Epilogue Chapter 69 - Interlude - Insurance (1)

The putrid garbage dump, where all the trash from the tens of thousands of visitors of the World Cup Park was sent, was filled with plastic garbage bags.

“Fuck!” shouted a man in a ragged robe on a hill of trash. “Useless brat! He wasted the stigmata I granted him!”

He stomped his foot and rubbed his hands like a fly. The man’s red eyes, compounded like a fly, shone as he gritted his teeth. His vision was shared with his Familiar through his thousands of eyes. His Familiar was near a park stream a fair distance from his location, staring at a dead child with his neck broken and another boy looking down at him coldly. It was Jeon Yeoing-Woong and Oh Kang-Hyun.

“Huuu,” the man sighed, quelling his boiling rage and clenching his fists.

‘Since when...?’

He wondered when his perfect plan began to go awry.

“Dammit.”

Everything was going to plan at first. The boy to whom he granted his stigmata acquired information that the Martial God’s daughter would be going on an excursion, hence he planted his Familiars to cause chaos. He failed to cause as much chaos as he liked because Guardians members showed up much faster than expected, but he was sure he would at least be able to acquire the Martial God’s daughter.

“But who the fuck is that boy?!”

Kang-Hyun, the variable Mus had not accounted for, had caused his plan to fail.

“Kurgh.”

Mus, the Celestial of Musca, repeatedly blinked. He had planned to kidnap the Martial God’s daughter and use her to threaten him so that he could take over his body.

‘But it’ll be too late at this rate.’

The Martial God was not at the park yet but it was only a matter of time until he arrived. Since the matter concerned his daughter’s safety, he would drop everything to get there.

‘I have to secure the daughter before he arrives.’

Mus sighed, exhaling through his abnormally protruded mouth.

“I suppose... I have no choice.”

He did not want to use this method since he would consume his Divinity, but there was no other way.

“Sanctuary Expans—”

“Oh, this is where you were hiding,” someone remarked leisurely. “Fucking hell, man. Even if you’re the Celestial of Musca, do you have to hide in a garbage dump?”

“Who... are you?”

“Who else? I’m from Cesco[1] and I’m here to capture a fly.”

“Cesco?”

“Oh, you don’t have to know. It won’t change anything.”

“...”

Mus waved his hand to shoo away the flies around him and glared at Oh Kang-Woo. He did not know who the man was but two things he knew for sure.

‘First, he knows who I am.’

Second, the human was crazy enough to say he would capture him despite knowing who he was.

“Hah,” Mus chuckled.

His annoyance had reached the breaking point after a crazy human was wasting the little time he had left.

“Die, human.”

Mus extended his hand toward Kang-Woo. His palm split open and countless flies poured out of him. The energy of

disease

infused in the flies was on another level compared to the flies Yeong-Woong had summoned. The flies, carrying disease powerful enough to instantly kill any Player in this world, flew toward Kang-Woo.

Fwoosh—!

However, gold and black flames devoured the flies in an instant.

“What the—?!”

Mus’s compound eyes widened in shock. Kang-Woo, who burned millions of flies with just the wave of his hand, leisurely walked toward Mus.

“First, allow me to thank you. You helped my son open his

Door

.”

“Door...?”

“I was planning on teaching him how to open it much later, but... I suppose children grow faster than their parents think. It feels like yesterday he was still crawling.”

Kang-Woo looked up at the sky sentimentally. Mus’s compound eyes gleamed red as he stared at Kang-Woo. He did not know what the human meant by opening a

Door

, but he recalled how the boy with black chains easily subdued Yeong-Woong.

“Was that brat... your son?” Mus asked.

“Yeah. He’s awesome, isn’t he?”

“...”

Mus was filled with a sense of uneasiness. It felt like he was caught in an unfathomably colossal insect net. It did not take him long to figure out where the uneasy feeling came from.

“I see. I fell into your trap.”

Guardians had arrived far earlier than expected as if they had been waiting. An unknown boy had defeated the boy he had chosen, and the parent of the unknown boy appeared as soon as the battle was over. Everything had been an intricately designed trap.

