Chapter 36: Devilish Virtues

  Outside the mountain.

  The atmosphere, for Greedius's mountain, seemed downright picnic-like. Where on a daily basis there were murders, brutal fights for every scrap of energy, and scheming, today there was a large bonfire with roasted potatoes.

  "Do you think anyone will stand up to Felix?" asked one of the emaciated devils, taking advantage of the rare opportunity for networking.

  His desire to talk was exploited by a large, greasy hand, which immediately reached for several potatoes from that side of the fire.

  The adept's question was answered by a muscular devil with the facial features of an athlete, who under normal circumstances would have likely punched the skinny one in the nose. Now, his face was twisted in a grimace of deep thought.

  "Without awakening the cultivation of devilish virtues? No way. Felix's foundation is too perfect."

  Although the athlete didn't tell anyone, he really liked to analyze such matters. He often even created a mental ranking of the 10 strongest adepts from all the mountains. Now, on this rare occasion for socialization, he could compare his rankings with others.

  Of course, as soon as he got into conversation, the large hand on his side reached for the uneaten potatoes.

  "And can you just awaken them during the tournament?" the skinny one continued, surprised that he had managed to strike up a conversation with someone much stronger than himself.

  He tried not to pay attention to the rapidly shrinking supply of bonfire potatoes.

  The athlete stroked his chin in a pose worthy of a philosopher. To be honest, he had no idea, but he didn't want to look bad in front of a junior.

  So he looked towards the devil who was busy snatching potatoes from everyone else. A giant with muscular arms and a huge belly, and at the same time, the ruler of the mountain.

  "Hmmm?" asked a surprised Greedius, with bits of potato stuck in his beard.

  "Aaa... devilish virtues. Yes, yes, anything is possible," he answered evasively, when suddenly his brows furrowed.

  His face seemed to turn pale, and he himself jumped to his feet, emanating a powerful energy. The whole cheerful atmosphere froze and everyone was left speechless by the overwhelming pressure.

  The devil himself, however, paid no attention and, looking towards the tunnels, calculated in terror what might have happened.

  For, under the shirt covering his large body, one of his tattoos had suddenly changed.

  A moment earlier, inside.

  The scream of the falling Shapeshifter tore through the dark air, echoing off the hard rocks of Greedius's mountain. It ended with a sudden impact, which restored the grim tunnels to their cold silence.

  Belisara looked with a conflicted face at the devil's silhouette, barely visible from her rocky ledge. A silhouette that did not move and did not emit even a trace of energy.

  There was no doubt that her enemy was dead.

  "Haaa," she breathed out slowly.

  She was not pleased and had no idea that the energy from the artifact would lead to his death. However, there was no point in denying that this grim coincidence had saved her life.

  'At least for a while...'

  Not far behind her, the last of the previously scattered bombs exploded. Her last moment to catch her breath.

  She still had to fight the Shapeshifter's two minions.

  In Felix's tunnel, the clash seemed to be decided. On the floor carved into the rock lay Septima, clutching her stomach, and a little further away was the representative adept of the Mountain of Research and Development himself.

  He looked at his defeated opponent as if he could not understand her.

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  "What did you do that for? I'm sure my reputation has reached you, even if you rarely leave your mountain."

  He spoke to the defeated one. She could no longer answer with anything other than a slightly angry look.

  "Even if you were on my level, you wouldn't stand a chance against me, let alone now, when a whole line separates us."

  Felix really couldn't understand this woman's strange approach. He would have let her go if she had gotten out of his way. But she preferred to attack first, testing his noncommittal approach to the world.

  Although he usually cared little for the typical rules concerning devils, he knew that being a representative adept came with a certain responsibility. He carried the hopes of the entire mountain, as well as the adepts studying there. His loss of face would be a shadow on the reputation of all the devils he represented.

  'That's why, despite my reluctance, I must teach her a lesson...' he thought, shaking his head.

  He accumulated energy in his left leg and brutally kicked the girl, throwing her against a nearby wall, then headed for the exit of the chamber.

  But when he was very close, he suddenly frowned and turned around. He immediately became serious and couldn't believe what he was seeing!

  Septima, whom he had just defeated, was now standing on her own two feet, radiating an energy that left him stunned! Her eyes burned with fire and seemed to have an aura that demanded unconditional submission!

