." Aphrodite could clearly sense Diablo's impatience.
"Diablo is sneaky, he always has a card to play, but I really didn't expect Volk to intervene in this war." Vlad narrowed his eyes as he looked at Volk, who was helping the angels.
'Why has he allied himself with the angels?' Vlad felt irritated; he couldn't understand Volk's movement, he knew that his old friend was gaining something with this alliance, but he wanted to know what he was gaining that he needed to intervene in a war of this level.
"It's easier for angels to ask werewolves for help than noble vampires. From their point of view, werewolves are not evil." Scathach snorted in disdain.
"Do you have the whole plan in mind, Alexios?"
"Yes, and I must say that I do not approve of Victor ordering Natalia to put herself in such danger."
"Victor trusts Natalia's abilities. He wouldn't ask her to do something like that if he didn't."
"Probably, but maybe he didn't know what kind of order he gave her. Look at this war; this is not something for young people to meddle with."
"Victor is young, you know. And we wouldn't put Natalia in danger. We care for each other, even if she doesn't have Alucard blood."
Vlad's face distorted for a few seconds when he heard the name 'Alucard'.
'I want to spank my past self for allowing him to use that name.' In the past, he found it amusing to see a young Progenitor wanting to be the 'opposite' of him. He didn't know that name would become such a heavyweight in the future.
'Fate is a wretch, and she probably hates me, that bitch.'
"He's an anomaly and can hardly be called young now that he's spent who knows how long in hell," Alexios commented.
Natashia's eyes visibly glowed blood-red; she really didn't like it when someone talked about Victor.
Alexios winced slightly as he felt Natashia's mood worsening, not just her, but Scathach, Aphrodite, and even Kaguya, but he wasn't going to change his mind. He was livid when he learned of Natalia's part of the plan to retrieve the key to hell.
Because of this, he promptly took his daughter's place, much to the latter's displeasure and irritation.
"No fights." Scathach slammed the shaft of the Spear into the ground.
Natashia snorted and turned away.
"What shall we do, Scathach? You are the commander." Vlad spoke.
"We hope."
"The big leagues haven't fully come out yet, Diablo and the Heavenly Father haven't shown up yet…" Scathach trailed off and narrowed her eyes.
" Fuck, this just got more complicated."
" What?"
"Look." Scathach pointed.
Everyone looked where Scathach pointed, and they saw a portal appearing behind Diablo as several humanoid monsters came out.
"The servants of the Elder Gods." Vlad's eyes glinted dangerously.
Another portal opened behind Diablo, and Yama appeared, along with four demons.
"Yama, his generals, and that damned Merlin... Great, it's practically impossible to get close to Diablo right now." Scathach snarled in annoyance.
Rumble, Rumble, Rumble.
Lightning struck, and soon a man appeared in the sky beside Michael.
"…Thor." Natashia narrowed her eyes.
"Is the Norse pantheon intervening?"
"Things must have calmed down there, but not enough to send more people." Aphrodite narrowed her eyes.
"Just Thor is enough to help. The strongest god in the Norse pantheon can tip the scales of war."
"At least that's what Odin will think."
"This war is blowing out of proportion." Natashia started to speak.
"God King class beings alongside Diablo."
"Yama's generals and that ancient dragon that only the angel elites can handle, something that will be impossible because of the demonic pillars and those damn servants of the Elder Gods."
"The angels have Volk, the seraphim have the seven virtues, and damn Thor! Not counting the Heavenly Father."
"Counting Volk, and the Heavenly Father, the angels have two God King level beings, but… They are not to be underestimated. The light energy of the angels is extremely lethal to the creatures of darkness. Just this fact greatly balances the scales…"
"With so many elites and powerful beings, predicting the pace of war is virtually impossible," Natashia grumbled.
"We don't even know if the angels have more allies or not."
"Literally anything could happen."
"Unlike other pantheons, angels have almost no conflict against themselves. That is, their forces are at their maximum, not to mention that they have allies with several pantheons."
When Natashia finished speaking, several magic circles started to appear beside the demons, and soon several different demons began to emerge.
"... Well, it looks like you've cursed the angels' side; their strength has just been restored," Alexios commented.
Natashia just looked at Alexios with irritation in her eyes. She really was considering throwing some lightning at that man's ass.
"Vlad, what are you going to do?" Scathach asked.
"... What do you mean?"
"Don't play dumb. In a war of this scale, if the vampire nobles don't take sides and state their reasons, we'll gain a lot of enemies when the war ends. Our race isn't very favored, you know that."
"..." Vlad just nodded as his calculating gaze looked out over the battlefield.
"I won't do anything until Victor shows up and makes a decision."
"… Huh?" Scathach, Aphrodite, Kaguya, Natashia, and even Alexios looked at Vlad in disbelief.
"Why do you suddenly care about Victor's opinion?" Scathach narrowed her eyes.
"If you haven't noticed, the second Progenitor is the king of hell, the host of a world tree, and he has millions of beings following him now, not counting his group consisting of goddesses, and hundreds of amazons, of course."
