Chapter 369: Maestro of the Underworld (2)

The golden citadel of the Ascender Guild, which had been the absolute ruler of District 5, was now remodeled into the grand headquarters of the Death Cult, where pitch-black flags fluttered.

The executives of the upper guild alliance and the martial artists of the Demonic Cult who had dared to raise the banner of rebellion against the Death Lord?

Their ends were miserable.

After being reborn as undead due to the Land of Death, they were thrown into the citadel's repair work.

The terrible sight of the guild leaders and executives they used to serve becoming undead and carrying bricks.

To the residents of District 5, it was the most certain and physical symbol of terror that traitors could not rest even in death.

The residents of District 5 despaired.

Since a murderer and Necromancer who had ground up the powerhouses of the upper districts like a blender in a single breath had become the ruler, they thought bloody winds would blow every day or coercive dark magic brainwashing would follow, turning them into slaves.

However, when a few days actually passed and the new order settled in, the atmosphere of District 5 was flowing in a completely different direction from people's expectations.

"Hey, is this real? I sincerely offered a prayer of gratitude once before going to sleep last night, and the highest-grade potions sold at the Cult's direct workshop are half price?"

"Half price isn't the only issue! When a C-rank light shone from my orb, they gave me a free pass to the core hunting grounds of District 5! They even said guild taxes on the by-products mined there are completely exempt!"

"Oh my god. I've lived until now getting 40% of my marks ripped off as taxes under the Ascender Guild, haven't I?"

The residents could not hide their bewilderment. Because he was the Death Lord, they thought he was a cruel tyrant.

But what was this?

To his own believers, he was a total pushover who showered them with benefits more benevolently than any charity organization.

At first, someone suspected.

That perhaps a brainwashing magic that bewitches people was placed on that Faith Orb.

However, even if the prominent mages of District 5 analyzed it for a hundred days, there wasn't even a speck of a trace of dark magic or brainwashing.

One merely had to place their hand on the orb and harbor gratitude toward Kim Minwoo.

The more sincerely one believed, the deeper the orb's color became, and benefits transcending imagination poured out matching that rank.

Of course, not everyone could enjoy those benefits.

In front of the Cult shop.

A man wearing worn-out equipment was cautiously opening his mouth with a heavily intimidated face.

"E-excuse me, Priest. I, in my own way, sincerely shouted long live Lord Kim Minwoo just now, you know? I repeated three times in my head that I praise the great Death Lord, so why are you taking the full regular price from me……."

The intermediate priest under the Money Talks Guild who took on the role of a clerk looked down at the man with a contemptuous gaze, as if looking at a bug. The Faith Orb held in the man's hand was blinking weakly with a faint ash color (F-rank).

"Brother, a petty tongue that only babbles with words is not faith. The orb does not lie."

The priest drew the line with a chilling voice.

"This place is a sanctuary of thorough faith. There is no mercy to give to those who only try to suck out shallow benefits. Either pay the full regular price, or step back. The next A-rank believer needs to pay, after all."

"Ah…… I-I understand."

The man bit his lip tightly, but could not dare to spit out curses or protest.

To defy the guild housing the terrifying Death Lord who had butchered the rulers of District 5 whole just a moment ago?

It was a suicidal act hastening his own demise.

Looking at the man paying the regular price and stepping back without complaint, the priest and the guild members merely ignored him perfectly.

Although the Money Talks Guild members and the Cult's priests treated F-ranks who lacked faith as trash worse than beasts, they didn't exactly draw their swords to sever their breaths.

The reason was simple.

Even if it was a shallow and fake belief, at least a speck-sized amount of faith flowed in from within the tongues they forcibly squeezed out to receive benefits. There was no reason to go out of their way to destroy highly cost-effective, infinite power batteries that raised divinity even a little bit.

Of course, that didn't mean they left those who crossed the line alone.

Because they would shove them into the correction room where a process more terrible than death awaited.

The two eyes of the F-rank man, who had tucked his tail and stepped back like that, soon glared open, bloodshot.

"Ohh! You devout servant of the great Master!"

The voice of the priest, who had been looking at him like a bug until a moment ago, had changed 180 degrees.

It was because when the woman standing right behind the man placed her hand on the Faith Orb, the orb spewed a deep and clear pitch-black light.

"A-rank believer! Here is the free rental ticket for the full set of highest-grade luxury equipment you requested, and the VIP core hunting ground free pass for District 5! Of course, the taxes on all by-products you obtain there are 100% completely exempt!"

"Thank you. All of this is entirely the grace of the great Death Lord."

"Haha! Of course. You are indeed a devout believer."

The lips of the F-rank man watching that sight trembled.

While some worked their fingers to the bone only to get all their marks ripped off at regular price, and rolled around in trash hunting grounds getting hit with 40% taxes. That woman was living in luxury, enjoying all the wealth and power of District 5 with a free pass, solely for the reason that her faith was deep.

However, that was exactly what was more terrifying.

If they had rather stabbed and oppressed with blades, he might have harbored a rebellious spirit at least.

