Chapter 254 - THE 9TH HELLGATE

GAVIN was surprised when he saw an ȧduŀt nine-tailed fox standing guard in front of a Dome covered with a cloud of thick, black smoke. Thus, he couldn't see through the Dome. But he could feel Neoma's divine energy inside.

There was a strong demonic power coming from inside the Dome as well. It was a Mana that he didn't recognize. But it was close to the Devil's dark energy.

[Is Neoma with a demon?]

"Who?"

His thoughts were distracted when all of a sudden, the male nine-tailed fox literally blocked his way. He could feel the young fox's hostility and bloodlust directed at him. But instead of feeling threatened, he actually felt relieved that his daughter had a loyal and reliable knight.

[Moreover, the Silver Foxes are strong.]

He also noticed the emblem on the fox boy's shirt. It was the crest of the White Lion Knights. Then, that must mean that this young fellow was skilled enough to be a knight at such a tender age.

[As the former commander of the White Lion Knights, I'm proud of this young one.]

Yes, he could tell that the fox boy was young despite having an ȧduŀt body. It seemed like a temporary transformation and it wasn't unusual. He heard that the young nine-tailed foxes from the Silver Fox Clan would turn into an ȧduŀt body when their nine tails were out.

"Good evening, young sir," Gavin greeted the fox boy with a smile. "You may not know me because I'm pretty sure that His Majesty has forbidden the Order from mentioning my name. But I am Gavin Quinzel, the former commander of the White Lion Knights."

The young fox looked surprised by what he said.

[Ah, he has probably heard my name before. But everyone knows that I died a few years back. This young fox is probably confused right now.]

Maybe he shouldn't have introduced himself right away?

"Princess Neoma's appa…"

It was his turn to be shocked.

But it also seemed like the fox boy didn't realize that he said those words aloud until he saw his reaction.

"You know?" he asked the child carefully. "Did Neoma tell you about her previous life?"

The fox boy didn't say anything this time and it looked like he had his guard up now.

"I'm the real Gavin Quinzel. His Majesty himself already confirmed it so if you want to confirm my identity, you can ask the emperor later," he explained gently. "But I want to talk to my daughter. You can keep your eye on me to make sure that I mean no harm to Neoma. I just really miss my precious 'agi.'"

'Agi' meant 'baby' or 'child' in the Korean language.

"You dead," the fox boy said. "How you here?"

He was taken aback by the young man's incoherent speech.

[A knight that can't speak properly…?]

He immediately scolded himself. If his daughter Neoma accepted the fox boy to be her personal knight, then he had no right to judge the child.

"I was revived by the Devil," he explained, hoping that he got the fox boy's question correct. "I was told that his purpose for doing so was for me to convince Neoma to take the Devil's side once the Devil decides to wage a war against the empire."

To be honest, he didn't care about that.

What he wanted to do was bring Neoma back to Korea and reclaim their peaceful life. But of course, that was a secret. The Devil might kill him if he found out that he would never allow his precious daughter to sit on the throne and take the burden of being the empress.

"You can't take away Princess Neoma if she doesn't wish to side with the Devil."

To say that he was surprised when the fox boy spoke coherently would be an understatement. But maybe he should be more surprised at how protective the young man sounded when he spoke of his daughter.

"Even if you are Princess Neoma's father back in her second life, you don't have the right to control her life," the fox boy continued. "I hope you respect whatever Her Royal Highness's decision would be."

He smiled and nodded. "Of course. I will always respect my daughter's decision."

[My daughter is safe with this boy.]

"May I know your name?"

"Lewis Crevan."

Of course, the nine-tailed fox boy would be a Crevan since it was the name used by the Silver Fox Clan.

"Thank you for taking care of my daughter, Lewis," he said with a smile. "I hope you don't mind me speaking casually to you."

Lewis just looked at him with a blank look on his face.

[He's not much of a talker, huh?]

Lewis Crevan snarled out of frustration while looking around, obviously looking for his daughter.

"Calm down, Lewis," Gavin said, then he looked up at the night sky that could be seen clearly because the roof had collapsed. His eyes simply followed the overwhelming amount of divine energy that burst out from the Dome earlier before it disappeared.

***

"I, NEOMA ROSEHEART de Moonasterio, the future empress of the Damned Moonasterion Empire, swears on my life that I will banish all gods in the human world!" Neoma yelled angrily. "This world belongs to humans– y'all shouldn't have the authority to rule over us when you have your own world to govern!"

She actually gasped for air after declaring the first thing that entered her mind when she saw the gods about to "punish" her.

To be honest, even she was shocked by the crazy shits that she said.

She didn't regret it though. Maybe deep in her heart, she had always known that it was wrong for the gods to meddle with the humans. What was with their prophecies and shits that they decided for other people?

It was wrong on so many levels.

"There are too many gods playing with human lives," she said, still not done yelling at the gods that did the same to her earlier. "Y'all allowed a scumbag like Callisto de Luca to exist and breed. Now, his descendants are doing all sort of horrible things to other people. What were you all doing when they were performing human experiments? I thought you love the human race? Did you turn a blind eye because the de Lucas also have Lord Yule's blood?"

"Don't be insolent, child!" the gods, once again, spoke at the same time. To be honest, it was weird to hear different voices saying the same things. It made her realize that she was indeed talking to divine entities. "Even a god couldn't save every single human all the time!"

