Chapter 365: Star, Nammu (6)

The Emperor’s Seat quickly retreated backward. Fortunately, he was not in shackles, so he could use a little bit of his divine power. The problem was that using it was difficult, as he had spent a long time in prison. The same way muscles atrophied with disuse, the ability to use divine power declined if it was not exercised regularly.

More importantly, Richardus had grown abnormally powerful after eating Sangwon and the other Bloodless Hell prisoners. As a result, even the brief moment in which the Emperor’s Seat was unable to use his divine power properly turned into a golden opportunity for him.

“I see…”

Paah!

“…that you’ve gotten very weak,” Richardus said as he instantly appeared in front of the Emperor’s Seat, reaching for his head.

Paaaah.

A pool of bloody red light spread out from the center of Richardus’ palm as he prepared to rip the Emperor’s Seat to pieces.

“…!” The memory of the day he had been defeated by Richardus and lost his seat of ‘Tian Shi Yuan’ crossed the mind of the Emperor’s Seat, and he shut his eyes tightly. It was evident that his resistance would be futile; if this was his destined end, he decided to accept it.

After all, to the Emperor’s Seat, Richardus was still his dear son. His son was airing a grievance, so he did not want to dismiss it. His main lingering regret was that he had failed to notice how serious the problem was before Richardus burst into anger. There was one more, however, which was that he had wanted to cook a meal for Chang-Sun.

Moments before Richardus grabbed the head of the Emperor’s Seat…

Swoosh!

Whirl, clang―!

…Richardus suddenly turned to one side and unleashed a knife-hand strike. His hand collided with something strong and bounced away.

“I heard that you were the Evil Celestial who made ‘Tian Shi Yuan’ plummet, and most things really don’t work on you,” Jingwang remarked as he appeared, looking at Richardus with narrowed eyes. Despite his calm tone, he did not stop his menacing attacks. His [Northshade Sword] flashed, unleashing a raging storm with each strike.

“Although I don’t know how you got out, you should have run away immediately. Who do you think you are, to show up in this place? I’ll break your limbs and shove you in the deepest place of the Bloodless Hell so you won't be able to crawl out next time,” Chogang said as he also appeared, drawing forth Hellfire to corner Richardus

As soon as they had heard about the breakout in the Bloodless Hell, the two had headed toward the King of the Underworld’s Palace. That was when they had coincidentally detected Richardus’ murderous energy.

Jingwang and Chogang were the two new Purgatory Kings, and rumor had it that they were Thanatos’ closest allies. Both Purgatory Kings were very skilled, living up to their reputation.

Boom, boom, boom―!

Nevertheless, Richardus was fighting on equal footing against the two Purgatory Kings—no, he was winning little by little. The longer the fight continued, the stronger he became. Although he had exercised Celestial Cannibalism, he had not completely digested the prisoners, but those fragments were slowly synchronizing with him over time, turning his energy sharper and more menacing.

“What… made… you…?!” The Emperor’s Seat wished to ask his son what in the world was driving him so desperately. What ailed his son enough to make Richardus resort to such a forbidden ritual?

However, the Emperor’s Seat could not continue thinking, as he was quickly weakening. When he looked down, he saw a large hole in his left chest; Richardus had managed to change the course of his attack and rip out his heart right before Jingwang’s ambush.

A Celestial’s heart was the engine of their divine power. As Richardus had taken his entire heart, it seemed as though the Emperor’s Seat had little chance of survival. The Emperor’s Seat could not keep his eyes open and sank down to the ground, feeling as if he were sinking into invisible darkness.

“…I’ve seen all kinds of shitty family drama before. I always thought I was one of those douchebags myself, but there’s still a worse son of a bitch than me, huh?” a voice suddenly remarked.

The Emperor’s Seat realized that someone had caught him from behind, keeping him from collapsing on the ground. The person’s voice was low, but it was cold, unlike Chogang’s.

“Thj… alfi?” the Emperor’s Seat groaned, forcing himself to open his eyes. When his eyes regained focus, he could see the person in front of him smiling. Some time in the past… The Emperor’s Seat had met that person a very long time ago.

“Oh, so you are conscious enough to recognize me. Wow, I miss that name.”

Of course the Emperor’s Seat recognized Thjalfi. As Thjalfi[1] was the last great warrior of the extinct , the Emperor’s Seat had fought against him quite a lot. From what the Emperor’s Seat heard, Thjalfi had fought against Bergelmir of and chopped his leader’s head off with an ax in a fit of anger. The incident had expedited the of the , so Thjalfi had been held accountable and put through a Divine Trial… So why was he here?

“But I would prefer to be called Songjae now. I was just crowned as a king. Ahem!” Thjalfi said pompously.

Thjalfi, whom Chang-Sun called Fifth Elder, was now the Songjae Purgatory King.

[Songjae]

The Third Purgatory King reigns over the Freezing Hell. He traps prisoners in a valley of ice where bone-chilling wind rages, bringing prisoners the pain of their flesh freezing.

The Emperor’s Seat calculated the increase in the power of the that would occur if Thanatos was appointing the old prisoners as Purgatory Kings, and quickly realized Thanatos’ intention.

‘War… The King of the Underworld is preparing for a very big war,’ the Emperor’s Seat deduced.

And Chang-Sun was going to be right by Thanatos’ side.

‘It’s disappointing that I won’t be able to see it with my own eyes,’ the Emperor’s Seat thought as he slowly let out his final breath, losing consciousness.

“That’s why I can save you, too. It’s fortunate, since Twilight won’t hate me… Anyway, don’t worry too much and rest up,” Songjae said.

The Emperor’s Seat did not understand what Songjae meant. The last thought that crossed his mind was that he was feeling very cold for some reason.

Crackle!

