After the Lord of the Abyss Awakens - Chapter 77.1

Vassago grabbed Beelzebub and sternly warned. “Don’t get too close!”

Beelzebub waved his paws and grumbled. “What’s the problem? Isn’t this what you all do? I see you often sleeping on Father’s leg.”

Vassago paused, then turned his head to change the subject, “Let’s talk about something else. When you defeated Federi, you encountered that thing, right?”

Beelzebub nodded, maintaining his cat form as he lay sprawled on the table, “That behind-the-scenes mastermind appeared. They made contact with Federi and gave him power. That power brought Federi incredibly close to the ultimate level. Even I almost lost control. Later, when I regained mastery of the power of destruction, I was finally able to suppress him.”

The little short-legged cat nearby also turned its gaze towards them.

He was helping clean the bookstore, holding a small feather duster to pat away dust.

He could have easily used magic to do this, but he was a demon who enjoyed doing things himself – diligent and virtuous, loving to work with his own hands. This way, when Father praised him, it would be for his efforts, not just his magic power.

Beelzebub said to Vassago. “I obtained Federi’s memories, and you know what? That mastermind had even tampered with Federi’s memories. When I looked, I found that all the visual information about Them was blurred.”

Vassago was speechless, “This damn thing is still so cautious.”

Beelzebub said, “But this incident also shows that Their current targets are not just Father, but us as well.”

“We are the obstacles to killing Father. With us around, They cannot harm Father. To kill Father, They must find a way to deal with us.”

Vassago sat on the table. Perhaps because he was too fat, his triangular shape looked a bit like a snow-capped mountain.

Hearing this, He laughed coldly, “That’s quite daring. Are They declaring war on all of us Abyss Lords?”

“But I also don’t understand. Didn’t we previously guess that They wanted to kill seven heroes to achieve some goal of Theirs?”

Beelzebub frowned, “Now three heroes are out there. Their chess pieces are decreasing as the game goes on. Can They still hold out?”

Indeed. The current situation seemed to show the mastermind constantly losing ground. While They were discovering more and more clues.

Vassago pondered. “We must have been unexpected in Their plan. In Their original scheme, all seven heroes were supposed to die, so They plotted for a thousand years, murdering the heroes one by one. The reason Luo Jie hasn’t been murdered yet, I think, is because They was certain of success and didn’t take the elderly Luo Jie seriously. But at some point, They discovered Father hadn’t died, so Their focus shifted to how to find Father who had disappeared into the abyss but hadn’t died.”

Beelzebub agreed. “According to Their original plan, They would find and kill Father, then easily deal with Luo Jie, and finally kill the five imprisoned heroes. Everything would be settled, right?”

This analysis made perfect sense.

Vassago: “That’s right. However, They never imagined that after waiting thousands of years, the person who appeared wasn’t the hero They could easily manipulate from back then. Father actually had the protection of ‘Agares’.”

Beelzebub’s head popped up with question marks, “Agares?”

Vassago paused, then told Beelzebub about Agares’ appearance.

Beelzebub was dumbfounded and spoke with a complex tone. “Agares always keeps a low profile, doing things we can never anticipate.”

After saying this, He immediately became suspicious, “But there’s a problem here, right? If Agares was already with Father when he came out, why didn’t He directly kill the mastermind? Although that ‘Priest Xilin’ was definitely just a substitute, with Agares’ methods, He couldn’t have failed to trace the real body from the substitute.”

Agares was usually a demon with a mild temper. If you made trouble or challenged Him, He would probably ignore you most of the time. But once it came to matters concerning Father’s safety, Agares’ reaction was even more terrifying than Big Brother’s.

Yes, terrifying was the only way to describe it.

Beelzebub had experienced it firsthand. Back when He wasn’t thinking clearly and bit Father, Agares’ calm yet terrifying gaze almost scared Him to death.

He dared say that if Father hadn’t been there, Agares would definitely have killed Him.

Humans might think Agares was a rare Abyss Lord who was friendly to humans, possessing a love that transcended species, making unparalleled contributions to the rise of human civilization.

But whether Agares truly cared about humans and human civilization was questionable. In some wandering poets’ accounts, Agares dwelled among virtue and dreams, valuing the morality of living beings, but Agares’ essence…

To be honest, even after knowing Him for so many years, Beelzebub didn’t dare say He truly understood Agares.

He still remembered Big Brother’s description of Agares as “the starry sky” – vast, profound, and mysterious like the cosmos.

Big Brother was solemn and dignified, rarely smiling, with every word He spoke carrying significant weight.

Beelzebub was deeply impressed by that description. After pondering, He said, “There are two possibilities why Agares didn’t act at that time – one, He couldn’t win; two, it wasn’t the right time.”

Vassago immediately rejected. “I don’t think it’s possible that He couldn’t win.”

Beelzebub: “Then it must not have been the right time.”

