"Work for Hell? Are you out of your mind?! Those devils are more bloodsucking than vampires! You want me to bust my hump for Hell—are you trying to make me sell my soul?"
Herki Stone felt as if Anbaixiu was setting him up. A major reason so many people turned to the undead for immortality was precisely to avoid going to Hell! If anyone could ascend to a divine realm, who would choose to be undead?
"Don't panic. I'm not telling you to go to Hell; I'm telling you to work for Hell."
"What's the difference?"
"The difference is... you can understand it as: I work for Hell, but the devils have to pay me wages."
"Devil contracts always look like a huge win on the surface, but end up being a catastrophic loss!"
Herki Stone had lived for so many years; how could he not know what devils were like?
Things like asking for a huge sum of money only for it to be a death compensation payout for one's family were already old hat. Or asking for a wife, only for the devil to transform into a woman, turn the tables on the wedding night, and make the man get pregnant and give birth to a little dretch.
In short, their fraudulent tricks were endless. Trusting a devil was a guaranteed way to ruin your entire life.
Anbaixiu was rendered speechless. The reputation of devils was simply so terrible that it even cost him his friend's trust.
Still, Anbaixiu explained to Herki Stone, "Haven't you realized what an escape route means yet? If you truly get sacrificed, as long as your soul remains intact, your end will definitely be Hell. Securing a backer in Hell in advance means that when you really do end up there, you'll endure far less torment."
Herki Stone opened his mouth, finding himself unable to refute that.
Puzzled, Herki Stone asked, "Have you gone to Hell now, too? Which devil is controlling you?"
Anbaixiu's revival was far too mysterious. Most people didn't even know what had happened to him. Herki Stone had assumed the God of Alchemy had saved him, so why the sudden talk of going to Hell?
Without going into too much detail, Anbaixiu simply told Herki Stone, "Right now, I work for three Archdukes of Hell—Zariel, Tiamat, and Mammon. I have a direct line to them, so to speak."
"Three Archdukes of Hell?" Herki Stone said in disbelief. "Never heard of such a thing. Devils share slaves now? If they get into a fight, who do you listen to?"
Anbaixiu replied calmly, "Usually, they listen to me."
Herki Stone: "..."
This fellow had practically been waiting for him to ask that question just to show off.
Yet Herki Stone didn't even contemplate arguing back. He already knew Anbaixiu very well: whenever this guy bragged to your face, ninety-nine percent of it was true—or at least true on the surface.
Regardless of the real details, Anbaixiu was certainly doing well in Hell.
Damn it, why wasn't he surprised at all? Even if Anbaixiu had just been revived, even if he had a grudge against Zariel, even if this fellow was steeped in sin and deserved to be tortured in Hell... he still effortlessly bypassed all those obstacles and thrived wherever he went.
Herki Stone felt deeply envious, but his mouth said, "Old friend, if I really do end up in Hell, you've got to cover for me."
Anbaixiu smiled and said, "Don't worry, I prepared for that long ago. If you want to make it big in Hell, you don't necessarily have to follow those Archdukes. I have a contract here with very generous terms. You won't even need to sacrifice anything; it only specifies that if you're forced to descend to Hell, your soul will be bound to the territory under my command."
Anbaixiu produced an infernal contract and handed it to Herki Stone.
Herki Stone took it with suspicion. After reading through it repeatedly, he discovered there were genuinely almost no restrictions. The sole clause was that if Herki Stone died an unnatural death, his soul would inevitably plunge into Hell and fall under the custody of the hell lord specified by Anbaixiu.
However, upon reading the name of this hell lord, Herki Stone cried out in shock, "Melina?! You sent your daughter to Hell?! Have you gone insane!"
Herki Stone glanced at the others, only to realize he was the only one shocked.
"You all... already knew Melina went to Hell?"
Anbaixiu waved a hand dismissively. "Calm down, it's not what you think..." He had been fully prepared to explain, but Herki Stone promptly grabbed the contract and signed his name.
Anbaixiu said in surprise, "You agreed just like that?"
