Hurried steps echoed through a huge, icy cave that was covered in darkness.
"Mr. S-Satan!!!"
A man wearing a black robe ran in, and a huge, black sphere of about 30 meters in diameter shook.
The darkness leaking from the sphere began to move, and a red mask appeared at the end of the darkness.
[What do you want?]
"Y-you see…"
The priest seemed to be struggling to talk.
His eyes were shaking, and he opened his mouth after taking a deep breath.
"Our signal… was hijacked."
[What?]
The darkness shook as if Satan couldn't understand what the priest was saying.
The signal was hijacked? What did that mean?
"Right now, the 'Mirror of Darkness' that Ms. Yulia has is connected to another being."
[Wait. Then… why hasn't Yulia called?]
He still couldn't understand it.
If the signal was hijacked, and the 'Mirror of Darkness' was connected to someone else, there was no way Yulia wouldn't have noticed it.
She would've tried to contact him another way or destroyed the Mirror of Darkness.
"You see…"
The priest wasn't sure how he was supposed to explain it.
No, as if he'd given up, he explained things as they were happening.
"Someone claiming to be Satan… has appeared."
[Again… that bastard again?] Satan asked back as if he were about to go crazy.
Someone claiming to be him…
He couldn't understand what kind of resentment he had toward him, but he always claimed to be Satan and made things go from bad to worse.
If he thought about all the plans that the impersonator had screwed up, he thought his rationality would be blown away.
[Even Yulia was deceived?]
"Yes. It seems like Ms. Yulia hasn't realized what's happening because what that being is saying is similar to what we originally planned."
[He's saying something similar to what was planned?]
"Yes. He's talking and trying to put the blame for killing Ludwig on the Guardians. Similar to what we'd… No, to be honest, he seems to be doing a better job."
[…]
There was a short silence, and Satan's eyes shook.
'There's no way.'
He knew a few things about the being claiming to be him.
Although he didn't want to admit it, he could only think of one being who could do something like that, and the chances of him helping him were…
Zero.
'He's a monster.'
He was the nightmare of Hell—a tyrant that had appeared in Hell and brought a change to the landscape that had remained the same after the seven archdukes reached an agreement.
There was no other demon that craved as much as him.
He had a craving that was close to madness, obsession. Memories of the war of thousands of years came back to his mind.
Satan's body trembled, and he quickly sent a signal.
[Turn the signal back here.]
"Th-that’s not possible. Ms. Kalgia and the other priests are doing their best, but the magic pattern is too complex, so we cannot turn the signal back."'
The priest gulped and kept talking.
"The only thing we can do at the moment is try to get some of the signal and get a grasp on what's happening…"
[Ugh, okay. Turn it on.]
"Yes!"
The priest in front of Satan started to manipulate the crystal in front of them.
They saw Raphael, Yulia, and the angels.
And…
[What…?]
Satan's eyes widened.
A human appeared in the video, and Satan was horrified after seeing a young man with sharp eyes.
[Why is the Demon King… Wait, then… who's imitating…?]
He became confused.
At that moment, the countless Authorities of the Demon King passed through his mind.
[D-don't tell me!]
His body started to tremble.
[Authority of Cloning…]
Satan's eyes sank.
He began thinking at a fast speed.
[Find him.]
"Yes…?"
[He can’t maintain the Authority of Cloning over a far distance. He probably created a clone near the angel's fortress and is trying to set things up that way.]
He'd suffered from that tactic a few times, and Satan's body trembled in anger.
[How long do you think you'll be able to do this?]
He thought it was a good chance.
He wasn't sure why the Demon King was trying to act like him, but…
'This is the last time.'
He would make sure everyone knew the truth.
If he was lucky, he might be able to turn Raphael's attention to the Demon King instead of him.
'The mask he's wearing…'
He was going to take it off himself, and then he was going to destroy everything he'd built.
He would give him an end worthy of the title ‘Archduke of Revenge’.
[Move as many soldiers as possible!! Find where the signal is being manipulated from! Kill his clone!]
The clone created with the Authority of Cloning wasn't very strong.
If they could find it, they would probably be able to overwhelm it easily.
'This time…'
‘It's your turn to suffer.’
Satan's yellow eyes shone while he looked at the Demon King through the video.
* * *
"…"
There was a heavy silence.
Raphael slowly opened his mouth.
"Why should I believe your words?"
[…]
Satan didn't answer.
After maintaining the silence for a while, he opened his mouth.
