After the Lord of the Abyss Awakens - Chapter 84.2

He had almost forgotten about his previous act of impersonating the Lord of the Abyss to make the alliance find the heroes.

It seemed they had indeed begun taking action, not only actively searching for the missing heroes but also thoroughly investigating past events.

Self-reflection was fine, but the issue wasn’t about what was compensated later, but why such things happened in the first place.

Was there a human reason behind the disappearance of his five good friends?

Was it merely these people’s ingratitude, betraying the heroes for personal gain, or were there deeper forces manipulating things behind the scenes?

Xiu Si vaguely sensed something was amiss, and couldn’t help but recall Luo Jie and Justin.

Luo Jie and Justin were involved parties. What was their attitude towards these matters?

Xiu Si remembered his previous conversation with Justin.

At that time, Justin had almost become indifferent, showing no intention of tracing the past.

Perhaps it was because he had grown old and lacked the energy.

But…

Xiu Si’s eyes darkened. The misfortunes that befell his friends made him personally feel distressed and angry.

And what could he do for his friends?

Without power, nothing could be done.

Xiu Si clearly understood the underlying logic of how this world operated.

That Norman Til seemed quite reliable. We’ll see what happens next.

Xiu Si had a feeling that he would soon see Wang Chang’er, Ye Qingyi, and the others again.

****

Meanwhile.

At the sister’s banquet, things were getting increasingly strange.

Not to mention those guys going crazy in the family group chat, the most important issue now was—

Ayni spoke directly. “Why haven’t Barbatos and the others arrived yet?”

They had been late before, ridiculously late by up to a month at times.

Their concept of time had become blurred due to their long lives, so being a day or two late was not unacceptable.

But shouldn’t Barbatos, as the initiator of the banquet, have been the first to appear?

It had been several days now, and not only had She not shown up, but She hadn’t even appeared in the family group chat or responded to private calls.

This situation could only be described as abnormal.

Therefore, they could only think of one possibility—something might have happened to Barbatos.

Valefor frowned, slowly stood up, and said to Ayni and Buer. “We need to go find Barbatos.”

Buer, who had been called out, stood up immediately and instinctively said, “Alright, I’ll go with Sixth Sister.”

Ayni agreed, but there was an issue.

“What if They arrive just after we leave?”

Valefor pondered: “You stay here then. Buer and I will go.”

****

Half an hour later.

Valefor and Buer appeared in the subspace.

As is well known to demons, Their eighth-ranked sibling Barbatos resided in the Eternal Forest of the subspace, but She was rarely there. She was constantly on the move throughout the year, truly living up to the name of an e-demon.

She maintained close connections with humans from various major civilizations and was passionate about interacting with different races.

At the same time, She was also the demon most active in responding to summons. If Aelioge had a thousand contractors on the continent, then Barbatos’ number of contractors could reach an astonishing ten thousand. She often appeared proactively by Her contractors’ sides, looking for all sorts of things to do, so finding Her was very troublesome.

They quickly arrived at the natural palace Barbatos had built in the forest.

This place was almost identical to the Eastern gardens in their father’s memories, with courtyards, landscapes, birdsong, and fragrant flowers. Even the bricks and tiles on the ground were carefully carved.

But as expected, Barbatos was not home.

Buer searched around and finally stopped under the shade of a tree, gazing at the lake in the center of the garden.

Barbatos was a demon who extremely loved life. Although Her skills in various crafts were not as good as Sixth Sister Valefor’s, and She often messed things up due to carelessness, this had never hindered Her persistence and dedication to the things She loved.

Among Her siblings, there were all sorts of demons, but of all the demons, the one with the best personality was definitely Barbatos.

At least, that’s what Buer believed.

“Where has Sister Barbatos gone?”

Buer couldn’t help but feel a bit worried.

Valefor walked over and pondered. “When was the last time you saw Barbatos?”

Buer recalled. “Three years ago?”

Valefor asked. “Did She show any unusual behavior?”

Buer shook her head, “She was the same as always, often concerned about human affairs, helping children catch kites and such.”

