Beelta ignored the delegation of duty that occurred. It is understandable that the porcupine demon would be reluctant to risk his life. A contract doesn't need a willing agreement for it to be effective. Only a written agreement is needed and that can be acquired by force or threat to life. So her contracted subordinates aren't highly motivated.
The weird demon is lucky she doesn't want an actual threat to his life. If someone refuses to sign a contract, she will kill that demon and use him or her as a lesson to encourage the others to sign. She had made an exemption for the weird demon because a chance of progress for her had to be taken delicately or she might lose it forever. Now, look where being soft has led her to.
They finally sent a little beholder to inspect the situation. The beholder is the size of a fist and the clone of one of her subordinates. The clone will serve as an extra eye to the beholder and he will inform them of the situation.
Beelta didn't mind. She had said to send someone, it is their job as her subordinates to interpret and execute her instructions perfectly. All is fine as long as they fulfill her orders.
The fist-sized beholder went down to the bottom of the crater in the form of half of a perfect sphere. The main body above was feeling dread the closer the eye went to the thick cloud of darkness. The cloud looked solid and flexible like foam.
"I can't see through the cloud, I'll send the sentry in." The beholder said then he made the eye sink into the cloud.
The eye exploded into dust as soon as it made contact with the cloud.
"I lost it. The black cloud is too strong for a high-rank demon to survive in it." The poor beholder said through the headache that was trying to split his head.
"Useless. I can see that much myself. If you're no use to me then there's no need to have you around." Beelta said and activated the control over his life and death that she was given through the contract she signed with him.
The beholder's big eye dimmed and he fell to the ground dead. She isn't angry at the beholder, his efforts were simply useless. She could have thrown a rock and observed its performance and it would behave the same as the sentry. Why would she need someone so useless then?
"What about news about the high-rank demons?" She asked.
The porcupine demon hurriedly answered. "It has been confirmed. They are all dead."
He lied. It hasn't been confirmed but he believed it to be true. The communication network of demons isn't that good because just like spatial artifacts, communication devices go awry whenever they interact with demons. Only special methods empowered by the abyss like the abyss altar and two-way letter are dependable.
The two-way letter is what they are using to reach their informants and it works by displaying whatever is written on one piece of a letter on the other piece of bound letter no matter the distance. Messaging is instantaneous but there is no method of notification. The inability to know when there's a new message slows down the communication process.
All the porcupine demon has heard is that there were reports of deaths but it is largely unconfirmed for all the demons. The presence of clones and the general secrecy of demons made the information about the situation of the 300 high-rank demons slow to disperse. But he had better say their death is confirmed or he would die too.
"Is that so? There's nothing to do here. You can all return now." The demon lord ordered them while she remained to watch the situation.
There are a lot of questions and a lot of unknowns about Aeternus but none of them can dissuade her from her aim. In fact, everything that just happened only served to kindle her interest in the weird demon. About 300 high-rank demons died. It can be explained by the appearance of the spatial artifact.
It is common knowledge that demon lords have storage spaces as a perk of their position but it isn't exactly true. Demons can't use spatial artifacts that haven't been endorsed by the will of the abyss. That is true but this endorsement is simply the empowerment of unified energy by the Energy well of the plane. Any demon can create pocket spaces attached to their soul as long as they have a mark of sin of the demon noble rank and extreme rank energy.
It just so happens that the only way to have extreme rank energy is to become the demon lord. So as long as one is powerful enough, a demon can create a spatial artifact. That's why she suspected that the spatial artifact that the weird demon is using must belong to a demon king. It wouldn't be surprising that something belonging to a demon king would have special items inside them.
The really sharp sword that the weird demon is using must be one of such special items. That claymore was so strong that she had to create special armor with her flesh to protect the demon berserker that held him down during the ambush.
"I can hardly wait. I must have Everything. Then I will achieve greatness." She said greedily as she stared at that pit.
The armor wouldn't have worked if the weird demon is strong enough. The weapon is sharp but the weird demon isn't strong enough to use it. This means that the weapon is way out of the weird demon's league. How else would he have gotten a weapon that could cut her flesh? She is a demon Lord and he is a mid-rank demon.
So the weird demon must have used one of such items to create the anomaly. It likely is a rare and single-use item since he hasn't been using it like the sword and he only used it when he is desperate. If it is so, then she wants the spatial artifact and everything within it.
