1188 High Tension
Date- 5 April 2321
Time- 04:14
Location- Southern Region, Blossom district, Sky Blossom City, Outskirts
“Big brother? Kid, are you mocking me?” The jet-black monster worm glared at me and an ominous aura covered my monster worm body.
“Was I not obvious enough?” I asked the devil with a scorn-filled gaze.
“How dare you a puny mortal look down on me,” The ominous aura oozing out of the jet-black monster worm strengthened by a few folds.
“Shut the fuck up, Belphegor,” I cussed Belphegor knowing that he could not hurt me since I knew his true name.
“…” the jet-black monster worm glared at me but did not dare to speak a word. But his glare spoke all he wanted to say.
“I bet you are regretting your choice to become a devil merchant right about now aren’t you, Belphegor?” I taunted Belphegor.
“Regret? Kid, you still don’t know what true regret is,” Belphegor said grudgingly
“Woo…, I am so scared,” I continued with my antics as I needed Belphegor railed up so that I could get him to do something stupid in a fit of rage.
“Fuck you, damned mortal, do you not care about that girl’s life and death?” Belphegor cussed me and brought up Anna to remind me that I did not have enough time.
“I don’t know, you tell me. After all, you are the devil. You must have sensed who all are in the surrounding by now, right? With so many people watching over her, she doesn’t need me to save her,” I bluffed. Hopefully, the devil will buy it.
My bluff wasn’t without merit, I had heard the enemy demigod say that field marshal Heatsend would step in or something. Hearing the Heatsend name I knew that it was one of Anna’s strong relatives. For some reason, this relative of Anna had not made a move yet but the devil did not know that. So I used this relative of Anna as a prop for my bluff. Optimistically, this prop was enough for the devil to buy my bluff.
“Kid, tell me the real reason behind why you summoned me?” Belphegor was aware of the powerful presence in his surroundings that could threaten him. But he was not worried as the devil merchant code would protect him as long as he abided by the rules.
“You tell me,” I said, trying to sound mysterious. It was bugging me that I did not know how the devil knew that I summoned it to save Anna but now that I had tricked it into thinking otherwise, I felt a little better. And confirmed that the devil cannot read minds but it just made an educated guess based on clues in the surrounding. Especially the ring that my monster worm body had dawned, if one were to carefully scrutinize it they would realize that the ring did not belong to me but Anna. From there, it was easy speculation and assumption hoping that you got it right.
“I give up, you tell me what you want?” Belphegor gave up without even trying. It seems he was losing patience now that he was no longer in control of the conversation.
As a devil, Belphegor believes to think of himself as the smartest person anywhere he goes but now that he realized he wasn’t Belphegor was losing patience.
Usually, those that summoned him would do so out of helplessness or greed but the one in front of him did not show either. Instead, this customer led him to believe that he was helpless and desperate to make a devil’s pact, and used that sentiment to get him to reveal various information he would never share with a customer.
Fear, confusion, naivety, desperation, anger, revenge, helplessness, greed, lust, etc, these emotions were the elements Belphegor used to play with those that summoned him and trick them into selling their special mortal souls for nothing but today it was different, the customer that summoned him was using these elements to play with him, the devil.
Belphegor naively believed his customer was helpless and desperate to sign a devil’s pact. Then was confused having learned that his customer was neither helpless nor disparate to sign a devil’s pact.
The presence of two special mortal souls ignited greed in Belphegor’s greedy heart. He would do anything or go to any lengths to own these two special mortal souls.
The mortal customer knew his true name along with that the presence of mortals that had neared transcendence raised fear in his dauntless mind.
This customer used his true name to treat him like an average servant and keep insulting him every chance he got, which enraged Belphegor and left him wanting to take revenge on this mortal.
For the first time, Belphegor felt regret, his pride as a devil had taken a huge hit being led by his nose by a customer.
He was embarrassed, he wanted to leave and send an army of demon worshipers to hunt this mortal down but he did not leave as his greed for two special mortal souls wouldn’t let him do that.
All in all, Belphegor felt like his many victims, which only enraged and embarrassed him further. So much so that Belphegor started to fantasize about the various ways he would torture the special soul of this customer of his once he gets his hands on it.
“If you want to play like that then fine, have it your way,” Seeing Belphegor show no resistance I knew he wanted to let me think I outsmarted him and reveal what I really wanted from him.
pAn,Da n<0,>v,e1 Therefore I looked straight into the beady eyes of the jet-black monster worm and said, “Let me start by telling you what you want. You want my special soul along with that semi-demigod chick’s special soul. But you are not willing to pay the full price for both souls. You want to get them at the price of one or even less. That is where I come in, and why you keep bringing that girl up. You plan to use me to descend to this world and harvest both of our special souls. Feel free to correct me if I missed something.”
“…” the jet-black monster worm looked away from my eyes, fearing they could read his mind.
“Belphegor, I said feel free to add anything I missed,” I commanded Belphegor to answer me even though I knew that I could not use the devil’s true name to force it to answer anything not related to trade because it did not matter to me as I did this as a power move.
“Kid, you seem to be forgetting who you are talking to,” Belphegor thundered.
Ignoring the devil’s fiery emotions I commanded it, “Belphegor, tell me the price for you to recommend me to become a demon merchant.”
Earlier, I sidetracked a little to get the tensions high enough for me to get Belphegor to promise me what I wanted despite his sense of judgment telling him otherwise.