Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 823

Kuuuung!

The noise assaulted his ears, shaking his brain. No, it felt like his very soul was being shaken.

The water, now up to his chest, surged, slapping his face.

Jo Gyu-min felt a sense of detachment from reality. The situation he was in was all too vivid.

In the dark, cramped space, water reached his chest, constantly surging. The people around him struggled to escape, and amidst it all, a deafening roar and vibration, as if a god were hammering the earth, echoed.

The flickering lights, intermittently turning on and off, further disoriented Jo Gyu-min.

‘If there’s a hell, it must be like this.’

It was terrifying. He was scared.

He couldn’t get a grip on his senses.

Jo Gyu-min felt a jolt as the child he was holding gripped his shoulder.

‘This isn’t the time to be thinking about myself.’

If he was this scared, how terrified must the children be? That thought jolted him back to his senses.

He hadn’t lived a life of considering others.

If one had to divide people into good and evil, Jo Gyu-min couldn’t, in good conscience, place himself on the side of good.

Yet, his mind was now filled with thoughts of the children. Ultimately, a person’s thoughts change depending on where they stand.

Anyone in Jo Gyu-min’s situation would prioritize the safety of the children.

‘I have to save them.’

Jo Gyu-min burned the faces of the children, hidden in the darkness, into his mind. Their faces, tearful yet tightly shut to avoid causing any trouble.

Jo Gyu-min gritted his teeth.

‘What should I do?’

He couldn’t see a way out. But he had to find one. Giving up because there was no answer was something one did on a test. This wasn’t a test. He had to succeed no matter what.

That’s when it happened.

Kuuuung!

Another massive tremor shook the building.

At the same time, the rising water surged, beginning to engulf people’s faces.

“Ugh!”

The terror of having water rise over his face was on a different level than the fear he had felt before.

He had felt the danger of death, but that was just a feeling. Now that water was actually rising over his face, his body reacted first.

Without realizing it, he reached out, trying to grab something. But the only things around him were people. People tangled together, and the last vestiges of order began to crumble.

It was a problem that couldn’t be blamed on anyone.

Wasn’t it natural for a drowning person to grab at anything?

What could a person think when water was rising over their face in a situation where they couldn’t even move properly? They had to survive, so they would grab whatever they could.

“C-Chief! Puuh! Chief!”

Jo Gyu-min’s eyes widened.

Unable to resist the pulling force, a child was being dragged away. Jo Gyu-min forced his body to move, grabbed the child’s arm, and pulled him back.

His arm felt like it was about to fall off.

“Uwaaaah!”

Jo Gyu-min screamed.

From somewhere, a hand reached out and grabbed his hair. He couldn’t focus because of the hands scratching his chest and grabbing his waist from below.

“Calm down! Calm down! Damn it. You need to calm down first!”

It was just a temporary surge. The waves had splashed over their faces, but the water level hadn’t actually risen.

‘Why is there so much water? Damn it.’

It seemed the area was low-lying. If they had considered this situation during the design, the water would have flowed out through the entrance, but the water flowing in wasn’t flowing out.

‘Damn it, why isn’t it flowing out the front!’

Even so, shouldn’t it have drained a bit after this much time?

At this rate, they would really drown. Jo Gyu-min’s gaze swept inward.

Even in the dim light, he could clearly see the water flowing in. The water that had reached his chest was now up to his chin.

‘The kids?’

The children were somehow managing to stick together and hold on. The smaller children were floating by relying on the shoulders of the taller ones.

‘No way.’

It was just a temporary measure.

They couldn’t hold on any longer. A fire lit in Jo Gyu-min’s eyes.

‘The ceiling!’

At that moment, Jo Gyu-min sharply raised his head and looked up. All he could see was the ceiling.

‘We’ll hang from it!’

It was the best he could do.

If they could hold on without drowning, the rescue team would come. If they could just hold on until the rescue team arrived, they could survive. They just had to avoid drowning before that.

“Jin-sung!”

“Yes!”

“Get the kids up there!”

“Yes?”

“Can you see the ceiling?”

Han Jin-sung looked up, his face covered in muddy water. He could see the ceiling where the materials had fallen off.

“Yes!”

“Grab onto the uneven parts and hold on. The parts where the materials have fallen off!”

“W-will that hold?”

“It won’t!”

Jo Gyu-min said firmly.

“It won’t hold on its own, but it will when the water rises! Lift the smaller kids up and have them hang from the ceiling!”

“Yes!”

Han Jin-sung nodded vigorously. He didn’t fully understand what he meant, but if Jo Gyu-min said so, then it must be so.

As the children began to move busily, Jo Gyu-min gritted his teeth and looked up.

‘How long can they hold on?’

The materials were already broken and in a terrible state. There was no guarantee they would hold. It was just a temporary fix.

But right now, they had to use even that temporary fix. The taller children began to push the smaller children up.

