Duat.
It was the world of the dead, one of the few places even the gods of the divine realm hesitated to tread.
And for good reason—once you fell into Duat and became a resident of this place, no matter who you were, you were forced to labor for the Ennead.
Humans, gods, even higher deities were no exception.
And the wardens watching over them were none other than the Ammut.
They were beings who ripped out and devoured the hearts of sinners who tried to escape, upholding the order of the underworld.
And despite being such fearsome creatures, they were beloved little darlings of the great god Set.
‘What’s all this, then? Materials?’
Anubis, the lion of the underworld, was dumbfounded.
But no matter how many times he looked again, and again, the ones groaning with their hides torn off were his own compatriots!
“That bastard! How dare he do this to the gods of the Ennead!”
At Anubis’s fury, the serpent-bearer’s underlings in Yi Geon’s shadow felt like dying.
‘Aaaagh! Master!’
Though not as bad as the Samsara Underworld, Duat was infamous even in the divine realm for its harshness.
‘And yet he treats the gods of that place so brutally…!!’
‘Aah, master. He’s not a monster, but even so, to do that to a god…!!’
‘Heaven’s punishment upon us!’
No god would ever dare lay a hand on a god’s physical body. No, they couldn’t even think of it.
Thanks to that, Anubis thought it might just be words—materials, he said—some new kind of torture? But what was this? Yuha was diligently gathering up the skins Yi Geon had cut off.
That wasn’t all.
“Uncle, don’t you like crocodile meat? They say it’s good for stamina.”
They were even trying to use it as food ingredients!
Anubis’s eyes could only flash with rage.
“What absurd behavior is this! How dare you run rampant in the sacred garden of the kings!!”
But Yi Geon dusted off his hands as if he had done nothing wrong.
“The brats ignored me when I asked where Taek Su was.”
“What?”
“Don’t worry. I skinned them, but I didn’t kill them. The materials were so good I thought I’d turn them into underling gods.”
In the end, the holy god Anubis exploded.
“You wretch!”
A murderous voice erupted along with a surge of powerful divine force.
Kugung!!
At the sight, Yuha’s eyes widened. The surging, immense power felt similar to Yi Geon’s.
‘Death.’
And no wonder, for Anubis was the psychopomp deity who guided the dead to the gods of the underworld.
[Divine Name: Afterlife Judge]
[Divine Status: Anubis (Holy God / Underling God)]
[Affiliation: Lord of the Underworld (Osiris)]
A power similar to Yi Geon’s, yet entirely different, surged forth fiercely.
A divine status so potent it could turn even a clear sky to night in an instant.
[Enemy opens their Divine Status]
[Warning. An Upper Holy God with high Divine Status]
[A lower Divine Status cannot withstand it]
The warning seemed accurate enough—it was an overwhelmingly powerful aura.
But Yi Geon, seeing this, raised the corner of his mouth as if disgusted instead.
“So. You little shit, you’re saying you have no intention of guiding me to Taek Su either?”
At those words, Anubis’s sharp gaze flickered with a sneer.
“That one is exceptional prey. Rich nourishment that makes even Holy Gods drool.”
No sooner had the words left his mouth than the Lord of the Dead spread his arms wide.
[Summon Underworld Labor (4-Star)]
Along with a ferocious aura, wraiths were summoned behind him.
Kung! Kung! Kung!
Yi Geon raised an eyebrow slightly at the spectacle.
‘Humans?’
No, there seemed to be lower gods mixed in as well. And ghouls, the residents of the underworld, no different.
It felt like looking at fish corpses. Pale, white flesh, ghosts that seemed ready to scatter on the wind at any moment.
And their numbers were in the tens of thousands!
The Lord of the Dead bared his teeth fiercely.
“This is the underworld where even gods lose their power. I shall ensure you can never return under the sunlight.”
No sooner had he spoken than the residents of the underworld began using a specific skill on Yi Geon.
