Chapter 978

Every now and then, I catch myself realizing how much I’ve changed.

In this miserable fight, where every moment demands that I risk my life, I keep moving forward—and feel a thrill I can’t explain.

“Jin Taekyung!”

A shout like a lion’s roar lashed at my ears.

Beyond the wind whipping around me, I brought White Flame down on the blood-red light bursting from the North Heaven Demon Lord’s fingertips.

Shhk!

The enormous Palm Force split in two along the path of my spearhead.

Leaving behind the tremendous impact and explosion as the deflected Palm Force shook the cliffs on either side, I planted my foot on the ground once more.

Tap.

The flames that should have burst forth from Flamefire Path were nowhere to be seen.

My feet, guided by the Slaughter Saint’s teachings, felt lighter than ever. I shot forward like a flash of light.

Like the beam that had suddenly come streaking from far across the gorge.

Shwaaa!

Compressed air tore apart. At the arrow of light that had outrun even sound, the North Heaven Demon Lord swung a fist seething with rage and internal energy.

BOOOOM!

Contact. Then an explosion.

Within the swelling flash, I saw the beam the Bow Saint had shot vanish into the dark red glow.

I seized the opening. By the time the North Heaven Demon Lord’s eyes caught my reflection, I was right in front of him.

I can see it.

The world slowed in an instant.

Everything around me was sharp and vivid.

His lips moving slowly, as though he were trying to say something.

His eyes, so red there wasn’t a trace of white left in them.

And the condensed Palm Force blocking the spearhead I had thrust forward with all my might.

Krrrk!

Two different Forces collided. Blue-white flames and dark red shadows met in midair, mingling as they sent out a violent wave of force.

“Just… this much.”

His words came in broken fragments.

The North Heaven Demon Lord glared at me, gripping my spearhead in one hand. Streams of blazing red seemed to pour from his eyes.

“Did you think you could defeat me—Murong Baek—with this?”

Zzzzzzt!

An unprecedented energy flared up like a wildfire, pressing down on the flames carried by my spearhead. The power the North Heaven Demon Lord had gained by burning even his own life came at a steep and tremendous price: a death already set in stone.

Even with all my fatigue and injuries completely healed after I took down Jamukha, victory seemed impossible.

But…

Yeah. This is about what I expected.

I smiled.

The strength I sensed from the North Heaven Demon Lord was within the range I’d expected.

And the energy rushing in from behind me, fast as a flash of light, was immense enough to rival his.

Now.

There was no shouted warning. No Sound Transmission.

But I knew. So did he.

Even without seeing each other, we knew each other too well.

So, without the slightest fear or hesitation, we moved as the thought flashed through our minds.

Slip.

The instant I let go of the spear shaft and turned halfway around—

A streak of flame, hidden behind my body—a frame massive enough to be called a giant—filled the space I’d left and exploded.

Gooooong.

Like the breath of a fire dragon from legend, pure white hellfire blazed across the darkness.

It burned away the dew in the dawn air, vaporizing it as it rushed toward the North Heaven Demon Lord.

Fire. King.

His lips moved ever so slightly, forming a soundless cry. His eyes, heated by the scorching air, wavered, losing their focus.

Confusion and fear he couldn’t hide.

Those emotions, revealed on instinct, meant the North Heaven Demon Lord had sensed someone else—not me or Jeok Cheongang.

Shwaaa!

Behind him, two gently curved blades traced beautiful arcs.

The strike was utterly unlike the furious flames bearing down on him from the front, yet the energy it carried was no less deadly.

“……!”

In the slowed world, the North Heaven Demon Lord’s eyes flew wide.

Jeok Cheongang’s Flame-Extinguishing Divine Fist came from the front. From behind, the Bow Saint’s twin blades, transformed into curved swords, came down on him.

Two Supreme Peak masters unleashed a terrifying combined attack. With neither time nor room to dodge, he had no choice left.

BOOM! KAAAAAABOOM!

In an instant, all the darkness hanging over the gorge lifted.

A blood-red glow burst out, wrapping around the North Heaven Demon Lord’s entire body.

Krrrrrk!

The world shook. A relentless wave of force swept in every direction, and the ground crumbled beneath the three combatants’ feet.

Crack! Krrrk!

The ground split like a spiderweb, unable to withstand the tremendous pressure.

As I had done at the last moment, the North Heaven Demon Lord twisted his body and changed direction. His whole frame shuddered violently like a tree caught in a typhoon.

His face twisted like a Fiend’s as he caught Jeok Cheongang’s fist in one hand and both of the Bow Saint’s curved blades in the other.

No. He was already a Fiend. Had been for a long time.

No matter how many years a monster spent wearing a human face, its nature didn’t disappear.

The North Heaven Demon Lord—Murong Baek—had crossed a river from which there was no return.

Like so many other monsters who had pursued the Demonic Path for their own reasons, heading off somewhere.

