Chapter 288
Chapter 288
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 289
Chapter Title: Endless Bombardment
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I used my overflowing mana to manifest spheres of light above my head.
A total of ten.
Not just increased in number—I had packed an enormous amount of mana into each one.
It was the power of near-infinite mana recovery from the Heart of Great Nature, the Moonstone Pendant, and the Mana Elixir.
And thanks to the boosts in stats from Battle Spirit and Indomitable Will, my mana control had greatly improved.
“……You, how do you have that much mana?”
He sensed the change in the atmosphere around me and said that with a stiff expression.
An S-Rank Demon was breaking out in a cold sweat, showing some real tension.
Even so, it was still not enough to take on an S-Rank enemy.
There was an indescribable gap between A and S Rank.
Even if I luckily landed a solid hit, I wouldn't have the firepower to finish him off.
But……
He had cut his own shoulder to escape the rune bindings.
And since he was considered one of the weakest in the Ten Demon Society, there was plenty of room to exploit.
Pretending to be at ease, I smirked slightly and extended my hand.
Paaang—!
At the same time, the ten spheres of light shot toward him with a sharp whooshing sound.
“Urk!”
Caught off guard by the sudden attack, he halted his body regeneration and deployed his protective aura.
Kwaang! Kwaang! Kwaaaang—
The pure white light spheres collided with his body, causing massive explosions.
Black smoke rose simultaneously, obscuring the view.
But I had [Enemy Detection and Evolution].
Even if the smoke blocked my sight, I could still see him clearly.
I manifested more spheres of light.
Ten.
Fifteen.
Twenty.
Twenty-five.
The spheres began filling the sky above my head like a swarm of bees.
I pointed at him again, and countless light spheres rained down on him like machine-gun fire.
Kwaang—!
Kwaang—!
Kwaaaang—
He crouched with his protective aura still up, enduring my attacks.
As our mana clashed repeatedly, the explosions and smoke grew thicker.
That was when he briefly dropped to one knee.
He was momentarily pushed back by the endless bombardment.
“……Tough bastard.”
Any other demon would have been riddled with holes and dead by now.
But as an S-Rank Demon specialized in enhancement, I hadn't landed any truly effective hits yet.
If I could maintain this pace for ten minutes, I could secure victory.
Unfortunately, the Heart of Great Nature and Battle Spirit only lasted three minutes.
In other words, I didn't have much time left.
So, it was time for a new attack pattern.
Phase two, as they call it.
While pouring out the light spheres, I channeled mana into the [Moonstone Pendant].
[Using ‘Sanctuary of the Moon.’]
[Your presence and aura vanish under the moonlight.]
The pale fog-like smoke filled the surroundings.
I released the spheres and charged straight at him.
In the thick, blinding fog where nothing was visible.
As the relentless magical barrage suddenly stopped, Jeong Tae-hyeok paused his protective aura and focused on recovery.
Wounds that would normally heal quickly weren't regenerating easily due to the light-attribute mana.
“……Urgh, does this guy have infinite mana or something?”
Kim Jin-woo.
He was a far trickier opponent than expected.
Not only did he have an absurdly overflowing amount of mana, but his aura and presence had completely vanished—no matter how he thought about it, it didn't make sense.
What kind of trick was he using……
He had recently heard from Han Se-jin to be wary of ‘Kim Jin-woo,’ but he never imagined this level of strength……
Above all, incredibly, the ‘Child of Prophecy’ was hiding behind him.
That was the real reason Kim Jin-woo had been able to take down so many demons.
“……I need to kill him quickly and report to the King.”
The silver lining was that his magic wasn't as strong as expected.
Excluding the bizarrely vast mana pool, he was a manageable opponent.
As he regenerated his severed shoulder to buy time—
Piyong—!
A burst of light mana energy shot at him from behind.
With no aura detectable at all, he had no choice but to take it defenselessly.
Kwaaaang!
“Gaaaargh!”
Agonizing pain exploded from his other shoulder.
