Chapter 69: Backing
Upon hearing of Belial's arrival, Asmodeus and Samael hastened over from their respective domains.
They set up a table within Belial's spacious, empty residence, and Beelzebub—taking the initiative—contributed some of his prized vintage wine to serve as a welcome feast for their old friend.
Belial's reintegration went smoothly; after all, they were a group long accustomed to one another's company. Although they rarely exchanged words in their daily lives, the atmosphere soon warmed up once a few cups of wine had been consumed.
They spoke of many things—mostly trivialities—until, toward the end of the evening, Asmodeus inadvertently posed a question: "How fares Heaven these days?"
The convivial atmosphere froze for a brief instant. Beelzebub raised the wine cup—crafted from fine bone china—to mask his momentary lapse in composure; yet, his gaze remained inexorably drawn toward Belial. As the last among them to have departed Heaven, Belial was clearly the one from whom they could glean the most information.
To whom would Lucifer entrust the two remaining vacant seats?
Since Belial's arrival, Beelzebub's heart had undoubtedly given rise to a host of fanciful speculations.
Michael... Gabriel... those former companions with whom he had once shared bonds—did *His Majesty* harbor the same hopes and expectations for them as he did?
"Michael has already been elevated to the rank of Vice-Regent of the Heavenly Kingdom—the new Chief of the Seraphim," Belial stated dispassionately.
"He is not like me."
Michael would never come.
"That bastard Michael!" Beelzebub cursed, even though he had known all along that this would be the outcome.
Yet, a sense of melancholy was unavoidable. He and Michael had spent a millennium battling one another with magic, and ten millennia bickering. They had once served side-by-side under Lucifer, constantly vying for a higher place in their superior's esteem.
Though they had outwardly loathed one another in their daily interactions, to claim that no affection existed between them would be nothing more than self-deception. Now that their paths had diverged, Michael had—ironically—stepped into the very position once held by Lucifer.
"Talk of admiration... claims of loyalty..." he sneered, draining the liquid from his cup in a single gulp before hurling the vessel to the floor, where it shattered. "It is nothing more than a hollow farce."
The fallen angels attending at their side fell utterly silent. Belial cast a glance at the seemingly tipsy Beelzebub, then resumed his conversation with Asmodeus regarding the recent whereabouts of the beautiful angels who held his interest.
"Is that so? Machidiel has been promoted to adjutant? I remember she had a thick mane of light brown hair—curling slightly outward at the ends. She was always so vexed by that..."
Samael listened in silence, downing a glass of burning spirits.
The flames transformed into scalding liquid as they flowed into his stomach; a momentary spasm jolted his nerves.
While Beelzebub was thinking of Michael, Samael's thoughts were fixed on Gabriel—on her pure-white silhouette, and on that single, ruthless, and merciless strike of her blade.
He instinctively clutched at his chest—a wound long since healed—yet he still felt a faint, throbbing ache there. A flicker of hatred flashed through his eyes.
Angels.
*Angels!*
A truly magnificent lot, indeed!
They drank and reveled, denouncing Michael and Gabriel, cursing Heaven, blaspheming against the Divine, and unleashing a torrent of verbal abuse; the atmosphere, for all its venom, was surprisingly spirited.
As they drifted into a drunken haze, a fallen angel suddenly burst in with a report: an intruder was attempting to force her way through the Gates of Hell. Her assault was formidable and loud; she brazenly demanded that Lucifer come out to face her, threatening to smash the gates to splinters if he refused.
Their drunkenness vanished almost instantly.
"You certainly set quite the precedent; now, it seems every few days some deluded fool comes along, overestimating their own strength and trying to storm the gates," Beelzebub remarked to Belial after hearing the fallen angel's report—though he spoke mostly in jest.
The commotion raised by such petty riffraff would hardly warrant a formal report from the fallen angels; clearly, this was the real deal.
