Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 1406

‘It can’t be a dream.’

It was an unreal sight.

Even Kim Myung-chan, who thought he had become quite accustomed to the unreal, felt his hair stand on end and his whole body tingle.

The scene unfolding before him was that overwhelming.

An overwhelming presence that wouldn’t even allow him to turn his gaze.

Faced with that presence, Kim Myung-chan involuntarily groaned.

The demon, having revealed itself from the darkness, slowly approached him.

Kim Myung-chan had experienced many things in his life.

He had known the fear of death, and he had also trembled with joy that others could not even imagine.

But any emotion or sensation he had felt in his life was nothing compared to the fear that engulfed him at this moment.

It was like experiencing death while still alive.

If he could just take a knife and cut his own throat, he would have chosen that instead.

Crack.

Kim Myung-chan clenched his teeth so hard they felt like they would break.

He pressed his trembling hands to the floor to hide the shaking, and he clenched his jaw to calm his wildly beating heart.

But he couldn’t do anything about his bloodshot eyes and the eyelids that twitched uncontrollably.

The demon smiled as if his appearance was pitiful.

It was a bizarre sight, with black flames flickering slightly, but Kim Myung-chan instinctively knew it was a smile.

No, it wasn’t instinct.

If the roles were reversed, Kim Myung-chan would have smiled like that too.

The demon looked at Kim Myung-chan without a word. Kim Myung-chan, groaning under the pressure, forced his lips apart as if tearing them.

“…I’ve been waiting.”

Even a three-year-old would know the identity of the demon before him.

Having opened his mouth once, the next words came out a little easier.

“I thought… you would come for me.”

Is this what it feels like to face the King of the Underworld after death?

Or is this the feeling of a sinner facing God?

An unavoidable judgment.

An inescapable condemnation.

Before the advent of absolute power, a weak human could only groan and weep.

Kim Myung-chan wiped his eyes with a trembling hand.

It wasn’t to wipe away the tears that had fallen. It was to clear his blurred vision and see the demon before him clearly.

“Hoo…”

A sound like air escaping came from his throat.

He felt like he would collapse at any moment, but Kim Myung-chan faced Kang Jin-ho with clenched teeth.

Swish.

Kang Jin-ho’s body gradually began to take on a human form.

The black flames that covered his body disappeared, and the red glow in his eyes returned to that of a human.

Soon, Kang Jin-ho, back to his usual appearance, stared blankly at Kim Myung-chan with an expressionless face.

Kim Myung-chan, feeling Kang Jin-ho’s gaze settle on him, chuckled softly. The forced smile looked more grotesque than crying, but Kim Myung-chan still tried desperately to smile.

“So, I’m not crazy yet?”

“How can you be so sure?” Kang Jin-ho chuckled.

The answer was too simple.

“Because you’re trembling.”

“A madman doesn’t feel fear.”

Kim Myung-chan chuckled quietly.

That was true.

Right now, he was feeling a fear from Kang Jin-ho that was worse than death. If he were mad, he wouldn’t be able to feel such vivid fear.

The fear that tormented him so severely was proving that he was sane.

Kang Jin-ho calmly took out a cigarette from his pocket. Then, he took out a cigarette and threw it to Kim Myung-chan.

Kim Myung-chan caught the cigarette that Kang Jin-ho threw.

Kang Jin-ho, having lit his own cigarette, threw a lighter to Kim Myung-chan.

Kim Myung-chan, with trembling hands, took the lighter and looked back and forth between Kang Jin-ho and the cigarette before putting the cigarette in his mouth.

Click.

With a familiar metallic sound, the end of Kim Myung-chan’s cigarette began to burn.

“They say that when a demon shows mercy, it’s right before throwing someone into hell.”

Kim Myung-chan laughed self-deprecatingly.

“…I guess I don’t have to worry about that. I’m already in hell.”

Kang Jin-ho grinned, revealing his teeth.

“How does it feel?”

“To experience hell while alive?”

“How is it?”

A deep smile appeared on Kim Myung-chan’s face.

A smile.

It was definitely a smile.

But if anyone were to see Kim Myung-chan’s face right now, no one would dare call that expression a smile. There was a smile more sorrowful than any cry in the world.

“Shall we cut off a piece of your flesh?”

Kim Myung-chan chuckled softly.

“Or shall we tear your flesh apart while you’re still alive and pick out your bones?”

His voice grew louder and louder.

“Even if they crush my body and feed it to the dogs! Even if I have to watch my own flesh and blood being torn apart with my own eyes! Even if they shove oil into my stomach and set it on fire!”

Kim Myung-chan glared at Kang Jin-ho with bloodshot eyes.

“Could it be more painful than now?”

“You know, I… I…”

Kim Myung-chan muttered self-deprecatingly.

“At first, I thought losing things was the only pain.”

The real pain started from there.

He thought.

Someone thrown into a place where there is nothing can only think. The contempt and blame poured upon him. Things that Kim Myung-chan never thought he would receive filled the place where everything had disappeared.

The feeling of having everything denied.

