Chapter 35
Someone’s goodwill was not necessarily goodwill to everyone else.
There was no question that Grandeerria and Abalatron had come without ill intent. They had at least spared him the trouble of traveling a very long way to fight opponents of a similar level, hadn’t they?
Yoon Sang-hyuk was satisfied enough that the situation had improved considerably. What had offended him was something entirely separate.
“You’re way too arrogant.”
At Yoon Sang-hyuk’s words, the three magic dragons let out waves of anger. But he ignored them and simply said what needed saying.
“Whether one of you fights me or all three of you do, that’s not the point. Why do you get to decide that, as if you’re doing me some favor? Like I should be grateful for scraps? Someone once said it. Or was it a song lyric? The main character in my life is me. Any decision that affects my life in a major way, I decide myself, subjectively. Got it?”
Bang- Kwoooom-
When Yoon Sang-hyuk stamped his foot, the ground heaved. Of course, the house had already been reduced to rubble. Debris from the ceiling came crashing down, but no one moved. A powerful shield protected them.
From the cloud of dust, Yoon Sang-hyuk rose to his feet.
“Wait here a moment. I need to go let my comrades know what’s going on.”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“That’s impossible.”
Ibrahmut cried out in shock.
“You mean to fight all three magic dragons? That’s impossible even for the Demon King.”
Yoon Sang-hyuk stared at Ibrahmut.
“Have you seen it?”
“Pardon?”
“Have you seen it? Baal fighting those lizards.”
“No, I haven’t seen that myself, but... Ah, right. To borrow an expression from the Earth you live on, you don’t have to taste a shit and say whether it’s soybean paste, do you?”
“Oh-ho. That’s remarkably apt. Your vocabulary’s improved a lot. Good job. But listen. You keep saying ‘the Demon King, the Demon King,’ and yet you seem to be looking down on him an awful lot.”
Ibrahmut frowned and listened to Yoon Sang-hyuk’s words.
“I don’t know what the Demon King you know, Baal, is like, but the Baal I know is strong. Of course those lizards are probably strong too. But not strong enough that I can’t deal with them. Maybe you’re right and I can’t tell shit from soybean paste. But still, I think I can do it. I’d say there’s a very high chance I win. Understand?”
“Ah... I don’t know. If you die in the fight or whatever happens, do what you want. Just remember that I kept trying to stop you until the very end.”
Yoon Sang-hyuk clenched his fist.
“Oh, really? So now you’re praying I go fight and die? Huh? Before I go scrap with those lizards, should I teach you a lesson first?”
“H-Haha. Why is the arrow suddenly pointed at me? Come to think of it, it does seem like you’ll win, hyung-nim. Go ahead and fight. I’m rooting for you.”
After looking at Ibrahmut with an expression of utter disappointment, Yoon Sang-hyuk turned his gaze to Valender von Graus.
“I’m counting on you.”
“Don’t worry about what’s behind you. Fight with everything you have.”
“Having you here really puts me at ease.”
“There is no reason to let down your guard.”
Yoon Sang-hyuk asked with interest,
“If you were to fight them, do you think you could handle one?”
Valender von Graus shook his head without hesitation.
“Impossible. Perhaps later, but for now I am still somewhat lacking.”
“Oh-ho. Just somewhat lacking? You hear that, Ibrahmut? That’s the kind of spine you need. Whenever the magic dragons come up, you turn into a complete coward.... Go dig a hole and hide until hyung-nim gets back, you spineless fool.”
“W-Who are you calling a coward?”
“The coward himself would know best who the coward is.”
Yoon Sang-hyuk waved and turned away.
Ibrahmut’s shouts came from behind him, but Yoon Sang-hyuk didn’t look back. He simply walked straight toward the three magic dragons, who were waiting with fury burning in their eyes.
“Long time no see?”
“...”
The three dragons glared at him with terrifying eyes.
“Let’s get started.”
He drew Song of Doom and swept it around in a flashing arc.
“I’ll go first.”
With a shout, Zigritria’s form blurred. Without any warning, the pressure of the surrounding space began. It restricted Yoon Sang-hyuk’s movements. A gray whirlpool, bleak as despair itself, surged toward him.
If that whirlpool had to be named, despair would have been the perfect fit. Yoon Sang-hyuk’s hand moved, and with it, Song of Doom cut through the air at his master’s will. It sliced through the constricting space. It sliced through the gray whirlpool bearing down on him under the name of despair.
Like shattered glass, the surrounding space came crashing down in fragments.
Ping-
Song of Doom struck at a single point. A strong resistance met it. For an instant, he caught a glimpse of Zigritria’s enraged eyes. He had pinpointed the dragon’s location exactly, hidden as it was within space itself.
Space swallowed Yoon Sang-hyuk again. Everything around him was suddenly dyed gray. A crushing helplessness seeped into his entire body. He didn’t feel like moving a single finger. Deep despair prodded at his inner self, again and again.
Inside the mask, the corners of Yoon Sang-hyuk’s mouth curled upward.
“I told you one of you wasn’t enough!”
He roared, and once again Song of Doom traced a long arc through the air. The gray space that had swallowed him split in two. On the other side, Zigritria stared blankly back at him.
“H-How...”
“You’re not seriously telling me that was your strongest move, are you? Then I’m really disappointed.”
“Shut up!”
The silver sword in Zigritria’s hand shot toward him like an arrow. Yoon Sang-hyuk deflected it with Song of Doom. The force packed into the blade was heavy enough to matter. He twisted the sword’s trajectory and shoved his own blade into the opening that created.
Zigritria scrambled back. A strip of his jacket had been cut away.
“Next time it won’t just be your clothes. So hurry up and call your friends.”
