Chapter 45
From morning onward, the campsite had been noisy.
Taat-! Iyyap-! Haaat-!
At the chorus of grunts and shouts, Yoon Sang-hyuk gave a crooked smile, as if he’d long since given up trying to stop them.
Creatin and Arnin were each holding their weapons and engaged in a miserable spar, or rather, a fight to the death. One of Creatin’s arms dangled half-severed, and a fistful of flesh had been torn from Arnin’s side. But neither of them paid the wounds any mind.
“A pair of idiots who don’t know the meaning of ‘moderation.’”
Yoon Sang-hyuk raised a hand and pointed at them.
Shaaaa-
It was at that exact moment that the ring on his right middle finger spilled out light. The radiance the ring exhaled swept over Creatin and Arnin in a single pass. Even under that sudden surge of light, neither of them flinched. They knew all too well that it wouldn’t harm them. No, they knew that the light, neither brilliant nor dark, was actually useful to them.
“Definitely easier now.”
Yoon Sang-hyuk muttered as he watched Creatin and Arnin return to pristine condition in an instant. The reason their severe injuries had vanished was the light from a moment ago, the magic Yoon Sang-hyuk had used.
The ring on his middle finger had Heal, a first-circle spell, and Extra Heal, a third-circle spell, enchanted into it.
Ordinarily, recovery magic that could be used through a ring would not heal the wounds of Creatin and Arnin, beings of the Demon Realm. It would only worsen them.
But after his awakening, he had become able to infuse the Heal spell enchanted in the ring with dark energy. Recovery magic that worked even on beings of the Demon Realm. It was absurd, impossible even, yet Yoon Sang-hyuk had made it possible.
“Dark recovery magic, maybe.”
If he had to give a name to the spell that had mended their terrible injuries in an instant, that would be it. After his awakening, he had tried it on a whim, and the effect had exceeded expectations beyond reason, beyond imagination, far beyond even that.
Since then, whenever they had a spare moment, the party had begun sparring without bothering about injuries.
In truth, Creatin and Arnin’s bouts, while bloody and messy enough to send flesh flying, were nothing special. Not compared to the sparring between Valender von Graus and Ibrahmut.
Ever since the day they had confirmed Yoon Sang-hyuk’s awakening, the two of them had changed completely. Their time spent thinking had grown longer, and whenever they did spar, the level of ferocity was often so excessive that even Yoon Sang-hyuk thought it had gone too far.
Their bouts were far fewer than Creatin’s and the others’, but in terms of intensity alone, they were easily hundreds of times more dangerous.
Only a few days ago, Valender von Graus’s sword strike had brushed right past Ibrahmut’s neck. Fortunately, at the very last instant, Valender von Graus had recalled as much of his force as he could, and Ibrahmut had not been erased from existence.
Even after Yoon Sang-hyuk had chewed them out for it, neither of them changed in the slightest. If anything, they sparred even more fiercely than before.
“Again today?”
No sooner had Creatin and Arnin’s match ended than Ibrahmut began warming up his body with easy, loose motions.
“What’s the point of just idling around? Isn’t there a saying like that? Better to spar than sit around wasting time. Hahaha.”
“Where in the world did you hear that?”
Yoon Sang-hyuk frowned at Ibrahmut, who was laughing heartily as he spoke.
“Didn’t you say it, hyung-nim? Haha, it’s such a quote that it just lodges itself right in your head.”
“I never said anything of the sort. Even if I had said something similar, it wouldn’t have meant that.”
Chwa-rar-rar- pa-bak-!
Ibrahmut lashed the ground with a whip of fire. The strike had been so fast it was impossible to track with the eye, yet even though the flaming whip carried all of Ibrahmut’s strength, the earth did not cave in.
It meant he had complete control over the power within the whip of fire.
Pang- pang- pang-!
This time, the whip struck the air. Only three bursts of crackling sound rang out, but Yoon Sang-hyuk could see it clearly. Ibrahmut’s whip had struck exactly thirty-six directions.
It had been too fast to hear more than three impacts. A whipping strike that perfectly seized control over all thirty-six directions of movement.
Yoon Sang-hyuk let out a low whistle.
“Oh? Not bad.”
Ibrahmut had been strong from the start. But now he was stronger than when they had first met.
The being called Yoon Sang-hyuk, who had come from another dimension, had provided Ibrahmut with endless stimulation. He had become someone to think about, and ultimately a mountain to climb.
“What’s the use of that……”
He looked across at Valender von Graus, who was standing opposite him and relentlessly practicing nothing but vertical cuts with his massive black greatsword. If one measured the degree to which they had grown in the meantime, Ibrahmut did not even come close to Valender von Graus’s ankle.
It wasn’t as though he had attained some grand awakening or anything of the sort. But Valender von Graus was changing day by day. Even now, though he was doing nothing more than bringing the blade down from above, he was packing thousands, tens of thousands of transformations into that single motion.
If one thought of that slash as merely a vertical cut, one would die. If one saw the changes inside it, one would still die. It was not a kind of change one could simply react to after seeing it. Perhaps a high-ranking demon lord could barely fend it off, but even then it would not be a perfect defense.
The reason Yoon Sang-hyuk judged it that way was because he stood on a higher plane than Valender von Graus, and could therefore read every transformation contained in the current blade.
He really is something else.
Valender von Graus had undoubtedly gained inspiration for his swordsmanship after seeing Yoon Sang-hyuk’s awakening.
