Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 2090

I couldn’t breathe.

Lee Hyun-soo watched the two men collapsed on the ground, unable to even twitch a finger.

It was strange.

The long, drawn-out battle, a contest with no end in sight, had finally reached its conclusion before their very eyes.

Yet, strangely, he felt no interest in the outcome of that battle.

Lee Hyun-soo unconsciously raised his hand and wiped his eyes. He couldn’t tell if the water flowing down his face was tears or rain. All he knew was that his vision kept blurring.

‘Master.’

What did they see, what did they feel?

Those two men, standing at the end of this battle that even the onlookers found overwhelming, what were they feeling as they lay there?

It was cold.

The rain that touched his skin and flowed down was unbearably cold.

Squeeze.

At that moment, he felt a strong force on his arm. Lee Hyun-soo reflexively turned his head and saw Choi Yeon-ha’s face.

A face as white as a sheet.

Choi Yeon-ha’s chin was trembling slightly, her face pale from enduring the cold rain. She looked like she was about to collapse, but she just bit her lip and held on.

Seeing her like that, he snapped back to his senses.

“Master…”

Lee Hyun-soo took a step forward as if possessed.

The battle was already over.

Regardless of the outcome, the two of them could no longer continue that fight. Then, wasn’t it obvious what they had to do?

They had to save their master, who was collapsed in the cold rain.

But Lee Hyun-soo’s feet couldn’t move any further. Just one step. That was the limit of the distance he could approach right now.

Lee Hyun-soo bit his lip hard.

He knew.

Nothing was more important than a person’s life. A warrior’s pride, the sanctity of a duel—at least for Lee Hyun-soo, those things were worth less than a pebble on the road.

Yet, the reason Lee Hyun-soo hesitated to approach wasn’t out of respect for the duel.

It was because of Kang Jin-ho.

It was because he thought Kang Jin-ho might not want him to approach right now.

Lee Hyun-soo unconsciously turned his head. When people can’t make their own choices, they tend to look for the reactions of others.

But no one could help him.

Jang Min, who should have rushed there first, Bator, who should have been waxing poetic about the duel, and even Bang Jin-hoon, who should have been worried about the impact of this duel on the General Assembly.

They were all just staring blankly at the two fallen men, lost in thought.

A long silence.

Only the sound of rain filled the world. A silence that wasn’t silence, a stillness that wasn’t still, at the end of time…

“Ah…”

Lee Hyun-soo saw it.

He saw Kang Jin-ho, who had been lying on the ground, slowly raising his body.

Lee Hyun-soo pressed his lips tightly together.

If he kept his mouth open, it felt like a sob would burst out. He couldn’t stop the tears already flowing from his eyes, but he couldn’t bear to cry so pathetically.

In a world where the darkness hadn’t fully receded, Kang Jin-ho, staggering as he rose, looked up at the sky without a word. In a world where nothing remained, a world that stretched out to the horizon, the sight of Kang Jin-ho raising his head to look at the sky evoked an indescribable surge of emotion.

“…Master.”

What should he say?

Thank you for living?

Or, I’m glad you won?

Well, probably not.

There were no words they could say. All they could do was wait.

After staring at the sky for a long time, Kang Jin-ho knelt on one knee. Then, he picked up the fallen Black King.

The moment they saw the limp form of the Black King, everyone there could guess the outcome of the duel.

However, no one showed joy or disappointment. Some raised their heads to look at the sky, while others lowered their heads to look at the black earth.

Even the Twelve Flying Blades, who had been watching them from across the way, simply lowered their heads.

Kang Jin-ho stared down at the Black King he was holding for a while, then slowly began to walk. Lee Hyun-soo’s fingertips trembled involuntarily as he saw Kang Jin-ho approaching them.

It was sad.

It was strangely sad.

Kang Jin-ho looked small.

To him, Kang Jin-ho had always been a large figure. But at this moment, Kang Jin-ho looked smaller than himself.

Lee Hyun-soo stared blankly as Kang Jin-ho slowly approached him.

A disheveled face.

But the look in Kang Jin-ho’s eyes, visible between his swollen eyes, was deeper than ever before.

“Mas…”

Lee Hyun-soo closed his mouth.

Somehow, he felt like he should. At least for this moment, it should be Kang Jin-ho, not him, who spoke.

Then.

Kang Jin-ho, who had been silently looking at him, opened his mouth. Kang Jin-ho’s voice, hoarse and faded, flowed out softly and reached Lee Hyun-soo.

“…Lee Hyun-soo.”

Lee Hyun-soo’s shoulders twitched briefly. But that was only for a moment. Lee Hyun-soo nodded his head vigorously.

“Yes… Master. I’m here.”

Kang Jin-ho stared at Lee Hyun-soo for a moment, then turned his gaze to the Black King he was holding. Soon, his gaze turned to the sky filled with dark clouds.

“That was a decent answer.”

“Because I thought I had to.”