"Do you think I don't know that?" she snapped back. "Of course, even the awesome me can't save everyone. Duh."

It seemed like the gods were taken aback by what she said.

"My point is if you can't help humans, then at least don't mess with us," she complained. "Do you think my big brain hasn't figured out that you're using humans as pawns to fight with other gods? Some of you may truly love the human race. But admit it. A bunch of you are just using my race to help you take over the Middle World."

For the first time since the gods appeared, they finally fell silent.

Good because she wasn't done lecturing them yet.

"It's time we establish a boundary," she said firmly. "Don't you think it's time for old dudes like y'all to live quietly and stop messing with humans? We're not your tools so please fuċk off."

Of course, the gods yelled at her again for being "vulgar."

On the other hand, she heard Trevor stifle a laugh behind her.

"Hey, my Moon Princess isn't that rude," Trevor said playfully after the gods accused her of being rude. "She said "please," didn't she? Are your ears just for decoration? Ah, maybe you're having hearing difficulties now because of your old age." The demon boy clicked his tongue. "It's a sign that you should all retire and just spend your long lives in your little realm in peace. If you don't want to get fuċkėd, don't mess with our Princess Neoma."

[Sometimes Trevor's tongue is sharper than mine.]

"You have Yule's blood, little princess," the gods said, completely ignoring Trevor. "Forming a contract with the Devil is an act of blasphemy! You shall be punished."

"Is creating the Hellgate the only problem?"

Once again, the gods were rendered speechless.

"If you want me to stop creating a new Hellgate, then kill those bastards for me," she said seriously. "I want you to punish them even in the afterlife. If you promised to do that for me, I will cancel my contract with the Devil and sacrifice my elite Contractor."

"Damn, that's cold," Trevor complained playfully. "But dying for my beloved is pretty romantic, isn't it?"

[Shut up, Trevor.]

"You're asking for the impossible, child," the gods said sternly. "Killing so many humans at the same time isn't something that gods should be doing– no matter how horrendous the crimes that they committed were. We cannot sully our hands–"

"Exactly– you can't," she said dryly. "That's why I'll do it. Since you can't give what I want, negotiation is now over. It's time y'all go home, elders."

The sky rumbled angrily.

Obviously, the gods weren't happy with her arrogance.

"Neoma de Moonasterio, you shall now be punished for mocking the gods and ȧssociating yourself with the Devil," the gods said in a calm yet cold voice. "You don't deserve Yule's blood and the divine power that you received as a de Moonasterio. We shall take those blessings away from you."

"Try it if you can," she said while gathering all her divine power in her hands, then he channeled it to the Death Scythe. She saw her white aura mixing with the black aura of her weapon. But it didn't end there. A few moments later, she felt another warm aura flow through her veins. Then, a pink aura came out of her body to mix with the white and black aura that she produced earlier. [Mama Boss…?]

Was it the aura of the Roseheart Blood in her?

Now, there were three different colored auras gathered at the tip of the Death Scythe's curved blade: white, black, and pink.

[I suddenly feel more powerful!]

"Moon Princess!" Trevor yelled behind her worriedly. "Be careful!"

That was when she realized that the blasted gods threw thousands of what seemed like lightning bolts at her. Now, it looked like it was raining but instead of water, it was raining with lightning bolts.

She protected her and Trevor with her Dome. For some reason, she felt like her Dome was more durable than before. She felt like she was being boosted by several entities around her that she couldn't see.

All she could tell was she was surrounded by warm and powerful auras. Some of them felt like they were divinities while the others seemed to have dark forces. None of those things felt dangerous or hostile to her. Thus, she embraced all the support that she could get at the moment.

Then, the three auras at the tip of the curved blade turned into a giant transparent spirit ball. Inside the giant spirit ball, there were three smaller spirit balls that had the same colors as the three auras that she released earlier.

She had a feeling that she could attack the gods with the current power that she had.

"As I said earlier, I'm taking away your authority over the human race!" Neoma declared, then she swung the Death Scythe as strong as she could while turning around to slash the giant silhouettes that surrounded her. "Stop using us as pawns and get the fuċk out of our land!"

The spirit energy at the tip of the Death Scythe turned into a giant slashing aura that was big enough to cut the gods' silhouettes around her. Then, everything in that world exploded – the blinding light coming from the explosion forced her to close her eyes.

[Dammit! I hope Trevor managed to pull out the Hellgate safely!]

***

"PRINCESS NEOMA, you may now open your eyes."

Neoma, trusting Trevor's words, slowly opened her eyes and waited for a few seconds for her eyesight to get adjusted. The damned light earlier almost blinded her. But thankfully, her eyes quickly recovered.

She realized that she and Trevor were back in the real world, and they were currently floating in the air.

But it wasn't what amazed her at the moment.

"You did it, Trevor," Neoma said, amazed while looking at the giant and cryptic gate behind Trevor who looked like he was about to drop dead anytime. It seemed like the demon boy almost exhausted all the powers that he had. He deserved to be praised so she gave him a thumbs up. "Good job, chingu." 'Chingu' meant 'friend' in the Korean language. "You're promoted as my friend from now on."

Trevor laughed softly. Then, he leaned down until his forehead hit her shoulder. Since she knew that he was exhausted from creating the Hellgate, he let the demon boy rest his head on her shoulder. "I don't intend to be just friends with you, Princess Neoma."

[Smooth bastard.]

***

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