Chapter 144
Chapter 144
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 144
Chapter Title: The Lion Appears
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“Urk!”
Blood sprayed from his throat.
The massive impact seemed to have damaged all his internal organs.
Seo Woo-jin’s face twisted at the metallic tang of blood.
‘Damn it!’
He’d expected it wouldn’t be easy.
Reina was a transcendent powerhouse on par with Gerald or the female dragon.
Naturally, she was far too strong for the current Seo Woo-jin to handle alone.
And yet, he’d held out hope.
Her condition was worse than he’d imagined.
One leg was gone, and her spine was severed.
She seemed to be moving somehow with demonic energy, but she was definitely weakened compared to before.
So Seo Woo-jin had thought, ‘Maybe I can put up a fight?’
Of course, that was a misjudgment.
Thwack—!
Reina’s remaining leg kicked him square in the head.
His brain rattled, and the world began to warp.
‘Shit, damn it.’
A monster was a monster.
Even with her wrecked body, Reina was more than handling Seo Woo-jin.
No, she was completely overwhelming him.
Confirming her long nails stabbing toward his eye, Seo Woo-jin urgently leaned back.
But was it the dizziness?
His reaction was a beat slow.
Slashes—!
Her nail grazed his right eyeball.
“Huh!”
It felt like fire searing into him.
And at the same time, the world split in half.
“How does it feel to be a cyclops?”
Reina’s mocking voice rang out.
He felt blood trickling down his cheek.
“Haha.”
Seo Woo-jin laughed.
No matter how hard he tried to look ahead, his field of vision was noticeably narrower now.
‘Guess my eyeball really burst.’
The burning pain furrowed his brow involuntarily.
“Next time, I’ll cut off a leg. To match mine.”
Reina’s voice, laced with amusement, sent chills down his spine in its cruelty.
“Ah, but…”
Reina, who had been smirking at Seo Woo-jin, turned her head.
“We have spectators?”
“What?”
Startled, Seo Woo-jin whipped around.
While he’d been focused on blocking Reina’s attacks, someone had slipped inside.
‘Kim Tae-jin, Sung Yu-ra?’
Why the hell were those two here?
Were they looking for Baek Si-woo?
How did they even know he was here?
Countless questions flashed through his mind in an instant.
But there was no time to sort them out.
“Run!”
If Reina moved, they were dead.
Honestly, he didn’t care if Sung Yu-ra lived or died.
No, to be franker, it’d be better if she died.
Then he’d never have to see her again.
But Kim Tae-jin was different.
They’d never really clashed.
He was far more important than an SS-rank troublemaker like Sung Yu-ra.
That’s why he warned them.
To run.
But they didn’t seem to have any intention of doing so.
“Why should we listen to you, old man?”
It was shocking.
Even in this situation, Sung Yu-ra was defying him.
Her whole body trembling from Reina’s demonic energy, and still.
‘Is this what they mean by being eaten by your own concept?’
Stubbornly clinging to her flimsy pride even in a situation where she might die.
He couldn’t help but chuckle.
At the same time, it was almost admirable.
“Hmm, you two. Heroes, are you?”
Reina’s expression lit up with interest.
Heroes were natural counters to his lord.
Killing them now would give an edge in the future Descent War.
Murderous intent gleamed in Reina’s eyes as she stared at Sung Yu-ra and Kim Tae-jin.
“And the bugs have arrived too. Perfect. You can all die together.”
Behind the two heroes, Mohiaddin’s knights revealed themselves.
They had entered the mansion as well.
And…
“Urgh!”
Naturally, they couldn’t withstand the demonic energy’s influence and collapsed on the spot.
Mid-tier knights like them had no hope of resisting it.
Seo Woo-jin’s expression hardened.
‘Even the White Knights wouldn’t fare much better.’
They were all high-tier knights, but even they couldn’t move freely under Reina’s demonic energy.
He’d thought her injuries might have weakened her a bit, but she seemed even more ferocious.
‘Without Ronain, they’d all just be in the way.’
Ronain, the top-tier knight.
Even he could at best manage to move, so no real help there.
And on top of that…
‘Of all the timings, why did those two show up now?’
Seo Woo-jin’s goal wasn’t Reina—it was to sever Baek Si-woo’s neck.
And those two were his friends.
If Seo Woo-jin tried to kill Baek Si-woo?
‘They won’t just stand by and watch, that’s for sure.’
Obviously.
The two would desperately throw themselves at him to stop it.
They might even try to kill him.
‘This situation’s gone straight to hell.’
He sighed.
But one thing was certain.
He’d deal with Baek Si-woo later. Right now, he had to handle Reina in front of him first.
If he couldn’t kill her somehow, he’d be the one dying—Baek Si-woo or not.
Seo Woo-jin roughly wiped the blood from his cheek.
“Reina.”
He called out to her.
“Got something to say?”
Her eyes, gleaming with killing intent, fixed on him.
“Let’s go at it for real.”
Seo Woo-jin grinned.
His bloodstained teeth gleamed.
The sight was as savage as Reina’s.
“Save the bravado for the right time and place.”
Reina sneered at him.
“I’ll admit you’re stronger than I thought. I felt it at the academy too—you’ve exceeded expectations by far. But that’s it. You know it too. You can’t beat me.”
