After the Lord of the Abyss Awakens - Chapter 104.1

The silver cat looked to the left and saw the gray cat dripping small pearls of tears.

The teardrops fell onto the workbook, dampening the ink and blurring the writing.

The gray cat’s body trembled, biting their lower lip with their upper lip, eyebrows furrowed into the shape of eight, looking extremely aggrieved.

“Meow… meow meow.”

The silver cat froze, never expecting the gray cat would be so hurt and even cry!

What, what should I do, is it my fault?

The silver cat was at a loss, eyes unconsciously looking towards the Siamese cat beside them.

The Siamese cat had also noticed Inpos’s situation, but their mouth was open, seemingly wanting to say something but not knowing what to say, then their gaze turned to Beelzebub.

The two cats looked at each other wordlessly, their inner thoughts aligned,

Please, neither of them had experience in comforting their siblings.

The silver cat felt nervous inside, if Father knew He made Inpos cry, Father would definitely be angry.

What to do!

The silver cat coughed once, looked at the gray cat again, took a few steps closer, extended its paw, stroked the gray cat’s back, and said, “Inpos, don’t cry, I haven’t said anything yet, don’t scare yourself.”

Although the gray cat was usually honest and gentle, it had a bit of temper when sad, furrowed its brows tightly, shifted their body, dodging the silver cat’s caring paw, but its tears became even more uncontrollable, rolling down continuously, its big eyes filled with tears, like a shallow lake under heavy rain, rippling layer upon layer.

Anyone who saw would feel sympathetic love.

How could anyone bully such an adorable little cat, and even make Him cry!

Seeing Inpos crying louder and louder, the silver cat visibly panicked.

The Siamese cat was also at a loss. His sibling was crying even harder, what should he do.

At this moment, a huge figure appeared behind Them.

It was the big orange cat!

Upon seeing this situation, He immediately struck with his paws, knocking them away left and right, and walked straight towards the gray cat.

“Inpos, what’s wrong? Did they gang up to bully you?”

The silver cat and Siamese cat were unexpectedly knocked to the ground, wearing identical bewildered expressions.

Wait, we didn’t bully anyone!

The big orange cat walked to the gray cat’s side, wrapped an arm around, and held the gray cat steadily.

“What did they do, don’t be afraid, tell me, I’ll teach them a lesson, even if I can’t beat them, I’ll report to Fourth Brother and let him deal with them!”

The gray cat meowed sadly, body trembling, eyes all teary, looked up at the big orange cat, choked. “Wuu, Beel-Beelzebub wuu, said I am…wuu, the Primordial God of Humans.”

The big orange cat’s expression immediately changed drastically, glaring fiercely at Beelzebub who was trying to climb up.

Beel “innocent” zebub, raised his paw in surrender.

When did I say that, Inpos is confused from being too sad! Although I did indeed imply that…

But the big orange cat ignored Him, only focused on comforting the gray cat, saying gently. “Don’t listen to Beelzebub’s nonsense, what Primordial God of Humans, you’re not, you’re Father’s good child, you’re not any Primordial God of Humans meow.”

Beelzebub was suddenly blamed, his face turning black.

The gray cat whimpered and hugged the big orange cat, sniffling and crying, burying their head into the big orange cat’s fluffy belly.

“Brother Beleth!”

The big orange cat patted its head, “Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid, even if you were, the Primordial God of Humans might not necessarily be an evil god, and might not necessarily be the one who harmed Father, let’s wait until Amon fishes His divine body out from Chaos before saying anything.”

The gray cat let out a “wuwuwu”, seeming even more devastated, “Meow, what if I am meow!”

The big orange cat smiled comfortingly. “Everyone will help you figure it out together, we’re a big family, we grew up together, what kind of demon you are, don’t we know clearly?”

He gently kissed the gray cat’s forehead, smoothed its fur, and said in an infectious tone, “Trust in your older brothers and sisters, we’ll figure everything out, okay?”

The gray cat stared intently into the big orange cat’s eyes, as if finally convinced, gradually calming down, though its face was still full of tears with matted fur.

The big orange cat could actually understand Inpos’s feelings – nobody wants to be the one who hurts their father, even if only indirectly.

Witnessing this situation, the silver cat and Siamese cat on the side stared at each other in bewilderment.

The silver cat transmitted a thought to the Siamese cat. “Is this resolved?”

The Siamese cat didn’t know how to evaluate it, “I guess so, but let me be clear, this has nothing to do with me – you’re the one who messed with Inpos.”

The silver cat clutched its face with both paws, almost crying out in frustration – how did this become my problem, am I really going to take the blame for this now?

The big orange cat ignored the silver cat’s resentful expression, coldly swept His gaze over them, then walked away carrying the gray cat on His back.

