The Blood Demon's Pitiful End
"Gyaaaah!"
Blood sprayed. The Blood Demon clawed his way free of the rubble, wiping at the blood streaming down his face, thoroughly rattled.
What the hell…
What had just happened? How had Baek Do-ha's fist suddenly been able to drive shock straight through his body?
Footsteps approached.
"First time holding the Heaven-Cleaving Blood Demon Sword, isn't it?"
Do-ha closed the distance, looking down at the still-stunned Blood Demon. The man seemed more shaken in spirit than in flesh. Even with Do-ha right on top of him, he neither raised a guard nor settled into an attack stance — just stood there, wide open.
"You… what did you do to me?"
"Me? I didn't do a thing."
"Don't lie to me! This body was forged to be the perfect vessel for the Blood Demon Divine Art! Do you have any idea how many years I spent—"
"Tsk, tsk."
Do-ha shook his head at the Blood Demon's rant. He understood perfectly well why the man had built himself into this form.
The Blood Demon Divine Art carried vicious backlash by nature. Demonic arts, as a rule, put savage strain on the body. Most of them generated power by slamming energy against energy inside the meridians, then siphoning that collision into martial techniques. Practitioners of demonic arts lived short lives because of it. The constant agony drove many of them mad.
But the Blood Demon's body was ideally suited to demonic cultivation. That bizarre, rubber-like flesh wasn't merely a matter of skin and bone — he had rewritten his blood vessels and meridians as well. Demonic arts left him unharmed, and enemy strikes had their impact dampened and dispersed. Even when he unleashed the Blood Demon Divine Art, he could produce enormous force with relatively little effort, like cracking a whip.
Until he grabbed the Heaven-Cleaving Blood Demon Sword, that is.
The Heaven-Cleaving Blood Demon Sword shoved every scrap of energy in the body outward. More precisely, it pushed from behind any internal energy already in motion. Mana was no exception — even circulating mana to cast a spell got the same treatment. One wrong move and the meridians tore. The sword drove energy so hard that the channels hardened under the pressure; a single slip in that state and cracks spidered through them. It was like a soft silicone hose suddenly turning into rigid plastic while water was still blasting through it. Do-ha could adjust if his own body changed. The Blood Demon could not.
He's spent years fucking around just to adapt to that body of his.
"You bastard!"
A roar of power erupted. The Blood Demon, trembling with rage, swung his sword and launched into the Asura Residual Blood Sword. But the forms were stiff, awkward. In his old body, the technique's countless deceptive variations would have flowed easily.
"But right now you're far too rigid."
Do-ha slipped the blade by a hair's breadth, then followed the Blood Demon's retracting arm straight into his guard.
Baek-bo Myeol-hwang Gong, Second Step: Muje-gak.
A thunderous impact. Do-ha drove deep into the man's space and stomped down on the Blood Demon's instep with the Unbroken Kick. Then golden light began to thrum around him.
"When I'm beating trash like you, nothing beats this."
Golden radiance flared from Do-ha's eyes.
Ban-ya Geum-gang Shin-gong, Fifth Absolute: Yaksha's Hundred-Eight Strikes.
Blow after blow hammered into the Blood Demon's entire body. The technique was meant to be performed with serene composure — but in Do-ha's hands, a thick killing intent coiled through every strike.
"Gyaaaaaah!"
A heavy thud. Then a sharp clack of teeth.
"You reek. Keep your mouth shut."
After one hundred seven blows, Do-ha finished with an uppercut to the jaw. The Blood Demon used the shock to spin his body free and whip clear.
Distance first…
The Hundred-Eight Strikes had cleared some of the fog from the Blood Demon's mind. The Heaven-Cleaving Blood Demon Sword was the perfect counter to his martial arts… He still could not believe it. For a brief moment, he had simply blanked out.
There has to be a way.
He shot backward — and something seized him.
"?!"
His head snapped back.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"Wh… what is this…"
The Blood Demon stared in pure disbelief at Do-ha, who had a fistful of his hair. A martial artist grabbing someone by the hair? He had fought countless duels and witnessed countless battles, and never once had he seen a martial artist resort to a hair-pull.
