Cast from bronze smelted in the deepest layers of Hell, the citadel was covered in spikes, fiendish bas-reliefs, and burning runes, gleaming with a dull green luster under the blood-red canopy of Avernus.
The walls soared into the clouds, their summits bristling with hundreds of arrow towers, hellfire cannons, and sentry cages imprisoning low-ranking devils. Swarms of imps and gargoyles bearing steel pitchforks flapped their wings in the air.
Even the fortress walls were imbued with a powerful Antimagic Field, making it nearly impossible even for legendary wizards to force their way inside.
Outside the walls stretched an immensely wide river, but surging across its bed was scalding, boiling lava. Sulfurous white smoke hung above it, distorting the very air.
The drawbridges spanning the river of molten rock served as the only route for outsiders to enter the Bronze Citadel. Devils cursed and shoved as they crowded the spans. Every so often, a misstepping lemure tumbled into the river with a piercing shriek, sending up splashes of magma.
Fully armed chain devils guarded the city gates. Hideous and towering, they wore heavy iron chains wrapped about their bodies that clinked with crisp, metallic rings.
Clank—
A chain devil snatched up an imp hiding inside a wagon, hoisting it by the scruff of the neck and barking, "Damn scoundrel! Who told you that you could sneak in? Trying to defy Lady Zariel's military orders? How dare you skip the toll!"
The imp trembled all over, yet kept a fawning smile plastered on its face. "My lord... I... the master of this caravan paid a silver coin for me..."
The chain devil snapped, "Tolls are per head!"
The imp burst into tears, begging for mercy. "My lord, I really have no money left! Please spare me! I had no choice—I lost everything at Moding Casino, my entire livelihood..."
Hearing that the creature was broke, the chain devil's face grew colder. "That's no excuse!"
Clinging to the chain devil's thick arm, it pleaded desperately, "Just grant me three days of grace! I'll scrape together one—no, ten silver coins for you inside the city right away!"
With a violent flick of his arm, the chain devil dangled the imp over the molten river and barked, "Ten coins? A pathetic little imp like you, and a debt-ridden degenerate gambler to boot, could scrape together that kind of cash?"
Flapping its tiny wings, the imp shrieked, "No, no, don't drop me! My lord, I have lots of friends in the outer rings—I'm a know-it-all there! They'll lend me the money!"
The chain devil grinned wickedly, nearly crushing the imp's windpipe. "Do I look like a fool to you? Besides, who trusts the word of an imp? Who would ever cough up ten silver coins for a wretched thing like you? What a joke!"
"Right! It's just an imp, ridiculous!"
"Hurry up and toss him in, don't waste our time!"
"Hahaha! Anyone want to bet how loudly that little runt screams when he hits the magma?"
The devils packed along the drawbridge clamored, hurling the foulest curses at the imp, eager to watch it die on the spot.
"Let him go. I'll pay for him."
A sultry, alluring female voice rang out from the bridge.
"Someone's actually willing to pay for him? For an imp?"
"What the hell!"
"Lucky bastard. I hope he gets chucked straight into the lava next time!"
Surprised, the devils turned toward the speaker. Standing before them was a voluptuous woman of stunning beauty, her gaze tantalizing, with two enormous, pitch-black feathered wings spreading from her back.
—An erinyes, a high-ranking devil and fallen celestial.
To lower devils like chain devils and bearded devils, a high devil like an erinyes was already an exalted figure.
Clink—
Ten silver coins scattered at the chain devil's feet with crisp chimes.
At the sight, the chain devil swiftly released the imp and stooped to gather the silver, speaking with considerable deference: "Lady Erinyes, this imp is a wretched delinquent who openly defied Lady Zariel's orders. He is hardly worth your trouble."
The erinyes merely inspected her slender fingers, casting him a contemptuous glance. "Do I require your instruction on what I may or may not do?"
"Forgive me, my lady." The chain devil bowed deeply, his voice laced with trepidation, devoid of his previous arrogance.
Such was Hell—a realm of rigid hierarchy where every devil was bound to an intricate order of strict rank and submission. High-ranking devils lived in perpetual dread of demotion, venting their fears onto subordinates, who in turn bullied those beneath them, passing the torment all the way down the chain.
Seeing the erinyes intervene, the imp flapped its wings, scurried forward, and dropped to its knees, wailing, "My lady! You came to save this humble one after all!"
