When Inferno Overlord Berial saw Scolopendra’s soul being stuffed into Osiris’s demon sword and the eyes of the skeleton on the hilt glowing with greed, his entire body felt uncomfortable.
He thought that he was already miserable enough, but he did not expect Scolopendra to be even worse than him. At least he managed to keep his life, but Scolopendra completely died.
That idiot, what was he thinking by letting his soul out? Did he not remember that after losing his Ouroboros Mark, his soul would not return to the Abyss after being exposed?
In any case, Scolopendra was a colleague of Berial and the others, who had fought together for many years. Now that he was dead, Berial could not help but feel sad.
Madama Styx and the other demon lords felt the same way. However, even though the murderer was right in front of them, they had no intention of taking revenge for Scolopendra.
The reason was simple—they did not want to die.
It had been a long time since they lost their Ouroboros Marks. From the initial discomfort, it no longer mattered much later. After all, as demon lords, it was very difficult for enemies to kill them. But the death of Scolopendra suddenly reminded them of their situation. Without the protection of the Ouroboros Mark, they might die.
“Who’s next?” Roy was currently stepping on the giant head of Scolopendra’s corpse. He had just finished killing him, and his murderous aura had yet to subside. After removing his face armor, the smile on his face looked especially sinister. His two rows of neat and sharp teeth seemed to be flashing with cold light, and his red pentagram eyes stared at everyone murderously.
Seeing Roy’s sinister smile, Madama Styx and the others could not help but take a step back. Then they realized that they seemed to have lost their composure, so they exchanged glances and pushed Madama Styx forward as the representative to negotiate with Roy.
Madama Styx flapped her moth wings and took two light steps forward. “Osiris, we have no intention of becoming enemies with you. You have already proven your strength, and it’s not impossible to acknowledge you as the ruler of the Demon World. However, we have a question for you.”
“Speak!” Roy raised his chin at her.
“Mundus has already escaped in defeat. I suppose that you are replacing him because you want to hunt him down?” Madama Styx said. “What we want to ask is, are you confident in taking back the Ouroboros Marks that Mundus stole? And will you return them to us after taking them back?”
“That’s two questions!” Roy sneered. “It seems like you actually know that it was Mundus who took your marks, right?”
Madama Styx nodded. “Of course. We are demon lords. Those low-level demons don’t know what’s going on, but how could he deceive us? But Mundus was the ruler here and had always been suppressing us, so we couldn’t resist.”
Sparda stood expressionless at the side, but he was very disdainful of Madama Styx and the others in his heart. So many demon lords knew what Mundus did, but only he dared to resist. No wonder these guys had not progressed since becoming demon lords.
They had already lost the courage and desire to advance...
However, Sparda knew that this was the norm for demons. After all, it was too difficult to become a demon king. Many demon lords had no way to advance and could only stop at this level for the rest of their lives. This situation where they could not see hope naturally destroyed their thoughts of improving.
To be honest, when Sparda served under Mundus, apart from Mundus being stronger than him, it was also because he saw hope in Mundus. Mundus had always been pursuing becoming a demon king and a true god. It was this courage that made Sparda willing to serve him.
Unfortunately, despite having the courage, Mundus still went astray. Although seizing the Ouroboros Marks had allowed him to obtain an immortal soul, it also pushed him into the opposite of all demons.
Now, this conflict finally erupted totally. After he escaped, all the demon lord generals under him first thought about how to take back the lost marks. No one wanted to be loyal to him, and it could be said that they had completely betrayed the former ruler of the Demon World.
Roy did not even think about the questions of the demon lords as he replied, “As long as I can get Mundus’s soul, I have a way to separate the marks from his soul and return them to you. But as you can see, the spatial channel has opened, and the angel army that retreated might appear again. If I don’t defeat them, it’s impossible to capture Mundus!”
Madama Styx smiled enchantingly. “This is easy. As long as Your Excellency Osiris is willing to establish a demon contract for the promise you just made, all the demon troops under us will be at your disposal. As long as we can get Mundus’s soul, what’s the big deal about reigniting the Eternal War?”
