Season 1 Chapter 213: Individual Schemes (1)
The Great Mage Returns after 4000 Years – Chapter 213 – Individual Schemes (1)
Translator: Seven
Editors: Ana_Banana, Yahiko
Frey returned to the area in the Black Dream Hell where he arrived.
Lilith flinched when she saw someone approaching her, but she let out a sigh of relief when she saw it wasn’t a Demigod.
‘…no. Is that right?’
She could feel this man’s power. It was much larger and denser than that of the Demigods.
But he had a hostile relationship with the Demigods. Lilith had seen this with her own eyes.
Taht.
Frey landed in front of Lilith. And as though he didn’t have time to waste, he immediately brought up his reason for finding her.
“Where is Asura?”
“…are you asking me where he is?”
Lilith replied in an incredulous tone.
Even the lowest-ranked demons in Hell knew that she and Asura were enemies.
But Frey’s expression was serious. He didn’t rush her to answer, and he didn’t steadily increase his aura, but he was constantly exuding a constant pressure.
Lilith couldn’t help but mutter softly as she avoided his gaze.
“The Black Dream Hell is as good as fallen at this point, so there will be a meeting to discuss countermeasures. All of the Archdukes, including Asura, will participate.”
All would participate.
Frey’s expression hardened when he heard that.
“Including Lucifer?”
“Naturally. Lord Lucifer is the deterrent factor. Do you think, if not for him, that the arrogant Rulers of the Demon World would sit down and have a discussion?”
“…”
Lucifer’s influence in Hell was far greater than he expected.
He knew it was great, but he was still shocked when he heard her words.
‘This will be a pain.’
Frey felt his head throb slightly.
Lucifer’s relationship with the other Rulers was much stronger than he anticipated. There seemed to be no room for Frey, a stone that rolled in, to interfere.
‘No. Do I need to be careful?’
Hell would inevitably be destroyed. If this fact was to be made known to the Archdukes, there was no telling how they would react.
One thing that he could be certain about was that they wouldn’t willingly accept their demises. They might end up revealing their ambition towards the Continent as the Mortal World would be the only safe place left.
Frey knew the demons’ greed well.
‘I have to persuade them to become a third force.’
It was impossible to persuade the Demigods. Their trust in Lord was absolute.
But the demons were different. Even though they were all a part of the same race, they were hostile towards each other.
He felt that if he played his cards correctly, he’d be able to convince them to cooperate with him. But when he heard of Lucifer’s influence, his mood became solemn.
It seemed that this plan would be harder than he expected.
“Where will the meeting be held?”
“The Demigods’ next destination. The Bloody Hell, Beelzebub’s territory. Oh, Barbatos won’t go. He had to protect the Dragon Lord, who was buried in his territory.”
There wasn’t really any need to watch over the Dragon Lord. After all, it was probably just an empty shell.
In the same vein, Lord would probably not continue to trample upon the territories of Hell.
The Dragon Lord’s core had already been taken by Lucifer, so taking down Lucifer had become his sole purpose.
‘Lucifer will also try to get them on his side.’
Just as Lord proposed an alliance with him, Lucifer would also try to expand his forces.
In fact, the Rulers of Hell were already enraged. They had already developed a grudge against Lord and the Demigod’s who trampled upon their territories as they pleased.
This meant that Lucifer’s objective was already half complete. Frey’s task was to change the minds of the remaining Archdukes while Lucifer was away doing his other business.
Even if it was impossible to completely convince them, he would be satisfied to just plant the seeds of doubt.
The trust they had in Lucifer needed to be cracked.
If he returned, then Frey would almost completely lose his right to speak, so it was safe to say that time was limited.
After thinking all of this, Frey finally opened his mouth.
“Where is the Bloody Hell?”
* * *
The entrance to the Bloody Hell was disgusting. The dark and gloomy atmosphere of the Black Dream Hell seemed cute in comparison.
At first glance, it looked like a blood red lake.
But Frey knew it wasn’t a lake.
Buzz-
Instead, it was a group of hundreds of millions, maybe even billions of thumb-sized, blood-coloured flies. (TL: cringe)
It wasn’t a lake but a large hole. However, the hole was filled with so many insects that they appeared to be a moving liquid.
Lilith said she’d come after cleaning up the Black Dream Hell. Because of this, Frey came to the Bloody Hell on his own.
Taht.
Frey threw himself into the hole without hesitation.
The sound of flies shook his ears violently. The sound of one fly’s wings was not a problem, but it became an unimaginable torture when such a large number of them gathered.
If he hadn’t protected his eardrums, it was possible that blood would have poured out from his ear canals.
Then the flies swarmed towards him.
Chch-
Frey’s covered his body in pale lightning, causing the bloody flies to immediately scatter to avoid the threat.
If he was willing, Frey could have burned all of them to ashes within moments, but he didn’t. After all, he didn’t come to pick a fight.
As Frey went deeper into the hole, the bloody flies no longer approached him. They just observed his movements from a distance with their compound eyes.
Paht.
Frey finally fell out of the hole. The scenery he saw was no different from the rest of Hell.
Then a huge shadow covered his body.
[What the… You…]
[Is it an intruder? Then why didn’t the blood flies attack?]
