Chapter 118
Chapter 118
Chapter 118: Celestials and Demons (3)
Translation: godtl
Grrrrrr!
Kyaaaaah!
The howls of beasts.
Cries steeped in bloodlust and ferocity ceaselessly filled the ashen world.
It was only natural.
Behind a certain handsome man, a dimensional rift had opened—a passageway leading to what was known as the Demon Realm—from which dozens of demonic beasts were pouring forth.
"D-Demonic beasts!"
"That treacherous bastard!"
"It's him! That human sacrificed his own kind!"
The voices of the approaching celestials grew even louder.
Celestials, by their very nature, were diametrically opposed to demons. To them, demonic beasts—creatures of the Demon Realm—were objects of utmost loathing.
And yet, a mere human had summoned them in droves.
The celestials radiated their characteristic energy, holy power, with blinding intensity.
"Execute the fallen one!"
"He must be punished!"
They surged toward Si-mun.
However.
"Vile celestial bastards, where do you think you're going?!"
"The stench of hypocrisy reeks from you!"
Dozens of demons had already gathered at Si-mun's side.
"Fight! Spill the blood of these hypocrites in honor of our noble lord!"
A hulking, muscular figure standing four meters tall—the high-rank demon Marte—blocked Si-mun's path.
Though his murderous aura suggested otherwise.
The number of demons was visibly fewer than the celestials.
Naturally.
By design, since battles between celestials and demons were a central theme of the Chaos Realm, the two factions were always summoned in "equal numbers and ranks."
But after Si-mun transmuted the Lemegeton and obtained the Demon Eye, hadn't he reduced the number of demons himself?
Of course.
- How can you hate on someone who's achieved this much solo?
From the very beginning, this had been Si-mun's plan.
He had sacrificed European players, including Faust, to summon demonic beasts.
'Originally, summoning demons to replenish the ones I killed would've been ideal.'
Setting aside his attack power, which could even affect Diamond-rank players, the best option would have been to summon an equivalent number of demons to replace those he had slain.
But.
'Even with the Lemegeton, summoning demons is impossible.'
Si-mun's essence was that of an alchemist, not a black mage. Even with the Lemegeton, he couldn't summon demons.
That didn't mean it was entirely impossible, of course.
'If I use a high-rank demon like now, it can be done.'
Just like the recent summoning of demonic beasts.
If the high-rank demon Marte conducted the summoning ritual in his stead, and Si-mun merely provided the cost, demons could still be summoned.
However, in that case...
'I'd have to burn precious Achievement Points on Demonic Energy.'
The downside was that he would have to pour Achievement Points into transmuting Demonic Energy.
Thus, he had chosen to sacrifice the surviving European players to summon demonic beasts—which required a lesser cost—instead of demons.
'Sure, they're inferior to demons, but in numbers, demonic beasts can't be ignored.'
Fundamentally, demonic beasts were of a lower tier than demons, but in terms of cost-effectiveness, they were perfect for filling the gaps left by the missing demons.
Moreover.
'I can make up for the lack of damage myself.'
"On this side, we don't necessarily have to fight with just pure demons and demonic beasts, do we?"
Snap.
Si-mun's fingers flicked away immediately.
And then.
Whoosh.
With a scorching wave of heat, a crimson-black sword materialized in Si-mun's grip.
"Burn."
The moment Si-mun grasped Laevateinn, he activated it without hesitation.
Swinging the ignited Laevateinn forward with all his might, he roared:
"Laevateinn!"
Whoooooosh—CRACK!
The battle's overture had begun.
The dim, ashen sky.
A raging crimson blaze soared high into that lifeless expanse—could there possibly be a more breathtaking spectacle?
For the warlike demons, it was an immensely satisfying sight.
"Kyaaaaah!"
"I-It's too hot!"
For the celestials, their polar opposites, it was nothing short of hellish.
"Deploy the barrier! Block the heat first!"
The silver-haired man at the forefront of the celestials shouted urgently.
In response, a faintly glowing shield enveloped the celestials, emanating from him.
Unfortunately.
"T-The flames won't go out!"
"Save us, Lord Deruel!"
The four celestials at the very front, engulfed by the flames, could only scream in agony.
Laevateinn's vicious fire gave them no chance to even raise their barriers.
Deruel, the silver-haired celestial, could only bite his lip hard.
He had no choice but to watch helplessly as the four celestials were consumed by the inferno.
There was nothing he could do.
'With my power, I can't extinguish those flames.'
Like fire plucked straight from the depths of hell,
those crimson flames were so relentless that even Deruel, a high-ranking celestial, couldn't quell them.
As the movements of the four celestials gradually stilled,
Deruel's eyes, forced to merely observe, darkened with fury.
'Just what is that sword?!'