* * *

Chang-Sun quietly took his hand off the bead and closed his eyes, contemplating things silently for a long time. A teardrop rolled off his cheek; Yool looked away, pretending not to have seen it.

The recording device did not only store a recollection of events; it also contained all the thoughts and feelings that the Emperor’s Seat had at the time. That was because the recording was based on all the information that had been extracted from his mind.

As such, Chang-Sun had been able to directly feel how the Emperor’s Seat thought of him, and all those emotions weighed heavily on his heart like boulders. All the moments in which he had been harsh to the Emperor’s Seat flashed through Chang-Sun’s mind.

One silver lining… was that the Emperor’s Seat had not been completely annihilated. At the last moment, Songjae had trapped the Emperor’s Seat in ice, pausing the annihilation process. Still, it was not a permanent solution. The ice needed to be regularly replenished with elemental energy to stop it from melting; otherwise, the Emperor’s Seat would soon be annihilated. Chang-Sun had to find a way to help the Emperor’s Seat regain his life force.

After a long time, Chang-Sun opened his eyes again. Yool was startled, because the faint will-o-wisps in Chang-Sun’s eyes were simply too terrifying.

“Where is… Fa… ther now?” Chang-Sun slowly asked. He had never thought he would call the Emperor’s Seat that again after so many hundreds of years, and it was extremely difficult to say the word.

“He was immediately transferred to the King of the Underworld’s palace after the incident,” Yool said.

“Is there any way to treat him? Should I drag Richardus’ ass back?” Chang-Sun asked.

Yool shook his head and said, “Byeonseong… Ah, I’m talking about Sixth Elder. Anyway, based on his diagnosis, if the perpetrator used the heart to perform Celestial Cannibalism again, he must have digested it by now, so it won’t be much help.”

The Byeonseong King was the Sixth Purgatory King; it seemed that Antoine, otherwise known as Sixth Elder, had taken the seat. Thanatos had to have taken the chance to appoint all the Ten Elders as the Ten Purgatory Kings.

“So is there a way?” Chang-Sun asked again.

“Byeonseong says that the Emperor’s Seat would need a divine power engine that could replace his heart,” Yool explained.

“How can something like that be made?” Chang-Sun asked.

“…Since he needs to analyze the of the Emperor’s Seat, he’ll need a lot of time, but he said that most ingredients wouldn’t cut it due to the high Divine Class of the Emperor’s Seat,” Yool explained cautiously.

“It doesn’t matter what’s needed. Just get me a list. I’ll get a Dragon’s heart if necessary,” Chang-Sun said.

Chang-Sun genuinely looked as if he would wreak havoc on other if that was what it took; Yool nervously swallowed down his saliva.

‘Seriously… He changes day by day,’ Yool thought.

It seemed that those tendencies had only grown stronger after Chang-Sun became a , so Yool could only bow as he answered, “I understand. I’ll deliver the message to the King of the Underworld.”

Not paying attention to Yool, Chang-Sun’s eyes remained glued to the bead.

* * *

Chang-Sun went to Tiamat right away.

“There’s one more organization you want in the Alliance?” Tiamat asked.

She had been having a strategic meeting with Pabilsag, her other children, and the executives about the large-scale air raid that they were going to launch. The sight of a young girl asking a question while lowering glasses that were as big as her face was undoubtedly cute, but the sharpness in her eyes was outstanding.

“That’s right,” Chang-Sun replied.

“Why do you want to do that now?” Tiamat asked as she tilted her head, not understanding Chang-Sun’s reasons.

had already lost most of their executives, so , , and could take the on their own. Nevertheless, was keeping the discordant Alliance together by force to solidify the hegemony of after the war.

If a new organization got involved, the Alliance would have to divide the spoils for no good reason, so the other would not necessarily like the news. It could be different if Chang-Sun were talking about bringing in a new organization to go up against later, but the Alliance had no reason to take on a new participant.

Nevertheless, Chang-Sun had insisted strongly, so Tiamat had stopped the meeting and ordered the others to exit the room. No matter what anyone else said, Chang-Sun was her most trustworthy and reliable partner.

“The Alliance can’t be trusted,” Chang-Sun began.

“…You’d better explain yourself properly, because I’d never tolerate mockery even from you,” Tiamat said, her eyes turning into her dragon eyes.

Although she looked menacing, as if she could bite off Chang-Sun’s head at any moment, Chang-Sun casually answered, “Have you heard how the mysterious group infiltrated the ?”

“No, Reaper Yool didn’t tell me, saying that it was too shameful,” Tiamat replied.

“Those three dead Purgatory Kings opened the gate,” Chang-Sun said.

“…!” Tiamat’s expression darkened.

Among all the and places in the world, the was known to be the most closed , but three of their highest executives, who oversaw the hells, had been spies! That meant…

“Can you say with confidence that there are no spies in or the Alliance>? If so, I’ll take back my words,” Chang-Sun said with a nod.

Tiamat remained silent. Even though she wanted to say that no spies existed in , she could not; the succession struggle she had contributed to could have created any number of unexpected variables. The Alliance would be even worse, since each member had different interests.

“…Then, can you count on this organization you want to bring in, Twilight?” Tiamat asked after a while.

“Yes, I can.” Chang-Sun said, nodding confidently.

“How so?” Tiamat asked.

“They can’t betray us because of their background,” Chang-Sun said simply.

Not understanding what Chang-Sun meant, Tiamat tilted her head in confusion. She asked, “Background? Which organization is it?”

Without answering right away, Chang-Sun took a deep breath; he actually also had many concerns about bringing this organization into the alliance, but it was necessary to fulfill the wishes of the Emperor’s Seat.

Chang-Sun’s gaze turned cold as he said, “The .”

1. A servant of Thor. ☜