Chapter 2332: The Two Horrid Queens

The Head Priestess looked back as she had been praying in front of the empty ruby throne, and what she saw behind her was one of the priestesses of the temple; but unlike everyone else, she couldn’t be fooled.

She stood, walked out of the shadows, and stood in front of Abel, staring at him with her milky-white eyes. "That’s a nice disguise you’ve got. It’s been a while since I saw a devil like you." Her hair was already crackling with curses, and she was ready to blast Abel out of the temple at the blink of an eye.

"I’m looking for a certain Baron of hell here, one that is secretly controlling the Wolf Rakshasa, Blood Blades, and Black Blood Hunters. I’ve already wiped out most of the Black Blood Hunters, but the other two are taking a bit of time, and I don’t have that." He smiled, shifting back to his regular form as he waved his hand and created a magical link with the Head Priestess.

"What is this link? Do you think I’m stupid?" She rejected the link with ease. "I don’t trust anything coming out of a stranger." She lifted her hand and started charging a red blast.

"Come on, at least inspect the magic without linking to it. It has two signatures that you’ll recognize." As Abel replied, he lifted his hand and blew a hole into her burning spell. "Also, I can punch holes into anything, even magic."

Watching her spell crumble, she sighed and shifted her gaze toward the faintly glowing thread of magic. After a second of pondering, she could recognize Sara and Haru’s traces. "Sara and Haru? You know of them."

"Sara is my sister, and I know Haru well. You’ll be talking to them, not me. I know I’m the last person you’ll trust, and that’s a smart thing." Abel shrugged, and the Head Priestess blinked several times. "Sara’s sister? Abel... I imagine you to be an incubus from what she described, but here you are, a full-fledged Devil."

"Don’t lump me with those fiends. I’m not bound by lust; I bind lust to my will." He waved his hand. "Check the link before the other priestesses come." He looked back at the room and could sense many of the priestesses stirring and starting to move. They must’ve sensed the Head Priestess’s attempt to cast magic and were alarmed.

The Head Priestess, on the other hand, wasn’t worried at all as she took her time to inspect the link, and as she did that, her consciousness faded into the magic until it connected directly with Sara and Haru.

^Sara and Haru... two former renowned priestesses who left the Temple. Why did you send this depraved devil to my humble palace?^ She sent a message, and Sara replied with a sigh and a grumble.

^You... are always like this. We just need to get rid of those bandits; otherwise, the Lord of the Seventh Layer of Hell won’t help us. Tell Abel who the Baron is and let him find a solution quickly.^

Haru added right after. ^You don’t want Arad paying you a visit later, do you?"^

The Head Priestess smiled. ^Him paying me a visit? Oh, that would be a pleasure of mine. Let him come; I’ll treat him well. The Baron you seek is quite an important person for the Ninth Layer of Hell, and they’ve got a valid reason to maintain those gangs. I alone don’t have the authority over it.^

Hearing that, Haru frowned. ^Someone that important?^ She quickly shifted her attention back to Sara. ^What should we do?^

Sara shook her head. She knew the Head Priestess well, and knew that no amount of begging or torture would sway her; that woman was built of steel and probably one of the scariest devils in the Ninth Layer. They’ve reached a dead end and must locate someone of a higher authority.

But at that moment, something slipped past Sara and Haru’s minds, and Haru’s future sight could see the Priestess shaking and pissing herself in absolute terror. ^Don’t hurt her!^ Haru cried, but it was too late.

The Head Priestess spotted it: a flood of absolute darkness rushing toward her through the link, so she immediately severed it and flooded her entire mind with Asmodeus’s magic to cleanse it. But that alone wasn’t enough, and the darkness marred her body and mind in less than a fraction of a second.

The Head Priestess was already blind, but for a moment, she found herself standing alone in an endless dark space. She couldn’t feel, see, or hear anything, and all of her connections with Hell were severed. ^This...^ She gasped, and there he was, standing in front of her.

He was tall, cloaked from head to toe, and was over five meters tall. Even though the entire space was dark, the being was, for some reason, even darker, bending down to stare at her face. She knew well that this was all happening inside her mind, but her own consciousness and body didn’t belong to her anymore.

It didn’t feel like Arad was trying to harm her, and it only took her a fraction of a second to realize that he was just looking through her memory and thoughts to find who the Baron is and where they are.

She forced a smile. "Oh, dear. Aren’t you a mannerless one? My mind is protected by Asmodeus’s grace." She took a step back, and the shadow of Asmodeus appeared behind her. "No amount of mind-reading magic can breach my thoughts."

The shadow of Asmodeus behind her came to life and took Asmodeus’s form as the Queen of Hell linked her consciousness in and was ready to confront Arad herself. "Arad Orion, your people have been causing trouble in my land recently."

Asmodeus pushed the Head Priestess back and faced Arad. "What’s your goal, Emperor of Nothing?"

The Head Priestess forced another smile. "Can you two... please don’t fight inside my mind. I don’t want to go insane from the damage."

Asmodeus smiled. "Don’t worry, neither of us intends to cause damage. He isn’t even trying." She rested her fists on her hips. "In fact, he didn’t even try to scour your memories, he just pretended to do it so you’d call me."

Arad’s voice rumbled from his dark body. "We needed a higher authority, and we got one to speak with this quickly." He then chuckled. "But I’m surprised. I didn’t think I’d be able to trick you." His body started smoking and bleeding black tar from beneath his cloak. His voice slowly changed to that of a woman, and Asmodeus frowned. "You bitch..."

Arad pulled his hood, and the one there was Doma, looking at Asmodeus with a grin. "Arad is hibernating, so we can’t ask for his help whenever we want. He appears and disappears whenever he feels like it." She flicked her fingers and locked the entire place. "So, I decided to come and help in his place when Haru and Sara needed help."

The Priestess paled as she saw Doma’s face. "The Queen of Curses!" In all of existence, there were two people who were associated with an unparalleled mastery over curses. Asmodeus, the Queen of Hell, and Doma, the Queen of Curses.

Asmodeus stared at Doma in silence for a long while and then burst out laughing. "Then, what do you think you can do? I see that you’ve locked her mind. Are you trying to catch me? Sorry to tell you, but this is just a fraction of my mind, and there are two of me." She approached her. "You only captured a meaningless fragment of my power."

Doma smiled and licked her lips. "Now, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way." She giggled. "Tell me who the Baron is, give me a detailed tome about souls and sinners, records of hell, and access to Lucifer’s Book of Curses. Do that, and I’ll be on my way." She cracked her neck. "Resist -and I wish you do resist-, and I’ll take my time to eliminate you and take over Hell’s throne."

A threat from Doma wasn’t something to take lightly, and from what Asmodeus understood, Doma isn’t here just for the Baron’s information, but to get more data for her research on bodies and souls. This might’ve been planned by Sena as well, so she’ll go and complain to Tiamat later.

"An elvish curse user thinks she can match the Queen of Hell?" Asmodeus shook her head. "You know nothing about how hell works and how curses are really created. You won’t go far."

Doma giggled. "Oh... I already went far. What I seek is knowledge, all of it. The cursed, the unknown, the forbidden, and the horrendous history of dark magic." She lifted her hands. "I’ll show you what true curses are about, Queen of Hell."

"I said don’t fight inside my head!" The Head Priestess cried as she could clearly sense the two were on the edge of clashing. Even if the dark figure wasn’t Arad himself, Doma, the Queen of Curses, was arguably even worse.