*Cough* *Cough*
Upon entering into the underworld, Grim immediately fell to his knees and started vomiting up blood. Going into shock, his body started to violently convulse as the sound of bones snapping started echoing out from every corner of his body.
'Fuuuuuuck!' He cursed feeling like someone was chainsawing away at his insides.
He had underestimated the severity of the damage Lucifero had actually given him.
As his body rapidly broke down, blood started seeping out of every pour covering him from head to toe in blood and grime.
Laying on the stone ground, a pained breath escaped through his lips as pain ran rampant through his body. Feeling like every nerve was on fire, the previously proud and arrogant looking Grim was nowhere to be seen.
Staring up at the ceiling, he realized why Lucifero and the rest were so desperate to escape from this place.
'There's no sky.'
That's right. The only thing above him was a rocky ceiling and a huge circular gate that probably led to the outside world. He guessed that it was the same for the devils in the lower levels. Nothing but rocks.
From what he could remember from a conversation with Megicula, he knew that no being with magic could pass through that gate. The only way to leave the underworld was through special methods.
"Hah." He laughed coughing up more blood and writhing in agony.
Looking extremely miserable, his eyes lost focus as he felt his life force slowly slipping away.
'So this is how I die?'
Forcing himself up to his feet, he only managed to make it a few metres before losing all strength and eventually slumping down next to a broken stone wall.
Leaning on it, he looked at the view in front of him. Compared to what he had imagined, the underworld was far more bleak than what he envisioned. It was dark, cold and lifeless. Not a single plant could be seen. Even the air here felt heavy and was hard to breathe in.
'This atmosphere... Its overflowing with negative mana.'
Being no stranger to negative mana, how could he not know what he was feeling.
'I can't absorb this world's mana...'
As his eyes continued to lose focus, instead of feeling angry, he felt at peace. He didn't want to die in front of Secre and the others. Whether it was pride or something else, he didn't want to look weak in front of them. He didn't want to break the illusion they had of him.
'So this is it huh.'
Smiling, he thought back to his time in the living world. From the time he had spent in the witches forest, to running the tavern with Rebecca and her siblings, and eventually joining the Black Bulls. From all the bat-shit crazy people he had met over the years to all the ones he had killed. He fought an endangered species of elves and even stomped on the head of the fucking king of devils. Even going so far as to lay his hands on those untouchable noble women and cucking the entire upper class of the Clover kingdom. He had lived a fun life.
'Yeah, this life... It wasn't a bad one.'
Feeling his eyelids grow heavy, he didn't fight it any longer. He had already reached his goal. Even if it was only for a short while. He could confidently say, he was the strongest.
With that, his eyes finally closed and death claimed him.
***
Meanwhile in the Clover kingdom.
"Lord Julius." Damnatio greeted walking into the wizard king's office with a stack of documents in hand.
"Damnatio? To what do I owe the pleasure?"
Setting the documents down on the desk, he looked at the young wizard king and exhaled lightly.
"After that botched trial of that peasant boy, I've delved into researching the existence of devils and the devil host families within our borders. While this research only goes back around 20 or so years, this is everything I've learnt so far."
Pointing a specific piece of paper that had an image depicting the tree of Qilphoth, he started explaining.
"In all of my research, there has been a consistent anomaly that I haven't been able to explain. Within the Qilphoth, there has consistently been no mention of a Supreme Devil named Megicula."
"..."
"The underworld is said to be ruled by three powerful devils. The Devil of Gravity Lucifero, the Devil of Space Beelzebub, and finally the Devil of Time, Astaroth."
"..."
"I don't know how it happened, but for some reason Astaroth vanished from the underworld and in his place, Megicula rose to prominence. Moreover... Perhaps by some weird twist of fate, according to my research... To date, there has only ever been one person whose magic bears the name of "time" in the whole world."
"All this time... the devil that's been hiding in our country... It was me."
As the pieces slowly fell into place, a look of dread and realization appeared on Julius's face as he let out a panic shout-
"Damnatio you have to stop m!-
"Ah, ah, ah." A calm and unfamiliar voice suddenly echoed out of Julius's mouth silencing the entire room.
Placing a single finger on Damnatio's forehead and stopping him from using his [Scale Magic] with an unknown magic, Julius's body transformed back into that of an adult with short messy black hair, red eyes and a dark-colored sun-like mark on the right side of his forehead.
"To slow Julius." The man smiled and used his finger to push Damnatio over.
"Hey." A voice suddenly sounded out by the window.
"Adramelech." The man greeted seeing Lucifero's heart in the devil's hand. "So you've succeeded... Good."
"Mmm." Adramelech nodded handing him the heart. "Outside of that monster, everything pretty much happened in the way you said it would."
"That monster?"
"I believe he was called Grim. He was far stronger than you said."
"Is that so..." The man repeated his eyes flashing with [Time Magic], his smile growing ever deeper. "As expected of the Anomaly. So what was it this time? [Breath of the Sun]? [Blood Demon Arts]? A devil contract?"
*Shakes head*
"He called it the [0th Form]."
'The [0th Form]? That's a new one.'
After hearing the details of the battle from Adramelech including how Grim left for the underworld, the mysterious man shook his head and paid it no mind.
"No matter what kind of power he has attained this time around, my victory is already assured. This time, nothing will get in my way."
"Mmm." Adramelech nodded no longer thinking of Grim. "So what's next Lucius Zogratis?"
"Now?" He smiled. "Now we wait."