Chapter 148
Chapter 148
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 148
Chapter Title: The Demon King's Descent
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It was what he had wanted from Yun Seung-ah from the very beginning.
To seize control of every Black Gate opened to the world.
And when the time came.
"Connect them."
To link them all to North Korea, now transformed into a demonic realm.
-Captain. At least let us help...
Yun Seung-ah's voice was groggy, as if she had just woken from sleep.
But Go Yohan was utterly resolute.
"Connect... them."
No objections allowed.
-Understood.
Finally.
Kuuuung!
The connection began.
He had already done this before—dragging gates to desired locations.
Whoosh!
As if he had become a god himself, Go Yohan's vision pulled back.
What he saw at a glance was North Korean soil—no.
'So green.'
The face of the Earth.
Yet overlaying that greenery was a world visible only to Go Yohan through his divine eyes.
Yun Seung-ah, who had gained control of the Black Gates, and Go Yohan, linked to her.
Snap.
The moment he thought of flicking his fingers.
Kwaaaaa!
Like a massive storm raging, the blackened domains began to shift.
The allied forces already inside North Korean territory had all withdrawn.
Whoosh.
The world returned.
Zzzzt!
In the sky over the world trapped by the black barrier, black fissures were forming.
Kuhwaaaaa!
A colossal storm and winds swept everything away.
"Argh, aaagh!"
"S-Save me...!"
Demons' screams echoed from all directions.
Thud, flop.
Magic beasts collapsed, their breaths cutting off.
It was because an overwhelming surge of demonic energy—even demons couldn't handle—had saturated the area in an instant.
Smirk.
Just as Go Yohan had hoped.
"You vermin."
The black barrier enclosing North Korea prevented any spillover beyond its borders.
"Die, every last one of you."
Crack.
Go Yohan's skin began to tear away as well.
Crack!
His flesh split and crumbled like old tree bark, his upper clothes reduced to worthless rags.
Rip!
He tore it all off.
Wriggle.
The tattoos embedded within writhed across his pristine white skin.
'Not yet. Not yet.'
This was not the end of the picture Go Yohan had envisioned.
Tremble!
The Demon King's horn began to shake.
"If you're trying to run."
He already knew.
The entity on the verge of descending had suddenly grown terrified and attempted to flee.
"I'll drag you here by force."
Step, step.
Go Yohan, who had stood rooted in place facing everything, finally began to walk.
Kwaaaa!
Black lava erupted from the torn and cracked earth.
Rumble.
In the demonic energy storm, the creatures unable to charge or flee toward him were crushed and exploding.
Crack.
His footsteps seemed to accelerate it all further, but he had no intention of stopping now.
-Capt...ain.
Even Seung-ah's voice came through distorted with noise.
"Aaaagh!"
The head of a demon charging in unable to bear the fear and pain.
Splatter!
Was simply burst open with a light punch.
Step.
And so Go Yohan reached the Demon King's horn embedded in the heart of Pyongyang.
Tremble!
The thing that had been on the verge of being uprooted and shooting into the sky—the moment Go Yohan touched it.
[Will you force the Demon King's descent?]
[A large amount of Karma Points will be consumed.]
He had evacuated most of North Korea's residents, who should have served as sacrifices.
And he had no intention of handing the rest over as demon fodder.
From the start.
Smirk.
There were more than enough sacrifices.
[Current Karma Points...]
The slaughtered demons—the sins they carried.
No, even the sins already embedded in Go Yohan were sufficient.
[349,292]
A hexagram demon was estimated to hold 10,000 Karma Points.
A heptagram demon, the benchmark for archdemons, was estimated at 50,000.
[Warning]
The voice that rang out then.
Zzzt.
Felt different from any he had heard before.
[Your current actions may accelerate dimensional rifts.]
It was the Goddess's voice.
But.
"How dare you."
It didn't feel like the Goddess's voice.
"Don't impersonate the Goddess before me."
And with that, he closed his eyes.
Thud.
[50,000 Karma Points will be consumed.]
Thus, the first Demon King began its descent upon Earth.
Kwaaaaa!
*
*
*
Heptagram and octagram.
Those bearing such horns were archdemons.
'Nonagram or higher.'
Those were the demons called Demon Kings.
Invincible and undefeated, they were the beings that had pushed even Michael—called the God of War and War God—to his limits.
If two or more had descended, Michael could not have repelled them easily, and if three or more.
'It would have been harder than facing the Demon God.'
Yet they were beyond specifications, ignoring the world's laws.
Their descents were never permitted more than one at a time.
'Goddess.'
It must have been Her arrangement.
Swoosh.
As Go Yohan quietly opened his eyes.
In the darkness and silence that had swallowed everything.
Zzzt.
