Ch.144144. Sacred Mausoleum of the Dead

The devil does not drink from the poisoned chalice.

Unlike humans who, once they lose an opportunity, have no guarantee of regaining it within their limited lifespan, those who live for nearly an eternity have no reason to cherish opportunities as humans do.

Therefore, for devils, life is more precious than any value.

As long as they live, they can look forward to the next opportunity.

Thus, knowingly jumping into a trap was clearly not their way.

They knew this fact well. But despite this, they had no choice but to leap into the trap.

The trauma deeply engraved in their souls made it impossible for them to tolerate even the slightest possibility.

“Azrael…”

In Goetia’s hideout, the second-rank Agares muttered while holding his forehead.

Just uttering the name after so long made his heart flutter.

As a devil whose default state was arrogance, he defined this emotion as anger, but deep inside, he called it fear.

“If that bastard appears just one more time, it’s truly over.”

In the past, devils roamed this world freely, like tourists.

But they were not satisfied with such a life.

Their purpose was to take revenge on the Goddess who had made them this way.

Therefore, they sought to create a Saint of Sin who could destroy this world that she loved.

They prepared for hundreds of years for that single goal.

They corrupted the upper echelons of Rome and, with sweet promises of creating a saint, seduced many Divine Power holders to be sacrificed.

The devils who finally succeeded in summoning the Saint of Sin.

They believed without doubt that the world the Goddess loved so much would now end.

But their masterpiece perished before even leaving Jerusalem.

A hero to humans, a mortal enemy and traitor to devils.

Azrael.

On that day, because of a single devil, 70 comrades had to return to hell or face complete annihilation.

That overwhelming presence could never be forgotten.

“Amon must never inherit that bastard’s power. Never.”

Gritting his teeth, Agares covered his fear with anger, trying hard to forget it.

He anxiously drummed his fingers on the desk, waiting for news that his comrades had eliminated Amon.

***

Several days had passed since Amon leaked false information to the devil’s side.

There had been two attacks, and after repelling them, the group headed back to the dungeon.

While eliminating baby angels that occasionally respawned in the lower levels of the dungeon, Sonia organized the information she had gathered over the past few days.

“It seems devils cannot approach the dungeon.”

This was a fact discovered during the second attack.

After the first attack, when the group was certain that they had taken the bait, they moved to the dungeon.

And when the second attack came, they lured them toward the dungeon…

“It was hilarious watching them just standing there staring blankly in front of the dungeon.”

Like ants that wouldn’t dare approach cinnamon, they didn’t come near the dungeon.

Upon discovering this, Amon went to some trouble to capture one devil and drag it to the dungeon.

As a result, they learned why devils feared the dungeon.

“It makes sense they’d be afraid, since they transform into monsters like the others just by coming near the dungeon.”

Devils transform into monsters like baby angels the moment they set foot at the entrance of this dungeon.

Though the exact reason was unclear, the prevailing theory was that devils were merely dungeon monsters that had escaped due to a series of coincidences.

Amon threw his sword at a newly respawned baby angel, killing it, as he responded to Sonia.

“Just as an escaped prisoner would naturally be imprisoned again upon setting foot back in jail.”

The devil that had once attacked them but had now transformed into a baby angel met its end for who knows how many times today.

Amon turned his attention away from the angel and refocused on the conversation.

“Then at least this dungeon isn’t a place created by devils to deceive us, right?”

“Yes. That must be it. So I’ll cross out hypothesis B for now. Then hypothesis A that Amon mentioned first is the most likely.”

Sonia drew thick lines through hypothesis B on her notepad.

Instead, she circled hypothesis A, which started from the premise that the dungeon’s creation and the devils were separate events.

“The devils didn’t create the dungeon. They just utilized the dungeon that was already created.”

Since they couldn’t enter the dungeon, they wouldn’t be able to distinguish them either, so instead they hid the entrances to all dungeons and removed related records.

“Then the reason we could find the entrance with the cross fragment wasn’t because it was an admission ticket…”

“But because it neutralized the devils’ magic? Or technology? Something like that.”

Amon repeatedly tossed and caught the cross fragment as he responded to Sonia.

