“Hello?”
A man turned his head at Hermila’s relaxed voice.
“Oh my… you haven’t changed at all, have you?”
Hermila’s eyes widened in genuine surprise as she poked the forehead of a charging experiment body with her finger and chuckled kukuk.
“Have you been keeping up with your maintenance? It’s as if nothing has changed since back then. No, you actually seem younger!”
With that, she yanked the experiment body’s head kudguk, shaking off the blood on her hands.
“Anyway, it’s nice to see you after such a long time.”
Hermila’s necklace sparkled. At the same time, the man’s necklace also glittered.
Seeing both in her sight, Hermila smiled wryly.
“What should I call you?”
A man who once stood at the peak of humankind with just a punch, wiping out countless evils.
“Demon Saint (鬪聖)?”
The man, becoming an idol of many as a mortal, who dared to invoke a god’s name.
“Demon God (鬪神)? Or perhaps—”
And the one who raised and taught her when she was abandoned.
“Master?”
The man facing Hermila, whose gaze had turned icy, shook his head.
“Master, Aaron. That is my name.”
Listening to his calmly resonating voice, Hermila sighed.
“Such a waste for the title of Demon God.”
“Arrogant, aren’t you?”
But Aaron was firm.
“Not at all. You were endlessly worthy of that title.”
“Hermila. You must have felt it too. The god we were chasing is something we, as mortals, could never hope to touch.”
“I felt it. I felt it deeply. No matter how many futures I’ve seen and painted, even if I burned away the last spark of my life, I just felt there was no way to win. But…”
Hermila’s gaze trailed toward the Temple of Memory.
She recalled the girl who was undergoing trials within.
The girl not destined to exist in her future as written in the prophecy.
The girl pointed out by the apocalyptic signs.
A girl who knew how to gather materials for profit better than anyone, despite knowing nothing about the world.
A girl who couldn’t face people but outshone everyone when dealing with monsters.
A girl who felt things clearer than the blind.
A girl who would help anyone in trouble, almost obsessively, during requests.
And…
For the sake of her loved ones, accomplishing the unbelievable with a nonchalant smile.
As if it were simply her duty, she smiled brightly.
Noah.
“It wasn’t that way. The way I felt was simply because we were weak. You, and me.”
“Do you think that demon could pull it off?”
Kwa-jik—Aaron’s punch shattered the bodies of the experiment bodies rushing at Hermila.
Hermila smiled wryly as she observed Aaron’s attack reaching her faster than she could react.
“A demon? Hmm… I see. To others, I suppose I’d look like a demon. But to me, it seems adorably cute. Huhuh.”
“It’s not too late even now. Join me, Hermila. I will guarantee your life.”
Contemplating Aaron’s words, Hermila tied up the bandages and lifted her head to face the battlefield.
“That’s a problem. I have many followers. Many of them have passed away… If I were to do that, who knows, they might come back as ghosts to haunt me. Can you catch ghosts, Master?”
Aaron narrowed his eyes in response to Hermila’s playful remark, glaring at her with a tight-lipped expression.
“You still don’t take jokes. That’s why you haven’t married yet and are still single. Still… I’m a bit touched. That you still think of me… I suppose some things never change.”
Hermila straightened her posture. The man did the same.
Same stance.
Same breath.
Same aura.
“I will drag you whether you like it or not.”
“If you try, I’ll cleanly commit suicide.”
With that parting remark, a thunderous sound erupted as if to shatter the sky.
The fists of the two collided.
*
With rough foot clouds, thousands of thorns erupted from the ground, distorting. As shadows surged forward with writhing tentacles, he reinforced gravity while slicing with his halberd.
Kwa-jik—Crimson blood dropped heavily onto the vanished ground.
However, Heinzel didn’t care and charged forward with immense gravity crushing down on Kalt.
“Ugh! Stop being pathetic and come at me fiercely!”
The weighty halberd, distorting vision, fell toward Kalt’s head.
But, shooosh—
Contrary to Heinzel’s intent, the halberd passed through Kalt’s body and stuck into the ground.
Dust rose thickly. Amidst it, hundreds of tentacles surged forth. Thousands of thorns erupted.
Unfazed by the failed attack, Heinzel raised a wave of gravity around him, creating a massive barrier.
The rising dust settled in an instant.
The path of the surging tentacles twisted and staked into the ground.
The rising thorns also warped, losing their thorn-like shape.
