Chapter 180
Chapter 180
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 180
Chapter Title: The Supreme One Has Returned
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Barum's power was formidable.
The martial arts he had mastered upon joining the Soul-Exterminating Ghost Slayers had seeped even deeper into his immense strength, perfecting him as a demon.
'Even a marquis-level demon is no match for me one-on-one.'
Slash.
Yet the Zero One standing before him now wasn't even a full descent of a marquis-level demon—he was merely a hunter contracted to one.
A mere human whom Barum could tear limb from limb at a moment's notice, whenever he felt like it.
But.
Barum couldn't do it.
He could do it several times over—no, he could do it right now if he wanted.
However...
Barum didn't.
"Heh."
That kid is...
Cheon-il's older sister.
Slash slash.
Barum charged straight at Zero One, taking the barrage of blades from the human across his entire body.
The blades ravaged him, carving wounds so deep that bone was visible.
A white circle formed in his blackened eyes.
The keepsake left by his already deceased younger brother manifested in his eyes, instantly regenerating a body that could barely move a finger.
Thud!
"...Guh!"
In one swift motion, he seized Zero One's throat.
The impact, strong enough to snap neck bones, shook Zero One's entire body.
But before grasping the throat, Barum had absorbed the desperate flurry of blades with his own body, using the rebound to minimize the damage to Zero One.
"Cough!"
As Barum lifted Zero One by the neck, red blood sprayed from his mouth like purple mist.
Barum's blood splattered across Zero One's black leather long coat, the signature garb of Death Demon Cry.
Wounds deep enough that dying on the spot wouldn't be surprising.
Sneer.
Blood dribbling from the corners of his mouth, Barum smiled at the flustered Zero One.
"The Supreme One said it: the neck is where all the vital points converge, so it's called the critical spot..."
True to form as a first-generation Death Demon Cry, Zero One prepared another deathly blade even in this dire situation.
And just before Zero One's attack could activate,
"That's why, if you can seize just the neck, you control the entire battle—it's the ultimate victory. Just like now."
Whoosh.
A grayish-black demonic energy unique to demons flowed from Barum's body.
Zero One's body froze stiff, and the fully prepared death blade vanished with a pop.
"Pressure point strike. You'll be able to move again soon enough thanks to your demon contract."
Zero One's eyes widened in shock.
He must have never experienced it before.
The sensation of his body refusing to obey his will.
Exhilarating yet terrifying.
Having suffered the same from Yong-un before, Barum prided himself on understanding Zero One's feelings better than any demon.
He even knew that pressure points only lasted about ten seconds on demons.
"Ten seconds, and you'll move again. But it doesn't matter."
Barum's smiling expression hardened in an instant as he glared up at Zero One.
"I'll keep applying pressure points right here with you."
"Brother!!!"
Amid the exchange between Barum and Zero One,
Cheon-il's screams echoed repeatedly.
Barum turned his head and looked at Cheon-il.
He saw Cheon-il trying to rush over, blocked by Mu-hee.
Cheon-il, face smeared with tears and snot.
Despite Mu-hee's obstruction, he struggled to break free.
He tried to shake off Mu-hee's hands.
But Cheon-il couldn't.
Mu-hee, under Yong-un's orders, was desperately using every skill to keep him pinned.
"Brother... don't... don't do it!! Come out quick!!"
Cheon-il's cries faintly reached from afar.
"Haa..."
Why was that?
In this life-or-death situation, why was a smile creeping out?
Wasn't it utterly strange?
For Barum, severing the demon contract meant farewell to reality.
In other words, locking himself in an endless abyss with no reason to live.
Living a hellish existence without goals or happiness, only pining for uncertain memories of reality.
'Terrifying.'
Just thinking about it briefly made it unbearable.
He couldn't even imagine how long he could endure it.
"Heh."
Yet why did laughter keep bubbling up?
"I must be insane."
