Chapter 283: The Tempting Demons and Advancing Humanity (2)

Translator: Pai_

Was it because of the achievement of being a hero of the continent?

Iron moved with a strategy that would overturn the entire desert region.

He whipped the owl who kept making annoyed expressions, written as whipping, read as pleading, as he traveled through the desert area.

"Not as accurate as I thought."

He moved toward the suspected Gate area marked in the capital, but it wasn't easy to find.

Using magical devices, he continuously monitored areas where a Gate could be, but no matter how far he went, he could only see sand.

"It should be around here normally..."

Iron sat on the owl’s back and stared out over the desert, deep in thought.

Then, a sudden idea came to him.

"Could it be?"

As Iron had that thought, he immediately released Divine Power.

As the maximum output of Divine Power radiated from his entire body, it sprinkled shimmering light particles over the desert.

At that moment, the Two Moons turned their heads and looked back at Iron.

They stared at him as if asking what he was doing, but Iron continued releasing Divine Power.

Though this place had once hosted numerous tribes and nations, there was no reaction even with the Divine Power being wildly scattered.

During the first day, the Two Moons had been cooperative, but by the second and third days, they started to look at Iron with irritated expressions.

"Let’s try just a little more. If the system isn’t bullshitting, then there’s no way it’s not here."

At Iron’s words, the Two Moons frowned deeply.

They weren’t going somewhere else, just searching the nearby area as if combing through it, so it was understandable that the Two Moons were getting annoyed too.

-Buu~ Bububu (If you don’t find it within two days, you’d better be ready to get hit)!

"Alright."

Iron accepted the owl's threat with a bitter smile.

And so another day passed, and just when Iron was beginning to think, ‘Should I give up now?’

"There it is."

Iron smiled, having confirmed that his assumption was correct.

If the system wasn't faulty, the Gate should be in this area.

But since it wasn’t visible, Iron had suspected it might be underground.

Of course, just because it was underground didn’t mean it couldn’t be found. The system was fairly kind, and even if the Gate area was below ground, it would cause spatial distortions that reached the surface, making it easy to locate.

However, this place was not under the Lord God’s domain.

If it were within the Lord God’s domain, the system would have to maintain neutrality between corrupted beings and the Lord God. That meant it might not be as kind here as in other places, so Iron had reasoned.

"Right?"

-Bu...

When Iron said so with a smile, the Two Moons silently descended toward the suspected area.

Seeing them do so, Iron, as if they were cute, patted their heads and jumped off their back.

At the same time, he created an Aura Blade and struck the ground.

Kuuung!

A massive sand dune was instantly carved away, creating a sandstorm.

At the center of it, Iron's Aura Blade continued to dig deeper underground.

Kang!

"Yeah. I knew there’d be something."

Iron said that as he rotated his sword.

Then, with a powerful gust, the sand whirled and scattered in all directions.

Like a drill, it dug into the sand dune and instantly created a deep hole leading underground.

It was a brute-force method, but Iron had created a path to the underground in the most certain way, and he began to emit Divine Power.

At that moment, an enormous amount of corrupted energy gushed out of the hole Iron had made.

"Amazing."

The corrupted energy released from the Dimensional Shop gathered and surged upward, with a sticky aura rushing toward Iron.

It was the kind of energy that should have triggered a sense of danger, but to Iron, who had experienced countless such moments, it wasn’t much of a threat.

The Aura Blade, which had now turned into a white sword, slashed through the dark energy and extinguished it.

The white sword, now enhanced with Blue Baepsae’s power, completely annihilated the corrupted energy itself.

As the corrupted energy disappeared and was instead dispersed as condensed mana, Iron gave a faint smile and said,

"Are you coming out now?"

Seeing that nothing appeared in response, Iron looked at the Two Moons and said,

"Owl, fire one shot."

-Bu!

At Iron’s command, the Two Moons soared into the sky and fired two beams of light at the hole.

