Lucifer
It was a monstrous creature with regenerative powers capable of instantly recovering Surt’s burns from flames and injuries from Shooting Star, but somehow it couldn’t regenerate the hole Bruce made.
No, beyond the point of not being able to regenerate, the body around the hole was dyed black and dying.
The mysterious creature looked at the hole in its chest and muttered in a dejected voice.
“… … Hitting the essence directly? How is this possible even if you are not a transcendental person?”
“There’s no reason to tell someone who’s about to die.”
“Heh, heh heh… … . I, I die? The brightest shining star, this body that reigns over all demons?”
The space around the monstrous creature began to distort.
Bruce hurriedly fired his sword, but perhaps it was because he had exhausted his strength from the previous blow, the speed was slow enough to be recognized even with the meteor’s eyes.
And the moment the sword touched the body of the monster, the creature disappeared.
Took!
In the place where the monster was, only angel rings, fragments of Halo, and pieces of horns, the symbol of the devil, were left.
“Hmm.”
Halo fragments and horn fragments floated gently and landed in Bruce’s hand.
Bruce, who was looking at the items with an expression full of anticipation for some reason, shook his head with a wry smile.
“Well, if the divinity remained, it wouldn’t have been so easy.”
“I… … .”
Turning his gaze to the voice behind him, Bruce found Meteor making an indescribable expression and tilted his head.
“Are there any problems?”
“That bastard just now. Isn’t that a dangerous guy? It’s definitely the brightest shining star, so it seems like it’s said that it reigns over all demons… … .”
the brightest star.
The one who reigns over all demons.
As far as Yooseong knew, there was only one existence that fit these two modifiers.
“Isn’t that Lucifer?”
Lucifer.
A fallen angel who was great and beautiful enough to be called the morning star, but rebelled against God and fell to hell.
Bruce nodded nonchalantly.
“There’s no reason to lie, and the fact that he has a halo and horns at the same time, so maybe Lucifer is right.”
“But is it okay for me to be calm like this?”
“It would have been dangerous if he had been a transcendent. However, he lost his divinity and fell into a mortal. You have to be careful, but it’s not an enemy to be so afraid of.”
‘divinity?’
The mortal and the transcendent could roughly guess what it meant.
The only incomprehensible thing is divinity.
It’s a word I’ve heard for the first time, but the message Bruce sent when I first used the community came to mind in Yooseong’s mind, which somehow felt familiar.
‘I’ll pay anything in return, so if I find an item called a Divine Fragment, I’ll sell it to myself.’
Shards of divinity and divinity.
And when we combined Bruce’s words that Lucifer, who was a transcendental being, lost his divinity and became mortal, one conclusion was naturally drawn.
‘Can a mortal become a transcendental being with divinity or fragments of divinity?’
“Han Yuseong?”
Yooseong, who was lost in thought, barely returned to reality at the sound of Bruce’s voice.
“Yes?”
“I called several times, but no answer… … . Is it really okay?”
“It’s because I have something to think about. There is no problem, so don’t worry.”
Bruce, who looked at him suspiciously, reached out his hand toward the meteor.
“Take it.”
“Why do you do this to me?”
“This is compensation for missing Lucifer earlier.”
Apparently, Bruce misunderstood his silence in a strange way.
Of course, Yooseong had no intention of clearing up the misunderstanding.
“thank you.”
Halo shards and horn fragments.
Since it was dropped by Lucifer, it was definitely not an ordinary item.
‘It’s a pity that life wasn’t a one-shot, but what if it’s a reward like this… … .’
aaah!
A siren sounded in the distance.
Yoosung and Bruce, who were silently exchanging glances, ran away on the spot without anyone saying anything first.
After a while, the wreckage of the collapsed building shuddered and Kang Chang-seok appeared.
“Damn, I asked for help, everyone was busy doing… … . yes?”
Police cars and fire trucks lined up around the building.
And even helicopters floating in the air.
“… … Bogs. ”
Kang Chang-seok, who barely grasped the situation, came out with a sincere insult.
* * *
A major incident with more than a thousand casualties.
Of course, it was impossible to dismiss such an incident as nothing.
Even before the urgently organized broadcast was broadcast, people around the world learned about what had happened at Salvation Church through a video uploaded to New Tube.
However, what followed was a little different.
┖They said they were behind the terrorist incident that happened in Korea a while ago?
┖Really? Do you have proof?
┖All the terrorists testified, and they said they found materials related to terrorism.
┖Am I the only one who thinks it is strange to kill so many people without trial in the 21st century, not in ancient times?
┖Didn’t you know that the contractors’ association has the right to punish the contractors who committed the crime?
┖I know. But there is a degree to that too. If it’s one or two people, there are thousands of casualties in one night, but I don’t think this is something to be taken lightly.
┖Urgent Breaking News. They said they died fighting each other. The contractors’ association told them to just surrender, but opinions were divided between the side to fight and the side to surrender, and they all died fighting each other.
┖ Fanaticism is like that.
