Hierarchy of Hell

"NO, WAIT!" Aniya shouted, making everyone jump.

"How dare you scream to the king?" The top butler shouted.

"I wouldn't if your highness did not order execution for the Core. Besides, if you execute him, you would start a war with the Navalon Kingdom, and I don't care how strong you guys are. It's nothing compared to our will and will leave your kingdom vulnerable, which is a perfect opportunity for the devils and the demons to strike."

"HOW DARE YOU-"

"It's up to you if you want to do it. If you do, you guys are responsible for the end of the world."

The room stayed silent after Aniya's statement. She was right, and it would be a double whammy for the Navalon Kingdom. The king sighed and began rubbing his head, frustrated at the decisions he was facing. As a king, responsibility comes first, and he can't let his ego lose for the sake of the world instead of his kingdom. He is donating these minerals to the surviving kingdoms.

The king began thinking back to his potential from his Guardian Mode. He knows that the potential the Guardian Mode was displaying is true for every champion who mastered their powers.

"Fine, I won't execute him. Raoul, introduce him to the squad that I have already assigned for him."

"Yes, your highness." The group stood up and walked out of the throne room as Aniya looked back at the king without turning her head.

The king is one of the nobles she was talking about to Liam. At least, he's not ignorant...barely. He's still got some sense into him that he has a big responsibility to take care of.

"You're lucky that your friend here saved your life" Raoul stated bluntly.

"Hey, don't ever think about executing him behind my back. I'm staying here as long as I can trust you guys. Besides, are you guys have no common sense at all? I remember that the Guardian Mode also reveal the Champion's potential, which means you guys had never considered his future as a Champion!" Aniya stated with fire in her eyes.

"Oh yeah...I forgot about that." Raoul slapped his face with his palm.

Everyone starts to lose common sense because they are upset about the fact of a talentless middle-class citizen became a Champion.

Aniya wanted to pull her hair out. She can't even compare the other nobles who acted this way.

She barely had any hope on the Royalty and other people in this kingdom to even look back at his memories and watched his fight during the attack. Liam's potential in his Guardian Mode during the attack of the Navalon Kingdom should be able to tell them that he's not worth executing.

"Wait, how can they execute a Champion? Aren't they demigods?" One of the guys asked the group.

"Every demigod has a weakness, including Champions. They just need to strike where their heart is located with weapons made out of holy minerals to extract the Core from their body. The Core needs blood to gain access to be a Champion. You really need to read that book." The spearman patted his back, and he responded to him by rolling his eyes.

On the other hand, Liam was looking around his surroundings as the group walked through the main ground to the training ground.

Aniya gazed over at his expression. She knew that this is the first time Liam was experiencing this kind of disappointment from other people and knew how much it meant for him to be a knight.

She hopes that this doesn't affect him as much as it does when he didn't become a knight. Knowing him, it probably didn't consider that he gets a second chance.

"Hey, Abi. Here's your newest team member. Show him around the kingdom, please. I got stuff to do."

Aniya bared her teeth as she glared at him behind his back. If she wasn't a knight, she would take this opportunity to smack him. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath while Liam smiled a little as he gazed at his team members.

There were two female humans, and the other two were Beastkins from different clans. One is from the Dragon Clan and the other is from the Wolf clan. Aniya pouted a little when she face them, hoping that they don't fall in love with her Liam.

"So...you're the newborn Champion everyone's talking about?" The girl with white hair and green eyes was not interested in Liam at all as if she does not trust him. She was tapping her foot to the ground impatiently while moving her one-sided braided on her right over her ear.

"Y-Yeah." Liam was nervous and had no idea how to talk to them considering his encounter in the throne room. One wrong word could set them off in his case.

"Hey Abi, let me take over this one." The dragonkin gently moves Abi to the side before facing Liam. "Hello, my name's Malinda. Malinda Barnett. Sorry about my friend here, she does not trust strangers."

"It's alright. I understand. My name's Liam Castor. I'm looking forward to working with you guys."

"Well, training to be exact. You're not ready to work with us until you get used to being a demigod. Luckily, there are two champions here that will be able to help you out with that. Abi Concordia and Kiana Shea." The wolfkin pointed to the two human beings.

Liam looked at Kiana Shea who had dark blue hair and pink eyes before looking away quickly. When he first got a glimpse of her face, he thought he had seen a being that served death. He wanted to take a gaze just to make sure, but his body would not let him.

Liam followed his new teammates around the kingdom. Malinda does all the talking while her team backs her up. The rows between the walls except the eleventh are indeed filled with residents' needs and wants while the eleventh row holds something very important which is where they are heading first.

The eleventh row holds the most valuable place which gives the reason why the Valerie Kingdom is important. Liam couldn't help but admired it while Malinda explained everything to him about the eleventh row.

There was a lying body-shaped mountain that stretches across the field. A mountain that started the history of Champions and the advantages for the mortals to use against the beings from hell. There was no doubt that this is the resting sacred place.

There were tons of mine shafts into the body-shaped mountain while a huge shrine was placed in front of the mountain, facing towards the sun rising.

Liam and the others approached the shrine where a statue of a goddess resides inside the building. They instinctively bowed down to the goddess. The one who sacrificed herself for the mortals and truly lived to be the greatest god that ever existed. Meadow, the Goddess of Nature, Life, and Breath.

