"So something like that happened…"
Gaia nodded, a heavy expression on her face.
"To think that Mr. Ludwig…"
She heard that Satan had taken Ludwig's corpse from the angels and turned it into an undead and that his soul was still inside the body and was suffering.
Just imagining that made Gaia tremble in fear.
'If Mr. ShiHoon or KangWoo fell into such a state…’
"…"
She bit her lips.
She didn't even want to imagine it.
"We're going to save him," Kim ShiHoon said in a firm voice.
He clenched his fists.
Giving Ludwig eternal rest…
Although they'd known each other for a short time, he thought that was the least he could do for someone he called ‘friend’.
Gaia made a faint smile.
"Yes. I'm going to believe in you, Guardian Kim ShiHoon."
She took a deep breath and spoke in a calm voice.
"It seems like, thanks to Satan's mistake, we were able to gain help from the angels."
Ludwig's incident was heart-wrecking, but looking at it objectively, they'd gained a lot thanks to that.
They were able to make the angels stop suspecting Guardian and even collaborate with them.
The Guardians had to face the Demon of Prophecy, Satan, no matter what, so that was certainly good news.
"Yes. However, it isn't a full collaboration. When we proposed collaborative training, Mr. Raphael said he and the angels would move on their own."
"Hmm…"
Gaia nodded.
"That could be good news for us."
If they formed a full-fledged alliance, there could be disagreements over who would be the head.
Besides that, Guardian also had separate groups for training. Grace Mccarbin and Cheon MooJin lead the main troops, and Kim ShiHoon was in charge of the elite troops—the 'Celestial Wolf Troops.'
There was a chance that a full-fledged war would soon go into effect against the Demon Cult, so changing the strategies they were using could be worse for them.
Fighting together but moving based on each side’s judgment…
That was probably the best thing they could do at the moment.
"That's right."
"Mr. KangWoo… Did you tell Mr. Raphael…?"
"I didn't say anything."
"As expected."
Gaia nodded.
KangWoo hadn’t revealed his identity.
On the Cataclysmic Day, he'd fallen into Hell and had spent almost ten thousand years there.
Thanks to that, he ended up having a demon’s body.
Of course, there's nothing he could've done about it, but the angels probably wouldn't even try to understand him.
"I don’t understand…"
Kim ShiHoon frowned.
KangWoo hadn't become a demon of his own volition.
Also, he'd cast aside his demonic energy and accepted the strength of light.
'There's no one more just and fair than hyeongnim.'
He couldn't help but feel anger after seeing the hyeongnim he loved and respected be chained to his past.
"Well, from an angel’s point of view, a demon is a demon."
That was the case for Ludwig and Raphael—it was incredible how much they hated demons.
It didn't matter what the reason was, but it was clear that they wanted to get rid of them.
"Then…"
"Yes. I think you should avoid talking about me, Balrog, and Lilith as much as possible."
"Understood."
Gaia nodded.
"But he didn't talk about receiving help from other archangels?" she asked as if she couldn't understand it.
Even angels were careful about that demon that was supposedly going to bring chaos and destruction to the world, so it was hard to understand why other archangels hadn't come and only Raphael was there.
"I asked him that… but he avoided answering."
KangWoo remembered his conversation with Raphael.
He’d said the chances of Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, and other archangels joining the war were low.
'I'm not sure why.'
He wasn't sure what was more important than catching the Demon of Prophecy.
'Well, since we can't forcibly call them, I guess this much should be enough.'
If more archangels began appearing, the plan could get too distorted.
Just Raphael was more than enough.
"Then, please call and gather the Guardians in South America or the Middle-east."
"The war against the Demon Cult…"
"Yes. It's going to happen soon."
He nodded.
'This time, I'll have to move.'
* * *
Even if he had other priorities, he couldn't ignore it anymore.
He'd heard through Lilith that there were huge movements in one of the big cult branches, so he was sure that a full-on war against them would take place.
"Yes. I'll gather the forces in Africa, where Mr. Raphael's forces are…"
"No. The war probably isn't going to take place there."
KangWoo shook his head.
Based on where they thought Satan was hiding, there was only one place the war could take place.
"The war's probably going to happen in Russia."
The land of cold—a place covered with snow and ice.
There was a chance that an all-out war was going to take place there.
"I'll move the forces toward Russia. It might be good if we installed a few more gates."
"I'll take the Celestial Wolf Troops and train for fighting in the cold weather," Kim ShiHoon added.
Even if players were beings with superhuman strength, they couldn't ignore the strength of nature.
After all, there were cases of players that collapsed because they couldn't get used to the jungle weather of South America.
"I'll also have to ask the Magic Tower for more protective gear."
The Magic Tower was a factory of magic equipment in Korea, and those within always worked very hard.
Normal protective gear restricted the player's movements too much.
If you imagined a warrior whose main stat was Agility was wearing winter clothes, they'd be lucky if they didn't roll in the snow.
"Ah… Now that I think about it, Mr. Kadga says he needs some vacations; he submitted a petition."
