Chapter 453: Watching Him Make Money Hurts More Than Losing My Own

Ambrose handed over the magic mirror without a second thought, then carefully reminded Sariel to mind how she went about "negotiating" with Tiamat.

Sariel took the alchemical artifact and vanished, as if she were in a hurry to get started.

The moment she returned to Hell, she set off at once to find Tiamat, who was still at home brooding in a silent fury.

The astral gate was gone. Every astral red dragon was dead. The githark survivors numbered in the low thousands. Her every plan had collapsed.

"That damned lich!"

That was the phrase Tiamat had been muttering most often of late.

When Sariel appeared wearing a wide smile, the five-headed dragon queen looked at her with suspicion. "That smile of yours is full of malice and scheming. Have you found some mortal to toy with?"

Someone ordinary wouldn't be worth an expression like that from an Archduchess of Hell. Tiamat's curiosity was piqued.

"Indeed. I've just closed a deal that should net me upward of ten million soul-coins." Sariel said, looking rather pleased with herself.

Tiamat's expression shifted to one of genuine shock. Ten million? That was no small sum.

Soul-coins were nothing like gold, which was practically worthless. How many souls descended to Hell in any given year? How many devils across all of Hell were competing for them? Ten million was equivalent to the entire population of a small nation.

"You're the one being played," Tiamat said, without hesitation.

Who could possibly produce ten million soul-coins? Had the people of Lyon stopped worshipping the Lord of Dawn and offered their entire population up for mass blood sacrifice? Even that wouldn't yield nearly enough.

"Ordinary people couldn't, of course," Sariel said, still smug. "But what about that lich?"

The golden pupils of Tiamat's eyes blazed with light, like fury made manifest. She could not bear to hear any news connected to that lich, unless it was news of his death.

Sariel pressed her advantage. "I know you've had bad blood with him, which is exactly why I came to you. Don't you want revenge? Just like last time, we could harvest a million sinners in one stroke and walk away with a mountain of soul-coins besides."

Tiamat was not so easily swayed. "You're the one who's been fooled. Last time, did you truly believe we came out ahead?"

The Unholy Kingdom had originally been within the grasp of both Archduchesses of Hell. An entire kingdom's descent into damnation would have brought tremendous prestige to the first layer of Hell, and the rewards would have been incalculable.

But the lich's meddling had slashed those rewards to a fraction of what they should have been.

Tiamat had come out of the entire affair as the worst loser of all. The terms of the original deal required Ambrose to open the astral gate. In exchange for that, she had been forced to cede a share of the gains to Sariel, so most of the benefit had gone straight into Sariel's pocket.

Then, the astral invasion failed entirely. Tiamat had all but spat out blood in the aftermath of her losses.

"Regardless, my asking price this time was ten million, and he agreed. What's more, I've negotiated for your terms as well. He's willing to compensate you for the astral red dragons as well: six million high-quality soul-coins for sixty lost dragons. Not bad of me, wouldn't you say?"

"Six million?!"

Tiamat's fury was immediate. "Do you have any idea what sixty red dragons are worth? How many years I spent cultivating them in the astral plane?!"

"But dead ones aren't worth anything," Sariel said, with merciless indifference. "At least this way, you recoup something."

Tiamat had no ready answer for that, but she was not so easily manipulated, either.

"And you came to tell me about this out of the goodness of your heart?"

The two of them were nominally allies, but there was no such thing as genuine affection between devils. If this deal were truly as sweet as Sariel made it sound, she would have kept it to herself, not gone out of her way to share it. Something was off.

"It's not something I can pull off on my own. Even with your help, we might still fall short. The lich's demands this time are... rather extraordinary."

Tiamat's brow furrowed deeply. She could not imagine what the lich could possibly be asking for that would give even Sariel pause.

"He wants to abduct Blobdilpulp and deliver her to Thanos."

Tiamat froze. She looked as if she had misheard. After a long silence, she finally forced out, "Has this lich finally lost his mind? Does he understand why gods are gods?"

Sariel had to suppress a laugh. She had thought exactly the same thing at the time, but there was nothing to be done about it. Ambrose was paying too well.

"I didn't press him for the details, but this is an incredible deal for us. He has promised to handle locating Blobdilpulp and neutralizing the chaos of her divine realm himself. All we need to do is move in and seize her once he's dealt with those obstacles. Sounds simple enough, doesn't it?"

To deal with any deity, those were the two greatest obstacles that had to be overcome: first, to pinpoint the target's location and find a way into the divine realm; second, to find a way to counter the divine realm's effects.

If both problems were solved, it was far from impossible for Sariel and Tiamat to subdue Blobdilpulp.

"And we still get paid even if he can't deliver on that?" Tiamat asked.

"Naturally. Why else would I consider it guaranteed profit? But I did bring you this rather excellent deal, so I'll be taking half of your six million."

"Absolutely not," Tiamat said flatly. "And six million is far too little. That lich can manufacture soul-coins. It's far cheaper for him to mint them than anyone else. Why did you only open at ten million? If I had done the negotiating, it would have been twenty million minimum."

"Then you're welcome to negotiate with him yourself," Sariel said, unbothered.

