The Song of Destruction

The moment I arrived in Living Hell, the notification windows popped up.

Living Hell had climbed to Stage 2. The rank was still low, which probably explained why the advancement had come so absurdly fast.

Packing this place full of prisoners really paid off.

I looked over the available traits. Unlike last time, I could choose one of two options.

Decay or Parasite.

The deliberation was short.

With Decay, the body rotted from the outside in — which meant the prisoners would look absolutely disgusting. Parasites, on the other hand, lived inside the body. From the outside, the prisoners would still look fine.

"David."

"Yes."

David, the warden of this hell, bowed his head with perfect deference. I handed him a hundred and twenty-seven new prisoners.

"These are the ones who dared raise a hand against me. Focus on tormenting them for a while. And this bastard here — interrogate him with special care. Dig out every scrap of information he knows."

"Leave it to me. I'll extract whatever he has."

David spoke with confident assurance. His unique trait let him detect lies in a target — the ideal ability for wringing out information.

"Barun. I'm looking forward to seeing how long you last in this Living Hell."

"I will never open my mouth! Heavenly Demon, your end is coming! Karok will drive a blade through your heart!"

Barun screamed at the top of his lungs.

I snorted and kicked him square in the face.

And one hour later.

Barun's attitude had completely changed. The arrogance was gone from his face, replaced by pure terror, and there was no trace of that stiff defiance left. He knelt before me with his forehead pressed to the ground.

"I'll do anything — anything! Please, just get me out of here. I beg you…!"

I crushed Barun's head under my foot. Irritation made me put more force into it than I meant to. His skull shattered. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠But then, as if time itself rewound, the fragments of his broken head gathered back together and began to regenerate. It took less than five seconds for the shattered skull to fully restore itself. That was the effect of Living Hell. The prisoners here could not die, no matter what was done to them.

"If you'd been this cooperative from the start, it would've been easier for both of us."

"Y-you can kill me if you want. Just please get me out of here."

"I can kill you? You still haven't figured out your place."

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! It was my fault! Please get me out of here!"

"You son of a bitch. You should've behaved when I was still offering mercy."

I worked off my anger by kicking Barun to death a few more times, then turned my head toward David.

"Did you get all the information?"

"There wasn't enough time to extract everything. But I did pull the information on the rebel named Karok."

"You're certain?"

"Yes. I verified it three additional times."

"Tell me."

David summarized what he'd extracted, trimming it down ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠so I could grasp it easily. As expected, David was a fairly competent bastard.

"Tsk. So a cult was behind the rebels. I never thought those bastards would stretch their hands all the way out to this barren west…"

The silver lining was that the cult hadn't started moving in earnest yet.

They probably planned to quietly dig in after I took control of Reltia, then slowly convert people from the bottom up.

The cult was a fanatical religious group.

They believed that when a new world emerged from the deep ocean, every existing world would be destroyed and vanish. They conducted their religious activities in the hope of becoming citizens of that new world.

They called themselves the Deep Sea Star Cult, and they referred to the new world as "R'lyeh."

Annoying bastards.

I clicked my tongue.

I needed to deal with the rebels before I got tangled any deeper with the cult.

To purge the rebels, I led the Demon Wind Corps of the Heavenly Demon Cult out of the city. We numbered fewer than five hundred — but I was among those five hundred.

I rode Heokrang at the head of the column.

A wolf with pitch-black fur.

Originally a desert wolf with brown coat, she had transformed into this magnificent black after learning the Demon Wind Divine Art. Her frame was far larger than an ordinary desert wolf's. And of course, she was female.

"Let's go, Heokrang!"

"Grrraaagh!"

The black wolf tore across the desert.

Two hours later, we arrived at the destination. It was closer to Reltia than I'd expected.

Enas stood beside me, staring straight ahead with an expression of pure disbelief.

"I never imagined their stronghold would be this close. They were using a barrier to hide the village."

"The cult helped them, so this much isn't particularly surprising. The village looks busy."

"They've noticed us and are preparing for battle."

"Well, we came charging in plain sight. Of course they noticed."

