Chapter 177
Chapter 177
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 176
Chapter Title: Return
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“Those siblings of yours are truly irritating.”
The woman who pierced the demon’s riddle with her wisdom draws a mana rifle from her bosom and fires it straight at the secretary.
Bang!
The gunshot echoes.
The secretary catches the bullet between her middle and index fingers like a pair of tongs, but Deia shouts fiercely.
“That means they were just planning to toy with us all along!”
“Woooaaah!”
The gunshot serves as the signal.
Darius and Tairn, who had already exchanged glances to coordinate their strategy, charge forward simultaneously. Their sole objective is Saintess Lucia, held captive by Magan.
If they are demons, reclaiming the saintess would be enough to sustain the battle.
No matter what, holy power remains the most effective weapon against demons—the power they fear most.
That’s why the archdemon Magan himself briefly moved to take Lucia.
“Huh?”
Magan lets out a chilling laugh toward the two hulking figures rushing at him.
And that was it.
Black arms emerge from the darkness, snatching both men and slamming them into the wall.
Agonized groans escape the mouths of the two warriors. Tairn All Bellocus, one of the Griffin Kingdom’s top forces, and Northsweden’s giant Darius are subdued just like that.
“No way.”
No matter how powerful an archdemon may be. No matter how overwhelmingly superior their strength is compared to humans.
For Magic Judge Tairn All Bellocus to fall without even unleashing his full power?
Something was off.
If they possessed that level of strength from the start, Deus’s self-destruction using Remegaton never would have worked.
Has he grown stronger?
“Keek, keke kekeke kekeke.”
Magan’s eerie laughter spreads through the banquet hall on waves of darkness.
The demon’s laugh that breaks human wills.
A monster who has dominated the continent for centuries, always holding the position of apex predator.
“I surrender.”
Is it the laughter that shatters his will?
Jordia of the Jerman Kingdom finally raises his hands in surrender.
“Let’s have a smoke.”
Even as he declares his willingness to become their puppet, the other Jerman Kingdom envoys cannot voice any complaints.
“We’ve already lost.”
The tide is so decisively against them that Jordia states it with finality.
Rescue from outside may not arrive anytime soon. Or it might not even be underway to begin with.
The Han Empire: annihilated.
Valestan Duchy: their top asset Tom has already defected, and the heir has lost all will to fight, kneeling on the floor and trembling.
With the Jerman Kingdom surrendering as well.
Only the Griffin Kingdom remains.
Yet Tairn and Darius have been perfectly subdued, and Saintess Lucia is in the archdemon’s clutches.
All that’s left is Princess Elenoa, Deia, and Deus Verdi.
The battle is effectively over.
“A sound judgment.”
When the secretary offers a cigar, Jordia lights it without hesitation and puts it in his mouth.
After puffing out smoke a few times.
“So this is the enlightenment you spoke of.”
“Hehe, doesn’t the world look different now?”
A smile appears for the first time on the usually stoic Jordia’s lips.
“Ah, any more left by chance?”
Following the fully turned Jordia, the Jerman Kingdom envoys begin smoking the cigars offered by the secretary one by one.
The sealed chamber is already stuffy, and now thick cigar smoke fills the air.
Through the haze, the archdemon’s gaze turns to Deus.
“Planning to fight again this time?”
“…….”
Deus cannot utter a word.
His body is rigid, his tongue won’t move properly, and his mouth is parched.
“You must already know, right? I’m not the same as the one you met back then.”
Magan chuckles as he tosses Lucia, gripped in his hand, to the floor. The surrounding insects, recognizing their master’s prey, scatter away from her.
“I am the Archdemon of Gluttony, Magan.”
“…….”
“This place is my banquet hall. My feast. A place where I grow stronger than anywhere else.”
Thud!
“Gaaah!”
Another massive hand rises from the darkness, this time seizing Deia.
Her piercing scream echoes through the banquet hall as the demonic grip crushes her fiercely.
Magan’s footsteps slowly approach Deus. At the same time, the massive hands begin moving, dragging the two before him.
Darius and Deia.
Both are unable to escape the grip’s vise, leaking pained groans.
“It’s a choice, Deus.”
“Ah.”
Deus can predict what comes next, so his fists clench tight and his body trembles.
“If you can only save one, who will it be?”
There is no resisting.
Deus lacks the ability to shatter the demon’s ultimatum and forge his own path.
His head bows.
Save his brother or his sister?