Gaia gave him a few documents.
KangWoo threw them away without hesitation.
"This is all for world peace, so there's no way they're going to get vacations."
"But still…"
"Ms. Gaia…"
KangWoo grabbed her hand.
"I'm sure Mr. Kagda will understand. After all, we have no other choice."
"…"
Gaia nodded while making a troubled expression.
"We're soon going to be able to defend Earth from Satan," KangWoo said and lightened up the mood with a bright smile.
He didn't know if it was really going to be the last battle.
There were still many things he didn't know about Satan, after all, and he still didn't know everything about the Demon Cult yet.
Still, he was sure that the cultists that had been troubling players all around the world were going to decrease greatly after the battle.
"Fufu. If it weren't for you two, such a day wouldn't have come."
Gaia laughed lightly while covering her mouth.
She wasn't saying that to lighten the mood.
KangWoo and Kim ShiHoon…
Those two that had been the ones to join Guardian the latest had become very important people that they needed.
"Thank you…"
Gaia bowed.
Kim ShiHoon was surprised and tried to stop her.
"If you're so thankful, you should show some sweet scenes with Kim ShiHoon. Don’t you both realize each other's feelings?" KangWoo said, a smirk on his face.
"Yes… Yes?"
"Hyeongnim!!"
Gaia's face reddened.
Kim ShiHoon hurriedly ran toward him.
KangWoo easily dodged Kim ShiHoon and patted him on the shoulder.
"I'll be able to feel relieved only after I see things work well for my little brother."
'More importantly…'
He remembered Kim ShiHoon asking Balrog for a duel.
'Someone, please take him.'
For some reason, he kept aiming to get the role of the main heroine.
He wished for Kim ShiHoon and Gaia's love to blossom from the bottom of his heart.
'Ms. Gaia, good luck!'
‘Love and peace from the bottom of my heart!’
He put his hands on Gaia and Kim ShiHoon's shoulders.
"Then, I'm going to stop bothering you. Please proceed with planning the strategy and prepare for war."
They say that love blossoms under hard circumstances.
He wished for war against the Demon Cult to bring them closer.
'Please…'
After patting them on their shoulders desperately, KangWoo turned around.
"Mr. KangWoo, good job."
Lilith, who was waiting outside, followed him from behind.
KangWoo walked past her and asked, "Did you get any information?"
Rather than preparing for war, he’d told Lilith to research the Demon Cult as much as possible.
"First, as expected, I've confirmed that the most movement is coming from Russia's branch."
"I already heard that."
Russia's branch had more than ten thousand members.
"According to the Cardinal we captured… It seems like two Phases of Evil have reached Russia's branch."
"Two? Satan and who?"
"No. It seems like Satan hasn't appeared yet."
She shook her head.
"Woah."
KangWoo's eyes shone.
'That means…'
Including Satan, three Phases of Evil would participate in the war.
'It seems like the effect was good.'
He wasn't sure why they hadn't moved until then, but they all started to move for some reason.
That probably showed how desperate they were and that they would put everything they had into the war.
'Well…'
Leaving aside whether he was the Demon of Prophecy or not, Satan had publicly declared war on Raphael.
He'd confidently said he would destroy the world, so it would be weird if they didn't show any movement.
"So… do you have any information on the two?"
"I'm going to show you a photo."
Lilith tapped the air with her finger, and a screen appeared.
He saw a human holding a rusty sword and covered in a blood-stained bandage.
"He…"
"He's called Bloodseker. From what I hear… It seems like he came from another world."
"Another world? Are you talking about Ernor?"
"No," Lilith answered while shaking her head.
"I heard he came from Hwan."
"Ah… That…"
He'd heard about that world during the fight against Lucifer.
'I wonder what kind of world that is.'
Ernor gave the feeling of a fantasy world.
For some reason, he felt that Hwan was a place similar to the worlds that appeared in martial arts novels.
'What is this? Mixed nuts?'
Did they think it would taste good if they mixed everything up?
He clicked his tongue at the complacent setting of the world.
'I wonder what kind of world it is.'
He couldn't tell.
Beings from Ernor got involved in Earthly matters so much that it felt like it was just the next town over, but no one from the Hwan Continent had gotten involved with Earth.
"The other one?"
"It's him."
She passed the screen as if it were a slide.
This time, someone KangWoo knew very well appeared.
"Belphegor."
He was the Archduke of Sloth.
A purple demon about three meters tall was sitting in a wheelchair, and a demon that seemed to be his subordinate was pushing the wheelchair.
'That bastard is still sitting.'
It wasn't that Belphegor couldn't move.
His two legs worked very well. To make things worse, he was actually quite fast.
It was just that he was too lazy to move with his legs.
'How envious.'
KangWoo's dream was to become rich enough to not do anything, so he couldn't help but feel envious of Belphegor.
"Archduke…"
KangWoo opened his status window.
His Demonic Energy stat had stopped going up at 140.
KangWoo was starting to feel hungry.
