Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 1176

“Hoo… Hoo… Hoo!”

Kim Won-hyeok’s ragged breaths tore from his throat.

His heart hammered against his ribs, a frantic drumbeat, and his face burned as blood surged, threatening to burst his skin.

His thoughts were dissolving.

Or rather, it wasn’t that his thoughts were fading; his mind was simply going blank.

It was absurd.

This was a battlefield. A brutal, chaotic arena where a single misstep or moment of distraction could cost you your life. How could his mind be so empty in such a place?

Yet, it was happening.

‘What am I even doing here?’

He was completely detached.

Explosions continued to rock the ground before him. The distant flames danced, blurring his vision. The acrid stench of smoke, the metallic tang of blood, and the thick, cloying smell of sweat mingled into an overwhelming, nauseating aroma.

It was a disorienting sensation.

Like a severe case of the flu.

His body felt heavy, his ears were ringing… No matter how hard he tried to focus, he couldn’t. He saw the same things, but the world around him seemed distorted, alien.

Then, something flew towards his face.

Something long and white…

“Snap out of it!”

A sharp voice cut through the haze.

At the same time, a sharp pain exploded at the back of his head.

Clack!

“Ah!”

In an instant, the world sped up, snapping back into focus.

Kim Won-hyeok understood.

It wasn’t that the world was moving faster. It was that the world, which had been moving in slow motion, had returned to its normal pace. Simultaneously, sounds that had been muffled now assaulted his ears, sharp and piercing.

“You idiot, get a grip!”

Kim Won-hyeok gritted his teeth.

The Japanese sword that had been hurtling towards his face was blocked by a staff that had appeared from the side. If that staff hadn’t intervened, he would be dead. He wouldn’t have been able to stop that sword!

“Those damn Japs!”

The staff that had deflected the Japanese sword spun fiercely and thrust forward. The force of the blow made the charging Japanese soldier stumble.

“Brace yourselves and fight, you bastards! If one of you falls, the one next to him falls too! You’re not just fighting for your own lives!”

Those words jolted him back to reality.

‘What am I doing, acting like a fool!’

This was a battlefield. If he didn’t pull himself together, he would have no excuse if he was killed. And he had just almost died. A wave of panic washed over him, and goosebumps erupted all over his body.

“Haaaaaaah!”

He wasn’t the only one fighting desperately on the battlefield.

A charging Japanese soldier screamed incomprehensible curses as he rushed forward. His bloodshot eyes, the bulging veins on his hands, and the ragged breaths coming from his mouth showed how frenzied he was.

“Hyaaaah!”

Kim Won-hyeok roared back, not to be outdone. Then, he swung his fist with all his might, striking the charging Japanese soldier.

Thwack!

His fist connected with the Japanese soldier’s face. At the same time, the sword the Japanese soldier had swung grazed his shoulder.

He felt a burning sensation on his shoulder, but Kim Won-hyeok didn’t turn his head. He kicked the falling Japanese soldier.

Bang!

The unconscious man tumbled to the ground.

But nothing had changed. Trampling over the man who had fallen, the Japanese charged forward like madmen.

“Hoo… Hoo… Hoo!”

He had regained his senses, but the situation hadn’t improved.

They were charging like wild boars that had been shot.

Of course, what was driving them into a frenzy was the raging fire and the presence of Bator, which even Kim Won-hyeok found terrifying.

“Kyahahahaha! Where do you think you’re going! You damn Japs! Not a single one of you will survive!”

Bator was rampaging like a demon from hell.

The sight of him, his whole body stained red, radiating a crimson bloodlust as he tore through the enemy, was so terrifying that it was like something out of a nightmare. If Kim Won-hyeok found it this terrifying, how would the Japanese feel?

It must feel like being chased by ten hungry tigers.

That’s why they were losing their minds.

Keep your heart hot, your head cold.

It was a saying he had heard countless times. It was like an absolute truth that any martial artist should keep in mind.

But conversely, the reason it was emphasized so much was because it was so hard to maintain, no matter how hard one tried.

Maintaining a cool head on a battlefield where people were dying right in front of you and blood was pouring like rain was close to impossible.

So, this was bound to happen.

“Aaaaaaah!”

The Japanese warrior who was charging at him had his side pierced by a sword that flew in from the side.

If one were to calmly assess the situation, the man who had just been stabbed in the side was a much stronger fighter than Kim Won-hyeok. Normally, even if they were in formation, they wouldn’t have allowed such an easy attack.

In the end, martial arts were half about mindset.

With Bator rampaging behind them and fire spreading at the same time, they couldn’t display their full abilities. A wall that could be easily breached with a calm and calculated approach would turn into a wall of despair if one had to break through it in an instant.

And Kim Won-hyeok was a member of that wall.

“Hoo!”

He understood what Bang Jin-hoon had meant.

The battlefield was different from what he had imagined.

This was hell.

He had tried hard? He had done his best?

Then what about them?

Was the man who had just been stabbed in the side and instantly torn to shreds someone who had been lazy?

He didn’t look much older than him. If he had reached a much higher level than him at a similar age, he must have worked harder than Kim Won-hyeok.

But he had died in vain without being rewarded for his efforts.

And on this battlefield, one person’s death was worthless.

