Ashen Dragon

Thinking of this, Piere grinned menacingly and threatened in a low voice, "Everything in Hell belongs to the Lord of Nine Prisons. Cassius, surely you understand this, don't you?

As a being from the Material Plane, you've seized the Hell Authority. Aren't you afraid of being punished by him? Return the authority to me; what doesn't belong to you can never be yours."

Cassius, however, had anticipated this and smiled with a rather teasing expression, "Yes, everything in Hell indeed belongs to the great Lord of Nine Prisons. I almost forgot to tell you, just recently, Lord Asmonthy came to the Material Plane to meet with me.

We had a pleasant conversation and even struck an... unexpected deal."

When he mentioned "deal," Cassius deliberately emphasized it, fearing that Piere might miss the hidden meaning.

"What?"

Piere's expression changed dramatically. He frowned deeply and leaned forward.

In an instant, Piere realized that the Lord of Nine Prisons didn't trust him, doubted his loyalty, and wanted to use Cassius to balance him!

The stone he tried to move had instead crushed his own foot!

Cassius looked at the Devil and continued, "Lord Piere, as an ally, I am more than happy to govern Hell with you, and Lord Asmonthy is also pleased with this.

Rest assured, as long as I'm here, you can wield the complete Hell Authority, just like the true Master of Avernus."

Piere's fist clenched abruptly, veins bulging, and he laughed angrily, "Good, good, Cassius, I'm truly grateful to you, worthy of being my ally, you even calculated against me."

Cassius stood up from the Lava Throne and said calmly, "Piere, instead of thinking about how to take back something that never belonged to you, you might as well think about how to win this blood war.

The last time you were ousted was because of your failure in the blood war, right? If the demons take Avernus... you probably won't even be the nominal Hell Lord."

"You—"

Piere burned with anger, nearly uncontrollable, but he also knew that Cassius was right; if Avernus fell, the punishment from the Lord of Nine Prisons would be unbearable for him.

Thus, Piere could only swallow his anger.

Cassius, however, chuckled and said, "Piere, haven't you realized yet? As your ally, I'm helping you relieve your burden!

Although I'm temporarily holding the authority of Avernus, I'm not a Hell creature, I can't threaten your position, and I can even help you increase your strength, it's clearly a win-win situation."

The Smooth Talker's ability, coupled with an exaggerated charisma of 40, even vaguely convinced Piere.

Indeed, although this greedy Red Dragon occupied Avernus' Authority, he could never become a Hell Lord—because he is just an outsider.

Unlike the chaotic and god-infested Abyss, under the constraints of the Lord of Nine Prisons, although many divines—such as Tiamat reside in Barto Hell, none can obtain Hell's Authority to sit on the Lord of Nine Prisons' throne.

Yet, Piere's heart was still filled with hatred; after scheming for hundreds of years, he still couldn't attain complete authority, one can only imagine his feelings.

Relieve the burden?

Don't talk nonsense, this is clearly your boundless greed!

"Boom!"

"Hold the line!"

"Kill them all! For the great Abyss Mother!"

Outside the Bronze Fortress, the shrieks of demons and the war cries of devils mixed together, especially chaotic, with the war becoming increasingly fierce.

With their advanced siege weapons, tight organization, and home-field advantage, the devils built more than a dozen defensive lines outside the fortress. Under the skilled command of various officers, Hell's soldiers moved back and forth, coordinating almost perfectly, almost slaughtering the demons.

Countless arrows and fireballs poured down, volley after volley, and devils armed with Hell Iron Long Spears lined up tightly, forming a wall, defeating the disorganized demons, their corpses piling up like mountains.

Within mere minutes, tens of thousands of demons perished, and even their bodies burned, emitting foul black smoke.

Compared to the demons, the Devil Army resembled a true military force; they are born artists of war, while the demons opposing them are at most a group of frenzied beasts.

Despite this, unfortunately, faced with demons numbering several dozen or even a hundred times more, even the finest devil army felt especially strained, quickly overwhelmed by the magic tide.

Dragged into chaotic battle, the devils lost their chances completely and could only be devoured by the demon swarm like locusts, even Cassius himself witnessed a Deep Prison Demon Refiner being attacked by thousands of demons, eventually torn to pieces.

Soon, the outermost defensive line was breached, and the devils almost all charged out, using every means, risking their lives to defend the Bronze Fortress.

This wasn't because the devils were loyal to Piere, willing to die for him, but because they knew—once the demons occupy Avernus, they would all die.

"The situation on the battlefield is becoming increasingly dire, Avernus is in critical danger..."

Cassius turned around, looking into the distance, and lightly reminded, "Piere, tell me the current situation.

We are still solid allies, and the Abyss is our common enemy. To this day, we must set aside our differences and join forces to face the enemy."

Piere sneered at the so-called "solid ally," but he also understood the importance of resisting the Abyssal invasion, and could only say solemnly, "This blood war is launched by an alliance of three ambitious Abyssal Lords, namely 'Angry Lord' Koschech, 'Hunting Monarch' Mastifa, and 'Black Water Lord' Ishinix.

As far as I know, these three Abyssal Lords have gathered nearly twenty million demons, crazily pouring into Hell, wanting to flatten my Avernus." Piere deliberately emphasized the word "my."

But Cassius's focus was elsewhere, and he frowned, asking, "Twenty million?"

To date, even adding newly conquered territories, the total population of the Ashen Empire barely reached thirty million, and these Abyssal Lords managed to send an army of twenty million!

Piere sneered, "Cassius, thanks to you, I couldn't close the Abyssal Portal in time, so of course, the number of demons is huge.

However, in the endless ages of blood wars, invasions of such scale have occurred hundreds if not thousands of times and aren't considered rare events. The abyssal demons are like the grains of sand in the great desert, endless.

If not for the chaotic power required to send demons to Hell, these Abyssal Lords could probably bring tens of billions of demons, drowning all of Avernus in a magic tide."

Cassius thought of the three million demons invading the Ashen Empire, understood, and asked, "What are these three Abyssal Lords like?"

Piere replied, "Koschech, the Angry Lord, the lord of the 23rd Floor Steel Ice Field, and the most powerful among these three Abyssal Lords, known as the King of Frost Giants, possessing the legacy of the Giant Pantheon, is of demigod-level power.

As for Mastifa and Ishinix, I am not sure where their territories are, after all, the Abyss is endless, even the Lord of Nine cannot know it all."

There are only nine Hell Lords, almost each one a strong figure emerging from fierce competition and countless plots and schemes.

Yet, there are hundreds or even thousands of Abyssal Lords, though they too rise from brutal slaughter, every layer of the Abyss differs, and the Abyssal Lords' strengths vary widely.

Powerful Abyssal Lords like Demogorgon and Orcas can rival divine beings, while the weakest Abyssal Lords can be slain by mortals.

"Frost Giants are old rivals of mine."

Cassius gazed at Piere and said, "I will help you block Koschech, as for the other two unknown Abyssal Lords, I'll leave them to you.

Additionally, I will bring at least three hundred thousand Starfallen troops to Hell, most of whom are Professionals, but... I have one condition."

Piere's face turned sullen, coldly meeting Cassius's gaze, yet he still asked, "Heh, a dragon's greed is never-ending, speak, what other condition do you have?"

Cassius smiled and pointed to the Purgatory map on the wall, saying, "A colony... no, more accurately, a leased territory.

The Empire needs a leased area in Avernus with administrative autonomy, extraterritorial rights, and free portal rights. Otherwise, we cannot transport so many troops to Hell."