LUO YAN only felt that he had been hit by one big information after another. It's like a bomb just detonated and another bomb exploded right after. He didn't know what he should process first.
How Beelzebub, man, that name was just, anyway, how the archdemon's soul fragment attached itself to the dark mage's body. From how he split a part of his soul to contain half of his demonic energy to his defeat against Alina's father, and finally to the ambush of the dark mages.
There was also that fact that all of this started because of the life-threatening injury that Kagetsuki inflicted on the Dark Saint. No, that only happened because that bastard kidnapped Kagetsuki's lover. It's only right for her to do that.
But because of that, the dark mages serving him had to think of a way to prolong his life. And being the villain that they were, their first thought was to go and massacre the demon foxes and steal their Mana. Luo Yan even had a feeling that they were planning to steal the Elementum. But because it disappeared the moment Kagetsuki died, they weren't able to..
And it ended up with the dark mages deciding on the archdemon with the most Mana – Beelzebub. Ah, really, he couldn't with this guy's name.
"It just so happened that the kid waged war against the dark mages. And so, they took advantage of that," the archdemon continued.
"And they made that deal with the dragons," Luo Yan added on his own. "Can you tell us the entirety of that deal?"
"Simple, really. The dragons would give incapacitate the kid and give him to the dark mages. Like a dish served on a hot platter. Those mages were trying to be careful, you see? They didn't want another repeat of what happened with me. In return, the dark mage would heal Alina. That's the full extent of that deal."
That wasn't so far off from what Luo Yan had already suspected. But there was just something that had been nagging at him since hearing the things that the archdemon had said. Especially after the other confirmed himself that he knew about the deal between the dragons and the dark mages.
"You knew about the deal and you let it happen?" he asked.
The archdemon said earlier that he did something to prevent Dusk from being killed. That meant, at that point, he was already able to use the dark mage's body to some extent. And yet, he didn't do anything to stop the betrayal that Dusk would experience.
The archdemon tilted his head and asked, "Why shouldn't I? What they did was in my favor. I also wanted to heal Alina." Then, as if realizing something he suddenly asked, "Are you angry that I'm not giving priority to the kid?"
It did anger Luo Yan that this guy seemed to not care about Dusk. Even the act of sparing the other's life, he only did because of Alina. But seeing the genuine curiosity on the archdemon's face when he asked that question made him paused.
"We are his friends. As his friend, seeing his father not caring about him kind of pisses me off," he only said. "So, why do you not care about your own son?"
"You do know that I'm an archdemon, right? The seven of us, we severely lacked emotions. Except for the feelings that are naturally affected by our curse, it's hard to make us feel any other emotions. That included how we feel about other people or the lack thereof.
"We don't see a child born from us as something precious. They're just something that exist. Akin to a tree or a cloud. The only thing that could directly affect us emotionally are our destined person. Once we saw them, our dead heart will beat once again. And I meant that literally. For me, that person was Alina. From the moment I met her, she had and always will be my priority. I will never apologize for choosing her."
Luo Yan stopped himself from rolling his eyes because of that statement. If that was the case, then, this guy should have made it sure that he wouldn't knock up Alina. That way the two of them could remain in their two persons world.
He told himself to calm down. Being pissed off here wouldn't really help. And besides, this was not entirely this archdemon's fault. He was designed to be this way. So, really, the ones he should really blame were the game devs.
"And, did they heal the current dragon queen at least?" he chose to ask about that.
Because frankly, if he dived into details about the other's relationship with Dusk or the lack thereof, they might just go to a long-ass debate. Which they couldn't have right now. Because they were currently racing against time. The faster they finished this conversation, the better. After all, the real dark mage might emerge and the archdemon would lose control over the body. That would be a big problem.
Something dark flashed in the archdemon's eyes as Luo Yan asked that question.
"Those bastards didn't fully heal her. They fixed her injury but left her in a semi-awake state. They even tied her soul in a way that she wouldn't be able to go against them on her own free will. So, I volunteered to be sent here under the guise of monitoring the dragon clan and making sure that they wouldn't become the dark mages' enemy.
"I spent most of my time all these years trying to untangle the chain they had on her soul. It was a slow process. I'm currently already at the very last step. But my Mana is not enough to completely do it. I need the other half of my demonic energy. In short, I need to return to my original body."
"Why are you telling us that?" Luo Yan scoffed. "You're not asking us help you, right? Because that would be the height of shamelessness."
"I'm not asking help," the archdemon said. "I'm going to propose a deal. You help me bring my body here and I will help the kid remember all of his memories of the past."
As if on cue, a notification suddenly sounded inside Luo Yan's head.
[Congratulations, dear players for triggering a side task!]