525
Chapter 525
The Master of Unbreakable Contracts.
When Zeke spoke the Demon Lord's constellation name, Elizabeth's eyes shook greatly.
'How does he know Father's constellation name?'
She felt something had gone terribly wrong.
The problem was that she couldn't pinpoint what exactly was wrong.
Even with her genius mind that had mastered all magic in the demon realm, she couldn't figure out what Zeke had done.
She felt she needed to stop Zeke even if it meant being disrespectful in front of the Demon Lord.
Elizabeth tried to raise her head and stand up while fighting against the pressure.
For demons, obeying the master to whom they pledged servitude was as natural as breathing.
She was forcibly trying to overcome such demonic instincts to raise her body.
But then.
"Sit down."
Along with Zeke's quiet words, enormous pressure pressed down on Elizabeth's body.
RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!
When he spread the field of golden power with his Elemental Sword, the pressure applied to the entire hall increased several times.
Not only the demon princesses but even the demons standing at a distance behind had to clench their teeth and endure to overcome the pressure of the golden power field.
Both Elizabeth and Yekaterina, who had been confident in her fighting spirit, struggled to even maintain their posture properly.
Zeke stepped forward once more and spoke toward the face image that appeared in the mirror.
"Demon Lord, I asked how you feel about making a deal with me."
At that moment, messages appeared before Zeke's eyes.
[The fallen constellation Master of Unbreakable Contracts looks at the immortal.]
[The fallen constellation Master of Unbreakable Contracts finds the faint divine nature felt from the immortal curious.]
Simultaneously, sparks flew from Zeke's body.
CRACKLE! CRACKLE!
As the polymorph set as a demon was released, Zeke returned to his human form.
Elizabeth, who had been somehow managing to keep her head up while enduring the golden power field, was shocked to see Zeke return to human form.
'How in the world?'
Zeke had deceived the contract with Elizabeth using Belial's deception, then used polymorph to transform into the same race as the demon Argidoom he had captured beforehand.
Elizabeth, who hadn't noticed that the contract wasn't properly formed due to the deception, had directly negotiated with Yekaterina to use her power to open a communication channel with the Demon Lord.
Elizabeth, who realized she had been deceived by Zeke, clenched her teeth.
"How dare you?!, Zeke Draker…?"
Elizabeth, who had strong pride, couldn't accept the fact that a mere human had deceived her, and trembled while grinding her teeth.
But then the facial form in the mirror suddenly protruded forward.
GRRRRRR!
The face that approached Zeke with an eerie voice shook its head back and forth.
Soon messages appeared again.
[The fallen constellation Master of Unbreakable Contracts finds the immortal's proposal interesting.]
[The fallen constellation Master of Unbreakable Contracts asks what kind of deal you want.]
Zeke spoke while looking at the form of the Master of Unbreakable Contracts that appeared in the mirror.
"Make your demons not respond to summoning contracts with the Abyss."
He continued speaking while holding out Solomon's ring.
"If you accept my proposal, I will hand over the constellation souls sealed in this ring."
Zeke opened the status of the constellations trapped in Solomon's ring.
WOONG! WOONG! WOONG!
The Endless Devourer , Mammon.
The Serpent of the Black Maw, Belial.
The Herald of Blood and Madness, Wirinom.
These were the souls of constellations sealed in Solomon's ring.
Fallen constellations devour each other's souls and raise their status to increase their power.
He thought that even the Demon Lord, the Master of Unbreakable Contracts, would be sufficiently tempted by the souls of powerful demons like Mammon, Belial, and Wirinom.
The form in the mirror moved closer to Solomon's ring after hearing Zeke's words.
GRRRRRR!
The way it moved its face back and forth, it seemed to be trying to get a proper look at Solomon's ring.
[The fallen constellation Master of Unbreakable Contracts finds the immortal's proposal interesting.]
[Warns that since all three souls are demons from the Gehenna realm, its ruler, the Master of Unrelenting Passion, may target the immortal.]
Zeke opened his mouth at the Demon Lord's warning.
"It doesn't matter. If they come at me, I'll just kill them."
GRRRRRR!
The facial form in the mirror shook its head back and forth at Zeke's answer.
[The fallen constellation Master of Unbreakable Contracts is pleased with the immortal's words and conduct.]
[The fallen constellation Master of Unbreakable Contracts makes a different proposal to the immortal.]
Zeke frowned while looking at the message that appeared.
'A different proposal?'
A thought first occurred that there might be a trap in whatever proposal the demon of contracts would make.
But then a massive vibration rang out from the mirror.
WOONG! WOONG! WOONG!
The kneeling demon princesses were startled by the vibration.
Especially Elizabeth, who was barely keeping her head up, wore an expression of disbelief.
"F-Father is m-manifesting?"
For the Demon Lord, ruler of Pandemonium, to manifest in the physical realm required an enormous amount of karma to neutralize the karmic restrictions. This vibration essentially signified such consumption of karma.
Soon, along with the vibration, a metallic tube that looked like it was made of mercury extended from within the mirror.
The extended metallic tube firmly pierced the nape of the trembling Anastasia.
MEOOOOOW!
Anastasia, in cat form, let out a long cry.
Shortly after, bright light leaked from Anastasia's eyes.
As a halo shone from Anastasia's floating body, a presence far transcending physical realm beings could be felt.
"Ah, can you hear me well?"
The being with the distant status spoke in an incarnated voice through Anastasia's body.
Zeke unknowingly broke into a cold sweat.
