After awakening Cassidy, Rhode’s matters on hand came to an end. Next, he had to focus his attention on reaching his ultimate goal: the grand and glorious project of transporting the entire continent to an alternate world. Before he could do that, he needed cooperation from many places. Apart from the dragon soul heirs, he also needed the support of the four main elemental lords, Seven Fantasy Boundaries, and hell. His negotiations with the dragon soul heirs hadn’t started yet, but he had decided to adopt the strategy that the forefathers used to ‘surround the cities from the countryside’. As long as the other places agreed to help, he would have more power in speaking terms with the three other Creator Dragons. Besides, this plan required teleportation devices to be set up in all the cores of the various places as nodes. Without their support, this plan would fall at the last hurdle.
After the communications, the news that came thereafter was exhilarating.
With Gillian around, convincing the other three elemental lords wasn’t that difficult. Even though Gillian wasn’t a ‘standard’ elemental lord, according to her, she was reborn with the identity of the ‘fire elemental lord’, so naturally, she gained the identity of one. Even though the three other elemental lords weren’t that interested, they didn’t object to the idea as long as Rhode was willing to pay a certain price for it.
There also wasn’t any issue from the Seven Fantasy Boundaries. Just as Rhode thought, the so-called six Deity Wardens were rulers of the Seven Fantasy Boundaries. Christie managed the Astral Temple. Marlene controlled the Steel Land. Alice dominated the Forgotten Land. Cassidy was the ruler of the Shade Forest. As long as Rhode found and awakened the remaining two Deity Wardens of the Silver Ocean and Fiery Plains, six of the seven realms would be under his control. The only thing that puzzled him was that it was known as the Seven Fantasy Boundaries and yet, it was ruled by only six Deity Wardens. So who was in charge of the Shadow Ravine?
Be it Gillian, the six Deity Wardens, or his younger sister, no one had an answer for it. They only implied that he would learn the answer after awakening and gathering all six Deity Wardens… In that case, he found it unnecessary to demand an answer now.
As for the pitch-black coffin engraved with dissonant symbols, Rhode tried to lift the seal off the hibernating spirit, but his efforts were in vain. Then, he learned from his younger sister that if he wanted to awaken this holy sword spirit, he had to do it on a relatively special day of the stars. Therefore, he decisively threw this thought to the back of his head and stopped caring about it.
However, not all news he received was good news.
“You’re saying… there are some problems from the Ninth Floor of Hell?”
“Hmph…!”
Upon hearing Rhode’s doubt, even though Celestina was dissatisfied, she gnashed her teeth and nodded with an ashen expression.
“That’s right, that damn, old bast*rd… I specially gave him respect this time and yet, he actually… damn that scoundrel… Alright, Master. I admit that the old bast*rd was reasonable. But… fine…” Celestina let out a helpless sigh and spread her arms apart. “All in all, Master, after we defeated Chaos and they sneaked away like rats covering their heads, Chaos only dares to wreak havoc in hell now and is afraid of coming to the main plane to cause trouble. According to that old fart, hell has given everything to resist Chaos and devils. Even though he very much wishes to assist you in your grand project… Hmph! If only he is really that loyal! In other words, Master, that old fart’s request is for us to assist them in eradicating the devils and recover lost ground. Only then they will assist us in accomplishing the project.”
“Recover lost ground?”
Rhode knitted his brows slightly. He sharply detected the loophole in Celestina’s words.
“Is the situation really that bad in hell?”
The battle between demons and devils had lasted for hundreds of thousands of years. Both sides were in a to-and-fro tussle with every war resulting in millions of casualties. There were all sorts of creatures who died in the bloody war: demons, devils, humans, angels, elves, dwarves, and the numbers were countless like the stars in the night sky. Be it victory or defeat in this massive war, it would inevitably lead to a new wave of retaliation. Almost every inch of land in hell and the abyss was fought over after sacrificing hundreds of millions of creatures. In other words, even though one might say a few broken pieces of stones, they might possibly be part of the ‘lost ground’. Of course, as for who the land belonged to, it was no longer within considerations.
