Chapter 11: Justinian's Secret Weapon

  When he opened his eyes outside the test scenario, he felt the weight of gazes upon him. It wasn't just the adepts and the confounded devils who had been watching the game, but also... intrigued she-devils!

  Unaccustomed to such pressure, he immediately found the first secluded corner he could. There, he could at least sit down as Boruta announced the test results and the upcoming finals.

  "...all devils who did not qualify for the top 10 must leave the inside of the mountain. If they wish, they may join the audience. In the meantime, there will be a one-hour break."

  After this short announcement, a magical scoreboard with the results of the first round appeared inside the grotto. What shocked the boy was the fact that he had taken first place, with a huge lead over the rest of the field. From his perspective, he had been desperately fighting for his life, running from crazy women...

  'Damn it!' - surprisingly, Ignatius was also dissatisfied with this result. While this outcome theoretically raised the prestige of his mountain, he had no desire to explain to his adept how he had been fooled by a human woman.

  'I think I'll have to sneak off somewhere for a while after the games...' the Empty-headed devil was already planning his next moves.

  The break began, during which the devils went to consume unhealthy and ridiculously expensive snacks prepared by Boruta's servants for the tournament.

  At the same time, the participants from the first round also evacuated from inside the mountain.

  Interestingly, Justinian also had a chance to renew an acquaintance. A she-devil from Greedius's mountain approached him. She was a very beautiful woman with hair as bright as the sun, wide hips, and immediately noticeable curves - none other than Belisara, with whom he had carried out a mission earlier.

  "Hi," she said, smiling at him radiantly.

  That smile was so wonderful that Justin, who had just recently been fleeing from an entire village of women, involuntarily blushed.

  "Hey..." he replied awkwardly.

  "It seems you're much more diabolical than I thought," she winked, alluding to his place in the top 10. "What kind of mischief did you prove to be so good at?"

  The boy, of course, had no intention of talking about what had just happened, so he slipped through the topic like a small fish slipping through a hole in a large net.

  "I just got lucky... if you can even call it that..." he scratched his cheek in embarrassment. "And what did you distinguish yourself in?"

  The she-devil raised her eyebrows suspiciously as she listened to his explanation, but then she remembered the incident with Wachowska and shrugged.

  "The task with pranks on humans was trivially easy. I manipulated them so much that they jumped into the swamp themselves," she announced proudly.

  Justinian listened to this with a certain horror, but what could he do? He was in hell now and was treated as one of the devils, so pranks on humans couldn't surprise him.

  Belisara talked a little more about her task, then moved on to information about the next phase.

  "Our superiors recommend that we form an alliance against Maleficius's student. They consider her dangerous," she explained.

  The boy saw no reason not to agree, which made the she-devil very happy. They talked a little more about what they had been up to since they last met at Seweryn's. The girl still had to arrange a pact with the others, so she soon left him, sending a wide smile his way as she departed.

  The finals took place in the form of a battle royale - it was a fight to the death, and all holds were barred. Of course, wounds sustained in such a test scenario were not transferred to reality - after all, no one wanted to risk the health of their adepts.

  Ten devils materialized in a clearing surrounded by a forest, casting hostile glances at each other and waiting tensely for Boruta to start the game.

  "Start!" his powerful, bass voice boomed.

  The cooperation against the adept quickly revealed itself, and the main person of interest did not seem particularly surprised. With a calm gaze, she watched as nine opponents - including Justinian - took up their attack positions.

  "What's your name? I like to know the names of my victims," asked one of Eusebius's adepts, smiling menacingly.

  The she-devil thought for a moment.

  "You can call me Septima."

  Even before she finished answering, the attack began! Two devils from Greedius's mountain rushed her, intending to capture her and quickly decide the fight.

  Daggers flashed, and then... all the observers had to open their eyes wide, and Boruta even stood up from his seat of honor!

  For both attackers had disappeared from the scenario after Septima parried their attack and mortally wounded them!

  The remaining seven didn't even have time to react when she made a move with her hand, and a knife flew from her sleeve, aimed at Justinian!

  "Damn it!" the boy cursed, barely dodging the weapon.

