Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 1857

Waiting (4)

When was it that he began to value the Order so much?

Well.

He couldn’t quite remember.

He had lived for far too long.

One thing was certain: he hadn’t accepted the Order as his everything from the very beginning.

‘It wasn’t any different.’

Those times were unimaginable to those living in this era.

A time when violence shattered authority, and power trampled over morality.

People lived simply to survive.

Perhaps there were those who didn’t. Surely, even in that era, there were people who lived human lives and discussed the future.

But at least in the place where Jang Min lived, the brilliant light of humanity’s achievements did not reach.

In an era where three out of five children died of starvation, the reason for choosing the Demonic Cult was not faith or belief, but simply survival.

The words that becoming a cultist would mean not going hungry led Jang Min to the Demonic Cult.

Yes.

That was all it was at the beginning. To escape hunger. To escape death.

If he could just become a cultist, learn demonic arts, and not go hungry in return, that was enough. His already deceased parents could no longer protect him, and the nation that did not care for its people no longer looked after him.

He could be grateful just for receiving food, and he could be satisfied just for being able to belong somewhere and live.

Yes.

That was before time passed.

‘To live.’

Though the Demonic Cult was scorned outside, people lived within it.

They might have been rough and vicious, but there was a sense of camaraderie and a way of life.

They formed bonds, loved, taught someone, and fought to protect their territory.

Yes. That was life.

If there was anything slightly different… it was only that his lifespan was a little longer than others. No, it was excessively longer than others.

He lived a life that was just like everyone else, and it continued on and on. He had never shown any particular talent, yet he had become a leader, and then an elder before he knew it.

It didn’t take long for the title of Supreme Elder to replace his name.

And then…

Yes, and then.

Time flowed and flowed, and flowed again.

That long life was…

‘It was suffering.’

There was no other way to explain it.

Severing ties alone caused the pain of having one’s heart cut out.

Seeing those he had formed bonds with die of old age, accidents, or illness always left a mark on Jang Min like a brand.

One scar for one person.

If he had carved scars on his body instead of his heart, he would have become a body unrecognizable with scars.

Friends he had shared friendship with departed. Lovers he had shared love with departed.

Even his children left before him, and his disciples died before him, leaving him behind.

Each time those he had directly formed bonds with left, a wrinkle was added to his face.

All that remained was the hollow title of Supreme Elder and the Order.

‘It wasn’t from the beginning, was it?’

It had just been binding him.

“I entrust the Order to you.”

“I entrust my disciples to you.”

“Lead the remaining ones well.”

‘Meaningless words.’

The words left by those who had departed before him, each and every one, bound his feet, bound his arms, and even bound his soul.

He was destined to become a ghost of the Order.

The gazes of those who departed first, the voices of those who departed first, the wishes those who departed first left him…

That was why he had strived.

He poured all his efforts into preventing the Order from declining. He worked his old body to the bone, and his withered soul to the point of shattering.

But the decline of the Order was something he could not stop with his power alone.

He tried and tried, he cried out and cried out, but the Order continued to lose its power, and more and more people were persecuted.

And Jang Min watched all of it with tears of blood.

Unable to do anything about his breath that would not cease.

Lamenting the continuation of a life he could not abandon himself.

Think about it.

There is something you must achieve. Something you must achieve no matter what.

But when you can’t do anything with your own power, and when you look around and can’t find anyone to help you.

What can a person do?

Did you try? you ask.

He had tried so hard that his fingernails wore down. He had done things he shouldn’t have done without hesitation, and he had not hesitated to sacrifice cultists for the greater good.

Yet, the abyss.

Falling, plummeting, and degenerating.

What could someone do who had to hold onto his aging body and watch that sight with his own eyes?

‘Oh, Demonic Lord…’

When people are driven to the extreme, when they are thrown into a place where there is nowhere else to go, they tend to seek faith.

What came to him was the myth of the Heavenly Demonic Lord and the prophecy of the Demonic Lord’s reincarnation.

Some said it was futile.

Some said it was meaningless.

But Jang Min had to cling to it.

The Order had already become his everything, and he couldn’t just let go.

Having lost one thing after another, all that was left was the Order. And the wishes of those who had gone before him would not let him go.

So he had no choice but to endure.

He had no choice but to groan like a madman, clinging to a meaningless prophecy. Clinging to a prophecy that even he himself did not believe.

Finally…

A miracle happened.

As the prophecy he didn’t even believe in foretold, Kang Jin-ho appeared before him and led the cultists groaning at the bottom of their lives to a pure land. Although this place was not a paradise prepared for the cultists, it was at least a place where they could live like human beings, thinking about tomorrow.

Wasn’t that enough?

