Diabolical (3)
The pain must feel like your heart is being torn apart.
In that moment when you can do nothing but stand before it, when despair swallows your entire body.
And yet, the moment you realize you still have to do something—that is when a hero awakens.
—From Chapter 17 of the Hero Report, “The Aesthetics of Awakening”
Ten minutes earlier.
Kang Hae-il, having recovered after drinking the elixir the porter had given him, walked up the stairs in a daze, following the porter’s lead.
Just how far down did I get slammed…?
He’d thought it would only be a few flights, but he had been driven nearly ten floors underground. It really felt like a miracle that he was still alive.
“Was it always this high up? Guess being S-rank saved me.”
“······?”
Hae-il had simply meant that surviving had been pure luck, but there was clearly room for misunderstanding.
“Thanks anyway… I woke up pretty fast thanks to the potion.”
Of course, the biggest reason he had survived was because the porter had shown up and fed him the elixir, so he offered his gratitude.
“Nah, don’t mention it. If you die, we’re all screwed anyway.”
“Yeah, that’s true.”
Kang Hae-il’s head was still filled with the entitled mindset of an S-rank.
“······.”
The two continued walking.
Step… step…
As they drew closer to the rooftop, Hae-il suddenly felt a flicker of doubt.
“By the way… was it true that you reached level 30?”
He wondered if the porter might have lied.
He wasn’t sure why the thought had suddenly occurred to him, but he was suspicious.
“Huh? Why would I lie about something like that? If I fail the awakening, I’m finished too. This inventory is way too useful to risk it.”
Shk. Shk.
Junil stuck his hand into his inventory and pulled it back out, shrugging his shoulders.
“Ah… never mind. I was just asking, just in case.”
“Geez.”
After exchanging those words with Junil, Kang Hae-il finally realized why he had felt that strange suspicion.
He seems… different from usual.
His expression and the way he moved felt somehow off.
A sense of unease that couldn’t be put into words.
It was like he was acting? No—more like he was being acted upon. Even Kang Hae-il himself couldn’t quite explain what he meant by that.
I’m overthinking this. If he really hit level 30, that’s a good thing.
But the news that level 30 had been reached was something Kang Hae-il had been waiting for far too eagerly.
Humans tend to believe what they want to hear much more readily.
And Kang Hae-il was especially dense and cool-headed compared to most people.
Well, it makes sense he’d be different. Given the situation.
Rumble—
Kang Hae-il looked up toward the source of the roaring noise and rationalized away his unease.
The World Boss was getting close.
Light came into view.
“I’ll go on ahead!”
As if showing off that he had reached level 30, the porter nimbly climbed up first, grabbed the edge of the roof, and pulled himself up.
In contrast, Kang Hae-il simply jumped once and landed cleanly on the rooftop.
Thud.
Whoa…
The scene that greeted him was far more chaotic than he had imagined.
Zombies were wandering everywhere, fighting the party members.
What the hell is that?
More than anything, the entire sky was clogged with thick, hazy crimson smoke.
Because of it, the whole area looked as if it had been trapped inside a heavy sunset.
And beneath that sky, a colossal snake raised its head like a dragon.
It felt like he had stepped into the wrong page of a manhwa.
That’s…
Hae-il’s gaze shifted at the sound of a groan.
“Ugh…! Cough!”
The overwhelmingly powerful Sagosul was being crushed in a black hand.
Sagosul?
He looked like he was in excruciating pain, as if he might die at any moment.
“Aaaaaaaaagh…!”
The agony was so intense it could be felt even through the mask.
No matter how much Kang Hae-il disliked Sagosul, he had to save him.
“First, I need to rescue that guy—”
At that moment, the suffering Sagosul suddenly muttered something.
“······!······!?”
Kang Hae-il couldn’t quite catch the words.
Some things take a beat to register in the brain.
This was one of them.
Bang!
“Phew~”
Suddenly, the Sagosul caught in the black hand was replaced by the porter. When Hae-il looked to the side, he saw Sagosul letting out a sigh of relief where the porter had been.
Only then did the earlier words reach him.
「You know what a switcheroo is, right?」
That was what he had said.
The words arrived at the same time as Sagosul’s current speech.
“Thanks for the bait. Since he’s F-rank, it doesn’t matter, right?”
Thump. Thump. Thump…!