As the Demon Lord manifested through his avatar Anastasia's body, the area around her transformed into a divine realm.
A unique space of a completely different dimension from the Evil God Chaos's barrier spread throughout Yekaterina's invasion fortress.
'The difference in status is incomparable to even the Flesh Eating God Ajitahaka or Evil God Chaos.'
As a transcendent who had attained divinity, Zeke could more fully feel the magnitude of that power.
Compared to the Demon Lord's status, souls like Belial's or Mammon's felt like fireflies before the sun.
The Demon Lord who manifested in Anastasia's body continued speaking.
"Zeke Draker. Pleased to meet you in person. I could say I'm personally a fan of yours."
The Demon Lord spoke to Zeke in a friendly voice.
Though the tone and voice were gentle, the power contained within fully revealed what the status of the ruler of the demon realm meant.
The Demon Lord continued speaking.
"Let me introduce myself first. I have the long and boring constellation name 'Master of Unbreakable Contracts'. I wish it were shorter but we can't help these things as they're not up to us. Since you're special, I'll allow you to call me 'Mephistopheles' instead of that constellation name."
Zeke was startled to hear the Demon Lord's true name.
Demons are reluctant to reveal their true names.
For spirit beings like fallen constellations, power that defines their existence dwells within the true name itself.
For sorcerers trying to summon ancient souls, the first thing they focus on is discovering and properly calling the true name, to the point that half the spell is complete just by properly discovering spirit beings' true names.
Nevertheless, the Demon Lord casually revealed his true name.
It meant he had that much confidence in himself.
Zeke opened his mouth while looking at him.
"Mephistopheles. Are you truly the Demon Lord and ruler of Pandemonium?"
Mephistopheles nodded his cat head at Zeke's words.
"You certainly have a suspicious nature. Good, one should be thorough about everything. I'll tell you on my soul. I am indeed the Demon Lord and ruler of Pandemonium."
Zeke couldn't quite understand why the Demon Lord Mephistopheles was showing such goodwill toward him.
Seeming to notice his thoughts, Mephistopheles grinned and continued.
"You're quite popular among us. Things in the demon realm can be stimulating, but even that gets boring over time. Watching events in the physical realm is more dynamic and entertaining, even if it comes at a high price."
Through Mephistopheles's words, Zeke realized that the fallen constellations had been watching events unfolding in the physical realm.
'So even those not directly intervening were watching what situations were occurring.'
Mephistopheles smirked while looking at Anastasia's cat body.
"The reason this child, lacking compared to other talented ones, could become my adopted daughter is because our wavelengths match well. You turning her into a cat made it easier for me to manifest."
Zeke spoke while looking at the still relaxed Mephistopheles.
"There must be a reason you paid a great price to reveal yourself here directly."
"You're impatient. That's good too. I also prefer getting to the main point first."
He clapped his cat paws together.
Then a screen appeared showing the demon realm divided into four regions.
It was the same screen Elizabeth had shown.
"Beth must have already shown you this. Actually, what that child proposed to you was genuine. If you, Zeke Draker, were to join our side, we were thinking of setting aside the Demon King revival."
Zeke frowned at Mephistopheles's words.
"I heard all demons' goal was to bring forth the Demon King, so it's hard to believe that you, the Demon Lord, would set that aside."
Mephistopheles nodded at those words.
"Indeed. I fully understand your skepticism."
He clapped again and the screen changed.
The screen showed a panoramic view of Pandemonium's city.
"Zeke Draker, look at this. Even in the demon realm, built on unstable dimensional fragments, we've cultivated a brilliant civilization."
Unlike other demon realm regions, Pandemonium resembled a city no different from the physical realm.
In fact, in some ways it was more advanced, with various demon races living together forming a society.
It was quite different from the known image of demons as beings who only pursued violence and conflict, finding joy solely in war.
"This took a very long time. It was my experiment ,whether civilization was possible even in the harsh dimensional boundaries of the demon realm."
He continued slowly.
"Actually, demons are very similar to humans. Humans also fight and conflict with each other if left alone. I closely observed the difference between demons and humans. And I realized one difference: 'contracts'."
Zeke spoke at Mephistopheles's words.
"You're saying you suppressed demons' destructive instincts through contracts?"
Mephistopheles smiled and nodded at his words.
"Correct. Humans form societies ultimately through the power of contracts. I applied that to demons. Of course, with much stronger restrictions than humans. I failed many times at first. If the restrictions were too weak, no one kept the contracts, if too strong, proper contracts couldn't be formed. It took thousands of years to find that balance."
Mephistopheles smiled contentedly looking at the civilization of Pandemonium he created over that long time.
Then he looked back at Zeke and spoke.
"Zeke Draker, I've developed a new goal of trying this experiment throughout the demon realm."
"You mean in Abyss, Abaddon, and Gehenna too?"
"Yes, though different methods would be needed there due to different environments. But I believe civilization can take root there too."
Zeke now understood what plan Mephistopheles had.
"If that's possible, it means there's no need to forcefully ascend to the physical realm by bringing forth the Demon King."
Mephistopheles nodded and spoke.
"Exactly. In that case, we'd actually need a stable physical realm more. After all, maintaining the unstable demon realm society requires karma generated in the physical realm, and the more the physical realm prospers, the more karma is generated."
Mephistopheles descended from the air, approached Zeke closer and spoke.
"So I'd like to propose a new contract to you."
Zeke silently looked at Mephistopheles, who met his gaze and slowly opened his mouth.
"How would you like to become the sixth lord of the demon realm?"