They stood up, keeping their heads down and saying goodbye to Meadow before walking away to continue with their tour. The group makes their way to the first row of walls which is heavily defended with advanced tech siege weapons, filling in every space on top of the walls. There are even siege weapons inside the walls for more firepower.

Every soldier guarding the walls was facing forward with their ears and eyes open for any potential threat. Then, Liam remembered the gemstones on the armor he had seen in every soldier.

"Hey, Malinda, what's up with the gemstone in every soldier's armor?"

"Oh that, it's a recently new technology we just found with the holy minerals. It's called Meadow's Blessing, which is a holy gemstone that has been enchanted to boost your physical capabilities to keep up with the demons."

"In other words, you can fight demons one on one." The wolfkin spoke up.

"By the way, I never catch your name before."

"O-Oh, I'm Bianca. Bianca Aine."

"That's a nice name." Liam beamed at her and Bianca smiled back.

"Oh wait, before we continue on the tour," said Malinda as they stopped in front of the opened gatehouse. "How well do you know about the hierarchy in hell?"

"Hmmm, there are five divisions. Omega, Beta, Alpha, Archdemons, and Devils, but the difference in power between most of the Archdemons and Devils from the rest is due to them being fallen angels."

"Yep, that is right. It's easy to tell the difference between normal demons and the fallen angels because they have wings, and demons don't."

"And, they are the ones who created them too, which gives Champions a rough time and had to team up to defeat one," Bianca added.

"But there are some Champions who are strong enough to defeat them. I swear, I will be those champions strong enough to obliterate them." Abi glared into the distance beyond the castle walls, clutching her fists tightly as they shivered angrily.

"Ahh, don't mind her. It's something very personal." Malinda smiled nervously.

"Speaking of the fallen angels or the Fallen, how much do you know about them, Liam?" Bianca asked. Aniya smirked, knowing that Liam reads that history book every time she's been with him.

"Well, I know angels can become fallen angels due to inheriting a trait where Gods lose control when they are angry. It affects them of losing control of their powers and changing their appearance during the process. The reason why they are called the Fallen instead of the fallen angels is that they are not the only ones. Champions and other demigods have a possible chance of becoming a fallen being."

Liam turned his gaze to Abi after he said that. Abi could have a high chance to become a fallen, but he's not sure about that. She doesn't seem to trust Liam and seemed to have a huge grudge against the fallen angels. It's possible that she invited a demon who shape-shifted into a human into her life which leads to someone's death close to her.

"Yep, that's correct. The most famous fallen angels that everyone knew about, or should I say devils Morey, Draco, Gulliver, Midas, Tiras, and Almas. Livianus is the only devil who is not a fallen angel."

"Don't they have different names like Lucifer, Satan, and Beelzebub?"

"They do, but devils are great liars. The names I've said before are their true names."

"Fallens are nothing compared to the Terrors..." An old soldier in his late fifties from the gate interrupted their conversation while looking down at his weapon pinning on the ground.

"The Terrors?" Liam questioned, never heard anything like them before. "It's not in the book, is it?"

"I'm afraid so." Malinda looked down at the ground, knowing the true reasons why they were never written in the book everyone reads. "So far, only the military and adventures knew about Terrors and were told to keep it a secret from the public or else they would freak out, and all of us will go into hiding."

"Who are the Terrors?"

"You see that over there." The old knight spoke in a shivering deep tone.

Liam looked beyond the gates and saw a sign, painted words with red that stated "Beware of the Terrors." It has a bull's skull laying on top of the sign with red eyes in it, facing toward the Valerie Kingdom.

"That place is called No Man's Land. You think that sign is scary. Creatures on the other side of that sign and even miles away; scared the living soul out of the gods and the devils. They have no control over these creatures, and it scared them to death that they don't understand what they are capable of."

Liam never heard of creatures that can scare the Gods and the Devils that badly. He began to wonder if they are on the same level as Typhon, the monster who battled the king of the gods, and Fenrir, the massive wolf who swallow a god whole. It could be also a made-up fairy tale to scare people to go beyond the walls, but that's not possible considering it is a secret kept by the adventurers and the military.

"Do the gods and devils know about them? Is there a story about them?"

"I...don't know. Vulcan lives here, so he might have clues about them. All I know is there are six of them."

"Six of them?" Bianca and Malinda asked in unison while Kiana and Abi leaned in to listen.

"Ch'osh diné, Wendigo, Kâ'lanû Ahkyeli'skï, U'tlun'ta, Nun'Yunu'Wi, and Tsul Kalu..."

Everyone blankly stared at him. There's no way they would understand what those words meant. What do those names mean? Those names are spoken in an ancient language that could have a meaning to describe them. None of these names clicked them except Liam.

"Wait, did you say Wendigo? That humanoid monster that lives up in the mountain."

"Yep, the lord of hunger who can't stop hunting for food and moves around like crazy."

"So...what about the other names? What do they mean?"

"You might have to ask the God of Fire and Crafts, Vulcan."

"No worries, I'm right here." A voice was spoken behind their back as they gaze upon a holy being with blazing phoenix wings.