3 First Encounter I

How long has it been since I took a bath? I don't know… the battlefield in the underworld allows no liabilities and commodities. That said, in front of me there was something ridiculous that I, Grayfia Lucifuge, couldn't even conceive existed.

A lake of gold. This is not solid gold but instead liquid gold.

Many things have caught my eye during my time in this treasury realm, most of it is how incredibly dystopic everything is… regardless of how beautiful I find it.

A world made out of gold, any demon would find this a paradise as we're greedy by nature… a single piece of land from this world might be enough to give prosperity to the whole underworld and the human world together.

But I… I only saw petrified golden corpses everywhere… people that had either fallen here… or tried to plunder their way through, failing.

All kinds of races that I could never imagine… some of them even resembled Devils, but they were way more hideous.

There were also beautiful women, some of them remarkably gorgeous to the point even I would feel threatened, it made me worry... is beauty not a factor to consider in conquering this Dragon's heart?

This world knew no mercy; even to my previous attire.

'Aish…' I sighed in exasperation. The only thing that I could use to cover myself were two of my four pairs of wings. My clothes... they had turned into tough gold already and I had to discard them. Whatever blessing that entity gave me to resist the gold corrosion… it didn't apply to my garments.

I floated above this lake of gold, it tempted me to get inside but I didn't know if it was a good idea considering how the soil tried to catch me prior, even then... a lake of gold. I approached the rather wide pond of gold and placed one foot inside to find it hot… it wasn't overbearingly hot, but quite hot indeed.

I am an ultimate class devil, even stepping on magma wouldn't cause me as much harm, but I felt that this gold was hot… in fact… there were bubbles.

Biting my lips I left my foot inside for a good minute before retracting it, nothing happened.

Could it be that before... the world had tried to get rid of my clothes because they were not 'blessed'?

I decided to enter it, as expected nothing happened even when I touched the rather soft ground.

Exhaling a deep sigh I allowed all my weight to fall into this warm golden pond, the paradise of any devil and allowed my griefs and memories to be put to rest for even a minute. It felt peaceful, it felt like a spring back to my childhood days when there was peace in the underworld and I could enjoy myself.

With how desolate this place was, I wasn't even worried to be found naked here… I have been roaming this world for days without catching the glimpse of a single soul, is there really a Dragon somewhere here?

With my silver eyes fixed on the sky that never darkened, I started to think about my plan. Regardless of my slaughtering guards… on conquering someone's heart, this was my noble task and the future of the devils depended on it.

"System, what information do you have on the Golden Dragon God and the other Dragons in this world?" Having as much information about my target as possible would be optimal.

[Available for you? Limited… the five dragons are core existences who maintain this multiverse's stability. Out of all of them; only Richter doesn't have an abstract concept as his authority. Instead, a material concept, Primordial Gold].

"…" I kept silent, indicating it to continue.

[The oldest and wisest Dragoness is Destiny of Primordial Fate that dictates time and continuation of everything in the multiverse]

[The most dangerous Dragon is called Hallow Crush, the Primordial Destruction, his essence allows the multiverse to function as a cycle of destruction and creation.]

[Ether is the strongest Primordial Matter, her essence coats everything that exists as she works alongside Crush and Richter to keep the material side of the multiverse working properly]

[Nebulous of Primordial Space, is the biggest. His size is the size of the multiverse itself and he is known to be the only Dragon God with no physical form. He and Destiny are almost as old as the multiverse itself].

[Richter of Primordial Gold is the wealthiest and physically strongest of them all. All the gold of the multiverse belongs to him, just like the greed and ambitions of the myriad races. When it comes to concepts; Richter is the weakest of the Dragon Gods as his authority is not an abstract concept. However, his divinity influences every single living being in the multiverse indirectly. There isn't a single being in this multiverse that doesn't crave and worship gold, hence, even if indirectly... he's the most worshipped entity in the multiverse, his power is unparalleled].

I felt awed as I cleaned my silver hair, all of them sounded like Ouroboros and Great Red's level of existence, only myths could describe their grandiosity. And then Richter.

The most worshipped entity in the multiverse. I was sure that even now as I remain in this lake of gold basking at the sight of this golden planet, I'm indirectly worshipping him.

[Don't let yourself be fooled, there are only five Primordial Dragon Gods. But there are Ten Primordial Gods and thousands of Lower Gods and Dragon Gods who rule over other divinities. Compared to the low-tiered universe you hail from, the Multiverse of Helius is one of the strongest and oldest in existence].

I didn't feel insulted, but those words formed in me a sort of camaraderie for my own universe; like a human leaving the earth and realising how small it is in the wide scale of things, I realised that the world I conceived as bast was but a speck of dust. It made me desire to care for my devil race even more.