Even Baal himself could not force open the Gates of Hell, nor inflict the slightest scratch upon them. Who, then, dared to make such arrogant boasts right on Hell's doorstep?
"Let's go out and take a look," Samael suggested, and the other Sins readily agreed.
Without disturbing Lucifer, they made their way toward the Gates of Hell. "Where is Lucifer? Tell him to come out!"
The moment the door cracked open, a gravelly voice boomed inside.
Belial narrowed his eyes, recognizing the voice instantly.
"Behemoth."
Behemoth sounded as if he were being strangled; his gaze swept over the Fallen Angels emerging from the doorway, finally locking onto the one standing to the side. He stared blankly for a moment, before a storm of frenzied rage erupted in his eyes.
"It's *you*!" Clearly, he had recognized Belial as well.
"You shameless, backstabbing bastard!" Behemoth roared in fury.
"You know him?" Beelzebub and the others looked at Belial in astonishment.
"We had a bit of a run-in before I came here." The black-haired embodiment of Sloth—rarely ever this alert—suddenly seemed wide awake. *Just a mere Chaos Dragon, yet after getting thrashed once, he actually has the audacity to come back looking for payback?*
Belial waved them off, signaling that they shouldn't interfere and that he would settle this dispute himself.
However, before they could even come to blows, an overwhelming force descended from above, effortlessly prying the two combatants apart.
"Leviathan!" Behemoth called out in annoyance. "I don't need your help! I'll get my revenge myself!"
Belial, pinned down by the immense power of Chaos, felt beads of cold sweat break out across his pale face.
The Chaos Dragon, Leviathan...
"Now, be a good boy, Little Bess; you can't afford to get hurt again," Leviathan said to Behemoth in a gentle, affectionate tone. Then, she lowered her head to look at Belial—whom she now had pinned beneath her foot—and her expression shifted in an instant.
It became cold, ruthless, and utterly domineering.
"So *you're* the Belial who injured Behemoth?" Though phrased as a question, her tone was laced with a chilling certainty.
"Good. Very good."
"I'll deal with *you* first, and then I'll go find Lucifer."
"Stop!" Beelzebub and the others shouted in unison, poised to intervene—only to see Belial offer a cold, mocking smile.
"'Deal with me,' you say? Let's see if you can even catch me first."
No sooner had the words left his lips than he dissolved into a wisp of black smoke, instantly slipping free from Leviathan's iron grip. Leviathan flew into a rage. Reverting to her true form—that of a colossal, indescribable Chaos Dragon—she opened her maw wide. With a deep, resonant inhalation, the entirety of Hell shuddered.
In that instant of cataclysmic upheaval, freezing winds, streams of hellfire, and shards of shattered rock were all sucked inexorably into her gullet.
The Lord of the Abyssal Sea—whose stomach seemed an insatiable void—continued to devour everything in her path; even Beelzebub, the very embodiment of Gluttony, felt a secret tremor of awe.
For a fleeting moment, he found himself wondering who, between Leviathan and himself, truly possessed the greater appetite.
His wandering thoughts were quickly reined in. The plume of black smoke that was Belial—struggling desperately within the vortex of air and perilously close to being swallowed whole—caught his eye, and a look of fury crossed his face.
"This is *our* domain! How dare you act with such insolence!"
He conjured a bow into his hands; the arrow, loosed from the string, streaked through the air as a sapphire-blue bolt of light, flying straight toward the Chaos Dragon. It disrupted her inhalation, successfully buying Belial a precious moment to catch his breath.
With a resounding thud, Belial materialized once more, collapsing onto the rocky ground in a disheveled heap. He drew his greatsword and drove it deep into the stone earth, using it to brace his battered body.
"Hahaha! You arrogant little brat—do you finally realize the extent of my power?" the Chaos Dragon boomed. Supported by Beelzebub, Belial struggled back to his feet; he offered no verbal reply, choosing instead to simply tighten his grip on the hilt of his sword.
