Chapter 281 Family

"Um, are you sure that thing can float?"

I asked, pointing to the raggedy looking boat with several holes in it and moss growing on the sides. It was a simple looking canoe, but large enough to carry two fully grown elephants in it. I could tell its carver was going for a sort of elegant design with the way some parts of the boat were shaped, but whether it be from poor handling or age, it looked less than impressive.

Atlas, the owl devil, was already on it, performing some inspections.

"Yes. My dearest Andromeda can take you even on the most perilous seas from one continent to the other with no trouble."

In case you were wondering how we got here, I simply told the trio that I needed to get to the inner circle of the 6th ring. According to them, it was quite hard to find sheols that actually travelled to the inner circle of ring – a sort of safety mechanism for lower ranked devils. The most efficient means was through one of the five rivers that flowed in the layers, but travel on the river was virtually impossible.

Conveniently enough, Pai and Atlas were the only devils with a proper way to travel on these five rivers. So now, here we were in their private docks for just this one ginormous boat.

"One continent to the other? That'd be a miracle."

I mocked, but Paimon frowned.

"She's saved a couple of human sailors that tried to move continents before, you know?"

Pai tried to convince me, but I wasn't falling for that.

"Sure, sure. Let's just get this over with already."

I hopped onto the shaky boat then took a look around. There was practically nothing there. Atlas glared at me then flew over to the opposite end of the boat, as far away from me as possible.

"When you get to the convergence point, make sure to listen to everything Atlas says or you could get swallowed up by one of the 5 underworld rivers and be sent spiralling through 8 layers for all of eternity."

'What?'

"Milady! Please don't kill Atlas and try to avoid detection from the ars goetia. If they realise they didn't properly take away all your power, they will try again."

'I wasn't in the ars goetia though…'

"Don't forget to stop by the 5th layer and get some divinium."

Pai whispered over to Atlas who just eye-rolled and went back to his place. A couple of fiends jumped onto the boat and went into the lower deck.

"Oi, this thing has a lower deck?"

Confused, I asked.

"Of course it does. Do you see how big it is? Normally we'd use divinium to power Andromeda, but we don't have enough to spare so here we fucking are."

'You really need to watch your tone…'

"The midgets will power the motor through a treadmill, like turbines."

​ "Wow, you lot are so damned technologically advanced, it's almost unreal."

I muttered, mystified that in this new world stuff like motors and robots were a thing.

"Advanced? Oh… right, your memory's… whatever."

'What was that about?'

<<Unknown>>

After a few more seconds, I could hear some riveting sounds from below. Gears started to turn and the boat vibrated powerfully. Waves were being formed on the water surface

"Alright then! Let's start moving!"

Atlas yelled, stomping on a button under his leg and causing an alarm bell to ring. Steadily, the boat started to move forward.

Pai and Malius just looked at me with expressionless faces, but I could tell they were happy that I was leaving. I guess having an overbearing force in your house at all times would make anyone stiff. I couldn't help but smile at their reactions.

In no time, we left their secret docks and were on a massive empty river. There was something curious about the river. I moved closer to the edge and took a peek at it. There, I noticed that the river's pale blue glow was as a result of some souls being pulled alongside it.

The souls close to the boat tried to claw at it and climb to the top, but failed miserably.

"Is that why you don't use oars to row the boat instead?"

I asked the owl and he looked at me as if I was retarded.

"Oh gee, I have a bloody motor that can push my boat forward, why the hell wouldn't I use oars to row the boat instead, I wonder?"

He pointed out sarcastically.

"Good point, but you don't need to be so mean about it."

After my complaint, he let out a sigh.

"Yes. We don't use the oars cause the souls always tried to climb up top, which could end up sinking the boat."

"But, isn't it possible for the blades of the motor to get tangled u-"

"The blades never fail to cut off the limbs of the souls that try to touch it. Dare I say it's the most efficient cutting tool in hell."

He made a joke, boasting about his excellent motor blade. I couldn't help but cringe, seeing him develop a big head over a motor blade.

Bored, I went back to the centre of the boat and just lied down, looking up to the red sky.

'Agent, how were things before I came here?'

<<Operations in your familiar were running as usual and everyone else is excited to see you evolve>>

'Anything else you think I should know?'

<<Nothing of relevance. General Reiman is in perfect control of everything>>

'Really? That's cool then.'

…

'One month, huh? I wonder what they'll say when they see what I look like.'

"Knowing them, they'd probably just all fawn over me as usual. Hehe."

I was kind of anxious about it. Even I sort of wondered how it'd look since it wasn't something I originally wanted to choose out of the list.

'How long is it going to take to get to the inner circle?'

<<According to statistical data presented by -bzzt-kri-ti – a few hours>>

'…Who?'

<<A member of the former Ars Goetia who used to travel over the rivers of hell>>

'A former member? He still around?'

<<Most likely dead. The devils that bannered under Ramiel were well-known for their brutality. I doubt they allowed any survivors in the 2nd layer>>

'Oh… that's unfortunate. Ah well.'

The trip continued for an hour with dead silence. I had been practicing using magic, but it was far more difficult than back home.

Here the mana particles were openly refusing to obey me. They all had a personality of their own and were always on hate mode. After my constant hour of trying get them to move like I wanted, I managed to create a wisp of flames.

It was so big of a success I even yelled in joy.

