Chapter 433 - Tower of Trials: Against the Devil (1)

Arnold hurried took out whatever he required to defeat Lucifer before the inventory was sealed away again. Soon, thirty seconds were over and the other demon lord disappeared as fast as they had appeared. All but Lucifer who was standing in front of him with all his primal glory. Arnold would never forget the face of the being who was once called the Morning star of the universe, but he was just one of the seven rulers of hell. Someone, whom Arnold had already defeated once.

Lucifer was epitome of what every female dėsɨrėd in her companion. He had a lean, fit and extardoinary physique coupled with a face that would make even a goddess fall in love with him. Not to mention the black halo and the wings he had as a remembrance of him being a fallen angel. However, the most desirable thing was his crimson eyes that were thirsty for revenge against the ones who dam*ed him to rot in hell.

'Is this really him?'

[No. The Lucifer in front of you lacks the mana he did when you first met and battled him.]

'Yeah, you're right. But I'm sure whom I killed back then wasn't the real deal either.'

Arnold remembered how he came across fighting the devil. It happened seven months ago, while he was expanding his territory in southwestern Asia, he came across a hidden underground labyrinth right before he was about to deal with Syria. It was also the same region where there had been reports of more than a hundred people had gone missing.

At first, both Talos and Arnold thought the people would have lost their sense of direction in the Syrian desert and as a result, went missing. It wasn't all that uncommon for that to happen, after all, deserts were a hard place to navigate. Furthermore, he was pretty sure that terrorist organisations had nothing to do with the disappearance because there were no such organisations left. Arnold already had Scylla taken care of them by that time.

But now that he had come across a labyrinth that no one had discovered before, he knew why people had gone missing in the area. A fricking cult was active in that region. A cult that worshipped Lucifer and the one leading them was supposedly the one Lucifer has chosen to be his host and was already occupying his soul. Arnold had seen a lot of crap but this was something even he refused to believe in.

Moreso, he didn't give a flying fck about them. He was more disgusted at what they were doing with the ones they had captured. They were indulging in... cannibalism. There were hundreds of corpses inside the structure. Some have been eaten into and the rest left alone, perhaps to be feasted on later. Some of the corpses hung upside down, with multiple cuts all over their bodies. This allowed gravity to do its work and drain their blood. Below them, some utensils were left to collect the blood so that those satan worshippers could quench their thirst.

This wasn't the first time Arnold had seen something like this. It was quite... common in among these basta*d demon worshippers. But it didn't made Arnold comfortable and it was the first time he had seen it happen on this scale and... Arnold didn't know what happened after that... but he just slaughtered them all right then and there. They had abilities, quite a few in fact, but it was all useless against Arnold and his army.

He easily dispatched them to hell and reunite them with the ones they were busy worshipping. However, as they were walking out a dungeon appeared out of nowhere. Arnold didn't have a reason to think so, but something in his head kept telling him the appearance of a dungeon in such a place was too random, even for his taste. It definitely had to do something with the cultists.

Either way, he could not have left the dungeon alone and not clear it. So he along with a part of his army entered the portal while the rest of them guarded the dungeon as well as the labyrinth. And sure enough, Arnold's hunch was right on point like always. The appearance of the dungeon definitely had something to do with the cult, because the dungeon teleported Arnold and his army right in front of some kind of a demonic castle.

A castle that was made out of the bones of hundreds of thousands of condemned humans and demons. Basically, anyone who went against Lucifer became a part of his castle following their defeat. Arnold didn't know why, but he kind of liked the idea behind it. Who in their right mind would go ahead and attack someone who literally had made a castle from the remains of his enemies, right?

Well, someone as Arnold would. He had entered the dungeon to clear it. He didn't care whom he had to go against. But the owner of the castle had a different opinion. Right now, Arnold and his army were invading hell, well, a replica of it. Volcanos were erupting all over the place, the temperature was soaring higher than ever before, the da*ned souls of the evil were being tortured in ways Arnold hadn't even thought of.

But for Arnold it was more like he was looking around his new place. It wasn't because he was going to turn the casle in his own home, but because he was pretty sure he was going to hell for the things he had done. Even if they were righteous deeds, it didn't matter.

Either way, while Arnold was sight seeing, the gates to the castle opened and out came a horde of damned beings. Being led by none other than Lucifer himself. Their army outnumbered Arnold's by 3 to 1. The fight began and Arnold's army was surprisingly having a hard time against Lucifer's. 

His regular summons were getting owned by them even though Arnold was destroying Lucifer's army with just as ease, things were not looking good for him. His summons were getting destroyed continuously thinning their defense line, when Arnold realised why Lucifer's army was so strong. They were used to the heat, no, they weren't winning because they were used to the heat. They were winning because they were dependent on the heat.

The creatures of hell were continuously converting the thermal energy and using it as a means to wreak havoc on Arnold's army. So Arnold did what he did the best, and evened the odds a little by freezing the place. Him being the madlad he was, he froze hell... who could have thought about something like that? 

After that, it was only a matter of time before his army slaughtered everyone. However, he couldn't have Lucifer resurrected, because his corpse disappeared the moment Arnold killed him and the dungeon became unstable so they had to leave.

It looked like he won't be able to make Lucifer a part of his army this time either. Because he couldn't call Talos or Yan to help him nor could he access his domain to put Lucifer's corpse in it, that is if there was a corpse left behind this time.

"I'm looking forward to our rematch." Arnold mumbled before gripping on his guns.

"I don't even know you, imbecile." Lucifer remarked as he drew his sword, "You'll pay for your foolishness with death."

"You got a messed up head. That's for sure."