Chapter 115
The first day the deadly game of tag with the Heavenly Demon began.
The Authority of Deception was broken within ten minutes.
It was an authority that had even deceived Hero Kang Jae-seok, an upper-rank Hero.
Yet the Heavenly Demon kept finding me through some unknown method, and I barely managed to cling to my life by mobilizing everything I knew, starting with the Flames of Gehenna.
And so a full day passed under constant tension, never knowing when I would be exposed.
The second day.
The Mask of the Deceiver, which had at least bought me about ten minutes of time, was completely neutralized.
“Now I understand.”
“How?!”
“Have you only ever dealt with foolish enemies who kindly taught you all their strategies and abilities?”
“Damn it!”
In the end, all that remained was a desperate fight to the death.
And on that day.
I was able to experience the terror of the Heavenly Demon for the first time.
She drove me as if she truly intended to kill me.
I brought out every bit of power I could use, but not a single attack worked on her.
No, it wasn’t just that they didn’t work.
The Giant’s Spear shattered from a single punch of hers, and the slashing strike I swung while holding a branch split apart the Power of Severance.
She went beyond the concept of a wall and felt more like a massive mountain.
My attacks were nothing more than meaningless flailing before overwhelming nature.
I eventually lost consciousness several times and moved purely on instinct.
It was a stretch of time so extreme that I couldn’t even remember how I escaped or survived.
The third day.
The previous two days had been nothing more than play.
Once the Heavenly Demon began using a bit more strength, she drove me into a near-death state several times.
Through her authority, I repeated death and revival hundreds, thousands of times.
And soon, I realized how foolish it was to only use the Power of Restoration when I was injured.
I began keeping the Power of Restoration active 24 hours a day, and at the very least, it changed from dying and coming back to life into maintaining a state of near death.
The fourth day.
I was screwed.
Once the Heavenly Demon realized that I was constantly activating the Power of Restoration, her attacks became even more ruthless.
If before she had turned my body into mush with a single punch, now my limbs began to be severed in earnest.
With a light flick of her hand, my arm exploded, and with a casual kick, my limbs were torn off and sent flying.
If it hadn’t been for the enhanced Power of Restoration, I might really have died.
They were days so unbearable that I honestly wanted to die.
The fifth day.
For the first time, I hurled curses at the Heavenly Demon.
There was no such thing as rest time in her training.
She didn’t even allow me time to sleep comfortably, let alone eat or take care of basic bodily needs.
For an ordinary person, it would have been torture enough to drive them insane several times over.
My mind, pushed to the extreme, was in agony, but thanks to that, I realized one thing.
The Power of Restoration wasn’t just a skill that restored the body.
When stamina was worn down beyond its limits, it also restored that.
Thanks to that, I realized I could endure fairly well even without sleep or food.
But within the endless cycle of pain and repeated violence, my mind alone continued to erode.
The Power of Restoration didn’t heal emotional wounds.
And so I spewed a stream of profanity at the Heavenly Demon and experienced something like magic where my upper and lower body were separated.
Thanks to that, I was able to regain my sanity.
The sixth day.
Using the Flames of Gehenna, I unleashed Asura Descent.
It was a technique I hadn’t used even on the first day, when I poured out all my strength against the Heavenly Demon.
Normally, using the Flames of Gehenna wasn’t a problem, but Asura Descent was a skill that compressed immense power and wrapped it around the body, and the Flames of Gehenna became harder to control the greater the power output.
Even in my previous battle with Instructor Kang Jae-seok, using it had subjected me to horrific pain.
But even so, I couldn’t just keep taking it like this.
Whether I died this way or that way, the pain would be the same, so I felt like I had to struggle at least a little.
For the first time, a strange glint appeared in the eyes of the Heavenly Demon, who had remained emotionless even while carving up her disciple.
“You’ve become an interesting toy. But you misunderstand the essence of that technique. Your training is still insufficient.”
Just by looking at my Asura Descent, the Heavenly Demon grasped its principle and applied it, using it in a far more perfect form.
The Asura Descent she demonstrated was astonishing.
It went beyond the concept of merely covering the entire body.
Rather, it was closer to the way Yoo Iseo turned her body into lightning.
Flame Transformation.
It was as if the Heavenly Demon herself had become pure fire.
And that fire burned straight through even the infernal flames of hell and engulfed me.
Normally, as someone who wielded the Flames of Gehenna, ordinary flame attacks shouldn’t have worked on me.
Yet flames that pierced straight through my body.
I barely managed to escape just before my body burned away into ashes and scattered into the air.
On the day a full week passed since the training began.
I still couldn’t resist her attacks, but at least, I slowly grew accustomed to the pain.
My sense of time blurred, and I couldn’t even tell what I was doing.
It felt as if my very existence was about to disappear.
And when everything was emptied out like that.
I was finally able to feel the Heavenly Demon’s attacks.
For the first time, I succeeded in blocking her attack.
Of course, it was only once.
The eighth day.
I began to read the Heavenly Demon’s attacks little by little.
