Ch-350. **Greed and Destruction**
—
“……”
For a moment, I was at a loss for words.
What did he just say?
The Demon of Greed.
The being that transformed Destruction?
…Had he mistaken me for someone else?
Looking at his condition, it would have been easy enough to misunderstand.
First of all, the eyes of the Forgotten God—who bore the form of an old man—were dull and gray, lifeless.
Pus seeped from both eyes, his skin was cracked like dried firewood, and his white hair was so brittle that not a trace of fullness remained.
Even the Forgotten God’s symbol looked like an unmaintained antique, worn down and riddled with cracks.
Compared to any of the other Forgotten Gods I had seen here, he stood out starkly.
‘The oldest existence.’
That was likely because he had lived the longest while being forgotten within the World Tree’s dungeon.
The fact that the other Forgotten Gods called him *Ancient* made that clear enough.
So it had to be a misunderstanding.
Me, the Demon of Greed?
‘My current form is Randolph.’
The idea that Randolph was one of the Seven Great Demons was absurd.
If that were true, then when I encountered **Sansha, the Demon of Envy**, in the Tower of the War God, he would have recognized me.
Envy was also one of the Seven Great Demons.
Yet Sansha had shown no reaction whatsoever upon seeing Randolph.
“I am not Greed.”
I may be greedy, but that didn’t make me the Demon of Greed.
The Forgotten God gave an awkward smile.
—You seem to think I have mistaken you.
“I can’t deny that.”
—Indeed, I am not a god who sees appearances. But that is because I am not bound by visible forms.
“Then are you saying you see what cannot be seen? What is it that you see?”
—I see the *form of the soul*.
The form of the soul.
I had encountered beings that grasped and manipulated souls before, but one who could read the very shape of a soul was a first.
If so, then he was saying my soul resembled that of the Demon of Greed.
Even so, I couldn’t make sense of it.
Though not all of my actions could be called honorable, I could swear that I had never once acted in a truly demonic way.
“……If you’re only seeing shapes, couldn’t you have mistaken me for someone similar?”
—There is no mistake. Of all the beings I have encountered, the Demon of Greed possessed the most beautiful form.
The Forgotten God was certain.
But I rejected it.
A demon—beautiful?
Then again, this old man was himself an evil god.
From an evil god’s perspective, *beautiful* hardly sounded complimentary.
In the end, he was nothing more than a corrupt being gnawing away at the World Tree.
I shouldn’t be tempted by the honeyed words of an evil god.
—Though I remember nothing else from being forgotten for so long, the Demon of Greed alone remains vividly in my memory.
“I am not a demon—”
—Ah, you are not a demon. This is merely a story of a previous life. Demons cannot reincarnate, but perhaps the goddesses preserved you. The two goddesses who loved you.
“……”
—It feels as clear as yesterday. Leah, Pina… and I… I… who was I again? I, I, I—I—I—!
That was when it happened.
The old Forgotten God, having spoken the names of the two goddesses, suddenly went into convulsions.
His eyeballs spun wildly, his divine form blurring and sharpening over and over again.
‘So this is the end of a forgotten god…’
It seemed like the phenomenon that appeared just before a Forgotten God’s erasure.
A god who had lost their name ultimately met such an end.
But… wasn’t this far too miserable for the end of a god?
To vanish forever in a place no one knew, remembered by no one, without even remembering oneself.
After perhaps another five minutes passed—
—…I showed you something unseemly. My apologies.
“It’s fine. It was… rather striking.”
—…If you promise to grant me rest, I will tell you everything I remember—about the Demon of Greed and Destruction.
“Are you asking me to personally destroy your symbol?”
—Yes. That is all I ask.
I see. It was a proposal with nothing to lose.
What he wanted was something I had intended to do anyway.
And I was especially curious about Destruction.
The only problem was time.
If I remained transformed as Randolph, the World Tree itself might be eroded and die.
“Keep it short. Just the essentials.”
—Do not worry. It will not take long.
The Forgotten God nodded.
Then, slowly, he began to speak.
—The Demon of Greed… was not in his right mind.
……A rather blunt opening.
*
*
The golden age of civilization.
An era when the power of the gods was at its peak.
A time when all demons bowed their heads and dared not look up at the heavens.
In that era, there was a demon who did not fear the gods.
