Chapter 360:
Translator: Marctempest
Editor: The Reader
Chapter 360
Yu-hyun glared at the two transcenders who blocked his way.
“Who are you? Did the Black Thunder Lord send you?”
The black-skinned demon shrugged his shoulders and smirked.
“Do we look like that? Well, we’re not completely unrelated to her.”
“Not completely unrelated? You talk as if it’s none of your business.”
“We’re under her, but we don’t serve her.”
Yu-hyun narrowed his eyes and quickly deduced an answer.
“There’s someone who doesn’t want me to meet the Black Thunder Lord. Is this what the one you truly serve ordered you to do?”
At that, the black-skinned demon loosened his crossed arms and looked interested.
“You’re pretty sharp. Then we don’t have to bother explaining. Just get lost if you understand.”
“What if I don’t?”
“Then it won’t end with the greeting we exchanged earlier.”
The red-haired man next to him chimed in.
“Are you confident? We know you’re a transcender. That’s why we came out. We’re transcenders too. We were called demon kings in our own worlds. And if we’re on the same level, then we have the advantage with two of us. No matter how hard you struggle, you’ll die once the fight starts.”
That was why the two transcenders stood in front of Yu-hyun with confidence.
Fighting usually doesn’t depend on numbers, but if they’re similar in strength, 2:1 is bound to be overwhelming. One hand can’t block two hands.
Even if he’s a transcender. No, especially because he’s a transcender.
The red-haired man chuckled.
“We don’t mind if you hurt your pride and attack us. Actually, we were curious about how strong this new transcender who suddenly appeared is. It’ll be good for us if we fight.”
“You talk a lot for someone who’s going to gang up on me.”
“We enjoy fighting, but we don’t want to lose either. What, did you want a fair one-on-one match? What will you do? We might not refuse to face you if you insist.”
“But in exchange, you have to fight both of us at the same time. Don’t whine about having no pride. We just follow orders, that’s all.”
Who would order a transcender?
And even though they said they were under the lord, they didn’t really serve her.
That meant that the one they truly served was much more powerful than the lord, at least a second-generation Divine Spirit or higher.
Yu-hyun slowly walked forward. The demon and the red-haired man frowned at his sight.
“Hey. What did you hear from us?”
“Why? Are you scared now that I’m really going to fight? Isn’t this what you wanted?”
The black-skinned demon scowled, but the red-haired man smiled creepily. Unlike the obedient demon, he was thrilled by the appearance of a new transcender.
“And I also have something I’m curious about.”
Yu-hyun put on Aporia’s mask on his face. He didn’t expect to wear it so much today. But it was necessary. The enemy in front of him was definitely threatening.
“You’d better spill everything you know about the one you serve.”
He wouldn’t miss this opportunity to find out who was behind this.
The demon and the red-haired man didn’t flinch at Aporia’s four eyes.
They each raised their fighting spirit and prepared to fight. They were called demon kings in their own worlds, so they wouldn’t be afraid of a single transcender.
Even if he’s an equal transcender, the result is obvious with two of them.
“I thought you were a smart guy.”
“Don’t blame us when you die. You asked for it.”
“Did you all oil your mouths before coming here? Think about how to fight before talking more.”
Yu-hyun responded with provocation and took his stance.
“And by the way, you seem to not know this. There are different ranks among transcenders.”
He hadn’t used his full power since he woke up five years ago.
And even now.
He didn’t feel the need to go all out.
“You think the outcome is decided because there are two of you? I have to back off? Don’t talk nonsense.”
Yu-hyun didn’t get angry easily, but he was annoyed by this blatant interference on his way to meet Kang Hye-rim.
“If you want to kill me, you should have brought at least ten more people.”
So this time, he decided to show them a little bit.
Of his sincerity.
The land was full of giant craters, as if meteors had fallen everywhere.
The dust clouds that rose up did not settle down, and the strata that could not withstand the collision of forces were strangely overturned, creating mountains on the plain.
