Chapter 20
I’m translating the chapter directly into publishable HTML, keeping the narration flowing and turning the title and all prose into the required format. I’m also preserving the system-style and special content rules by treating the chapter as plain narrative here, since this excerpt doesn’t contain any explicit system windows or other in-universe blocks.CHAPTER_TITLE: Chapter 20
After spending three days in the Gray Wasteland, the party set out once more.
"This expedition feels like nothing but riding in a carriage. It doesn’t seem like we’re on an expedition at all. More like a package tour around the Demon Realm."
"It is a little boring."
Outside the window, Valender von Graus was riding beside the carriage atop a massive black horse, muttering under his breath. Since Yoon Sang-hyuk had summoned him, he had never been unsummoned again.
"How much farther do we have to go?"
Yoon Sang-hyuk asked the woman seated across from him. She had lush platinum-blond hair that did not suit the Demon Realm at all, and eyes as blue as the sea. She was to serve as their guide from the Gray Wasteland to Marhalta, where Zigritria, the Magic Dragon of Despair, lived.
But her identity was anything but ordinary. She was, in fact, the daughter of a god. Her name was Merlin, daughter of Atram. Gods who had been exiled to the Demon Realm, including Atram, had lost their divinity. They were closer to humans than to gods now. Of course, their bodies remained far superior to those of ordinary humans, but they could no longer be compared to what they had once been.
Atram had a daughter, Merlin, with one of the lower gods who had been exiled with him, a female-bodied deity. Perhaps because the soil and seed had been good, Merlin surpassed every other child born in the wasteland in every respect.
"Isn’t it too early to ask that? We only just set out."
"Half a day has already passed."
"Like I said, we’ve barely even left. It’s still a long way to Marhalta."
Yoon Sang-hyuk sighed and shook his head.
"So this is a final warning that the boredom is only going to get worse."
He reached over and patted Arin’s head as she sat beside him, munching on a chocolate bar. Arin seemed to like his touch and smiled brightly. Looking at the red dress she was wearing, Yoon Sang-hyuk gave a bitter smile.
Lilith.
It was a dress Lilith had worn when she was in her child form. Most of the clothes she had worn were gifts from Yoon Sang-hyuk. The outfits Lilith had grown tired of were all sleeping in Yoon Sang-hyuk’s subspace.
Arin was a completely different child from the one he had first met. She was clean now, unlike before, when she had been half-starved, her skin dry and rough, wearing clothes so filthy they seemed to drip with grime.
After patting Arin’s head for a while, Yoon Sang-hyuk drew his hand back and gathered his energy. At his sudden movement, Merlin and Zeronia, who were sharing the carriage with him, stared at him in surprise.
That was when it happened.
"Aaahhhh-!"
Arin, who had been carefully savoring her chocolate bar, let out a scream. She kept crying out in pain, her whole body trembling violently. Then, in an instant, Arin’s eyes changed.
Instead of the bright black eyes that had once shone with intelligence, a gloomy gray took their place. Just looking into those eyes made one feel a suffocating despair.
"Kekeke, heh-heh-heh."
A bizarre laugh spilled from Arin’s small mouth, still smeared with chocolate.
"Who are you?"
"A pathetically foolish little being."
It was not Arin’s voice. It was far too coarse, a voice so unpleasant that merely hearing it made one feel drained of all strength.
"You are unworthy of hearing my name."
"I don’t care. I’m not actually that curious about your name. Come to think of it, I might not even need you to say it."
"An amusing fellow. Who do you think I am?"
"Zigritria."
"You are quite clever. I awoke from sleep after a very long time only to hear something amusing. You said you were coming to meet me? I sincerely hope you arrive safely. Whether you can stand before me in one piece, however, is another matter."
He was warning them that the road to him would be far from easy.
"I only came to exchange greetings today. You also happen to have the Star of Prophecy at your side."
"If this causes even the slightest problem to Arin’s body, I may reconsider the way I deal with you."
Yoon Sang-hyuk let a trace of killing intent leak out casually.
Merlin and Zeronia’s faces went pale. It was only a faint killing intent, but it was not something either of them could withstand.
Hiiiiiigh-!
The horses pulling the carriage neighed in alarm as well.
"Foolish human."
Zigritria, borrowing Arin’s body, let out a low laugh.
"This child, the Star of Prophecy, ought to be offering me thanks on her knees for a thousand years, and that still wouldn’t be enough. Do you understand?"
"What do you mean?"
"If muscle is torn apart, stronger muscle grows in its place. The Star of Prophecy are different from others from the moment they are born. But they often pour all of that difference into the visions they see, and their lives are not particularly long either. This child will be different. Because she has accepted me, if only for a moment, her vessel will grow larger and stronger. She will become greater than any Star of Prophecy that has ever been born in the Demon Realm. So she should be thanking me on her knees."
"That’s bullshit."
"You arrogant human. I wonder whether you’ll still be able to speak to me in that insolent tone when you stand before me."
"Anyone who’s said that to me so far hasn’t lived to stay healthy for long. As far as I’m concerned, you won’t be an exception."
"Kwahahahaha!"
