Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 818

‘Burst?’

Park’s eyes widened as much as they could, and his mouth opened as wide as it could go.

He could see it.

The sight of the aquarium bursting.

The aquarium, which had been cracking, was now being pushed outwards all at once.

The scene felt like slow motion from a movie.

‘What do I do?’

He couldn’t think of anything. Before the incident, he could come up with all sorts of countermeasures, but the moment he saw the scene with his own eyes, Park’s mind went blank.

It was inevitable.

It was an overwhelming sight.

Nearly ten thousand tons of water inside the tank was gushing out all at once. The reinforced acrylic, 30cm thick, which could withstand a tank shell, was now covered in spiderweb-like cracks, and then torn apart like pieces of paper.

It was like watching a flower bloom.

Except, instead of pistils and stamens, water was bursting out.

He could see it.

Park didn’t even realize that his time was moving slowly. He was just staring blankly at the scene unfolding before him. Water was gushing out through the torn acrylic.

Literally gushing out.

Like water shooting out from a high-pressure hose, the water was defying gravity and shooting out like a laser through the torn acrylic.

If he got caught in that?

He would die.

It was like a fly being hit by a person, but with water pressure that would hurt.

People don’t know how scary water can be.

The water pressure from a 15-ton water cannon alone can kill a person. If hit directly, flesh would tear and bones would break.

And the amount of water in this central tank was nearly ten thousand tons. Of course, it wasn’t being sprayed out at high pressure like a water cannon, so it couldn’t be compared directly, but it didn’t need to be said which water pressure was stronger.

It was collapsing.

It wasn’t just people. If the water kept gushing out like this, everything, including the walls, would be destroyed. In the worst-case scenario, people wouldn’t just be swept away and killed, but the building could collapse, burying everyone.

‘I have to stop it…’

He had to stop it.

But how?

This was beyond human power. A person couldn’t stop a collapsing building with their bare hands. All a person could do was reinforce the building before it collapsed. That was the limit of human ability.

The path to stopping a collapse that had already begun was not yet within the realm of human possibility.

But how was he supposed to stop it?

‘Everyone will die.’

Everyone would die.

At least, the people here wouldn’t survive. Those who were far from the central tank might be able to escape somehow. If the building held up until they got out.

But what if it didn’t?

Everyone would die.

Everyone.

On the border between fear, despair, and resignation, Park could only stare blankly at the situation unfolding before him. He regretted not having appealed more firmly to the president to evacuate people earlier, but it was too late.

If there was an afterlife, he would probably fall into hell. Before that, he would have to bear the resentment of those who died here.

A short time.

These were the thoughts that flashed through Park’s mind in an extremely short time. When he realized that time was moving slowly, and that this slow time was something that people often experienced when facing death.

Just as he was accepting death, Park noticed something strange.

‘Huh?’

It was moving.

A person was moving slowly.

But it was strange.

There was nothing strange about a person moving. Under normal circumstances, that is. But this was definitely strange.

Park’s time was flowing slowly. He could clearly see the movement of the water jets.

But the movement of the person approaching the water jets was not slow at all.

It was as if he was the only one maintaining his original speed in a world moving in slow motion. The discrepancy made Park’s head spin.

‘What am I looking at?’

The person moving was someone Park knew well. The young man who had been confronting the security guards and saying strange things to Park just a moment ago. The very young man who had instructed Park to evacuate people.

The young man was walking towards the burst tank with a leisurely pace, as if nothing was wrong, in a world that had stopped.

How should he describe this scene?

Fantastic?

Or bizarre?

In any case, it was not a normal sight.

The man, who was walking through the stopped world as if nothing was wrong, stood in front of the gushing water.

When the man raised his arms and thrust his hands forward with a stern face, something unimaginable happened.

Fwaaaaaaaaaa!

Would this be the sound if a tape recording a loud roar was stretched out?

With a sound that was loud but not sharp, and huge but strange, the water hit the man’s body and splashed in all directions.

He could see it.

The moment the water droplets, which had been scattered and dispersed from the man’s body, hit the ceiling, the ceiling’s interior materials shattered and fell to the floor. The solid marble floor shattered and bounced as if it had been hit by a giant hammer.

Just from the pressure of the water that had been deflected!

It was an incredible sight. An unbelievable sight.

But the truly unbelievable thing was something else.

Park couldn’t even make a sound.

‘Why isn’t he being pushed back?’

The scene before his eyes didn’t feel real. Park could tell where the strange unreality was coming from.

