I Gave Up Being Stronger

Since ancient times, numerous Mages had summoned Demons. Demons were beings born from the emotions of intelligent creatures, such as fear and terror. Hence, they naturally possessed powerful forces. However, Demons had grown even stronger recently.

Faceless could feel it too. ‘I can sense their immense power!’

As their fragmented Realms were unified and upgraded to an official Server, Demons had become even stronger. Dragan the Gluttony, who had devoured all other Demon Lords to become the sole Demon Lord, and the Demon King, who could handle Dragan like a child, had accomplished the difficult task of uniting the Demons, turning different Demon forces into one cohesive power.

“Chul-Soo… If only you were gone…!” Faceless muttered. ‘My creator wouldn’t leave me then. If only you were gone… If only you were gone!’

Hundreds of massive magic circles appeared in the sky. Even Faceless was shocked.

‘Demons are extremely eager to be summoned!’

This was not something Faceless could accomplish alone. The Demon Realm itself had amplified the summoning circles for unknown reasons. But this didn’t matter to Faceless. Demons were capricious, so this was a fortunate outcome for him.

“You won’t be able to take a single step forward from here, Chul-Soo!”

***

Dragan the Gluttony had been troubled lately. ‘Young Demons these days are…’

After failing to invade Earth, Demons were refraining from invading other Servers. It seemed the Demon King was not too pleased with that. Instead, based on what they learned from Earth, they were now stirring up hatred and disgust among beings across the universe. These were also negative emotions, and Demons could satiate their soul hunger quite well with those emotions.

But Dragan did not view this favorably. ‘They are becoming too weak.’

Disgust and fear were distinctively different. While both provided a sense of fullness, it was fear that a true Demon needed to feed on to grow.

‘Young Demons now just move their fingers in front of their keyboards…’

Newly-born Demons showed this tendency even more. Rather than demonstrating their mighty power, many Demons were focused on how to create worse scenarios to make themselves more hated. Sitting in front of a computer screen and merely moving fingers was not befitting of a Demon.

Amid Dragan’s concern, a deranged being finally used a large-scale Demon summoning magic circle.

“Well then. Time to march!” Dragan shouted, abruptly getting up from his seat. He had to teach these youngsters what a true Demon was and that fear was far more delicious than disgust. He would achieve this by showing this increasingly weak young generation what true strength looked like.

“Can we kill them all?”

“We can run as wild as we please, right?”

“Hehe, this will be fun!”

Seeing the Demons’ reactions, Dragan smiled unconsciously.

‘Now that’s more like Demons.’

Since he had devoured many Demons, Dragan devised the most efficient strategy to instill fear.

“Young Demons. You guys go first.” They had to give their opponent a glimmer of hope, then mercilessly crush it. That was the way to maximize fear. ‘And I will step in when they think they have hope.’

Whoever the summoning Mage was, they were certainly lucky. The second-in-command of the Demon Realm, the Great Lord himself, had decided to respond to the summons.

“Go forth, Demons, and bestow terror!”

***

Dragan the Gluttony rubbed his eyes. Thousands of young Demons had already been defeated and summoned back to the Demon Realm. He was speechless.

Then he heard a voice.

“Have you come, Lord of Demons! I am your summoner, Faceless, born from a fragment of my creator Julius. What is your name?”

“You insane little bastard…!” Dragan yelled.

Faceless was a bit taken aback. He knew Demons were capricious, but it was rare for them to show such hostility to their summoner right away.

“Demon Lord, my name is Faceless. I’m the one who summoned you.”

“You dare trap me?”

“Trap?”

Dragan moved his viscous body to assume a shape as close as possible to a human’s, out of respect for the Demon King, who wore a human shell. He looked at Jin-Hyeok’s right hand. When he saw Miri there, his loyalty surged.

“My king! Allow me to dispose of this trash!” Dragan said.

“No, that won’t be necessary,” Jin-Hyeok replied.

Dragan froze. Even now, winged Demons were flying through the summoning magic circles. The more intelligent Demons floated in the air, while the less intelligent ones, following the summoner’s will, tried to attack Jin-Hyeok but were instantly swept away.

Dragan gulped. The Demon King’s abilities were beyond imagination. He could not believe how light could burst from a hammer and sweep away all the Demons.

‘Can that even be called a hammer?’ Dragan wondered. It seemed even legendary holy relics could not display such power.

“Return, Dragan,” Jin-Hyeok said.

Dragan had used a lot of his demonic power to amplify the summoning magic circles and responded to the call. Returning without any gain was a huge loss for Dragan.

“Yes, Understood! I should go back!” Dragan said. He flew straight back into the summoning magic circle without even thinking about his subordinate. As he left, he turned his head to look at Faceless. “You! You faceless wretch! I will remember you!”

Then he returned to the Demon Realm, leaving Faceless speechless.

“Dragan… that coward,” Faceless murmured.

A Demon showing fear was unheard of. He wondered if Chul-Soo was indeed formidable.

‘He really must be the one chosen by my creator.’ Nevertheless, Faceless could not give up here. Hundreds of Demons were still present here.

