Chapter 38: The End of Greedius's Competition

  A few hours later, when most of the adepts had already finished their participation in the competition, Greedius's Mountain roared with dissatisfaction.

  "How in the world did someone beat Felix?!"

  "Where is that damned witch from Maleficius?"

  "The Grim Judge is a cheat!"

  Earlier, many devils had bet on a smooth victory for Felix Faustus, and now, deprived of their money, they spewed venom at everything around them.

  The topic was particularly irritating because, in addition to the surprising defeat of their handsome idol, the hated Justinian had also achieved an unexpected victory.

  The Grim Judge already had an established reputation, and his victory in this small competition only solidified everyone's fear of the terrible man.

  This, however, mainly concerned the male devils—the she-devils remained surprisingly restrained in their attacks on the boy, which only irritated their male counterparts even more.

  Justinian, trying to ignore the hostile comments from the crowds and the long stares of the devil women, waited in the crowd for his friends to return. The fact that neither Belisara nor Aldona had appeared yet was surprising to him.

  'Could the test in the other parts of the mountain have been different?' he wondered.

  With each passing minute, his face grew darker.

  Finally, after about thirty more minutes, Belisara emerged from within the mountain.

  But as soon as he saw her... his heart began to race, and he knew that something had gone wrong inside.

  The she-devil could barely stay on her feet; she had visible wounds on her face and body. It was clear that something terrible had happened.

  "What the hell happened in there?!" Justinian immediately grabbed her hand, terrified.

  The she-devil looked at him with a pale, grave expression and shook her head.

  "Y-you have to s-save... Aldona..." she whispered.

  Her legs gave way beneath her, and she lost consciousness. It was only thanks to the boy's quick reaction that she didn't hit her head on the rocks.

  Her vague, ominous words became even heavier as, for many long minutes, no one else emerged from inside the mountain.

  A few hours later, in the chamber of the ruler of the Mountain of Envy and Conflagration.

  "What have you done, you damn fool?!" Eusebius hissed in anger, lunging for Greedius's throat.

  Nearby lay the unconscious Felix Faustus.

  The broad-shouldered devil smiled apologetically; he had clearly stirred up a bit of trouble in this matter and hadn't expected the most talented adept in all of hell to end up like this.

  "Ah, it's really not my fault," he commented.

  Of course, Eusebius had no intention of listening.

  "What happened to him?"

  Greedius shrugged.

  "That boy of Ignatius's carried him out of the mountain unconscious. These things happen."

  "Why was Felix unconscious?" the visitor pressed.

  The host had to smile apologetically once more.

  "It seems he lost a fight with the adept from Maleficius," he said, inwardly rejoicing at the predicament the crowd's favorite and his patron, the mountain's ruler, had gotten himself into.

  "For fuck's sake..." Eusebius commented, turning pale and grabbing his head.

  If there was one person in the hellish dimension he would never want to make his enemy, it was, above all, the killer of Rokita the Elder.

  A devil who rarely left his mountain, and whose origin, as well as his adept's, was a complete secret.

  His presence was all the more terrifying because Rokita had previously been considered the strongest devil in the dimension, not counting Warlord Boruta. Maleficius, however, had killed him with a single blow.

  'There's no choice, I should activate my formations and hide Felix, just in case. Who knows what that madman will get into his head?' Eusebius calculated.

  Sighing heavily, he lifted his unconscious protégé and looked at Greedius once more.

  "By the way... if something like this happens again, I will kill you."

  The host, dressed in a shirt that covered his tattoos, frowned. He knew he had gone a bit too far by endangering Felix, but this was crossing a line.

  "Why the hostility, you old bastard?"

  Eusebius, however, seemed to pay no mind to his behavior.

  "Consider this a final warning. If that little she-devil with whom you shared your gift comes even a step closer to any of my adepts, I will personally sever that serpentine head of hers."

  Greedius immediately paled and even took two steps back. Narrowing his eyes, he quickly calculated whether he should try to get rid of Eusebius now, but ultimately, he gritted his teeth and nodded.

  Eusebius, without taking his eyes off him, took the unconscious Felix Faustus under his arm and vanished into thin air, returning to his own mountain.

