Cutting down demons, and cutting down more.
As they passed through each room, the air gradually became heavy and damp like viscous liquid. The demonic energy constantly seeping from all directions was so dense and unpleasant that an ordinary Awakener would find it difficult to even stand and breathe. It even gave the illusion of walking through the stomach of a giant beast.
The demons grew stronger as they went, but before the Holy Sword held by Vermouth, they were merely annoying weeds blocking the path. Each time a blue trajectory flashed, the demons couldn’t even scream and became ashes scattered into the air.
Ian tightly wrapped around Vermouth’s neck as he silently advanced, constantly pushing his power into him. Despite endlessly consuming power, Vermouth’s breathing remained perfectly steady thanks to the power Ian supplied.
“Ian-nim, we’ll arrive soon.”
Vermouth briefly warned as he slowed his steps.
“I know.”
Before long, a massive door appeared ahead. The door carved with the forms of wailing people made one’s mind dizzy just looking at it. This was the final destination of this gate.
“It’s inside here. Shall we enter?”
“Of course we have to enter.”
They’d walked for quite a while, yet hadn’t seen a single human corpse. That meant they were all inside. Perhaps they’d take hyung hostage and try to kill Ian. But even so, he couldn’t back down here.
“Let’s go.”
At that point, Ian started walking on his own feet. Vermouth didn’t bother to stop him from dirtying his feet. Because he knew that the real battle would begin from now on.
Vermouth extended his sword toward the final door.
Kwaaaaang—!
The heavy steel door let out a terrible rupturing sound and was flung inside as if screaming. Beyond the white cloud of dust that rose, the interior scenery was revealed, and Ian involuntarily drew in a breath.
Before his eyes stretched an endless graveyard. Parts of decayed corpses protruded from the rotting earth. Looking up at the sky, instead of a ceiling, what was visible was bizarrely swirling blood-red clouds.
In such a place, people belonging to Stigma were sprawled lifelessly like puppets with cut strings. And in the center of that hellscape, a massive knight clad in silver armor and a black cloak stood firmly.
Death Knight Kairam.
A knight of death who had brutally massacred numerous Holy Knights on the Lancia continent and crossed blades with Vermouth hundreds of times in the past. The blue light flashing beyond his helmet swept over the visitors.
But Ian’s gaze wasn’t fixed on Kairam, but on the familiar form collapsed at his feet.
“Hyung!”
A scream burst from Ian’s mouth. The man lying there in tatters was definitely Choi Jaeheon. His always neat clothes were torn to shreds and soaked in blood, and Kairam’s massive demon sword was deeply embedded in his back. That ominous sword pulsed like a heartbeat, greedily sucking out Choi Jaeheon’s life force.
“Hyung! Hyung…!”
At Ian’s voice, Choi Jaeheon barely raised his blood-caked eyes. His entire body was already seriously contaminated by Kairam’s demonic energy, with black veins bulging like spiderwebs over his white skin. Each time he breathed, dark red blood flowed from the corners of his mouth.
“Ian…”
Choi Jaeheon groaned desperately while scratching the sticky floor with his crushed fingers.
To remain by Ian’s side as complete family as Ian had wanted, he’d left the house himself to hide the emotions and obsession boiling inside him that he couldn’t control. But that pathetic action ultimately resulted in calling his younger brother into this terrible deathtrap.
Choi Jaeheon felt despair deeper than death at the fact that he had to watch Ian calling out to him while sobbing, rather than the pain of his flesh being torn.
“Run away…”
A hoarse voice forcibly squeezed out past his lips. Beside that miserable figure, Hong Seoyoon stood precariously, squeezing out his remaining flame ability to the limit. His flames that always burned arrogantly had already lost their blue light and were dying out.
“Hey, you crazy bastard. How did you crawl all the way here?”
Hong Seoyoon spat out profanity he’d never used to Ian in his life.
“Get out, get out right now!”
Even while saying this, Hong Seoyoon was trying to block between Kairam and Ian. But in Ian’s eyes, only their pain was vivid, more than their devotion.
It was when Ian couldn’t stand it and tried to run. The deep shadow in the corner of the hall rippled bizarrely, and Kim Minchul revealed his vile true form.
