Chapter : 2009

  The thing in the lava... that was the Great King Satan.

  Lloyd deactivated his eye, blinking away the red spots in his vision. His heart was hammering against his ribs. He had fought Iffrit. He had fought huge monsters. But this... this was a planetary feature.

  "He's... he's the island," Lloyd whispered, his voice dry.

  King Liam frowned. "What?"

  "The man in the chair," Lloyd said, pointing a shaking finger at the calm figure of Satan. "It's a doll. An avatar. The real Satan is... downstairs. Way downstairs."

  Satan—the avatar—turned his head and looked at Lloyd. He smiled. It was a sad, tired smile.

  "You have good eyes, child," Satan said. "The Austin bloodline always did have a knack for seeing things they shouldn't."

  The vibration in the ground stopped, but the feeling of heaviness remained.

  "Why?" Seraphina asked, her voice trembling. "Why use a puppet? Why not come here yourself?"

  "If I stood up," Satan said simply, "many weak will die because of my demonic pressure."

  He placed his hand on the table.

  "My true body is not just large," Satan explained. "It is the Lock. For thousands of years, I have sat at the threshold between the Abyss and the Human Realm. My physical form plugs the hole. I am the cork in the bottle. If I move... if I leave my post... the barrier between worlds collapses. The atmosphere of the Abyss would rush into your world. Your sky would burn. Your oceans would boil. This is the 'Dissolutive Collapse' Leviathan spoke of."

  The gathered kings fell silent. They had thought Satan was an invader. They thought he was a conqueror waiting for a chance to strike. They didn't realize he was the only thing holding the door shut.

  "You are a prisoner," Lloyd said, realizing the truth. "You aren't the King of Hell. You're the Jailer. And you're also the inmate."

  "A necessity," Satan agreed. "Power has a price. My price is stillness. I have not moved in five thousand years."

  "Then why now?" the Sultan of Zakaria asked. "Why agree to this alliance? Why talk to us at all?"

  Satan’s face hardened. The grandfatherly look vanished, replaced by something ancient and angry.

  "Because someone is picking the lock," Satan said.

  He gestured to the floor.

  "The Fire Fly Corporation. They are not just on the surface. Their machines... those 'drills'... they are digging into my back. They are mining the Gate itself. They are trying to extract the concentrated mana of the barrier."

  Leviathan—Eun-ha—spoke up, her voice sharp. "They are damaging the integrity of the cycle. If they break the Gate, it won't just kill us. It will shatter the cycle of souls. The dead will have nowhere to go. The living will have no mana to be born. It will turn this planet into a spiritual graveyard."

  "They are hurting me," Satan said, his voice dropping to a rumble that shook the wine in the glasses again. "They are drilling into my flesh to steal the blood of the world. I cannot scratch the itch because I cannot move. That is why I need you."

  He looked at each of the humans in turn.

  "I need you to be my hands," Satan said. "I need you to kill the parasites that are biting me. If you do this... if you stop them... I will continue to hold the door shut. I will keep the Abyss away from your children."

  King Liam took a deep breath. He looked at Lloyd. They shared a look of grim understanding. The situation was worse than they thought. They weren't just fighting a war for territory. They were fighting to stop a dam from bursting.

  "We have a deal," King Liam said. He picked up the quill. "We kill the parasites. You keep the door shut."

  "Agreed," Satan said.

  King Liam signed the parchment. The sound of the scratching pen was loud in the silent pavilion.

  "It is done," Asmodeus grunted, standing up. "Now can we fight? I am tired of talking."

  "Patience, muscle-brain," Monalisa sighed. "We just signed a piece of paper. We haven't actually done anything yet."

  Lloyd walked over to the table. He stood next to Eun-ha. She looked up at him.

  "You knew," Lloyd said quietly. "You knew he was the Lock."

  "I suspected," Eun-ha replied in a whisper. "But seeing it... confirming it... the math is terrifying, Lloyd. The energy density required to hold two dimensions apart... if Fire Fly destabilizes him, the explosion will be bigger than a supernova."

  "Then we don't let them," Lloyd said.

  He looked at the Avatar of Satan.

  Chapter : 2010

  "We have the Titan Squad," Lloyd said to the group. "We have the Wraiths. We have the armies of three nations. We will find their drills. We will break them."

