Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 2053

It swirls.

Clearly, with that intensity, even reinforced concrete, which surpasses metal, is undulating like water. No, even the term ‘water’ isn’t quite right.

It was like a stormy sea.

Gray waves surged. An alien, utterly alien sight. It was a scene sufficient to stir the primal fear deeply embedded within the human psyche.

*Crash! Rumble!*

With violent sounds like thunder, the viscous waves swallowed the red-hot shield, dragging it down.

As if a storm-tossed sea were swallowing a holed ship, deeper and deeper into the abyss.

Those watching the scene all gaped.

Not only the General Assembly side but even the Twelve Zodiacs, who were still conscious, were rendered speechless by this formidable sight.

“Good heavens…”

The fact that this surprised voice came from Bator himself proved just how tremendous the scene unfolding here was.

Even Kang Jin-ho chuckled in disbelief.

‘Magic… was it this amazing?’

Having already faced a Master and annihilated the Elder Knights representing the Round Table’s power, even Kang Jin-ho found the power Wiggins was displaying to be truly unexpected.

Destructive power?

No. It wasn’t that.

What was bewildering them now was an attack that was utterly unpredictable. Something that couldn’t be understood or anticipated with the common sense of martial arts they knew. Therefore, an attack they couldn’t counter.

It was understandable why Baek Yeonhong was being helplessly overwhelmed.

Even if someone else were in that place, the situation wouldn’t have been much different.

*Rumble!*

The gray sea that had swallowed Baek Yeonhong’s shield gradually ceased its movement. The floor, which had been violently shaking like a stormy sea, gradually calmed down, and soon, it solidified in the same swirling form.

Like a giant sculpture made of concrete.

*Drip, drip.*

Large beads of sweat poured down Wiggins’s chin like rain.

*Thud.*

A spent battery fell weakly from his hand to the floor.

“Hoo.”

Wiggins took a deep breath.

‘My brain feels like it’s tearing apart.’

The pain was as if dozens of tiny needles were moving around inside his head. It was the price for pushing his brain to its limit without thinking about the aftermath.

Perhaps if this state continued, there might be aftereffects. He might be able to overcome the aftereffects left on his body, but the aftereffects left on his head would be impossible to overcome.

But….

‘It doesn’t matter.’

Wiggins twisted his lips.

The opponent was the Sword Immortal, Baek Yeonhong.

He was not an opponent that could be defeated without sacrifice.

And there was no need to worry about aftereffects. When would he ever fight such an opponent again?

The moment he faced Baek Yeonhong, he understood to some extent why those who had stood here before him hadn’t looked back.

Intuition.

It was an intuition that couldn’t be explained by logic.

Logic told him that perhaps there were stronger individuals than Baek Yeonhong hidden in the world, and that one day he too might have to face such an opponent.

But his instincts said otherwise.

This was the final stop.

This was his last stand.

Once this moment passed, he would never again fight such an opponent with his life on the line. This was the pinnacle of the battle he would face as a knight.

The moment he realized that, the only emotion that dominated him was:

‘I don’t want to leave any regrets.’

He could accept victory or defeat.

What he couldn’t accept was not the result, but the process.

If he couldn’t pour everything he had into this place, even if he survived, Wiggins would live with regret for the rest of his life.

‘Regret….’

Wiggins chuckled softly.

‘In the end, I’m just human, aren’t I?’

He scoffed at Baek Yeonhong and the superhumans who pretended not to be human. But in that respect, he was the same.

He always emphasized his cool-headed reason and broad perspective, but now, in this most extreme situation, what dominated Wiggins was not reason, but emotion.

Wiggins shook his head, clearing away the numerous thoughts that had surfaced in his mind.

Thinking was meaningless now. His opponent was not someone he could face while harboring distractions.

Wiggins’s gaze turned to the floor, which had become like hardened clay.

‘How far down did he get dragged?’

One hundred meters?

Or two hundred meters?

Well, he didn’t know. He hadn’t had the leeway to calculate such things.

But even if he didn’t know the depth, he knew one thing for sure.

“You’ve rested enough, so I think it’s time for you to come up.”

That he wasn’t someone who would be defeated by this much.

*KWA-A-A-A-A-ANG!*

And at that moment, as if responding to Wiggins’s words, the floor flipped over and surged upwards.

In Wiggins’s eyes, the crescent-shaped sword energy that was slicing through the reinforced concrete like tofu was clearly visible.

“How violent.”

Wiggins’s hand gripped the rune sword tightly.

‘It’s like a game.’

A faint smile formed on Wiggins’s lips.

He had seen his disciples playing games a few times before. The sight of dozens of gamers surrounding a huge boss, constantly attacking and attacking again.

‘It was a very irrational sight.’

They had to continuously attack the opponent while not getting hit by a single one of the opponent’s attacks.

The overwhelming difference in stamina, and the difference in attack power that was beyond overwhelming.

Until they defeated that boss,

they had to land thousands of attacks and evade hundreds of attacks.

