Demon King (4)
Smoke rose from the crater. Demons crawled out from within, spilling onto the surface. The opposite side was no less formidable. An army numbering in the hundreds of thousands was swiftly forming ranks, ready to march at any moment.
Anyone witnessing this scene would surely anticipate a fierce, evenly matched battle. That is, until they realized the target both hordes were after was just three figures standing at the center.
I should have stopped him when he said he was heading west...
Rick let out a short sigh. The shocks had come one after another, so he'd just followed blindly behind Yun-seok. But they'd ended up in the middle of a plain with no escape.
Of course, he couldn't blame Yun-seok. They wouldn't have made it this far without him, and wasting time assigning blame was a luxury they couldn't afford—not when every minute, every second was precious.
"What do you plan to do now? Can we escape this place?"
A question he never would have asked if not for the godlike power Yun-seok had just displayed piercing through tens of thousands. But miracles didn't exist.
"Escaping is impossible."
"...I see."
Rick bowed his head in dismay. It was an obvious answer, yet hearing it made it feel unreal.
"Well, even someone like you has limits, I suppose..."
Rick accepted reality. And he steeled himself to make this place his grave.
At that moment, Yun-seok, who had been glancing around, spoke up.
"But isn't it a bit ridiculous?"
"Ridiculous? What exactly do you mean?"
"That all these people are after such a tiny little girl."
Rick peered into the eyes visible through Yun-seok's mask. They were smiling, but chillingly cold in a way that sent shivers down his spine.
Then it hit him. He'd said escape was impossible, but not that there were no options.
"You have a plan, then?"
Yun-seok hesitated briefly before nodding. It wasn't some grand, meticulously crafted scheme, but he knew exactly what was coming next.
Boom!
Yun-seok slammed his sword into the ground, instantly carving out a pit.
"As long as we don't step outside this, we'll all survive."
"Understood."
Despite his curiosity, Rick didn't pry and descended into the pit without fuss. Yun-seok felt a wave of relief at that. Someone with that personality wouldn't throw his life away pointlessly by ignoring orders.
"......"
Yun-seok erected a barrier over the pit with Force Shield.
Force Shield
It was the best measure he could take in this situation. At least until his mana ran dry, the inside would be absolutely safe.
"Grroooaaarrr—!"
With basic preparations complete, the demon legion charged wildly toward Yun-seok's position. The Trinity Church forces, now fully battle-ready, did the same.
"The great holy war is blessed by the gods—soldiers of the faith! Fear not!"
It was like a clash between good and evil. One side resembled fiends from hell, the other radiated holy light.
But in Yun-seok's eyes, those two forces—and even himself—included, seemed no different.
So he couldn't help but chuckle.
Pfft.
They say the victor writes the history. If that was true, then tonight, he'd become it—the sole justice in this place.
* * *
"Kill them!"
Killing Yun-seok. They shared that one goal, but the gulf between them was impossible to bridge. One side wanted to reclaim their savior, El. The other wanted that very El dead.
Cooperation was out of the question.
"Filthy human scum!"
"Slaughter those wretched mongrels!"
In an instant, the battlefield fractured into a three-way melee. Demons tore into Trinity soldiers indiscriminately, while Trinity forces banded together to repel the demons. And Yun-seok, at the chaotic center, cut down anyone who approached without mercy.
Slash-slash-slash-thwack—!
Boom-boom!
Humans, demons, beastkin, elves. He didn't care about race, whether they bore evil marks, or what karma floated above their heads.
This might be the true nature of war... but they were enemies, so he killed them.
Boom!
The fierce battle escalated endlessly. Holy warriors with wings of light clashed midair with flying demons, corpses plummeting to the ground. Dark magic flew, only to be nullified by cascades of pure white radiance.
Whatever. Yun-seok slashed and slashed at the swarming foes.
Rumble-rumble-rumble!
Then, at some point, enormous mana surged from the heretic lines. Simultaneously, a massive purple magic circle etched itself across the dark night sky.
And...
"The Demon King...! It's the Demon King! The cursed ruler of Killian has come!"
As if on cue from one soldier's cry, something emerged from the skyward circle, revealing itself from the toes up.
Rumble-rumble-rumble!
A colossal body over 100 meters tall. Majestic black wings and horns. A being truly worthy of the name Demon King, holding a book in one hand and a staff in the other.
"O Demon King! Bring judgment upon these hypocrites ensnared by falsehoods!"
A heretic prayed to the Demon King. Moments later, red light flashed from the book, unleashing a beam of destruction.
Yun-seok just watched. The target wasn't him, after all.
Ziiing.
The beam swept across the battlefield erratically. Blocking it? Impossible. Those caught in it melted away without a trace.
Had it come his way, even Yun-seok would have taken heavy mana damage.
Having El here actually helped, huh.
