Chapter 949: A Horrible Misunderstanding


    ?


    The cultist woman, gasped staring up with a shocked face. She had never expected Lunara''s demon to look human, but what came couldn''t be anything else. But now that she looked at him for a solid second, he was over two meters tall and as muscr as a bull, he couldn''t be a human, this is a giant.


    Arad''s eyes looked around, spotting Jack and the murder pdins who were just making it out of the tunnel to assist him. It didn''t take him a second to recognize that the cultists were attacking Jack and the rest, so he acted.


    Arad''s eyes shed purple as a wave of gravity magic rushed out of his body, forcing all the cultists to kiss the ground. Even the werebear couldn''t resist Arad''s magic, his body felt several times heavier than normal, and the wound up his shoulder didn''t help. He coughed blood, wanting to curse the giant demon that appeared, but still fearing Lunara''s retribution. Jack looked at Arad with a confused face. Arad was supposed to be several weeks'' worth of travel time away, even if Arad flew here as fast as he could, it''d take him a day to arrive and this one had walked out of the demonic gate.


    "Arad? Is that you? How..." He looked at him, still worried that this might be a shapeshifting demon. It wasn''t that umon for demons and devils to show up to mortals in human forms to trick or make them drop their guard.


    "ARAD!" A sharp voice boomed from the still-burning gate and a long purple arm extended out, grabbing Arad by the shoulder. "This is my gate! Why did you jump in?" Lunara walked out and growled at him.


    The cultists couldn''t recognize Lunara''s demonic magic as Arad''s gravity magic had engulfed the whole ce and muffled their senses, they could only sense him. To them, the one behind him was just another giant demon, this is only purple and has horns.


    ****


    One minute earlier, Arad and Lunara were still sitting with Hati and the pale mother in the healing quarter when a small gate opened beside Lunara''s head, crackling with magic. This was a call for help from her cultists, they were pleading for her to send them a powerful demon to assist them in battle.


    Lunara looked at the fist-sized gate, pulled it closer to her face, and looked closer at it. "I must go back to the abyss. My followers ask me to send them a demon to help." She stood and looked at Hati, "It''s safe if I open a door to the abyss, right?" She didn''t know if doing such a thing could trigger Kayden or the overgod, but Hati replied with a nod, "You can do that."


    "It''s dangerous to return to the abyss now." The pale night said, "You might get killed by your generals who want to rob your power and throne."


    "She''ll be fine. But do it inside the training room, not here." Hati waved her hand and opened a portal to her training ground. "I don''t want the abyss''s miasma stinking up my house."N?v(el)B\\jnn


    As the two were talking, Arad looked at the gate with his void eyes, sensing something strange about it. It was faint, but he could see it, a familiar magic sparkling on the other side... bloody and fiendish, a devilish presence that always stuck close to one of his wives. There was no doubt about it, that was Pin''s magic on the other side, which meant Eris might be there, facing Lunara''s followers. Blood rushed into his head and a vein bulged on his forehead.


    Arad threw his hand forward and plunged his fist into the portal. Lunara gasped, but she was already toote, Arad''s whole body got sucked into the gate in a fraction of a second. Usually teleporting someone as powerful and magic-dense as he was quite taxing, but if he is willing to be teleported, it''s almost costless.


    Shocked at Arad''s act, Lunara jumped after him, ending in them both inside the cultist''sir.


    ****


    "Ooo! Great demon..." The cultist woman between Arad''s legs cried, "Please kill those intruders who trespassed on our greatdy''s altar." She didn''t even notice Lunara who had just walked out of the gate behind Arad as she was knocked down with gravity magic and Arad''s legs were too thick for her to see behind them.


    Arad lifted his fist, the veins on his arm bulging as he swung his palm up. The whole cavern shook and cracked. Jack and the pdins got thrown to the ground as the walls shattered and the ceiling levitated. Everyone watched in horror as sunlight pierced through the shattered walls. Arad had split the whole cavern in half and lifted the upper part to the sky, exposing the inneryer to the outside world.


    He wanted a direct line of sight to everyone in the cave, all of them, including the pdins waiting outside, the dead ones in the other caverns, and even the sneaky cultists hiding in ambush inside the walls. He had already sensed all of them so he wanted everyone to be visible, within punching range.


    "Jack, what''s going on here?" Arad walked past the cultist woman, as his footnded one inch beside her face, she could see it pushing through the hard stone, leaving a footprint. Terrified that she had almost got her head crushed like an apple, she got a sudden urge to empty her stomach from stress.


