Hunting the Mastermind (5)
Grand General Juryeong was a powerhouse who ranked among the very top in the Hongsan Kingdom in terms of martial might.
An iron woman who had reached the highest position a military officer could attain at the mere age of her mid-thirties, and had steadfastly defended that post for over twenty years since.
The greatest value she pursued was none other than becoming even stronger.
‘As expected, this won't do. Without struggle, there is no development. To become stronger than I am now, I must be backed by an environment befitting that goal.’
Thanks to her high realm, she possessed the appearance of a well-maintained, beautiful middle-aged woman despite being over sixty, but her life from starting as a practitioner with nothing to reaching her current height had been filled with desperate struggles.
‘Peace that continues by inertia only restricts and dulls human potential. That is proven by the fact that the number of active Celestial Gate practitioners during the Hundred Years' War reached double digits.’
Her turbulent life story, having risen to the position of Grand General in a woman's body, was nothing less than a heroic epic to the people of the Hongsan Kingdom.
To the point that it reminded one of the now-legendary “Thunder Empress.”
…The problem was that, compared to the real deal, her name was sorely lacking in value.
‘War. That extreme environment is the greatest stage absolutely necessary for humans to pull out their potential beyond their limits. Just as the Thunder Empress did several decades ago.’
The Thunder Empress, who had been active even before the Grand General was born, was the figure she respected the most and simultaneously the mountain she absolutely had to overcome.
But it was only natural that the higher the mountain one must climb, the larger the shadow it cast behind it.
If things continued like this, no matter how much she floundered, she could never escape that shadow.
‘Heroes are born in chaos, as they say. The war that will soon break out will surely lift me to higher places.’
The Thunder Empress was a great figure who had reached the pinnacle of the world in less than fifteen years since entering the path of chakra.
Regardless of whether they were from the Hongsan Kingdom, the Cheonghae Kingdom, or demonic practitioners, she made every Celestial Gate practitioner active in that era kneel; not only that, but she was a heroine among heroines who held a demonstration of force in front of the imperial palaces of both great powers and forcibly seated them at a peace negotiation table.
Was there not even a record of her fighting and winning alone against multiple Celestial Gate practitioners?
‘And yet, because of some stupid fool who can't handle a simple matter properly, I have to waste time on such useless affairs. At this busy time…’
Grand General Juryeong, who had been inspecting the border region of the Hongsan Kingdom, let out a deep sigh.
However, it was a matter that couldn't be completely ignored due to external attention.
Because the Vice General, who had touched the Seongcheon Yoon Clan due to a “personal transgression” and been beaten in return, was virtually her right-hand man.
“Oh, so everyone was here?”
The uninvited guest with a bizarre appearance who suddenly showed up amid all this inevitably felt incredibly out of place.
“Kahahaha! Is it because there are so many people gathered? I found you easier than expected!”
A giant man filled with ferocious muscles all over his body approached with a wide smile and large strides, booming with a hearty laugh befitting his appearance.
“What? You! Do you know who the people here are, that you dare—!”
One military officer stepped forward and bellowed with a frown.
This was, after all, the Grand General's procession.
Naturally, the level of those clinging to her side and eagerly currying favor was anything but ordinary.
The atmosphere exuded by the numerous generals and the elite troops they commanded was so oppressive that one could hardly breathe, yet the hulking brute who appeared suddenly didn't care one bit about such things.
“Hey! How did you manage security that a commoner could approach this far?”
“I apologize. We will take care of it as quickly as possible.”
“Discipline is a mess. To make such a disgraceful scene right where the Grand General is present. You'll all be punished when we return.”
“…I have no excuse.”
One of the generals following her scolded his subordinates.
But even amid the commotion, Grand General Juryeong only looked at the uninvited guest with a strange expression.
‘What is this? This foreboding? I clearly can't feel any significant chakra…’
Her instincts, honed through repeated life-or-death struggles, were telling her.
That this brute was absolutely not something to be taken lightly.
And it didn't take long for her to realize the true nature of that feeling.
“Kuh, huh… how is he moving so nonchalantly…!”
“He punched away lightning? What the hell! What is that monster!”
“Wait, fall back and regroup for now… kuk!”
From flame and ice-like elemental forces to physical power including blades.
No attack worked on that unidentified man.
No matter what laws blocked his path, he howled fiercely, tearing the world apart with his body alone.
