Ch.123Chapter 123 – Earth Dragon (3)

# Chapter 123 – Earth Dragon (3)

“So to prevent the god’s recovery, we need to destroy that tank? The tank that stores gray souls like collecting fish.”

“That’s right. The source of divinity lies within the god itself, but the faith needed to manifest that divinity can only be gathered from humans’ gray souls, not from angels’ white souls or demons’ black souls.”

“I see… I thought Elohim had a perverted taste for bathing in souls, like some people bathe in money. So that’s what that massive tank I saw everywhere in heaven was for. If I had known, I would have destroyed it before falling to hell.”

“That’s why we need to persuade Shin Jaehyuk to join our side. If we directly set foot in heaven, we’d obviously be discovered. Following the principle of hiding a tree in a forest, wouldn’t even angels be deceived if Shin Jaehyuk, carrying divine power, entered heaven?”

***

After more than three hours of intense combat, Shin Jaehyuk was on the verge of collapse. His body was filthy with sweat, blood, dust, and hydra fluid.

‘Still, compared to fighting Belial or Belphegor, this is nothing.’

It was as Nietzsche said. The hardships that failed to kill him had made his spirit stronger. Or perhaps the memories of more intense pain had diluted his current, lesser suffering. In truth, it didn’t matter which was the case. All that mattered was his soul, unbroken by such adversity.

Finding himself in this paradoxical moment of growth while backed into a corner, Shin Jaehyuk burst into inappropriate laughter.

“Fuck, is this hardship supposed to be something? I could do this all day!”

Unlike Shin Jaehyuk, who could still quote comic book lines and make jokes, the hydra—unable to catch its tiny prey after three hours—was on the verge of exploding with layer upon layer of frustration.

Like someone encountering a mosquito for the first time in their life, the hydra felt it needed to tear this annoying pest to shreds to be satisfied. Its nine heads, forgetting their master’s order to bring him back alive, filled with murderous intent.

The nine heads coiled, restricting Shin Jaehyuk’s movement paths. Its thick skin formed walls by its mere presence. Eight mouths built a three-dimensional maze, encircling Shin Jaehyuk in a cylindrical formation with only the top remaining open.

‘Is it trying to constrict and capture me like a snake again?’

Just as Shin Jaehyuk was about to jump upward, the hydra’s nine heads gathered at the ceiling of the cylinder like a lid. An ominous energy emanated from those mouths.

‘Breath attack!’

Shin Jaehyuk hastily raised a barrier. Immediately after, ochre torrents hammered against his shield. Nine streams of breath, each comparable to Dragon King Kalsten’s, poured down. The breath that flowed down the barrier even wounded the hydra’s own body, but filled with irritation and murderous intent, it thought only of killing Shin Jaehyuk.

Enduring the ninefold heat, Shin Jaehyuk sought a solution. One method came to mind.

‘Divine power…’

Shin Jaehyuk focused inward. The spear of light—could he use it?

‘No.’

The sensation remained unchanged from before. He couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing, as if some condition remained unfulfilled.

As he persevered, sweating profusely, he noticed something.

‘Huh?’

A strange sensation came over him. Similar to divine power yet somehow different. He wasn’t sure if it should even be called energy, but this curious sensation was emanating from the city walls.

As that sensation filled his inner being, he felt something welling up inside. Power was being transmitted—not external power like physical energy or vitality, but something that elevated his spirit from within, raising his perspective to a higher level.

Facing the same world as a second ago but with a completely different view, Shin Jaehyuk’s eyes widened involuntarily.

‘The condition has been fulfilled. By what principle?’

There was no time to ponder. Heat was trying to penetrate through the gaps in his shield. Shin Jaehyuk concentrated light in his hand. A spear of light formed.

Immediately after, a pillar of light shot upward.

White light erased the ochre color and flowed back. Erasing the breath attack, the straight beam of light blasted away one of the hydra’s heads.

The hydra screamed in pain with its remaining eight heads while burrowing underground to recover.

Shin Jaehyuk didn’t bother stopping it. Recovery didn’t matter. From the moment he grasped the spear of light, a sense of omnipotence enveloped him. He instinctively knew that divine spells were greatly enhanced while summoning the light spear. He decided to name this state.

Incarnation.

Feeling elevated and omnipotent, Shin Jaehyuk leaped high. The spear of light allowed him to fly without any additional magic. He instinctively realized he could do this.

From the sky, he looked down at the ground. His glowing blue insight revealed the hydra’s body writhing beneath the surface. The creature was frantically pushing soil into its stomach to replenish nutrients needed for recovery.

That desperate struggle appeared highly distasteful to Shin Jaehyuk.

“A ghoul with nothing but instinct. How ugly…”

When the incarnation’s voice pierced through the soil into the demon’s head, the hydra froze like a mouse before a cat. True to its instinct-driven nature, its survival instinct was exceptional. Now, for the first time realizing it faced a natural predator, it writhed in extreme terror.