  "All together!" shouted Belisara, after which a great commotion ensued. The idea of a joint attack, though correct, was difficult to implement without prior synchronization.

  Septima took advantage of this, parrying and dodging blows by a hair's breadth and counter-attacking in fractions of a second. In this way, another of the attacking devils fell!

  "How the hell is she so strong?!" cursed some adept, not understanding what was happening.

  "Maybe she has more than one mark?!" someone else suggested, but theoretically, that shouldn't be possible. Besides, she wore long sleeves covering her wrists, and her aura did not seem to be above the first level.

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  Fear crept into the hearts of the devils facing this previously unknown adept. This time, no one put themselves forward to move first; they just glanced at each other, hoping someone else would take the step for them.

  "Weren't you supposed to attack?" Septima asked, as if genuinely surprised by the level of her opponents.

  "Let's go!" finally, it was Belisara who, gritting her teeth, decided to set an example. She launched an attack at the she-devil's legs, who looked at her indifferently. At the moment the kick was delivered, however... the attacking adept used her momentum to change its trajectory and instead did a half-turn to strike from the other side!

  'Not bad!' Justinian rejoiced in his mind, only to have his mood plummet quickly.

  For Septima had effortlessly predicted this move and deflected the kick to the ground, causing Belisara to kneel before her with wide eyes.

  Justinian started running towards them, wanting to help his companion, but time did not stand still.

  Maleficius's adept made a move with her hand towards her, but it turned out that this development was actually part of the blonde she-devil's plan, who attacked from the other side with a dagger!

  "You're boring," Septima commented, however, as she was simply faster and blocked the incoming blow with her knife!

  She had clearly had enough of these games, because she was preparing a powerful kick when Justinian fell into the impact zone, saving Belisara in the process!

  Unfortunately, his participation in the fight practically ended there, as the kick was so strong that the boy flew a meter to the side from the impact alone and, judging by the pain, at least one of his ribs was broken!

  Outside, there was now a dead silence, as if all the devils watching the games had forgotten to breathe. Only after a moment did the comments erupt with much greater fervor.

  "Maleficius's adept is invincible!"

  "What a show!"

  "These are the best games I've ever seen!"

  The devils, fired up with emotion, shouted. While there were some comments praising Belisara, the show was definitively stolen by Septima.

  Even in the box of honor, the lords of the mountains were immensely impressed by what they had just seen. Ignatius never cared for such nonsense as power or fighting, but seeing these skills and remembering what he had heard about Maleficius... he was even more frightened than before.

  "If that little one catches up to him in cultivation, then Eusebius... even your Felix might have trouble," the voivode Boruta finally said, breaking the silence.

  The lord of the Mountain of Research and Development paled slightly upon hearing this. For years, he had been raising an adept of incredible talent on his mountain, who carried the great hopes of the entire mountain. However, if one were to compare his level when he also had one mark with what Septima had shown...

  'There would be nothing left to pick up...' Eusebius quickly concluded in his mind, looking at what Maleficius's monster was doing in the tournament.

  In the test dimension itself, the situation was not improving for the alliance of adepts at all. Belisara was about to be finished off by her opponent when Justinian - feeling himself losing consciousness - gritted his teeth and decided to do something.

  "Stop..." he gasped, trying to get to his feet.

  "You're starting to annoy me," Septima replied without emotion, but like all the other adepts, she looked in his direction, not letting her guard down.

  The rest of the devils, frightened until now, also looked at him, curious as to what he had come up with in such a state. For Belisara, too, it seemed obvious that Justinian could do nothing more, yet he seemed strangely confident.

  'Could he have already achieved the first technique?!' she thought, frowning.

  The boy himself struggled to his feet and looked at the remaining adepts. He intended to use a secret weapon he had prepared especially for potential trouble. It was his secret trump card in case of catastrophic situations.

  Looking like a great master preparing for a final, grand attack, he clenched his fists and began:

  "Justice above all!" - he quoted the holy book of the Church of Justice, hoping to provoke a reaction from the world similar to when he had accidentally done so before.

  The shocked, fighting fiends stopped their attacks for a moment and stared at him in disbelief.

  Some of the devils in the audience cursed loudly and immediately covered their children's ears so they would not hear such blasphemies.

