Chapter 35
Chapter 35
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 35
Chapter Title: Savior of Seoul (13)
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The Demon Neptune resembled a seahorse dwelling in the depths of the ocean. Its protruding snout and horse-like head, along with the fins running from its head down its back, made it unmistakably one anywhere you looked.
However, it had legs instead of a tail, and arms sprouting from its body, setting it apart from an ordinary seahorse.
「Medusa is dead.」
Neptune's voice was eerie and chilling.
「To think Medusa would actually die.」
「I believed such a day would never come... eternally. For Medusa to die. Heh heh! Heh heh heh!!」
Seemingly delighted by Medusa's death, Neptune's face twisted into a broad grin.
Lee Sang-hyun instinctively felt a visceral disgust toward this creature.
Twitch! Twitch!
'This thing... a demon. The enemy I must kill.'
That disgust swelled into a fierce impulse. His boiling blood felt ready to erupt at any moment.
Yet Lee Sang-hyun didn't act rashly. He cooled his head, maintaining his composure.
「Thank you, sacrifice.」
Neptune's gaze turned to Lee Sang-hyun. It pierced straight through the darkness.
「Thanks to a pathetic worm like you... I can ascend there once more.」
「Right below the lofty cosmos.」
「To that sacred seat.」
Unconcealed greed burned in Neptune's crimson eyes.
Through Neptune's words, Lee Sang-hyun realized the creature had once been a constellation. But without certainty, he asked outright.
"Are you a constellation?"
Twitch.
「...No. I am a demon. The enemy of constellations. The slayer of constellations. The destroyer of you players.」
Yet Neptune denied it. It even called itself the foe of constellations, its face contorting in rage.
But it felt unnatural. Suspiciously so, as if uttering some unspeakable taboo.
"Whatever. Doesn't matter. No matter what you are... you're dying here."
In the end, whether it was a demon or not was irrelevant. What mattered was the upheaval in his life and the fact that the demon before him was the enemy.
Lee Sang-hyun etched that truth into his heart and gripped his sword.
「Me? Die?」
Ha, hahaha!! Uhahahahaha!! At Lee Sang-hyun's declaration, Neptune laughed like a madman.
「Pathetic. Hilarious. Even fallen to earth... a worthless piece of trash dares to kill me?」
Once the laughter faded, fury rippled in its place. Neptune's eyes darkened.
「It's so ridiculous it's pissing me off.」
Its gaze was colder than ice.
「Do I look funny to you?」
Its voice was spine-chilling.
「You, a mere insect who can't even transcend.」
「A puppet like you.」
「Daring to mock me?」
It was the contempt and hatred of a superior being scorning an inferior crawler.
「I'll kill you. Tear you to shreds so badly you can't even be scraped up... butcher you so you never spout such nonsense again.」
A trident materialized in Neptune's hand. Then the darkness split diagonally.
Whoosh!
Lee Sang-hyun dodged Neptune's attack with evasion bordering on precognition.
It looked like a close call. At least in Neptune's eyes.
「Insolent fool!!」
Neptune roared in fury, swinging the trident repeatedly.
The strikes came at tremendous speed. And from every direction—left, right, everywhere—engulfing Lee Sang-hyun.
"......"
Dodging seemed impossible. But Lee Sang-hyun sensed Neptune's attacks.
He felt them through his vastly expanded sensory domain, reading every trajectory.
Swish.
A few steps. Just a few steps, and he evaded the terrifying onslaught.
「What?!!」
Neptune's eyes bulged. Disbelief filled its voice.
「A worthless piece of trash...!!」
That disbelief fueled its rage, making it swell even larger and fiercer.
Crunch!!
A dark crimson aura rose from Neptune's entire body. It was fury incarnate, raw killing intent.
'So this is a true demon's power.'
Zing! Zing!!
The menace was on another level. Eurielle's anger felt like a child's tantrum in comparison, drowned in utter darkness.
But Lee Sang-hyun felt no fear. His heart was perfectly calm, his mind ice-cold.
Thump.
The blood that had briefly surged wildly now circulated in perfect balance.
'Sizing it up.'
Lee Sang-hyun braced for Neptune's attacks.
「Die!!」
Neptune kicked off the ground and charged. The distance closed in an instant.
Swoosh!!
One swing multiplied to ten before a second had passed. The wind didn't even realize it had been sliced.
Yet Lee Sang-hyun wasn't cut. He read every attack and dodged by a hair's breadth.
「You rat!!」
With a bellow, the trident swept the ground in a fan shape.
Kaboom!!
Destructive energy, like a weapon of mass slaughter, spread dozens of ways across the floor.
And it didn't end there.
Neptune slammed the trident down with intent to obliterate Lee Sang-hyun.
In that moment, a deafening roar dominated the space.
The massive explosion shredded the darkness, devouring even it mercilessly.
「A mere insect.」
Neptune didn't doubt Lee Sang-hyun's death. After all, a pathetic 'toy' couldn't possibly evade its full power.
Drip. Drip drip.
