Of course, the assault on the Murim Alliance assembly that Hugo attended by demons was unexpected—but even more so was the fact that among them was the Heavenly Demon, leader of the Demonic Cult.
The fact that the Heavenly Demon and the Lord of the Heaven-Overturning Order shared such a close relationship that he could wield the Lord’s divine power was equally unforeseen.
‘Though all those matters erupted quite suddenly… if I think about it calmly, it’s not such a bad development.’
Did he not have another objective in this land, beyond merely harvesting karma?
Namely, to tear down every scheme and arrangement that bastard had left behind in this very place where the Lord of the Heaven-Overturning Order had set foot.
Yet now, by sheer chance, he had come face-to-face with the absolute core figure among them—
‘I absolutely cannot let him go. Even if my initial plans are completely ruined.’
It was only natural for plans to change when the situation changed.
Hans had not originally intended to take such drastic action, but he had no intention of missing this rare opportunity either.
And the result of that was exactly what was unfolding now.
Krrrrrrumble—!
Within a space shrouded in darkness akin to an abyss.
The Heavenly Demon, trapped within that unknown barrier, scattered dense demonic energy as he rampaged violently.
His brows furrowed at the sight of Awakened Undead and Abyss Revenants surging forth from every direction and rushing at him.
“Hah! What are these jiangshi? Not even the Heavenly Jiangshi are like this—what in the world!”
These entities, crafted from materials specially and meticulously selected, boasted combat prowess beyond compare, and because they were created using Earth’s Awakened, unlike ordinary undead, they could be deployed without being constrained by dimensional boundaries.
Moreover, as could be seen from Hans’s past deeds, their ranks consisted mostly of the Heaven-Overturning Order faction he had encountered on Earth…
“Celestial Slaughter Demon Lord! Why are you here…? You should have returned to Earth…!”
Among them was a face familiar even to the Heavenly Demon.
In truth, because his features were stained completely black, he hadn’t recognized him at a glance by his face alone.
But starting from the martial arts the opponent used, everything else was so familiar that it was inevitable he would realize his identity.
For it was none other than the Heavenly Demon himself who had drawn the Celestial Slaughter Demon Lord into the Demonic Cult and sponsored him with various training and support in his early days after crossing over to the Ganghwahye.
In a way, their relationship was no different from that of master and disciple.
Yet the disciple he had sent off to Earth with regret was now suddenly a jiangshi barring his path…
“…You lot, you were not mere monsters after all. Have you come over from Earth while possessing the power of another world? How is that possible?”
The Heavenly Demon, who had been in disbelief until the very end, finally acknowledged reality and gnashed his teeth.
This was truly no ordinary matter.
To the point that the Earthlings he had encountered when raiding the Shaolin Temple felt like utter nobodies in comparison.
The savage Heavenly Demon’s gaze turned toward the middle-aged man observing this side with eyes full of interest from afar—Hans.
At first he hadn’t been able to believe it, but now he knew for certain.
Though it appeared human on the outside, that one was no human either, just like the mad barbaric monster.
No, to begin with, it wasn’t even a living creature.
‘I nearly fell for it. Indeed, there’s no way an ordinary living creature could wield such dense death power so easily.’
A power closer to the very root of the concept of death rather than simple demonic energy.
Even he, who had accumulated high-purity demonic energy through the Heavenly Demon God Art, was seeing an aura of such purity for the first time in his life.
So much so that despite being an enemy, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of awe.
‘More importantly, how did they cross the dimensional wall? Those two are not at the level of that brat I saw at the Shaolin Temple who merely possessed potential. They are ones who have already reached completion in their own ways in another world. For such impurities—not just one, but two—to invade this world…!’
At this point, he couldn’t even assert that those two here were all of them.
Who could say whether three, four, or perhaps more than ten were already lurking somewhere in this world?
And that was absolutely not good news.
‘Why now, of all times! I had just begun the Grand Design and was gathering the Dragon Children!’
A variable had popped up the moment he began his plan after fending off the interference from Geumo Island.
At that situation flowing like fate, as if deliberately aimed at him, he cursed the heavens and gnashed his teeth.
He was the one who had betrayed the world first, so his attitude was no different from the pot calling the kettle black, but the current him had no leisure to judge things so objectively.
“Kwahahaha! Then let’s play in earnest, friend!”
Because a monster that had now completely shed its human form was charging furiously at him.
