Frescan’s magic was ripped to shreds the moment it came in contact with Lee Sungmin’s spear. The synchronized forces Lee Sungmin possessed in the spear seemed like they stemmed from the very root of destruction.
Despite not adding the third force of the Blood Ring Techniques on top of the yokai powers and Lee Sungmin’s own Nine Heavenly Spear Techniques, he still had trouble controlling the spear movement.
Lee Sungmin felt a tremor in his hands as he swung the spear forwards. He knew instinctively if he let go here, he would miss and have the technique go out of control.
‘Push the spear through the opening… firmly.’ , Lee Sungmin thought to himself as he handled the spear carefully but with resolve.
Poo-hwak!
The aura gathered at the end of the spear exploded with a surge of strength.
The explosive burst scattered Frescan’s mana from his temporary curse spell, in all directions.
But that wasn’t all. The spear moved through the spell’s vicinity and shattered Frescan’s defensive barrier in one go.
“Huk!”, Frescan gasped for breath, astonished at the violent power that shattered his defense.
Frescan realized in that moment, just who had fired the purple tornado at him in the street earlier. It wasn’t the wizard that flew by him earlier, No, it was the man known as Lee Sungmin, standing right in front of him.
Frescan hurriedly cast successive blinks and veered away from the course of the spear’s trajectory.
As Frescan’s body quickly disappeared from the trajectory, Lee Sungmin already had raised his senses to the max and chased his presence.
Lee Sungmin leapt forward without hesitation.
Jumping into the sky, Lee Sungmin followed Frescan, swinging his leg viciously.
As Frescan needed to use blink to move away, he was astonished to see Lee Sungmin following him with sheer force. It was too risky to continue firing off successive blinks even if Lee Sungmin was closing the distance.
Since Frescan was a Lich, his physical body was much weaker than a normal humans, making it an incredibly difficult task to use constant spatial magic.
It wasn’t just that his body might be crushed from the spatial movement, but his soul might get caught into the void of space if he was hasty and unfocused.
‘There’s no time to slow down the bastard even with the curse magic……!’ , Frescan cursed to himself in his mind.
Not only that, but his defensive barrier that was incredibly solid and could block most attacks, was ripped like paper right in front of him.
In the end, Frescan chose fight over flight.
He quickly changed his hand movements and started to murmur a new spell.
As he finished the spell, several dozen balls of mana formulated together and prepared to shoot at Lee Sungmin.
“Don’t come any closer you bastard!”, Frescan shouted at Lee Sungmin anxiously and spread his hands wide.
The mana balls multiplied into smaller hundreds of mana bullets and shot forward at Lee Sungmin.
Lee Sungmin looked at the large number of projectiles shooting at him and decided to break through with brunt force, as the large number of projectiles was too difficult to dodge mid-air.
Lee Sungmin pressed his foot down onto a foothold mid-air. Normally such a feat would be impossible but Lee Sungmin used the Shadowless footwork technique : 2-step Calamitous End.
He quickly raised his internal energy forcibly under the dire circumstances. He took 2 steps to rouse the internal energy and the third step to move forward, unleashing the aura at the tip of the spear.
Lee Sungmin unleashed his Nine Heavenly Spears Techniques once more.
Nine Heavenly Spears Techniques 6th Move : Undying Spear(劍仙)
Lee Sungmin flung the spear in a stabbing motion and the aura climbed to the peak of the spear in a large cluster, completely annihilating the hundreds of bullets aimed at him.
Frescan’s body shook from the shockwaves and flew back.
Lee Sungmin quickly stepped through the dust cloud of scattered mana and aura.
Frescan’s body re-appeared in the air from a dark mist clouding around him.
‘You can’t give me a break?!’ , Frescan flusteredly thought as he felt the immense pressure from Lee Sungmin’s spear earlier.
How was this even possible? The magic he was using was high-tier magic that could have obliterated Lee Sungmin back in the mercenary dungeon when they first met.
The special contract he signed as a black magician with a higher entity from an alternate dimension allowed him to cast magic with reduced spell cast time, but that still didn’t mean he could instantly cast his spells.
With time and territory set prior, a wizard was a fearsome existence to any being, but in front of this man he had neither and was completely helpless.
“If only I had that child……!’ , Frescan cursed in anger.
If he had come with Aine, he could have had Aine tie up Lee Sungmin, and cast his magic safely and comfortably.
However, Aine was now a mindless slave to Arbeth. It was true that Frescan was competent enough of a Dark Wizard to become a Tower Master, had he not turned into a Lich. However, Lee Sungmin was now at the level to rival a Tower Master if not even higher in terms of pure prowess.
Gwa-ang!
Lee Sungmin shot his spear once more at Frescan as Frescan had started to resume the battle by casting another shield.
However, this time Lee Sungmin was surprised, as the shield did not break this time.
The barrier rippled as it cracked but it was because Frescan had cast a different type of barrier, rather than a sturdy shield type, he cast a barrier that was like a fluid, absorbing the impact a bit.