Kang Hae-il’s heart reacted faster than his brain could process the situation.
An extreme surge of rage instantly flooded his veins and seized his entire body.
“What the…”
Not satisfied with taking his father, now this bastard had sacrificed his only remaining comrade in his place.
And he was even saying thank you for the bait.
All because the man was F-rank.
“What the hell did you do?!”
Grab—
Even as Sagosul was seized by the collar, he shrugged and answered.
“What did I do? I survived.”
Flames sparked in Kang Hae-il’s eyes, but he had no choice but to look away from Sagosul.
“U-ughhh! S-save me!”
Punishing Sagosul wasn’t the priority right now.
Kang Hae-il roared.
“Hey! Worm! The target changed! Let go of him right now!”
He tried to convince Sarr to attack Sagosul instead.
“The Sagosul you wanted to kill is right here!”
“Wow. That’s cold.”
It might have worked.
If Sarr really wanted to kill Sagosul, then wasting energy like this was pointless.
But Sarr only tilted its head slightly.
“Hmm… I don’t see the difference.”
Since it planned to kill them all anyway, it didn’t matter.
That was how Kang Hae-il interpreted it.
As if to prove the point, the grip of the black hand tightened even further.
“Aaaaaaaaagh!”
The porter’s scream rang out loudly.
“Let go of that hand…!”
BOOM!
Kang Hae-il, wrapped in flames, charged forward.
“Oh? You’ve gotten quite a bit stronger.”
Sarr sounded intrigued.
Kang Hae-il, now able to produce complete flames, was far stronger than Sarr had expected.
“However, getting stronger and charging in—”
Whoosh.
A massive pillar-like object blocked Kang Hae-il’s path.
It was Sarr’s tail.
“—is still too slow.”
“!?”
CRASH!
Kang Hae-il was sent flying by the tail strike.
Crunch.
Blood flowed from Hae-il’s bitten lip.
Damn it…! Again…!
The flames rose and sealed the wound.
Ignition
His heart pounded violently as flames engulfed him once more.
Reverse thrust.
Like a rocket firing its engines backward to stop its momentum.
Ignition
Ignition
Kang Hae-il kept burning himself, changing his trajectory mid-air.
Flash Step
The figure that had been sent flying by the tail instantly reversed course and shot toward the snake’s head.
Flash!
Perfect chance!
He aimed for Sarr’s head.
He had clearly used instantaneous movement for a surprise attack.
Huh?
The snake had its maw wide open, waiting for him.
Crackle!
Condensed demonic energy glowing a dark blue.
It was concentrated to such an extreme density that anything it touched would be erased from existence.
And it was shooting straight at Kang Hae-il.
“!”
BOOOOOOOOM!
Black demonic energy swallowed his entire field of vision.
Am… am I alive?
Kang Hae-il looked down at his own body and finally realized it.
He was alive.
He hadn’t taken any damage at all.
How?
“Are you okay?!”
Lee Suyeon called out from below.
She had blocked the attack with a barrier infused with all her strength.
Among her skills was an absolute barrier that could block any attack once.
She had used it at the perfect moment.
He had wondered why she, who had been fighting zombies, had come running.
“I’ll help too. We have to save Junil oppa.”
She had come because she also needed to save Junil.
Of course, Suyeon still harbored deep distrust toward Kang Hae-il, but she was holding it in for now.
“Ah… yeah. Thanks.”
“Instead of the head, it’d be better to target the hand that’s holding Junil oppa.”
“Got it.”
Lee Suyeon took over the role the porter had been playing.
Kang Hae-il nodded and prepared to charge again.
That feeling from earlier…
He had instinctively sensed it.
When he had ignited flames in succession, he had touched some kind of wall.
It had been incredibly painful.
But at the same time, it felt like a wall that absolutely had to be broken through.
And…
“I’m going in again.”
He felt like he could break it.
“Okay.”
Whoosh!
Kang Hae-il charged at Sarr once more, spewing fierce flames.
This time, Sarr opened its maw wide from the start and fired at him.
Lee Suyeon activated her skill.
Flash
Wooooong!
An intensely bright light shot out, attacking Sarr’s eyes.
Sarr’s vision vanished for a moment.
In that instant, Kang Hae-il shot forward.
Straight toward the black hand holding the porter.
Blaze Burst
BOOM!
