Descent Of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 2085

Thud! A sensation of something impacting his face came with a thick, unfamiliar feeling.

Down, and further down.

His body felt like it was falling endlessly.

‘Ah…

I’ve felt this sensation before.

Yes, several times already.

A sensation that no one with reason should ever experience. But whether it was a curse or a blessing, Kang Jin-ho had already felt this sensation twice.

The sensation of life leaving the body.

Yes, the sensation of death.

Death always comes like this. A coexistence of fear and comfort, two extremes… making it feel foreign, yet also endlessly peaceful.

I want to close them.

I want to close my eyes and surrender everything to this sensation. Because then, I would be at peace.

Will it repeat?

Like before, after facing death like this, will another life repeat for him?

I don’t know.

Yes, I don’t know.

That’s not something Kang Jin-ho can choose. Like always, Kang Jin-ho is just swept away by fate. He just accepts what is given.

So….

Shouldn’t I just accept death? I really did my best.

It was different from his first life. And different from his second life. In this life, he did everything he could, according to his will. So, shouldn’t he be able to close his eyes without regret?

Isn’t there no need to resist the hellish pain surging through his body, the agony that felt like it was tearing his soul apart?

It would be easier if I just let go.

Kang Jin-ho’s consciousness sank deeper and deeper.

His cold body felt like it was gradually warming up. Perhaps the small warmth he had been desperately searching for was in that deep place.

The warmth called peace. In that deep place….

Crack.

Suddenly, Kang Jin-ho’s hand gripped the floor.

Is it there?

Is what he so desperately desired really in that deep place?

‘That can’t be.’

That’s just an escape.

If there’s something he wants, he has to grab it with his own hands. He’s already felt countless times that there’s nothing in the places he’s run away from, the places he’s struggled to ignore.

Another life?

Bullshit.

‘Not yet….’

Kang Jin-ho desperately held onto his fading consciousness.

‘Not yet….’

He hasn’t poured everything out yet. The fact that he can ‘think’ while facing death is proof of that.

But….

Is it worth it?

Is there a reason to endure this deep, intense pain and raise his body again?

Then, Kang Jin-ho heard someone’s scream in his ear.

A world where his hearing was almost lost, a world close to silence. That’s why that small, faint sound pierced Kang Jin-ho’s consciousness so clearly.

His tightly closed eyelids fluttered.

Words? A sound?

I don’t know.

His senses, mixed up haphazardly, couldn’t properly identify the nature of the stimuli pouring towards him.

All he could feel was….

‘Ah… Ah.’

It’s different.

It’s different from the peace felt in that deep place. What’s pulling him is not the peace of rest, but… the warmth touching his skin.

Crack.

Kang Jin-ho, gripping the floor, struggled to raise his body.

A movement that didn’t feel like it had any strength at all.

“Jin-ho!”

“Oppa! Aaaaaaaah!”

Only then did the sound of someone shouting begin to penetrate Kang Jin-ho’s ears.

The corners of his swollen mouth formed a faint curve.

Those shouts didn’t grab him. What raised him was clearly his will, which he hadn’t completely burned away yet.

But….

‘It’s enough of a reason.’

Even a traveler walking a path, even a beast living through a cold blizzard. What they seek is just a small warmth to melt their bodies.

And it wouldn’t be different for those who walk and walk through the modern, desolate world.

“Jin-ho-ssi!”

Choi Yeon-ha’s voice reached his ears.

‘Yes.’

Kang Jin-ho found it.

After three lifetimes, he found the small warmth that could melt his body.

But….

Kang Jin-ho raised his head.

He’s in front of him.

The one who still stands alone in the cold world.

The one who walks a path no one understands, the one who walks towards an ending no one wants, just a lonely, lonely being.

‘You….’

“Cough.”

Kang Jin-ho, coughing up blood, looked at the Black King with half-opened eyes.

‘What are you looking for?’ Dignified, just dignified.

So dazzling.

But Kang Jin-ho knows. He knows what that dignity, visible to others, means to him.

Someone who has never felt warmth is bound to fear even that warmth. The one who pushes away those who approach, the one who avoids places to melt their body, all that’s left is coldness. A chilling coldness.

What should I do?

What should Kang Jin-ho do for the one who has forgotten how to find warmth on their own?

Seeing Kang Jin-ho, who couldn’t even fully straighten his body, the Black King slowly opened his mouth.

His face was trying to maintain a blank expression, but his trembling lips seemed to show that he was also at his limit.

“…Why did you get up?”

Kang Jin-ho met the Black King’s gaze with half-opened eyes.

“If you had just stayed collapsed… you might have saved your life. But… why did you get up, you idiot?”

Words of reproach.

Words of ridicule.

But those words didn’t sound so cold to Kang Jin-ho.

It was more like he was resenting him. Why did he have to get up and make him go to the end, why did he have to make him kill Kang Jin-ho with his own hands?

