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Chapter 385: Episode 73 – The hottest place in Hell (4)

There were times when a person’s emotion of sheer happiness could be felt so vividly. Those moments, when one would go, oh, so you can make that sort of facial expression, too.

[Kim Dok-Ja-!!!]

The current appearance of Uriel was just like that to me.

She extended her arms and vigorously embraced both me and Jeong Hui-Won, proceeding to rub her cheeks all over us for a long time.

In the end, Jeong Hui-Won had to scold her a little. “Uriel, I can’t breathe.”

[S-sorry.]

She got flustered and backed away, but her eyes continued to sparkle. Sometimes, I found it hard to fathom how such a pure-but-dumb Archangel like her ended up with a Modifier of ‘Demon-like’.

[How did you know this place? When did you get here? Ng? Did you finish the ‘Kaixenix Archipelago’ scenario already? I barely managed to catch a couple of scenes, because I didn’t have a lot of spare time.... I’m really sorry! Y-you aren’t angry because I didn’t properly sponsor you, right? I-it wasn’t deliberate, you know....]

It wasn’t just her expression, even her voice conveyed her happiness, too.

Jeong Hui-Won and I looked at each other while listening to Uriel; she must’ve felt something similar to what I did, probably.

The Angel spoke without a hint of elegance nor carefully-considered pretence. Fortunately, some words conveyed a greater level of emotion when the speaker was so earnestly over the moon like this.

“Uriel, we understand. However, we should discuss the details at a later date.”

[Ng? Aht, you’re right! Now isn’t the time, is it?]

Uriel’s gaze on me quickly shifted and landed on the army of Demon Kings glaring at us from the other side. I saw her expression cooling off in an instant, and realised that my thoughts were perhaps premature.

This Angel was, without a doubt, ‘Demon-like Archangel of Flames’.

[Demon King, ‘Monarch of Star and Logic’, cannot understand your actions.]

And then, there were Demon Kings willing to face off against such an Archangel.

Ranked tenth in the Demon King Ranking, ‘Monarch of Star and Logic’ – ‘Buer’.

Eighteenth in the ranking, ‘Speed of Sound Demon King’, ‘Bathin’.

Finally, 29th in the ranking, ‘Grand Duke of Dragons and Foul Odour’, ‘Astaroth’.

Even after excluding the ‘Duke of Everywhere’ who died at my hands, there were still three Demon Kings alive. Each and every one of them was not an easy opponent to fight against. Especially so, the ‘Monarch of Star and Logic’, and the ‘Speed of Sound Demon King’.

If both of Buer’s arms were still intact, or for that matter, Bathin’s legs, then I’d probably have to risk my life here.

[‘Demon King of Salvation’!]

[What is the meaning of this?! Why are you fighting against other Demon Kings??]

I shrugged my shoulders and glibly muttered my excuse. “I simply continued on with the promotion battle, that was all.”

[Do you honestly believe that such an excuse will.....]

“Is there a rule that said the ‘Demon King Promotion’ battles shouldn’t be fought just because the ‘Great War of Saints and Demons’ is underway? Such a thing happened pretty often back in the ‘1st Great War’, too.”

[What are you....!]

Bathin became incensed by what I said and formed an expression of a creature wanting to cut my head off, but too bad, there was nothing he could do when both of his legs were gone.

[You have re-enacted a portion of the ‘1st Great War of Saints and Demons’!]

[Demon King ‘Asmodeus’ is getting interested in your unexpected actions!]

Actually, what I’ve done was exactly the same as what Asmodeus did back in the 1st Great War. The ‘Monarch of Star and Logic’ Buer’s expression hardened as he threw out a question. [You think you’ll be fine after doing something like this?!]

“Of course not.” I remained utterly unfazed by the Demon Kings’ auras while awakening my Status. “However, I do think that you shouldn’t be worried about me here.”

[You have unleashed the Demon King’s Status!]

[Exclusive skill, ‘Bookmark’, is activating!]

[5th Bookmark has been initiated!]

[Exclusive skill, ‘Lightning Transformation’ Lv.23 (+13) has been initiated.]

