500 VS 5000
Xerrus was quite surprised by Eirot's confidence because few demons have ever claimed a Pool of Suffering, let alone a human girl. It was usually a trial that would take the attempter's life.
"Wroooosssshhhh"
Xerrus's many heads breathed powerful flaming breaths on Eirot and her friends which covered them entirely in his flames. After he realized that his flame breaths did their job, Xerrus stopped his flames.
"Death to the arrogant", Xerrus said to us right after he finished his magic breathing.
But to his horror, we were unhurt by his magical breaths. All his magical breaths missed us even though we weren't a difficult target at all.
"I told you your struggle is in vain", Alfred told Xerrus.
"How is this possible?" Xerrus asked us in surprise.
"You can let me claim this Pool without making me kill you. What will you say?", Eirot asked Xerrus.
"Insolence", Xerrus replied to Eirot before all his necks and arms were suddenly locked by large golden magical chains.
"Golden Chains of Greed and Restrains"
"We did this before, so it's so much easier the second time", Ratatouille told the Xerrus Incarnate.
Xerrus tried to break free from Ratatouille's Chains, but he couldn't. Even his magic dropped a few notches, suppressed by the curse in the chains.
"Chaos Suppression"
My chaos magic also assisted in Xerrus's capture because it reduced his magic by a few tiers.
Suddenly, three knights in shining armor appeared before the necks of Xerrus.
Each of these knights cast a powerful spell as magical lances appeared before them. The lances quickly struck the necks of the Incarnate Xerrus before decapitating all their heads. The body and heads of Xerrus fell into the Pool of Suffering.
"Lance of Drakul"
"How did you cast three lances of Drakul at the same time?" Meera asked me.
"That is because I didn't cast them. It was Alpha, Beta and Gamma, who did it", I told her.
My Malevolent Slaves could use any skill that I had, including casting my powerful Lance of Drakul, albeit the potency of their magic was much weaker than if I cast the lance myself.
Suddenly, the sky above the pool illuminated in magic drawings, a sign that the pool has accepted the transfer of ownership to Eirot. But Eirot wasn't satisfied with just that.
"Crucifix of Damnation"
Eirot summoned the Crucifix of Damnation again before all the magma from the Pool of Suffering was taken into it. A fiery core appeared from within the empty pool that rose into the sky.
"This is the Core of this Pool of Suffering. Take it to consume its magic", Alfred told Eirot.
Eirot commanded the fiery core which entered into her Crucifix of Damnation, her hellish soul realm and was absorbed by it.
"What is happening to me?" Alfred asked us in shock as his body began to transform.
Alfred grew slightly bigger, and another head appeared on his shoulder.
"What happened to you, Alfred?" Eirot asked the wolf.
"I must have taken the magic of the Incarnate", Alfred replied to her.
------
"Why do you need us to come on this mission if you are doing all the fighting? We are not tourists", Iviar complained to me.
"Yes, this mission is too easy if we just sit inside your flying ships", Eless told us.
"We should let them fight with us. They are not weak", Chash told me.
"We would need your skills later when we face stronger opponents. Meanwhile, you should get familiarized with the environment of Hell", I told the Control Freak.
"You will have your chance to die soon", Sara told us suddenly.
"What is the problem?" I asked her.
"The neighboring clans are eyeing our castle after the death of Kanvozok", Gathgool informed us on Sara's behalf.
"Great, let them come", She said to them.
"It's about time the Control Freak did some damage control", I said to them.
-----
We were attacked by the combined forces of the neighboring Demon territories, the Grey and the Crawling. They rushed here the moment they discovered that Kanzovok's Hellrider army was defeated.
"Why are these demons attacking us without provocation?" Illiwyn asked us.
"The enemies wanted to capture the territory of Kanzovak because they believed whichever Demonlord defeated Kanzovak must be at their weakest now after fighting with the Hellriders", Gathgool speculated and told us.
Many of our demons were wounded in the last battle with Kanzovok and they haven't recovered to their fighting form yet.
"No matter, this is something we will have to face eventually", I said to them.
"Do you have a plan to fight against the combined demon army?" Rinna asked me.
There was something in our favor though, we were more familiar with the features of the surroundings.
"Do we have the map of the surrounding?" I asked.
"I have the rocky plains surveyed for a hundred kilometers around Kanzovok's stepped volcano castle", Asterix told me as she projected the surrounding terrain for me.
"I will need five hundred Hellhound riders", I said to them.
"My Lord are you sure we are sending only five hundred Hellhound riders. Are they enough to fight the combined forces of the Grey Demon clan's three thousand demons and the Crawling Demon clan's two thousand?" Demonlord Brathnok asked me.
"Five hundred is more than enough but the Hellhounds must be our strongest and fastest", I told Demonlord Brathnok.
------
The armies of Grey and Crawling were assembled in the rocky plains. They were expecting a large army to meet them in battle but what came was a small force in their eyes.
Five hundred of our fastest riders marched toward the combined armies of the Grey and Crawling as we watched from the peak of a nearby hill.
"Are you really sure only five hundred Hellhound riders are enough?" Eirot asked me.
"Enough to defeat the combined armies of Grey and Crawling? Maybe not. But they are perfect for my plans", I replied to her.
"Infernal Beams of Suffering"
Once our Hellhound riders were in range of the enemy, our demons fired a barrage of fiery blasts toward the enemy before quickly retreating.