13. Meeting the Demon King
Inside the dimensional gate, there was no direction or distance.
Serca followed the last coordinate left by the imprinted monster through the darkness.
The surrounding scenery hadn't changed at all, but the path leading to that world was unmistakable.
Not long after, a slender light appeared beyond the darkness.
“Your Majesty.”
The voice calling out softly dissolved without a trace within the gate's gap.
Serca didn't stop walking.
When her fingertips touched the light, the space split thinly. The first light she saw beyond the gap poured out.
She pushed her body in without hesitation.
Bang!
With a loud noise, the air above the road exploded.
Cars that had been running hurriedly stopped. Horns blared one after another, and people on the sidewalk screamed and backed away.
Serca knelt on one knee and looked up.
It was night, yet everything was bright.
Strange lights sparkled on the walls of the tall buildings, and railcars spewed a pungent smell, filling the road.
The clothing of the people staring at her with startled faces was all bizarre.
Still, she hadn't come to the wrong place.
The street scene left by the monster just before its death matched the landscape in front of her.
When Serca stood up, the dimensional gate behind her shrank from the size of a person to the size of a palm, and red flames spurted from the edge of the black crack.
The remaining time was at most a few seconds.
Serca immediately turned her body and placed her hand under the crack.
Blood-red magic power flowed from her palm. The lines dividing into dozens of branches crawled over the asphalt, entwined with each other to form one complex imprint.
It was a mark holding down the location where the next gate would open.
The imprint engraved on the floor glowed red once. Serca sent a short signal toward the remaining passage.
Arrival successful.
It was the most she could send.
Sending even one short meaning consumed the remaining passage rapidly. She couldn't receive an answer from the Demon King's Castle.
But if it were Merdion, he would have understood.
That she had arrived safely and left a mark for the next passage here.
The next moment, the dimensional gate shrank like a dot and disappeared, and the connection to the Demon King's Castle was severed.
Until she could open the gate again from the Demon King's Castle, there was no way back. It didn't matter. As long as she found the Demon King, she could endure waiting as long as she wanted.
When Serca removed her hand, the red lines that had filled the ground sank and vanished.
The first objective was complete.
What remained was finding the Demon King.
Serca closed her eyes.
The connection with the monster had been cut at the moment of death.
What remained was only the last shared short scene.
The Demon King standing in the middle of an unfamiliar street, and the monster in front of him whose breath had stopped.
The Demon King was alive.
It was different from knowing he was alive and directly following the traces to stand here. The suppressed emotions rose belatedly in her chest.
Her blood-red eyes opened again.
People surrounding her backed away in unison as Serca moved.
Some were pointing small objects in their hands at her.
However, no notable power or hostility toward her was felt from them.
Everyone was busy shining the objects at her side in fear.
“Is that a gate?”
“Did you report to the association?”
“Is it a person?”
It was a strange world.
Serca ignored them and groped for the path left in the monster's last view.
The moment Serca turned her body toward that direction, a very faint aura brushed the night air.
It was a trace that couldn't be mistaken because she had been too close for too long.
Serca's head snapped up.
It was him.
At the same time.
As Sihyuk was returning to the lodging, he stopped in front of the entrance.
The plastic bag in his hand swayed lightly. Inside were two chicken skewers and canned drinks from the way.
Familiar aura was felt.
It was too faint and disappeared quickly to dismiss as a misperception.
But Sihyuk couldn't misperceive that aura.
It was a monster.
The same kind he had felt closely for a long time.
Clang.
The door of the next house opened.
Riel came out without wearing her coat properly, unlike usual. A faint green light shimmered at the ends of her long blonde hair.
“You felt it too?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s from the Demon Realm.”
Riel's voice was stiff.
The wind passing through the corridor created a small whirlpool around her.
Although it didn't reveal its form, the fact that the spirits were uneasy was felt by Sihyuk as well.
“It’s not a monster.”
Riel added.
“Someone who can tear space like that…”
The end of her sentence trailed off.
It seemed there weren't many possible existences.
Sihyuk looked toward the alley he had just passed. The place where the aura had burst was not far.
“Let’s go.”
“What are you saying so casually?”
“It seems like he’s come to find me.”
Riel's gaze quickly turned to Sihyuk.
“How do you know that?”
“Because it’s the aura I know.”
“Who is it?”
Sihyuk recalled the monster he had met at the intersection.
Since the monster had Serca's imprint, the scene of seeing him just before death would have been transmitted to her.
He had thought a reaction would come someday. But he hadn't expected it to be this fast.
“The kid who used to work under me before.”
“Kid?”
“Because she’s younger than me.”
Riel looked at him with disbelief.
“By that standard, most of the kids here are kids too.”
“That’s true.”
Even though Sihyuk's answer was casual, Riel's expression didn't soften. Rather, her lips pressed tightly as if the fact that she worked under him bothered her.
“Is it a silver-haired one?”
Riel asked.
“Yeah.”
“Red eyes?”
“Right.”
Riel's expression hardened.
The wind that had been lingering around her momentarily stopped.
“Why?”
“…It’s Serca.”
“You remember.”
“How could I not remember.”
Riel looked like she wanted to go inside the house right now and lock the door.
“You can stay in the house.”
“I have to know.”
