Screeeech—
The rusty hinges screamed as the iron door opened.
Red lighting poured out. In the center of the room, a magical power amplification magic circle was drawn. Right in the middle of it, Hyungil had collapsed.
His body slumped with his back against the wall. His school uniform shirt was soaked dark red. The color had disappeared from his lips, and blood had flowed from his head. With his eyes closed as if dead, it didn’t seem like he was breathing.
Igyeol’s gaze fixed on Hyungil’s chest. On the chest that wasn’t moving as if he wasn’t breathing. 1 second, 2 seconds, 3 seconds.
A faint bursting breath sound was caught by his ears. Haah— Igyeol squeezed his eyes shut and opened them. Only then could he release the fist that had been clenched so tightly it had turned white.
He was alive. Hyungil was badly hurt, but still, he was alive.
Igyeol let go of the long sword. The blade hit the floor and rang with a clang. His knees buckled and he collapsed in front of Hyungil. When he brought his hand to Hyungil’s cheek, it was cold as ice.
“Hyungil-ah.”
The fingers wrapped around Hyungil’s cold cheek trembled like an aspen tree. He should cry but he couldn’t. During the 100 years of surviving in hell chewing and swallowing blood, his tears had long since dried up… If you’re sad, you should cry to be human. But this body can’t do that. What do I do? Hyungil-ah. Hyung is sorry.
Instead, something else came.
What had been sealed in the depths of his heart broke its shackles.
Kwaaaaah—
Dark crimson Demonic Energy explosively surged from Igyeol’s entire body. The magic circle on the floor reacted to Igyeol’s Demonic Energy and burned red. The surrounding air vibrated and cracks began to form on the walls.
Black veins crawled up to the nape of his neck over Igyeol’s pale skin. The white parts of his hair rapidly expanded their territory. His pupils began to be dyed pitch black.
[Warning! Fragment of Beelzebub is going berserk!]
[Erosion rate rapidly rising!]
[52% → 58% → 63%]
System windows blinked crazily in front of his eyes and his vision flickered. A ringing sound buzzed loudly and annoyingly in his ears. But he couldn’t feel any of it.
Igyeol staggered to his feet. He picked up the long sword that had fallen to the floor again. Seureureueng— He removed the scabbard. He wasn’t going to put this back on. The human light was disappearing from his eyes. Since he had rescued Hyungil, he should sweep away the remaining Baekya bastards. He should kill all the bastards who made things like this. If he didn’t end those bastards, they’d come again. They’d take things away again.
He had to destroy them. All of them.
Igyeol staggered and turned his body outside the iron door. He decided to go out like that and kill them all.
“Moon Igyeol.”
A low, firm voice came from behind.
Igyeol’s feet didn’t stop. He walked as if he couldn’t hear. The tip of the blade scraped the floor making a chilling sound.
“Stop.”
It was Sung Yohan’s voice. Watching Igyeol who wouldn’t stop, he bit his lips tightly, walked with long strides, and firmly pulled Igyeol’s back as he was about to leave into an embrace. He wrapped his arms around his waist and embraced his ribcage with one hand. Igyeol flinched and stopped walking.
Fine-textured hair scattered at the nape of Igyeol’s neck.
“Don’t go… Please stop.”
Holy Power of opposing nature began to seep in through the back that touched the intensely emanating Demonic Energy.
“This much is enough. If you go further from here, it’s dangerous—”
Sung Yohan said in a cracked voice with his lips pressed to Igyeol’s ear. As he gradually increased his Holy Power, Igyeol’s Demonic Energy and Holy Power collided head-on and began to amplify the pain. Sung Yohan gritted his teeth at the pain approaching as the opposing energies clashed. Igyeol would feel this too.
“For now, just up to here, and let’s go.”
“Urk—”
Sparks flew. Sung Yohan’s shirt sleeve burned pitch black. Burn marks as if cut by Demonic Energy spread over his forearm. Igyeol bent his neck back at the pain he felt. Clashing energies bring pain. It felt like his vision was turning bright red.
“Let go—!”