Shin Jaehyuk aimed at that body and hurled his mace with all his might. The incarnation’s strength was truly violent. The mace crashed down like a meteor, creating a deep sinkhole as it struck the hydra’s body. Hit by the mace’s impact and divine power, the hydra writhed in pain and surfaced.

Having realized escape was impossible, the prey had only one option left: a final resistance. Its eight heads and the one still healing targeted the floating Shin Jaehyuk. Some released breath attacks while others lunged with their teeth, trying to end his life.

But all its attempts were thwarted. As Shin Jaehyuk moved his hand from left to right, an unprecedented law took effect, pushing the hydra’s heads to the right. The hydra’s attacks could only tear at empty air.

Its massive body rolled on the ground due to inertia, raising dust clouds. Though it was merely rolling without taking damage, it was truly humiliating for the hydra, once a desert predator. Enough to reflexively confront its predator.

The creature raised its nine heads in anger—the instinctive movement of an enraged snake threatening an enemy. Though its swollen, massive body would intimidate anyone else, it faced the wrong opponent. From Shin Jaehyuk’s perspective, the hydra had merely lined up its heads conveniently for cutting.

Shin Jaehyuk raised his left hand and grasped the air. Light particles emerging from the atmosphere formed an invisible hand. The photons created a force representing Shin Jaehyuk’s will. The nine heads were caught in that grasp, their necks stretched out and dangling. They resembled executed criminals or chickens about to be slaughtered.

“Demon who has lived for hundreds of millions of years, I place you on the judgment seat. You are a beast without the will to repent or the intellect to do so.”

A spear traced along the horizon. The spear was light, Shin Jaehyuk’s will. Extremely compressed golden light, approaching pure white, passed through the direction the spear pointed. The white was so intense that the surrounding background lost its color, becoming pitch-black darkness.

Thus, in a world covered in darkness, there remained only a condemned prisoner awaiting execution and an executioner. The executioner’s guillotine was light, and the transcendent heat warped the surrounding space, creating an illusion of distortion.

“Your crime is one: being consumed by instinct and becoming a beast. Thereby failing to determine your own life. I punish that crime and end your beastly existence here.”

The final reprieve ended, and the moment of execution arrived. The executioner’s guillotine moved. A beam of light cutting through darkness. The slash, parallel to the horizon, passed through all nine heads simultaneously.

A master’s cut allows a bamboo stalk to be severed without the bamboo realizing it’s been cut. The hydra didn’t even recognize the moment of its death. While nerve cells failed to recognize the disconnection and frantically sent warning signals, burning heat hardened blood vessels and blocked blood flow to the brain. Consciousness faded slowly from oxygen deprivation. The execution’s result resembled the end of a euthanized beast.

Movement ceased in the mountain-like massive body, and life vanished from nine pairs of eyes. After the last ember extinguished, with a phenomenon like space itself splitting, all nine heads were beheaded in one strike.

As light rays cut through the black curtain and darkness receded, the hydra’s body collapsed, spraying filthy blood. The unrealistically massive body fell unrealistically. The golden holy knight shining nobly in the sky looked down upon the demon’s fall.

A majestic and holy scene worthy of a religious painting. Light had triumphed over evil. The empire’s citizens at the wall watched the scene with clasped hands.

“Incarnation of light…”

***

‘Now’s my chance… a perfect opportunity away from the Prime Minister’s gaze.’

Meanwhile, Duke August was sneaking into the Emperor’s bedroom deep within the imperial palace, avoiding others’ attention. Despite the commotion outside, the Emperor’s quarters were packed with holy knights guarding the Emperor, but the Duke managed to infiltrate without being detected.

‘Indeed, the shadow concealment technique is excellent. I heard it was created by Sabah, the assassin once praised as the Angel of Death? That legendary assassin who was among the 12 Heroes despite being a mere killer…’

The concealment technique the Duke had learned was a grace bestowed by His Majesty to those participating in the Emperor’s “Grand Plan.” The high-level concealment erased the Duke’s presence and energy, making infiltration possible.

‘Your Majesty. Please wait just a little longer. I will rescue you soon…!’

Unable to contain his excitement, the Duke’s body trembled. Imagining His Majesty detained in that room, his emotions toward Prime Minister Behemdorf erupted like a volcano.

Prime Minister Behemdorf. A traitor who, as a subject, dared to confine the Emperor to his bedroom—a crime beyond the heavenly way. The Duke knew that those holy knights guarding the bedroom door existed under the pretense of protection but were actually jailers keeping the Emperor confined on the Prime Minister’s orders.

‘But now, with the Prime Minister distracted by the commotion outside…!’

It was an opportunity to rescue His confined Majesty. A stroke of luck that might not come again.

Neither the firmly locked door nor the holy knights zealously guarding the bedroom could stop the Duke. As he muttered something in the language of darkness, his body dispersed like mist. Transformed into fog, the Duke seeped under the door.

