Chapter 98

Soaking in the cool stream, I counted slowly to 100 with a heart pounding as if I were cooking ramen.

-Bow! Bow!

30 seconds passed, and the hunting dog that spotted me first ran to the front of the creek and barked fiercely.

-Screech!

“Here it is! The prey is here!!”

50 seconds passed, and a female hunter, presumably the owner of the hunting dog, ran up and blew a horn, signaling my location to the surroundings.

“Kyahaha! Hunt! It’s a hunt!”

“It’s the night of the hunt led by the Goddess!”

“Offer up the prey! Death to the foolish man!”

“Blessings to the Goddess, death to the man!”

70 seconds passed, and like a biker gang full of end-of-the-century sentiment, the huntresses swarmed around me like a pack of dogs.

Holding torches, bows, and spears, they cursed at me, their appearance a typical example of fanatics, to the point of being laughable.

And then 100 seconds.

-Thud! Thud! Thud!

Amid the frenzied shouts of mad huntresses, small footsteps echoed.

As those footsteps drew nearer, the huntresses’ frenzy subsided, and on the large rock right in front of me.

She revealed herself.

“Greetings, Goddess of the Crescent Moon. How’s your shoulder?”

“…You cursed scoundrel.”

“Wow, you look prettier today! I prefer this look over the nightgown from last time.”

“What? Do you see my armor and dare to speak such nonsense?”

“The thicker and harder the shell of a stone crab, the softer and sweeter its flesh. I look forward to tonight’s end.”

As the leader of a hundred thousand demonic warriors in my Heavenly Demon days, I had to speak with elegance and dignity.

Oppressed by Gwi Hyun-sa, and tormented by the Four Heavenly Kings, even the head maid glared at me.

No matter how wise one was in the Demonic Sect, there was a time when one couldn’t see through things.

However, I realized that if you twist polite and cultured words well enough, you could turn them into a weapon that could overturn the opponent’s composure without a single curse.

From then on, instead of reducing my cursing, I refined my speech, developing a tongue so sharp that even the calmest monk would be sent into a fit of rage by the end of a conversation.

Eventually, by the end of the Great Demonic War, I reached a level where I could make the head of the Shaolin, who was fighting a desperate battle with Mount Song as their last stronghold, break their vows.

Without a single curse in a gentlemanly tone, the content of my words was magical rhetoric that infuriated the more you chewed on them.

It was called the Heavenly Demon Mouth Technique.

The key point was to elaborate on vulgar words and curses as much as possible, so that the opponent would naturally accept and understand the words at a level they could comprehend.

“But for a warrior, you show a lot of skin. Do you captivate men’s hearts with that face and thighs while hunting them? If so, I wouldn’t mind being hunted by you.”

“Y-you blasphemous scoundrel…!”

Just like that.

The way her reactions hit home every time I struck with words was immensely satisfying.

And, one thing I realized while spending time with Ares, Nemesis, and Eris.

Surprisingly, gods were quite weak to being challenged, mocked, or taunted.

According to Ares, it was because there was no one who talked back to them head-on like I did.

The reason I could toy with Artemis like this was thanks to Ares’s advice.

Knowing I had a grudge against her, he mentioned how Artemis, infamous for cursing and killing men and women alike with her arrows and curses, had a particular weakness to provocations, especially of the lewd kind.

-Crunch!

“It must hurt. Are your teeth okay?”

“…”

The sound of the goddess’s sacred teeth grinding made my smile widen, while the huntresses around her paled, staring at me like I was some madman.

As expected of the War God. The provocation was definitely effective to use.

“Hey, I was just giving you a compliment. Why grind your teeth like that?”

Even the first time I saw her, she was so beautiful that I forgot she aimed at my head.

But today, she seemed to have made up her mind, fully armed indeed.

Her identity could be defined by the silver bow imbued with moonlight and the brilliant silver arrows.

The silver guard on her hand and arm was a work of art adorned with platinum and silver, and her pure white skin, combined with it, made her hands shine as if they were those of a saint.

Her black hair, like silken threads, stood out even more with the silver tiara that shone with the power of protection, and the golden powder decorations on the silver hunting suit that wrapped around her immaculate white skin emphasized Artemis’s divine strength and her smooth skin.

Moreover, the silver belt crossing that suit accentuated her slender waist, and the revealed figure of Artemis boasted a truly goddess appearance with perfect beauty where curves dipped in and out just right.

But more than anything, that fiercely twisted face still captured my attention.

If looks could kill, her ferocious black eyes that would have slaughtered me hundreds of times, her finely curved, sharp nose, her sweetly glowing rosy lips without any rouge, and her flawless white skin reminiscent of white jade…

“If I were your father, I wouldn’t be able to refuse such a tearful request from a daughter like you.”

