If a demon could pass all nine trials through sheer absolute strength, then even if not a single great demon acknowledged him, this strongest demon bearing nine marks would still qualify to vie for the throne of the Demon King.
By the same token, even if one could not pass a single trial, commanding the allegiance of nine full great demons would likewise grant the potential to become Demon King.
Among the great demons who survived today, nearly all were three-mark great demons.
Demons without ambitions for the Demon King's throne generally stopped challenging the Great Demon Trials once they had acquired three marks.
Each Great Demon Trial was nearly impossible to pass.
To reach the point of earning a mark required truly wagering one's life.
Furthermore, depending on one's innate traits, challenging certain Great Demon Trials was doomed to failure from the very beginning.
Finding the two trials best suited to oneself among the nine, attempting them once one had sufficient strength, and then securing the recommendation of an existing great demon—that was how the vast majority of powerful demons attained the title of great demon.
Herrom Prison had taken advantage of this in reverse, placing the three great demons in the trials with which they had the worst compatibility, suppressing them completely.
Even if they managed to break free of their restraints and escape their cells, facing an entire barrier level imbued with the trial's rules would be their fatal nightmare.
In contrast, the warden of each of these three levels was an imperial talent best suited to its rules, able to move about as freely as a fish in water on that tier. As long as they did not trigger the true Great Demon Trial, they were virtually the absolute masters of the level.
Thus, even though all three inner wardens were human, possessing the capacity to adapt to the trials of great demons meant every one of them was somewhat mentally deranged.
Students who selected the "Herrom Prison Guard Assessment" project were usually considered successful just by reaching Basement Level 3 and leaving; very few students ever ventured further into the inner levels.
There was not even any guarantee that the wardens would refrain from attacking them.
Yet for Hyperion now, even if every fiber of her being shrank from descending further, she had to take the risk for the sake of her mission!
"We need to stay sharp."
Hyperion tightened her grip slightly on the Poet of Great Love's forearm, cautioning her.
From the looks of it, there was a fifty-fifty chance of encountering either a trial of disposition or a trial of martial might.
Although, if the Great Demon Trial were compared to heroic difficulty, the guard assessment was merely normal difficulty.
Yet normal difficulty was just as lethal to them.
"..."
"All right."
After a brief moment, the Poet of Great Love's emerald eyes brightened slightly, and she nodded in response.
While chatting with Hyperion outside the prison, he had completely grasped what the bottom three levels were about.
Recalling his past conversations with the demon instructors at Purgatory Corridor Academy, he was certain that all demons held immense awe for great demons. Precisely because of the trial's difficulty, countless demons pursuing the title had perished along the way.
Humans might not recognize what made a great demon so extraordinary, but the Blood Clan was extremely wary of them. Even a Blood Clan Marquis maintained a degree of vigilance and apprehension when facing a great demon.
Nameless great demons, in particular, forced the Blood Clan to treat them as adversaries requiring total focus.
Once one became a great demon, pushing one's innate demonic magic to its ultimate zenith had a chance of spawning abilities capable of threatening the Blood Clan's immortality.
Any miracle magic capable of shaking the racial foundation of the Blood Clan was a target they would stop at nothing to eradicate.
Lanqi shifted more of his attention from the Redmond Building at the Protos Royal Magic Academy over to the Poet of Great Love in Herrom Prison.
Over there, all he had to do was listen to Chief Warden Bakas talk and make simple replies from time to time to keep him company.
He was basically acting as a conversational companion right now.
And playing chaperone on this end as a side gig.
"Let's move. Stay close to me," Hyperion whispered to the Poet of Great Love.
Then, led by Hyperion, the students of the Protos Royal Magic Academy stepped toward the deep-purple, mirror-like teleportation portal. Subtle fluctuations from the Void Gate could be felt, like mana rippling across the surface of water.
As her foot brushed the edge of the portal, her silhouette began to warp, merging like ripples into water until she vanished entirely into the deep-purple radiance.
The next second, Hyperion felt a sensation of plummeting rapidly through a sea of sky, her body completely weightless.
The ambient temperature shifted rapidly. Occasional bursts of light and color wove together into a bizarre, distorted spectacle, blurring the boundary between dream and reality.
Plummeting at such high speed, Hyperion clenched her fists nervously until her velocity gradually slowed, signaling that she was nearing the destination of the teleportation.
The exit flared with blinding light, instantly engulfing her.
The instant she stepped into Basement Level 4, Hyperion's pupils trembled.
"Why is it..."
Before she could finish her sentence, her voice cut off abruptly.
Before losing consciousness, Hyperion had an inkling of which desperate trial the Ice Snow Witch had spoken of.
The crimson light glowing on the student wristband flashed information:
[Survive and perform guard duties on Basement Level 4 of Herrom Prison to earn large quantities of duty points.]
[Duty points can be exchanged for resources within the prison. The privilege to spend duty points earned on the current level will unlock only after fulfilling all requirements to proceed to the next level.]
[Current Location: Herrom Prison, Basement Level 4, Entrance Hall.]
[Duty Details: Unknown. However, remaining conscious is mandatory.]
[Requirements to proceed to Basement Level 5: Successfully reach the Basement Level 4 Teleportation Hall, amass over 4,000 team duty points, and obtain the permission and evaluation of the Basement Level 4 Warden.]
Yet there was no one left to read this information in time.
It only pulsed with crimson light, flickering like a lone star singing into the void.
...
Beneath a clear sky, looking up revealed a pure, limpid expanse of azure.
On this spring day, the sunlight warmed the skin, and the melodious, crisp murmur of water drifted from the canal.
Sitting on a roadside bench near the royal palace of Ikerite, one could take in the enchanting scenery.
In a season like this, wearing light casual clothes felt just right. Everything was so pleasantly balanced that one could easily doze off in the leisurely afternoon.
Hyperion had her eyes open, staring blankly up at the sky.
Her dazed, slightly vacant gaze was like that of someone who had just awakened from a long dream, still clinging wistfully to fading memories.
"Wasn't I supposed to be in a prison? It feels like I had such a long dream..."
Waking on the bench in Ikerite, Hyperion yawned and murmured to herself,
"To think I dreamed of becoming a priest in some faraway land... How bizarre."
She stood up and stretched, feeling slightly shorter than her body in the dream—as it turned out, she was only thirteen or fourteen years old.
In the dream, it seemed to already be the year 1798 of the Solar Calendar, but right now it was only 1795. Everything was wonderful.
Soon, as she made no conscious effort to dwell on the dream, its lingering fragments were swept away by her mind in an instant, leaving not a trace behind.
Chapter 401