Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 2082

Kwaaaang!

Bator bit his mangled lip again.

It felt like his body was being crushed.

Even his exceptionally sturdy physique was struggling to withstand the impact.

‘No.’

The continuous shocks, like being repeatedly struck by a giant hammer, were not what was truly breaking Bator. He could endure the physical strain. What was truly wearing him down were the fragments of intense emotion embedded within those impacts.

“…What kind of fight is this?”

Black demonic energy shrouded the surroundings like a thick fog. Within this surreal scene, two beasts were tearing at each other.

He couldn’t feel anything anymore.

‘This can’t even be called martial arts.’ The level was far beyond that.

Murtial arts ultimately have meaning only when there is an opponent. Here today, they and the Twelve Flying Swords had surpassed an insurmountable realm through each other.

An opponent who could bring out their full power, an opponent who possessed what they lacked.

Being able to engage in a battle where they poured out every last drop of blood against such an opponent was a blessing for a martial artist.

Because lives were at stake, it was noble; because it was incredibly dangerous, it was also magnificent.

Everyone who had come through that magnificent battleground would naturally have expected it.

The true sword fight that those they followed would unleash.

But the scene unfolding before his eyes was not the grand display of martial prowess he had imagined.

There was no room for disagreement about their level. They and the Twelve Flying Swords must be feeling the same thing right now.

“…It’s meaningless.”

“Yes, it’s meaningless.”

Jang Min nodded at Bator’s words.

Even Bang Jin-hoon laughed.

It was too different.

What they had competed in was literally nothingness. They had elevated mere techniques to art, and then transcended that to reach the Way [a concept of ultimate truth or path in martial arts and philosophy].

The very essence of martial arts.

Training, honing, overcoming countless obstacles, and finally reaching that realm, they competed with their opponents to establish and forge their own path.

Wasn’t that what martial arts was?

That was how he had learned. That was how he had mastered it. Even if their pursuits were different, he had no doubt that martial arts was about perfecting oneself.

It was not different.

For Bator, martial arts was the path to perfecting his own body. It meant imbuing the vague concept of ‘self’ into his body to achieve a perfect physique, a means to his own completion.

For Jang Min, martial arts was a tool to protect the Demonic Cult. He made the Demonic Cult and its completion his life’s purpose, dedicating everything to its survival.

Bang Jin-hoon was the same. For him, martial arts was something to explore in order to create the ideal Assembly he desired.

In the end, everything led to completion.

The completion of martial arts was linked to the completion of their lives.

But…

‘Where is completion in that?’

He could say with certainty.

Such grand and noble words did not fit that scene. Those watching might say that the gun in the hands of an oppressor and the gun in the hands of a revolutionary could not be the same. That even if guns existed to kill each other, their meaning should change depending on how they were used.

But they were saying it with their entire bodies.

That no matter who held it, a gun was just a gun, a weapon to kill each other, and that fact would never change.

Those gun barrels were aimed at each other. Only to destroy each other.

Bang Jin-hoon’s fingertips trembled. It felt like everything he knew was being denied. All his beliefs that as levels increased and one progressed, everything gained its own philosophy and became noble in itself.

‘Can I face that?’

A hollow laugh escaped him.

Face that? That?

What a joke.

Before he could even begin to unfold the martial enlightenment he had barely managed to accumulate, his body would be shattered.

It was too fast to deflect, too strong to withstand. No matter how much a martial artist gained the power to break mountains and split the sky, it was like being unable to stop a nuclear bomb falling from the sky.

He wanted to deny it.

He really wanted to deny that the ultimate goal they should reach was there. They had not learned martial arts solely to destroy each other.

Even Bator, who had staked everything on strength, Jang Min, a demon who was scorned by the world, and even Bang Jin-hoon, who was classified as a radical within the Assembly, wanted to look away. The scene was just too stark.

Yet, he couldn’t take his eyes off it.

The raw, primal spectacle of violence was so overwhelming that he couldn’t bear to look away.

“…I’m envious.”

Then, a small voice escaped Bator’s lips.

Bang Jin-hoon turned to Bator with a blank stare.

“Envious?”

Bator flinched for a moment. His face showed that he didn’t quite understand what he had just said.

But soon, his head nodded again.

“Yes, I’m envious.”

“…Of that power?”

“No.”

Bator shook his head.

And that sight was incredibly unfamiliar to Bang Jin-hoon. He had never imagined that Bator, who had lived his entire life pursuing only strength, would deny these words.

“It’s not the power.”

He wasn’t envious of that power.

Bator knew it. Only Bator, who had pursued only his own strength, could understand.

How much a person had to give up to obtain that power.

‘What meaning is there?’