It wasn't a normal attack.
It was one compressed over a long time before firing.
Moments later, another attack flew from his blind spot.
At the same time, light spheres poured in from all directions.
With no presence or mana detectable, Jeong Tae-hyeok could only deploy his protective aura to block.
“Urgh……”
Jeong Tae-hyeok quickly assessed the situation.
He needed to deal with this vision-obscuring smoke first.
Normally, releasing a wave of demonic energy would disperse it.
But after endless attacks and regeneration, he had already consumed too much demonic energy.
“Tch……”
In the end, he had only one option left.
Demonic berserk mode, the last resort of demons.
Wooong!
Black demonic energy swirled around Jeong Tae-hyeok.
His eyes turned black, and his body swelled and grew larger.
His severed shoulder regenerated in an instant, returning to its original form.
Just as he prepared to release the gathered energy to clear the smoke—
Chwaruruk!
Something surged from the ground, and thick tendrils whipped out like vines, binding his arms and legs.
Jeong Tae-hyeok looked down at his limbs in shock.
They were trees.
Incredibly sturdy trees had bound his arms and legs like living creatures.
“Urk, what the hell is this……”
Come to think of it, he had heard that Kim Jin-woo commanded tree summons……
That confirmed his opponent was indeed Kim Jin-woo.
“Not bad. But……”
Uduk, ududuk!
Jeong Tae-hyeok tore the branches apart with brute force.
No matter how tough, they were still just trees.
Impossible to restrain a berserk S-Rank Demon's limbs.
But then, new branches sprouted beside the broken ones, binding his arms and legs again.
No matter how much he tore them, more kept summoning and wrapping around him.
“Annoying!”
As he struggled with the branches, a single light sphere shot from the front, striking his chest and exploding.
Kwaaaang—
“Gaaak!”
After a short scream, silence fell briefly.
“Cough……”
Jeong Tae-hyeok spat black blood and collapsed to the ground.
In his depleted state of stamina and demonic energy from various situations, the unguarded ambush was a critical hit.
A couple more like that, and even he would die for sure.
“Wow. This is insane.”
A voice came from within the smoke.
Moments later, a black silhouette appeared in the fog, and a man manifesting a light sphere in one hand slowly walked forward.
A tree summon waddled beside him on short legs.
“Gretel, you're amazing!”
“Ngah!”
Jeong Tae-hyeok fought to stay conscious amid the excruciating pain.
The guy in front of him oozed confidence, as if he had already won.
Rage surged, but this was an opportunity.
If he exploited that carelessness, he might get a chance to kill him.
He compressed his demonic energy carefully so the guy wouldn't notice.
To strike fatally the moment he got close.
……Just a bit closer.
As Jeong Tae-hyeok wished, the opponent approached right up to him.
Jeong Tae-hyeok smirked inwardly.
Now he could kill him.
But first, one question.
“……Kim Jin-woo. What’s your real identity?”
The man didn’t answer this time either.
He just aimed the manifested light sphere at his own head.
He wouldn’t reveal his identity until the end.
Disappointing, but not a big deal.
Just as the light sphere was about to fire—
‘Now!’
Jeong Tae-hyeok squeezed out his remaining strength and snapped all the binding branches.
He ducked swiftly, dodging the light sphere.
Kwaaaang!
He didn’t stop there.
He fired all the demonic energy gathered in his right hand straight at Kim Jin-woo.
All in about one second.
—But.
When he came to, half his body was blown away, and he lay sprawled on the ground.
Jeong Tae-hyeok felt confusion.
……What just happened?
He looked at Kim Jin-woo standing far off from his prone position.
A magic circle was manifested in his palm.
Staring at it, Jeong Tae-hyeok muttered blankly.
“Re……versal?”
Reversal.
The absolute defense magic created by Chairman Kim Jin-cheol, called the strongest wizard.
Only three wizards in the world were known to wield Reversal.
Then the man sighed deeply.