Enas's face hardened as she surveyed the rebel village. More rebels were pouring up from underground as well.

"…There are far too many of them. At a glance, it looks like twenty thousand. Half of them aren't even desert folk."

"Not content with gathering warriors from scattered desert tribes, they even hired outside mercenaries."

"Heavenly Demon. Let us withdraw to Reltia for now and gather our forces."

"No need. I'll handle these bastards myself. All of you, fall back."

If the numbers had been reasonable, I would have led the Demon Wind Corps into the fight. But twenty thousand was far too many. Even the Demon Wind Corps couldn't handle a forty-to-one disparity.

I pulled a Random Magic Scroll from my inventory.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Honestly, I had no idea what magic would come out. But my Luck stat was high.

It's the Luck of the Atlantis world, so I don't know if it'll even apply to a Random Magic Scroll. Well, even if it doesn't, I've still got Heavenly Fortune.

Heavenly Fortune.

A skill that could manipulate probability.

With this, I should be able to pull the best possible magic at will.

Activate Heavenly Fortune.

"Fuck."

Since the Random Magic Scroll was an item from the Amusement Life App, Heavenly Fortune didn't work on it.

The plan had gone sideways from the very first step. Even so, I didn't put the scroll back in my inventory. I was curious what kind of magic a Random Magic Scroll could produce. Three thousand points — that was an absurdly high price just to cast a single spell.

This might show up again in a random gacha pull later. I should at least test how it works once.

The rebels cried out in shock at my sudden appearance and scrambled for their weapons.

Riiip!

The scroll tore.

"What?"

I stared at the Amusement App notification window — visible only to me — and my eyes flew wide. A cold dread crawled up my spine. Reflexively, I lifted my head. Superhuman vision locked onto a point in the sky. Far in the distance, a blue light was streaking toward us.

My instincts screamed that the meteor's destination was right here. Danger. I needed to run. But would getting away from this spot even be safe? A meteor of that size was about to hit this place.

"Ah — no. I didn't know it would turn out like this either."

I flinched despite myself.

Is it going to sanction me? No — if it could impose sanctions, it would have done so long ago. The System doesn't know about my abilities. That's why it can't casually slap me with penalties.

Danger sharpened my thinking to a razor edge.

I had torn the scroll. And now a giant meteor was flying this way. The critical point was that summoning the giant meteor wasn't my power — it was the scroll's.

If I were the System… I'd suspect the Divine Thrones. I'd assume someone slipped me a dangerous scroll behind the System's back.

Without knowing about the Amusement Life App, that was the rational conclusion.

I looked up at the sky and my mouth fell open.

I could see the meteor shrinking. The meteor became a meteorite and plummeted toward the ground.

I held on as long as I could, but I couldn't withstand the meteorite's destructive force. Of course I couldn't — it landed squarely on top of my head.

My vision went black.

Revived, I looked around. The enemies who had surrounded me and the entire village had been swept away without leaving so much as a single foundation stone. I stood at the center of a massive crater, and the surrounding sand was scorching hot. Some of it had melted into lava.

"Gaaaaaagh!"

Two men burst out of the burning sand. They were in terrible shape. One held a sword; the other wore black clerical robes.

"That description… so you're Karok."

"Heavenly Demon…! You bastard…!! Using such a cowardly trick…!!!"

"A rebel dares lecture me on cowardice. How absurd."

I looked at the man beside Karok. Probably a cultist. Some kind of power had let him survive the meteorite, but the way he was coughing up blood in gouts suggested he wouldn't last much longer.

"Oh… ohhh…. The abyss…. The abyss calls to me…. R'lyeh… Ph'nglui…."

The cultist left those words behind and died. A hollow end for someone who looked to be at least bishop-rank.

"Damn it!"

Karok spun around. He started fleeing into the distance.

"Where do you think you're going? You die here too."

Killing a man whose energy was already spent was no difficult task.

"……"

I kept my mouth shut. I had no idea how the System would react if it learned about the Amusement Life App. In situations like this, silence was the comfortable choice.

It's going to cling to me for a while. The rebels are dealt with, though… time to head back to reality.