Chapter 374: There Was Light, The Wise Serpent of Longing
Hisagi's nickname from the Inazuma days.
"......Severe."
Like a viper coiled and eyeing its prey. That was the moniker given to Hisagi, who always kept his distance from everything.
But the scene unfolding before them was beyond even Hisagi's expectations.
Drip. Drip.
Blood flowed from Lee Hoyeol's side, staining the ground. The trail of crimson stretched all the way to the horizon.
Hisagi forced his rigid neck to turn, racking his brain.
A name surfaced.
"......Grandfell Claudi Arpeus Romeo."
A member of the Claudy family. He'd concluded that the Grand Commander had pursued him out of Claudy Territory.
There had been clear proof: the start of a mythic quest.
He bit his lip without realizing it.
'Did he reduce the Grand Commander to that?'
In Hisagi's memory, Hoyeol had never once been broken. Not even wounded.
He rarely even got a speck of dust on his uniform.
"......"
But now was different.
His hair had grown long enough to brush the ground—for reasons unknown.
One thing was certain, though. Hoyeol was far from whole.
"What's the deal?"
The berserker, Leoni Bellucci. Whether friend or foe, she waged her battles drenched in blood.
"......And he's not even a berserker himself."
Her mutter was a half-hearted joke to ease the tension, but it fell flat.
Hoyeol must have sensed their presence. Yet he didn't turn. No casual reassurance like always.
Drip. Drip.
Only the sound of blood hitting the ground.
"Damn it."
Dwarf leader Chainwalker swallowed a groan. His dwarves, forged like steel amid scorching ores, began to crack.
Before an unimaginable sight.
In the end, master blacksmith Walls Whale bellowed.
"Grand Commander! The smelting you commissioned is complete. I dare say it's the masterpiece of my life. All thanks to the dragonkin legacy you entrusted me—Dragon Skin from the fallen dragon."
A dwarven way of showing worry without being direct.
Still, no reply. No sign of turning.
Hoyeol simply pressed on.
Whoosh.
From the scout plane overhead, Gunner's urgent voice crackled.
"What are you all doing? You gonna let the Grand Commander go like this? It's too dangerous. If he keeps heading that way, he'll plunge right into that monstrous maw...!"
"......!!!"
They realized it then. Too fixated on staring at Hoyeol, they'd overlooked it.
Piece, Behemoth's Maw
An unstable permanent rift linking the Arcana Continent and the Demon Realm. A dimensional gap where anything entering from either side—Arcana to Demon Realm or vice versa—would be gruesomely pulverized. A true monster's gullet.
Hoyeol was heading deeper into the maw: toward the Demon Realm.
Why the Demon Realm...?
No answers came despite desperate pondering.
But the gathered allies didn't hesitate. They had to stop him somehow.
Chainwalker intoned gravely.
"If he won't turn back, we must block his path."
Grip—
Dwarves tightened their hammers. Hisagi and Leoni. The Giant Alliance elites. Even Skal nodded.
They would face the Grand Commander, Hoyeol.
Normally unthinkable. Defying his will, let alone stopping him.
But this wasn't normal.
Hoyeol's state was unnatural above all.
Thud.
Chainwalker took the lead. The moment the entire force stepped toward Hoyeol—
Crunch.
"?!"
Their footsteps changed. The ground sank too deeply underfoot.
As if gravity on their bodies had multiplied dozens of times. Undeniable pressure.
"Urk?!"
Everyone froze at once. An overwhelming weight from far above. No mercy, no consideration.
Like ants under an elephant's foot.
Chainwalker bellowed instinctively.
"Everyone, fall back!!"
Even with all their might, their legs wouldn't budge. Some toppled backward instead.
One step back, and the pressure vanished like a lie.
Skal gasped raggedly.
"He doesn't want us approaching."
No—it went beyond that. Not mere reluctance, but a sharp warning.
Hisagi shook his head.
"......No, we can't even call it a warning. The Grand Commander isn't even glancing our way. If we block him, we'll just be trampled."
Not a warning. Indifference.
It offered no comfort, naturally.
As everyone reeled in shock—
The silent Nam Taemin spoke.
"......The scent's different."
Barbarian. A savage warrior's senses were more beast than human. Sight, hearing, smell—no exceptions.
Nam Taemin's brow furrowed. His hands reached for the greatsword on his back.
"I'm sure of it. That's not the Grand Commander."
"......What? What the hell does that mean?"
Leoni leaped forward, demanding answers.
Swish.
Nam Taemin bowed his head low to meet her eyes. She wanted proof.
But there was none. This was pure instinct.
Still, he was certain.
"The Hoyeol I know wouldn't do this."
The Frost reclamation. The being that shouldn't be awakened. London's miracle...
Even if his actions seemed cold, looking back, warmth underlay them all.
One of his many epithets: a single ray of light in endless darkness.
But now, Hoyeol seemed like lightless shadow. Unchanged in appearance save his hair.
No inner warmth or light.
Nam Taemin smiled bitterly.
"Besides, if he meant to crush us, he'd have done it ages ago. Have we annoyed him just once or twice?"
That was when it happened.
Behemoth's Maw Distorts.
"!"
A message popped up before every player. Even in the crisis, they couldn't ignore the variable of Behemoth's Maw stirring.
Squirm.
Behemoth's innards writhed. Amid scattered flesh chunks, a form wriggled into view.