[They are residents of the underworld]
[Warning. By the command of the Lord of the Dead, they drain the opponent’s life and vitality]
“Even if the opponent is a god, with these numbers, turning one lower god into a mummy is child’s play.”
“Uncle!”
Yuha urgently looked at Yi Geon.
Until now, force had worked, but these enemies were the dead. Force was useless against ghosts.
Of course, well aware of this, Yi Geon casually extended his hand to check his skills.
[Currently under divine realm penalties]
[Freedom of action is restricted. Due to imposed debt and labor obligations, authority is limited]
[Currently usable authorities are as follows:]
[ 3-Star Authority plus 2 others]
[ 3-Star Authority plus 2 others]
[ 5-Star Authority plus 1 other]
After checking the available skills, Yi Geon raised the corner of his mouth.
This was enough.
And that was the moment.
Kugugung!
As if a storm were swallowing the desert, Yuha momentarily held her breath.
Anubis raised the corner of his mouth.
In any case, he was the master of the dead. Draining life force from the dead and sharing it with the Holy Gods would serve as a decent palate cleanser at a drinking party.
But at that moment.
“Huh?”
Anubis flinched. He couldn’t help it.
The aura of the dead, which had been radiating murderous intent behind him, vanished in an instant.
Feeling something was off, Anubis whipped his head around, but it was no illusion.
“What! Where did the residents go!”
“Where are you looking, you idiot. Over here.”
“!!”
Turning his head toward Yi Geon, Anubis was startled.
“Those creatures?!”
And no wonder—every single resident Anubis had summoned was now summoned behind Yi Geon.
The dead stood behind Yi Geon, their eyes flashing.
[Used ]
[Summon Dead (2-Star)] (Death)
-Summons souls
-The more divine might consumed, the wider the summonable range becomes; with a clue, you can even summon a desired soul.
Summon Dead was a skill that had appeared when became Tier 2.
But after arriving in the divine realm, many of the most-used skills had all transformed into forms.
He assumed was the higher-level version compared to .
‘So 1-star is the lowest and 5-star is the highest.’
That wasn’t all.
[Warning. is a power exclusive to Earth, having converted divine power to suit that world]
[Note. In the divine realm, all powers use instead of ]
[Divine Might: The dignity and energy of a god]
[If Divine Might reaches 0%, you die]
[Current ’s Divine Might is 70%]
It seemed was divine power filtered to manifest on Earth.
Meaning, was the true power of a god.
And seeing this, one way or another, he might have had to come to the divine realm at least once.
And having used this divine power, Yi Geon cracked his knuckles. Anubis, on the other hand, was dumbfounded.
‘Summoning the dead, of all things!’
This was unmistakably a necromancer-type authority!
‘Huh, I heard he seemed to possess a divine status of death anyway.’
Well, that would explain how he could enter this Duat, reeking of corpse stench, so nonchalantly.
But soon, Anubis let out a hollow laugh. Even so, he was just a god of death.
‘He’s just revealed his own weakness.’
The underworld realm sometimes lent out the dead for profit. Because of this, he knew the weaknesses of necromancer-type gods who commanded the dead all too well.
‘Clearly, he’s trying to summon the dead and use them as his power.’
Anubis smiled.
Summoning them was well and good, but he had picked the utterly wrong opponent to try and take.
‘Those are residents personally governed by my lord .’
They were human souls directly bound and managed by the king of this Duat. And under the rules, they were bound to Duat and could never become another’s subordinates.
“The moment you summoned them to your side, your defeat was sealed!”
As the proxy manager of the dead for the Lord of the Underworld, Anubis’s eyes flashed.
“Now, tear out that serpent god’s throat!”
The dead were about to charge at Yi Geon under Anubis’s absolute command.
But right at that moment.
[Return]
The instant Yi Geon uttered that, something astonishing happened.
Flash!
The tens of thousands of dead that had gathered around Yi Geon were instantly enveloped in a bright light.
