Chapter 317: It's a Beautiful Name

Deathly silence continued. Gaia and Kim Si-Hun were seated together on the bed, and were staring into nothingness as if they would die instantly if they were to say anything. The one who broke the silence that felt like it would last forever was Gaia.

Step.

"I have no choice..." She stood up and walked to her desk, and said while grabbing the dagger that Grace McCubbin had given her as a gift for self defense, "... But to kill myself."

"Gaia!!"

Si-Hun moved at the speed of light and grabbed Gaia's hand holding the dagger from behind her.

"L-Let me go! I-I can't bear to live any longer after experiencing such humiliation!"

"Kuh!" Si-Hun grunted.

He looked at her in shock while desperately stopping her from committing suicide with all his might.

'How is she so strong?'

Gaia, who was shining with dim light, was unnaturally strong, to the point that she was easily able to overpower Si-Hun, who had an assimilation rate of over sixty percent with Martial God Tian Taihuang. He bit his lip in anxiety.

'It must be because Lady Gaia's power has been restored.'

That was the most likely, since the woman that he was holding from behind was Gaia's incarnation. She had regained her power as an incarnation after Gaia's power had been restored.

'Shit.'

There was no other way than to persuade her with words.

"I-I'm completely fine with it!"

"Please don't lie!!" Gaia shouted with her face as red as a tomato. "Sniff... Wh-Why did this have to..."

She glared at Si-Hun with teary eyes. "I-It's your fault for coming in without knocking."

"Yes, it's all my fault."

"Urgh!"

Gaia pounded Si-Hun's chest with her fist. Her hands were so slender that her veins were easily visible, but the power imbued within her fists was no joke.

'Kurgh!'

Si-Hun crouched while clenching his chest. Gaia was beating the crap out of him while bawling her eyes out.

'At this rate...'

He would actually die. Si-Hun grabbed her wrists and yanked her toward him.

"Please calm down, Gaia. I really am fine with it."

"..."

"Rather... I'm happy to have learned this side of you."

"Y-You are?" Gaia said with her eyes widened.

Si-Hun smirked and nodded. "Yes. To be honest... I would have never expected you to have such interests."

"U-Urgghh." Gaia lowered her head in dejection. "W-Were you disappointed?"

"Not at all," Si-Hun softly laughed. "I told you, didn't I? I'm happy to have learned this side of you."

Gaia sat back on the bed while pouting. Perhaps because the lowest side of herself had been exposed, her expression had become much lighter than usual.

"I-I also had a normal life before becoming Lady Gaia's incarnation."

'That's normal...?'

Si-Hun had many questions, but knew to keep them to himself. He brought the chair over and sat in front of Gaia.

The blushing Gaia in the dimly-lit room looked highly alluring. Si-Hun fell into deep thought while staring at her.

'Come to think of it...'

He did not know much about her; he didn't know about her life before she had become an incarnation, what she liked, her hobbies.... Absolutely nothing.

'Hah.'

Si-Hun chuckled in his mind. He swept his hair back with sunken eyes.

'After all that talk about falling in love with her at first sight...'

He had never once thought about getting to know her.

'Hyung-nim would smack me if he found out.'

Si-Hun smirked while thinking of Oh Kang-Woo.

"I want to know more," Si-Hun expressed.

"... Pardon?"

"I want to know more about you, Gaia."

Gaia averted her gaze with reddened cheeks. "Y-You won't find it very interesting."

"I'd still like to know."

Si-Hun stood up from the chair and sat next to her on the bed again. He slowly reached out to grab her slender hand.

"First, I'd like to know your real name."

Gaia lowered her head in silence. Her name, which she had abandoned when she had decided to become Gaia's incarnation...

"My name is..."

Her voice trembled. At this moment, she was not the incarnation of a goddess, but just a regular woman. She slowly spoke as if she was revealing a long-kept secret.

"... Layla."

Si-Hun smiled brightly and put her hand on Gaia—no, Layla's cheek.

"It's a beautiful name."

He leaned in while smiling, and they kissed.

***

"What a relief."

"Hm? About what?"

"About Gaia," Han Seol-Ah said while smiling and clasping her hands together. "I'm sure she must have had a hard time... Back when she had first lost her sight and legs."

"I'm sure she would have," Kang-Woo replied while nodding.

He was moved back when he saw Gaia bawling her eyes out, since he had gotten quite attached to her over the years; the incarnation, not the goddess.

'I want my sister-in-law to be happy.'

Only then would Si-Hun continue to stick to her without being led astray.

"Now that Earth's protection has been restored... We'd be able to live in peace, won't we?" Seol-Ah mentioned.

"We do have some leeway now."

