Chapter 1914. Provoking a Reluctant Opponent  

Red Death's speed was the fastest among the four. She arrived before Belphegor way ahead of the others. She was not an amateur. She knew the devils had advanced mana sense. However, she had something that gave her confidence in laying an ambush on this sleeping devil.

She had also started learning mana concealment from Wong. Her expertise was still below Leavemealone. Considering her legendary-grade set armor exuded an intense aura, her current expertise shouldn't be able to mask her presence. However, she had another factor that boosted her concealment. This factor was the passive ability from her pinnacle class. Death Executor possessed a passive skill that clouded her mana. Those with mana sense wouldn't sense her until she executed a skill.

Aside from clouding her mana, Death Executor's other passive abilities included increased critical chance to her every attack. She also gained Venom Mastery. This ability gave all her attacks a 30% chance of inflicting Poison Status. Venom Mastery's effect was stackable with Assassin's Poison Mastery.

Red Death flew to Belphegor's back. She was aiming for the back attack bonusin addition tothe ambush bonus. She refrained from using any skill while concentrating on concealing her mana. When she was within attacking range, she used her current deadliest skill. Death Executor's level 90 skill, Death's Touch. Her crimson dagger stabbed into the back of Belphegor's neck.

Death Touch dealt 3000% chaos damage. It had a 50% chance of an instant-kill effect. If the target was killed by this skill, a Death Servant was summoned. The Death Servant joined the battle as an ally and lasted an hour.

While the instant-kill effect was useless against a devil like Belphegor, the skill's other effect was much more useful for the current fight. The effect was reducing the target's max HP by 10% for the remainder of the battle. If used at the beginning of a fight, it was the same as taking out one-tenth of the target's total HP, no matter how high the target's HP was.

This effect was not stackable, though. If Red Death hit Belphegor with Death Touch again, the max-HP reduction would not be more than 10%. Still, instantly reducing a devil's HP by one-tenth was an extraordinary feat. Red Death combined the stab with her martial art, Spinning Carnage, while activating Demonize Weapon. Belphegor's HP dropped more than 10% from that one stab.

"Hm…?" Belphegor started opening his eyes.

Red Death didn't plan to stop with just one stab. She planned to land several more attacks before Belphegor fully awakened. However, when she tried to pull her dagger, she couldn't.

"What?" She looked at where her dagger had stabbed.

Although the stab inflicted the intended damage, there was no blood. She failed to wound Belphegor. Furthermore, the flesh where her dagger had stabbed seemed to tighten. Belphegor's flesh was like living fat. It wrapped around the dagger and squeezed, rendering Red Death unable to pull her weapon out. She felt a stinging chill on her hand holding the dagger. Flecks of ice started to form on that hand.

"Ugh…! Let… Let go!!" Red Death exclaimed.

Belphegor turned his head and looked at his ambusher. He didn't say anything. The fat behind his neck became alive. They protruded and were about to swallow Red Death's hand that was holding the dagger.

Red Death let go of the dagger and used Vanish before the fat touched her hand. She reappeared a distance away. The dagger that was stuck inside Belphegor's neck was teleported back to her hand by the world system. Even the iron grip of Belphegor's flesh couldn't prevent that from happening.

Red Death looked at her dagger. A thick layer of ice covered it, but the ice soon melted due to the effect of Demonize Weapon.

Belphegor stared at Red Death before turning to the other three outworlders coming toward him. The three stopped in their tracks when Belphegor's icy eyes landed on them. The ground near Belphegor started to be covered in ice as the temperature around the devil dropped drastically.

Belphegor finally started speaking, "I think you, outworlders, wandered into the wrong place. The battle is over there. Now, go and stop disturbing my rest."

He then closed his eyes and went back to sleep.

Grace and the others didn't know what to make of this. They looked at each other with confused expressions.