Lee Hyun-soo didn’t understand what Kang Jin-ho was saying. But his head nodded fiercely. Because he had to, because he had to do that right now.

“Actually… I don’t really know. So… I want to ask you.”

“…Yes, Master.”

Kang Jin-ho hesitated for a moment.

After a long silence, Kang Jin-ho’s cracked lips slowly opened.

“Was there any meaning?”

Lee Hyun-soo couldn’t answer easily.

“The deaths that happened here, everything we did… did it really have any meaning?”

Lee Hyun-soo couldn’t answer.

Because the weight of those words was too heavy.

He realized that this was a question that couldn’t be answered with logic alone.

What did they gain?

What did they gain from this long battle of one night?

“…I don’t know.”

He could only be honest.

It wasn’t a question that could be evaded with a fabricated answer. That would be an insult to the man who had crossed the line of death and was now standing before him.

“…I see.”

Kang Jin-ho’s head nodded slowly.

It was as natural as if he already knew that Lee Hyun-soo would give that answer. But even so, he seemed to have a lingering attachment, a little awkward.

His head nodded.

“That’s…”

Lee Hyun-soo bit his lip slightly.

“That’s something we have to find out from now on, right?”

Kang Jin-ho looked at Lee Hyun-soo with sunken eyes. His gaze, which seemed so calm, looked only sad to Lee Hyun-soo.

“…Yes, I guess so.”

Kang Jin-ho quietly continued.

“It wasn’t that different.”

Kang Jin-ho closed his eyes.

Until the very last moment, Cheongma didn’t let go of his hand. Kang Jin-ho was the same. They reached out their hands to truly defeat each other, to kill each other.

Even knowing each other’s positions, even while being consumed by the love and hate they had for each other, their fingertips never wavered.

Because they couldn’t desecrate it.

A duel that embodied their own convictions. In that duel, there could be no compromise. That would ruin even the path that the victor had to walk.

“Maybe it could have been me lying here right now.”

“…Master.”

Kang Jin-ho raised his head.

The pouring rain was gradually weakening.

“What decided the duel at the last moment… it wasn’t anything special.”

Kang Jin-ho, looking at the cloudy sky, slowly closed his eyes.

“I wanted to come back alive.”

“For Cheongma, life was something to move forward with, but for me, life was something I wanted to return to. It was just… yes, it was just that difference that decided it.”

That small will blocked Cheongma’s hand that was piercing his heart.

What decided the razor-thin victory was just that.

“I had it, but Cheongma didn’t. A place to return to…”

“Master…”

It was a calm voice.

But no one who heard that voice could say that the emotions within it were also calm.

“So…”

A small smile formed on Kang Jin-ho’s lips.

“I think I have to say this.”

A smile that was a little forlorn, but just bright. Kang Jin-ho, who had a smile that seemed to fit the word quiet, said with that smiling face.

“I’m back.”

Lee Hyun-soo unconsciously lowered his head.

His shoulders trembled incessantly. He couldn’t bear to look at Kang Jin-ho’s face. If he looked at his face any longer, he felt like he would break down first.

But Lee Hyun-soo clenched his lips and straightened his bent back.

Because he had something to say.

Lee Hyun-soo, facing Kang Jin-ho who was smiling quietly, clenched his fist tightly.

“You…”

Lee Hyun-soo coughed to calm his trembling voice, nodded his head a couple of times, and then smiled.

The brightest smile he could muster.

“You… You’ve returned safely, Master.”

“You really… really…”

Kang Jin-ho quietly looked at Lee Hyun-soo.

It didn’t really feel real. It still felt like the battle was continuing. It was too hard for him to understand that everything was over right now.

But at that moment.

Someone wrapped their arms around his neck from behind.

“…Uh.”

A trembling arm.

The hot breath touching the back of his neck.

That alone was enough. Enough to know who that person was.

“This…”

Kang Jin-ho had a slightly troubled expression.

“You damn… you damn human…”

Choi Yeon-ha buried her face in his back.

“…You came back safely.”

“You really came back…”

Kang Jin-ho slowly raised his head. What he saw in his eyes was still a sky full of dark clouds. There was no light that should shine on the one who had won and returned.

But…

‘Did it reach him?’

He could feel the warmth from Choi Yeon-ha, who was hugging him from behind. The warmth from Lee Hyun-soo, who had come a step closer and was holding his shoulder, was also just warm.

‘Cheongma.’

Did it reach him?

What he had tried to convey to Cheongma at the last moment… did it really reach him?

Kang Jin-ho slowly lowered his head and looked at Cheongma.

A face as white as a sheet, devoid of blood.

A body that had turned cold.

But Kang Jin-ho could see it. A faint smile on Cheongma’s lips, at the end.

A smile that was just as warm as the one he had when they shared a drink together, sometime ago.

‘…Rest in peace.’

Kang Jin-ho’s hand wrapped around Cheongma’s shoulder.

He just hoped that the warmth he felt from them would also reach Cheongma.