Chapter 2463

2463 - The Greatest Agent

"…" Caesar looked down at the black sand that formed the small hill, cold sweat washing over him. He did not know exactly what feeling engulfed him after hearing that information.

You are the reason for what is happening now… no, for the evils that fill the universe? Cursed be your deed, Mortix, cursed be your deed.

[You don't need to tell me, I know, but I realized too late.] Mortix's voice began to echo, [I woke from my negligence while the Necrofortress Galaxy was transforming, and I saw the people I had summoned and taught about the contracts, as I was commanded, beginning a new tyranny in other places. At that point, even I — who once saw death as an ally — felt disgust and decided to stop… but that was not an option. That devil I had contracted with dragged my soul to my hellish place, a place that makes what you see in the Fortress of Death look like a lush garden, and its heavy air like a cool breeze… and he told me that this would be my fate if I stopped, this is the fate of tainted souls.]

[So I retracted my decision and returned to fulfilling my promises, but I was devising a small side technique for when the need arose, for the day that would inevitably come if I continued what I was doing. After I finished it, I increased my tyranny and attacked everything living with ferocity, and I learned more and more about the cursed contracts and arrays, until… well, perhaps you've heard of Athena's slap that turned my body to dust.]

[But what is happening here did not stop with my death. The devil took the Galaxy as a refuge for himself and began attracting more.]

…Why didn't the other powers attack the Necrofortress Galaxy to stop the matter of the contracts?

Caesar asked quickly,

Why don't the Stellar Academies attack the powers that use those methods? Identifying them is not that difficult!!

[A large portion of those powers I had already taught and they began using them, and the rest would not have entered the dangerous Fortress of Death without a leader to protect them, and Athena was not the leadership type! As for the Stellar Academies, hehe.] Mortix laughed, [A house divided against itself cannot stand. How can the Stellar Academies put an end to those methods when their leader is the biggest user of them?]

“……?!?!??” Caesar's eyes widened to their utmost,

Qarun?!

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!”

The human's scream intensified amidst the array as never before.

Caesar couldn't stop himself from taking another look, and immediately his expression shifted into a mixture of pity and horror.

The other four devils had begun skinning their victim alive, each one working on a specific part.

One skinned the head down to the Soul Domain, the home of his memories; the second dug into the chest down to his Life Artery, the witness to every stage of his life; the third excavated the Spinal Cord searching for all the commands transmitted from the head to the limbs throughout his life; and the fourth dug into the Energy Gathering Center and the patterns it contained… this was apart from the fifth, who removed the layers of the rest of his body one after another.

[Alright, you don't have to watch any more. I brought you only to understand the idea.] Mortix reminded him when he sensed his vital processes deteriorating.

"….." Indeed, Caesar buried his forehead in the sand.

He thinks that he, a Military Commander, has seen millions of people killed before his eyes—he himself ordered their killing—and yet he feels this terror and trembling from what is happening… What if an innocent person were in his place?

But again… perhaps what saved his soul and imprisoned within it a trace of innocence were the clean war instructions his father had declared since the day the Empire was founded… That is the only thing he could hold onto and feel proud of.

You said…

Caesar asked slowly,

Qarun uses these methods?

[Of course, from that day until today, Qarun is the biggest client here.] Mortix laughed, [The amount of corruption he has committed, is committing, and will commit at their request grows daily and has reached a terrifying level. His Primordial Soul is no longer merely tainted—it has reached the point of no return.]

How…

Caesar screamed in his head,

How and why?! That person possesses all the Treasures of the Universe! That person holds absolute authority over all the universe's forces! That person is so powerful that he has remained stable at his center all those years despite never having fought once! That person—

As he spoke, Caesar seemed to notice something,

What exactly is going on here…

These are simple matters; they truly helped him with them, and for an astronomical price… For example, one of his opponents who died after a young space beast emerged from the Void, swallowed his entire planet, and then disappeared—that was orchestrated by the Devils, and the price was allowing one hundred billion humans to die, if I recall correctly. Or that cursed ring he always wears—he sacrificed a similar number to obtain the coordinates of the buried artifact inside it, then sacrificed again there to extract it.

Then he continued, "But all those side tasks that helped Qarun are one thing, and his requests for Master Laws are something else entirely. That had a terrifying price, my friend, believe me."

Master Laws?!

Caesar nearly screamed,

Qarun requested Master Laws from the Devils? In plural?!

"Yes, he took Identity and Creation from them specifically. From Identity, he took only two levels, enough to hide the truth of his soul's corruption, and he chose Creation next so he could improve his own combat style. After that, he kept these two alongside the third, Causality, for a very long time, only raising their levels. But he came to visit his favorite location a few years ago and began preparing to acquire a new level of Causality and the first level of a fourth law at the same time, and he had already begun working on the sacrifices. I believe something changed in his beliefs."

"……" Caesar clenched his hands tightly.

…What is he paying for each level of a Master Law?

"A lot, believe me, you don't want to know. His sacrifices to remove his obstacles are nothing compared to this… What I did is nothing compared to what Qarun has committed for the Master Laws." Mortix's voice became heavy. "He doesn't request a description of the level and then study it himself. Qarun requests the new level be imprinted onto the Code of Creation and into his soul, and he begins getting accustomed to it afterward at his leisure."

…I must stop this somehow. I must reach the heart of the galaxy.

Caesar repeated in his head, then cast a long look toward the victim in the middle of the array.

…I'm sorry, I can't give you a merciful kill.

After that, he began to retreat downward.