Chapter 470: Visiting A Possible Ally

Thud!

Thud!

The heavy footsteps of a man who seemed to weigh as much as a mountain echoed through the silent dungeons beneath the Violet Palace. The prison complex had been built directly within the palace grounds for a reason. There was no safer place in the entire realm to keep dangerous prisoners. Anyone foolish enough to attempt a rescue would first have to breach the royal palace, fight through its guards and defensive formations, and eventually face the Prince of Lust himself.

For most prisoners, that was enough to destroy any hope of escape.

The deeper sections of the dungeon were dimly illuminated by violet crystals embedded into the walls. Their faint light stretched across the cold stone corridors and reflected against the glowing chains that bound dozens of prisoners inside their cells. The moment the footsteps became audible, the previously quiet dungeon slowly descended into panic.

"Sire! Please forgive us, Sire!"

"We were only following orders!"

"Your Majesty, please! I have a family!"

The dungeon exploded into chaos as screams, pleas and desperate cries echoed through every corridor. Prisoners rushed toward the iron bars of their cells before the divine chains binding them violently pulled them back. Some dropped to their knees while others pressed their faces against the floor, terrified that Damian had personally come to decide their fate.

Inside one of the heavily guarded cells, Amon remained seated cross legged despite the chaos surrounding him. His limbs and neck were bound by glowing divine chains, and visible golden cracks spread across his body, including his face. The chains had been in contact with his skin for too long, and even a demigod could not remain completely unaffected by divine energy designed to suppress him.

His large eyes slowly opened as the footsteps were getting closer.

Thud.

Thud.

The footsteps stopped and Amon raised his head.

Standing outside the cell was Damian.

He wore elegant white and black robes, his appearance pristine despite the long night he had spent training in his study. His eyes, however, were anything but normal. They were pitch black, with crimson slits burning at their center. Dark cracks spread across his face like fractures running through porcelain, giving him an appearance that was both human and deeply unnatural.

The warden standing beside the cell visibly trembled. He was a demon from the Kasok Clan, and although he is serving in the royal dungeons, he had never stood this close to Damian while the prince was in this state. His hands shook as he tried to insert the key into the lock.

Clink!

The key slipped from his fingers and the sound echoed through the corridor.

The warden froze as qDamian slowly turned his gaze toward him.

The poor demon immediately bent down, picked up the key and tried again, only for his shaking hands to miss the lock once more. By the time he finally managed to open the gate, sweat had appeared across his forehead despite the cold air within the dungeon.

Pam!

The warden straightened and quickly gave Damian a deep bow.

"Si... Sire, I’m sorry!" he struggled to say.

For several seconds, Damian simply stared at him. The warden’s heart pounded against his chest.

Then a small smile bloomed across Damian’s face.

"At ease. Your princess is actually one of my favorite companions. Your clan and your people will forever be under my protection. You have nothing to fear."

The warden slowly raised his head.

His eyes widened.

"Princess Rah..." he muttered.

For a moment, the fear in his expression disappeared completely. His face was overtaken by disbelief before excitement rapidly replaced it.

"Thank you! Thank you, Your Majesty!" he shouted before bowing again, this time so deeply that his forehead nearly touched the ground.

Damian simply smiled and nodded before walking inside.

His eyes immediately returned to Amon.

The former Minister of War looked far different from the dignified figure who had once commanded eighty four legions. His blue ministerial robes had been torn and stained with dirt and blood. Even the white feathers around his owl shaped face had become matted with filth. Yet despite his appearance, there was still a sharp intelligence behind his eyes.

Amon studied Damian from head to toe.

"I truly underestimated Your Majesty. I once considered you a mindless brute, but it seems that within all that madness is a shrewd human who deeply understands the game of politics."

Damian did not immediately respond. He calmly walked deeper into the cell while listening.

Amon had already understood what was happening outside. Damian’s speech had changed everything. Instead of simply executing the soldiers associated with the rebellion, he had offered them a path toward survival. Those willing to swear an oath of loyalty through the Faustian Bargain and expose everything they knew about the Order of Demons would be forgiven.

The alternative was becoming an enemy of the prince. And after what the entire capital had just witnessed, nobody needed to explain what that meant.

The overwhelming majority of soldiers from Amon’s and Grand Chancellor Darbin’s eighty four legions would eventually choose survival. Their commanders might remain imprisoned, but the soldiers would not willingly sacrifice their lives, families and futures simply to protect men who had already failed to protect them.

Amon’s power was already disappearing. His armies would follow.

"Very soon, you will be stripped of your armies, your clans and your fortune. You will become a lone demigod without supporters or backing, just like I was when I first arrived here," Damian said as he turned toward him.

Amon smiled faintly and slowly nodded.

"True. I did not think you would be able to turn the tables so quickly."

Damian shrugged.

"I wouldn’t have succeeded if it weren’t for your incompetence and greed. If you had actually done your jobs and kept the realm safe from external influence, I would never have gotten the justification I needed to crush you. The only person to blame for your defeat is you."

Amon lowered his gaze. There was no point arguing.

If he and Darbin had focused on protecting Velmora instead of fighting over political influence, their enemies would have struggled to find an opening. If they had treated the threat of the Order of Demons seriously, Damian would not have been able to publicly accuse them of negligence.