"He became a great player, big enough to change the course of this war with his presence."
"And even if he is a demon king, he is still a noble vampire. He will still protect our race thanks to you, and depending on his actions, I will take mine."
"... I see. You can't stand by if the second Progenitor takes sides in a war of this scale."
"Correct."
A hush fell over the place, and the group watched absently as Thor summoned several bolts of lightning and rained them down on the demons.
They also watched three of the Deadly Sins leap across the battlefield toward Thor.
" Hahaha... HAHAHA." Scathach laughed with great amusement.
" Hahaha..." Kaguya laughed with her hand over her mouth, quite restrained compared to Scathach.
Everyone looked at Scathach and Kaguya with strange looks. Why did they suddenly start laughing? They asked.
"Why are you laughing, girls?" Natashia voiced everyone's doubts.
"It's nothing. I just thought of something funny about my husband." Kaguya spoke as she regained control of her neutral expression.
"Something funny? What is it?" Aphrodite asked.
"…Oh, I understand now." Natashia smiled widely.
" What? What do you understand?" Aphrodite asked.
"Think about it, Aphrodite. If Victor showed up in this war, what would he do?"
"He would… Oh." Aphrodite opened her eyes and then flashed an amused smile.
"I see, that's quite possible… In fact, it's 100% sure that would happen."
Alexios turned as he and Vlad looked strangely at these crazy women.
"Care to elaborate on your thoughts?" Vlad asked.
"Victor doesn't take sides, Vlad," Scathach said.
"He is independent, and even more so now as King," Natashia added.
"If Victor shows up here, he won't be playing the game of angels and demons," Kaguya said.
"He'll turn the tables and make his own game. He's petty like that." Aphrodite added.
"Victor doesn't take sides, he is his own side, and everyone has to choose which side to take when he acts." The girls spoke at once with a confidence that shook Vlad and Alexios a little.
"… Not wanting to underestimate Victor's capabilities, the omniscient know how much everyone gets fucked when they try to underestimate him … But look at the magnitude of this war, aren't you guys overestimating Victor a lot?" Alexios asked.
The girls just shook their heads in disdain when they heard what Alexios said.
"You still underestimate my husband, Alexios," Kaguya said in a monotone.
"One thing we learned from him is that he always exceeds our expectations in a way that no one expects. Vlad himself is the very example of that, which is why he hasn't said anything until now." Aphrodite added.
Alexios narrowed his eyes and just looked at his king, who was silent.
Feeling Alexios' gaze and knowing that his most trusted subordinate wanted an explanation, Vlad spoke:
"Victor is in the lowest level of hell with a negative world tree inside him. He's basically in his natural habitat. And in the lower levels of hell, time works in a messy way thanks to highly concentrated miasma."
"As the king of hell, he has a whole dimension of resources, and beings to explore, not to mention, he may already be past his adult stage."
"Honestly? I wouldn't be surprised if he shows up and can already access his Progenitor form, gathering the impulses of that form, the powers of the world tree, and God knows what's inside his body... I wouldn't be surprised if he is already at a God King's level."
"He already had the energy of a God King before, thanks to the boost from the world tree. With so much time to train, it wouldn't be surprising if, both in power, skill, and physical combat, everything was on the level of God King like Zeus."
"He already had all the weapons within himself. He just lacked time to sharpen those weapons."
"And time is all he has now."
Alexios opened his eyes in shock at the king's statement.
Scathach smiled widely at Vlad's statement; the excitement she was feeling was visible.
'Not long... Not long before our fight...' She felt her insides clench in anticipation for the two battles she would have with Victor, the battle for her to become his, and the nightly battle.
"That's why I don't make a move," Vlad commented.
"Although no matter how much time he has, he cannot reach grandmaster level in martial arts," Vlad added nonchalantly.
" Why?" Kaguya asked, genuinely curious.
"You can be a Master in all martial arts, but to become a Grandmaster, it's not a question of training or time, but... Enlightenment."
"… Enlightenment?"
"Yes." Vlad nodded and fell silent.
Kaguya narrowed her eyes in confusion and looked at Natashia.
"Look at Scathach, she's a master of pretty much every martial art, but she's only a grandmaster of Spear."
"The difference between a master and a grand master is like heaven and earth. There is no comparison."
"Even though I wasn't a grandmaster with my martial arts, I never felt that 'enlightenment' no matter how long I trained."
"Is the difference really that big?"
"Rose is a good example. She's a formidable fighter with just her martial arts. Have you ever seen her use the sword?"
"...Yes, no matter how hard I try, I can't see her blade."
"That is normal, grandmaster-level martial arts begin to apply a 'concept' to the blade, which is very dangerous for mortals and even gods," Aphrodite added.
When Kaguya was about to open her mouth to speak, they all heard the unnaturally loud sound of a bullet being fired.
And Michael's scream.
"GABRIEL!"
.....