And soon, I realized one truth.
Her attacks were truly simple.
They traced nothing but straight-line trajectories.
In other words, even while relentlessly driving me into a corner, she wasn’t using any profound martial arts.
That day, I succeeded in blocking her attacks seven times.
The ninth day.
I could completely read the Heavenly Demon’s attack patterns.
If I emptied my senses and focused solely on her attacks, blocking them wasn’t difficult.
But I couldn’t keep blocking forever.
I combined the demonic authorities 【Mighty Strength】 and 【Power of Severance】 to create a new combination called ‘Sky-Cleave’.
Of course, being a hastily improvised technique, I couldn’t land an effective hit on her.
【You have succeeded in combining Demonic Authorities.】
【The Demonic Authority ‘Sky-Cleave’ has been created.】
【The Corrosion Rate increases by 1%.】
【The Corrosion Rate has reached 5%.】
【The SS-rank skill 【Lamb】 opens its eyes.】
【Mana increases.】
【Stats increase.】
The tenth day.
That day, my condition was unusually good.
I avoided most of the Heavenly Demon’s simple attacks, and I was able to throw out counterattacks fairly skillfully as well.
“So you’ve finally learned how to walk.”
And from there, the Heavenly Demon began to use slightly more elaborate martial arts.
Damn it, Master, this is way too fast!
I had no choice but to focus on dodging and running away again.
To prevent my body from bursting apart all at once, I kept the Authority of Mighty Strength permanently activated.
Thanks to amplifying my total mana capacity and physical strength, my body burst apart in two stages.
I was lucky to survive even once.
I made full use of that single chance and ran desperately.
The twelfth day.
I still couldn’t take the Heavenly Demon’s evolved attacks head-on.
But at least, I could keep up with her speed.
It wasn’t that the Heavenly Demon’s abilities had evolved.
It was just that her attacks, which had been straight lines, had changed into curved trajectories.
Since I had already adapted once to straight-line attacks, I was able to grow accustomed to curved trajectories quickly as well.
To counterattack, I had to take one more step forward.
The method I chose was to fuse Infernal Flame and Demonic Authority.
Infernal Flame was a power I possessed through the Asura Divine Art.
Demonic Authority was a power obtained through a contract with a Demon.
Since the concepts of the two powers were different, it was on a completely different level of difficulty compared to combining Authorities.
Above all, Infernal Flame, which carried the power of purification, rejected Demonic Authority.
But… how should I put it.
My intuition was telling me.
That there would be an answer at the end of the path I was trying to walk.
The thirteenth day.
I gave up on using Infernal Flame and Demonic Authority together.
Instead, I tried an easier but more dangerous method.
Completing Asura Descent in battle with the Heavenly Demon.
I wrapped my entire body in the Flames of Gehenna and made them rotate violently.
The fire the Heavenly Demon had shown.
I had to become pure flame.
For the first time, it felt as though a hint of pity flickered in the Heavenly Demon’s eyes as she looked at me writhing in agony.
I burned my body with the Flames of Gehenna until my consciousness grew faint.
Not turning to ash.
I had to become flame…!
But in the end, I failed to become flame.
In the meantime, the Heavenly Demon’s attacks never ceased.
No, if that was the case, she shouldn’t have looked at me with pity in the first place.
The fourteenth day.
Between the Heavenly Demon’s attacks and the pain gnawing away at my body.
Creating Asura Descent amid endless interference was far too difficult.
The fifteenth day.
I failed to control the Flames of Gehenna.
I really almost died.
If the Heavenly Demon hadn’t stepped in, I would have died for sure.
【The Power of Restoration is used to its limit.】
【The Trait ‘Demon’s Body’ is activated.】
【As long as you have sufficient mana, you will never die.】
【The Corrosion Rate increases by 1%.】
The sixteenth day.
The seventeenth day.
The eighteenth day…….
All were failures.
The stronger the Flames of Gehenna became, the harder they were to control.
Above all, the Heavenly Demon’s attacks kept coming without pause.
Each time my body burst apart, the Flames of Gehenna tried to seize the gaps in the Domain and devour my body.
The twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth days.
I was repeating failure after failure.
Strangely, today my mind felt clearer than ever.
Every one of the Heavenly Demon’s attacks was vividly visible, and blocking them wasn’t difficult.
But the most important thing was something else.
The Flames of Gehenna no longer tormented me.
I instinctively understood how to unfold the Domain and how to layer the Flames of Gehenna over it.
The Flames of Gehenna, which had begun to accelerate rapidly, continued to grow in magnitude.
My body began to synchronize with the Flames of Gehenna.
Up until now, I had been mistaken.
I wasn’t supposed to wrap myself in flame.
Flame wasn’t something you could wear like clothes.
Flame was a symbol of life and a power that burned everything away.
The Domain itself had been the trap.
The Domain was a defensive system that preserved energy by preventing power from leaking out, keeping the flames from harming the body.
But this very concept of protecting myself had unconsciously been preventing me from becoming flame myself.
