Chapter 86
I must have gone crazy—completely and utterly insane.
Why on earth was I walking down a thorny path when there was a perfectly fine road right there?
To put it bluntly, I had given up on escaping.
Or rather, instead of giving up, I decided to make a mess.
I had no intention of fighting the Heroes.
That would’ve been nothing short of suicide.
All I planned to do was cause a few incidents to divert attention.
After that, then I would escape.
There were two effects I could achieve through this plan.
The first was that the Black Trio could clear their names from being suspected as murderers.
Of course, in this world, Demons were executed on sight, so even if they weren’t the culprits, it didn’t mean they’d be safe.
Especially since the one chasing them was that Kang Jae-seok—there was no way they’d survive.
If I wasn’t careful, people might even think I was their accomplice.
But more importantly, the second reason was that I could create an opportunity for them to escape.
For that to happen, I needed to cause a large-scale, overwhelming commotion.
Something big enough to make Instructor Kang Jae-seok abandon the kids and come after me.
That way, he would be forced into the same dilemma I had faced earlier.
I climbed the stairs and reached the banquet hall.
The party was nearly over, and only a handful of people remained.
This was more than enough for me to make a scene.
I took a deep breath and drew upon the power of the Demon.
The 【Mask of the Deceiver】 vanished as if washed away, and shadows clung to my body, forming armor.
As soon as the pitch-black sword materialized in my hand, I slammed it into the ground and let out a fierce roar.
“Kraaahhhhhh!”
Kugugung!
With a violent tremor, the sword buried in the floor began spewing out dark demonic energy.
The remaining people in the hall turned pale.
“Kyaaa!”
“A D-Demon!”
But this was the Daehos Guild’s banquet hall—there were plenty here who didn’t just scream and panic.
A man in a tuxedo charged toward me.
“Devil Knight! Do you even know where you’ve broken into!?”
Magical energy gathered at his fingertips.
A mage-type, huh.
The moment he swung his hand, threads of mana shot out like thin strands.
They wrapped around me in an instant.
Whoosh!
The fiercely blazing 【Flames of Gehenna】 burned through the mana threads in a flash.
Fortunately, he wasn’t that high-ranked—probably just a mid-tier Hero.
Not even strong enough to endure the attacks of the Black Trio I had faced earlier.
Each of those kids was only about as strong as a mid-level Demon on their own.
But when they formed their combined formation, they could rival a high-ranking Demon.
I dashed toward the man, and he couldn’t even track my movements.
I swung my sword down, intending to knock him unconscious—
Bang!
With a loud explosion, Instructor Kang Jae-seok burst up from the floor, blocking my blade.
At the same time, he threw a bare-fisted punch.
Without even a weapon, that single strike sent my body flying.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
I crashed through several of the Daehos Guild’s walls before planting my sword in the ground to stop my flight.
“Kuh… Kek.”
I had definitely blocked with my sword, but my entire body screamed in pain.
That was one insane punch.
As expected of Instructor Kang Jae-seok—he truly deserved to be called a model Hero.
I’d deliberately leaked demonic energy here knowing people were around.
Yet, without a moment’s hesitation, he abandoned the Black Trio to come after me.
……Or maybe, he just thought I looked like the juicier target.
Through the rising cloud of dust, I could see Instructor Kang Jae-seok’s silhouette.
A violent red aura flared from his entire body.
His face, flushed with rage, looked almost demonic—like a Yaksha.
“So you were behind all this, Devil Knight! Did you turn those children into Demons just to use them as bait!?”
He roared furiously.
I had never seen him this angry before.
Could I even run away from a man like that?
There was no time to hesitate.
I had already drawn all the aggro I could—if I stayed and fought, the swarm of Heroes would soon become unmanageable.
Time to run.
Of course, if I just bolted like this, he’d definitely track me down.
【Demonic Power】
【Spear of the Giant】
Rocks erupted from the ground, merging into the shape of a massive, crude spear.
Using the Power of 【Mighty Strength】, I hoisted the growing weapon high above me.
My target—
I could see Instructor Kang Jae-seok striding toward me.
I flipped the spear upside down and drove it into the ground.
Kugugugu!
The Spear of the Giant began expanding explosively.
The sheer weight cracked the banquet floor.
Blood surged into Kang Jae-seok’s face as he saw it.
