Ch.166Chapter 166 – Beelzebub

Following Kwak Tae-woo as he tracked Shin Jae-hyuk’s trail around City Hall, he found himself in a vast flower field.

“The footprints… they end here.”

Along with traces of fierce combat, someone was lying on the ground. One was an unfamiliar figure, but the other was someone he knew.

‘Kim Jae-min? Why is he here?’

A lethal amount of blood soaked the surroundings. As he approached, he could hear very faint breathing from the body he had assumed was certainly dead.

Kwak Tae-woo couldn’t hide his confusion at the situation—Kim Jae-min, who had been reported dead, was clearly alive.

‘Did Shin Jae-hyuk and Kim Jae-min fight? Seeing Kim Jae-min collapsed, Shin Jae-hyuk must have won, but where did he go?’

His intelligence, enhanced along with his level, deduced the details of the incident. Shin Jae-hyuk seeking the leader of Paradise Church. Kim Jae-min, reported dead but alive. Signs of battle.

“…Paradise Church must have faked Kim Jae-min’s death and brainwashed him.”

If his assumption was correct, he now understood who was behind Kim Jae-min’s assassination, which had remained a mystery. Paradise Church must have orchestrated everything to use Kim Jae-min as their pawn.

With the help of his artifact, he searched for traces of magic or curses on Kim Jae-min and found that the brainwashing seemed to have been broken.

Kwak Tae-woo pondered.

‘Should I wake him? We once crossed swords. What if he refuses to cooperate? But to find out Shin Jae-hyuk’s whereabouts…’

His deliberation was cut short by the distant collision of enormous powers. One was the sage’s energy he had felt before, and the other belonged to the Demon King.

The world screamed. It felt like doomsday had arrived. That wasn’t an exaggeration.

Kwak Tae-woo snapped back to his senses. This was no time to hesitate.

Having failed to find Shin Jae-hyuk, he needed to borrow Kim Jae-min’s strength. If Kim Jae-min had defeated the Demon King once, he could do it again.

Kwak Tae-woo took out a potion.

***

Using the gate opened by Satan, Shin Jae-hyuk reached the depths of the Demon King’s castle.

With the Demon King leading his entire army toward Earth, only a handful of demons remained to guard the castle. Shin Jae-hyuk easily dispatched the guards and arrived at the audience chamber.

After removing the corpse of the one-eyed giant who had served as gatekeeper, he pushed open the massive doors with both hands. With a grinding sound of stone against floor, the enormous doors slowly opened.

The deepest part of the Demon King’s castle resembled a temple. Amidst towering columns of ancient design and blasphemous statues lining both sides, a throne for the temple’s master existed at the far end of the room.

There, the final guardian awaited him.

[I… I wondered what the King meant with his incomprehensible words.]

Someone was sitting on the Demon King’s throne.

[A welcome guest has arrived.]

No, “sitting” wasn’t quite the right expression. Countless millions, perhaps billions of insects crawled over the throne, the walls, the floor, and the ceiling.

Shin Jae-hyuk spoke his name.

“…Beelzebub.”

『

“To think that you creatures believe you can hunt and kill a beast like me,

How laughable!

You knew it, didn’t you?

That I am a part of you all.

A very close, intimate part.

Why everything went wrong, why everything became as it is now,

It’s all my fault.”

The Lord of the Flies laughed.

』

The demon of envy, avatar of famine and bad harvests, lord of insects and plague, false god, the last of the Four Heavenly Kings. The owner of all these titles took flight.

The countless insects composing Beelzebub’s body spread their wings. Each one was insignificant alone, but when hundreds of millions of insects beat their wings together, the sound was like thousands of jet engines roaring.

[At last we meet again, my prey who escaped me twice! This time I shall never let you go!]

Just Beelzebub’s movement created a gale so strong it was difficult to stand. A dense, black fog of insects noisily danced through the space. It seemed as if the very space Shin Jae-hyuk had entered was transforming into the entity known as Beelzebub.

[In our last encounter, you couldn’t even withstand ten minutes before succumbing. I wonder how long you’ll last this time!]

