Descent Of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 2078

Lee Hyun-soo’s eyes widened as if they would tear apart.

The outcome of the incredibly fast exchange of attacks, which he couldn’t even follow, was now clearly visible to his eyes.

The Black King’s sword was sticking out through Kang Jin-ho’s back.

“H-Head… Head of the Sect…”

A scream, like a cry, burst from his trembling lips.

“Head of the Sect!” Lee Hyun-soo grabbed the floor and rushed forward. No, he tried to rush forward. But Jang Min grabbed his shoulder tightly.

“Let go!”

Lee Hyun-soo knew it too.

Even if he ran there, he couldn’t do anything. An ant that got caught in a fight between beasts could do more than him.

But this wasn’t a matter of what was possible or not.

Just as Lee Hyun-soo was about to struggle, Jang Min pressed down hard on his shoulder.

“Lee!”

Lee Hyun-soo looked at Jang Min with bloodshot eyes. But the moment he saw his face, the strength drained from Lee Hyun-soo’s body.

Jang Min was there with a ghostly face. If it were possible to kill someone with a look, the Black King would have been torn to pieces a thousand times over.

“…Wait.”

Jang Min’s twisted voice leaked out. It was so small that it was hard to hear unless you were listening closely. But the emotion in his voice was clearly conveyed to Lee Hyun-soo.

“Not yet… not yet.”

Lee Hyun-soo bit his lip and turned his head to look at Kang Jin-ho.

‘Head of the Sect…’

Lee Hyun-soo couldn’t bear to see any more and closed his eyes.

Hellish pain.

A terrible burning sensation swept through his body as if his entire body had been thrown into the middle of lava.

Kang Jin-ho’s body trembled.

It wasn’t from the pain. The demonic energy that pierced his chest was spreading throughout his body. His muscles were convulsing uncontrollably as he tried to resist the demonic energy.

Kang Jin-ho swung the demonic sword in his hand fiercely.

KA-AA-AANG!

The Black King was thrown backward, and the sword that had been embedded in his chest was pulled out.

Like a hole in the middle of a high-pressure hose, red blood gushed from his chest like a fountain.

Kang Jin-ho, regaining his balance, lowered his head and looked at his chest.

‘Did it miss the heart…’

A hole was gaping in the middle of his chest. If it had been pierced a little lower, his heart would have been pierced.

That would have been instant death. But this much was okay. It was a terrible injury, but he wouldn’t die from this. So… he could still fight.

Kang Jin-ho raised his head and looked ahead. The Black King, who had been thrown backward, was getting up and looking at him. The Black King wiped the blood from his mouth and smiled brightly.

“I told you, Sect Leader.”

That white smile was etched into Kang Jin-ho’s eyes.

“That you’ve become weak.”

The blood flowing from his severed ear covered half of the Black King’s face.

The Black King slowly raised his hand. But his hand reached not for his injured face, but for his neck.

“If it were the old you, my neck would have been the one to fly off.”

“The past you…”

The Black King paused for a moment, as if searching for something in the past.

“Was cruel… and ruthless. Enough to make even those who thought they were walking the same path tremble in fear.”

The smile disappeared from the Black King’s face.

What replaced that lost emotion was a hatred and anger for which there was no reason.

“But… the current you is so weak.”

The Black King spat out the words as he glared at Kang Jin-ho with murderous eyes.

“Where did you go, the you I knew?”

“I believed that even if you looked foolish, you would show your old self if we fought. Because you are the Heavenly Demon Lord [Cheonma], Because you are that very Heavenly Demon Lord… But it seems I was mistaken.”

The Black King, who had nervously wiped the blood from his face, lowered his eyes.

“It’s pathetic. That what I’ve been waiting for was just this. I thought you would at least fight with everything you had left. But there are too many impurities in the current you. So much so that I can’t even call you the Heavenly Demon Lord.”

At those words, a low laugh escaped from Kang Jin-ho’s lips.

The Black King’s eyes narrowed slightly at Kang Jin-ho’s chuckling laughter.

“What’s so funny?”

Laughter kept leaking from Kang Jin-ho’s lips. If it weren’t for the wound in his chest, he might have burst into a fit of laughter.

“It’s bound to be funny.”

The Black King’s eyes narrowed at Kang Jin-ho’s gaze. Those weren’t the eyes of someone in a crisis.

“I’ve been struggling to break free from that Heavenly Demon Lord until now.”

A low voice pierced the Black King’s ears.

“Forcibly suppressing the fear of losing myself… and the fear of my own weakness, I carefully took one step at a time, and finally made it here.”

“What nonsense are you…”

“But!”

Kang Jin-ho’s eyes were filled with the Black King’s figure.

“It’s ironic that someone is desperately chasing after the past that someone else wanted to escape so badly… the memory that someone wanted to overcome. It’s sad, and it’s funny.”

The Black King’s face hardened coldly. It was as if those words had pierced his lungs.