Without a single mistake.

Wasn’t it like the situation Wiggins was in now?

From now on, he had to nullify all of the opponent’s attacks while continuously landing his own. The difference was that while games allowed retries, he only had one life.

“Where…”

Wiggins’s gaze turned to the dark, massive hole he had created.

“Is this the scene of a demon appearing?”

A hand.

A blackened hand emerged from the edge of the hole.

*Thud!*

The hand that had shot up grabbed the edge of the hole and slowly pulled its body up.

A chilling shiver ran down Wiggins’s spine.

Baek Yeonhong’s foot, having climbed out of the pit, touched the ground.

A wretched sight.

His entire body was blackened with soot, and his clothes were unrecognizable. His eyes, bloodshot and red, made a mockery of the fact that he was a Taoist who had mastered Taoist martial arts.

The only thing that remained intact was the sword in his hand.

Wiggins licked his lips slightly. He had expected that as soon as he shot up, he would rush at him without looking back. But even though they were bloodshot, Baek Yeonhong’s eyes were as cold and calm as ever as he looked at him.

As if he were slowly probing him.

“Did the pain help you regain your reason?”

A faint sneer and sarcasm.

But this wasn’t a belittling of his opponent. For Wiggins, who needed to exploit his opponent’s psychology, building up the opponent’s psychological state to where he wanted it was essential.

After staring at Wiggins silently for a while, Baek Yeonhong slowly opened his mouth.

“…Do not be deceived.”

“…Huh?”

“The sword is merely within oneself. The world changes, but I do not change. If one can contemplate oneself and let oneself flow with the changing world, that is the Way.”

Baek Yeonhong, who had spoken as if chanting, turned his eyes back to Wiggins.

“Do you know what this means?”

“Well? I’m not particularly interested in Eastern-style vague talk.”

“…This is what the head of my sect told me when I first entered the Wudang Sect [a famous Taoist martial arts school]. In other words, these words are the foundation of all my martial arts.”

“Isn’t it funny?”

Baek Yeonhong chuckled, speaking self-deprecatingly.

“I acted as if I had the whole world at my feet. I believed that I had already surpassed the martial arts of my sect, and that their teachings no longer held any meaning for me. And in reality, that was the case.

At some point, everything about my sect was just a past I had passed through.”

Wiggins looked at Baek Yeonhong silently.

Strangely, he couldn’t ignore those words. Even though they sounded like the ramblings of a madman.

“And yet… those words come back to me now. Only now.”

Baek Yeonhong’s hand drew a smooth circle with his sword.

“Sword Immortal… Sword Immortal. Yes, I was once called that. I thought I had surpassed it, but…”

The soot-covered lips formed a smile.

“Come, you…”

*KWA-A-A-A-A-ANG!*

At that moment, a huge flame erupted from beneath Baek Yeonhong’s feet.

A strike focused more on speed than firepower. But when the flame momentarily flared and vanished, Baek Yeonhong had stepped two steps to the side, looking at Wiggins with a strange gaze.

“…You’re impatient.”

“I don’t have the patience to listen to nonsense.”

Baek Yeonhong nodded quietly.

Then, he lightly lowered his sword, pointing it downwards.

A low stance.

A posture that felt completely devoid of strength, the most natural posture in the world. The killing intent to cut off Wiggins’s neck, and the competitive spirit to win this match, had disappeared.

All that was visible was an old man holding a sword, nothing more.

Wiggins paused for a moment.

The world, filled with gray, seemed to be empty in reverse. In that empty world, an old man holding a sword stood alone. A soot-blackened old man.

The scene was reminiscent of a scene from an Eastern painting he had seen from time to time. As if it was only half-filled, only half-drawn. An Eastern painting whose aesthetics he could not understand.

‘It’s no different.’

Just because you empty it doesn’t mean you can empty it. In the end, he’s just human!

*Whoooom!*

His rune sword momentarily emitted light. At the same time, dozens of fireballs the size of houses were launched continuously from the tip of Wiggins’s rune sword.

The fired fireballs covered the front of Baek Yeonhong.

“Greas!”

At the same time, Wiggins’s other hand completed the casting.

The coefficient of friction at Baek Yeonhong’s feet disappeared.

‘Did they say it starts at the feet?’

He had heard it many times. That everything in that martial art started from the feet. If he couldn’t properly plant his feet on the ground, then its power wouldn’t even reach half of its potential.

But it was at that moment.

*Swoosh.*

Baek Yeonhong’s feet moved gracefully.

So softly and smoothly that it stole the gaze of everyone watching.

The circle drawn by his feet. A circle that shouldn’t have a physical form, yet it was so smooth that it clearly appeared in their minds.

The moment his foot perfectly completed the circle, that foot lightly stepped into the center of the circle.

“Just…”

Baek Yeonhong’s quiet voice spread out with a strange resonance.

“The Tai Chi [a Chinese martial art and philosophy] is the principle.”

His sword drew a soft arc towards the incoming fireballs.