After the Lord of the Abyss Awakens - Chapter 60.2

Xiu Si patted its head and smiled, “I know. Father will work hard to level up and find your uncles and aunts. Would you like to meet them then? You’ve always heard me talk about them, but you’ve never met them. It’s quite a pity, they’re all very impressive people.”

The little ragdoll tilted its head and nuzzled, “Okay meow!”

In fact, it had not only seen them but had saved them many times. For instance, Hero Wang Chang’er, who often asked Her for medicine. She only gave him a discount price because of Father’s sake. The foolish Hero Wang Chang’er didn’t even recognize his niece. Heh, heroes are all big fools.

After chatting with the little ragdoll for a while, Xiu Si noticed the time and immediately thought he shouldn’t waste time. Thinking about the importance of strength, he decided to study hard right away.

Burn, heart of learning! Create, level up, practice magic, become stronger, make the children proud of their father!

****

Meanwhile, the Oedipus Empire and the Great Hammurabi Empire were engaged in diplomacy. The specifics of their discussions weren’t made public, but there were some speculations in the outside world.

In a tavern, some people were discussing:

“I think the Great Hammurabi Empire is really panicking this time.”

“Is it that exaggerated? Isn’t it the number one human empire? If they lose to the divine kingdom, wouldn’t that mean humans are doomed?”

“Why not? They’ve always been dominant, when have they ever had to search for people all over the world? This time even their knight orders are running around everywhere. It might really be a major crisis. Believe it or not, it’s up to you.”

Someone interrupted. “You don’t know, do you? I heard divine pillars have appeared at their borders. You know what divine pillars mean, they’ve been anchored and positioned.”

“Why so sudden?”

“Fool, it’s not sudden at all. It’s just that your intelligence isn’t up to date. There have been rumors for three years already. In my opinion, the Divine Kingdom of Destruction is about to launch a harmonious war against the Great Hammurabi Empire.”

“No, you’re too optimistic. How could the Divine Kingdom of Destruction follow harmonious rules? They’ll definitely attack fiercely!”

Countless rumors spread in an instant.

Regarding this, Levin had a headache, but he also clearly understood that this wasn’t something he could handle.

If the Great Hammurabi Empire couldn’t solve the problem, what could he do?

Today, the diplomatic mission asked him three times who the powerhouse was that destroyed the Jupius family. He didn’t know how to answer.

The world thought it was Matros who did it, but only he knew that the one who really acted was Matros’s student’s cat cub.

Scary, right? Terrifying!

However, Levin could only honestly swallow this matter, unable to tell anyone.

****

At this time, in subspace.

Aelioge, disguised, infiltrated the Divine Kingdom of Destruction, observing the surroundings and gathering intelligence. The journey was smooth, without ripples, or rather, those who dared to offend Him on the way had died, and dead things couldn’t cause any ripples.

Dark clouds pressed down on the city above, with huge buildings exuding an extremely oppressive feeling. The various powerful races coming and going constantly released magic power to show their strength.

Those who came here were mostly chaotic forces, especially those chaotic evil beings who loved to disrupt the world.

In comparison, Aelioge, as both a demon and a god, appeared elegant and graceful.

Suddenly, Aelioge stopped, glancing at the black-eyed blonde youth, and abruptly asked, “By the way, what was your name again?”

The little black bird with a youth’s body was dumbfounded, “I’m Hodur! The name Father gave me!”

Aelioge had an extremely strong memory, but only remembered what He wanted to remember. He really didn’t know the name of the God of Darkness, and casually said, “You gods have lived for thousands of years, haven’t you ever thought of naming yourselves?”

Hodur choked, seeming to have a lot to say but hesitating, “Well… what you said is indeed a problem. Most of us don’t really have names.”

“So you’re just called God of Darkness, God of Light?”

Aelioge had researched some things before, but research was research, He actually hadn’t had much interaction with real gods.

Now with a living God of Darkness in front of Him, and one that could talk eloquently as a little bird, it was a good opportunity to ask for information.

Hodur said, “There’s no problem calling us that. Aren’t conceptual gods the concepts themselves? Calling the concept is calling us.”

He thought it was natural and had never thought about the issue of names before. It was said that some gods seemed to think names would become weaknesses, so they wouldn’t name themselves.

“Is that so.”

Aelioge nodded, not knowing what He was thinking.

The form He was using wasn’t His usual human form, but from the outside, He still looked like a genuinely handsome young man.

