Chapter 124
Chapter 124
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 124
Chapter Title: Long-Awaited Reunion
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After a long time had passed, the moment had finally arrived when the mother and daughter faced each other.
“It’s been a while, Mother.”
The mother’s appearance, after so long apart, was hardly different from the past.
No, she seemed even more seductive and youthful.
“Yes.”
Baek Sun-hee responded without any sign of panic.
“It’s been a while.”
She knew that Kim Se-hyun had been called the Bloody Queen in America and built her fame there.
And that such a woman...
“Has ended up keeping Yohan by her side.”
Had become the apostle referred to by Go Yohan, transforming into a half-human, half-demon being.
But...
‘I didn’t expect this much.’
She hadn’t anticipated that she possessed the power to slaughter Romentu like that, or that she could breach multiple layers of barriers without a sound.
Even with those thoughts, Baek Sun-hee spoke.
“Didn’t I tell you? To keep him close.”
From childhood, Baek Sun-hee had particularly urged Kim Se-hyun.
‘Get along well with Yohan.’
‘Yohan...’
‘Bring Yohan to the house once.’
And Kim Se-hyun hadn’t disliked it.
But as time passed, she came to realize.
“It’s all thanks to Mom, right?”
What she truly desired was the halo of divinity, and she had tried to sell off Kim Se-hyun to trade for it.
“I’m grateful for that.”
“Right?”
Baek Sun-hee scanned Kim Se-hyun.
‘I can’t read her.’
It was hard to believe even seeing it.
A power obtained by selling everything to a demon, yet even that couldn’t pierce through her.
“What you should be grateful for isn’t just that.”
Baek Sun-hee said, perching on the arm of the sofa.
“The power you have now...”
A smirk.
Kim Se-hyun, who had slain Romentu, stood frozen.
Whatever the reason, it meant there was still time.
“You know it was given to you by this mom, right?”
“......!”
For the first time, a flicker of rage seemed to dance in Kim Se-hyun’s eyes.
“Thanks to me, you were chosen as a vessel for Those Ones, and in return...”
Baek Sun-hee continued.
“You met Yohan and gained that power, so it’s all thanks to me.”
“What are you thinking?”
Kim Se-hyun asked.
“What makes you so confident to say that?”
Kim Se-hyun spoke as if she genuinely couldn’t comprehend.
“Because I know you.”
Baek Sun-hee replied.
“Because I know that frail human blood is mixed in your veins.”
A smirk.
“I’m your mom, after all. What, are you planning to kill me?”
“......”
“You came here knowing everything anyway. What’s the point of hiding it? But remember this.”
At that moment.
Whoosh!
The penthouse seemed filled with black air.
“I’m your mother, and everything you have was given to you by me.”
Swoosh.
Baek Sun-hee’s nails, now close, gently stroked Kim Se-hyun’s cheek.
“That frail human only gave you the name Taehan, but even that’s gone now, isn’t it? Your beautiful appearance. That power. Everything was given to you by this mom.”
From childhood, she had been an exceedingly timid child.
The child who resembled that man, Kim Tae-hwan, even more than herself, would never dream of defying her parents’ words.
A child who would do as told, living as a pretty doll.
Baek Sun-hee, who prided herself on knowing humans better than anyone, was certain.
“What have I ever done wrong to you?”
That those childhood memories were branded like a stigma, becoming inescapable shackles.
That the children who believed themselves freed would lock themselves back in at the slightest touch.
“Tell me. What have I ever done wrong to you, that you come at me with a gleaming blade?”
It was then.
“Is that the end of your last words?”
“What?”
Slash!
The black smoke scattered in an instant.
In its place, the space filled with blood-red light.
The next moment.
Slice!
A red line traced across Baek Sun-hee’s porcelain-like cheek.
“What did you do wrong?”
Baek Sun-hee recoiled as Kim Se-hyun approached, speaking.
“Everything.”
“You...!”
“Why did you do that to Father? He may have been lacking, but he did his absolute best for you, Mom.”
Slice.
Memories of the past.
His final moments had been so heartbreaking that even she struggled to accept them, but the Kim Tae-hwan before that was different.
And above all.
“Even knowing you only cared about your own background, Father... truly loved you.”
Stab!
The tip of Kim Se-hyun’s approaching sword, the blade of fury, pierced through Baek Sun-hee.
“You shouldn’t have done that to me, or to Dad.”
There was something Baek Sun-hee hadn’t anticipated.
That what Kim Se-hyun had inherited was that archdemon, Wrath.
And also.
“T...”
As Baek Sun-hee had said, Kim Se-hyun carried Kim Tae-hwan’s blood.
But equally so...
“...trash!”
Baek Sun-hee’s blood flowed in her veins as well.
Splurt!
The blade that split open her belly sprayed out with Baek Sun-hee’s blood.
*
*
*
Kim Se-hyun had thought long and hard about Baek Sun-hee.
All the assumptions she could make through countless processes meant nothing.
The result was more certain than anything.
“You...”
Without hiding the flickering flames of rage, Kim Se-hyun approached Baek Sun-hee.
“Ruined everything for your own sake.”