"You even sent your daughter to Hell—you're definitely plotting something huge," Herki Stone said firmly. "I've missed out on too many investments in the past. There's no way I'm missing this one, especially when I don't have to give up a single thing."
Anbaixiu was lost for words. This truly wasn't some grand scheme; if Melina hadn't sneaked into Hell on her own, he would never have let her take such a risk.
Still, now that Herki Stone had agreed, everything would be much easier.
A devil's contract remained binding even when signed in a dream. It wasn't a physical parchment, but rules branded into the soul—the manifestation of Hell's laws.
Originally, Melina lacked the authority to forge contracts with others, but now that she was an official hell lord, she possessed the same privileges as any other devil lord.
The instant the contract was signed, Herki Stone felt something register in his mind. The devil's contract took effect, locking onto his soul. The moment Herki Stone died, he would manifest directly in Melina's territory—unless Melina lost her lordly authority or was slain before then.
Having signed the contract, Herki Stone seemed like a completely different person, grinning broadly at Anbaixiu. "Now, we really are friends in the same boat. You should tell me what you're plotting in Hell, shouldn't you?"
Not only Herki Stone was curious; Aige couldn't help turning to Anbaixiu as well, asking, "Indeed, why did you suddenly have Melina seize a territory in Hell? What's your real purpose?"
Anbaixiu offered a faint smile and replied to his friends, "What else could it be for? To become a deity, of course, and completely cast off this fragile mortal vessel. My current state is a bit unique, but compared to true deities, I'm at best hiding inside a phylactery that no one can locate. I'm nowhere near being their equal."
"Become a deity?" Aige gasped in surprise. "Did you feel the call of Ao?"
Back then, Aige had felt the call of that Overgod, and with Anbaixiu's help, she had smoothly overcome the hindrance posed by the Kuo-toa Goddess, completing the trial Ao had set for her.
Thus, so long as Aige accumulated enough power, she could smoothly ascend to godhood, simply because she had already passed the examination.
There was no way Anbaixiu would become a subordinate deity under the God of Alchemy. If he wished to become an independent deity, he would have to obtain Ao's approval.
Yet Anbaixiu shook his head. "It is precisely because Ao has never looked favorably upon me that I have to find a way through Hell. Haven't you heard of quasi-deity power?"
Aige shook her head. Aside from having lived a long time, in terms of broader knowledge, she was actually the least informed among the four present. After all, she usually just idled away her days drifting in the sea, rarely looking into other matters.
Herki Stone, on the other hand, caught on and asked in disbelief, "You want to borrow the laws of Hell? You want to become a lord of the Nine Hells?"
Anbaixiu nodded and explained to Aige, "Hell's rules are different from those of our plane. Strictly speaking, neither Zariel nor Mammon is a traditional deity, yet the power they wield is by no means weaker than a god's. They rely on the laws of Hell. All the rulers of the Nine Hells are of this type. They don't rely on divine portfolios or faith; they gain power akin to deities solely through the authority shared with them by the Lord of Hell.
"Why do devils appear in stories far more often than deities? It's precisely because they possess quasi-deity power, so they are restricted by Ao far less. When other deities wish to intervene in the mortal realm, they face countless rule constraints. Devils, on the other hand, merely require mortals to willingly sign contracts, and they can resort to deception, abduction, and all kinds of underhanded means to get them.
"I suspect the Poet also belongs to a quasi-deity race; I just don't know his exact identity yet."
The rules of Hell were stricter than those of the Prime Material Plane, but they were also far clearer.
Especially in Avernus, the First Layer: because of the existence of the Blood River battlefield, acquiring authority here was much simpler and more direct. If you rendered sufficiently great service on the battlefield, you could even replace Zariel on her throne.
Granted, the difficulty was immense—roughly equivalent to slaying Demogorgon's true body and completely annihilating one of the Abyss's layers. Only then could one match the military merits Zariel had amassed over countless years of war.
Anbaixiu wasn't greedy. He never planned to directly seize authority over an entire layer of Hell; he merely wanted to join the ranks of those with quasi-deity power.
Deities held too many advantages. Perhaps once he reached that level, he could finally break completely free from the control of the Goddess of Fate.
Chapter 544