Zigritria laughed loudly enough to make the carriage rock. Yoon Sang-hyuk felt the hair all over his body stand on end for an instant. Even while speaking only through Arin’s body, the dragon radiated this much pressure.
He could see at last why Atram feared Zigritria and the other magic dragons so much.
After laughing for a long while, Zigritria finally stopped.
"I have lived through immeasurably long ages of oblivion and experienced everything there is to experience. But there is one thing I have never experienced."
"Obliteration."
Yoon Sang-hyuk cut him off.
"Indeed, you are a clever one. Yes, I have never experienced obliteration. I do hope you can be the one to make me experience it. I will look forward to it."
Arin’s body began to tremble violently. The vast power that had been lodged inside her was fading. Her face was slick with sweat, and even now her eyebrows and lips twisted in pain.
"Take care of Arin."
Zeronia quickly pulled Arin into her arms and wiped away the sweat.
Looking toward the southern sky outside the carriage, Yoon Sang-hyuk murmured,
"Maybe, as you said, this will be good for Arin. But just making her suffer like this is more than enough reason for you to get punished."
* * *
"You’ve worked hard."
"As always, thank you."
Zeronia bowed politely to Ibrahmut. Sweat streamed endlessly down her chin. Ibrahmut, unwilling to see his contractor look weak, had been training Zeronia from after dinner until the moment before she fell asleep.
Thanks to that, Zeronia was growing stronger at a rapid pace. The energy that had been sleeping within her body all this time was beginning to fall completely under her control.
That was when Zeronia, limp as a soaked cloth, nearly collapsed in exhaustion.
"Now we should start, too."
"Haha, I’m not in very good shape today. It might be better if I turned in early, but..."
"What are you talking about? Who was it that was just saying you couldn’t go even a day without training Zeronia?"
"That doesn’t sound like me."
"No, it was definitely you."
At Yoon Sang-hyuk’s words, Ibrahmut made a mournful face.
Since joining Yoon Sang-hyuk’s party, Ibrahmut had asked for sparring matches whenever he got the chance. He had realized that through training with Yoon Sang-hyuk and Valender von Graus, he could become stronger.
But as the days together stretched on, he came to realize something else as well. No matter how much time he poured into sparring, he could never defeat Yoon Sang-hyuk or Valender von Graus.
He had also learned that when the two sparred with him normally, they were not giving it their all.
"Yesterday was Valender’s turn, so today it’s mine."
"I-I... I’ll just spar with Valender hyung-nim again today."
"No. That won’t do. What you get from Valender and what you get from me are completely different. Well... if you don’t want to spar, just say so. But if that happens, neither I nor Valender will ever spar with you again."
"A-ah, hyung-nim, why do you have to be so extreme? You have no flexibility at all."
"Why would I bother being flexible when I’m not doing this for my own benefit? There’s no reason."
Since that was not wrong, Ibrahmut pressed his lips shut.
"You’ve been stagnant for too long."
"Huh?"
"I mean you’ve sat at the highest place for too long. Water has to flow. If it stays in one place too long, it’s bound to rot. You’ve already gone from stagnant to rotten, and now you’ve finally been given a chance to flow again."
"I-I see."
"So stop grumbling."
Ibrahmut nodded and shook out both hands.
The whip of flames unfurled long and drifted around his body.
"I look forward to it today as well."
"Don’t worry. I’ll go easy on you. But if I go easy and you go easy too, then... you’ll really die, understood?"
"Hahaha. As if I’d do that. If I half-ass it against you, I really would die. Then here I come."
Ibrahmut lashed the whips toward Yoon Sang-hyuk. The two whips, like living things, hunted for his entire body. But Yoon Sang-hyuk did not move at all.
No, he was moving. His lower body remained fixed to the ground, while only the upper half shifted ever so slightly. He was evading every strike by the narrowest of margins, just before the whips could touch him.
Inch Evasion.
It was Inch Evasion, a defense and evasion technique specially suited to Yoon Sang-hyuk.
"Graaah!"
Ibrahmut screamed and increased the speed of the whips. Except for the occasional movement of his legs when the strikes targeted his lower body, he was effectively standing still. Being unable to land even a single touch on Yoon Sang-hyuk from such close range was a blow to his pride.
But no matter how wildly he swung, he could not touch even a single hair on Yoon Sang-hyuk’s head.
One by one, the others gathered around.
Whenever Yoon Sang-hyuk and Valender von Graus sparred with Ibrahmut, it was always like this. Watching great fighters clash was helpful in itself.
"You’re too slow."
At Yoon Sang-hyuk’s single remark, Ibrahmut let out another roar and attacked harder. Yet Yoon Sang-hyuk’s legs remained unmoved.
Instead...
Thwack-
With a brief impact, Ibrahmut’s body flew through the air, slammed into the carriage, and then dropped to the ground. After a few tremors, he fell still.
He had been knocked out cold.
Yoon Sang-hyuk twisted the fist he had driven into Ibrahmut’s abdomen and said,
"That guy really does have a good feel to him."
Valender von Graus, seated nearby, murmured softly,
"I agree."