Chapter 190: Exposed

“This voice…”

Hels looked at the black Demon King, his lips turning pale.

After Ville and Selina had perished together, he had personally gone to confirm Ville’s corpse. It had been thoroughly dead.

Later, Ville’s body had been recovered by the ancient families, and Sali had personally crushed the bones to dust.

With no corpse left, even necromancy was impossible. Every possibility of resurrection had been completely eliminated.

Yet the Ville who should have been dead was now standing right in front of him.

“Abyssal Demoness, what kind of illusion magic did you use?! Ville is dead! He cannot possibly still be alive in this world!!”

Sali’s tone grew noticeably anxious. He could no longer control his voice as he roared at Sashaya.

“I don’t have the spare time to play games with you people. Open your eyes wide and take a good look. Is this magic or not?”

Sashaya replied casually.

“Damn it, is it really him?”

Sali’s expression shifted unpredictably.

“How strange, my loyal aide. Why have you switched over to Sali’s side?”

Via spoke in the voice of her previous life as she questioned Hels.

“Demon King… Of course I’m very happy to see you return…”

Hels swallowed hard. His hand trembled slightly from guilt.

“Bullshit! Hels, you’re lying!!”

“Demon King, of course I’m very happy that you’ve returned.”

Hels heard a somewhat familiar voice.

He raised his head and looked toward the Abyss Dragon, where he saw a demonkin maid with green twin-tails.

It was Kurei.

“Hels, you traitorous scum who betrayed the Demon King, how dare you say such shameless things? It was you who secretly deactivated all the defensive mechanisms in the Demon King’s Castle and deliberately led the Silver Sword Princess right to the Demon King!!”

Not only Kurei, but Melu had also come.

She publicly ripped away Hels’s hypocritical mask in front of everyone.

“You two are here too?”

Hels’s eyes widened.

He truly hadn’t expected these two demonkin maids, who were extremely loyal to Ville, to be accompanying the resurrected Demon King.

“Oh, Hels, so something like that happened?”

Via feigned surprise. “As I recall, I never gave you any such order, did I?”

Hels bit his lip, unable to utter a single word in defense.

He had no way to argue.

“Hels, you really disappoint me. I saw that you, like me, had climbed up from the very bottom of the Desolate Fallen Continent, so I intentionally promoted you, making you my aide and entrusting you with many important tasks. And this is how you repay me? With betrayal?”

Via questioned him.

“Enough! So what if I did?!!”

Hels stopped pretending. He tore off his mask completely.

“Ville, let me tell you—from the very beginning, I was never some ordinary lowborn. I have been a member of the ancient families since childhood. After being trained by Mr. Sali, I was sent to your side specifically to monitor your every move!”

“So that’s how it really was.”

“Ville, if you want to blame anyone, blame yourself! If you had been a proper Demon King, the ancient families would have continued supporting you. But you went mad and tried to suppress the ancient families!”

Hels removed his gold-rimmed glasses and threw them to the ground, stomping them into pieces.

“You brought this upon yourself. If you had obediently acted as a dog, the Demon King position would still be yours today, and I wouldn’t have needed to betray you. Even if I had the chance to do it all over again, I wouldn’t regret my choice.”

After hearing his justification, Via almost wanted to laugh. “And somehow this is still my fault?”

She had not become Demon King just to be a lapdog for the ancient families.

However, she admitted she had indeed made a mistake in the past.

Her mistake had been failing to eliminate these old fossils who hindered the future of the demonkin early on, which led to the subsequent chain of events.

“Ville, I know you hold resentment in your heart. But at the time, we had no other choice. Since you didn’t die, why don’t we put the past behind us and have a proper talk?”

Sali tried to steady his emotions and negotiate with Via.

“There were indeed some misunderstandings between us before. If we can clear them up, we can still work together.”

“Work together?”

“Yes. If you wish to become the Demon King, our ancient families can provide you with full support. As long as you agree to stand on our side, we can maintain a long-term cooperative relationship.”

Sali said seriously. “The level of support we can offer far exceeds your imagination.”

“Hmph, Sali. You can’t tolerate me. You just want to stabilize me first and then look for another chance to kill me later.”

Via directly pointed out Sali’s true intentions. “Besides, I can’t tolerate any of you either.”

Via clearly stated her position. “You will all pay the price for what you’ve done. If not in the future, then today!”

“Then there’s nothing left to discuss.”

Sali’s expression turned ice-cold.

“Mr. Sali, since we managed to kill Ville once, we can kill him a second time. You still hold that trump card in your hand. There’s no need to fear him. Moreover… if we kill him here, no one should question the next Demon King for the next hundred years.”

Hels reminded Sali.

“Very well, Ville. You refused to take the path to heaven and insisted on barging into hell. In that case, I’ll grant your wish!”

Sali raised his cane and tapped it.

“Nicholas!”

“Mhm.”

After giving a low grunt in response, Nicholas moved at extreme speed to stand in front of Sali and assumed a combat stance.

“Let me remind you—that should be a puppet controlled by Sali.”

Sashaya’s voice sounded from behind Via.

“Mhm, I can tell.”

Via knew that if she wanted to establish her authority, she needed to crush Nicholas and publicly execute the traitors and Sali here. Only then could she rightfully claim the position of the next Demon King.

However, before entering battle, she thought for a moment and made an unexpected move.

Right now, she was acting under her previous life’s identity.

But after awakening the Demon King bloodline in the Thousand Sea Abyss, there was no longer any need to do so.

In front of everyone, she voluntarily deactivated her Demon King Armament, revealing her true appearance. In this life, she would make the name Via resound throughout the entire Desolate Fallen Continent.

“Come then, Sali. Try using that soulless puppet of yours to defeat me.”