A shadow crawling from the Demon Realm.
Its flesh sprayed everywhere. Yet it persisted.
Finally, a sinister voice echoed.
"I have waited only for this day, Buer......! Today is the day I usurp your throne among the Ten Thrones. Army of plague. Overcome the torment. If your flesh is torn, move as bone!"
The Lich of the Demon Realm, Discus, Appears.
Behemoth's Maw was no ordinary place. Its recommended level had to be sky-high.
Hence the appearance message for players entering such a maw.
And not just that.
"A-a-an army!"
"Army of plague" was no exaggeration.
Discus's flesh and summoned minions burst, filling the area with haze.
Uncontrollable toxic fumes spread.
Status Ailment, 'Poison', Occurs.
Hisagi shouted to the dwarves who couldn't see the message.
"A lich— a demon rivaling the upper demon kings—has appeared. It took heavy damage passing through Behemoth's Maw, but it's no pushover."
Clank.
Dwarven armor would offset most ailments. Chainwalker donned his helmet without flinching.
Right—the real worry wasn't the demon. It was Hoyeol.
"We need to support the Grand Commander."
Drip. Drip.
The bleeding hadn't stopped.
The last Akshan demon hunter felled by a demon? Unimaginable.
But hadn't adventurer Nam Taemin said it? That man might not be the Hoyeol he knew.
So.
"We dwarves won't budge our iron stubbornness until we grab him and ask."
To confirm his identity firsthand, Chainwalker charged toward Behemoth's Maw. Ready to clash with the lich.
Nam Taemin felt the same.
"Already pissed off enough without some interloper? Perfect timing."
Rage Activates.
Huff.
Nam Taemin's breaths grew ragged as he gripped his greatsword one-handed. His free arm braced the ground, body low like a beast.
Hisagi, Leoni, Skal. The Giant Alliance elites followed, battle-ready.
The lich Discus? Irrelevant.
Combat with it. And the upper demon king it pursued, Buer—both paled beside their true concern.
Hoyeol's unrelenting steps toward the Demon Realm.
Thud.
The moment the charge began—
Discus, who'd sacrificed half his flesh to Behemoth's Maw, gaped his skeletal maw.
"What foul wind blows. The scent of green sulfur. And......"
Surveying the shadow-shrouded Arcana Continent, it spat.
"Mixed with your foul stench wafting from there. Buer."
Halt.
"What?"
Chainwalker's muscles tensed. The implication was clear.
The upper demon king Discus hunted—Buer—had burned in green hellfire.
The Holy War Alliance. Discus's gaze locked on the same target.
Its army, robbed of its political foe, surged toward Hoyeol.
"You......!! What scheme is this!!"
Shhhrk.
True to a ruler of death, the Maw's strewn flesh became Discus's army. An undead horde poured forth.
Hisagi's snake eyes swiftly assessed the field.
"The battlefield favors it too much."
Discus knew it too. That's why it chose Behemoth's Maw to usurp Buer's throne.
Gunner's voice came from above.
"That's too many—way too many! Thousands? No, hundreds of thousands!"
Chainwalker decided.
"Impossible to fight it while Grand Commander Hoyeol is compromised. Our top priority: leave this Maw with him!"
Nod.
No more words needed.
Holy War Alliance versus Discus's horde. Both rushing Hoyeol for different reasons.
"......?"
Yet no clash.
Discus eyed its army. It had commanded them to tear apart.
Grind.
Only hollow bone rattles as all halted.
Millions frozen, as if blocked by an invisible wall. Not a step stirred.
"......!"
Discus itself too.
They could only watch. The man heading into the Demon Realm via Behemoth's Maw.
Crackle.
An undead enduring demons in the Demon Realm all this time. Leader Discus's foresight flashed.
A lingering image in its mind: the Demon Realm's doom by one man.
......Dangerous.
Discus desperately tried to block the man.
But it couldn't. Its body oppressed beyond words.
Barely lowering its head, Discus saw—
Scatter.
Its body crumbling to dust in the air.
With each step the man took toward the Demon Realm, the army vanished.
Swallowed by bottomless darkness.
Discus understood at last.
"......Buer, you weren't schemed against."
This man was beyond even the Ten Thrones.
In its final moment, Discus thought of Baal. Praying Baal's whims wouldn't abandon the Demon Realm.
"......No way."
Gunner watched from above.
A few steps, and millions scattered.
He muttered unwittingly.
"Th-that's a catastrophe......"
Then shouted.
"No one approach!"
Don't misinterpret scout intel. Gunner knew one thing for sure.
The crumbling ground said it all. This calamity would spare neither ally nor enemy.
Thud-thud.
Too late.
Someone from the Holy War Alliance charged toward Hoyeol. No—a beast lunged.
Nam Taemin.
Crunch.
Rage Amplifies Primal Fury.
Rage amplification ignored fire or water. Even muscle and bone pain vanished in the moment.
So Nam Taemin barely pried open his mouth.
"You......"
Crunch-crunch.
Even as his body crushed, he voiced the question properly.
"Who are you? As I thought......"
What followed was beyond anyone's prediction.
Endless deep darkness. What cast a ray of light anew—not grand action or ritual, but a mere question.
Only.
"As I thought, Grandfell Claudi Arpeus R......"
A reason—history—known solely to the one involved.