Situation Terminated. Good Work, Everyone.
The magic train passed through Count Cayenne's territory and detoured through Count Elzaven's domain—a fake destination the crown prince, Mihail Raymond, had added to throw off the Tugwi Guard. Greed, who had spent the entire journey sleeping, finally stirred as they arrived. He checked his smartphone, stretched with a yawn, and loosened his stiff limbs.
"Work's all done. How about we grab a meal to celebrate? You could buy us drinks as a thank-you."
"……."
How shameless could one person be? All he'd done was sleep like a log, yet he had the nerve to ask for a reward. Mihail shook his head.
"I'm afraid that's impossible. There's still work piled up, so I need to return to the palace as soon as possible."
"Tsk. That's a shame."
Greed clicked his tongue in open disappointment, then turned away without the slightest hesitation, as if he had no further business with them.
"Well then, this uncle's off."
He didn't suggest they meet again. Given their relationship, never crossing paths for the rest of their lives would be far more beneficial. With his hands in his pockets, Greed strolled away in a lazy gait. Mihail watched through the train window as the man disembarked and walked off—only to bump into someone and get grabbed by the collar, smiling sheepishly while bowing his head repeatedly.
"He really was a strange fellow."
Mihail shook his head as he observed the scene. Every superhuman he'd met until now possessed a distinct aura—the unmistakable presence of those who had reached the pinnacle of humanity by mastering a discipline. Yet Greed had none of that.
"That must be due to the customs of the underworld."
They say the position shapes the person. Most superhumans held high ranks within their own nations, and their demeanor reflected the atmosphere of their homeland—specifically, the personality of its absolute ruler. Just as the superhumans of the Elemental Kingdom tended to be workaholics like the Majoan, or those of the Fan Empire were battle-crazed and obsessed with proving their strength like Tugwi. The underworld's free-spirited openness, where people laid bare their true thoughts without pretense, likely stemmed from the Death King's own nature. Despite the major incidents he'd orchestrated, he rarely flaunted his authority in proportion to his position. It was no wonder conspiracy theories still circulated questioning whether the Death King truly existed.
"But he is undoubtedly a superhuman."
For ability users, the difference between star ranks became increasingly stark the higher one climbed. A 1-star mage might lose to an ordinary person who trained hard, and a 4-star martial artist could occasionally be defeated by a 3-star. But such upsets rarely happened at 5-star or above—except in extraordinary cases like Kain's Ebon awakening or the Masao family incident. Superhumans were beings so extraordinary they could have replaced the current rulers before the Absolute Beings appeared. In short, even a swarm of 7-star ability users couldn't defeat a single 8-star superhuman. If an Absolute Being could fight the world itself, a superhuman was strong enough to single-handedly annihilate a city and battle an entire nation. Completing the stars within one's body meant exactly that.
"He looked like he was sleeping, but his mind was fully awake the whole time."
The vast sensory field enveloping the entire radius beyond the train was the domain of martial arts. The spells carved into the train's undercarriage to reinforce its structure against unforeseen threats belonged to magic. The invisible spirits patrolling around the train like guards were the work of spirit arts. Lucian Filodein couldn't even begin to fathom how many disciplines Greed had been handling simultaneously—a level of multitasking so monstrous it left him inwardly stunned.
"One thing's certain: I could never have broken through this train."
"Is that so."
People only see as much as they know. Startled by Lucian's words, Mihail looked at Greed—who was still being shaken by the collar—with newfound eyes.
"I shouldn't have refused if I'd known it would be this hard."
He'd never imagined Greed had worked so diligently. He'd truly thought the man had only slept.
"No, you made the right choice. As he said, getting even slightly involved with the underworld is never a good thing."
The underworld was a world best avoided at all costs. If he became king someday, some entanglement would be inevitable, but as crown prince, Lucian sincerely hoped he would never cross paths with it again.
"That said…"
Eventually, the man who had been slapped by Greed stormed off, still fuming. A woman who appeared to be his girlfriend quickly latched onto him. Unlike Lucian, who had benefited from knowledge being power, this man had suffered from ignorance being a weakness. If he'd known he'd struck one of the Seven Deadly Sins, he never would have mustered such courage.
'The nation saved you.'
They didn't harm ordinary people. Without that promise, there might have been a corpse lying in the middle of the station today.
"Should we just stay seated like this?"
The train's route would pass through Elzaven County and head straight to the capital, Raymond. They'd boarded to deceive the Tugwi Guard, but with the threat gone, continuing directly to the capital shouldn't be a problem. After a brief rest, Mihail gazed out the window as the train prepared to depart again, a faint smile on his lips.
"It's been a while since I've seen Marily."
He hoped she'd like the gift. With that peaceful thought, Mihail quietly closed his eyes to relieve the accumulated mental fatigue.
Near the major city of Corky in Elzaven County, at the foot of a sparsely populated mountain. Greed let out a deep sigh as he entered an artificially carved cave in the steep, cliff-like mountain range.
