Chapter 171: Highway to Hell

Pest didn't reply, but I could imagine his confusion and need for more information, turned wordless by my old commands. The mental image made me smile wider as I flapped my wings and took off toward Tinaris.

While I did that, I elaborated on my idea, at the same time polishing it in my head. 'What I meant, Pest, is that I'm going to hide from them in Hell. They wouldn't think that I would return there, and the barriers between the realms would hopefully prevent them from tracking me from where they are. Doesn't that sound like an amazing idea?'

'No, that sounds ducking insane, even forgoing the question of how you will get there. Though, you've been to Hell before. At least that would be a familiar ground, right?'

'Yeah. As for hows—there is a way. Don't you remember what Bishop found about travelling between the realms? There are no spells for getting up, but there are spells for banishing people in Hell.'

'I remember, but they are all high-level stuff that, like, five warlocks in the world can cast. How will you find them and tell to banish you?'

'It's not like they are hiding… they are all famous. As for the rest, I can think about it later. Maybe just asking would be enough, or attacking them, as an option.'

Then, when the time would be right, I'd be able to get out of Hell with Goddess of Wizards' spells. My biggest concern in all that was that I'd have to leave my followers behind for an undefined amount of time. That… that really was a problem.

I anticipated seeing my girls again so much when I was stuck with Aivena, and now I won't have time for that at all, unless I wanted to risk them. Then, unless I wanted to take them with me in Hell, which frankly wasn't a place for any pretty girl because they swiftly stopped being pretty there, I'd be separated from them until I had the power to take all the gods at once.

What a pain.

I wouldn't have been flying to Tinaris at all if not for the fact that I still had to find a powerful warlock, and that meant asking Bishop about them. He'd know the answer to where they were, or would know whom to ask.

As the forest scenery below me changed to the farmlands and villages, my mind went back to the past, to the memories of the place I was going to revisit soon. Nine circles, each worse than the other, be it because of their terrible weather or their no less terrible denizens. A cesspool of violence and chaos, with no rulers and no rules. Only power mattered there, and whose who had the most of it could call themselves a lord.

My temperature resistance would help me so much there… I opened my character sheet and looked it over to see what else could be good to evolve first as soon as get down there. My eyes stopped at the line that I usually ignored.

[Titles: Devourer, Alpha Predator, The Lord of Nine Hells, Godslayer]

A new title! I only noticed it now. Too bad that titles gave me absolutely nothing at all. Wouldn't it have been cool if that was otherwise? If they gave powerful unique abilities? But we had what we had.

What else I had was a giant load of EXP that would disappear all too quickly when I will put it into upgrades (speaking from experience). Too much EXP, to think, from a person as physically weak as Goddess of Wizards.

Of course, she'd be able to turn a normal man into a pancake with a slap, but for a deity she was weak. When it came to physical attacks, I could just overpower her… Though if she bothered to put more defence around herself, she'd be alive and I'd be dead.

It wasn't me who killed her, but her arrogance. But next time, it would be me.

Even on my speed, a flight to Tinaris took a few hours. What time I didn't spend planning, thinking and reminiscing, I spent in tension and fear that some other god would teleport right in my way… with a dozen of friends.

It was still day when I reached its walls. Normally, that'd be a problem—getting over the walls at day with my looks always has been—but now I had something special with me. I pulled the Ring of Thousand Faces out of my stomach, where it rested until then. I found before, by careful experimenting, that it was made of metal that my temperature in lava form didn't melt, which was very convenient since I sometimes forgot I had it in.

Now I landed on some distance away from the city, pulled in any extra limbs and appendages, and put the ring on my finger. The illusion it picked this time was that of a tall man with a thick beard, dressed like a farmer or a woodcutter. The mass I got from only having two arms made me more muscular than usual, but the ring emphasised that to the point where only an illusory shirt could serve me without tearing when I bent an arm.

That meant that when I walked past the line of people who gathered to enter the city, a single glance from me was enough to squash any protests. Even the guards didn't give me any grief—I just shifted menacingly when one of them tried to mention that, and his pals were the first to elbow him until he closed his mouth.

What an unexpected pleasure it was to walk in openly instead of hiding in the shadows. I wished one day to be able to do it without the ring on my finger. But in the meantime, I just had to get to Bishop as quickly as I could, and then shock him with my new temporary looks.

He'd be fine. He was used by now that I looked different every time we met again.