It really was the smell of alcohol.
Heukno and Amno looked at each other, then nodded simultaneously.
Without hesitation, the two unleashed their palm forces.
Shwaaaaaack.
Two massive streams of palm force flew toward Seophon Majon. Even though it was an attack that would kill Cheonhwa Ruju if Seophon Majon dodged, they struck without reservation.
As expected, Seophon Majon guarded the area in front of Cheonhwa Ruju until the very end.
“No!”
The moment Cheonhwa Ruju screamed.
Boom! Kwaang!
A series of dull, thunderous roars rang out.
When she squeezed her eyes shut and opened them, Seophon Majon was standing perfectly fine in front of Cheonhwa Ruju.
Two streams of palm force had flown in from somewhere to neutralize the attack.
Who had helped was obvious from sight and smell.
In that place filled with dark mist, golden waves flowed, and the smell of alcohol grew even thicker.
Two people entered from there.
An uncontrollable surge of emotion flashed across Seophon Majon’s face as she looked at them. Just moments ago, she had resigned herself to death.
Even if she died carrying out the Young Cult Leader’s orders, how could death not be frightening at her young age?
Mabul, who entered first, spoke to her.
“Seophon, you’ve had a hard time.”
Had there ever been a time when Mabul’s face was so welcome?
Seophon Majon bowed her head respectfully and conveyed her gratitude.
“You saved my life. Thank you.”
“You would have held them off well enough on your own.”
Mabul said, looking up at the wide-open ceiling.
“Why didn’t we think of this? We should have come down this way too.”
Earlier, Heukno had smashed through floors and plummeted down while chasing an even stronger dark aura, descending all the way to the floor where Chwima and Mabul were.
“Wouldn’t that have been lacking in elegance?”
Wafting thick with the smell of alcohol, Chwima followed behind and entered.
Chwima glanced at Gaye standing in the corner, then strode over to where Seophon Majon was.
At the appearance of the two, Heukno and Amno’s expressions completely stiffened. The fact that Mabul and Chwima had already appeared here meant that the Dark Spirit had fallen. Truly, the strength of these damned Demon Lords was running rampant.
Chwima stopped in front of Seophon Majon. Seeing blood at the corners of her mouth, he took something from his bosom and handed it to her.
“Have a drink.”
What Chwima handed her was a small wine bottle.
When Seophon Majon looked at him, Chwima nodded with intoxicated eyes.
Without a word, Seophon Majon opened the bottle.
Smelling the fragrance of the medicinal wine spreading around her, she drank deeply.
It was no ordinary wine. It was Chwima’s signature medicinal wine, most effective for treating internal injuries.
She could tell the moment she drank it.
‘This is precious wine.’
And indeed it was. The moment the wine entered her body, it began to untangle her twisted and wounded meridians. She truly hadn’t expected him to offer such precious wine so freely.
“Later, I shall treat you to a drink.”
It was precious wine that could not be repaid with a single drink, but for now, she expressed her gratitude in that way.
Chwima laughed in a good mood at her words.
“My popularity is soaring to the heavens these days! People are lining up to buy me drinks. Young Cult Leader, I am such a man!”
He had the face of someone who couldn’t wait to meet Geommugeuk and brag.
The two old men watching found Chwima unpleasant. For him to act so relaxed while they were right in front of him was clearly an act of contempt toward them.
Meanwhile, watching that scene from the side, tears finally flowed from Cheonhwa Ruju’s eyes. She had truly thought Seophon Majon was going to die. They wouldn’t know how grateful and reassured she felt that the two Demon Lords had appeared in the nick of time.
She bowed her head respectfully to the two Demon Lords. It was a bow of gratitude not for saving herself, but for saving Seophon Majon.
‘Truly, thank you both.’
Chwima and Mabul didn’t say anything special to Cheonhwa Ruju. The one who had saved her here today was not them, but Seophon Majon. That merit should belong entirely to Seophon Majon.
Chwima thought that Seophon Majon was truly remarkable. Even though the final attack they had launched was a dangerous blow that could have inflicted a fatal wound, she had not dodged and protected Cheonhwa Ruju instead. That was why he had willingly handed over his treasured internal injury medicine.
Having seen to Seophon Majon like that, Chwima finally turned toward Heukno and Amno.
“We fought one against two, so three against two is fine, right?”
Heukno and Amno had nothing to say to that.
Amno revealed a cold, imposing aura.
“Four is possible, not just three. No, it wouldn’t matter even if all eight of you came.”
Chwima openly sneered.