“…”

The silver cat watched their retreating figures, at a loss for words.

Hopefully they won’t tell Father about this.

Hey, please don’t do that!

The Siamese cat remained aloof from the situation, giving the silver cat a sideways glance, saying haughtily, “That’s why you shouldn’t speak in riddles, making Inpos overthink things for no reason.”

“I…”

The silver cat slowly lowered its head, seeming somewhat repentant.

But He quickly realized – hadn’t He just said this exact thing to Botis? How did it turn back on Him so quickly?

What kind of boomerang was this?!

The Siamese cat walked a few light steps, holding a small workbook in its paw, saying, “From now on, be a demon who shows brotherly love.”

The silver cat’s mouth twitched slightly – you’re the last one I want to hear this from, you father-obsessed demon!

****

In the room, the big orange cat gently placed the gray cat back in its cat bed, thoughtfully offering some tissues.

The gray cat wiped its eyes, seeming to have calmed down.

Sometimes, He felt that brother Beleth was a bit like sister Valefor, both similarly intellectual and gentle.

Hadn’t brother Beleth also used a sister persona before? Hmm… He had somewhat forgotten – gender wasn’t very important to them. Gusin still alternated between male and female, changing back and forth that He couldn’t remember, it depended on the mood. Come to think of it, He himself had a female human avatar.

The big orange cat smiled, patting the gray cat’s head with a hint of playfulness, but His eyes showed only affection.

Big orange cat: “All better now?”

The gray cat nodded.

The big orange cat felt relieved, looking back around the room.

Speaking of which, there were so many cat beds in the room, all arranged near the windows where the sunlight and temperature were just perfect, very comfortable and good for photosynthesis.

Each cat bed was different in size and atmosphere.

Some cat beds were pink and delicate, like flower baskets with exquisite ribbons hanging around the edges – obviously Buer’s cat bed.

Some were hung with toys and various odd things – clearly Amon’s cat bed.

They were all made according to their personalities and preferences, reflecting their father’s attention to life’s little details.

Father always liked to create these little touches – isn’t His thinking incredibly detailed!

Looking at these three rows of cat beds, one could feel the overwhelming warmth and happiness!

Yes, especially that sense of home-like warmth.

The big orange cat felt emotional, somehow missing Busson.

He last saw Busson three years ago, when Busson still had the image of a scruffy uncle. Later, due to some change in mood, possibly from hanging out with Barbatos too much, Busson became a refined sister figure. But their continental siblings probably knew nothing about this – Busson had developed severe procrastination and ghosting habits over the past hundred years, making it not easy to see Her.

Some of their fellow demons hadn’t seen each other for years, some for thousands of years, their knowledge of each other’s recent situations varied greatly, and information was hard to synchronize. The only way to sync information was during family meetings, though fewer demons actively participated in those now, and Busson had ghosted countless times.

But now, Father had returned, so things couldn’t continue like that anymore.

The big orange cat’s eyes lit up, a sense of realization welling up inside.

He turned to look – fortunately, Father usually stayed in the study, and except for occasional store-watching duties, Cele handled the store now, so he didn’t know about Beelzebub bullying Inpos, otherwise Father would definitely be angry.

Ah, the nicer their father’s usual temperament was, the harder it would be to appease him when he got angry meow.

The big orange cat turned back, laying on the edge of the cat bed, patted the gray cat’s head again, emphasizing. “Inpos, don’t overthink it, wait for Amon, okay?”

The gray cat obediently nodded, seeming to understand now, saying bravely, “Even if it’s true, I’ll try my best to accept it!”

“Mm.”

After leaving the room, the big orange cat sighed in relief, then His eyes sharpened as He walked up to the silver cat and Siamese cat, saying to the silver cat, “No more careless talk in the future, understood?”

The silver cat started to speak but stopped, and after a few minutes actually admitted His mistake, saying seriously, “You’re right. Though it’s certainly possible, I shouldn’t have let Him know so soon.”

The big orange cat couldn’t help being surprised.

The Siamese cat flicked its tail, laying on the table with its head lazily lowered, eyes half-closed. “But do the years of birth and death match up? Wasn’t the Primordial God of Humans still alive when Inpos was born?”

True, this was a major point of doubt.

But the silver cat had already thought of this, analyzing, “The timing is a bit off, but this isn’t strongly correlated, because it’s possible the Primordial God of Humans was already dead, but His divine body was still active.”

The air suddenly froze.

The big orange cat was stunned – what? This was possible?

The Siamese cat called it outrageous, “But it really could be possible.”

The silver cat continued analyzing. “If the mastermind possibly possessed the authority of ‘Consciousness’, then couldn’t they manipulate any deity? Maybe the Primordial God of Humans was killed by them long ago, stealing the sky and swapping the sun, passing off fish eyes as pearls.”

