System's POV
chapter-558

"Now that I've taken a good look at it, this Honey Badger looks kind of cute. Don't you think so?" Erica said.

"It is," Sherry couldn't help but smile, also finding Cranky quite cute.

While the Homey Badger was still as big and imposing as ever, seeing it sleep while hugging Zion made it look extra endearing from the view of the two teenage girls.

Perhaps exhausted from overthinking, Thirteen had also fallen asleep. The underside of Cranky's body was soft and fluffy to the touch, making it comfortable.

While the two were sleeping, Rocky was making a detour to retrieve the Bolts that were fired at the Majin King when they were luring it away from the City of Seneros.

The number of ammunition they had for the Grand Ballista was limited, so Thirteen had ordered Rocky to retrieve them before falling asleep.

Through the information provided by the members of the Parade of the Hundred Demons, who were monitoring the movement of the Majin King, the Magma Bal-Boa managed to come up with the most appropriate route, preventing the enemy from detecting their presence.

The Three Earth Dragons, on the other hand, decided to observe the enemy from a distance so that they could check how much stronger the Majin King had become since the last time they saw it.

Since the three of them were confident that they could defend against the Majin King's attacks, they took a gamble to better understand their enemy before fighting him for real.

Currently, the Majin King was heading deeper into the Jinn Territory and solidifying its control over the Jinns, forcing them to submit to its will.

Since the Jinns follow the rule of the jungle, it would only be a matter of time before the majority of them were subjugated by the Eight-Headed Serpent.

The Majin King who ruled over the Absolute Heaven had also decided to flee, so there was no one left that could stop Orochi from spreading its dominance across the land.

A few hours later, Thirteen and Cranky finally woke up at the same time.

The Honey Badger lightly placed Thirteen on the ground before walking toward the pile of Spider Corpses they had taken from the Wenpolis Stronghold.

Clearly, Cranky was feeling hungry and decided to eat the spiders as snacks.

Thirteen, on the other hand, communicated with the members of his Parade of a Hundred Demons to get a better grasp of their current situation.

"For the time being, the Majin King is acting like how it should act," Thirteen said. "This gives us a few days to prepare, but there is a downside—the moment it successfully commands control over the majority of the Jinns in Absolute Heaven, it will definitely return to reclaim Fractured Heaven as well."

"How many days will it take to accomplish that?" Erica inquired.

"Maybe a week," Thirteen replied. "But after a week, it can freely order the Jinns that it has subjugated. That said, we will attack in three days. I just need to do a few more things, and we will be fighting with our lives on the line."

Erica glanced at the Bird Man, Zed, who was sitting beside the campfire with his arms crossed over his chest.

Currently, aside from Thirteen's Monster Army, they had one Rank 8 Sovereign, three Rank 9 Sovereigns, and Cranky, who was a Peak Rank 9 Sovereign and could be considered a Pseudo-Majin Prince.

It was a force that was enough to give the Alliance a headache, but it wasn't enough to subdue a Majin King.

At least, that was what Thirteen told them.

"Are you going to get more allies?" Sherry asked. "Mmm, just two more. One will help me unconditionally, but the second one is a pain to negotiate with.

"A pain to negotiate with?" Erica blinked.

Thirteen nodded. "Yes. It's a Death Bat who bullies the weak and fears the strong. It will be hard to convince him to help me, but I have my ways."

Zed, who knew exactly who Thirteen was talking about, couldn't help but sigh. When it came to speed, he was no match against the Death Bat, who bullied him in the Domain of the Apocalypse.

"Cranky, you behave, okay?" Thirteen shouted. "I'm going out for a bit."

Cranky ignored Thirteen and just continued to eat the spiders one by one.

The teenage boy then activated his Ring of the Apocalypse and once again reappeared in the Order of the Apocalypse.

To his surprise, someone whom he hadn't interacted with much approached him.

"Thirteen, I heard that you're dealing with Orochi. Is that true?" Beelzebub, who was one of the Original Members of the Order of the Apocalypse, asked.

"Yes," Thirteen replied. "Do you know him?"

"Knowing him is an understatement," Beelzebub answered. "We once fought against each other, and sadly, I was forced to escape with my life during that encounter."

"Oh?" Thirteen's interest was piqued because he never expected that one of the members of the Order of the Apocalypse had once fought against the Ancient Eight-Headed Serpent, who was currently busy terrorizing the Absolute Heaven.

"Does it have a weakness?" Thirteen asked.

"None that I know of," Belzeebub replied. "The only thing I can tell you is its strengths."

Thirteen nodded. "That works too. Please tell me his strengths."

Beelzebub played with his beard as he eyed the teenage boy, who wasn't showing any signs of fear and anxiety even though he was about to face a Majin King.

"You're really an interesting human, Thirteen," Beelzebub said after a minute had passed. "The normal reaction when it comes to facing a Majin King is running away from it instead of fighting it head-on. Although I have a very low opinion of Camazotz, he did the right thing by fleeing instead of helping you fight against it."

The holder of the Number One Seat of the Order of the Apocalypse then asked Zion to sit down, so they could comfortably talk in detail about Orochi's strength.

According to Beelzebub, he wanted the Eight-Headed Serpent to be defeated so much that he researched everything about it.

But instead of finding its weakness, he only discovered its strength, which deterred him from fighting it a second time.

As Thirteen listened to the Beelzebub's story, he realized that the information that the Majin was sharing with him was hundreds of years old.

When the other party fought against Orochi, both of them were only at the initial stages of a Majin King.

But after hundreds of years, Belzeebub had managed to become a Mid-Ranked Majin King, which made Thirteen frown.

Since Belzeebub had grown stronger for the past hundreds of years, it was only natural that Orochi had become stronger too.

It was at that moment that Thirteen suddenly had a realization.

Orochi was forcefully summoned to Solterra, which meant that there might have been some complications before he entered their world.

When he fought against it, he assumed that its rank was only at the Initial Stages of a Majin King because it lacked the explosive power of a true Majin King.

However, he understood that his initial assessment was wrong.

'Sh*t,' Thirteen thought when he realized that the Eight-Headed Serpent's Strength might have regressed for a while since it was still adapting to the world of Solterra.

But if it was given a few more days to recover, it would regain its true strength, which now Thirteen believed to be at the Peak of a Majin King.

An existence that was only a step away from becoming a Fiend, which was one of the two strongest monster Ranks in the world of Solterra.