“You tried to gang up on one person because you were scared, and now you talk about eight? I truly want to line up all the Demon Lords in front of you. Only when your big fists crack their skulls, their eyeballs are pierced by tempest winds, and their organs are shredded by extreme poison will you cry, ‘Oh my, I spoke nonsense in my old age, please spare me!’ shedding tears and snot everywhere.”
Chwima acted as if he were dismissing his opponents, but he was absolutely not letting his guard down.
The Tamsim Daemyeolgong spread throughout his core had reached its peak. The opponent’s Dark Demonic Arts would display their most powerful might. Though they had the numerical advantage, they also had Cheonhwa Ruju to protect. No one knew how this fight would unfold.
Chwima asked Mabul.
“Which one will you take?”
“Anyone is fine with me.”
“As expected! Such is the leisure of the strong!”
Chwima openly asked the two old men.
“Which of you is stronger? The weaker one can fight me.”
It sounded like a frivolous question thrown out on a whim, but it was a loaded question intended to break the two men’s solidarity—that is, if each thought inwardly that he was the stronger one.
“A ploy to divide us.”
Amno grasped that intention immediately.
Thereupon, Chwima said to Mabul,
“Please deal with him. Since he’s more cautious, his skill must be greater as well.”
This allowed him to determine who was more cautious, and he also succeeded in wounding Heukno’s pride by treating him as an inferior.
“Seophon, please support me.”
Chwima honestly acknowledged that he was at a disadvantage in terms of martial compatibility in this fight. He was not ashamed of being weaker.
Heukno said to Chwima with cold eyes.
“There is no need to force a matchup. Your opponent is not me.”
Heukno unleashed a new Dark Summoning Technique.
Beast Descent Technique.
Monstrous beasts in animalistic forms were summoned, baring their massive fangs. Because they were soulless summons, these were things Seophon Majon could not capture.
Chwima drew his daggers. Even seeing those terrifying summons, he showed no sign of fear whatsoever.
“If you’re going to summon them anyway, couldn’t you call out something we could share a drink with?”
The moment his words ended, he charged toward the beasts.
Heukno had faced countless enemies while mastering summoning arts over many years, but this was the first time he had encountered someone who charged in without any plan. And a Demon Lord at that.
The beasts rushed at Chwima.
As their battle began, Amno walked out toward Mabul.
“Can that light emanating from your body truly protect you?”
Mabul quietly put his palms together and answered.
“It was not this light that protected me. I am the one who protected this light.”
Whooooom.
Dark energy flowing from Amno’s body wrapped around the two like a whirlwind, and they instantly disappeared from that spot.
Thud! Squelch! Thud-thud!
Chwima’s daggers continuously stabbed the beasts. It seemed like a reckless brawl relying solely on protective ki, but his movement technique was displaying truly incredible footwork.
Earlier, while breaking through the whirlwind martial art, the Manpa Hoeryun, unleashed by Byeokhae Shingun outside the ship, he had succeeded in raising his martial realm, which he had been contemplating recently, by one level.
That achievement was now revealing itself.
The beasts rushed in from all directions, appearing to tear into his whole body, but he narrowly parried their attacks. What Chwima lost were scraps of clothing, while the beasts’ bodies burst apart from his attacks.
He stabbed the beasts charging from all directions with his daggers and kicked them. He trampled fallen beasts and even strangled them.
Heukno continued trying to summon more beasts.
But Seophon Majon did not stand by and watch.
Shwaaaack! Shwaaack! Shwack!
Flying palm force forced Heukno to stop his summoning and fling his body backward.
‘When did she recover from her internal injuries?’
Before he knew it, Chwima had broken through the beasts and was charging at him. Being among the beasts, he looked like one himself. In fact, he even bit and tore apart a dark beast’s throat.
Seophon Majon could understand why Chwima was charging in like that.
Originally, since she was fighting alongside him, he should have chosen the stronger opponent, Amno. But he chose Heukno, who was relatively weaker.
His intention was to finish him quickly and go help Mabul.
That was why Seophon Majon also actively supported Chwima.
In response to Chwima’s charge, Heukno hid his body within the darkness.
He had unleashed the Shadow Stealth Technique.
The longer he dragged out time, the more advantageous it was. Amno was sure to kill Mabul and return.
“Are you going to be this cowardly?”
Chwima tried to raise his ki to search, but the dark aura was so strong that it was difficult.
Ssst, ssst.
At that moment, a pattern was drawn in the empty air above Chwima’s daggers. It was a pattern of a human eye drawn inside a circle.
Dark Night Eye.
It was Seophon Majon’s unique demonic art for finding those hidden in darkness.
Shharrrr.
