Lord: Starting from a Goblin Nest

All eyes fell upon the Archdevil.

”This is why I hate you hypocritical Golden Dragons,” Gracia said, rolling her eyes. As she waved her hand, the remaining parts of Farama materialized and flew back to her body like weary birds returning to their nest. ”Do you have any idea how much more your meddling is going to cost me?”

”All you have to pay is the price you’d already agreed upon,” the Golden Dragon snorted. ”So, to be precise, you were just trying to get away with paying less.”

”So… you could have taken her yourself this whole time?!” Ron stared at Gracia, suddenly at a loss for words. ”Then why did you…”

”Without this initial favor, would you have sold me the Abyssal Silver so easily?” Gracia asked, feigning indifference as she toyed with her fingernails. ”Business is a two-way street. If I don’t sweeten the pot first, how can I get what I truly want later?”

”Besides, she wasn’t my ultimate goal. As long as the Abyssal creatures that sealed her remained, it would have been difficult for Hell to meddle in this land. But look at what you’ve done: you turned a Pollution Worm Demon and killed the two powerful demons hiding in the deepest reaches. If I had acted myself, it would have drawn far too much attention, but you doing it was an entirely different matter.”

”Still, it’s always nice when you can pay a smaller fee, but unfortunately, this big lizard had to go and ruin it. No wonder Tiamat despises your kind.”

”Across all the planes, I can’t think of a single thing she *doesn’t* hate.”

”Even she has her calmer moments,” Gracia shrugged. ”Fine, it seems my little plan was foiled by your big, dumb dragon friend. But you didn’t manage to acquire the complete body on your own, now did you? So, I’ll still calculate your reward based on four incomplete parts.”

”Ah, right, right, whatever you say,” Ron said agreeably, nodding gratefully toward the Golden Dragon. This True Dragon, who had initially left him with a rather poor impression, had been a massive help today.

”Alright, I was originally planning to just give you a legendary item and call it a day, but since you didn’t complete the task in its entirety, I’ll have to think about what to give you instead,” Gracia said, casually making a promise she had no intention of keeping. ”How about… this?”

The Purgatory Duke beckoned. The blood that had gushed from the Demon Lord’s severed palm rose from the ground, coalescing in the air to form a droplet half the size of a fist. Shifting, unpredictable flames of blue and red scorched the scant liquid. Finally, the blood settled in the Devil Duke’s palm, solidifying into a shard the size of a fingernail.

It looked like a small shard of obsidian. It bore no resemblance to blood, nor did it carry the aura of plague and death that had emanated from Ocas’s projection.

”This is…”

”The essence of a Demon Lord. This is the real deal, not to mention it’s from the infamous Ocas and was personally refined by me,” Gracia said with a soft laugh. ”Believe me, it’s valuable enough to make even the great miser Mammon do your bidding.”

”This friend of yours is a Traveling Mage, isn’t he? You can ask him just how precious a single drop of this essence is.”

As Ron turned to look at him, Mazarino gave a wry smile. ”Well… I’ve actually never seen anyone sell Demon Essence Blood of this purity, so I can’t give you an exact value.”

”But I can give you a point of reference: some Casters or Enchanters will pay a high price, anywhere from several hundred to nearly ten thousand Gold Coins per vial, for the blood of common demons to use as raw material. In Imprint City, within the City of Many Gates, a single small vial of a Balrog Flame Demon’s unrefined essence blood was once auctioned for a seven-figure sum.”

”In that case, doesn’t that make every demon a walking fortune?” Delaford counted on his fingers for a good while, a seven-figure sum making him click his tongue in amazement.

”Gold Coins mean little to most demons and devils; Soul Coins are the real currency,” Gracia said, disdainful of the goblin’s greed. ”Losing this essence blood, which can be used as a material for many things, would weaken even a high-ranking demon for some time. And to become weak in the chaotic Abyss?”

”They would die, and quickly,” Mazarino affirmed with a nod. ”Unless they’re about to starve to death, not even a beggar in the Abyss would choose to sell their blood for coin.”

