194. When It’S Time To Take It Off (2)
Judge of the Underworld.
The moment I heard that name.
I felt my whole body being crushed.
No.
Rather than being crushed······.
It would be more accurate to say that the Demon Realm is pulling me in.
“What the hell did you do to me?!”
-I heard that the Underworld is known in the mortal world in the form of myths. It’s just as you know it-
I know.
I know it very well.
The myth about the Underworld is a story that appears so often in the game story that it feels a little out of the blue.
Judge of the Underworld.
It is the name of a position that assists the Underworld God and helps judge the souls.
Since it is a position, it is definitely possible to pass it on to someone else.
But why me······!
“Why me-“
-The right person just showed up and passed it on. It doesn’t matter if you’re a human or a demon. Isn’t it natural for someone who is familiar with death to be the Judge of the Underworld? If you weren’t qualified, it would have been impossible to appoint you. Congratulations. It seems that the King of Hell thinks you have the character to judge others-
That’s ridiculous.
You’re saying I have a good enough character to judge others?
There are more than one or two things I want to argue about.
But that’s not important right now.
What’s important right now is the pressure that’s crushing me.
To be more precise, it’s the gravitational pull of the Demon Realm.
The position of Judge of the Demon Realm that was given to me is exerting an enormous force to keep me in the Demon Realm!
-Please do your best. The position of Judge of the Underworld is not only followed by responsibility. If you want, you can amass great wealth and power–
“Don’t be ridiculous! Who would take on such a job? Take it back, Satan!”
-I’m sorry, but I can’t do that. Not until you give up your desire to return to the mortal world-
“······!”
Satan says with a wicked smile.
At that moment, I felt a chill all over my body.
I felt like Satan didn’t want me to go back to the mortal world.
I never imagined that he would go to such lengths to keep me here.
“I’m going back! So give me back the position of Judge of the Underworld!”
-hahahahaha. Let’s see you give it back. That position can only be passed on when a more qualified person appears. However, it is difficult to guarantee that someone more qualified than you will appear in the next 10,000 years-
“······!”
Really.
Even if I try to appoint Satan as the Judge of the Underworld again and pass on the position, the force that is squeezing my body is just a matter of words.
He doesn’t seem to be leaving me at all.
“You son of a······!”
-hahahaha!-
Unable to control my anger, I rushed towards Satan as fast as lightning.
The position of Judge of the Underworld, which had been crushing me endlessly when I was still, accelerated me for that moment and gave me an incredible speed.
Satan was caught by my neck without even having time to react.
-I can help you give up the position of Judge. I want to perform an important ritual, and if you take charge of its execution, I will find someone more qualified than the Judge and bring them to you-
“Can’t you just torture him here and make him bring that qualified person?”
-I think there’s a misunderstanding. It’s not that I’m hiding someone who is qualified in the Demon Realm. At least in this Demon Realm, there is no one who surpasses you, who is familiar with death. What I’m going to do from now on is······. Hmm. I can’t say this in public-
He put his hand on my wrist, which was strangling Satan’s neck.
Satan sends a small amount of magic and ‘will’ directly into my body.
My body trembled at that ‘will’.
-It is a ritual to separate the Demon Realm from the Underworld and make it an independent world. Through this, I will wander the cracks of the dimension and find someone in another world to replace you-
“······!”
Separate the Demon Realm from the Underworld?
What kind of nonsense are you talking about?
As if reading my gaze, Satan continued his ‘will’.”It may seem like a foolish choice to human eyes. Humans will never understand the horror of the curse of knowing the underworld, while living in the underworld, with the gaze of the underworld exposed! You have come from the mortal world, so you would not know? A world rampant with lawlessness, distrust, and a myriad of violence! In such a world, love, trust, and harmony that blossom are truly beautiful and valuable laws!”
“······.”