A skill similar in principle to Mana Punch—it injected lava-like flames into the interior of the target and destroyed it from the inside out.
It had clearly been a good choice.
However—
What?
The hand didn’t budge, and the porter’s screams only grew louder.
“U-aaaaaaaaaagh!”
Blaze Burst
Kang Hae-il kept hammering the black hand.
“Kuhahahahahaha!”
Sarr laughed.
The flash effect seemed to have already worn off.
“That is not something a pathetic creature like you can break. Do you think I chose [Hand of Envy] out of all my countless subordinates for no reason?”
“What the hell is that?”
“?”
“Y-you don’t even know that…? Hmm…”
Sarr looked genuinely disappointed.
Envy.
The demon that governed jealousy and envy.
The black hand known as the Hand of Envy was one of her signature summons.
It could be used with great flexibility and transformed into various types of magic, but they all shared one common trait: they could not be easily destroyed.
That was because Envy completely nullified any damage above a certain threshold.
Blaze Burst
BOOM!
No matter how many perfectly chosen skills Kang Hae-il slammed into it, it was meaningless.
There was no damage at all.
“Just… what the hell is this…”
The easiest way to neutralize this ability was to scrape away at it rapidly with many small, weak hits, like the demonic energy storm from before.
The porter knew this fact all too well.
Yet he neither freed himself from the hand nor told Kang Hae-il the truth.
He simply urged him to give up.
“Hyung, I’m fine now…”
“Shut up.”
But Kang Hae-il wouldn’t listen.
“Blaze… Burst!”
BOOOOM!
Kang Hae-il struck the black hand with fire in his eyes.
There was a rumor that shouting the skill name made it stronger.
It still didn’t work.
Bright red blood was already pouring from the porter’s mouth.
“Hyung… stop… just leave me…”
“BLAZE BURST!!”
“Aish, Hae-il hyung!!”
It was then.
A black shadow loomed from behind.
The [Hand of Envy] was swinging down like a massive sword.
“Behind you—sword, sword…!”
CLANG!
It was blocked by a transparent barrier.
It was Suyeon.
She was holding it back while chugging mana potions.
“Haa… haa… Kang Hae-il! Don’t give up! Please… please! Break it somehow!!”
Suyeon was desperate.
Seeing her eyes, Junil became slightly flustered.
Huh. This… I didn’t expect this.
Even Junil hadn’t considered things going this far.
Suyeon was here too.
He felt a little sorry for only thinking about Kang Hae-il’s side and completely forgetting about Lee Suyeon.
There were simply too many variables he had to account for right now.
CRASH! CRASH!
Above, Sagosul was once again fighting Sarr directly.
That wouldn’t last long either.
Because it’s fake.
Belzerack’s illusion could deal damage to the enemy’s real body, but it would disappear the moment it took a hit.
I stayed tied up too long.
His mind went blank.
It was time to move on to the next stage.
Inventory.
He barely moved his restrained hand and pulled out a scroll.
It’s time.
He withdrew the mana he had been using to minimally protect himself.
CRACKLECRACKLECRACKLE…!
The sound of bones shattering echoed.
“N-noooooooo!!”
Along with Suyeon’s scream, her eyes shook violently.
The world reflected in her eyes began to crumble.
And Junil was inside that world too.
Glug—
With that message, Junil’s consciousness flew away.
“Porter…! Porter!!”
In Kang Hae-il’s eyes, he saw the porter’s face hanging limply between the fingers of the fist.
“Porter…”
Now his rage was directed at himself.
He could not forgive it.
The man who only ever stubbornly insisted on his own way, who took everything and yet remained endlessly incompetent—
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!!”
WHOOOOSH!!!
His entire body erupted in fierce flames.
The fire surged ten stories high.
Hae-il shot forward in an instant and slammed his fist into Sarr’s body.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
A tremendous impact.
But nothing happened.
His flames couldn’t even scratch Sarr’s steel-like scales.
“Flames of that level are nowhere near enough.”
The demon’s words were correct.
However, something unexpected occurred.
The awakening gauge had been completely filled.
BOOOOOM—
At that moment, a heavy roar echoed across the entire world.
It was a tectonic shift.
The massive fragments of the story board had shifted, sending out a shockwave.
The wave spread, creating a tsunami.
A colossal change was rushing in.
In the form of blazing hot flames.