#24 Unconditional Surrender.
"Unconditional surrender."
Tap—
Every time Kang-ho took a step, a white aura spread out in all directions.
Grrr—!
Beside Kang-ho, Furball—now one and a half times larger than before—dashed forward, its entire body brimming with a blue aura.
Boom boom boom boom!
The swarming bees exploded helplessly before Furball. With its tongue hanging out in pure excitement, Furball continued its limitless sprint.
Kang-ho looked down at Seol-a, who was staring wide-eyed from his embrace.
Tucked safely in his arms, Seol-a looked up at him.
'Amazing!'
Tap—!
With a single kick off the ground, the surrounding scenery blurred past them as if it were being crushed.
The closer they got to the hive, the more the number of swarming bees increased.
"Furball!"
Calling out, Kang-ho kicked the ground and leaped. Seeing Kang-ho launch into the air, Furball sprinted and jumped after him.
Smash!
Furball struck the tips of Kang-ho's feet. Like a bullet, Kang-ho shot straight through the swarm of bees and flew right into the hive.
Thud!
Landing inside the hive, Kang-ho looked around.
'Incredible.'
Prey was piled up everywhere, and larvae lined the space. The demonic energy was growing thicker.
However.
Kang-ho thought to himself.
'To call it a Demon Host... it feels a bit off.'
The aura was slightly different from the demonic energy emitted by the Demon Hosts of the past. First, should he find the source?
'Right in the center.'
The source of the demonic energy lay at the center of this massive hive.
Kang-ho immediately kicked off the ground and leaped high. Stepping on intermediate layers of the hive, he bounded about three times before reaching the source.
Entering the area, Kang-ho felt a gloomy demonic energy radiating from the darkness beyond.
Whoosh!
Seol-a leaped out of his arms.
Perhaps feeling the intense demonic energy as well, Seol-a bristled her fur and glared sharply.
Kang-ho spoke to her.
"Seol-a."
Yip!
'Trust me!'
"I can't trust you yet."
Whine...
Seol-a immediately looked up at him with a dejected face, but Kang-ho's expression remained stern.
"Not yet. Right now, it's time for you to trust me. Come here."
Whine—
Seol-a stared at him intently before returning to his arms.
Then, he slowly walked further inside. With every step he took, absolute chaos erupted outside.
Buzzzzzzzzz—
The entire swarm of bees was charging toward this location. However, their resistance was completely blocked by the arriving Furball.
Blocking the entrance, Furball crunched and chewed up every charging bee.
Furball was fundamentally a defensive monster, not an offensive one. Even among Shabel Tigers, there were those like Furball, and then there were extremely aggressive ones.
Anyway.
Having properly gone through a growth phase suited to its nature, it had now entered maturity, where ordinary attacks wouldn't even make it flinch.
Bzzzz—
With every step Kang-ho took, a bizarre sound echoed from deep inside. And finally.
Bzzzzzz—
The source of the sound revealed itself.
Kang-ho stared at the entity.
It was about his size.
A being the size of an adult human. Its appearance was similar to a human's, but its entire body was saturated with demonic energy.
'A Demon Host.'
Kang-ho immediately realized what it was.
In Earth's past, Demon Hosts had appeared frequently.
They were the hosts of demonic energy, supplying it to monsters and maximizing their ferocious instincts.
'So they've finally reappeared.'
Kang-ho gently closed his eyes. However, the density of the energy was different from the Demon Hosts he had encountered in the past.
'Compared to back then, it's remarkably weak.'
Furthermore, the Demon Hosts of the past gave off a strong feeling of pure evil, but this one was different. If he had to label it, it fell more into the realm of 'neutral.'
Kang-ho tilted his head for a moment, deciding to save his thoughts for later.
Then, he dashed toward the Demon Host before him.
The Demon Host shrieked in terror.
"......!"
When Kang-ho flinched and stopped, the guy rolled his eyes and looked at him.
"......"
"......?"
Kang-ho subconsciously nodded.
With a dead-serious face, the Demon Host immediately dropped to his knees and threw both hands in the air.
Kang-ho looked from the Demon Host to the inside of the cave.
There was a creature that appeared to be the queen of this swarm. Its massive abdomen was full of eggs.
Kang-ho looked back and forth between the Queen Bee and the Demon Host.
As he slowly raised his fist...
The Demon Host freaked out.
"......Is this translation magic?"
Kang-ho nodded silently. At that, the Demon Host began introducing himself as if he'd been waiting for this moment his whole life.
"Loathe...?"
He added, subtly gauging Kang-ho's reaction.
'Demon Realm...'
Kang-ho chewed over the name.
He felt entirely different from the Demon Hosts that had appeared in the past. For one, those guys couldn't communicate at all.
They had been like machines. Emitting pitch-black demonic energy, they had simply led the monsters to slaughter.
Compared to them, the Demon Host in front of him felt much more like a human.
Kang-ho lowered his raised fist and asked him.