The powerful rays of light melted the surrounding sand as they drilled underground.

At that moment, dark energy began to spew out, turning the surroundings pitch-black.

At the same time, the surrounding ground trembled as a structure beneath the earth rose up. At its center, a shimmering Gate could be seen.

“This feels familiar… Ah!”

Iron tilted his head, puzzled by the familiar structure, then clapped his hands as if he had remembered something.

A structure for summoning external gods.

There were similar buildings.

The energy of chaos flowed inside, and the corrupted aura swirling around it resembled the activity of dimensional fish working around a Gate.

‘Are they constructing an environment similar to their own? Judging by how hastily it was built, it must be because of the debuff.’

As Iron thought that, and was about to lift his sword again to destroy the structures.

–Wait.

A demon appeared suddenly.

A demon with massive horns raised both arms toward Iron, as if showing he had no intention of fighting.

Seeing that, Iron lowered his sword again.

–I want to make a deal.

“Wasn’t everything already discussed at the Dimensional Shop?”

–We weren’t there.

At Iron’s words, the demon quickly shook his head, implying they hadn’t been part of that.

At the demon’s behavior, Iron wore an indifferent expression.

Having resolved to fight against Destruction, any offer from a demon could only be considered bullshit.

Perhaps sensing this, the demon hurriedly spoke up.

–We’re not asking you to return to your original world. Of course, we’re not saying to hand over the world to Destruction and let us protect it either.

“Then what?”

Feeling that Iron was ready to listen, the demon let out a small sigh, steadied his breath, and then spoke.

–Give us this place.

Iron, hearing the demon’s nonsense, raised the white sword again.

–The desert! Just the desert region!

“What kind of bullshit is that?”

At the demon’s words, Iron frowned.

–From your humans’ perspective, isn’t this a forsaken land?

At the demon’s remark, Iron silently lowered his sword and looked at the demon.

Just as he said, until the fight with the external gods began, this area had been ignored by the Empire, and even now, it was treated as practically abandoned.

It was assumed no survivors remained, and it was a corrupted region crawling with all sorts of monsters. That much was obvious.

–If you give us the desert region, we’ll block other beings coming from this side.

At the demon’s offer, Iron looked at him as if telling him to go on.

–Isn’t it hard for you humans to manage the central part of the continent as it is?

As the demon spoke knowingly, Iron bit his lip slightly.

As he said, the Empire was already struggling just to manage the former Holy Alliance territory.

At their current level, there was no way they could control the desert region too.

–So leave it to us. We’ll block the other beings coming to the desert region. And let’s agree not to fight each other until Destruction ends.

“A peace treaty with demons, huh…”

Iron rubbed his chin at the demon’s words.

It certainly sounded reasonable.

Given the Empire’s current situation, defending even the desert was difficult. Leaving it to the demons and focusing solely on survival made sense.

But there was a trap in this.

“Done talking your bullshit?”

–Wha… Why! From your perspective, this should be a good opportunity!

At the demon’s words, Iron chuckled.

“On the surface, sure. It’s true the current Empire would find it tough to handle the desert.”

Iron nodded as if he acknowledged it.

“But that’s the story for the Empire as it is now.”

With the rewards he had received from the Dimensional Shop Owner, the Empire could reach a whole new level.

And on top of that, the Lord God’s domain was crucial.

“The rewards from the Dimensional Shop Owner, and the domain of the Lord God.”

As Iron said that, the demon flinched.

Just as he said, the Lord God’s domain spreading across the entire Auzria Continent was extremely important.

Being able to receive additional blessings meant humanity could grow even stronger.

Moreover, the fact that it becomes harder for corrupted beings to enter this place is, in a broader sense, a debuff.

Rejecting the opportunity to weaken the enemy and grow stronger, just to cooperate with demons?

–E… Even considering that…

“Oh! And I have my personal achievements too, don’t I?”

Iron said with a gentle smile.

“Wouldn’t this be a good time to become a hero of the continent?”

