D.I.O

[Ah….]

In Pathway to Hell, blood-curling roars had constantly erupted since the beginning of its operation, but now, only low groans could be heard.

Yongno’s calculation that Pathway to Hell could run for about 15 more days was based on this observation.

“Well, I guess I did extract a great deal of energy.”

Most of the magic items Yongno created and used on Earth were made from Pathway to Hell’s energy.

While mana couldn’t be utilized properly on Earth due to the lack of spiritual pathways, Pathway to Hell made it possible for Yongno to create enormous amounts of mana. Rather than drawing mana from the surroundings, Pathway to Hell operated by burning karma to [produce] energy, similar to burning oil to generate heat. Then, this energy was converted to mana, giving Yongno the ability to create mana on Earth.

‘Dang, that evil spirit really accumulated a lot of karma. Its luck must’ve been poor for it to fall to Earth and become like this.’

As he manipulated the magic circle beside Pathway to Hell, Yongno pulled out a spiritual pathway.

With a magic circle spell converting the energy from Pathway to Hell into mana, Yongno condensed that mana and produced an artificial spiritual pathway specialized in spiritual power.

“My only regret is that I can’t make seeds through this process.”

“Oh? Why not?”

“The energy from Pathway to Hell isn’t high-quality, so I’m converting it into mana. That being said, the energy created is definitely more versatile than mana power or electricity.”

Electrical energy, or electricity, was used worldwide on Earth because it was easy to transfer from one point to another, converted quickly into other types of energy, and had a wide conversion and application range. However, under the lens of spiritual power principles, electricity was just a type of attribute energy. So, outside of some special cases and exceptions, it was impossible to turn electric energy into mana power.

This was why the following law existed:

Mana Power ==> Attribute Energy

Attribute Energy =/=> Mana Power

This phenomenon occurred because mana power was a higher form of energy than attribute energy.

‘And since strong qi has the highest level and quality, it can be converted into any energy… man, if I had that cheat-like strong qi, I could expand the scope of my research so much….’

While grumbling, Yongno organized the artificial spiritual pathways pouring out from the magic circle beside Pathway to Hell. Eunhye and Miho took these newly-minted pathways and packaged them into cases.

“Yongno.”

“Huh? What’s up?”

“Production has been cut in half.”

“I know. Production will probably come to a complete halt soon unless I provide a new [fuel] source.”

“You mean an evil being?”

“A very, very evil being. Pathway to Hell won’t even start unless there’s an immense quantity of karma.”

More importantly, only one soul could be imprisoned in Pathway to Hell. Though Yongno had researched other options, he couldn’t think of an energy-producing contraption that could imprison more than two souls.

Pathway to Hell’s shortcomings, at least up to now, didn’t present an issue. The spirit from another dimension possessed unimaginable evil karma. It was to the point where Yongno could only assume that the spirit had abused and killed hundreds of thousands of innocents or more.

The evil spirit presented such an extensive reservoir of evil karma that Yongno had to reconfigure and expand his original Pathway to Hell design. Consequently, this allowed him to create much more artificial spiritual pathways than he initially estimated, thus accumulating a considerable stockpile. Needless to say, Yongno made out like a bandit thanks to the spirit’s evil karma.

“What if we operate two Pathway to Hell contraptions?”

“That’s not possible. Pathway to Hell requires a material that is no longer available.”

Pathway to Hell was something Yongno had made relatively easily after having an epiphany, a sudden flash of inspiration; however, unsurprisingly, special material was needed.

This special material couldn’t be obtained- no, rather, it was more accurate to state that someone would have to risk their life to do so.

“The Grotesque likely won’t conveniently hand one over to me. They’re probably gnashing their teeth and fuming after I made them lose one already.”

As Yongno grumbled, he started pouring all sorts of rubies, sapphires, and other jewels into the pathway-producing magic circle. Of course, the jewels used were not real but were artificially made from aluminum oxide.

The artificial spiritual pathways would have been easier to make if Yongno used real jewels, but the expense per unit would needlessly increase. Furthermore, if the pathways were made without jewels and only mana, the expense per unit wouldn’t increase, but Yongno would have to go through additional steps, which was more work than he was willing to do. Hence, utilizing these artificial jewels was a compromise.