'Richter… Primordial Gold' He is my target, and despite being highly courted among the devils in the underworld, I didn't feel confident. My mind kept thinking of other ways I could sort out this problem without having to conquer his heart.

'Does that mean that there is more life beyond this planet?'

[Millions of realms exist in this universe alone, the golden corrosion prevents life from sprouting in this one].

"…"

I analysed what I just read and decided to not pay any heed to it, instead, I continued washing my body… perhaps focusing on our 'first meeting' would be more fruitful. What can I say? how can I introduce myself? will I even have a chance?

As I did so, I stumbled into something underwater, something hard… I swam inside and tried to see what it was, only to get beyond scared when the silhouette of something accursed and sinister entered my eyes!

It was a statue, a golden statue, a creature that resembled nothing short of a primordial demon. It hadn't managed to go far into the treasury realm, becoming part of the treasure itself.

Going deep inside the pond, I realised that there were a thousand other demons behind that silhouette, all of them were petrified together!

The bigger one looked even more terrifying that Lucifer himself.

'For Satan… all of them…' I gulped a harsh mouthful of saliva and went back to the surface. They all looked strong and domineering-unlike me, with only a pair of wings. But their wings were massive and hideous while mine were meek and simple.

'Are they the devils from this world?' I thought inwardly, only to stop abruptly when a voice entered my ears from the surface, muffled.

"Finally!"

My senses were on alert. I heard a thundering voice from the skies and decided to not linger, as welcoming as it is to finally find someone in this empty world, I didn't want to pay the price of naivety which I no longer held since the war in the underworld started.

If what the system said is true, no one that comes to this world does so with good intentions.

With a quick magic spell, I became invisible but remained inside the pond, covering myself with my wings. My magic worked just as usual but I didn't know if this could truly conceal me from whoever was coming.

The silhouette of two creatures became evident, they were struggling and several parts of their bodies were already beginning to corrode, but there was some sort of barrier around them, cracked.

I thought they resembled… gryphons? mythical gryphons. Creatures half-eagle and half-lion from greek mythology.

"The Primordial yet slumbers... now it is the time" one of them said rather loudly, maybe thinking there should be no one around, after all... who would dare enter this lake without the blessing I had?

"Do you have the map that Peter drew a thousand years ago?"

"Yes, this is the Selodus Fallen Region, he said the corpse of the Demon God was inside the pond, it must be this pond." The other gryphon panted and flew above the pond, producing light waves on the melted gold.

I paled at his words, their objective is this sculpture that's right beside me!

"If we take the Demon God, we can sell him for a good price in the City's Capital."

"We need to check if the [Heart Lineage] is still inside him, it is going to bring the price shooting to the skies, we might even receive a piece of land in the Primal Realm if we hand it over to the [Primal Triangle]" The first gryphon stated with greed in his eyes, I almost couldn't understand what they were saying as if they had some odd accent; uttering mysterious words.

"Stop speaking and get to work, it must be somewhere in this pond, we don't have more than ten minutes!" He followed with haste.

"Are you insane? we will be dead before we even put him in an auction. Moreover, who knows if that madman is not dead and only sealed due to the corrosion? just take two of the soldiers, their weight in gold will be valuable." His companion seemed to be more logical and less greed-driven.

"I'm not about to make the goddamn journey here just for some gold, Hal. We are two minutes away from one of the main caves."

"The Dragon God might be there!"

'T-They're wasting time just talking… I see, is that their greed in action?' I concluded, literally 'seeing' how the gold expanded in their bodies, but they were too worried about their future 'spoils' that they stopped caring about their survival.

"Go big or go home, if we don't leave in twenty minutes, it will be impossible to flee anyway".

I had been hoping that they decided to head to the cave just so I could follow, but as expected, they were too frightened to do so considering their wings were beginning to petrify, if they were unable to fly, their fates would be sealed.

Thankfully, they did decide to risk their life but they wouldn't make it far.

The pair of gryphons visibly struggled to carry one statue each out of the pond, they used magic to lift them up -thankfully far away from me. They didn't notice me; the corrosion working so effectively that I gulped harshly; showing gratitude to that entity for this blessing… I'm sure in mere minutes here… I would have become a beautiful statue as well.

Their wings creaked and their flesh got gradually petrified as they wailed in pain, let alone twenty minutes, I wasn't even sure if they would make it past ten minutes!

"Why is it happening so fast!?" One of them complained, his wings failing.

"That means he's close! Let's go, we can't risk it further!" One of the gryphons ditched his golden statue in clear anger and poison; aware that if he was to carry such a heavy thing out he wouldn't make it, especially if the Dragon God is near!

Upon hearing 'he's close' I didn't know if I should feel hope or be terrified, steeling myself I choose the former, hope.

"WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING, BIRDS!?"

'H-He's here…'