Chapter 109: Sacred Relic Excavation Team (1)
Boom boom boom—
Angels who charged toward him only to be crushed beneath buildings and meet their end.
Chae Jin-young clicked his tongue and muttered.
“I told you to dodge when I said dodge.”
“You should’ve given them time to dodge before saying it.”
At Chae So-young’s remark that didn’t take his side, Chae Jin-young shook his head slowly.
“You still don’t get it. If I had given them time, do you think they would’ve dodged?”
“…They would’ve attacked.”
“Exactly, So-young-ah. That’s how you learn about society.”
“Is that really society?”
Chae So-young expressed doubt, but Chae Jin-young didn’t reply any further.
Instead, he simply looked around at the perfectly reconstructed Nine City.
Demons walking the streets, maintaining pipes, eating in restaurants.
Even the residents of Nine City had returned to hell as they were.
“By the way, how on earth did you fit something like this into subspace?”
Chae So-young marveled as she looked around the city in every direction.
The idea of moving an entire city into subspace was something no one else could have conceived.
Except for her brother.
“I didn’t think it would actually work either.”
Chae Jin-young was astonished by Nine City’s reconstruction for a different reason.
Strictly speaking, the Nine City he had absorbed wasn’t the ‘real’ one.
It was merely a constructed space—part of a dungeon’s composition.
He had even imagined that the moment it was returned to the real hell, the dungeon system might intervene and cause it to vanish.
Fortunately, nothing of the sort happened.
Shuu…
At that moment, a demon flew toward them with large wings spread wide.
Dressed neatly in a suit, his identity was the person in charge of this city and the branch manager leading the Red Industry.
Vritra.
Sss…
Vritra landed lightly in front of Chae Jin-young and prostrated himself.
“I greet the Apostle of God.”
“What? You’re still alive.”
Unlike the Void Church leader whom Chae Jin-young had killed in the dungeon, this one had managed to survive.
Simply because he had forgotten about him while searching for the Void Church’s main base.
『Thanks to this guy, we succeeded in taking control of Nine City and even managed to relocate it.』
‘Are you defending your follower now?’
『I’m just stating facts.』
Since all the demons in Nine City were fervent followers of the tentacle, such a reaction was understandable.
Meanwhile, Chae So-young, completely unaware of any of this, couldn’t comprehend the situation at all.
She simply watched in a daze.
“I have something urgent to report.”
At Vritra’s words, Chae Jin-young tilted his head.
“What is it.”
“First, it would be best if you personally inspected the power plant.”
***
Flap flap—
Angels flapping their filthy, dirt-stained wings.
Some looked so frantic that feathers were being pulled out.
Rael, the investigation team leader leading one of the many teams in the sacred relic excavation group.
She still felt a chill down her spine from the power displayed by the unidentified human.
She had thought he was merely an unlucky human who had fallen into hell.
But perhaps he had come down to hell of his own volition.
“Lady Rael, what in the world was that?”
Lost in thought, Rael didn’t immediately answer her subordinate’s question.
After considering various possibilities.
“It might be the proxy of ‘that deity’ who is trying to rebuild the fallen hell.”
“…!”
Though the name wasn’t spoken directly, the moment the words “that deity” came out, the angels’ faces hardened.
The greatest cause behind the five successive holy wars they had waged.
“But this is only speculation—we shouldn’t jump to conclusions yet. First, we report to headquarters, then begin a formal investigation.”
“This hell expedition may not end with simply excavating the sacred relic.”
“Yes, it might even become the spark for the Sixth Holy War. Though the probability is low, of course.”
At the continuing shocking statements, the angels’ faces grew even darker.
Rael herself wanted to avoid war at all costs.
After five holy wars already, the angelic tribes’ power had been greatly weakened.
Even the deity who should protect them was unable to act because of “that deity” whose name could not be spoken.
That was why the angelic tribes would never initiate a holy war first.
But…
If the demons who have completed reconstruction declare war first, the story changes.
Before long, Rael’s group arrived at the excavation team headquarters, surrounded by bizarre rock formations.
They reached a temple-like building with an antique design, carved from pure white stone.
Even though it had been hastily built as a temporary structure, the fact that they constructed a proper building instead of a simple tent was characteristic of their kind.
Snap.
The guards saluted them.
Rael returned the salute and entered the headquarters. The rest of her subordinates couldn’t enter freely and waited outside.
Thud thud.
Passing through the unnecessarily wide corridor of the headquarters, Rael entered the office of the sacred relic excavation team leader and Archangel.
There was no proper door—everything was open—so there was no need to knock.
The Archangel sat at a white stone desk, diligently writing something with a quill pen.
Unlike ordinary angels who had one pair of wings, he possessed two pairs.
“You returned empty-handed, Rael.”
The Archangel spoke without even looking up at Rael, still focused on his writing.
She bowed her head.
“I apologize, Archangel. An unexpected powerful enemy appeared, so we had no choice but to retreat.”
“A powerful enemy?”
Only then did the Archangel raise an eyebrow and lift his head to look at Rael.
She reported in detail: encountering a suspicious human in the city ruins and the human summoning an entire city.
The more he listened, the darker the Archangel’s face grew, as if shadows were falling over it.
“Rebuilding hell…….”
He was so absorbed that he even forgot to reprimand her for returning without clues to the chalice.
It might be something even more important than finding the chalice.
But whether the commodity angels lounging comfortably in heaven would think the same was uncertain.
“Those old fogeys—no, the elders—will probably nag that we need to reclaim the chalice quickly and strike first in this situation.”
At the Archangel’s mix of refined and crude language, Rael didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
One thing was certain: she had brought back information as valuable as the chalice itself.
She felt fortunate to have avoided a scolding.
