Chapter 221
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 221
Chapter Title: The Demon King Rune
A rune symbolizing the Demon King—one that had never been used, not even once in the Demon Realm or the human world.
The price of invoking it was cataclysmic enough to summon utter ruin.
"Yo, Yong-un!!!"
That power was so utterly untouchable that even the Royal Classes, who reigned as kings over this world, would shudder in terror.
Yet Yong-un had suddenly taken it into his own body.
"He's insane..."
Thud.
Even though he'd only drawn the rune character with his hand, Ignito felt like everything was being stripped away from him.
But the sight of Yong-un actually harboring it within himself made it seem no different from suicide in Ignito's eyes.
"Yong-un..."
Spello clamped his mouth shut.
With Yong-un joining their alliance, they could finally surpass the Sergio Alliance.
Back when he'd dueled Yong-un alongside Ignito, Spello had realized it.
With the power and mana control Yong-un possessed, he could shatter the massive wall named Sergio that no one had overcome until now.
And just moments ago, Spello had witnessed that potential firsthand.
The power that had forced the once-unyielding Sergio to retreat.
"We have to help him."
He absolutely couldn't let this slip away.
"But how?"
Spello clenched his fist at Ignito's words.
"I'll pour my mana into him at least."
"What if it backfires and makes it even more dangerous?"
"You want me to just stand here and watch?!"
"Old man, get a grip and think rationally for a second."
"Damn it."
Spello hurled the weapons in his hands to the ground and spun around.
The Mercenary King patted Spello's shoulder and spoke.
"We want to help too. But to do that, we can't let emotions cloud our judgment—we need to stay rational and find a way."
Spello knew that as well.
But no answer came no matter how hard he thought, stripping away his usual cool-headedness.
The vague helplessness of being unable to offer any aid overpowered his cold reason, leaving him emotional.
"We'll find a way... somehow. He's fighting that crisis for us, so we just need to find a solution within the time he's bought us. Calm down..."
The Mercenary King soothed Spello with words, his unfamiliar frustrated demeanor born of despair.
It was then, mid-sentence—
"Old man..."
Ignito's dazed voice cut through the Mercenary King's words.
That single quiet utterance stopped the Mercenary King, and Spello swallowed his anger to look at Ignito.
"This..."
Ignito's gaze had been fixed on Yong-un, who was locked in an invisible war with the Demon King rune since earlier.
It was a sight they'd all seen before, but there was something different in his eyes now.
Ignito's eyes, which drew everyone's attention, were no longer vacant.
They were wide and brimming with intensity.
Like someone beholding something extraordinary.
And Ignito's trembling voice turned toward the rest of the Royal Classes.
"The mana intake is dropping, right? Yong-un... he's controlling the rune, isn't he?"
"...?!"
The Mercenary King. Spello.
Both Royal Classes' eyes widened.
"No way..."
The Mercenary King—who'd been consoling Spello—rushed to Yong-un and reached out toward him.
He closed his eyes and slowly sensed the changes in mana.
"It's real..."
The Mercenary King soon staggered back.
"Right? That's what I said, isn't it? I'm not imagining this, am I?"
Ignito's excited voice.
And between the Mercenary King's shocked expression slipped a small smile.
"Yong-un... is controlling the rune."
It was the face and voice of those witnessing a miracle.
Relief at surviving the world's destruction wrought by the Demon King rune, mingled with joy that Yong-un wouldn't die.
"Hang in there!!!"
All those complex emotions culminated in euphoria.
Spello, who had appeared at Yong-un's side unnoticed, clenched his fist.
"Hang in there!!!! Yong-un!!!!"
The Royal Classes' cheers, starting with Spello, poured toward Yong-un, who stood with eyes closed, battling the Demon King rune invisibly.
Contrary to Yong-un's calm exterior with eyes closed, an unprecedented war raged within him.
Rooooar!
The Demon King rune sought to absorb all surrounding energy to activate itself.
Its ferocious suction, strong enough to drain Ignito completely, devoured everything from the Crimson Demon Energy filling Yong-un's dantian to his limits and beyond.
Once it took all his energy, it would surely claim even the innate vital energy—the vessel of life in all people—so Yong-un focused every ounce of his concentration and began circulating his qi.
The moment Yong-un's qi circulation suction matched the rune's pull...
He finally gained the leeway to think.
'Surrounded on all sides.'
But the more he thought, the worse the situation seemed—no way forward or back.
The Demon King rune was destruction incarnate, meant to summon the Demon King to this world.
If he kept supplying the energy it craved as he was, it would eventually complete the summoning.
Yet defying its suction and halting his qi circulation would instead drain his innate vital energy completely, killing him.
In other words, he couldn't stop the rune's activation, nor fully comply with its conditions.
'What do I do?'
Yong-un racked his brain, drawing on everything he knew to find a solution.
It was then.
[Keep doing what you're doing.]
An unfamiliar voice echoed once more.
A familiar yet strange voice he'd heard somewhere before.
Yong-un scowled toward it and shouted.
'I can't do that.'
[Worried about the Demon King descending, I presume.]
