A Deal

Knapp was a royal demon, an indirect descendant of the Demon King of Gluttony.

After being born, he spent hundreds of years and finally found this city. To find the royal bloodline needed for promotion, he joined the tournament and was now facing an opponent who looked dangerous.

As the match started, he immediately used 'swallow all,' intending to swallow his opponent directly.

"Super-ultra-massive-double-fast fireball!" His opponent enhanced a single spell five times.

Knapp was astonished; he couldn't even use one strengthening spell. Regardless, he changed the target of 'swallow all' to the incoming fireballs. The fireballs disappeared, swallowed by his talent.

The opponent cast a spell and created some distance between them. Then, he cast another spell, "Super-ultra-massive-great-boosted shade."

This time, Knapp was just confused.

Shade swallowed the entire arena, making it devoid of any light, in complete darkness.

But as demons, they had excellent vision, so this spell was utterly useless.

Knapp used this opportunity and cast the 'jump' spell, reaching beside his opponent incredibly quickly, then activated 'swallow all' again!

His opponent was caught by surprise, but unbelievably, he cast a spell with incredible speed: "Super-ultra-sharp-deep-fast razor strike!".

With the distance being so short, Knapp didn't manage to shift the target of 'swallow all' quickly enough, and as a result, the razor hit his eyes, leaving him blind!

Knapp screamed and made some distance.

His opponent also shrieked.

'Swallow all' had consumed the opponent's entire right arm!

Knapp cast 'quick bandage' spell on his eyes to stop the bleeding, then relied on his hearing to detect the opponent's location.

However, Knapp noticed that he could not hear anything from his opponent.

He immediately used 'swallow all' to cover all around himself, causing everything near him to be swallowed.

"Where did he go? I don't feel anything, no air vibration, no sound! What is going on?" he thought while feeling confused.

Fortunately, 'swallow all' is a great defensive ability so that he can remain invulnerable as long as it remains active.

Technically speaking, the defense is not perfect, as he has a weakness to a lunar eclipse that affects the moon representing the god of gluttony, but who can control lunar eclipses? This cannot actually be considered a weakness.

Knapp continued to concentrate and used many mana-detecting spells for almost half an hour, but found nothing.

"It's weird, but he is really gone! I can no longer hold onto the 'swallow all' shield."

As a final insurance, he threw fireballs in random directions and used a few wide-area effect spells before disabling 'swallow all.'

Then, he felt the world spinning!

"What happened? Why can I see my body? What is going on?" He couldn't hear or feel anything, not even pain! Soon, he lost consciousness and died in utter confusion!

...

Zagronan took the body while groaning in pain!

In this battle, he got seriously injured, losing one hand and being burned by a fireball!

"I still don't get what 'One dies with too much darkness' means!" Rachel complained.

Zagronan didn't answer in dissatisfaction!

"Don't worry, Zag, one rank 3 'recovery' pill, and all your wounds will be healed!"

Soon, they got back to the room.

"Can I keep this ability?" Zagronan asked Rachel.

He was impressed by the 'swallow all' ability.

"Nope! You cannot keep the abilities of other bloodlines! There is a pill that can make it possible, but we don't have it," she said.

"Then we have no choice but to trade the body with one from Tanoth bloodline!" he said.

He took the 'recovery' pill, and his injuries healed in a few hours.

Then, he went to the 'exchange' building next to the arena. He exchanged the corpse, receiving the corpse of a royal blood demon from the Tanoth bloodline in return.

Fortunately for him, the corpse with Tanoth's bloodline was fresh,  as if she had died just recently.

"Can I preserve the ability of this one?" Zagronan asked, getting used to asking questions from Rachel.

"It looks fresh, so it should be possible," she said.

After death, the ability must be transferred quickly; otherwise, the rank 3 'bloodline preservation' will fail.

Soon, they returned to the room.

Zagronan started draining the blood.

After a while, he took the 'bloodline preservation' and then started drinking the blood.

He actually liked the taste of blood, so this was his favorite part.

After a few hours, he had consumed all the blood and smiled brightly.

"I have a new ability. I can feel it! Its name is 'One Move Ahead.' I can see the opponent's next move in battle!" he said with great excitement.

"This ability is handy for life preservation!" Zagronan exclaimed.

"That's great! Now, let's get ready to visit the Baron. I'm going to calculate it now," Rachel said.

Zagronan waited, and not long after, Rachel started talking.

"There should be no danger of death.

Zagronan nodded and closed his eyes while swallowing a 'demon body' pill.

...

The next day, Zagronan reached a teleportation station nearby. The Baron had prepaid it, so he didn't need to pay.

A demon general who looked like a dog, but much larger and oddly standing on two legs cast a spell on Zagronan, and with a bright red light, he disappeared.

The 'teleportation' spell starts from rank 4 and goes up to rank 9. A rank 4 'teleportation' spell has a shorter range and is less precise than higher-rank spells.

But rank 4 'teleportation' was sufficient for transportation within the city.

There were many 'teleportation' points within the city, but any that directly led to the Baron's palace had to be cast personally by a demon general.

"Urg!" Zagronan throw up.

"Is it so bad?" Rachel asked.

"It's like my stomach is on fire! Why is it so bad?" he said out loud, complaining.

"It's because you're Rank 1; when you reach a higher rank, it will be easier," Elizabeth, who had just arrived, said.

Zagronan became more respectful, wiping his mouth. After all, this tiny girl was a Rank 6 Demon General.

"Follow me," she said.