Humans believe in gods.

They believe that gods will fulfill the wishes they cannot achieve and save them.

Think about it.

People do not hesitate to believe in and follow even gods who cannot provide any help in reality. So, what reason is there not to worship as a god someone who has fulfilled hundreds of years of wishes in an instant?

No.

At least for Jang Min, Kang Jin-ho’s existence was incomparable to those insignificant gods. Even if a real god existed in the world and was watching over everyone, Jang Min would pay homage to Kang Jin-ho, not the god.

But…

‘What am I supposed to give up?’

Kang Jin-ho?

That’s ridiculous.

That was something that could not happen for Jang Min. Even if he had to throw himself into the bottom of hell and suffer for eternity, he could not abandon his faith in Kang Jin-ho.

Then…

Was he going to die like this?

Never overcoming the wall?

No. That was not the case.

Jang Min quietly closed his eyes.

‘I was wrong.’

The idea that you have to give up something to gain something, that you have to empty yourself to fill yourself. The idea that you have to break free from your preconceptions to overcome them was all meaningless.

Not being bound.

That was not in the realm of obvious methodology. The moment you repeat that it must be done this way, you have already failed to break free.

If a wall exists for a person to move forward, what reason is there not to move forward while holding onto what he has now?

‘What was I bound to?’

What truly bound him was not the existence of Kang Jin-ho.

Does faith bind a person? Does religion make a person unfree?

Absolutely not.

What was truly binding him was the Order. No… the wishes left by the cultists who had departed before him.

He had achieved everything. What they wanted, what they wished for, what they hoped for. All of it had already been achieved. What remained was not his responsibility but the cultists’ responsibility.

Yet, Jang Min could not break free from those wishes. He believed that his life was only prepared for the Order and that he had to sacrifice himself for the Order.

And that was…

‘That wasn’t what I wanted.’

He thought it had to be that way.

His faith in Kang Jin-ho was something he had created himself. Rather, he could feel his own worth when he offered his faith to Kang Jin-ho.

But…

‘When was it?’

When did this deep sense of responsibility for the Order begin?

When did the place he should have thought of as a place to protect and enjoy begin to weigh down on his shoulders?

And what was Jang Min’s true wish?

‘I…’

Jang Min opened his closed eyes.

His one remaining eye shone with a clear light that was unlike that of a demon.

“I want to find my own life.”

That’s right.

He was a trapped being.

When burdened by duty, he confined himself in a dark cave, and even after being freed from duty, he confined himself with a heavy sense of responsibility. What had disappeared within that was none other than Jang Min.

The Supreme Elder of the Demonic Cult.

That name clung to his body like glue, refusing to fall off.

His arms and legs, which should have been his, had not moved according to his will for some time. And even his heart, which should have been his alone, did not flow according to his will.

The Order he had protected was weighing him down.

‘What I had to break free from wasn’t the Demonic Lord.’

Tears began to flow from Jang Min’s eyes.

What he truly wanted was…

At that moment, black energies began to flow out of Jang Min’s body. Energies that floated like specters began to escape from Jang Min’s body.

But it was strange.

Even though the energy was escaping, vitality began to return to Jang Min’s body little by little.

Jang Min looked at the receding black energies with blurry eyes.

That was desire.

That was a wish.

And that was the chain that had bound him.

Something he couldn’t let go of, even though everything had been achieved. Perhaps they could be called by the name of bonds or by the name of longing.

‘It’s not the past.’

No matter what kind of life he had lived, no matter what kind of time he had endured.

How could someone who looks back move forward?

What had been weighing him down was his time. The things he couldn’t let go of in that time.

But now…

Jang Min closed his eyes again.

The faces of those he had seen so far flashed through his eyes.

Those who were once his friends.

Those who were once his lovers.

Those who were once his disciples.

And those who were his cultists.

‘Thank you.’

He had been able to endure thanks to them.

But Jang Min now knew. Those who dwell in the past cannot move forward.

It’s not about forgetting.

Jang Min’s body, which had finally understood what it meant to let go, began to be enveloped in black, too black energies.

The darkness, darker than pitch black, seemed almost sacred.

Pure demonic energy, without a single impurity, embraced Jang Min like the darkness of dawn.

A smile bloomed on Jang Min’s lips, enveloped in that deep darkness, for the first time.

“I am moving forward.”

Overcoming the past, transcending preconceptions, forgetting even time…

Moving forward.

Whoooooooosh!

The black demonic energy that enveloped Jang Min began to swirl like a storm.

Within that, in that deep, deep darkness,

Jang Min, who recalled the embrace of his mother, whose face he could no longer remember…

Quietly.

Just quietly closed his eyes.