I released the Domain and embraced the Flames of Gehenna.
I regarded my body itself as a single Domain and nurtured the spark of the Flames of Gehenna.
Tremendous heat burst forth from my entire body, and the Flames of Gehenna spread through every blood vessel, rotating at an incredible speed.
Before long, my body began to grow closer to a purer form of energy.
It felt as though my Authority and my body had become one.
Asura Divine Art 修羅神功
True Asura Descent 眞 修羅降神
【You have succeeded in fully subjugating the Flames of Gehenna.】
【Flames of Gehenna proficiency has reached its maximum.】
【The Authority, Flames of Gehenna, generates a subordinate authority.】
【The Authority, True Asura Descent 眞 修羅降神, is added.】
Soon, I became the Flames of Gehenna themselves.
Power beyond anything I could have imagined before boiled over throughout my entire body.
As if I had become a god of fire, I was flame itself, and flame was me.
And naturally, I realized it.
Up until now, I had been using Asura Descent incorrectly.
Until now, I had treated Asura Descent as my ultimate attack and as a kind of self-destruction move.
But Asura Descent was a buff that temporarily raised my overall combat power dramatically.
So, I had to fight at full power.
I took the basic stance of the Asura Divine Art, and upon seeing this, the Heavenly Demon smiled for the first time.
Her fist surged toward me.
I responded by deploying Discipline Through Punishment.
Scattering flames split apart and blocked her flurry of consecutive strikes.
Seeing this, I cheered.
Finally!
I could block her attacks perfectly—and safely.
Her hand and my hand intertwined in midair, drawing countless red lines and black lines.
At last, a proper exchange between the Heavenly Demon and me began.
Endlessly surging adrenaline and dopamine dominated my entire body.
As if venting all the resentment I had built up until now, I lunged at her.
My fist and the Heavenly Demon’s fist collided repeatedly.
Bang! Kwaang! Kugung!
Each time, the violently bursting Flames of Gehenna swept across the surroundings.
I formed a small ring of flames around myself.
The flames shot out like bullets, targeting the Heavenly Demon.
With a light flick of her hand, every ring burst apart.
I exerted my influence over the scattered flames.
Flames had no inherent shape to begin with.
Having completely subdued the Flames of Gehenna, my ability to control fire had reached its absolute peak.
The flames condensed once more, forming a massive pillar of fire.
Kwaaaaa!
Soon, I raised my hand toward the sky.
In the first place, the pillar of fire was nothing more than a smokescreen.
The power within my body began to drain out.
Among the initial techniques of the Asura Divine Art that the Heavenly Demon had taught me, there was one whose principle was extremely similar to Asura Descent.
A technique that compressed power, rotated it to the extreme, and drew out explosive force to its utmost limit.
Asura Divine Art 修羅神功
Purgatory 煉獄
The immense power of Asura Descent that had wrapped around my body transformed entirely into a single sphere.
It felt as if I were holding a massive sun in my hand.
As if waiting for my attack, the Heavenly Demon watched Purgatory with interest.
Could this single strike inflict even the slightest damage on the Heavenly Demon?
The small sun fell, setting the heavens and earth ablaze.
Kugugugugugu!
Along with a tremendous vibration, blinding light and heat erupted.
Purgatory, no different from a condensation of massive energy, did not explode, instead maintaining its form as it began to burn.
Under that overwhelming power, the ground of the entire area shook, and everything nearby burned and melted under the immense heat.
Before long, the trembling earth caused by Purgatory came to a halt.
The flames that had slowly covered all directions gradually subsided, and I assessed the situation.
Yet Purgatory had not disappeared and continued to maintain its form.
It simply could no longer release its power.
At last, the Heavenly Demon revealed a fragment of her true power.
From the place where the Heavenly Demon stood, darkness was flowing out.
Within an abyss like a bottomless chasm, the Heavenly Demon stood alone and serenely, as if strolling beside a calm lakeside.
Within the lightly opened palm of her hand, the surrounding space twisted and was being sucked in.
It was as if a black hole had formed in her hand.
Pulled by an incomprehensible force, my body, floating in midair, was gradually dragged toward her.
Was that the Heavenly Demon’s true power?
No matter how I looked at it, this was power I had poured my all into, yet it was disappearing so futilely.
This was ridiculous.
As the darkness continued to grow in size, even Purgatory began to lose its shape and crumple.
Seeing this, I bit down hard, dazed.
If only out of resentment for everything she had done to me until now, I wanted to at least leave a scratch on the hem of her clothes.
I immediately summoned the Giant’s Spear and hurled it toward Purgatory.
The spear, in the state of Asura Descent, flew forth wreathed in flames.
The Giant’s Spear pierced the center of Purgatory, and immediately afterward, the condensed power of Purgatory detonated.
Kwagagagagagaga!
Along with an explosion incomparable to anything before, my body was blasted away.
Within my dizzying field of vision, the one thing I clearly saw was the vast darkness covering the world.
And within that darkness, I finally lost consciousness.