One who did not hesitate to look up at the sky, who fought gods every time they came to challenge him.
“You’re pretty strong. How do you use that technique?”
“……”
“Teach me!”
“……You’re just a madman. Get out of my domain.”
“Hey, don’t be stingy—teach me!”
The gods clicked their tongues at his behavior.
Win or lose, all he wanted was to fight.
He didn’t even kill anyone.
A demon who refused to kill.
Thus, Greed was an oddity among demons.
Even other demons could not understand his conduct.
A demon, by nature, should expand their domain and toy with mortals.
They should feed on the dark emotions of living beings to grow stronger.
“We should decide what to do about Greed.”
“Demons must be exterminated.”
“But Greed is a demon by birth only. He has committed no evil acts.”
“For a demon to fearlessly gaze upon the heavens is an affront to divine authority. That alone is reason enough to kill him.”
The Temple of the Hundred Gods.
The place where one hundred gods of the highest order resided, where meetings were held day after day.
Today’s topic was *how to deal with Greed*.
Yet no conclusion was reached.
Some gods loathed him for being a demon and criticized his behavior.
But many others—
“Isn’t he cute? A demon who doesn’t act like one.”
“Right? Yesterday I saw him watering a withering flower.”
“Oh, I saw that too. He even encouraged it, telling it to drink and grow strong.”
“Hang in there! That’s how you get stronger!”
“Pfft—he’s really adorable.”
—held affection for him.
Mostly goddesses.
“How did the discipline of the Temple of the Hundred Gods come to this…?”
“Haaah!”
Once again, the issue was brushed aside.
There was simply no way to reach a conclusion.
Especially because of the two twin goddesses with the greatest authority.
Whenever Greed was involved, those twin goddesses unconditionally took his side, granting him a kind of immunity.
But for the time being, it was fine.
The world was in its golden age, and the gods’ power was unrivaled.
One such demon made little difference.
Greed coveted only his own strength and caused no real harm.
Even if he did cause trouble, he could easily be subdued.
…That was what everyone believed—until **Destruction** appeared.
But after Destruction’s emergence—
Everything changed.
The golden world, even the Temple of the Hundred Gods—
Fwoooosh!
…All of it burned and vanished.
“Heavens! Why do you burn our world?”
“Why do you inflict the punishment of Destruction upon us?”
“We will not submit quietly!”
Mortals and immortals joined forces.
Surely, if the greatest power of the strongest age united, they could defeat Destruction.
But it didn’t take long to realize the truth.
Destruction was far too strong.
Towers of Destruction rose across the world, and countless lands and gods lost their power in an instant, falling under Destruction’s dominion.
Yet the greatest problem was a misconception.
The misconception that they were united.
Perhaps because each was too great in their own right.
Outwardly they acted as one, but inwardly, all harbored different thoughts.
In the end, civil wars and the Four Calamities collapsed the empire, and humanity lost its greatest linchpin.
The druids, divided by infighting, were wiped out.
The World Tree withered, and the heavens were shrouded in darkness.
Demons no longer feared looking up at the sky, and the power of evil gods grew daily, reaching a point even the gods could not control.
No—there were frequent cases of holy gods themselves falling and becoming evil gods.
“It’s over.”
“So it ends like this…”
“If only we had known…”
The gods regretted it.
They regretted the days they had spent intoxicated by their own power, doing nothing.
Had they eradicated all evil sooner, it would not have come to this.
An age where demons did not fear gods.
Now, demons had grown too powerful to even touch.
Instead, they hunted gods and corrupted them.
Evil gods?
Compared to demons, even evil gods seemed almost civilized.
They didn’t wish for the destruction of the world.
They wanted dominion, not annihilation itself.
But demons were different.
They waited eagerly, consumed only by the desire to fill their own bellies.
The failure to unify the world was largely due to the demons’ influence.
Destruction ignored those demons, and as a result, they only grew stronger.
“The demons have finally revealed their true nature.”
“Those who couldn’t even look at the sky when the Temple of the Hundred Gods existed…”
“…Then where did Greed go?”
“He’s a demon too. Now that he’s gained power, he must have revealed his true nature as well.”
“Indeed. He must wield the greatest power of all. Could he really still desire only his own strength?”
The remaining gods were pessimistic.
One day, Greed vanished.
