Absolute Depravity: Reincarnated with a lustful System

 Chapter 278 - Melicia, The Angel, The Witch, The 
Betrayer Of All

Trapped in his underground training facility right by the territory Haruki had 
reclaimed, Inferno was fuming in rage yet his soul siblings deterred him from taking a 
step outside. Bound to a chair by a lever mechanism pulling him down on it with 
chains, Inferno could easily tear it apart, yet the only reason he didn't do so was 
because deep within he knew his rage was a product of rampant emotions.
"Fuck you all!" But that didn't mean he wouldn't let his frustration be known, 
especially when he'd lost his army trying to cover for the two who'd been missing for 
more than two days at this point. "Merciella, Deus, and Reya, you too! You're all a 
bunch of morons who can't do a single thing right! Do you know how much it taints 
my name to lose a territory that I'd occupied not even a month ago?!"
"Inferno, calm down!" Merciella yelled back crossing her arms.
Between the two, Deus knew who was at fault, however, opening his mouth or even 
letting Inferno loose would've been the biggest mistake he could ever make. Only if 
Michael wasn't accompanying Haruki or if they had Asmodia, the three of them 
might've stood a chance against the demon lord of lust as well as the dragon slayer, 
but with the strongest of all demon lords dead, there was no way they could defeat 
them on their own.
"Aghhhhhh!" Further enraged by Merciella's confrontational attitude, Inferno finally 
decided to break through the chains. Once unshackled, he stood tall and started 
walking towards his soul sister. And although Deus was witnessing it all, he had no 
plans to protect that monster. "Reya, I can understand she's never been the one to 
fight on the frontlines, but you, Merciella! What the fuck were you doing?!"
Walking backward as Inferno kept stepping closer and closer to her, Merciella tried to 
keep up some distance between her and Inferno. But tripping onto the rotting body of 
one of the royal guards Inferno had killed a while back, she fell down onto her butt 
and couldn't do anything more than hopelessly look up at her older brother.
"Inferno stop, please!" Merciella pleaded, covering her face from the flames that were 
soon to come.
Grunting out loud with flames pressured out through the gaps in his teeth, Inferno 
drew his hand back to teach Merciella a lesson. As his fist began to burn, however, the 
sudden opening of the underground hall's door stole Inferno's attention.
Leaping back, he readied himself to face whatever or whoever was on the end side. 
Expecting an enemy as well, Deus conjured up his guns and even summoned an 
Astromech model that appeared like a fusion of a kangaroo and a bunny. As for 
Merciella who was still down on the bloody ground, she only had enough time to turn 
towards the door to see who they were about to be facing.
While three kept a stern watch on the door, it flung right open with nobody standing 
on the other side. At first, they wondered if it was the wind that pushed the door 
open, but as the trio noticed a shadow eerily move towards them from under the door 
frame, they all went back into their defensive state.
Stomping the ground, Inferno set flame to the dried blood layered across the floor. 
With everything instantly catching fire, the room for shadows was near to none, 
forcing Haruki to crawl out of the ground before he was stuck into the ground.
"Haruki?!" Deus exclaimed, his eyes wide open.
"What the fuck?!" Merciella yelped, getting back on her feet.
Like always, Inferno had another means to relay his shock, which happened to be in 
the form of anger. The fist he'd clenched shut for Merciella, he decided to rush over to 
Haruki with it. Storming through the flames, he marched like a Pegasus with loops of 
flames left behind his every step.
Inches away from Haruki, Inferno swung his fist towards his face, but before it could 
make contact, he noticed in his eyes a different kind of glow that he hadn't seen while 
fighting him in the arena.
"What did you do?!" Breaking his strike by jumping back, Inferno knew that standing 
before him wasn't the same Haruki he'd met in the Colosseum.
"I don't have much time for explanation," saying those words, Haruki used mana to 
create a steam of vapor to put out the flames around the room. "Michael has gone 
back to the castle for some reason, and while I've tricked my battalion with a clone I 
doubt it'll be long before they figure out that that's not me."
