'Ow!'
Was the first thing I thought once I opened my eyes. Contrary to the usual unfamiliar ceiling or the usually blue sky, what I t was a red sky with black clouds. Confused, I tilted my head around and saw a little thing clawing at my shoulder.
This thing had a tiny round fra, with little bat-like wings on it back, a barbed tail and two short horns poking out of its head.
"What the heck are you?"
I muttered in curiosity, startling it. The little fella jumped back and scread. That was when I noticed that there were more of them surrounding . They also scread,, then quickly skedaddled from my view.
There was one big figure however, that fell down and was looking at with terrified eyes. Scanning from the down below, I identified a pair of black hairy goat legs. The hair stopped at their waste level, revealing a more human torso. They wore a dirty sleeveless vest over a white shirt. Their face was cute, with bangs covering one eye. A pair of red bat wings on the back and one short horn sticking out their head.
'Huh? A shota?'
I thought while looking at it. But, the more I observed their terrified figure, I noticed more feminine qualities. Their tiny fra, their round cheeks and overall aura.
"Hmm, a loli then?"
I muttered this ti with my arm to my chin while looking at them curiously. They still trembled while looking at and it was almost as if they were about to cry.
"No, no. This is a shota, no? But… he or she gives off a female vibe."
I was trying to rack my brain around this odd phenonon. Sotis it was hard to tell a little boy from a little girl, but this was down right absurd.
"You, are you a guy or a girl?"
I asked them, unable to co to a conclusion myself. They looked at , still shaking. I didn't understand why exactly they were terrified, but I turned around to see if there was sothing I wasn't seeing.
Behind , all I saw were mountain heaps of trash, bones and red dirt. Little critters like the ones from before were running about, but that was about as far as I could see. No sort of life as far as I could tell.
"You still won't tell your gender?"
I scratched my head and awkwardly looked back at the Baphot that was trying to run away. They didn't need to tell what their race was for to know. Everyone knows what a goat legged, bat winged and horned creature looks like.
They paused in their tracks and slowly turned around to face .
"Co on, I'm not that scary, am I?"
I tried to look at myself, but all I saw were my slender arms and blonde hair. Nothing different about myself.
"I-I'm sorry milady. I am male."
He was a 'he'. And he was currently bowing to with one knee and fist on the ground.
"Huh, so you are a shota. Interesting."
He was still trembling while under as he said,
"I-If mi-milady w-w-would be so k-k-k-k-kind as t-to f-f-forgive my t-t-transgress-sion, I-I-I would be s-so gr-grateful."
'Forgive transgression? Milady? What's this guy on about?'
"Do you have a na?"
I asked, not wanting to think about what exactly he was overreacting to.
"I m-m-may be a lesser devil, b-b-but I h-have be-been summoned t-to other r-realms and re-received mul-multip n-nems before."
'Ah… he's ssing up. Just how scared is he?'
"Multiple nas? What na do you use?"
"M-Malius."
"Like Malice. Nice na for a Baphot, I guess."
I shrugged then kept surveying my surroundings. It felt odd not having my parallel minds and it felt even worse to not have the system. At the mont, I was quite literally defenceless as I stood here looking at everything. Fortunately, there didn't seem to be any demons around.
"T-thanks you."
"Say, where exactly am I?"
Still facing the ground and his hair standing up like needles, he responded to my question with lightning speed.
"The Outer ring of the 8th Layer, milady."
"Huh?"
I was confused. What did he an by outer ring of the 8th layer?
"Oi, where exactly am I?"
Again, I asked, hoping for a clearer answer. He yelped, cleared his throat, then responded once more.
"T-T-The Outer ring of the 8-8th layer. The Red Light Slums."
"The red light slums?"
I still didn't quite get what he ant. In fact, I couldn't quite rember what exactly it was I was supposed to be doing here. The only thing I knew is that Alpha sent here. But where exactly is here?
"Hmm, give a more general na for this place."
"T-The Lust Layer."
"Lust layer? Sothing more general if possible?"
At this point, even the little guy looked confused as he was now facing with so like a distraught face.
"…One of the 9 layers of Hell?
Finally, he said sothing that sounded familiar.
'Hell. Isn't that where devils are from? But what would I be doing in hell? I'm part devil, but it's not like I've been here before. And why would the system master send here. I feel like she didn't tell anything, but then again, I doubt that she didn't tell anything. Ugh, this is getting annoying.'
"E-Excuse ."
Malius spoke up, so I looked at him. But it would seem our eyes couldn't clash for more than a second as he averted his gaze imdiately.
'Oi, oi, I'm the NEET here. I should be the one avoiding eye contact.'
