The Infernal Contract

"Devils subordinate to Bel's faction shall be compelled to enter into contracts with designated citizens of the Empire, granting the contractees the power of Hell." It was precisely this clause in the alliance treaty between the Empire and Bel's infernal faction that the devil had keenly identified as a loophole. On the surface, this clause seemed to demand that Bel give away his infernal power for nothing to empower imperial citizens, but in practice, it left immense room to maneuver. Whether through mortal oversight or not, the "contracts" specified here carried no special requirements or clarifying notes, leaving devils entirely free to work their magic. And according to standard devil contracts, the price demanded from whoever received infernal power was their soul. The souls of the Cinder Empire's elite warriors would be an invaluable treasure to Bel. Moreover, dragons typically cared far more about the physical and material than the spiritual; very few dragons ever gave a damn where the souls of their vassals ended up. And the more imperial citizens who signed contracts with devils, the more souls Bel stood to reap. At the thought, the corners of Bel's mouth turned up slightly, a faint, imperceptible smile surfacing on his fair, profoundly deceptive face. In the end, they were merely bumpkins of the Material Plane, nowhere near as versed in the true nature of contracts as devils were. By the time Bel reaped the souls of those imperial citizens, the Empire, having signed the treaty, would be powerless to renege. However, agreeing too readily would only arouse suspicion. Thus, Bel perused the document several times more before speaking again. Pointing at the pages dense with text, Bel theatrically produced a pair of spectacles and pushed up the bridge. "Your Majesty Cassius, based on my thousands of years of professional experience, several terms in this contract remain open to debate. Look here—Clause 76, Clause 121, and Clause 134..." Yet the red dragon offered no reply, merely nodding to Trump, who promptly pulled out a communicator. Immediately, dozens of players sharply dressed in Western suits and leather shoes, clutching briefcases, materialized in neat ranks within the royal palace. They arrived with aggressive swagger, obviously prepared long in advance for this moment. The player leading the group—thinning hair, deep dark circles under his eyes—stepped forward with a polite, professional smile and extended his right hand toward the archdevil ordinary mortals went out of their way to avoid. "Hello, Mr. Bel. I am Yundan Fengqing, specially appointed legal counsel for the Cinder Empire. It is an honor to negotiate alongside you..." "This..." Even the archdevil, who had lived for thousands of years and seen virtually everything, was momentarily dumbfounded, the expression on his face stiffening. *** After rounds of debate, the royal palace remained clamorous. The players brandished various legal documents and argued their points tenaciously until Cassius finally grew irritated. "Enough." Cassius said impatiently, "I already told you: until you become the Lord of Avernus, the Empire leads this partnership. Spare me these pointless disputes. Lord Bel, you have only two choices: accept or decline. Any attempt to misinterpret or twist this contract is entirely futile." Bel sighed, affecting a dejected tone. "Very well, Your Majesty. Since this is your demand, I can only comply. After all... I am currently nothing more than a fallen soul of Hell, in no position to negotiate terms with you." "Then sign the contract." Cassius looked down from above, scrutinizing the former Lord of Hell with a heavy, resonant voice. "Yes, Master." Trump waved his staff. The contract, numbering hundreds of pages, was instantly stacked into a neat pile, with the final page laid on top, bearing the signature of Cassius Claubau Norixius. Bel received the contract and drew a black quill emanating infernal aura from his ornate robes. "Then..." An exceptionally delicate "Bel" appeared in the blank space of the contract, written in infernal script glowing with fiery light. Immediately, an essential, unseen power welled up from the River Styx beneath the earth, linking both parties—Cassius and Bel—and binding their souls, forging an unshakable bond akin to the fundamental laws of nature. Such was an infernal contract. If either party violated it, they would pay an unimaginable price, one that even an archdevil could not bear. Bel raised his head, his deep, pitch-black eyes meeting the red dragon's gaze across the hall, before offering a polite bow. "A pleasure doing business with you, Your Majesty Cassius." "A pleasure doing business with you." Cassius inclined his head in return, his golden vertical pupils fixed on the