On the wasteland of the first layer of the Abyss, a demon patrol escorted several iron cages packed with captured demons, marching westward along the cooling lava riverbank.
“Hey, look what I found—an injured Shadow Demon!”
A Fear Demon stepped forward two paces, bent over, and scooped that lump of shadow out from a crack in the rock.
But the feel of it... left him puzzled.
It certainly looked like a badly wounded Shadow Demon, yet when he pinched it his fingers met a soft, glutinous texture.
He pinched it again, then again, satisfied, and tossed the Shadow Demon into the nearest iron cage. The cage door clicked shut.
A nearby imp fluttered over solicitously, wings beating in a flattering way, and grinned at him, “We caught a few new believers to take back. Azazel’s crowd is sure to reward us!”
The Fear Demon at the front turned his head, “Aurelius, everything for the Demon King.”
The little imp called Aurelius immediately ducked his neck, “Y-yes, you’re right, everything for the Demon King.”
What they didn’t know was that the Shadow Demon thrown into the cage earlier had already opened its eyes at some point.
Something within the shadows stirred and produced a sound demons could not hear.
“Nilly, bodyguard, did you understand what they were saying?”
Wrapped tight in a shadowy membrane by the gel incarnation, Nilly answered honestly, “To be honest, I didn’t understand any of it.”
The gel incarnation’s whole body twitched slightly, the Slime way of showing displeasure, like a human taking a deep breath and tightening their cheeks.
“You volunteered to come with me even though you can’t understand Demon tongue? I should’ve brought Leon instead.”
Hearing that, Nilly bristled with defiance.
Though she was still smaller than a Troll’s arm, the confidence in her voice matched how she sounded when inspecting troops on the city wall.
“When His Majesty announced a scouting mission, I was the first to sign up. That’s loyalty. I’m His Majesty’s most loyal subordinate.”
“And His Majesty never said we’d be dealing with demons.”
“But...” Nilly lengthened her tone and added a trace of pride, “hehe, Little Majesty, did you underestimate me?”
The gel incarnation’s eyes brightened, “So you can understand them?”
“Of course not,” Nilly declared righteously, “What I mean is Leon doesn’t understand Demon tongue either, and Auntie here is far better than him.”
“Look, at least I didn’t get stuck in a wall crack while using Shadow Stealth.”
The gel incarnation was speechless, closed its eyes, and refused to speak further with Nilly.
Nilly poked the gel incarnation with a finger, smiling, then softened her voice and said seriously, “Alright, I won’t tease you anymore.”
“Before I left, I went to the Dryad domain and got a bottle of Persuasive Potion from Viola.”
“A real Persuasive Potion, not that cheap guild junk on the merchant shelf that only works on Dwarven. Not only would it let me understand Demon tongue, I could even make them understand me.”
Saying that, she turned and began scanning the cages outside for someone to question first.
Her gaze swept the cages and settled on a male succubus crouched in a corner of an iron cage.
Succubi have a matriarchal society, so male succubi are low in status in the Abyss. They only know a little charm magic, are timid and weak, and make perfect targets for bullying—er, questioning. They’d surely spill something.
Nilly kicked his calf with her foot.
The male succubus trembled, hugged himself into a ball, and stared with terrified pupils at this brazen “Shadow Demon” before him.
Nilly waved her hand in front of him and whispered, “Answer my questions quietly, got it? Don’t make a fuss, or—”
She drew her finger across her own throat.
Although his face was hidden in the shadow, he could imagine how terrifying that expression must be.
The male succubus nodded frantically, fearful that any delay would earn him a beating.
Nilly was pleased with the result and asked the most basic question first, “What’s your name?”
“Azz!” he replied in a hushed voice, lips trembling, “My name is Azz!”
“Good, Azz.” Nilly leaned closer, “Do you know what those demons are doing?”
Azz glanced around and whispered cautiously, “They’re from the Demon King Cult. They capture demons everywhere to expand their followers.”
Nilly was puzzled, “If they capture demons to be their followers, does that mean the captured demons will definitely believe in that Demon King?”
Azz tilted his head in confusion at that question—it was the first time tonight anyone had asked something that didn’t seem to need answering.
“Really? Isn’t that how faith spreads?”
Nilly kept her voice low, “I mean, does that really produce devout believers?”
The male succubus found it even more bewildering.
“If that Demon King is that powerful, and the Demon King Cult that strong, why wouldn’t they believe?”