“Devil Knighhhhht!!”
I heard his enraged bellow, but I didn’t look back—I ran.
The massive weight of the Giant’s Spear would be too much for the building to withstand.
Meaning—if no one stopped it, the entire structure would collapse.
Ah, I really was acting like a true Demon today.
But it’s not like I was some kind of psychopath; I had no intention of killing everyone here.
I knew that Instructor Kang Jae-seok, rather than coming after me, would prioritize saving people and stopping the collapse.
Because that’s the kind of man he was.
Sure enough, even as the scenery around me changed rapidly, his energy remained fixed in place.
Now then, where to go?
Honestly, I was exhausted and wanted to go straight back to the Academy, but that’d be far too dangerous.
I’d have to wander around for a while, hide my identity again with the 【Mask of the Deceiver】, and slip back quietly.
Seo Da-hee was already acting as my stand-in at the Academy, so there was no need to rush.
That’s when I felt a chilling killing intent from behind me.
I turned—and saw a red flash streaking toward me at terrifying speed.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Each time he landed and leaped again, the ground shook like a giant mortar being struck.
“……You’ve gotta be kidding me!”
He couldn’t have dealt with the Giant’s Spear and still caught up to me that fast, could he?
His skin had turned blood-red, and his once-black hair had gone white.
If he caught me now, it’d be game over.
And not a clean death either—the kind where a single mosaic-covered CG pops up and it’s straight to the bad ending.
That’s how certain I was.
Bang!
In an instant, Kang Jae-seok broke the sound barrier and appeared beside me.
Ah, I’m screwed.
Without a word, he grabbed my helmet, and with a crunch, slammed me into the ground like a baseball.
Before I could even resist, my vision flipped upside down.
Kwaaang!
A crushing impact hit me—I didn’t even know what I’d crashed into.
Before I could recover, Kang Jae-seok was already upon me, grabbing my body mid-bounce and hurling me skyward.
My body, completely out of control, shot upward at a speed I could hardly endure.
Even breathing became difficult……!
By the time I could finally make out my surroundings again, all the buildings had vanished, leaving only a vast open field stretching endlessly before me.
Did he throw me all the way out here just to avoid civilian casualties?
Still, the distance from the banquet hall to a place this empty had to be enormous.
He really was a monster.
Kugung!
My body crashed into the field like a meteor.
Ugh, seriously, that’s just too much.
Pain rippled through every inch of my body.
Even though I’d protected myself with mana and the 【Dark Relic】, a few bones still felt broken.
Thud!
Then, Instructor Kang Jae-seok landed from the sky with a heavy drop.
Streams of blood-red energy flared violently from his entire body.
I had to survive.
Using the Power of 【Restoration】, I quietly healed my wounds.
From this point on, even the smallest lapse in focus meant death.
He approached slowly, like a predator stalking prey it could kill at any moment.
Damn it. In that case, I’d attack with full power from the start.
A drawn-out fight wasn’t an option anyway.
You can’t win a battle of endurance against a man who once fought a Drake head-on with only Instructor Mabel beside him.
I had to use every available Power.
The Power of 【Mighty Strength】 filled my body with tremendous force, and the Power of 【Restoration】 returned it to perfect condition.
At the same time, my shadow expanded, swallowing the ground beneath my feet.
From that shadow, weapons began to rise one by one, as if time were rewinding.
I grasped one sword embedded in the earth—its blade glowing crimson.
The Power of the Demon—【Levatein】.
The moment I grabbed Levatein, I swung it through the air once, and a red arc of swordlight shimmered in its wake.
Fwoooosh!
Hellfire exploded along that trajectory, rushing straight toward Kang Jae-seok.
But the moment it reached him, he was already gone.
As soon as I released my grip on the sword, a massive shield came hurtling toward me from the ground.
Bang!
Followed immediately by a body blow.
The sound of cracking bones mixed with the shattering shield as my ribs broke and I was flung into the air.
The constantly active Power of 【Restoration】 quickly mended the broken bones, but Kang Jae-seok’s assault didn’t stop.
Bang! Kwaang! Bang!
I barely managed to block his relentless barrage and summoned the 【Spear of the Giant】.
The sudden increase in weight dragged my floating body downward—right as Kang Jae-seok’s fist tore through the air where I had been.
The air burst apart with a deafening shockwave.