  Greedius had to take a deep breath when he finally stopped feeling Eusebius's aura. The truth was, he wasn't sure who would triumph in a duel between them, which forced him to restrain his anger. But that didn't mean he would leave the matter as it was.

  Still full of rage, he directed his gaze towards the guest grottos, where his adept was resting under the watch of Justinian the Just.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Clenching his fists, he made himself one promise.

  'Soon, this problem too will be solved.'

  A few days later...

  In Justinian's grotto, Belisara opened her eyes. A young man, who had slept little in recent days, was sitting by her bed. Despite a thorough search of the mountain's interior and the identification of several dozen deaths among the few hundred adepts who had entered the competition, Aldona... seemed to have vanished without a trace.

  Belisara's words suggested she knew something about what had happened to her.

  "Where am I?" she asked. The boy, lost in contemplation about the missing girl, hadn't noticed she had awoken. Weakened by his nerves, he nearly jumped at her unexpected stirring.

  "Th-this is my grotto," he explained quickly.

  The girl nodded. Then, as if remembering something, she frowned.

  "What about Aldona?"

  "She went missing during the trial, and no one has any idea what happened. I was hoping you would explain it to me when you woke up."

  He answered, clenching his fists. Belisara silently observed how seriously he was taking the matter. A moment later, she adopted a determined expression.

  "Do you remember when we met again on this mountain?" she asked, looking him in the eyes.

  "Yes... you were running from the local devils then..."

  "Exactly. In the tunnels, I saw two of those devils attack Aldona and drag her somewhere," she lied without batting an eye.

  When the shocking story reached the boy's ears, he didn't react at first. Only after a moment did his anger... begin to distort the air around him, revealing a shocking energy.

  "I... I wanted to help her, but they were simply too strong for me, and I barely escaped with my life..." the she-devil added, with a heavy sadness in her eyes.

  Justinian, losing control of himself more and more, asked only one, short question.

  "Where can I find them?"

  Belisara sighed heavily, as if considering whether to give the boy such dangerous information. Finally, as if with a degree of uncertainty in her eyes, she gave him the location where Sagitarius, their leader, usually stayed.

  That was enough for the fluctuations around him to intensify, and the boy himself, clenching his fists and barely containing his rage, stood up and headed for the exit.

  "W-wait... where are you..." Belisara asked, feigning terror.

  "Stay here. I need to clarify something with those devils."

  Without looking in her direction again, he left to find the leader. He didn't notice the subtle smile that appeared in the corner of the young she-devil's eyes.

  Sagitarius was licking his wounds in a well-hidden, two-level dugout.

  After his earlier confrontation with Justinian, he had been attacked by rivals waiting for a moment of his weakness, and now, survival was the priority.

  Unlike the other mountains, there were no hospitals on Greedius's Mountain, and the devils had to handle healing themselves.

  This was meant to promote survival and the mindset of "Not sure if you can beat your opponent? In that case, you shouldn't fight him," which, of course, was in line with the philosophy of the Lord of Hell.

  Sagitarius, focusing on sensing a potential attack on his hideout, soon frowned.

  'What is he doing here?'

  Soon, the shout of his recent opponent echoed above his den.

  "You have 5 seconds to show yourself!"

  Justinian was at his breaking point and had no intention of playing at diplomacy. The only reason he hadn't attacked the hideout yet was his concern for Aldona.

  The devil in the dugout couldn't believe his own ears.

  'How dare this damn human speak to me in such a tone?'

  However, looking at his wounded body—including an arm that was broken—he decided, with a heavy heart, to go out and meet his "guest."

  "Say what you want and piss off, I'm busy," he said, leaping gracefully from the dugout.

  He kept his hands behind his back, which made him look ominous, but in reality, he was simply hiding his broken arm.

  Justinian shot him a murderous glare.

  "Where is Aldona?"

  The devil, at first a little surprised by the question, smiled a moment later.

  "Oh, my, did the little lovebird from another mountain run away from you?"

  "I know your men kidnapped her during the competition inside the mountain," the visitor growled through his teeth.

  "Hmm?"

  A flash of surprise first appeared in Sagitarius's eye, and then... understanding.

  'So that's why I couldn't find them anywhere,' he thought.

  His subordinates had been under his care since childhood, and he had no doubts about their loyalty. That's why their absence in recent days had been worrying him.

