Chapter 112
A very long time ago, the Goddess of Life created mankind.
She was deeply fond of her creations, and to properly care for them, she birthed many divine beings.
It was a time of peace, beauty, and serenity.
Until the Ancient Evil, the only god besides the Goddess of Life who had not been created but always existed, also took a liking to humanity.
Thus began a war that would last for thousands of years.
The Evil God and the Pantheon clashed endlessly, over and over again.
The Ancient Evil and the Goddess of Life were both overwhelmingly powerful divine beings. Any battle between them could only end in mutual destruction.
And yet, what cracked this balance… was humanity.
Faith—where human belief was directed—became the key to everything.
Which side humanity chose would determine the outcome.
The victor between the Goddess of Life and the Evil God… would now be chosen by human hands.
And it was at that point in the story…
“Why would someone like her look like that?”
I couldn’t help but ask.
The Goddess of Grace didn’t look remotely divine.
Blasphemous as it may sound, she looked like she might die if I so much as poked her.
At my words, the Goddess of Grace gave a bitter smile.
[A thousand years ago, the Evil God and I fought one of our usual great battles… and that time, I was killed by his hand.]
“You died?”
[Yes. And because of that, the <self> and <divine power> of the Goddess of Life were separated and scattered across the spiritual realm.]
Grace—Lilia gently pointed to herself.
[I am her <self>. And her <divine power>... is with the being standing behind you.]
I turned to look at Asmodeus, standing quietly behind me.
So she holds the divine power of the Goddess of Life?
Well, that’s... actually great.
“Then please, just take it! Quickly!”
[If I could, don’t you think I would have done it already?]
Lilia looked at Asmodeus with a pained expression.
[She serves you as her master, but a certain fallen angel of Hell still holds part of her command authority. In its corrupted state, that power can never be mine.]
“Fallen angel...?”
[That’s how Hell came to be. There was a traitor in the Celestial Realm.]
Lilia trembled with rage at this point.
The divine beings behind her rushed to support her convulsing body.
After several deep breaths to collect herself, she looked at me and gave an apologetic bow before continuing.
[The Evil God succeeded in killing the Goddess of Life, but he, too, suffered devastating wounds. With his power diminished, he fled to the Abyss and vanished. While he was in hiding, the benevolent gods of the Pantheon began scouring the spiritual realm for every fragment of the Goddess’s divinity. Leading that effort... was her chief archangel, who could detect her divine essence.]
“No way...”
[Yes, that way. None of us imagined that the archangel the Goddess trusted most would betray her. Maybe he couldn’t resist the overwhelming power he saw in front of him. And so, it happened. The archangel seized her divine power… and fell.]
Lilia didn’t look to the heavens.
Instead, she looked down… beneath the earth.
[No one calls him an archangel anymore. Now, he’s known as the Demon King of Pride . And that is also why the being behind you is not referred to as the bearer of divine power, but as the Demon King of Lust. It’s also why the Evil God and the Lords of Hell call me a whore.]
A being who would obey any master without their own will…
Imagining what the Abyss and Hell might have done to Lilia under that premise—it was nothing short of horrifying.
I glanced behind me again, at the ever-silent Asmodeus.
The divine power of the Goddess of Life…
I was glad, at least, that she wasn’t truly a Demon King.
But the question remained:
Why was someone like her serving me as her master?
“The Demon King of Pride coveted this power so much that he betrayed heaven. So why is it in my hands?”
[Because he let it go. Not willingly, but he had no choice.]
“What happened?”
[Three hundred years ago, the Evil God and Hell joined forces and declared war on the Pantheon. And at that time... Asmodeus had two masters. That’s where everything started to go wrong.]
Wait a second.
She had two masters?
“You’re saying Lucifer handed over part of Asmodeus’ control to someone other than himself? To a human?”
[Yes. It was wartime. Lucifer couldn’t efficiently command all of the Demon King of Lust’s power alone. Imagine trying to ride two of the strongest warhorses at the same time—they needed to move independently. So he created a second master, someone who could act apart from him.]
“Then why would he give such power to a fallible human?”