“That devil who attacked me before was probably like a guard dog meant to deal with humans who might find the tomb…

Considering they don’t have the ability to distinguish which dungeon is the real tomb, they just indiscriminately attack anyone who enters and exits any dungeon.”

This must be how the secret had been maintained for a thousand years.

They left the tomb that the Vatican mistook alone, and if civilians discovered other dungeons, they assassinated them before they could make it public.

Therefore, in this case, there was only one way for Amon’s group to find the real tomb.

“They must be aware of all the dungeons located in Jerusalem, right? They probably set up detection measures at each entrance.”

Amon planned to seize those detection measures.

He had already thought of a method.

“Did you know? More than half of all torture methods in human history were created in the basement of the Papal States.”

Shing.

Amon pulled out a pair of tongs whose purpose one wouldn’t want to know.

“Let’s resume fishing.”

*

Several more days passed.

During that period, there were three additional attacks.

During those attacks, Amon was able to secure excellent cooperators.

Through interrogation methods passed down through generations in the Vatican, Amon learned from them how to find the dungeons.

“Twelve dungeons…”

They had already conquered one, but the fact that there were 12 more dungeons to go made him sigh.

“Tough as it is, we have to do it.”

Because that was the most certain and fastest method.

Amon’s group grumbled as they prepared for the second dungeon.

But before they could enter the second dungeon, the situation began to flow in a direction they hadn’t anticipated at all.

“Amon! Amon! Breaking news!”

“What is it so early in the morning, Kathy?”

“I received information from headquarters that an H.O.D. company is coming to Jerusalem.”

“Those people? Why??”

“They say they’re support troops for Jerusalem’s deteriorating public safety and small-scale disturbances, but…”

Kathy paused mid-sentence and unfolded a newspaper.

The newspaper described the conflict between Israel and Palestine.

Her company was an investment firm, and being sensitive to the flow of money, they had read from the money flow that this conflict was not ordinary.

The situation was serious enough that war wouldn’t be surprising.

In such a situation, the intention behind H.O.D. coming to Israel was obvious.

“America is crazy about Jews, you know.”

Kathy shrugged.

As she said, H.O.D. was a kind of support force.

All talk of public safety and cooperative investigation was just an excuse; the real reason was a strong warning and vigilance toward Palestine.

Amon nodded as if he understood Kathy’s explanation.

But contrary to his appearance, Amon wasn’t interested in H.O.D.’s dispatch to Israel.

Complex relationship diagrams like war or diplomacy weren’t his concern.

He was only interested in the next dungeon.

Therefore, Amon headed toward the second dungeon without even paying attention to H.O.D.

… Not knowing that he would meet them at the dungeon entrance.

“Why is H.O.D. here?”

At the dungeon entrance, an H.O.D. platoon with flying vehicles was blocking Amon’s group.

Amon’s eyes narrowed upon discovering this.

While Amon was wary of the H.O.D. members, Sunwoo carefully approached and whispered.

“Those people. Is there a possibility they’re friendly to us?”

“No.”

At this point, when they had come all the way to the outskirts where ordinary people wouldn’t even venture, and were stationed at a dungeon entrance that ordinary people should pass by without even feeling a sense of discomfort, how could they be friendly?

It was more certain to assume they were in cooperation with the devils.

At that moment, Kathy partially corrected Amon’s words.

“Those people are friendly, but it’s not their true intention.”

“What do you mean?”

“Levy heard the news and is currently hacking the police station from the mainland, and he said he sensed a familiar AI smell from inside. So he dug deeper, and guess what.”

Levy’s intuition was right.

Currently, H.O.D. was collectively being controlled by a malicious AI.

After receiving the information from Kathy, Amon immediately listed the AI candidates.

“Maxwell, Darwin.”

Their abilities and countermeasures naturally came to mind.

Eventually, Amon, fed up with the AI that appeared whenever he thought he might forget about it, began to devise a strategy to eliminate H.O.D.

‘First, I need to take out the netwalker.’

It was a bonus that during the estimation, he recalled the memory of having his thoughts read by a thought mage 10 years ago.