Chapter 440 – Part 2 – Betrayal

Derkius didn’t take those words about cooperation at face value.

[What kind of nonsense is this all of a sudden?]

[It’s not nonsense. I’m saying this because there’s no hope the way things are. I only have 150 million Divine Force left.]

[Well, who told you to give away 70 percent?]

[I had no choice! If I was going to pretend to cooperate!]

[Pretend to cooperate?]

[Do you think I’m with this human because I like him?]

Derkius looked at the two souls fleeing with Clairvoyance.

[Weren’t you trying to run away from me?]

[Am I an idiot? I obviously know I’d get caught by you if I tried to escape in the underworld.]

‘That’s true. No matter how far they run, it’s still in my palm.’

Derkius asked as if puzzled.

[Then what are you doing now?]

[I’m going with Min Do-jun to where you are. With the intention of cooperating to attack you.]

[You’re coming to attack me? Not running away?]

Derkius scoffed in disbelief.

[What are you doing when you should be running away as fast as possible?]

[His family is captured, so he seems determined to settle things somehow.]

[Hah… pathetic human.]

The very idea of daring to attack him, the one true god, was offensive.

[So you’re pretending to help that human?]

[That’s right.]

[You’re not actually helping him?]

[To be honest, I don’t have no ill feelings toward you. You stole my research and monopolized even the underworld. For a moment, I really did think about cooperating with Min Do-jun.]

[If you had, neither of you would have been safe.]

[Right. Unlike before, how could I possibly stop you when you’ve grown beyond control?]

[So you changed your mind to side with me?]

[Something like that. What can I do struggling against the master of the underworld when my Divine Force is far behind? Besides, that human.]

Dayna spoke as if grinding her teeth.

[Thinking about having 70 percent of my Divine Force stolen by that impudent human makes me furious. I went to the trouble of making that worthless human into a transcendent, and instead of being grateful, he acts like he’s superior. Could you stand it if you were me? You know my personality after all this time, right?]

[Hehe, I know. Your personality is damn awful.]

[That’s why I’m suggesting we join forces. I’ll help you.]

[How will you do it?]

[Set up an Illusion Prison in advance. Then I’ll lure Min Do-jun there.]

At the mention of Illusion Prison, Derkius chuckled.

It was one of Elsis’s functions, suitable for torturing souls.

[I see. You want to trap Min Do-jun in an Illusion Prison and torture him? To get back the Divine Force?]

[You catch on quick. The Divine Force that bastard stole is 350 million. Even when we annihilate him, we need to get the Divine Force back, don’t we?]

[True, it’s too much to waste.]

Even Derkius, who already had 3 billion Divine Force, found it tempting.

[I understand. Both why you want to betray him and why you want to cooperate with me. But you must want something in return?]

[What I want is the stolen Divine Force and freedom. If you return just that, I promise not to interfere with whatever you do in the underworld.]

[What if I refuse?]

[Then I’ll turn around right now and try to run away so I don’t get caught somehow.]

[Hmm…]

Dayna’s proposal made Derkius ponder.

‘Catching both of them wouldn’t be difficult, but…’

It would become troublesome if they ran away desperately.

‘Should I just accept the proposal because it’s bothersome?’

Beyond the annoyance, he liked Dayna’s promise not to interfere with his work anymore.

‘After all, the reason I imprisoned Dayna was to prevent her from interfering with my work…’

It was a proposal with no loss for Derkius.

[Alright, Senior Dayna. I’ll accept that proposal.]

[Really?]

[Of course. Just properly lure that damn human bastard. Then I’ll torture him with the Illusion Prison to get back the lost 350 million.]

[Got it! Just tell me the installation location.]

[I just sent you the location.]

[Ah, here? Got it. I’ll bring Min Do-jun this way, so you have to keep your promise, okay?]

[Don’t worry. Should I write up a contract?]

[No, that’s not necessary. Just keep your promise properly.]

[Don’t worry about that.]

[Okay. Then I trust you?]

[Yes. Hehe.]