Their greatest weakness had never been Damian’s strength. It had been their belief that they were untouchable.

"Did Your Majesty come here to gloat?" Amon asked.

A sinister smile appeared on Damian’s face. But he shook his head.

"Actually, I came here because I need your help."

For the first time since Damian entered the cell, Amon looked genuinely stunned. Then his expression slowly darkened.

"What kind of sick game is this?" he hissed.

Damian burst into laughter. The sound echoed through the cell before he casually snapped his fingers. A transparent barrier immediately spread outward from his body and sealed the entire room. The noise from the dungeon disappeared as though someone had suddenly closed a door between them and the rest of the world.

Amon frowned and Damian slowly turned toward him.

"Amon, do you think you are worthy to be my opponent?"

Amon was taken aback. His first instinct was anger but he had not survived for centuries by allowing his emotions to control him. He forced himself to think about the question carefully.

Was he truly Damian’s opponent?

The man standing before him had defeated Kaizer.

Not simply defeated him, but broken him so completely that the former prince had been left traumatized by the experience. Amon was powerful, but he was still one of many demigods. Damian, on the other hand, had already become a figure whose name was beginning to influence the balance of the entire underworld.

Amon’s silence gave Damian his answer.

"When I gained this power more than a decade ago, I met my predecessor. He laid out the situation of the universe before me and gave me a task. I was told to eradicate the man who threatens to shatter the balance itself. With that task came certain incentives that allowed me to rise as quickly as I did. Or don’t you find it strange that I reached the demigod level so quickly?"

Amon’s eyes widened.

When Damian first became a major topic after killing Duke Haborym, countless people had questioned his growth.

Now Amon understood why.

The previous Prince of Lust had not simply died and left his inheritance behind. He had created a path.

"So you know who killed my lord..." Amon asked quietly.

Damian shrugged indifferently.

"Who killed him doesn’t matter. What matters is what he died for."

Damian rose to his feet and began walking around the small cell.

"It’s crazy. A threat capable of wiping out every demon in the underworld exists, and all of you are focused on material gains. It’s truly disappointing that even demons can be so short sighted."

Amon’s previously calm expression disappeared. He stared at Damian with narrowed eyes.

"You are talking about that man?"

Damian nodded firmly.

"Lin Qui sent me here to kill that man, but to do that, I must first kill the rest of my brothers and take what is theirs. When that time comes, I will unite all the realms of the underworld beneath the banner of the Violet Fox."

The words settled heavily inside the cell.

Damian slowly walked toward Amon before crouching in front of him until their faces were now leveled.

For the first time, Amon could clearly see what existed behind Damian’s eyes.

There was no hesitation or uncertainty and the darkness inside those crimson pupils was boundless.

"And when that time comes, my shadow will consume his light. The question is, will you be part of this story, or will you simply become one of the millions of souls I have to trample on to make my dreams a reality?"

Amon’s breathing slowed.

For the first time, he was genuinely shaken. Damian could see his resolve cracking.

Amon looked away and frowned.

"Stop sprouting nonsense. The only one who stands a chance of defeating that man is Kaizer."

Damian laughed loudly. The sound carried a mixture of amusement and contempt.

"Imagine placing your faith in the lizard that screamed in terror as I split him in two. Even now, he’s so traumatized that he cannot clearly recall what happened."

Amon’s body shuddered.

He desperately tried to maintain a neutral expression, but Damian had noticed the reaction. He rose to his feet and walked toward the exit. Then he stopped at the gate, which the Kasok warden had left wide open, and looked over his shoulder.

"Oh, the council has sent envoys to save Duke Darbin. But of course, nobody cares about the fallen angel despite his contributions to building the foundation of the underworld. Don’t you think it’s time you fought for someone who will value you for who you are and not for where you came from?"

Swoosh!

Amon could only stare at Damian’s back with shaking eyes as the prince stepped out of the cell. The words had struck somewhere Damian clearly understood.

Amon was an outsider.

He always had been.

No matter how many victories he earned or how much he contributed to the underworld, there were always demons who saw the fallen angel before they saw the man. That was why he had joined Lin Qui in the first place.

Lin Qui had never cared about his origin. He had seen Amon’s ability and made him Minister of War.

For the first time in his life, Amon had been judged by what he could do rather than where he came from.

When Lin Qui died, Amon had fought desperately to secure his position. He had convinced himself that he was protecting his power, but sitting alone inside the cell, he finally understood that there had always been another fear beneath it.

He feared being discarded.

He feared that the new prince would become nothing more than a puppet controlled by his in-laws who would eventually remind him that Amon was not one of them.

Damian had seen through that fear.

"This bastard has seen through me..." Amon chuckled weakly.

His eyes slowly closed.

Damian was offering him something dangerous. A place in a dream so large that it could either change the underworld forever or destroy everyone involved.

And that was exactly why the offer was difficult to ignore.

Even if Kaizer was the only one who could supposedly defeat Sol, did Amon truly have a future in a realm ruled by Kaizer?

Would a prince whose greatest strength came from his bloodline and position ever value a fallen angel the same way Lin Qui once had?