Demon Descent

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The Sword Demon's katana and my daggers collided again and again, and with every strike of blade against blade, the same thought sank deeper into my mind.

He's too weak.

'Is this really Lust's lieutenant?'

He was weak enough to make me genuinely wonder. Comparable to Envy before she summoned Leviathan? That would be an insult to Envy.

Far weaker.

I almost felt guilty even putting him in the same sentence as her. I had no idea how someone this incompetent had ever earned a seat among the demons' chosen.

There was a gap of at least three hundred levels between the Sword Demon and me. On top of that, he was a demon himself.

'I can barely feel any difference in stats.'

Even with every buff from items and skills stacked together, the stat difference clearly exceeded a thousand. Yet none of that difference was showing itself in this fight.

"Cheongun!"

When I defended, Cheongun struck with lightning.

Boom!

His lightning scorched the Sword Demon's body, electricity crackling and leaping off the charred black skin.

"Hahahaha!"

Every time the lightning struck, the demon's laughter only grew wilder. Then he switched targets and came for Cheongun again.

Shadow Footwork.

Shadow Needle.

Spikes erupted from the Sword Demon's own shadow and skewered his foot through the sole. Unfazed, he simply slashed the risen thorns apart and lunged straight at me.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

We traded blows, steel ringing against steel. In the opening moments there had been a thread of unease in me — now there was none at all.

'What was that, before the fight?'

I hadn't realized it myself, but my body had been pushed to the breaking point during the battle with Envy. Even fully healed, an overworked body takes considerable time to truly return to its former state. I had gone into this fight without any of that recovery time — and my body had refused.

It had screamed at me. Stop fighting. Stop burning me out. That was what my own flesh had been shouting. I had felt it, assumed I couldn't win, and hadn't even considered charging in. But now that I had forced those warnings down, my true stats could finally exert their full power.

So light.

I hadn't felt this light even before my regression.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

There's a hypothesis that humans limit their physical capabilities to fifty percent by default. Right now, I had managed to unlock a portion of that limiter.

Ten percent. Just ten. It might sound like nothing.

But in this moment, that ten percent was more than enough to close the gap between me and the Sword Demon.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

With every clash of our blades, I could feel the strength draining out of the katana. The Sword Demon had fought the Lust-aligned demon before arriving here, and then fought at the Association. The fact that his stamina had held out this long was remarkable in itself.

"Cheongun."

I called for him to deliver the final blow. Cheongun sensed it too — instead of firing immediately, he gathered lightning high in the sky above.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Our exchange continued. The Sword Demon refused to release his katana, swinging it on pure instinct ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠alone.

"Haha, hahaha, hah…"

His madness-laced laughter was dying down, syllable by syllable. And at last, the Sword Demon played his final card.

Boom!

The surrounding mana and air churned violently. A single pulse bled through the atmosphere — I want to live. I don't want to die.

Demonic energy whipped into a raging storm, and at its center stood the Sword Demon, Matsumoto Ken.

"Demon Descent."

It was different from the Sin Liberation of the Seven Great Demons. Sin Liberation summoned only the demon's soul into a host body — a form of possession. Demon Descent was another matter entirely. It dragged down not the demon's soul, but its true body into the flesh.

And the price was certain. The one who invoked it would, without exception—

die.

'I didn't think he'd actually go this far….'

He may have abandoned his reason, but he was still Lust's lieutenant. Demon Descent was, by any measure, a last desperate trump card.

'Even without his sanity… did he want me dead that badly?'

I could guess the reason. The emotion he'd been harboring — it was not something a lieutenant of Lust should have possessed. Envy. That feeling had been flickering in his eyes the whole time. Jealousy and hostility, aimed at me. I had seen it clearly.

'Whatever he was so envious of…'

Here, the Sword Demon — the demon Matsumoto Ken — would die. I had decided it. I would make it so.

"Let Japan's idol slumber first."

Japan's idol — Matsumoto Ken, falling asleep right here. A perfect phrase for the headlines.

'Not that the news will report it honestly….'

The Japanese government would want to keep their idol an idol. This incident would be buried as thoroughly as possible — or every ounce of the blame would be heaped onto me.

'Can't really complain, though.'

After all, it would be the truth: I killed Japan's idol on this spot, at this hour.

"Whew…."

I breathed deep and drank the air in. Timing mattered more than anything now. The exact instant the demon descended — that was when I would strike.

A little longer….

As the demonic energy swirled outward, the trees were stripped bare and torn from the earth. Even the neatly arranged paving stones were hurled in all directions by the pressure.

A little longer….

But not yet. There was only the promise of the demon's arrival — no demon had actually begun to descend. Then the Sword Demon's body began to change.