He compared his past self in the demon realm to his current self, wedged among humans in the Soul-Exterminating Ghost Slayers.
And then he burst into genuine laughter.
"Hahaha!"
It was the first time Barum had laughed so heartily.
Zero One had no way of knowing that, but even so, he was startled by the laugh.
"Surprised that a demon is laughing?"
There were certainly demons who laughed often.
But their laughter came from slaughter or madness.
Barum's smile was different.
Even speechless Zero One could tell.
At that moment.
"Happy...?"
Zero One's voice—something even Polant, who had hunted Death Demon Cries relentlessly, had never heard—reached Barum.
"You look... happy."
Zero One's words made the ears of Death Demon Cry members doubt themselves.
Zero One... speaking?
Barum forced the smile from his face and replied.
"I was happy. Past tense now."
"Why?"
"Because I'm going to vanish along with that demon tormenting you."
"Ah... so you're not human... you're a full demon."
Only then did Zero One realize Barum wasn't a Death Demon Cry but a true demonic descent.
"Amazing."
His eyes widened even further in astonishment.
"What's amazing?"
"How can a demon like a human?"
At Zero One's loaded words, Barum hesitated for two seconds before smiling kindly.
"I'm surprised too. But what can you do? Spending time with them turned me into this."
He turned his gaze toward the Soul-Exterminating Ghost Slayers.
Barum's smile deepened.
"How's... Cheon-il?"
Zero One mentioned Cheon-il's name.
Knowing she was the older sister, Barum kept his eyes on the group and said,
"He's doing well. Strong enough now to find his own place."
"I see... that's a relief. I did right... sending him away back then."
With his neck still held high, Zero One smiled for the first time.
There was relief that things had turned out well, but more satisfaction that his choice had allowed his sibling a human life.
"Guess you really are the older sister."
"If not, I wouldn't have risked my life to let him go."
Barum fell silent at Zero One's words.
Then answered inwardly.
'I agree.'
If not for the sibling...
Barum wouldn't be doing this madness either.
If he returned to the demon realm, the other demons would mock him endlessly.
Not protecting a human life, but abandoning his own descent to safeguard their kin.
'Guess I'm no demon anymore.'
The more he thought about his situation, the more absurd it seemed.
"No regrets?"
But.
"No regrets."
It was a life that should have ended back then.
Maybe the reason he'd lived this long was for this very moment.
This was something only he could do now.
Gurgle.
Whoosh.
Demonic energy pulsed rhythmically from Barum's body every ten seconds, then faded.
Simultaneously, something in Zero One's throat gurgled and vanished.
"That's not what I mean. You know I'll still die."
Barum noticed the pattern glowing inside Zero One's long coat.
A pattern radiating not just red light but scorching heat.
Such a display meant the rampage had peaked—the demon descent was imminent.
Zero One chuckled softly and glanced at the screaming Cheon-il in the distance.
"I wanted to find him so badly... but now that I have, it's poison to me?"
The emotions stirred by reuniting with Cheon-il had created cracks for the demon to seep in.
His body already at its limit, Zero One knew better than anyone it was irreversible.
"I'll say it again: no regrets."
Whoosh.
Gurgle.
As demonic energy spread from Barum's body, blood sprayed from his wounds.
Overuse of demonic energy had weakened the regenerative demonic eyes in his sockets to a faint glow.
Yet Barum squeezed out the last of it to delay the demon descent.
"That you're Cheon-il's sister. That's enough."
Indecipherable emotions swirled in Zero One's eyes as he looked down at Barum.
Crackle. Sizzle.
At that moment, the Demon King rune completed around Yong-un, black-red sparks scorching the air.
Both Barum and Zero One turned to look.
The overwhelming aura, the pattern absorbing it all and roaring with sparks.
"What's your name?"
Staring at the pattern reflected in his black eyes, Zero One asked Barum.
Barum, eyes on the pattern, replied.
"Barum."
"A demon named Barum?"