  'They probably remembered that little one caused me trouble before and decided to teach her a lesson.'

  All in all, the situation didn't seem bad. So he smiled at Justinian.

  "On this mountain, we have a rule: what is found is not stolen. Now piss off, before I lose my patience."

  He didn't expect those words... to be the final straw for the young man! In a rage, he lunged forward to attack Sagitarius, who was laughing in his face!

  The devil, despite his slight surprise, was prepared—after all, this was his territory.

  He was about to jump and sweep his opponent away with a powerful kick, but then... he suddenly froze. He couldn't move and instead felt Justinian press, then drive, a knife into his throat!

  "How?!"

  In reality, it was a technique of attacking with intent, which the boy had observed from Rudnicki. It was more than enough to gain a second's advantage, after which he summoned the Iron Hand of the Law!

  By the time Sagitarius saw the magical technique's blow heading towards him, it was too late to react. The powerful attack threw him into the air and even knocked out several teeth, which he immediately spat out.

  'Dammit!' he cursed inwardly, knowing what a dangerous situation he was in.

  Losing the initiative, combined with a broken arm, was truly perilous for him. Even before he landed, a kick from his charging opponent, who had no intention of letting up, descended upon him!

  Screaming pitifully, the devil flew several meters through the air, finally hitting the ground with a crack. He immediately had to shield himself from more frenzied attacks!

  'Is this his true strength?!' Sagitarius gritted his teeth as he was being massacred.

  The duel before the competition was like child's play compared to this terrifying, bloodthirsty opponent who was methodically grinding him into the ground.

  Finally, his situation became so desperate that he had no choice but to... start running away like a coward!

  Clenching his fists, he shattered a smoke bomb and, using the element of surprise, vanished from the battlefield.

  Justinian tried to follow him, but the combination of smoke and his lack of familiarity with the terrain meant he quickly lost the devil's trail.

  "Damn it all!" he snarled, slamming his fist powerfully into the ground.

  He then spent hours searching the dugout, but unfortunately, he couldn't find any clues regarding Aldona. Finally, dejected by his failure, he returned to his grotto.

  Thirty minutes before Justinian's return to the grotto...

  Absolute silence reigned in the chamber where Belisara was resting. The young she-devil was reviewing her recent moves and wondering if she had overlooked anything in the actions she had taken.

  'Framing Sagitarius should work, especially since he and Justinian don't like each other...'

  Although absorbing Aldona was something she had largely improvised, it seemed that all loose ends were tied up.

  'Even that fearsome Felix was injured, so I don't have to worry about him.'

  Due to the environment she had lived in, plotting against others had been a necessity for her for years.

  The only novelty on Greedius's Mountain was the strong emphasis on physical strength instead of the subtlety of poison.

  'In fact, with the strength I now possess, these little devils are child's play for me.'

  However, she was worried about another matter, related to... a presence she had been sensing in the room for some time.

  "How much longer are you going to hide?" she hissed towards the wall.

  Soon, the smiling face of Greedius emerged from it.

  "You flatter yourself a bit too much, woman. I simply didn't want to appear unannounced."

  "Very gentlemanly of you."

  Her stone face took on a more serious expression, and a threat was visible, hidden in her dark eyes.

  "The situation from the competition cannot be repeated. You've drawn Eusebius's attention to us," Greedius said in a warning tone.

  Belisara smiled mockingly.

  "Since when are you afraid of your equals? After the plans you..." she was immediately interrupted by the grotto's ceiling shaking.

  "Watch your words. Remember that just as I made you a devil, I can just as easily get rid of you."

  The woman frowned in reaction to this threat. She did not respond to it, however, which Greedius took as an obvious acceptance of his terms. Knowing that his visit here could be risky, his face began to merge back into the grotto wall when one more of his warnings echoed in the air:

  "You are to stay away from the adepts of both Maleficius and Eusebius. With that foolish human, or the local devils, you can do as you please."

  When his presence had completely vanished from the grotto, a mocking smirk appeared on Belisara's face. She knew that Greedius was secretly plotting against her, but it didn't bother her at all. She was used to manipulating intrigues and did not consider herself defenseless in a confrontation with the giver of her power.