Chapter 523: Fated Rivals

The implicated cambion pounded away at the nose of the cambion nearest him with wild abandon, trying to make sure the other's injuries matched his own as closely as possible.

The cambion he'd blindsided didn't see it coming. By the time the others realized something was wrong, the cambion had already broken four other noses to match his own.

The silence ward helped, too. Despite having smashed a cambion's nose to pulp, the first cambion made no noise at all, which made the second ambush just as easy.

The cambions' faces, all smeared with blood, looked roughly the same.

That was the survival plan the first cambion had come up with.

As a relatively experienced half-blood devil, he knew that to most other races, cambions all tended to look alike. Outsiders' attention snagged on the red skin, the horns, and the devil wings. The actual differences between their facial features were nearly impossible for outsiders to pick out on short notice.

So if he broke every other cambion's nose, he figured he could muddy the waters enough to hide in plain sight.

Beyond that, after each ambush, he carefully watched what was happening on the other side of the barrier, right up until he saw the lying cambion turned into a zombie. The moment that terrifying undead girl turned to look at the warded group, the first cambion grabbed a dazed cambion and roared, "You bastard, you jumped me?!"

Whether or not sound could actually escape the silence ward didn't matter. It was better to sell the act fully, just in case someone out there could read lips.

By the time Milena turned back to the ward, it was total chaos.

The first cambion had muddied the waters expertly. Several of the dazed cambions had no idea who'd actually hit them. Upon seeing the brawl in progress, they furiously threw themselves into it too.

Milena had no choice but to summon a broad tangle of whisperwood vines and bind every single one of them at once.

Looking at the group of bruised, bloodied devils, Milena asked, "Mother, should I just kill them all?"

Black Rose hadn't seen this complication coming, but she was sharper-eyed than Milena. Even with the cambions' faces this battered, she could still pick the first cambion out.

After a moment's thought, however, Black Rose said, "Just grab one at random and ask the same question again."

Milena obediently did as told, pulling out another cambion and repeating the earlier question.

This time, every cambion present understood exactly what was going on. They were being interrogated separately, on purpose.

None of them knew what the undead cambion had said, but under the circumstances, there was no way to fabricate a lie that would perfectly match an unknown answer. Telling the truth was the only real chance at survival.

The blood-covered cambion answered honestly, giving directions nearly identical to the first cambion's: she would have to go through the territories of the three other lords of Hell, then ford the thousand-mile Blood River beyond.

The river was a nightmarish battlefield, the site of an endless, unrelenting war between demons and devils.

Only by crossing that stretch and reaching the Bloodriver Fortress, and then using the teleportation array inside the fortress, could she hope to reach Sariel's residence.

Setting aside the question of who was even authorized to use that teleportation array, simply crossing the Blood River was next to impossible.

It was a vast, ever-shifting battlefield, every inch of ground soaked through with the blood of devils and demons, where even the weeds had mutated into lethal monstrosities.

There was a well-known saying in Hell: whatever crime you'd committed on any other plane, surviving the Blood River alone would count as full atonement.

The Blood River was universally recognized, across all nine layers of Hell, as a path to redemption.

Sick of being tortured? Go fight at the Blood River!

Sick of being enslaved? Go fight at the Blood River!

Want your freedom back, or even to be resurrected on the material plane? Excellent! Go fight at the Blood River and earn the merit you need!

The Blood River welcomed anyone unafraid to die. Every reward imaginable was on offer for those who lived long enough to claim them.

No lord of Hell was permitted to stop a sinner from joining the war. That, too, was one of Hell's ironclad rules. In theory, all Milena needed to do was declare her intent to join the battlefield at Blood River, and none of the three lords along the way would obstruct her. Quite the opposite. They'd fling their gates wide open and wave her through.

But all those generous benefits only underscored just how terrifying the battlefield really was.

Legends, rare sights on any other plane, were harvested like scallions on this battlefield, one crop after another.

Two balor demons could strut about the material plane at will. But at the Blood River, the balors didn't dare walk around quite so carelessly. Doing so meant certain death.

If their luck were bad enough, they might even run straight into a named demon lord's avatar the moment they set foot on the field. Hell wasn't the material plane, and Aion placed no restriction on gods exercising their full power at Blood River.

These avatars all possessed genuine divinity, and not the weak kind, either.