Kang-Woo nodded. Although it was not permanent, they had managed to buy some time. Since he also knew the truth behind Gaia's worries of Seraph having turned to the dark side, he did not need to make any rash decisions.

'But that doesn't mean I can just roll around doing nothing.'

The time he had bought was finite; if he kept doing absolutely nothing, the Gaia System would once again begin to collapse.

'And...'

Kang-Woo's eyes sank as he recalled the gigantic bull snorting black flames.

'He'll come back one day.'

Kang-Woo needed to make ample preparations starting now.

"First off..."

He opened the status window to check the Key of the Demonic Sea. After having acquired the fourth key Greed, he only had one key left to acquire.

[You must complete a prerequisite quest to acquire the fifth key of the Demonic Sea, 'Heresy'.]

Like he had thought, there was another quest.

[Prerequisite Quest: 'Demon of the Heavens']

[Learn a Chaos technique of at least low-rank.]

"...Ngh." Kang-Woo narrowed his eyes in irritation.

He had successfully managed to win in his previous gamble and learned a bottom-rank Chaos technique, but it had been nothing but a coincidence among coincidences. His right hand had exploded like fireworks from being unable to control even Chaos - Burst, so it was far beyond him right now to learn a technique above that.

'But was that seriously only just a bottom-rank technique?'

It was hard to believe, since such a technique had destroyed Behemoth's horn that contained god-killing powers.

'If I can use higher-ranking techniques...'

Kang-Woo couldn't even imagine what he would be capable of.

"... I guess I have no other choice than to train diligently."

It was a huge risk to use the Chaos techniques since he also needed to slightly open the Doors of the Ten Thousand Demon Core to activate molting, but it was absurd to neglect it after having witnessed its astounding power. He needed to make the technique fully his, no matter the risk.

'Besides, I need to clear the quest too.'

There were several reasons for him to learn Chaos techniques.

'Fortunately, it doesn't require much sacred power.'

Compared to Kang-Woo's boundless demonic energy, the amount of sacred power he had was pathetically small. Forget balance, one wouldn't even be able to tell that he had sacred power unless they took an extremely close look. However, since the Chaos technique was enhanced by sucking in the flowing demonic energy within him, the imbalance between sacred power and demonic energy was alleviated.

"That aside..." Kang-Woo sighed.

Seol-Ah, who was lovingly staring at Kang-Woo next to him, asked, "What's wrong, Kang-Woo?"

"I just have something that's annoying me."

Not everything was going his way.

'The Authority of Extinction is malfunctioning.'

After having been wounded deeply in his chest, the Authority of Extinction had become unstable. The Authority stopped from time to time as if a call was cutting out.

'Is it because of the wound I got from Behemoth?'

That was most likely the case, since it had become like this after getting stabbed by his horn.

'I'll keep the Authority of Extinction sealed for now.'

It was a shame that an Authority of a prince of Hell had become unavailable to him, but he could not afford to use an unstable Authority.

'How irritating.'

Kang-Woo couldn't help but be pissed off after losing his use of not a regular Authority but that of a prince of Hell.

"Kang-Woo." Seol-Ah approached him and hugged his head.

An unbelievably soft sensation pressed on his cheeks.

'Oh sweet jesus.'

Kang-Woo's irritation melted away in a flash.

Seol-Ah continued while giggling, "Don't make such a scary face. The operation was a success, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, you're right."

"Let's just forget about everything for today and enjoy ourselves," Seol-Ah said while caressing Kang-Woo's head that she was embracing. "Let's invite Balrog, Lilith and Yeon-Joo over and have a simple party. What do you think?"

"Let's have beef on the menu,"Kang-Woo replied.

He was craving some beef after thinking about Behemoth.

"Hohoho. Okay, I'll make whatever you want. Right, could you go buy some beer with Echidna? Balrog was saying that he really wanted some."

"That guy really shouldn't be drinking," he said while nodding with a smirk.

As he went into his room to get ready to go out, he saw a black object on his desk.

"Oh, come to think of it, I had this."

Kang-Woo looked down at Behemoth's horn fragment. Despite it only being a single fragment of the shattered horn, it was over a meter long.

"How should I use this?"

It was far too much of a waste to leave a horn fragment containing god-killing powers unused.

'But using it to make a weapon for myself is a bit of a waste.'

He possessed the Transcendent-grade weapon, Key of the Demonic Sea, which was far more valuable than Behemoth's horn fragment. Kang-Woo fell into thought while tapping the horn fragment.

'Who should I give it to?'

He thought of possible candidates, but it didn't take him too long for the perfect person to come to mind.

"Yeah."

There was only one person at the moment who was in need of such an item.