Surviving The Fourth Calamity

Hill suddenly felt that Graciela was indeed Asmodeus’s greatest retribution.

This girl, even when scheming and plotting, managed to select a role as intriguing as ’Aislin’... He now somewhat suspects that the true character behind that virtual mask is the girl full of trust and reverence for Ruth, possibly a blank soul she uses to fill the void in her own incomplete soul shard.

It might even be possible that those blank souls merged their entire will to form a real soul.

If it were any other great devil, even if they did the same things as Graciela, the result would not be the same... It’s not that easy to gather so many powerful souls.

Including Graciela’s former husband, the mighty Duke Mamon of Minos in the Third Hell, whom even Asmodeus could not kill directly, didn’t have this ability.

Otherwise, pure and powerful souls wouldn’t be precious enough to warrant a great devil spending over ten thousand years waiting.

But the beloved daughter of the Lord of Hell wouldn’t even have inferior goods at hand.

Sometimes, even the best things are meaningless if one cannot control them.

Hill glanced down at the candlestick by his feet... Ruth would probably inquire about what Oliva did and said here, right?

Although pulling out this candle is a bit risky, Hill has seen similar scented candles in Gilbert’s warehouse.

It’s just that none are as good as the one Hill holds.

Clearly, this item came from the Defense Tower... These archmages have indeed struggled.

Among those few scented candles, he not only smelled osmanthus but also very distinct sagebrush aroma.

Even snowgrass and rosemary are present.

In a world where plants have disappeared so thoroughly, to still have these herbs and plant species in one’s magic garden, the Defense Tower must have been alert very early on.

Yet, against absolute power, no amount of precautions is useful.

However, considering the outcome of the Tower of Dark Enigma... total submission also ends poorly.

In this world, the more awakened you are, the harder life becomes!

Hill flipped through his storage ring... Because the more important items are kept in the pendant, his storage ring mainly holds travel souvenirs.

Especially from Toril.

Even if he foresook the truly good items he found... Hill is still worried about any unforeseen hidden objects.

Thus, he will absolutely not place any travel souvenirs other than minerals within the half-plane and pendant.

Hill had long prepared to simply discard the entire storage ring if anything unexpected happened.

Then, even if something is hidden inside, he can discard it within a millisecond.

Although Toril’s laws are harsh, even if these are engraved in the laws by the AO, they cannot catch someone who doesn’t know what they’ve taken.

Deities may blame humans for their ignorance, but the law cannot.

Thus, at most, it reduces the time for consideration to the shortest... But that’s still at least 10 minutes.

As long as Hill can decisively abandon everything, he won’t encounter any problems.

He even gave up the time for finding items!

Hence, Hill’s ring truly contains an assortment of everything... He remembered these scented candles, thanks to seeing similar items in Gilbert’s warehouse.

And with a mage’s memory, as long as he thinks of it, he can locate it.

Hill pulled out Gilbert’s treasured candles and mixed in two laurel ones... Fortunately, he’s someone who likes to package things.

All that’s left depends on Aislin’s importance in Ruth’s heart.

However, to avoid drawing the attention of the mastermind behind the Sia Tower, Ruth has to choose a more appropriate timing... It seems the focus of his attention is Gilbert’s timing.

While doing this would surely make Hillbert more noticeable, he has nothing to worry about.

On the first day, he gave the Sia Nine Rings a successful numbing daunt.

What Hillbert needs is exactly this: drawing attention while concealing parts of his presence.

Just like some celebrities, when everyone knows that their dancing skills are unparalleled, they naturally overlook their singing ability slightly.

If a person also has good singing skills, they’ll only be said to excel in both singing and dancing.

If their performance skills are also good, they’ll be promoted as an ACE among ACEs.

After confirming there’s someone with hidden motives toward the Hainarson Clan in the Sia Tower, Hill realized his hope for complete invisibility was entirely dashed.

He also understands that he can’t endure being scrutinized... Being able to fool Ruth and others is due to the information disparity.

Great devils are different. If it were Asmodeus here, he might even deduce from time points who he is.

Hill knows that he must appear unfriendly to deal with, while also showing a somewhat carefree attitude to keep those with hidden motives at bay.

While pondering how to achieve this... Aislin cooperatively delivers an opportunity.

Hill isn’t surprised that Aislin herself would do this... But the dominant soul among those two souls is Graciela’s!

