Chapter 281: Heaven Above Heaven (3)

Moyongchan continued speaking.

“Jose, listen carefully. That so-called Heavenly Demon is the kind of guy who, in the Murim, is looked down on like an insect. He hides in a valley called the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains, always lying in wait to attack the Murim, but all he’s ever done is get repelled and run away over and over. A pitiful wretch, really. He goes around saying that here in the West no one knows about the East and spouts those lies as if they were the truth… What? You can’t even look me in the eyes?”

He burst out laughing.

In truth, both of them were partly right.

As Dan Socheon said, in the Murim the Heavenly Demon is an object of fear.

The Demonic Sect he leads, even as a single unified force, is comparable to the entirety of the Murim, and the Heavenly Demon himself has caused great upheavals generation after generation, remaining engraved as a symbol of fear among warriors.

But, as Moyongchan pointed out, it was also true that most looked at him with contempt.

Though the Demonic Sect caused heavy damage to the Murim, it never achieved its goals; the Heavenly Demon was always defeated by the great masters of the Murim. That is why those who practiced demonic arts were singled out and rejected.

To a taoist master as advanced as Moyongchan, the Heavenly Demon was nothing but something worthy of scorn.

“Tsk, tsk… You wanted to show off even here in the West? Pathetic.”

Moyongchan was belittling Dan Socheon more than necessary.

He was doing it to provoke him.

In the Demonic Sect, the Heavenly Demon is an absolute figure. Treating him like a lying braggart could throw him off balance.

Moyongchan kept egging on Jose, who was acting as the third voice in the conversation.

“Isn’t it ridiculous? In the East he’s a nobody, but here in the West he acts like you can’t even meet his gaze—it’s just pathetic.”

“Lord Moyongchan, your continental tongue has improved quite a bit, huh?”

Jose made an out-of-place remark, and Moyongchan shot him a glare.

Jose quickly nodded.

“That aside, it’s true. I thought he’d be someone important in the East, but no, he’s just a braggart. If not for you, Lord Moyongchan, he’d still be strutting around like he was someone special. Hahaha!”

“Exactly. Hahaha!”

“Nndo met… mejuchuel…? Pffft!”

Dan Socheon’s face twisted.

For someone who, as the Heavenly Demon, had always lived receiving reverence, this was a humiliation hard to bear.

“Damn you…!”

Dan Socheon unleashed the Heavenly Demon’s Supreme Technique. He no longer thought about controlling the flow of battle—he just wanted to kill them all with his overwhelming demonic power.

Moyongchan and Jose exchanged a look.

“He’s no ordinary opponent. We have to hit his weak points.”

“Understood.”

Dan Socheon fired the Ashura Skybreaker’s Heaven-Breaking Strike without pause. Dozens of energy palms filled the front as if forming a wall, advancing toward them.

There was no angle to dodge through.

They had to face it head-on.

Moyongchan raised his sword.

Blue Clouds and Scarlet Clouds Sword Technique.

Sunlight’s Glow upon the Dawn Mist.

From his sword, a whitish mist poured out, enveloping the Heaven-Breaking Strike and slowing the dozens of palms as if they were sinking into water.

Then, a sunset-colored light spread.

The Heaven-Breaking Strike turned a reddish hue.

And in the end, a bead-sized sphere of light shone intensely and was launched.

The wall of palms was pierced, and the sphere shot toward the Heavenly Demon on the other side.

Surprised, he withdrew his technique and swung his sword, clashing against the sphere and creating a thunderous roar.

At that moment, Jose closed in on the Heavenly Demon.

“You!”

“Hey, Heavenly Demon, here in the West we look each other in the eye.”

Jose’s massive body turned smoothly on its axis.

Using the rotation of his waist, he gathered all the force he could and concentrated it in his sword.

“Haha!”

With the mana focused on a single point, he delivered a blow like a hammer strike.

Dan Socheon’s sword couldn’t withstand the force and shattered.