Taking a few steps forward, Haruki got closer to Inferno and peered right into his 
eyes with a determined gaze. Knowing well enough that backing down or appearing 
reserved would only make things harder in front of someone like Inferno, he wanted 
to set the tone of their conversation beforehand.
"Asmodia isn't dead yet, we met in purgatory while I was looming between life and 
death," the moment Haruki revealed the news, Deus and Merciella let out an audible 
gasp as for Inferno his eyes widened eye further as he stumbled a few steps back. 
"There's a way to bring her back and that's why I had to pretend to be the emperor's 
servant."
"What about my army then?!" Inferno growled, still pissed off about his lost soldiers. 
"Unlike lust, my men are born from flame and can't be made overnight!"
Placing his hand on the side of Inferno's arm, Deus pulled him back before his temper 
worsened the situation. Being possibly the only one capable of sound negotiation, 
Deus wanted to know more about this contract before making any decisions toward 
helping Haruki.
"Even if you revive her, how would you escape the emperor's curse? What does doing 
this for her, have for you?" Deus asked, a subtle frown riding across his forehead.
Taking a moment in silence to collect an answer, Haruki drew a deep breath before 
replying.
"She'll die eventually, but according to our contract I can only kill her when I've 
replaced Atlas as this world's god," starting with the heavier part, Haruki knew he 
would raise plenty of eyebrows, and that is exactly what happened. "That said, we 
can't kill each other until then, and I have to help her be revived in exchange for a life 
without the meddling of gods and demons alike."
The last part of the explanation loosened up the tension in the room a little, but even 
now there were plenty of questions that needed to be answered. One of which Deus 
was just about to ask.
"And how do you plan on doing it?" He muttered.
"I need a total of three people to revive her," holding his hand forward he tried to open 
a dungeon portal window to show something, but it failed as the emperor had 
restricted his use of the ability. Clicking his tongue, he washed his frustration off with 
a shake of the head.
"What the fuck do you need, applause or something? Just tell us what you need!" 
Stilling raging, Inferno howled at Haruki.
Ignoring him, Haruki scoffed before speaking out the names of the three people 
instead of showing them through the portal.
"First I need Moriyana Malice, she's…Never mind, the other person is Reya, the demon 
lord of sloth. As for the last, I need Reya to summon her so we can visit the land of 
fairies, and open the path to purgatory to get Asmodia's soul," laying out his plans, 
Haruki tried to remember everything he could that he'd learned through the books of 
arcane in the emperor's library. Even though it had been a pain trying to decipher 
them to an intelligible degree, doing so with his affinity for lost tongue helped him a 
long way.
"None of this makes sense," Merciella retorted, and to some degree, the other two 
were in agreement.
After all, why would Haruki need to visit the land of fairies? Disregarding even that, 
there was no way Reya would've been able to open a portal to purgatory since if it 
was so simple why wouldn't they have done it already? However, that is when the 
massacre of Infernal demons came into play.
Reaching into his cloak, Haruki took out a luminous glass jar shimmering with a 
rampant soul ready to burst out of their clear prison. Enveloping it in a mask of 
darkness, Haruki hid its light again before putting it back inside his white cloak.
"Mellicia the witch, an angel of pathways, and melody, that's whom I need Reya to 
summon, and once we offer her these souls in exchange for Asmodia, we can revive 
her with some extra effort," still keeping parts of his plans a secret, Haruki let them on 
all everything they needed to know.
For a moment, the trio seemed dumbfounded and not that convinced by the whole 
plan, but since the clock was ticking and they had little time they ultimately had no 
choice but to agree to Haruki's plan.
"Sure enough Mellicia is a witch that can open a portal to heaven, hell, earth, and even 
purgatory, but even then convincing her to help a demon would not be an easy task," 
Dues pointed out, worried about the possibility of failure.
"These souls aren't the only ones I'm going to offer her," with an expecting god 
waiting for Haruki on the other side of that portal, he had not one but two excellent 
bargaining chips to use. "So, have you heard of Destinia and her kingdom of fairies?"
With a maniacal smile, Haruki went on to discuss a massacre that would leave the 
land of fairies barren like a dessert.