Ch.46Chapter 46 – Transcendent

“So ‘Gluttony’ is dead.”

In the deepest part of the world, at the “Bottom of All Places,” stood a deep inverted castle. It was an underground fortress built voluntarily by “Greed,” the greatest miser of the underworld, for his master, the Great Being.

The beings of the underworld referred to the castle’s master with reverence as:

Manmajeon, the Hall of Ten Thousand Demons,

Pandemonium,

Or the Demon King’s Castle.

“So it ended in failure after all.”

In the darkest audience chamber at the lowest level of the underground castle, where not a single ray of light reached, someone muttered while staring at the empty space where “Gluttony” should have been.

[This is why new demons are… It was his first deployment opportunity, and he couldn’t even control his bloodlust before rampaging and getting himself killed. Useless fool-!]

A disgusting voice that sounded like the combined wingbeats of hundreds of flies complained. The buzzing sound grew louder and clearer, reflecting the unpleasant mood.

-It’s fine. He was the weakest of our Four Heavenly Kings. In the end, the mortal will be unable to withstand the armies of hell and will break.

“Pride” soothed “Envy” with a sweet voice. It was a heavenly voice that didn’t match the gloomy place. Each word sounded like a song. How beautiful must the owner of this voice be? However, twelve wings stained black veiled the owner modestly like a woman in a hijab.

-But I must blame his foolishness for descending into enemy territory without guards or subordinates… What an impulsive and arrogant choice!

[At this rate, he’s worse than the previous Greed who served as one of the Four Kings! At least dying at the hands of a hero would be understandable!]

“Calm down… Bloodlust toward humans is instinctual for newborn demons; they can’t possibly remain calm when facing humans like we ancient demons can. Besides, he was obsessed with military achievements due to his inferiority complex. He was bound to cause trouble eventually because of his gluttony, so we should consider his early death fortunate. Thanks to him, we’ve obtained useful data about Earth.”

One of “Sloth’s” two mouths spoke up. It was the voice of a fussy middle-aged woman—the mouth attached to his cheek. After the chatty auxiliary mouth finished speaking, the mouth below his nose asked in a solemn elderly voice:

“Hmm, but what about the Demon King?”

[…He’s meditating. As always, abstaining from food and drink while weeping sorrowfully.]

It was an odd behavior unbefitting the name “Demon King,” but they were well acquainted with the Demon King’s eccentricities and didn’t question it further. A hundred years was sufficient time to accept peculiar behavior as normal habit.

‘Why did the Lord choose a stranger to be the second Demon King instead of someone from among the Four Heavenly Kings… Well, I dare not presume to guess His intentions.’

The Demon King’s absence wasn’t important to them. This meeting was merely to review their existing plans.

Instead, Pride questioned Envy’s puzzling attitude.

-But Envy, the previous Demon King, “Wrath,” wasn’t so compliant. You’re surprisingly loyal to the second Demon King? I expected you to throw a fit about some nobody occupying the throne.

[Hmph. I don’t like following him, but since Elohim appointed him personally, I have no choice but to obey.]

Though Envy invoked the deity’s name, his true thoughts were quite different.

This Demon King had no interest in the throne. He was merely occupying the position temporarily for his own purposes. They had secretly made a deal—unknown to the other Kings—that he would hand over hell’s crown to Envy once the invasion of the middle realm was complete, and in return, Envy would follow him quietly.

Of course, the cunning demons were unlikely to believe his excuse at face value. His hatred for the divine was well-known. So before the other Kings could guess his intentions and approach the secret truth, Envy changed the subject to divert their attention elsewhere.

[But no matter how weak he might be by our standards, he was still one of the Four Heavenly Kings. How did he end up getting killed by a mortal? Are there still such powerful beings left in the middle realm?]

-It must be the System’s machinations. The same power given to heroes. I’ve heard that awakened Earthlings are granted the same blessing. I wonder what the Lord is thinking…

“No. I think this was simply bad luck. Look at this.”