Nilly suddenly realized she’d asked a useless question.
In the Abyss, spreading faith and collecting protection fees from demi-humans follow the same logic.
Show fists and daggers first, then offer a choice. When demons sense an overwhelming force, they instinctively follow.
These patrols shoved creatures into cages and dragged them to the church to have the new believers shout in unison. Most unaligned demons faced with absolute force don’t waste time debating “do I believe in this Demon King?”
The Demon King is stronger than them; siding with the Demon King means you won’t be bullied. You could even join the Demon King to bully other demons.
She guessed Abyssal cults expanded like this, through brute capture.
A barbaric method indeed.
She felt this sudden Demon King Cult might expand faster than the Empire’s Great Slime Religion ever could.
After all, the Great Slime Religion has to negotiate when preaching outside, while here believers are simply seized.
Those captured demons will submit and adopt the faith on their own—too convenient.
The gel incarnation beside her had also heard Azz’s answer and was both amazed and envious inwardly.
Nilly continued, “Where are they taking us now?”
Azz peered outside the cage and said carefully, “Just ahead, there’s a lava church nearest to here.”
“They say captured demons are baptized before the lava pool and formally become Demon King Cult followers.”
He paused, the fear in his eyes easing and showing a little envy.
“I wish I could receive the Demon King’s favor. Then I could become strong.”
Nilly watched the faint yearning in the male succubus’ eyes and found the scene both absurd and strangely poignant.
She didn’t linger. A shadow traversal and she was gone.
Azz waited a moment, and when no one asked questions he assumed he had angered them. He curled into a ball again and murmured, “Don’t kill me, don’t kill me...”
Aurelius outside the cage heard the noise and flew over, annoyed. He tapped the cage bars with his tail, “Quiet! Mind you or we’ll toss you off the cart!”
Azz shut his mouth and nodded.
He sneaked another look into the corner of the cage, but the Shadow Demon had vanished.
The patrol seemed accustomed to Shadow Demons’ sudden appearances and disappearances. The Fear Demon only muttered, “What a pity to lose such a perfect believer.”
Meanwhile, Nilly had returned to her normal form, holding a little slime bundle, and used shadow traversal to head toward the lava church.
Soon ahead, on the blood-moon horizon, a black fortress emerged.
Up close it revealed a crude church built of volcanic rock and piled bones.
“This must be the lava church Azz mentioned. Let’s take a look.”
When she stepped out of the shadows, the gel incarnation quickly melded with the light leather armor she wore, mimicking the surroundings so she blended with the environment.
“Little Majesty, are you sure they won’t spot us?” Nilly looked down at how perfectly she’d merged into the volcanic background, amazed.
The little slime answered confidently, “They won’t. My mimicry is excellent!”
“Then it’s up to you.” Nilly moved silently toward the fortress gate.
Worried she might run off, the gel incarnation emphasized, “Remember, we’re here to investigate the Demon King Cult’s motives. Don’t go wandering.”
“I know, I know. You can trust Auntie Nilly.”
As she promised, she suddenly saw a human in a dark red cloak leaving a side door in the inner wall of the fortress and, eyes lighting up, followed him.
The incarnation hurriedly warned, “Wait, didn’t I tell you not to run off?”
“This isn’t running off.” Nilly hugged the wall and peered around a corner, whispering, “Think about it—this is an all-demon fortress, yet there’s a human priest inside, scrawny like he hasn’t eaten. That’s not normal. There must be a big secret inside.”
“Hmm... maybe you have a point.” The gel incarnation hesitated.
Nilly pressed down the protesting gel and continued forward, following the human priest into the church.
She expected a filthy Troll lair, but to her surprise it was tidy: chairs arranged neatly and a plump black stone idol at the center.
Aside from a pair of small horn stubs, it looked no different from a Slime.
The human priest knelt before the idol. He brought his hands over his head, bent forward, and pressed his forehead to the ground.
“O Great Holy Spirit, black incarnation, king of chaos and evil, your humble servant Evan awaits your revelation this day.” His voice echoed through the empty church.
Nilly clicked her tongue in surprise, “So these demons really worship His Majesty.”
“But why are the titles so strange?”
She pouted and waited to the side.
Evan knelt for a long time, so long Nilly grew bored, until heavy footsteps sounded outside the church.
A Fear Demon threw aside the imp-hide curtain and entered.
