Chapter 584

Ruuuuumble!

A pillar of fire shot into the sky. The mountain shook. For hundreds of meters¹ in every direction, the air boiled with heat so intense that snow, dirt, and rock melted away.

Lava flowed across a land of death. Above the ground where everything else had evaporated, two figures stood like towers.

—Hu. Man. How. Dare. You!

The mythical monster raged, its body charred black. The half-gray-haired old butler regarded it calmly.

Hell Fire.

Even the hellfire summoned from the depths of hell had failed to bring Behemoth down. One of its enormous tusks had melted away without a trace, and its entire body was charred black, but the monster remained standing.

And yet…

“You’re a tough bastard.”

Kim Hwajong did not retreat. He could not.

He tightened his grip on his Magic Staff with his one remaining hand.

Fwoosh.

Flames engulfed the short, slender staff. When they passed, the staff that emerged was longer and thicker.

It was the cherished weapon with which he had reduced countless monsters to ash during the chaotic years of the Great Cataclysm—the weapon that had earned its master the name Hellfire Mage.

Kim Hwajong pointed the reddish staff at Behemoth and muttered,

“Stop. You’re not going anywhere.”

—Old. Man!

Behemoth roared. The black mist hanging over the area stirred like a living creature and shot toward Kim Hwajong.

Sssshhhh!

It was a rope that could bind his whole body and a blade that could tear through flesh and crush it.

Kim Hwajong watched it close in from every direction. Then the staff in his bloodied hand struck the ground.

BOOM!

A deep rumble sent a wave spreading outward. Flames rose around Kim Hwajong and joined into a single ring.

Fwoosh—FWOOSH!

Before fire was a symbol of destruction, it was a force of purification.

The instant the black mist touched the flames, it crumbled away like ash.

The enormous eyes of the monster looking down upon the earth reflected the figure of a lone human standing tall.

—What. Is. This?

Even Behemoth had not expected it.

Its opponent was a mere human. Yet the small, insignificant creature had wounded it—and now had nullified its attack.

—You. Hu. Man!

A roar laden with powerful Fear shook the entire area. But though fire flickered in Kim Hwajong’s eyes, his heart was utterly calm.

The monster had misjudged one thing.

It did not realize that the old human standing before it possessed none of the fear that everyone carried deep in their hearts.

I’m glad, Young Master.

Kim Hwajong smiled at the words that would never reach him. His only fear was moving farther from this disaster even now.

As long as that child, Choi Minwoo, could survive… it did not matter what happened to him.

Even if I die here.

He could be crushed beneath the monster’s feet, impaled on its tusks and killed without a final word, or reduced to ash after wringing every last bit of strength from his body and mana. It would be all right.

If the Young Master is safe, that is enough for me.

Kim Hwajong gripped his staff with a glad heart.

Mana poured into the tip of his reddish weapon in an amount that had already pushed him beyond his limits. It grew hot, then burst forth as flame.

“Sweep it away.”

Fire Wave.

At the brief incantation, a wave of fire surged forward.

Behemoth stood in its path. With an enraged cry, it swung its trunk, shaped like an elephant’s but dozens of times larger.

FWOOSH!

A powerful rush of wind slammed into the wave of fire. The blistering heat died in an instant, and invisible blades of wind raked everything around them.

Ssshhh-shhk! Slash!

The ground split and tore like paper. Kim Hwajong had already escaped by the narrowest margin.

A low voice escaped between the old butler’s lips as he charged toward Behemoth’s flank.

“Shoot forth.”

Blaze.

BOOM!

Flames burst from the tip of the foot he planted.

The blast sent Kim Hwajong forward like a streak of fire. A dense shadow fell over his head.

Whoooosh!

“…!”

Instinct beat reason by half a step. Fire Shield. At the silent, unspoken spell, layer upon layer of fiery shields formed above him.

In the next instant, tremendous pressure crushed down on the more than twenty overlapping shields.

CRRRRUNCH!

They shattered and scattered.