Therefore, He received curious glances wherever He went. Even the elven race was envious. Some races that valued appearance almost popped their eyes out looking at Him.

Aelioge was completely indifferent and continued the casual conversation, “Calling you Hodur still doesn’t work, how about calling you Little Black?”

Little Black protested. “Ah, isn’t that the name of suspects in detective novels!”

Aelioge smiled. At the same time, there was a burst of screams around.

“What a beautiful human!”

“Where did he come from? I really want to get to know him!”

Little Black glanced at the surroundings, his mouth twitching, and couldn’t help but criticize, “Can’t you control your charm? Our secret investigation has become known to everyone because of you.”

However, Aelioge was unperturbed and said, “Why? I am Father’s creation, Father’s handiwork, what’s wrong with showing it off?”

These words couldn’t be called narcissistic, but they weren’t normal either.

Little Black was dumbfounded and couldn’t comment. If He had to summarize this demon Aelioge, He could only think of three words.

Deep-thinking, self-willed, and unruffled. Of course, this was only to outsiders. When it came to His Father, Aelioge was absolutely a childish demon, possessive, very resistant to other siblings, especially liking to compete with Beelzebub.

They were quite strange. When separated, they seemed normal, but once two or three gathered together, especially when surrounding their Father, they would become incredibly stupid, their tone and actions becoming very childish.

Arguing, fighting, and even rolling around, where was the demeanor of great demons? Becoming cat-like automatically lowered their intelligence, but what was the essential reason?

—It was probably because they became children once they were around Father.

At this moment, Aelioge suddenly said, “Speaking of which, you’ve adapted quite quickly. As a god king, you’re surprisingly close to humans and even recognized family.”

Little Black paused, scratched his face, and said, “Actually, I don’t know either. It just turned out this way before I knew it.”

Aelioge seemed a bit interested in this question, “Did the bird form influence you?”

Little Black thought and said, “It had some influence, but essentially it’s not because of the bird form.”

“Is that so.”

Aelioge appeared lost in thought.

Half a day passed. They walked around collecting information, generally understanding the basic situation of the Divine Kingdom of Destruction.

The Divine Kingdom of Destruction was currently presided over by a great god named Federi, who had once been a follower of the God of Destruction. Now that the God of Destruction had disappeared, he had absorbed part of the God of Destruction’s power, claiming he would resurrect the God of Destruction and return the continent to the Gods Era. Using this as a pretext, he widely recruited powerful beings, warmly welcoming them even if they didn’t submit to the Divine Kingdom of Destruction. As long as they were enemies of humans, they were considered friends.

Their reason for targeting the Hammurabi Empire was simple.

Part of the God of Destruction’s divine body was sealed beneath the imperial city of the Hammurabi Empire.

Federi claimed that finding the divine body would allow them to resurrect the God of Destruction, exterminate humans who evolved from apes, and return the continent to the sacred Gods Era.

This idea attracted countless non-human beings, especially those who often had conflicts with humans.

They enthusiastically supported it, waving flags and shouting, eager to exterminate humans immediately.

“They were originally the weakest creatures, yet they used all sorts of opportunistic methods to occupy the continent. It’s too despicable! How dare they even speak of a Humans Era!”

“The gods who help humans and those Abyss Lords are no good either. They should all be killed!”

“Survival is not eternal, destruction is! Humans’ good days are coming to an end. Hehe, just wait and see. We’ll start with their top-ranked country first, destroying them one by one, letting them slowly savor the taste of despair. Hahaha.”

Demons danced wildly everywhere, laughing and cursing.

Aelioge stopped randomly and asked Little Black. “What do you think?”

“Obviously fake.”

Little Black snorted disdainfully, saying bluntly, “It’s most likely just borrowing the name of the God of Destruction.”

Gods devouring gods was normal, and followers devouring gods wasn’t uncommon either. It was survival of the fittest. There had been gods killed by their followers, and even gods murdered by their own creations.

There was nothing new under the sun. What new schemes could these ambitious individuals have?

Ambition and desire were devoid of innovation; wandering poets had already explained it thoroughly.

“It’s an obvious scam, but it can always fool some fellows. There are fools in every generation, not surprising.”

Little Black could fully keep up with Aelioge’s train of thought.

Aelioge said, “They know it’s a scam, but still follow for their own interests.”

“Yes, the Hammurabi Empire is a big piece of fat meat. Who wouldn’t want to eat it?”

“These free chaotic types, opportunists, have low loyalty.”

