Game of the World Tree

Evé in her incarnation form, strolled casually through the labyrinth she had recently created.

Being situated deep beneath the surface, one could easily noticed that the temperature within it was somewhat higher compared to that of the outside world.

Furthermore, the heat grew even more intense as one approached the core area where the seventh demon lord, Azazel, was currently sealed.

This was mainly due to Azazel possessing the Divinity of Magma, causing the area where he was sealed to be naturally influenced by this element.

As such, it also wouldn’t be unexpected if a sea of lava were to eventually form in this labyrinth.

What’s more, the mana in this place differed greatly from that of the outside world—chaotic and turbulent, with a tinged of malevolence alongside it.

This was also due to Azazel’s inherent powers.

With his demonic powers being fundamentally tied to the Abyss, it essentially possessed a strong corrupting nature that could continuously erode anything, including the very seal confining him.

Therefore, no matter how securely a demon lord is sealed, such pervasive corruption will inevitably persist.

For this reason, historically speaking, all locations where evil gods were sealed had guardians that are tasked to regularly deal with the sealed beings corruption that erode the material world.

The reason why chaos reigned over Seigües after the resurgence of mana was that, over the span of more than a thousand years, many of the guardians of these sealed evil beings had gradually perished.

The same applied in regards to Azazel and his recent awakening.

Alas, luck was not on his side for shortly after attaining his freedom, he fell into Eve’s grasp.

Whilst thinking of such things, Evé continued her stroll through the labyrinth.

From time to time, she would hear various monster-like roars echoing within it.

As she moved forward, she became acutely aware of pairs of eyes lurking in the darkness, silently watching her every movement.

Such gazes were filled with greed and malevolence, with a hint of fear as well.

However, as soon as Evé focused her gaze toward it, those eyes would quickly disperse.

With a thought, Evé gestured with her hands in a specific direction as several vines materialized at her command and shot into the darkness.

Moments later, the air was quickly filled with terrified growls and agonized screams.

The vines then quickly returned to Evé, each coiling around a ferocious-looking creature.

These creatures she captured were unlike any of the beings seen here in the underground.

Instead, each of them had a grotesque appearance of varying kinds, but one noticeable distinct characteristic of these monsters was that they all had horns, tails, and scales, as they all exude a very thick aura of the Abyss.

These were low-level demons, also known as lesser demons or imps, ranking just above the lowest form of Abyssal creatures—the abyssal worms.

Their strength ranged from lower to upper Iron-rank.

However, further beyond these lesser demons, Evé could also perceived a far more powerful auras lurking deeper within the labyrinth.

Those were greater demons, which were mostly at the Silver-rank.

These demons were the minions of the seventh demon lord, Azazel.

Being a god who had merged his essence with the realm of Hell, each demon lord possessed a power akin to the Abyss itself—the ability to create forth demons.

However, unlike the Abyss itself, which can directly spawn demons with its essence alone, demon lords must primarily corrupt other creatures first and entice them into absorbing the corrupted power of the Abyss before they can transform them into demons.

The weak ones were usually transformed into lesser demons, while stronger ones have the potential to turn into greater demons.

Demon lords can still do this despite being sealed, and as soon as an opportunity arose, they would always find ways to create minions for themselves, enslave them, and use these minions to seek their own liberation.

And although Evé had sealed Azazel within this labyrinth, she had not actually fully restrained his power.

As a result, this evil god had lured many such underground creatures into wandering into the labyrinth before corrupting and transforming them into demons.

Not only that but by using his Divinity of Lust (harmony), Azazel even manipulated certain demons in the labyrinth to breed and mutate, which then eventually evolved the labyrinth into an Abyssal Brood Nest.

An Abyssal Brood Nest is a demonic breeding ground, capable of producing Abyssal Worms continously.

These worms would eventually start to devour each other and grow into lesser demons, which could supply the demon lord with near endless amounts of new minions.

Essentially, this method is how demon lords build up their forces, and it is also the primary method they employed to break out of their sealed prisons.

Just as long as the seal isn’t completely flawless, and they manage to create their very first demon minion, such process can easily begin.

Given enough time and plenty of subordinates, the sealed demon lord will attempt to escape from their prison and if they somehow managed to escape, these minions could also be used as an immediate sustenance to quickly regain their strength.

Azazel had actually escaped his prison in this manner the last time.

Immediately after breaking free, he quickly consumed his followers and demon minions before he joined the war against the Hermetic Alliance.