An impossible choice lies before him.
“The one you choose will smoke a cigar and live, while the one you discard becomes insect food.”
Hundreds of insects swarm around Magan, chittering eagerly as if demanding it be given to them.
“Ponder it. agonize over it. That’s how it ripens, Deus Verdi.”
“…….”
“Bear your karma. Writhe in the pain of choice. That’s how you complete my feast.”
Your soul, which has comforted countless others, must be a true delicacy.
At Magan’s resonant words, Deus feels a surge of emotion, his head growing hot.
‘Why?’
Why hasn’t it come yet?
‘Kim Shin-woo. What the hell are you doing?’
We’re at this point now.
You need to wake up.
You know I can’t handle this situation.
How long will you keep sleeping?
No, are you even sleeping?
Are you actually awake, watching all this?
If so, then why?
Why?
Why?
Why won’t you wake up?
We had a promise.
To become the proud second son.
In place of deficient, worthless me. In place of the pathetic, foolish addict I was.
You promised to take responsibility and protect everyone.
What I can’t do, you’ve always done.
‘Why won’t you return to my body… Wait?’
Something is wrong.
Only now does Deus Verdi realize it.
My body.
Yes, the original owner of this body.
That’s me.
With the rightful owner standing here so plainly, how could Kim Shin-woo return?
‘Ah, I see.’
In the end, the body belongs to Deus Verdi.
All choices originate from Deus Verdi.
Even Kim Shin-woo, who held a funeral for him, didn’t seize it by force but persuaded and asked him to yield.
“Hahaha! Ponder it! Flail about! Mix your soul with human anguish and despair!”
So what can he do now?
Deus Verdi finally understands clearly.
“Shut up.”
Magan’s expression twists strangely at Deus’s cold retort. It seems gleeful, yet irritated.
But ignoring Magan, Deus pulls a small photo from his bosom and looks down at it.
A photo of Iluania and her child Sevia smiling.
Crunch.
He clutches it tightly, then gazes alternately at Deia and Darius.
Then.
Thud.
He drops to his knees.
“Take me.”
To call Kim Shin-woo, he must vacate the space.
But Deus doesn’t know how to fall asleep again. He awoke by another’s hand, slept by another’s.
This time is no different.
Another.
In other words, he needs to borrow the archdemon’s power.
To empty this body.
Deus Verdi does his utmost to impersonate Kim Shin-woo.
He deceives the archdemon before him.
Deus looks up at Magan with unwavering eyes. It’s the first time.
The first time that demon doesn’t feel the least bit frightening.
The trembling in his body has ceased.
Rising courage heats his entire body.
It’s not Kim Shin-woo.
This is.
Deus Verdi’s final act.
“You idiot, what are you doing?!”
“Don’t say useless things!”
At his declaration of self-sacrifice, Deia and Darius rebuke him amid their pain.
But it only steels Deus’s resolve further.
He, the worthless brother and sibling.
In the end, the last thing he can do.
Just as Kim Shin-woo impersonated him for the family.
Now, Deus Verdi will impersonate Kim Shin-woo for the family.
Eyes filled with unshakeable conviction fly toward Magan.
‘Looks delicious.’
The necromancer’s soul you desired.
‘So tempting.’
What you’ve craved is right before you.
‘You want to eat it.’
Overcoming all burdens and anguish, sacrificing himself for family. Perfectly ripened, just as you wished.
“I am the necromancer.”
So devour me.
“Ah.”
Magan lets out a short sigh as he looks down at Deus, who offered himself instead of choosing Deia or Darius.
Then.
“I can’t hold back!”
He opens his maw wide, sucking in everything around it. Deus’s hair flutters, his clothes flap, but the key point is.
The soul within the flesh is being drawn in.
“I’ll chew on your soul for years, and preserve your body to lick for life.”
Food he can never lose.
The archdemon gourmet’s chosen way to savor Deus eternally.
Thud.
Deus’s body collapses forward. His soul is already being ground between Magan’s teeth on his tongue.
It hurts. Excruciatingly so.
It feels like it could vanish any moment, yet.
His eyes remain fixed on his own body.
“Hmm? The taste…?”
Magan senses something wrong. The soul of Deus, already steeped in pleasure and indulgence, tastes like chewing gum stripped of its sweetness.
“What?”
The moment he wonders what’s happening and inspects the soul he’s chewing.
Thud!
Deus’s left hand—what should be an empty shell—plants on the floor and rises.