As soon as communication with Dayna ended, Derkius wore a mocking expression.

‘Kukuk, stupid woman. Even after being fooled, she’s trying to get fooled by me again?’

Though he said he’d keep his promise, Derkius had no intention of doing so.

‘What? Giving 70 percent of Divine Force to a mere human? 350 million? Talk about proving you’re a sucker.’

After thoroughly mocking her, Derkius clicked his tongue.

‘Dayna has always been like that. She believes everything as long as you say it’s a promise. Verbal promises can be broken anytime.’

That’s how he was able to imprison his senior Dayna, steal the Awakener System, and monopolize the underworld.

‘I should take all the Divine Force extracted by torturing Min Do-jun. Return it? What return?’

After taking the 350 million, if he tortured Dayna too, he could get an additional 150 million.

‘And Dayna, who has nothing left to strip? I’ll annihilate her immediately. Kukuk.’

Then he would be the only true transcendent remaining.

He could reign like a dictator in the underworld forever, feeding on Divine Force.

‘What freedom. I can’t give even a rat’s tail to that Dayna woman.’

Derkius had an inferiority complex toward Dayna.

During the days when they developed Elsis together, only Dayna had monopolized the love of their creator, El.

‘Thinking about being treated as a subordinate back then, I’m still not over it.’

It was a petty mindset to harbor ill feelings about something from hundreds of years ago, but he didn’t care.

‘I just need to live well. Just me.’

Whether senior or not, he didn’t care about Dayna.

What mattered to Derkius was only himself and Divine Force.

‘She should have written a contract when I offered to write one, tsk tsk. Well, it’s good for me. Hehe.’

Thinking she was easy to use because she was a sucker, Derkius opened Elsis’s function window.

[Function – Illusion Prison]

-Description: Creates an Illusion Prison trap in a certain area. Souls that step on the trap immediately see illusions designed by the installer. They cannot escape the Illusion Prison until the installer releases it.

-Consumes 10,000,000 Divine Force when installed

-When applied to transcendents, consumes 10 times more during installation

Illusion Prison, one of Elsis’s functions, was useful for torturing souls.

‘By showing all kinds of illusions, it mentally exhausts them.’

The moment you’re caught in an Illusion Prison, it’s over.

This applies to transcendents and everyone else alike.

Even transcendents had no different mental strength from ordinary souls.

Derkius chose Illusion Prison among many functions for no other reason.

Nothing was more certain for extracting Divine Force.

‘Though it does consume a lot of Divine Force.’

While an Illusion Prison that only works on ordinary souls costs 10 million, a prison that works even on transcendents costs a whopping 100 million.

‘But considering cost-effectiveness, there’s nothing like it.’

As long as they’re caught in the Illusion Prison, he could mentally torment Min Do-jun indefinitely.

To the point of becoming a cripple.

‘Illusion Prison is torture itself. No matter how tough that bastard is, he can’t endure infinite torture.’

Eventually Min Do-jun would voluntarily cough it up.

The 350 million Divine Force he took from Dayna.

‘Same goes for Dayna.’

He’d torture Dayna too to extract the remaining 150 million Divine Force.

After annihilating the penniless transcendents, he could calm the situation.

Then all that would remain would be a comfortable life as the one true god.

‘Though the prison installation costs 100 million, if successful, more than that will come in.’

He didn’t feel it was wasteful.

‘They’re almost here.’

Derkius, who had moved quickly, arrived at a location filled with gray clouds.

It was the Illusion Prison installation site he had sent to Dayna via communication.

Derkius watched Dayna with Clairvoyance.

He could see Dayna running with Min Do-jun.

‘They’re still far from arriving.’

Since he needed to install it in advance, he had deliberately chosen a close location.

‘Looking at the direction, she’s luring him this way.’

If things went according to plan, he might be able to catch two rabbits: Min Do-jun and Dayna.

Chuckling with a satisfied smile, Derkius opened the function window.

Prepared to use 100 million Divine Force, he used the Illusion Prison ability.

