Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 2052

“Uh…”

Bang Jin-hoon’s mouth hung open at the spectacular explosion that had just occurred before his eyes.

Even with his keen eyesight, he couldn’t comprehend what had just happened. Something flickered and flashed, and then suddenly, *boom*! It just exploded.

The only thing he could understand for sure was this:

Wiggins was standing there, seemingly unfazed, watching the explosion, while Baek Yeonhong was caught in the blast that Wiggins had clearly created.

“I can’t keep up with him.”

Even Jang Min shook his head in amazement.

‘Is there anyone who could withstand that?’

Martial arts, in the end, is just about systematizing ways to neutralize an opponent’s attacks and land your own.

It was a saying he had heard countless times, but no sight had ever explained it as well as the moment he was witnessing now.

A perfect psychological warfare.

An understanding of what he possessed, an understanding of his opponent, Baek Yeonhong, and an understanding of where he was fighting.

It was an attack that could never have been conceived, and a feat that could never have been accomplished, without a perfect understanding of all those things.

But Wiggins had executed it all perfectly.

Jang Min’s eyes turned to Wiggins’s back, standing tall. No matter what he showed in the future, this single feat alone was enough to make him acknowledge Wiggins.

“He’s like a rat, anyway.”

Bator shook his head, clearly displeased.

From his perspective, someone who preferred head-on clashes of strength, Wiggins was a martial artist he didn’t want to acknowledge.

“But you can’t deny it, can you?”

“Shut up, old man!”

Bator shouted in an irritated voice, and Jang Min chuckled.

And…

Lee Hyun-soo, who would normally be grabbing anyone and asking what was going on, was now holding his breath in tension, while Kang Jin-ho, sitting next to him, was watching the situation with a deeply sunken gaze.

‘Wiggins.’

While everyone was marveling at what Wiggins had done, Kang Jin-ho was seeing another aspect of this battle.

‘Is he alright?’

To deceive an opponent is, conversely, to perform inefficient actions. If the opponent doesn’t fall for the deception, the moment spent on it could tighten the noose around your own neck.

What if Baek Yeonhong hadn’t fallen into the trap Wiggins had laid? What if he hadn’t been fooled by the dummy and had found the real Wiggins?

‘His waist would have been cut off.’

He would have died without even being able to react. Beyond the moment of transmission, all he would have seen was his lower body being severed.

On the surface, it was just a trick of mixing the real with the fake to deceive the opponent. But looking deeper, it was an extreme gamble that could only succeed because he had thrown his own life on the line as bait.

He knew.

The difference between Wiggins and Baek Yeonhong was clear. He couldn’t close that gap unless he succeeded in such gambles repeatedly.

But…

‘Do you know, Wiggins?’

That it was also a path that blocked his own retreat.

The moment that gamble, where he had practically thrown his life away, failed, the only result he would face was death. A complete death that wouldn’t even allow for the opponent’s mercy.

“Maybe…”

“Yes?”

Lee Hyun-soo turned in surprise as Kang Jin-ho opened his mouth.

“The most twisted one among us might be that guy.”

“…What do you mean?”

Kang Jin-ho didn’t answer Lee Hyun-soo. Or rather, he couldn’t answer. It was hard to explain, and half of it was just speculation.

Kang Jin-ho knew.

Wiggins had no reason to bet everything on this fight. The idea of him burning with revenge against Baek Yeonhong was also ridiculous.

Was Wiggins really a man so obsessed with victory?

It might be true that he yearned for victory. But for Wiggins, victory wasn’t something to be gained at the cost of his own sacrifice. It was just the natural fruit of the abilities he had built himself.

Yes.

If something more was needed, Wiggins was someone who could easily let go and step back.

That was why Kang Jin-ho trusted Wiggins. Because he possessed the reason and rationality that the other directors lacked.

But…

‘Then how do I explain this situation?’

How could he understand why someone who didn’t need to bet everything was now walking such an extreme tightrope that no one had ever attempted before?

‘Madness.’

There was only one reason.

It was simply because he judged it to be the most efficient way to defeat Baek Yeonhong.

‘Crazy bastard.’

Wiggins might not even understand the contradiction within himself.

He wouldn’t hesitate in the realm of ideology. But in the realm of method, he wouldn’t hesitate to make a life-or-death bet.

Was there anyone else as insane as him?

Kang Jin-ho’s gaze turned to Wiggins.

Perhaps this battle was heading into a realm that even Kang Jin-ho couldn’t understand.

“Hmm.”

Wiggins quietly clenched and unclenched his prosthetic hand.

It seemed that the prosthetic had overloaded after he had momentarily drawn out such powerful mana [a form of energy used in magic or martial arts].

‘I didn’t think about this part.’

It couldn’t be helped.

It wasn’t like he could just keep making mana batteries endlessly. It took a huge amount of time just to charge one battery. He couldn’t just test out a charged battery by blowing it away.

‘It’ll barely hold, I guess.’

Wiggins checked his prosthetic hand once more, then turned his gaze forward.

