Chapter 359 - [24th Round] The First Sinner

When Disco first saw me in the Festival dimension about ten years ago, she called my divine powers “motley.”

At that time, I didn’t attach much importance to it, deciding that she was jealous of someone who possessed several divine powers at once.

But that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Ironically, the diversity of my divine powers was tantamount to admitting I wasn’t perfect. After all, if I couldn’t solve a problem with option A, I would use options B and C.

Ultimately, that meant A was flawed.

Gods had to be perfect.

However, they would never admit they weren’t, for that was no different from giving up their status.

Hence, I employed self-denial.

“Farewell.”

But not anymore.

[Spine]

[Spinal Cord]

These two divine powers combined the teachings of Master Mollan and my scientific knowledge from Earth.

Specifically, they targetted the lumbar region between the 4th and 5th vertebrae and the cervical region between the 6th and 7th vertebrae, where hernias often occurred.

Attacking those points proved extremely effective, especially with Master Mollan’s teachings fully enhancing this strategy.

From now on, however, I decided to give them up.

[Human]

“And this..”

It was an ability I acquired in the world of Fantasy and was essentially a divine power born of the human race’s maximized characteristics.

But..

“Human race’s characteristics” was just a value obtained through the system of Fantasy.

The possibilities of normal humans without it were limited.

In other words, [Human] was a fictional power that I created through self-hypnosis.

All that was left was..

“Me.”

Only Hero Kang Han Soo remained.

Upon becoming Demon Lord Pedonar’s son-in-law, I inherited the family business.

[Darkness]

historical

In truth, that power wasn’t weak.

In combination with the [Light] I borrowed from Ssosiel, I could create an entire parallel world where I dominated both time and space.

I lost sight of that.

I forgot how great my father-in-law was because of his human-like appearance and tragic past.

Demon Lord Pedonar.

He was a deity who could crush the solar system with a single movement of his hand.

“I quarreled with my father because of my transitional age, but I didn’t think the Fugitive Hero would really be able to defeat him.”

“Transitional age?”

On a universal scale, that notion was quite dangerous.

“So, hubby, how far can you go by giving up your abilities?”

“Through it, I can reach perfection.”

This was a puzzle game in which failure was unacceptable.

I needed to pick up its pieces and swap them around until I had perfected the bigger picture. However, once a piece was thrown to the side, I could no longer retrieve it.

I needed to be careful.

“I’m worried..”

“.. Something’s missing.”

“Hey, husband? Don’t get too excited. I’m worried enough as it is about Distoria.”

“I can’t find the right pieces to complete the picture.”

“Does that mean you already failed?!”

“Not yet. Calm down. Here. Let me stroke your pelvis.”

“This is so soothing.. Ugh.. it’s magical..”

I shook my head, feeling the soft skin of my cowardly wife against my hand.

What did I miss?

.. No. I already found it.

“Ssosiel, why did First Angel Parmael become your aunt?”

“Because my father told me to call her that from the beginning.”

“And you never bothered to ask why?”

“Uh.. no.”

I wasn’t the only one who was stupid.

I didn’t attach much importance to it at first, but now I understood what I lacked through it.

Name and title mattered.

There was a good reason why my father-in-law told his daughter, “This deity is your aunt.”

Aunt.

Pedonar’s sister.

That meant they had blood ties.

But were the First Demon Lord and First Angel really siblings?

That couldn’t be. They were both born in nature.

“Stop! Nature? Oh!”

However, Pedonar and Parmael had “the same parents.”

Nature.

This concept was so surreal that I subconsciously denied it.

“Heeheehee!”

The First Spirit caught my train of thought.

“I need your help.”

“I knew the day would come when the Savage Hero would ask the noblest spirit for help!”

“Explain it already.”

“Pedonar and Parmael were born by nature and the macrocosm. And I am a child of nature and the microcosm.”

“Aren’t you also her aunt?”

“Right! That’s because Ssosiel’s mother, Fantasy, is a sweet spirit born between the microcosm and a planet.”

“If so..”

Regardless of whether the universe was their father or mother, all three had a common parent: Nature.

To summarize this genealogy..

First: First Spirit

Second: First Angel

Third: First Demon

Nature could give birth to others between them and other children, but I decided not to go that far.

It gave life to one boy and two girls, the powers of which were completely concentrated in me.

“.. Do you trust me, Ssosiel?”

“A little.”

“That’s enough.”

I took apart the divine power that I bestowed on my cowardly wife.

First: [Nature]

Second: [Light] = [Time] + [Nature]

Third: [Darkness] = [Space] + [Nature]

As soon as I disassembled them into their components, the omnipresent [Nature] immediately caught my eye.

Clearly, it was the existence that assigned the title “First” to all three.

If so..

“What are you going to do?”

“.. Ssosiel?”

“Yes?”

“Let’s make love.”

“Hey, why now?”

“..”

I no longer needed to use the “happiness ring.”

I went deep into Ssosiel.

“Oh, stop! What’s up with you?!”

“I want the most beautiful daughter in the universe to be born from you.”

“Are you crazy?! Your other children will die!”

“No. Not anymore.”

I decided to take all the curses upon myself and put an end to them.

Not even Nature could stop me.

First: -

Second: [Time]

Third: [Space]

Fourth: [Nature] + [Nature] + [Nature]

I weakened the First Spirit after exploiting her “power of nature” during our first meeting.

I then defeated the First Angel and deprived her of her “power of nature.”

Lastly, the First Demon transferred his “power of nature” to me, his MAX-Class son-in-law, whom his daughter loved so much.

