Melina was not a particularly clever child, something she herself was acutely aware of.
She seemed inherently unsuited for deep thought. Complex numbers and the subtleties of the human heart held little appeal for her compared to the simple, straightforward joy of swinging a sword.
Yet Melina was also an obedient child. Since both of her parents had warned her to beware of deception, she simply chose not to listen to anyone at all.
The flaming longsword summoned a Gate of Hell, along with thirteen powerful cambions to serve as her retinue.
When Melina stepped through that fiery gate into Hell, the rushing scent of sulfur and blood took even her by surprise.
It was not discomfort, but awe.
Hell's sky was a murky dark red, streaked constantly by burning meteors. The earth was fractured and shattered, littered everywhere with desiccated corpses and drifting remnants of broken souls.
This was Hell, a place where sinners endured torment—hardly one for picturesque scenery.
The thirteen cambions initially knelt respectfully before Melina, for it was Zariel's aura that had summoned them.
Cambions were tall and imposing. These devil-human crossbreeds each possessed crimson skin, horns atop their heads, and wings upon their backs. At a glance, Melina could hardly tell them apart.
Yet when these cambions laid eyes on Melina, their expressions twisted into all sorts of strange looks—contempt, amusement, sneers, and the like.
In their eyes, ordinary-looking Melina appeared to be nothing more than a little girl who had stumbled upon an artifact and was recklessly playing around with it.
Bullying the weak and fearing the strong was one of a devil's core rules of conduct. If a summoner proved weak, a devil would devour them without a second thought.
Melina looked like easy prey, and soon an impatient cambion approached with a smile.
"Beautiful lady, allow me to introduce myself. I am—"
The cambion possessed a handsome face, but in the next second, Melina's fist caved in his nose, sending him spinning through the air.
The other cambions froze. What was wrong with this person? She wouldn't even let someone finish speaking?
Just as the other cambions began to feel a shared indignation, Melina drew her longsword. The raging hellfire made these half-devils instinctively step back.
Though the cambion who had been sent flying gritted his teeth in agony, he could only shut his mouth and bow his head. They were summoned devils; until they successfully turned on their master, they were Melina's slaves.
Bound by the planar rules, they could not harm Melina.
Seeing that she had cowed the devils, Melina raised her left hand and spoke to the small mirror in her palm: "Mother, they're behaving now."
It was the Rose of Decay who had just directed her remotely, instructing Melina to show them who was in charge right away. That smirking cambion had simply had the misfortune of stepping up right into Melina's punch.
Watching the scene through the magic mirror in Melina's hand, the Rose of Decay said, "Have one of them come forward."
Melina did not understand why, but without asking, she pointed straight at the cambion she had just punched: "You, get over here!"
Clutching his nose, the cambion warily stepped before Melina and asked, "What are your orders, Master?"
Though his words were submissive, in his heart, he was looking for any opportunity to retaliate.
"Melina, take out a magic scroll and activate a Silence barrier to envelop the other cambions and block out sound. Then hold the magic mirror to his ear and let me speak to him."
Melina complied, finding a scroll of Silence among her vast stash of magic scrolls and trapping the remaining twelve cambions within it.
Within the Silence barrier, no sound could be produced or transmitted. For most spellcasters, being silenced was tantamount to having their magic stripped away, since casting without verbal components was hardly something ordinary casters could master.
However, the Rose of Decay had not done this to prevent the cambions from casting spells.
When the magic mirror was held close to the injured cambion's ear, the Rose of Decay asked, "How do we find Zariel? In which direction is her palace? Answer my questions in your quietest whisper. Aside from moving your mouth, if you so much as blink an eye, I will tear off your head."
The cambion gave a start. He had not expected this girl to be merely a puppet; the figure in the mirror was the true master—and one look at her demeanor made it clear she was not to be trifled with.
"I swear I won't lie. However, reaching the Archduke's estate will likely be terribly difficult. This is the wilderness of the first layer of Hell, at least two thousand kilometers from your destination. In between lie the domains of three hell lords, as well as the vast River of Blood... You must have heard of the River of Blood; that is where the Blood War rages, eternal and unending. Only by crossing that battlefield can one reach the Archduke's realm."
The Rose of Decay interrogated him three times, and his answers remained consistent.
Just as the cambion thought he had safely passed the test, the Rose of Decay commanded, "Throw him into the barrier and drag another one out to question. If their answers don't match, execute them both!"
Hearing this, the cambion whose nose was still bleeding stared with bulging eyes. This was more vicious than a devil!
He was certain he had not lied, but what if another cambion played tricks?
If Melina had summoned cambions on another plane, he would not have been afraid. Due to the planar laws, devils could not easily depart Hell in their true bodies; on other planes, most were merely projected avatars. If an avatar was destroyed, it would at most sap some of their vitality, but in reality...
Now, however, they were in Hell!
If they were cut down here, they would truly die!
Yet his protests were futile. Melina grabbed him by the neck and tossed him into the barrier, then gave a light wave of her hand. Countless blue-glowing vines sprouted within the barrier, dragging another cambion out.
The cambion tried to struggle, only to find that once bound by these blue branches, his body grew completely limp, and he could not channel even a shred of mana.
Even in Hell, Melina could still summon the sussur tree, maintaining its potent antimagic effect.
Even Gareth was affected by it, let alone a mere bunch of cambions.
The cambion dragged out by the sussur tree was asked the same questions. Clearly, however, his defiance had not been fully extinguished, so he casually pointed in a direction—which happened to be the territory of a certain brutal hell lord.
After repeated questioning, the Rose of Decay noticed contradictions in his statements; he was most likely lying.
The Rose of Decay said breezily, "Kill him."
Melina hesitated not in the slightest, piercing the cambion's heart with a single thrust.
Blood sizzled under the hellfire, giving off a nauseating stench. The cambion thrashed frantically, but within seconds, went entirely still.
"Good," the Rose of Decay ordered next. "Pluck some of his hair and teleport it to me."
The magic mirror could facilitate cross-planar teleportation and targeting. That was how Anbaixiu had conducted trades with the Kingdom of the Unholy Hymn before, using magic mirrors to transport physical materials across planes.
Though the magic mirror in Melina's hand was small, teleporting a single strand of hair was no trouble.
Once Melina teleported the cambion's hair to the Underdark, the Rose of Decay gripped it and activated her legendary boon.
Death Gaze: any living creature locked by her perception would be transformed into undead—and this cambion's corpse was still remarkably fresh.
Unfortunately, it required a perception lock.
Across the magic mirror, the Rose of Decay could only "see" images transmitted through the glass; she could not lock her perception onto something in Hell. Therefore, she needed Melina to teleport a piece of the cambion over.
Corpse transformation was even swifter. In mere seconds, the freshly slain cambion turned into a zombie.
A half-devil's body was exceptionally robust, so the zombie possessed considerable combat prowess, though its intelligence was not to be counted on; it could only serve as high-grade cannon fodder.
Having dealt with the lying cambion, Melina looked back into the barrier.
Mother had just said that if the two cambions gave different answers, she should kill them both.
The cambion with the broken nose... Wait, why did several of the cambions inside have broken noses?
Melina stared in shock at the cambions brawling in a heap. A full five of them were covered in blood.
Uh-oh, which one was it before? She couldn't tell anymore.
Chapter 522