“Damn…!”

Jose’s attack broke through all of Dan Socheon’s defenses and went straight for his chest. If it landed, his body would be destroyed.

Dan Socheon realized his mistake.

“D-damn it!”

He was the Heavenly Demon.

The absolute ruler of the Demonic Sect.

He could not die like this, humiliated, in a faraway West.

He had to live to take revenge and, beyond that, to make all the hypocrites of the Eastern Murim kneel before him.

So he decided to cross the line he had always kept intact.

Inside him, he heard a voice.

“Do you want power?”

In the past, Cedric had offered him demonic energy extracted from the Dark One’s Grimoire, but he had refused.

Unlike others who were used as tools, Dan Socheon wanted to rule alongside Cedric, without relying on any black magic other than his own.

But Cedric, just in case, had planted in him an evil seed that would never germinate unless Dan Socheon desired it.

Now, seeing Jose’s sword coming closer, he knew.

“I want it.”

The seed took root instantly.

Something black spread through his entire body like capillaries. Leaves sprouted, a stem grew.

Thin, sharp tentacles emerged from his back and shoulders. In an instant, the seed matured into a full-grown tree.

“Huh?”

In a moment, Jose realized something was wrong.

His sword was heading for Dan Socheon’s chest.

But suddenly, it was moving away.

Dan Socheon was far off, and he was only cutting air. At first, he thought the opponent had stepped back.

That wasn’t it.

He had been pushed back at some point.

“Huh?”

Jose finally realized that two tentacles that had come up from the ground had grabbed both his feet and shoved him backward.

The tentacles wrapped around his lower body and twisted.

“Aaagh!”

Jose screamed in pain.

The sharp thorns covering the tentacles’ surface scratched his entire body.

“Jose!”

Moyongchan rushed to cut the tentacles.

But they immediately sank back underground and, moving below, returned to their master in an instant.

Moyongchan looked up.

Dan Socheon, having retrieved the tentacles, was releasing abundant demonic energy.

“Now it’s too late for regrets.”

At first it didn’t feel pleasant, but once he surrendered his body to black magic, he felt better than ever.

His senses extended to the smallest parts of the tentacles sprouting from his body, as if his very existence had expanded.

Becoming a creature beyond human gave him an unimaginable ecstasy.

Now he understood why everyone so readily accepted the power of black magic.

“I’m going to kill you all.”

Dan Socheon extended the tentacles from his body. Like a peacock’s feathers, they spread densely in a fan behind him.

At a glance, he had more tentacles than any other warrior.

Not only was his original level high, but his demonic art was also highly compatible with black magic.

“You’ve fallen so far. How disgusting…”

Moyongchan said. Now he openly despised him.

“In the end you allied with black magic. You’re trash who’s even thrown away the pride of the Heavenly Demon. I wonder what the Heavenly Demons of the past would think of you, up there in the sky.”

“Shut up, scum. You’re nothing but a leftover from the Blue School.”

Dan Socheon smiled maliciously as he advanced.

“Don’t worry. After I kill you, I’ll go slaughter all those old men of the Murim Alliance. I’ll make Jang Yeonghak cry and kiss my feet.”

“You dream too big.”

“Now, you…”

The tentacles that had spread in a fan expanded even further. The way they writhed like muscles was hideously repulsive.

It was the moment Dan Socheon took a step, releasing demonic energy.

“Huh?”

His tentacles all collapsed at once.

“I was wondering when you’d end up like this. You’re no different from the rest.”

Dan Socheon felt a chill run down his spine. The voice of Yuri Briol came from behind him.

“Since I left while fighting you, you should have thought I could come back suddenly. Why are you so happy? Were you glad I wasn’t here?”

“Khhhaaaah…!”

An unbearable pain shot through him. Yuri Briol’s sword was strange.

The tentacles created by black magic, normally able to regenerate immediately without suffering significant damage, now hurt as if his bones were being broken.