Barbatos would occasionally reveal a childlike side, like a demon who never grew up. Buer had seen Her running around in the form of a human girl. Amon often used the form of a boy around ten years old, while Barbatos’ form was even younger than Amon’s, about six or seven years old.

Sometimes Buer couldn’t understand Her thoughts.

Buer was silent for a moment, then suddenly said seriously. “I think She’s very likely to have encountered some trouble.”

Valefor nodded, adding, “It’s probably not trouble of Her own making, but rather Her helping someone solve a problem, which led to Her getting into some trouble.”

Buer strongly agreed.

Valefor continued. “I guess the reason Barbatos urgently convened the sisters’ meeting was to gather the power of all us sister demons to jointly deal with and solve Her trouble.”

Buer frowned, “Is it that troublesome? Requiring all us sisters to join forces to solve?”

This level of trouble was at least on par with an ultimate being from the first echelon.

Barbatos was careless, but surely She wouldn’t provoke an ultimate being for no reason?

Buer expressed heartfelt concern. “If that’s really the case, then it’s no small matter.”

Valefor nodded. “I’ll ask Vassago to search.”

Saying this, She directly private called Vassago in the mental shared domain.

Vassago was drowsy at the time, almost missing this call, but fortunately, His eyes managed to open a crack.

After hearing Valefor’s words, Vassago looked grave and first replied. “I’ll search.”

Ten minutes passed, and Vassago’s brows furrowed slightly as He answered Valefor.

“Can’t find Her. Either She’s gone into a dream realm, or She’s in a remote part of the subspace.”

“Remote” meant remote relative to the continent. Distance was an obstacle to finding things, and the farther away, the greater the obstacle.

Vassago thought for a moment, “Ask Bachin. He knows a lot about subspace matters, and He’s also close to Barbatos. He should know something.”

“Alright.”

Valefor turned to ask Bachin.

Bachin was taking a bath at the time. His drowsiness kept returning, causing Him to nearly fall asleep several times, which frightened Aelioge, who was remotely connected, into shouting.

After hearing about Barbatos’ situation, Bachin also frowned, quickly collecting and organizing intelligence. A few minutes later, He said, “Her last appearance was three months ago, at the Great Hall of the Church of Dawn in the Khaos Empire.”

Valefor frowned, asking puzzledly. “Why did She go there?”

The Great Khaos Empire, also known as the Great Chaos Empire, was formerly a country with a single faith worshipping the Otherworld God Numbered 001. It was powerful, valued martial strength, and its kings throughout history were among the top ten human experts. The royal family was the country’s strongest military force, and the entire society from top to bottom consisted of militant elements.

(TL: 卡俄斯; 混沌= 卡俄斯 is drawing more from Western mythological roots (Greek), implying disorder and confusion, while 混沌 comes from classical Chinese philosophy and mythology, often tied to the concept of formlessness or the original state of the cosmos before creation. It may carry a more abstract or ancient connotation of chaos.)

Only in the last hundred years or so had their country gradually changed.

Valefor was quite knowledgeable about human countries, having spent some time in the Khaos Empire. In Her impression, the Khaos Empire was a relatively internally stable country. Under the strong rule of the Khaos royal family, those who caused trouble would not have a good end, with death being perhaps the easiest option.

Buer pondered the words “Church of Dawn,” Her expression gradually becoming grave.

She knew that the Church of Dawn was related to the mastermind behind the scenes, who had unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate Aelioge and failed to use others to kill the demon Beelzebub. Had they now set their sights on Barbatos?

How daring!

Buer’s anger meter instantly maxed out.

Although She knew Barbatos wouldn’t be in danger – Barbatos’ power was [Isolation] and [Connection], making Her the demon most capable of escaping at the first sign of trouble – She was still furious.

What if it really was that behind-the-scenes rat causing trouble?

“Sixth Sister, let’s go to the Khaos Empire!”

Buer punched through the void, causing gusts of wind.

Valefor was stunned for a moment, thinking that although Barbatos had gotten into trouble, She shouldn’t be in any real danger at this stage. Since when had Buer become so concerned?

It wasn’t the first time Barbatos’ personality had gotten Her into trouble. Hmm… but it did need to be resolved quickly.