I didn’t miss that brief opening—I swung the Giant’s Spear and struck his torso.
The sheer mass behind the weapon made its power devastating.
Bang!
With a thunderous crash, Instructor Kang Jae-seok was sent flying at incredible speed.
But I didn’t stop there—I hurled the Giant’s Spear after him.
I couldn’t afford to hold back against him.
To survive, I had to fight with the intent to kill.
The Spear tore through the air, growing in size mid-flight.
Still not enough.
I pulled Levatein from the ground and aimed it at the expanding Giant’s Spear.
Kiiiiiing!
A surge of condensed red light gathered at the tip.
A beam of concentrated hellfire shot forth.
The hellfire, channeled through Levatein, pierced the Giant’s Spear.
As the Spear disintegrated, the debris—now infused with hellfire—exploded outward like a meteor shower.
Kwaaaaaa!
Flames and rocks erupted in every direction, turning the entire field into a sea of fire.
I exhaled a breath I’d been holding.
That had taken everything I had.
And yet—it still wasn’t enough.
Through the inferno, a dark silhouette approached.
I let out a hollow laugh at the absurd sight.
“Haha… you’ve got to be kidding me.”
After taking two consecutive attacks combining my Powers, all I’d managed to do was make him limp?
How could someone like that even be human?
I’d known my attacks wouldn’t work—but seeing it firsthand was a different story.
A slow, creeping despair welled up inside me.
It felt like facing a boss you could never beat, no matter how many dozens or hundreds of times you tried.
He drew closer, step by step.
Was I really going to die here?
Like hell I was.
I slapped my own cheek.
A sharp sting snapped my focus back.
I wasn’t about to die quietly.
Hadn’t I always clawed my way through life?
What kind of gamer quits mid-boss fight just because the boss is strong?
Even with only 1 HP left, a real gamer calculates every move to clear the fight.
Even if I had to die, I’d struggle pathetically to the very end—that was who I was.
All right then. Time to do something truly insane.
The 【Flames of Gehenna】 blazed violently, engulfing my entire body.
The searing agony tore a scream from my throat.
“Kuaaaahhh!”
Instructor Kang Jae-seok frowned.
Sensing something strange, blood-red mana flared from his hands.
The energies twisted together into a single form—
A blade, vividly shaped even though no sword existed.
It was his ultimate skill—the same one I’d seen in-game.
I pulled his attention fully toward me and unleashed my own domain.
A domain—the space where I existed as my true self.
Within that limited area, my control over mana and body reached its absolute limit.
In an instant, the 【Flames of Gehenna】 that enveloped me began to whirl violently.
Because of the domain, the fire didn’t burn too deep into my flesh, and the Power of 【Restoration】 kept activating, but even so, the pain of my skin and muscles burning was unbearable.
Dizzy.
I clenched my teeth and endured.
Pain—I was used to it.
And through pain, I would only grow stronger.
Soon, the flames covering my body began to move as if alive.
Hellfire grows stronger the more demonic energy it consumes.
And right now, I was that immense energy.
I offered even myself as a living sacrifice to summon Hell into this world.
Asura Divine Art (修羅神功)
Asura Descent (修羅降神)
The incomplete technique—even the Sword Empress had acknowledged as surpassing sword aura—finally reached completion by merging with the Power of the Demon.
The sword that could cut all things, and the King of Hell wrapped in flame, collided.
Kuaaaaaaaahhh!
An explosion far beyond anything before erupted, the flames illuminating the dark night sky as if it were day for a fleeting moment.
The blaze that had briefly turned night into day faded away.
Only one man remained standing.
Kang Jae-seok, his whole body glowing red and steaming, surveyed the field now scorched to ash.
Even when he spread his aura, he couldn’t sense a single trace of life nearby.
Grinding his teeth, he muttered under his breath.
“Devil Knight……”
He hadn’t intended to leave a single opening.
But that man had used a powerful technique to blind his eyes and escaped using a 【Gate Stone】—an item only Demons could wield.
It had looked like he was going all-out, unleashing his ultimate move, but even that had been a decoy.
Yet, for Instructor Kang Jae-seok, that wasn’t the most important part.
‘That last technique… the energy was different, but its form—almost identical to what Cadet Yoo Sung-woo used during his duel with the Sword Empress.’
【Suspicion Level of the Academy has increased by 10.】