Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Seeing the old demon being very cooperative, Roy was very satisfied. “What’s your name…?”
After asking this first question, Roy found that the old demon was a little hesitant, so he continued, “I’m not asking for your true demon name!”
Upon hearing this, the old demon breathed a sigh of relief. “Jascalos! You can call me Jascalos!’
“Okay, Jascalos!” Roy nodded and pointed at the magic formation on the altar. “What is that about? Is this altar and magic formation a teleportation formation? Who built it?”
“It’s known as the Gate of the Abyss!” Jascalos replied. “You haven’t been summoned before, right? We demons know this place as the teleportation gate. As for who built this altar, I don’t know. These Gates of the Abyss have been around for tens of thousands of years. I’ve only heard that they may have been built by the demon kings living at the lowest level of the Abyss!”
If even an old demon like Jascalos, who had been living for who knew how long, did not know who built the altar, then there was no point in asking further. Roy could only give up getting to the bottom of this and carried on asking, “Where do the Gates of the Abyss lead? Another world? Is there only one such world, or are there many?”
“Many!” Jascalos answered while stuffing his internal organs back into his abdomen. “I’ve been summoned eight times in total. Almost into a new world every time. It is said that the Gates of the Abyss can connect to countless worlds. Any world that knows how to use magic power can connect with the Gates of the Abyss.”
“Oh, you know about magic power?” Roy asked with excitement. “So, do you know how to use magic?”
However, Jascalos shook his enormous head. “No, I can’t! None of the low-rank demons can transform magic power into magic. I wouldn’t have been beaten so miserably if I knew magic!”
“Why can’t low-rank demons use magic?” Roy asked puzzledly.
“Bloodline!” Jascalos explained, “The bloodlines of the low-level demons are too complicated. Magic power is accumulated through blood vessels and stored within the demon heart. Under circumstances where the bloodline is too complicated, and blood is unable to flow in the reverse direction, it’s impossible to release magic. Only through promoting to the next level to become a middle-rank demon can a demon then enter the lower levels of the Abyss and search for a place of refinement to refine their bloodline, thereby building a channel for the magic power to flow.”
After finishing, Jascalos looked at Roy strangely. “This is all in the inherited memories from a demon’s eggshell after hatching. How come you don’t know but are asking me?”
Roy was dumbfounded. Were there such memories in the eggshell? Why don’t I know? It’s not because of my premature birth again, right?!
“There was memory loss in my inherited memory!” Roy could only carry on asking, “Tell me, how do you accomplish the promotion?”
Jascalos did not answer but instead looked at the pair of demon wings on Roy’s back and showed a weird smile. Roy could not figure out what he was thinking. It could not have been anything good because Jascalos looked like he was gloating. Roy could not bear it any further and said coldly, “You can choose not to answer, but I will kill you and search for another low-rank demon to get answers!”
“There are no criteria for promotion!” Jascalos said. “It’s just incessantly hunting and plundering souls. In fact, most low-rank demons can’t undergo promotion in their lives, so I also can’t tell you how promotion works!”
Duh! Roy felt that he was asking in vain. Had the old demon known how to promote, he would already be a middle-rank demon.
“Okay, let’s change the topic!” Roy said. “What happened to you when you were summoned? How did you get beaten so badly?”
A glimpse of fear flashed across Jascalos’s face as he listened to the questions. “I was expelled! The one who summoned me was a demon sorcerer, but I didn’t expect that he summoned me to deal with a powerful paladin. He left me fighting the paladin while he ran away. I fought for some time before the paladin killed and expelled me!”
“Killed?” Roy could not help but glance at the large wound on Jascalos’s abdomen. “Aren’t you still alive?”
“That’s because the Ouroborus Mark protected me!” Jascalos said impatiently. “Any demon summoned to another world is under the protection of the Ouroborus Mark. It immortalizes the soul, and the demon will be expelled and returned to the Demon World at the moment of death. At most, the soul and the body will be badly wounded.”
Roy finally understood why all the summoned demons returned eventually, even those that were maimed. None of the demons truly died in another world because of the protection of the Ouroborus Mark in the magic formation.
However, this was also probably because the paladin that fought with Jascalos did not know his true name. Had the paladin known his true name, Jascalos might not have made it back! He would have died even with the protection of the Ouroborus Mark.
Upon knowing this, Roy was finally relieved. Although it was dangerous, and Roy might encounter natural enemies such as paladins or exorcists, he would be safe as long as his enemies did not know his true demon name and would not really die.
Jascalos struggled to stand and said, “Have you finished asking? I’m leaving!”
Although Jascalos had escaped death, he was not in a good state. He had finally stuffed his internal organs back where they belonged, but he needed time to recuperate. Given the powerful vitality of demons, it was only a matter of time. Apart from rushing to recuperate, Jascalos could not wait to leave as the cunning and suspicious nature of demons meant that he did not dare to remain with Roy.
Standing on his feet, Jascalos towered over Roy, giving him an increased sense of confidence. This was also why he had been cooperative in answering Roy’s questions. He was buying time to recuperate. Now that he regained mobility, he did not need to be courteous to a demon of Roy’s size.
Such was the nature of a demon, brash and oppressive.
“One last question, what offering did you get? Was it that high-quality soul?” Roy asked with his head raised.
“Already swallowed!” Jascalos said with a sneer. “How can any demon store a delicacy like this?”
Roy felt a little regretful despite already expecting this. Although he had only smelled it and had not seen it, that was his first encounter with a high-quality soul.
He shook his head regretfully. “Is that true? Forget it. In that case, leave your soul!”
“Wh-what?”
Before Jascalos could react, Roy suddenly rose! He spread his demon wings, flew up from the bottom, and went straight for Jascalos’s throat!
In the blink of an eye, Roy reached Jascalos’s throat and swung his right hand violently!
Jascalos’s throat was originally protected by his horny scale armor, but under Roy’s claws, his throat was easily torn open. The four claw wounds were so deep that blood gushed out of Jascalos’s throat like a running tap!
Roar!!! Jascalos roared as he stretched out his gigantic palm to grab Roy, who was in the air. Roy turned, avoiding his palm, and rushed for Jascalos’s head, lightly landing on top of his single-horned forehead.
The next second, Roy’s tail pierced directly into Jascalo’s right eye socket.
Blood spewed out as Roy’s tail pulled Jascalos’s eyeball out and headed straight for the sky before Jascalos could react.
Jascalos swung his arm, attempting to hit Roy to no avail. Instead, he slapped himself, leaving his head spinning while experiencing excruciating pain in his eye. The intense pain left him roaring irritably.
If he had his stone hammer, maybe he could have jumped into the sky and attacked Roy. But now, he was at a loss with Roy flying in the air. He had already sustained severe injuries, and the newly-inflicted eye and throat wounds caused additional blood loss. Jascalos felt the world spinning and fell to the ground.
Seeing the twitching Jascalos lying on the ground, Roy did not land immediately, fearing that Jascalos was faking his death. As such, he waited in the sky for Jascalos’s soul to appear, confirming his death, before landing.
With one hand holding Jascalos’s soul, Roy could not help sighing. Sure enough, it was still an incomplete low-quality soul, not too big and missing a part.
In fact, Roy had never thought of letting Jascalos go from the beginning. Since he was a demon, he had to think like one. Had he been the one injured, and it was Jascalos beside him instead, Jascalos would have made the same decision to kill him. Therefore, there was no need for hesitation. Just execution…
