Demon Realm (2)
The moment they laid eyes on Hanul, the arrogant Star Shatterers staggered backward.
The golden pillars that had been scorching the stratosphere trembled, ever so slightly.
"Call in True Immortals or higher! No—report to the Supreme Emperor at once! A Demon God has descended upon this dimension!"
Amid the chaos of the Star Shatterers, someone shouted with cold clarity.
"Calm yourselves! Can't you see? That vicious Demon God is not at full strength!"
Every gaze snapped back to Hanul. The demonic power flowing around him was suppressed far below the true stature of his main body.
"He's right."
"He's straining to restrain the Demon Realm's power while adapting it to this primitive planet!"
"This is our best chance to kill the Demon God! Once he's gone, this planet becomes our eternal pasture!"
"Attack! Pour every scrap of immortal power into shattering that vessel!"
The Star Shatterers thrust out their hands as one. Tens of thousands of golden sword-qi blades filled the sky and hurtled toward Hanul.
"Even while I'm in the middle of descending the Demon Realm, Star Shatterers of this caliber are nothing I can't erase."
"I will not permit them to interfere with Master. I shall clean them up myself."
Lilith stepped forward. Her crimson eyes flashed with killing intent.
"If they make it onto Earth, the aftershocks will be a problem. Finish them outside the dimensional rift."
"Yes, Master!"
The empty air twisted. With a burst of violet smoke, Hatchery popped out wearing a bright, sunny smile.
"Master! Hatchery will butcher every last Immortal Realm punk, yong! Can I go too, yong?"
"Permission granted."
"Heheh, thank you, yong!"
Just as Lilith and Hatchery prepared to launch themselves toward the dimensional rift that would serve as their battlefield, a massive tremor rolled through the boundary of the Demon Realm passage linked to Earth.
KWA-RUUUNG!
It was the herald of a descent. Tearing through the darkness, the fallen angel Lucifer revealed himself.
"This time, at last, I may finally earn the chance to serve at your side!"
And behind him, more silhouettes emerged.
Baal, the Ice Archduke.
Belphegor, the Lord of Sloth.
Rust, the Rider of Wrath.
Mephisto, the Demon King of Pride.
The remaining Demon Kings all prostrated themselves and formed ranks before the Demon God Hanul.
"They're only Star Shatterers. There's no need for all of you to step in."
"That's right, yong! Don't you dare use this as an excuse to sneak over to Earth, yong! Master's busy, yong!"
"If we leave our posts unattended, we risk a raid on an empty house. The Demon Realm's stability must come first."
For once, Hatchery and Lilith were of one mind.
"Lilith has a point. At least four of the Demon King rank must remain in the Demon Realm."
Which meant one additional Demon King could cross over to Earth. Who would it be? The remaining four Demon Kings eyed one another carefully.
Hmm. Whom to choose.
The dimensional fissures that would open because of the Demon Realm's descent onto Earth—whoever came needed the power to seal those gaps and stop anything trying to cross through them.
Hanul's gaze settled on Lucifer. A faint flicker of hope touched Lucifer's lips.
"Baal. Your power will suit this best."
"Wh—why?! You looked right at me—!"
"Uhohoho. I shall obey my lord's command."
Baal bowed his head deeply. Beside him, Lucifer's eyebrows quivered.
"Kh… Next time, I shall most certainly secure the opportunity to stand guard at your side."
Swallowing his regret, Lucifer turned back toward the Demon Realm. The other Demon Kings withdrew with him.
Crackle— ZZZZZT!
Baal's silhouette beyond the dimensional rift sharpened as he descended onto the surface. A body of explosive muscle, clothed in a skin-tight ensemble, radiated overwhelming pressure. Only his lips were excessively thick, and every time those uncomfortably long, dense eyelashes fluttered, they scattered a chill. Ice butterflies drifted around him.
"With Baal joining you, wipe them out."
"Yes, Master!"
"I'll kill them all, yong!"
"Uhohoho. Leave it to me."
The three beings plunged into the dimensional rift connected to the Immortal Realm. The Star Shatterers, already arrayed in formation and reinforced with fresh troops, struck first.
"How dare you invade the domain of the gods!"
"Myriad Swords Return to Origin!"
KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWANG—!
Lilith, Baal, and Hatchery's bodies burst apart in an instant. Sensing victory, the Star Shatterers summoned tens of thousands more golden sword-qi blades. And the moment Lilith, Baal, and Hatchery's bodies finally exploded and died—something changed.
"Did you enjoy yourselves? It was only a dream."
Saaaaa—
Before anyone noticed, Lilith's shadow had coiled around the True Immortals' throats. It touched them like a gentle woman's hand—then tightened, crushing the Star Shatterers in its grip.
"Uhohoho, Lilith. Having all the fun by yourself simply won't do."
Baal stretched out his hand, and the dimensional fissure itself transformed into a colossal ice jewel. It bound the Star Shatterers' forms and detonated in an absolute-zero explosion.
Puh-puh-puh-PUNG—
Fragments of Star Shatterer bodies shattered into ice shards and sprayed in every direction.
"Gaaaah! Why won't the recovery arts activate—?!"
"Barriers! Raise the barrie—!"
ZZZZZZZT—
The Star Shatterer mid-deployment of a barrier froze into an ice statue. Baal flicked his fingers, and the statues crumbled into powder that poured into the sea. Then those body fragments surged upward again and clung to the remaining Star Shatterers—not as a recovery formula.
"All you Immortal Realm scum deserve to die, yong!"
It was Hatchery's technique. Through a flesh-alteration formula, the body fragments stuck to the Star Shatterers and blackened them from the inside out.
