As part of the Inferno, the Drismegians turned their attention to Dariel quite early on.

　He escaped from Hell under the eye of the Demon King and tried to hunt down many souls in this world to accumulate the power of rebellion.
　In the midst of all this, Dariel caught my eye.

　Not just any soul to be absorbed.

　There were two main conditions for souls that were easy to convert into as much power as possible.

　One, the emotion that occupied the soul must be hatred.

　It was the emotion that was most efficient in converting hatred and rage, which was directly related to the burning image as the attribute that Drismegian controlled was 'fire'.

　The other was simply being strong.
　The strength of the heart is directly related to the strength of the soul, as it should be. A strong heart that had overcome many hardships and had been forged by experience and thought would also directly translate into strong firepower when converted.

　Therefore, after escaping from hell, Inferno first hid in the vicinity of Lasperda Fortress and ransacked the modern day strongmen.

　Because the most desirable ones who could have strong and unholy souls that fit the conditions were adventurers who lived in battle and soldiers of the Demon King's army.
　The fortress on the front line, where these two clashed, was the most suitable hunting ground.

　The goal was correct, and soon the three brave men, Pigalo, Zester and Altamir, appeared and engaged in a fierce battle with the four heavenly kings of the day.

　They took the three brave men, who were defeated and frustrated, away as they were easier to govern, and gave them a mithril-robbing plan to grow them into better nutrients.

　It was a well-timed strategy since he was able to draw information about the mithril delivery route from Pigalo and the others' memories.
　That was the extent of my sense of humor at the time, but finding Dariel at the scene was a surprising harvest.
　It was the most gratifying part of the mission.

　Dariel observed the situation from a distant point and twisted and crushed the Zester, whose strength was increased by absorbing Mithril, without any difficulty.

　If he could absorb a soul this strong, he would be much closer to the goal of the Overthrowing Demon King.

　What was regrettable was that his heart contained very little hatred.
　No matter how strong a soul was, if its heart wasn't dominated by flaming hatred, its conversion efficiency would be poor.

　So he decided that the previous step was necessary to absorb Dariel as well, and he approached Roselwy.

　If he attacked the village under the guise of being sent by the center guild director, Roselwy, and killed everyone, including his family, Dariel would surely be ruled by hatred.
　The intention was to use Roselwy and make him look like an executioner, because that would bring out more of Dariel's hatred.

　But it failed to do so.

　The defenses of the village of Rax were more solid than they had imagined, and several strong adventurers rebounded from the raids without a care in the world.

　At first, the men for the raid were expected to be manned by Rosselwy, but despite being a guild director, he was a disappointing little thing, as he did not have the strength to move on his own.

　Inferno had no choice but to prepare his own manpower, which was a group of shabby adventurers he had gathered from all over the world to provide for himself.
　They are on their way to rob you of your sanity with brainwashing magic and increase your hatred of them by mentally oppressing you to become a better feeder.

　It was a diversion that was used to attack Lax village, but it backfired and they were all captured.
　It was a painful loss, but it was only an afterthought.

　It was after all those disturbances that a direct confrontation with Dariel had occurred.

　Dariel's ability and brilliance could only be understood when they met directly with the sword.

　I immediately realized. Dariel has the ability to become an essential and important piece of Inferno's.......no, Drismegian's plan.

　Initially, he had prepared the brave Siegfriedgel as that piece.

　It was because he assumed that Siegfriedgel, who was an aura user on the human side of hell and had the highest ability, would be the trump card of the overthrown Demon King.

　However, once he found Dariel, who was more than worthy of a trump card, Siegfriedgel was easily discarded.
　That's also why he didn't save Siegfriedgel in the fight against Dariel.

　With a better pawn, the old pawn was out of use.
　Likewise with Avos, which was prepared as a spare for Siegfriedgel.

　After physically separating them from Cernya and the others, Drismegian is ready to pursue only Dariel.

　And then he entrusts Sernya, the only person he truly trusts, with holding back the Ida of "Heaven and Earth"....
　And then he rode into the village of Laxx with the fullness of his heart.

◆

Dariel is ... a gem. Very talented.

　The inferno that has come this far after all kinds of conspiracies and schemes.
　No, the Drismegian of "Sahi" speaks in front of the two men of his day.

He says, "Even through my eyes, the master of hell. That's why I definitely want it. He will be the last one to defeat him.

　To that end.........

"Dariel's heart must be stained with more hatred than ever before. I must be in tune with the power of my fire. Granberza, Arantziel. You are all inherently useful enough material.

　Hell, he looks at the two heroes who are being exterminated and looks at them as if he were assessing them.