“Don’t talk as if you know it all, Sect Leader. You didn’t throw it away, you lost it.”

“No.”

Kang Jin-ho met the Black King’s gaze without avoiding it.

“I threw it away.”

His voice was just calm. But there was a deep heaviness in it.

“To be precise, I didn’t throw it away, I regained it. What I had lost, what I should never have lost.”

“I’m a fool, so I don’t know unless I lose it. So… this time, I’m just desperately holding on to it. So that I don’t lose it again.”

“…You’re good at saying cheesy things.”

The Black King shook his head.

“I realize it now. You really… are not the person I knew.”

“Everyone changes.”

“You too, and me too. We can’t stay in the past forever. Only the dead can stay in the past.”

Kang Jin-ho’s eyes, so deep that they seemed to suck you in, were aimed at the Black King. The Black King clenched his fist without realizing it.

“Yet you are still stuck in the past. No, you are bound to it yourself.”

The Black King’s eyes narrowed slightly. The violent killing intent he emitted pierced Kang Jin-ho.

“I’ve already told you, you who have been given a chance to go back, have no right to say such things to me.”

Kang Jin-ho closed his eyes.

Certainly, the Black King’s words might not be wrong.

If he had returned to this world after his family had already had the accident, could the current him exist?

Probably not.

But…

“Certainly…”

Kang Jin-ho continued in a low voice.

“I might not have the right to say it.”

Kang Jin-ho raised his head and looked at the Black King.

His gaze, as if looking at a distant place, made it impossible to guess what emotions he was harboring.

“But… I can’t help but say it. It’s a dog-like feeling to watch you act like a moron.”

He couldn’t hate him.

He couldn’t harbor any hostility.

That was the Heavenly Demon [Cheonma] for him, and at the same time, his past self. The Heavenly Demon Lord who had to cling to unwanted power because he couldn’t wish for anything.

He held emptiness, but the Black King had created a goal. The only difference between the two was that.

But how could he hate the Black King?

It was the first time for Kang Jin-ho to look at an enemy, someone he had to call an enemy, with such emotions. But… no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t harbor hatred.

He just felt sorry.

“Only the dead can stay in the past…”

A small laugh escaped from the Black King’s mouth as he repeated Kang Jin-ho’s words.

“Heh heh heh.”

That laughter was strangely sad.

“Maybe so. Yes, maybe so.”

The Black King slowly shook his head. As if he wouldn’t be swayed by Kang Jin-ho’s words anymore.

“Let’s stop with the meaningless talk, Sect Leader.”

“The words of the strong are right. Wasn’t that your logic?”

The Black King, who had created a black demonic sword again, glared at Kang Jin-ho with cold eyes.

“If it were the old you, you would have crushed me and stopped me. But now you’re just making pathetic excuses. Sect Leader, it’s so sad to lack power.”

“You regained what you lost?”

A blue killing intent surrounded the Black King’s face.

“Yes, maybe so. But because of that, you will lose everything again. Because you regained what you didn’t need, and threw away what you should never have lost.”

Kang Jin-ho raised his head and looked at the sky.

‘Weak, huh…’

Maybe those words weren’t wrong.

The strength of a person and the strength of martial arts are different. Kang Jin-ho had become stronger than in the past, but he had definitely become weaker than in the past.

Now, no matter what Kang Jin-ho did, he could not become as ruthless as he was in the past.

That was a fatal weakness as a martial artist. It was too big and huge of a weakness when facing a strong opponent like the Black King.

But…

“I won’t say I got stronger because I gained something.”

Because that was a lie.

But…

Demonic energy gathered at Kang Jin-ho’s fingertips. Kang Jin-ho, who had created a flame-like sword, faced the Black King with a blank face.

“There is a fight that no one can afford to lose.”

“And Cheonma [Heavenly Demon Lord].”

Kang Jin-ho bared his teeth.

Like a beast.

“You, of all people, should remember. That I wasn’t strong from the beginning.”

The Black King’s face hardened slightly at those words.

“You’re strong, and I’m weak…”

Kang Jin-ho wore a deep smile on his lips.

“Yeah, maybe so. But so what?”

The situation was the worst.

The injury was deeper than he thought. It was only because Kang Jin-ho had surpassed a superhuman that he could speak and fight normally. Anyone else would have died from this injury alone.

He couldn’t draw out any hostility. For Kang Jin-ho, who had been fighting by using hatred for his opponent as nourishment, this was a problem beyond what was visible.

Above all…

Everything in his heart was holding him back. He could no longer be the same as he was in the past.

Yes.

There couldn’t be a worse situation than this when facing someone stronger than himself.

But…

“I’ve overcome it countless times, and I’ve won countless times.”

He had always overcome even worse situations.

“I told you.”

“You, of all people, should have known what it means to provoke me.”

“Sect Leader…”

“Let me tell you again.”

Kang Jin-ho bared his teeth and smiled.