“Do not be afraid, my Demons! Aren’t you warriors who know no defeat?”

If they did not lose heart, there was still a chance of victory. No matter how strong Chul-Soo was, he could not face hundreds of Demons alone. Moreover, Sleepless Wraiths were gathering here as well.

“With the help of the Sleepless Wraiths, we can achieve victory!” Faceless said with conviction. “Chul-Soo is enduring tremendous physical exhaustion.”

Great power always came at a price. Faceless had already witnessed Chul-Soo’s extraordinary barrier.

“He’s using a barrier that blocks the sleep-inducing fragrance and the bamboos’ singing, and he’s even blocking the Wraith’s scythe with his physical resistance!”

Activating just one of these abilities would be difficult, but Chul-Soo was operating a barrier possessing all three of them. Surely, this was taking a toll on his stamina.

“And… he used an unreasonably powerful area attack against you!”

Faceless understood Chul-Soo’s mindset. Facing so many Demons, the Eltuber had no choice but to overexert himself to gain the upper hand. However, unfortunately for him, Faceless possessed insight.

“He will soon struggle to even stand on his feet.”

The unintelligent Demons flew toward Jin-Hyeok.

***

Jeypel, a young humanoid Demon, was special. Born from the fear Demons felt when they invaded Earth and were brutally defeated by Jin-Hyeok, he possessed great strength from birth. On the seventh day after his birth, Jeypel had killed a long-spined Demon and fashioned a sword from its backbone, imbuing it with his demonic power. On the fourteenth day, he challenged Dragan but was defeated, realizing the immense gap of power between them.

‘Am I going to be eaten?’ Jeypel had thought at the time. However, he wasn’t afraid; it was a Demon’s fate.

“You’re a rare one,” Dragan had said. He viewed Jeypel favorably. “We need more like you.”

To Jeypel’s surprise, Dragan did not eat him, instead praising his rare potential.

From that day on, Jeypel came to admire Dragan. He had experienced Dragan’s strength firsthand and knew that it was on a different level.

And, today came.

‘That guy is the Demon King?’ Jeypel thought.

Facing the supposed Demon King, Jeypel felt disappointed. Unlike Dragan’s imposing presence, Jeypel sensed nothing from this Demon King. When the Demon heard the summoner’s (Faceless’s) explanation, he understood why.

“He’s using a barrier that blocks the sleep-inducing fragrance and the bamboos’ singing, and he’s even blocking the Wraith’s scythe with his physical resistance! And… he used an unreasonably powerful area attack against you! He will soon struggle to even stand on his feet.”

‘Perhaps he consumed too much energy.’

A weakened Demon King was unworthy of the title.

“I will kill you, Demon King!” Jeypel spread his black wings, instantly approached Jin-Hyeok, and swung his massive bone sword.

***

Thwack!

With a loud sound, the bone sword shattered. Along with the bone sword, Jeypel’s head was crushed. It flew off and fell some distance away. Nevertheless, the head soon regenerated.

‘What was that?’ It happened so quickly that Jeypel had trouble understanding what he just went through. “So, he used a hidden technique.”

It was expected of the Demon King. Jeypel wondered if that strange green barrier was a powerful Mystery. He thought that it was likely the Demon King had used a counterattack Skill.

“But you’re exhausted, Demon King,” Jeypel said. He was sure about that due to his sharp instincts of a hunter. He knew he could hunt down the Demon King. His prized bone sword was broken, but that did not matter. He broke off one of his horns and held it in his hand. The horn stretched out long, transforming into the shape of a sword.

“I will kill you.” Jeypel charged again. To avoid falling for the same trick, he focused on the mana flow of the barrier.

‘I will not fall for the same trick again!’ Jeypel was going to avoid the barrier’s counterattack and strike at the Demon King’s vital point.

Thwack!

However, the same thing happened. The sword made from his horn shattered, and his head was crushed again. This time, the regeneration took a bit longer.

“Ugh…!” Jeypel staggered. ‘What’s this? Does he still have hidden techniques left? Well, I guess it’s okay to fall for the same trick twice. But only twice.’

Jeypel was confident. Born from the Demons’ fear, he possessed an unbreakable, indomitable will—that was his strength.

“Kim Chul-Soo!!!” He broke his last remaining horn, turned it into a sword again, and charged at Jin-Hyeok. This time, he didn’t fly but ran on the ground. He assumed Jin-Hyeok had a strong resistance against flying entities.

“This time for sure!”

At that moment, his eyes met with Chul-Soo’s.

‘This is it!’ Jeypel thought. What he saw in Chul-Soo’s eyes was shock! Chul-Soo indeed seemed flustered. He was reaching out with his left hand, not the strange weapon (Miri) in his right hand. ‘I will cut off your wrist!’

However, life wasn’t that simple.

Thwack!

Chul-Soo’s left fist shattered Jeypel’s sword.

‘Ugh!’

At least this time, Jeypel’s head wasn’t crushed.

“Who the hell are you?” Jin-Hyeok finally spoke. ‘He just saw me for the first time. What did he mean by this time for sure?’