Salvos (A Monster Evolution LitRPG)

556. The World Of His Mind Part One

I stared at Belphegor as his words echoed in my head. The Primordial Demon didn’t move. His finger was jabbed my way, pointing accusingly at me. I stared back into his eyes— his empty eyes. The iridescent colors from earlier were gone, replaced with the hollow pits I had seen when I first met him.

My mind reeled. I took in what he said. My… father did this? By that, did he mean Sal? Was Belphegor talking about the Devil?

But how? How did he know that my dad was the Devil? I never mentioned that to Belphegor even once. I had made sure to keep my mouth shut about my dad when the [Basilisk] nearly murdered me just for saying ‘the Devil King’ around it.

I shook my head. How Belphegor knew about my dad didn’t matter— he didn’t elaborate, and I wasn’t going to ask him about that. I was more concerned about what the Primordial Demon was saying that Sal did.

“What do you mean by that?”

I asked as I took a step forward. I steadied myself even as the ground rumbled beneath me. 

“What do you mean that the Devil caused the end of the world?”

It sounded ridiculous— the Kobolds had told me that it was the Worldwalkers who led to the corruption of our reality. A long time ago, the Nexeus was a hub for them to congregate, and their presence tore holes through space which could never recover… right?

But none of the Kobolds I had spoken to were around during that time. They didn’t experience what they spoke of. They told me stories based on what their parents told them. 

Meanwhile, Belphegor was a Primordial. That didn’t mean he was old. But it meant he had been around for a while. And supposedly, he had been around back when my dad was still the Devil King— maybe he was even alive before my dad was born!

I didn’t know. I just knew that Belphegor was old. And he had been down here fighting off the corruption for a long time. So if anyone knew what caused the corruption to surface, it would have been him. However, I just couldn’t believe it. 

“What did my dad do? How did he cause this? Last I checked, he doesn’t even leave his little space in between the planes often!”

I waved vaguely towards the wall of corruption, then crossed my arms. Belphegor shook his head as a rift continued to form above him, before being wreathed in flakes of the corruption. He just sighed.

“The Devil you know today is nothing like the Devil King of the past. He was rash. He was a reckless fool. Somewhat naive, too. But most of all— he was proud.”

I frowned, and Belphegor closed his eyes. A bitter smile spread across his face as he began to explain.

Memories. All Belphegor had left were memories. Each and every passing moment he roamed the ruins of the once great kingdom that had once been his home, he was reminded of the past. He thought of what could have been.

But he knew of what is, and he wept. He didn’t want to remember. He tried to forget. However, he was so often lost in his memories, he saw ghosts. Shadows that stalked the corner of his eyes. When he turned to face them, they would vanish. Taken by time.

However, for the first time in eons, Belphegor encountered someone. He met a real person. At first, he had thought she was fake. He tried to dismiss her existence. That was— until she touched him. 

And he realized she was real. 

So he peered into her— he saw her Status with his [God’s Eye], and he was taken aback. For a moment. Not because of her levels. He wasn’t surprised by her levels in the slightest. They weren’t anything special. But what he saw was her Title.

Her name was Salvos, and she was The Devil’s Daughter.

At first, he lashed out at her. He wanted to kill her for even appearing in his presence. But he quickly steeled himself. The pain was too much to bear, and his regrets weighed too heavily in his chest. He couldn’t add to his sorrows by killing Samuel’s daughter.

So he tried to forget it all, returning back into his dazed state of muddled memories. However, that didn’t last long. He remembered his duties, and he realized that he had to act.

After all, the second layer was finally collapsing. Nothing down here remained. With the end of the world approaching, and the [Hydra] overtaken, his  [Gargoyles] could not survive more than a few moments alive without his accompanying presence.

Belphegor sighed as he raised his head. He stared at the Corrupted Hellspace forming above him, before his lips tightened into a twisted frown. He slowly turned to face the wall of infinite corruption behind him. It was both a terrible and beautiful sight— like the essence of divinity, but slightly warped into something else. And that was why it off-putting.

But he was used to looking at it by now, so he felt no fear as he faced down the approaching end of the world. 