“Phew…… That was close. Exactly two seconds left. But it went according to plan.”
The man muttered to himself in relief.
Jeong Tae-hyeok had no idea what the two seconds meant.
More importantly, this was according to plan?
The man then spoke to the summon at his feet.
“Gretel, good job. Come back.”
The tree summon vanished with those words.
Afterward, the man used wind magic to clear all the surrounding smoke.
The scenery came into view.
Jeong Tae-hyeok stared at his opponent in confusion.
He had been certain it was Kim Jin-woo until now.
But the magic he just used was Reversal.
It was highly unlikely to be ‘Kim Jin-cheol’ or ‘Choi Il-hyeon,’ so his identity……
“……Kim Sun-woo?”
Kim Sun-woo.
The promising wizard known for his activities in the Seongmu Festival.
Also rumored to resemble Kim Jin-woo.
At Jeong Tae-hyeok’s question, the man removed his hat and replied.
It was the face he had seen several times in news and articles.
“You recognized me right away from the Reversal.”
Shocked by the revelation, Jeong Tae-hyeok wanted to flee and report to the King immediately, but he had already used up all his demonic energy.
Then Kim Sun-woo waved toward somewhere.
A female student soon ran over.
“Sun-woo! Are you okay?!”
“I’m fine. More importantly, finish this guy off for me. I’m out of mana and can’t do anything.”
“Huh? Oh, got it!”
The girl emitted an alien mana and began casting a spell.
An instinctive dread-inducing mana aura.
It was clearly the demon’s natural enemy, the [Power of Demon Extermination].
Seeing this, Jeong Tae-hyeok felt another shock.
Numerous candidates for Child of Prophecy had existed until now.
Lee Seo-jun, Yoo A-ra, Shin Young-jun……
But this girl was a face he had never seen.
Jeong Tae-hyeok let out a hollow laugh.
“……To think the Child of Prophecy was someone completely unexpected.”
And.
A dazzling demon-exterminating spell flew toward his body, blinding his vision.
Wiiiiiing—
With a piercing siren, the Special Task Force vehicles arrived at the scene.
They had detected the sudden electromagnetic disruption and intense mana clash.
Kim Deok-hyeon stepped out and surveyed the surroundings.
Traces of fierce combat remained.
Signs of a battle between at least A-Rank wizards.
“Team Leader!”
Jeong Hyeon-su, who had arrived earlier, approached Kim Deok-hyeon.
“Give me the situation report first.”
“You know a battle took place. We found seven bodies total. Two seem assassinated by magic, and five died in the vehicle explosion.”
“……Assassinated?”
Magic usually leaves a trace when fired, making assassination difficult.
Yet seven enemies were taken out that way.
Kim Deok-hyeon naturally recalled similar incidents from last year.
“Were they all demons by any chance?”
“Yes, exactly.”
“And traces of light-attribute spheres?”
“Forensics will confirm, but from what I saw, they match light-attribute spheres.”
Kim Deok-hyeon fell silent for a moment.
Just like before, an unknown demon assassination case.
And like the Jang Ye incident, all electronics were disabled, so no CCTV footage.
“Oh! And the biggest issue……”
Jeong Hyeon-su trailed off.
“What?”
“The remaining body is Jeong Tae-hyeok.”
“Who’s that?”
“You know, the chairman of Taesang Finance.”
“……Taesang Finance?”
Kim Deok-hyeon narrowed his eyes.
Taesang Finance.
One of the top ten financial companies in the country.
“And all eight bodies are Taesang Finance employees. All demons.”
“When this hits the news, the country’s gonna flip.”
Demon-run companies had been exposed before, but never one operating as a major corporation like this.
“Deploy all Special Task Force personnel immediately. Tear Taesang Finance apart. Investigate all related companies too.”
“Yes, sir!”
Jeong Hyeon-su ran off somewhere.
Left alone, Kim Deok-hyeon stared blankly at the sky for a moment before muttering.
“……Kim Sun-woo.”