  "Good," Satan said. "Because my patience is wearing thin. And my back itches."

  It was a joke, but nobody laughed. The idea of a tectonic giant scratching an itch and destroying a continent wasn't funny.

  The meeting was technically over. The alliance was formed. But the heavy feeling in the air didn't lift. It felt like the calm before a storm.

  Lloyd looked out at the ocean. The water was calm, blue, and peaceful. But his [All-Seeing Eye] was still throbbing with a warning headache.

  "Something's wrong," Lloyd muttered.

  The quill in King Liam’s hand hovered just above the thick parchment. The ink was wet, gleaming black in the sunlight. All he had to do was sign his name, and the "Planetary Defense Pact" would be real. It would be the first time in history that humans and devils officially agreed to stop killing each other and start saving the world.

  Around the white stone table, everyone was holding their breath. Queen Seraphina watched the pen with intense focus. The Sultan of Zakaria gripped the arms of his chair. Even the Devil Princes—Leviathan, Asmodeus, and Belphagor—were silent. The Avatar of Great King Satan sat perfectly still, like a statue waiting for a signal.

  Lloyd Ferrum stood near a pillar, his arms crossed. His face was calm, but inside, his brain was screaming. His [All-Seeing Eye] was throbbing with a dull ache behind his temples. It wasn't the pain of overuse; it was a warning. It was the feeling a soldier gets right before an ambush triggers.

  "Sign it, Liam," Lloyd whispered under his breath. "Do it now."

  King Liam lowered the quill. The tip touched the paper.

  SCREEEEEEEEEEEEECH.

  The sound didn't come from the pen. It came from the sky.

  It was a noise so loud, so high-pitched and unnatural, that it felt like a physical blow to the head. It sounded like a million sheets of metal being torn apart at the same time. The wine glasses on the table shattered instantly. The courtiers covered their ears and fell to their knees screaming. Even Asmodeus, the brute of the Devil faction, flinched and looked up.

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  This wasn't thunder. It wasn't a dragon’s roar. Lloyd knew this sound. He remembered it from a lifetime ago on Earth.

  It was the sound of atmospheric displacement. It was the sound of a warp-jump.

  "Look up!" Lloyd shouted, his voice cutting through the panic.

  The blue sky above the Island of Aethelgard didn't just cloud over. It tore open. Reality itself seemed to rip like cheap fabric. Through the jagged hole in the sky, three massive shapes descended.

  They were ugly, blocky, and terrifying. They weren't magical airships made of wood and canvas. They were made of dark, charcoal-grey composite metal. They didn't have sails; they had glowing blue thrusters that hummed with a deep, vibrating bass note that shook the teeth in Lloyd’s skull.

  Fire Fly Corporation Dropships.

  "They're here," Lloyd said, his face turning grim. "And they didn't knock."

  As the ships descended, a wave of pressure slammed into the pavilion. It wasn't wind. It was a "Mana-Nullifying Field." The ambient magic in the air, usually thick and vibrant in Riverio, suddenly felt thin and dead. The mages in Queen Seraphina's retinue gasped, clutching their chests as if the air had been sucked out of the room. The defensive wards around the island flickered and died without a fight.

  The lead ship, larger than the other two, hovered directly over the pavilion. A ramp lowered with a hiss of hydraulics and steam.

  Standing at the top of the ramp, looking down at the gathered kings and princes, was a figure that embodied the end of the world.

  It was Lucifer, the Devil King of Pride.

  But he didn't look like the Lucifer that Lloyd had heard stories about. He didn't look like a creature of pure myth anymore. He looked like a monster that had been upgraded.

  Lucifer wore his pristine white armor, but it was cracked open in places. Beneath the armor, pulsating black veins bulged against his skin. These weren't natural veins; they were tubes. They were cybernetic implants glowing with a sickly purple light. Embedded in his chest and shoulders were metallic nodes that hummed in sync with the ship above him.

  "Reality Anchors," Lloyd realized, his mind racing. "They hardwired him to the dimension. He isn't just visiting; he's part of their network now."

  Chapter : 2011

  Lucifer wasn't alone. On his right stood Mammon, the Devil of Greed, dressed in a suit that looked like a mockery of human fashion, his eyes gleaming with gold data streams. On his left was Beelzebub, the Devil of Gluttony, his massive form covered in armor plates that looked like insect chitin fused with steel.