Lilia gave a faint smile at my question.
[Lucifer himself was the one who stole the divine power of the Goddess of Life from the Pantheon. Do you think he’d trust another god with Asmodeus? He feared they’d follow in his footsteps. A human, on the other hand, could be controlled—manipulated, even—through brainwashing, despite the risk of corruption.]
Thinking about it that way…
Lucifer’s decision kind of made sense.
“So then… was the goal to sway this corrupted human master to their side? Is that why the Evil God wants to wield the divine power now?”
[No. That wasn’t possible. Lucifer was cautious. Even though he created a new master, he still retained half the control over Asmodeus. It was a failsafe, in case the new master went rogue. Even if the Evil God managed to make the human master his own, he still couldn’t use her freely.]
“Then what was the purpose...?”
[The Evil God whispered endless pride into the heart of Asmodeus’s human master. He tempted him again and again to cross the line. With the overwhelming power of the Goddess and the insidious urges of the Evil God combined… the human did something that should never have been done.]
“Did… did he betray Hell?”
[It was similar—but even more extreme. He tried to murder the Demon King of Greed. He wanted to feed his remains to Asmodeus, hoping to wield an even greater power.]
Even Lucifer, once the archangel, couldn’t resist the temptation of that power.
There was no way a mere human could.
[In the end, the Demon King of Greed had no choice but to kill Asmodeus’s human master. And that’s when the real problem began. Asmodeus, lacking her own will, still instinctively sought vengeance. For a being like her… retaliating against the one who killed her master would have been one of her most primal impulses.]
“Wait… don’t tell me—Asmodeus fought against all of Hell?”
[Yes. Eventually, Lucifer and the other Demon Kings won. Asmodeus’s divine spirit was grievously wounded. She plummeted into the mortal realm and vanished. But in return, the Demon Kings suffered so greatly that they could no longer continue the war.]
It finally made sense.
Why the three Demon Kings had gone to such lengths… yet still refused to kill me.
[While that civil war broke out in Hell, the Pantheon had time to regroup—and launched a counterattack. The Evil God and the damaged forces of Hell had no choice but to retreat. And so, for three hundred years… a balance was kept.]
If Hell tried to consume the Pantheon, the Evil God would interfere.
If the Evil God tried to consume the Pantheon, Hell would push back.
And if the Pantheon ever attempted to destroy either one, the Evil God and Hell would form an uneasy alliance.
But never once did Hell and the Evil God clash in a way that would lead to mutual destruction.
A precarious but stable balance held for three centuries.
[And in all that time… no one knew where Asmodeus was. Not the Pantheon. Not Hell. Not even the Evil God. They were all too busy watching one another. Until—so suddenly—you appeared. Amael.]
Now, I finally understood everything.
And with the story laid bare… one chilling realization surfaced in my mind.
“...When someone said I had the Demon King of Lust inside my soul and threatened to throw me into Hell… that wasn’t you, was it, Lady Goddess?”
From the Pantheon’s perspective, I wouldn’t have been an enemy.
There would’ve been no reason to threaten me like that.
Lilia gave a slow nod.
[It was the Evil God. Not me.]
“That prophecy… that I would die at the hands of someone I love… that was fake too, wasn’t it? A false prophecy planted by the Evil God and Hell?”
At that moment, a divine figure stepped forward.
An eye-shaped mark floated above his head—I knew at once he was the God of Prophecy.
And then…
[That prophecy was mine.]
He shattered my hopes in one sentence.
“...What?”
[And it will come to pass. You will be killed… by the hand of a woman who loves you.]
At those words… I felt my blood run cold.
My legs gave out.
I stumbled.
“Please, save me! I don’t want to die!! This burden is too heavy… Take Asmodeus away from me! Please!! I don’t want that kind of ending! Tell me how to avoid this fate!!”
The God of Prophecy shook his head.
[There is no way to escape your fate. Because the one who will make it come true… is not the world. It is you.]
“Aaah…”
Dizziness washed over me and I collapsed to the ground.
The wildflowers and grasses swirled around me in a storm of color.
“Why are you doing this to me? Why me…?”