Baek Sun-hee’s deal with the demon had been long ago.
And she had used Taehan to fulfill her ambitions.
She planted a demon in Kim Tae-hwan and offered his daughter as a vessel for the archdemon.
“Got any last words?”
“......!”
“Don’t.”
Stab!
Nothing would change because of her words.
Even if she had done it all sincerely for her sake, it didn’t matter.
“Don’t say a word.”
Stab!
She was neither a mother nor a person.
“S-Se-hyun... I...!”
“If you weren’t a demon, I might have hesitated.”
But Baek Sun-hee had chosen to shed her human skin and become a demon.
“How’s it feel? Any regrets about becoming a demon?”
At that moment.
Boom!
Black liquid oozed from Baek Sun-hee’s body.
Kim Se-hyun was pushed back by the surging aura.
Boom!
The penthouse wall crumbled in an explosion.
Baek Sun-hee emerging from the smoke was grotesquely bizarre.
Half-melted something, and the other half indescribably beautiful.
She already knew.
‘Succubus.’
That she had sold her soul to the Succubus Queen and become a succubus in return.
“...Looks like I misjudged you.”
The revealed Baek Sun-hee grimaced.
“You really are my daughter. You inherited my blood thicker than that human’s.”
Rumble.
The descending energy seemed to corrupt everything around it.
“Who knows better than me how to make you regret and suffer?”
Baek Sun-hee tore at her grotesque form.
Black skin sprouted, her entire body transforming.
The true power of demon contractors.
The manifestation of demonization.
“What’s wrong with striving to get what you want?”
Snap.
As Baek Sun-hee snapped her fingers, Kim Se-hyun’s rage faded.
No, it was more accurate to say it was lulled to sleep.
“They’re all just tools. You, that man. No, the entire world.”
Snap!
Another snap, and Kim Se-hyun’s eyes began to close.
It was like a black cocoon metamorphosing into a moth.
The Black Gate was the same.
The Black Gate was merely fragments of worlds devoured by demons, not their true form from their own world.
But.
Crack! Crack!
Demon contractors who chose to metamorphose into demons in their original world.
Boom!
Could wield power close to their demonic essence.
The bursting aura exploded the penthouse, pushing Kim Se-hyun back.
“Ha, impressive.”
She was genuinely impressed.
She thought there was nothing this power couldn’t do.
“Why aren’t you grateful to me?”
She tried to kill Kim Se-hyun, but only her skin peeled a little.
She tried to escape this space, but Greed’s Vault of Avarice still stood firm, trapping her.
“I’m the one who gave you that power.”
“It wasn’t you!”
“No.”
Swoosh.
The vanished Baek Sun-hee appeared right before Kim Se-hyun’s nose, reaching out.
Stab!
Nails piercing Kim Se-hyun’s belly.
“I gave it to you. Feels strange, like piercing myself.”
Swoosh.
Baek Sun-hee stroked Kim Se-hyun with her other hand.
“Come with me. As you are now, I can truly call you my daughter. Those Ones will be pleased too. You have...”
Drip, drip.
Blood trickled from her split cheek.
“Their blood flowing in you, don’t you?”
She laughed, cackling.
“You’re my treasure. With you, I can reach even higher...”
Splatter!
Blood-red blades flew from somewhere, shredding Baek Sun-hee.
Regaining her freedom, Kim Se-hyun dropped to one knee, gasping roughly.
“Look at this.”
Baek Sun-hee’s voice came then.
“This is true demonic power.”
She thought she had torn her apart with blades of wrath, but Baek Sun-hee was regenerating her tattered form.
It was then.
Tap.
At the small sound, time seemed to stop for Baek Sun-hee.
“......!”
Turning around, a man with silver-white hair stood there.
“......”
Baek Sun-hee’s body trembled.
‘This much?’
Right now, she wielded the true demonic power of five awakened horns.
Of course, unable to fully escape human limits and the concept of time, her power was halved, but still...
‘This much...?’
She had been confident she wouldn’t fear anyone wearing human skin.
“Waaah...”
It was truly awe-inspiring.
Just standing there made her body tingle all over.
She couldn’t move, as if nailed in place, and her demonized instincts screamed.
Die, die, die.
If that man tried to kill her, she could never evade it.
“W-Wait a second.”
Baek Sun-hee said.
“I’ll tell you about the apostles! About the demons too! Everything I know...!”
Crunch!
Her head was gruesomely torn off.
Yet even then, the living her writhed and regenerated.
Kim Se-hyun, on one knee, looked at Go Yohan.
He was asking.
‘You sure about this?’
Even now, Go Yohan was considering her feelings.
“I...”
And Kim Se-hyun answered.
“I’m fine.”
Nod.
“I permit the release.”
Did Baek Sun-hee know?
Rust, who sealed himself, and the Lord of the Spear forced due to uncontrolled power.
And among the apostles, there was another entity with sealed power.
“...Thank you, Yohan.”
A contract by mutual agreement, suppressing that power—it was Wrath.
Recognizing her as its child, Kim Se-hyun.
Boom!
The whole world was dyed red.
From there, Kim Se-hyun’s searing wrath poured out.