Somewhere within the Bronze Fortress, space twisted and shimmered. Four players and two devils appeared out of thin air.Their hearts pounded, breath ragged, faces full of joy at having survived. As lesser devils, Uriel and Dick were even more stunned.
They had actually escaped from under the nose of a Deepforge Devil! A commander under Zariel, capable of conquering a minor material plane on its own!
Darknight Wolf clutched his chest. Though he didn’t need to breathe as a vampire, he still panted out of habit: "Huff... huff... boss, that was close."
Luck King stared at the fire and smoke still rising to the heavens, feeling the intense space fluctuations. He couldn’t help but exclaim, "Damn, no wonder it’s a Machine God cult masterpiece. That thing nearly swallowed us whole!"
Langli Baitiao asked anxiously, "Berserker Bro, did you get the experience notification?"
Tian Born Battle Maniac, still in rage mode, radiated steam as his body glowed red. He remained clear-headed: "N-no. That guy—he’s still alive!"
"What?!"
Everyone looked up. The Deepforge Devil broke through the thick smoke, tattered wings flapping as it hovered over the Bronze Fortress.
It was a ragged, terrifying sight. Its face twisted in fury, eyes blazing with wrathful fire. Then it turned and roared, "Mortals! You seek death?!"
Its terrifying presence crashed down like a tsunami, striking fear into every devil nearby.
Uriel stood frozen, panic on his face. "It’s over. H-he saw us!"
"We’re dead, we’re so dead! Let me out!" the caged imp shrieked.
But Langli Baitiao donned his cloak of concealment and muttered, "No, not yet. It’s not over.
The treasure I risked my life to steal from the Machine God cult... it’s not that simple."
"Commander!"
"Who was it?! Who dares invade the Bronze Fortress?!"
Dozens of devils wielding steel forks and clad in armor took to the air, bat-like wings flapping as they flew toward Valerius’s molten citadel.
But then, the critical threshold of space collapse arrived.
Suddenly, all color drained from the world, leaving only pure black. A deep vortex formed at the explosion’s center, radiating immense gravitational pull.
Everything nearby—broken statues, shattered rock, devil remains—was violently sucked toward the vortex.
The leading devil soldiers were crushed like tin foil by invisible hands. Their hell-iron armor shattered under the pressure.
Valerius flapped his wings madly, trying to escape. But he was bound like a beast by countless invisible ropes, unable to move.
"No—"
"I am the mighty Deepforge Devil! Zariel’s trusted! You cannot kill me!!"
His roar was drowned out by the screeching of space-time tearing apart. His massive body was shredded into basic particles by the collapsing void.
Watching the apocalyptic scene, Born Battle Maniac murmured, awed by the bomb’s power, "He’s dead. I got the notification."
[You have slain [Deepforge Devil - Valerius (Challenge Level: 16)], gaining 150,000 XP. ]
Langli Baitiao rubbed his hands excitedly. "Holy shit? That was a Hell Legion Commander! One hundred fifty thousand XP and twenty-five thousand gold—we’re rich!"
But Darknight Wolf remained tense. He looked to the sky, worried: "W-what is that...?"
The sky groaned as if collapsing. Crimson rifts tore through the clouds like a god’s belly split open, pouring molten lava down.
"Look up!" Dick’s voice shook.
The red liquid didn’t fall but exploded into hellfire, forming a massive phantom in midair.
—A fallen angel with black wings, eyes ablaze with eternal fury. Sulfur and ash swirled around her. Blood-tears streamed down her twisted, maddened face.
She extended a hand. Flaming chains burst from the ground, sealing the space. Amid wails, soul energy surged to repair the torn void.
[Zariel, Lord of Avernus (Challenge Level: ???) ]
Langli Baitiao stared, information flooding his panel.
He stood frozen, muttering, "We... may have gone too far this time."
Tian Born Battle Maniac looked at the terrifying figure. "So that’s the final boss of the Avernus dungeon. Fighting her head-on would be epic!"
Luck King sighed. "We’re so screwed. Why can’t I have this kind of luck when opening loot boxes?"
Dick and Uriel were already on their knees, trembling. Hell’s instinct ruled them. "The Lord of the Nine Hells... it really is Lady Zariel."
Every other devil in the Bronze Fortress showed fear and reverence.
Langli Baitiao whispered, "You think she hasn’t seen us yet?"
"Kneel—"
Zariel’s voice exploded directly in their skulls.
Under Hell’s crushing law, the two devils dropped instantly, incapable of resistance.
—To lesser devils, merely seeing a Hell Lord was an immense honor.
Meanwhile, the four players’ panels filled with lines of ominous warnings.
[You are affected by Profane Words. Roll Will Save or be controlled.]
[[Zariel, Lord of Avernus], is attempting to scan your soul and memory.]
[Warning! Under Hell’s influence, you may be permanently bound to Bator. Possibility of receiving the effect [Fallen Pact].]
The four players turned pale. Getting trapped in Hell permanently would ruin everything.
"Run!"
