Death... and me

"Now you wait there a moment." Rean quickly stopped Rui in his tracks. "You make it look like we're here just to do your bidding. However, Fagund promised us a very good reward if we participated in the contest. That's why we even bothered to come here, for our rewards."

Fagund nodded in agreement. "He's right, clan master. I did say that they would be rewarded for their participation. It's also a good thing since it'll guarantee that they'll do a proper job."

Rui shook his head in response. "Not so fast. I don't even know what they want. Depending on the content of their request, I would rather just not have them at all."

"But clan master..." Fagund tried to make things work. "We need devils like them. The other participants of our clan don't have their power."

Rui looked at the twins for a moment before saying, "First, tell me what you need."

Rean and Roan had long decided what they would need, though. "My brother and I want to go to the Swamp of No Return. The problem is that we don't know where it's located. Would you be able to bring us there? You can simply forget we exist after that."

"Swamp of No Return?" Even Fagund had never heard that name. Not only him but most of the clan's elders seemed completely oblivious to that name. Some of them had heard about swamps with different names, though. It's just that they didn't think those swamps were the same ones the twins were asking for.

Yet, Rui's expression turned dark once again after hearing that. "And do you still want me to believe you have no connection with the other Elder Devils? That's not a name that should come from such low-level devils like you two."

Rean shrugged his shoulders in response to that. "If we really had these connections, we wouldn't need to ask for it as a reward, right?" Well, the truth was that Rean and Roan were a little surprised by Rui's change in expression. They didn't know that the Swamp of No Return was a secret between the top experts of the Devil Races. Their main objective was to use the Light Devil Clan's power to find where the swamp was located. From the looks of it, that wasn't necessary, as Rui obviously knew about it.

Rui's expression didn't get any better, though. "Why do you want to go there? The swamp is a restricted area for most devils."

"It is?" Rean asked back. "Why?"

Rui looked around and thought it would be a good opportunity to tell the other devils as well. "To each and every one of you, I'd rather have all of you not know of it. Don't ever get close to the Swamp of No Return. It has such a name for a reason. That's not everything. The main reason it was sealed was that the swamp was expanding on its own. Do all of you understand?"

"Yes, clan master." Sure enough, no one went against the clan master's orders.

Well, Rean and Roan didn't seem to mind that. "You can bring us inside, right? In fact, that's even better. You definitely don't like our presence, so you can get rid of us by throwing us inside the swamp so that we'll never come back. It's a perfect match of interests."

As far as Rui knew, there was no coming back from the swamp. "Are you sure you want that as a reward? I'm not kidding about the swamp. Since we're already at it, I might as well tell you that even an Elder Devil was lost to that place."

"What?!" Fagund and the other devils were shocked to hear that. As the top experts of the Devil Races, it was possible to defeat an Elder Devil, but preventing it from escaping was another story altogether. But even with that said, an Elder Devil couldn't leave that place.

"That's exactly what we want." The twins were adamant. Since cultivation also didn't matter in that place, then leaving the swamp for later would be pointless. Besides, the twins knew that whatever might be happening there was definitely because of the Universe Fragment inside.

"Very well, I can send you to your deaths if that's what you wish. But I won't bring you all the way there for nothing. If you really want to gain a passage inside, you will have to show me good results in the Underworld Soul Guiding Contest." The swamp really wasn't a secret. It's just that the Elder Devils and the other devils who knew it refused to talk about the Swamp. Many tried to reveal what made the swamp like that, but it was all useless. If the twins wanted to die inside, he definitely wouldn't stop them.

"Clan master." Tapir quickly called his attention. He still didn't like the twins, not that most of the devils there did, anyway. "Each Elder Devil Clan can only send three devils at most to the contest. It's different from the normal guidance by the devils that happens all the time. I don't think it's a good idea to give up two of these slots to some devils that we don't even know if they're capable of guiding souls."

The other devils in the meeting hall agreed with Tapir. There's no doubt that the twins were very talented to be able to bend space before the Space Bending Realm. Unfortunately, that didn't mean they were good soul guides.

"I know that." In any case, Rui had already thought about it. "We can just test them out against our clan's three representatives. There are still over two years before the contest starts, so send them to the Path of Reincarnation and check their abilities. If they're shit at it, then this deal is off."

Rui then passed his orders. "Call Titia, Doohan, and Salahi here."

"Understood." Someone quickly left the room after Rui's words to find those three.

Seeing the guy disappear, Rean and Roan took the chance to clear one more doubt. "By the way... just why is this Soul Guiding Contest so important for the Elder Devil Clans?"