[Raphael, you're free to believe what you want. As long as I have the Sea of Demonic Energy, you and I are destined to kill each other, but…]
He made a chilling laugh, turned his head, and looked to where KangWoo was standing.
[It's just that I don't want pieces of trash wearing a mask and mentioning my name.]
"Satan…"
KangWoo frowned.
He turned his head to Raphael.
"Mr. Raphael, you don't believe in what that evil demon is—"
"Human, shut up."
"So you are doubting…"
KangWoo sighed after seeing Raphael's reaction.
"Fine. Just like Satan said, feel free to use his demonic energy to search the Hall of Protection.
"Are you that confident?"
"We know why you suspect us and how much you cared for Ludwig, but we're innocent. Ludwig fell at Satan’s hand."
"…"
Raphael remained silent, and doubt appeared on his face.
He was stuck between Satan and KangWoo’s words.
To be honest, he couldn't believe either of them.
"Ludwig…"
He called the name of his apostle—a human that was more dedicated to light than any human he'd ever seen.
He had an incredible talent, an indomitable will, and strong beliefs; he was a very important apostle.
There weren't many humans capable of throwing away their family and friends for the light.
Having lost such a loyal apostle was painful, even for Raphael.
'At least your revenge…'
He wanted to do it with his own hands.
Raphael looked with sharp eyes at KangWoo, Kim ShiHoon, and Satan.
'Who…?'
Who was lying?
'There’s only one way to check the truth…'
He got up.
"I'm going to use your demonic energy to check."
[Good choice.]
Raphael began to walk slowly.
Yulia raised both hands while making a fishy smile.
A Demonic Energy Stone that Satan had prepared appeared in her hands.
Kim ShiHoon's expression hardened when he saw it.
"Hyeongnim… is that okay? If Satan did something in the Hall of Protection…" Kim ShiHoon said in a worried voice.
He was sure it wasn't them who made Ludwig fall because, after all, every member of Guardian was present when they got the message.
Still, if Satan was so confident, he's probably done something.
"This is all because I wasn't…"
Kim ShiHoon mumbled as if he were blaming himself.
When Ludwig fell…
If he hadn't killed him…
If he had been able to restrain him somehow…
They wouldn't have been subject to such unfair suspicions.
'If we end up suffering because of one of Satan's tactics again…'
He felt like he wouldn't be able to stop blaming himself.
"ShiHoon, don't worry…"
KangWoo grabbed ShiHoon’s shoulder, bit his lip, and spoke in a firm voice.
"Even if they try to cover the truth with their lies…"
How much could you cover the sun with the palm of your hands?
Was the burning light not visible because it was dark?
"The truth can’t be extinguished."
It just burned.
* * *
[What…?] Satan mumbled in confusion.
[Just why?]
He'd never made Ludwig fall.
Not only that, but no member of the Demon Cult had touched him, so the culprit was probably the Demon King.
Then…
'Why…?'
How could he be so confident?
If they used the Demonic Energy Stone that had his demonic energy, the angels should be able to figure out that there weren’t traces of his demonic energy inside the Hall of Protection.
In that case, the Guardians would be blamed, and just like he wished, Raphael would get rid of the culprits.
'There's no way he doesn't know that.'
He couldn't help but feel uneasy.
Satan quickly shouted, [Find his clone!!]
They had to stop him before he did something.
"Eh, Mr. S-Satan…"
[Right now!!]
"You see…"
A priest wearing a black robe was trembling.
[What happened…?]
"W-we just received a report. They've figured out where the magic was being manipulated from."
[Then get that clone and turn the signal here, quickly.]
"That…"
His face was pale, and his body was trembling. It was as if he couldn't understand what was going on.
"Th-they weren't able to find the clone."
[Are they sending the footage from somewhere else…?]
Satan's expression distorted.
[It doesn't matter.]
It was too bad that they hadn't been able to locate where the clone was, but that was good enough for the moment.
The Demon King had somehow intercepted the signal and was using it, so if they could figure out where he was doing that from…
[Destroy that place and cut the signal to the 'Mirror of Darkness.']
They could solve the problem by destroying it completely.
Since they couldn't stop the hacking with software, they just had to destroy the hardware that was doing it.
It didn't matter what advanced magic device they were using. If they destroyed it, it wouldn't be able to function anymore.
"Y-you see…"
The priest kept talking in a confused voice.
"Th-there's no signal connected at all…"
[What…? What does that mean?]
"That footage coming out of the 'Mirror of Darkness' was…"
Gulp.
"Pre-recorded."