“What about the Demon Realm? The demons already live in contact with the afterlife, living in fear of judgment! Deception and violence are impossible to dream of! Some may think that this place is a more peaceful and beautiful world, but in reality, it is not at all. This is a terrible and false world. A world without freedom! A world where life is no different from being dead! This is why I intend to separate the Demon Realm from the Underworld. The demons of the future will be free from the gaze of the underworld, forgetting the underworld and remembering it only as a myth passed down through legends. And it will become a world as free and unrestrained as the mortal world!”
“······.”
I also felt it.
I had thought several times that the Demon Realm was somewhat bizarre.
The lifestyle, the way of communication, and even the way of thinking, everything from one to ten is different between humans and demons.
However, as I talked deeply with them, I felt that their essence was not much different.
However, from time to time, I had the impression that I received something awkward from the demons.
A world where crime, distrust, and sin do not exist.
It feels like a paradise.
But if you actually dig into it, there is no trust or harmony in it.
Because it has already become natural for the demons.
It is no longer precious or valuable.
Satan feels that such a world is unnatural.
Rather, he feels that the mortal world, where sin is rampant, is natural.
And what is annoying is that my thoughts are the same as Satan’s.
“Please help me. I beg you.”
“The way you ask for it is wrong······.”
But this is not it.
This should not be done.
No matter how desperate you are, you should not forcibly keep me in the Demon Realm.
Magic gathered in my hand, and my strength gradually increased.
With the power of the Great Judge of the Demon Realm added, I already had more than enough power to crush Satan’s neck.
However, Satan just looks at me with a relaxed expression, as if it doesn’t matter if he dies now.
“The execution of the ritual requires the sacrifice of all the Great Demons through sealing.”
“If I kill you, won’t everything be clean?”
“It doesn’t matter. If that’s what it takes to calm you down, then do it. If one Great Demon dies, the seat will become vacant and another demon can take the seat of the Great Demon, so there will be no disruption in the execution of the ritual.”
For a moment, I thought that if I killed Satan like this, my qualifications would also be extinguished and the seat of the Great Judge would not go away.
But I quickly dismissed the thought.
Killing him would be a meaningless slaughter if it didn’t mean that the Great Demon, the seat of anger, would disappear.
In the first place, Satan himself didn’t seem to have much attachment to life, so the thought of killing him disappeared.
I also thought about what would happen if I broke the other sealed Great Demons as a way to vent my anger.
But that would only be a way to hold myself back.
If I can’t separate the Demon Realm from the Underworld, I won’t be able to step down from the position of Great Judge and leave······.
“Have you made up your mind? One way or another, we have to join forces in the end-“
“Shut up.”
“hahahaha!”
The moment I uttered the words of rage in a loud voice.
In an instant, the entire Demon Realm shook and magic rose from the ground like a shallow fog.
It felt as if the entire Demon Realm was responding to me.
I had heard before that the Demon Realm and I seemed to get along well.
But from the moment I took on the position of Great Judge of the Underworld, I began to feel an overwhelming sense of power, as if I could control the Demon Realm as I pleased.
Satan laughs grotesquely as if he enjoys it.
I don’t like it.
I feel like I’m playing around.
In the first place, even if I help Satan succeed in the ritual, there is no guarantee that Satan will grant my request.
“Don’t you feel it too? The Demon Realm is following you! You are a being who belongs to the Demon Realm more than the demons! You are meant to lead the Demon Realm and belong to the Demon Realm! Here, you will become stronger, larger, and wiser than anyone else!”However, the words Satan is saying now are definitely true.
This omnipotence is not baseless confidence.
My realm has already far surpassed that of a weak human.
Before I knew it, the magic power that had crawled up from the ground covered my body and became a solid shell.
My vision cleared, and I could see more than half of the Demon Realm.
Even my realm is rising in real time, and it seems that I might be able to transcend the limits of a human.
The transcendent being that Luna was chasing so much.
I can feel myself becoming a demigod with an infinite lifespan.
Judge of the Underworld.
As the assistant of the Underworld that forms a single world, it might be natural to live forever.
‘If I stay here, I will live a life no different from a king, or even a god, in this place.’
