Scarlet

“Oh? This ought to be interesting…” I hear Tar mutter in my mind.

“First, would a representative for the humans and for the demons come up here?” I ask, my voice echoing throughout the battlefield. Then in just a single instant, someone appears next to us. Someone that I recognize from TV.

Satan.

And I’m not the only one as everyone down on the battlefield starts muttering to themselves as well, the demons out of loyalty and fear, and the humans out of fear and, well, fear.

Red steps forwards with his helmet held underneath his arm, the man still wearing the same red armor he has been wearing all night as he says, “I’ll be the representative for the humans.” He glances at the people down below while adding, “If that’s alright with you lot.”

Hundreds of thousands of people begin reassuring him that it’s alright, to my amusement. Then I realize that he just spoke to everyone without a microphone.

Is this microphone even necessary?

“No, it’s not,” Red says, bringing my gaze to find him staring at me with a smirk on his face, his eyes alternating between mine and the microphone.

Asshole.

“It would be my pleasure to serve as the demon’s representative, Your Highness,” Satan says, bringing both my and Red’s attention back to him to find the man bowing slightly. And something I just noticed is that he looks rather similar to Vorgrim, the Lord of Hellfire.

|Satan Blackthorn of the Black Flame – Oni – Level 1773|

Oh, wow. This guy really is strong enough to take down Red without much trouble. Even if there is a level gap of a few dozen levels between them, the simple matter of him being an oni is enough to make that level gap obsolete. To the point that he’s stronger by a fair margin.

And that name… that’s the exact same family and clan names as Vorgrim. Vorgrim Blackthorn of the Black Flame.

Does that mean…

“As you may have surmised, Your Highness, my father is the Lord of Hellfire,” Satan says, making my eyes go wide in surprise. And even Red looks surprised at that, much less Blake who is just standing here for no reason at all by the looks of it.

It also seems to surprise our onlooking humans, but that’s to be expected.

What’s also surprising me quite a bit is how civilized Satan is being compared to his father who probably would’ve started a fight or at least laughed by now. They’re like night and day so far.

“Then representatives of Earth and Tartarus, I would like to propose a little bet,” I tell the two, making both of them focus their attention on me. Meanwhile all of the noise throughout the battlefield goes silent as my voice echoes out across the vast expanse of valley. “One that I believe my Grandfather would be okay with taking.”

Satan looks at me for a few seconds before slowly stating, “I would need to check in with His Majesty before anything would become official.”

I nod at that with a brief, “Of course.”

“I doubt humanity has much of anything to lose in this gamble, so I’m happy to hear you out, little fiend,” Red says, making my eye twitch at the sound of that pet name he’s given me echoing throughout the battlefield.

Deciding to ignore Red’s annoying behavior since we’re speaking to hundreds of millions of people right now, probably even more as I’m sure there are some people livestreaming this, I spread my arms out and state, “How about this. If Earth is able to push the demons all the way back to Demon Isle and keep the demons from the Arctic Gate in the Arctic, my Grandfather will give up on subjugating Earth until it is proven without a shadow of a doubt whether or not I will be able to remove the demon curses myself.”

Both Satan and Red’s eyes widen in shock, neither of them apparently expecting such a bold bet from me right now. But the humans down below seem to be considering it. And it doesn’t take long for some cheers to break out, making the hint of a smile appear on my face.

Then most of the human Guardians down there all begin cheering.

Which makes sense. Everyone at this point realizes that Earth, the humans, we have absolutely no chance at victory against the demons. All we’ve been doing is fighting in desperation to survive ever since the Class V Fracture that opened up in the capital and brought me to Tartarus.

The only real progress we’ve gotten was when I got here, and that was partially because they didn’t want to hurt the blood lycan attacking them, couldn’t send their Class V forces away from the main battlefield and from dealing with our Class Vs, and didn’t know where I would strike. Not to mention my plagues.

After several seconds filled with nothing but the Guardians’ cheers, Satan finally regains his composure and asks, “The bet doesn’t sound too outrageous, but it is missing something.” His eyes narrow. “You’ve stated what the demons will do if you manage to succeed, but what will the humans do if you fail?”

That silences the Guardians watching us rather quickly.

Then everyone just watches on without saying a word as I smirk.

I saw this one coming a while ago. If there’s one thing I know the demons want, it’s that.

“You’re really going to bet that for this? You can’t exactly take it back, you know that right?” Tar says, not actually sounding worried despite his words. Probably because he believes in me to win this bet. “I mean, something could always go wrong…”

Yeah, but I believe in myself.

“You asked what the humans will do if we fail?” I ask, still smirking and blatantly ignoring the camera flash I see out of the corner of my eye. “That’s simple.”

I cross my arms as I answer, “If we fail, then I will move to live in Tartarus permanently as the Princess of the demons and will no longer assist the humans.” Then I tilt my head, still smirking at the shocked look on the demon’s face. “That enough for you?”