However, I couldn’t hold all of my current power alone.

Hence, I distributed them.

Wife: [Genesis] = [Time] + [Space]

Husband: [Nature] + [Nature] + [Nature]

All of them were now in the hands of a cowardly couple!

I combined the Fantasy system to create one divine power.

[Genesis]

And I handed it over to Ssosiel.

She became a true universal-level deity that controlled time and space!

“Hey, cowardly husband? This feels a little weird.”

“You mean the absence of my “happiness ring”? Or your new divine power?”

“Both! But my divine power worries me more right now!”

“That’s only natural.”

In truth, she became a deity who couldn’t do anything herself if her husband didn’t provide her with “raw materials.”

In other words, as long as her husband loved her, she would retain her universal-level deity status, but if either of us fell out of love, she would be left with nothing.

“Do you understand?”

“I do! What you’re doing is slavery in a capitalist society!”

“If you don’t like it, return it.”

“I don’t want to!”

Even after complaining, however, my cowardly wife smiled brightly.

I acted in a hurry, almost as if I had been waiting for this for a long time.

If my “siege weapon” weren’t G-ranked, it would have already been destroyed by my intensity.

“I..”

“I love you! I really love you! I don’t know what else to say, but I love you! This is true! Let me love you in the future as well! I love you!”

“I’m a little.. too late..”

As expected, Nature had already turned its gaze on me, a greedy entity.

At that moment, something that couldn’t be put into words seized me and took my breath away.

It swallowed my nature, which was like dust compared to its essence..

“.. Husband? Did you fall asleep?”

“..”

“It can’t be! Did you die of an excessive orgasm?! This is a joke, right? Husband! Say something! Hey!”

“..”

I heard Ssosiel’s screams trying to bring me to my senses.

“Ah! Wake up..”

But they gradually faded away.

***

I didn’t disappear.

The will of Nature wanted to devour me eagerly, but many deities refused to allow it.

Numerous gods, including Mollansoft, sponsored the Fantasy Institution.

However, if I disappeared, it didn’t matter how many of them there were. Fantasy would disappear with me, causing our investors to suffer losses.

That was why I continued to exist.

Like a perfect god!

[Original sin].

A significant divine power.

On Earth, that term was mentioned in religions’ history of creation and referred to the first sin committed by the first humans, an act of pride. Tempted by the devil, they imagined themselves in place of God. They decided for themselves what was good and what was evil when He forbade them to eat fruit from the tree of knowledge.

In many ways, I was similar to them.

1) I was the Hero who separated good from evil.

2) I had the divine power [Human].

3) I made the sin of absorbing the power of nature.

4) I combined the powers of creation.

5) I was expelled from Nature.

6) My life as a married man proved difficult!

And I was the “first sinner,” the first to go against the will of Nature.

In that sense, I was as human as could be.

*****

“Apchhii!”

My airways, which were clogged with foreign matter, were cleared with one sneeze.

How long had I been asleep?

Looking around as soon as I opened my eyes, I thought that I would wake up in some large pyramid-like tomb, but I, much like before, found myself sitting on the throne of the Demon Lord.

How many days had I been unconscious?

“666 Earth days. However, you slept in the space I created for about 1.82 million years.” Ssosiel, nursing a baby, answered me.

“Wow.”

Not 182 years, but 1.82 million years?

I was shocked.

“You imprisoned your husband in space where time had been accelerated a millionfold?”

“I wanted you to wake up sooner.”

“You..”

“I missed you.”

“..”

“I’m trying to control my emotions to avoid making our child cry, but it’s not as easy as I thought.. Sniff..”

“.. Come here.”

I glanced at the little life in Sosiel’s arms as she sat on my lap.

Honestly, I had a hard time believing it.

It was as if I just closed my eyes for a moment due to fatigue, but when I opened them, my fifth child was already in the arms of my cowardly wife.

“Wow?”

[Spine]

Although he wasn’t a girl, I was still pleased because he looked healthy and had a GGG-ranked spine.

.. Too healthy, even.

“I’m glad.”

“Judging by the expression on your face, handsome husband, there’s something else you want to say.”

“Not really.”

There was a right time for everything.

Right now, we had to deal with Mollansoft, which threatened the well-being of our family.

“I haven’t named our baby yet, but your little brother apparently wants to call him Pedonar II.”

“That son of a bitch!”

I would kill him as soon as I met him!

“When you removed all the system’s shackles on me, I became free. That allowed me to visit your parents who live on Earth often. Thanks to my space mount, I can cover the distance between the two planets in no time at all.”

“Se-e-e-e-ex~”

The obscenely screaming stingray circled around us.

It annoyed me, but my son, who was sucking on his mother’s tits, laughed happily, looking at the stingray.

It seemed, like Haris, he didn’t inherit my character.

“What about Disco?”

“She’s happily taking part in an adventure.”

“That’s good.”

“Not really. She praises Hero V, not the students. Even ten S-ranked students from the secondary education course couldn’t surpass him.”

“.. Seriously?”

“Without disciples and companions, Kang Han Soo climbed to the 80th floor of the Demon Lord’s Tower alone. In just six years.”

“That’s serious!”

Watching Sieg die on the 1st floor, I overestimated the complexity of the tower.

“The teachers are confused too. What annoys me more is that Distoria constantly asks me to sell my husband.”

“Is that so.”

That was no reason to be optimistic, however.

“What about you? You took over the power of my father and both my aunts, almost killing yourself. I almost became a widow!”

Smiling, I replied, “I’ve never been better.”

[Original sin]

I was the sinner who had swallowed up undeserved power.