Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 2062

“That…\n\nThat wasn’t a voice; it was far too rough.\n\nA sound like dragging a metal nail across a withered, dry branch.\n\nA parched voice, devoid of any vitality that a person should naturally possess.\n\nBaek Yeon-hong’s gaze shifted slightly to the right. His eyes were drawn to his one remaining arm.\n\nIt wasn’t just his voice that was withered.\n\nHis arm.\n\nHis arm, which had always held his sword firmly and supported him throughout his life, was withered like an old tree. It was doubtful whether he could ever wield a sword again.\n\n‘Is this… the price?’\n\nA human cannot become a god.\n\nBut he had, for a brief moment, stepped into a realm that a human body could not reach.\n\nIf that’s the case…\n\n‘It’s not that high a price.’\n\nHis gaze slowly returned forward. What entered his eyes was Wiggins, who, compared to him, maintained a much more intact ‘form.’\n\nOf course, he wasn’t in perfect condition either.\n\nThe rune sword he had been holding was shattered beyond recognition, and the prosthetic arm that had replaced his missing arm was nowhere to be seen.\n\nThe fragments, which were more like they had been disassembled than broken, were so fine that they were likely embedded in Wiggins’ body like needles, slowly eating away at him.\n\n“Quite…”\n\nHis parched vocal cords forced out a voice.\n\nNo matter how hard he tried, he could only utter a few words. Then, what should he say?\n\nHow should he express his feelings right now?\n\nWell, he didn’t know.\n\nOnly a few fragmented words came to mind. After much deliberation, the words Baek Yeon-hong finally uttered made even himself feel absurd.\n\n“Quite…\n\nThe words were forced out with difficulty.\n\n“Wasn’t it… okay…?”\n\nThe twisted voice was directed at Wiggins. Baek Yeon-hong himself wasn’t sure if Wiggins could even hear him.\n\nBut Wiggins, having clearly heard him, lifted his one remaining eye that had not lost its light and looked at him.\n\n“Certainly…”\n\nHis head slowly shook.\n\n“I can’t understand Eastern martial arts.”\n\nA relatively clear voice.\n\n“Is that the realm you were pursuing?”\n\nBaek Yeon-hong slowly nodded.\n\nA strange light flickered in Wiggins’ one remaining eye.\n\n‘Indeed.’\n\nWiggins, who sought clarity in everything, found it difficult to clearly explain the feelings he was experiencing.\n\nHe had clearly done everything he could. No, he had even grasped what was beyond his capabilities.\n\nEven if he went back to the moment before, he wouldn’t be confident in reproducing the same power. Yet, Baek Yeon-hong had completely absorbed everything he had achieved.\n\nThe blow he had poured everything into.\n\nThe feeling of seeing that with his own eyes was…\n\n‘Hard to describe.’\n\nBut what was clear was that it wasn’t a regrettable or bad feeling.\n\nA martial art that pursued a completely different direction from his own. The sword that didn’t resist the power he unleashed but instead assimilated it, gently mesmerizing it.\n\nThe sword was even awe-inspiring.\n\n“What did you feel?”\n\nHe just wanted to ask.\n\nHe wanted to know if Baek Yeon-hong felt the same thing he did.\n\nThey were enemies who had risked their lives fighting each other, but at the same time, they were companions who had stepped into a place where no one had ever set foot.\n\nBaek Yeon-hong closed his mouth as if contemplating something. After a long silence, his lips opened with difficulty as he looked at Wiggins.\n\n“Fulfillment… joy… longing, and…”\n\nBaek Yeon-hong closed his eyes.\n\n“…Vastness.”\n\nWiggins nodded.\n\nHe had felt something similar.\n\nHe had climbed to a place where he could no longer ascend and achieved something that could no longer be achieved. But the moment he confirmed the place he thought was the summit, what Wiggins saw was a path that continued endlessly.\n\nA path that stretched endlessly into the distance.\n\nHe laughed.\n\nIt felt like seeing the contradiction of a human who was conquering and shaking the world at will, yet didn’t even properly know the land they lived on.\n\nThey couldn’t reach the depths of the sea, the depths of the earth, or the endless universe that stretched above the sky.\n\nPerhaps the martial artists who were learning martial arts were only now at the very beginning of that endless path.\n\nIt was something to be happy about.\n\nBeing able to explore an infinitely long path was something that stimulated the desire to challenge for those who sought the truth.\n\nWhat was regrettable was…\n\n‘I won’t be able to pursue that path anymore.’\n\nWiggins’ gaze turned to Baek Yeon-hong.\n\n“I should say thank you.”\n\n“If it weren’t for you, I would never have been able to see this sight.”\n\nHe wouldn’t have had the courage to take that step.\n\nOnly because Baek Yeon-hong was there could he risk everything. And in exchange for consuming everything, he was able to briefly ascend to a place he could never reach.\n\nRegret?\n\nYes, perhaps there was a little regret.\n\nHe was human, after all.\n\nBut what he had gained was so immense that it covered all that regret.\n\n“…Me too… the same.”\n\nBaek Yeon-hong twisted his lips.\n\n“…I don’t know… what to call this feeling.”\n\nBaek Yeon-hong, too, was able to achieve what he had been pursuing for three lifetimes thanks to Wiggins. And thanks to Wiggins, he lost everything he had briefly gained.\n\nYet, he didn’t feel hatred or resentment.\n\nIt was more like seeing an old friend.