(TL: “偷天換日” (tōu tiān huàn rì) “to steal the sky and swap the sun,” implying a large-scale deception or replacing something fundamental in a way that fools others.

“魚目混珠” (yú mù hùn zhū) “to pass off fish eyes as pearls,” referring to disguising something inferior as something valuable.)

Hearing this, the big orange cat was shocked internally, “That’s right, they could be any deity’s consciousness.”

The reason they were more suspicious of the Primordial God of Humans was because Arnold was human back then, and as the deity who knew all human information, the Primordial God of Humans couldn’t possibly not know human Arnold’s thoughts.

However, what if the Primordial God of Humans had already been manipulated by then?

The Siamese cat’s expression grew serious, as if sensing something through His own authority.

The big orange cat said, “Now everyone is suspicious.”

Hearing this, the Siamese cat spoke with slight anger. “We should have thought this way from the start, the whole world means ill towards our father!”

The big orange cat was shocked looking at the Siamese cat – that’s quite an extreme thing to say.

The silver cat walked a few steps, stopping by the window, looking out at the alley. “Anyway, Aelioge told us to pay attention to the situation.”

The big orange cat strongly agreed.

The Siamese cat was silent for a few seconds, “But if we protect too well, they won’t show themselves either.”

Yes, the silver cat thought.

Actually, they had one method that would likely be effective.

That was – using Father as bait.

The other party wanted to kill Father but never had the chance, what if they were given an opportunity?

But they would absolutely never do this, because they could not let Father face any danger – they couldn’t bear to lose Father again.

“Can we only wait and see?”

The Siamese cat slightly furrowed His brows.

Although the mastermind was probably the more anxious party, being passive still felt too frustrating.

****

At this time, subspace, in the large monitoring room.

On the projection screen, chaos was shrinking at an extremely slow speed, like an ocean slowly receding.

The estimated withdrawal time shown in the bottom right of the screen was a shocking one year and three months.

“So slow! Brother Bachin, think of something quick!”

An anxious Buer vigorously shook Bachin who was sitting in the chair.

Bachin leaned His head back against the chair, face ethereal but haggard, looking about to drop dead, not even responding to Buer’s vigorous shaking.

But to say He was asleep wasn’t quite right either, as His eyes were open, wide open like dumbbells, green pupils clouded and whites full of bloodshot.

He looked like He was about to die!

Buer didn’t think twice and forced a resurrection potion down the half-dead Bachin’s throat.

Bachin was stunned – He had been fine before, but after drinking the resurrection potion He really was in trouble.

His body was extremely weak, unable to resist even the slightest medicinal effects. Heaven knows how difficult it was to carry so many demons across such vast spans of space and time – no demon could understand His hardship!

“St-stop…”

Bachin struggled to look at Buer, body trembling, voice barely a whisper.

But His voice was too faint, as Buer frantically lifted Him onto the table.

“Don’t die, brother Bachin! Hang in there, with your sister Buer here, you’ll definitely be fine!”

Bachin spat out the potion, nearly rolling His eyes back, “St-stop, I’m… fine…”

His voice was still too soft, Buer leaned in to listen but couldn’t hear clearly, thinking Bachin wanted more potion, and so force-fed Him dozens more bottles.

Bachin’s eyes rolled back, life flashing before His eyes, all highly filtered beautiful memories of Him and His father.

But fortunately He didn’t get lost in them, remembering His father in reality, He cursed angrily: Buer you fool, are you trying to kill me on purpose!

However worse still, He couldn’t make a sound anymore, only able to stare helplessly.

Of course Buer wasn’t doing this intentionally – demons had different constitutions, some extremely fragile and others very robust. She was skilled at healing anything except demons, hadn’t healed demons in a long time, and momentarily misjudged the dosage, and also… She hadn’t expected Bachin’s constitution to be this weak. Too weak!

Morax, passing by outside the door, heard the commotion and immediately came over.

Only to see Buer appearing to strangle Bachin by the neck.

Morax’s eyes widened, internally shocked, thinking Buer had finally snapped and was killing demons!

Fortunately, He then heard Buer’s encouraging words to Bachin.

“Brother Bachin, you can’t die!”

Morax: “…”

Was it possible that even if He really died, it would be because of you.

Well, their sister Buer had always been a careless sister, and this probably wasn’t the first time.

Morax watched for a while, seeing that Bachin probably wouldn’t die, and waited until things settled before speaking, “Sister Buer, stop feeding Him, His constitution can’t handle it, He’ll explode if He drinks more.”

“What?”

Buer was startled, quickly withdrawing Her hand, “Ex-explode?”