Specter
Specters.
It was true that monsters of the spirit type were difficult opponents. For one thing, they had no solid bodies, so physical attacks didn’t work.
What about magic? Magic was no different. The fact that they lacked a physical form meant that most offensive spells, which relied on brute destructive force, had little effect. And even among the spells that could affect spirits, the stronger monsters in that category had their own resistance and countermeasures.
So then, what could actually harm a spirit-type monster?
"A hunt after a long time."
Wasn’t it simple?
Spat-
The moment Yoon Sang-hyuk drew Song of Doom, sacred light surged upward.
It was holy power.
Holy power was the natural enemy of spirit-type monsters. But there was no way to expect a blessing of holy power from those born and raised in the Demon Realm. That was why Zephyr and his brothers had felt fear when the Specters appeared.
Of course, if they rose a little higher, spirit-type monsters would cease to pose any threat to them. But they weren’t there yet.
Zeronia might have been able to deal some damage to a Specter even without divine authority, but there were more than a hundred of them. Judging from the monsters that had swarmed in when the blood festival began, the king of the Specters would surely be lurking nearby as well, waiting for an opening.
It was true that Zeronia was far stronger than her brothers, but even she had limits.
Yoon Sang-hyuk pointed at the container box with his chin.
"Get inside. Not that I’m saying this to brag, but a saintly maiden blessed it. If you stay in there, not even a Specter’s grandfather could lay a finger on you."
Yoon Sang-hyuk stepped aside from the entrance, but Zephyr and his brothers still hesitated.
"It’s fine. Like I said, you’re only the guides here."
"It isn’t that... "
Zephyr glanced at Song of Doom in Yoon Sang-hyuk’s hand.
"Ah-!"
Yoon Sang-hyuk let out a cry and withdrew the holy power. It wasn’t only spirit-type monsters that holy power stood against. Holy power was an energy opposed to everyone living in the Demon Realm. The overwhelming aura Yoon Sang-hyuk was pouring out, something none of them had ever experienced before, had left them unnerved.
Once Yoon Sang-hyuk drew the holy power back, Zephyr and his brothers shuffled into the container box. Zeronia, entering last, paused for a moment and looked back at Yoon Sang-hyuk. He shrugged and gave a crooked grin; she answered with a faint smile of her own and nodded.
Once they were all inside, Yoon Sang-hyuk stood with one hip cocked and watched the Specters slowly closing in, muttering to himself.
"The atmosphere’s not bad. Things not even worth a post-meal workout... and they still act like they’re something."
Yoon Sang-hyuk’s figure vanished.
Wooooong-
In the middle of the surging Specters, a blinding flash erupted. The light swept across the battlefield without caring about front, back, left, or right. The instant it touched them, the Specters let out pitiful screams and vanished into nothing.
The more than a hundred Specters were wiped out in just a few breaths.
As Yoon Sang-hyuk had said, they weren’t even worth a post-meal workout.
After cutting down the last Specter, Yoon Sang-hyuk surveyed the area. He was looking for the king of the Specters. But that ruler never showed itself. It might have been frightened by Yoon Sang-hyuk’s overwhelming might, or perhaps no such being had existed in the first place.
Yoon Sang-hyuk turned around. Through the container box’s small window, he could see five round objects pressed tightly together.
"Ha."
They were Zephyr and his brothers’ heads. They had glued themselves to the tiny window and watched him fight. All of them had their mouths hanging open. They had seen, with their own eyes, that he possessed far more power than they had imagined.
But Yoon Sang-hyuk wondered what kind of expressions they’d make if they knew that what they had just witnessed wasn’t even one percent of his strength.
When Yoon Sang-hyuk beckoned with a finger, the five heads disappeared from the window. The container door opened, and Zephyr and his brothers ran up at full speed to stand before him.
"What’s with that look? Anyone watching would think I was drilling you."
"W-well, that is... "
"Enough. I only called you out because if you keep staying inside, I can’t sleep."
With a wave of his hand, Yoon Sang-hyuk went back into the container box.
"Sleep well. And try to have good dreams."
* * *
The blood festival that lasted for two days passed without incident. Whenever a demon or beast beyond what Zephyr and his brothers could handle appeared, Yoon Sang-hyuk stepped in and dealt with it. But after the Specters, that hardly happened at all, and most of the monsters were slain by Zephyr and his brothers.
They couldn’t deprive them of the chance to gain the dark energy they carried by killing the surging demons and beasts.
Sitting in the carriage, Yoon Sang-hyuk watched the scenery rush past outside.
"We’ll be crossing the Quicksand Zone soon."
"Can this heavy carriage really make it through there?"
"Our family has produced the finest guides for generations. Zephyr and Jerome are both among the best. They know the route a carriage can take through the Quicksand Zone. Of course, the terrain may have changed. But they’ve got enough improvisation to get through that."
"If possible, I’d like to see the Hell Worm, the Quicksand Zone’s king."
"... "
Zeronia looked at Yoon Sang-hyuk with wide eyes.
The king of the Quicksand Zone, one even the Demon Lords avoided. The worst of monsters, with a body length of several hundred meters. She couldn’t understand why Yoon Sang-hyuk wanted to see that Hell Worm so badly.