Watching that scene, he felt a strange surge of emotion.

It wouldn’t be strange if they were all scrambling to save themselves. It was the most natural thing to do. No matter how much a person thinks of others, they ultimately come first.

Especially when their lives were at stake.

If faced with the dilemma of either you or someone else dying, who would choose their own death?

But these children were different.

Even with water up to their chins, they weren’t scrambling to climb up to save themselves. They were spitting out the water entering their mouths and helping others, trying to save their friends.

‘Damn it.’

They had to survive.

Every single one of them had to survive.

That was the moment.

Kuuuuuuuuuung!

A massive tremor, incomparable to the previous ones, shook the place. It felt like a real earthquake. The water shook violently, and the people who were barely holding on lost their footing, flailing like they were in a giant shaker.

The children who were climbing up to grab the ceiling lost their balance and plunged back into the water.

The splashing water and the unidentifiable noises seemed to tear at his ears.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

Jo Gyu-min roared, not out of despair, but out of anger.

Why!

Why was this happening!

Why here of all places!

Disasters didn’t discriminate, but wasn’t it too cruel to make these children endure this?

But there was no time to think deeply.

The ceiling materials, unable to withstand the shaking, began to fall again. Jo Gyu-min pushed the child he was carrying towards the other children and jumped on top of them.

If the materials were going to hit anyone, it had to be him. If the children hit their heads and lost consciousness, they would never survive here.

“Kkeueuk!”

Dull objects rained down on his back and head. Even amidst the pain, Jo Gyu-min didn’t lose consciousness. If he passed out, he would die. That sense of urgency kept his consciousness firmly in place.

It wasn’t just his life at stake. If he died, the children’s survival couldn’t be guaranteed.

And in the midst of that…

‘That?’

Jo Gyu-min saw something he shouldn’t have.

It was coming.

The water was surging, surging again and again.

Like a wave filling the hallway, water was surging in.

‘I’m going to die.’

The thought he had been trying to avoid filled Jo Gyu-min’s mind in an instant.

He couldn’t stop that.

That…

If that water surged in all at once, it would fill this place in an instant. Then no one would survive.

The moment death filled his mind, Jo Gyu-min unconsciously reached out his hand. Someone grabbed his outstretched hand.

His tightly bitten lip burst open.

Regret, despair, and all sorts of indescribable emotions washed over him.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaah! Lee Hyun-soo, you ba-”

Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang!

A deafening explosion.

A deafening explosion echoed, and in an instant, the world turned upside down.

Before he could even realize what was happening, his body was flipping, falling, and flipping again.

He couldn’t get a grip on his senses.

‘Huh?’

Only one thing brought Jo Gyu-min back to his senses.

Something he thought he would never see again in this place.

“Light?”

Even with water gushing into his mouth, Jo Gyu-min shouted.

“Light!”

It was light!

Only then could Jo Gyu-min grasp the situation.

Water was violently rushing out through a huge hole in the building’s outer wall.

People were being swept away.

Some people standing outside the wall were catching those being swept away and pulling them aside to prevent injuries.

‘I’m alive!’

One thing was certain.

He was alive.

Seeing the water that had filled the interior rushing out all at once, tears welled up in his eyes.

“I…”

Then, cries erupted from all around.

Now that they felt the relief of being alive, everyone burst into tears.

‘The kids?’

He had to check on the children.

Someone might have been swept away in the chaos.

“Jin-sung! Jin-sung!”

“…Yes!”

Han Jin-sung’s voice was also filled with tears.

He could fully understand his feelings.

“The kids… Let’s check if all the kids are accounted for. Jin-sung, it’s going to be tough, but it’s not time to relax yet.”

“Yes. I’m checking now, now.”

Jo Gyu-min nodded.

Soon after, Han Jin-sung raised his voice.

“Everyone’s okay! Everyone’s safe! Chief! Everyone…”

Jo Gyu-min nodded, listening to Han Jin-sung’s tearful voice.

The water was down to his knees. Jo Gyu-min unconsciously slumped to the floor. There wasn’t a single part of his body that wasn’t hurting.

As the feeling of relief washed over him, the strength rapidly drained from his body. Jo Gyu-min blankly stared at the light pouring into the building.

Light. Yes, it was light.

How much relief that light brought to people.

If he could, he wanted to stay here and look at that light forever.

Huh?

Then, a shadow appeared in the light. A person, bathed in the pouring sunlight like a halo, slowly walked inside.

Splish.

Splish.

He waded through the receding water. The man’s shadow grew larger. Finally, Jo Gyu-min stared at the man standing in front of him and opened his mouth, grinning.

“…I heard you loud and clear.”

“You son of a bitch?”

“Get up, you punk. I’ll show you what a dog is today.”

Looking at Lee Hyun-soo, whose face was twisted like a demon, Jo Gyu-min realized anew.

His crisis was not over yet.