[Your current physical constitution is different from that of the applicable character.]

[Your ‘Status’ has overcome the physical constitution penalty.]

My shoulders itched as the wings broke past my skin and emerged out into the open. And the buzzing sensation of the [Lightning Transformation] overlapped on top of that. In an instant, my body was enveloped in lightning.

The three Demon Kings now carried flustered, panicky expressions after witnessing my rapidly-rising ‘Status’.

‘Monarch of Star and Logic’ had lost one of his arms, ‘Grand Duke of Dragons and Foul Odour’ had lost his pet Dragon and was wounded all over, and finally, ‘Speed of Sound Demon King’ had lost both of his legs, so basically, they were no longer relevant to the overall combat situation.

Jeong Hui-Won next to me unsheathed the [Sword of Judgement] and activated [Demon Slaying].

“I wasn’t satisfied by the fight I had with a Demon King the last time because it got stopped, so.....”

Uriel saw the Demon Kings taking retreating steps and became triumphant in no time at all. She opened her lips to speak.

[You bunch of ■■, weren’t you so noisy back then? Why don’t you say something now?]

“....”

[Dok-Ja-ya, Hui-Won-ah, let’s go! Let’s utterly smash those ■■ Demon Kings apart.....!!]

I reached out and grasped Uriel’s shoulder as she tried to advance forward with her broken Incarnation Body, currently fuelled by her incendiary wrath. Her shoulder felt so feeble and weak right now. She formed a pair of small rabbit-like dot eyes after being held back so helplessly by my hand and looked back at me.

“Uriel, please step back.”

[Ng? Ah..... Are you worried about me? I’m fine. I’m Uriel, after all!]

She held my hand with a deeply-moved expression on her face. I felt a bit sad watching her be like that, and could only form a quiet smile. “I didn’t mean it that way.”

[But, what then....?]

[Demon King, ‘Demon King of Salvation’, has selected his affiliated camp.]

My participation message was floating up in the air. Most likely, she hadn’t read that properly yet. Soon, though, the body of the puzzled Uriel gradually stiffened; her eyes grew wider and wider, too.

I stared into those eyes and spoke. “Please, be still. Uriel, this is going to end very soon.”

Maybe, she had seen the message I was looking at by now.

[Camp the Demon King, ‘Demon King of Salvation’, has chosen is ‘Evil’.]

*

“Kim Dok-Ja pulled another Kim Dok-Ja stunt, didn’t he?” muttered Han Su-Yeong, as she watched the battlefield in the distance.

The battle had entered a bit of a lull earlier, but after Kim Dok-Ja made his unexpected entrance, it was heading towards a chaotic conclusion now.

He was the Demon King who murdered another Demon King, yet didn’t hide the fact that he was ‘Evil’.

She now could see the lower-ranked Angels moving to surround him, and the same time, Jeong Hui-Won and her troubled expression, too.

Yi Hyeon-Seong asked, sounding worried. “Will it really be alright like that?”

“Even if it’s not, what can we do? Tell him to side with <Eden> now? Kim Dok-Ja is originally a Demon King, you know,” grumbled Han Su-Yeong, before shifting her gaze over to Yu Jung-Hyeok. “You ain’t gonna sit back and just watch, right?”

“Of course not.”

“You don’t need to ask me – I’m ‘Evil’.”

Han Su-Yeong’s sponsor was ‘Abyssal Black Flame Dragon’. From the get-go, she didn’t have much of a choice.

“What about you, Yu Jung-Hyeok?”

“....”

“What did your sponsor say? Or was there no answer?”

Rather than answering her, he stared at the Incarnation Bodies strewn about the battlefield, instead. Corpses of Angels and Demon Kings could be seen among them, but in reality, most of them belonged to humans – meaning, Reincarnators.

“You see someone you know?”

Without saying anything, Yu Jung-Hyeok observed the collapsed Reincarnators. A few still surviving and writhing about extended their hands towards him. Their wounds were too serious and it was too late to save them. He lowered himself and stabbed his shortsword in each of their necks. When he did, they all passed on with a peaceful expression on their faces.