Valefor nodded, “Let’s do a thorough search first.”

“Alright!”

Buer’s eager appearance was like a bouncing cat.

While focusing on finding the demon, Valefor didn’t forget to glance at Buer.

****

At this moment.

Bachin walked out of the bath, drying His hair with a towel while searching for information, and finally arrived at a large monitoring room.

“Let’s summarize the situation.”

****

At 4 PM, Roman Kingdom time.

Xiu Si sat on a park bench, flipping through a book on alchemy.

As time passed, the sunlight gradually softened, casting mottled shadows through the sparse leaves.

His thoughts were indeed correct. Alchemists were the profession closest to the creator, and much of the knowledge and insights within had parallels.

He saw many similarities, constantly making comparisons in his mind, and finally, he saw the differences.

Or rather, the distinctions. Even the gaps.

Compared to the Creator profession, the Alchemist profession was clearly smaller.

What Alchemy could do, Creation could do.

What Creation could do, Alchemy could not.

It was a distinction between large scale and small scale, as well as between high level and low level.

Creation was not a useless profession. On the contrary, It was a level higher than Alchemist.

Alchemy mostly relied on materials, while Creation created something from nothing, using imaginary materials and conceiving imaginary structures.

It came from “nothing”, but if you nitpicked, you would find that it wasn’t completely empty.

For example, He did indeed imagine materials and created wood out of thin air, but that was because He knew of the existence of “wood” beforehand.

If He didn’t know about wood, didn’t have the concept of “wood”, He wouldn’t be able to create wood.

So, creating wood out of thin air, this kind of “creation from nothing” was not yet pure creation.

Not empty enough.

Xiu Si seemed to enter the narrow gate of truth, pondering an ultimate question.

He muttered to himself. “It means… I need to transcend ‘imagination based on experience’ and conceive something never seen before.”

He had a sudden realization, gaining new insights.

A gentle breeze blew, and a few leaves slowly fell, briefly displaying their complex vein patterns in his eyes.

He seemed to have another realization.

Were leaves so complex naturally, or were they designed by thought?

Extending this thought further, was the world so complex naturally, or was it designed by thought?

Was this world just a collection of countless creations, some perfect, some flawed? Different levels of creations mixed together randomly.

What did these hypotheses mean?

Several thoughts flashed through his mind, but he stopped thinking just before getting too caught up in nitpicking. He rubbed his brow, gradually calming his mood, and his gaze met with the concerned orange cat.

Seeing his child seemingly worried about him, Xiu Si felt a warmth in his heart, almost unable to resist burying his face in the cat’s fluffy belly again.

“Meow~”

The orange cat lay on Xiu Si’s leg, raising both paws as if saying, ‘Father meow, don’t force yourself meow’.

Xiu Si gently held Its paws and smiled, “It’s alright. Working hard now is for an easier future.”

A while later, as it got dark, Xiu Si got up to take the children home.

****

Meanwhile.

Beelzebub, who was investigating the Church of Dawn, walked into an unfamiliar territory.

The surroundings were dark and damp, with old and dilapidated buildings. The air was filled with heavy dust.

An ordinary person might have sneezed uncontrollably.

But Beelzebub’s expression remained calm, just glancing around before finally fixing His gaze straight ahead.

A few rays of sunlight shone in, casting three bright, glaring stripes on a black coffin.

Aelioge had been ambushed before when he neared a coffin like this, and this time would probably be no exception.

But who was Beelzebub?

He insisted on facing the challenge head-on.

He spread His magic to control the entire scene, directly locking onto the black coffin mentally.

The other side seemed not to expect Him to be so assertive, wanting to immediately withdraw the black coffin.

Beelzebub’s eyes turned cold, and He decisively unleashed the [Destruction] authority on the black coffin.

The other side seemed not to expect Him to be so outrageous, completely disregarding the life and death of the person inside the coffin.

Beelzebub caught this moment of bewilderment.

Beelzebub smiled, instantly controlling the black coffin with magic.

Then, driven by magic, the black coffin rolled hundreds of times to Beelzebub’s front, entering His domain range.