The two heroes look at each other as if they were assessing each other, "That power is unparalleled in ancient and modern times. It would be a great source of sustenance if it could absorb your souls as well. But for now, Dariel takes precedence over that.

　Granberza and Aranziel.
　It is better to kill them both miserably here and there and invite the hatred of Dariel, instead of going through the process of absorbing their souls as corrupted by hatred.

'That would be a more useful use of your lives. If we can absorb them all in the best condition, that would be the best, but unfortunately, we don't have that much time to spare. It's not only Ida, but it's time for him to make his own move.
You're an arrogant man in this room. It's all very selfish of you, no matter what you say.

　A shimmer of righteous indignation flickered from the surface of Glambarza's body.

'How mindful of our lives!　Neither Dariel nor we are meant for you. Your hubris and misguidedness, you certainly deserve to go to hell!
That anger is not good. It does not lead to hatred. Righteous indignation is the most useless and vexatious emotion of all.

　Drismegian did not take offense in the slightest.
　Hundreds of years of being condemned to hell. His emotions had already been transformed into something too far removed from people.
　He was not interested in the good of people, nor was he interested in the evil of people.

　Everything is the incarnation of hell, obsessed with the delusion of 'defeating the demon king'.
　That was Inferno.



　It was Arantzill who said quietly.
　Glamberza, who heard it beside him, turned his gaze to huff and puff.

''What do you mean by that, Aranzir?''
'I too was once trapped by hatred. The loss of having my wife and children killed by the demon tribe, and the loss of what was most important to me forever, had to be transferred to hatred.

　That was the driving force behind the thirty-year battle of the brave Arantziel.

　The power of hatred continued to swell until he was too old and decrepit for his body to follow, and it did not diminish until he met his fate with Dariel again.

'If you want to reduce Dariel to hatred, it would be accurate to target his family. He's a lot like me in some ways.

　Just as Aranziel once was.
　Dariel would surely become hatred incarnate if he lost Malika and his son Gran.

'I was in danger, too. My heart was hardened by hatred until I met Dariel and found out my son was still alive. Dariel loosened my hatred. Before that, I would have been a great treat for you.
'That was close. I guess that means we met just a little too late.
'I know the horror of being trapped in hatred, and I cannot let Dariel fall into such a situation. I will thwart your plans. I won't let you kill Malika, Gran, or even Granbaza over here!

　The one who was more than a little confused after hearing the declaration of determination was Glamberza, who listened next to him.

''Aranzir, you........?
''Don't even tell everyone. The fact is that Dariel respects you more than anyone else. It's a shame, though.

　But...........
　Arantzill continues.

'That's not all we've found out. It's a byproduct of being trapped in hatred for so long, I guess. I can kind of sense it.
What?
'The smell of hatred, if you will, that accompanies the words and actions of others?

　People are creatures with emotions.
　That's why their words and actions always showed their emotions.

　Some people are able to hide their emotions well, while others will see through them.

　I'm not going to be able to say that I'm not going to be able to do anything about it.

It's a good thing I've noticed that. You are.........

　He points to Drismegian.

'You don't hate the Demon King so much, do you?
..........

　The red cape was silent.
　It wasn't a taiyoung man from the margin, but a raptured expression because of a figurehead.

''You have in mind to defeat the Demon King above all else. Your attitude is now so vindictive that you could almost call it vindictive.

　And yet.

''When you talk about the Demon King, not a bit of hatred for the Demon King is conveyed from your kiss. There's no doubt about it because I felt that way. You don't hate the Demon King one bit.

　No, on the contrary, the sentiment that Drismegian follows when he talks about the Demon King is rather the opposite.
　Respect.

　At least that's what Arantzill's intuition told him.

'I think there's plenty of reason to hate the Demon King after being condemned to hell and exposing the tricks the Demon King has exerted on this world on your own. But you have no righteous indignation or resentment while relentlessly holding up the idea of overthrowing the Demon King.

　Aranzir, who had been tormented by hatred for so long, was able to see it acutely.

'That's what makes it such a mystery,'
''Shut up!''

　There was a shout from the crowd that raged like wildfire.

"Jari, who doesn't even know death, has the audacity to try to see through my mind...!　The relationship between me and that guy is not within the scope of a person's understanding. Guessing is just plain rude........!

　At that moment, a horrible change appeared from Inferno's body.

''You will pay for that crime with your life. I'll tear you to pieces and kill you...!

　Sharp, insect-like knotted legs began to grow out from inside the red lotus cloak.
　They were huge, and many of them........