Yet since the advent of Destruction, the ones who benefited the most were the demons.
Granted immense power, they rampaged wildly.
Would Greed be any different?
On the contrary, Greed would be even worse.
As the world rushed toward destruction, the *greed* of humans only intensified.
They slaughtered one another indiscriminately for what little remained.
Gods grew greedy, even evil gods yearned.
It was impossible to imagine how much power the Demon of Greed now wielded.
…And before long, the Demon of Greed appeared.
Kuuuurrrr!
A nameless mountain collapsed.
“What—what is this? Why is the world like this?”
Covered in dust—
…he frowned deeply.
The Demon of Greed had been studying.
Seeking to understand the techniques and powers of every god he had fought.
He had gone into the mountains to gain enlightenment.
Having finally emerged after grasping it all, he found the world on the brink of ruin—how could he not be stunned?
“That thing… that’s the one destroying the world.”
From afar, he sensed the presence of Destruction.
Strong.
An intensity of malice incomparable to any god he had ever fought.
And perhaps because of that—
“Ooooh! To think there’s still something this strong in the world!”
Greed was delighted.
Purely so.
If he fought that being, he too could grow even stronger.
*
*
‘…He knows far more than I expected.’
As I listened, curiosity crept in.
The Forgotten God before me was clearly an evil god—yet how did he know even the inner affairs of the gods?
‘A fallen god.’
I nodded inwardly.
The Forgotten God before me was a fallen evil god.
He must have originally been one of the gods of the Temple of the Hundred Gods, corrupted after Destruction’s appearance.
That also explained his detailed knowledge of Greed.
Almost as if he had been spying in real time.
…Wait. Could he be one of the goddesses?
But he looked like an old man.
—Greed attacked Destruction.
“What happened?”
—What do you think? He lost—cleanly.
“……”
—But Destruction spared Greed. By then, all demons were already contributing to Destruction, so it let him live.
“So they spared him because their interests aligned?”
—Something like that. The problem is… Greed kept attacking afterward. Can you explain that as anything but madness?
“……He does sound unhinged.”
I didn’t want to admit it, but Greed felt strangely similar to me.
The way he always gave his all, even when his actions looked insane.
That pure desire to grow stronger.
—Perhaps because of that, the two goddesses began to help Greed. Among all the gods, only they stood with him. And Greed… was the first to ever wound Destruction after its appearance. It was little more than a scratch, but it was undeniably the first time.
“So that’s why Destruction stopped?”
—No. Destruction continued to destroy the world. However… it seemed curious. Seeing two goddesses and a demon joining forces—beings that should never harmonize. It must have conceived the idea of the **End** then.
At that moment—
The Forgotten God’s body began to blur.
Rumble! Ruuuumble!
The trembling of the World Tree intensified.
Then—
—After that, Destr… uction… ughraaaargh!
It started again.
But this time, it did not stop.
—P-please… grant me rest…!
The Forgotten God begged.
The end was approaching.
He writhed, desperate not to meet such a miserable death.
And so, I decided.
《You switch to Park Hyun-myung’s form contained within the ‘Ash’ gauntlet.》
《You bestow ‘5’ Sanctification upon an ‘Inactive Symbol’.》
《The ‘Symbol’ activates.》
《If an activated symbol is planted in the ground, a ‘World Tree’ will grow.》
《If an activated symbol is placed upon the related ‘Forgotten God’s domain’, the ‘Forgotten God’ regains their name, and life associated with the ‘Named God’ begins to be born across the world.》
I chose to save the Forgotten God before me.
—W-what are you doing…?!
The Forgotten God was stunned.
—This power… the power of one who creates stars!
As though he had never imagined I possessed such an ability.
—But it’s useless if you don’t know my domain. Even I don’t remember where I established it…
“Here.”
—Here…?
“This is your domain.”
The Forgotten God.
The one called Ancient.
As his form blurred, the world itself began to blur.
Now I understood.
Who it was that had constructed another world within the World Tree’s dungeon.
It was the old man before me.
He had moved his domain here.
Naturally, this world itself was his domain.
I immediately drove the activated symbol into the ground.
《You have placed the ‘Activated Symbol’ upon the ‘Forgotten God’s Domain’.》
At the same time—
《The ‘Forgotten God’ has regained their name!》
simply lovely – max verstappen