It was true that he had landed a good hit, but there was no way he could defeat Baek Yeonhong with an attack of this level. At best, it was just a heavy jab.

But it didn’t matter.

The damage he had inflicted wasn’t physical.

A clean hit had landed on the face of a professional boxer who believed he could never be hit by an amateur.

If it were just a sparring match between boxers, it would just be a minor incident.

‘But this situation is different.’

The crushing of that high pride would definitely be a wound. And Wiggins was someone who was ready to take that small wound and make it a fatal one.

*Thud.*

At that moment, Baek Yeonhong, who had fallen, stomped on the ground and rose to his feet.

His body was torn in places, and he was bleeding. It was certainly a remarkable achievement to inflict such wounds on a superhuman. But Wiggins’s gaze was fixed on a different wound, not those physical ones.

“You…”

A face twisted in agony.

‘Yes, that’s it.’

The wound to Baek Yeonhong’s pride would be incomparable to the physical wounds.

What Wiggins had to do was pour salt on that wound.

“I’ll ask again…”

Wiggins twisted his lips.

“Do you think of yourself as a human? Or…”

*Grind.*

The sound of Baek Yeonhong grinding his teeth reached him from that distance.

‘He must be angry.’

He must have thought he had done everything perfectly. To be toyed with by his opponent at that moment would have been an unimaginable humiliation.

But…

‘He still doesn’t understand.’

To be angry, to hate, and to struggle to suppress those boiling emotions.

All of that was incredibly human.

When he was calm, Baek Yeonhong might have truly transcended humanity. But the moment he was bound by those emotions, he could never be anything but human.

‘Now, how will he react?’

Wiggins licked his lips.

Would he charge like an angry bull, his anger reaching his head, or would he desperately try to convince himself that he wasn’t angry and calmly close the distance?

Or maybe…

*Whoosh!*

At that moment, the sword energy that Baek Yeonhong unleashed shot towards Wiggins at explosive speed.

‘Neither of those, then.’

But this response was also within Wiggins’s calculations. And it was the response he had most desired.

‘He seems to be struggling.’

He was too rational to give in to his anger, and his pride wouldn’t allow him to move cautiously. Unable to do either, he was just making a fuss with a harmless attack.

That psychology was almost palpable.

Wiggins grinned, revealing his teeth, and held out one hand. Then, with his other hand, he drew a magic circle in the air.

*Whoosh!*

A large gate appeared in front of his outstretched hand. At the same time, Baek Yeonhong’s sword energy was sucked into the gate.

And at that moment, Wiggins clearly saw Baek Yeonhong’s hair standing on end. He wasn’t a fool, so he knew that the sword energy Wiggins had just absorbed could attack him through a gate that would appear somewhere.

But…

‘Too obvious.’

*Whoosh!*

A gate appeared behind Baek Yeonhong. But before its form could even fully materialize, Baek Yeonhong reacted and turned around.

The time it took for the gate to form was literally a moment. But Baek Yeonhong’s reaction speed surpassed even that moment.

Baek Yeonhong’s body turned sharply, blocking the sword energy flying towards him.

The sword, swung gracefully, perfectly deflected the sharp sword energy.

*Clang! Clang! Clang!*

Wiggins, having deflected all of the released sword energy, turned his body sharply. His legs bent slightly, as if he was about to close the distance with Wiggins in an instant.

“You!”

But Wiggins’s lips twisted into a smirk as he took in the scene.

“You keep acting so foolishly.”

At that moment…

*KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!*

From the gate that had already released all of Baek Yeonhong’s sword energy and lost its value, a superheated flame exploded, engulfing Baek Yeonhong’s back.

Baek Yeonhong’s eyes widened as he tried to turn his body again, but this time, the speed at which the flames engulfed him was faster than his reaction.

*KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!*

A flame, so blue it was almost white, engulfed Baek Yeonhong.

“Hyaaaaaaak!”

Baek Yeonhong’s scream, which had burst out momentarily, echoed through the blazing flames.

“That’s why…”

Wiggins raised his rune sword, a sinister smile on his face.

“You should be careful of your own perceptions.”

*Whoooooooosh!*

His rune sword emitted a dazzling white light.

At the same time, a transparent barrier formed around the burning Baek Yeonhong.

“A shield?”

Bang Jin-hoon’s breath escaped his lips as he watched the scene.

Wiggins had deployed a shield, not around himself, but around Baek Yeonhong. And thanks to that, the flames that had been raging like an explosion were now burning inside the shield as if trapped in a glass sphere.

Hotter! Even more intense!

So fiercely that even a superhuman body would be unable to withstand it!

“It might be a little hot… but you’ll be fine, right? You’re not human anyway.”

Wiggins’s rune sword, which had let out a sneer, emitted a new form of light.

*Whoooooooooosh!*

At the same time, the ground that Baek Yeonhong was standing on turned as if it had become liquid, sucking Baek Yeonhong, along with the shield surrounding him, into it.

Deep, deeper.

Into the endless underground.