Yuri di Aristel watching that scene suddenly raised her voice.

⸢Su-Yeong.⸥

‘Don’t worry, Yuri. I won’t let that happen to you.’

She could see the souls of the dead Reincarnators scatter away.

The ones fettered to the Mandala would be revived even if they were killed on this island. However, being an immortal certainly didn’t mean that it was okay for them to die.

[Great Fable that lost its name has ceased to exist.]

Every time they were mobilised for a different scenario, they would gradually lose their own worlds. They’d forget their original lives, and eventually, even forget about their own deaths, too.

[Most ancient ‘Good’ advises the Reincarnators to be virtuous.]

[Most ancient ‘Evil’ demands the Reincarnators to choose.]

The majority of the dead would be those who had never thought about the concept of the greater ‘Good’ or ‘Evil’. Han Su-Yeong closed the eyelids of a dead Reincarnator. The dead’s face, his eyes now closed, was quite obviously neither good nor evil.

[You need to select your camp in order to enter the applicable battlefield!]

“I shall choose my camp.”

The moment Yu Jung-Hyeok opened his lips to speak, Han Su-Yeong narrowed her eyes and asked him. “You, you ain’t thinking of something else, are you? Before you guys got to Kaixenix Archipelago, you two fought like crazy, right?”

He didn’t answer and simply stared at her. She could pretty much guess what that frustratingly-stiff expression of his was implying, and just as she got ready to yell at him, he finally made his reply.

“This war must not be the ‘Great War of Saints and Demons’, but a fight between us. Meaning, this place must not become a battlefield of others.”

Not the Great War, but the battle of Kim Dok-Ja Company – Han Su-Yeong immediately realised the meaning behind those words.

“Only then, neither ‘Good’ nor ‘Evil’ will win this war. And that development should be what Kim Dok-Ja wants.”

“I get what you’re saying, but that’s gonna be really tough, you know?” Han Su-Yeong immediately came in with a tackle. “We do that, and we’ll be turning our backs on both the <Demon World> and <Eden> at the same time.”

“You said that this isn’t the 1863rd turn.”

Han Su-Yeong pouted a bit, looking as if she got sucker-punched. “Kim Dok-Ja.... He’s a hardcore bastard, alright. He might be the only idiot who’d come up with something this crazy as a solution in situations like this one.”

“He’s originally like that.”

“It’s the same story for you, too! You two are so damn similar.”

At her rebuke, Yu Jung-Hyeok retorted with a curt tone of voice. “You aren’t that different from us, either.”

“Whaaat? I’m different from you two idiots. Anyway, let’s stop yapping and get cracking already.”

They now could see Kim Dok-Ja getting beaten up by the Angels surrounding him in the distance. But then again, he suddenly declared himself to be ‘Evil’ in their midst, so it was only natural that the Angels of <Eden> would be quaking in rage born from the sense of betrayal.

Yu Jung-Hyeok declared first. “I won’t do it in half-measures.”

“So what? I’m planning to kill you if things go sideways, you know?”

“Good. Only then is there some fun in fighting you.”

“Fine. That match we didn’t get to finish back in Kaixenix? Let’s finish it right here.”

The figures of these two vanished towards the battlefield; Yi Hyeon-Seong, now left by himself and all alone, could only cry out in sorrow.

“H-hang on!! Su-Yeong-ssi! Jung-Hyeok-ssi!!! What about me?!”

“Do whatever you want!”

[Incarnation, ‘Han Su-Yeong’, has chosen her affiliated camp.]

[Incarnation, ‘Yu Jung-Hyeok’, has chosen his affiliated camp.]

[Camp the Incarnation ‘Han Su-Yeong’ has chosen is ‘Evil’.]

[Camp the Incarnation ‘Yu Jung-Hyeok’ has chosen is ‘Good’.]

Finally, their own ‘Great War of Saints and Demons’ had begun.

*

On a wide-open plain of the ‘Main Island’, where Heaven’s entire fighting force had gathered.