His gaze, brimming with rage, turned toward the architect of this calamity—
Whoosh.
The human wielding the blazing sword.
"How dare you! A lowly creature like you, defiling the children of light!"
Silver light coalesced around Deruel's hand,
instantly taking the form of a slender, radiant sword.
"I'll punish even your very soul!"
With a furious roar, Deruel lunged forward.
But then—
"To think you'd reveal your ugly true nature so quickly!"
A deep, gravelly voice, like stone speaking, seized Deruel's momentum.
Deruel, who had been charging toward Si-mun, abruptly shifted his trajectory downward.
CRASH!
A deafening metallic screech.
A sound so jarring it was hard to believe it came from a clash between a sword of light and a pitch-black fist.
Deruel, as if intent on cleaving through the fist—half his own size—in one stroke,
Grrrk—
poured more strength into his silver blade and slashed downward.
"Marté! You filthy spawn of the Demon Realm!"
Empowered by Deruel's fury, the silver sword gleamed even brighter.
But Marté, like Deruel, was no ordinary foe—he was a high-ranking demon.
"Kehah! Deruel, seems like you're really worked up. Well..."
He, too, infused his fist with Demonic Energy, flashing a bloodthirsty grin as he taunted Deruel.
"...watching your own kin die helplessly would do that to anyone. Tch. If it were me, I'd have bitten my tongue in shame."
"Marté! You damned—!"
The barb struck true.
Deruel's silver eyes began to shimmer faintly with holy power.
He was drawing every last ounce of his divine energy.
As Marté, too, prepared to unleash a surge of black Demonic Energy from his murderous gaze—
"Tch!"
Marté twisted his body abruptly, disengaging his fist from the struggle against the silver sword.
"You foolish old—"
Not wasting the opening, Deruel drove his blade deeper—
"W-What?!"
His sacred silver eyes widened in shock.
An extraordinary heat was emanating from the right side.
Deruel immediately swung the silver sword he had been bringing down toward the right.
Swish.
The sound of something being sliced reached his ears.
But what he had severed was something even a high-ranking heavenly being like him couldn't have anticipated.
Whoosh.
It was the flames of Laevateinn.
"Damn it!"
Rather, because he had sliced it in half,
Deruel, now facing Laevateinn's flames from both sides, gritted his teeth as searing heat scorched his entire body.
And at the very moment those vicious flames were about to engulf him from all directions,
he kicked off the air, channeling his silver Holy Power intensely into his left arm.
Bang.
He burst through one side of the flames.
Sssss.
The mighty flesh of a heavenly being.
Even that of a high-ranking heavenly being, along with his Holy Power, clashed against Laevateinn's flames.
But it lasted only a few brief seconds.
Whoosh.
"Gaaahhh!"
Finally, Deruel let out a scream as the vicious flames consumed his left arm.
"Kehahaha! To think someone as notoriously tough as you would scream like that. What a rare sight indeed!"
As if utterly delighted,
Marte boomed with thunderous laughter.
Then.
Swish.
Deruel severed his own left arm.
Was it due to Laevateinn's flames, or the pain from the amputation?
Or perhaps the sheer humiliation of losing an arm to mere humans?
"How dare... how dare you!"
Deruel's pale face began to flush crimson with rage,
and from his back emerged the symbol granted only to angels—
wings began to form.
Though they were not real, merely wings fashioned from Holy Power.
Si-mun cast an indifferent glance at Deruel's transformation.
"Marte."
"Yes, my noble lord."
He flew toward Marte, who was also forming wings of Demonic Energy.
A pair of golden wings had settled around Si-mun's ankles.
"Wow! Om~ so big, oppa!"
In his arms nestled an adorable little girl.
"At this rate, the heavenly beings should be able to handle themselves, right?"
"Of course!"
At Si-mun's indifferent question, Marte vigorously nodded his thick neck.
"That damn Deruel was never a match for me in the first place. And now that you've kindly blown off one of his arms, even if he wanted to lose, he couldn't!"
Marte grinned, baring his white teeth.
Nodding, Si-mun turned away, leaving behind the dissipating remnants of Laevateinn.
"Then handle the heavenly beings, and clean up the remaining humans too. I have something to find below."
"Below? Gasp! Y-you don't mean... His—!"
Did he already know what Si-mun was searching for?
"Of course! May you claim His legacy without fail!"
Marte's eyes widened as he bowed stiffly at a right angle.
"Ah! If there's someone named Choi Jin-su still alive, save him for last."
"I shall remember."
After giving the loyal Marte a few pats on the shoulder, Si-mun headed toward the dimensional vortex below.
"Vile fallen one! Where do you think you're fleeing?!"
Deruel roared as he lunged, but that was all.
Crash.
