Myths Reawakened

Hum—

A visible ripple swept across the mountain range as the Church of Nature’s grounds were sealed off from the Chosen Land. Those inside couldn’t get out, and those outside couldn’t get in.

This was Ludwig’s authority as the Pope. He held the key to the gateway, so without his approval, no one would be leaving today.

Kill them all!!

They marveled at Ludwig’s decisiveness and ruthlessness. What astonished them even more was the fact that he was a demon’s pawn. They were just talking, but he was actually guilty!

Tubert and Desiree were the most dumbfounded. What had been fabricated oracles turned out to be true. They weren’t framing Ludwig, but making a genuine judgment of justice and fairness.

Was it possible that Wayne hadn’t been speaking nonsense? That he held evidence of Ludwig’s allegiance to the demons all along, but knowing that no one would believe him, he used the fake oracle to expose the truth?

It made sense to Desiree, while Tubert wasn’t so sure. The probability of the Church of Nature’s Pope betraying his faith and defecting to Hell was almost nonexistent, but it wasn’t zero. The reason was simple: Hell had no gods.

The Seven Demon Lords were Hell’s gods, in a manner of speaking, but they weren’t true gods. Theoretically, any demons could ascend to godhood. It wasn’t a privilege exclusive to the Seven Demon Lords.

Ludwig was a single step from demigodhood. To avoid entering the Divine Realm prematurely and spending eternity laboring away for the Goddess of Nature, he had suppressed his rank to remain at the peak of Legendary, half a step from ranking up. If he wanted, he could ascend to demigodhood at any time.

He had held that thought while occupying the seat of the Pope for over a hundred years.

In the human world, Ludwig was the undisputed leader of the Church of Nature. In the Divine Realm, Ludwig would be slaving away for an eternity. Even with the possibility of advancement, the goddess’s brand on him would last forever, sealing his fate of being at the mercy of another.

Either he ground so hard that he put his colleagues to the ground, or he ended up being put to the ground. A corporate slave had no future.

Even if he clawed his way up and replaced the subordinate gods, the outcome would be the same. The path was already blocked. None of his effort would end up benefiting himself; instead, it would be fuel for the goddess’s glory.

If you don’t work harder, how am I supposed to crush those bastards? If the company can’t go public, how am I going to pay the employees and accumulate enough capital to buy out Heaven? They’re already a multinational enterprise.

Put simply, Ludwig was a pope in the mortal realm, but he would be a nobody in the Divine Realm.

The gap was so great that Ludwig wouldn’t have accepted it. Hell, on the other hand, was a different story. As a demigod, he would be able to replace one of the seventy-two demon lords as soon as he jumped ship and became a named manager. Once he established his foundation, he would grow even stronger with the power granted by his ownership of his territory.

He could become one of the Seven Demon Lords and then the Demon God, claiming the Lord of Lust for himself and reaching the pinnacle of existence. The possibilities were endless.

Yes, Hell was a cutthroat environment, and none of the Seven Demon Lords were pushovers. However, competition actually led somewhere in Hell. Everyone would be fighting for themselves rather than their boss. That was a privilege that the Divine Realm and Heaven couldn’t offer.

Hell had great prospects as a company. If he went there, he might actually become the boss!

It was said that demons were masters of temptation and could lure legendary mages into selling their souls with a few choice words, but that was unfair to the demons. Legendary mages were no fools. With the credibility that had been destroyed for the next ten thousand years, the demons couldn’t possibly deceive any legendary mages.

Their fall had nothing to do with the demons’ silver tongues. The legendary mages simply saw value in the resources that Hell could provide, and they willingly let themselves be tempted for the sake of their futures.

Now, it was Ludwig’s turn to make a choice. Standing at the crossroads, he walked toward Hell with no hesitation.

His choice was unexpected, but entirely understandable. Thus, Tubert was surprised rather than shocked. He ruefully thought about his lack of the same resolve and courage. No wonder he was the High Prophet, while Ludwig was the Pope.