”Then, this refined essence blood from a Demon Lord…” Ron stared at the obsidian in Gracia’s palm, which seemed to devour all surrounding light.

”I’m not your commentator,” Gracia smirked. The obsidian in her hand shot into Ron’s alchemical bag as a streak of black light. ”I do hope you waste it. That way, you’ll come begging me for another drop.”

”I wouldn’t dare count on being lucky enough for a second chance,” Ron said with a laugh, shaking his head. ”In any case, thank you for your generosity. When you were trying to lower the price, I thought I’d end up with—”

”You can’t do much with such a tiny amount. You only think I’m being generous because you’re a young mortal who hasn’t seen the wider world,” Gracia scoffed, casually dissolving a contract into thin air. ”It is, however, genuinely precious. Even ten thousand years from now, your descendants can use it to boast about their ancestor’s glorious deeds—that he once wounded a Demon Lord, escaped with his life, and even collected its essence blood.”

”I wouldn’t fob you off with actual garbage. If I lost the Abyssal Silver Ore here because of this, Zarell would surely come looking for my head.”

”Speaking of the Abyssal Silver Ore…” Ron hadn’t forgotten his companions, who were still fighting. ”I might still need your help. A Death Knight is rampaging across my lands. Kao Jia is strong, but I’m afraid he can’t eliminate it completely.”

”The one who tied the bell must be the one to untie it. A Death Knight’s existence is a peculiar matter; even I would have a hard time stopping it.” Gracia, however, seemed uninterested. A magical Array lit up at her feet, and it was clear she was preparing to leave. ”But it doesn’t matter. The credit will fall to me in the end, anyway. You just need to wait for the one who can solve the problem to wake up.”

”But compared to that,” the little princess of Hell said with a malicious smile, ”you should be more worried about that Witch Demon. Don’t forget, those creatures aren’t easy to kill. They have Life Boxes, and that one’s is almost certainly not within the Delusional Land.”

”Hss—” At the mention of this, Ron felt a headache coming on. On its way here, the Witch Demon had enslaved a group of Beastmen and Centaurs. Its lair was definitely not in the Delusional Land, so finding it would take who knows how long.

It wasn’t the initial attack that was worrisome, but the lingering threat. This Witch Demon was bound to cause them no end of trouble in the future…

「Far, far away from the Delusional Land」

CLICK. Inside a heavily guarded, secret cave, a nondescript black box suddenly trembled. Shimmering, dark purple dust poured from the Life Box and coalesced into a new body. This form, however, was withered and emaciated, as if it had already endured for centuries.

”Hateful…” the body rasped, the voice that of the last scion of the Farama Kingdom. ”That bastard is a complete nobody! By what right does he get help from an adult Golden Dragon, and even a Devil Duke?!”

”Hateful, hateful, hateful!” His face contorted, his boundless hatred manifesting as a palpable aura that caused the surrounding vegetation to wither and die.

”But it doesn’t matter.” After venting his rage, he sat down, panting. The two points of ethereal light in his eye sockets were sinister and venomous. ”I have time. So much time. I can wear you down. I refuse to believe they can stand guard over a little thief forever!”

”They cannot, indeed.” Just as the Witch Demon was seething with resentment, an ancient and distant voice suddenly sounded from behind him. ”Which is why I have decided to perform my duties a little more seriously.”

”Who’s there?!” The Witch Demon leaped to his feet in terror. He had never imagined that any being could sneak into the deepest part of his secret base so silently! Who on earth could possess such an ability?

The Witch Demon noticed with astonishment that the being before him had a half-goat, half-human body, almost identical to that of his patron. It exuded an aura of plague and death, only it was much smaller than the Undying Demon Monarch’s projection, merely the size of an ordinary humanoid.

But he could be certain that this being was absolutely not his master!

”Who am I?” Gray mist emanated from the rotting ram’s head. He paused, as if in thought. ”I am not very good at introductions. However, as an Undead Creature and a Caster yourself, perhaps you can call me the Funeral of All Things. Or, the Final Lawgiver.”

”Your Magic is a mistake. Your very existence is as well. It is time for all of this to end.”

”Come with me.”