The chain devil kept his head lowered even further, speaking gingerly: "Lady Erinyes, I did not realize he was your slave. Please forgive my rudeness! However, Lady Zariel has commanded strict scrutiny over all who enter the city. I beg your understanding..."
He raised his eyes and saw behind the erinyes an imposing stone golem nearly four meters tall. Clutched in the golem's hand was an iron cage housing two massive vampire bats.
The erinyes's expression darkened, annoyance creeping into her tone. "Am I not even permitted to bring a golem servant and a couple of pet bats into the city?"
The chain devil waved his hands in a fluster. "Of course you may! I overstepped. How could an illustrious, high-profile noble devil like yourself possibly be an intruder?"
"That's more like it."
The erinyes offered a seductive chuckle, tossed a few more silver coins at the chain devil's feet, and strode into the fortress alongside her "servant and pets."
The imp fluttered closely behind the erinyes, triumphantly pulling mocking faces at the chain devil and the jeering onlookers, infuriating them to the point of wanting to swallow him alive.
Inside, hellish denizens bustled through the streets in a hurry. Most were lesser devils like imps, spined devils, and bearded devils, though high-ranking devils were also scattered among them.
Spined devils beat their wings on aerial patrols, while columns of barbed devils and bearded devils marched in urgent haste along the avenues toward portals bound for the Blood War.
The streets were lined with taverns, shops, pawnshops, and even brothels, bearing an uncanny resemblance to cities on the Material Plane—except here, the supreme hard currency was mortal souls.
Amidst the noisy bustle, the erinyes and her retinue drew far less attention.
Following the erinyes into a dim, secluded alleyway, the imp rubbed his claws together and flattered her servilely: "Lady Erinyes, my name is Dick. Thank you for rescuing me from that crude brute."
"I hear you know this district well?"
"Of course! I've drifted through the outer rings for years and been everywhere. Whatever you wish to know, I'll tell you every last detail without holding back! I only hope you could help me pay off..."
The erinyes didn't answer. Instead, she took another iron cage from the golem, a breathtaking smile curving her lips.
"Wait..."
"Wh-what are you doing?"
The imp immediately sensed danger and flapped his wings to flee, but the iron cage sprang open, releasing a powerful suction that dragged him inside.
Clang!
The cage door slammed shut. The imp gripped the bars and rattled them frantically in a bid to escape, but runes flared across the cage's exterior, heating the iron red-hot and making him shriek in agony.
The erinyes folded her arms and said coldly, "Save your pointless struggling. This is a specialized cage designed specifically to hold devils. If I don't halt the magic circle, you'll be reduced to cinders in less than ten minutes."
Quick to grasp his predicament, the imp dropped to his knees inside the cage, slapping his own cheeks repeatedly as he blubbered, "My lady, my lady! I won't run, I won't! I was out of my mind, I deserve death!"
The erinyes nodded in satisfaction and paused the circle, cautioning, "Stay sharp. Imps like this are as cunning as they come; we can't let him slip away."
The "golem" rubbed his shiny, polished bald head and marveled, "So this is the Bronze Citadel. Fitting for a high-risk quest—I can sense countless powerful, unfamiliar auras around us."
Meanwhile, one of the "vampire bats" locked in the other cage flapped its wings and hissed angrily, "Let me out already! You filthy crossdresser, who the fuck is your pet?!"
The erinyes's demeanor instantly shifted, dropping all pretense of elegance into pure disgust. "You think I wanted to stay in this form? If not for me, would any of you have slipped inside?"
"Tsk, tsk. Looks to me like you're just taking advantage of the quest to indulge your kinky fetishes."
"You filthy Lang-beast, did you forget your dark history of nearly getting screwed by an old vampire? At most, I'm just crossdressing; you're the true degenerate here!"
"Why you—"
A remarkably human scowl contorted the vampire bat's face.
The golem stepped between them with a blank expression. "Quit bickering. You'll draw the attention of those spined devil patrols."
The other vampire bat stared blankly into midair as if reading something visible only to itself, muttering, "Look at all these quests—sabotage the portal to Auguste, steal the blueprints for the hellfire cannons, assassinate Zariel's confidants... Holy crap, there's even one to infiltrate Zariel's bedchamber? Twenty-five thousand gold coins! Just thinking about it gets my blood pumping."
