Chapter 10. Great Disaster (1)
Jooheon took out the 'Pen from Shakespeare's Childhood' and wrote on the ground.
[Ilya Volkov used one of Solomon's Demon Artifacts, an Artifact capable of stopping time, and stopped time throughout the entire world except for the team members.]
This Artifact made whatever was written with it become reality.
The moment the sentence was engraved into the ground...
Ilya moved exactly as written.
“Furcas!”
The moment that name echoed...
Space split.
A man holding an ancient golden astronomical device emerged.
Furcas.
One of the seventy-two demons.
A being who governed astronomy, astrology, and time.
He stroked his long beard.
Then raised the celestial clock.
Planets.
Constellations.
Clockwork axes.
Everything rotated inside it.
“Do you wish to see a world where time no longer flows?”
Furcas muttered.
He grabbed the central axis of the clock.
Then...
Click.
Time stopped.
A pigeon's flapping wings froze in midair.
A screaming man stopped with his mouth open.
Pedestrians remained frozen in the middle of falling.
Everything...
Stopped.
Except one group.
Jooheon and his team.
[Time Stop activated.]
[The world has temporarily stopped.]
[Maximum Duration: 30 minutes.]
[Warning.]
[Once the duration expires, the global curse will forcibly resume.]
Jooheon exhaled in relief.
“This should buy us some time.”
Ilya nodded.
Then...
[Amazing!♥]
[You stopped the disaster in such an unusual way!]
“!”
That damn book hadn't stopped?
Rulebook laughed brightly.
[Did you really think an Artifact could stop the one responsible for delivering disasters?♥]
[Still, you successfully prevented catastrophe.]
[Bonus points will be awarded to this world!]
[But you won't be able to stop the next one!]
The pages of the book began flipping on their own.
A card appeared.
As though its appearance had already been predetermined.
A black pickaxe shattered into pieces.
[Congratulations, humans!]
[You became the supreme predators among primates merely because you learned how to use tools!]
[Vishvakarma's Curse.]
[The Lockdown of Tools begins♥]
“!”
A second tower erupted from the earth.
Unlike the red Tower of Babel...
This tower was covered entirely in blue.
Then...
“...$&$*%?”
The team shouted something.
Probably asking what the hell it was.
They found out immediately.
CRACK!
The first things to fracture were smartphones.
Then computers.
Tableware.
Weapons.
Everything humans had invented as tools...
“$#$&#!”
“$%($*%(!!!!”
It felt as though the entire world were being dragged back into the primitive age.
Rulebook laughed in delight.
[There are two reasons humans were able to evolve differently from beasts.]
[First, 'language.']
[Second, 'tools.']
[Now we're taking both away♥]
A status window appeared before Jooheon.
[Vishvakarma's Curse has activated.]
[Every tool, technology, machine, weapon, and Artifact created by humans will be disabled.]
[Destroyed civilization returns to its beginning.]
[Humans will no longer be able to use tools.]
[All 'tools' have stopped.]
[Artifacts bound to humans are being punished and can no longer be used.]
Jooheon frowned.
Vishvakarma.
A craftsman god from Indian mythology.
The god said to have created the tools used by the gods.
In other words...
The first creator of tools.
Which meant...
“This curse destroys everything humans created with their 'hands.'”
But...
[The curse is not powerful enough to suppress Majesty's authority.]
[Consumable Artifacts remain usable.]
Rulebook laughed.
[Will you be able to stop this curse too?♥]
[Can humans survive without tools?]
[Civilization will now be destroyed♥]
Jooheon grinned.
How do I break a curse on tools?
He picked up Shakespeare's Pen again.
Then wrote.
“A tool doesn't become a tool merely because it can be held in one's hand.”
His fingers moved through the air.
[Writing is an axe that reproduces thought.]
[A story is an awl that pierces through time.]
[A record is a blade that never dies.]
[Artifacts born from language, memory, and stories are exempt from this curse.]
At that instant...
Golden light exploded from the writing.
It was like a sealed heart had begun beating again.
Artifacts that had stopped began breathing once more.
Stories.
Traditions.
Legends.
They carried the Artifacts back to life.
A status window appeared.
[Vishvakarma's Curse remains active.]
[However, Artifacts born from stories and traditions are exempt.]
[Human-made tools cannot be used.]
[Artifacts born from memory remain usable.]
[These Artifacts were born from 'narrative,' not from 'hands.']
[Therefore, they cannot be destroyed.]
“$##&...!”
The team cheered.
“##&(#$(!!”
They were probably celebrating the fact that they could use Artifacts again.
Then...
“Captain!”
“!”
They could communicate?
Before Jooheon could figure out how...
Yoo Jaeha ran out from the building, drenched in sweat.
He was holding a tiny translation Artifact.
[Solomon's Earring That Hears the Voices of All Things
(S-Grade / Bound Artifact)]
A bronze earring.
Jaeha had quickly duplicated several copies.
He threw them to the team.
Everyone immediately put one on.
“How is it?”
“Good!”
“It works! We understand each other!”
“Oh! Finally!”
King Solomon was said to understand the languages of not only humans but beasts, birds, and even demons.
That legend had manifested as a translation Artifact.
At that moment...
The blue tower in the distance vibrated.
CRACK!
A deep fracture appeared across its surface.
Then...
“Ilya!”
Jooheon pointed.
“Burn it!”
Now that they could understand each other, Ilya quietly began chanting.
“...Answer me, seventy-two legions of Hell.”
Dark crimson flames appeared inside a magic circle.
“You who command flame.”
“You who breathe the black fires of Hell...”
Ilya's eyes flashed.
“Phlegathis!”
“The Forty-Eighth Demon Lord.”
“Rise from Hell's furnace and burn everything.”
A humanoid demon covered in hellfire appeared.
Its face was black and eyeless.
Flames poured from its entire body.
The demon swept one hand through the air.
Hellfire shot toward Rulebook.
FWOOSH!
The book coughed.
[C-Cough! Cough!]
Burnt pages scattered.
Rulebook staggered.
[A-Amazing.]
[You even escaped the second curse!]