Senna looked at the murderous Ludwig in surprise, asking Wayne telepathically, “Did you know that he was demonic, so you had the High Prophet and Holy Maiden fabricate the oracle?”

(一`´一;)

Would you believe me if I said that it was a coincidence?

He doubted Senna would. It was too much of a coincidence. If he weren’t Wayne, he wouldn’t have believed Wayne.

So he came clean: “It’s a strange inherent thing about me. No matter where I go, my enemies always turn into demons. I’m not surprised that Ludwig is a demon’s pawn. I’ve prepared for the possibility long ago.”

“Pardon my bluntness,” Senna said. “Your enemies don’t turn into demons. You attract demons.”

“...”

Senna wasn’t the first person to point that out. Mona, Hesione, and Auston had all made the same observation. Facts spoke louder than any arguments, and at this point, Wayne was starting to believe it himself.

Boom!!!

Ludwig’s presence was overwhelming. His formidable aura felt like a bottomless ocean suspended in the sky, dark and suffocatingly heavy. The pressure prevented them from feeling anything else.

Weaving, Baker, and McCarey were buckling under the pressure, so they drew the Void down and conjured their vitality fields quickly. Invisible ripples spread as each of them retreated into their own worlds. The crushing pressure lifted, and they finally recovered their ability to breathe.

Simultaneously, Tubert, Garvin, and Senna deployed their vitality fields. The six fields created a green sky together, pulling at each other and weaving into a vast, sweeping shared world. At the center of that world was Ludwig.

He hovered in the air with a vitality field that spanned three meters in diameter. It seemed like the combined pressure of his six opponents was preventing him from expanding his field further. However, Ludwig looked utterly at ease, while his six opponents looked grim around him. They couldn’t figure out Ludwig’s true power and feared that he had already taken that final step, becoming a formidable demigod.

If that was the case, it wouldn’t matter how many legendary mages threw themselves at him, not even when they were the cream of the crop among legendary mages.

Ludwig looked at the group darkly. Senna was right. In the past two years—more accurately, over the past year—something had changed in him. He was no longer purely human.

He had grafted the demonic bloodline into himself, making him half human and half demon. The moment he set foot in Hell, he would become a true demon.

Ludwig had been dancing around Prussia for quite some time. At first, the relationship was undefined and purely transactional to expand the church’s following. He was only trying to pick up some benefits as he consolidated his power.

Can’t set warehouses on fire all the time. Side gigs are where the real money is.

As the partnership deepened, Prussia’s appetite grew. They mentioned vessels for demons and asked Ludwig for technical support.

Ludwig hadn’t joined outright, but neither had he rejected them. He sent the knowledge on Hell that the Church of Nature had confiscated to Prussia, waiting to see how much prospect that project had.

Ludwig had been weighing his options then. He had entertained the idea of going to Hell, but hadn’t committed to it. He saw it as one of his options.

Then he made an enemy of Wayne, the Nature Knight’s successor.

He sensed a deeply buried killing intent from Wayne, and thus the scales in his heart tipped toward Hell. Later, when he reached out to the Prussian leadership and helped them work through technical problems, he met one of the Seven Demon Lords.

The mature demon and the veteran Pope negotiated, speaking only of the reality and making no empty promises. Ludwig made up his mind to go to Hell then.

The demon lord provided Ludwig a way in, but Ludwig first needed to help open the Gate of Hell. That informed many of his subsequent actions.

Be it his delegation of authority or his instigation of the internal conflicts between the Oracle High Reverends, all of it was misdirection. Ludwig had never intended to enter the Divine Realm and had never once considered passing his title to anyone. The entire Church of Nature’s headquarters would be his tribute to open the Gate of Hell.

Ludwig had planned it all out. Moula, the Nature Knight, rarely left the Frozen Land, and even when he did, it was because he had to carry out an oracle. He didn’t visit the church’s headquarters. His successor, Wayne, was talented and cunning, but he was too young. His potential needed time to blossom.

