The demons were hard at work.
Adam watched with a cold detachment, his thoughts already far away, overseeing the progress of the dimensional gate.
He wanted to see if his influence had a spiritual, or physical, manifestation on others.
It was a side project brought about by Blair's and Agri's change.
Seeing their reaction, their subtle 'resonance' with him, Adam decided that he needed to slowly test and see the changes and level of influence. Hence, why he had chosen a demon at every stage; to better gauge the power and effect of his magical demonic nature. The difference in strength in the demons would also dictate if his influence had a direct correlation to the difference in their strength.
Basically, he had other plans, but the portal was still his number one priority.
Meanwhile, in a far off, hellish fortress built of bone and twisted metal, within a deeper layer of hell, Arch Devil Gorael sat on a throne that pulsed with visible malevolent energy.
A shimmering orb of darkness, a demonic crystal, floated before him, showing Kaelgor's visage.
Kaelgor knelt, his face one of subservience, though his body was rigid with a tension born of deep, unspoken terror.
After all, the being before him was often referred to as a God.
"And you let this 'newborn' speak to you this way?" Gorael's voice was not a sound, but a low-frequency vibration that rattled the very bones of the fortress, causing the skulls embedded in the walls to chatter.
Colossal dragons, giants, and bipedal species of all types; trophies taken of his countless victims over the ages.
"You are my first contact within hells 1st layer, Kaelgor. You speak directly to me, an authority and privilege that even True Devils don't receive the honor of obtaining," Kaelgor reminded Kaelgor that he was a kingdoms peasant speaking to a god, "You carry my will, manifesting my objectives in the 1st layer of hell... Yet! A simple bluff from a fledgling, and you return with your tail between your legs?"
Although separated by an unfathomable amount of space, Kaelgor was still able to feel Gorael's overbearing aura as if he were standing right in front of him. A single thought was enough to kill him across space and time.
Luckily, there were rules to these things…
Still, Kaelgor had to clear up any misunderstandings.
"My Lord, he was not bluffing about the nexus point's instability," Kaelgor insisted, his voice trembling slightly. "He threatened to tear a hole in this layer of hell if I engaged. The runes he described were of a power I have never seen before. Most importantly, he spoke of an outside influence."
Gorael's eyes, spouting literal flames, narrowed at his words.
"That is impossible. There were no runes on the nexus until…" A realization dawned on the Arch Devil, "A mere newborn… had he manipulated them in such a way?"
Gorael's features hardened into a mask of cold fury and subtle praise.
The very idea that his work, a creation of an Arch Devil, had been reengineered and used against him by a mere lesser devil was a monumental insult.
He had not simply failed to use the nexus point to achieve his goal; he had also given this failed 'investment', this child, a weapon!
A subtle shaking disturbed his thoughts and the conversation.
The fortress trembled, causing fine dust of ash and chips of brick to rain down from the ceiling.
The fortress's materials were exceedingly sturdy, yet there was still slight damage from a simple rumbling.
A faint, distant roar, like the sound of a cosmic titan in a fit of rage, echoed from deep within his territory.
The trembling was a silent but powerful reminder that Gorael's investment in the 1st layer of hell was already proving costly. He was already paying a price for his earlier hubris.
Gorael's fury was replaced by a more familiar, colder calculation.
"The fools," he muttered, his mind already assessing the damage, "Another incursion from neighboring Arch Devils. It seems my lack of action in the deeper layers of hell has given them unwarranted courage."
He looked at Kaelgor, his eyes filled with an absolute disdain.
"A newborn devil does not speak the truth. His bluff was a masterful display of wit, but it is not enough to secure his 'treasures'. The nexus point cannot explode in that manner." Kaelgor grunted in acknowledgement, having thought as much himself, "I will not have my reputation tainted by your failures. Deal with the fledgling. Secure the nexus point. Do not fail me again, Kaelgor, or I will make a monument of your failure for all of hell to see."
Gorael's image on the orb vanished, leaving Kaelgor kneeling alone in the dark, the rage and humiliation tangible around him.
Gorael leaned back in his massive chair, all 6 eyes were closed as a steaming hot breath shot out of his nostrils.
"Well played, newborn~"
Within a dark war-room, Kaelgor finally rose, a new plan already forming in his mind, the dissatisfaction forcibly ignored. He had no time to ponder over his emotions.
Kaelgor's footsteps were heavy, each one a solid thud against the obsidian like ground, a trail of faint red footprints marking his path.
The overbearing black aura radiating off his body had a physical weight; it was a suffocating miasma that made the lesser servants and maids within the castle tremble and kneel in his presence, their heads bowed low enough to kiss the floor.
The intensity of a century old devil at the cusp of entering the awakened realm was overbearing.
The red, gleaming long horns on either side of his head were a direct declaration of his authority and power, a clear mark of a lesser devil on the pinnacle of his realm. A long, slithering devil's tail also trailed behind him; a whip of hardened bone and muscle that fiends like him master as a deadly weapon.
He walked out of the black, steel-like castle's main room: the chamber that housed the massive communication crystal.
The castle was in a triangular formation with two more, each 10 kilometers apart, and at the center of the formation was a massive mine filled with thousands of demons slaving away.
The demons were recruited to work in the mines, and as payment, they would be allowed to follow a peak lesser devil into a raid on another realm once a year.
The work was grueling, the air thick with the acrid stench of sweat and pulverized rock, but the promise of obtaining mortal souls to increase their strength was a powerful motivator.
Endless demons waited for their chance to become a subordinate, even if it meant that they needed to work in the mines for years.
The hard labor was countless times easier than vying for survival in hell; the constant, risky fights to the death with other demons made surviving to three years old a surprisingly difficult goal.
Once a demon reached its maturity in hell, it was deemed fit for greater tasks.
The peak lesser devils would then send them in droves to other regions in hell's endless layers where Gorael had control of the territory. This was also considered a reward.
In the distance, a nexus point stood, but it was not Adam's.
The massive, five kilometer high obelisk in the distance was a nexus point that Gorael had carefully nurtured in this territory thousands of years ago. It was through this artifact's dimensional gate that resources, whether materials, demons, or devils, were sent to Gorael's other bases.
Such a powerful artifact was much rarer, and even harder to nurture than the one in Adam's basin; Adam's nexus only reaching a kilometer high.