A grotesque lifeform boasting a frame reaching four meters, dark-red scales covering its entire body, and claws and fangs each serving as weapons akin to divine armaments shone its heterochromatic red-and-green eyes as it tore through the atmosphere with its charge.
“Hah! You’ve grown quite bold thinking you’ve found an opening, you arrogant monster. Very well, I’ll face you properly this time. I’ll take this chance to sever all four of your limbs and rip out your entrails.”
From the Heavenly Demon’s body, demonic energy tinged with sunset-colored divine power billowed up.
By nature, impure power like demonic energy should never be able to harmonize with divine power, yet for some reason, the aura rising from his body naturally blended into one and began to soar even higher.
An aura clearly far stronger than when he had used it against Halli and the Holy Monk at the Shaolin Temple.
He no longer cared about the aftereffects that would follow.
Now was not the time to hold back any usable power.
“Did you say a monarch ruling over all demons? That is quite the arrogant title.”
Amidst the storm of surging aura, the Heavenly Demon opened his mouth in a low voice.
As if forcibly casting out the ominous foreboding seeping into his heart even amidst all this.
“I am the Fourteenth Cult Leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, the Heavenly Demon. The undisputed supreme expert of the current murim, standing alone at the apex of this world. Yet you think I, who ascended to heaven and became a Demon myself, would kneel before a mere mongrel from another world!”
Unlike usual, those heavily uttered words carried a self-assurance bordering on compulsion.
As if forcefully drilling it into himself.
Kwaaaang—!
Immediately after, Halli warped his expression and curled his lips upward as he clashed with the dark sword qi erupting from the Heavenly Demon’s blade.
In his current complete form, he possessed a body sturdy enough to ignore most ordinary attacks, but that energy formed from a mixture of divine power and demonic energy held power far surpassing his expectations.
Moreover, unlike before, was the opponent not also fighting without regard for the consequences?
“He said he ascended to heaven and became a Demon himself…”
Just then, Hans—who had been silently observing both the undead and the Heavenly Demon fighting against Halli through the Eye of the Abyss—slowly spat out a single remark.
A thin, cryptic smile formed at the corners of his mouth.
“Kekekek— Yes, I suppose it would be amusing to verify that. Who exactly was the arrogant one.”
It was a laugh carrying some subtle sense of dissonance.
Coupled with a gaze that seemed to look down from above, as if looking down upon a struggling insect.
“Well, the result is already decided, after all. Kehahat!”
Gooooooh—
Along with the sinister laughter, the black magic power filling the interior of the barrier shook violently and emitted a resonant hum.
Like a mournful wail heard from a midnight graveyard, like a funeral dirge mourning someone’s final moments.
Wuuung— Fwoooosh— Screeeech!
A massive magic circle originating from Hans began to devour the space, and karmic fire that seemed dragged out from Purgatory, along with cold air nearing absolute zero, condensed in the void.
Those mystical phenomena multiplied in an instant, as if filling the interior of this space completely.
Lightning raged savagely while gravity convulsed, shadowy hands resembling actual hands flickered from the floor, and sharp winds whipped violently.
Every single one was a mystical spectacle rarely seen in the Ganghwahye.
Of course, to the one who had become the target and was experiencing that power firsthand, it was hardly a beautiful sight.
“…This is truly a wretched mess.”
And of course.
No matter how formidable the Heavenly Demon, the greatest in the Ganghwahye, when faced with the absurd combined assault of the Immortal King—who had driven an entire continent to the brink of ruin—and the Combat King, the legend of the Southern Tribal Alliance, he could not help but be forced into a disadvantageous battle.
In Auterica, they had been in a hostile relationship as a member of the Hero’s party and the absolute evil of the world, but in this Ganghwahye, they enjoyed an ideal partnership, aiding each other’s endeavors.
***
“Kuhuk!”
Blackened blood flowed.
The blood that gushed forth from his mouth like a waterfall soon formed a small pool beneath him before finally stopping.
The Heavenly Demon removed his one remaining hand from his mouth and calmly surveyed his surroundings once more.
The remains of countless jiangshi completely destroyed by his attacks, strewn about everywhere.
The shattered fragments of jiangshi filling the surroundings were slowly absorbed into the abyss-like space around them and vanished.
Perhaps some among them would be restored again and pop out once more to face him.
‘…It’s over. How did it come to this?’
But the ones that mattered now were not such rabble.
“Keheh~ The blood truly boils! How long has it been since such a fierce battle! Euhahahat!”
The barbaric berserker Halli, his appearance equally wrecked from exchanging fatal blows several times, burst into a hearty laugh.
