Going through Beira's notes was disturbing. The way she described experiments on living creatures was abhorrent. She had gone mad with her desire for power. I noted down some books that might help Josef but mostly I considered destroying her works.

I did not like destroying knowledge but I wanted to stop others from following her path. Maybe I could just build a secure library instead? Hoarding forbidden knowledge never went wrong, right? I sighed.

I certainly would not let Chione keep a lot of this stuff. But my main goal was figuring out Beira's contact in hell. Sadly I had not made any progress on that front.

Eventually we called it a night and I stored everything in my amulet. It made sure that nothing disappeared during the night and it was a lot easier than posting a guard. The next day we continued our work.

"I believe I have found something." Lily said, while holding an old leather bound book.

"What is it?" I asked and walked over to her.

"It is written in an old dialect. There are some notes here as well but it might take time to decipher everything. The book is about an invasion into the mortal realms, 10000 years ago. The demons seemed to have a way to control humans. And I think a new demon lord rose from this empire." Lily mused.

"Now that is interesting. Does it say who was in charge back then? And how they were defeated?" I wondered.

"It's too early for me to say. I think I might need some help from Lilith's librarian to understand everything in here." Lily replied.

"It's certainly a lead, good job." I praised her.

We spent another day going through stuff until I was satisfied that we had found everything relevant, or dangerous. Chione looked a bit pained when she saw the amount of books I had confiscated.

"Chione, thank you for your cooperation. With this I will forgive you for siding with Beira, however, do not follow the same path. I hope you have learned from this and will choose better allies in the future." I told her.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"I shall contemplate your wisdom." Chione replied with a small bow. I was not entirely sure how serious she was but hopefully I had scared her straight. I did not want to return as the Storm.

Our journey back home was swift. Part of me was really looking forward to creating a recall spell so I could travel more confidently in the future.

Once we returned I rushed through the portal and gave Haruka a hug, something that amused Lucy greatly. Although I could see her inspecting the tree carefully to ensure everything was in order. There had been no further attacks in our absence although Lilith reported sightings of unknown demons, possibly spies or scouts. I sent Shani to have a look.

"Weeeeee." Shani happily obliged and ran off with a smile.

After reporting our findings we continued our work, now safely back at home. With the help of Lilith's resources and my servants we made good progress.

I was in my study, working on the recall spell, when I heard a knock.

"Come in." I said and Lilith entered.

"I have spent some time studying the book Lily found and I think I have deciphered enough. It tells the tale of Abaddon and how he rose to power. Interestingly it does not agree with his official position." Lilith mused.

"Oh? What is his version?" I wondered.

"There are a few, but he always claimed that he rose through combating other demons. That he tore apart another lord through his strength and took their place. However, it seems that he was an officer in Abraxa's army." Lilith replied.

"Abraxa?" I wondered.

"A demon lord who has been killed, likely by Abaddon. He had a plan to ascend further and devised runes for mortals. He wanted to collect and absorb their souls in a ritual. The book describes how Abaddon betrayed Abraxa and harnessed the power himself. He became strong enough to challenge his master and take his place. Apparently they destroyed an entire nation, killing all humans there." Lilith said.

"That is horrifying…" I replied. They had sacrificed an entire nation? For power? Abaddon was certainly someone I needed to stop.

"The book does not contain any of the runes. I am not sure who wrote it. Abaddon would not be pleased to know it exists." Lilith replied.

I scratched my head. "So it was certainly not him who gave it to Beira. But that would mean Abaddon made those runes, or stole them. So did she work with him?"

"It is possible that someone found this and wanted to recreate his work but they needed help, so they approached an archfey. It is also possible that Beira found this and approached Abaddon. We still don't know who is behind Beira's attempts but Abaddon is definitely the origin of those runes." Lilith replied.

I frowned. "Then why hasn't he used them in the last 10000 years? Unless… He stole them, right? Maybe Abraxa was the true brain behind it and by killing him he lost the knowledge? Maybe he usurped the ritual but never had the full knowledge how to create one? Hm."

"Abaddon is old and powerful. Taking him down will not be simple, especially if he has alliances." Lilith replied.

I nodded. "Once I have a proper recall spell I will go after Ashmedai. Maybe we can find more information. And maybe we can turn him into a snack to bolster our forces." Actually, I should look into that snack thing. Belphestus had brought the artefact that made turning him into a snack possible. Said artefact was now destroyed. Could I recreate that? Should I recreate that, or would it lead me down a path like Abaddon?

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.