"Have you no pride as a martial artist?!"
"Were we exchanging techniques and having a friendly discussion? Did you think I came here for a sparring match? In a real fight — where blood flies and flesh tears — pride is poison."
Do-ha's grip tightened. With a brutal heave, he slammed the Blood Demon into the ground by his long hair. Pride, from a Blood Sect mongrel who wasn't even of the Orthodox path?
"Long hair makes for a nice handle."
He yanked again, as if setting up another throw. This time the Blood Demon reacted at once. A flash of steel — a wet slicing sound.
"Hah… Fine. That was a foolish thing to say."
The Blood Demon, having sheared off his own hair, glared at Do-ha with raw killing intent. The man was right. Talking about pride on a battlefield was the act of an idiot.
"Hey, that haircut makes you look exactly like a beggar with a rag on his head. Blood Demon? You look more like the Beggars' Sect. No — wait. Even the Beggars' Sect wouldn't be caught dead with a cut that bad."
"You… you dog-shit bastard! Shut your mouth!"
Something cracked in the air. A rush of movement.
"Getting worked up is a mistake."
The instant the Blood Demon roared, Do-ha closed the gap.
Hwaneum-yeyang-gong, Sixth Form: Internal Resonant Explosion.
Do-ha set his palm against the Blood Demon's stomach and unleashed the sound art, turning the man's insides inside out. The old Blood Demon would have bled an attack like this off without effort — but right now he was clutching the Heaven-Cleaving Blood Demon Sword in a death grip.
That greed of yours is going to drag you straight into ruin.
What was so precious about a damned demonic sword? If he simply let go, he could have fought Do-ha with his original body. In that case, Do-ha would have been the one gradually pushed onto the back foot. The Demonic Cult and the Demon God Cult would already be racing to reinforce after all this noise. All the Blood Demon had to do was hold out, and he could have put Do-ha in real danger.
But he can't let go of that sword — and look where it's gotten him.
The Blood Demon spun through the air dozens of times and crashed into the earth, choking on empty wind. Agony beyond screaming radiated from his dantian through every inch of his body.
"It… isn't over… yet…"
Gravity Wave.
A crushing detonation. The Blood Demon, trying to lever himself up with the sword as a cane, took the gravity wave full-on — and both of his eyes burst. An eighth-circle spell, landed with no defense whatsoever. He never had a chance to react.
"Tsk, tsk. You stupid Blood Demon… If you'd just let go of that sword, you could have driven me into a corner…"
Do-ha shook his head, his gaze ice-cold. He understood, in a way. To the Blood Sect — and to the Blood Demon above all — the Heaven-Cleaving Blood Demon Sword was a weapon worth more than life itself. The entire sect had hunted it for centuries, convinced that reclaiming the blade would let them unify the entire Moorim. Of course he couldn't bring himself to release it.
"For all the noise of this fight, your end is pathetic and squalid."
"Heh heh heh… A demonic sword, is it…"
Sensing Do-ha's approach, the Blood Demon caressed the Heaven-Cleaving Blood Demon Sword and broke into laughter. A true demonic sword indeed — a blade that led the martial artist who wielded it straight to destruction.
"O Absolute One… your fate is steeped in blood."
"Even if that blood fills an ocean, I will not stop."
The Demon God. The Demon God Cult. The Demonic Cult. The Blood Sect. He would cut them all down and tear them apart — and even if his hands ran red, he intended to see it through to the end.
Volcano.
The ground split open. An eighth-circle spell, and tremendous heat began to well up from the fissures. A deep, wet bubbling rose from depths beyond measure — the sound of magma climbing.
"Hey, Absolute One."
"I'm not in the mood for last words."
Do-ha set his index finger against the Blood Demon's forehead.
"In my name, I declare it — from this day forward, you are the Blood Demon."
The Blood Demon twisted his face into a grotesque smile as he forced the words out.
"What a load of fucking bullshit."
Bingbaek-singong, Fifth Form: Internal Frost Bloom.
