Authority, rank, or to put it more directly — the primal authority of the Nine Hells of
This was the most important thing in all of Baator, and the very foundation upon which devils were built!
The greatest authority over all of Hell was divided among the eight Archdevils led by
Similarly, a lesser devil under their jurisdiction could absolutely never advance in rank without the approval of its direct superior.
And every Archdevil governing each layer of Hell held absolute power of life and death over the devils under their command!
One need only look at how Raylin, armed with
For all of Hell, the disappearance of an Archdevil was an unprecedented event — something that had not happened since the ancient Ragnarok of the gods!
The hierarchy of devils was much like a bureaucratic system — one position, one seat, and you could never advance without squeezing out whoever was above you. Thus, the promotion of one high-ranking devil inevitably meant the demotion of another, along with dozens of rivals eyeing them hungrily from behind! The competition was nothing short of brutal!
Now, what would those Pit Fiends, Greater Devils, and high-ranking devils who had been loyal to Beelzebub do when they suddenly found the mountain over their heads gone?
The ultimate prize of ascending to the rank of Archdevil in Hell was enough to make them forget everything!
Amidst these turbulent undercurrents, with Asmodeus and the other six Archdevils adding to the fray, the second layer of
To put it in more vivid terms: if the Nine Hells were the ancient Central Plains, then Asmodeus was the emperor in name. The other seven Archdevils were like feudal lords carving out their own kingdoms, with their own proud and formidable generals — that is, the Pit Fiends and other Greater Devils.
The emperor sought to seize more power. The feudal lords expected to expand their territories. And as for the generals, they fought fanatically for their respective overlords, hoping for a chance to rise — and some even harbored ambitions of usurpation!
Complex and tangled schemes swirled all around, and only the truest schemers could laugh last and claim the supreme primal authority of all Hell as their reward!
Beelzebub's disappearance was like a feudal lord vanishing overnight. The power vacuum and turmoil it caused — what Raylin had witnessed was merely the most superficial layer on the surface.
But even so, it was already enough to warrant his deepest vigilance.
"Right now, the entire second layer of Hell has fallen into panic. Although Beelzebub's authority still technically exists, many have sensed its weakness..."
Raylin watched the bustling yet orderly tide of devils, his footsteps never ceasing as he toured nearly the entirety of the Bronze Citadel, finally stopping before a pillar of demonic skulls — seemingly admiring this precious trophy of the Blood War.
"According to the devils' usual conspiracy theories, Beelzebub's subordinates were spreading the word that their master was actually nowhere near as weak as the outside rumors claimed — that he was hiding in some dark corner, waiting for all his opponents to reveal themselves before capturing them in one fell swoop... In truth, over the long ages of devilkind, several Archdevils had done precisely this. Even Asmodeus himself had once orchestrated a 'final settlement' scheme, trapping who knows how many devils in the process..."
"There's another rumor going around — some devils are claiming that Beilu was actually secretly captured by some Lord of Hell and is currently imprisoned somewhere, having the energy drawn from him that stems from Hell's very essence... These devils sure have quite the imagination..."
Raylin's own main body was the one responsible for Beilu's current state, so nobody understood the Archdevil's condition better than he did.
"After having the majority of the Gluttony Rule stolen, and losing nearly all of his divine nature and divine power, he has undoubtedly fallen into a deep slumber by now — no matter how much external stimuli he receives, it will be extremely difficult for him to awaken..."
Having absorbed the majority of Beilu's power and memories, Raylin was all too aware of how troublesome this kind of injury was. Unless Beilu managed to defeat Raylin's Warlock main body in turn and devour him back, there was essentially no way he could ever return to his former rank.
A weakened Lord of Hell. Absolutely the most coveted prey among his former subordinates!
"Within his memories, there are several secret lairs and hidden treasures prepared specifically for this contingency. Their locations are scattered across Dis and even span multiple planes..."
Raylin's gaze grew somewhat grave. Thanks to the innate deviousness and cunning of devilkind, their ability to prepare escape routes was simply unmatched.
"And he would certainly have anticipated that I might have obtained part of his memories — the chances of those caches still being usable are very slim. He might even have set traps in their place..."
A torrent of thoughts rushed through his mind, and Raylin made his decision in an instant: "Regardless, I absolutely must pay a visit to Dis!"
