Descent Of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 2012

The Master, having channeled mana into his rune sword, took a deep breath.

‘This is hard.’

His body wouldn’t obey him.

There was a time when his body was full of vigor, and his mind was filled with determination. He felt like he could do anything, and there wasn’t a single doubt about the path he walked.

But youth is not eternal.

His body was old and worn. Now, he no longer had the same vitality as before, nor the certainty that he was walking the right path.

‘Then why am I standing here?’

He could just let go.

He had done enough. Although the result wasn’t what he had wanted, no one could deny that he had lived his life to the fullest.

Even if he were to lay down the burdens on his shoulders and step back, no one would blame him. He was being criticized not because he didn’t fight, but because he had fought wrongly.

He knew it. He knew it well enough.

Life is judged by its trajectory. No matter what he showed here, the evaluation of him wouldn’t change. Some would recognize him as a sage who had led the Round Table, and others would criticize him as the culprit who had ruined it.

He could just accept the evaluation calmly, so why was he suffering here, dragging his body that wouldn’t move properly?

The Master’s lips twisted.

‘That’s enough, all of that.’

What would change if he found a reason?

He had lived his whole life calculating. He thought he had divided understanding and gains, and had only chosen the best path. But the result was the worst outcome he had never even considered.

And yet, did he have to find a reason again?

‘The reason is in my heart.’ The Master grinned, revealing his teeth. If he were to explain, there would be countless reasons. But none of them were clear. Perhaps he was just standing here because of the impulse burning within him.

He had suppressed his impulses his whole life, so he could do what he wanted in his last moment.

Woo-oo-oong.

The Master’s rune sword emitted a pure white light.

He stopped trying to perfectly distribute mana.

He also forgot about saving his strength to prepare for the opponent’s numbers.

Abandoning the method he had adhered to his whole life was like cutting off his own flesh. But at this moment, the Master abandoned everything that had bound him.

“It’s fortunate that you’re my last opponent.”

“It’s an honor.”

Scratch.

The Master’s eyes, having scraped the floor with his rune sword, shone coldly.

Swoosh!

From his rune sword, which he thrust forward, pure white patterns spread into the air like paint. In an instant, the mana that had spread into the air drew a huge magic circle in the void.

“Hmm?”

The Phantasmist’s eyebrows twitched greatly at the bizarre situation.

“Haaap!”

Kii’gak! Kii’刀! Kii’geuk! gak!

At that moment, a black wave poured out like a waterfall from a huge gate that had opened in the air. A thick, high-density liquid, like tar or lava, covered the Phantasmist like a black tsunami.

‘Just this?’

The Phantasmist’s expression became subtle.

He seemed to have made a great resolution, but the attack wasn’t particularly impressive. If it were an ordinary martial artist, this attack that covered a wide area might have been effective, but he was the Phantasmist.

Swish!

The talismans he extended formed an eight-trigram shape [a traditional Chinese symbol representing the eight fundamental principles of reality] and blocked the air. The energies extended by the talismans, which resonated with each other, blocked the Phantasmist’s path like a barrier.

But it was at that very moment.

Woo-oo-oong!

‘Under my feet?’

It was the very moment the Phantasmist was about to lift his body into the air at the small sound he heard from below.

Koo-oo-oo-oong!

“Kuh!”

The Phantasmist’s knees buckled and bent. His body was forcibly bent so much that his hand almost touched the floor.

‘Th-this power?’

It was incomprehensible.

His body felt as heavy as a thousand pounds, and it felt like he was being pulled to the floor. It was as if the floor, no, the earth, was sucking him in and trying to swallow him.

‘What is this?’

Defense and response are basically based on one’s common sense.

It’s not difficult to deal with what one has experienced, but it’s bound to be difficult to deal with something one has never experienced. The absolute masters are more sensitive to small things.

The situation where gravity, which should always be the same, had suddenly become stronger was causing confusion even for the Phantasmist.

Kwa kwa kwa kwa kwa!

At that moment, the tsunami that had rushed in engulfed the Phantasmist.

‘Futile tricks!’

The Phantasmist’s face hardened.

It was true that he was momentarily flustered, but that didn’t change anything. He couldn’t be stopped just because his body had become heavy, and that attack couldn’t break through his barrier.

Quarrel, quarrel.

“Huh?”

At that moment, the Phantasmist’s face hardened. The black wave that had collided with his barrier didn’t bounce off or get pushed away, but stuck to the barrier as it was. It was as if the flowing adhesive had stuck to his fingertips, and the lava that had flowed into the sea had instantly hardened and cooled.

The world was instantly dyed black.

‘This is?’

The circular space created by his barrier. The black liquids that covered that space began to harden instantly. The light disappeared, and the world was instantly dyed in darkness.

“Kuh!”

