Chapter 156
Chapter 156
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 156
Chapter Title: Demon Cry
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Demon Cry.
The cave brimmed with their agonized screams, living up to the technique's name.
The power of the Soul-Reaper Phantoms was extraordinary.
Even against the Demoncries that Jackal had painstakingly nurtured over years of building his strength back then, Yong-un now felt confident he wouldn't lose.
"Got you!"
Having perfectly mastered the Shadow-Meld Assassination Art, they had become true assassins worthy of the Soul-Reaper Phantoms name.
Slaughter ghosts and annihilate souls.
The Poison Witch's body, seized from behind, vanished.
Pop. Pop.
"Wh-what?"
The grasping hand clutched only empty air.
That was the final memory of the Demoncry that had caught the Poison Witch.
Stab.
The tough, steel-gray skin of a demon.
A shortsword pierced through the back of his neck and out the front, gleaming with a dark blue sheen before spewing dark blue smoke in an instant.
"Uh... uhhh..."
The Poison Witch's venom qi meant death.
And now, with complete control over it, she...
Bang!
"Gaaahhh!"
"My... my eyes..."
Sizzle.
...had become a grim reaper commanding death itself.
Venom qi spread from the Poison Witch's body.
In an instant, it enveloped the cave, forcing every standing Demoncry to their knees.
Their steel-gray skin bubbled and burned.
Thud. Thud thud.
The Demoncries clutched at their throats and noses as they dropped to their knees.
Twisted in agony, they wailed toward the Poison Witch, begging for mercy.
And weaving through that toxic haze like it was a playground were Myung-su and Mu-hee, reaping demon necks left and right.
The duo's godlike prowess shattered the Demoncries' will to fight.
"R-run... away..."
One Demoncry uttered the word "retreat."
His trembling, fearful voice rippled through the anxious hearts of his comrades.
"Yeah, run..."
Stab!
Shaken by the words, one Demoncry turned to flee.
And in that moment, he realized the first one's call to retreat meant something far different from what he'd imagined.
"I said... run..."
One Demoncry drove black talons through an ally's gut.
Betrayal? Hardly.
The attacker's eyes brimmed with regret and helpless chaos.
Thump.
"Cough... you... bastard..."
Hot blood gushed from the pierced abdomen, flooding out from within.
"No!!"
Slash.
A scream tore from the attacker's lips.
His blood-drenched talons had just severed the throat of his mortally wounded comrade.
Only in his final moments did the dying Demoncry see it.
The black threads draped across the body of his killer.
And the smile of Kim Gu, slowly emerging from behind.
"Run away!!!!"
The comrade-killer bellowed at the top of his lungs toward every Demoncry.
"Th-they're not human... monsters!! Death itself!! Run..."
Thud.
The screaming Demoncry's head tumbled free.
Kim Gu's marionette threads, binding his body, had coiled around his neck and snapped it clean off.
"Shh!"
The fading eyes of the Demoncry locked onto Kim Gu, finger pressed to his lips.
Kim Gu melted into the scenery with the Shadow-Meld Assassination Art and vanished.
This was no longer the quirky, relatively unscathed Kim Gu from within the Soul-Reaper Phantoms domain.
In battle, he was the Soul-Reaper Phantom—an embodiment of the grim reaper.
Not far from the cave where the trap had been set, along an upper cave path.
New Demoncry executives rose from their seats, sensing from the screams that something dire was unfolding.
They turned to their leader.
"Latarin?"
The architect of the current Demoncries.
A high-ranking demon in the Demon Realm known as Countess Latarin.
The female demon with flowing dark red hair furrowed her brow.
"We're all gonna die?"
One demon who'd addressed Countess Latarin spoke flatly, expression unchanged.
"No helping it. We'll have to find replacements."
Countess Latarin shrugged.
She licked her lips and slowly stirred her demonic qi.
"Almost there. Just stay hidden a little longer. That one's contract won't last much more."
At her words, the four executives glanced back simultaneously.
A man lay there, body convulsing.
Just like Cheon-il, his form jerked violently as demonization clashed with his normal state in spasms.
Whoosh.
"Just a little... a little longer, and it'll be over."
Countess Latarin smiled.
Her raised hand brimmed with condensed demonic qi.
Like ink on white paper, her elegant fingers traced patterns in the air.
The space-transfer pattern from the empty container reborn under her hand.
But right then—
"Latarin."
"What?"
"Take him and fall back."
A hulking demon with a stolid face blocked her path.
"What are you doing?"
"Something's coming."
Countess Latarin, sensing nothing, looked puzzled.
But only for a moment.
"This soon...?"
Her face twisted in fury.
All the executives rushed to cluster around the demon shielding her.
And then—
Boom!!
The executives blocking Countess Latarin rocketed into the air.
Whoosh.
A gale whipped through, and before her widened eyes stood Yong-un, gripping the Demon-Slaying Sword.
"So it was you."
Yong-un's eyes burned blood-red.
After scanning the space-transfer pattern, he recalled his scattered Crimson Heavenly Demonic Qi and slung the Demon-Slaying Sword over his shoulder.
"I've decided. You're the survivor."
Countess Latarin wouldn't grasp the meaning.
Had she, she couldn't have worn that expression.
"Latarin!"
A burst of demonic qi exploded beside Yong-un.