At the center of the ruins, after a natural disaster had swept by.
“Cough! How could this…”
The demon spat out blood and looked down at his lower half that had disappeared somewhere. He turned his head to the side. His warhorse, who had moved with him, was stuck in a crack of the collapsed and twisted ground.
The beast’s appearance was even more miserable. Its horn was broken, and its arms and legs were nowhere to be seen.
Its body had no intact parts, and its distorted face showed how much pain it had died in.
He had no sense of camaraderie, but even so, seeing such a gruesome death would make anyone, even a demon king, feel fear.
The demon looked at the man who was slowly approaching him and said.
“I thought you were a transcendent, but you were a monstrous freak.”
Yu-hyun’s body was not unscathed. His clothes were torn in places, and he had definitely been injured. But the wounds on his body healed in an instant, and his exhausted power quickly recovered.
He had no fatal wounds. Even if he did, they would have disappeared soon.
Looking at the result alone, it was an overwhelming defeat for them. The demon thought he was dreaming right now.
“I told you. Even among transcendent beings, there are different levels.”
It was not for nothing that they divided transcendent beings into low, mid, and high ranks. The two who fought with Yu-hyun were barely crossing from low to mid rank as transcendent beings.
Yu-hyun was much stronger than them, not to mention lacking. The number of them was not important.
Even among transcendent beings, if there was such a difference in level, the gap in power could not be ignored.
“Now. Tell me.”
Yu-hyun stood in front of the demon who only had his upper body left.
“Who sent you? Is the one you serve related to what made Black Thunder Lord like that?”
“Do you think I’ll talk?”
The demon laughed with a sneer as he spat out blood. Yu-hyun, who wore a mask, also smiled back at him.
“Well, I knew you’d say that.”
Yu-hyun immediately stepped on the demon’s chest with his foot. As his foot gradually gained strength, the demon’s mouth opened and more blood flowed out.
“Gurgle! Even if you torture me or kill me. I can’t tell you.”
“What a great loyalty. Well, it’s ridiculous for a transcendent being to succumb to torture.”
Yu-hyun added more force to his foot. The demon’s eyes bulged as if they would burst.
“…It’s useless. Even if you kill me, you’ll never know his identity.”
“I’m not very curious. Actually, I have a vague idea.”
“What?”
“Mara Papayas. That’s the Divine Spirit you serve, right?”
At that word, the demon’s eyes widened.
“Ho, how did you…”
“Did you think I wouldn’t know the dark and damp energy that makes me sick mixed in with the energy you use?”
As a teller who performed in Story Room, Yu-hyun was wary of how dangerous Mara Papayas was.
Even Sakyamuni who was now dead warned him about it, and so did Satan.
He couldn’t help but know how terrible Mara’s power was and how terrible his energy affected other beings.
“Wasn’t it him who made Hyerim like that? Approaching her who knew nothing innocent, giving her power while corrupting her and ruining her.”
The more he spoke, the more flames of anger rose in his heart.
He knew everything but didn’t stop giving pain to this demon for one reason.
That’s right. This was nothing but venting his anger.
Naturally, the strength in his foot grew stronger and stronger. The demon laughed while spitting blood under the pressure that crushed his heart and the fear of impending death.
“Keh. Hahaha! That’s right. That’s what you thought.”
“What?”
“You thought he corrupted someone who knew nothing. That’s hilarious. Mara can’t stain pure white with black. He doesn’t want that.”
“What nonsense are you talking about?”
“Why do you think Black Thunder Lord became like that? Do you think she became like that because of Mara? No. You’re wrong. Mara just gave her an opportunity. He just nurtured the darkness that existed within her. He doesn’t create something that wasn’t there.”
The demon thought there was nothing more fun than this and laughed like crazy.
“Do you think Black Thunder Lord was a kind and good human? You’re wrong. She had the potential to become like that from the beginning.”
“Shut up.”
“You know the truth, don’t you? I can tell from our fight and our conversation. You’re just pretending to deny it.”