At first, the lives of the demons were so bizarre and unfamiliar that I had a hard time adapting.
However, I got to know them to some extent by talking and communicating with them.
There are still quite a few things that surprise me.
But now, I don’t think I will have much difficulty living in the Demon Realm.
There are relationships here too.
Sentient beings live and breathe.
As Satan said, I might be happier living here.
“Life is a series of choices······.”
Do people live for happiness?
Yes.
Then, don’t happy people have any regrets?
I don’t know.
“The way a person is born and lives with a name cannot be determined······.”
Will I be happy if I stay in the Demon Realm and live as an omnipotent god?
I will be happy.
I might even be able to have a family.
I might be able to make friends who I get along with.
Perhaps I will be able to obtain all the satisfaction that I could not obtain no matter how many times I reincarnated.
However, that does not mean that I will not have any regrets.
I will have regrets over and over again.
I will curse my past self who powerlessly accepted the position of Judge over and over again.
I will not be able to forget the heroines who are waiting for me to the end.
I will miss their embrace.
The bitterness and guilt of not being able to keep my promise will weigh on my mind for the rest of my life.
“Shouldn’t I be able to decide how I face my end?”
-What are you doing now?!-
Whoosh.
The magic power that had been enveloping my body scattered and disappeared.
Before I knew it, I had changed from my demon-like appearance back to my normal human form.
Most of the power that had been burning in my body had disappeared.
My vision that had covered the Demon Realm also shrank, returning to the human vision that could only see what was in front of me.
My lifespan has definitely shortened, and I can clearly feel that I only have a few decades left.
However, the seat of the Judge of the Underworld has still been bestowed upon me.
I close my eyes and take a brief glimpse into my inner world.
The huge seat that is firmly planted in the middle of the snowy field.
The seat that stands there as if it has taken root does not seem to have any intention of leaving me.
“It was simple. I knew it from the beginning. I was just avoiding it out of fear······.”
Mijung slowly walks into the snowy field.
Flowers that have bloomed poorly next to the huge seat.
Mijung looks back at me in front of them.
I nod my head, giving her a sign of approval.
Then, snap, snap.
Mijung begins to pluck all the flowers without hesitation.
Yellow jasmine.
Black roses.
Blue cyclamen.
And red camellia.
Mijung, who has plucked all four flowers, returns with the flowers in her arms.
I grab Mijung’s hand.
“Belphegor. You gave me a hint.”
“What? Me? What······.”
“There is a simple way to get rid of the attraction to the Demon Realm. Erase your identity.”
-W, what do you mean?! The attraction that draws demons is simply in the identity of ‘demon’, but the seat of the Judge of the Underworld that has been bestowed upon you is different! It is an imprint etched into your existence as you, not as a human!-
“That’s why. If I abandon my existence, it will solve the problem, right?”
-······?!-
Erase my identity.
My identity as me.
Erase everything that makes me who I am.In simple terms, I’m going to format the country.
Then I’ll be able to cleanly blow away the malicious viruses that are installed in it and can’t be deleted.
However, there is a problem…
It’s unknown whether it will be possible to recover the remaining data after formatting.
-Are you joking? That… That can’t be possible! You’re talking about erasing your existence! If you do that, everyone will forget about you!-
“That’s what I want.”
-Forgotten! By everyone! By people, by demons, by light! What do you mean? You’ll be annihilated! As if you never existed in this world in the first place!-
“I won’t disappear that easily.”
Satan, trembling as if threatening me.
But it all just sounds funny.
I’ve already experienced the danger of annihilation.
In the gap between dimensions, where my whole body disappeared into the void with neither light nor anything else.
I already have a track record of surviving by relying on each other with Mijeong.
I can live even if I abandon my ‘existence’.
Even if everyone forgets me, Mijeong will remember me and not let me be annihilated.
That’s enough.
If I can escape the demon world without being annihilated,
I’ll be able to gradually recover my ‘existence’ after that.
-Oh, no… !-
Click.
The moment I snapped my fingers.
The world inside me flashed and condensed into a single point.