“You look scared.”
“If I pretend not to know it’s scary and something bigger happens…”
It wasn't wrong.
Sihyuk didn't say more, placed the plastic bag next to the front door, and headed for the stairs.
He said that, but Riel couldn't follow immediately.
After Sihyuk took a few steps ahead, Riel forcibly removed her stiff legs.
As they came out to the main road, stopped cars came into view first.
People were chatting from a distance. Someone was explaining the location in a hurried voice, perhaps having reported to the association, and someone else was holding their phone high, pointing at the middle of the road.
In the place where those gazes gathered, a woman was standing.
Silver hair reaching down to her waist.
Blood-red eyes.
Black armor.
The woman was ignoring everything on the street and looking at one side.
It was the direction Sihyuk had appeared.
Riel's feet stopped abruptly upon confirming that appearance.
The wind that had been circling around her also disappeared at the same time.
“Serca…”
The name flowed out as if she was swallowing her breath.
Riel would never forget that face.
In the days when they fought at the border where the Demon Realm met, Serca's name was more like an alarm than a person's name.
Once a monster with her imprint caught a trace, pursuit wouldn't end no matter how many forests she crossed.
Even if she erased the scent with spirits, followed the water flow, and deliberately left traces on the opposite side, it was useless.
Riel had personally chased her before.
After fleeing for three days without sleeping, barely entering the barrier of the human world, she saw a woman with silver hair dangling on a distant mountain ridge.
She didn't chase.
She just looked at this side as if she wouldn't miss next time.
Even after a very long time, those blood-red eyes were as clear as back then.
Sihyuk turned to look at Riel.
The blood had drained from Riel's face. Her emerald eyes trembled slightly.
At that moment, Serca stepped toward the two of them.
The first step was slow.
The second was so fast it was hard to track with the eyes.
In the blood-red eyes, Sihyuk's appearance was captured. Short hair or unfamiliar clothing didn't matter. She couldn't not recognize him just because the aura had weakened.
She had found him.
The Demon King was truly alive.
However, the elf standing next to Sihyuk grabbed Serca's steps.
Cold killing intent spread in her narrowed eyes.
“Demon King.”
A low voice cut through the noisy road.
Mana in Riel's fingertips gathered. It wasn't thinking; her body that had experienced countless battlefields reacted first by sensing danger.
Wind wrapped around and formed the shape of a translucent bow.
Serca's expression completely froze upon seeing that.
In Serca's eyes, that appearance looked different.
The elf from the human world who had been chasing the Demon King in the past was blocking the Demon King's path again in this unfamiliar world. He even held a weapon made of spirits.
No big wounds were felt on the Demon King's body.
However, with only the last confirmed scene, she couldn't know what had happened here in the meantime. It was the same for why that elf was sticking close and what he was aiming for.
“Why are you next to the Demon King?”
Riel's lips quivered.
“Wait. Now—”
It couldn't continue.
Serca's sword slipped out of its sheath.
A black line cut through the night air and rushed toward Riel's neck.
The people around didn't even notice that Serca had moved.
The moment they thought the silver-haired woman who had been in the middle of the road had disappeared, the tip of the sword was already close to Riel's throat.
The arrow on Riel's bowstring hadn't even formed its shape yet.
The sword stopped with a blade leaving a palm's width in front of her neck.
Serca's eyes widened.
Another hand was placed over the wrist holding the sword.
“Stop there.”
Sihyuk stood between the two of them.
Riel, who hadn't even seen how the distance that had been apart a moment ago had narrowed.
Serca's gaze slowly rose from the hand gripping her wrist.
In the blood-red eyes, Sihyuk's face was fully captured.
The moment Serca's lips opened, Sihyuk's magic power thinly enveloped the three of them.
The horns and commotion that filled the road suddenly stopped. The sound inside didn't leak out either.
“Demon King…”
“Don’t touch her.”
Sihyuk pointed at Riel.
“That’s an old story, and now she’s my neighbor.”
“But Demon King, that elf is—”
“I know.”
The short answer cut off Serca's words.
“Lower the sword.”
Serca didn't move for a moment.
Her gaze turned to Riel standing behind Sihyuk. The killing intent that seemed ready to cut her throat still remained.
However, there was no judgment in Serca that surpassed Sihyuk's command.
The sword slowly lowered.
“…I obey the order.”
Sihyuk removed his hand.
Serca sheathed the sword. The sound of metal interlocking was unusually loud.
Only then did Riel release the breath she had been holding. The spirit bow that had gathered at her fingertips scattered like the wind.
Serca no longer looked at Riel.
She only looked at Sihyuk in front of her.
The owner who had been beheaded at the hero's castle and disappeared without a trace from the Demon King's Castle was standing in front of her eyes now.
He was alive.
Truly alive.
The owner who had searched through countless dimensions was right in front of her eyes.
Serca's frozen expression finally shook.
The hand holding the sword trembled very slightly.
Serca placed that hand on her chest.
And forgetting that there were countless gazes directed at them, she knelt on one knee in front of Sihyuk.
The armor made a low sound as it hit the asphalt.
The voice that should have been firm as usual trembled faintly.
She bowed her head deeply and said.
“Serca, the First King, respectfully greets the Demon King, His Majesty.”