Power only has meaning when one possesses it. No matter how strong a power is, it is meaningless if there is no one to wield it.

“…How much do they understand?”

“Huh?”

Bator chuckled.

“I’m not good with words.”

Bang Jin-hoon frowned.

Bator seemed dull on the surface, but in reality, he was very intelligent. His words always hit the mark.

For Bator to say he wasn’t good with words.

“No, to be precise, everyone is bad with words.”

“…What do you mean by that?”

“Can you truly convey what you think, what you feel, completely to someone else?”

“Well…”

Bang Jin-hoon, who was about to answer that he could if he put his mind to it, closed his mouth. He realized that the ‘thoughts’ and ‘feelings’ that Bang Jin-hoon meant were different from what he was trying to say.

Was it possible?

Was it really possible?

No, it wasn’t. It was impossible.

Language itself was crude.

Human feelings transcended language. No matter how perfect a sentence one created, it was impossible to convey one’s thoughts or feelings exactly as they were.

“Because it can’t be revealed.”

Bator muttered.

“Because people can’t fully reveal themselves through words. Especially… for people like us, who naturally make enemies and naturally hide our weaknesses, no matter how hard we try, we can’t convey everything we have.”

“…I see.”

It seemed like words that didn’t fit the situation.

But Bang Jin-hoon felt strangely drawn to Bator’s words. As always, it felt like this person was hitting the mark.

“But right now… they are conveying it.”

“Huh?”

“If you can’t convey it with words, you can convey it with something other than words. Is there a more certain way to communicate than that? I don’t know.”

Bang Jin-hoon’s brow furrowed.

‘Communication? That?’

Bang Jin-hoon stared blankly ahead.

The figures of the two men, fiercely attacking each other to kill, were blurry in his eyes.

It was hard to understand with his head.

But he felt like he understood something.

To defeat an opponent, you had to know them. And to bring down an opponent, you had to mobilize everything you had.

Trying your best to understand your opponent, and conveying everything you had to them.

Communication.

Yes, wasn’t that what people called communication?

If communication was possible even without the medium of language, what else could they call what these two were doing other than communication?

‘I see.’

Bang Jin-hoon understood at that moment.

He had experienced it too.

He had met Jang Wang for the first time today. He hadn’t even known of his existence until they faced each other and exchanged blows.

But after engaging in a life-or-death battle, he had come to understand Jang Wang very well.

Everything was embedded in it.

In his martial arts, in his attacks, in the way he had targeted Bang Jin-hoon.

And even in Jang Wang’s reactions to the attacks he had made.

All those trivial things that would not even have been considered ‘information’ in normal circumstances, became ‘communication’ in the extreme moment they were exchanged.

He had no feelings of affection for him, but in that moment of battle, Jang Wang and Bang Jin-hoon had come to understand each other better than people who had built a relationship for decades.

“Communication…”

“Yes, that’s communication. They’re talking. Not with words, but with their fists.”

Bator let out a sigh.

“There must be too much built up, so there’s too much to convey.”

Bang Jin-hoon looked ahead with trembling eyes.

But…

“They’re just clumsy.”

Bang Jin-hoon turned his head.

There was Jang Min, with a face that seemed to have transcended everything.

“…The Demonic Lord is like that. He doesn’t know how to convey his true feelings with words. He doesn’t know how to show his true intentions with words. He always led us with actions, not words.”

“If there are two people like that, how should they communicate?”

Bang Jin-hoon squeezed his eyes shut.

There was no way they could communicate.

If Kang Jin-ho and Kang Jin-ho were to communicate, their true feelings for each other would never be conveyed.

“So, that’s the only way they can do it.”

“But!”

Bang Jin-hoon shouted in an angry voice without realizing it.

“If the only way to convey your true feelings is to attack with the intent to kill, then it’s better not to convey them at all! Why do such foolish things!”

Bang Jin-hoon didn’t know why he was angry. He was just filled with rage.

Jang Min let out a soft sigh at those words.

“…They both know.”

Bang Jin-hoon’s eyes widened.

Jang Min had just used the phrase ‘both of them.’ Bang Jin-hoon was not someone who wouldn’t know what that meant. But ignoring Bang Jin-hoon’s surprise, Jang Min continued to speak calmly in a slightly lower voice.

“That if it’s not now, they’ll never be able to convey it.”

Bang Jin-hoon turned his head.

He could see the two men rushing towards each other fiercely.

He could clearly feel it.

That the power of those two had weakened.

That this battle, which seemed like it would go on forever, was finally heading towards its conclusion.

Bang Jin-hoon felt a chill from somewhere and raised his head.

‘Rain…’

Rain began to pour from the sky. As if to dye even the dark earth black.