But Yoon Sang-hyuk had already fought one before. Twice, in fact. It was the Hell Worm Gorgor, one of the lords of the Underground Kingdom of Blahak, known as the Lord of Gluttony.
Once in the world of Eternal World, and once in reality. He had faced it twice.
The first time, he had managed to destroy it after a hard fight. The second time, he had obliterated it with ease.
And now, if he faced Gorgor again, he could kill it in a single strike. That wasn’t a prediction. It was certainty. Yoon Sang-hyuk had become that strong.
During the blood festival, while cutting down Specters and several other demons and beasts, he had learned one thing.
Experience points were going up.
He had thought experience wouldn’t rise here because this was the Demon Realm. But as if mocking that assumption, it was still increasing little by little, if not by much.
If it’s a Hell Worm, the experience should be pretty juicy.
If he got the chance, he wanted to start with the Hell Worm and then kill the Banshee Queen, the King of Balrogs, and every one of them to harvest experience.
"May I ask why?"
"I just want to see a famous sight of the Demon Realm."
"That’s not a famous sight. It’s a trial and a curse, if anything."
"Call it that if you want. Still, if I wiped out that Hell Worm, who would get upset?"
"Who do you mean by who?"
"You know. The Demon Lords, or Baal, or whoever."
Zeronia shook her head vigorously.
"Starting with the Hell Worm of the Quicksand Zone, the Banshee Queen, and Ibrahmut, the first Balrog, they’re all a nuisance to the Demon Realm. If you eliminated them, the lords would be delighted."
Yoon Sang-hyuk saw it differently.
If, as she said, those things were just nuisances to the Demon Realm, then all a strong Demon Lord would need to do was come and get rid of them. The fact that they were still alive meant it was likely they were being left alone for a reason.
Or maybe nobody cares at all.
The Gray Wasteland was where the gods were imprisoned. That meant it was a place where the beings of the Demon Realm could come into contact with those of the Divine Realm. Perhaps gates had been installed to prevent exactly that.
Even so, if this had been a world inside a game, he would have taken them out without a second thought. They would respawn after a certain amount of time, after all. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a game world.
"I’m just bored. We ride the carriage every day, stop when it’s time to eat, and then sleep when it’s time. The next day, it’s the exact same routine all over again."
"Trying to ease your boredom by looking for the Quicksand Zone’s king seems reckless."
"Is that so?"
Yoon Sang-hyuk nodded as if he understood, then closed his eyes. The barren plains of the Demon Realm no longer stirred any feeling in him.
"... I’m sensitive to vibration."
"Hm?"
"The king of the Quicksand Zone, I mean. It’s sensitive to vibration. That’s why guides use magic to erase vibrations when they pass through the Quicksand Zone."
"Vibration. I see."
With his eyes still closed, Yoon Sang-hyuk smiled brightly.
* * *
"... You expect us to believe that?"
"You’re saying that while watching it with your own eyes?"
At Zeronia’s words, Zephyr rubbed his eyes with his hand.
"If I see it and still can’t believe it, what else would you call that?"
The two of them were seated inside the moving carriage, looking out the window.
Something enormous burst up through the sand. A monster like a worm magnified tens of millions, even hundreds of millions, of times.
It was the king of the Quicksand Zone, the Hell Worm.
But astonishingly, someone was riding on the part that served as the Hell Worm’s head. He had driven a sword into its skull and was gripping the hilt. The Hell Worm kept shooting upward and plunging back into the sand in an attempt to shake him off.
"I knew he wasn’t an ordinary man, but... "
"He’s someone we can’t even begin to guess at."
The one shouting while riding the Hell Worm like a cowboy on an untamed bronco was, of course, Yoon Sang-hyuk.
While Zephyr and his brothers drove the carriage along the safe route, Yoon Sang-hyuk had gotten down alone and charged across the Quicksand Zone. Hearing that the Hell Worm was sensitive to vibration, he had decided to draw it out.
As Yoon Sang-hyuk intended, the Hell Worm had emerged to swallow its prey. And from that point on, the situation had continued exactly like this.
"Am I the only one who feels sorry for the Hell Worm?"
"I do too."
Zeronia gave a slight shake of her head.
Whenever the Hell Worm seemed as if it might slow even a little, Yoon Sang-hyuk would pull his sword free and drive it somewhere else, provoking it again.
"No one would believe this story if we told it later, would they?"
"You just said you couldn’t believe it even while seeing it."
"R-right?"
Kuooooooo-
The Hell Worm let out a shriek. Was it just his imagination that it sounded less like a cry of fury and more like a wail of agony?
"Oh? He’s coming back."
Yoon Sang-hyuk leapt lightly off the Hell Worm’s head and ran across the Quicksand Zone, keeping pace with the moving carriage. The Hell Worm immediately vanished back into the sand.
Seeing Yoon Sang-hyuk walk back in through the carriage door, Zephyr asked,
"Why did you return?"
Yoon Sang-hyuk flashed a grin at him and said,
"No matter how fun the ride is, it stops being fun if you keep riding the same one over and over."