Upon seeing this, Lee Sungmin furrowed his brows and used another spear technique that would attack the barrier at multiple points.
Nine Heavenly Spears Techniques 2nd move : Nine Dragon Annihilation (九龍殺生)
The nine, aura-manifested dragons flew out from the spear tip and penetrated the weakened barrier completely shattering it.
“Chet!”, Frescan gritted his teeth and tucked his breath in from the impact.
This was extremely dangerous this time for Frescan as Lee Sungmin pierced through the fluid barrier much faster than Frescan had anticipated and was in the middle of a chant. Since he had to cut the chant off short, the backlash was dangerous. Frescan’s mana that was circulating into the spell started to rotate in reverse as his body and the black mist surrounding it started to swell.
“Ur..gurrg!”
Frescan let out a gurgle from the chant and lifted his trembling finger as Lee Sungmin looked at him in confusion, not understanding what was going on exactly with Frescan.
Bang!
The remaining mana that hadn’t swelled up coalesced into Frescans finger and shot straight at Lee Sungmin.
However, the makeshift magic missile was so weak it couldn’t even penetrate Lee Sungmin’s internal energy aura that formed around as self defense.
Lee Sungmin furrowed his brows in irritation, feeling Frescan was being annoying and stabbed the spear at Frescans swelling body.
Poo-hwak!
Frescan’s black mist covering his body was pierced and flew out in multiple directions.
“Please stop!”, Frescan shouted in a hurt voice.
Did his body hurt when he stabbed the intangible black mist? Lee Sungmin was curious about it, but didn’t bother to ask about it.
He lifted the spear that skewered the Lich like a kebab down to the ground.
Quang!
A speartip pierced through the ground and left Frescan’s body sprawled defenseless in front of Lee Sungmin as he looked down at Frescan narrowing his eyes.
Frescan was injured badly but was not dead because he still had his life vessel in another location far from the City of Endless Night. Lee Sungmin also knew this, as he prepared himself after the first encounter about dealing with other Liches in the future.
“What are you doing here?”, Lee Sungmin spat out at Frescan glaring menacingly.
“That’s what I asked…”, Frescan spoke in a quivering voice.
Frescan felt totally defeated and helpless. Now he was overpowered by the man who took one of his most beloved life works, and was a slave to a complete dickhead who could end his life on a whim.
When Arbeth took Aine away from Frescan, Frescan could not express his feelings and had to act subservient. But even now, he felt utterly done since Arbeth wasn’t here.
The fact that Lee Sungmin was nothing but a mere bug in front of him a few years ago, and was now trampling over him just made him depressed.
“Ahhhhhahhhhhhhhhhhhh!”, Frescan suddenly let out his emotions and burst into tears.
Of course, only the sound of wailing could be heard, as he didn’t have any body fluids, but the intent was clearly there.
Lee Sungmin, who had skewered the Lich in front of him, was dumbfounded and looked down at the Frescan.
“Why the hell are you crying? Are you sick?”, Lee Sungmin asked in a suspicious tone.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
Frescan just kept wailing like a baby.
Lee Sungmin had seen many people die both in his past life and this life when they didn’t want to die. But, this was just plain weird, and Frescan seemed to be crying because of something completely different.
‘He wouldn’t even die here in the first place would he ?’, Lee Sungmin thought to himself as he looked confusedly at Frescan.
That’s why his crying felt even more strange to Lee Sungmin.
Lee Sungmin needed to get his attention as this was just…. Childish. Lee Sungmin roused up his internal energy into the spear a bit to shock Frescan to his senses.
Shing!
The spear shocked Frescan’s body awake to his senses. Frescan blinked his non-existent eyes and shouted as he shuddered.
“You, you son of a bitch! You thief! You stole the black heart which was my life’s work!”
“I told you already. I didn’t even want it in the first place and didn’t take it on purpose.”, Lee Sungmin spoke down coldly to Frescan.
“Shut up! What the hell is wrong with my life! Why is it so terrible?! WHY? I just wanted to study alone in the dungeon like the old days…”, Frescan shouted out hysterically, seemingly to nobody.
“……where did you leave the girl you always travel around with?”, Lee Sungmin spoke curtly, cutting to the chase.
Lee Sungmin was still suspicious of Frescan. The kid who was a chimera, an artifical lifeform created for murder, armed with the same black heart that he had.
Whilst fighting Frescan, Lee Sungmin continued to be wary of any surprise attacks from the chimera girl. But even now, while Frescan was skewered, she didn’t come out.
“Aine!”, Frescan cried out and wailed even more.
Lee Sungmin shook his head internally and continued to glare at Frescan.
“My lovely daughter! My everything! Hahahaha…Waaaaaaahh!”, Frescan cried out delusionally, as his emotions were a complete mess.
“Where did you leave her?”, Lee Sungmin cut him off bluntly.
“She’s been taken from me!”, Frescan roared out in anger and sadness.
“To the king of the Undead, The Arch Lich! Ugh! I’m sad because I’m so fucking weak. If I had been better than him, I wouldn’t have had her taken away from me.…!”, Frescan spat out in frustration.