archdevil's eyes. Under the red dragon's gaze, Bel drew infernal flame out of thin air to form a cloak. As a hexagram magic circle flashed intensely, sparks and ash enveloped his form—this was, after all, merely an avatar of the archdevil. Trapped in the goat's head, the devil Albert couldn't help but cry out, "Lord Bel, you haven't taken me with you!" Yet Bel turned a deaf ear, ignoring him completely as he faded away from the Material Plane. At the side, Trump added blandly, "Albert, Lord Bel isn't likely to expend anything for your sake, much less jeopardize his cooperation with Master. So... rest content as a head of the King of Chimeras. Hopefully you can make him a little smarter." The chimera let out a low roar and departed the palace with its newly acquired "intellect," while the devil trapped in the goat's head hung dejectedly, agonized to his core. Was he truly doomed to be controlled by this beast forever? Cassius paid no mind to the side drama, simply looking down and quietly observing the dimming hexagram magic circle. He was a former Lord of Hell, after all. Even with his status fallen so far, he remained troublesome; merely the avatar he projected into the Material Plane possessed legendary status. On the archdevil's home turf of Avernus, Cassius might not necessarily defeat him, let alone slay him. Yet as he watched the magic circle go completely dark, the corners of Cassius's mouth curled up in the smirk of a scheme brought to fruition. As an archdevil, Bel's understanding of contracts far surpassed Cassius's, and even exceeded that large cadre of lawyer players who had studied contract law in reality. —Yet Bel understood nothing of the players, that unique demographic newly emerging across Elezerg. Players had no souls. More accurately, players possessed no souls recognized by the worldly rules of Elezerg, which was why devils in later eras would come to call them the "Soulless Ones." To borrow a phrase from Earth, these players had "stepped beyond the Three Realms and outside the Five Elements." Through years of study, imperial scholars had made the startling discovery that a player's physical vessel was merely a vessel to host consciousness, while their consciousness was nothing more than a projection from another world. Even a contract from Asmodeus, Lord of the Nine Hells, could not bind the souls of these entities drifting outside the rules. Therefore, the clause that seemed like a loophole was actually a trap Cassius had deliberately laid for the devil, designed to pull off a con and leech infernal power for free. And the archdevil Bel, knowing nothing of the player base, had stepped straight into the pitfall. Soon enough, he would discover that beyond draining his power, these infernal pacts could not yield him a single soul. Bound by the contract, Bel would be powerless to forcibly cast off these infuriating "leeches," left with no choice but to let them siphon his infernal power. By then, even if Bel reclaimed his throne as Lord of Avernus, he would be unable to rely solely on his own strength to triumph in the Blood War and repel the demon invasions against Hell. When that time came, Cassius could seize the initiative once more, negotiating with Bel using the players under his command to extract advantages, and perhaps even carve out a foothold in Avernus to stand as an equal rival against Tiamat, the Dragon Queen, who was likewise trapped there. "Sounds like that day isn't so far off after all... Bel, future Lord of Avernus, prepare to thoroughly enjoy our cooperation. By the way, just how many players should I dispatch to leech infernal power for free? How about fifty thousand?" Cassius stroked his chin with a claw, his ferocious grin curling higher as the smile on his face grew increasingly sinister. Thus, through this clash of wits, the red dragon and the archdevil, each harboring their own treacherous designs, commenced their alliance with Zariel, the reigning Lady of Avernus, as their common enemy. And in the later historical records of the good-aligned factions, this alliance treaty between the Empire and Bel's infernal forces became infamous, known as the "Evil Alliance." *** Gedani Island. This was a demiplane carved out over several years by spellcasters of the Cinder Empire, created specifically to imprison and exile powerful beings from other planes. Because imperial techniques were still unrefined, the environment here was exceptionally harsh, filled everywhere with reddish-brown scorched earth, meandering streams of lava, and fickle, scorching gales. Yet to devils, this brutal landscape felt as welcoming as home. The only peaceful and orderly spot within this demiplane was the official Gedani Island Bureau established by the Empire, where order was maintained thanks to the reinforcement