Inside a devil's frost cave.
At the devil's dwelling, the atmosphere should've been eerie as per the norms, but at present, it was anything but that.
"…and there goes my knight," said the androgynous devil as it pushed a knight to f6.
Hyunsuk and Dennis stared at this person with a baffled look while Shi had no idea what was happening.The debut release occurred at N-ov3l=B(j)n.
Lith too had a tinge of annoyance in his eyes, but concealed his expression.
On the chessboard, except for three pawns on the a,b,c positions, all others were sent to the centre of the board.
Lith's bishop and knight were guarding his few pawns at the forefront from the heavy onslaught of the devil's.
For added defence, he had also castled.
Despite the heavy defence, the devil was charging his pawns as if they were mere cannon fodders. Except for one knight at g6 position, nothing else had moved.
A few minutes ago, after Lith asked the devil to make an introduction, it happily did so.
From that, Lith and the rest got to know that this devil was the Frost Devil of the Two Path Blind Mountain World. A one of its kind.
The devil kept to this cold region and was in a state of distress because humans lived in warm areas. It was glad to have guests and for everyone's entertainment, it suggested they played chess.
Lith went along and here they were, going for a round of chess.
As the Frost Devil stared at Lith's annoyed expression, the corner of its lips curved up.
"Dear guest, does my gameplay annoy you?"
Lith captured a pawn that broke through the center board, wandering into the line 4 territory.
Lith was playing white and his territory was from 1-4 while the devil's lay from 8-5.
The sudden kill did not faze the Frost Devil. It simply kept smiling and awaited an answer from Lith.
"A bit," Lith answered truthfully.
The devil moved another pawn once again, and asked, "Are you wondering why only the pawns are moving?"
"Yes," Lith used his pawn to defend.
The devil did not make a move this time. Instead, it shifted its gaze from the board to Lith.
"Humans are like pawns. Their trajectory is fated to move in a straight line and sometimes deviates for better or worse. They also can only move one step at a time and have to suffer through many hardships to have a chance at being like these guys at line 1 and 8."
The devil paused at this point. It moved another one of its pawns and offered it for sacrifice to Lith.
Naturally, Lith captured it by using a knight he had previously moved.
Looking at that, the devil continued, "The devils on the other hand, we're different. Born through darkness, our talent far surpasses humans. We aren't fated to charge in a single line or take one step at a time. Our moves…"
The devil calmly moved its queen as the knight gave it some space, standing just one step shy of giving a check to Lith's king.
The devil continued, "…our moves can threaten civilization, such is the might we possess."
Lith moved one of his pawns and threatened to kill the devil's queen while guarding the king.
"Your might is being questioned by this pawn here," Lith calmly stated.
The devil chuckled. "As I said, we are not restricted by one step."
The devil moved its bishop and killed the pawn threatening its queen. While doing so it placed a pressure on Lith's king as well as rook.
But it didn't matter. Lith's territory was well guarded and using his knight, he captured the bishop.
The devil's grin widened.
"You seem happy for losing your bishop, amusing," Lith commented.
"It's inevitable. While dealing with cannon fodders, even the mighty pieces of last lines are bound to suffer."
The atmosphere turned serious at this point.
Shi, who was bored to death previously, paid close attention to the game and the devil's words.
From the looks of it, the devil wasn't trying to win the game but wanted to convey a message.
Lith, Dennis, and Hyunsuk had already guessed this much.
The devil had laid out steps for Lith to follow while moving its pieces. From the start, the moves it made were bound to make Lith win and have it lose.
If Lith deviated even slightly from that, it would be he who was going to lose.
There was no other way around this. The devil was actually smart and Lith didn't understand why it wanted to lose this game.
Still, he played along and here they were, killing, sacrificing, and defending against each other.
With every piece moved, the devil dropped wisdom.
So far, it had stated that devils were mighty while humans were puny.
Devils could do whatever they wanted while humans couldn't— they were restricted.
However, after praising its own kind, the Frost Devil grinned and flipped everything upside-down.
It had two pieces—a knight and a bishop—from line 8 sacrifice themselves. Then it explained that, even if devils were mighty, they were bound to be injured in pursuit of humans.
The heavens were just and in its eyes everything was equal.
The devils may be mighty, but for them to survive, they had to feed on the humans. This meant that they had to come in contact with the cannon fodders, and in the process, they would perish as well.
This was what the bishop's sacrifice meant.
Lith and Dennis both understood this but Hyunsuk and Shi did not.
Lith and Dennis were vampires, they could relate to the devil and quickly got the gist of things while Hyunsuk and Shi found it difficult.
Knowing that the other party understood everything, the devil continued to send messages via the chess pieces.
It conveyed the helplessness of the devils, stating how they were fated to always attack and never defend for their own survival.
The humans would never come to them on their own and they had to be the ones to take charge to find them.
The pawns on the entire chessboard were humans and the rest were the devils.
If none of the pieces from line 1 and 8 moved, then at some point, the pawns would end up killing themselves in the centre of the chessboard.
Some may survive and go to the devils, but in the end, even they would perish.
This posed a threat to the devil's survival as well.
If all pawns were to die, they would have no one to feed on.
It was a vicious cycle and a balance had to be maintained.
Once the devil finished stating the helplessness of their race, it looked at Lith and said with a small smile, "Now dear guest, do you understand how it's just a natural food cycle?"