Heavenly Demon Black Prison Sword
Where was the opponent's inner energy even coming from? No matter how many of those qi rings I shot down, his body endlessly generated more of the blood-hued spheres until they filled my entire field of vision.
KWA-KWA-KWANG! KWANG!
I slipped lightly between the rings that came crashing in from every direction. A sticky, clinging energy tried to bind me, but I shook it off with a flick of my hand and tore it apart.
SHUAAK!
The figure wreathed in blood-light swung both arms, and blade-sharp qi flooded the space, shooting straight at me. In my own hand, sword-shaped qi was already blazing to life.
KWANG!
Speed pushed to its absolute limit collided with speed. The vicious rebound of pure qi ran all the way up into my grip.
That tingling shock that rattled even my palm made the corner of my mouth lift.
Before the Rebirth of Bone and Muscle, my body had been too frail; I had mostly relied on firing Mind Swords from a distance. But the fighting style I truly loved was this—speed against speed, power against power, a pure head-on clash.
And the toy standing in front of me did not look as though it would break easily.
KWANG, KWANG, KWANG!
After three collisions I dropped back to the ground and looked at him. Suddenly I understood. I slapped my palm.
"Oh. I know who you are."
[.......]
He only stared at me with blood-red eyes full of fury.
"You're the Blood Demon, right? Weird. Why are you here?"
[...This is strange. It is clearly the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, yet weaker than what I remember. Are you truly the Heavenly Demon?]
The Blood Demon curled his lips into a grin.
[I see how it is. You, like me, borrowed a human body and descended to this land.]
KUGUGUGU.
A massive tide of blood energy began to concentrate in his body. His inner force was resonating with the gate itself. The Blood Demon's power was linked to the entire gate.
[All the better. Even if you are the real Heavenly Demon, that body is at best at the Transcendental Realm. I have Lee Myeong-won's body, which has reached the Profound Realm. With this, I can finally settle that long-standing grudge.]
"...Huh?"
Grudge? What did I ever do to him?
I dug through my memories, then slapped my palm again.
"Ah, that time I smashed the Blood Cult? I only helped a little. Malko did most of the work."
[Silence! You die here!]
KWAAAAA!
The Blood Demon's form, face now completely covered in blood energy, shot toward me with a terrifying sonic boom.
KWA-KWA-KWANG!
The vicious whirlwind of qi pouring from his body slammed hard against my protective aura. After the first clash I used the rebound that threw me backward, spun once, and swept my sword downward. From the Mind Sword formed of pure qi, a crescent of sword energy erupted.
KWANG!
The Blood Demon blocked the strike, but the force drove him into the floor.
I stretched out my hand without pause.
The weight of a collapsing star pressed down from an open palm
KUKUNG!
The rock that formed the altar was deeply gouged into the shape of my palm. At the center, the Blood Demon's body twitched.
I gave him no time to recover and poured palm techniques down in a relentless storm.
KUNG, KUNG, KUNG!
Once, twice, thrice. Deeper, and deeper still. The Blood Demon's form vanished beneath the pile of shattered stone.
KWANG!
[KRAAAAAH!]
A blood-red silhouette burst up through the rubble. Floating in midair, the Blood Demon glared at me with pure murder in his eyes. He looked thoroughly wrecked.
Yet he smiled again.
[Now I am certain. You are weak. If you were the Heavenly Demon in full possession of your power, This Seat would not still be standing.]
I scratched my cheek.
He was right. Right now I was weak.
I had gathered every scrap of inner energy, achieved the Rebirth of Bone and Muscle, and reached the Transcendental Realm—but compared to my previous life, this body was still frail.
My limbs were short. I had tried wrapping myself in qi for close combat, but any peer of equal rank would quickly notice the flaw.
The Blood Demon's body was of the Profound Realm.
The gulf between Transcendental and Profound was greater than heaven and earth. Even ten of me would not be enough to defeat one of him.
No matter that I had perfected the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, the power of the Transcendental Realm alone could never bring him down.
But.
I grinned.
"You seem to be under a serious misunderstanding."
KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA!
A storm of inner energy erupted from my entire body.
It immediately began to resonate with the ambient energy of the air itself.
"When did I ever say I could only use the power of the Transcendental Realm?"
I had only played with him a little and already he was getting cocky.
Everything until now had merely been me testing the body I gained through the Rebirth of Bone and Muscle.
To deal with the Blood Demon as he was now, I needed the power of the Natural Realm that was linked to my very soul.
Sensing something ominous, the Blood Demon immediately began gathering his own energy.
[This is This Seat's domain! Even the Heavenly Demon cannot defeat me when I draw power from the gate itself!]
KWAAAAAAT!
With a ground-shaking roar, hundreds of blood-red qi strands shot out from every part of his body like lashing veins.