The overwhelming force and weight—and the immense magical power behind them, whose limits he could not begin to fathom—broke through the shields and sent his mana reeling.

Ptooey!

Dark red blood sprayed from Kim Hwajong’s lips.

His vision blurred as the spell collapsed. But instead of crumpling where he stood, he clenched his teeth and threw himself aside, almost falling.

CRACK! THUD!

The defensive spell had bought him a moment.

Behemoth’s trunk swept past by a hair and smashed into the ground. Hundreds of fragments flew outward, scraping across Kim Hwajong’s calf.

The pain felt like a burn. But instead of groaning, the old butler exposed his bloodstained teeth and smiled.

“Didn’t I tell you? You’re not going anywhere.”

His staff gave off searing heat. A sphere of flame appeared in midair and swelled.

Kim Hwajong coughed up blood.

“Burst. Barrage of fire.”

Flame Cannon.

Dazzling light-flames erupted as the spell was completed.

The ultimate fire spell, carrying power faster and more formidable than any cannon, shot toward the monster’s two forelegs—the same forelegs that Choi Minwoo had already cut halfway through.

—You…!

FWOOSH—BOOOOOOM!

Behemoth’s cry vanished beneath a blast that shook the entire area.

The fire that tore through space burst open the wounds that had not yet healed and swept through the inside of the legs.

Sizzle.

Agonizing pain surged from its forelegs, now blackened like charcoal. Behemoth roared.

—GRAAAAAAAAAAH!

Ruuuuumble!

At last, its two forelegs gave way.

The mythical monster that had risen from the abyss into this world dropped to its forelegs like a collapsing temple.

Its immense weight shook the earth. A great cloud of dust rose.

And the man who had brought Behemoth to its knees laughed as he spat blood.

“Ha! Hahahaha!”

It was the laughter of a Hunter once called the greatest fire mage, and the relief of a butler who had done his duty.

That’s enough. That’s enough.

Half of Behemoth’s four legs were useless.

Unless it grew wings, it could no longer pursue Choi Minwoo. No small number of others would survive because of it, too.

Kim Hwajong smiled at the dark shadow flying toward him.

Still, just a little… I wish…

CRACK! Sssshhhh!

His vision flashed white. An enormous blow engulfed him in pain and sent him flying like a cannonball.

BOOM!

With a thunderous crash, his back smashed into solid rock and broke. Something unstoppable surged up from deep inside him.

“Gueeeeeegh!”

The old butler looked down at what he had vomited, the light fading from his eyes. Small pieces of his organs lay in the pool of dark red blood.

His ears felt blocked, as though his eardrums had burst. Through his blurred vision, a memory from long ago rose like a haze.

“Your fire magic is impressive. Were you an arsonist before this?”

“…What kind of crazy shit is that? If you’re not going to help, get lost.”

“Fortunately, I won’t have to ‘go out,’ then. I’m going to help you and everyone here.”²

“Hmm. That changes things. What’s your name?”

“Cheon Taemin.”

He had not known that this man, who looked absurdly young for his age, would become the idol to whom Kim Hwajong would devote his entire life.

But that became reality soon enough.

One year, two years, five years… By the end of the long, terrible Great War, Kim Hwajong had become Cheon Taemin’s shadow.

“What am I supposed to do now?”

The Great Cataclysm had changed Kim Hwajong’s life completely, just as it had changed so many others. He had waited so long for peace, yet when it finally came, he did not know what to do with himself.

Cheon Taemin answered his question with one of his own.

“What do you want to do?”

“I don’t know. But I’ll do anything you ask.”

“Then join the Guild. I need you. I’ve brought Jungryong and Cheonwoo in too.”

“That Peace Guild thing?”

“Yes.”

“The name’s pretty damn lame. How about Ares instead? The god of war from Greek mythology. Ares.”

“Ares, huh? Not bad. I’ll take your suggestion, so join the Guild. I’ll make sure you never have to worry about retirement.”