‘Use Illusion Prison.’

But a problem occurred.

‘Hm? What? Why isn’t it working?’

He recited the activation word, but there was no response.

‘Divine Force shouldn’t be insufficient.’

He had as much as 3 billion, so there was no problem.

Most importantly, if it were insufficient, a message saying so would have appeared.

‘But no response?’

He recited the activation word once more, but it was the same.

Derkius tilted his head in puzzlement.

‘Huh? I have a head?’

It was from this moment that he began to notice the strangeness.

Derkius’s gaze slowly turned downward.

Arms and legs were the first things he saw, then the clothes he was wearing.

‘Wh-what is this?’

When he fumblingly brought his hand up, he touched his face.

A sensation he had never felt in his lifetime.

These were things that couldn’t exist for Derkius, who was a spirit and transcendent.

‘I-I became human?’

He was flustered.

He had to be.

For someone who had been a spirit from birth, it was hard to accept becoming a creation.

While Derkius was flustered.

“How is it? How does it feel to become human?”

A human appeared before his eyes.

It was a human he knew well.

“Mi-Min Do-jun…”

As the bastard appeared before he could even install the Illusion Prison, Derkius frowned.

‘Damn it, why does Elsis break down at times like this…!’

“It’s not broken.”

As if reading his thoughts, Min Do-jun answered, causing Derkius to look with surprised eyes.

“What are you talking about?”

“You got caught. In the Illusion Prison I installed.”

“What?”

Derkius made a bewildered expression.

‘I got caught in an Illusion Prison?’

Come to think of it, Min Do-jun was wearing black armor and holding Excalibur in one hand.

‘He’s wearing hunter equipment? In this underworld?’

An impossible situation.

The sudden malfunction of Elsis, gaining a human body, and so on.

There were more than one or two incomprehensible points.

‘I really got caught?’

If that were true, it would mean he had installed an Illusion Prison before him.

Derkius scoffed as if it was nonsense.

“Don’t talk nonsense. I clearly saw you two moving with Clairvoyance. How could you install it before me?”

“Why not? There’s a very good function among Elsis’s abilities. It’s called Clone Technique.”

“What? Clone Technique?”

He wasn’t asking because he didn’t know.

He asked reflexively in shock.

“You used that function?”

“Yeah. What you were watching wasn’t the real me. I used Clone Technique to slip away from when I started running with Dayna.”

“……”

If he really used Clone Technique, it was understandable that Derkius didn’t know.

It was originally a function to avoid others’ gazes by instantly switching between the main body and clone.

“I was worried about getting caught because clones created by Clone Technique don’t change expressions, but fortunately you didn’t notice because you were busy communicating with Dayna.”

“You… how did you know about my contact with Dayna…”

Suddenly a thought flashed through Derkius’s mind.

“Don’t tell me Dayna betrayed…”

“Betrayal? Dayna was on our side from the beginning.”

“What?”

Derkius was mentally shocked by the successive truths.

“From the beginning… you say?”

“How else could I have gotten to the location you mentioned first? It was possible because Dayna shared the location and bought time.”

“……”

Derkius’s mouth fell open at the unbelievable fact.

‘I was fooled by that sucker Dayna…’

The fact that he had been deceived by Dayna’s acting brought an inexplicable sense of self-loathing.

Most importantly, the problem was the reality of being trapped in an Illusion Prison.

“Now are your questions resolved?”

“……”

“By the way, I still haven’t heard how it feels to become human…”

“……”

“You don’t want to talk? No, are you still not feeling it?”

Min Do-jun seemed to approach and then suddenly disappeared from view.

Derkius’s eyes widened.

‘Huh? Where did he go…’

“If you don’t feel it, I’ll have to make you understand with your body.”

Slash-!

There was a sound of something being cut.

Looking down, he saw one of his arms had fallen off.

Derkius’s pupils dilated instantly.

“Keu, keuaaahhh!”

It was the first time he had felt pain.

Looking up, Min Do-jun was smiling like a demon right in front of him.