“I’m glad you’re at least intelligent enough to know that,” Kang-Woo remarked.

“How did you know I would show up?” Mus asked.

“Because it was the perfect chance to get your hands on the Martial God’s daughter.”

Kang-Woo knew from when he realized the Celestial’s objective was Kim Si-Hun that he would target Si-Ah first.

“Then you did nothing despite knowing she was my target?”

“It’s hard to catch insects hiding in your home without bait, after all.”

“Hah, the Martial God wouldn’t be happy to hear about this.”

“Hmm, I don’t know about that. Why don’t we ask him?”

“What?”

Swoosh—!

A sword energy wave shot at Mus before he could continue his question.

“Kurgh!”

Mus quickly pivoted to dodge the wave, barely grazing him, and cut the trash heap behind him in half.

“I finally found you, damn fly,” said a man in a deep voice as if forcibly suppressing his volcanic rage.

“Martial God...” said Mus as he noticed Kim Si-Hun’s arrival.

Si-Hun stared daggers at Mus and asked Kang-Woo, “Hyung-nim. You said you would contact me as soon as you found the Celestial.”

“I only just found him, man. I never thought he’d be hiding in a garbage dump.”

“Huuu. We found him, that’s all that matters.”

Si-Hun sighed to alleviate his rage and gripped his sword harder.

“Hah...” Mus chuckled.

The Martial God’s appearance only meant one thing— he had agreed to the plan of using his daughter as bait. He scoffed and glared at Kang-Woo and Si-Hun with disdain.

“Bastards... how could you treat your children like disposables?”

“Uhh... I get what you mean, but it feels odd to hear that coming from you.”

Kang-Woo did not expect to hear such criticism from someone who tried to kidnap their child to threaten them.

“Huuu. Alright, very well,” Mus sighed to calm down.

He now understood why his plan had gone awry.

‘I can’t believe they would use their children to bait me.’

It was his mistake to underestimate the brutality of humans.

“However, there is something you failed to account for,” he added.

“Hm? What is that?”

Muse spread out his arms as he stared at the human asking with shining eyes.

“That I am a Celestial.”

Sanctuary Expansion.

Black Death.

Whoooom!

Dark blue light poured out of Mus. The power of a God that mere humans could never resist took control over the space around him.

“Whoa. You sure know how to pull interesting tricks. That’s a Celestial for you.”

Kang-Woo chuckled and stepped into the area where the earth was rotting after making contact with the dark blue light. Countless diseases flowed into Kang-Woo the moment he stepped foot into the sanctuary.

Measles, pneumonia, and tuberculosis through the lungs, and leprosy, encephalitis, malaria, and the bubonic plague through the skin. Thousands more diseases that would kill any normal human were stuffed into Kang-Woo.

“Hmm. So this is what a sanctuary feels like.”

Kang-Woo clicked his tongue apathetically under the influence of deathly diseases.

“H-How...?”

Mus widened his compound eyes incomprehensibly. The human should have collapsed on the spot after stepping into his sanctuary. He should not be able to make such a relaxed expression. However, the incomprehensible events did not stop there.

“Right, then. Shall I have a taste?”

Wriggle.

Black mucus surged and voraciously devoured the sanctuary.

Crunch, munch!

Mus could feel his sanctuary falling apart and his Divinity getting absorbed into the black mucus.

“A-Aaaahh,” Mus stepped backward in pallor.

‘Th-This is impossible!’

He only knew of one individual who could devour sanctuaries.

“The Demon of Heaven...” Mus muttered as he stared at Kang-Woo. He kneeled without hesitation and bowed to Kang-Woo. “Ahh, Great Heavenly Demon! I sincerely apologize for failing to recognize you!”

“Eh? Heavenly Demon? What are you talking about?”

“Are you not... the Heavenly Demon?”

“No, bro.” Kang-Woo smiled at the trembling Mus and answered, “I’m the Demon King.”

1. Cesco is a pest control service in Korea. ☜