\n\n“Thank you.”\n\n“Thank you.”\n\nA brief silence.\n\nThe two men, who seemed to have something left to say, looked at each other and then smiled. There were many things to say, but words were no longer meaningful to them. They had already conveyed everything they needed to.\n\nExchanging words was just a process of reiterating what they already knew.\n\n“Then.”\n\nWiggins lightly bowed his head and turned his body. Baek Yeon-hong also turned his body not long after. Then, they began to walk towards where they needed to be.\n\nEveryone who was conscious silently watched the scene.\n\nThud, thud.\n\nWiggins slowly walked over and stood in front of Kang Jin-ho. Then, he put on a smile that was so like him.\n\n“I’m back, Lord.”\n\nKang Jin-ho quietly nodded.\n\n“You’ve worked hard.”\n\nWiggins smiled brightly.\n\nIt wasn’t a particularly grand statement, but somehow, it felt like it was caressing everything he had poured out.\n\n“I kept my promise to return, but…”\n\nWiggins’ gaze subtly turned back. After briefly looking at Baek Yeon-hong’s back as he headed towards the Black King, Wiggins shrugged his shoulders.\n\n“I’m not sure if I kept my promise to win. I don’t know if I should call this a win or a loss.”\n\n“…Then it must be a win.”\n\n“Do you think so?”\n\n“Yes. That’s a win. Because it means we’ve escaped the childish fight of who wins and who loses.”\n\nWiggins chuckled.\n\n“Now that I hear it, you’re right. It seems I’m the only one who’s become an adult here.”\n\n“Maybe.”\n\nAt that moment, Lee Hyun-soo couldn’t hold back and approached Wiggins. Then, he asked with a slightly urgent voice.\n\n“Are you alright, Master?”\n\n“…Did you want me to die?”\n\n“Ah, no, that’s not what I meant…”\n\nLee Hyun-soo looked at Wiggins with suspicious eyes.\n\nHe knew.\n\nWhat Wiggins had risked for a single moment. But to him, it didn’t seem like Wiggins had paid the price properly. Seeing him walk and talk like this.\n\n“Then, what did it feel like?”\n\n“Huh?”\n\n“To have briefly obtained god-like power. Like you said before.”\n\n“…You sure do say embarrassing things.”\n\nWiggins shook his head.\n\n“Ah, no, it’s just…”\n\n“Lee Hyun-soo.”\n\n“Yes?”\n\nWiggins looked at Lee Hyun-soo with warm eyes.\n\n“You’re good enough as you are.”\n\n“However, you should get rid of the habit of deceiving yourself and settling for less. If you had set your mind to it, you could have become a mage that is incomparable to what you are now. Smart people don’t think about overcoming walls when they encounter them, they only study how to go around them. If you fix that habit, you’ll become someone better than me.”\n\n“M-Master.”\n\nLee Hyun-soo’s face turned pale.\n\nIt wasn’t because of what Wiggins was saying. The very situation of him saying these words made Lee Hyun-soo’s heart tremble.\n\n“And…”\n\nWiggins turned his head and looked at Bator, Jang Min, and Bang Jin-hoon. Wiggins’ gaze, which even took in the Blood Demon and Lee Myung-hwan behind them, then captured the Master’s corpse in the corner.\n\n“I don’t have anything to say to you all.”\n\nBang Jin-hoon’s lips twitched.\n\n“…It was a match we could have lost anyway, what glory are you trying to enjoy?”\n\n“A match we could have lost…”\n\nWiggins chuckled.\n\n“It’s funny to hear you say that.”\n\n“…Damn it.”\n\nBang Jin-hoon turned his head away.\n\nHe couldn’t bear to face Wiggins’ face.\n\nSeeing that, Wiggins smiled.\n\nOriginally, there were so many things he wanted to say. So many that he was worried if he could say them all. But when he stood in front of them, all those words became meaningless.\n\n‘They’re not people I should be giving advice to.’\n\nHe had just reached it a little earlier.\n\nThey were also people who would one day see what he had seen and reach places he hadn’t been able to reach.\n\nSo, let’s bury the little bit of anxiety and worry. That would be the trust he could send to them.\n\n“Ah…”\n\nAt that moment, Lee Hyun-soo’s eyes trembled violently.\n\nThe fingertip.\n\nWiggins’ one remaining fingertip slowly scattered. It was too awkward to use the expression of scattering on a person’s hand, but Wiggins’ hand was clearly scattering.\n\nIt was similar to scattering into powder, but it was different. It was as if the hand itself was being erased from the world.\n\nWiggins looked at his hand with a calm gaze.\n\n“…It would have been nice if I could have held on a little longer.”\n\n“M-Master!”\n\nLee Hyun-soo tried to rush towards Wiggins but stopped.\n\nHe couldn’t touch him.\n\nIt felt like if he touched him, Wiggins’ body would instantly fall apart.\n\n“There’s a price for everything in this world. It’s my choice, so don’t make that face.”\n\n“B-But…”\n\nLee Hyun-soo bit his lip tightly.\n\nHis eyes instantly turned red.\n\nSeeing that, Wiggins smiled.\n\nWiggins, who had taken his gaze off Lee Hyun-soo, looked at the others.\n\nBang Jin-hoon, who had turned his head away, Bator, who was glaring at him with murderous eyes, and Jang Min, who was sighing.\n\n‘Well, it’s not bad.’\n\nAt least there were people who would mourn his death.\n\nThat was enough.\n\nRight now, that was truly enough for him.\n\nAnd…\n\nWiggins, who had clearly captured everyone in his eyes, finally looked at Kang Jin-ho.\n\n“Lord, you too…”\n\nWiggins gave a smile that was infinitely gentle.\n\n“You know how to make that kind of expression.”\n\nKang Jin-ho looked up at the ceiling.\n\nHis fist was clenched so tightly it looked like it would break.