Ch.127The Devil and God

According to ancient Earth legends, there were primordial beings—the original monsters that now appear through Gates—once called demons.

They were defeated by transcendent beings known as gods and imprisoned in another dimension. As time passed, their seals weakened, allowing them to reappear since prehistoric times as what we now know as monsters.

To be precise, they were merely byproducts of demons—entities the barrier deemed not even worth filtering out.

And now someone wants to summon such demons…

“Have you lost your mind?! Lee Jin-ah.”

“Don’t worry. I’m perfectly sane.”

Is this woman planning to destroy the world itself?

Joan of Arc, unable to simply stand by and watch, immediately tried to approach to stop Lee Jin-ah.

But a Knight of the Round Table blocked the saint’s path.

“Lancelot… According to legend, you’re a knight of the sacred sword, yet you participate in such a plan?”

“We have no other choice right now. We can’t capture that future Shinwoo with all of us anyway.”

“But still! To bring demons back into this world! Either way, it means we’re doomed to destruction!”

“That statement is exactly half right and half wrong, Joan of Arc.”

Just then.

Lee Jin-ah, who had been listening silently, began drawing magic circles with her blood on a coffin she had pulled from the shadows.

“I am summoning a demon. However, I will simultaneously make a contract with it.”

“C-contract?”

“Yes. Demons can only remain in this world through contracts with humans. I plan to ask the demon I resurrect to send him to hell, their sacred ground.”

“…! If you only do that much…”

Even if a demon were to appear, no harm would come to this world.

Rather, with two great evils gone, Earth would return to peace.

“W-wait a moment! Director!”

“Sophia…?”

“What about Shinwoo? What happens to both the current Shinwoo and future Shinwoo?”

“Well, that…”

They would both be trapped in hell.

In the worst case, Jaewon, who was with them, would also fall into hell.

Realizing this, Sophia immediately tried to stop Lee Jin-ah’s contract.

But.

Grab.

“Ugh?! L-let go!”

“Sorry, but this is a contractor’s order.”

“N-no!”

Yeopo Bongseon easily subdued Sophia from behind.

Sophia screamed and screamed, but.

“Evil for evil. Destruction for destruction. Great being who should not interfere with cause and effect…”

The ritual had already begun.

And moments later.

“Reveal yourself here.”

Finally, the coffin lid before Lee Jin-ah opened, and from within emerged a bizarrely large form that couldn’t possibly have fit inside, beginning to enter the world.

“……”

It was white like pure jade, with no eyes, ears, nose, mouth, or any features a person should have—just a smooth, featureless something.

Yet its mere presence sent a chill through any human, and its aura instantly covered the entire Earth.

“What is that?!”

“M-monster…?”

“……A demon.”

The two Shinwoos and his son momentarily paused their fight as they beheld the demon summoned from hell.

Meanwhile, facing the demon, Lee Jin-ah made the following contract:

“I’ll halve the lifespan of all humanity on Earth if you capture them and kill them in hell.”

“……”

The white giant nodded, seemingly accepting the contract.

Then.

Grab.

“Ugh?!”

“W-what?!”

“S-Shinwoo!!”

“Jin-aaaaah-!”

Rolling, wearing full gear, came flying from the collapsed Hunter Association building, trying to break the contract.

But it was too late—the inhuman white face above the three men opened its mouth wide and swallowed them all.

A moment later.

“Where is this…?”

When past Shinwoo and Han Jaewon tore through the white giant’s mouth and emerged first.

They were speechless at the bizarre sight before them: four moons and two suns hanging in a sky where day and night coexisted, clouds floating on the ground, and plants growing upside down from the sky.

***

Smack!

“Jin-ah! Are you crazy?!”

Meanwhile, in the original world, Rolling was furious after losing both her sons and grandson.

She slapped her old friend who had sent her healthy son and grandson to hell without any discussion.

Of course, no one around tried to stop her.

“How… how could you do this?”

“It was for the greater good. Even if we had left them alone, there was no way for the current Shinwoo and Jaewon to defeat him.”

“Then you should have sent me as bait at least! I could have captured my future son!”

“That might have been possible. But we weren’t in a position to take such a gamble.”

If Rolling had failed to capture future Shinwoo and the demon couldn’t take him to hell, their battlefield would have been Earth, not hell.

Lee Jin-ah couldn’t take such a risk.