Confined in this small room, he had to watch with open eyes as everything he had built was being defiled. For Kim Myung-chan, who did not hesitate to give his life for honor and belief, could there be any greater pain?

“You should have just killed me…”

Kim Myung-chan’s voice was not human.

A hoarse voice, filled with the pain that was boiling within him, came out heavily.

“If I had died before this happened, I wouldn’t have had to watch everything I built turn to ashes and be thrown into the garbage… No, if I had died even after it happened, I wouldn’t have known anything.”

Now, he couldn’t even die.

He couldn’t take his eyes off his name, which was being stained with a dirty color day by day.

This was hell.

What else could it be if not hell, to have to endure endless pain without being able to choose death?

“I’d rather…”

Kim Myung-chan sobbed quietly.

Kang Jin-ho watched Kim Myung-chan sob without saying a word.

After sobbing on the floor for a long time, Kim Myung-chan slowly raised his head. Kim Myung-chan’s eyes, bloodshot and red with burst blood vessels, glared at Kang Jin-ho with hatred and venom.

“Did you enjoy it?”

“Did you enjoy making me like this and watching me? Yes, you must have enjoyed it. You must have enjoyed it more than anything! Then tell me! What are your thoughts! What are your thoughts on watching me fall apart with your own two eyes! Tell me!”

In Kim Myung-chan’s appearance, screaming and having a fit, there was no trace of his once intelligent self.

Extreme emotional fluctuations.

And hands and eyes that couldn’t find their place.

Kim Myung-chan wasn’t crazy yet.

But it was also clear that he was going crazy day by day.

Kang Jin-ho, watching that terrible sight, took a deep drag of his cigarette and curled up the corners of his mouth.

“You seem to be mistaken…”

A low voice.

A low voice like a beast growling.

“This is something you started.”

Kang Jin-ho quietly looked at Kim Myung-chan. His gaze was cold and heavy. Eyes that held no emotion, as if looking at an inanimate object, not a human.

Kim Myung-chan was too weak to withstand that gaze.

“Humans are such strange beings.”

Kang Jin-ho chuckled softly.

“They can laugh when they push others into the abyss, but when they fall into the abyss themselves, they start spouting all sorts of things.”

Kang Jin-ho took a step towards Kim Myung-chan.

“This place is also a battlefield. This is your battlefield. Isn’t that right?”

Kim Myung-chan nodded his head without realizing it.

Battlefield.

Yes, this was a battlefield.

Kim Myung-chan had always fought.

He had fought against overwhelming power, and he had fought against powerful neighboring countries. And he had endured in the political world, where intrigue and plots were rampant, shedding blood and biting sand.

So how could this not be a battlefield? This was clearly a battlefield.

“Those who try to kill others must be prepared to die themselves. Everything I do to others can eventually come back to me.”

A sneer lingered on Kang Jin-ho’s lips.

“Did you start without that resolve?”

It was an interesting thing.

Kim Myung-chan must have thought that he could be harmed while trapping Kang Jin-ho.

It was something he couldn’t have done without that resolve.

But that was just a soft thought.

Prepared to die?

That was too obvious.

Those who try to take everything from others must be prepared to lose everything themselves. They must be prepared to be dug out of their graves, have their heads cut off, and have someone spit on them.

If you’re going to whine about being treated the same way you treated others, you shouldn’t have started in the first place.

“And you seem to be mistaken…” Kang Jin-ho smiled gently.

“What did I do to you?”

“Do you think this is my revenge?”

“I, I…”

“No.”

Kim Myung-chan stared at Kang Jin-ho with blank eyes.

“No. This isn’t my revenge.”

“I didn’t do anything. Isn’t all of this something you did?”

Kim Myung-chan’s eyes began to tremble.

“Others are saying strange things too. They say it’s satisfying, that it’s good, that it’s refreshing.”

Kang Jin-ho grinned, revealing his teeth.

“It’s ridiculous.”

Kim Myung-chan looked at Kang Jin-ho with a horrified face.

Madness.

Kang Jin-ho’s face was stained with madness. Was Kim Myung-chan going mad? Maybe so.

But Kang Jin-ho had already been mad for a long time. Kim Myung-chan only realized that fact now that he was in this state.

“My revenge hasn’t even started yet. This is just the consequence of your actions, the price of your sins returning to you. So why should I be satisfied? Should I clap and cheer because you’re falling apart regardless of me?”

“That’s not it.”

It wasn’t a smile.

Like a beast that has seen an enemy invade its territory, Kang Jin-ho bared his teeth at Kim Myung-chan, fiercely revealing his hostility.

The murderous intent that seemed like it would rush in and tear his body apart at any moment.

Kim Myung-chan couldn’t even breathe in the face of that fierce hostility.

“Now you will know. What the price is for messing with me, what my revenge is like.”

Kim Myung-chan was stunned as he watched Kang Jin-ho slowly approach him.

A wounded demon craves blood.

And at least as far as Kim Myung-chan knew, Kang Jin-ho was a being closer to a demon than anything else in this world.

You should never do something like wounding a demon.

Kim Myung-chan’s greatest sin was that he realized that too late.