Chapter 381
Chapter 381
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 381
Chapter Title: Killing the Heavenly Demon's Soul
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Dawn had broken.
Even into the early morning, Hailz hadn't been able to sleep.
She sat on the living room sofa, gazing out the window. The newly risen sunlight poured in dazzlingly.
The first to wake was Soo-hyuk.
"Why aren't you sleeping?"
"Shouldn't I be asking you that, oppa?"
"I've slept enough."
He didn't sleep much even on normal days, but today had been especially little. Despite falling asleep late, his eyes had opened early. Soo-hyuk had been the same—he couldn't sleep well either.
"Can't sleep?"
"Probably everyone is the same."
Was he the only one?
Si-woo, Ye-ryeong, Hyo-min—they were all surely the same.
Everyone's first goal was right around the corner. That alone made it hard to sleep, but even something they'd thought was far off had come rushing toward them first.
And sure enough, another door opened, and Si-woo stepped out.
"See? He's up too."
"You guys woke him up."
With bleary eyes, Si-woo gulped down water. Watching him shake off sleep with the cold liquid, Hailz asked,
"What were you two talking about yesterday?"
The pair had returned very late. If they'd come straight back after finishing, they would've been home much sooner.
Si-woo drained a full glass in one go and set it down with a clunk before answering.
"Something difficult."
"So what was it?"
At Hailz's follow-up question, Si-woo glanced at Soo-hyuk. Can I tell them? His eyes asked, and Soo-hyuk raised his voice.
"If everyone's already up, come out."
At those words, doors creaked open here and there.
They hadn't come out to the living room, but everyone was already awake. The only one still sleeping was Kindre.
"Everyone's up, huh."
"These kids won't even let an old man sleep."
Despite his grumbling, Jin-un was already dressed.
"Uncle, didn't you wake up first?"
"Old folks don't need much sleep."
"Good thing. You're the one we needed most for this talk."
"Me?"
"Yes."
Soo-hyuk scanned the two of them. Jin-un and Unhyang.
The two, who had lived completely different lives, shared one unique commonality.
"It's about the Heavenly Demon."
Sure enough, their eyes widened the most.
The group gathered in the living room. The mood naturally grew heavy at the mention of the Heavenly Demon's name.
"Tell me."
Jin-un's voice trembled. Soo-hyuk knew what the man hoped from him.
"I have a proposal for everyone."
From long ago, and even now—he had been waiting for these words all along.
"Let's kill the Heavenly Demon."
"W-what?"
Jin-un wasn't the only one shocked.
Even Si-woo, who had discussed it beforehand yesterday, looked stunned. Are you really saying this? Are you actually insane? That was his expression.
So what about the others?
Ye-ryeong crossed her arms and closed her eyes. Hyo-min covered her mouth in surprise.
Unhyang froze solid. Even Kindre, who rarely showed expressions or emotions, couldn't hide his shock this time.
Speaking for the group, Jin-un asked,
"Why this sudden decision?"
"Because we need him."
Kill him, yet need him?
To address their confusion, Soo-hyuk added an explanation.
"To be precise, what we're killing isn't the Heavenly Demon—it's the Heavenly Demon's Demonic Soul."
Soo-hyuk's gaze shifted to Jin-un as he continued. The man was trembling so intensely that his hands and eyes shook.
"That thing killed your daughter too. The Heavenly Demon's Demonic Soul, the second Heavenly Demon. The real Heavenly Demon the world knows."
Soo-hyuk stated it firmly.
"That's what I'll kill."
"Why..."
Jin-un's voice choked.
"Why now?"
He had already begged Soo-hyuk long ago. To kill the Heavenly Demon.
Back then, Soo-hyuk had only half-accepted the request.
"Because back then, just winning the fight was the best we could do."
Fighting and winning was one thing; removing just the Demonic Soul was entirely different.
"I had no confidence in severing only the Heavenly Demon's Demonic Soul. Even if we somehow managed it, one of us—me or my comrades—would've definitely died."
No matter how heartfelt and desperate Jin-un's story was, Soo-hyuk didn't want his other comrades to die.
That was the kind of opponent the Heavenly Demon was.
To kill him meant staking lives on this side too.
Just fighting was hard enough; removing only the Demonic Soul was twice as difficult.
"Then just kill him outright!"
"Then the demons would go berserk. Heavenly Demon dead? Lee Soo-hyuk gone too? Even the Dragon Lord dead by our hands?"
"You kept that devil alive out of fear of those scum?"
"Yes. I'm afraid of them. We've got one Heavenly Demon here, but they have three similar ones. Sorry, Uncle, but I don't even want to imagine them swarming us."
Mentioning the three Demon Kings shut Jin-un's mouth.
Setting aside emotional vengeance, Soo-hyuk was right.
With the world's top player Lee Soo-hyuk dead, and even the Dragon Lord—balancer of the Middle Realm—gone, the demons were already tentatively reaching out.
In this situation, if the Heavenly Demon died too, the demons might truly come pouring in.