Valender von Graus, ever advancing.
For all Yoon Sang-hyuk knew, since the history of the Roselia Continent began and the being called a Death Knight first appeared, there had never been a Death Knight stronger than Valender von Graus.
At this point, even calling him a Death Knight feels wrong.
He still had room to grow. If he kept becoming stronger at this pace, the thought even arose that he might one day fight on equal footing with the Demon King, ruler of the Demon Realm.
In truth, the very idea that those two were sparring under equal conditions made no sense. Valender von Graus was at least two moves ahead of Ibrahmut, perhaps five. It was only possible because Valender von Graus adjusted his power to match his opponent.
Of course, the sparring always ended with Valender von Graus’s victory. Though in terms of actual difference in skill, their bouts were extremely tense, and even brutal.
“Doesn’t mean I can ban sparring, though.”
The craze for training had naturally slowed their travel speed in direct proportion. On some days, they would move only about a hundred meters before stopping the carriage and spending the entire day sparring.
- Right. That’s it.
It had been because of Ibrahmut, who’d shouted that line after being worked up.
“What a fine case of do as I say, not as I do……”
Yoon Sang-hyuk himself had caused the party to wait endlessly because of his own awakening. In some ways, the very beginning of this training craze might have been his fault. He had no right to complain to people who were trying that hard to grow stronger.
* * *
He held his glass and looked north.
Others might not be able to feel it, but Yoon Sang-hyuk could sense it clearly.
We’ll be meeting soon.
The destination, the Abyss of the Void, was close now. The dark energy spilling from the Abyss of the Void pierced his whole body like a spear.
“There’s no way he’s gotten another awakening or something, right?”
Ibrahmut whispered to Valender von Graus in a very small voice.
“It is not that.”
Valender von Graus lifted his cup to his mouth. At this point, drinking and occasionally eating no longer looked strange at all.
“He’s been standing there blankly for quite some time.”
“Sang-hyuk is now…… seeing something we cannot.”
“Something we can’t see?”
“Yes. Something you and I are incapable of perceiving.”
The voice carried a bitterness unlike what one would expect from a Death Knight incapable of feeling emotion. Perhaps he sensed something in Valender von Graus’s words, because Ibrahmut gave a light nod.
After a while, Yoon Sang-hyuk drew back his distant gaze and emptied the cup in his hand.
“What did you see?”
“...Huh? If you strip away all the context and ask me like that, how exactly am I supposed to answer?”
“Valender-hyung says you saw something the rest of us couldn’t.”
“Ah, is that how he put it?”
Yoon Sang-hyuk drew a small smile toward Valender von Graus.
“It’s less that I saw it and more that I felt it.”
“Then what exactly did you feel?”
“Dark energy.”
Ibrahmut gave him a sharp look, as if to say, What are you talking about?
“I’m always feeling dark energy.”
“Not that kind. The dark energy flowing out of the Abyss of the Void.”
“......”
Yoon Sang-hyuk turned his gaze north again.
“I can feel it. The utterly pure dark energy pouring out of the Abyss of the Void. Come to think of it, I saw something too. It means the end of this journey is in sight.”
“You don’t need to see that sort of thing.”
Ibrahmut grumbled under his breath.
Yoon Sang-hyuk knew exactly why he was reacting that way. Ibrahmut probably wanted this journey not to end. Since awakening as the first Balrog, he had likely never been as free as he was now, and never collided with such a fierce desire to become stronger through his own will. He probably wanted to feel that liberation from freedom and that hunger for growth just a little longer.
“Hyung-nim, after you get rid of Satan, will you go straight back?”
“Yeah. That’s why I’m going there in the first place.”
The answer was tinged with deep regret. But he couldn’t ask him to come along.
Just as Yoon Sang-hyuk had a reason to return to Earth, Ibrahmut had a reason to remain in the Demon Realm.
If Ibrahmut were to follow Yoon Sang-hyuk to Earth, the countless Balrogs of the Demon Realm would lose their center. Baront, the youngest son who had become the new king of the Balrogs, still did not have enough influence to serve as that anchor.
“Did you spread honey all over Earth or something? Why are you so desperate to get back?”
“Honey? I did. There’s honey everywhere.”
If he returned to Earth, he could live like a king. Law and public authority existed there, yes, but nothing would be able to control Yoon Sang-hyuk. He would become something beyond the law, an existence above all things.
But that was not the only reason he wanted to return.
Everything that made Yoon Sang-hyuk who he was remained on Earth.
His younger brother, Yoon Sang-min, the only family he had left; his unchanging friend Kim Chul-jung and his family; the members of the Masked Mercenary Group who had suffered with him for so many years; and the Basement Family that had believed in him and followed him. And then there were the ones who had stayed at his side despite not being human.
Since being dragged into the world of Eternal World and becoming the Masked Lord, he had always been lonely. But after returning to Earth, he had once again gained things he needed to protect, and with them, a support that let him fight the one who had dealt him such profound despair.
Those who had kept him from losing sight of his goal, those who had allowed him to keep moving all the way to the end.
The bonds he had formed in the Demon Realm were precious too, but not precious enough to make him settle there.
“If there’s a way to go back, doesn’t that mean there’s a way to come back here too? Find it and come visit us for real.”
“Heh.”
Yoon Sang-hyuk gave a light laugh.
“If that were possible……”
He wanted that too.