Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 1812

“That…”The Master’s unfocused eyes darted back and forth. Watching him, Wiggins couldn’t help but frown. ‘Just how badly did they treat him…’ The Master he knew was an exceptionally wise old man. Though he couldn’t escape the passage of time, the accumulated years had granted him the weapon of wisdom. But now, not even a trace of that wisdom could be seen in the Master before him. The way he constantly scanned his surroundings like a deranged old man was unbearable for Wiggins. “…Those damn bastards.” He knew. From their perspective, the Master was a traitor, a criminal who had to be punished. But that was the right of the General Assembly, and Wiggins’ right. Revenge was only meaningful when taken with one’s own hands. The sight of the Master, who no longer held any value for revenge, ignited a fire in his heart. “What a mess.” Kang Jin-ho also chuckled at the Master’s condition. While others were shocked by the Master’s fall from grace, Kang Jin-ho’s feelings were a bit different. “How distasteful.” This was a method Kang Jin-ho often used. He would use Soul-Subjugation to break down the opponent’s mind and then inject demonic energy to prevent recovery. He had dealt with quite a few people that way. If the Master had been captured by Kang Jin-ho, he would have either killed him or broken his mind in this way. Seeing it as if someone had done what he should have done made him laugh in disbelief. “Is a conversation even possible like this?” Bang Jin-hoon’s words made Bator twitch his cheek. “It’s clear he’s an unforgivable traitor, but he’s still a martial artist who achieved something. Seeing him in such a miserable state is not pleasing. It would have been better to torture him to death.” Of course, he had been tortured as well. While he didn’t exactly agree with Bator’s words, they couldn’t have a conversation like this. Kang Jin-ho rose from his seat and approached the Master. “Perhaps…” “It seems possible.” Kang Jin-ho nodded in response to Wiggins and reached out to grab the Master’s head. ‘Demonic energy that even Jang Min couldn’t extract…’ He could feel the demonic energy filling the Master’s mind. It had infiltrated so subtly that even Jang Min hadn’t been able to remove all of it. Kang Jin-ho slowly circulated his demonic energy, absorbing the demonic energy within the Master. A chilling sensation. Even similar demonic energies had slightly different properties depending on who used them. If Kang Jin-ho’s demonic energy had a fiery, violent nature, this demonic energy was cold and gloomy. After completely extracting all the demonic energy, Kang Jin-ho quietly looked at the Master. The two eyes that had completely lost focus gradually began to regain their light. The Master, with a slightly different look in his eyes than before, blankly looked around. His gaze finally landed on Kang Jin-ho, of course. “…You are the Guild Master.” “Should we greet each other again?” The Master, seeing Kang Jin-ho’s gentle smile, nodded quietly with a resigned expression. “I didn’t think I would see you again. No… I hoped I wouldn’t see you again.” “You can’t always get what you want in this world.” “…That’s true.” The Master, with a resigned look, turned his head to look at Wiggins. “…I have no face to show you.” Wiggins bit his lip at those words. “What is this state you’re in?” “If you were so confident in what you did, you should have at least run away properly.” There was resentment in Wiggins’ voice. It was Wiggins himself who had driven the Master into a corner. Perhaps, from the Master’s perspective, these words might sound absurd. Knowing that, he couldn’t help but say it. Wiggins couldn’t accurately explain this discomfort that was turning his insides out. Kang Jin-ho, who had returned to his seat, put the cigarette he had laid down back in his mouth. “Now, tell me.” “What happened?” The Master slightly raised his head to look at Wiggins. Wiggins silently rose from his seat and brought water to the Master. “Please, drink.” “…Thank you.” The Master took a sip of the water and opened his mouth, looking at Kang Jin-ho. “I don’t know where to begin.” Kang Jin-ho met the Master’s gaze without answering. “That day… the day you, Guild Master, were fighting with Changwang, I left that place. The moment Changwang’s last ploy crumbled, my fate was as good as decided.” The Master chuckled softly. “I didn’t intend to from the beginning. If Changwang were to lose, I intended to meet an honorable death there. But when I came to my senses, I was already running away. Without me knowing… no, that’s just an excuse. I… I was no longer a man who could accept an honorable death.” He didn’t know when it had started. “Climbing and protecting is so difficult. But falling is so fast. As I compromised little by little, thinking it was okay, I was already broken. Only then did I realize that, Guild Master.” “So…” Kang Jin-ho opened his mouth, sounding a bit indifferent. “What happened next?” “…I hid myself.” The Master shook his head. “When I had the Round Table behind me, I didn’t realize it. Once it became impossible to return to the Round