“You’ve finally arrived, our noble Saint.”
Kim Minchul spread both arms and smiled brightly as if showing off this terrible space.
“This gate is a special altar painstakingly prepared only for you. As you can see, that human’s life force is already perfectly connected to the core of this space. The more you struggle to save that human, the more the divine power you pour out will become nourishment for this gate.”
Kim Minchul’s lips rose as if they’d tear to his ears.
“The moment that power exceeds the critical point, a passage will open to bring the great race to this land. That pitiful goodwill of yours will soon become their terrible death, and ultimately call forth the destruction of this world. Isn’t that a truly splendid ending?”
Kim Minchul’s mockery echoed throughout the hall. As if responding to those words, Kairam roughly pulled up the demon sword embedded in Choi Jaeheon.
At the same time, Vermouth stepped forward and aimed his Holy Sword diagonally. His usual indifference was nowhere to be found, and in its place dwelled disgust and anger.
“Ian-nim, please go.”
Vermouth immediately pushed Ian’s back.
“I will make it so that bastard can never be seen on this land again. Without my permission, no one will be able to touch a single hair on Ian-nim’s head, so you do what you must do.”
Simultaneously with that declaration, Vermouth kicked off the ground and shot out. Kairam also charged fiercely while swinging his massive demon sword.
Kwaang—!
Vermouth’s pure white sword energy and Kairam’s pitch-black demonic energy collided head-on, bursting out an eardrum-tearing rupturing sound. Just the shockwaves the two knights emitted as they clashed caused the surroundings to crumble.
In that pandemonium, Ian desperately headed toward Choi Jaeheon. His breath rose to his chin, but he couldn’t stop.
“Hyung! Open your eyes! Hyung!”
Ian knelt beside Choi Jaeheon and pressed his trembling hands against his chest. But the moment his hands touched, a terrible sense of wrongness swept chillingly over Ian’s entire body. Kim Minchul’s words weren’t a simple threat. Though he’d treated countless injured people in Lancia, this sensation was a first.
When using his power, wounds should have healed with warm warmth. But now it was different. No matter how much divine power he poured in, it felt like it was leaking somewhere.
But he couldn’t give up. Ian gathered all the power he had and poured it out. His complexion turned pale in an instant, but he didn’t stop. Because he could see hyung’s complexion gradually improving.
‘But I can’t continue like this.’
Compared to the amount of bleeding, the wounds were healing too slowly. Humans die when they lose more than a certain amount of blood. Moreover, it was just as the demon had said earlier. The power he was pouring out was helping to maintain this space.
Rationally, he knew. In Lancia, everyone would have said so. Stop the treatment right now and kill the demons. But he couldn’t do that. The person here right now was his only family. Even if they weren’t connected by blood, he had always raised Ian preciously.
‘I won’t give up.’
He couldn’t save them with healing power at the level of simply closing wounds and stopping bleeding. He had to completely erase this space itself, the rules of this twisted dimension that Kim Minchul had set up.
But the Saint’s power could only be transmitted to others through contact and pleasure. That was both a blessing bestowed by the goddess and an absolute constraint that had bound Ian for his entire life since Lancia. Without contact, he couldn’t even fully transmit his power.
A perfect dilemma with nowhere to advance. Amid the suffocating despair, Choi Jaeheon’s trembling hand covered in blood laboriously covered Ian’s white hand.
“I’m, fine.”
Even with unfocused eyes, Choi Jaeheon continued speaking clearly.
“Hyung is, cough. Really fine, so. At least you get out quickly. Please, I’m begging you.”
While saying words to push Ian away, the hand that couldn’t bear to give up the warmth and couldn’t let go of his clothes until the end. Ian stared blankly at that hand.
Far away, he could see the back of Vermouth fighting while taking Kairam’s heavy blows with his whole body. The knight who had been perfect without a single wound his entire life was engaged in a death struggle only to protect him. Originally, Kairam had never had the upper hand against Vermouth. Yet he could fight like that because of this space.
He knew he shouldn’t cry. But it felt like tears would come out. Ian tried to endure by biting his lips, but it wasn’t easy.