"Congratulations, you discovered fire. I'm guessing you're going to figure out how to throw a rock next."

"You know, being such an asshole can't work out for you all the time."

"I'm still alive, aren't I?"

"Want me to change that status?"

My claws protruded as I threatened him. In that moment, the boat stopped and I could see the fiends peeking through the crevices of the boat with blood thirsty gazes.

They weren't the actual problems here. My eyes quickly darted over the river of souls we were on and I retracted my claws after weighing the benefits and disadvantages of killing them.

'Can't I just fly over this goddamned river?'

<<You will get pulled in>>

'Can I just walk alongside it then?'

<<The path will end on land soon enough>>

"Tch."

I let out a heavy sigh then scratched my head.

"Why are you so hostile towards me, even? I didn't do anything to you."

"You thrashed our scorpios and broke our barrier. You've been a threat since the moment you existed."

"What? But I'm not out to harm you or anything."

I could sort of understand him being on-guard after I completely wrecked his defences, but if I really wanted to kill him, I could have done so at any point in time, couldn't I? Him being so spiteful towards me made no sense. In this kind of situation, wouldn't you be trying to curry favour with the clear superior?

"Pai says you can't be trusted, so you can't be trusted."

…

'Huh? Come on, even Pai trusts me now.'

"Sure, whatever."

He looked away and the boat started to move again. I sat down cross-legged, then scratched my head again, feeling kind of annoyed. I could feel my cowlicks twitching as well.

"You guys sure do trust one another, huh?"

"Of course we do. We're the only ones we can trust. Pai, Malius and I."

"I guess you're a family then."

"Family? Devils don't have families."

"You do though. You said it yourself. Pai and Malius are the only ones you can trust. You don't trust someone that much if they weren't practically family."

"That's something weird for a devil to say. Let alone a devil peer."

He commented, but I couldn't help but laugh at that. He still assumed I was an actual devil raised in hell.

"I assumed you must have family, which is where you get this misguided notion."

Now this comment sort of caught me off-guard.

"Eh?"

"You know, people you trust as much as I trust Pai and Malius. Another devil peer?"

People I trust so deeply? Was there someone like that? Well, I guess there was one. Ken, but I betrayed him. In the end, I guess I did betray his trust. The only one you should ever trust is yourself. At least, that's what I believe.

I took a look at Atlas. This owl-looking devil with a foul tongue. Maybe I was more of a devil than this odd creature that had lived in hell all of his life.

"Oh that's right. Why do you keep calling me a devil peer. Is it some kind of rank? And if yes, where does it stand in this demonic hierarchy?"

I asked feeling like I should keep the conversation going. Something like this could be answered easily through use of the agent.

"Hmm, a devil peer isn't a rank. It's more like a specific class of devil."

"Class?"

"Yes. A class of devil that can stand shoulder to shoulder with any devil at any point in time as they please."

"Eh?"

"Devil peers grow unreasonably quickly. It's like they were born to rule hell alongside other high-ranking devils, but hell didn't have the patience for them to grow normally so gave them exponential growth rate. According to our scans, you aren't even a year old, yet you're on the level of a Devil cavalier."

"I guess you could say, I have a high-growth rate. Hehehe."

I looked away, feeling a bit guilty considering I had the system to cheat my way through growth as well as the agent's body and the super mega cheat skill [Evolver]. Anyhow you looked at it, I was almost meant to grow faster than everything around me.

When he was done and I couldn't bring up any other conversation topics, I turned to the agent for a better explanation.

Basically, there were 7 ranks amongst devils. Lesser devil, Greater devil, Arch devil, Devil cavalier, Devil lord, Devil god and Devil primordial. To a devil, ascending a rank was the equivalent of an "evolution" back on Elecryea.

A devil peer was a devil under the age of 100 years with the ability to rise up these ranks quickly, meaning they could stand on the same level as any devil that took a hundred years or more to rank up, with ease.

That type is extremely feared and hated, especially by Ancient devils who don't want to lose their new found respect.

Oddly enough though, unlike regular devils that feed on souls to grow stronger, devil peers get stronger by feasting on other devils, making them one of the most disgusting types to roam hell. A literal threat to the existence of devils in hell.

In a sense, they were acting as balancers that prevented the devil population from growing too vast, which didn't seem to make sense to me. Like, every layer of hell was big. So big, you could say the outer rings went on for practically eternity.

Why would you need to keep the population down?

"We're here. The convergence point."

Drawing me from my thoughts, Atlas pointed towards it. The end where the river turned into a waterfall. As we drew closer, I moved to the tip of the boat to get a better view. All I was a pitch black hole that had no end. I looked around and saw different rivers converging. All of different colours and pouring down, as if trying to fill up a never-ending barrel.

"Go below deck, or you'll fall off."

"Eh?"

The boat fell off the river and I found myself screaming so loud I almost turned deaf.

_______________________________

PING! PING!

"Maximize divinium output to the barrier! Prepare evacuation tacti-"

"Barrier is down!"

"Huh? N-Never mind. Focus on the evacuation tactics."

Pai nervously said while looking on her screen. Alerts were popping up without ceasing, warning them of the danger that had smashed right through their defences.

Two beings were running towards the shed. The last trap they had in place. Hopefully, a minute would be good enough to use to escape.

Still, the very letters written on the screen were more than enough to render her powerless and paralysed.

On the screen, written boldly were the words "Ars Goetia Status Confirmed"