of the Imperial Domain. Inside the spacious bureau, the captured devils sat stiffly upright in their designated spots, looks of tension on their faces, while weaker imps were confined to cramped cages. "What a horrifying place! They're actually arresting devils!" "Right? I thought I had successfully corrupted that damned mortal, and the bastard turned around and reported me!" "Just wait until I get out! I'll make these mortals taste true agony!" "Keep your voice down! Do you want a taste of the whip? The half-dragon wardens here don't mess around." Noisy, grating voices filled the air as the captive devils whispered amongst themselves, venting their grievances. In this grand "Devil-Purging Storm," over five hundred devils had been apprehended by the special task force led by Mezrolash and locked away on Gedani Island. "Silence!" Standing at the center, the ogre Trump gripped the Imperial Scepter and tapped it lightly against the floor, his deep voice resounding through the hall. "Devils, now that you find yourselves trapped in Gedani Island Prison, I have only one question for you: Do you know what you did wrong? Answer this question correctly, and I will grant you your freedom, in the name of the Imperial Prime Minister." Immediately, the imprisoned devils erupted into an uproar, clamoring over one another to answer and even heaping flattery onto the ogre. "Luring mortals into evil and corruption?" "Attempting to swindle mortal souls?" "Lord Ogre..." Trump shook his head, tapping his scepter against the floor once more. His voice turned sharp. "Your greatest offense was insulting the supreme Emperor Cassius! Moreover, you trespassed into the territory of the Cinder Empire without authorization, disrupted public order, and ran these illegal, illicit trades!" Suddenly, one devil caught the implication in Trump's words and asked tentatively, "Does that mean... soul trafficking and infernal contracts are permitted within the Empire?" The ogre's expression softened slightly. He nodded meaningfully and replied, "Our realm is ruled by a great red dragon, boasting dozens of races within our borders. We are not like those pedantic human nations. So long as you pay full taxes to the Empire, abide by every law, and submit to the Empire's centralized coordination, there is nothing that cannot be sold—not even—" Trump paused briefly, enunciating each word: "—souls and lives." In truth, this was precisely how the Cinder Empire operated now. To put it bluntly, the Empire's prosperity was built upon the ruins of the Fadlan populace. Ceaseless wars of devastation had destroyed their homes, yet had funneled a steady, boundless stream of wealth into the Empire. The steel behemoths within imperial cities belched thick smoke day and night without pause, producing armaments to be sold all across the world. Some imperial arms dealers even deliberately stirred up wars and escalated conflicts in the south just to drive up sales for their merchandise. The Empire's light industrial goods were no less aggressive: cheap textiles and crafts flooded southward like a tidal wave, bankrupting countless petty merchants and artisan workshops. Beneath the glittering facade, under the colossal shadow of dragon wings, tens of thousands of imperial workers had been reduced to cogs within the Empire's gargantuan machine. They lived in cramped pigeonhole apartments, subsisted on tasteless organic paste, endured squalid conditions, and labored through exhausting shifts of over a dozen hours, toiling away in night-and-day confusion... In private, Trump had once told his inner circle: "Only by exploiting the entire world, including the Empire's own people, can the Empire continue to prosper." In Trump's eyes, everything was fuel to realize the Empire's grand blueprint. Even devils, seen by mortals as utterly wicked and irredeemable, were merely vicious hounds that could be put to use in the eyes of Trump, the Imperial Prime Minister. Before long, the devils confined within the cages reached out their hands, plastering fawning expressions across their faces as they began pledging their loyalty to Trump. After all, to these lawful evil devils, so-called face and dignity were trivial things to be cast aside at will, and the Empire's order held very little downside for them. "Lord Trump, we are willing to submit to the Empire's governance!" "We'll even pay taxes..." "Indeed! You are so learned and wise, you must know that we devils have always been an elegant, order-abiding race! We accept the Empire's centralized coordination!" "Very good." Trump looked around the room and gave a slight nod, a satisfied smile spreading across his hideous face. Just like that, even the devils of Hell were integrated into the Cinder Empire's system, becoming part of this monstrous behemoth.