Vassago: “I think there’s another possibility. Agares could protect Father, but couldn’t kill Priest Xilin, because He was still trapped in the dream realm and couldn’t fully exert His power.”

As these words fell, both cats fell silent.

The little short-legged cat nearby looked left and right, feeling dizzy and worried.

So what exactly was going on with their Second Brother?

Vassago said impatiently. “Forget it, let’s not worry about Agares for now. We’ll deal with Him when we find Him.”

“Coming back to the point, it’s not like we have no clues at all,” Beelzebub finally got to the main point, saying, “The mastermind’s disguised identity is that of a human magician.”

“This disguise is too common. The whole world is full of magicians. Are there any specific characteristics to note?”

Vassago waved his paw, feeling impatient with this cat-and-mouse game.

He seriously thought about it and actually quite agreed with the “mouse” metaphor. Wasn’t that mastermind just like a mouse?

If you say powerful, the mastermind probably wasn’t powerful enough to control the situation.

Evenly matched? Definitely not that either.

Cautious and hiding everywhere, yet sometimes still unable to conceal their movements. Isn’t that exactly like a mouse?

Vassago was a very lazy demon. Even He admitted that these recent days had been the most awake He’d been in thousands of years. Of course He would be impatient.

Beelzebub sensed Vassago’s irritation and said confidently, “What does it matter? We’ll definitely be able to dig Them out.”

“You sort it out and look again. I’ll leave it to you, Great Detective Beelzebub.”

Vassago suddenly paused, looking at Beelzebub, and changed his words. “Great Detective God of Destruction?”

Beelzebub glared coldly. “Can you not mess with me? Don’t call me that name. What if Father finds out?”

Vassago tilted his head, “You’re worried about that?”

Beelzebub turned around, his cat tail swishing, “Hmph, I’ll search then. I must find that thing and kill it.”

Vassago smiled and reminded. “Don’t forget, the Goddess of Wisdom said that as long as we prevent the God of Destruction from resurrecting, She would give us a piece of information. Get to it.”

Beelzebub paused, with an expression that suggested He had forgotten about this.

Vassago raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t forget, did you?”

Beelzebub choked.

Had He forgotten? Or had no one ever told Him about it?

Vassago narrowed his eyes, “You really are forgetful, this honorable demon. Before, we could explain your forgetfulness with the Goddess of Fortune’s curse, but now? Could it be that you’ve always had such poor memory?”

Beelzebub choked again, unable to say anything for a while, and finally just flicked his tail and ran off.

The little short-legged cat nearby watched their interaction stupidly, not understanding, but trying very hard to understand.

After confirming that Beelzebub had left, Vassago’s cat eyes suddenly flashed with a gleam of intelligence. He even made the shadowed face of a certain classic anime character, his lips curving upward as he said, “All according to plan!”

The short-legged cat was dumbfounded, its mouth hanging open.

“Wh-what plan, meow?”

The white cat said in a low voice. “One less cat by Father’s side.”

The short-legged cat’s brain blanked for a moment, suddenly remembering a term – p-palace intrigue, meow!

H-His, His Third Brother intentionally sent Brother Beelzebub away, meow.

W-Will I be next, meow?

The small short-legged cat backed up a few steps, its light green eyes rippling with worry.

At this moment, the white cat turned his head and really did focus on Him.

The short-legged cat shrank back in fear, choking out. “Th-Third Brother, aren’t we siblings, meow? Don’t send me away, wuu meow.”

The white cat was puzzled, instantly appearing in front of the short-legged cat, patting his forehead with his paw, “When did I say I was going to send you away? Your Brother Beelzebub left because he has things to do.”

“But, but…”

The short-legged cat raised both paws in surrender, cautiously lifting his eyes at these words, muttering internally, Third Brother, you just made that Light Yagami expression, you know.

The white cat casually squeezed the short-legged cat’s paw, educating him. “Public and private interests can coexist. You don’t understand yet.”

“Public… private…”

The short-legged cat felt dizzy, seemingly unable to distinguish between these two concepts.

Actually, He wasn’t this silly when in human form. It was purely because his brain had become more cat-like after transforming, and his already limited intelligence took a further hit.

“Anyway, that’s how it is.”

The white cat had the air of a family patriarch, saying grandly, “Demons working together in harmony makes for a good family.”

He seemed to have gained a bit of awareness as an older brother, though not much.

In fact, by rights, He should have become an opinion leader, after all, He was ranked third, with age and seniority on his side.

It’s just that He had gone to look for Agares before.

Vassago stroked his chin, beginning to analyze the situation in detail. “Let’s review the situation again, starting with the rankings. I’ll skip myself. The current situation is: Fourth Samikina and Fifth Marbas haven’t returned from finding Fourteenth Lelagin, Seventh Amon is rewriting history, Tenth Buer is in the Sisters’ Meeting, Fifteenth Aelioge is looking for Otherworld God No. 001, Nineteenth, that’s you Celerios, is helping at home as the housekeeping demon, Twenty-second Inpos is working on history revision with Amon. That’s about it, right?”

