Chapter 301 Annoyance.

Chapter 301: 301 Annoyance.

"Please, mortal of iron, do step through the door! I have waited all evening to settle the score!"

The booming voice made me tense up instantly, but I let out a heavy sigh. Alright. Enough fucking around.

Readying myself for a violent physical confrontation, I grabbed the heavy steel handle, shoved the security door open, and stepped firmly through the threshold.

Thanks to my initial magnetic sweeps, I already knew the general layout of the fifth floor.

Standard banks of towering data monitors and high-end commercial servers lined the single, narrow path through the room, all routing back toward the primary soundproof recording studio.

But I absolutely hadn’t expected the overwhelming stench of burning brimstone, nor had I expected the massive, impossible figure currently occupying the center of the cramped server farm.

He was entirely too large for the room, forcing him to hunch his massive shoulders just to avoid scraping his curled obsidian horns against the drop ceiling.

His crimson skin glowed with a faint, internal heat, and his eyes burned like smoldering coals.

He was somehow squeezed into a meticulously tailored, pinstriped three-piece suit that looked completely absurd against his terrifying, medieval-fresco visage.

Thick, heavy clouds of black smoke drifted lazily from his nostrils, curling around the heavy iron collar locked tightly around his thick neck.

"Good evening, sweet monkey, how joyous we meet! A wonderful moment that’s totally... BZZT... sweet! Exceptionally sweet!"

My mind violently flashed back to the rusted bowels of the freighter. That deafening, theatrical voice. The agonizing jolts of electricity actively punishing him for his inherent demonic hatred.

"Belial," I said, my voice deadpan.

"How wonderful, truly, you know of my name! Had I my full power, I’d set you a-flame! I’d rip off your flesh and I’d... URK... play a fun game! Yes, a wonderful game!" the demon Duke of the Pit bellowed enthusiastically.

He visibly winced, a thick, clawed hand coming up to rub at the glowing iron collar as another heavy electrical shock rattled his massive frame.

I had only met Belial once before, but even among the absolute circus of super-powered weirdos I regularly dealt with, the towering hell-lord actively stood out.

Belial was a contracted demon. More importantly, he was a demon magically bound by a sadistic occultist who had explicitly programmed his collar to severely electrocute him every single time he tried to insult humanity, while simultaneously forcing him to always tell the absolute truth.

He had saved my ass that night by projecting a perfect, magical replay of the slaughter out of glowing embers, providing me with an airtight alibi when the arena bosses came looking for blood.

He had done me a massive favor, but as I looked around the corrupted server room, that fleeting goodwill was rapidly drying up.

"I must openly marvel you found me so fast, A glorious victory, unsurpassed! I thought your crude brain was incredibly... ZAP... vast! Yes, incredibly vast!" Belial gritted out, panting heavily as the collar forcibly corrected his insult into a strained compliment.

"Is that so?" I said coldly.

I subtly sent out another heavy wave of magnetic force, sweeping every single inch of the room.

Still absolutely zero physical traps, but I wouldn’t put it past a hell-lord to have rigged the room with some kind of invisible infernal hex.

I took a slow step forward, my eyes scanning the nearest commercial server racks.

They were completely ruined. The heavy plastic casings were partially melted, and the internal copper wiring was fused together with thick, black ash.

Glowing, jagged infernal runes had been violently burned directly into the delicate motherboards, pulsing with a sick, unnatural red light that completely bypassed the need for electricity.

"You made the deepfake video fed to the security cameras at the bank," I said harshly. My hands tightened into tight, armored fists at my sides. "You’re the one who hijacked the feed. You didn’t hack those phones. You messed with it with whatever magic buhaha this is."

Belial offered a terrifying, fanged smile, crossing his massive arms over his tailored vest.

"With shadows and cinders I altered the stream, To ruin your life like a terrible dream! I painted the violence for all to consume, To drive you right into a... BZZT... wonderful bloom! A beautiful room!"

"Still the absolute charmer," I growled, ignoring the ozone smoke billowing from his neck. "But I don’t give a damn about the magical mechanics of how you pulled it off. I want to know exactly why."

"Because I was hired to cast the dark spell! To drag your sweet reputation to... URK... well! To wish you quite well!"

"And you just accepted the contract?" I demanded, stepping closer.

Belial quickly raised a massive, red hand to forestall me, his yellow eyes flashing with genuine annoyance.

"Not willingly, mortal, you must understand, My binding was traded to someone quite grand! He purchased my collar, he tightened the chain, He ordered the magic that caused you such... ZAP... gain! Such wonderful gain!"

Oh, hell.

"Jester?" I said, the name dropping from my lips like lead.

Belial’s jagged smile returned, wider this time.

"You see? This is why you are fun to engage! You’re quick on the uptake, a wonderful sage! Not fast as a demon, of course, that is true, But for a squishy meatbag, I highly praise... BZZT... you! I deeply love you!"

"I try my absolute best," I said tersely, ignoring the backhanded, electrocuted compliment. "Then, I suppose you still have the original recording of the event, don’t you? That magic ember projection you did at the Nights. Something that explicitly shows you magically tampered with the video feed? Something that proves Glacia’s total innocence and shows the real sequence of events?"

"Of course I retain every truth that I weave! My demonic memory cannot deceive! The embers of truth are locked safe in my mind, Because I am deeply, incredibly... ZAP... kind! Yes, loving and kind!"

"And you aren’t just going to hand that truth over to me right now, are you?" I asked in a low, dangerous growl.

Belial shook his massive, horned head sadly, looking genuinely regretful for the first time since I’d walked through the door.

"Oh, mortal of iron, I’d love to oblige, To hand you the truth and cast off this disguise! I am literally bound to be honest and fair, Just as I am bound to aggressively... URK... care! To endlessly care!"

"You—"

"But to hand you the proof is a breach of the pact, A direct violation of my contract! I simply can’t do it, my hands are tied tight, And giving it up would extinguish my... ZAP... light! My beautiful light!"

"Is that so?" I said, my voice dropping to a glacial chill.

My hand moved in a sharp, deliberate arc. Raw, unadulterated magnetism hummed violently around us.

With a deafening sequence of metallic shrieks, several of the massive steel frames suddenly buckled inward, collapsing under thousands of pounds of invisible kinetic pressure.

"How about you reconsider your position?" I threatened, the iron bracers on my forearms vibrating with lethal intent.

Belial merely spread his massive, chrome-cufflinked hands invitingly, entirely unfazed by the swirling vortex of crushed steel and raw magnetic power completely surrounding him.

"Please, mortal of iron, unleash your full wrath! Destroy this crude vessel and alter my path! I know physical violence can calm a man’s mind, So shatter my bones, for I know you are... BZZT... kind! So gentle and kind!"

He let out a heavy, sulfurous sigh, completely ignoring a jagged piece of steel that slammed violently into his tailored shoulder pad.

"I would hand you the truth with the greatest delight, Which has nothing to do with this collar so tight! But if I betrayed him, then Jester would strike, He’d banish my soul on a torturous pike! He holds my true essence, he commands the black flame, And I am but a pawn in his terrible game!"

Belial leaned forward, his massive face mere inches from mine, the heat radiating off his crimson skin feeling like an open blast furnace.

"I’m absolutely no match for a master like him, My chances of winning are terribly dim! He’d crush me entirely with one simple spell, So tell me, dear monkey, what would you do well?"

I stared into his glowing, smoldering eyes, completely ignoring the smoke billowing from his electrocuted collar.

I rolled my jaw with annoyance.