"Guh!"
"Your opponent is me, Deruel. Today, I'll smash that feeble body of yours to pieces."
Deruel staggered back from Marte's sudden punch, forced to retreat.
With even one arm lost,
all he could do was gnash his teeth and glare at Si-mun's retreating figure.
Rumble.
The dimensional vortex roared ceaselessly, its massive noise unending.
Having landed on a small patch of ashen earth nearby, Si-mun flicked his fingers.
Thud.
He created a rounded bunker, like an igloo.
Then, the child in his arms—
"Si-yeon."
"Mm-hmm!"
He carefully set Si-yeon down in front of it.
"Daddy has some business to take care of for a little while, so you stay here quietly, okay?"
"Daddy, are you going?"
Kim Si-mun glanced back at the swirling vortex of the dimensional rift behind him.
Krrrrrrumble!
Given the constant thunderous noise, Si-yeon must have already noticed.
"There's somewhere I absolutely have to go. It's important."
Not wanting to discuss the nature of such a grim environment with a child, Si-mun gave a vague answer.
"Important...?"
"Yeah. But it's not a dungeon, so I'll be back soon. Can you wait here nicely until then?"
As Si-mun smiled softly and patted her head—
"Mm! Si-yeon good! Wait here for Daddy!"
—Si-yeon clenched her tiny fists and nodded vigorously.
Si-mun hugged her tightly once more.
"Then, I'll be back."
"Mm!"
He turned and immediately descended.
Which was why he didn't see it.
The way the child's eyes, once brimming with nothing but adoration, gradually turned cold.
Krrrrrrumble.
A deafening roar swallowed Si-mun whole.
Time seemed to freeze.
For a while, the child simply stood there, motionless.
Then, she turned.
Her face was still filled with a smile.
Except for one difference.
"Hide-and-seek is over now."
It was a smile so cruel it was hard to believe it belonged to a child.
Strangely enough,
even with the appearance of a five- or six-year-old, that cruel smile suited her unnervingly well.
"It's over, I said~ Hiii, you're not coming out?"
Si-yeon tilted her head slightly.
Then—
Swoosh.
As if an invisible curtain had been lifted,
two figures—a man and a woman—materialized out of thin air.
"Heeh. What a creepy brat. She saw right through my stealth."
A woman with sharp, narrow eyes twirled a shuriken around her finger, her lips curled in a lazy smirk.
"A kid wouldn't just be here. And I've never heard reports of that man having a child. Must be a summon."
"Probably."
The man gave a slight nod at the woman's words.
Dressed in a neat school uniform despite being in the Arena, he didn't even spare the child a glance, his eyes fixed only on the direction Si-mun had disappeared.
"Honestly, damn you, Yuto. Following a sword-obsessed freak like you actually paid off for once."
"What's that supposed to mean, Riko?"
"Exactly what it sounds like."
Riko snorted, her sharp eyes glinting with greed.
"A man that strong having 'important business' in a dimensional rift of the Chaos Realm—what else could that mean?"
Expensive items.
Or something of equivalent value hidden there.
Any Player who'd spent even a little time in the Arena would know exactly what she meant.
"But..."
Riko's cheerful tone wavered.
"Yuto, you can actually beat Kim Si-mun, right?"
"Who knows?"
"Hey!"
Riko's voice instantly sharpened at Yuto's noncommittal answer.
"Do you have any idea why I gave up kills to help you track him?! You chased him all the way here without even knowing if you could win?!"
"Watch your mouth, Riko. I never asked for your help."
"You little—!"
Riko clenched the shuriken she'd been spinning.
But that was all.
"Pfft. Whatever. Whether you win or lose, I just need to snag the hidden pieces. Or sell this location to someone else."
We didn't even turn on broadcasts.
This is completely exclusive intel.
Shrugging, Riko took a step forward.
Or rather—
"Ah, right. There was one more brat here, wasn't there?"
—she would have,
if not for the unsettling child staring at her with that cruel smile.
"My, my~ A kid shouldn't be smiling like that already."
"Shouldn't? Why?"
"Because it shows your true nature, you little brat. No one likes that."
"No one likes it...?"
Si-yeon tilted her head briefly.
Then—
"No. Si-yeon likes Daddy. Daddy has to like Si-yeon."
Nodding to herself, her smile returned.
Just as pure and innocent as when she'd waved Si-mun off.
Perhaps it was that very sight that unsettled Riko.
"But what now? We've already seen your true colors."
Riko sneered, voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Mm, that's okay!"
Because—
Schlik.
"—I'll just kill you."
Those were Riko's last words.
Thud. Roll.
Her head tumbled across the ground, painting a red arc.
"......"
Yuto stared blankly at Riko's head, which had rolled to a stop at his feet.