Chapter 116. The Meaning of the Morning Star (2)
In an age so ancient that even the memories of it had grown faint...
There existed beings created beneath an absolute power.
Those beings were called angels.
They had been born to praise the Absolute and obey His commands.
But among them was the greatest angel of all, the one closest to the Absolute.
That angel developed ambition.
He began to think about dragging the Absolute down and taking His place.
That angel incited the others and started a war.
Many angels responded to the voice of the one who shone brighter than anyone else.
Belial was among them.
But Belial himself had never been especially ambitious.
A war to overthrow the Absolute?
There was nothing particularly appealing about that to him.
Belial had always been lazy by nature.
The other angels were excited at the thought of winning glory through fierce battle, but Belial couldn’t understand why they wanted to do something so difficult and dangerous.
Even after falling into Hell, he would consistently vote against full-scale war.
That was how much Belial disliked war itself.
And yet there was only one reason he had chosen to fight against the Absolute.
He revered the brightest angel.
Lucifer, the superior elder brother created before him.
That was all.
For that reason, Belial had not felt especially dissatisfied even after falling into Hell.
They had lost the war against the Absolute, but they were still alive.
Lucifer had survived as well and fallen into Hell with them.
Belial simply thought they could start over there.
He had no desire to wage another war and end up in an even worse situation.
So he used every bit of eloquence he possessed to persuade his fellow demons that they should never attempt another full-scale war against the Absolute.
A great deal of time passed after that.
Belial committed countless evil deeds as a demon.
He particularly enjoyed teaching humans forbidden pleasures and tempting them into transgression.
At the same time, he remained beside Lucifer, who never abandoned his ambitions and continued struggling onward.
There were no great wars for thousands of years.
Pandemonium remained more or less stable.
For Belial, it was the most peaceful and enjoyable period of his existence.
But then...
A tremendous change that shook the entire universe reached even Pandemonium.
Countless demons began shouting that now was the time to invade the human world and seize new glory.
Eventually, the Demon God Assembly decided to invade the Material Realm.
Lucifer and the Seventy-Two Demons led their legions into war.
Belial found the whole thing troublesome.
Even so, he led his eighty legions into battle.
Just as he had in that first ancient war...
he followed the will of Lucifer, the one he revered.
But then Lucifer suddenly died.
The conquest, which had been progressing smoothly, came to an abrupt halt.
Many demons were deeply shaken.
Some suggested selecting a new leader from among the Seventy-Two Demons.
But in the end, they reached the conclusion that no one could truly replace Lucifer.
After countless debates, the Seventy-Two Demons decided to stop the war.
Each of them withdrew with their respective legions and shut themselves away inside the newly conquered territories they had been granted.
Belial grieved.
But he could accept it.
He had always believed that something like this might happen one day.
Lucifer had been more forward-looking than anyone Belial had ever known.
A pioneer.
A trailblazer.
Someone who always stood at the very front.
Lucifer had always chosen the most dangerous battlefield.
That was why Belial considered his death honorable.
Belial gathered his emotions and decided to continue living while preserving his memories of Lucifer.
He stepped away from the center of power and intended to spend the rest of his days quietly, doing business with humans.
But then...
Belial learned that a plan to resurrect Lucifer was being carried out inside Pandemonium.
Naturally, they weren’t trying to resurrect Lucifer because they missed him.
They needed Lucifer’s power to restart the war and completely conquer the Material Realm this time.
Worse still, they had joined hands with humans.
Their plan appeared to involve using human bodies to create a new body for Lucifer.
Belial was furious.
To him, it was an act that defiled the one who had died an honorable death on the most dangerous battlefield.
Lucifer should remain in history forever as a revolutionary who had fought more fiercely than anyone else.
But Belial lacked the power to stop them.
After Lucifer’s death, Belial had relinquished most of his authority and distanced himself from the center of power.
If he acted openly now, the other demons would surely purge him.
So Belial quietly began gathering information.
He also interacted with humans and searched for capable people who might become useful allies.
Ma Taesu of the Black Dragon Society was one of them.
Then one day, Belial met a Contractor with no real ability.
After speaking with him a few times, Belial became interested.
The man was remarkably intelligent.
And more than that...
his determination to keep struggling even in a hopeless situation resembled Lucifer in some small way.
Unfortunately, the man failed to overcome his limits and died.
Belial had been deeply saddened at the time.
But then...
he returned.
This time, he possessed far greater power.
He had become a being capable of influencing the world itself.
Belial decided he would never let this opportunity slip away.
He would use everything at his disposal to slaughter those disgusting blasphemers.
So that the honor of the one he revered would never be defiled.
So that even the slightest stain would never touch the glorious memories of Lucifer he carried within his heart.
“Ha Mina has joined hands with a faction inside Pandemonium to resurrect Lucifer.”
With the roar of the waves in the background, Belial spoke to me.
“Ha Mina wasn’t working with Pandemonium from the beginning. After Lucifer died, she began independently searching for a way to resurrect him. During that process, she made contact with Pandemonium and joined forces with them.”
“So in the end, all of this started with Ha Mina?”
“That’s right.”
In other words, everyone had been completely deceived.
She had never been some benevolent saint.
“Ha Mina created several Vessels besides Kang Yujin that could serve as Lucifer’s body. They’re scattered across the world.”
“The Church of the Morning Star didn’t expand into that many countries, though.”
“Ha Mina didn’t have to handle everything personally. She could simply use other people.”
Then...
did that mean there were others like Kang Yujin all over the world?
“Ha Mina probably intended to make Kang Yujin grow stronger this time.”
“Kang Yujin?”
“That’s why she gave him the trial of fighting Phenex. She believed overcoming that trial would make him stronger both physically and spiritually.”
“Then Ha Mina actually wanted Kang Yujin to defeat Phenex? Even though they were allies in the plan to resurrect Lucifer?”
“That’s the terrifying part about Ha Mina. To her, the demons of Pandemonium are nothing more than tools for achieving her ambition.”
"..."
“Even if Kang Yujin had died to Phenex, she probably wouldn’t have cared. If that was all he amounted to, then he wasn’t qualified to be a Vessel in the first place.”
Ha Mina’s behavior, which had once seemed scattered and contradictory, was finally beginning to make sense.