Crack—splatter!

Blood gushed from the flesh and joints of bone, slowly being cut and crushed.

The North Heaven Demon Lord convulsed in pain beyond anything he had imagined.

Both hands, holding off the Fire King and the Bow Saint, were losing their shape even now.

Yet one thing would remain unchanged to the end: those eyes filled with bitter hatred.

“Why? Why…?”

I could feel all the pain and hatred in the North Heaven Demon Lord’s voice as he ground the words out through teeth clenched hard enough to draw blood.

I could feel the sliver of fear he couldn’t quite hide as I slowly approached, too.

“I… won’t… die.”

The North Heaven Demon Lord’s words broke apart between gasping breaths. Jeok Cheongang answered, his expression calm.

“Everyone dies. People and monsters alike.”

The blood-red light that seemed about to devour the whole world and the force that had been pressing down on everything around us were nowhere to be seen now.

Even if some remained, they were fading like a lamp before the wind.

Krrrk.

The pressure was more than one hand could withstand.

Before the white hellfire Jeok Cheongang drew forth with all his strength, alongside his quiet reply, the North Heaven Demon Lord finally dropped to one knee.

BOOM!

The ground caved in beneath him. The Bow Saint’s voice reached the North Heaven Demon Lord as he stared with eyes bulging wide.

“We’re born human, and we make our choices by our own judgment. There is no right answer. But… this is the consequence of your choice.”

What life has a right answer?

Life isn’t multiple choice. It isn’t a test graded on short answers or essays, either.

Whatever life a person has lived, looking back, there will always be at least one thing they regret. That is what human life is.

But both the judgment and the consequences are your own. That’s all.

“Murong Baek, the Divine Spear of the Imugi. No—the North Heaven Demon Lord. It’s time to accept the consequence of your choice.”

There’s a reason and a history behind every martial artist’s sobriquet.

When I heard that unfamiliar one from the Bow Saint’s lips, I felt as though I’d caught a glimpse of the life Murong Baek had lived.

The imugi.

An imugi that never became a dragon.

And at the same time, an imugi that had wanted to become a dragon more than anyone.

Maybe that was why.

Why he had struggled so desperately to obtain the dragon pearl.

Why he had searched for every excuse and justification to remain beneath Dark Heaven’s shadow, hoping to become a dragon soaring freely through the azure heaven.

But knowing something and understanding it are different.

Even if every story he’d told us was true, I would never understand Murong Baek, the North Heaven Demon Lord.

No. I would refuse to understand him.

The day I understood him would be the day I became a monster, too, on the far side of that deep, dark river.

“Before you go, know this.”

With a quiet voice, I reached out.

The pure white spear shaft the North Heaven Demon Lord had been forced to let go of to face Jeok Cheongang and the Bow Saint flew into my grip as though drawn there.

“Not everyone in the world makes the same choice you did.”

The weak are cast aside, and the strong survive.

That’s how this world has always been—always, without fail.

The law of the jungle existed not just in Murim, but in the modern world, too. And it would continue to exist, with means other than spears and swords.

But if everyone made the same choice as the North Heaven Demon Lord out of fear of being cast aside, the world would already have become a hellscape.

A place without even the barest sense of decency or benevolence.

A terrible world that went on endlessly for one purpose alone: to devour others or be devoured.

But not everyone is like the North Heaven Demon Lord. That’s why I still think this world is worth living in.

And I believe, too—

Among all those countless people scattered like stars across the night sky, whoever gave such inexplicable power to an unremarkable F-rank Hunter must feel the same way.

“Now, go.”

I didn’t wait for an answer.

I simply thrust my spearhead, wreathed in blue-white flames, into him—quietly and without hesitation.

Toward the North Heaven Demon Lord, who still refused to give up, struggling as he burned through every bit of life left in his body.

Toward the chest of a monster who had lived not simply to protect what was precious to him, but to seize what belonged to others and make himself greater.

Thud.

The blazing flames pierced flesh and bone.

As if someone had lit a candle, the being in the darkness suddenly opened its eyes.

How long had it been asleep?

How much time had passed in that abyssal dream where everything was tangled together?

It couldn’t know.

The question was familiar, and the conclusion was always the same.

It had always been that way for the being in the darkness.

Whenever it woke, the world had changed. It had once slept for decades, after all.

But as the years passed and the intervals between its awakenings grew shorter, it had begun to realize something.

The day it had thought it would never reach had, at some point, drawn right up to its doorstep.

Fwoooosh.

A cool wind swept through the area. In moments, it became a raging gale.

It extinguished the torches that faintly lit the thick darkness and shook the ground and roof.

That sudden upheaval, like great waves rising on a tranquil lake, was proof that the being in the darkness had realized why it had opened its eyes.

North Heaven.

The fourth heaven had fallen. Another faithful servant was gone.

The news would soon shock all beneath the heavens.

But alone in the darkness, the being smiled.