“There’s another type who see the situation clearly but still choose to join. For their own beliefs or propositions, like us.”

Aelioge narrowed his eyes, fixing his gaze on a tall, dark castle in the distance.

Little Black: “But what if Federi really wants to resurrect the God of Destruction?”

Aelioge turned his gaze, asking curiously, “Would you want to resurrect a madman?”

Regarding this question, Little Black was silent for a few seconds. A hint of maturity flashed across the youth’s face as he admitted. “Sometimes I have such thoughts.”

“Oh?”

Little Black spoke frankly. “Occasionally, I have thoughts of wanting to destroy everything.”

Disrupt everything, confuse everything, completely shatter this order, let everything be destroyed, return to nothingness.

Especially in the era when divine wars were most frequent, there was killing everywhere. It was either devour or be devoured. In that kind of environment, one simply could not control that destructive impulse.

He once thought it was influenced by the God of Destruction, so He declared war on the Divine Kingdom of Destruction. However, after fighting several times, He realized it had nothing to do with the God of Destruction. The God of Destruction was actually the most affected by that impulse, with the impulse completely overwhelming reason, causing Him to become so crazed.

The frenzied divine nature was like a surging sea, with terrifying waves crashing, unable to calm down.

After listening, Aelioge pondered thoughtfully and also fell silent for a while.

Little Black didn’t like this heavy topic, so he deliberately said playfully, “Hey, I heard you fought with the God of War and even knocked Him into space, stopping His thoughts. How did you do that?”

“Don’t mention that.”

Aelioge frowned, as if this was the topic He least wanted to bring up.

Little Black blinked, feeling like one of his guesses had been confirmed again.

If what he thought was correct, Aelioge and the others might all be…

But just then, an earth-shattering explosion came from the distant castle. Subsequently, a giant dragon appeared, its tail smashing the castle, sweeping across the land like a destructive force.

They stopped at this point and observed intently, not for any other reason, but because that was the place the Goddess of Wisdom had later indicated.

The Hero Justin was likely to be there.

If so, there was only one action they should take.

“Let’s go. Let’s see if what that goddess said is true or false.”

“Alright!”

****

Meanwhile, the sky of the Great Empire of Hammurabi was shrouded in dark clouds, with occasional flashes of lightning that almost scared people into having heart attacks.

Beelzebub walked out of the Church of Dawn, feeling somewhat impatient due to gaining nothing.

And… he felt a bit hungry.

Beelzebub frowned. He hadn’t had an appetite for several hundred years. The last time he was hungry was the previous time, when he ate dozens of nearly max-level evil dragons, barely satisfying his hunger, and hadn’t bothered since then.

Recently, He hadn’t exerted Himself much or consumed energy, so why was He hungry?

Beelzebub pressed His fingers against His temples, feeling somewhat annoyed by the Goddess of Fortune’s curse.

At first, He hadn’t taken it seriously and hadn’t paid much attention to it. However, over the past few days, He felt that this curse had affected Him more than just a little.

It was possible that He had discovered many things before, but they had been forgotten due to this curse.

Beelzebub recalled the past. He should have been the seventh to be born, yet He was the last to awaken consciousness. So He was mentally deficient from the start. When He first awakened, He had almost no rationality, only remembering being very, very hungry, driven by an impulse to just eat, eat frantically.

Whoever tried to stop Him, He ate them. All living things, even the entire world, had to be His food.

That state was too crazy.

He didn’t know how long it lasted, until… He bit that person.

His father, the father who had shaped Him with His own hands.

That person must have been hurt by His bite, but didn’t twist Him away. He even stopped other enraged siblings who wanted to beat Him, looking at Him with gentle yet firm eyes, as if He could be forgiven no matter what He did, even if He ate him.

His movements became stiff. For the first time, He stopped eating, establishing rationality in a feeling that He only understood later.

That feeling was named guilt.

He had shaped Him, yet He wanted to eat him.

—It wasn’t just ordinary filial impiety.

Thinking of this, Beelzebub’s pupils trembled slightly, welling up with profound guilt and self-reproach.

“…Didn’t find any clues, but I want to see Father.”

He was silent for a few seconds, then decisively stepped through the void, instantly arriving at the bookstore’s entrance.

By this time, it was already dark, with almost no pedestrians on the street, and the bookstore door was already closed.

Beelzebub looked at the entrance, concealing His demonic power, and was about to transform into a cat. However, as He lowered His head slightly, He unexpectedly saw an unfamiliar cat scratching at the door!

Who are you?!