"Chaos Dragon, are you attempting to provoke us?" Samael asked, fixing the colossal beast with a cold, steely gaze. Though the disparity in their physical size was immense, his voice somehow managed to cut through and drown out the sheer physical volume of Leviathan's roar.
Only then did Leviathan recall the true purpose of her visit; with palpable impatience, she issued a demand:
"You've actually reminded me of why I'm here. Send Lucifer out to face me!"
Beelzebub laughed—a sound that quickly curdled into a snarl as he gritted his teeth: "Ridiculous! Do you truly think His Majesty is someone you can simply demand to see whenever you please?"
Of the group, it was Asmodeus who remained the most composed. He stepped forward and inquired:
"Might I ask the nature of your business with His Majesty? Perhaps I could serve as an intermediary and convey your message on your behalf."
His impeccable courtesy seemed to soften Leviathan's demeanor ever so slightly. She lowered her massive head to gaze down at the "little speck" standing beneath her, yet the words that issued from her lips remained as brazen and arrogant as ever. "I want one of the positions among the Seven Deadly Sins."
"You!" Samael flared up in anger. What did this dragon take them for?
"Don't you dare even think about it!"
He drew his sword, ready to strike, but Leviathan merely exhaled a cold, disdainful breath in his direction.
"If you don't give it to me, I'll smash this place to rubble—I'll turn this whole world upside down." She looked down upon the fallen angels with utter contempt, lifting her chin as she declared, "I mean what I say, and I follow through."
"If I can't have peace, then none of you will know comfort."
"Well..." Asmodeus found himself in a bind. He had only treated Leviathan with such amiability earlier because he found the female form she had assumed to be rather beautiful.
"If you wish to join our ranks, you are certainly most welcome," he said, flashing a fake smile—one that never quite reached his eyes.
But could they truly entrust a position among the Seven Deadly Sins to a Chaos Dragon?
*They are not of our kind; their hearts must surely harbor different motives.*
Lucifer had yet to make his true stance known, but if at all possible, they still preferred to select suitable candidates from among the fallen angels themselves.
Setting aside the truly impossible candidates, figures like Belial and Moloch—who had distinguished themselves in the battles against the demons—were the very individuals they were currently keeping a close eye on.
"However welcome you may be, you must still meet the necessary criteria," Lucifer said, stepping out from the shadows with a faint, gentle smile gracing his handsome features.
"Otherwise, wouldn't my Hell simply descend into utter chaos?"
All the surrounding fallen angels—along with the many demons who had gathered to watch—bowed their heads in unison, paying their respects to him.
"What does that matter?" Leviathan shifted her form once again. "I know that the mantle of 'Envy' has yet to be claimed by anyone..."
"And there is no one who knows the true meaning of envy better than I do."
Leviathan smiled as she spoke, her large eyes fixed upon Lucifer; with her innocent, guileless demeanor, she looked just like a harmless little girl.
Yet, she was a Chaos Dragon—a beast capable of devouring even the Abyss itself.
"You really ought to be applying for the role of 'Gluttony' instead," Beelzebub remarked; seeing that Lucifer had finally made an appearance, he felt an instinctive sense of relief wash over him.
"Whatever Leviathan says, goes!" Behemoth bellowed indignantly.
*What a dim-witted dragon,* Belial scoffed inwardly. Behemoth, finding him utterly obnoxious, had kept a portion of his attention fixed on him; the moment Beelzebub made a move, the dragon's sensitive nerves instantly flared up.
"What are you laughing at?"
Beelzebub turned his face away, refusing to look at him. "I don't speak to spoiled little babies."
"Leviathan! Let us settle this with a fight!" Behemoth stomped his foot, gouging a deep crater into the ground, and called out to Leviathan without even turning around.
"Behemoth..." Leviathan looked at the impulsive, short-tempered little Chaos Dragon with visible exasperation.
"What does it matter? Just let them have a good, unrestrained brawl," Lucifer remarked indifferently, though he did tell Beelzebub to be careful.