Zag followed, and after a while, they reached a man sitting on the ground, playing with things resembling Legos.

Elizabeth bowed and said, "Baron, here he is."

Baron Iggad, who was 5 meters high and had a 3-meter-long beard, was looking at the legos with a wide smile and said, "Let me finish!"

Then, he started placing Legos. They didn't look like anything special, just random placements.

"Bang!"

The Baron punched them and reduced all of them to ashes. "Hahaha," he then started laughing.

Rachel was getting worried. In the reflection, she only saw still pictures. She didn't know the Baron was crazy.

The Baron's smile disappeared, and he waved his hand. A chair appeared, and he sat on it.

"So... you're the guy with prediction ability?" he asked.

"Prediction ability?" Zagronan asked in confusion.

"Yeah, don't tell me you just randomly found that poor demon's 'gone' ability! Are you saying that?" Iggad asked, looking wide-eyed.

Rachel said, "Repeat everything I say."

Zagronan, who generally didn't like thinking hard, accepted and repeated Rachel's words.

"Yeah, it was me! I can make very limited predictions!" he said.

"How limited?" Iggad asked.

"Nothing I predict can be related to existences higher than my rank."

"Also, every prediction costs me a disaster in the future," Rachel said, and Zagronan repeated.

"what do you mean?" Iggad asked.

"This is the weakness of my ability. Any prediction would come with a disaster. I don't know when or how, but it happens." he said.

Iggad thought and said, "You can predict anything?".

"Yes," Zag responded.

"Predict what shape I'm going to make with Legos tomorrow!" Iggad smiled from ear to ear again.

"Elizabeth's body, just much bigger breasts!" Zagronan answered shamelessly.

Elizabeth looked at him with bloodlust.

The look on Iggad's face changed as he stood up. "It's really true! Now, a disaster happens just for that prediction?" he asked with amazement.

"Yeah," Zagronan said answered.

Iggad nodded. "Why did you predict it without hesitation? aren't you afraid of the disaster?" Iggad asked.

"Because I know you will offer me a deal!" he said.

Iggad laughed and said, "Indeed! I'll help you reach rank 4, and in return, you predict for me!" he said.

Most of the weaknesses of royal demons disappear in rank 4, and the ability will strengthen.

"Deal! But I still want to participate in the tournament. It's said that the winner can ask you for one thing," Zagronan said.

"Of course, if you win that, you can ask for one thing. But remember, regardless of our deal here, I won't save you! If you die, I'll just buy your body and steal your ability!" Iggad said.

Despite being in Hell, the Hotblood City was actually more lawful than most cities in the mage world. First, the higher the rank, the less one is affected by the corruption of the dark element. Secondly, Iggad was very concerned about his reputation. If it gets known that he kills and steals royal demons' abilities, then no royal demon will visit anymore.

He was very careful to stick to the rules that he set.

"I am going to start sending resources after the tournament ends," said Iggad.

Zagronan nodded and left the room with Elizabeth.

Outside, Elizabeth looked at him and said," Be careful; the next opponent is strong."

Then she cast 'teleportation' and sent him back.

...

"Urgh," Zagronan thew up again.

"the next match is the semi-final. I will spend the next days exclusively on it!" Rachel said.

"Good," Zagronan returned to the room and started eating pills.

...

Dyer's clone sighed.

Hell was too vast, so he hadn't found any clue after searching for the pill container for a long time.

"I cannot find it if it goes this slowly."

"The demon kings are all asleep and will not wake up easily. I should get a bit more daring," he thought.

The demon kings usually act indirectly through their clones, with their main bodies far away. The clones of demon kings are only rank 8, so Dyer has a chance of acting without them noticing.

"Mass clone," Dyer cast a rank 8 spell.

The 'clones' can cast all spells as long as they have enough energy.

Around 1000 rank 1 'Dyers' appeared.

They all started walking in different directions without needing Dyer to say anything. The minds of all of them are closely connected to the main clone of Dyer, so anything they find will be immediately known.

Also, with 'clone replacement,' exchanging places with any clone is possible if they are not too far away or if the space or time isn't restricted.

The main Dyer had a lot of dark elements, so a few clones didn't affect his combat ability by that much.

The main Dyer started moving to another location, intending to repeat mass cloning.

...

The Demon King of Pride was sitting in a room.

"Hey, wake up!" someone said.

"What?" the Demon King said.

"You won't believe who is here," the other said.

"Let me guess, God of Evil? Did that guy finally leave Heaven?" the Demon King said.

"Nah, that idiot is still loyal to Heaven! Dyer is here."

"Why is he interested in Hell? I thought he hated us," the Demon King said.

"He is acting weird! We should investigate him."

"Then go investigate," the Demon King said.

"I went last time; it's your turn this time!"

"Hey, I'm the main body, your incarnation! You should do what I say!" the Demon King said.

"I disagree! I am better than you," the incarnation said.

"Hey, guys, please stop; otherwise, it gets escalated again," another said.

"Hey Number 3." Demon King said.

"Let's arrange it once and for all" number 3 said.

"I am the original Demon King! You incarnations should do everything I say!"

The 8 incarnations all shook their heads, disagreeing.

"We are all Demon Kings of Pride; it's not in our nature to accept being inferior! We are equals, and you should accept it."

The Demon King shook his head and reluctantly agreed. After all, these incarnations were him, so it was barely acceptable to accept being equal to them.

"I am going now; the next time, one of you should volunteer!" Pride Number 3, who looked more reasonable, said and then disappeared.