Eternal Hell.
The war phase was over.
After stepping onto Asgard, Hela's power returned to its very peak.
Under her relentless slaughter, the so-called seventy-two pillars of demonic gods turned into seventy-two dead revenants.
Without a leader, the demonic legion those gods had led fell into complete disarray and chaos.
It was the same as what had happened earlier in Limbo.
One part of the war was over…
The rest became a stage of indiscriminate massacre!
"Alas…" Aron sighed.
During the whole process, he hadn't even gotten the chance to intervene.
His chance to advance to the Father's Heaven was nonexistent.
He had failed.
"Wait, what about this Lucifer? Where did he disappear to?" Aron was quite annoyed.
Obviously, it was supposed to be a fair, joint battle that would decide the victor.
Instead, everything turned into a family theft of glory and victory.
Although, in a way, theft also had its charm…
Still, there's an old saying, there are two kinds of people you hate the most: those who steal your home and those who stop you from stealing it yourself.
But no matter what…
Lucifer was not dead. He was still a huge, hidden threat.
Half the energy of the Eternal Hell was concentrated precisely within him.
If they didn't kill him, then this war in another dimension was meaningless!
"Kill!"
"Leave them only half alive!" Hela was still commanding the army, tirelessly ordering the advance and slaughter.
Her conquest plan was as simple and brutal as ever.
Kill!
Kill until you're sure it's over!
"Kill half of them?"
"Why does this sound familiar to me?" Aron frowned.
He seriously suspected that Hela was repeating something Thanos had once said.
Or maybe it was the other way around… maybe Thanos had heard it from her?
Just as he was complaining, Aron noticed how the heroic warriors surrounded a particular group of demons.
It was the legion led by a female demon named Lilian, one of the seventy-two pillars of the demonic gods.
Her army was unusual, almost all its members were female demons, which was extremely rare.
One by one, they stood up, their skin red and hot like flames…
At first glance, they didn't look like classic hellish monsters.
"Kill! Leave no one alive!" Hela ordered coldly.
Aron, standing beside her, immediately reacted and tried to stop her.
"No, wait, don't…"
"I don't think they are the real enemies."
After so much time spent in Limbo, this was the first time Aron had seen female demons.
They were so rare that it seemed insane to him to slaughter them all.
"Those other, ugly demons… better wipe them out. Leave these." Aron carelessly pointed at the army that had already surrendered.
"???"
The demons he pointed at looked on in confusion.
We've already laid down our weapons… what kind of insane criteria is this?
"…"
"Darling, those are just female demons."
"If here in hell you happen to spot one of those legendary succubi, what then? Will you still be able to walk normally?" Hela rolled her eyes.
"Succubi? Where are the succubi?"
"…"
Hela was left speechless, but before she could say anything, several powerful auras suddenly descended upon Eternal Hell.
The Lords of Hell had arrived.
Aron and Hela's expressions changed at the same moment.
Just a moment ago they had been quarreling over nonsense, and now they simultaneously turned their gaze toward the arrival of those new forces. Their eyes were cold and cautious.
"Mephisto. Satanish. Satana. Lucifer…"
Hela had a smile on her lips as she spoke their names.
She introduced each Lord of Hell who had arrived, each powerful and terrifying in their own way.
In her voice there was satisfaction, for the more chaos, the better.
She wanted Aron to offend every last one of them.
"I was wondering where the burden they dragged behind them had disappeared to… Turns out it was meant as reinforcements, as salvation."
Aron's gaze moved from one Lord to another, until it stopped on the red-skinned demon with black horns on his head.
That's right.
Lucifer. Precisely the one he was looking for!
But he looked far from the image Aron had in his mind. He was different from that accidentally summoned Lucifer Morningstar from other worlds.
Marvel's Lucifer was not an angelic figure in human form.
He was a true hellish demon, massive, grotesque, the embodiment of all that it means to rule fire and horror.
"To call such a creature Lucifer… it's as if the name is only a mask," Aron thought, with a touch of irony.
Just as he sighed, Mephisto and the other lords teleported to the very heart of Eternal Hell.
And before them appeared the scene of slaughter.
"Aaaaah!"
"My 72 demonic pillars! My army! My palace!"
Lucifer's roar echoed through hell when he saw the ruined legions and the shattered walls.
From his eyes almost spewed flames of rage.
"…"
But no one expected the reaction of the others.
Instead of pity, the Lords laughed at him.
Satana was the first. She couldn't hold back.
"Seventy-two pillars of demons… hahahaha!"
She burst out laughing.
"I'm sorry, Lucifer, we didn't mean to mock you, but… this is really too funny!"
Satanish immediately joined in the laughter.
"Ahahaha! A demon palace, you say…"
Even Mephisto, though he tried to keep a serious face, had to hold himself back from bursting out.
Because the thought that Lucifer, who often behaved like a younger brother and was always in his shadow, now boasted of "72 pillars" and a "demon king's palace," was absurd.
"I…"
Lucifer tried to respond, but the words were lost in the ridicule he suffered from his colleagues.
"Shouldn't our priority now be the elimination of these intruders?" he finally managed to utter, pointing his finger toward Aron and Hela, who had all this time been calmly watching the scene.
Shame and rage burst out of him.
"Yes, yes, yes."
Satanish nodded, and then they all turned toward Mephisto.
Their gazes clearly said: he should lead the attack.
Mephisto did not refuse.
Because the moment he spotted Aron, rage boiled in his heart.
"Man!"
"Do you still remember who I am?"
His aura flared like blazing fire, as if he wanted to crush Aron with his very presence, just like the Ancient One had once done to him.
But then he stopped.
His eyes widened.
"Heavenly Father!?"
"How is that possible!?"
He had planned to crush Aron in one move, but now he realized that Aron had reached the same level of power as him, the status of Heavenly Father.
His attempt to humiliate him turned into his own disgrace.
"Mephisto, in this universe everything is possible."
Aron raised his hand. In his palm flickered a red energy, hellish power.
"And I achieved this precisely thanks to the energy you yourself sent."
It was a reminder, Mephisto's own energy, which Aron had absorbed when he destroyed his double.
"Woo! Cobwebby!"
Satanish burst out laughing, without the slightest restraint.
"Hahahaha! Look at him, Mephisto, you really outdid yourself!"
"Satanish! Whose side are you on!?" Mephisto turned his head in fury.
Damn him!
But while he was arguing, he lost focus.
In that moment, Aron, who just a moment ago had stood calmly and challengingly, suddenly vanished.
Not a trace of his presence remained.
"Yah! Divide!"
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