“Who knows? Maybe not.”
He shrugged once, then glanced at Kim Tae-jin.
“If you’re not running, then help out. Otherwise, we all die here.”
He didn’t wait for a reply.
Their heads were sharp enough to grasp the situation.
Trusting they’d support his moves, he unleashed his trump card.
‘Celestial Wing.’
Whoosh—!
Black wings unfurled.
At the same time, power several times his normal surged through him.
Even Gerald had suffered cracked skin blocking a single strike from Seo Woo-jin using Celestial Wing.
Now stronger than then, he could overwhelm the injured Reina.
‘Three minutes. I’ll end it within that.’
He kicked off the ground.
His wings flapped.
In the same instant, Seo Woo-jin folded space and appeared before Reina.
“Hmph!”
But she’d been prepared since the wings emerged.
She’d seen it once at the academy.
Her nails extended long, aiming for the flat of ‘Karaniel’.
She planned to parry the slash without clashing blade-to-nail.
But there was one thing even Reina hadn’t anticipated.
“Back then it was double. Now it’s five times.”
Reina understood immediately.
“Aaagh!”
Her nails didn’t even reach ‘Karaniel’.
The blinding sword speed sliced her arm before they could close in.
Spurt—!
Blood erupted from the severed stump.
Seo Woo-jin pressed forward through the spray.
From sky to earth.
A bisecting slash arced toward Reina’s crown.
“You dare!”
A scream of pain and rage exploded as red demonic energy enveloped Seo Woo-jin.
But ‘Karaniel’ tore through the demonic energy once more.
The sword that felled the Demon King.
Mere emanations from a follower couldn’t block its path for even a second.
Reina dodged late, but the blade was faster.
Crack—!
Her chest split open.
Bone and flesh parted like butter under a razor.
No need to check.
It was fatal.
Even for Reina, a wound from ‘Karaniel’ was no joke.
“Now!”
Seo Woo-jin shouted.
A blaze erupted from behind him.
‘Flame Sorcerer’ Kim Tae-jin’s strongest skill, ‘Sun Rise.’
Inferior to Martes’s ‘La Solbante,’ but enough to damage Reina now.
Sizzle—!
Her flesh burned under the intense heat, blood evaporating.
A horrific, wretched scream echoed.
But the assault wasn’t over.
An energy antithetical to demonic power.
Sung Yu-ra’s holy skill fired forth.
“Divine Punishment!”
The heavens parted, and pure white light speared the earth.
Boom—!
Red demonic energy vanished, and Reina’s already mangled body began to melt.
‘Yes!’
Seo Woo-jin cheered inwardly.
Two minutes left on ‘Celestial Wing.’
In under a minute, he’d reduced Reina to the brink of death.
A miracle born of her carelessness and his unexpected strength.
“Now die already.”
His voice dripped with killing intent.
‘Karaniel’ swung toward Reina’s slender, dazed neck.
A simple horizontal cut, but the power within was beyond what her half-corpse state could block.
Thus, ‘Karaniel’ sliced her neck…
Clang—!
Seo Woo-jin’s eyes widened.
‘It… stopped?’
How?
Reina couldn’t possibly move.
Even ignoring wounds from Martes and Yorn, her arm and chest were slashed, burned by flame, melted by holy power.
No way she could block his final strike.
And yet, she did.
“That’s far enough.”
A gloomy voice rang out.
One Seo Woo-jin had never heard.
Dripping with such malevolence it raised goosebumps—like a voice dragged from hell.
“…Lion.”
Reina murmured his name blankly.
“You look a mess.”
The one called Lion clicked his tongue at her.
He’d come upon hearing she’d found a new king, only to find her dying like this.
Lion beckoned to Reina.
A chilling wind blew, enveloping her.
“No…!”
Seo Woo-jin lunged, but he couldn’t.
Ash-gray demonic energy from Lion blocked him.
‘Ugh!’
Even with ‘Celestial Wing,’ it was an impenetrable force.
‘Damn it!’
He couldn’t let her escape like this.
She might return as a greater foe later.
But a bigger problem loomed.
‘Time…’
‘Celestial Wing’ was running out.
Far too little against this man, who seemed as strong as Reina.
“Run!”
This time, it wasn’t just words.
Seo Woo-jin hurled himself toward Kim Tae-jin and Sung Yu-ra, shouting.
“I didn’t permit escape.”
Ash-gray wind surged at Seo Woo-jin.
It carried power impossible to take lightly.
And…
‘Ah, fuck!’
‘Celestial Wing’ expired.
Agony like his brain igniting white-hot buckled his knees.
The sharp wind closed in, but he couldn’t dodge.
‘Am I dying again?’
He laughed bitterly.
Dying like this would trigger ‘Demon King Transformation’ again.
Worry flooded him.
If it happened here…
The thought alone was horrifying.
Clenching his eyes shut, he prayed nothing worse occurred.
That was when.
“I never taught you to close your eyes mid-battle.”
A deeply familiar reprimand sounded.
Seo Woo-jin’s eyes snapped open involuntarily.
Someone he’d never dreamed of hearing here.
Slash—!
An ashen wind cleaved apart under a silver-haired youth’s swing.
“Long time no see. Doing well?”
It was Ban Slane.