From the dust emerged the stolid demon, slamming talons against Yong-un.
"This human's off. Dodge now!"
Clang! Clang clang clang!
The other executives' talons tangled wildly atop the stolid demon's and Yong-un's Demon-Slaying Sword.
They bore down on Yong-un with demonic superhuman strength, as if to crush him.
Infused with demonic qi, their might grew even fiercer.
"Hold him! Just 10 seconds!"
Trusting her executives, Latarin kept tracing the pattern despite Yong-un right before her.
The swiftly drawn sigil neared completion of its circle.
"Keep it up even if your qi runs dry! Don't let him through!"
At the stolid demon's command, the executives squeezed out every last drop—even what wasn't there—to pin Yong-un.
"Done!"
Countess Latarin placed the final stroke on the space-transfer pattern.
She channeled her demonic qi fully for the transfer.
The executives, the stolid demon, and herself.
She believed Yong-un immobilized by their combined force.
"So that's your play."
But Yong-un's calm voice revealed the illusion.
It took little time to realize he'd been waiting—to study the pattern and skill mechanics.
"Whoa..."
Countess Latarin gasped in horror and hurried to chant the activation incantation.
Roar. Slash.
Purple sword aura blazed from the Demon-Slaying Sword and Yong-un's entire body.
"...P!"
Just as she completed the chant and awaited transfer!
Countess Latarin underwent an unprecedented ordeal.
Swipe. Shatter.
"Wh-what?!"
The demonic sigil cleaved perfectly in half and scattered.
"Impossible!"
This wasn't an ordinary pattern.
It was the Demon King's sigil, blessed by the Demon Realm.
Impervious even to the mightiest demons' demonic qi—the Demon Realm runes.
Yet it had just been sliced apart before her eyes.
The condensed qi didn't return; it was perfectly severed and gone.
"Run... away..."
And that was far from all.
"Kyaaaak!"
Slash.
Blood sprayed from every direction.
Countess Latarin yelped and fell flat on her rear.
The scene before her left her dumbfounded.
"Run..."
Not just the runes were cut.
The five executives they'd thought suppressed.
They too lay bisected, slumping two by two in place.
The stolid demon—upper body sheared off with his arms—spat his final words.
"...away..."
Mighty demons who had crossed from the Demon Realm with Countess Latarin, dreaming of world conquest.
All five perished by a mere human's blade.
"Ah..."
The onslaught of unbearable events stripped her dreams and plunged her into despair.
An endless plunge, bereft of thought or will.
Swipe.
Amid it all waited the monstrous human Yong-un, gazing down at Countess Latarin.
His purple-stained hand covered her eyes as he spoke.
Demons.
Humanity's foes. Superior physiques, overwhelming power, demonic qi, even lifespans spanning over a millennium.
The ultimate race, unmatched by humans in any way.
Gates brought Awakening—a new, unknown power—and humanity's insatiable curiosity drove them to madness to harness it.
Contracts with demons, their sworn enemies.
'No one knows who started it.'
Even demons were in the dark.
It had simply become a fad in the Demon Realm's gated world at some point.
But one truth stood clear.
Contracts with demons held secrets beyond human ken.
And their origin lay not in human discovery, but demonic meddling.
Yong-un's hand lifted from Countess Latarin's head.
Blood-red Crimson Heavenly Demonic Qi dispersed like smoke into the air.
The backlash of the forced Soul Subjugation Art revealed itself.
Click. Click. Click.
Empty gaze vacant, Countess Latarin rhythmically worked her jaw, teeth clacking.
Varum's claim that mental skills failed against the Demon Realm's blessing didn't hold for Yong-un.
His Soul Subjugation Art had succeeded utterly.
With the Crimson Heavenly Demonic Qi gone and only sword aura remaining, Yong-un's purple gaze bored into the cave wall.
"Sovereign."
Swipe.
The Soul-Reaper Phantoms regrouped around Yong-un.
Myung-su, staring down at the blankly clacking Countess Latarin, bowed to Yong-un.
"All seventeen eliminated."
They weren't the twenty-three the Sovereign had specified.
Yet Myung-su bowed, surveying the demon corpses strewn about.
'Five including Countess Latarin.'
Seventeen plus five.
And finally, the mind-broken Countess Latarin.
Total annihilation of the twenty-three Demoncries as the Sovereign commanded.
"Mission complete."
Myung-su dropped to one knee.
Behind him, every Soul-Reaper Phantom knelt likewise to Yong-un.
"What of her?"
Yong-un eyed Countess Latarin.
Then issued a cryptic order.
"Deliver her to Varum."
Myung-su fell silent a moment, then bowed.
"Understood."
He knew not the Sovereign's intent.
Nor did he need to.
Simply...
"Sovereign."
Obey the Sovereign's command with his life.
Myung-su bowed once more and glanced at Mu-hee.
Mu-hee's shadow swelled, enveloping every Soul-Reaper Phantom, Yong-un, and even beneath Countess Latarin.
Then it dragged them all into the floor.
"Go on without me. I've unfinished business."
Squelch.
As they all sank into the shadow, Yong-un's foot stepped free.
The Demoncries all slain, only one man remained alive.
Gazing at the convulsing man—like Cheon-il—Yong-un advanced step by step.
The Demon-Slaying Sword brimmed with sword aura.