“Kuhahaha—! That's it! It's been a while since I rampaged, so this is refreshing!”
Ten minutes… no, had even five minutes passed?
It was the time it took for the officers who had surrounded him and put on airs to be all blown away and rolling on the ground.
The Grand General, watching that one-sided violence with a frown, slowly opened her mouth.
“What are you? An otherworlder?”
There were no other words to explain it.
Reducing an elite unit that included deep-level practitioners to minced meat with pure physical strength alone, without any chakra, was not something just anyone could do.
Moreover, repelling manifested chakra with one's bare body was impossible without the intervention of some other supernatural power.
“Anyway, for you to come this far means you have some unpleasant business with me. It seems I sorely underestimated this matter.”
A faint smile spread across her lips as she cracked her neck this way and that.
After rising to the rank of Grand General and having everyone tiptoe around her, she had suppressed her temper, but violence was originally the most preferred means of communication for her, one who enjoyed struggle.
‘How long has it been since my blood boiled like this?’
She had never dreamed that such an opponent would pop up before a proper war even began.
Violent chakra flared from her entire body.
The struggle of the Celestial Gate and the violence of the deep realm.
It was a rough energy that, had she not held an official position, would have left her with nothing to say even if branded a demonic practitioner.
“Now then, let's see how well we get along!”
“Kahahat! That old lady's got a refreshingly straightforward spirit; I like it!”
“…Sixty is still my prime, you thunder-bald bastard!”
The two bared their teeth ferociously and charged at each other.
And…
Kwaaaaang—!
That day, an entire small mountain on the outskirts of the Hongsan Kingdom vanished.
It was a major incident that occurred not long after the Prime Minister of the Cheonghae Kingdom was kidnapped.
***
“Huh!”
Grand General Juryeong, suddenly coming to her senses, raised herself up from the leather spread on the floor.
She then clutched her throbbing head and quickly assessed the situation.
‘…A prison?’
Iron bars embedded in a row on one side, and stone walls densely engraved with all sorts of indecipherable patterns.
She could tell at a glance.
That it had been made to restrain a Celestial Gate practitioner like herself.
Frowning, she slowly recalled her previous memories.
It was not such a complicated matter.
She had fought with all her might, and in the end, lost and lost consciousness, that was all.
‘…I lost. I, Grand General Juryeong Chae Mi-hwa, to someone I've never heard of or seen in my life. Just what is his identity? …Could it be, was he commissioned by the Cheonghae Kingdom?’
There weren't many forces with both the motive and capability to pull off something like this.
The face of a business partner suddenly surfaced in her mind.
He wasn't someone she particularly liked, but she had thought it necessary to compromise briefly to achieve her goals.
“Kurshi, could that bastard have actually backstabbed me like thi—”
“Did you call for me? Grand General Juryeong.”
She, who had been muttering to herself, froze.
She then whipped her head toward the direction of the voice, only to tilt her head blankly.
“…Prime Minister Kurshi?”
Looking closely, an old man with a haggard impression was imprisoned in the cell across from hers.
She had thought she was alone as she couldn't sense any presence, but it seemed her senses had dulled due to the barrier in this place.
After staring blankly at each other for a while, she was the first to open her mouth with difficulty.
“…What? Why are you here?”
“Well, isn't it for the same reason as you?”
“……”
“……”
A suffocating silence continued between them.
Now that they were facing each other like this, both sides couldn't help but have complicated thoughts.
However, fortunately, the awkward atmosphere didn't last long.
Clunk—
With the sound of a heavy iron door opening.
A group approached the prison cells where they were confined.
The Prime Minister of the Cheonghae Kingdom and the Grand General of the Hongsan Kingdom turned their heads with wide eyes and saw.
At the head of the group, a familiar figure walked proudly.
The existence presumed to be the root cause of all this.
“As expected, it was you, Black King…!”
“Heh, your gall has swollen. Leading demonic practitioners and being treated as the king of the underworld has gone to your head.”
“If you act like this, do you think he will stay still? You too will never get away unscathed!”
“I don't know what trick you used to lure such beings, but…”
As their furious voices burst out one after another, the rat-faced middle-aged man, the Black King, stopped his steps.
He then looked at them imprisoned and curled up the corners of his lips in a sickly smirk.
Just as he soon opened his mouth and was about to let slip a cunning remark—
“Mr. Kwak, aren't you going in quickly? I let you walk in on your own two feet. Should I fly you in myself?”