It was as if the black magic energy flowing through his body was being cut to pieces.

Dan Socheon felt Yuri Briol’s sword run down his back, cutting away the roots of the tentacles sprouting from his spine and exposing raw flesh.

“Wait a moment…”

Once fused with black magic, his perception of Yuri Briol had changed.

Now he felt even more terrifying than before.

All the black magic energy shrank as if it had encountered its nemesis.

“It’s too late.”

Guilty pierced his heart.

Dan Socheon felt his soul being pierced and collapsed instantly.

Yuri withdrew the sword.

Dan Socheon’s body trembled.

“It’s been a while, Master.”

Yuri smiled broadly as he greeted him.

Moyongchan, moved, looked at his disciple.

Yuri Briol, that insolent child, had grown into a warrior capable of killing the Heavenly Demon with a single thrust.

Perhaps it had all been part of the plan of whatever had led him to the West.

“Not bad.”

“It’s not over yet.”

Behind them, there still remained a giant monster moving and Donchichi, who had gone mad.

And beyond the space where their battle was taking place, the imperial army and the anti-imperial alliance were still fighting bloodily.

“Is your body alright?”

“It’s already healed.”

“Good. Let’s kill those and head to Zveta to end this.”

“Let’s do it.”

“You speak the continental tongue well now, huh?”

“It’s harder now to pretend I don’t speak it.”

***

In Zveta, the work was progressing frantically.

The number of humans gathered in the prisoner camp had already far exceeded three digits.

Cedric planned to throw them all into a pit and use them as sacrifices for a ritual.

Some, sensing their fate, tried to escape, but it was useless. They were caught by imperial knights, brutally punished, and thrown back into the prisoner camp.

Inside the camp, sinister rumors circulated.

“They say if they use you in a black magic ritual, they trap your soul and you suffer forever without being saved. We’re done for.”

“How terrifying…”

Death was already a certainty.

But in Zveta, even what came after death had to be feared.

And Cory, as Cedric’s subordinate, was faithfully carrying out that task.

“Lord Cory, please…”

“At least spare us…”

During that time, Cory had been experimenting with his magic of order and authority on prisoners rescued from the orc den when he belonged to the Alliance.

In that process, the prisoners had begged him to take them out of the ritual no matter what.

But Cory firmly refused.

“Don’t talk nonsense, get lost.”

Cory kicked the man who grabbed his pants. The man bled from the nose and fell to the ground.

“Hey, you.”

“Yes.”

Cory called Santos, the knight assisting him.

“Send everyone here to the pit. Throw them in.”

“Yes, sir!”

Among the prisoners Cory had been using for his experiments was Jane.

She had managed to survive until now.

Feeling Jane’s gaze, Cory approached her.

“You must have suffered all this time. Hehehe…”

“…”

Jane didn’t respond. Without saying anything, she meekly followed Santos.

Cory watched her as he followed.

“The day has finally come.”

It was the day of the ritual Cedric had spoken of.

Upon leaving the camp and reaching the square, the pit that the prisoners had dug while bleeding could be seen. Inside, countless people lay with anxious expressions, looking upward.

The imperial knights pushed the prisoners down a steep slope.

People rolled over the stone-covered ground, injuring themselves and ending up piled at the bottom of the pit.

Little by little, the pit began to fill. Cory couldn’t even estimate how many there were.

“Lord Cory!”

Some of the prisoners he had used in his experiments began shouting his name desperately.

Cory frowned.

“You, come here.”

At his signal, Santos gestured, and the knights guarding the prisoners stepped aside.

“Please, save—”

Cory stepped forward and kicked. The prisoner rolled directly into the pit.

Then he pushed or struck those beside him, sending them in as well.

The last one standing was Jane.

“Get in.”

And Cory pushed her into the pit as well.

“Phew…”

He wiped the sweat from his brow and looked up.

From a place overlooking the square, Cedric, standing next to a grotesquely shaped statue, was smiling at him.

Cory returned the smile.