Each individual insect functioned like a cell of some vast, essential being. Each cell filtered and refined demonic energy from the air. Insects functioning as “blood vessels” transported the energy to the “mouth.”

An astronomical amount of demonic energy condensed, and then erupted as breath.

The heat pouring down from above was even more intense than the breath of Kalsten, the Explosion Dragon King who had been a vassal of Belphegor and a Dragon Lord.

The breath wasn’t composed of just transcendental heat. It was mixed with extreme poison refined by the millions of venomous insects that made up Beelzebub. Just one breath or touch would lead to immediate death.

Shin Jae-hyuk opened his palm. A translucent dome-shaped barrier expanded, pushing back the hellfire.

[I saw that technique four hundred years ago as well!]

A protective barrier—a common countermeasure. And thus, he knew well how to break it.

Dozens of self-destructing insects attached themselves to the barrier. The insects, causing their demonic energy to go berserk, exploded, spraying bodily fluids. New suicide insects attached themselves where the previous ones had disappeared. They continuously threw themselves at the barrier until cracks formed.

Each time a barrier broke, he formed new layers of protection inside. The insects sang in chorus.

[How long do you think you can endure!]

A storm of insects swirled around Shin Jae-hyuk. Like a true storm, lightning flashed within it. The insects acted as opposing poles or synapses, releasing amplified bioelectricity charged with demonic energy.

Dozens of different attacks hammered the barrier. As breath poured down, suicide insects exploded, and red lightning struck, the protective barrier gradually shrank. At this rate, he would be crushed to death inside his own barrier.

Shin Jae-hyuk dispelled the barrier while simultaneously pushing outward with all his might. The veil expanded violently, pushing away the surrounding insects. The insects burned in the holy power as if electrocuted by a bug zapper. A momentary gap appeared, but new insects quickly filled the empty space.

With the barrier gone, flesh-eating insects flew toward the exposed skin.

[Become my nourishment quietly!]

Carnivorous insects that greedily craved human flesh clung to his skin. They varied in size from fleas to cats. Their disgusting compound eyes and repulsive leg hairs were clearly visible.

‘…Holy light.’

A halo rose behind Shin Jae-hyuk. The sacred radiance burned away the clinging insects.

[-?]

A technique he hadn’t seen before. Clearly, last time he had died without withstanding this combination. While Beelzebub hesitated in confusion, Shin Jae-hyuk spoke.

“…It’s been this way since my past life. Why are you so desperate to torment me?”

It was a grudge entangled since his previous life. Killing Longinus’s family, destroying the Church of Light once, and even killing Longinus himself. Beelzebub had been present for all of it.

“Why are you so obsessed with me?”

[Because you possess the divine blood that Satan gave to his human contractor. With that alone, I too can reach the same height as Eloah!]

Beelzebub was originally a demon that started as a single small insect. One day, the insect formed a swarm and realized that a group was more advantageous for hunting and survival than being alone.

The insect increased its “companions” through repeated hunting and feeding. Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, millions of insects gathered and moved as one body, creating a collective intelligence.

Growing by trampling and absorbing predators, Beelzebub was the very embodiment of evolution. Whenever and wherever, Beelzebub was at the top of the food chain. For such a being, the fact that someone existed above him was an unbearable insult and shame.

The previous Demon King was also a being that provoked Beelzebub’s jealousy, but naturally, the existence Beelzebub envied most was God. A being who could create and destroy this world. Beelzebub wanted to become such an existence.

The incarnation of envy, born from twisted evolutionary desire and survival instinct, declared:

[I will become the greatest being in this world with you as my sacrifice! Hand over the divine blood, Holy Knight. To complete me-!]

The insects’ wing beats intensified in response to the heightened emotion. Toxic, highly acidic secretions mixed with the wind.

Shin Jae-hyuk gathered light above his palm.

“…You desire divinity?”

[…You, that is?]

The compound eyes of hundreds of millions of insects focused on Shin Jae-hyuk’s hand. Different from holy power, yet infinitely pure light condensed and took form. A spear of light. Baal’s gaze fixed on the spear.

It was an energy he had felt before. Beelzebub searched his memories. From whom?