Red Death was more decisive. If the devil let them land another free strike, she wouldn't let it go. She again focused on concealing her mana and moved silently toward Belphegor's opened back. She felt the chill again when she got near Belphegor. Her movement slowed, but not enough to hinder her.

She was about to land a second stab using Assassin's Assassinate Soul when she detected a sudden eruption of mana from under her. Her reaction was fast enough to use Roll when a giant ice blade pierced out of the ground. However, due to the slow effect, the ice blade scraped her. She lost HP, but not much. Her legendary-grade armor soaked up much of the damage. The result would have been very different if she received a clean hit.

"Hm… You can sense mana?" Belphegor asked. He was just pretending to sleep.

Instead of answering Belphegor's question, Red Death asked, "How did you detect me?"

"You have a way to hide your mana. That's how you managed to ambush me the first time. Now that I have my ice aura on, you won't be able to approach me again without me knowing."

"Tch!" This meant her mana concealment ability was useless.

"We are not only relying on ambushes. You will find that soon enough!" Grace exclaimed.

"I meant what I said," Belphegor said. "If you people leave now. I won't trouble you. There are plenty of demons over there for you to fight. Go and kill them all. I don't mind. I just want to rest."

"You are one weird devil," Badass remarked.

"… In that case, do you mind going back to the underworld?" Grace asked. "That way, you can rest as much as you like."

"Hm…," Belphegor massaged his chin. He seemed to be seriously thinking about the suggestion. "I'm afraid I can't do that. Even I have a superior. You see, Lord Lucifer will be angry if I retreat. So, I can't retreat. But if you defeat the army here, I can use that as an excuse not to advance."

Grace looked at Nameless and Badass, who looked back. They were thinking they might just take up on Belphegor's offer.

Someone didn't have the same thought as them, though. Red Death had no intention to play buddy with their opponent. "This is bullshit! Are you going to trust what he says?" She then pointed at Belphegor and exclaimed, "Listen, fat! I have no time for your games. Stop your nonsense and fight properly!"

Belphegor turned to her. His expression was not as friendly as before. "What did you just call me?" He asked.

"You heard me!" Red Death didn't back down.

Belphegor responded by slapping his hand on the ground. Sharp ice jutted out of the ground. They moved like a wave toward Red Death.

Red Death dodged to the side. She was no longer within Belphegor's aura range, so her speed was back to normal. When she thought she was safe after the ice wave went past beside her, the jutting ice exploded. Uncountable ice darts came her way.

She was surprised but not flustered. Her body spun as her dagger split into two. The shadows of her daggers crisscrossed around her, deflecting the ice darts while she moved back.

"You have good moves. Too bad your mouth is foul," Belphegor said. Nine ice orbs materialized on his back. These ice orbs transformed into various melee weapons. "Since you, people, are so intent on conflict. So be it."

"Uh… We don't. It's all her." Badass pointed at Red Death.

"Forget it. Red Death is right. We can't just trust what this devil says," Grace said.

"Don't forget they come to invade the upperworld. They are the cause of this conflict," Nameless added.

Belphegor didn't waste any words on them. He also couldn't talk. Something was filling his mouth to the brim. He vomited that something out. It was a big fleshy ball.

Grace and the others had seen this ball from the projection at Chris' secret garden. They knew what came next.

Belphegor was not done. He continued expelling more balls rapidly. Seeing the scene, they were worried Belphegor might go all out from the get-go. They were relieved when Belphegor stopped after spewing out four balls. These balls transformed into mini Belphegors.

'What should we do?' Nameless asked in the group chat.

'We take out his mini clones first,' Grace answered. 'Wilted said that Belphegor can consume these clones. They greatly heal him when he does that. He needs a great deal of time to reproduce these clones. If he no longer has these clones, it will be easier when we fight his true form later.'

'Will he just stay back and let us do that?' Badass asked.

'Looking at his behavior until now, he should… Unless someone provokes him.'

They all turned to Red Death, who sent a message in response.

'I know, I know. We will deal with his clones first.'