The Goddess's voice began to crackle through again.
[First Achievement Acquired: The One Who Summoned a Demon King.]
[Challenge for the Demon King's Status: Now Available.]
[First Achievement Acquired: The One Who Shattered the Wall.]
[......]
Zzzt. Zzzzt.
[A large amount of Karma Points acquired.]
[121,929 Karma Points acquired.]
[Unique Achievement Acquired: The One Who Ushered in the Apocalypse.]
And then.
[Qualification to Intervene in the World's Essence Acquired.]
Something unknowable echoed like sleep-talk in a dream.
But within it, Go Yohan could see.
Boom.
A pitch-black darkness devouring the sky, reaching out a hand.
"Demon King."
It was the Demon King.
Kwaaaa!
Starved and wanting, that hand seized even its own allied demons and brought them to its mouth.
Rumble.
Meanwhile, horns seemed to sprout from the emerging head.
Beneath Demon God Balrok, there had been four Demon Kings.
No—four Demon Kings had existed first, and Balrok, appearing later, had forced them to kneel and claimed the title of Demon God, or so he had heard.
Those four Demon Kings had descended upon Travania in sequence and fallen to Michael.
If that was the case.
"......"
Go Yohan's eyes trembled.
"You're..."
He had thought this descending Demon King was one of those he had defeated.
But no.
A colossal darkness far denser than any of them.
Nine horns sprouted.
But for some reason, more were still emerging.
"......!"
The Demon King's horn—it was still embedded in the heart of Pyongyang.
'Decagram?'
No, not that.
More.
The moment he recalled Balrok with his twelve horns.
Grip.
Go Yohan had already lifted his sword, Great Sin, plunged into the ground.
*
*
*
The moment he saw it, countless questions arose.
'Where is Balrok?'
No, before that—where had the other Demon Kings gone?
More importantly first.
Grip.
He had to admit that thing was a monster beyond expectations.
[Aah]
A voice burrowing deep into his mind, as if the Goddess's own.
[How long has it been?]
Having devoured demons to sate its hunger somewhat, it now spoke.
That tremor gave Go Yohan certainty.
'Not the Demon King originally meant to be summoned.'
A Demon King different from the one whose door had been opened.
The moment that one tried to descend, this thing had intervened and seized its place.
And he could be certain of one more thing.
'The plan's gone awry.'
He hadn't feared Demon Kings or demons, but this thing was annihilation incarnate.
Even for Go Yohan, who had nearly regained his full power.
Kwaaaaaa!
The moment it fully descended, at least half the world would perish before the fight could end—that much he was sure.
[Aah]
And.
[Are you the candidate?]
Even with the plan in ruins, Go Yohan had to set it right, back to the original.
Crunch.
He gripped Great Sin.
'No dragging this out.'
He would end all this calamity in a single strike.
Zzzt, zzzt.
The black storm was swallowing all of North Korea.
Nothing could survive beneath it.
Tearing flesh, crushing demonic energy.
Ignoring it all, Go Yohan closed his eyes.
Thump.
He focused on his heart, the one laden with sin.
In his inverted vision, his heart appeared right before him.
Over the human heart, black thread-lines formed tattoos.
What apostles could do, naturally Go Yohan could as well.
Drawing out and returning their innate powers.
'Open.'
Apostles called it Opening.
But Go Yohan called it something else.
Once, when he had tested it.
'Captain...'
'What is this...'
'Too dangerous.'
'...It hurts.'
All the apostles had Opened and blocked him.
If he hadn't snapped out of it then, he might have harmed them.
It was truly the power Go Yohan had desired.
Srrk.
The vow he made throwing himself into that final pit in Travania.
The resolve he pledged to the Goddess.
"Demons..."
Words like an incantation.
"If I can just kill demons... I'll become one myself."
Thump!
His heart pounded.
At the same time.
Grgrgrgrgrk!
The black threads binding his heart began to thrash wildly.
Kwaaaaa!
Cut off from the world, in a solitary realm, half the threads composing Go Yohan dyed one color.
Fallen sinful existences.
The black of divine denial.
Boom!
Shwaaaaa!
Black tendrils extended from the hand gripping Great Sin, beginning to corrupt him.
[......]
The Goddess's voice faintly audible.
This wasn't drawing out any apostle's power or some atoning something.
[Class: Black Knight...]
This was Go Yohan and Michael.
The essence of their very existences.
[Changed to: Knight of Great Sin.]
Kwadududuk!
All noise ceased.
The power emanating from Go Yohan devoured the surrounding sounds and light, creating an isolated space.
There, one side dyed black.
Crunch.
The man baring his horns stood as if clutching a radiant holy sword.
Go Yohan called this.
"Liberation."