But in this thorough capitalistic society, to fall perfectly behind and become obsolete because one could not receive the benefits others enjoyed. That was an economic punishment far more terrible and cruel than physical violence.

'Please let's believe……. Please let's believe……. Kim Minwoo is my god……. I have to believe to make a living…….!'

A shallow, fake belief started for money and benefits.

However, humans who witnessed the overwhelming gap in benefits with their two eyes and became bitterly jealous, gradually transformed into true fanatics while deceiving their own brains to survive.

Cooking and boiling souls whole with the sweetness of capitalism and desperate jealousy, making them kneel on their own.

This was exactly the most vicious and perfect new order that the stagnant water Kim Minwoo had driven into District 5.

Atop the highest spire of District 5. Looking at the messages pouring into his status window, Kim Minwoo satisfyingly curled up the corners of his mouth.

[The explosive faith of the residents of District 5 is collected!]

[Voluntary worship breaks through the limit!]

[Your divinity rises very greatly!]

"As expected, humans are bound to become boundlessly reverent before money and benefits."

On the land polished with blood and terror, he scattered the most fertile manure called capitalism.

In just a week, District 5 had perfectly evolved into a sweet garden of faith that infinitely copied Kim Minwoo's divinity.

＊ ＊ ＊

The woman who stepped foot onto an obscure spire in District 5, quietly cutting through the torn empty air.

It was the Heavenly Demon Yoo Honbi, the ruler of District 1 and one of the Seven Lords.

She completely suppressed her massive demonic energy, lightly ignoring the warning window of the spatial penalty accompanying a descent to a lower district.

Filled with anger, she wanted to dye District 5 blood-red right this instant, but she was a seasoned ruler.

Barging in while blindly spewing momentum against another of the Seven Lords was something only idiots did.

Yoo Honbi's eyes, quietly looking down at the streets of District 5 from the spire, narrowed minutely.

'……What kind of state is this?'

District 5 entering her eyes was far too peaceful.

Instead, what filled the streets was endless death.

Tens of thousands of undead repairing the collapsed citadel, carrying bricks, and patrolling the streets.

The army of death, which didn't even breathe, never tired forever, and silently only worked, was turning as the new cogs of District 5.

And a sight even more heterogeneous than that.

Residents stopping everywhere on the streets or ceasing their walk to repeatedly bow their heads and mutter toward the orbs in their hands.

Yoo Honbi's face became expressionless.

'……A Necromancer who has gained the power of divinity.'

She pierced through the essence in a single breath.

A blind faith squeezed out while deceiving their own brains to survive, or to gain petty benefits.

Their shallow prayers, even that forcibly created belief, was ultimately turning intact into that monster's infinite power.

'He's dangerous.'

If left alone, he would become a disaster that would swallow the ecosystem of the entire Heavenly City.

Kugugugugung―!

Before long, a massive shadow covering the sky over District 5 was cast far away.

The massive divine dragon forged from the bones of an ancient dragon of antiquity, Gleipnir. Standing leisurely on the back of that overwhelming dragon, Kim Minwoo revealed his appearance.

At that, the tens of thousands of people in the plaza simultaneously prostrated themselves on the ground.

Let alone the fanatics who sincerely praised him, even those who inwardly swallowed curses and disbelieved were desperately offering prayers reverently so as not to be pushed out of the benefits.

Yoo Honbi silently looked down at that bizarre and overwhelming sight of domination from the spire.

Soon, her hand headed toward her waist.

Seureung―.

Quietly, yet with the heaviest sound in the world, the Heavenly Demon's sword slipped out of its sheath.

It was that moment.

Kwaaaaang―!!!

Yoo Honbi's explosive demonic energy, which had been completely suppressed, was released in a single breath, mercilessly tearing the sky of District 5 into two dark red streaks.

An absolute supremacy that suffocated breath.

The murderous intent of one of the Seven Lords crushed the entirety of District 5.

"Hi, hiiiiik!"

"Wh-what! Th-that dark red energy is……!"

The eyes of the people who were offering prayers reverently rolled back.

Those who pissed themselves, dampening their pants in overwhelming terror, rolled on the plaza ground and screamed.

"H-Heavenly Demon!"

"The ruler of the Demonic Cult! Y-Yoo Honbi!"

The plaza that had turned into a pandemonium.

From atop Gleipnir floating in the empty air at the center of that panic, Kim Minwoo smirked, casually resting Hell Rhapsody on his shoulder.

"I didn't expect you to come all the way here yourself."

Yoo Honbi, having soared tearing through the sky, stood in the empty air where blood-red demonic energy swirled and met eyes with Kim Minwoo.

An expressionless face devoid of a single emotion, chillingly cold. Her red lips parted slowly.

"Death Lord, so that your corpse may never rise again― I shall personally burn you down to ashes."

The rule breaker who had cultivated a garden of faith, and the Heavenly Demon who descended to trample that sprout.

The suffocating gazes of the two monsters clashed head-on in the middle of the blood-red sky.