“I will make you live forever in a despair deeper than death!”
Gray energy streamed from his body in writhing threads. It was no ordinary power. A prickling sensation raced over Yoon Sang-hyuk’s entire body, as if needles were being driven into him. It felt like tens of thousands of insects were crawling over his skin all at once.
Gray power burst from the ground and coiled around Yoon Sang-hyuk like a colossal snake. Zigritria’s eyes deepened into a gray sheen filled with profound despair. Then, slowly, he too began to melt into the surrounding gray energy.
Yoon Sang-hyuk tried moving his body. He could move, but it was extremely awkward. Zigritria kept trying to invade the world of his consciousness.
Kwoooorrrr-
The earth trembled. A suffocatingly massive force burst from Yoon Sang-hyuk’s body. The gray energy pressing in on him snapped apart strand by strand.
“I told you to call your friends, you bastard!”
At his shout, the gray energy vanished, and Zigritria, who had been hiding within it, staggered into view. A streak of blood ran from the corner of his mouth. He had tried to attack Yoon Sang-hyuk’s consciousness and instead been wounded by the backlash.
Yoon Sang-hyuk’s figure disappeared. When he reappeared, it was directly behind Zigritria. Still unable to collect himself, Zigritria took Song of Doom to the neck like a bolt of lightning.
Bang-
Yoon Sang-hyuk stepped back. A bright smile spread across his face.
“You should’ve done that from the start.”
The one who blocked Yoon Sang-hyuk’s blade was Grandeerria, the Magic Dragon of Darkness. Abalatron, the Magic Dragon of Death, was standing a short distance away as well.
He was smiling as he spoke, but inside the mask, sweat trickled down his forehead. The presence of the three dragons, and the indescribable force they exuded, was overwhelming.
“Huu-.”
He let out a long breath.
Wasn’t this one of the advantages of a mask? He didn’t have to show an opponent a face stiff with tension.
At least I’m good at acting with my eyes.
His performance had begun the moment he first concealed himself behind a mask. Ever since then, whenever he was tense or afraid, he had acted like his eyes alone were calm, like he was brimming with confidence. He had hidden his fear and tension behind the mask, while the only parts of him that communicated with the world looked down on it all with arrogant ease.
Yoon Sang-hyuk slowly turned and looked at the three dragons. The dragons that met his gaze flinched. They had been overwhelmed by his eyes.
“Let’s really get started.”
Yoon Sang-hyuk slashed his sword toward the place where Zigritria and Grandeerria stood. In an instant, the space between them warped and split into dozens, then hundreds of pieces.
Space domination and spatial severance.
While the two dragons were briefly thrown into confusion, Yoon Sang-hyuk’s figure vanished from where he had stood.
Crack- Kwoooorrrr-
Yoon Sang-hyuk’s sword swept across Abalatron’s chest. But Abalatron raised a hand, knocked away Song of Doom, and stepped back. A small wound was visible on the back of his hand, where blood-red energy had gathered.
Yoon Sang-hyuk’s figure multiplied into two, then four, then eight. Narrowing his eyes, Abalatron erected a wall before him. Layer upon layer, the wall of death rose to block Yoon Sang-hyuk and his doubles.
But then...
Abalatron’s eyes filled with shock.
Yoon Sang-hyuk and his copies were passing through the wall of death without the slightest resistance and pressing forward all the same.
Abalatron turned into blood and sank into the ground. It looked almost like watching a vampire. Yoon Sang-hyuk planted Song of Doom into the earth and detonated his energy.
Amid the deafening roar, a stifled groan rang out. It was unmistakably Abalatron’s. Just as he tried to locate the source of that presence...
“Too bad.”
The two dragons Yoon Sang-hyuk had briefly separated with spatial division launched their attack. Despair and darkness surged toward him. The surroundings were dyed in darkness, and despair coiled slowly around his entire body.
The ground was covered in red blood, boiling like lava.
The three magic dragons had begun their full assault.
As Ibrahmut had feared, the pressure was even greater than when he had fought Baal before.
Zigritria relentlessly tried to invade Yoon Sang-hyuk’s consciousness, Grandeerria attempted to cut off every sense, including sight, and Abalatron turned the energy of death into dozens of sharp blades, aiming them all at Yoon Sang-hyuk’s body as it struggled through a chaos of consciousness and sensation.
Every muscle in Yoon Sang-hyuk’s body tensed hard as wire. The three dragons’ attacks were lethal.
But not so lethal that he couldn’t endure them.
“Kraaaaaah-!”
With an explosive battle cry, Yoon Sang-hyuk’s energy burst outward. It was sacred light. But it wasn’t pure sacred light. There was something else mixed into it, some inexplicable shadowy force. It was not an ordinary power.
That unprecedented force, impossible to put into words, began tearing through the surroundings. It had no physical mass, and yet the surrounding space and ground continued to writhe as though caught in a storm, as though shaken by an earthquake.
First to be driven back was Zigritria, who had been invading his consciousness. Grandeerria, trying to block his senses, screamed and dropped to one knee.
Abalatron, who had been preparing a lethal strike, was instead left with dozens of wounds across his body, blood pouring down him.
In the center, with the three dragons retreating in three directions, Yoon Sang-hyuk stood arrogantly with Song of Doom hanging at his side. He looked at them like a ruler gazing down on a city he had conquered.
“You’re strong.”
Yoon Sang-hyuk paused. He forced down the bitter taste rising in his throat. He had managed to defeat the three dragons, but he was far from unscathed himself.
If not for the insight he had gained by drawing power from Satan’s iron rod, he would have been the one lying there instead of the magic dragons.
He returned Song of Doom to his subspace and spoke a single line before turning back toward his party.
“But I’m stronger.”