“I won’t let go.”
“Urk…! Crazy… You’re burning!”
“It’s fine if I burn.”
Sung Yohan gritted his teeth and held him even tighter. The skin on his forearm sizzled.
“Rather than watching you collapse, this is better.”
“Crazy bastard—”
“Breathe.”
“Heuuk… Ah—”
Sung Yohan whispered desperately.
“Breathe. Breathe with me.”
Sung Yohan’s chest swelled greatly against Igyeol’s back and then subsided. His heartbeat was transmitted along his spine. Thump. Thump. Thump.
“Ah, heuuk… Urk….”
It felt like the absorbed Holy Power was circulating through his entire body and bursting the Demonic Energy. Igyeol flinched and staggered. Physiological tears pooled at the corners of his eyes. He was annoyed. At ending up in this state too. I… I, never again, never again wanted to lose…
“In front of my eyes… the sight of dying, never again……”
Words he had been swallowing for 100 years. Words he couldn’t say even when his comrades melted away before his eyes.
Sung Yohan’s heart constricted.
“You won’t lose him.”
Sung Yohan put more strength into the arms holding Igyeol.
“I won’t let it be that way. Hyungil is alive. You saw his chest rising and falling too.”
Igyeol’s pupils wavered.
“He’s alive. So you live too. Don’t try to die. It’s not the end. Don’t try to end it.”
Those words reached Igyeol’s mind.
Hyungil is alive. He didn’t die.
“Urk… Ah—”
With a thud, the strength left Igyeol’s body that had been struggling.
Ding—
[‘Resonance’ begins.]
[Demonic Energy in the body rapidly stabilizes.]
Pssssss—
The dark crimson Demonic Energy that had been raging like a storm subsided as if it were a lie. Sung Yohan’s Holy Power and Igyeol’s Demonic Energy stopped colliding and began to fuse as if it were a lie. Though they were completely different things, the two chose to coexist.
The strength left Igyeol’s entire body. Sung Yohan’s arms supported Igyeol’s collapsing body.
“Heu… Haah….”
His back was so hot, it felt like it would burn. Sung Yohan’s warmth was too hot.
After going berserk, he was always alone. He just had to burn alone and disappear as ashes, that was all.
For the first time, someone wrapped around him. They lifted him from the fire so he wouldn’t burn completely. While enduring burning themselves.
Igyeol closed his eyes. Sung Yohan’s heartbeat resonated through his back. He couldn’t distinguish whether it was his own heart or Sung Yohan’s heart.
After the silence, Igyeol said in a completely cracked voice.
“…I won’t treat you for free.”
Sung Yohan let out a deflated laugh.
“You’re thorough with calculations. I like it.”
Igyeol didn’t push away the hand that was lifting him up.
***
At the same time.
A man who had been languidly leaning against a top-grade leather sofa was staring at a multi-vision screen. The screen was broadcasting the situation inside the artificial Gate of the Miyang-dong abandoned factory in real-time. The last video transmitted before the magical power detection-type CCTV was retrieved.
On the screen, the image of one man swinging a long sword was playing on repeat. Ashen hair, thin build, hoodie. Overwhelming movements that didn’t match his shabby appearance at all. It didn’t take 3 seconds to bring down ten organization members.
The fountain pen held in the man’s hand broke in half with a snap.
The man looked at him with a face full of wonder. With a face thick with inexpressible joy, as if very surprised, he looked at the screen. He watched the screen for a long while, then slowly rubbed the frozen screen on the monitor with his ink-stained fingers. The face on the screen smeared over the ink mark.
“…You were alive.”
Yes, I thought you wouldn’t have died. He smiled. He never thought that Blood Asura would have died at the Gate of Reversed Heaven. Because that’s not the Blood Asura. Because my Blood Asura couldn’t be like that. If it’s my god… Yes. That’s right.
The man, Viper, soon smiled faintly and ordered his subordinate standing behind him.
“Find everything. Down to the very bottom, everything.”
Without leaving a single thing.
His lips twisted very slowly, bizarrely.