The short-legged cat nodded continuously like a bobblehead, a bit dizzied by so many siblings’ names.

But His memory was quite good, and He timidly asked. “Didn’t we miss one, meow?”

Vassago made a surprised sound, “Who?”

The short-legged cat: “Twenty-first brother, Morax, meow.”

“…”

Vassago’s silence was deafening. After a few minutes, He said, “Never mind, I can’t be the one to jinx it.”

Morax would definitely be furious. Whoever touches him gets bad luck.

The short-legged cat wanted to speak but hesitated, paws extending and retracting, and finally became an accomplice.

****

While the three cats were conferring, Xiu Si was actually next door.

All he could hear was constant meowing, so he didn’t know what They were saying.

However.

Under the light, he wore a thoughtful expression.

What were the children hiding from him?

****

Meanwhile.

Beelzebub went to find the Goddess of Wisdom, but discovered she was reviewing official business, with some humans in the room talking incessantly, seeming quite agitated.

He could easily remove these humans, but He waited for a while instead.

The position of Prime Minister was troublesome, having to deal with so many humans. It was hard to imagine a deity having to handle so many things.

Beelzebbu waited for a while and surprisingly detected the divine power of the Goddess of Fortune. This fellow hadn’t disappeared yet?

… Nevermind, ignore Her.

A few minutes later, the humans left, leaving only the Goddess of Wisdom in the room.

Beelzebub entered the room, staring at the Goddess of Wisdom, and got straight to the point. “You know why I’m here.”

“About that promise?”

The Goddess of Wisdom was very calm, even leisurely turning a page of the book in her hand.

Beelzebub nodded. “Yes.”

It was already 9 PM, and the night outside was deep.

The Goddess of Wisdom raised her eyes, her expression calm as she said, “But you haven’t completed the mission.”

Beelzebub’s face instantly turned cold, “What do you mean?”

“Because the God of Destruction has still been resurrected.”

The Goddess of Wisdom looked at Beelzebub, as if saying, aren’t you the resurrected God of Destruction?

Beelzebub laughed coldly, “Don’t play word games with me. You know the consequences.”

The Goddess of Wisdom was silent for a moment, finally explaining the situation. “Actually, I’ve hinted at this before. They’re likely not a concrete existence.”

Beelzebub: “You mean tracking Their identity is meaningless because They can always change identities?”

The Goddess of Wisdom nodded, “Mm-hmm.”

Beelzebub stared at Her, his tone icy. “What can prove your statement? What if you’re the mastermind behind the scenes, or you’ve been manipulated by the mastermind, deliberately saying such ambiguous things to confuse our investigation?”

“…”

“You skillfully directed Aelioge to find Otherworld God No. 001, but that Otherworld God is a well-known troublemaker. You deliberately sent Aelioge there, possibly intending to use another’s knife to kill a demon.”

“…”

A completely reasonable hypothesis.

But the Goddess of Wisdom silently looked at Beelzebub, slowly opening her mouth. “It’s not me.”

“Why don’t you explain a bit more?”

Beelzebub stood in the shadows, the aura of destruction leaking out, causing the dust in the air to tremble subtly.

“Because it really isn’t.”

The Goddess of Wisdom shook her head.

Beelzebub walked to the desk where she was handling official business, looking down at the Goddess of Wisdom, “I’m suspicious of you. If you want to shift suspicion, tell me all the intelligence you know.”

After all that buildup, it seemed this was the key point. The previous words were just to test the Goddess of Wisdom’s reaction.

The Goddess of Wisdom wasn’t actually concealing anything; what She knew was limited to begin with.

Her power allowed Her to read a book called “The Book of Truth.”

According to Her inherited divinity, this book recorded various truths of the entire universe, with answers to any question. However, the truths about that mastermind were covered in the book.

Or rather, many pages and sentences were blacked out.

She couldn’t read the content, so She didn’t know the situation, at most knowing some keywords.

The Goddess of Wisdom thought for a moment, looking at Beelzebub. “You investigated the Church of Dawn before.”

Beelzebub raised an eyebrow. “So what?”

The Goddess of Wisdom: “There should be clues at the founding place of the Church of Dawn.”

Beelzebub: “…”

The Goddess of Wisdom: “Also, let me add, the intelligence I know comes from my power. Not from investigation.”

The implication was that She knew the answers but not the process, so asking more would be meaningless.

Beelzebub saw through it. So He had to search, right? Fine. At this point, was He still afraid of trouble?

He turned to tear open space, suddenly seeming to think of something, turning His eyes to ask:.”Why did you save Fortune? If left alone, She would die by herself.”

“She would worsen the war situation.”

“…”

“For a deity to live long, they must restrain their compassion.”

Beelzebub’s gaze was meaningful as He stared at the Goddess of Wisdom. “Once your heart falls below your rank, you’re doomed.”

“As expected of the God of Destruction.”