She might not have realized the purpose of the laurel candle... After all, Hill definitely wasn’t trying to help her.

Not even Aislin, who wore the false mask.

That lady’s character had too much influence from Glaysia.

Instead, it was Aislin’s flaws that couldn’t hide her humanity... This was the reason Ruth couldn’t give up on her, despite all the madness and chaos Aislin caused.

Hill could never understand how someone could be cruel and indifferent, arrogant and conceited, yet still hold reverence and humility toward a particular being.

Normally, awe is the attitude such people have toward the powerful.

Hill shook his head and conjured a backless sofa cushion on the top of the airship, from which he took out a piece of paper kept at the top inside an exquisite purple diamond ring.

Richard Dreyfus.

Ninth Ring Mage from the Neutral Faction, who likes to wear dark blue.

There was a note in the back that was clearly a comment from the White Faction: Because he’s not good-looking, he can only wear dark colors to cover it up.

Unfortunately, his ability was limited, and the Black Robe crew didn’t want him.

Hill could immediately understand the implication: Richard Dreyfus didn’t choose to be neutral by himself, but realized he could only stay neutral after some probing.

No wonder he couldn’t compete with Pet.

Though Pet appeared to be getting along well with everyone, she never actually helped either side.

After confronting one side, she would surely deliver a counter to the other side.

She was indeed very slippery and swiftly aligned with Ruth’s side when the two factions tried to pull her to their sides.

Pet’s neutrality was that she helped no one.

As for someone like Richard Dreyfus, he really helped everyone.

So Hill wasn’t surprised at all that he was the leader of the Neutral Faction attacking the Defense Tower at that time.

Pet clearly didn’t take the bait... she immediately stated her identity: a trader of various materials, including Strange Objects type Mage Cloth, for manufacturing various cloths.

Even Devils would view a useful trader differently... especially one from the technical faction.

But Richard Dreyfus swallowed both bait and hook completely.

Moreover, he had been ensnared by the greed incited by the Devils.

Otherwise, why would a Ninth Ring attempt to intimidate someone like Gilbert, who hadn’t even reached Seven Rings at the time?

The feud over the Defense Tower wasn’t Hainarson’s to resolve.

As for that Cat’s Eye Ore Mine... Anyone with brains would know they couldn’t hide it.

Considering the outcome of the Defense Tower... Richard Dreyfus couldn’t be thinking that if the Hainarson Clan were wiped out, he could disappear in the eyes of the strong ones from Sia Tower, could he?

He had gone to attack the Defense Tower. How could he not know the reason?

Besides, Hill also saw the name of the Magic Tower occupying the Hainarson Clan’s territory: Delisenta Tower.

The Tower Master was one of Dreyfus’s grandsons, a Seventh Ring. The note afterward mentioned that he had been promoted to Eighth Ring in recent years, but it was kept secret, with strength comparable to Aislin.

This note seemed to be written by Aislin herself, as Hill recognized her handwriting.

The two Deputy Tower Masters were students of Dreyfus’s Ninth Ring... both Eighth Rings.

Haha~ with such a setup, if Dreyfus really dared to hide the mutated cat’s eye mine, someone would send a message to Sia Tower that very day.

However, Hill could also see that this Ninth Ring likely had quite a strong power.

No spell would refuse to be used by someone just because they’re a greedy villain, and as for the Law... greed is a Law unto itself.

Even evil Law would increase one’s destructive power.

Greed merely leads him down paths where he might be trapped and framed easily, but it doesn’t mean he’s bound for certain death.

It’s just that the more he walks such paths, the risk of falling into a pit increases.

Like right now.

Hill read another part of the Ninth Ring Mage’s introduction and quickly understood why that guy wanted to showcase his presence now.

Warn a few in the Hainarson Clan not to try and confront him, and don’t even think about reclaiming the family’s territory—only part of the reason.

While such an idea was baffling: standing behind Gilbert was Ruth, who indeed had significant backing, but how could Ruth risk facing the Ninth Ring of Sia Tower shortly after arriving without understanding anything!

There was no need to prepare so early!

On the other hand, he seemed to be vying with Pet for the leadership of the Neutral Faction.

The Mage Rosero probably found this a bit baffling too, as he also noted later: he’s out of luck.

Always trying to extract higher profits from Strange Objects Creators’ materials, and not even the only supplier, no one would want to promote him to leadership.