    "How do I know you''re Arad?" Jack growled. He had no reason to think this was the real Arad seeing that he juste out of a demonic summoning gate. Sadly Jack wasn''t as talented with magic as everyone else and couldn''t use it to identify people, he needed something clear. Getting tricked by a demon here would mean death.


    "It''s Arad..." Pin said with a grin on her face, "I can sense it, mydy''s blood in him." She jumped from Jack''s shoulder onto Arad''s shoulder with a happy giggle. "Milord, it''s been a while." The moment Pin recognized Arad and jumped to him, the pdins smiled, smelling their victory cooking on the horizon. This is their goddess''s husband, they couldn''t ask for better support.


    Jack sighed, "So it''s you...not some shapeshifting demon..." He approached Arad with a tired face, "How did you end uping out of a demonic gate?" Thest time he saw Arad he was sure Arad wasn''t a demon.


    "I was in the beast kingdom with this demon called Lunara and I then sensed Pin''s magic when the gate appeared in front of her. So, I jumped in..." Arad looked back, pointing at Lunara with his thumb, "That one over there."


    Pin looked behind Arad at the side of the portal, and so did everyone, finally noticing Lunara''s presence and magic. Pin''s smile disappeared in a second as she gasped, "Heh!" Dreadful, sharp, burning, and evil, the ancient demonic magic of a demon that had lived for centuries, she was a demon lord, and everyone felt it.


    Everyone started sweating as they slowly realized who was the monster standing behind Arad, they were in the presence of the demon lord of severing. Jack slowly lifted his artificial limb, ready to fire as the cultists smiled in terror and happiness, their demonicdy had graced them with her presence.


    Both the pdins and cultists started cracking into faint smiles, ring at each other. Each side thought they were winning. The cultist''s confidence as their demon lord appeared was unmatched, and the pdins were the same.


    Arad slowly turned back toward Jack and the pdins, "Now, what''s going on?" He still didn''t get an answer to his question, and everyone tensed up. The only one who realized something was off was Jack, he knew how powerful Arad was and that you can''t underestimate a demon lord. If Arad and Lunara were to fight here, Croc City and everyone in a thousand kilometers


    are fucked.


    Lunara started sweating in the back, she knew what was this about. Since she tried to see who Arad''s wives were, she triggered Lydia''s senses and ended up causing this whole mess. If her standing with Arad was bad earlier, it''s about to get even worse when he knows it''s all her


    fault.


    While everyone there thought Lunara was the most dangerous being present, only she knew that it was Arad that they should be afraid of. Their previous fight ended in a draw, but now she''s certain he''ll kill her.


    Before anyone could speak, Lunara was the one to speak first.


    "Sorry, this is my fault." It''s better if she was the one speaking instead of anyone else ratting


    her out.


    Arad''s neck twisted as if he had no neckbones, he turned toward her with a burning purple


    re. "Your fault? What did you do." She could sense that he was indeed angry, far more than before when she threatened his wives since blood had been spilled this time, but he wasn''t attacking immediately which was a good sign. Yet, she couldn''t rx, he was one word away from shoving his fist down her throat and pulling her heart out.


    But, even with that good sign that Arad was willing to listen if she was the one speaking directly, she still felt like a stone was stuck down her throat. "Remember when you told me about your wives? I then tried to see who they were so I used small cuts as mediums to check who they were, so I can identify them from themon rabble." Pinching her fingers together, she couldn''t look at him in the face.


    "Cuts?" Arad took a step toward her and she gasped, feeling her stomach turn. She jumped a step back, waving her hands, "No! It wasn''t a cut that I caused, I use cuts that already


    urred."


    Arad stopped moving, and she felt a bit relieved, yet she couldn''t rx just yet. One wrong word and not just her head would roll, but probably all of her cultists would end up


    evaporating.


    "When I identified Eris...a pdin that with her noticed my demonic presence and identified


    me... I suspect they are here to attack my cult for that." She looked at the cultists with a


    troubled face, her actions had led them to face several deaths without them even knowing why. If they made it all alive from here today, she''ll give those who died a high rank among


    her demons.


    Pin was the one to speak after that, "Demon lords use their cults as beacons to spread their


    influence. When Lunara''s demonic magic appears on mydy Eris, the easiest and quickest route to make sure the demon lord doesn''t reach her is to destroy all the nearby cults. That''s why are we here to destroy this cult, murder every one of them so Lunara can''t track mydy." Arad halted his gravity magic and released everyone, he only kept the ceiling floating in the sky. He was smart enough to guess this was probably a misunderstanding, but his aim was someone else.


    As the magic lifted, the wearbear who had regenerated thanks to his cursed blood lunged up, swinging his w at Arad''s neck. "You aren''t one of mydy''s demons! Die, monster!"