The Primal Hunter

Chapter 896: Demon Lore Galore

Before Irin had her chance to launch into a lengthy explanation about the demon race, Meira entered the living room. The high elf instantly spotted the succubus as she smiled. “Irin! It’s great you could come over so fast.”

To Jake’s surprise, Meira went over and hugged the succubus, who happily returned the gesture. After their brief hug, Meira joined Jake on one of the couches as Irin sat down on a third one, Jake noticing how the two of them made some small talk while being all smiles.

Okay, they have definitely gotten closer during my absence, Jake noted. It was honestly good to see that Meira had made some more friends. Jake also didn’t doubt that Irin would gladly make friends with Meira, if not for pragmatic and selfish reasons, as surely it would only be beneficial to be friends with the Chosen of Duskleaf.

With everyone settled down, they finally got back to business as the succubus looked at Jake.

”So, I’m just going to assume you aren’t that aware of how the demon race as a whole works. Am I right to have this assumption?” Irin asked, Jake slowly nodding. While he did know a bit, his knowledge was definitely limited, and a bit of repeated information had never killed anyone.

“Alright, let’s start from the basics. While most demons you have encountered thus far were enlightened, there are far, far more types, with the majority being classified as monsters. The thing is, these are rather rare to find outside of certain specific areas, as they require demonic energy to be born, and the non-intelligent ones rarely, if ever, stray out of demonic lands. They tend to progress far slower outside, after all.”

Jake nodded along, knowing this part already from some books he had read. Demonic beasts and monsters in that vein totally existed, and Jake kind of wanted to encounter one at some point. Alas, as Irin said, they were rare outside of demonic lands.

“Demonic lands can be found… well, pretty much anywhere. A few planets exist here and there that naturally possess the demonic affinity, and you can find certain sectors in every universe where it is the dominant affinity, making it a bit similar to the death affinity in that regard,” the succubus continued, as she even supplemented her explanation with projections of mana.

“However, the most well-known areas classified as demonic lands are no doubt the Nine Hells, also called the Nine Circles of Hell,” she continued as the mana projection changed, showing nine layers stacked atop one another. “Do you know of the origin of the Nine Hells?”

“I’m going to assume they were created by the system,” Jake made an educated guess.

“Yes and no. The history of the Nine Hells is a bit complicated, to say the least. The brief explanation is that, at first, it was artificially created by a group of nine devils to establish some form of safe haven and home base for all the demonic races by turning their respective Divine Realms into a Hell each, with every Hell symbolizing aspects of the devil’s Path. With time, they began to be known as the Nine Circles of Hell, representing sin and whatnot. Not to be confused with Sin Curses… though curse magic is very much a staple among demons, so I can’t really say there isn’t any connection.

“Anyway, the Nine Hells exist in a separate dimension, accessible from all the universes far more easily than another universe, which is part of the reason why demonic summoning is such a prominent thing. The veil is incredibly thin, and even I have a treasure allowing me to enter the Nine Hells at any moment without much trouble,” she continued, surprising Jake quite a bit. He knew snippets, and he knew how people could summon things from the “demonic realms,” but he didn’t know this was part of the reason. There was also the demon’s innate racial skills related to summoning, so more likely than not, it wasn’t that the demons adapted to the Nine Hells, but that the Nine Hells were created with demonkind in mind.

Looking at Meira, the high elf clearly already knew all this, making Jake feel a bit out of the loop as Irin continued her history lesson.

“These Nine Hells were expanded by more and more devils, as a hierarchy was formed, until the integration of the sixth universe. I am not exactly clear on how or why it happened, but the system adopted the Nine Hells and made it into what it is today: a World Wonder. A quite unique one at that, as it’s more or less its own separate universe filled solely with demonic energy and owned by the demonic races. And that concludes my brief history lesson on the Nine Hells and how they came to be,” the succubus finished.

“I see,” Jake nodded. “That was very enlightening, and-“

“Oh no, that was just the history part… now we’re on to the political climate of the Nine Hells,” Irin smiled devilishly, not even giving Jake a break. “Each of the Nine Hells is ruled by a devil, family, or clan. These rulers of the Nine Hells are referred to as nobles, and status has a huge significance in demon culture. This is part of the reason I’m happy to be here right now, as just me working as your assistant of sorts has granted me quite a lot of respect among my peers.”

and shook his head. “And let me guess, the Cerulean Demon is

for a long time, with the Cerulean Devil you mentioned as one of their most notable figures before he died. The Demon Prince you met is one of the most important figures in the

as he asked curiously: “Are the Nine Hells ranked based on power? The Demon Prince

kind of affinity. As each ruler of the Hells has held their throne for a long time, no one can

the Ninth Hell square up

as she hesitated before steeling herself. “This is not meant to be taken the wrong way… but it very much depends. If the fight takes place within the Nine Hells, the ruler will have an advantage, while if the confrontation happens outside, the Primordial will have an edge. There is a story from a

site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author

as he seemed to get the gist of it. “What you are pretty much telling me is that the Crest I tossed to you earlier grants the person holding it the status of a demon part of the aristocracy

in a serious tone. “It signifies you are an important and highly valued guest of the faction the Crest belongs to. These Crests are only ever given out by the respective leaders of the Hells, meaning should you do anything to someone holding a Crest, it will be viewed as a personal attack on them. It also means they take

was fine for me to hand

Someone acting as your agent if you didn’t have anything you wanted yourself but perhaps needed something for your subordinates,”

have any

the succubus just smiled and shook her head. “You

would be a waste of time, as Irin

Crest, right?” Jake asked, wanting to change the subject. “I don’t need it, and I reckon you can get

I will be bombarded with will be suffocating, and it will lead to a needless amount of rumors. It would have been better if you got a

lust and home to many succubi?” Jake made an educated

I thought you didn’t know anything about demons,” Irin raised

of myths from Earth had a shocking level of accuracy, though the details did tend to, more often than not, be a bit off. Like... sure, Valhal was some mythical realm of nordic mythology before the system, meaning the halls of the fallen or something like that. In reality, it was called Valhal because Valdemar had literally called his faction Valdemar’s Mead Hall in the early days, and with time, that name had been shortened to Valhal. Literally,

by a succubus, the strongest of my race, and is a land filled with illusions and dreams,” Irin confirmed,

invitations to visit half of the factions in the multiverse; I have no idea when I would

sure you can learn to create avatars or something and just

“But, back on topic… what

dared use it, not that I wasn’t interested,” Irin said with a smile. “Chances just are I’ll take my master along or go with a group to not stand out as much. Of course, you could also go with

pass,”

“A pity,” Irin smiled.

and all this demon stuff… what have you two been up to during

the rush for Nevermore and the many local celebrations recently taking place upon learning that the Chosen of the Malefic Viper topped the All-Time Leaderboard. Personally, I believe I have made good progress, but nothing too outstanding. At least not compared to the honored Chosen of Duskleaf, Grand