  'Damn it!'

  He didn't even have time to jump back before he was attacked by a murderous kick, the force of which exceeded his wildest expectations! Gritting his teeth, he tried to counterattack, only to... be thrown against the wall by the even faster she-devil!

  Withstanding the impact, he immediately fled to the right, barely avoiding the subsequent devastating blow that shattered the block of rock!

  'What is this monster?!' he thought, terrified.

  He felt the power radiating from Septima crushing his entire being. The pressure was even stronger than during the training sessions he had with the ruler of his mountain, Eusebius!

  The she-devil herself turned in his direction and looked at him indifferently, as if he were a worm. Her eyes seemed to tell that his destruction was easy as stepping on an ant.

  'Damn...'

  For the first time in his 20-year life, Felix felt that he was running out of luck.

  At that time, Justinian was struggling to avoid more traps and wandered through more tunnels carved into the mountain. His face was covered in dust, and in his hand he clutched an old parchment. It was his loot from when - due to his cursed look - one of the tunnel walls collapsed on him when he was taking a break.

  In his mind however, the notes written on the parchment kept coming back to him.

  "In the third month after the fall, I could think of nothing but hunger. I woke up hungry, I went to sleep hungry, and I dreamed hungry."

  The boy guessed what these notes were.

  "My life was hunger. My thoughts were hunger, and in the end, I myself became hunger. When the third month passed, I discovered the secret to the devilish virtue destined for my lineage," the rest of the text said.

  'This must be one of the side rewards that Greedius mentioned earlier.'

  Justinian was not interested in cultivating these supposed devilish virtues. However, he was trying to extract something from the written story that would help his own foundation.

  When he reached the next fork in the road, he felt strange quake from the mountain depth.

  'Someone with the strength of the fifth line... isn't that Felix?' he estimated from the echo of energy that reached him.

  He began to wander enthusiastically in that direction a powerful shockwave emerged. This shockwave made him frown.

  'What fight could result in such an echo?' he thought of the trace of Septima he did not recognize. - 'Even to me it seems dangerous...'

  He kept in mind that this time he was not in a simulation and a wrong decision could lead to his death. He hesitated for a moment before making a decision.

  Then... he directed his steps towards the place from which the echo of two fighting forces came.

  At the same time, Aldona Borowiak was wandering alone through her part of the mountain. So far she had not encountered any danger, but she knew that sooner or later it could happen to her. Every next turn was in fact a deadly danger.

  'At my level, I have to pray that I don't run into someone dangerous,' she thought to herself.

  Thanks to her cautious approach, she was moving forward slowly but surely.

  She tried to listen for sounds coming from each corridor to avoid places where a fight was already taking place. It was the same this time, when she sensed on her left fluctuations of 3 different forces fighting each other at the level of 3 lines.

  She was already turning the other way when she realized something.

  'That aura... isn't that Belisara?'

  She hesitated for a moment, but finally gritted her teeth:

  'I have to make sure.'

  She didn't know why she was doing it. Maybe just to notify Justinian if that little harlot died here?

  When she looked around the corner, her assumptions turned out to be true. Belisara was desperately clashing with two individuals at the 3rd level of Ki Gathering. Aldona remembered one of them from a meeting at the market, the other - stronger - seemed unfamiliar.

  'I see I'm not the only one this little brat can get on the nerves of...' she thought, looking at his burned face, which bore the marks of a recent explosion.

  'If I leave her here, there's a good chance I'll finally get rid of her...'

  Aldona, like other devils, had no particular scruples. From childhood, she was taught that the most important thing is to achieve the goal above all else, and she never hesitated to act in this way.

  Now, however, about to take a step back, she felt strange. In her mind, she kept seeing the face of that amusing man who had saved her during the raid. The man who said funny things about justice, despite the whole world treating him like an enemy.

  'A man who believes that if we want to change our environment, we must start with ourselves...'

  She knew that if she backed down now and let Belisara die, everything she had learned from that man would be for naught. She also knew that if she backed down, it would not be hard for her to take a step to avoid the fate of her mother, who was tormented by her father.

  Finally, she sighed and made a decision.

  'Apparently, I've gone mad too,' she thought, and then rushed to the aid of the familiar she-devil.