Chapter 376 - I Did It

Chapter 376 - I Did It

“Please come here for a second,” Layla said.

“What is it?” Oh Kang-Woo walked over to where Layla was while tilting his head.

Kim Si-Hun, who had been untying the survivors from the walls with a heavy expression, also walked over. Layla was pointing at a black symbol drawn on the wall.

‘The hell is this?’

There was a giant hexagram that looked as if it had been drawn with a rough brush on the wall, and it was exuding thick demonic energy.

‘No.’

It wasn’t just demonic energy; miniscule amounts of Divinity could be felt from it as well, as if a being of godhood had drawn it.

“This is the symbol of the Demon God,” Layla explained. “This hexagram was... the symbol of Demon God Bauli and the Constellations of Evil during the era of myths when they almost brought this world to extinction.”

“Isn’t it a bit too ordinary for that?” Kang-Woo asked.

“That’s because the myth hasn't been passed down well enough on Earth. In Aernor, this hexagram is still considered a symbol of demons and fear.”

“Oh, I also heard about it while I was traveling around the continent. Just using this symbol would be reason enough for you to be sentenced to death immediately,” Si-Hun added.

Kang-Woo narrowed his eyes.

‘The symbol of the Demon God.’

Considering this symbol was on the wall, it wasn’t hard to guess who had made this mansion.

‘The Constellations of Evil must’ve made their move.’

Kang-Woo frowned. He could understand that they had made their move, since they had already attacked Sant’Angelo to steal the Demon God’s legacy. It meant that they were done hiding and were going to take full action from now on.

‘But...’

Kang-Woo couldn’t understand their actions. He had no choice, but he had ended up assisting the Constellations of Evil. He had framed someone else as the culprit of the attack on Sant’Angelo and took them completely off of the list of suspects.

‘In their perspective, it should’ve been an absolute score.’

Should they not be cheering while clapping since the police were chasing after someone else entirely after they had committed a heinous crime?

‘Why are they just blatantly advertising that they’re the culprits?’

It was so undisguised to the point that Kang-Woo was thinking someone was trying to frame the act on the Constellations of Evil.

‘But there’s no reason for anyone to do such a thing.’

No matter how hard he thought about it, there weren’t any forces that would benefit from framing the Constellations of Evil.

“Could it have been... the Constellations of Evil?” Layla asked carefully.

Si-Hun nodded. “Since the Demon God had died long ago, I believe they would be the culprits. I don’t know why they would do such a thing, but...’

Kang-Woo narrowed his eyes as he listened to their opinions. Both Layla and Si-Hun thought that the Constellations of Evil were the culprits. In other words, most of the people who knew about the hexagram would also think the same, and there weren’t many people in Aernor who didn’t know about this hexagram.

‘... Wait.’ Kang-Woo’s eyes shone. A theory popped up in his head like a lightning bolt. ‘What if their objective isn’t to hide their identity, but to let it be known?’

If that was the case, the story would change.

‘But why?’

Why would they need to do such a thing? It was true that the Constellations of Evil were powerful; each one of them possessed Deific Essence, and were free from the system’s restrictions. However, they were overwhelmingly outnumbered. They had no reason to flaunt their return.

“Kang-Woo, over here...” Just then, Layla called Kang-Woo again. Kang-Woo turned around to see Layla, her face stiff while touching the victims’ heads. “Something’s wrong with the townspeople.”

“What do you mean?”

“Mental recovery magic doesn’t work on them... as if their minds have been completely emptied. I don’t think their minds have just been broken.”

Emptied... Layla’s choice of words caught Kang-Woo’s attention. Kang-Woo looked around and recalled the wraiths that had been roaming around the mansion. They had kept the people that should have been dead, alive for some reason.

“Ah,” Kang-Woo expressed.

The puzzle was finally starting to come together.

‘The wraiths hadn’t been specialized for combat.’

Although one wouldn’t even be able to land a blow on the wraiths unless they were powerful enough, they were certainly too weak to be retainers of a Constellation of Evil.

‘What if their purpose wasn’t combat from the very beginning?’

Chains were installed on the walls of the two thousand square feet room, spread out in a way that it would be easy to chain people. Kang-Woo had thought of something as soon as he had entered the room.

‘It’s like... a factory.’

Kang-Woo smiled widely.

***

“Is it going well?” an expressionless man with a diagonal slash scar on his face asked in a monotone.

A translucent being bowed to the man. He answered confidently, “Yes, of course.”

Proserpine, who was lying down, said uninterestedly, “You say that, but the negative emotions don’t seem to be gathering that much.”

“Ngh...” The Constellation of Fear, the translucent being, froze.

Like she had mentioned, the collection of negative emotions was slower than expected.

“We could just go on a slaughter trip, can’t we? Why are we making things so complicated?” Proserpine suggested.

“Hmph. Please be quiet if you don’t know anything.” The Constellation of Fear snorted and continued, “Do you have any idea how difficult it is to change one’s target of fear once it has been engraved?”

The entire continent was plunged into fear of Lucifer. If they just went on a killing spree like Proserpine had suggested, people would just believe it was Lucifer who did it. Hence, it was meaningless; their fear needed to be directed at the hexagram.

“Don’t rush me and wait a little longer. The gods will soon react,” the Constellation of Fear said.

A human called Kim Si-Hun, known as the hero of the continent, was traveling across the continent to destroy the mansions. The Constellations already knew that he was a retainer of Gaia. Since he was an apostle of a god, he would not be idiotic enough not to know what the hexagram symbolized.

‘And once the news reaches the gods...’

They would not be able to focus only on Lucifer like they were now. After all, the hexagram symbolized the being that had once driven the gods toward extinction.

“There’s been a response,” said the boy with blank eyes.

The Constellation of Fear turned around in delight. “Hehehe. As expected.”

He glanced at Proserpine as if boasting.

“Hmph,” Proserpine snorted and turned around.

“Now then, let us see what they’re saying.”

The Constellation of Fear placed his hand on the boy’s shoulder and interfered with the providence using his Divinity. He did not interfere with much; he was just using a tiny amount of the blessing given to the beings of Earth, one of the Triad.

Riiing.

[The gods of the divine realm are trembling anxiously.]

“Good.”

The Constellation of Fear smiled as he stared at the blue window in front of him. He had expected such a response.

[The gods of the divine realm are feeling fear of collapse.]

“Hehe, plunge into fear.”

[The gods of the divine realm are enraged by the atrocities committed by Evil God Lucifer!]

“Yes, be enra— Huh? Lucifer?”

Why was that guy’s name being mentioned again?

[The gods of the divine realm are enraged by the atrocities committed by Evil God Lucifer!]

“W-Wait!” The Constellation of Fear reached for the intangible blue window. He shouted in frustration, “I did it!”

[The gods of the divine realm are enraged by the atrocities committed by Evil God Lucifer!]

“It wasn’t Lucifer!!” The Constellation of Fear pounded on his chest in frustration.

[The gods of the divine realm are letting their apostles know of Lucifer’s atrocities!]

“No!”

[The gods of the divine realm are mocking Lucifer as the Lord of the Flies!]

“I did it!!!” The Constellation of Fear shouted, frustrated by the absurd situation.

But of course, there was no way that his words would be able to reach the gods in the divine realm.

[The gods of the divine realm discuss that they need to eliminate Lucifer as soon as possible!]

[The gods of the divine realm are devising a solution.]

[The gods of the divine realm are gathering Divinity. They are using a branch of the World Tree.]

[Elder high elf, Elune expresses her will to manifest!]