“Oh, bro. You finished today’s production?”

“Yeah. The production time is shortening day by day… oh, isn’t that Seyoung hyung?”

After returning to the main living room with Miho and Eunhye, Yongno tilted his head as he saw a familiar face on the TV.

[Wow!]

[Long live the Knight of Light~!]

[Oh, the God of the people~!]

[Forgive our sins~!]

[Messiah. You are our savior.]

People were enthusiastically shouting and praying. The video feed showed some people fainting after yelling until they lost their voices. The breaking news caption at the bottom of the screen read [Knight of Light, Seyoung, visits Japan].

“Hmm. Hey, I haven’t been watching the news lately. Can you tell me what caused these changes?”

Seyoung was praised worldwide for saving countless people from alien attacks and stepping into the realm of a god with a human body. Yet, undoubtedly, many people hated him as well. He had killed and murdered other humans, though Seyoung stated that his actions were carried out as vengeance.

Seyoung had massacred the entirety of the Japanese far-right group involved in his mother’s death, and later, he took down the national military forces that had come to punish and subdue him.

About 50,000 casualties had been reported so far.

Some human rights activists, prominent scholars, politicians, and celebrities denounced his existence at that time. They saw him as a murderer, and they believed he deserved to be judged.

Of course, such claims were few and far between, and many of these voices were controlled or silenced by their respective states. The Knight of Light was so powerful that even a nation’s military couldn’t hold him down, and the recent massacre proved that he didn’t always act mercifully. As such, countries were careful not to provoke Arthur, as he could easily wipe out an entire nation from the face of the Earth if he wanted.

However, there was a country that constantly provoked Arthur… Japan.

Arthur defeated Japan. This wasn’t a metaphor; it was a fact.

Japan was defeated, unable to overcome a single human being. The Japanese military, global political influence, or anything else the Japanese government tried to throw at him couldn’t stop Seyoung.

Obviously, the damage to Japan’s pride was enormous, and among the Japanese, the far-right groups rallied and united under the banner of patriotism and collectivism, and they slowly began to show their extreme thoughts and actions in public.

However, while that was occurring, other movements were also mobilizing and growing in Japan.

“They started to regard Arthur as a sacred, God-like being.”

“Oho, they’re worshiping an existence that they detest and hate?”

Originally, Japan itself was quite a religious country. In Japan, where countless gods existed, the distinction between superstition and religion was ambiguous, and many religions with masochistic doctrines existed.

To these people who had lived under such a religious culture… Arthur left an indelible impression, regardless of whether that impression was good or bad.

And above all, Arthur didn’t originally hate Japan for no good reason.

There was a clear justification for his hostility. While this didn’t justify massacring tens of thousands of people, this rationale was why a certain public opinion started to rise and take root, believing that the Japanese should seek forgiveness from Seyoung. Some even went as far as to martyr Arthur and view him as a modern-day messiah.

And the religious organization created by these people, the Church of Brilliant Light, started expanding with tremendous momentum, supported by several politicians and businessmen who hoped to dilute Arthur’s hatred of Japan and somehow gain his favor.

“I wouldn’t think right-wing groups would stand still as all this happened.”

In Japan, these right-wing groups had held deep ties to politics, as well as close relations with the Yakuza, for a long time.

For example, if someone globally criticized Yasukuni Shrine and protested, the police - public authority figures who were essentially an extension of the Japanese government - would interfere. Oftentimes, the Yakuza would also get in the way of the protestors.

In other words, Japan’s far-right groups were not a minority with unique tendencies but an axis of power that could exert considerable influence within the nation.

In fact, there were Japanese politicians who supported far-right ideas or praised imperialism or ethnic superiority, and weren’t these people elected by a landslide?

However, Youngmin shook his head.

“The power of the far-right groups in Japan is not what it used to be.”

“Why?”

“Politicians and companies that previously supported far-right groups are giving up their affiliations one by one.”

It was too much of a burden for Japan to be hostile towards Arthur, who was so powerful that even the United States wouldn’t dare to confront him. So, far-right ideology and groups directly hostile to Arthur were rapidly gaining less support.

What was the point of hating the Knight of Light through law or forming negative public opinion? Above all, the Yakuza had virtually been completely annihilated; anyone with negative feelings towards Arthur had to be careful.