Table, and I could no longer receive their support… I realized how terrifying the General Assembly was. Every glance from passersby, every plane in the sky, felt like they were watching me.” Wiggins’ lips twitched. He could fully understand the pressure the Master had been under. He himself had used all the methods the Master had mentioned earlier to track him down. “So, I hid myself in a place with few people. I couldn’t settle down there either. Even if I wasn’t discovered, I moved my location regularly. I thought I had to. I thought I had to.” Wiggins frowned. “Didn’t you think of getting help from your subordinates in Europe? If you had, it wouldn’t have been that difficult to hide in a suitable place.” “Would you have failed to find that?” “Maybe. Perhaps I could have been a little more comfortable. But the price would have been their lives. The Guild Master doesn’t let traitors live.” Wiggins sighed deeply. That was true. From the moment he had become an enemy of Kang Jin-ho, he would not have been able to rest easy anywhere. The current General Assembly was on a different level from the one the Round Table had first faced. “It felt like I was alone in the world. I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t close my eyes. If I relaxed even a little, it felt like a black hand would fly out from somewhere and grab my neck.” The Master raised his head to look at Kang Jin-ho. It was a funny thing. He had been so afraid of encountering Kang Jin-ho, but now that he was in front of him, he felt a little relieved. He no longer had to be afraid of meeting him. “And then…” The Master shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t even know why I was captured. When I came to my senses, I was already surrounded by people I had never seen before.” “Why did the teleport…” “It failed.” Wiggins closed his mouth. “I don’t know why. But strangely, the magic wouldn’t activate. And those who subdued me injected demonic energy into my body. From then on, I couldn’t resist.” Wiggins’ face hardened. ‘So, even the Black King didn’t step forward personally?’ This was quite a serious problem. It meant that the Black King didn’t even need to move to subdue someone of the Master’s caliber. It meant that the Black King’s forces were that strong. Lee Hyun-soo, who had been quietly listening to the Master, tilted his head. “How did they suppress the magic?” “That…” “It’s not that strange.” The one who answered was not Wiggins, but Kang Jin-ho. “Guild Master?” “If Cheongma [a legendary figure, often associated with demonic power] has been back in the modern world for over a hundred years, he would have finished all the preparations. If his goal wasn’t just to control China, he wouldn’t have failed to prepare for Europe and the magicians.” Cheongma, who had led the Demonic Cult and dominated the Central Plains in just over a decade. This was nothing remarkable. “After that, I don’t remember much. It was just painful. Just…” Fear flickered in the Master’s eyes, which had somehow managed to maintain composure. “…I could endure the pain of the body. But… the pain that the Black King gave me was on a different level from that of the body. I struggled and struggled in the pain… and lost myself. It was like wandering forever in a darkness where I couldn’t see ahead.” Everyone fell silent. Although there was no detailed explanation, they seemed to understand what had happened. “And when I came to my senses, I was here.” The Master grabbed the glass in front of him with trembling hands. Then, he struggled to swallow a sip of water. “That’s all, that’s it. Guild Master, I have nothing more to say.” “Hmm…” Kang Jin-ho scratched his chin slightly. The Master was by no means weak. Even if he wasn’t an absolute powerhouse of the Three Kings level, he wouldn’t be inferior to the directors of the General Assembly. And such a person was subdued so easily? “Those who subdued you?” “…There were many.” “Was it a combined attack?” “No… no, Guild Master. There were many of them, but they didn’t need to. I couldn’t handle even one of them.” Kang Jin-ho’s expression hardened slightly. Seeing that, the Master opened his mouth with difficulty. “What meaning would my words have, since I have already betrayed you… But Guild Master… this is my sincere truth. Do not confront them.” Wiggins was flustered and shouted. “Master!” “You too. You must not confront them… their power… is enough to shatter the balance of the world we knew.” The Master muttered with a terrified face. “If I had known that such beings existed in the world… I would never, ever have been greedy. I would have given up everything and run away to a world unrelated to them. The result was decided from the beginning anyway.” The Master’s gaze turned to Kang Jin-ho. “You, you must not confront them.” “They… they are too strong. Guild Master, even if it’s you…” “I know.” “I already know enough.” Kang Jin-ho chuckled. “It seems that’s all you have to say.” Kang Jin-ho stubbed out the cigarette in his mouth. The crushed cigarette seemed to foreshadow the Master’s fate. The Master quietly closed his eyes. Now was the time to pay the price for his betrayal.