“Most intriguing. The correlation between divine power and demonic energy. And furthermore…”
In complete contrast, the black magician Hans, surrounded by countless undead and dazzlingly deployed magic spells, muttered to himself.
They appeared full of openings on the outside, but the Heavenly Demon already knew.
That though they seemed infinitely relaxed now, the moment he attempted to do anything, they would resume their attacks without the slightest hesitation.
Just as had happened until now.
‘Puhuhu, no wonder it felt ominous.’
The Heavenly Demon’s gaze turned toward Hans.
Now he could clearly understand.
Why his instincts had reacted so abnormally when Hans appeared.
Halli, whom he had fought before, had been the same, but that man possessed an even more disastrous compatibility against him.
‘Nothing works on him. Truly a natural enemy.’
The greatest characteristic of demonic martial arts utilizing demonic energy lay in their lethality.
Especially the fact that they inflicted particularly fatal damage to living creatures was enough to instill fearful wariness in other murim warriors… but against Hans, it had little effect.
To begin with, he was an undead whose body was already filled to the brim with black magic power and the aura of death.
Furthermore, another problem was that the divine power he had forcibly used also failed to achieve significant results against the opponent.
The Heavenly Demon did not know the cause, but it was because Hans had recently robbed and absorbed the divinity mixed with the Lord of the Heaven-Overturning Order’s blows and karma in their battle.
In that process, he had naturally developed resistance to the power derived from that bastard.
Of course, he didn’t know how effective this level of resistance would be against power wielded directly by the Lord of the Heaven-Overturning Order himself, but the indirect influence exerted by one who had received power from him could no longer pose a great threat to Hans.
‘This is becoming a sorry sight.’
The Heavenly Demon let out a hollow sigh.
Forcing his now tattered body to wield divine power was gradually reaching its limit.
Along with that, he could feel his own death approaching swiftly.
Likely, the moment this brief respite ended would be his last.
Such thoughts made him sentimental for no reason, stirring fresh emotions.
‘It has truly been a long time.’
Over seventy years since he had crossed over to the Ganghwahye.
Throughout that time, based on the support of the Heaven-Overturning Order, he had finally risen to the position of Heavenly Demon and become the Cult Leader.
And he had thought that now only the matter of standing tall as the sole, absolute ruler of this world remained…
‘To think that everything would go so wrong right before the earnest execution.’
The figure of the Lord of the Heaven-Overturning Order who had suddenly come to find him over twenty years ago suddenly came to mind.
A divine being who had descended before him with a pair of wings on his back and brilliant light covering his entire body.
The root cause who had ruined this world and the patron who had supported his growth to this point.
Following the initial contract, he had followed the Lord of the Heaven-Overturning Order’s plans obediently, yet he hadn’t felt any great aversion to that fact.
After all, it was obvious that if things went according to plan, he would essentially rule this world, and at that time, he could never have imagined that the plan of that perfect superhuman he both revered and feared would deviate so far.
‘To think there would be more existences similar to the Lord.’
Feeling his strength slowly draining from his body, the Heavenly Demon raised his head straight.
The grotesque lifeform of massive build manifesting nothing but monstrous body parts without a hint of humanity, and the middle-aged man approaching this way surrounded by dark, sticky energy and the escort of undead.
No matter how one looked at it, it was an outward appearance far too contrasting with the Lord of the Heaven-Overturning Order who had taken the form of a sacred angel.
“Hmmm, giving up already? Faster than expected. As I thought, that divine power must be focused more on enhancement than recovery. Good data obtained.”
“Hugh—you prepared quite thoroughly. Had I prioritized escape from the beginning, could I have broken free?”
“Kekekek, who knows? I had no intention of letting you escape either. Let’s just say this isn’t everything I’ve prepared.”
“…Tch, I’ve really stepped into it this time.”
Feeling countless hands and dark chains wrapping around his entire body rising from the floor, the Heavenly Demon slowly closed his eyes.
Now that things had come to this, he wanted to see his homeland one last time.
He had thought he had discarded Earth, which had only given him wounds, long ago, yet now that the end was approaching, what came to mind was his homeland.
Kwaaak—
A hand clad in a leather glove gripped his head tightly.
And—
“…The Dragon Children and Geumo Island. I suppose I must make contact with them first.”
The ambitious one who had aspired to rule the Ganghwahye as a servant of the Lord of the Heaven-Overturning Order fell into the abyss.