“Stop it. Honestly, after seeing you like this, I understand what Director Bang was saying. You’re a good friend, but I wouldn’t want to go to war with you covering my back.”

Those were the words he had said to Seong Ju-chan. He couldn’t help but laugh.

‘What did I think I knew, spouting off like that?’

He wanted to rip off the mouth that had been spouting off as if he knew everything when he knew nothing. If he could go back to that time, he wouldn’t dare say such things to Seong Ju-chan.

Could he be confident that he could do his part on the battlefield after seeing this?

Absolutely not.

That wasn’t confidence. It was just recklessness.

For the first time, Kim Won-hyeok understood what it meant to live as a martial artist.

Here, life and death were intertwined.

No one knew who would die when, or who would survive. Even those guarding the safest places had one foot in the terrifying realm of death.

It was a place where it wouldn’t be strange for anyone to die in any way.

To live as a martial artist, one had to survive here.

Kim Won-hyeok felt to the bone that he had been living a life of idleness under the protection of the General Assembly, acting like a martial artist.

While Kang Jin-ho and the directors were risking their lives on the front lines, Kim Won-hyeok had been intoxicated by their achievements.

When you think about it, they hadn’t done anything.

The glory and development that the General Assembly had achieved were the price of their blood.

Kim Won-hyeok had done nothing, and yet he had been intoxicated by the absurd sense of elation that he was contributing to the General Assembly’s development, just by watching from behind.

And now, he was paying the price.

“Kkeueueueueue.”

The gruesome sensation of the sword cutting through bone was transmitted to his hand. The man whose abdomen was pierced by the sword glared at Kim Won-hyeok with a terrifying face.

The hand that wasn’t holding a sword slowly reached towards Kim Won-hyeok’s face.

The spirit of a dying man.

Kim Won-hyeok knew he had to push him away, but he couldn’t do anything. The blood-soaked hand scratched at Kim Won-hyeok’s face.

A weak gesture that couldn’t even leave a scratch on his skin. The hand that touched his forehead scratched his face once and then fell limply. The slumped body conveyed a heavy weight.

He knew he had to push him away with his foot or hand, pull out the sword, and regroup, but strangely, his hand wouldn’t move.

“Hoo… Hoo… Hoo!”

His breathing grew rougher.

His head was spinning, and his vision was blurry. He couldn’t open his eyes properly, probably because the blood that had flowed into his eyes.

“Aaaaaaah!”

“Die! Die, you bastard!”

“Agh! My arm! My arm! Aaaaaaagh!”

His sense of reality was fading again.

The screams he heard seemed like lies.

Without realizing it, Kim Won-hyeok turned his head.

Then, he looked around.

People with enraged faces were yelling and stabbing with their swords. They were punching, kicking. They looked more like soldiers fighting a war than people who had trained in martial arts.

The charging Japanese were the same.

It was said that the Japanese were meticulous about maintaining their own aesthetics, but it was hard to find such a thing in the Japanese who were charging now. Their faces were flushed with the fear of death and uncontrollable hatred, and they were just charging and charging.

People with similar expressions were swinging their swords at each other. Blood spurted like fountains, and arms and legs were being cut off and flying everywhere.

“What are you doing, you bastard!”

“I…”

“Get back!”

“Huh?”

“Get back, you bastard! Now! If you don’t want to die!”

“Uh…”

Someone grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back.

And at that moment.

‘Huh?’

Something caught Kim Won-hyeok’s eye. Someone was leaping over the charging people and rushing towards Kim Won-hyeok.

A speed that was incomparable to the people who had been charging until now. It seemed like something white flashed, and then he was right in front of him.

He could tell instinctively.

A master.

A master he could never hope to defeat.

“You trashy Joseon [Korean] bastards!”

The Japanese sword, shining white under the moonlight, was thrust out with lightning speed.

It was strange.

It was clearly a speed that couldn’t be seen with the naked eye, but he could clearly see the sword flying towards him.

But being able to see it didn’t mean he could avoid it. Kim Won-hyeok clearly watched as the sword pierced his abdomen.

Thwack!

He didn’t feel any pain.

At the same time as he felt a burning sensation, his legs gave way, and his body collapsed as if he were a jellyfish.

“Ah…”

He realized.

Death.

The realm of death, which he had been straddling, was beginning to engulf him. The moment he was completely enveloped by that darkness, he would no longer be alive.

At that moment when his mind went blank.

Thud.

He clearly felt someone’s hand on his shoulder.

Boom!

At the same time, with an explosion, the man who had stabbed him with the sword was pushed back a couple of steps. As the sword that had pierced his abdomen was pulled out, he felt an indescribable pain.

The hand on his shoulder pulled him back.

“Get the injured back, you bastards! You call yourselves martial artists, leaving your comrades to die just to save yourselves? Is that what I taught you?”

A familiar voice.

The man who had pulled him back turned his head slightly and looked at Kim Won-hyeok.

‘Director Bang…’

Bang Jin-hoon looked at him with a slightly distorted face and quickly said,

“Don’t be scared, you bastard. You won’t die from a stab like that. Get back and take care of your wound!”

He felt someone catch him.

In Kim Won-hyeok’s eyes, as he was being moved by someone’s hands, Bang Jin-hoon’s broad back was clearly imprinted.

“Don’t play with the kids, play with me, you bastard!”

It was the usual Bang Jin-hoon.