  Lucifer stepped to the edge of the ramp. He didn't need to shout. His voice was amplified by speakers hidden in his armor, booming out over the island with perfect, digital clarity.

  "How adorable," Lucifer said. His voice echoed, sounding metallic and cruel. "Look at them, brothers. The 'Pure' Devils sitting at a table with monkeys. Signing papers. Playing nice."

  He laughed, and the sound was distorted by static.

  "You think a piece of paper will save you?" Lucifer sneered, looking directly at the Avatar of Satan. "You think holding hands with humans will stop the future? You are obsolete. You are dust waiting to be swept away."

  Asmodeus roared, standing up and knocking his chair over. "Lucifer! You traitor! You sold your soul to machines!"

  "I didn't sell it," Lucifer replied smoothly. "I invested it. And the returns are magnificent."

  He raised his hand. The cybernetic nodes on his arm flared with light.

  "Gamma Team," Lucifer commanded, speaking not to demons, but to the unseen soldiers inside the ship. "Deploy the Scramblers. Let’s see how brave they are when we turn off their magic."

  From the belly of the ships, heavy metal pylons were dropped. They fell like bombs, slamming into the ground around the pavilion with earth-shaking thuds.

  THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD.

  Four black towers stood in a circle around the meeting place. Before anyone could react, the towers activated. They began to spin, emitting a high-frequency screech that drilled into the brain.

  "Cover your ears!" King Liam shouted, pulling a heavy, modern-looking pistol from his jacket.

  But it was too late for the mages.

  The "Mana-Scrambler" towers didn't just block magic; they agitated it. They sent out a resonance frequency that made mana vibrate violently.

  Queen Seraphina screamed. She fell to her knees, blood running from her nose. Behind her, the royal mages of Altamira collapsed, thrashing on the ground as their own internal energy turned against them. It was like their blood was boiling.

  "My magic!" one mage cried out, clutching his head. "It burns! I can't control it!"

  "Physics," Lloyd muttered, his eyes scanning the chaos for a way out. "They are using sound waves to disrupt concentration. It’s not an anti-magic spell; it’s a jammer."

  Lloyd looked at his own hands. He felt the vibration in his Steel Blood. It was uncomfortable, like a buzzing bee inside his veins, but he could handle it. His power wasn't purely magical; it was physical. But for the pure mages, this was torture.

  "Is that all you have?" Asmodeus yelled, fighting through the pain. He tried to summon his demon form, but the transformation fizzled out in sparks of black smoke. The jammer was working. "Coward! Come down here and fight!"

  "Oh, we aren't here to fight," Lucifer said, his smile widening. "Fighting is messy. Fighting is for beasts. We are here to clean up the trash."

  He gestured to Mammon. "Brother. Show them what real influence looks like."

  Mammon stepped forward. He adjusted his silk tie and smiled. His eyes flashed with a scrolling code of green light.

  "Cognitive Hallucination Field," Mammon whispered. "Upload."

  An invisible wave of psychic energy pulsed out from the ships. It didn't hit the kings or the Devil Princes. It hit the guards.

  The Royal Lion Guards of Bethelham. The Elite Janissaries of Zakaria. The Holy Knights of Altamira. These were men and women sworn to die for their rulers. They were the best of the best.

  But the human brain is a fragile machine.

  Lloyd watched in horror as the eyes of the guards glazed over. They stopped looking at the enemy ships. Their heads snapped down. They looked at the table. They looked at their kings and queens.

  But they didn't see their leaders anymore. The psychic virus was rewriting their perception. It was overlaying a digital hallucination over reality.

  To the guards, King Liam didn't look like their king. He looked like a monster. Queen Seraphina looked like a demon ready to strike. The Sultan looked like an assassin.

  "Traitors!" a Lion Guard screamed, drawing his sword. "They have replaced the King! Kill the monsters!"

  "Protect the Queen!" an Altamiran knight yelled, but he wasn't looking at the enemy. He was looking at Lloyd. "Death to the imposters!"

  Chaos erupted.

  Chapter : 2012

  The protectors turned into executioners. The circle of steel that was supposed to keep the leaders safe suddenly collapsed inward.

  "Treason!" the Sultan of Zakaria shouted, scrambling back as his own bodyguard swung a massive axe at his head.