As much as I liked to claim that I wasn't really the outdoorsy type, I would have to admit that spending soti in the forest with all of those guys had changed in so way. And the fact that I was now in charge of the general managent of several races against an impending war, kind of took out of the NEET organisation, huh?
"Perhaps, you may have also lost so of your mories?"
He asked as if it were the most normal thing to do. I almost shot down the idea, but I was curious about how he drew this sort of conclusion. From the sound of things, he too had so issues with his mories.
"It would seem so. Is this a normal thing in this area?"
"Oh no, I guess that explains why a devil such as yourself was just sleeping in an outer ring."
He stood up and dusted himself then whistled. About a dozen of the little fellas from earlier rushed over, all carrying so sort of junk in their mouth.
"You must have been engaged in battle with one of the 72 nobles of hell and lost."
"Nobles of hell?"
"You must have had it bad."
He had this look of pity in his eye as he knelt down and let out a deep thoughtful sigh. I was starting to find it infuriation how graceful each and every single one of his movents were. It was srising enough for to actually try to consider… no.
"Yes."
"Huh? No."
"Excuse ?"
He was confused, but I looked away.
"Go on."
"Ok… the 72 nobles of hell are called the Ars Goetia. They are the 72 Devil Lords that rule over all the layers of hell. And they are subordinate to the 7 Devil Princes of hell who has also subordinate to the 2 kings of hell."
'Why so many people in charge?'
"Most of the devil lords stay in the 1st layer where the Devil King resides, but so prefer to move about the other layers, fighting potential threats to their claim. Eventually, those unlucky devils end up losing so of their mories and wake up here. In the Lust layer."
I looked around, and there was nothing special.
"Why this place in particular?"
His ears drooped down.
"I am not quite sure. I do have a theory that it's because this is where most devils are born, but that is rely a suggestion with no actual evidence to back it up."
"Most devils are born here? Is that what those little guys are?"
I asked, pointing to the round red fellas starting to swarm us.
"Oh no, these are my fiends. They've been loyal to ever since I first woke up. I guess they just love ."
'Just loyal since he woke up? Weren't these little shits eating at when I woke up? What's so special about him?'
I stood up and stretched my body.
"I guess that's enough sitting around. Take to one of these nobles."
I demanded, but the Baphot gave a sort of mocking look.
"What's with that face?"
"Nothing."
"Don't give that nothing crap. What aren't you saying?"
"Y-You already lost to one so… fighting another one once you woke up is a bit… how do I phrase this…?"
"Stupid. Yeah, fighting an opponent you already lost to without a plan is stupid. Luckily, I don't ever do that."
I an, I hadn't even fought a noble before. The only way to see how I'd fair against one is to actually fight against one since I can't just take everything Malius says at face level.
Just as I turned around, the ground started to shake. In the distance, I could see a storm gathering. Not a storm, but a tsunami of dust clouds moving towards us fast. I squeezed my eye to get a better look and when I did, all I saw was an army of devils charging with terrifying expressions on their faces.
"Is that an army of devils trying to ram us down?"
I asked, but the Baphot was running away already. I turned around and chased after him.
"Oi! Where are you going?"
I asked him as he was simply flying in a straight direction. I also unfurled my wings and chased after him. It was surprisingly easy to catch up to him.
"Eek!"
I seed to have startle him by my sudden appearance, but even then he kept flying straight. Was the army behind us really that scary?
No, no. First of all, isn't it normal to be scared of a charging army? I was starting to think my perspective on everything was seriously warped now.
In the end, I chose to just quietly follow him as he was the only acquaintance I had in hell.
_______________________________
Middle Ring, 8th layer of Hell
A lean figure with red skin, two short horns and a barbed tail stood on the outskirts of the Middle ring. With his Demon Eye of Insight, he looked far ahead of himself where he saw what looked to be an army of devils charging towards him.
He shook his head then looked past the gathering of devils. Behind them, one devil as large as a mountain was running behind them. He was the true reason the other devils were charging so mightily. They were fleeing eternal death at the hands of one of the 72 Devil Lords.
"I warned him not to do anything that will get the Lady of Purple's attention."
As he said this, he turned back to look at the fleeing devils. All of them were of low ranks – lesser and greater devils. There was nothing special about this collection.
That is, till he noticed two particular devils that were fleeing quite a way ahead of the massive group. One was a Baphot and the other was sothing he couldn't even begin to describe. Sothing about it evoked feelings of rage, fear and… happiness?
It wasn't sothing he could understand, so he turned to look at the Baphot once more. Still, there was nothing special about the Baphot, but his gut feeling said there was sothing different.
He looked on at both of them for quite a while, before sothing snapped in his head.
"Ah… master!"
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