Where the explosion settled, only devastation remained. Even the flames screamed in agony.
「...Tch.」
Neptune clicked its tongue in regret. It had gotten carried away and killed him too easily.
「Should've toyed with him more.」
「Eh, no matter. There'll be more players outside.」
But the regret was fleeting. Neptune flashed a wicked, demonic grin.
「Now, where's the key...?」
As Neptune searched for Medusa's key to exit the tower, something caught its eye.
It was Lee Sang-hyun.
「Wha...t...?」
The man it thought dead stood there, utterly unscathed.
Was it shock? Or rage? Neptune's face twisted hideously, beyond recognition as a face.
「In...teresting.」
「Truly... entertaining.」
「For a worm to survive.」
「Heh heh. Heh heh heh!!」
Mad cackles echoed everywhere. But its eyes weren't laughing. They glared at Lee Sang-hyun, seething with fury.
「Even stripped of power and cast to earth... to suffer such humiliation.」
「Ahh, truly...」
「Infuriating.」
Whoosh!!
Neptune's trident pierced the space toward him.
"?!!"
Even with super sense and his sensory domain tracking every motion, the thrust left Lee Sang-hyun stunned.
Of course, he wasn't hit. But...
「Consider it an honor.」
「Worm.」
As the trident flashed, dozens of points pierced the darkness.
Splat!
'Damn...'
Lee Sang-hyun had dodged everything so far, but not this time. His left arm took the hit.
Fortunate in misfortune: it pierced clean through, making regeneration easier.
「Too early to be surprised.」
「This is just the beginning.」
The ferocious aura gathered into the trident. It looked ominous at a glance.
'...Dangerous.'
Lee Sang-hyun sensed the peril. His berserker instincts blared warnings.
「I'll teach you.」
「The power of a higher realm.」
Neptune's trident glowed blood-red, uglier than darkness itself.
And the darkness tore apart.
It wasn't an explosion.
Incredibly, it ripped the darkness itself. Like tearing space wholesale and erasing it.
An absurd 'power.'
Thud!!
Lee Sang-hyun barely dodged and quickly widened the gap. But Neptune pursued, slamming down the trident.
Slash!!
Darkness shredded again.
'...Void. That's the word.'
The torn darkness left pure 'void.' Nothing could be sensed there.
Lee Sang-hyun swallowed chilling dread and pulled back further.
「Heh heh heh!!」
「You flee just like a rat!!」
Neptune sneered at him. But Lee Sang-hyun was evading better than expected, twisting its grotesque face even more bizarrely.
「Struggle harder!!」
「When that futile writhing ends...」
「I'll toast with your skull.」
「And you'll realize dying easily was a blessing.」
Neptune's trident elongated like a serpent.
Swish!!
No trick of the eye. It truly lengthened, aiming for Lee Sang-hyun's heart.
Rip!
A vicious strike. Even 0.01 seconds slower, and his heart would have been ripped out.
'Coming...!'
As Lee Sang-hyun reset his stance, the trident shot forth. It lengthened like a snake again... then curved abruptly.
"!!"
Instinctively, Lee Sang-hyun severed his left arm. Faster than it could graze him.
The attack ended in half-success.
「Heh heh! Kuhahaha!!」
「Cutting off your own arm!!」
「What were you thinking...?」
Neptune's laughter cut short. Lee Sang-hyun's left arm regenerated.
「...I thought you were stupid. But you're a clever rat.」
The severed arm voided out. It grew hazy, losing existence, then vanished.
A moment's hesitation, and his whole body might have followed.
「...But nothing changes. You'll experience the most gruesome death.」
「An eternal death your dull, lowly mind can't even imagine.」
Neptune's chilling laugh reverberated.
But Lee Sang-hyun felt no fear.
'So that's its level.'
With calm eyes fixed on Neptune, he assumed a counterattacking stance for the first time.
Thump...! Thump...!! Thump!!!
Lee Sang-hyun's heart began to pound. Ferociously, beyond comparison to before.
His blood surged in rhythm.
'Going in.'
The instant Neptune's trident pierced space, Lee Sang-hyun lunged forward.
「?!!」
Neptune's eyes flickered at the unexpected move.
Lee Sang-hyun seized the opening, closing in and swinging his sword.
Slash!
The blade gashed Neptune's side.
「Ho-how dare you?!!」
Neptune's twisted face contorted further into something grotesque. Rage transcended into hatred, a massive crack in its pride.
「A worthless piece of trash?! Me?? MEEEE?!!」
The wound's size didn't matter. What counted was being hurt by an inferior being.
A mere toy.
One that could never reach the heights.
Not even allowed to glance upward.
「I'll kill you!! Kill you all!! Every last piece of trash, starting with you!!!」
Riiiip!!
Neptune's fury erupted from its body. Killing intent so overwhelming it choked just to behold.
Yet Lee Sang-hyun didn't falter. Instead, he spoke toward Neptune.
"Ailbern."
That which will exterminate you all.
The hero's name.