Chapter 929: I've Been Playing You All Along
Jeedis's arrival successfully subdued the adventurers, slightly easing the tense atmosphere.
"Just to be sure, I'll ask one more time... are you the Demon King?"
Jeedis looked at Eiji with a complicated expression.
"Yes."
"Did you kidnap Iris?"
"I obtained Iris's consent."
"So... you've been playing us?"
"Pretty much."
Eiji's expression, which clearly confirmed this, successfully made Jeedis clench his fists, really wanting to punch him.
The most crucial point was, why would Iris agree to go along with his reckless behavior?
Has my world's cutest little sister finally reached the age where she's siding with outsiders?!
Considering the significant difference in their strength levels, Jeedis still didn't dare to make a move.
"Then about Miss Wolbach, you were playing me too!"
Megumin showed a fierce expression, her eyes flashing with a crimson light.
"Yes, indeed."
Megumin unceremoniously swung her staff at him, successfully dealing a grand total of 0 points of damage.
"...So the executives aren't dead either?"
"One died."
"...Forget it. I just want to know, does the promise you made earlier still stand?"
"The peace treaty, right? No problem."
Eiji nodded readily, making Jeedis feel slightly better.
"After I return from hell, I'll sign the peace treaty with your father."
Hell?
Jeedis showed a puzzled expression.
"Barnier, about my earlier proposal, how have you considered it?"
Eiji ignored his expression and turned to look at Barnier instead.
"No problem, I'll start preparing right away!"
Barnier readily agreed, then turned around and began drawing on the ground.
"Boss, do you have some agreement with Barnier?"
Kazuma quietly moved closer.
Megumin's expression was quite telling. So that's it, Kazuma calls him boss... she should have realized it sooner.
"That happened right after I returned."
Eiji explained: "I asked him to help prepare the ritual magic for going to hell."
"Going to hell?"
"Yes, to kill Asuque."
Kazuma suddenly understood, but couldn't help some internal criticism.
So you were planning to go to hell to kill them all along?
That was only natural.
Eiji was never one to let threats remain. If someone was confirmed as an enemy, they needed to be eliminated immediately to prevent them from causing trouble later!
Therefore, right after returning from the Failed World, he went to see Barnier and requested that he send him to hell.
The cost was that when conflict arose between hell and the celestial realm, he would help Barnier's side within reasonable limits - during the Maxwell incident, Eiji had already fulfilled this promise by driving away the unnamed war god.
When first proposed, Barnier had been hesitant.
Although he couldn't see through Eiji's thoughts with Clairvoyance, he could easily guess that Eiji wanted to go to kill Asuque. While his relationship with Asuque wasn't particularly close, she was still his colleague and comrade facing pressure from the celestial realm together - how could he easily betray her?
It wasn't until just now, when Asuque was killed once, that Barnier finally made up his mind.
For the entire Hell, Eiji's friendship held far greater value than Asuk's!
"But isn't Asuk already dead? Why do we still need to go to Hell?"
Kazuma was somewhat confused. Hadn't that massive Black Holy Sword strike just now killed her?
"Demons aren't so easily killed, especially not those of Archduke-level in Hell."
Eiji shook his head.
"Archduke-level demons possess the privilege of accumulating extra lives."
Barnier stood up and proactively interjected to explain.
"Of course, extra lives aren't easily accumulated. It takes at least a hundred years to accumulate one life. Asuk has only been an Archduke for about three hundred years, so she probably has more than three lives!"
That's right, just like Maxwell who had dozens of lives, Asuk definitely had more than one life.
Naturally, the number of extra lives an Archduke of Hell possesses is tied to their own time. Her foundation certainly couldn't compare to innate pure-blood demons like Maxwell and Barnier who had existed for thousands of years, but she wouldn't be completely finished after just one death.
If we calculate based on four lives, she died once and used one life to resurrect her subordinate Shapeshifter. We'd probably need to kill her two more times to completely finish her off!
In other words, to eliminate the threat permanently, Eiji still needed to go to Hell and take all of Asuk's remaining lives!
Only then did Kazuma understand.
"But you'd better be careful. Asuk in Hell is practically impossible to kill."
Barnier shook his head, expressing his skepticism.
The Authority of Dreams can interfere with reality. As long as injuries can be turned into non-existent dreams, with infinite energy, it's practically equivalent to immortality. Asuk in Hell is nearly unkillable.
This was also the reason he readily agreed to Eiji's proposal. At worst, they would only have slightly strained relations with Asuk.
"Then we'll wait and see!"
Eiji looked at Barnier with a strange expression.
You don't actually think that was my full power just now, do you?
His face was full of this meaning.
Barnier suddenly didn't know what to say, unsure whether he should continue his current actions.
"By the way, Barnier, I want to discuss something with you."
Eiji suddenly thought of something.
He put his arm around Barnier's neck, and the two moved away from the crowd to a corner of the square.
Kazuma and the others curiously looked over, but Eiji was very careful, not even giving them a chance to use lip-reading skills. The two whispered secretly, nobody knowing what they were discussing.
"You said earlier that as long as one possesses the Dream Design skill, they can become an Archduke of Hell?"
"That's true in theory, but you're a Grand Magician, right? You'll never have the chance to learn the Dream Design skill in this lifetime."
Barnier quickly understood Eiji's thinking, but waved his hand with a laugh, his face full of "don't be delusional" expression.
"Take a look at this."
Eiji took out his adventurer card.
"...Why are you an adventurer?? And you have the Dream Design skill? You even learned such a useless skill??"
"I never said my class was Grand Magician, did I?"
"No, you clearly said so!"
"Did I? Then I must have been joking."
Barnier was speechless.
How could there be such a person!
Lying about their class just for fun!
What?
You say I'm that kind of person too?
Never mind then!
"However, this might actually be an opportunity?"
Barnier began to entertain some cunning thoughts in his mind.
Gaining Eiji's friendship versus making Eiji one of their own.
Which method would be more beneficial for Hell? There was no need to even think about it.
"Excellent! Leave it to me!"
Barnier rubbed his hands together, brimming with enthusiasm as he began the ritual to descend into Hell!
...
Hell was a bizarre and peculiar world.
A crimson sun hung in the sky, ceaselessly radiating a bloody red glow. As far as the eye could see, the land was covered in black rocks, and the vast terrain showed almost no signs of life.
As a flash of magical light shimmered, Eiji's figure appeared at the edge of a cliff.
"Bwahahaha! Welcome to Hell!"
Barnier's true form manifested before Eiji. He looked quite similar to his doppelganger—still dressed as a young man in a tailcoat—but his handsome features were no longer concealed behind a mask, and several pairs of classic demon wings fluttered behind him.