“Ahem, my apologies. It's just that I saw some familiar faces after a long time. I'll go in right away.”
At the brutal threat coming from behind, his face changed instantly from treacherous to servile.
He then scurried as if dodging the hulking muscleman who had approached behind him, slipping into one of the open cells.
Clang! Click—
He even closed the door himself and locked it.
At that sight, the two who had been pouring vitriolic criticism toward the Black King quietly shut their mouths.
“……”
“……”
If they said anything here, they would only embarrass themselves further for no reason.
Just as that uncomfortable air began to settle—
“Fufufu— Good, I've finally gathered everyone. Then shall we begin slowly?”
Unlike the rough man's voice, a woman's incomparably sweet, enchanting voice echoed faintly inside the prison.
In this dark, gloomy prison far from good scenery, a selfishly glamorous appearance shone as if she alone wore a filter and basked in a spotlight.
“The final remaining mastermind hunt.”
One of the two figures who had captured the Black King, representative of the demonic practitioners.
Hella surveyed the bait trapped in the cage with a radiant smile.
***
That they had reinforced with Halli despite Hella being sufficient alone was a display of their will to finish this matter quickly.
No matter how great the Demon King's abilities were, the physical limitation of having only one body was unavoidable.
‘If those who've caught on start making unnecessary moves, who knows how things will flow.’
The kidnapping of the Cheonghae Kingdom's Prime Minister was not news that could be hidden from the start.
The case of the Hongsan Kingdom's Grand General, who had blown away an entire mountain, was no different.
In the end, it was best to strike all at once before these incidents became public….
That intent had been proceeding smoothly until now.
“Hm, so it's 'Bewitching Chakra,' you say?”
“What has been revealed is indeed so. They imbue that power into specific objects and scatter them among personnel assigned to covert operations, but it is so secretive that even deep-level practitioners cannot sense a thing. Without knowing it, they gradually fall into demonic obsession.”
Hella looked at the Black King, who was eagerly divulging information about 'him' before her, with a subtle expression.
With his unbecoming words and conduct for a Celestial Gate practitioner, he was someone who had instantly discerned the difference in power and chosen unconditional surrender from the moment she first found him.
That was why he had been able to come here in one piece, unlike the others, but—
‘Somehow, he really doesn't seem trustworthy.’
It couldn't be helped that his frivolous attitude inspired no trust.
Why on earth was someone like that called by the grand alias of “Black King”? Really….
Anyway, what was important now was that even after separating the three and cross-examining them, no significant discrepancies had emerged.
They couldn't have lied under interrogation that had even utilized the “Seven-Colored Demonic Eye,” after all.
‘At the very least, it means these people believe that to be the truth. …Even if it may differ in reality.’
Hella, with her legs crossed, toyed with her plump lips and fell into thought.
Everything else was almost identical, but the one problem was that all three had different methods of contacting 'him.'
Seeing how excessively cautious his movements were, it didn't seem like it would be easy to grab him by the scruff.
‘Bewitching chakra, bewitching…’
Around the time she was deeply lost in thought.
Bam—
Halli entered through the door, turned to look, and scrunched up his face.
An involuntary reaction at the instinctual level.
Startled, Hella uncrossed her legs and sat properly.
‘Man, I didn't realize this when I was moving the body in first-person…’
Natural actions stemming from an avatar's disposition were often not properly perceived by oneself.
Just as people don't pay attention to every blink and swallow.
‘But seeing it from a third-person perspective like this… it's a bit tough.’
Hella's feminine aspects, reflected in the gaze of Halli—the manliest of men—couldn't help but be rather unpleasant.
After all, the core inside was himself.
Since his very birth was as a being created to seduce others, it was an unavoidable issue, but—
‘Hm? Wait. Bewitching, you say?’
Halli looked at Hella again.
A Demon Queen born of a succubus half-blood lineage, filled with nothing but unreality and beauty.
She could truly be called the very embodiment of bewitchment.
‘Which is stronger between the Bewitching Chakra he uses and Hella's charm?’
And if the two were to clash, what would happen?
No, if they could turn that to their advantage instead—
The two avatars, who had been standing there with arms crossed and thinking seriously for a moment, nodded their heads simultaneously.
‘This might really…’
Become a Demon King who devours this entire world.
…Even though he already is the real Demon King.