Deep in the abyss of the Demon World.
In the thick darkness where not a single ray of light penetrates.
At the bottom, a black figure descended.
Rumble, Satan!
Unlike usual, when he donned his massive demonic energy like a cloak.
Now, it seemed he was suppressing it as much as possible, resembling other demons.
Though he couldn’t see anything in the darkness,
he could still feel the surroundings with the demonic energy.
A deep abyss surrounded by five massive statues.
One of the statues in the sixth spot was broken.
And the seventh spot was empty.
|Did you handle Sloth well?|
|Belphegor has been given as a gift to humans. Kill him or torture him until he’s a mere shadow of himself — either way works for me.|
|I don’t care which. If Sloth loses his name, that’s enough.|
From within the statue, weak demonic energy began to flow out and convey its meaning.
In the meantime, Satan, kneeling, listened attentively while suppressing all his demonic energy.
|What if Sloth remains Sloth?|
|I don’t think that will happen… However, that’s not a problem. I will kill him myself. I have decided to bear all the sins.|
The primary plan was to have Yoo Jin kill Belphegor to achieve his goals while gaining his favor.
However, even if that plan fell apart, it was no problem.
Belphegor could be killed anytime to take away Sloth’s name.
While it looked like he was boldly committing slaughter within the reach of the Underworld’s vision, he didn’t care.
Satan was prepared to commit sins.
Everything was for a greater purpose.
And for the Demon World and the demon race.
He had to sacrifice himself as a Great Demon.
One variable was that Belphegor might escape again.
But that possibility had diminished.
The one who helped his escape, Draken, seemed to have lost interest in Belphegor now.
No way that human would help…
A human who had survived from the Current World to this place.
That person might somehow find a way to escape the Demon World.
But at least, he wouldn’t help Belphegor escape.
His deep-seated hatred for Belphegor was extraordinary.
Unlike the Demon World, where evil couldn’t even be dreamt of under the god of the Underworld’s sight, the Current World was a lawless land.
After hearing one by one about the deeds Belphegor committed in that place, Satan immediately understood the roots of that man’s hatred.
He would either kill him instantly.
Or inflict pain so great he wished for death.
It had to be one of the two.
Humans were such a race.
Chasing justice, forming nations, and pursuing objective morality,
yet they could never give up the thrill of revenge.
If they could give up such things, they would have long become immortals, flying in the sky.
|At least, it might be best not to cross that man’s temper…|
|I know. I never expected a being so familiar with death would suddenly appear as a living human… However, it is a huge fortune for us, and we can’t miss it.|
From the moment he appeared, there were doubts, but no one believed.
Yet the moment the Underworld responded to his summons, all doubts vanished.
Now, no demon harbored even the slightest doubt.
A being familiar with death.
A being that had only been passed down in legends had suddenly fallen into the Demon World.
There were countless ways to use him.
But the first thought was indeed to have him assist in the “plan.”
However, explaining it to someone who still didn’t know much about the Demon World would have been futile.
So, for a while, they decided to grant him time to adapt to the Demon World.
Above all, he seemed to still hold onto hope of returning to the Current World, so they merely waited for him to give up that hope.
|All the ingredients are in place. Due to the sudden return of Sloth, who had been dormant for thousands of years, and the being familiar with death—|
Boom!
At that moment, the heavens shook with a resounding noise.
Satan’s expression hardened instantly.
At first, he thought it might be a tremor caused by the Underworld.
Yet it was certainly a huge tremor, but it wasn’t enough to shake the entirety of the Underworld.
No matter how strong the shockwaves were, they could only disturb about 10% of the Demon World.
But the strange thing was,
aside from the six Great Demons gathered here, there was no being in the Demon World capable of exerting such power.
Could it be…
Satan rose.
Something unusual was occurring.
“What feels different?”
Where did this feeling come from?
What was different?
Intuition is surely a result quickly computed from accumulated data and logic.
Though hard to explain, it was not impossible with enough time and effort to articulate.
Of course, at times it could just be a blind feeling.
But in my case, I didn’t think such a thing would happen.
The experiences accumulated after repeating a short life twelve times certainly weren’t in vain.
It was also the reason why acting on intuition was often better than the conclusions drawn after days of reflection.
Yet today, even if it took a long time,
I had to somehow decipher and articulate this intuition.
“What’s different about Belphegor?”
This was an extremely significant issue.
Kali, Luna, Sola, and Belphegor. These three were certainly different from Belphegor.
But how were they different?
From now on, I sought to find out.
First, Sola was out of the question.
She bore some responsibility for the sins of the Four Heavenly Kings but their responsibility was very minimal.
She had been threatened with her brother as leverage and hadn’t acted proactively.
With no intent or purpose, she was hardly comparable to the other Heavenly Kings as I had already pulled her back by her hair even before ascending to that position.
Then, we compare Luna and Kali.
What was the difference between them and Belphegor?
What made me hesitate to kill Belphegor?
This question kept my mind busy and made it impossible to focus on anything else.
I needed to come up with an answer quickly.
After that, I would need to decide whether to kill Belphegor or take some action to ease my mind.
…Pretty?
No way.
I immediately dismissed Mi Jeong’s opinion.
That couldn’t be it.
If it was just because he is cute and pretty, I would have felt the same when Kali possessed the nameless one.
But at that time, I had not been shaken at all.
It had nothing to do with appearance.
I was confident I could embrace Mi Jeong even if one day she transformed into a giant centipede, seeing people separate from appearance.