"What... are you?"
He hesitated for a moment before opening his mouth again.
"Not that. I'm asking for your true identity."
"A Demon."
Kang-ho felt a deep curiosity toward the Demon named Theo.
First, because he was completely different from the Demon Hosts he'd seen before, and second, because of his bizarre self-introduction.
"Why are you here?"
A rank battle.
Kang-ho tilted his head slightly, observing the guy before pointing at the Queen Bee.
"And that?"
Truly simple and clear.
Suddenly.
In his arms, Seol-a stared fixedly at the Demon who introduced himself as 'Theo.'
Whine—
He saw Seol-a licking her lips.
Swaaaash—
Seol-a began absorbing the demonic energy. At the same time, Theo's eyes went wide as saucers.
Theo hurriedly backed away, but clearly and unmistakably, his demonic energy was being sucked right into Seol-a.
With a face full of joy, Seol-a whined at Kang-ho.
'It's delicious!'
By the way.
He had his doubts about the guy in front of him. The demonic energy Kang-ho detected from him wasn't exactly at a spectacular level.
Sure, compared to the Raptors from before, it was massive, but compared to the Demon Hosts of the past, it was practically nothing.
Of course.
A level like this would require the dispatch of at least an S-rank Awakener in modern Korea. Even so, he was much weaker than the past Demon Hosts.
Kang-ho's memory was still vivid.
The Demon Host that had appeared in Incheon back then was shockingly powerful, even among its peers.
Kang-ho slowly approached him.
The guy stealthily backed away. The way he gauged Kang-ho's reaction looked like a dog desperate to take a crap.
Kang-ho walked up to Theo without a word, grabbed him by the collar, and lifted him up.
'He's almost identical to a human.'
His appearance was exactly human. However, his vivid crimson eyes, which completely mismatched his pitch-black hair, felt slightly alien.
Kang-ho brought his hand to the guy's chest.
'Having a mana hole in the heart is the same, too.'
Vwooom—!
Kang-ho's mana seeped into it.
The guy let out a breathless scream. Soon after, he coughed and sputtered, his eyes flying wide open.
Then, miraculously, the thick demonic energy that had filled the entire area abruptly vanished.
The residual demonic energy in the atmosphere remained, but as the thick aura disappeared, Seol-a merely smacked her lips and tilted her head in confusion.
Shortly after, Seol-a slowly approached, looked at Theo, and chomp! bit his ankle.
Seol-a tried to shudder her body. But when no demonic energy was absorbed, she tilted her head again.
"You said unconditional surrender, right?"
At Kang-ho's words, Theo kept his mouth shut tight and nodded vigorously.
"......"
Kang-ho decided to hold off on killing him for now. It seemed there was quite a bit of information he could extract from this guy.
"Why are you so weak?"
Theo looked hurt by Kang-ho's question. However, upon meeting Kang-ho's indifferent eyes, he startled and answered with utmost sincerity.
"A rank battle..."
Kang-ho repeated the words, letting out a low hum.
First off.
He had quite a few things to ask him.
Pop— Throb—
Suddenly.
Kang-ho sighed, noticing the sounds echoing from his entire body. The blood vessels in his limbs were expanding, and his skin was tearing slightly.
'Mana overload.'
Indeed.
It was a phenomenon where the body overloaded due to an excessive overflow of mana.
Kang-ho was growing stronger and stronger, but strictly speaking, he still possessed a human body.
This symptom tended to occur whenever he used massive amounts of mana.
As Kang-ho was calming and managing his body's mana, Theo discreetly studied his reaction before looking at the Queen Bee.
"What."
Following Kang-ho's gaze, Theo pointed at the Queen Bee.
"What?"
Theo cried out in protest.
Instead of answering, Kang-ho raised his arm.
He wasn't intending to hit him. He was just going to stroke his own chin.
"Its foraging range is too broad, so no. There are too many of them as well. Better to just kill it."
Theo reached out, interrupting Kang-ho.
Theo approached the Queen Bee and tap-tap— patted its head.
The Queen Bee began to shrink in size until it transformed into a rock the size of a fist.
"Oh?"
At the same time, the massive swarm of bees flying outside fell silent in an instant.
Looking outside, they had all stopped moving, dropping to the floor and hardening like fossils.
Kang-ho had never seen a monster like that before.
Of course, he didn't believe everything the guy said.
Feeling Kang-ho's dry gaze, Theo flinched in surprise again. He hesitated and slowly backed away.
'I'll ask what I need to ask.'
Dealing with him after that wouldn't be too late.
Kang-ho slowly nodded his head.
"Keep your mouth shut and follow me."
"If you try anything stupid, I'll kill you immediately."
Theo nodded again.
Kang-ho gestured to Seol-a, who was biting Theo's ankle and staring with bright, clear eyes.
"Come here."
Yip!
Seol-a hopped up and snuggled into Kang-ho's arms.
"Furball! Let's go."