  Boruta, in the seat of honor, buried his face in his hands and thought:

  'He's as much of an idiot as Ignatius...'

  Contrary to what he expected, no violent changes occurred in the test scenario. After all, it was not actually part of the hellish dimension, but an artificial creation that also filtered everything before it reached the 66th hell itself.

  Of course, Justinian couldn't have known this, and now he was blushing all over as everyone - both his allies and Septima - looked at him questioningly.

  A fraction of a second before the rest, Belisara regained her composure. Thanks to this, although her blow was parried, she managed to knock Septima off balance!

  The rest of the devils did not let this opportunity pass and although Maleficius's adept defended herself bravely, defeating another two attackers in the process, she was soon so wounded that her fate was obvious.

  Then, gritting her teeth, she cast a hateful glare in Justinian's direction and... surrendered!

  She preferred to leave the test scenario on her own terms, rather than waiting for her opponents to finish her off, which was, in essence, a dignified choice.

  The five adepts remaining in the scenario - including Justinian - were panting heavily. The latter was seriously injured, as Septima had focused some of her fury on him. Now, however, the reason for their alliance had been eliminated, and they could enjoy their success.

  Of course, the order of honors had been established before the alliance was formed, so now the two surviving devils of Eusebius, the two of Greedius, and the human himself knew which place would fall to them.

  "Fantastic job, guys!" said the devil who had earlier asked Septima for her name. "And you're very clever, for a human."

  The rest of the adepts could only agree with this; after all, the surprising words during the fight and their consequences had determined the outcome.

  Justinian, however... was too embarrassed to correct him. Instead, he pulled out his Notebook of Sins and Atonements and decided to write down all his observations now, while he still remembered them well.

  "Time to get out of here," said the second of Greedius's devils, with which the rest agreed.

  "Wait..." Justinian spoke up then, still writing in his notebook. "So the first two places go to you, then two places for Eusebius's devils, and me last?"

  He just wanted to make sure he didn't get any facts wrong, which was important in his cultivation.

  The fiends, especially those from Eusebius, however, looked at the matter differently. The order of the prizes had been determined before the fight, based on reputation alone. Now, however, considering how the fight had unfolded, it didn't seem right to them.

  "You got a problem with that?" hissed one of Greedius's fiends.

  "We do," the devils from the other mountain interjected.

  Soon, they came to blows, which escalated into a deadly conflict - all before the eyes of the terrified Justinian and an audience thrilled by the entertainment.

  It didn't take long until... one heavily wounded devil from Eusebius was left on the battlefield, who soon gave up the ghost anyway. An awkward silence fell both in the stands and in the test scenario itself, which Boruta had to break after a few seconds.

  "The winner of the games is the Mountain of Plague and Misfortune..." he said, confounded.

  Justinian felt foolish puffing out his chest for the medal later, but most of the audience viewed his performance very differently.

  "That human is more devilish than the devils themselves!" went the circulating opinion. The fiends emphasized that he had chosen the revolting number 7, and at key moments, despite his alleged physical weakness, he sowed division better than the best politician!

  Some of the spectators even looked at him with terror, believing that he would soon bring the worst of what was to come to the hellish dimension.

  "If his master is the Emptyhead, he will surely take over the entire mountain from him soon!" other rumors added.

  Of course, if Justinian himself knew how his victory was being perceived, he would probably just shake his head in disbelief.

  However, not all devils saw the past events in this way. In one of the boxes of honor, a famous poet-pamphleteer with long, curly hair, holding his lover on his lap, was laughing at his silent nephew.

  "You see, my dear Franciscus, this is exactly the kind of company you need to finally unleash your talent!"

  The devilish child, very serious for his age, looked at his uncle.

  "I had the opportunity to meet him earlier. He was surprised that I throw away my toys."

  "That's because it's exceptionally foolish. Who in their right mind would do such a thing?"

  The child shrugged.

  "How else am I to gain inspiration to write like you, uncle?"

  "First of all, abandon that wretched seriousness!" the long-haired man groaned theatrically, sighing.

  If anyone else had been in their box, they might have noticed the subtle tension between the two devils.

  Do you prefer action or comedy so far in the story?