Huh?
What is this?
The gods from the main world felt a bit confused.
Sterl was taken aback.
Something was off!
It seemed that things were not as he had imagined.
On Licitris's side, she had no secrets from Mephistopheles.
After their friendly matches, they often hugged and shared their thoughts, enjoying that ambiguous and relaxed feeling.
Thus, Sterl had learned some information.
The death of the Archduke of Blood was the result of a combined effort from Licitris and the Lord of Evil Spirits.
Licitris believed that at the time, she might have been influenced by the will of Swallowing Heaven, leading to her impulsiveness. In hindsight, she seemed to have felt a stroke of good luck, presumably receiving a Fortune reward.
However, there were some matters Licitris had not mentioned...
For instance, the reason Licitris and the Lord of Evil Spirits could kill the Archduke of Blood was because the three divine-level demons had already known each other for some time.
They had even gone on adventures together.
Of course, among demons, this did not constitute friendship; it was merely a coincidental encounter.
There was no such thing as a demon sparing an old acquaintance simply because they had once adventured together.
Licitris and the Lord of Evil Spirits also knew some secrets about the Archduke of Blood, such as—
The Archduke of Blood was the last "person" of a certain lineage from the upper realms. Thus, despite his lack of innate talent, he had inherited the Blood God Resurrection Technique.
This was an ability exclusive to the Archduke of Blood's race.
Iridescent-Level!
After awakening, it could not be used until reaching divine level.
With this ability, the Archduke of Blood could quickly advance to godhood.
However, before the Archduke of Blood could rise, he encountered a war instigated by demons from the upper-level Respectable Position, spanning hundreds of layers of hell. In the battlefield's grinding machine, the Archduke of Blood was severely injured and fled to an unoccupied layer of hell without any divine-level demons.
Due to his original injuries, the Archduke of Blood was on the brink of death when he unexpectedly received a proposition from the Will of Hell. He offered a portion of his residual soul in exchange for healing his wounds and being trained to become a divine level.
Naturally, the Archduke of Blood wanted to keep this a secret, but at the time of signing the contract, the Will of Hell announced it to the entire layer of hell. This seemed to be a special ritual; without this announcement, the contract could not be signed.
Originally searching for the Archduke of Blood, Licitris and the Lord of Evil Spirits also heard this news.
By the way, at that time, they thought that since the Archduke of Blood was close to death, it would be better to take advantage of the situation and prepare to kill their "companion" to seize his resources.
After hearing the proclamation from the Will of Hell, the two quickly retreated.
With the Will of Hell's protection, attempting to steal the life of the Archduke of Blood was practically impossible; they could end up trapped themselves.
Subsequently, after the Archduke of Blood ascended to godhood, he initiated a purge, eliminating many who were privy to his past. However, the movement of demons in hell was quite fluid; many would not remain in the same layer of hell for long.
In theory, besides Licitris and the Lord of Evil Spirits, there were many other demons who knew about the Archduke of Blood's past.
At this moment, after the Archduke of Blood revived, he did not rush to take action.
The aforementioned information was initially shared by the Lord of Evil Spirits.
He casually mentioned it, speaking vaguely, but soon noticed that the Archduke of Blood was listening intently, wearing a smug expression as if he were enjoying the story.
Licitris also chimed in, embellishing the past secrets to buy some time for the five divine-level beings to recover.
Putting it all together, Sterl recalled how earlier, he had seen the Will of Hell displaying a posture of extreme disdain when preparing to distribute rewards.
This layer of hell no longer needed to nurture powerful divine-level demons...
It was one itself!
It surely wouldn't want to expend energy giving out rewards.
Sterl remembered the earlier incident, where the female player had used Rebirth of All Thoughts to buy her life and mentioned some information.
The contract of [Transcendence]/Swallowing Heaven could trace back to the real world, ignoring distance to capture souls.
The Archduke of Blood had sold part of his soul, which meant that afterward, the Will of Hell could control the remaining fragment of the Archduke of Blood's body, which only possessed the Origin of Chaos!
Once the Will of Hell successfully occupied the body, it could activate the Blood God Resurrection Technique to reconstruct the Archduke of Blood's form.
In the layer of hell where Sterl and the other gods resided, a very strange phenomenon began to occur...
The Will of Hell itself became the divine-level demon that ruled over all.
Sterl completed his deduction.
Meanwhile, the intellect and life experience of the gods on the other side far surpassed Sterl's, explaining why he couldn't live long.
They slowly began to voice their own deductions, mainly to buy time.
Faced with the terror of the crowd, the Archduke of Blood merely sneered, considering himself to be in a position of victory.
Moreover, there was no rush for him...
What did it matter to waste a little time? These gods would only grow weaker under the Blood of Contamination; it wasn't like a powerful foe would suddenly emerge to take him down.
The Archduke of Blood nodded slowly in acknowledgment.
"Indeed, I originally only intended to lure Licitris and Rog here."
"To strike them down in one fell swoop and devour your layer of hell, absorbing the two additional wills to strengthen myself."
"To my surprise, there are additional gains."
"The gods of the main world have also arrived."
"It was worth it for me to limit my own power and allow Lord Swallowing Heaven to complete the formation for me."
The Archduke of Blood spoke in such an ambiguous manner that ordinary people might not understand, but Sterl immediately realized—
No wonder the Archduke of Blood had such poor control over the formation; the array of Seizing Heaven and Creating Fate was genuinely invented by the Archduke of Blood. After the Will of Hell occupied his body, it was fortunate that he could use it at all.
Let alone understand the formation.
What the Will of Hell referred to as "modifying the formation" simply meant changing it from one that could only target divine-level demons to one that could also target the gods of the main world.
However, the Will of Hell still didn't understand the formation, which allowed Sterl to take advantage of the situation.
With this, many of the previous questions seemed to have clear answers.
Why did the Archduke of Blood not harbor hatred for Licitris and Rog? Because he was merely the Will of Hell, only caring for his own growth; in fact, he owed these two divine-level demons gratitude for giving him the opportunity to occupy the deep recesses of the Archduke of Blood.
Why was the Archduke of Blood easily ambushed when he first attacked the Blood Red Fortress? Because he had not grown up in a treacherous environment like a demon, lacking any guard against allies.
This included the various peculiarities exhibited during the earlier battle; the Will of Hell might not have intended to force the five divine-level beings to turn against each other before stepping in to reap the rewards.
He simply felt he had the power to crush everything and jumped in, ready to take action.
The exposure of the array was similar; the Will of Hell could be described as somewhat naïve, having overestimated his own strength. He failed to release the Origin of Chaos in the first instance, almost causing the array to be destroyed.
He had no choice but to forcibly activate the hell trial.
No matter how strong a divine-level demon was, they could not manipulate this thing, but the Will of Hell could do so effortlessly!