Just when it seemed the pattern was temporarily imbuing Chwima’s daggers,
the pattern snapped its eyes wide open.
* * *
Mabul stood in an empty space devoid of anyone.
An unknown force was gripping his body tightly. No matter how much he tried to move, he could not. He could tell that some kind of Dark Demonic Art had been unleashed upon him when the dark aura had whirled around him like a tempest earlier.
Amno slowly walked toward him.
“Is there any need to fight like those low-class drunkards who smash everything in sight?”
Mabul calmly answered.
“I was expecting a fight where everything gets smashed.”
“Then you chose the wrong opponent.”
Amno slowly circled around Mabul once, then looked behind him and spoke.
“Shadows contain the dark side of a person.”
Mabul realized that it was his own shadow holding him captive.
His opponent was someone who used Dark Demonic Arts involving shadows.
Mabul calmly searched for Amno’s shadow.
“Where is your shadow?”
Amno had no shadow.
“This is a place where shadows should not exist. It is a place where shadows devour their masters. Just as you are being devoured now.”
The Dark Demonic Art unleashed upon Mabul was the one Amno was most confident in.
Wounded Soul Collapse Technique.
“The wounds in your heart will destroy you.”
“A common, trivial demonic art.”
A sneer formed on Amno’s face, as if to say, Is that so?
“A wound of one will be amplified to a hundred. A human can never endure that pain.”
In short, it was a demonic art with a set method of breaking it. Endure and break through, or fail and collapse.
“Mabul, you will die here.”
He had not originally planned to use the Wounded Soul Collapse Technique on Mabul.
“It was a technique I was saving for the Young Cult Leader, but it seems I will use it on you first.”
The stronger the opponent, the better it worked. Strong people often harbored deep darkness.
“Then why don’t you save it and use it on the Young Cult Leader?”
“Let’s see how long you can stay so relaxed.”
Sssssst.
In an instant, Mabul found himself in a different space.
It was that small cave from his childhood. The place he had always hidden to avoid the teasing of those around him.
At the moment the wound should have surfaced, a smile formed on Mabul’s lips.
If he had encountered this demonic art for the first time, it was a place that would have plunged him into a deep inner demon. If the wound from that time were amplified a hundredfold, as the bastard said, could his mind endure it?
If it were the past.
“Someone brought me here first, you see.”
Mabul walked out of the cave on his own. Not even a small wound remained here that could be amplified a hundredfold.
Sssst.
As the cave disappeared, this time Pungcheon Gyoju appeared.
He spoke with a face full of hurt.
“I thought we were friends. But you threw away our friendship merely for power. That is the kind of human you are.”
He spat out words meant to provoke, but Mabul calmly answered.
“We have already reconciled.”
In that instant, Pungcheon Gyoju made a bewildered expression, then slowly faded away.
Sssst.
Mabul muttered as if to himself.
“Now the Grand Heir will appear as well.”
Hardly before those words ended, Geommyang also appeared there.
“Because of you, I couldn’t become the successor! And yet even then, you were wondering whether to side with Geommugeuk. Even now, disgustingly hiding those feelings…”
Mabul strode up to Geommyang. He said nothing else. Mabul hugged him firmly.
“I am sorry, Grand Heir. It is all my fault.”
Mabul patted Geommyang’s back. In that moment, Mabul was an adult guiding Geommyang, and at the same time, a small giant.
Sssst.
Geommyang disappeared from his embrace.
Even though he had thought he had already overcome these matters, seeing them appear as trials like this made him realize that wounds of the heart once received never disappear forever.
And Mabul confirmed that he had indeed overcome those wounds.
No, rather, he felt thankful that these wounds existed.
Because they were traces of having lived as a human being, not a Demon Lord without blood or tears. Because they were precious wounds.
So now, he could say these words.
Wounds, do not fade.
In the next moment, Amno was making a look of shock before his eyes. Blood was gushing from his mouth. He had suffered severe internal injuries as the demonic art was broken in an instant.
“The Wounded Soul Collapse Technique shattered this easily?”
Amno wore an expression of utter disbelief.
“How can this be?”
“I suppose those wounded souls have already become faint scars.”
“!”
“You were right. I chose the wrong opponent.”
Of all people, he had unleashed the Wounded Soul Collapse Technique on him—the one who had worked harder than any other Demon Lord to overcome the wounds of his heart.
Mabul quietly joined his fingers and formed a hand seal.
“Did you say this is a place where shadows devour their masters?”
A brilliant radiance began to shine from Mabul’s body.
“Then, well…”
The bursting light began to push back the dark energy dominating that place.
“Shall we find your shadow?”