Kugugugung!
A holy light surging from the ground purified the residents Anubis had summoned.
[Used 5th-Tier authority]
[Forcibly resurrect the dead into the living with the power of life]
“?!!!”
Wait, what in the world!
Anubis screamed. But it was still too early to be surprised.
[New flesh forms on the bodies of the dead]
[Vitality surges in the bodies of the dead]
[The dead gain yang energy and yin energy, becoming fully invigorated]
[The affiliation of the dead has changed]
[Having become living beings, the laws of the underworld no longer apply to them]
In an instant, the dead transformed into perfectly healthy humans.
“What, my body!”
“I’m alive!!!”
At the scene of them cheering, the look on Anubis’s face was priceless.
But whether he reacted or not, Yi Geon raised the corner of his mouth.
“For the living, doesn’t the command of an underworld god become meaningless?”
“What?!”
“What would happen if I turned every resident of this world into the living like this?”
At those words, Anubis screamed.
“No!!”
Indeed, by the amount Yi Geon had revived, the population of Duat had decreased commensurately.
‘Damn, at this rate, I’ll be the only one punished by my master!!’
The loss of population, which was the underworld realm’s asset.
Osiris, the de facto ruler of Duat, wouldn’t stand idly by.
And so he was bewildered.
‘What’s going on? Wasn’t that bastard supposed to be a necromancer-type death god?’
Why did he also possess the divine status of life—the natural enemy of the underworld realm?
‘Was the intel wrong?’
No, it wasn’t wrong.
‘Could it be he has two divine statuses?’
Anubis’s bewildered expression didn’t last long.
Kugugung!!!
With Yi Geon’s red eyes, the resurrected dead began to riot violently.
Kwang! Kwang!
“You bastard, you tortured and worked us at every turn!”
“There’s no reason to be bound to Duat anymore!”
The dead toppled Duat’s buildings and started kidnapping the fallen Ammut to sell them.
The panicked Anubis tried to stop them, but it was useless.
[The resurrected dead become affiliated with the Serpent-Bearer and destroy Duat]
“Aagh!!”
At that sight, Yi Geon laughed.
Of course, even though he revived them with a 5-star authority, the ones revived were human-level beings.
And there were limits.
[Insufficient divine status limits the lifespan sustain duration. Duration (239 days)]
[Using the 5-star authority causes severe Divine Might depletion. Recharge required]
[Current Divine Might 20%]
Yi Geon chuckled hollowly.
‘Still, to use over 50% Divine Might in one go…’
Well, thinking back, even on Earth, Holy Gods struggled to fill their Divine Might and were often gasping for it.
Though in his case, having over 100% faith, he could use it freely and his recharge rate was different.
‘So that’s why they’re aiming for Taek Su?’
Well, whatever, it didn’t matter.
“No! Lord of the Underworld, I didn’t eliminate the residents, I… Keugh!”
Yi Geon grabbed Anubis, who was talking with someone, by the scruff of his neck.
Grab!
Seeing Yi Geon grinning viciously, Anubis’s veins bulged.
“You wret… Keugh!!!”
“Guide me to Taek Su before I turn you into an accessory.”
“Why would I ever… Keugh!!”
Crack!! Crack! Crack!
Fists were faster than words.
* * *
Dragging the bloodied Anubis along, Yi Geon headed somewhere.
In the midst of it, Anubis tried to use his power, but couldn’t because of Yi Geon’s threat.
‘If you rebel, I’ll resurrect every single resident of Duat.’
If the population of Duat disappeared because of Yi Geon, that would truly be the death of him!
Anubis gave up on using his authority.
And that was when.
At the entrance of Duat, where the great god was supposed to receive a delivery.
It was an underground city connected to Osiris’s private residence.
There, Yuha and Yi Geon saw it clearly.
“Dad!”
“!”
It was a shocking sight.
(Continues in the next episode)