Most creatures on the main plane weren’t aware of this, but the players knew about it clearly. Even though it was ‘officially assigned’ that there were only five beings as the dragon soul heirs, there should actually be six of them who had the right to rule the continent. The main reason why most people weren’t aware of it was that the Creator Dragons wanted to avoid faltering the faith of their people. The other reason was that since the ‘sixth’ wasn’t a dragon, the ‘sixth’ couldn’t be categorized as a ‘Creator Dragon’. It was as though no matter how gigantic a whale was, it would still be categorized as a mammal instead of a fish. This was why when people mentioned the ruler of the ‘fish’, no one brought up the whales.
When there was light, there would be shadows, just as every country had its unknown dark side. For the Ninth Floor of Hell, it was the Dragon Soul Continent—the dark side where Order was created in Chaos. The demon lords hidden in the Ninth Floor of Hell were the owners and also the rulers of the continent’s underworld. Be it the dark elves, demons, vampires, or others, as long as they lived in the Ninth Floor of Hell, the dark underworld of death blazing in flames and covered in blood, they would tremble in fear as long as they heard the taboo name. They might even cover their mouth subconsciously, gaze to the left and right attentively to protect themselves from inadvertently offending the rules and being punished.
In this situation, for Celestina to mention ‘recover lost ground’, it was either a joke or the situation was indeed that terrible.
“Who knows? I don’t think the situation is that bad. But at least from what I saw, the gray ruins have indeed fallen to the enemies.”
Celestina said, knitting her brows and her scarlet eyes glinted in several flashes.
“Of course, it doesn’t matter if you’re not willing to accept his request, Master. As long as I’m around, the project will go on smoothly, I suppose…” Celestina paused. It was apparent that she also knew it was impossible. Although she had enough ‘reputation’ in the Ninth Floor of Hell for now, time was lost, after all. During the years of her absence in the underworld, the forces that belonged to her had all disbanded. Right now, even if she were to return to hell and gather some miscellaneous troops, it would be meaningless. Moreover, in Rhode’s plan, the node of hell was essential. Besides, for safety during the teleportation, a part of hell would also be given up and this wasn’t something the demons would be glad to witness. Furthermore, after leaving the main plane, the demons would lose their sworn enemies and no one was sure what would happen to hell thereafter. In this case, if Rhode couldn’t receive the permission from the ruler of the Ninth Floor of Hell, everything he worked for would be for naught. The result was totally imaginable because the failure of his plan would not bring many benefits to the demons, but more disadvantages instead. Besides, any transactions with demons had to be carried out meticulously. If not, one would never gain the result one was hoping for.
But who could also be sure that those guys were that devoted to hell? Why wouldn’t they do it if they could drag this newly-appointed Void Dragon down and enjoy the casual times of the main plane?
Even though Rhode had thought of the possible issues when raising this proposal, the current problem had apparently exceeded his expectations. It seemed like he had to send people to hell and follow in accordance with Celestina assisting the demons reclaim their lost land in the bloody war and ensuring the original state of balance was restored. But no one could confirm if it was a scam or whether the demons were plotting ways to trick and manipulate him. After all, demons could never be trusted. They followed some kind of rules in which they acknowledged and in fact, it wasn’t really that case. Any self-righteous person might possibly be bound by the vows of the Baator Hell forever and one couldn’t leave that place and return to this world in eternity.
If it was possible, Rhode didn’t want to send any of his men to hell. He wasn’t willing to lead his team there either because it was exhausting to communicate with the lords from hell. He would rather bring a large group of players and defeat 800 floors of the abyss than discuss in the back room with a demon lord some conspiracies and tricks that might not be of benefit to either side.
But it seemed like he didn’t have any other choice if he wished for the demons to assist in his project.