His ram-like horns nearly brushed the top of the doorway. His massive body cast a shadow that could swallow the priest whole as he bent down.
Yet this fearsome demon showed utter reverence before the human priest.
“Priest Evan, a new batch of believers has been delivered. They await baptism.”
Evan pulled his hood back up.
“For the sake of the Demon King,” he intoned quietly, and left the church with the Fear Demon.
Nilly trailed behind them and returned to the open square she had noticed when she first came in.
The new believers recently freed from their cages were lined up by the Fear Demon. Azz stood in the last row.
He still hunched habitually, but his pupils were fixed on the black banner behind the lava pool. For the first time his eyes showed no fear—only unprecedented fanaticism.
Evan climbed onto the obsidian altar and preached the dogma devoutly.
Words like “the Demon King’s birth day,” “the Three Saints and Im,” and so on—under his pious face they sounded utterly sincere.
Nilly stood nearby listening, her expression turning stranger by the minute.
She finally understood why Priest Evan held such status among these demons.
He had invented the doctrine himself.
This guy had guts.
Even she almost suspected His Majesty had really sent him a prophetic dream.
....
One day later.
Nilly swaggered into Slime City Palace and had breakfast with Chen Yu, rambling through her reconnaissance in the Abyss.
“So that’s roughly how it went...”
“So, Your Majesty, how do you plan to handle it? Lead the army into the Abyss and teach those who tarnish your name a brutal lesson?”
Chen Yu squatted on the throne, finished a malt candy from the Golden Tassel Plain, and gave an answer that surprised Nilly.
“I don’t think we need to intervene directly. We can use the Demon King Cult’s infiltration of the Abyss to our advantage.”
“Azazel and Balthazar’s souls are still in my hands, which means I can control the Demon King Cult at any time.”
“What about their infiltration of the Material Plane?” Nilly asked. “There are already illegal Demon King Cult gatherings in several city-states in Golden Radiance Valley.”
Chen Yu swallowed a Moss Monster bite and said vaguely, “Golden Radiance Valley is not directly under the Empire. They have their own Adventurer’s Guild and city-state powers.”
“The Extraordinary professionals in the Valley will handle the Demon King Cult’s activities there. The Empire’s duty is to ensure no more demons cross the Fissure here.”
“Besides, we have more important matters to handle.”
“More important matters?” Nilly looked puzzled.
Chen Yu swirled the gel in his hand, “Exactly. I’m preparing the Empire’s Astral exploration plan—taking the first step for the Empire into the Astral Realm.”
But exploring the Astral Realm was only step one. His real goal was finding a Fissure that leads into Xu Xuan Heaven and investigating what the Astral Realm creatures beyond the Abyss truly are.
Since the gel incarnation that left Xu Xuan Heaven could still communicate with his Slime body, that suggested the Xu Xuan Heaven Fissure might not be far from Zeyarila.
This terrible catastrophe, whether it erupts in the Void Abyss or Zeyerra, would be unacceptable.
So he had to investigate clearly who their enemy really was.
Soon a series of orders were dispatched through Silver Sparrow. Nilly, bored, slipped away saying she had classes to attend and wanted to graduate sooner.
Of course, before leaving she didn’t idle her hands and pocketed two malt candies from beside the throne.
Chen Yu, assisted by Silver Sparrow, began processing the day’s second batch of documents. The gel greenhouses on the Golden Tassel Plain needed extra irrigation formation budgets, phase three of the new city district required approval, a newly opened downstream swamp canal dock needed coordination with the Docking Association, and the Merchant Alliance’s Gray Gravel Crystal export quota needed to be reduced....
Normally Little Flower handled these matters, but the Empire Armaments Department was working overtime building new Floating Fortresses, and even Little Flower had gone to help.
So these tasks fell to him.
He was flipping through the stock report attached to the Gray Gravel Crystal export permit when Silver Sparrow’s voice sounded again, but this time not reporting business.
“Master, a magical item was transferred from the Adventurer’s Guild in Golden Radiance Valley to the Floating Winterhold post office. The recipient address is Slime City Palace. The sender field is unsigned.”
“The seal is stamped with the Ancient Tree Council’s unique oak leaf impression, and testing identified the seal wood as Moonlight Oak commonly used by the Elves. No binding runes or explosive magics were detected inside. Silver Sparrow analyzes it most likely came from the Ancient Tree Council.”
“An item sent from Elven territory?”
Could it be that Count Bran and the others had news?