Demogorgon used to make a habit of tossing avatars onto the battlefield just to bully the weak. Any ordinary devil unlucky enough to run into him would be slaughtered without mercy. Eventually, though, Demogorgon crossed paths with Cranvor, the God of Death, who played just as dirty. Cranvor, too, kept conjuring avatars of his own and throwing them into the war, mowing down demons by the field.

The two of them clashed several times, until both sides realized the whole exercise was pointless. The senseless slaughter gradually tapered off.

These days, the Blood River battlefield was in a relatively stable state. Devils and demons still died in waves, but it had been some time since a divine avatar last showed up.

Black Rose's brow furrowed as she listened. This was far too dangerous. It sounded like a death sentence with no way out.

Black Rose had Milena pull every cambion out of the ward one by one and questioned each in turn. "Is there truly no other way to reach Sariel's residence? Do even the other lords of Hell have to cross the Blood River just to see the ruler of the first layer?"

Though she directed the question at the whole group, Black Rose's attention stayed fixed on the first cambion.

That particular cambion seemed sharper than the rest, and Black Rose was hoping to pry a real answer out of him.

The first cambion could feel her gaze on him and understood at once that this terrifying master had already identified him. His little trick hadn't worked, and his quick wit was now his only remaining shot at survival.

If he couldn't come up with an answer that satisfied her, he'd likely be turned into a zombie next.

Sariel be praised, the cambion actually did have a tidbit of information.

He shuffled forward on his knees, pushing his way through the crowd of kneeling cambions until he reached Milena, and said with great deference, "Great Mistress, the other lords of Hell have no need to cross the Blood River to reach Archduchess Sariel. Their own strongholds each have a dedicated teleportation array leading directly to Sariel's residence.

"But those arrays aren't for the likes of us to use, and not even the other lords can use them freely. Only when Archduchess Sariel personally summons them can they pass through those arrays into her grand palace. So there's no point considering the other lords: they don't have free passage either.

"As for the Blood River itself, I do happen to know of a route that might let us avoid most of the danger. If you'll trust me, Mistress, I'll find you the safest possible path to the Bloodriver Fortress."

The moment that cambion finished speaking, the other cambions burst out laughing.

"What a pathetic lie!"

"A safe route through the Blood River? Why not just claim you're Archduchess Sariel's illegitimate son while you're at it?"

"If a route like that actually existed, you'd already be an officer at the Bloodriver Fortress by now!"

......

Every cambion present piled on to expose the first cambion's supposed lie. The claim was so absurd that even the dimmest hellworm wouldn't have bought it.

The cambion didn't bother defending himself. He simply looked at Milena with sincerity.

Milena, on her part, showed no reaction of her own. She was only following Black Rose's instructions. She tossed a ring to the cambion.

Through the mirror, Black Rose ordered, "Put that ring on and repeat what you just said."

The cambion hastily slipped the ring onto his finger. He could feel a faint stir of magic, but otherwise had no idea what the ring actually did. He repeated his earlier statement, and nothing happened.

Only then did Black Rose believe the cambion.

The ring the cambion was wearing was a lie detector, one that Ambrose himself had forged. Even he, a legendary diviner, hadn't been able to fool that ring's detection.

If the ring hadn't glowed red, that meant he was telling the truth.

Still, Black Rose pressed further, unconvinced. "How do you know a secret like this?"

The cambion answered quickly, "This route only came to light very recently. I don't know if you've heard, Mistress, but not long ago, an enormous number of tiflings were sent down into Hell, a whole several million of them. Most of those tiflings were thrown straight onto the Blood River by Archduchess Sariel herself.

"I didn't find the route myself. Several million tiflings' blood paid for it, most of whom didn't survive till the end. The information leaked out by accident, and not many people are in the know just yet. I was simply lucky enough to hear about it early."

The ring remained inert. The cambion, it seemed, was telling the truth.

"The tiflings of the Unholy Kingdom..." Black Rose felt no particular relief at that, only a dull headache.

If that mass of tiflings ever learned who Milena really was, they might prove even more dangerous than any demon on the Blood River.

But there was no other option left. Black Rose finally said to Milena, "Milena, you'll need to change your appearance. You can't risk exposing your true identity."

At that, Milena said, brimming with confidence, "Don't worry, Mother, I've got this! Father taught me!"

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