Chapter 44
Chapter 44: Elite Demon
High-rank demon?! He’s actually a high-rank demon?!
Roy had a vague guess before. Even a middle-rank demon could not have offset his Bloodlust effect with a single spell. But hearing for himself the other party acknowledging that he was a high-rank demon still left Roy in amazement.
Damn it, what bad luck. I didn’t expect a high-rank demon to summon a demon. If I had known, I wouldn’t have stepped into the magic formation and responded to the summon…
Roy was very clear of how high-level demons viewed the low-level ones. There were only two attitudes—kill or enslave. There were no other options. Roy did not have to look at the demon contract to know that it was an enslavement contract.
Roy did not want to become someone’s slave, even if the other party was a high-rank demon. Perhaps, in the eyes of other demons, it was a matter of course to submit to high-level ones, but Roy was an anomaly among demons. His mentality determined that he would never be willing to become enslaved.
He was preparing to take a gamble and fight this demon. Even if his soul suffered damage, Roy wanted to go back. Even if the other party was also a demon and an expert in playing with souls, as long as it was not an archenemy of demons like angels, he would not be able to break through the protection of the Ouroborus Mark on Roy’s soul.
The problem was that Roy could not do anything about Xeron’s magic. Xeron only needed to cast Weakness to negate Roy’s power. How could he fight under this circumstance? And from observing Xeron’s attitude, he seemed unwilling to kill him.
Roy could opt not to sign the contract, but then he would have to stay in this world for a year, and Xeron would most likely lock him up. What difference would that be from being imprisoned?
After thinking about it, there was only one method—activating the magic formation on his own to go back!
Therefore, while Xeron was still talking, Roy secretly placed his hand on the magic formation and attempted to input his magic energy to activate the teleportation formation. He recalled that it was possible to activate the summoning formation even with the weakest magic power.
However… nothing happened!
What’s wrong? Is it because there was no ritual, or is it a different kind of summoning ritual when a demon wants to send itself back??
Roy was still in dismay when Xeron sensed that Roy had attempted to input his magic energy. Xeron asked in a surprised tone, “You… can output magic power? Ah, yes, you have the bloodline of a high-rank demon, so it’s not surprising for you to have an output circuit, but…”
Xeron touched his demon horns with some doubts. “But when I activated the magic formation, it was meant to summon in the upper Abyss. How did you, a demon with a high-rank bloodline, end up in the upper Abyss?”
As he said that, he looked at the Fat Tiger in Roy’s arms. “And this hellhound, I have never seen a hellhound with demon wings… How peculiar! What kind of variant is this?”
There were too many mysteries on Roy. And although Xeron had doubts, he never doubted Roy’s identity because Roy similarly had the unique demonic aura that belonged to the Abyss of the Demon World. He would not be mistaken about this. So after some doubts, Xeron did not think much about it. Given how vast the Abyss was, was it not normal for there to be a few strange things? He decided to let the matter go and instead increasingly wanted to subdue Roy.
He felt that even though Roy was a low-rank demon, he was definitely an elite among them! There were similar examples before, and even demons of the same kind could have huge differences between them. Occasionally, a much stronger demon than the rest would be born, and these demons were known as the ‘elite demons’ among that rank.
Therefore, he took the rare patience he had and said to Roy, “As I’ve told you, don’t waste your energy. If you really want to send yourself back, you need to reverse input magic power in the summoning formation, but this requires not merely a little but a massive amount of magic. If you think you can easily send yourself back, you’d be wrong!”
He gradually grew impatient while speaking. “There’s a limit to my patience. I will give you one last chance. If you’re unwilling to sign the contract and submit to me, then I will cuff you and throw you into the human countries. Those angels in the city in the clouds will play a good host!”
Roy was helpless. He felt that there was no way back, so he could only stare at the wording of the contract.
The contents of this demon contract were as such. Roy had to submit to Xeron. During his stay in this world, he had to obey his orders and fight for Xeron as his subordinate until he died or was expelled. In this period, he had to hand over all the souls that he captured on the battlefield to Xeron. In return, Xeron would provide Roy with fixed meals.
It was initially like this. However, in order to attract Roy, an elite demon, Xeron added a clause at the end of the contract: if a battle was won, then Roy would also get 10% of the souls harvested in the battle as a reward!
Looking at the contents of the contract, it suddenly dawned on Roy why high-rank demons like Xeron would appear in this world. It was precisely because they could remain in this world for a long time, so they did not hesitate to build their armies and start wars in this world. For every battle won, the winning party could obtain a large number of souls on the battlefield. The way high-rank demons harvested souls was much quicker than that of a lone demon hunting souls!
If Roy were merely a normal low-rank demon, it would have been impossible for Xeron to share the spoils of war, and he would have treated Roy like a slave and ruthlessly exploited him.
Roy had to admit that he was fortunate to have added demon wings in his modifications. High-rank demons paid attention to bloodlines, but Xeron would never know that Roy’s bloodline was actually very complicated. He only viewed Roy in a new light after mistakenly identifying his bloodline…
In general, this contract was still an enslavement contract, but it was much better in comparison to what other summoned demons received. Ten percent of the souls meant that Roy had changed from a slave to a contractor.
So, after closer examination and finding no traps in it, Roy signed and effected the contract.
As he saw Roy signing the contract, Xeron laughed with pride. He removed his helmet to reveal his appearance. It was a human-like face. If not for those demon horns, Roy would not have any doubts that he was a human.
Being humanoid was often a characteristic of high-rank demons.
“Come down. I still need to continue with recruitment!” Xeron pointed at Roy. “You are the owner of that hellhound, so I won’t sign a contract with it. You are in charge of it from now on! Don’t send it away. Whatever orders I give you applies to it as well!”
This was Xeron’s order. Roy could not disobey it after signing the contract, so he nodded.
In fact, this was fine. Only Roy knew that Fat Tiger was not a real hellhound and could not enter into a contract with anyone. And since Xeron did not sign a contract with him, he would not find out about it.
“I will now give you a task. Go to the surface and observe the progress of the volcanic crater!” Xeron continued, “After I have summoned sufficient troops, I will detonate the volcano!”
Roy did not know why Xeron wanted to detonate the volcano, but he did not ask and left with Fat Tiger.
He was currently underground, and the reason he experienced a burning sensation when he emerged from the summoning formation was because of the volcano. This place seemed to be the position of one of the underground magma rivers, and following along the magma river was the entrance to the bottom of the volcano.
After climbing out from the bottom to the crater, Roy found that there were already a large number of Abyss creatures here, but most of them were low-level demons. They were following a set of drawn patterns while making a mercury-like liquid and pouring it onto these patterns to form a large magic formation surrounding the volcano.
Thinking about what Xeron said earlier about wanting to detonate the volcano, Roy instantly understood the use of this magic formation. Its use was to forcefully detonate the volcano. Otherwise, Roy guessed that this volcano would not erupt in the near term.
Seeing these low-level demons at work, Roy did not intervene. He flew into the sky with Fat Tiger and looked at the surroundings of the volcano.
Heh. Urgash, the Dragon of Chaos, and that city in the clouds… The Heroes of Might and Magic world that I’ve been summoned to this time is a very dangerous world! Roy mocked. Well, if it’s very dangerous for a demon like me in this world, do you think a high-rank demon like you will be safe?
Wanting to enslave me, think again…