He’s someone who’s used to standing alone.

The Black King.

But he might be someone who fears standing alone more than anyone else in the world.

“Do those voices give you strength?”

“It’s not like some third-rate novel….”

Kang Jin-ho shook his head.

“No… No, Cheongma [Black King’s given name]. It’s not that.”

The Black King looked at Kang Jin-ho without a word.

“What sustains me is the past.”

The Black King’s eyes showed a different light.

“What made me stand here now… it must be the past life. The one I walked with you. Yes… that life is sustaining me.”

“You….”

“But what raised me now… it’s not that.”

Because I learned.

Because I was asked.

Kang Jin-ho learned what to do for someone who doesn’t know what to do alone in a cold place.

“What sustains me is my past, but what… what leads me is one word I learned in this life.”

The Black King slightly clenched his fist.

As if the weight of Kang Jin-ho’s calm words was pressing down on him.

“I….”

Kang Jin-ho fully opened his eyes and looked straight at the Black King.

“I will not stop reaching out my hand to you.”

The Black King’s face was filled with doubt. As if he couldn’t understand what Kang Jin-ho was saying.

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t take it. I will reach out my hand to you until the very end.”

“What are you even….”

“Because that’s what I learned.”

Kang Jin-ho quietly closed his eyes.

‘Mother Superior.’

Sometimes, the most precious things remain in low places.

The Heavenly Demon Lord who commanded the world.

The head of the General Assembly who is shaking the current era.

What leads Kang Jin-ho’s life is the weak voice that came from that small hospital room.

“Life is something you seek, but it also flows in on its own. Yes, it flows in. Like the children who came to me, like the children who came to meet me. It’s not that I reached out my hand, but that those children reached out their hands to me. I just didn’t refuse. So, Jin-ho, you don’t have to rush to reach out your hand. If you just live, everyone will reach out their hands.”

“If you ever have a little bit of time… could you become someone who can reach out your hand first to those who can’t reach out their hands first?”

A short conversation. That conversation that changed Kang Jin-ho’s life was perhaps… for this moment.

The Mother Superior always held his hand.

“People, you know, are sometimes lonely even when they’re with others.”

“Lonely. People are lonely. It’s hard to truly understand others. Conversely, no one truly understands me. That’s why I hold hands. I want to tell them that we’re together, even if we don’t understand each other.”

Now….

I think I understand the meaning of those words.

“Is it warm?”

At that time, Kang Jin-ho thought that hand was cold.

The hand of a sick person. A hand that had grown cold.

But….

Now he knows.

That hand was warmer than anyone else’s hand.

“I hope that Jin-ho can become someone who can accept even the weaknesses of others.”

Did Kang Jin-ho keep that request?

Kang Jin-ho opened his eyes and looked at the Black King.

“We were lonely even when we were together.”

“Even when we were together, we assumed that no one would understand us and just turned our heads away. If only someone had reached out their hand first… we wouldn’t have come this far.”

“Master….”

“So….”

Kang Jin-ho smiled brightly.

With his face a mess.

“I’ll reach out my hand, Cheongma. Even if you don’t take it, even if my body is broken and torn apart, I will reach out my hand.”

“I’m here.”

The Black King’s shoulders trembled.

“I’m here, right in front of you.”

“Look at me.”

Kang Jin-ho and the Black King’s eyes met in the air.

A gaze they had met countless times.

A look they had read countless times.

But only now….

They were fully looking at each other.

“You said it’s meaningless if you can’t achieve it?”

“I….”

“Absolutely not.”

Kang Jin-ho shook his head.

“I’m here, Cheongma. The one who is looking at Cheongma, not the Black King. The one who is looking at you as a human being, not your goals and ideals, is here.”

The two looked at each other.

Right here, where so many people were watching, as if only the two of them existed in the world.

“Master….”

The Black King.

No, Cheongma let out a hollow laugh.

“…You’ve become quite good at saying cheesy things.”

Cheongma, who shook his head, clenched his fist.

But his face no longer held any hostility. Cheongma’s eyes had returned to the time when he sat across from Kang Jin-ho, sharing a drink.

Cheongma raised his head and looked at the sky.

The sky pouring down rain was just black and black. Just like the path he had walked.

‘It’s cold.’

The rain touching his body was just cold.

It’s strange.

The world had always been cold to him. For him, living was no different from walking alone on a harsh land. He had constantly walked on a harsh land where if he stopped, if he settled down, he would collapse and freeze.

But why… why does this rain feel so cold?

Cheongma’s gaze turned to Kang Jin-ho.

With a face that seemed to understand and not understand.

“Now….”

A low voice escaped from Cheongma’s mouth.

A voice that could no longer be cold.

“Let’s end this, Master. No….”

Cheongma smiled a white smile.

Like he did in the past.

“Kang Jin-ho.”

The two took one step closer to each other.

The distance that would never be narrowed.