If I failed to realize such a simple truth after repeating the same life twelve times, then I had truly regressed wrongly.
“Is it only the fact that Luna and Kali are dead while Belphegor is alive?”
Is that all there is to it?
Standing on the other side of the line between life and death.
Was my hesitance to punish Luna and Kali due to my knowledge that their punishment would be dealt with by the god of the Underworld, thus prompting no hesitation in their fates?
No, that’s not it.
It wasn’t like that at all.
Even if I was unaware that the living would not be summoned to the Underworld, I shared the same sentiments.
Then, at that moment, I summoned the god of the Underworld, fully prepared to be pulled into the Underworld for the misdeeds I had committed thus far.
Then what’s the answer…?
At the moment Kali was taken away, she insisted she was justice and in the end, she cried and begged for forgiveness.
She sought forgiveness.
And Luna, in her final moments, threatened me and begged for her life.
No, to be precise, she begged for her “existence.”
Even knowing she couldn’t escape the execution of justice, which was akin to a law of dimensions, she clung to useless struggles.
The commonality between the two was that they recognized their actions as evil, trying to justify them or evade responsibility.
But what about Belphegor?
Are you regretting it or not…?
Belphegor braved death.
Of course, fearing death was the same.
But at least he did not deny or regret the path he had taken.
Even as he clearly understood the evil of his deeds, he was resolved not to regret it, which carried a particular meaning.
That could only be a deed possible for pure evil without the warmth of a human heart, yet Belphegor’s disposition, no matter how you viewed it, appeared to be a crafty scoundrel, not pure evil.
Thus it was even more bizarre.
Maybe he’s somewhat similar to me?
It felt a bit unsettling, but I glimpsed similarities between him and me.
The determination not to regret my choices, even if they weren’t the best.
Not denying what I had built up.
Not destroying what I had achieved.
Cherishing the relationships I had developed.
Then what was the reason Belphegor was so adamant about not regretting, despite having nothing achieved or left around him?
There’s a faster way.
I had thought of how to figure that out in advance.
In the past, I would have never imagined it.
But in this place, where time and resources were abundant, I could attempt it as much as I wanted.
With a snap of my fingers, the dense curtain of demonic energy that had enveloped the surroundings lifted.
Then a maid with chocolate-colored skin, standing perfectly still like a robot, even more so than Linda, appeared from the cave wall.
Upon closer inspection, her face was flushed and she was rubbing her thighs, trembling.
“What are you doing?”
“What… what do you mean? I’m fulfilling the orders you gave me…!”
What did I say?
I scratched my head for a moment, retracing my memories before I finally understood.
I told her to stand still until I came out after entering training for a while…
It had already been six hours since that order.
Had Belphegor not moved a muscle all this time?
But why was her face so red?
“Why are you so restless?”
“Quick… let me go… please…”
“You don’t answer my question—”
“Ah, aah!”
…
Shiiiii…
I had forgotten.
Demons don’t need a bathroom, but since Belphegor had lost all the demonic energy she had been wearing, she was practically no different from a human.
And six hours would be more than enough time for bodily functions to reach their limits.
A transparent stream flowed down her smooth legs, soaking her skirt.
Even then, as her orders hadn’t been rescinded, Belphegor remained still in place, trembling.
As the lengthy release came to an end.
She stood there, gripping at her skirt as if grabbing an enemy by the collar, glaring at me fiercely.
“This is how a human body works. I tried to make you understand…”
“Don’t play dumb, you perverse bastard!!!”
What a misunderstanding.
There were similar incidents with Alicia, but those were all unintended.
…Probably.
“Change your clothes. I have something to do.”
“I have no other clothes…”
“Then dry yourself off.”
…
Luckily, Mi Jeong knew fire magic.
When I dried her off, it worked like a charm.
Following my command, Belphegor stepped inside the demonic barrier, somewhat awkwardly sniffing.
I closed the barrier again, sealing the inside.
“What are you trying to do…? ”
“We’re going to talk about the path you’ve walked.”
“I won’t. No, I can’t. How can a mere human understand the history of a demon spanning thousands of years? It’s something that can’t even be conveyed in human language.”
That was a valid point.
Could anyone express the scenes of the Demon World in a human language for someone who had never been there?
I could convey some aspects visible to the eye to a degree.
But the demonic energy saturating the atmosphere, the inexplicable unpleasant sensations constantly felt,
and the eerie quietness amid the clamor of voices here and there—
expressing all of this perfectly in human language was impossible.
Demons and humans were different.
From one to ten, everything was so.
So I had long since given up on understanding Belphegor’s path through language.
“I understand. That’s why I brought a trick.”
“A trick? What is it…?”
At my smile, Belphegor instinctively flinched, filled with anxiety.
But it was the command to remain still that prevented her from moving, leaving her trembling.
I approached Belphegor and gripped her neck, saying,
“I’m going inside your Inner World.”
“What?!”
Any sentient being contains a world within themselves.
I succeeded in entering my Inner World and was able to enter the god of the Underworld as well.
Later, I also managed to invite Mi Jeong to enter with me.
In terms of my Inner World, I had become quite accustomed.
So how about entering another’s Inner World?
If I could invite others into my Inner World, shouldn’t I be able to be invited into someone else’s as well?
So, how do we do that?
“Sigh, I know about the microcosm, but how would I enter that?”
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
“…?!”
I didn’t even know.
I had no choice but to discover it now.
Boom!
At my gesture, demonic energy oozed from the ground of the Demon World.
As the approaching black mist swirled, Belphegor’s pupils shook violently.