After a pause, he asked,
"...What made you change your mind so suddenly?"
"The same reason."
"The demons?"
"Yes. We need the Heavenly Demon to face them. But as you said, we can't fight alongside someone harboring a devil inside."
Soo-hyuk explained as calmly as possible. The greater the other's emotions, the more his calmness had to suppress them.
Did his effort work a little? Listening, Jin-un bit his lip hard and spat a curse.
"Bullshit!"
He stormed back to his room and slammed the door.
Soo-hyuk watched his retreating back and said,
"He's only venting at me, so understand. He has a deep story."
Early morning shouting hadn't upset anyone, thankfully. Everyone except Kindre knew Jin-un's backstory.
Ye-ryeong, who had stayed silent, pressed further.
"What's the reason for this decision?"
To her question of whether they really needed the Heavenly Demon's power, Soo-hyuk looked out the window.
The scenery outside, now with the sun fully risen, was no different from yesterday. But since yesterday, in Soo-hyuk's eyes, it was already burning.
"Because things are coming that we can't handle alone."
An hour before the second match of the showdown began, the Heavenly Demon was eating alone at a restaurant.
There were no other customers. The owner, cooking in fear and trembling, was the only one; only the clatter of dishes echoed repeatedly through the place.
Who would dare enter a restaurant where the Heavenly Demon was dining? No one even approached the vicinity, let alone entered.
But then.
Ding-a-ling-.
The bell on the door rang as a customer entered.
"Welcome..."
The owner, greeting out of habit, clamped his mouth shut.
It was Soo-hyuk who had entered.
Soo-hyuk scanned the interior and slowly sat across from the Heavenly Demon, who was midway through his meal.
"You'll have to pay ten times the bill."
The Heavenly Demon's gaze pierced Soo-hyuk. What do you mean? his eyes asked.
"Your presence shut down this place's business. Gotta cover that much."
The owner, watching from afar, shook his head frantically in desperate plea for silence.
"If you're here to eat, order quietly and go."
"Already a feast. Just need utensils."
"Eat with me then."
Despite his words, Soo-hyuk didn't touch the utensils.
"Took a while to find you."
Not here to eat—here to find you.
Pausing his meal, the Heavenly Demon looked at Soo-hyuk. Until now, whenever they met, it had always been because the Heavenly Demon moved first.
"First time you've come looking for me."
"No reason to before."
"Got one now?"
"Extension of that last talk. About escaping the Heavenly Demon's Demonic Soul."
The moment those words ended.
Kiiiiieeeek-.
A ghostly wail filled the restaurant. An aura spread that made souls tremble in fear, as if one's body were being shredded by blades.
Tzzzzzt-.
Lightning instinctively reacted within Soo-hyuk's body. The two auras clashed, sparking big and small everywhere.
As he blocked the spreading aura of the Heavenly Demon's Demonic Soul, Soo-hyuk picked up his utensils.
"Close the door?"
Left like this, the trembling owner would suffocate to death. Even if not, facing the Demonic Soul up close would turn him into a lifelong wreck.
He hadn't come to fight, but now he had to calm this aura somehow.
Tzzzzzt-.
The lightning subdued the Demonic Soul. Looking at Soo-hyuk resisting his aura, competitive spirit rose on the Heavenly Demon's face.
The Heavenly Demon gradually transformed into a fiend. His true form as the world knew it—merged with the Heavenly Demon's Demonic Soul.
Just as the Heavenly Demon was about to fully reveal himself, Soo-hyuk picked up his utensils and began eating.
Clink-.
He scooped stew with tender meat, tore into crispy-skinned meat by hand. His nonchalant eating made the Heavenly Demon scowl.
"Delicious. Good pick for a restaurant."
He didn't look like someone here to fight at all.
Naturally, the Demonic Soul's aura subsided. The Heavenly Demon laughed in disbelief.
"Must go down easy."
"Told you, it's good."
"Not here just to eat. Not to end things either, so really here for that boring talk?"
"Of course not."
Not here to fight, but he did have business with the Heavenly Demon. Wiping his mouth with a napkin on the table, Soo-hyuk said,
"We'll do the finals outside."
As if it were obvious he'd face him in the finals.
But the Heavenly Demon felt no incongruity. He thought the same.
"I hate that lame arena too."
"Not about lameness. To remove your Demonic Soul, we need a fight outside the system. I'm taking the risk for you."
Not wrong. But the Soo-hyuk he knew wasn't one to say such things to his face.
He only boasted when there was reason.
"Why say it like that on purpose?"
"What else? Because of the second reason."
Meaning, he owed him one now, so factor that debt into the second reason.
Soo-hyuk nodded. Accepting—now speak.
The Heavenly Demon the world knew differed from the one before Soo-hyuk's eyes. Theirs was a demon whose soul was eroded by the Demonic Soul; before him was Jin Ha-ryeong.
Soo-hyuk trusted that difference. Without that trust, he wouldn't be here saying this.
Finally, Soo-hyuk revealed why he'd come.
"...There's someone you need to apologize to."