Discovering this Lord of Gluttony and devouring everything he possessed — this was the key to his main body's advancement, and something he absolutely could not afford to pass up!
"The rank and authority of a devil, along with the permissions of the World Consciousness... Now that's something truly fascinating!"
The sharp instincts born of his Warlock heritage, combined with the specialty of a Legendary
Or rather, the World Consciousness that governed all of Hell's power had been split into eight portions, distributed equally among the Lords of each layer.
And Raylin, having inherited the majority of Beilu's authority, now possessed the right to manipulate that World Force!
With the permissions at his disposal, he could promote any high-ranking devil under his command to a Pit Fiend at will — or demote a Pit Fiend to a lower tier.
Furthermore, for any devil below the rank of Lord of the Nine, he held the power of life and death!
This was determined by the very essence of Hell itself, impossible to defy or alter!
"When compared to demons, devils really do have it rough. Advancement not only requires the permission of their superiors, but also demands a tremendous expenditure of soul energy... And the positions in the upper echelons have long since been filled — to climb higher, you simply have to wait for an opportunity!"
Raylin found himself somewhat glad that he hadn't been reincarnated within Hell's domain. But then he considered that possessing Beilu's authority meant that had he been a devil, his advancement would have encountered no bottlenecks whatsoever — he would have been born at the very pinnacle of the hierarchy, with no one to govern him, only him governing others.
"As long as I kill Beilu and seize the last remnants of his Rule power and authority, I will instantly become the Master of Dis, the Second Layer of Hell!"
Raylin suddenly had an epiphany.
At the same time, he understood that it was precisely because he had been stirring up turmoil in the Material Plane while carrying a tremendous Hell authority upon himself that the illusion of Beilusebub's lingering power had been created.
The wariness this had inspired, in turn, protected Beilusebub in its deep slumber, shielding it from the fate of being slain by others — whether that counted as irony or not, he couldn't say.
"The authority of Hell's Primordial Power..."
Raylin closed his eyes. Ever since arriving in Hell, he had felt as though he had merged into a single entity with the entire realm. With each rise and fall of his chest, the whole world seemed to resonate in harmony — a supremely powerful source of primordial force that could erupt at his command at any moment, unleashing absolute pressure!
Of course, this authority could not be wielded lightly, or it would inevitably lead to countless unpredictable consequences.
But Raylin had already estimated that the power he could unleash by fully channeling this authority was comparable to the time in the Infernal World when he had sacrificed the sapling of the Ancient Tree of Wisdom to awaken the world's will and receive its primordial blessing!
"Even an ordinary devil, empowered by this authority, could wield the power of a Rule
"This Hell Primordial Power authority is analogous to the 'Divinity' of the gods. Even a mortal who stumbled upon it, if fortune favored them, could instantly ascend to become one of the most formidable existences in the divine world!"
Raylin suddenly grasped the true nature of the devil ranks. "The divisions of lower, middle, upper, and then Greater Devils and Abyssal Archdevils — they are all merely external manifestations of this Hell authority... The true Hell Primordial Source still rests in the hands of the eight Hell Lords, and the rest of the devils merely receive the illusory support of a false status — a secondary authorization from the Hell Lords! This can naturally be revoked at will, which creates the illusion, from an outsider's perspective, that the devil ranks are strictly hierarchical and that the Hell Lords hold absolute power of life and death..."
Having grasped all of this, Raylin instantly swept away a great deal of the fog and glimpsed the true face of Hell.
"Therefore, what Asmodeus and the other six Hell Lords are trying to seize must be none other than the share of Hell authority in Beilusebub's hands!"
Now that he understood their true objectives, formulating targeted countermeasures would be far easier. Raylin's mind even began to wander toward additional considerations.
"Then... the First Layer of Hell, Avernus, should by all rights possess its own share of primordial authority equal to that of the eight Hell Lords... So where is it now?"
To command the Hell Primordial Source authority would make one a Hell Lord on par with Beilusebub! Unifying the entirety of Avernus would pose no problem whatsoever.
"Perhaps there are simply too many powerful devils on this layer, or perhaps the two True
"If that's the case, there might exist rogue devils who operate outside the 'Eight Lords framework'..."
Once a devil possessed even a small fraction of the Hell Primordial Source authority, it could become independent and autonomous, gaining the privilege of advancing in rank without needing its superiors' approval!
Obviously, this was something the eight Hell Lords would absolutely never tolerate!