"If too much damage is done, I'll make you work it off as compensation; Gareth is currently short on helpers," he stated coolly.
To think he couldn't even defeat a mere Chaos Dragon, yet still harbored delusions of standing on equal footing with *him*.
It was clear that the current Seven Deadly Sins still required a great deal of training.
Catching Lucifer's gaze, Beelzebub instantly felt a surge of pent-up frustration.
Who could have predicted that the Chaos Dragon would suddenly revert to his true form?!
Beelzebub suppressed his anger while Behemoth practically breathed fire; the two instantly clashed, and within moments, Hell was a whirlwind of flying dust and stones.
It seemed the employment roster of Gareth, the Gnome Patriarch, was destined to gain a new helper—or perhaps even two; one could never be sure.
Thinking this, Lucifer turned his gaze toward Leviathan.
"Now, perhaps you can explain the purpose of your visit. Did you truly come here to claim the Sin of Envy?"
"It seems absolutely nothing can be hidden from you," Leviathan replied.
"Ever since our parting at the Sea of the Abyss, I knew a great shift was coming; yet, I never imagined you would rise to such heights." She gazed deeply at Lucifer, who allowed her scrutiny with an air of utter arrogance.
Given Leviathan's status, she had no actual need to come here in person.
Even without the Sin of Envy bound to her essence, who else in the Three Realms would be foolhardy enough to provoke her?
He had roughly guessed the true purpose of her visit, and he knew there was no need for him to rack his brains over it; she would naturally reveal everything herself.
Chaos Dragons were simple, straightforward creatures; they simply couldn't keep anything bottled up inside.
Lucifer watched with perfect composure and serenity as the chaotic brawl unfolded before him—a complete and utter mess. It was obvious that Belial held the upper hand, yet Behemoth—thick-skinned and sturdy—was by no means weak.
Sure enough, it wasn't long before Leviathan spoke up; she had come to find a job for Behemoth.
She hoped this little Chaos Dragon could find a suitable place for himself here in Hell.
Lucifer understood immediately; it was indeed all for Behemoth.
Though that simple-minded dragon remained completely oblivious to Leviathan's true intentions.
Still, Lucifer couldn't quite fathom why she would go to such lengths.
Unexpectedly, Leviathan proceeded to share a sorrowful tale with him.
"Behemoth has no fixed abode; his entire life has been spent in search of a single figure."
*That story sounds strangely familiar,* Lucifer thought to himself. The image of Briel flashed through his mind, and he raised an eyebrow.
"Is it Yahweh?"
Yahweh truly was a sinful existence; Lucifer felt an inexplicable urge to laugh.
"No," Leviathan denied.
"The one he seeks is God."
Never having anticipated such an answer, Lucifer was momentarily stunned; yet Leviathan continued speaking.
"He will never find Him, for he is destined never to behold God's true form." Leviathan gazed at Behemoth, who was currently rolling about in the distant magma, and a flicker of pity crossed her eyes.
"He knows this full well, yet he clings to the hope regardless. If he cannot see, he sniffs; if he cannot sniff, he listens."
"He chases after those invisible figures; the slightest rustle in the wind is enough to send him off in excited pursuit."
"He is a fool. Had I known it would come to this, I never would have let him leave the Sea of the Abyss."
"But since it has already come to pass, I cannot simply stand by and watch him give up on himself like this." Leviathan turned her gaze toward Lucifer.
"So, I wish to find him something to do."
Lucifer was a capable guide; perhaps he could help Behemoth move past that painful chapter of his past.
This, too, was the very reason Leviathan had come to seek him out.
"If Behemoth is deemed unworthy, I am willing to pay the price myself."
She was the very first of all creation, the Chaos Dragon of the Abyss—when had she ever before humbled herself to such an extent?
Lucifer gave his assent. You have provided *[Hebrew Mythology] The Arduous History of a World's Development* by the renowned author Dan Mu'ai.