“…Office work really doesn’t suit me. All right, Guild Master.”

“I’ve told you to call me hyung³ about five thousand times over the last five years. You never change.”

As Taemin had said, Kim Hwajong never did.

Not even after his relationship with his two trusted comrades and closest sworn brothers grew distant, and after it became difficult to see Cheon Taemin’s face.

Peace had come, but Kim Hwajong’s fiery temper remained, and he still swore constantly.

He decided to change only after a child born amid everyone’s blessings lost both parents in an unexpected accident.

“Hello.”

“…Hello.”

Only a few people had gathered for the funeral. The boy, no more than four or five years old, looked lonely.

He clung to the leg of his maternal grandfather, now his only family, and greeted Kim Hwajong with a somber face. The sight pained the aging man.

Perhaps that was why, when Cheon Taemin came to him a few days later, he accepted without hesitation.

“Could you take care of Minwoo? Of the boy?”

The immortal hero who had become a symbol of humanity was always busy. Even after the Great Cataclysm ended, Cheon Taemin lived as though something were chasing him.

In his place, Kim Hwajong became family to the child left alone.

“Good day, Young Master.”

Neat hair and clothes. A gentle voice. A smile at the corners of his mouth.

That was how the Hellfire Mage, who had set a page of the Great Cataclysm ablaze, became Butler Kim.

“Young Master, you mustn’t run! You’ll hurt yourself—oh dear.”

“Young Master. Being a picky eater is bad for your health. Please eat.”

“Young Master, please don’t cry.”

Young Master. Young Master. Young Master…

Time flowed like a river.

The boy grew into a young man, and white frost settled over Kim Hwajong’s hair.

Even after Cheon Taemin vanished without a trace, Kim Hwajong remained steadfast in his place.

His Young Master no longer ran about recklessly, ate every kind of food without complaint, or cried while thinking of the parents who had left him too soon.

Then, one day, Kim Hwajong saw traces of someone he had not seen in a long time in the grown young man’s face.

“You said you were going to create a Guild.”

“Yes. I’m sorry to ask, Butler Kim, but I need you to serve as Guild Master.”

“If that is what you wish, Young Master, I will do anything. But what do you intend to name the Guild?”

“The Peace Guild. I’m going to call it the Peace Guild.”

“…!”

“Butler Kim, why do you look so… displeased?”

What could he say? So many thoughts came at once that the old butler hesitated. Then he burst out laughing.

“Not at all. The Peace Guild. What a wonderful name.”

And so the past met the present.

From the founding of the Peace Guild onward, Kim Hwajong greeted each day with joy and memories. His Young Master, who had worn a cold, rigid mask, softened after finding “comrades” for the first time in his life. The Guild grew day by day.

Kim Hwajong thought there would be nothing but good days ahead. From then on. Forever.

He thought he would stay beside his Young Master and watch him grow.

Today really was… the best day of my life.

Cough.

Kim Hwajong laughed as he vomited blood mixed with pieces of his organs.

There was only one reason he could laugh as he died: something his Young Master had said to him today.

“Thank you. For becoming my only family.”

And what else had the Young Master said?

“I’ve always wanted to tell you that.”

Yes. That was it.

Kim Hwajong raised his head, coughing. Thick black mist filled his fading vision.

Somewhere beyond it, his only hope—and his only fear—was probably alive and leaving this place.

“I want to… see you.”

The words trembled between his bloodied lips.

The mythical monster smiled in satisfaction at the dying old butler and opened its jaws.

FWOOSH.

A tremendous gust swept through the entire area.

The flames that had yet to go out, someone’s scattered limbs and blood, even the rocks—all were drawn in.

They spun like a tornado inside Behemoth’s mouth.

“Young… Master.”

No. That was not it. Though his words would never reach him, this was his final greeting.

A faint smile touched his wrinkled lips.

“Minwoo.”

At the very moment his fading voice escaped—

Sssshhhh—FLASH!

A burst of light erupted in midair and turned the whole world white.