“….What?!”

If I were her father, I’d coddle her and carry her on my back, and if I were a man, I’d risk my life to try to win her heart. If I were a woman, I’d gladly devote my life to serving her. She radiated the dangerous allure of the moon—a walking trap that could ensnare anyone, despite her status as the Goddess of Purity.

Could such a beautiful and alluring creature truly be the Goddess of Purity?

She was like a carnivorous plant, walking around seducing all sorts of men with that bewitching beauty.

And just as I delivered that thought, the moon goddess, now stunned and speechless, seemed to finally understand my words. I delivered the final blow.

“To think that a goddess loved by the supreme god would travel such a long way. Your beautiful feet and exhausted energy must be weary. Fortunately, the bath is wide enough for a dozen people to enter together. What do you say?”

So, would you like to come in together?

As I smiled mischievously and offered a seat, the pure white goddess evolved into a fiery red one.

To strip away all the unnecessary embellishments and formalities and speak plainly.

Unable to handle things on her own, she ran to her brother and father, whining, and even dragged her gang all the way here to cause this mess. One might doubt she’s really the Goddess of Purity, as she goes around seducing men.

So don’t hesitate, and let’s tumble around together.

…That’s about it.

Yeah, it was a sophisticated, provocative sexual joke and taunt that would either start to make sense or, even if it didn’t, would inexplicably infuriate someone deeply.

Seeing the moon goddess, who was morphing in real-time from a white carp to a fiery red goldfish, as she mulled over my words, made the drink taste even better.

Unfortunately, the cherished intoxication seemed like it needed to be appeased with sleep rather than liquor.

“You… you… youuu!!”

-Swooooosh!!

The divine energy of moonlight filled the entire view.

The dense divine energy, responding to its master’s fury, was like boiling molten silver, serving as a sharp sword, a piercing spear, or a hunter’s bow.

[Though I don’t know what gives you such arrogance, the most exalted god of Olympus has granted me divine authority. Last time, I withheld my bow due to Chiron’s plea and my father’s command. But today, for your past insolence and disrespect, and for the sin of abducting and humiliating my huntresses, you shall pay with your life!]

As Artemis exerted her divine power and waved her hand like commanding an army, the roaring silver divine energy scattered and imbued the huntresses and hunting dogs.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Ah, ahhh! It’s the grace of Lady Artemis!”

“Haa~ It’s so wonderful. This power, this vitality!”

“With the blood of the prey, I shall repay the goddess!”

-Bark, bark, bark!

-Awooo!

The huntresses and hunting dogs, whose entire bodies began to glow faintly as if sprinkled with moon dust, fell into a trance like berserkers, each raising their weapons and shouting.

[My huntresses! Vow keepers of eternal purity! Quench your thirst with the blood of the shameless beast that has dishonored us!]

“For Artemis!!”

“Die! Filthy man!”

-Swoosh!

Simultaneously with the goddess’s command, arrows and spears targeted me from all directions.

The huntresses, who had sworn to hunt eternally with the goddess, proved their skills.

Numerous decoys disturbed my vision, and hundreds of killing blows aimed at all my vital points flew in from all directions.

Was it because Artemis’s divine power was imbued in them? The moonlit attacks seemed to read my movements, changing their trajectory slightly, even showing homing capabilities.

“…So what? I can see everything.”

Still comfortably soaking in the stream, I watched the attacks as if I were gazing at the moon, and I slowly raised my hand, emitting energy.

-Whoooosh…

“Alright, alright. Now you must follow my will. Am I not now a complete demon of the highest demonic state?”

The demonic qi of the Other Heaven’s Path Heaven Arts, which I had taken as my main cultivation technique after the Martial Spirit Cultivation Technique, burned fiercely.

“Shall I then start lightly? Embracing the aesthetics of symmetry, let’s begin artistically.”

The smile reflected on the water’s surface was, even to my eyes, terrifyingly jubilant.

At such perfect timing, the perfect prey was charging at me perfectly.

As a demonic being, how could it not be exhilarating?

When I clenched my high-raised, demonic qi-filled hand, the condensed qi roared.

*-BOOOOOM!! *

The qi trembled in my strongly clenched fist, as if pulling down the sky, and the scattered energy waves made the surroundings shake violently, as if a dragon were ascending.

[Th-this!]

The faces of the huntresses, once filled with ecstatic madness, began to freeze in fear. Artemis, too, turned pale as she recognized the familiar yet now even more terrifying energy.

“Explosion of Agony.”

The beautiful explosion of moonlight that had swallowed the Goddess of the Crescent Moon on Passos Island during the moonlit night.

A rampage of the abyss, perfectly symmetrical to that, swept through the surroundings.