At his words, the demon clenched his teeth.

At the same time, corrupted energy surged upward.

The rising black energy turned into tens of thousands of spears that rained down.

Realizing persuasion was impossible, the demon tried to kill Iron.

Each one held powerful force, but it was meaningless.

“That wouldn’t even work on a Master.”

Iron mocked the demon’s attack.

Perhaps specialized in stealth, some of the attacks weren’t detectable midway, but it didn’t matter.

By radiating Divine Power, Iron neutralized most of the strength, and the rest was wiped out by the storm of aura before reaching him.

The demon looked at Iron like he was a monster, he had erased the demon’s most devastating blow without even swinging his sword.

‘Even if I had my original power, I would’ve died.’

As a demon specialized in stealth, he could have preserved his life if he had chosen to hide, but that wouldn’t last long either.

If Divine Power spread in all directions, he would eventually be discovered, and that would be the moment he died.

Even if a demon specialized in combat had come instead of him, the outcome would’ve been no different.

In a situation like this, where restrictions were placed and not even their original power could be used, defeat was inevitable.

“Goodbye.”

At Iron’s words, the demon made a last-ditch effort by summoning all the subordinate demons he had hidden, and poured out all his corrupted energy to temporarily boost his power, but Iron, who had already faced external gods, wasn’t even surprised. He erased them all on the spot.

–Grrr…

The demon died without even being able to resist.

As countless subordinate demons that followed him were also annihilated, Iron immediately began destroying the structures.

The buildings, which oozed with the repulsive aura like liquid, were nauseating just to look at.

He destroyed all of them and released Divine Power at full force to begin purification.

“So damn wide.”

The buildings that had been raised to the surface by the demon were massive.

Structures the size of a city had been hidden beneath the sand dunes, and destroying and purifying them all was no easy task.

Unlike the Dimensional Shop incident, spreading Divine Power alone wasn’t enough to purify them.

Even so, with the help of Blue Baepsae, Iron succeeded in purifying everything, and the moment he sat down heavily on the ground with a tired expression.

[The Lord God's Domain expands!]

After destroying all the structures and purifying the corrupted energy with overwhelming Divine Power, he heard the notification that the Lord God’s domain had expanded.

“Only one left now?”

He had discovered and destroyed one of the two Gates marked in the capital, so now only one remained.

“Let’s go right away.”

–Buu!

As Iron tried to get back on the Two Moons, they shook their heads and refused.

This time, they suggested he ride the phoenix or the thunderbird instead.

“Hmm…”

As Iron looked troubled, the phoenix flew up and enlarged its body, as if generously offering a ride.

–Ppi! Ppipipipi!

–Buuuu! Bububu!

As the phoenix proudly offered to carry him this time, the Two Moons burst with frustration and took it out on Iron.

With a cold sweat forming from their protests, Iron turned his head and headed toward the next destination.

“Shall we try something different this time? Phoenix.”

–Ppi?

The phoenix tilted its head in response to Iron’s call.

Iron smiled gently at the phoenix.

And shortly after, countless flames began to fall from the phoenix’s body.

A rain of white fire, tainted with Divine Power, began falling on the desert.

The white flames scorched the desert, turning suspected Gate locations into seas of fire.

The flames, imbued with the phoenix’s mana, didn’t easily die out, and infused with Iron’s Divine Power and Blue Baepsae’s ability, they ultimately forced the energy hidden underground to surface.

–We surrender! We surrender! We have no intention to fight!

A being shouted surrender the moment it emerged.

It looked like a demon, but emitted a different energy from demonic energy.

“Is it a Hell Ghost this time?”

As Iron spoke, he descended to the ground and created a white sword.

–Deal! Let’s make a deal! We have no interest in the Auzria Continent!

At the Hell Ghost’s words, the white sword stopped right in front of its nose.

The Hell Ghost smiled, baring its filthy teeth, with an expression of relief.

***

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