"I was simply erring on the side of caution and making sure nothing went wrong. Blobdilpulp is an intermediate divinity, after all. If you'd rather I work this alone, I can certainly do that. Or you could approach the lich directly—though, given your history with him, I wonder what he'd offer you."

Sariel looked as though she had already won. But Tiamat glanced back at her and said, "Sariel, we've known each other a long time. I know exactly how you operate. Everything you just said was what the lich coached you to say, wasn't it? Next time you try to play someone, make sure you actually sound like yourself."

Sariel's expression stiffened. Tiamat had struck a nerve. "Fine," she said through gritted teeth. "Since you've seen through it, I won't pretend. The lich decided my strength alone wasn't enough, and insisted on dragging you in. Maybe he wants to fleece you again."

"Then what is the actual price he offered?" Tiamat asked.

"Eight million each," Sariel said coldly. "I was going to take two million off your share for myself."

"That's all?" Tiamat looked skeptical. "His artificial souls aren't hard to produce. He should be more generous than that."

"He has a monopoly, and wouldn't budge," Sariel said, with evident frustration. "He went on about how an influx of soul-coins would cause inflation in Hell, and we'd end up losing more in the long run. I don't understand all that, so I couldn't argue him down."

"That damnable lich!" Tiamat fumed. "He's nothing but a counterfeiter!"

"Yes, a counterfeiter with far too much audacity. But we don't have much choice, do we?"

"Can he truly neutralize the divine realm's effects?" Tiamat pressed. "If he can't do that, none of the rest matters."

"If he can't, so much the better. We'll collect our fee and walk away without lifting a finger. I'm rather looking forward to seeing what punishment he gets for breaking his deal with Thanos. What happened to Valarun back in the day had the gods talking for years."

"Then what reason do I have to refuse?"

Tiamat glanced at Sariel's hip and noticed that her personal sword was no longer there. It had evidently been given to the lich as a token of the contract.

Tiamat reached up and plucked a single scale from her own brow.

"Take this to him. Tell him I accept the deal — but not at eight million. Ten million each. Not one soul-coin less."

Sariel took the scale, but couldn't help saying, "What if he refuses our offer?"

"Then we'll sit this deal out," Tiamat said firmly. "I would rather we all lose together than let that lich have his way. Watching him make money hurts more than losing my own. That's my price, and I won't budge."

Sariel gave a nod. "You're right. I'm raising my price too. Ten million each for both of us."

Sariel took Tiamat's scale and departed. Only once she was entirely clear of Tiamat's territory and had carefully tucked the scale safely away did she finally let out a roar of laughter.

"Ha! The lich quoted me twenty million and Tiamat sixty million, so now I'm pocketing seventy million for myself! This is incredible. So this is what it feels like to swindle someone. No wonder that lich loves doing business so much. It's like winning a battle, but better!"

This may well have been the most successful transaction of Sariel's entire existence. She couldn't resist contacting Ambrose immediately through the magic mirror to boast about her achievement.

When she delivered Tiamat's scale to Ambrose, he glanced at her with deep, anguished sorrow. "You drove quite a hard bargain there. When Tiamat finds out, she'll despise you for it."

"We all live in Hell," Sariel said carelessly. "Does it matter who hates whom down here?"

"It does have its consequences, though. Tiamat is your neighbor, after all. When she finds out, it'll cause you no small amount of trouble."

Something in Ambrose's tone made Sariel uneasy. "What exactly do you mean by that? Are you thinking of telling Tiamat? Don't forget that this was your idea in the first place."

Ambrose shook his head. "Of course not. I don't double-deal—that's not how I run a business. And this won't be our only transaction. There will be plenty of opportunities to work together going forward. Whether I'm paying you or Tiamat, it makes no difference to me."

Sariel frowned. She had a nagging sense that something was wrong. Had the lich dug a pit for her? Was he simply waiting for her to fall in?

Ambrose kept his polite smile, but his tone became very deliberate. "Rest assured, I'll deliver the soul-coins in full. But have you considered that Tiamat might notice once so many high-quality soul-coins start to circulate? The difference between seventy million and ten million is rather hard to miss."

"What exactly are you getting at?" Sariel asked.

"Simply this: don't spend it all at once. A sudden influx of that magnitude will trigger serious inflation. It'll devalue your existing assets, draw the displeasure of the other archdukes, and expose the fact that you swindled Tiamat."

"Having gold I can't spend—how is that any different from not having it at all?!"

Sariel absolutely could not accept this. She was no miser, and she had no capacity to sit on wealth of this size. She had already mapped out exactly how she intended to spend it. Being told to lock it away was out of the question.

"No, no, no. What I'm suggesting is that seventy million soul-coins is enough to shake the entire economy of Hell. So why not think bigger? Sariel, have you ever considered seizing control of Hell's soul-coin trade?"

"What are you getting at?"

Sariel was already beginning to feel slightly dizzy. After all this winding buildup, was she going to be allowed to spend the money or not?

"The lords of Hell have always operated alone, each holding their own territory, so your use of soul-coins has remained extremely primitive. The main reason, of course, is that soul-coins have always been scarce, and are consumable rather than a true medium of exchange. But that won't last. I intend to keep producing soul-coins, and it will inevitably disrupt Hell's economy.

"Sariel, under that coming wave of change, you could accomplish a great many things.

"For instance, what about establishing Hell's first soul-coin bank?"

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