A grinding crack of ice. The smiling Blood Demon froze solid on the spot — not sealed inside a block of ice the way Do-ha's victims usually were, but locked in place as if every vital point had been sealed from within. Internal Frost Bloom did not freeze the surface. It froze the body from the inside out.
"Who the hell are you calling Blood Demon? Creepy bastard."
Do-ha kicked the frozen Blood Demon into the split earth. Once the Volcano spell faded and the ground sealed shut again, the corpse would melt away and never be found.
"Hmm. Should I toss this sword into the lava too?"
The Heaven-Cleaving Blood Demon Sword — the one the man had refused so desperately to release — lay on the ground. He had dropped it in the instant before Internal Frost Bloom took hold.
"Yeah. Throw it. Not like I'm going to use the thing…"
The earth rumbled. With a heavy thud, the moment Do-ha picked up the Heaven-Cleaving Blood Demon Sword, the split ground sealed itself back together.
"Has Volcano always been this short-lived?!"
Or had he simply failed to keep feeding it mana? Whatever. It didn't matter. He could just cast it again.
Then—
"Hah… for real."
A vast presence bloomed in the distance, and Do-ha let out a sigh. Someone was pouring out tremendous energy and racing toward the Blood Sect at high speed.
"Tsk. I'll deal with you later."
He muttered the words at the Heaven-Cleaving Blood Demon Sword and stowed it in his subspace storage.
"One of them is Depnius. Another is Ralph."
Ralph Tom, the so-called Knight of God. A Grand Master, and a knight of the cult who had received the Demon God's grace. He was a rival of Do-ha's friend Dimerof — the two of them had fought life-or-death duels more than once, and every match had ended in a draw.
"And that other one… the energy feels familiar. A new Heavenly Demon, then."
Demonic qi of the sort one sensed from the Demonic Cult. A cut above Do-ha's current level.
"And the last one… who is that? I've never felt this energy before."
It was more than vast — it was overwhelming. Not on the Demon God's level, but far beyond Depnius the dragon, the Heavenly Demon, and Ralph. Stronger than Do-ha himself, as he stood now. If the other three were typhoons, this one was a tornado. That absolute.
"All four of them on the move… they really do want me dead that badly."
A faint smile touched Do-ha's lips as his body began to rise into the air. He could not face those four right now. But he had no intention of simply leaving, either. He had killed the Blood Demon — yet the cockroach nest was still standing.
"Cockroaches lay eggs. You've got to wipe out the whole nest."
The sky roared.
Meteor.
Six colossal meteors bloomed into existence above Do-ha's head and began their descent.
"Oh my. Look at them panic the second they see the Meteors."
Do-ha laughed as the four figures in the distance poured on more speed. Too bad for them — he had no intention of casting Meteor and simply walking away.
Baek-bo Myeol-hwang Gong, Tenth Step: Tuseok.
Six enormous arms of Cheon-hyeon-geum-gang — each the size of a building — materialized behind him and caught the meteors like baseballs.
"Just leaving would be a shame."
The diamond arms hurled the meteors into the Blood Sect's main compound like pitches from a giant.
A screaming whistle of air. Then a cataclysmic detonation. Mushroom clouds of smoke and fire boiled into the sky, as if a volley of missiles had struck home.
Racing footsteps.
"Stop!!"
Depnius, already closing the distance, bellowed at Do-ha. Without the Blood Sect's barrier arts blanketing the area, he would have teleported straight in.
"Oh, you're here? I'm leaving."
Do-ha casually lobbed the last remaining meteor and immediately began weaving a teleport.
"That bastard… he's trying to vanish with a teleport."
"Don't worry! The barrier arts are still active here!"
"Tsk, tsk."
Do-ha clicked his tongue lightly at their exchange. When he had first infiltrated the Blood Sect headquarters, he had rewritten every barrier art on the premises. In short, the formations here were his now. Teleporting out was trivial.
"Y… you—! Baek Do-ha!!!"
Depnius finally sensed something was wrong and roared.
"Whatever, you fucking idiot."
Do-ha flipped him the middle finger — and vanished.