Chapter 496 - Preparations for War (2)

Thud.

Oh Kang-Woo put down the Nectar he had been drinking on the table. Gaia flinched.

“So,” Kang-Woo remarked quietly. “Most of the gods of Olympus won’t be able to participate in the war?”

He glared at Gaia as if he were dissatisfied. Gaia lowered her head as her lips quivered.

“I-I’m sorry. They have yet to recover from Bael’s attack fully, so the majority of the gods won’t be in any condition to fight.”

“...”

Gaia quickly continued as if to appease Kang-Woo, “B-But I will bring with me every single god who can move at least a little.”

“Haaa,” Kang-Woo sighed deeply.

Bael had attacked Olympus while Earth was being invaded by the Parasites. The majority of the gods were thankfully not devoured by Bael, but they were wounded to the point that their Deific Essence was on the verge of being annihilated.

‘Did he plan this as well?’

Kang-Woo thought Bael’s main objective had been to sow the seed of doubt in Gaia’s heart to create discord between her and Kang-Woo, but he couldn’t rule out other possibilities.

‘Or it might have been Amon’s idea.’

Considering all of Bael’s actions until now, everything had been about Kang-Woo; Bael had no interest in anything unrelated to Kang-Woo. Despite that, his plan was being set up very smoothly for the day of the Apocalypse.

‘Amon is coordinating Bael’s madness.’

If not for Amon, the impulsive Bael who did as he liked could never have set up such an intricate plan.

“What a pain.”

Excluding Kang-Woo’s main party members, the gods of Olympus could be considered the most powerful force Kang-Woo had; their incapacitation would deal a massive blow to his plan.

‘Well, it doesn’t seem like she’s lying.’

The gods of Olympus, whom Kang-Woo had seen during his visit to see Gaia, were so injured that they could barely stand.

‘Not even Seol-Ah will be able to heal them.’

Physical injuries could be healed with no problem as long as they were alive, but not even Han Seol-Ah’s healing magic could heal injuries to one’s Deific Essence.

“I have no words.” Gaia sighed and shook her head. She raised her head again after some silence and continued calmly, “But Uranus and I are almost completely fine. If Bael has amassed an army of demons from the Ninth Hell, we and the Protectors will be more than enough to stop them, wouldn’t you say?”

She was treating the demons of the Ninth Hell as if they were monsters from a low-ranking Gate.

“That's true,” Kang-Woo remarked.

It was understandable, considering the current extent of the Ninth Hell’s forces.

‘Demons from the Ninth Hell barely feel like a threat at this point.’

Every prince of Hell, the former rulers of the Ninth Hell, was dead except for Bael, and the Demon King, the pinnacle of all demons, was none other than Kang-Woo. In other words, the Ninth Hell without the Demon King and the seven princes of Hell was but a gathering of average demons. And most importantly...

“How many demons from the Ninth Hell can even penetrate the Deific Essence barrier?”

No demon had possessed Deific Essence back when Kang-Woo used to rule over Hell as its king. To put it simply, people with Deific Essence like Kim Si-Hun, Gaia, and Cha Yeon-Joo would easily be able to massacre the demons.

‘But...’

Kang-Woo shook his head with deeply sunken eyes.

“Do you think they didn’t think of that?” he stated.

“That’s...”

“Bael was the one who freed the gods from their leash. Would he have done such a thing without realizing they would get in his way?”

Although Bael was a demented son of a bitch, Gaia was underestimating him far too much.

“He has the Demon God’s heart and the privilege to manipulate the Law of Titans. There’s no way he would plan an attack with no countermeasure for those with Deific Essence.”

Gaia remained silent, being bombarded by irrefutable facts. “I didn’t think it through enough.”

“Tsk,” Kang-Woo clicked his tongue and stood up. “I got it for now. Gather as many gods as you can and manifest on Earth before the date I told you. They don’t need to be from Olympus; just get as many as possible.”

“I got it.” Gaia nodded. Just as Kang-Woo turned around, she grabbed his clothes. “Umm...”

“What?”

“Thank you.”

“Heh. What brings the sudden change of heart? You were going off not long ago about me being the Demon of Prophecy who will end the world.”

“A-Ahem. Forget that.” Gaia coughed, her cheeks slightly flushed. She looked up at Kang-Woo and continued, “To be honest, I am still scared. I’m worried that the Demonic Sea laying dormant inside you will devour you and end the world.”

“But,” Gaia said as she stared at Kang-Woo firmly. “I’ve decided to trust you, no matter what end awaits me.”

Gaia clenched the fist of her other hand, which was on her knee.

“I see.”

Kang-Woo smiled and shook his hand. He never expected Gaia to say that she trusted him ever again after revealing his true identity to her and giving her no choice but to trust him.

‘It’s not a bad feeling.’

Kang-Woo shrugged as he turned around and left Olympus.

***

‘Now, then.’

Kang-Woo narrowed his eyes after returning to the Hall of Protection. He had just finished his business with Olympus but there was no time to rest. He took out his smartphone and opened a web portal with a green background[1] to check the trending searches.

[Live Trending Keywords]

1. Martial Law

2. Seoul Martial Law

3. Martial Law meaning

4. Seoul house price

“Yeah, house prices sure are fucking important.”