Langli Baitiao spun his cloak and bolted.
As he fled, he even grabbed the imp’s cage to take it along.
Luck King and Darknight Wolf followed. Even Tian Born Battle Maniac roared and crashed through walls—he too had learned to run.
"Die—"
But countless infernal chains surged forth. A massive flaming hand loomed, bringing overwhelming pressure. It was closing in fast.
Langli Baitiao shouted, "My lord, help us!"
The hexagram on their chests blazed. Soul energy surged over them.
In a flash of firelight, they turned to ash and scattered with the wind.
High above, Zariel’s phantom stared at the ashes. Her brow furrowed, burning eyes seething with endless hatred.
"Bael... that filthy traitor! If not for my ritual, I’d have obliterated him already!"
Suddenly, her rage deepened. "No—it wasn’t just him. The Ember Emperor! That damned red dragon!"
The fallen angel beat her wings and slashed her hellfire sword, tearing a massive gash in the blood-red sky.
—And shattered the golden vertical pupil hidden in the clouds.
"You’ve been spotted."
A deep voice echoed from the void.
Zariel pointed her sword upward and roared, "Red Dragon, this is blatant provocation! This is Avernus! Are you declaring war on the entire Nine Hells and our lord Asmodeus?!"
"Zariel, do you speak for all Nine Hells? I imagine the other Hell Lords would welcome Avernus getting a new master."
A different kind of fire lit up the sky, forming a vast, regal dragon head. Golden slit pupils radiated majestic draconic might.
Countless infernal dragons trembled under the pressure, growling in fear.
"You meddle in the material plane and collude with the Kingdom of Thrace. That makes you my enemy—and the enemy of the Ember Empire!"
"Red Dragon, one day your so-called empire will fall into Hell. Your people will burn in the flames and become fodder for the Blood War. Your lands will become our soul farms!"
"We’ll see—whether you kill me first, or I topple you!"
The red dragon smirked as its head dissolved into streaming flame and vanished.
At that moment, Deepforge Devils flapped their massive wings, flying in from all corners of the Bronze Fortress. Their pressure alone terrified the lesser devils.
—They were Zariel’s twenty-seven legion commanders, the generals of Avernus.
Some knelt, some bowed. These brutal devils were like obedient hounds before her.
Alix stepped forward. "My lady, I failed in my vigilance. The worms slipped through the cracks."
Zariel’s voice was icy. "Double the guards! This is a once-in-a-millennium opportunity. No rats in the gutter may ruin it!"
She looked out at the scorched plains, madness and obsession in her eyes. "With every mortal soul as fuel, my army will crush the Abyss and end the Blood War!"
"The City of Sunrise in Thrace—that’s where it all begins!"
Before her words finished, Zariel’s body exploded into a storm of hellfire.
It had only been an avatar of the fallen angel.
Her true body remained deep in the Bronze Fortress, plotting to drag Sunrise, Thrace—and all of Faenso—into Hell.
The Ember Empire.
Dragonblood Mountain.
"Seems Bael’s intel was right—Zariel is a total war lunatic."
Cassius watched the magical footage recorded by the Catastrophe Dragon Eye and clicked his tongue. "The other Hell Lords avoid wasting power in the Blood War. They focus on scheming and soul-harvesting.
But Zariel? She throws everything into battle—even mortal souls! She’ll offend anyone to do it. Crazy."
He recalled his earlier talk with Bael.
Thousands of years ago, Bael had secretly joined other Hell Lords to overthrow Zariel and imprison her in the Bronze Fortress.
But since Avernus was the first line of defense in the Blood War, Bael’s reluctance to fight drew Asmodeus’s ire.
At the Lord of the Nine Hells’ command, Zariel returned to power, leading the devil armies in their eternal war.
With that, the red dragon rose, spreading his massive wings. His gaze sharpened.
Langpu’s image appeared. "Master, do we continue sending the Starfallers to Hell? The teleportation costs are high. Half of them die on arrival."
"Yes—more. Send even more. Flood the Bronze Fortress with players. I want it thoroughly infiltrated."
Cassius’s tone was firm. "We can’t let Zariel complete her ritual. The Empire can’t lose Sunrise—or the whole of Thrace."
In truth, Langli Baitiao’s antics in Avernus were all backed by Cassius.
Even the [Micro-Space Collapse Bomb] came from Cassius, who destroyed a small demiplane and had the Machine God cult forge it from the fragments.
Langli "stole" it at Cassius’s command—to cause as much chaos as possible.
When it exploded in the Bronze Fortress, it disrupted anti-magic fields and created space fissures—perfect for teleporting players into the inner ring.
With that handled, Langpu grabbed pen and paper. "When do we declare war on the Kingdom of Thrace?"
Cassius paused, exhaled a puff of sulfur-smelling smoke, then answered without hesitation: "Seven days. Begin mobilizing. The real war is about to begin."
"Yes, Master."
Langpu’s tone was excited—because in some ways, their enemy was the once-mighty Holy Fadlan Empire.
This could be a battle between evenly matched foes.