Yun-seok knew why the Demon King's judgment had spared this spot: El.
"The light of heaven shall protect you—do not yield to evil!"
The Trinity side, having suffered astronomical losses in the short time since the Demon King's arrival, hastily deployed countermeasures. It was a statue about 30 meters tall.
"Woooaaah! It's the guardian idol!"
Was it some secret weapon only Yun-seok was unaware of? The moment the statue appeared at the battlefield's heart, Trinity morale soared sky-high.
No explanation needed—the intuitive effect of the weapon made it obvious.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Waves of light pulsed rhythmically from the statue. Soldiers it touched healed their wounds, while demons crumbled like overburnt ash.
Ziiing—!
The Demon King's beam immediately shifted to the statue. But it couldn't achieve its goal. Hundreds of holy warriors converged in the sky, summoning a massive shield of light to block it.
Sacrifice spell...
The longer the beam persisted, the more holy warriors upholding the shield faltered and plummeted.
Come to think of it, Wellington had mentioned it once: a sacrifice spell that traded life force for immense power.
Anyway, it was do or die. The two sides, unveiling their trump cards, clashed, their forces getting shredded in the process.
But Yun-seok couldn't just rejoice.
Damn it.
Whether due to Immortality or Kanna's sanctuary, the pure white light recognized Yun-seok as an enemy. It didn't reduce him to ash like the demons, but...
Each pulse drained chunks of his mana as backlash.
At this rate, it'd bottom out after one or two more.
Demon Transformation.
Demon Transformation
For 1 minute, immense demonic energy infuses your body.
He pulled out the skill he'd been saving. Originally, he planned to endure until the heretics and Trinity had worn each other down, then use it as a final trump card. But no choice now.
If his mana depleted, the Force Shield would collapse, and even Yun-seok couldn't protect them perfectly in a war of this scale.
The transformation hit instantly. His frame swelled to 4 meters, muscles bulging accordingly. Horns sprouted, wings unfurled from his back. The spiked tail alone looked plenty threatening.
Visually, he resembled a miniature of that Demon King over there—no mismatch there. But he wouldn't fall short.
In this form, for one minute, what he could accomplish...
Clink.
Yun-seok sheathed both swords. Simple reason: wielding them now would be a waste.
Rumble-rumble-rumble!
He raised both palms upward. The surrounding space rippled and distorted like waves. It looked almost like summer heat haze.
But when Yun-seok clenched his fists...
Crack.
Craaack.
The warped space shattered like a fractured mirror.
The authority of spatial dominion, usable only in Demon Transformation.
After a split second, the rifts vanished—but the fragments didn't revert.
Thud-thud-thud.
Living beings and terrain alike fell apart like mangled puzzle pieces, tumbling to the ground. A grotesque sight that left onlookers stunned, but Yun-seok pressed on, wielding the power to its limits without hesitation.
Crack!
Crack!
Craaackle!
Each gesture erased hundreds, sometimes thousands of lives. And from the ruins rose translucent souls, absorbed into Yun-seok's body.
First things first.
Yun-seok extended a hand toward the Trinity statue. The holy warriors were still sacrificing themselves to hold off the Demon King...
Time to end their misery.
Craaackle!
The moment he clenched his fist, Trinity's secret weapon shattered into pieces.
Their self-sacrificial shield? Meaningless before his authority.
"Th-this can't be..."
Where hope vanished, despair filled the void. But Yun-seok, ever fair, turned his hand toward the Demon King.
As expected of a Demon King, it wasn't easy.
Crack!
Crack!
Craaackle!
Did it resist this power? Or was its body simply too vast to handle at once? Unclear, but the Demon King maintained its form amid the twisting, fragmenting space.
Yun-seok didn't panic. The more he used spatial dominion, the better he grasped its efficient application.
Rumble-rumble.
Zzt, zzizzle...
Yun-seok opened his left palm toward the Demon King. His right hand gripped his left wrist.
1 second, 2, 3, 4, 5...
The spatial distortion grew uncontrollably larger.
Now.
Yun-seok balled his fist. Precisely as Demon Transformation's duration ended.
Hummmm—!
No shattering sound this time. More accurately, it couldn't be heard. Only tinnitus filled the ears amid the silence.
The ruptured rift birthed a black sphere at its core, devouring not just sound but everything around it.
Whoosh.
Yun-seok didn't know what the black sphere was. But when Demon Transformation ended and he reverted...
In that instant, everything around the sphere—including the Demon King—had vanished from the space.
"The Demon King..."
A holy warrior muttered. Despite the masses gathered, it was so quiet his voice reached Yun-seok clearly.
But unrelated to that, Yun-seok couldn't help tilting his head.
Demon King? The real one was long dead. Why call him that?
Though compared to being called a hero, it was a hundred times better.