On Hiatus: God's Personal Reasons

Chapter 82: Apostle Gustav\'s Legacy

I swung my sword, unleashing black flames that pierced through its brows! But given his 10-meter size, it was nothing more than a drop in the ocean.

-Keke, what was that? You call that an attack? Shouldn’t even try!

The giant head of fire smiled mockingly.

-Keke, struggle as much as you want! You’re doomed! All of you will perish along with half of this entire continent! That’s what you get for making me mad!

Riiip! Baaaam!

The apostle spread its mouth open, about to burn down everything on the ground.

-Keke. You’ve been cut, Fireball.

But then, the eyes on the hilt of my sword mocked incredulously.

-What?

-Die.

With the arrogant Demon Lord\'s ridicule, black flames engulfed the brows of the apostle.

Flicker!

The apostle widened its eyes in shock.

Kwaaaa! Flicker!

Black flames devoured the apostle’s flames, expanding rapidly and wildly like wildfire.

Slowly consumed by the unidentifiable flames, the apostle of the Sun God screamed.

-Hicc! W-whats this?

-Keke, the flames from the deepest Eight Hot Hells, the Demon Lord’s Pratāpana. I harnessed it for 16,000 years by feeding on evil karma!

Ptzzz!

The black flames had swallowed two-thirds of the apostle’s gigantic body. Fear-stricken, the apostle yelled at me.

-Arghhh! S-stop! Please stop this horrible fire! If you spare me, my master and brother, Fire Shining in the Highest Skies, will be sure to fulfill any of your wishes!

“Should’ve said that before you tried to kill us, you bastard.”

I raised my middle finger at the screaming apostle.

-Arghhhh! N-noooo!

Kwaaaaa!

As the Sun God’s apostle was in death throes, the black flames encroached like a solar eclipse.

Gulp! Sss!

As if done with its mission, the black flames turned into smoke and disappeared soon after. Then, the clear blue sky returned to God Maker’s world, Antrinia.

“Waaaah! God Yu Il-Shin has triumphed!”

“He has performed a miracle and delivered us from a terrible catastrophe!”

"Ooh, praise be to our great God!"

“God Yu Il-Shin is the god among gods!”

Cheers from the people of the Gayami nation resounded from all directions.

“Phew.”

I fell helplessly, driving Sword God Demon Lord into the ground. It was definitely hard-fought, but I survived. I had triumphed over a hundred billion insects and their apostles.

I could feel energy draining from my entire body. My eyelids were getting heavier. Did I consume too much divine power? Sword God seemed to have overexerted himself as well, as the blade seemed to become dull.

“As expected of God Yu Il-Shin! I know he’d win!” Anty was screaming in my pocket.

I carefully handed her to Il-Ho, who stared at me with sparkling eyes. “Il-Ho, I’ll leave her to you...”

Ding!

[Congratulations, God Yu Il-Shin! You have won the holy war!]

[Your fame has spread across the entire continent!]

[You can now challenge the quest for “Mid-tier God Promotion”!]

I lost consciousness as more messages from God-Maker appeared.

Ding!

[God Yu Il-Shin is returning to reality.]

***

Rumble! Flash! Ruuumble!

Using her power, Sung Mi-Ri had been searching high and low for Yu Il-Shin for some time. Finally, she spotted him on the rooftop.

“Ah, found him!”

Snore—

Yu Il-Shin was sound asleep. Did he nod off because of the sun? Sung Mi-Ri looked down at him.

“Hehe.” She unconsciously chuckled.

As she stared at his face, She couldn’t stop smiling for some reason. But, where had he gone?

His green training suit was covered in dirt, as if he had been rolling around in the ground.

“Heave-ho. You’ll catch a cold if you sleep here, Mister.” Sung Mi-Ri picked him up gently.

Tap, rolllll—

Just then, Yu Il-Shin’s phone slipped from his hand and fell to the floor.

-Waaah!

On the screen, she could see tiny characters cheering and rejoicing wildly. He must be playing some sort of mobile game.

“Wow, they look so cute!” Sung Mi-Ri exclaimed without thinking.

The characters of the mobile game looked so cute and charming, especially the white-haired girl and the Lego-looking muscle man posing next to her.

-Muuuuscle! God Yu Il-Shin is the best! Puck puck!

-Kyaaa, I love you! God Yu Il-Shin, puck puck!

Picking up the phone, Sung Mi-Ri tilted her head.

“This seems like an interesting game. But why are the characters insulting him?”

***

Tadak! Tadadak!

I was typing like mad in my studio apartment. My unannounced disappearance amidst the paid serialization threw the message board in disarray.

It can’t be helped, okay? My babies of the Gayami nation and I needed to stay alive

In fact, I was still pretty exhausted from the aftermath of the war. If possible, I’d like to rest a little more... No, pretty please?

Mighty Editor-in-Charge:

Mr. Yu~? I’d like to remind you that you’re in the most important period. Even though your novel is the top of the Golden Best, it’s still free to read.

Haha, of course, our Mr. Yu Il-Shin should know this much. I firmly believe that.

Did you know? I always remember the first time you brought me your first manuscript ten years back as if it was yesterday.

And all I could say was that you are a genius....

That long text from my editor, a thinly veiled threat and appeasement, was enough to keep me going. Well, let’s not forget that, in addition to the loans, my account balance was practically empty. I went broke dealing with those damn imperial insects!