The leader of the Heavenly forces, Metatron, was in the middle of listening to the updates on the current situation from other Angels inside the barracks designed to mimic his office back home.

– <Olympus> has revealed their desire to participate.

– <Vedas> has sent a dispatch, saying that they will participate.

– <Asgard> has also declared their intention to participate. However, due to their own Great Fable, it seems that not many Constellations will participate from this side.

– There hasn’t been any contact, but we have spied some movements from <Emperor> as well. They are famous for their stick-and-carrot strategy, so....

– ‘Hell’s Scribe’ is diligently moving inside the neutral zone. Thanks to him, the participation rate has shot up irrelevant of whether they are Constellations or the Reincarnators.

Metatron studiously took notes of every single report and after attaching a suitable response, sent them back.

The ‘Great War of Saints and Demons’ this time was, as the name implied, a war with the fate of ‘Good’ and ‘Evil’ on the line. That was why Metatron was far more cautious and careful with this scenario.

[Absolute Good Points in the applicable camp is currently 56.]

And so far, the war was chugging along without any issues – with the sole exception of the special limitation that was attached to this particular ‘Great War’, that was.

[Chaos Points is currently 51.]

The so-called ‘Chaos Points’; when he asked the Great Dokkaebi about it, this was the answer he got.

– It’s a very rare occurrence to present a stage of this magnitude for a conflict between ancient Great Fables. So, there needs to be a suitable risk of danger in accordance with the Probability.

– What does that mean?

– It’ll be no fun when detailed explanations are provided, so I won’t offer you anything substantial. However, do remember this. No matter what happens, do not let the Chaos Points reach 100. Do you understand? If not, something truly horrifying will occur.

Great Dokkaebis couldn’t care any less about the fate of a Nebula. No, they were only hell-bent on creating more stimulating scenarios. So, these ‘Chaos Points’ must have been the fruit of their malicious scheme.

[This is boring, Scribe.] Michael, polishing his sword in the corner of the barracks, spoke. [I shall bring the head of Agares. Send me out.]

Michael had tasted humiliation twice at the hands of Kim Dok-Ja and Yu Jung-Hyeok on the ‘Middle Island’ scenario; his Incarnation Body had fully recovered through the authority of revival and now, he found himself inside the ‘Main Island’s’ scenario, waiting.

Metatron formed a thin smile at Michael and his hotly-burning desire.

[If we do that, the war will end too soon.]

[Isn’t it better to end a boring war as soon as possible?]

[No, not necessarily. This war must be longer and more wretched than any other scenario in existence.]

Metatron looked at the screens being broadcast from all parts of the battlefields. Beings who had chosen the side of ‘Good’ or ‘Evil’ through their own decision were pointing their weapons at each other. Metatron knew that, although they were participating in this war as nothing more than simple mercenaries, their moral leanings would gradually change the longer the time went on.

[Most ancient ‘Good’ is wishing for a magnificent holy war.]

Constellations participating in this war would eventually grow to hate each other in the name of ‘Good’ and ‘Evil’, and that hatred would burn brightly to create the next generation of Fables.

Michael, watching the battle, spoke in a sulky tone of voice. [In that case, allow me to kill the bastards of <Kim Dok-Ja Company>, at least. I have a score to settle with them.]

Metatron shook his head. <Kim Dok-Ja Company> was an important variable in this scenario. That faction had to be used as much as possible.

[If it was before, sure, but it’s not possible now. I have a different plan for them. If you step forward, Michael, then....]

It was right there that a scenario message announced itself.

[113th regional conflict of ‘Great War of Saints and Demons’ has been forcibly concluded.]

Metatron confirmed the attached information on the message. The 113th regional conflict was the battlefront that Uriel participated in.

[....Forcibly concluded?]

There had never been a message like that before. It didn’t end there, though.

[Chaos Points have increased by 5.]

[Chaos Points is currently 56.]

[Warning! Chaos Points have exceeded 55!]

....

.......

........

[Something is writhing around in the hottest place in Hell.]

[The Calamity of Revelation that decides the end of everything has begun its quickening.]

<Episode 73: The hottest place in Hell (4) > Fin.