“But can reclaiming just one chalice really allow us to capture Gehenna?”
At Rael’s innocent question, the Archangel clicked his tongue.
“Well, the younger generation probably hasn’t truly felt how great the chalice is. With the chalice alone, turning an entire demon city to ashes takes only an instant.”
“…….”
The Archangel’s vague explanation made it hard to grasp the chalice’s true value.
Seeing Rael’s confused expression, he continued with visible frustration.
“The chalice displays its true worth only in the hands of a great knight. It allows one to wield the ‘cyclic energy’ overseen by our main deity.”
“Ah……!”
Only then did Rael exclaim in admiration.
Cyclic energy was the power every angel yearned for.
Most angels could only handle the degraded version called ‘holy power.’
Only the cherubim—known as quasi-divine—were said to be able to wield cyclic energy.
“The demons stole the sacred relic and created that blasphemous thing called hellfire—you probably didn’t know that either.”
“I do know. It was the reason the first holy war broke out…”
“That’s why we must at least reclaim the chalice to save face. If we hadn’t lost it during the Fourth Holy War, victory would have been ours.”
Recalling the Fourth and Fifth Holy Wars, the Archangel’s expression turned gloomy.
Rael cautiously observed him before asking.
“Then shall we set out again to search for the chalice?”
“No. First, we must investigate that human presumed to be the proxy of ‘that deity.’ You tail him discreetly without being detected. In the meantime, I’ll recall the scattered investigation teams.”
“…Yes, understood.”
Though fear rose in Rael at the thought of approaching that terrifying human again, she could not disobey the Archangel’s order.
After bowing in respect and leaving, the Archangel raised his right hand.
Flap flap—
A bird covered entirely in pure white feathers flew in from somewhere and landed lightly on his hand.
Sss…
Holy power flowed from his right hand and permeated the bird’s body.
“Deliver this well to Him.”
“Chirp.”
The bird carrying the Archangel’s message flew upward and disappeared into a small portal.
***
Psssh— psssh—
“The lava flowing from the valley is far too insufficient to operate the power plant at full capacity.”
Vritra pointed toward the lava flowing from the valley as he spoke.
For some reason, the steam engine facilities seemed to be making weaker sounds than when seen in the dungeon.
“Yeah, the amount does seem a bit low.”
“Indeed.”
Vritra nodded at Chae Jin-young’s words.
The Red Industry operated its steam engines using lava flowing from the valleys of hell’s mountain ranges.
Thanks to that power plant, all of Nine City was operating with full vitality.
However, the lava that had flowed abundantly in the dungeon was woefully insufficient here in hell.
“Have you been up the mountain?”
“Yes. There is something unknown installed at the mountain peak.”
At Vritra’s words, Chae Jin-young headed straight for the summit without delay.
Crackle crackle crackle—
Emitting psionic energy, Chae Jin-young soared into the air in an instant.
He arrived at the highest peak of the mountain range surrounding Nine City.
Just as Vritra had said, an unidentified structure stood imposingly there.
Since Vritra didn’t know what it was, it likely wasn’t something made by demons.
Moreover, the atmosphere emanating from the structure was completely different from that of demons.
It felt more similar to the angels he had encountered not long ago.
It looked like massive pure white bricks stacked in the shape of an altar.
Judging from the circumstances, this altar was blocking the hellfire lava from flowing down.
Standing in front of the altar, Chae Jin-young lightly touched one of the bricks with psychokinesis.
Tss-ts!
The brick repelled his psionic energy.
Indeed, there was a repulsive force pushing away other energies.
And the source of that repulsive force was none other than cyclic energy.
‘So the stronger angels can handle cyclic energy.’
Chae Jin-young hadn’t sensed cyclic energy from the angels he had met earlier.
Instead, he recalled that they had been filled with holy power flowing from the ash-gray orb.
『It seems the origin of the holy power possessed by angels is cyclic energy.』
‘But that’s strange. Why would cyclic energy be embedded in the hellfire used by demons?’
『They might have stolen it.』
Chae Jin-young nodded at the tentacle’s straightforward guess.
It was quite plausible.
The most certain way would be to meet the angels again and ask them directly.
‘They might also know about the ash-gray orb and the chalice.’
Chae Jin-young thought of the artifacts he had left with the secret research division.
Though he didn’t know exactly what artifact the angels were searching for, since they said it was lost in hell, it might be something similar.
At that moment, the tentacle spoke.
『The angels’ movements are unusual.』
The tentacle had been monitoring the angels’ activity since their mistaken encounter with Chae Jin-young.
Sure enough, they had begun to move.
‘I should at least give Nine City enough defensive capability.’
In its current state, Nine City would struggle to repel an invasion from the angels.
But if the power plant were operated at maximum capacity, the demons would gain sufficient defensive power as well.
Tss-ts-ts—
Chae Jin-young released psionic energy.
He mixed in cyclic energy as well, instantly raising the output.
Boom boom boom boom!
A psionic storm raged in an instant, enveloping the altar.
Crack crack crack— Boom!
Under the force of psychokinesis, the energy barrier was mercilessly shattered, and the bricks collapsed in a cascade.
Rumble rumble…
With that, the lava that had pooled like Lake Cheonji on Baekdu Mountain began pouring down the valley like a waterfall.
Just as Chae Jin-young was about to descend again after finishing the job.
As the pooled lava flowed away, something buried within it revealed itself.
“What is this now.”
Chae Jin-young used psychokinesis to pull out one of the numerous orbs piled up in the lava.
Tss-ts…
A pure white orb emitting intense light.
Sacred relics imbued with holy power several times stronger than the ash-gray orb lay stacked like treasure.
The corners of Chae Jin-young’s mouth curled up.
“This is a total jackpot.”
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