I still couldn’t get over how the method I had employed, using my entire fortune, didn’t help much in the war

“Phew, send.”

Click!

With a single click of the mouse, I’d uploaded the completed manuscript onto Dalpia.

As of now, the novel was only midway through the second volume. The story progressed from how I created the Second Moon to when Il-Ho climbed the Tower of Warriors, and finally to the time I defeated Sword Demon with Sword God.

Although I wrote it based on my own experience, the scenes with the Gayami were especially popular. I mean, they were adorable and cool and all, but what about me, the protagonist? Among all the characters in my novel, my character most likely didn’t make it to the top ten.

“Ughhh!” I took a slow, long stretch of my body.

Now that I had extinguished the most urgent fire, it was time for me to address the other pending issues.

Thus, I opened my desk drawer. In there lay the Demon Lord, with a crack on its blade, and the dagger I’d taken from the mantis in the past.

I appraised the dagger.

-----

[General Kamikiri’s Divine Sword]

One of the entities of the All-Cutting Heavenly Sword.

Special note: The spirit inhibiting the divine sword has disappeared.

-----

I took it after defeating the mantis, General Kamiri. At that time, it had such an eerie, bloody glow to it. But somehow, the glow had disappeared over time and it turned into an ordinary dagger.

I didn’t think much of it back then, but now I realized the reason. The spirit of Demon Lord, which originally dwelled in the dagger, had possessed my kitchen knife instead.

“Mr. Heavenly Sword. Until when are you going to stay pissed? Are you not going to repair Sword God—no, Demon Lord?”

Finally, I heard answers from one of them.

[All-Cutting Heavenly Sword glares at you, screaming that you’re a thief.]

Heavenly Sword was clearly unhappy that I had kept Demon Lord for myself. He was about to return Demon Sword’s spirit to his treasury when I converted him into my follower instead.

In the past, the stubborn old Demon Lord refused to listen to All-Cutting Heavenly Sword, who then stole and sealed his memories into a sword. Afterward, All-Cutting Heavenly Sword enslaved him for thousands of years, offering the sword to followers in exchange for sacrifices. Clearly, an evil boss.

But then, Demon Lord came into contact with the Demon Lord’s Heavenly Sword and recovered part of his memories. In order to take revenge on the God of Destroyer and turn the situation around, Demon Lord decided to become my follower, pissing All-Cutting Heavenly Sword off.

Sheesh, he isn’t even a child anymore.

“It’s not the first time anyway, so stop being angry and repair Demon Lord, won’t you? I’ll pay you handsomely for it.”

Finally, Mr. Heavenly Sword responded, and coldly. He said he was a businessman. He thought far into the future, and wouldn’t get caught up in the past.

[All-Cutting Heavenly Sword says that his loss is too huge. He’d like to be paid 50,000,000 Gcoins for the repair.]

“Huh?! This old man, that’s too expensive!”

What a crook!

I had about 50 million Godcoins left. I had the chance to earn 100 billion coins in the most recent war, but that fucking fire bastard swallowed almost all of them as sacrifices. As such, my final earnings became meager.

[All-Cutting Heavenly Sword retrieves Demon Lord.]

Tzzz!

Pure white radiance enveloped the cracked sword. Before the red eyes on the hilt disappeared, it glared at me and spoke.

-Don’t forget to train...during my absence. You mustn’t forget your promise to let me have a go at that damn God of Destroyer....

“Yes, of course. Demon Lord, you should take care of your body—no, sword.”

-Keke, what a fool.

Ssss!

Demon Lord disappeared with a smirk.

God of Destroyer, “???”, was the one who corrupted Demon Lord’s foster daughter, the emperor. After turning her into an apostle, he destroyed the world. So far, two of his apostles, Johan and Gustav, had come after me, so we were well acquainted by this point.

“Wait, who the hell is this God of Destroyer? What is his motive?”

Despite having devoured the worlds of Mountain-Gnawing Titan and Demon Lord, he still set his sights on Earth. The world I was in. My home.

[Eternal Seeker snarls that he is a greedy monster that has existed since the dawn of time, feeding on the world.]

[Infinite Abundance says worriedly that the beast seems to have no purpose.]

[Silently Crawling Nightmare shouts that you shouldn’t worry because she will protect you.]

“So far, all of you seem to be on almost equal standing. How do you compare to the God of Destruction?”

...No response.

I put on my jumper tightly and went out for some air. The night breeze was chilly enough to turn my exhalation white. But since I was much stronger, I didn’t feel the cold. After completing both the malevolent and benevolent god quests, I had become a Low-tier God of both alignments.

Even so, whenever I recalled the God of Destroyer, I could only sigh. According to Demon Lord, the God of Destroyer would create apostles in the world he laid his eyes on. Then, he’d open an interdimensional gate through them to descend upon the world.

So, we can prevent his descent by putting a stop to his apostles...

Just then, my phone rang.

Homeless Hyungnim

It was from Choi Kang-San. As soon as I picked up the call, I could hear him scream as if his house was on fire.

—You. Where are you? Come to the Hunter Association immediately!

“What? What’s going on?”

—We received urgent reports from Africa! That crocodile monster that attacked the academy had a large number of eggs!