Chapter 77 - Betrayer

Chapter 77: Betrayer

Atlas Studios

Under the stimulation of the magic power, the memory crystal glowed faintly before projecting an image.

In the image was a half-humanoid demon. His lower body was on all fours, looking like some kind of beast. His upper body was humanoid, his two arms had five fingers, and his muscles were not that well-developed, but what was strange was that this demon’s head had no face, and his face was actually on his chest! At his chest muscles was his pair of eyes. The eyes looked big but also strange because the pupils in the eyeballs were actually horizontal!

At first glance, these eyes with horizontal pupils looked like they were squinting, but they made him feel especially uncomfortable after looking at them for a while, feeling that the pupils were staring at him at all times.

On his abdomen was a hideous mouth with sharp fangs protruding and interlacing. The color of these teeth was different from the skin of his abdomen, so it looked like this demon’s entire abdomen had been cut in two.

Just looking at his appearance, this demon was indeed quite scary… It was a typical monster-like demon.

In addition to this image, there was also a recording in the demon language in the memory crystal. The owner of the voice was the high-rank demon Edrach.

“César, upper-middle-rank demon with the illusion demon bloodline. Good at using illusion magic. He was originally a warrior under the command of Demon Lord Rogeros, but he stole one of Lord Rogeros’s demon artifacts, escaped, and hid in another world. Since we were unable to locate the world he is in, we couldn’t cross worlds to hunt him down. But it doesn’t matter. The repulsive force of that world will send him back. This memory crystal has another function—sensing Lord Rogeros’s demon artifact. Once César is expelled back to the Abyss by the power of the world, the memory crystal will immediately inform you. Kill him and bring his faceless head and the demon artifact back!”

After hearing these details, Roy felt that his tail was about to become knotted.

Why is this mission like this?

Executing the target was easy. The level of upper-middle rank was nothing more than having much higher magic power than Roy. Given some time, Roy could catch up by relying on the Magic Energy Growth Potions. However, this demon was actually an illusion demon, which meant that he was very good at deceiving and playing with illusions. Otherwise, it would have been impossible for him to steal something from a demon lord.

Of course, he might have also taken advantage of when the demon lord was negligent…

Unlike in the other worlds, in the Abyss, demon and demon rarely signed demon contracts because there was no repulsive force. Moreover, it seemed like the contracts signed in the Abyss could not take effect. The ruling demons relied on their powerful strength to control resources, and these resources could be the inheritance of demon knowledge, souls, or things that could strengthen demons, such as the demon blood in the pools of refinement. However, because there were no contracts, the low-level demons generally had to serve these rulers or fight for them to obtain these resources. This was the typical form of recruitment.

Of course, there were very few loyal demons. Otherwise, there would not be traitors like César, and there were quite a number of similar cases, not only happening to Lord Rogeros but also to other demon lords. In order to hunt down these rebels, the Abyss had given birth to a unique name—’execution demon’!

Roy had no interest in understanding the specific details of César’s betrayal, but he could tell from this information that his execution target should be someone with relatively high intelligence.

Strictly speaking, these shrewd demons were devils… These kinds of devils who knew how to use intellect were much more difficult to deal with than those demons who only knew how to rely blindly on brute strength.

The most troublesome thing was that this guy was still hiding in another world!

Now, Roy finally understood why Edrach had given him a year to complete this mission.

The Gates of the Abyss connects to so many worlds, so who the hell knows which world he’s hiding in?

Although Edrach said in the memory crystal that the power of the world would expel him, did he not think about what if César signed a demon contract with a summoner in the other world and then not fulfill it? Won’t he be able to remain in that world for a long time and not return?

How am I supposed to complete the mission then?

No, that’s not possible. Edrach is a high-rank demon, and it’s impossible for him to make this kind of common-sense mistake…

Roy started wagging his tail unconsciously while thinking.

Was my previous understanding wrong? Even if there is a demon contract, is there a time limit on how long a demon can stay in another world? And the longest amount doesn’t exceed a certain limit?