"I've been a demon since I first regained my memories."
"How'd you meet Cheon-il?"
"Not just Cheon-il—everyone here traces back to that one."
Barum smiled faintly at the solemn-faced Yong-un.
"He's everything to us, like a god. We call him the Supreme One."
"Supreme One... fitting title."
Zero One smiled for the first time.
"Back then, Cheon-il only followed me. Whenever I faced experiments, he'd beg to come to that horrific lab, like he was my whole world. Just like now."
The smile on Zero One's lips as he watched Cheon-il soon mixed with bitter sorrow.
"But now, it seems I'm no longer the most precious to Cheon-il."
Tears finally streamed from Zero One's black eyes.
"That's..."
As Barum tried to respond to the tears, Zero One looked at him.
"No need to say anything. It hurts like you've stolen Cheon-il from me, but seeing him live like a normal person, loved... that joy outweighs the sadness."
Smile.
Zero One's eyes curved into crescents, beaming with eye-smiles.
His small eyes overflowed, tears rolling down his cheeks.
"Don't worry. From now on, you'll be part of the Soul-Exterminating Ghost Slayers too, fighting alongside them..."
"No."
"...?"
Barum's eyebrow twitched.
For a moment—then Zero One, who had been compliant, wiped the smile from his face.
And kicked Barum squarely in the chest.
"Guh..."
Blood spurted from Barum's wounds, forcing him to release Zero One.
The moment space opened between them, Barum collapsed, losing strength in his legs.
"No..."
What an opportunity, hard-won at the cost of life.
It couldn't end like this.
Barum forced his upper body up, then froze trying to stand.
"Stay still."
Because Zero One had mounted him.
"Zero... One?"
One of Zero One's eyes turned red.
Half his grayish-black skin was consumed by the red pattern, igniting into black-red flames.
The demon descent had begun.
It looked agonizing just to watch, yet Zero One wore a serene expression as he placed a hand on Barum's head.
"I'm not Zero One. I'm Yeong-il."
Barum wanted to shake off the hand, but he lacked even the strength to lift an arm.
Yeong-il slowly drew up demonic energy toward the already-rampaging Barum.
In this state of near-explosion, using demonic energy was like poison.
But mirroring Barum's all-in charge, Yeong-il now did the same.
Kyahhhh!
Perhaps because the descent was so close.
A eerie woman's scream emanated from the demonic energy Yeong-il unleashed on Barum.
Sinister and bizarre, yet it reignited the faint regenerative demonic eyes in Barum's depleted gaze.
Roar.
"Yeong-il!"
As payment.
Yeong-il endured pain incomparably worse than before.
The black-red flames that started on half his face engulfed half his body in an instant.
Crunch.
Grinding teeth to bear the agony, the sound of enamel shattering echoed in Yeong-il's mouth.
Blood trickled from the corners of his lips.
With regenerative demonic eyes restored and vitality surging, Barum quickly looked to Yong-un and shouted.
"Supreme One!! Hurry with the rune!!!"
Barum rose to his feet.
Slide.
He caught Yeong-il as he weakly toppled sideways.
"Haa... haa..."
High-ranking demon, my ass—not your average one.
Even drawing on innate demonic energy before descent, the soul-devouring speed outpaced any other demon's thrall.
"Supreme One!!!!"
Barum's anxiety peaked—if things continued, even the Demon King rune couldn't save Yeong-il.
In that instant, Yeong-il's hand touched Barum's cheek.
"...?!"
As his soul shattered and death loomed.
Yet Yeong-il's face was more at peace and happy than ever.
With an enigmatic expression, Yeong-il caressed Barum's cheek and said,
"Take care... of Cheon-il..."
"N-No... no!!!!"
Just as Yeong-il closed his eyes.
Whoosh.
The long-awaited Demon King rune from Yong-un erupted with intense crimson demonic energy, flying toward Barum and Yeong-il.