Roy looked at Madama Styx and the others in silence before nodding. “Okay!”
Thus, a demon contract appeared out of thin air. It listed the terms agreed upon by both parties. After reading the contract and finding no loopholes, Inferno Overlord Berial, Madama Styx, and the other demon lords left their demon names on the contract one by one.
After Roy left his demon name, the contract was established!
The demon lords bowed and declared their allegiance to Demon Lord Osiris.
It had to be said that demons were really clear about the hierarchy. If a true demon king were here, Berial, Madama Styx, and the others might have paid their respects without a word. But Roy was on the same level as them, so even if they had to obey and serve him, they had to fight for the benefits they should obtain for themselves.
This pattern was a bit familiar to Roy. It was just like Kha-Beleth and the other demon lords in the world of Ashan. When they were trapped in prison, everyone was equal. But when someone could escape, then they had to tacitly acknowledge him as the ruler of the entire demon camp, and the others had to support him.
This was also good for Roy. If he could not make demon lords at the same level align themselves to his interests, then it was possible to make them align themselves through a contract.
As for how to separate the marks after capturing Mundus’s soul, Roy was not worried at all. This time, he had harvested a lot of souls in the Demon World. Although they all came from demons, he could still use them. At that time, as long as he used the system to create an item such as a separation device, he could separate out the marks that Mundus had fused. As for how many souls he would need to make this item, he would see when the time came.
“Okay!” After establishing the contract, Roy said to Madama Styx and the others, “Now, return to your respective territories, gather all your troops, and then assemble at Demon King City!”
“Yes, Your Majesty Osiris!” Madama Styx and the others bowed before spreading their demon wings and flying away in all directions. Inferno Overlord Berial, who had a broken demon horn, moved his four hooves and ran into the distance.
After the demon lords left, the densely-packed low-level demons in the distance carefully approached and knelt down to offer their loyalty to Roy, the new ruler of the Demon World.
“War... is coming again...” Sparda sighed when he saw this scene.
“Isn’t this normal for demons?” Roy looked at him and asked curiously, “Why do you seem so resistant to war?”
“You don’t understand...” Sparda looked at Roy. “Osiris, you’re very powerful. The rarest thing is that you seem to be very young. I don’t know how old you are, but if you live to my age, you’ll understand what I mean...”
Roy then remembered that although Sparda only had two sons, he was actually a ten-thousand-year-old demon...
“War is indeed normal for demons. If you fight against angels for a hundred or two hundred years, you might feel that it’s nothing...” Sparda sighed. “But what if you fight for a thousand years, two thousand years, or even five thousand years? Day after day, year after year, you are always on the verge of life and death, and you always see blood in your eyes. At that time, would you still feel that this is normal?”
Roy thought about it and suddenly felt speechless.
“The Eternal War. This term sounds great and glorious, but in fact, this war that has lasted forever and has no end in sight has already made many demons and angels weary!” Sparda said. “In the nearly ten thousand years since I came to this world, I have seen many demons choose to end themselves because they could no longer endure this endless war. It’s the same for angels. I’ve encountered many angels who could clearly fight against enemies on the battlefield, but in the end, they chose to let their opponents kill them...”
Hearing Sparda’s emotional sigh, Julia could not help but nod. It was indeed so. When she was in the Darksiders world, she had witnessed the long Eternal War with Heaven under Samael. At that time, there were also demons who chose to end themselves. It was impossible for everyone to be able to endure this war that could never be won or lost...
“Therefore, I chose to seal the spatial channel before. I didn’t want the Eternal War to continue...” Sparda put away his demon sword and said to Roy, “But the matter regarding Mundus leaves me without choice. Now, I only hope that you, Your Majesty Osiris, can allow me to seal this channel again after capturing Mundus. I would be endlessly grateful.”
“Okay, I promise you!” Roy nodded.
Listening to the conversation between Sparda and Roy, Dante, Vergil, and Nero could not help but look at each other.
At this moment, they suddenly felt that it was better to be human. At least, with the human lifespan of several decades, they did not need to worry or think about what would happen thousands of years later, nor did they need to endure the mental torture brought about by the long passage of time...

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