The more Roy thought about it, the more likely he felt it was. It was just as he thought. If a demon really could sign a demon contract with a summoner and rely on not fulfilling it to stay in another world for a long time, then the loophole in the demon contract was too big!

According to Roy’s experience in the Heroes of Might and Magic world, demons without a contract in the high-magic world could rely on their magic power to resist the power of the world and stay for half a year to year. Thus, Roy estimated that even with a demon contract, demons could probably not stay in a world for more than two years!

The more low-magic a world was, the more likely this time would shorten. At that time, even if the demon and the summoner did not fulfill the contract, the power of the world would expel the demon.

As for whether this would count as the demon failing to complete the contract or the summoner failing? Roy was not sure since he had never encountered such a situation.

Roy guessed that Edrach had given him a year because César should have escaped for some time. Given his strength as a middle-rank demon, he would not dare to run to high-magic worlds. High-magic worlds usually had powerful races and characters, so a middle-rank demon had to be extremely careful in them. If he were César, Roy felt that it was impossible for him to escape to such worlds.

If he could not enter high-magic worlds, then he could only go to middle-magic worlds. Because if he wanted to prolong his stay in another world as long as possible, he could not choose a low-magic world. The repulsive force in such worlds was too strong.

If the longest he could stay in a middle-magic world was half a year to one and a half years, then he speculated that César might have escaped for at most half a year!

This would explain why Eldrach had given him a year for the mission.

However, the magic in the memory crystal could only track down Demon Lord Rogero’s demon artifact. Without being able to track down César himself, were they not worried that César would quietly hide the demon artifact in the world he stayed and then secretly be expelled back to the Abyss? If he were to return like this, Roy would not be able to track him down.

Moreover, the so-called demon artifact should be a demon creation. Since it was a demon creation, it should have a soul fragment of the demon lord in it. Even if it crossed worlds, it was impossible for him not to sense even a little bit of his own soul fragment, right? When Gabriel sensed something wrong with his soul fragment, he could tear open space-time and descend forcefully. Even if the demon lord could not match up to the archangel, could he not even locate it?

Unless… unless that demon artifact was not created by Demon Lord Rogeros but snatched from another demon. Without his own soul fragment, he would certainly not be able to sense it.

After sorting out all the situations that he could deduce from the information, Roy could not help but touch the demon horns on his head. No wonder Edrach did not mention what would happen if he failed to meet the execution target. It seemed like César would already be regarded as dead at that time. Within a year, César would definitely be expelled. As for that demon artifact, it was likely it was exceptionally important to César. Otherwise, he would not have taken the risk of offending a demon lord to steal it. When he was expelled back, he would most likely carry it with him and not leave it in another world.

When demons returned to the Abyss, there would be a cooling down period. This cooling down period was due to the residual force of the world repulsion still being in the demons’ bodies, and it required the power of the Abyss to neutralize it. Therefore, demons were unable to enter other worlds during this period.

If he wanted to complete the mission, he had to find César during this cooling down period!

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After understanding how he was going to complete this task, Roy casually drew a chain bracelet, put the crystal on the bracelet, and then hung it on his wrist. This way, when César appeared in the Abyss, the crystal would light up, and he would be able to discover it immediately.

After accepting this mission, Roy would be unable to go to other worlds for at least a year since he had to pay attention to César’s return at all times. However, it did not matter. First, Roy had successfully become a middle-rank demon, and he needed to adapt to the situation in the middle Abyss. Second, he felt that it was best to take advantage of this time to fight and take a look at middle-rank and high-rank demons. He wanted to see what the differences between demons of the same rank and different ranks were and how big they were so that when the time came to complete the execution mission, he would have the confidence to deal with César.

The best scenario would be for Roy to encounter other illusion demons in the middle Abyss so that he could understand them better.

Regarding this execution mission, Roy did not want it to become a punishment mission that ended up directing back at himself. He was also curious about the reward that Edrach could give. As a servant of a demon lord and backed by the demon lord, he should have more resources than other high-rank demons. Who knew what kind of reward he could give…