[…The Demon King.]

And,

[God.]

Beelzebub understood the situation.

You’ve become a god. Not me, who has desired ascension since ancient times, but a mere human who won’t even live a hundred years.

What one desires to obtain at any cost shines most fiercely and brilliantly in the hands of the one you hate.

Looking at the crystallization of divinity in Shin Jae-hyuk’s hand, Beelzebub lost his reason to surging jealousy.

[Give it to me-!!! That belongs to me! It should be mine-!!!]

Unable to contain their rage, several insects trembled and burst with a pop. That became the catalyst as the frenzied swarm descended upon Shin Jae-hyuk.

Insects capable of turning 600 square kilometers of farmland into wasteland in an instant passed by Shin Jae-hyuk like a blade wind, tearing, scratching, and biting his skin. Their power was not to be underestimated despite being insects. Claws that could cut through granite like water tore through Shin Jae-hyuk’s skin and muscles.

Beelzebub’s bodily fluids penetrated beneath the subcutaneous tissue. Plagues with no cure and viruses existing solely to destroy their host seeped into his body. The pain of bones and muscles dissolving from instant-acting extreme poison followed.

“…Yes. In my past life, I fell to you so helplessly.”

Shin Jae-hyuk regained his consciousness that was momentarily becoming dizzy. He supported his body, which seemed about to break and collapse, with the spear shaft.

“Not anymore.”

Holy power surged as if washing away all the resentment and grudges endured throughout his life. The sacred energy enveloping his entire body burned and drove away Beelzebub’s evil energy.

The insects’ fangs pierced and bit Shin Jae-hyuk. But the result was different from before. Once Shin Jae-hyuk made up his mind, the insects’ attacks couldn’t penetrate his skin as if space itself was disconnected. The insects fell away from his body with a shockwave.

Beelzebub felt an unfamiliar emotion. Bewilderment and awe—feelings he hadn’t experienced since rising to the apex of the hell ecosystem. Wanting to deny these emotions, he squeezed his demonic energy even more violently.

[Longinuuuuus-!!!]

“It’s time to settle our long grudge.”

Shin Jae-hyuk recalled how to use divinity. Coloring the canvas of the world with the paint of his will. His mind expanded, covering the world in Shin Jae-hyuk’s own color.

He imagined a birdcage in his hand. It was a cage, a prison, a world. Shin Jae-hyuk grasped the world in his hand.

[-?!]

Beelzebub sensed something strange. The insects were blocked as if by invisible walls and couldn’t advance. Everything else was the same. Secretions, lightning, breath—all just flickered in place, unable to move even a single centimeter forward.

What did you do? He couldn’t understand. Because Beelzebub was not a god. He lacked the eyes to recognize the miracle performed by a god.

In the frozen time, Shin Jae-hyuk compressed space. The space-time prison holding billions of insects erased the beings inside one by one as it contracted. It was the opposite process of when God once created the world. Atoms, quarks, energy—all lost their meaning.

[Th-that-]

In the reverse process of creation, Beelzebub’s existence was gradually erased. It was a power impossible to resist. Because it was the will and law of the world.

[…should be mine.]

When only the last insect—the original Beelzebub—remained, a final mental wave, squeezed out with great effort, echoed through the castle.

[That power… belongs to me….]

Finally, everything returned to nothingness.

“…With this, all Four Heavenly Kings are dead.”

In front of the now-quiet throne, with the interference gone, Shin Jae-hyuk used the Goetia Code. As he chanted the spell engraved in his mind, space distorted and a golden chalice appeared.

『Powerless Holy Grail』

Shin Jae-hyuk activated his insight to examine the grail. As expected, it had already been used once and served its purpose. Still, as long as Elohim didn’t know this fact, it would be valuable enough as bait.

‘Now the only enemies remaining are the Demon King and Elohim.’

Shin Jae-hyuk pointed his finger at the wall and fired a beam. The intense ray melted through the wall of the Demon King’s castle, creating a hole to the outside. Through the hole, he could see Earth’s sky, now corrupted by the Demon King’s demonic energy.

Shin Jae-hyuk threw himself through the hole.