"Whew, this is brutal. Absolutely brutal."
How long had it been since he'd last climbed a mountain? He exaggerated his complaints as if someone might be listening, wiping his sweatless forehead with his sleeve.
"You're here?"
A deep voice greeted him from inside the cave. It wasn't like they were children of darkness or anything. Even if darkness didn't obstruct their vision, not lighting a single lamp was beyond comprehension. Even Greed, who hated spending money, wouldn't skimp on electricity bills with fluorescent lights.
Click.
When he snapped his fingers, light illuminated the cave's interior. Spheres of light formed by condensing visible rays from outside floated in the air, stretching along both walls and brightly lighting the entire space.
"Where's Pride?"
Instead of answering, Wrath pointed deeper into the cave with his finger.
"As expected, he got here first. He's always so quick to act. Seriously."
Flashing here and there, Pride was always present wherever he could be of help to the master, as if using clones. Thinking this, Greed trudged in the direction Wrath indicated. Soon, a thick metallic scent of blood hit him, and a spectacle of bright red painted across the cave walls came into view. Lined up beneath it were people dressed in attire that felt somewhat alien to the Elemental Kingdom. Their bodies were fixed with large nails to prevent them from collapsing, their skulls opened to expose their brains, blood and cerebrospinal fluid dripping down. The sight was so grotesque it was almost miraculous they were still alive.
"You're here."
A low voice called out to Greed as he stared at them. Pride, drenched in blood, turned to him with his usual expressionless face.
"Still as grotesque as ever, your information-gathering method."
The theory was simple: openly manipulating the brain to forcibly extract the information recorded within. No matter how strong the restrictions placed on the soul, the moment the soul permeated the body, those memories were stored in the brain. Curses seeped into various parts of the brain like puzzle pieces. By carving out the brain, they forcibly tore them away and selectively extracted only the remaining memories. There was no need to undo the restrictions on abilities granted by an Absolute Being. With this method, even Pride could extract information from them intact. Of course, it required living subjects whose souls hadn't yet escaped and whose restrictions and memories hadn't been completely removed.
'Crazy bastard.'
Jealousy was the same, and even the master himself. Greed personally believed there were no normal people in the underworld, but Pride was in a league of his own—a true fanatic. Even among underworld members, peeling off a living person's skull was something few could attempt. And to do it efficiently using an Inner World manifestation? Pride, the first of the Seven Deadly Sins to follow the master, was a zealot among zealots who would do anything for him. Despite being an Ebon user who had reached superhuman level, he had followed the master's path and raised his dark magic to 8-star as well.
"So, did you find anything out?"
"Foolish question. Of course. Unlike you lot, I don't make a single mistake."
Pride arrogantly raised his chin as he answered, true to his name. Greed gave an awkward laugh and glanced behind him.
'Ah, right. So Wrath must've made some kind of mistake again?'
He turned back to Pride.
"As expected of 7-star. Their memories were more intact than I thought?"
"That too, but Jealousy's contribution was unexpectedly significant. The dark mage he captured remembered quite a lot."
"That's surprising. Didn't you say he was 5-star?"
"He's a dark mage, after all."
"Fair enough."
Among the five ability users, dark mages were undoubtedly the closest to death. Their post-mortem memories were relatively more intact compared to the others.
"The enemy's name is the Undying King. His real name is unknown. And it seems there's an organization called the Immortals that follows them."
And one of them was the very dark mage who had caused the Dark Wave in Raideli Marquisate in the past and attempted to steal the master's body. Given the timing, the opening of the underworld's entrance had occurred earlier than predicted, meaning there were those in the living world—besides the dead—who had moved to resurrect him. In other words, the hole in the underworld was the result of a joint operation between both realms.
"And as expected, the Tugwi Guard had formed an indirect alliance with them. The one who led that alliance was none other than Eun Ma-hyun."
"Eun Ma-hyun, huh……"
Eun Ma-hyun. One of the 8-star superhumans representing the Tugwi Guard. And the very man who had served as bait in this incident to deceive the underworld's eyes.
"So to get more detailed information, we'll have to capture him."
"But didn't the master tell us not to move any further since he'd look into it himself?"
"We should at least figure out his location. He seems to be in direct communication with the Immortals or whatever they're called."
That was as far as they'd gotten from the memories. But the most important achievement from capturing them was something else.
"I think we can pinpoint the passage to the underworld."
Pride wiped the blood from his face and hands with a handkerchief from his pocket, then walked past Greed toward the cave exit.
"We don't need these anymore. Dispose of them as you see fit."
Dispose of them? With their brains completely exposed, they couldn't even be used as slaves. Well, at least their organs could still be sold. The organs of expert-level martial artists were literally worth a fortune. And if they were 7-star, there was no need to say more.
"Lululu~ From head to toe, everything about you is lovely~"
After Pride and Wrath left, Greed remained alone. Humming a tune while gripping a knife, he looked at those who had yet to regain consciousness and began harvesting everything of value from their bodies like livestock being butchered.