“Samuel… was a Primordial Demon of Pride.”

Belphegor did not face Salvos as he spoke. Instead, he just remembered. He drowned himself in his memories as he always did— recalling things that no longer were. But for the very first time in an eternity, he had an audience.

He brought a hand to his chest, laughing amidst the chittering of the corruption. 

“Or rather— Samuel was a Greater Demon of Pride when I first met him. But even back then, he always had lofty goals and grand ambitions…”

Belphegor stared at the gangly [Fiend] standing before him. Red skin, black claws, and a toothy smile spread across his bloodied face, he almost seemed like a wild Demon at first. He sauntered past a pile of corpses as he spun a flaming spear in his right hand. 

He was dangerous— even if he was lower-leveled than Belphegor, it was evident that he was dangerous. But he didn’t attack. Not just yet. Instead, his mouth moved—

“Greetings, I am Samuel.”

He spoke as he approached Belphegor. His words were startling— so he was not a wild Demon? But he was still dangerous. He had to be dangerous.

Belphegor tensed, but Samuel just extended a clawed hand.

“Will you join me in saving the world?”

“What…?”

“I was higher-leveled than him. I was nearing my evolution to become an Archdemon, and he was over 10 levels below me. Yet, he spoke with such confidence, I couldn’t help but be entranced by his words.”

Belphegor shook his head. He didn’t tell the full story— he didn’t regale the part of the tale in which he had witnessed Samuel slaying an Archdemon before their encounter. It didn’t matter. 

After all, it wasn’t the threat of death that pushed Belphegor towards this covenant. Instead, it was the enchanting words Samuel had spoken back then. 

“What did my dad say?”

Salvos asked, taking a step forward. She prodded Belphegor, but her presence barely even registered to him at this moment. The past consumed him. An ethereal city began to form around him— the broken rubble took shape to what once was. 

At first, it was the image of a small civilization. There were only a few hundred Demons living there, hiding in the caverns away from the destruction above. But then, their city grew. They began to tunnel downwards as they multiplied, taking in Demons from all across the Netherworld.  

The memory moved around Belphegor like a blur. A smile slipped onto his lips, and he spoke wistfully.

“Your father told me of his dreams— he spoke of creating peace for our people. He told us that we would no longer have to fear simply living.”

Belphegor thought it was an utterly ridiculous idea when he first heard about it. But he saw Samuel’s dreams being fulfilled. And at that point, he had no other choice. He had to believe in this vision.

Salvos furrowed her brows as she placed a hand on her chin.

“That sounds like… what Regnorex is doing? Huh.”

“Regnorex?”

Belphegor blinked. For a moment, he broke out of his stupor by the unfamiliar name. But he shook his head. 

“I do not know who this Regnorex is, but I have heard others tout such a foolish idea, and I rejected it plenty of times before. No— Samuel’s grand plans did not end there. There was more to it. There was…”

Turning around, Belphegor raised his head to face the ceiling. It cracked and crumbled. But the falling rocks didn’t crash down into him. Instead, the stone disintegrated into flakes of corruption. 

Salvos took a step forward, even as the earth continued to break.

“What do you mean? What makes my dad different?”

“Samuel…”

Belphegor started. His eyes fluttered open and close for a moment, before he began to see the visions of the city around him change. It was no longer a city. Everything began to shift and warp, the stone replaced by a glass-like surface. The Demons replaced by… 

“The Devil King wanted to create an ark.”

“An ark?”

Salvos cocked her head as she listened. Belphegor’s eyes flickered, glimmering with a divinity as he stared up into the forming Corrupted Hellspace. 

“A brand new plane in the Nexeus— one that existed outside of the Netherworld. The promise Samuel made me… it was beyond anything I have ever heard before…”

Belphegor trailed off. He recalled the offer he had been given on the day he met Samuel. It sounded so ridiculous, but it was a nice dream. And that was why he had taken the deal. Because if it could come true, it would have changed everything.

Salvos narrowed her eyes.

“What is it? What did my dad offer you?”

Belphegor took in a deep breath. He stared back at the end of the world— the consequence of their failure. And he sighed.

“Samuel said we could all become gods.”