Kalt did not halt the assault there.
He swung the obsidian sword in his hand and cut through the curtain of gravity, aiming for Heinzel.
A myriad of shadow tentacles and a sword drawn in a line. The speed, the intensity—none could be felt.
There was no way to dodge.
Too late to deflect it with the halberd.
In beast-like instinct, Heinzel reached a conclusion. He thought one arm was better than his neck, and instead reached out with his bare hand instead of the halberd.
And ka-ga-kak—it was stopped.
Surprise dawned on Kalt’s face, which had shown no emotion until now.
The sword, made of shadow, should have pierced through everything, but it was stopped by an unknown prosthetic.
This brief moment of confusion.
Having fought according to instinct all along without deep thought, Heinzel still had no thought. The brief window opened by that confusion was an opportunity not lost on him.
“Whaaa!!”
His right arm, added with gravity, slammed into Kalt’s abdomen at an unbelievable speed.
Jjeong—A massive ripple emerged in Kalt’s shadowy form.
And kak—Grabbing the obsidian sword that touched his left hand, Heinzel drove it into the ground and swung his arm again.
Kwaang—A massive crater formed as Kalt was slammed down onto the ground.
Laughing heartily, Heinzel raised his arm high again, feeling a chilling energy on his nape just as he did so.
At the same time, shadows surged from all directions toward Kalt’s body.
“Oh…”
Heinzel, who flinched at the sudden chill on his nape, surveyed the battlefield with heavy eyes.
The source of those many shadows laid among the scattered experiment bodies.
“Hmm…”
Heinzel, gulping down an elixir from his possession, remembered something Hermila once told him.
The bodies of the experiment bodies were made of divine power.
The bodies of the masters also had the goddess’s level, meaning divine power was imbued within.
And his arms, Mistilteinn, were crafted to shatter that divine power.
“I didn’t dodge; it simply didn’t affect me.”
Realizing that only his bare hands could land hits, Heinzel immediately discarded the halberd.
“So, that attack earlier didn’t hit my halberd but rather my bare hands? A Master and still such a fool! Kuhahaha!”
Confirming that all the broken bones and torn flesh throughout his body were healed, Heinzel cracked his knuckles eoddeuk eoddeuk and strode toward Kalt.
Absorbing all those shadows would surely make him stronger than before. But that was not what mattered right now.
What mattered was that his attack would reach the bastard.
Heinzel believed in his head and instincts and clenched his fist. He would recall Hermila’s movements.
Having taken countless hits before, he surely found it easy to remember…
Easy…
“Hmm, I have no clue.”
Giving up on deep thought as usual, Heinzel rubbed his shiny bald head and kept moving.
At the same time, Kalt’s new form, no longer recognizable, began to rise.
Killing intent that made the skin crawl.
Magical power that threatened to swallow up the area.
A palpable gap in levels.
Even if he reached out, or struggled, he could not touch the Master’s level as it weighed down on him.
The blade of death leaned in, meeting his gaze.
The tingle of imminent death in his nape remained firm.
And then…
The light of the spirits dimmed.
The sky, once shrouded by the mystery of the highest spirit, Karma, revealed its true appearance.
The sky soaked in the colors of dusk.
A black sun rose beneath it.
A dark light descended upon the blood-soaked ground.
The overwhelming power felt from Kalt surged even higher, towering above that which Heinzel couldn’t dare to sense.
The remnants of shadows sprang toward Heinzel.
He reached out to swat them away.
And they scattered.
Still, he remained in range.
If he could touch it, he could hit it.
If he could hit it, he could kill it.
If he could kill it, then…
I win.
A deeply simple calculation.
A foolish conclusion.
But it was what had brought Heinzel here until now.
Pakang—A clear sound rang out from his tightly clenched fist.
Jjeolgeureok—The Mistilteinn, twisted to its limits by the muscles of his body, responded to Heinzel’s will.
At the same time, shadows gathered to a limit around Kalt. Rising. Eventually, surging forth as they poured down.
A disaster created by a being that was no longer human.
Before such an overwhelming disaster, a mere human lifted his head without yielding. He was not broken. He laughed.
Laughing, he walked forward.
“Kuhuhuhuhaha!”
The dreadful sounds of destruction were drowned by his boisterous laughter.
The sticky, bloody smell was cloaked by the scent of his sweat.
Heinzel pressed on, steadfast.