The water that hit directly was deflected, and the pressure of it hitting other places was enough to break and bounce the floor and ceiling. It was as if the water contained an enormous amount of pressure.

But why wasn’t that man being pushed back?

Even a car would be pushed back by a high-pressure hose.

If you hit a toy car with a high-pressure hose, the toy would be pushed away, and even a tank couldn’t withstand the enormous pressure of the water.

But a person was holding on?

Against that force?

Against that pressure?

His mind could no longer think.

In this absurd situation, Park was completely an outsider. All he could do was watch and observe the events of another world, as if he was watching a movie, with his intervention blocked.

He was moving forward.

He was pushing through the onrushing water.

All that could be seen was his feet, swallowed by the water. But now, those feet were moving forward. Forward and forward.

He looked a little strained, but he was never pushed back.

The more his body moved forward, the more violent the deflected water became. The ceiling materials all fell, and the concrete that had been covering the outside fell away, revealing the black rebar [steel reinforcing bars used in concrete].

The floor was almost invisible due to the water that had risen to his knees, but it was probably no different from the ceiling.

It was like a fountain was erupting. The spray and the pouring water covered the main hall like an abstract work of art. Even in the midst of all this, the man was moving forward and forward.

And then…

Crack!

The man grabbed the torn and tattered acrylic and began to push it inwards.

As if he was neatly gathering torn paper and making it whole again.

With a not-so-hurried hand.

No, considering the time Park was experiencing, it was probably an incredible speed. In any case, with such a hand, the man grabbed the parts of the acrylic that were sticking out like a blooming flower and pushed them inwards.

Eventually, all the acrylics were pushed inwards. It was impossible to restore a wall that had already burst. That was the limit. He couldn’t reattach the acrylic that had fallen off.

But that alone significantly reduced the amount of water pouring out.

‘Is it possible?’

Was this really possible?

Maybe Park was already dead.

Maybe he had lost consciousness and was dying while being swept away by the rapids. If so, this was probably the last dream Park was having before he died.

That was more plausible.

The scene before his eyes was something that could not happen in reality. Rather than thinking that a scene that could not exist in reality had happened here, it was wiser to accept that this place was a dream.

Just as Park was about to raise his hand and pinch his cheek.

“What are you doing?”

The voice was heard.

With that, Park was forcibly summoned back to reality.

“Oh, oh!”

His legs gave way.

Park, who had been forcibly thrown back into reality, collapsed to the floor.

Splash!

The cold sensation of his buttocks touching the water jolted Park’s mind awake.

‘Crazy!’

Reality?

This?

This was reality?

His senses began to return.

He could hear the noise of metal being cut by a large cutter, and he could feel the sensation of water droplets pouring all over his body.

The moment he saw the pieces of concrete falling to the floor with a thud, Park was completely back in reality.

‘What’s going on?’

Park’s gaze turned to the tank.

It wasn’t a dream.

A man was blocking the water gushing out of the tank. Of course, he couldn’t completely block the water, but he was reducing the amount of water coming out by pushing the acrylic in, and he was blocking the water that he couldn’t completely block with his body.

Swoooooooosh!

The sound of the water hitting his body was terrifying.

“How… how is he holding on?”

High-pressure water can cut through diamonds. A fire hose with increased water pressure can collapse a building wall. But the pressure of the water gushing out of the gap in the tank was not comparable to a mere fire hose.

A person’s body should be crushed the moment it touches that.

Standing firm in front of that?

That was something only Superman could do. Humans couldn’t do it.

But wasn’t that happening right before his eyes?

Then there was only one conclusion.

That man was not human.

Absolutely not.

Park reached out towards the man without realizing it.

And at that moment.

“Didn’t you hear me when I told you to come to your senses?”

A calm voice flowed from the man.

The moment Park heard that unhurried voice, he nodded without realizing it.

“I can’t hold it for long, so get people out. Right now.”

“Didn’t you hear me?”

“Yes! Yes! I heard you!”

He had definitely heard it.

He didn’t know how he had heard it under the ear-splitting noise, but Park had clearly heard what the man was saying.

Then he knew what he had to do.

Whether that man was human or not…

Whether he was Jesus or Buddha, his job was not to find out who that man was. Right now, he had to get all the people in this place… no, all the people in this aquarium, out.

“Run! Get out! Get out!”

“I said get out now! Can’t you hear me?”

The faces of the people who had been in a daze began to return to reality. And at that moment…

“Aaaaaaah! Aaaah!”

“Hic!”

With piercing screams, people began to rush towards the nearest exit.