Epic of Caterpillar

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Apparently, the Imps cannot say the names of the Archdemons or they'll literally burn to ashes and die, the worst part is that the little guy didn't even left a soul, his demonic soul turned into demonic energy and was spread into the entire dimension, as if being repurposed.

I guess demons don't have it easy either. But why can't they say the names?

My family quickly reached my side, as the Imps looked at all our figure sin shock. We looked way different than Demons, of course, with a few exceptions, and we had all sorts of peculiar appearances.

But despite that, we all exuded the power of Low-Ranked Archdemons due to the cores I made for everyone.

"S-So many Archdemons!"

"I-Is there a special gathering going on, my lords?"

"We are graced by your devilish presence!"

The Imps were being very serviceable, I decide to speak a bit more with them, I told my family to go hunt some demonic beast in the meantime to kill time.

The Imps saw with horror as they began hunting these giant and terrifying beasts, they never meddled with like nothing, Scarlet ate them up, and I even saw Fafnir forming a giant Lava Golem. The scene in here was already chaotic but they made it even worse, I guess…

"Sorry for that, I won't force you to say his name… Though I am quite curious to know why did saying it burned you guys to ashes… Alright, let's sit down and relax, we are all friends here within the Limbo of Hell." I said.

I knew there was another Limbo which was a space without even time in it, but this Limbo was clearly different. The power of the Dao of Rebirth was closely related with that Limbo, although I had no connection to it yet. The fragments of Rebirth I have are not enough to let me utilize its true power.

I clapped my hands as I summoned a refined table, some herbal tea, and several seats, there were also all sorts of snacks, ranging from sweets to savory stuff.

"Come on, sit down with me, my good little friends, I want you to answer all the questions I have." I said. A single smile from my face was all I needed, the Imps nodded timidly and sat down around, some of the more curious and less fearful ones began to drink the tea, saying it was delicious, and began to snack out. Others who seemed more serious tried to stop them from being so disrespectful.

"Hmmm! This is some good drink! Bitter but sweet!"

"Crunchy snack!"

"Sweet! Sweeeeeeeet!"

"Cut it off you animals, we are in the presence of an Archdemon!" roared one of them, stopping the more childish goblin-like Imps.

"Now tell me, why did that just happened now?"

I asked regarding how one of them turned into ashes after mentioning Mammon.

"T-That's because Hell is a place ruled by names, we Demons don't have true names until we can evolve into higher castes of Demons by doing demonic deeds and cultivating our demonic cores…"

"If we say the name of our lord Archdemons while being weaklings, the sheer power of their names alone would burn our bodies to ashes."

"It is already notable that our lady can say the name of such a powerful Noble Archdemon without problems, you must be… t-terrifyingly powerful!"

"To withstand saying his name… at least, half as strong as him!"

"I see… So such rules apply here." I said.

"It is strange, why does our lady archdemon doesn't know the most basic of rules?" wondered an Imp.

"Because… Erm, I fell unconscious, we were sleeping for a long time and we just forgot everything, yeah." I said.

"Amnesia then?"

"Ah, yes, I had a cousin that got amnesia."

"It's not uncommon!"

I guess they were trying to cheer me up.

"Anyways, you guys tell me something, how do you grow stronger here?" I asked.

"We do demonic deeds. Torturing and smothering the souls of the sinful is a good way of doing it, we gain extra demonic energy by doing that, and it is rather fun!"

"Indeed! I like to pierce them with my trident!"

"Hunting demonic beasts is also an option… or well, other demons like us."

"So that's how it is… Now tell me, where could Mammon be? Do you know where he is?" I asked.

"Ma- He is not here… The Limbo lacks any sort of Supreme Noble Archdemon."

"Indeed. The Lord of Greed remains in the Layer of Greed, where he reigns over the Pandemonium of Greed, the great city where all Greed gathers!"

"It is said to be a city of gold and wealth, of countless treasures!"

"In there, our lord archdemon reigns supreme…"

"Interesting. Now tell me some more about him…"

I looked down at the Imps with a greedy smile, I really wanted to learn more about this being if possible. He seemed to be a big shot in here.

"H-He's one of the Seven Princes of Hell… Who represents Greed. He's also the Father of Alchemy!"

"What we learned in the demon school is that he was an Archangel that never cared about god, but gold! He always looked down into Heaven's golden floor instead than God, so he was thrown here by Archangel Gabriel because he cared more about material wealth than God… hypocrites! Couldn't they let the man be happy?"

"Indeed! Heaven born are all hypocrites! The worst part is that they come here to wage war against us from time to time, merely because they enjoy conquering our lands…"

"Detestable Angels! Ugh, but even us cannot even fight a cherubin, the lowest-ranked angel…"

"W-We are really hopelessly weak, my lady archdemon, we can't do much, we require hundreds of years of cultivation to raise in strength in the way we are doing it."

It seems that life as a low-ranked demon is hard around here, and that Mammon was an Archangel… huh. Seven Princes of Hell, that sounds like a fancy title, so they all represent a Sin? Interesting…

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