"Ghk— wh-what is this?!"
"Kh… kuh-huuuk! My cultivation realm is dropping—something's changing me—!"
Fur sprouted. Horns pushed from their skulls. Transformed into the shapes of Goat Demons, the former Star Shatterers turned on their own comrades.
"We have to punch a path through this way!"
"Concentrate firepower—!"
"Heheh, those dumb Immortal Realm jerks walked right into my trap, yong!"
In that instant Hatchery wore a wicked little smile and snapped her fingers.
PUNG! Puh-puh-PUNG! Puh-puh-puh-PUNG!
The Goat Demons exploded.
"KRAAAAAH!"
"Guh… guuuuuh…"
A few Star Shatterers still lived. Hatchery crushed their skulls one by one, savoring every scream.
They're doing well.
And high in the empty air of the dimensional rift, a pair of gleaming eyes watched. Hanul observed the entire spectacle through his Demon Eyes.
Just as the situation was settling into order, the flow of space froze for a single instant. A vast will touched Hanul's mind directly. It was the intervention of a being called a Supreme Emperor—or a Celestial Venerable.
Hanul had been watching through his Demon Eyes precisely because he had anticipated an intervention of this kind.
"I expected a Supreme Emperor or Celestial Venerable from the Noejin Realm to show up. Instead, it's you."
Compared to other worlds, the Demon Realm was young, its history short. Within its dimension, only the single world of the Demon Realm existed. By contrast, the Immortal Realm, the Heavenly Realm, and the Outer Universe were vast and ancient—each containing multiple worlds of their own, each with its own absolute being, none of them unified under a single supreme existence.
The Immortal Realm that had attacked Earth was the Noejin Realm. The one contacting him now was a Celestial Venerable from somewhere else entirely—and one of the few with whom Hanul had maintained a relatively amicable relationship during his past war against the Immortal Realm.
"Guanghan Tianzun. Then you should have done a better job stopping the others from crossing into foreign dimensions in the first place."
Because of an old pact between them, a note of apology colored Guanghan Tianzun's voice.
Hanul glanced that way. The Noejin Realm's Star Shatterers had been all but slaughtered by Hatchery, Lilith, and Baal. Further conflict would only waste demonic power needlessly.
"Then I'll stop here."
"You know my personality. Once I've started something, I finish it properly."
A wide-area search formula unfurled.
KWA-RUUUNG! Crackle— crackle-crackle!
This was nothing like the delicate work he had performed on Earth. He forced the power of his main body into the Immortal Realm, caring nothing for whether the dimension itself shattered—a formula devoted solely to finding what it sought.
The residual energy clinging to the Star Shatterers' corpse fragments resolved into thread-thin trajectories. In moments, the coordinates of their distant home star system were etched into Hanul's formula.
He formed a mudra. Two enormous hands of violet demonic power rose into the air, pressed together—and the instant he twisted them, a space-shearing slash, the Dimension Fault, tore across the cosmos.
KWAAAAANG—!
A transcendent sword-qi that bent even light ripped through dimensional walls like paper. A colossal pitch-black fissure split open across the void of space.
KWA-RUUUNG— KWAAAAAAAAH!
The slash struck the heart of the star system dead-on.
KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA—!
The planet itself split in two like a fruit under a giant blade. The crust inverted, the core exposed, and the entire world detonated in a blinding white radiance.
KWAAAAANG!
The gravitational axis that had held the star system's order shattered into pieces. The dying planet's debris scattered into the vacuum.
"If they don't like it, they can come. I'll butcher them the same way."
"But if you want to prevent that from happening, then you do a good job stopping them on your end."
Guanghan Tianzun's deep sigh traveled across the dimensions.
Hanul let out a short snort of laughter and was about to turn away when—
"Oh? That doesn't sound like a threat, coming from you. What are you trying to say?"
Guanghan Tianzun's tone grew heavy.
"I figured as much. Once the resonance phenomenon started, we must have looked like a juicy meal."
"The Blood Realm isn't particularly friendly either."
Deciding there was no point in further reply, Hanul ordered the Demon Kings to return.
"We're going back to Earth."
Stepping down onto Earth's soil, Hanul looked up at the sky. The forcibly patched space was precarious. The dimension's restorative force howled as it tried to tear the wound open wider.
And beyond his gaze, on other continents, the same kind of phenomenon was already showing its first signs.
Tsk. Just as Guanghan said.
Hanul muttered inwardly. It was only a matter of time. It would happen eventually.
But for now, it was enough. Through pinholes this small, nothing of Heavenly Human rank or higher could ever force its way through.
"Baal. Guard this place well."
"Hohoho, yes! Though those of lesser caliber below the Axial rank may still—"
"Don't bother with small fry like that."
"You have my gratitude!"
The chill radiating from the Ice Archduke froze the edges of the dimensional gate solid. Hanul gathered Hatchery and Lilith and headed for Seoul. They set down on the rooftop of the tallest skyscraper in the city.
"Whoa, the city's a total mess, yong!"
"Even so, three-quarters of the population have already awakened."
Which meant one-quarter still lay trapped in a collective slumber, unable to wake. People lay collapsed like dolls along every sidewalk. It was an unprecedented crisis in the history of the Republic of Korea.
The sky was even worse. High above the East Sea, where the golden wreckage of the Immortal Realm had come crashing down, a stretch of violet Demon Realm territory now sat in its place. A purple pillar of light punched through the atmosphere, radiating brilliance.
"Divine punishment!"
"Earth is doomed!"
"The end times are here! Armageddon has coooome!"
Frenzied screams erupted from every corner of the streets. Hanul smiled bitterly.
"Eunha must be thoroughly shaken."