“I said shut up.”
“How amusing. You’re trying to rationalize away what you already know. I can feel how your heart is burning with rage. Your anger, and the calamity it will bring. Ha, hahaha!!!”
Crack!
Yu-hyun had enough of his nonsense and stomped on his chest, crushing his heart.
The demon spat out black blood and laughed like a madman even as he died.
He didn’t mind dying, as long as he could imagine the future that Yu-hyun would face.
Yes, keep denying the truth.
But the reality that you don’t want to see will eventually appear before you.
“I wonder… what kind of expression you’ll make then… Too bad I won’t be able to see it.”
The demon closed his eyes and said no more.
His body soon turned into text and scattered. Unlike humans who couldn’t blend into the mixed world, the demons and red demons who had already ascended to transcendence left no corpses behind.
Yu-hyun took off his mask as he watched the two bodies turn into letters.
The words that the demon said before he died lingered in his head.
“Don’t make me laugh.”
He muttered to himself, not knowing who he was talking to, and stood still for a while.
***
The fight with the transcendent had taken longer than he expected, so Yu-hyun had to camp for a while.
He couldn’t see the second city yet, and he didn’t need to go there anyway, so he sat down in the middle of the vast wasteland.
He looked up at the sky and saw countless stars that filled his eyes.
The stars were brighter and bigger than what he had seen on Earth, and there were too many to count.
He recalled the fight with Mara Papayas’ subordinates in the daytime. It wasn’t even a fight. He had unleashed his Seven Demons Black Sky Divine Skill with his willpower, and they were swept away without a chance.
The important thing was what happened next.
“Mara Papayas.”
He whispered the name that he hated to utter.
He finally understood how Kang Hye-rim became the Black Thunder Lord.
Mara was such a being. He had corrupted everyone except Buddha. Kang Hye-rim was no exception. Maybe she fell easily because she was heartbroken by his disappearance.
‘What if I hadn’t disappeared then? Would she have stayed the same?’
He didn’t like to make meaningless assumptions, but he wished for it now.
He felt heavy as he thought of the people who had died so far.
The people who were oppressed and angry. Kate and Jimmy who had helped him get here. They had lost their parents because of Kang Hye-rim.
He tried to ignore it, but he felt their anger and hatred more than anyone else.
He had to admit it. The Kang Hye-rim he knew was gone.
Grit.
He clenched his teeth.
He wanted to ask others. Kwon Jia, Seo Sumin, Yoo Young-min, Baek Seo-ryeon. Why didn’t they protect her when he was gone?
But he couldn’t do that. He knew he shouldn’t.
‘It’s all my fault.’
He couldn’t deny that his lack of ability caused all this.
He didn’t know what to say to her when he met her.
Even if she realized that he had returned and repented for her sins and returned to her old self, her past as the Black Thunder Lord wouldn’t change.
‘Maybe it’s just a hopeful wish that she’ll come back to normal.’
Then what should he do?
What should he say to her first?
The more he thought about it, the more complicated his head became. He shook his head hard.
A self-deprecating laugh escaped his lips as he ruffled his hair.
He had vowed not to regret anything, to do his best every moment.
‘Is this how it ends?’
He knew that wanting to succeed in everything was greedy.
But as long as he was alive, he couldn’t help but be greedy.
‘There’s no point in thinking about it. I should just sleep.’
Yu-hyun lay down on the dry grassland, intending to get some sleep. He looked up at the sky naturally and noticed something strange.
‘A shooting star?’
He saw a white flash across the night sky. At first he thought it was a shooting star, but then he realized that it was falling towards him. He quickly got up from his spot.
The white light fell towards him. It was so fast that he barely had time to react before it crashed into the ground in front of his nose.
Boom!
A huge shockwave swept across the land. Yu-hyun gathered his strength and resisted the blast.
‘Another attack?’
When the smoke cleared, he saw what had fallen from the sky.
It was a sword, pure white and sharp.
He recognized it immediately.
“Baek-ryeon?”