As if someone had manipulated public opinion, evidence in favor of the Contractor Association and unfavorable evidence against the Salvation Church continued to pour in.
Public opinion was divided in two, and great confusion arose.
However, the confusion did not last long.
– Full-scale introduction of the contractor rank system! There are a total of six grades from E to S, and it is known that there are only six S-rank contractors worldwide… … .
– The International Contractors Association was officially launched today. The International Contractors Association announced the creation of a special contractor unit capable of emergency dispatch anywhere in the world and the joint training of contractors and the military as a primary measure to combat the ever-increasing threat of monsters… … .
– The academy, which has been talked about and suffered a lot, will open next week. The academy teaches basic strategy tactics, information on monsters, law on contractors, and how to handle various weapons. … .
The news that made the Salvation Church group death case ‘something like that’ hit the world.
Interest in Salvationism faded whenever stories such as the contractor rank system, the International Contractor Association, the academy, and mass production of new equipment emerged.
And soon after, Salvationism was pushed out of people’s attention.
“Is this buried so easily?”
Yooseong, who was checking the news on his smartphone, burst out laughing.
I couldn’t find any article about Salvation Church anywhere.
Although it was occasionally uploaded on New Tube or SNS, it did not receive enough attention from people to find it unless they deliberately searched for it.
“… … easy? Did you say it was easy now?”
Tendons appeared on Kang Chang-seok’s forehead.
It seems easy only when viewed from the perspective of a third party, but the amount of money and effort spent to cover up the Salvation Church incident this time was beyond imagination.
But it’s not enough that he ran away, leaving him alone, so he’s talking about saying that post-processing is easy when he’s left everything behind.
Something swelled up in my chest.
Yoosung muttered with a calm face while focusing his eyes on his smartphone, whether he knew this or not.
“You’re going to pass on your abilities to ordinary people? Is that possible?”
It was a question with multiple implications.
Kang Chang-seok, pondering whether to say something to Yoo-seong, sighed and opened his mouth.
“Of course it is possible. I can bring not only skills, but also items such as secret grades and magic books, so what can I not pass on?”
“No, then why didn’t you teach me until now?”
“Because even if I passed it on, it wouldn’t mean anything. It’s the same with martial arts and magic, which are popular abilities. Users can learn martial arts or magic in a blink of an eye as long as they have karma points, but ordinary people can’t learn that easily.”
I don’t know if you are born with a talent from heaven or have a treasure like an elixir.
Even just feeling the existence of energy called qi, in other words, mana, is such a difficult task that a talented person would have to work hard for dozens of days.
It takes dozens of days to refine and process qi into energy that humans can handle, such as internal energy or magic power, and it takes several months to accumulate enough energy to use in combat.
“If there is an unmanned person, there is basically one weapon skill, one internal attack method, one foot method, and one divine method. At least four martial arts must be learned, and a wizard must study various magical principles and formulas. It takes several years, even at the bare minimum, to turn ordinary people into capable people who can play an active role in combat. But the monster is rampaging right now. In a situation like this, what are you going to do by teaching superpowers?”
“If the earth is destroyed tomorrow, it is like planting an apple tree today. If you’re going to pass on your superpowers now, does that mean the Earth is safe enough to not perish tomorrow?”
“What do you ask when you know everything?”
It’s blunt, but it’s a somewhat angry voice.
It seems like he tricked me knowingly, but he opened up a conversation.
It was a huge step forward compared to the last few days of listening to myself with one ear and letting it out with the other.
“How is Bruce?”
“I’m back.”
“Leave Lucifer behind?”
“I’m going to defend my country, but what can I do? They said that they would come to help right away if you asked for help, but that alone makes sense.”
He said so, but his expression was full of worry and concern.
Considering Lucifer’s ability, it was understandable.
A power that can easily erase a small city.
The ability to mass produce capable people with powers that surpass those of the contractors.
They even have the intelligence to establish and run a church.
Bruce said he would come right away if he asked for help, but it was already too late when he asked for help in the first place.
‘This time I was lucky enough to finish it with less damage, but it will be different in the future.’
It was clear that Lucifer, who had suffered a failure once, would plot things even more secretly and cleverly than before.
The problem was that unless he was active like this time, there was no way to distinguish between Lucifer hiding in the shadows and the ability he would create.
‘It’s not even a matter of destroying a country even if you have a moderate amount of power and then attack only social infrastructure such as power plants, dams, and roads in a surprise attack. If even a nuclear power plant explodes… … .’
I had goosebumps all over my body.
As if he had been thinking similar thoughts, Kang Chang-seok’s complexion also turned white.
‘… … for a moment.’
While thinking about how to handle this, an idea came to Yoosung’s head.
I’m not sure it would work, but at least it seemed a lot better than doing nothing.
“Hey, are you thinking of hiring a guard?”
“What kind of bullshit are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“Whoah, calm down and listen to me.”
Yuseong’s eyes, looking at Kang Chang-seok, were colored with a faint golden light.
this is not a game