Demonic energy writhed and projected a magical image into the air. To control such violent and destructive magical energy with such precision! Black magicians would faint at the sight.

But none of those gathered showed any surprise, calmly examining the footage captured by a familiar. It was precisely because they could perform such miracles effortlessly that they were called the Four Heavenly Kings.

-Indeed… With that level of divine power, it must be that paladin.

[Longinus-!]

All three absolute beings gathered here remembered that mortal’s name. It was one of the few truly extraordinary incidents in the dull and conservative history of hell under the strong centralized rule of the first Demon King, Wrath.

Several hundred years ago, a party of twelve invaded hell. They had planted moles to cause internal division, expecting the party to easily fall apart, but instead, a single paladin went berserk, and Envy had to personally deal with him.

[I didn’t know where he was after Elohim took his soul, but to think he was in such a place..!]

-Still possessing overwhelming divine power. No wonder the constrained Gluttony couldn’t stand against him. He was a troublesome one with seemingly infinite regeneration from his bottomless divine power.

“Tsk tsk. What bad luck that he happened to be right where ‘Gluttony’ was summoned.”

-Or perhaps this too is part of the Lord’s grand Plan.

Pride sneered with a mocking voice. To her, once a great archangel who served the light, Elohim was both an object of respect and hatred. An oppressive killing intent flowed from the fallen angel’s wings as she grew agitated.

[…Anyway, it’s your turn next, Sloth.]

“Geez, how bothersome… I was going to watch a movie I had specially imported from Earth.”

At Sloth’s grumbling, Envy blinked six hundred and sixty-six of his tens of thousands of compound eyes simultaneously.

‘Does he have smugglers? Between that electric wheelchair he rides and his curiously extensive knowledge of Earth’s culture…’

Well, it didn’t matter. That wasn’t important right now. The issue was that the paladin Longinus, whom he had his eye on, somehow existed on Earth.

Envy knew a secret that the other Kings didn’t—something he had discovered while secretly monitoring the previous Demon King, Wrath.

Longinus was a human born with divine blood.

Literally a being with a part of God in his soul. If he could get his hands on that, he could obtain power equal to a god.

But knowing Longinus’s personality, he wouldn’t hide from the Four Kings but would charge at them head-on, and then it would only be a matter of time before he was captured. Before others could capture him and discover his secret, Envy needed to claim that divinity first! Unfortunately, his deployment order was last among the four Kings.

Hiding his impatience, Envy probed subtly.

[So you’re not going? Then how about yielding your opportunity to me?]

“No way! Unlike Eden, Earth’s culture is incredibly rich. That’s what makes it worth invading. I hear animation and gaming genres have developed remarkably in the past century. It should be enough to alleviate my boredom for a while…”

Sloth was, by definition, the demon of lethargy. Mentally, he was the second oldest being in the universe. His near-immortal life naturally bred boredom. He was always trapped in tedium and was willing to actively dispel his monotony as long as it wasn’t too troublesome. So conquering Earth would make for decent entertainment… but in truth, Sloth had noticed something odd in Envy’s reaction.

‘Seeing how fixated Envy is, there must be something on Earth… Gluttony was summoned to a country called Korea, wasn’t it?’

Sloth’s brilliant mind began working diligently.

He had subtly recommended Korea as a summoning location to Gluttony after receiving intelligence that the hero, thought to have perished with Wrath hundreds of years ago, was alive in Korea. The foolish Belial, who fell for his “persuasion,” didn’t achieve the intended result but had caught a decent fish nonetheless.

‘I poked an anthill and instead of a hero, out came a paladin I thought died hundreds of years ago. Longinus… whom humans call a saint most beloved by God? He’d make a fine addition to my collection. He’ll make an excellent piece for mocking the divine.’