After crossing the thick door and restoring his body to flesh and blood inside the bedroom, it happened.

“As expected. It was a wise decision to leave the mana road repairs to others and come here.”

A cubic ice wall instantly formed, imprisoning Duke August. A transparent prison made of ice. It was unexpected. Completely. Duke August screamed as if he’d seen a ghost.

“B-Behemdorf! You bastard!!!”

“I predicted this from the moment you disappeared secretly. Isn’t your thinking too obvious? That’s why you’re manipulated by that fake Emperor…”

Duke August glared and shouted.

“Watch your mouth! Fake Emperor-! You’re truly revealing your ambition for the throne!”

“Hmm. That’s not what I meant… Do you really not know? Or are you acting?… It doesn’t matter. For someone in your position, ignorance is also a sin. Holy knights!”

The Prime Minister calmly responded while summoning the guards. As the holy knights entered through the door, the Prime Minister ordered:

“Imprison this man in the underground dungeon and torture him. Find out which families have been involved in this ‘Grand Plan,’ without exception.”

The holy knights grabbed the Duke’s arms and disappeared. Prime Minister Behemdorf, who had been holding back a sigh to maintain dignity in front of his subordinates, exhaled deeply and turned back one last time before leaving the bedroom.

“…I don’t know what you’re plotting, but please stay quiet, ‘Your Majesty.'”

In the center of a room filled with various holy artifacts, relics, and crosses, there lay a coffin. Through the closing door gap, the scent of candles resembling garlic wafted out.

***

Knock knock.

“Fuck, I told them not to let anyone in! I’m going to get neurotic from that damn knocking sound.”

The knocking sound echoed like a nightmare throughout the lodging. Kwak Taewoo complained that the doorkeepers must have taken bribes. His expression showed he was thoroughly fed up with the visitor’s persistence. Shin Jaehyuk’s expression wasn’t much different.

“Damn… I hope it’s not church people again. Please, no…”

After defeating the hydra, Shin Jaehyuk had been resting in his lodging when he was plagued by numerous visitors. Commoners wanting to meet the saint in person, various nobles seeking connections, and clergy wanting to confirm the birth of a saint.

‘I can understand the nobles, but how do commoners who don’t even know my name find me here?’

Of course, from Shin Jaehyuk’s perspective, who disliked being bothered, they were all unwelcome guests.

Among the unwelcome visitors, one type was particularly annoying: people from the Church of Light. They used all sorts of flowery terms like “saint” and “incarnation,” gilding him to an embarrassing degree for listeners.

Even when Shin Jaehyuk moved his residence several times to avoid them, they would discover his whereabouts with clergy-like persistence. The higher their position, the worse their behavior became. High-ranking clergy not only failed to stop their followers’ actions but took the lead in bothering Shin Jaehyuk.

‘A talent surpassing Master Paladin, a saint, the birth of the second hero… If they knew I was the reincarnation of that Longinus, they’d grab my clothes and never let go. Damn… I must hide it at all costs.’

Just yesterday, the Pope had tried to persuade Shin Jaehyuk with various benefits and positions, which he had barely refused. The greed flickering on the face of the Pope he met in person suggested he wasn’t trying to bring him into the church with good intentions. He was just doing it for his own benefit.

‘Whether to get more funding from the imperial family or to collect more donations using my name. The purpose is obvious… How disappointing.’

Had the church’s decline made even the souls of believers impoverished? Seeing the leader who should guide the church with teachings of light instead following teachings of gold and acting pettily was deeply disappointing.

Of course, Shin Jaehyuk could personally revive the church. If he revealed his past life and claimed the Pope’s position by seniority, he could probably take over. If the saint who saved the empire from destruction directly led the church, the Church of Light could recover its declining influence and enter a golden age.

However, with the important mission of defeating the Demon King, he had no desire to get involved in political troubles. According to Kwak Taewoo, the Demon King would descend within a few years, and then the church and everything else would be meaningless. Although the church’s behavior was sad and disappointing, this was a moment when he couldn’t turn his eyes away from his mission even for a moment.

Regardless of Shin Jaehyuk’s thoughts, the visitor outside the door apparently had no intention of leaving. The knocking continued.

Unable to contain his irritation, Kwak Taewoo exploded in anger.

“Idiot, if you hadn’t put on such a flashy show like a moron, we wouldn’t be in this mess. What is this now? People hiding, stuck inside the room… Thanks to you, I can’t even go to training!”

“…Moron? It’s more insulting coming from you. Who was it that crudely used physical force when the mana road broke down? And why blame me for your training loss? You said you got a two-week medical leave for damaged qi. That’s all self-inflicted…”

“Self-inflicted is what I should be saying to you. Why did you drag me into this too…?”

While Shin Jaehyuk and Kwak Taewoo childishly bickered, the voice outside the door cleared its throat awkwardly.

“Ahem, this is Prime Minister Behemdorf. Do you have a moment to talk?”