Here it comes!

The demon was finally descending. I signaled Cheongun immediately, and at the same moment, my footwork began.

Nameless Footwork.

First Step: Heaven Break.

"Thunder."

The sky split open, and currents of electricity ran through the torn clouds. And the demon I had been waiting for finally descended.

"Who dares interrupt the arrival of the great—"

BOOM!

Cheongun's lightning came crashing down. In its wake, every fragment of the sky I had shattered hurtled toward the Sword Demon as well.

"Gkhaaagh!"

Dust billowed up and swallowed the scene, but that hideous scream told me everything I needed to know. I waited a short while, and the screaming stopped — then the system message appeared.

"Hold them back, whatever it takes!"

The Japanese Hunter ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Association was in a flat-out panic.

The people's idol, the Sword Demon. And now the world knew that he had terrorized the Association and slaughtered its staff to break into a gate targeting awakened hunters dispatched from another country.

'Who the hell could have…!'

They had no idea who it was. But footage from the Association's surveillance cameras had been uploaded alongside a video capturing the Sword Demon murdering the staff member guarding the gate. The media erupted, every outlet drowning in coverage of the scandal.

They tried desperately to contain it, but the sheer volume of material made a total crackdown impossible.

"Mr. President! There are too many of them!"

"Cut the feed—"

"Sir?"

Cut the feed, damn it!

The Association President's answer was to blow up the internet across every region of Japan. At his bellowed order, the secretary rushed out of the room to relay the directive.

"Goddammit!"

Once the secretary was gone, a stream of curses echoed through the president's empty office — every one of them aimed at the situation, and at the Sword Demon.

'What do I do? To get out of this mess, I need…!'

Then a figure flashed through his mind. The man who had been standing beside Team Leader Woo Sang-shik of the Korean Association. Han Jin.

'That's it! I'll shove it all onto him!'

The Korean Association had no reason to shield that man. He'd make a perfect sacrificial lamb. That was what the Japanese Association President told himself.

'Ahh, he should be honored that a man of my standing would use him!'

A pronouncement worthy of a king in its arrogance. In truth, the man had wielded near-absolute power within his own Association for years — which was exactly why he failed to see it. How dangerously sweet that thought was. And that everything sweet comes with thorns.

He wouldn't understand until it was too late.

"Haah…."

It had been over in an instant. The Sword Demon, lieutenant of Lust, was dead. And far, far too easily.

'Feels strangely hollow….'

Maybe it was because I remembered the Sword Demon from before my regression. Killing him like this left an oddly empty taste.

'First, let's clear the gate….'

The moment I stepped outside, some new unforeseen mess would no doubt be waiting. But I shelved those worries for now. There was no answer to be found by agonizing over them here.

"Time to go find our little fox, then…."

I knew exactly where she was. There was a kid holding her breath somewhere in this shrine — right at its very center. I walked up to the shrine hall and slid the door open.

Inside, a small nine-tailed fox with snow-white fur was curled into a ball, trembling.

"…"

To clear the gate, this child had to be eliminated. A child this young. The words wouldn't come. There was no way I could kill a little girl like this with my own hands.

"Cheongun."

"What is it?"

At my call, Cheongun — who had been venting his fury on the Sword Demon's corpse — came gliding back.

"This child?"

"The boss monster of this gate."

Cheongun himself had once been a boss monster, back in the imugi nest gate at Cheonji Lake. At the words boss monster, he grasped why I'd called him in a heartbeat.

"You wish me to carry her back through with us?"

"May I ask that of you?"

"Consider it done."

Cheongun opened the gate without another word. I lifted the trembling little fox onto his back and sent her through.

"Now then, let's check our rewards."

No experience points, unfortunately, but the other rewards more than made up for it. A demon's body is prime crafting material — among the weapons I'd used before my regression, more than one had been forged from demon flesh.

'And with these on hand…'

I picked up the items scattered around ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the Sword Demon's corpse. The katana he had wielded. Nothing a demon had carried into battle would be some ordinary drop.

"I see."

Having read every line of the message, I simply tossed the katana into my inventory. No point fussing over a blade that wouldn't acknowledge me as its master — I couldn't use it anyway. It would make fine reinforcement fodder someday.

As for his remaining gear, Heaven Break had pulverized the lot.

'A shame, but none of it was mine to begin with.'

I put the loot out of my mind and walked over to Team Leader Woo Sang-shik. He was sleeping like the dead, blissfully oblivious to the world.

'Feels wrong to wake him….'

In the end, I called Cheongun again, sent the team leader off to Cheonji Lake, and waited for the gate to clear.

And at last, the exit opened.