The imp in the cage watched dumbfounded, shivering from head to toe.
Why were the stone golem and vampire bats speaking? And why was this 'Lady Erinyes' acting completely abnormal?
Pointing a spindly claw at the erinyes, the imp swallowed hard. "Y-you... you're outsiders?"
He remembered Lady Zariel's military decree circulating through the citadel: anyone discovered colluding with outsiders would suffer the cruellest retribution, tortured in endless purgatory for two centuries.
At that realization, the imp's voice quivered, and the wings on his back locked rigid.
The erinyes—or rather, European Emperor—tapped on the cage with a wicked grin. "Face reality, Dick. You're on our pirate ship now. Hand over the intel, and make it quick."
"Y-yes, my lord..."
Ash-faced, the imp could only nod helplessly. He had thought he had met a benefactor, only to plunge into an even deeper abyss. Nothing in the world could match such despair.
European Emperor interrogated him: "Where is the portal leading to Auguste?"
"Uh... Ring Four, I think?"
"Where are the blueprints for the hellfire cannons?"
"Probably Ring Three. Lady Zariel's most trusted craftsmen are there—a pit fiend and two hundred abishai forging cannons for her day and night."
"Where is Zariel's confidant, General Alex Reeves?"
"I think I saw it in the infernal gazette last time... Hmm, General Alex should be residing in Ring Two. He has a lavish obsidian mansion there with over a thousand petitioners serving him—so envious..."
Tiansheng Zhankuang glared at the caged creature, his voice deep and menacing: "Aren't you supposed to be a know-it-all? Why is every scrap of intel out of your mouth so vague?!"
Dick was on the verge of tears. "My lord, you wrong me! I'm just a lowly imp who was kicked out of Ring Twelve. How could I know the details of those big shots in the inner rings?"
Langlibaitiao pondered for a moment before asking, "So you know Ring Twelve like the back of your hand?"
Dick nodded frantically like a pecking chick. "Like the back of my hand!"
"Then how do we get from the outer rings into the inner rings? I noticed every gateway was heavily guarded."
"Yes... my lord. Lady Zariel seems to be planning something massive lately, so security throughout the Bronze Citadel is airtight. Everyone going in and out must pass inspection by high-tier spells. Not even an infernal bat could slip through."
Dick cast a cautious glance toward Langlibaitiao in bat form, adding hastily, "Of course, my lord, I didn't mean you—I meant ordinary..."
Langlibaitiao raised his right bat wing. "Enough! I'm fucking asking you—is there a way to smuggle ourselves into the inner rings?"
The imp froze for a second, then his eyes lit up. He slapped his claws together and muttered, "Actually... there might be."
...
Ring Twelve, Heart-Burning Gambling Den.
Dim, eerie firelight flickered throughout the hall. The pungent reek of sulfur mingled with the scents of tobacco, alcohol, and strange fuels, weaving a uniquely suffocating atmosphere.
The patrons came in every shape and variety: dignitaries who had committed heinous sins in life, mortals lost to their own greed, and even numerous devils who had abandoned themselves to the thrill. Dressed in opulent finery or tattered rags, all of them shared eyes that burned with hunger for victory and dread of defeat.
"I... I lost again!"
"Impossible!"
"Hahahaha! I won! Your eyes, your heart, and your thighs belong to me this time!"
"Don't celebrate too soon! I'll win sooner or later! I'll win it all back..."
"So what, you pathetic pauper? You're out of chips!"
"No, no, no! I still have one last wager—my soul! I'll stake my soul!"
"Now that's what I'm talking about!"
"Hahahaha! Total ruin—now that's a real game!"
Laughter, curses, cheers, and wails blended into a gut-wrenching infernal symphony. In the depths of the gambling den, inside a private chamber, a richly attired devil lounged lazily on a chair upholstered in human skin, casually toying with a vase that trapped mortal souls.
"Heh, Dick. What do you intend to settle your debts with?"
The devil set the vase aside and turned, fixing greedy eyes on the imp kneeling before him. "Or are you finally ready... to offer up your soul?"
Dick lifted his head, a fawning smile stretching across his wrinkled face. "You'll understand once you see for yourself, my lord. What I have to offer... is bound to exceed your expectations."
Chapter 688