This deployment was shaping up to be quite interesting entertainment. Conveniently, one of his subordinates had a grudge against Longinus.

‘But if I prepare another summoning in a Korean urban center, I’ll be discovered easily like this time.’

He needed another suitable summoning location—somewhere close to Korea but with abundant sacrifices to restore his power.

A world map of Earth unfolded in his mind. In just 6.66 milliseconds, he was able to identify a suitable location: a military state above Korea, perfect for maximizing his necromantic specialties.

Isn’t it too close to Korea? He hadn’t been able to confirm whether the hero was alive as originally planned using Gluttony, but if by chance the hero really was alive in Korea… Honestly, he wasn’t confident he could defeat a hero said to be equal to Wrath while his powers were constrained.

‘It doesn’t matter. With that secret technique I’ve been researching…’

He was confident he could survive even if Wrath himself showed up instead of the hero.

After finalizing his plan in 6.66 seconds, magical energy flickered at the fingertips of Sloth, Belphegor. A blood-red magic circle was drawn on the barren stone floor. Light burst from the circle, summoning a robed figure.

“Iscariot, my servant.”

“Yes, my master. Command me.”

“Execute the plan. My ritual of descent.”

“I shall obey, Lord of Death…”

***

From above the Milky Way that cuts across the universe, from above the stars that densely dot the night sky, from “Above All Things,” the Form of Light who willingly looked down upon what lay beneath spoke:

「My, this is an unexpected situation.」

The One who dwells in the celestial palace gazed with sleepy eyes at a man on Earth—the only paladin on the planet, a soul He had personally transferred from Eden to Earth. He could see the golden path extending from Himself to the man. A pathway that should have been frozen solid…

「His awakening wasn’t part of the plan. Where did things go wrong?」

The Light recalled the image of the paladin rampaging in hell. Was that the last time He woke up, or the time before? He wasn’t sure. It seemed even longer ago… His little lamb, shedding tears of blood while slaughtering demons. He should have died quickly so his soul could be repositioned according to plan, but his regenerative abilities prevented his death, and he was at risk of completely breaking mentally and falling from grace. Since that wasn’t what He wanted, He had blocked the divine power and forced him to meet his end.

「Is it the influence of the blood?」

Originally, He had planned to gradually restore the divine power while monitoring his progress. A little at a time, as he uncovered the world’s secrets, discovered His will, and understood the grand plan.

The Light had learned from the case of Sataniel, His firstborn son and first creation, that the more important the role, the more perfect the control needed to be. And for perfect control, appropriate incentives were necessary.

The achievement <Agape>. A soul fanatical enough to be recognized by the System. The restoration of divine power would be the greatest joy and reward for His little lamb. He had intended to use the recovery of divine power as bait to gain an absolutely loyal servant.

「I planned to take time to gain perfect control. Yet he recovered on his own. Hmm…」

But instead of taking decisive action in response to this unexpected mishap, the Light turned His attention elsewhere, to check if the contingency He had prepared was functioning properly.

The Light checked the status of the “star” that had fallen to Earth. The leash was gone, but the contingency remained intact. Therefore, this situation was a manageable deviation…

「It doesn’t matter… A single mantis cannot stop the wheel of fate.」

The Light closed His eyes again. Even this brief awakening to check how fate had unfolded was exhausting. Much divine power remained unrecovered. It was difficult for one without perfect qualifications to forcibly manipulate the System—even more so to share its benefits with millions of humans. Only after studying the System for eons through countless cosmic cycles could He manipulate it at the cost of divine power…

Beautiful celestial harmonies sang a lullaby for the One alone. A chorus filled with reverence for the Creator who brought all things into being. The harmonious melody seeped gently into the listener’s ears, comfortably relaxing the tired consciousness. And so, above the reservoir of gray souls, the Primordial Light fell into a long sleep. A very long sleep.

Until the alarm triggered by rising civilization violence levels would wake Him from His indefinite slumber.