It was giant demons. A demon with the head of a goat and one with the head of a lion.
They weren’t as large as Agni or Asura, but they were still as large as castles.
Frey looked up to them and said.
“I’m here to see Beelzebub.”
[Hmph. Lunatic.]
The goat-headed demon on the left snorted before the demon swung the whip in its hand. The whip became engulfed in flames as it hurtled towards Frey.
Jik.
Frey drew a diagonal line with his finger.
Immediately after, the whip was cut in half and the flames that were spread on it extinguished instantly.
[What?!]
Ignoring the demon’s shock, Frey moved his left foot once.
Crackle!
A bolt of lightning that traveled from his foot shot through the ground like a snake before hitting the demon’s foot.
[Ku-, uk!]
The demon’s eyes rolled back as it felt a pain it had never felt before. Smoke then came out of its large mouth, showing its burned insides.
[Bastard!]
Then, the lion-headed demon on the right roared and charged forward. Every step it took made the ground shake like there was an earthquake.
Frey didn’t back down.
He lightly kicked off the ground and jumped dozens of meters off the ground with that single step. In an instant, he appeared in front of the lion-headed demon’s head.
[…!]
The lion-headed demon was shocked. This was because he didn’t expect that this small opponent would not back down and, instead, would charge towards him.
But soon, he bared his teeth fiercely.
How dare he try to fight against him up close?
He opened his mouth wide, as though he intended to swallow Frey whole.
Paak!
And it was closed even faster than he opened it as he felt a powerful impact on his chin.
He felt that some of his teeth had been broken.
Frey’s fist had only hit the lion-headed demon’s head once, but it fell down immediately without making a sound.
Boom!
The two demons had quickly been incapacitated.
Looking down at them, Frey tilted his head.
‘Is this the power of a High rank demon? They are at least ten times stronger here than on the continent.’
They were also ten times larger.
After having this thought, Frey shook his head.
He could see a large castle in the distance. Perhaps that was Beelzebub’s residence.
Just as Frey was about to head there.
Paht.
Someone appeared in front of Frey.
It was a man who had the head of a fly.
Buzz.
Following the man’s appearance was the sound of countless fly wings buzzing. While it didn’t sound as loud as that from the hundreds of millions of flies from before, it was much more intimidating.
Frey realised that this being didn’t use a technique like Warp or space-time movement, but he had appeared in front of him using pure speed.
“You were too heavy-handed.”
As he said this, Beelzebub looked down at his two subordinates.
He’d begun to move since he noticed Frey’s entrance into the Bloody Hell. It had only taken him about a minute to arrive. He hadn’t expected that Frey would have taken down two High rank demons in such a short time.
Frey also looked down at the two demons as he replied.
“I could have killed them.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because I don’t have any hostile intentions towards you.”
“Nonsense. From the moment you entered the Bloody Hell, you crossed an irreversible river. The only thing left now is a battle to the death. We will now determine who among us is closer to the realm of Absolute.”
“Don’t be mistaken. I’m not a Demigod.”
“…what did you say?”
Beelzebub’s body, which looked like it was about to shoot forward, froze.
Crackle.
Frey let lightning cover his body as he continued.
“Those thousands of eyes are just for decoration, are they? Does this look like divine power?”
“…”
Beelzebub fell silent for a moment.
He had no choice but to agree with that statement.
Frey’s power was similar to divine power, but it was also different.
“…then who the hell are you?”
“Including that, there are other things that I would like to tell you. But this place is a bit…”
“…”
After a brief silence, Beelzebub turned around, saying.
“Follow me.”
Paht.
Then he disappeared.
It was the same high-speed movement that he displayed during his arrival.
‘A test.’
To see if he could follow.
Frey felt that it was a bit childish, but he understood that it was the other who didn’t want to back down so easily. Therefore, he chased after Beelzebub without saying a word.
Beelzebub was a bit surprised to see Frey catch up to him so easily. Throughout the entirety of Hell, there were no more than five beings who could match him in terms of speed. Of course, this included the Archdukes who ruled over the other hells.
‘Should I increase the speed a little?’
Beelzebub had this thought, but he soon decided not to. Because they were already close to their destination.
It was a hot, dark basement.
Beelzebub stopped moving and turned to look at Frey, saying.
“I can’t let an outsider into my castle so easily. I hope you understand.”
“Of course.”
“So who exactly are you?”
Frey was silent for a moment before finally opening his mouth.
“Beelzebub, what do you think of Lucifer?”
“…!”
Beelzebub’s expression changed, surprising Frey. It was just a probe before he said what he intended, but the reaction he got was far greater than he expected.
‘…this might be…’
It was possible that he’d already found his first potential ally.
Frey looked at Beelzebub.
Frey didn’t know much about this demon.
It was not a demon that Iris had signed a contract with in the past, nor had he ever heard of any Contractor who had. However, he had heard some stories and legends about him in the past.
Beelzebub. The King of Flies. The Great Demon of Schemes.
This was probably the demon who had the best insight into Lucifer’s plans.
But what really mattered was what was about to happen.
“Let’s make a deal, Beelzebub.”
Frey was going to negotiate with him.
(TL: And in a strange turn of events… Frey becomes the devil… interesting…)