"Wait! I have one last question!" Lucifer called out, moving back. He still didn't have all the answers. He didn't want the conversation to end.
The face on the statue's stomach frowned, but he did listen. The mist stopped moving towards Lucifer.
"Fine. Since you'll be working for me from today, I shall fulfill that wish of yours. Ask your last question!" he said.
"You said you waited for millions of years to get ready. But why is it that you were still so weak that you couldn't even defeat the Variants?! How do you expect to defeat him like that?" Lucifer asked.
"Defeated by humans? Hah, do you all really think you defeated the best of us? The ones you faced were just foot soldiers! We are nothing before the true warriors of ours! We were sent ahead to create a path for our Warriors by taking care of the pests that surrounded this world!"
"Unfortunately, we underestimated you pests!"
"When you were defeated, why didn't your Warriors come out then?" Lucifer asked, frowning. "Unless they were scared?"
"Nonsense! They didn't come out because they couldn't!"
"They couldn't? Is it because of the Monster Index?" Lucifer asked.
"Monster Index? What's that?"
"It's a term we humans use to talk about the Dungeon Dwellers Population inside the Dungeons. When the Monster Population inside the Dungeons reaches a certain level, the barriers stop working, allowing monsters to come out," Lucifer explained.
"That? That's partially true. But we don't call it the Monster Index. We call it World Block," the headless Statue replied.
"It's the natural barrier between the worlds which stops any foreign species from overwhelming the world. If our leader had come to this world alone, it wouldn't have mattered."
"The world block wouldn't have affected him. However, we appeared here in mass, with all our population through the Dungeons."
"This somehow activated the World Block outside the Dungeons. As the World Block affected the powerful the most, our stronger Warriors had a tough time. They can't leave before they can weaken the World Block through their sheer individual auras. That's why the numbers matter."
"I think you can say that's also one of the reasons we were sent first since we could overwhelm the World Block faster for us because of our weakness."
"Isn't that the same thing as saying your powerful warriors couldn't come? You were so close to opening the Portal to another world while your people couldn't even leave the dungeons? What would you have done if that being had come to this world instead?" Lucifer asked.
"You're too naive to understand. The stones that we created? They weren't just to open the portal! They were also weakening the World Block! As soon as the Portal was fully open, the World Block would have been destroyed as well! Our people would have been able to come out!" the statue answered.
"Unfortunately, our plan failed! We were too weak. As for that demon coming to this world? That was possible, but so what! Our people would have been freed by then too. We could have killed that bastard!"
"So your leaders are strong enough to kill him now?" Lucifer asked. "Are you sure?"
"Of course they are! Our leader is the strongest leader in our history! He can easily kill that bastard!" The Dungeon Dweller said confidently.
Lucifer was doubtful about that statement though. There was no way they could be so sure.
"Is that the end of your questions? Can I begin?"
"One last question!"
"One last? You asked like ten questions while calling them the last question every time! Enough!"
"No, seriously! This time it's finally the end!"
"Fine! Ask!"
"Why earth?" Lucifer asked.
"Uh? What?"
"I mean, there are so many planets. Why did you guys choose earth for appearance? You could've appeared on other worlds, preferably empty ones. You wouldn't need to face humans. No one would have stopped you from opening the portal either," Lucifer explained.
"That's a stupid suggestion! How would we create those stones in empty worlds? We needed billions of sacrifices to create them! So, of course, we would choose a populated world!" the Statue responded.
Sigh~
Lucifer couldn't help but sigh. So the humans were right about one thing at least. The reason Dungeon Dwellers killed so many humans was to create the seven stones. Each stone was created with hundreds of millions of lives!
"If your last question ended, I'd start now!" the Statue said as he again stated.
The mist from its body kept coming out, filling the entire surrounding as it flew towards Lucifer.
"Wait, one more question," Lucifer said, flying back.
His words made the stomach of the statue's face twitch in frustration. Was this guy seriously trying to make him go crazy?
This time, he wasn't going to listen.
"Save your questions for later! After you become my slave, you can ask then!" the statue said, cackling.
"Don't worry; I don't want you to answer my question. I just want you to hear it," Lucifer responded as he kept flying back.
"I wanted to ask if you would die from my lightning?" he asked, clapping his hands.
Roar~
The clouds that were silent for a long time were finally let loose. They roared like wild beasts as tens of powerful lightning bolts fell from the sky.
At the same time, Lucifer used his winds to make the mist fly back instead of coming towards him.
Winds surrounded him, flying outwards to protect him from the strange mist. However, the mist remained unaffected by the wind for some reason.
As for the lightning, it also didn't go according to the plan. The lightning bolts passed through the body of the statue as if he was nothing but an illusion that they couldn't touch.
"Did you think it would work?" The statue asked.
Lucifer scratched the back of his head, disappointed. He had already expected something like this.
He was sure that it would've worked since the statue wasn't here in his real body. Without leaving this world, he had no chance at survival, and he couldn't escape either.
Lucifer continued moving backward, avoiding the mist for as long as he could, but before long, he was surrounded by the mist.
The strange mist was everywhere, trapping him in the middle. It kept coming closer.
Back in the real world, the statue remained seated with his eyes closed near Lucifer.
As his entire focus was inside the dream world, he didn't realize that something very interesting was happening in the real world.
Just as the blood-red formation was shining on the ground, another formation had started shining on the back of Lucifer, getting bigger.
The stone fragment in the inner pocket of Lucifer also activated, shining brightly.
The entire Divine Empire started trembling.