  King Liam moved fast. He kicked the table over, creating a barricade. "Lloyd! Plan B! We need Plan B right now!"

  Lloyd stood in the center of the madness. The sky was filled with alien ships. The air was screaming with jamming frequencies. The ground was swarming with brainwashed soldiers trying to kill their own commanders.

  It was a perfect ambush. It was technology dismantling magic.

  Lloyd looked up at Lucifer, who was watching the slaughter with a bored expression.

  "You think you're smart," Lloyd whispered, his hand reaching into his pocket dimension. "You think you broke the game."

  The Major General woke up. The cold, calculating machine inside Lloyd’s head took over.

  "Let's see how you handle a glitch."

  ________________________________________

  The Pavilion of Winds, which had been a place of diplomacy just five minutes ago, was now a slaughterhouse.

  The sound was unbearable. The high-pitched screech of the Mana-Scrambler towers mixed with the roar of the dropship engines and the screams of confused, terrified soldiers created a wall of noise that made thinking almost impossible.

  "Kill them!" a brainwashed knight roared, swinging a heavy mace at Queen Seraphina.

  "Get down!" Lloyd shouted.

  He didn't use magic. He used momentum. Lloyd tackled Seraphina, knocking her out of her chair just as the mace smashed into the stone where her head had been a second ago. Splinters of rock flew through the air.

  Lloyd rolled, pulling the Queen behind the overturned stone table. King Liam was already there, firing his pistol with cold precision.

  Bang. Bang. Bang.

  Three guards dropped, shots to the leg. Liam wasn't killing them; he was disabling them. He knew they were innocent victims of Mammon’s mind games.

  "This is bad, Lloyd!" Liam yelled over the noise. "We can't fight our own armies! We need to shut down that signal!"

  Lloyd peeked over the edge of the table. The situation was a nightmare.

  On the other side of the pavilion, the Devil Princes were struggling. The Mana-Scramblers were affecting them worse than the humans. Their bodies were flickering, phasing in and out of their human disguises.

  Asmodeus had managed to grab a brainwashed guard by the throat, holding him back, but the Demon Prince was sweating. His skin was turning grey. "My strength..." Asmodeus growled. "It feels like... sludge. I cannot summon my armor!"

  Leviathan—Eun-ha—was on her knees. She was clutching a datapad, her fingers flying across the screen. "They are hacking the ambient mana field!" she shouted to Lloyd. "It’s a denial-of-service attack on the laws of physics! I can't counter it! I need more time!"

  "We don't have time!" Lloyd yelled back.

  Above them, Lucifer raised a hand. "Finish them."

  From the dropships, the Fire Fly Gamma Team rappelled down. These weren't brainwashed medieval soldiers. These were corporate troopers. They wore black, sealed combat suits with green visors. They carried pulse rifles that didn't shoot bullets, but hard-light energy beams.

  They hit the ground running, moving with military precision. They took up positions behind the pillars and opened fire.

  Pew. Pew. Pew.

  Blue bolts of energy slammed into the stone table, burning hot holes through the rock.

  "Suppressing fire!" Lloyd ordered.

  He looked at the Avatar of Satan. The old man was still sitting in his chair, unmoving. He seemed unaffected by the mind control, but the Mana-Scramblers were keeping his massive, true form locked deep underground. He was a statue in the middle of a firefight.

  "Great King!" Lloyd shouted. "Can you move?"

  Satan looked at Lloyd slowly. "The noise... is very loud," he said calmly. "It is difficult to focus."

  "Useless," Lloyd hissed.

  He looked at his own resources. He checked his internal status. The Steel Blood in his veins was sluggish, fighting the interference frequencies. But his spatial inventory—his pocket dimension—operated on a different frequency. It was a Void power, separate from the planet's mana field.

  It was still active.

  "Okay," Lloyd said, his mind clearing. "They brought guns to a sword fight. That was their first mistake."

  He looked at Liam. "Cover me. I need three seconds."

  "You've got two," Liam said, reloading his pistol.

  Lloyd stood up. He didn't run. He walked right out into the open.

  The Fire Fly troopers saw him. Their visors locked onto him.

  "Target identified," a trooper’s amplified voice said. "Designation: KM Evan. Priority One. Capture or neutralize."

  They aimed their rifles.