The voice pinpointed his dilemma so accurately that Yong-un fell silent for a moment.
Then it tossed out another absurd answer.
[Keep doing what you're doing. Even if the rune completes, the Demon King won't descend.]
'Bullshit...'
[Trust me. Don't you recognize me? Forgotten my voice already? How hurtful.]
The voice's sudden words.
Yong-un's brow twitched.
[Does this jog your memory? I'm the one who sent you to the martial world and pulled you back out. I opened the gate from the martial world to reality and spoke to you then.]
'Ah...?!'
He finally remembered.
The moment he'd severed the Blade Demon—vice leader of the Heavenly Demon Cult—and lost all purpose, contemplating death.
The voice that had reached Yong-un then.
[There we go, you remember.]
It was that voice.
The being that had opened the dark gate from the martial world to reality, allowing him to reunite with his family and live his current life.
The voice he'd forgotten until now came flooding back clearly.
'Who the hell are you? What is your true nature?!'
[You'll learn that in time. Focus on my words now. Keep doing what you're doing. That rune you think summons the Demon King is nothing like what you believe.]
'I can't believe that. I know full well this rune denotes the Demon King!'
[Since when did a rune denoting the Demon King become one that summons him?]
He was about to snap back in anger at the nonsense when—
Thump!
The rune, which had allowed him leeway by matching its suction, suddenly went berserk.
Overwhelmed by the fiercer, faster pull, Yong-un lost all his hard-won margin and could only focus on the rune.
It seemed the rune was reaching the end of the energy it required.
'Can't... stop...'
In that moment, with no room for other thoughts.
Yong-un steeled his resolve anew, with no other choice.
He would proceed as that unknown being advised, just as he'd initially resolved.
Thus, Yong-un concentrated all his power and began absorbing energy.
The moment he matched the rune's suction by drawing in surrounding energy to stabilize its rampage!
Fwaaaah.
The rune in his dantian suddenly erupted with scorching heat, stealing away Yong-un's consciousness.
Absorbing the Demon King rune.
Following the words of that being, which might be a trap.
One might think he did it thoughtlessly, but in truth, it all stemmed from Yong-un's own will.
He hadn't trusted that being.
He had trusted himself.
More precisely, the true weapon that had saved him from the Heavenly Demon Cult era to now.
'I'm trusting my instincts.'
The instincts that had guarded him in every crisis were silent.
Which meant...
All the methods suggested by the unknown being weren't wrong.
Thus, Yong-un hadn't followed that being—he had activated the Demon King rune based on his own convictions.
"Ugh..."
His consciousness returned amid the searing heat and blinding light.
A snapping pain like his mind fraying tore through his head.
But as he pushed himself up and looked around, the catastrophe he'd feared hadn't occurred.
Instead, only the worried faces of the Royal Classes, fretting over him for swallowing the Demon King rune, surrounded him.
"How'd it go?"
"You made it."
Having fully regained his senses, Yong-un studied Spello's approaching expression closely.
Spello's face showed not just relief, but joy.
"Looks like it worked."
He could tell the Demon King descent hadn't happened.
The Mercenary King suddenly scooped Yong-un up in a bear hug.
"King of Swords! If I had to pick the best decision of my life! It'd be promoting you to Royal Class!"
What was this sudden embarrassing declaration?
But the Mercenary King's words drew nods of agreement—Spello flashed a broad smile, and even Ignito let out a chuckle.
Their silent cheers proclaimed that the crisis had passed safely.
Whoosh.
He gathered strength in his legs and stood.
'My instincts... gave me the answer.'
That his choice wasn't wrong.
Once again, his instincts had saved Yong-un.
They'd found the right path amid countless options in the dire situation.
'Good.'
The pounding headache vanished as if washed away.
Now, only one thing remained for Yong-un.
The unknown voice that had provided the solution.
The eerie being without whose influence, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say Yong-un wouldn't exist as he was now.
He had to track it down.
And uncover the true meaning of this rune he'd swallowed.
A being who knew the Demon King rune more clearly and certainly than Sheiks, who had researched and experimented with it for ages.
Yong-un had a vague idea of who it was.
'The sole existence across all dimensions that knows the precise meaning of the Demon King rune—and how to use it.'
A being that knew everything about the Demon King rune, which even demons didn't understand or use.
The Demon King.
There was only one such entity.
Yong-un asked the rejoicing Royal Classes.
"Why'd you use this rune?"
"Truth is...... we never intended to. We laid out your interpretation of the rune alongside ours on the ground, and that's when it appeared. While we were debating, Sergio pulled a fast one."
"Sergio?"
"The first Royal Class you attacked here. That's Sergio. The First Royal Class, Light of the Heavens Sergio."
At the mention of trickery, Yong-un's brow twitched.
"Tell me the details. What do you mean, pulled a fast one?"
"It's a long story... you sure?"
Yong-un nodded, and the Royal Classes began recounting the world's hidden secrets and why the Royal Class alliances had split in two.
A ancient war between those who sought to conceal and those who aimed to reveal.
"The tale begins when Sergio coined the term 'Royal Class.'"
One by one, the history poured from the lips of those who had fought within it all that time.