Lupiel came to my side and gently placed a hand on my shoulder.
It was a careful, tender touch—meant to comfort.
[You are mistaken, child. You who suffer alone. My prophecy… will protect you. In the final moment, you will be saved by my prophecy.]
I slapped Lupiel’s hand away sharply.
Tears spilled down my face.
Anger and despair overwhelmed my heart.
“You’re gods, aren’t you?! Great, almighty gods!! And yet you can’t save a single human?! What the hell kind of gods are you?! What did I do so wrong?! Why do I have to suffer like this?! Why?!”
Lilia and the other gods rushed forward.
[You little bastard!! Watch your tongue!! The kid’s already going through hell—do you really need to dump more on him?!]
Dullaneir even punched Lupiel in the face.
The gods surrounded me—gathered close as I wept.
[We’re sorry, Amael. So sorry. Lupiel… even the other gods in the Pantheon struggle to understand him. He sees too far into the future—too many possibilities. But one thing is certain. The future you imagine may not be the one he saw.]
Lilia’s voice was gentle—filled with comfort.
[Prophecies can change depending on how you interpret them. We don’t know what kind of future Lupiel saw to say what he did—but I promise you, he said it not to harm you.]
The God of Justice, Rophus, stepped forward.
[Even if that prophecy leads to the worst ending you can imagine… we will change it. I swear it on my name and existence. Amael, we will not let your fate end in tragedy. No matter what it takes—we’ll fight to change it.]
The other gods all joined in, one by one.
[I swear on shadow and secrecy—I will not forget your pain and sorrow. I promise to do whatever it takes to change your fate.]
[By the light of the moon—I swear the same.]
[By the number of bastards from Hell and the Abyss I’ve slaughtered—I swear it. Amael, I, Dullaneir, will never forget your sacrifice. I’ll make sure your story ends in happiness.]
Their vows poured out—one after another.
Only then… could I finally breathe a little easier.
I wiped away my tears and stood.
I looked toward the gods of the Pantheon.
“...What do I need to do now? Does this still end in martyrdom? Do I have to keep searching for someone who can destroy my soul?”
And just as I asked—
“[Amael!!]”
[The path is closing!!]
[That damned arrogant bastard!!]
Cries rang out from Asmodeus and the Pantheon gods all at once.
At the same time—my body suddenly grew heavy.
“Guh!”
It felt like I’d been punched in the gut.
I dropped to the floor, gasping.
Lilia screamed at Asmodeus.
[Reduce the power you’re emitting! The saint’s body is breaking!!]
“[U-understood…]”
I flailed my hand toward them.
Even if it broke my body, I had to know the answer.
“What do I have to do?! How do I escape this miserable fate?! How do I find a way to a happy ending?!”
One by one, the gods began to disappear.
The connection between Heaven and the mortal world was collapsing.
[Asmodeus’s left wing!! Destroy the left—corrupted—blackened wing!!]
That was Rophus’s last, desperate cry before he vanished.
[There are two divine fragments still left in the mortal world—ones the Evil God hasn’t found. Find them! They can remove the wing!!]
Lilia’s final words echoed.
“How do I find the two remaining fragments?!”
I could taste blood—then vomited it in a torrent.
Asmodeus’s power was ripping my body apart.
Still… I didn’t stop.
Only two gods remained who could answer now.
Dullaneir.
And Lupiel.
[The two you must find are the God of Courage and the God of Endurance! The gods will be where their guiding virtues are strongest! Damn you, arrogant bastard—!!]
Dullaneir vanished mid-curse.
And lastly… only Lupiel remained.
[Enter through the narrow gate. Only there is salvation. Do not forget my prophecy. At the final moment… it will save you.]
Lupiel disappeared.
And then—
“[Remember the sensation of giving me a command!!]”
Asmodeus vanished too.
The crushing weight around me vanished with them.
All that remained… was the scent of wildflowers and grass.
And—
“O Divine One…”
“What… what did I just witness?”
“Oh, blessed saint…”
A sea of holy knights knelt before me.
And seeing that…
I could only give a bitter smile.
There was no denying it now.
I was the Saint.
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