Yet, sometimes, one does not even make it that far.
As Kaelgor was getting ready to leave.
As he was rounding up his subordinates, trying to convince the devils under his temporary command to join him, to follow him into the unknown depths of hell's lower layers, he seemed to hear something.
At first, it was a faint whisper at the edge of his perception.
A sound that was not a sound, but a presence that brushed on the edges of his consciousness. A weight pressing against the boundaries of his consciousness. Then it grew, swelling into a low, ancient, evil chuckle that seemed to reverberate through the very fabric of reality.
It was the sound of something old, something patient, something that had been waiting for this exact moment.
His gaze was locked onto empty space, but he saw something that was not there.
Three pairs of malevolent eyes, gazing at him from beyond the abyss, from across realms. From a place that existed between the cracks of existence, a space where time and distance held no meaning.
They were not eyes in the physical sense, they were concepts given form: malice given purpose.
They looked at him, and in their gaze, he felt the weight of absolute sin, and the patience of a predator that had been stalking its prey.
Like a rusted, ancient gear turning once again, grinding against its own decay.
Like a chess piece screeching as it moves across a rotted board, its surface cracked and worn.
Like the sand finally running out on an old, withered hourglass.
A contingency was met.
Time stilled, or perhaps it was moving faster than Kaelgor could react to.
Suddenly, Kaelgor's body flared.
A radiant, blinding light burst out of him, erupting from his chest like a second sun, searing his flesh, his very soul from it's blazing radiance.
The light was impossible to ignore, a beacon of pure, condensed power that pierced the hellish gloom and painted the entire basin in shades of red, gold, and white. And it surged with an aura that made every devil within a thousand-mile radius go green-eyed with greed.
Opposing devils, rogue newborns, and even ancient demons who had traversed the 1st layer for centuries, all look on towards the crave-inducing aura.
From within his body, the source of the light, its nature, was revealed through its aura.
It was a shard of fire, super-condensed, shimmering with indecipherable power, no, with knowledge!
It was a fragment of fire laws, a piece of the fundamental truth of the universe.
Back then, the second Lord Gorael had noticed that there was an anomaly in the first layer, the moment he had decided to try to brush away his blunder with Adam, he had activated his secret plan.
When he had given Kaelgor the schematic for the grand teleportation array, when he had infused him with the knowledge of how to move a nexus point, he had also used that instance to sneak something else into his body.
A seed, a fragment, a spark of divine fire, buried deep within his core, waiting for the right moment to ignite.
Not that he wanted it to activate, but it was more of a contingency.
And now, used at the very moment Adam had revealed the nexus's power, at the moment the black barrier had been fully activated, the contingency had activated.
Kaelgor's body lit up with the fragment of the fire law, becoming a brilliant, blinding flare that would divert all attention from the nexus and onto him. Becoming a walking, breathing treasure chest, ripe for the taking.
The cunning, century-old strategist had unknowingly become part of the chess board!
Laws.
The next step after a devil masters their element.
The path of sin determines the devil's body and special traits, shapes their form and their powers.
During the lesser devil realm, it is merely about devouring energy, souls, and maturing slowly. All in order to awaken their bloodline. Their elemental affinity and path of sin are dictated during this short period.
Being supernatural beings, a devil's body is automatically refined and transformed by their bloodline awakening.
The body, reinforced and crafted by demonic mana of their element, by devouring souls, by contamination feedback: all of it is a process of becoming.
A stronger body will strengthen their mental domain, which in turn strengthens their mental will. And will that allows a devil to better sense laws, to feel the underlying truths of the universe, which in turn forge the soul. Of course, this is only possible with the devils wings: which posses the ability to help a devil sense the universal laws.
By understanding their bloodline's law, they can slowly form a seed of law.
Then using their soul, the eternal essence of a devil's being, they nourish the seed of law.
To sprout the seed of law, an awakened devil needs to nurture it with enough contamination feedback or sin.
It is a slow, painstaking process; a journey that can take centuries. But when the seed finally sprouts, materializing into a demonized geometric law rune, or law rune for short, then the devil reaches the Greater Devil Realm!
Their mere presence, their aura, becomes a weapon that all lesser beings fear; even if they are physically stronger, or have more mana than them. Law's wielders waver in the face of a greater devil, their own path restricted by the devil's demonic law rune's aura.
It is the true aura of a devil, the authority of their nature becoming a tangible weapon hated by all races.
Now.
That fire law fragment burning within Kaelgor like a second heart, allows one to master the fire laws faster, to reach the peak of the awakened realm at speeds that outpace normal devils.
It is a shortcut, or a cheat.
Three to five years to reach the awakened realm, through a process that is achievable by soul-devouring, or for the talented, through contamination.
But to reach the greater devil realm, mass amounts of souls, plenty of elemental resources for their element, and contamination are all needed.
Centuries are often needed. Taking a millennium is common for more leisurely devils.
But of course.
The lifespan of a lesser devil is up to one thousand years. For an awakened devil, it can be up to ten thousand. Devils have all the time they could ask for to reach these realms, to climb the ladder of power, to ascend to ever-greater heights.
But the question is whether they live long enough to reach it. Whether they can survive the endless, brutal struggle, the constant scheming and betrayal, and the endless waves of enemies and rivals.
Whether they can avoid becoming a stepping stone for someone else's ambition.
Like Kaelgor here.