Had he been given more time to gather new cultists and create fresh demon underlings, the Hermetic Alliance would have faced not just Azazel, but a full battalion only composed of demon army.

But now, after being sealed once again in this labyrinth, Azazel was repeating the same process all over again.

However, Evé was well aware that this was actually Azazel’s way of saving himself and that she could easily stop his attempts.

Just by clearing out all the demons in the labyrinth and regularly purging them to maintain the integrity of the seal, she could thwart any of the Demon Lord’s escape plans.

However, this method is quite tedious, and for mythical beings like Azazel, time is hardly a concern.

Even if all his minions are completely purged, he could start over and over again, just as long as the prison he’s been sealed isn’t completely impenetrable.

It’s definitely a slow method, but it can be quite effective on the long run.

After all, in all of history, nearly no prison is entirely airtight.

Sealed prisons essentially require mana to function, and this energy is usually drawn from external sources.

As such, the moment a prison connects to the outside world for energy, there is a chance a flaw in its defenses will appear.

And once such flaw is found, the sealed demon lord inside it, can slowly rebuild their power by leveraging their connection to Hell.

Evé didn’t have extensive experience in making seals, so the labyrinth she created had even more weaknesses since it was her first time making one.

And even though she had managed to successfully sealed Azazel in this labyrinth, the very mere fact that this demon lord had already converted so many demons in such a short amount of time was a defining proof that the prison she made was quite imperfect.

Yet of course, Evé had never intended to create such a perfect prison from the beginning.

After all, a dungeon without any kind of enemies wouldn’t be much of a dungeon, now would it?

Henceforth, naturally speaking, there had to be both enemies and rewards for it to full function like the dungeon she intended.

Evé would place a teleportation array in a corner of the labyrinth every few steps, disguising them to look like treasure chests by using more intricate arrays.

These “treasure chests” could only be opened by beings personally marked by Eve and they were connected to her storage space, or more precisely, to the various supplies she had stored within her divine kingdom.

As she continued her stroll, Evé would also occasionally lay down these arrays, continuing forth until she reached the central hall of the labyrinth—the Demon God’s Palace.

After pausing for a moment to inspect the exterior of the Palace, Evé gently pushed open its grand doors.

Inside this enormous palace, the Seventh Demon Lord, Azazel, sat expressionless upon a throne.

His terrifying form—a demon with the head of a goat—fitted quite perfectly with the imposing, crude, and mysterious architecture of the demon god’s palace.

It was truly a magnificent sight.

Very domineering indeed.

Nonetheless, invisible to the naked mortal eye, a divine being would be able to perceive the invisible chains that bind Azazel within this Palace.

These chains were the central core of Evé’s seal.

This chained seal not only restricted Azazel’s power below the Legendary-rank, but also confined him to this very palace itself.

And whether Azazel’s strength was at the Iron, Silver, or Gold rank solely depended on Eve’s whims.

“I see that you’ve been quite busy lately. It’s only been a few days, and you’ve already converted so many creatures into demons,”

Eve casually remarked, tossing the lesser demon she had just captured onto the floor before turning her gaze to the demon lord.

Azazel in turn, looked back at Evé, as his eyes which were made of entirely flames, narrowed slightly.

“Yggdrasill..”

He let out a cold laugh.

“I didn’t expect that your sealing abilities would become so pathetic after your revival.”

“Let’s see how long you can maintain it and how many times you can come to clean it up again and again. You better don’t give me a chance to escape!”

Hearing Azazel’s provocative words, Evé merely raised an eyebrow and smiled in response.

“Oh these creatures you keep on creating? Don’t worry, I personally won’t be the one cleaning them up.”

She then took a moment to scan Azazel thoroughly and then added with a smirk:

“Though I must say, your appearance is quite fitting. Truly a perfect role to be a boss character.”

“However, there’s no need to talk too much. Uttering three lines would suffice enough.”

With that, Evé casually waved her hand.

Azazel, both shocked and enraged, immediately felt the chains that’s binding him activate once again.

However this time, the seal had completely suppressed his ability to speak.

Eve then looked at Azazel and smiled mischievously.

“Well what do you think of these three sentences: ‘How dare you, a lowly ant, step into my territory!’, ‘Tremble, and die!’, ‘Damn it, I will definitely come back!’?”

Azazel: “…?”

— 406 —

【 BOSSES ONLY NEED TO SAY THREE LINES 】

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