The Phantasmist made a seal with both hands and poured his inner strength into the talismans.

‘How should I deal with this?’

He couldn’t predict it.

He had fought countless battles, but he had never seen the other’s attack even once, and it was not something he could understand by looking at it. The bigger problem was that it was impossible to predict the meaning of the opponent’s attack.

First, he had no choice but to strengthen this barrier and block the opponent’s attack at its source.

And at that moment.

Koo-oong!

The Phantasmist’s body staggered.

The force of gravity pressing down on him became even stronger for a moment.

‘Damn it.’

The Phantasmist’s face contorted for the first time.

His barrier blocked everything that invaded from the outside. But that didn’t mean it blocked all physical force. If that were possible, the moment he put up the barrier, even gravity would be blocked, and his body would have floated into the air.

But this wasn’t something that happened because the Phantasmist was complacent. There was no martial art in the Central Plains [a region in China often used as a setting in martial arts stories] that used this kind of attack. Where would there be a martial art that developed to block an attack that didn’t exist?

‘That guy!’

What was surprising was the other’s response. He was the Phantasmist, the one who had mastered all the sorcery of the Central Plains.

Sorcery was different from martial arts. While martial arts focused on strengthening one’s own body, sorcery used a medium to fight.

In other words, compared to a martial artist who had reached the same level, the Phantasmist’s body was bound to be infinitely weak. This trick of strengthening gravity would have no meaning for other martial artists. Even if gravity became dozens of times stronger, it wouldn’t be able to control the movements of masters who had reached the extreme.

But it was different for the Phantasmist.

‘Is he saying that he grasped that fact in that short moment and is making a gamble?’

It was an absurd insight.

Just by watching his movements a few times, he was making the most perfect response. He couldn’t even grasp how much experience was needed to make that possible.

Crack! Crack!

“Kuh!”

The force pressing down on the barrier became even stronger.

The gravity was pulling on the hardened liquid. The two sorceries were harmonizing with each other, doubling their power.

Thud.

The flesh at his fingertips burst, and blood spurted out. The blood vessels that were in contact with his skin burst, and dark bruises appeared in various places.

A pressure that felt like it would crush him.

But!

‘That’s all it is.’

Woo-oo-oo-oong!

The Phantasmist’s barrier began to push back the hardened liquids.

Even if it crushed his body, even if it blocked the light and pushed him into complete darkness, nothing would change if this barrier wasn’t broken.

If it were an ordinary martial artist, they might have panicked in this darkness, with the pressure pressing down on them from all sides, but his mind was as hard as a diamond.

He couldn’t be killed by the pressure on his body, and he couldn’t be thrown into confusion by pushing the world into darkness.

‘An attack always has a price.’ Maintaining an attack of this magnitude must consume a huge amount of energy, and just by enduring, he was continuously gaining an advantage.

Crack! Crack crack!

The hardened liquids were pushed back, causing cracks. He couldn’t see it with his eyes, but his senses were feeling it. If he pushed a little more, those liquids would lose their power and be pushed back.

At that moment, the pressure exerted by the liquids increased for a moment. The opponent was also struggling to not let him go.

The gravity pressing down on his body became stronger, and the liquids covering his barrier exerted pressure like a deep sea. It wasn’t a flashy, explosive attack, but a more persistent and vicious one.

In that attack, the Phantasmist’s lips formed a triumphant smile.

“Haaap!”

The Phantasmist made a seal and pushed out his barrier.

He had tried, but this was the end!

Swish!

The talismans that had been scattered from his sleeves flew up and stuck to the barrier.

Absolute defense.

An absolute barrier that could return even an attack from a superhuman at full power to nothing.

As long as he was inside this space, he would never be hurt. The coexistence of a steadfast mind that wouldn’t lose itself even in hell and a perfect defense that blocked any physical force.

At this moment, the outcome was as good as decided.

‘It’s over!’

It was just when the Phantasmist was about to blow away the incoming liquids at once.

“You were arrogant.”

His blood ran cold.

A voice that should never have been heard came from behind him. That calm voice shattered everything about the Phantasmist.

“Uwaaaah!”

The Phantasmist turned his body violently.

At that moment, a dazzling light covered the space where there was only darkness. Like the sun rising after a deep, deep night, the light was so dazzling that it even blinded the Phantasmist’s eyes.

And…

Swaaaaaaack!

The swung rune sword tore through the Phantasmist’s body.

“Keuk…”

The Phantasmist trembled as he looked at the sword embedded in his side.

“You…”

A thick smile appeared on the Master’s lips. The Master, who was soaked in the blood he had spilled from his chin to his chest, spoke mockingly.

“You should have been suspicious.”

Crack! Crack crack!

At that moment, spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the barrier created by the Phantasmist.

Clang!

The liquids that had shattered the barrier like glass covered the Master and the Phantasmist.