Seuk.
I stretched out my hand.
First Style — Heavenly Demon Meteor Sword
KWA-KWA-KWANG, KWA-KWANG, KWA-KWA-KWA-KWANG!
Hundreds of qi strands were all shot down by hundreds of Mind Swords. Even then, surplus Mind Swords punched into the Blood Demon's entire body.
KUGUGUK.
The Blood Demon's form, bristling with Mind Swords like a porcupine, twitched. Even rotten, a croaker is still a croaker—truly the protective aura of the Profound Realm. They had not fully pierced through.
[Keuk. Now it is my turn.]
The Blood Demon slammed both hands into the ground.
GOOOOO!
The energy of the gate and the Blood Demon's energy collided. A whirlwind of blood-red qi formed a hemisphere and began expanding in every direction.
I glanced behind me.
The hunters who had yet to regain consciousness still lay sprawled there.
And Kim Na-yeon as well.
I had deliberately drawn him into close combat and opened a fair amount of distance, but that technique was huge. It would annihilate this entire vast space. The survivors would be caught in the aftermath.
I shook my head.
"Honestly. How did This Seat end up looking after people like this?"
Body adaptation training ends here.
It was time to finish this fun little game.
Somehow or other, the Blood Demon had appeared in this place.
I had never liked him even in my previous life.
And now he had dared to lay hands on those who were raising me.
I would not leave him on this earth.
With a body that had reached the Transcendental Realm, I could endure using the second style of the Three Heavenly Demon Swords.
Until now I had loosely called the swords I formed from inner energy "Mind Swords," but that was only because I lacked a proper weapon that fit my hand. As long as there was enough inner energy, even someone at the Transcendental Realm could use that sort of thing.
A true Mind Sword was on an entirely different level.
Where there is will, there is a sword.
Mind Equals Kill — Kill with will alone.
I closed the hand I had extended while casting the Heavenly Demon Meteor Sword.
Second Style — Heavenly Demon Black Prison Sword
Kkuuk.
I clenched my fist.
The swords that had been blazing with white qi dyed themselves pure black.
The Blood Demon jerked his head up.
[...What is this?!]
A space dyed entirely in pitch black.
Where in the world was this?
The energy he had gathered in his hands had already scattered. The Blood Demon found himself in an unknown void.
He had been about to unleash the ultimate technique of the Blood Heaven Asura Art—Blood Hand Heaven-Shattering Calamity—against the Heavenly Demon's ever-intensifying assault.
SHUAAAAK!
The Blood Demon kept moving, pouring qi in every direction.
KWA-KWA-KWA-KWANG!
Yet the space did not so much as tremble.
Chaos filled the Blood Demon's mind.
[Th-this is impossible.]
He had been sealed into an unknown space by someone else's power.
He—a constellation who had reached the Profound Realm.
That someone was the predator known as the Heavenly Demon, and he himself was nothing more than prey caught in her grasp. The truth carved itself deep into his mind.
This power was not something that belonged to a mere Transcendental Realm.
The power to create one's own domain required divinity.
Even the Profound Realm of a constellation was nowhere near enough.
Then the Heavenly Demon of this moment was of the Natural Realm?
The Natural Realm was the true domain of gods.
It meant standing on equal footing with the beings who connected humans to constellations and who created gates.
How could one who possessed such absolute power exist in this world inside the body of a little girl?
[No. It cannot be!]
KWA-KWANG! KWA-KWA-KWANG!
The Blood Demon rejected the truth he had realized.
His thrashing grew more violent.
Qi became rings; every drop of inner energy in his body was released in every direction like a madman.
At some point, a clear, ringing voice echoed through the space.
Puk, puk, puk.
[KRAAAAK!]
Swords that appeared from nowhere drove into the Blood Demon's limbs. The pitch-black blades sliced through even his blood-red protective aura as if cutting soft tofu, completely pinning him in place.
KUNG.
His knees slammed into the ground. Or whatever passed for ground in this place.
The Blood Demon howled.
[Heavenly Demon... Heavenly Demon!! Kuhahahah! Guhk!]
The curse he spat was cut short by the sword that had been driven into his throat.
A girl's voice that almost seemed to hold a hint of mischief.
The Blood Demon had become no different from an insect caught by a human child.
Like a child idly tearing off the wings and legs of a bug for fun.
Guhk, guhk.
The body that had once belonged to the human Lee Myeong-won—now under the Blood Demon's control—hovered on the brink of death.
By an absolute power that could not be refused.
The constellation that had descended upon this land was being expelled by a god who had merely been playing upon it.
The girl's next words declared the Blood Demon's end.
A pitch-black sword drove down from the crown of the Blood Demon's head.
KWAAK!