Kang-Woo chuckled. As he had expected, chaos had befallen Korea once martial law had been declared.

‘Yeah, it would be weirder if everything was normal after martial law was declared and people were told to move to another world.’

It would be crazy behavior if people just packed their bags and left for Aernor without question. Kang-Woo opened the news category and read through the comments.

[News Feed]

Chamber: The hell? Martial law out of nowhere...?

tokki: What the hell’s this nation come to?!

Namu: Could it be related to the insect invasion in Seoul last time?

Jing S: But fr, are they even allowed to kick out every citizen in Seoul this suddenly?

Cyncoco: Isekai, here I come!! Lezgoooooo!! My time has finally come!!

Penguin the GOAT: Holy shit, there’s a martial law opposition rally at Gwanghwamun right now.

Cosy: LMAO everyone, gather at Gwanghwamun if you don’t wanna be chased out to another world.

‘A rally, huh?’

As Kang-Woo had expected, panic had reached its peak.

“But this...”

He had already thought of a peaceful countermeasure that would turn the chaos into trust.

Brrrrr.

Kang-Woo called someone.

- What do you want?

An irritated voice sounded from the other side of the phone.

- I’m already busy as hell, so I’m gonna hang up if it’s not impor—

“Yeon-Joo.”

- ... What?

“I miss you.”

- Pfft!

Cough! Cough!

Wh-What?

“I want to see you right now.”

- Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-What’s wrong with you all of a sudden?! Y-You know we’re gonna be drowning in work for the next month!

“That’s exactly why.”

- Wh-What?

“We... only have a month left, Yeon-Joo.”

- S-So what?

“Now’s the only time we have... to say the things we haven’t been able to say to each other.”

- ...

“This might be... our only chance.”

- U-Urghhh.

“...”

- ...Where are you?

The voice across the phone sounded slightly elated.

Kang-Woo answered, “Come to the roof of our apartment.”

- N-Ngh. I-I’ll be there in a bit, so wait for me there.

Before hanging up, Kang-Woo heard stomping sounds and Yeon-Joo screaming,

‘Kyaaaahh! What do I do?!’

.

“Alright.”

Kang-Woo made Yeon-Joo something to give her after he hung up. He already had a rough idea of it so it did not take long to make.

Creak.

After about two hours of waiting on the rooftop, Yeon-Joo finally appeared as she opened the door to the roof.

“S-Sorry for making you wait so long,” she said as she swept back her red hair with a yellow hairpin on it.

She had gone all out on her attire instead of her usual jeans and a white T-shirt. She was wearing a white blouse and a checkered skirt. She was wearing low patent leather heels and even some expensive-looking accessories. She was already a knockout beauty in regular attire, but she looked even more radiant now.

“S-So, what did you want to say to me?” Yeon-Joo asked as she twirled the ends of her hair around her finger for no reason.

“I wanted to ask you a favor.”

Kang-Woo smiled and handed her something. Yeon-Joo expressed slight disappointment.

“What is it?”

“A speech.”

“A speech?” Yeon-Joo frowned.

Kang-Woo turned on the live stream of the martial law opposition rally and said, I’d like you to put an end to this rally as the leader of the Church of Splendor.”

“...”

Yeon-Joo read through the speech that Kang-Woo handed her in silence. In it were things about how everything was according to what the God of Splendor had prophesied, and that they needed to go to Aernor before an even bigger disaster struck. Yeon-Joo turned red after reading further into the speech.

“I-I’m not fucking doing this! Wh-What the fuck?!”

It was not just about reciting the speech; Yeon-Joo would need to put on a tearjerking performance and preach

Ohmen

in front of hundreds of thousands of people. It was impossible to do for anyone with a sense of shame, especially for the relatively shy Yeon-Joo.

“Never! I’ll neeeeeeeeeeever do it!! Over my dead body!!” she shouted madly.

Snap!

Just then, Kang-Woo took a photo of Yeon-Joo.

𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

“What did you just do?”

Yeon-Joo flinched and stared at Kang-Woo.

“If you don’t do it...” Kang-Woo smiled brightly. He opened the messenger app, selected a photo, and hovered his thumb over the

send

button. “I’ll send this photo of you I just took... to Seol-Ah. I wonder how she’ll react?”

“KYAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!” Yeon-Joo screamed.

She looked down at her clothes in pallor. Unlike her usual clothes, her attire oozed with the desire to look pretty for someone, and the same could be said for her makeup and hairstyle. If Seol-Ah were to see this...

“Y-You...” Yeon-Joo’s shoulders trembled. “YOU MOTHERFUCKEEEEEEEEEEERRRRR!!”

She grabbed Kang-Woo by his hair and smashed her knee into his face. Her attack penetrated his Deific Essence barrier and caved his face in. Blood poured out of Kang-Woo’s nose.

‘Uhh, mm.’

Kang-Woo fell into thought as he was getting his ass beaten by a crazed lioness.

‘Man, it’s actually hurting my conscience this time.’

He knew that he had taken advantage of her feelings far too much this time.

‘Yeon-Joo, oh Yeon-Joo. Forgive me just this once. I’ll be super, super good to you once this is all over. I’ll carry you to Gold.’

1. This is referring to Naver, Korea’s first web portal. ☜