However, as a parent herself, she knew she was wrong, so she simply stood still, silently accepting the slaps coming her way.

Just then.

“Oh no, Shinwoo!”

“Honey? Did something happen to Shinwoo?”

“D-Dad!”

“Honey!”

A man came running toward them with two women on his back.

It was none other than Lee Seokgyu, the current Army Chief of Staff of Korea.

“Why is everyone crying? What happened here anyway?”

“Honey! Something terrible happened! Shinwoo fell into hell with his son!”

“W-what?! Shinwoo? Wait, Shinwoo’s son?”

“Dad, what do we do! Jaewon! My son! In hell! Because of that woman!”

“…???”

Lee Seokgyu couldn’t understand the mother and daughter’s rambling conversation.

He had no idea about future Shinwoo, why the Hunter Association had collapsed, or the situation in general.

That’s because even Yoo Cheran, who should have explained, was asleep on his back.

At that moment.

“Grandpa…”

“Grandpa?”

“Yes, Shina. What is it?”

Shina, who was also on her grandfather’s back with Yoo Cheran, had barely regained consciousness and pointed forward.

“Over… there.”

“There?”

“Yes… there…”

“…? Is there something over there?”

“Dad… Dad is trying to… come back now…”

Crackle.

“?!”

“The space is…”

“The dimension is tearing!”

“This is impossible…!”

The being they had sent to another world was now trying to tear through dimensions and set foot here again.

***

Just before Lee Seokgyu went to the mother and daughter.

Shinwoo’s group, who had just fallen into hell, had temporarily set aside their fight and were examining their surroundings.

“…It’s coming.”

“Coming? Who…?!”

“M-my body!”

Future Shinwoo raised his head as if he had expected this.

Meanwhile, Jaewon, who had been tilting his head at those words, suddenly began trembling in his kaijufied body and collapsed to the ground, unable to endure.

Even present Han Shinwoo momentarily dropped to one knee from the impossible pressure.

Future Shinwoo just watched the two behind him.

Before him stood a bizarre creature with two pairs of wings—one white and one black—and two heads, welcoming them.

“……”

“W-what is that…?”

“Those who ruled Earth before humans were born. Among them, one who dared challenge the gods without knowing its place… a demon.”

“It’s Lucifer.”

“L-Lucifer? The one from the Bible?”

“Yes, the original being that inspired the demon motif in many games.”

The name Lucifer wasn’t particularly unfamiliar in 21st century East Asia with its developed subculture.

The fallen angel.

A demon known as the symbol of corruption, commonly used among game enthusiasts and anime fans.

But its true form was monstrosity itself.

Equal to my current kaijufied state…

No, perhaps even greater?

No matter how I tried to stand, my legs wouldn’t straighten.

Even with my karate Sanchin-dachi stance, my body remained heavy.

It was as if the kaijufied cells in my body were stopping me from fighting, telling me this wasn’t the time.

The fortunate thing was that he only glanced at me briefly.

As if saying I wasn’t his prey, he was looking at only one place.

“Jin-ah… In the future, you just died, so I thought that was your limit. But you were hiding something like this?”

The demon of betrayal spread both hands toward my future self, creating what looked like a galaxy where all the light and darkness of the world mixed together.

Soon, countless weapons began to emerge from the galaxy, covering the entire hell sky.

Swoosh.

I could instinctively feel that each weapon had enough power to make human divine tools seem trivial, and even with my kaijufied body, this would be too much.

“Die.”

Against the demon’s strike that seemed capable of piercing through the blue planet several times, like a downpour.

“Die…?”

Instead, my future self took a stance for a straight punch.

Then.

“I’ve finally found ‘happiness’ at last.”

“……”

“Don’t get cocky, you worm who can’t even pretend to be a god.”

After witnessing the “phenomenon” that followed, I finally understood.

Why he couldn’t kill me immediately despite fully unleashing his power, and instead ambiguously threw me all the way to Beijing, China.

BOOM-!

“?!?!!?!”

“What…”

His power was too immense.

Almost like a real god.

Because we were in a world other than Earth, he could finally swing his fists freely.

As a result, Lucifer was now plummeting to the ground with his upper and lower body completely pierced through, surrounded by broken weapons.

Beyond him, one of hell’s moons or suns hanging in the sky had been split in half and shattered.

“Don’t stand before a god, mere demon.”