If it took two and a half years for Wayne to become the true Nature Knight, Ludwig would have ample time to open the Gate of Hell in Prussia’s capital, Berlo.

Ludwig had it all figured out. It was an airtight plan, he was certain of it. He spent his days painting and listening to music, delegating his authority and guiding the Oracle High Reverends to work closely with the Prussian leadership so that everyone would be tied to the one-way train to Hell.

He didn’t account for trouble on the High Prophet and Holy Maiden’s end. The goddess, who had never bothered Herself with mortal affairs, suddenly issued an oracle.

Ludwig didn’t know if the oracle was fabricated. His instincts told him that the High Prophet and the Holy Maiden were lying; the former was just spouting nonsense, while the latter was lying blatantly. Both were trying to oust him and reclaim their authority.

The probability of that was 99.9%.

However, he couldn’t bet against the 0.1% chance that the goddess was involved. If he continued to play dumb, he would be digging his own grave.

He couldn’t wait!

He would kill everyone who knew and buy more time to open the Gate of Hell. After that, the sky would open up for him to soar like a bird, and the ocean would broaden for him to leap like a fish. No one would be able to constrain him ever again.

Laboring away for the goddess? Why would he? The goddess had simply been born a few thousand years earlier. If he were given a few millennia, he would have the goddess labor away for him!

“Ludwig, you’re no longer the Pope of the Church of Nature.”

“You’re a traitor of the church!”

“There’s no room for honor when dealing with a demon. Vice Captain Garvin, let’s attack together!”

The three Oracle High Reverends traded lines and claimed the moral high ground against Ludwig. That was the way of vermin like them. The truly wise individuals would stay silent since there was no point in saying anything. No matter if Ludwig was a demon, the blade was already at everyone’s throat. All they could do was fight.

“Hmph!”

Ludwig scoffed, drawing a gleaming single-edged sword from his sleeve. It fanned into a broad end, built for cleaving.

He swung the blade forward. Its unmatched fierceness morphed into a phantom of the Grim Reaper’s scythe, growing larger as the force screeched through the air with increasing volume. The attack split space itself and shot out terrifying waves of energy.

The vitality fields around him were swept into the volatile waves. Forests crumbled, and the earth split into two in an instant. The single strike made Weaving’s expression tighten.

Ludwig hadn’t attacked Tubert or Garvin, but instead targeted him. Why? Because Ludwig saw him as an easy target?

Weaving snorted. “Let’s attack together and take him down fast, before things get out of control.”

Baker and McCarey, his fellow vermin, offered help half-heartedly, moving slowly enough to make Weaving sacrifice himself and weaken Ludwig. Meanwhile, Tubert was shielding a powerless Desiree, pretending to be too occupied to attack.

At the critical moment, it was Garvin who charged forward. He hated Weaving, but right now, the real enemy was Ludwig.

With his knightly sword, he charged headlong into the incoming wind blades. The instant he closed the distance, the scythe of death split into three parts, bypassing Garvin and streaking toward Weaving, Baker, and McCarey.

Weaving was the weakest link, but so were Baker and McCarey. Ludwig had seized the easiest targets among his enemies.

Rumble!!

Wherever the blade passed, green forests and the earth shook as if an earthquake had hit, and three cracks split the ground deeply. As the cutting aura expanded and fanned out to connect heaven and earth, the chasms became abysses, and the three conjoined vitality fields of the three Oracle High Reverends were torn apart.

A terrifying energy storm burst out, ravaging the landscape beyond description. A hurricane stirred up walls of dust, turning into a catastrophic sandstorm that engulfed where Weaving, Baker, and McCarey were.

Three figures braced against the hurricane and were hurled back by the shockwaves, tumbling away for a long distance.

Whether they could beat Ludwig, they would find out only by fighting!