“Then, what were you doing here?”, Lee Sungmin questioned Frescan, not giving two shits about his lolicon tendencies.
“Do you think I’ll tell you that!”, Frescan spat out roughly in contempt at Lee Sungmin.
Lee Sungmin expected Frescan to be stubborn to the end and didn’t bother even trying to get the answer out any further. It was pretty much obvious this stubborn pile of bones wouldn’t talk any further as he wouldn’t die so Lee Sungmin just sighed.
Poo-hwak!
Lee Sungmin roused his internal energy to the limits and stabbed Frescan for the last time. Frescan’s body assimilated into the mist completely, and dispersed in all directions.
But unlike before, the mist didn’t reform back together as Frescan had been erased from the battlefield here and his soul traveling back to his life vessel.
Lee Sungmin pulled out the spear stuck in the ground and looked ahead.
Firstly, he had to follow after Envirus.
The rumbling and screams within the city shocked Rubia and the Crazy Heavenly Demon.
They had simply come to the city to enjoy the scenery and night atmosphere for a change of pace on their break. But, something was seriously wrong right now.
Rubia grabbed the Crazy Heavenly Demon’s hand, frightened and scared.
“It’s all right.”, the Crazy Heavenly Demon patted Rubia’s head calming her down.
At first, the Crazy Heavenly Demon didn’t want to be caught up in this mess at all. He was planning on going back to the forest through a portal where Lee Sungmin was supposedly training.
If only he didn’t hear the voices of the citizens running away
“Chusung is back?”, a citizen muttered in anger as they brushed by the Crazy Heavenly Demon, running away.
The moment he heard the name ‘Chusung’, the Crazy Heavenly Demon stopped walking.
Not hearing what the citizen said, Rubia tilted her head and looked up at the Crazy Heavenly Demon who had suddenly stopped walking.
Suddenly a fierce killing intent that was being suppressed for the past week, while they all had trained in solitude, burst out from the Crazy Heavenly Demon in vast amounts.
The Crazy Heavenly Demon looked down at Rubia, who realized what was going on and tearily shook her head at him, pleading him not to go.
“……go back alone.”, the Crazy Heavenly Demon said in a cold tone.
“What?”, Rubia cried out as tears streamed down her cheeks.
“I’m sorry.”
The Crazy Heavenly Demon mumbled and put his hand on Rubia’s shoulder.
Rubia got emotional and grabbed the Crazy Heavenly Demon’s wrist and asked, “Where are you going?”
“Chusung is here.”, the Crazy Heavenly Demon spoke coldly staring at the street and the fleeing citizens.
Rubia paled at the response but, more or less expected it seeing his sudden change in demeanor and oozing killing intent. She grabbed his wrist with both hands, pleading once more, “Please don’t, don’t go.”
“Nothing will happen.”, the Crazy Heavenly Demon said emotionlessly, blatantly spitting out a white lie.
“How do you know that? At least wait until I’m with Lee Sungmin……!”, Rubia pleaded, trying to buy time for her to escape and find Lee Sungmin so she could be safe and have Lee Sungmin try and talk him out of it.
“This is something that can’t be avoided.”, the Crazy Heavenly Demon muttered in a low voice.
He turned away, shaking off Rubia’s hands that were holding his wrist. As he turned around, Rubia shouted something from behind him, but it didn’t even register in the Crazy Heavenly Demon’s mind.
The Crazy Heavenly Demon burst out in the direction of the disturbance with a light step.
The humans and monsters that were fleeing and blocking the way weren’t a problem for him so he jumped up, and ran on the roof to run faster.
—–
When the Crazy Heavenly Demon arrived, everything was on fire.
Buildings burned and corpses sizzled like charred meat. In the middle of this massacre, Chusung was laughing crazily as the ash and embers flew around him.
The fear that was eminent in the bodies before dying, flew around in their incorporeal states and gathered around Chusung, strengthening him.
Chusung was feeling full and satiated without even physically eating the fear. He laughed maniacally and smacked his belly with his hand in satisfaction.
The Crazy Heavenly Demon saw a vision overlapping with the flames. Even though he had not seen the massacre of the tribe with his own eyes, the overlapping vision was so vivid as if he were there.
The burning huts, the screams of the tribesman, the falling branches of the forest and the charred bodies.
Did his beloved Dersia die like that? In that gruesome manner? The mere thought of it enraged the Crazy Heavenly Demon as he burst his killing intent all around him and struck out.
Kuongg!
A bloody red aura sprang out from underneath the Crazy Heavenly Demon’s feet and he screamed in rage, “AHHHHH!”
The aura burst out in all directions together with his scream.
The huge gust of aura blew away all the burning flames surrounding the area.
The sudden strong aura that coursed through the area and blew away the flames made Chusung stop his laughter and narrow his eyes. He noticed that this wasn’t just some wind that blew around and extinguished his flames, it was someone’s power.
Chusung turned around and saw the source of the power emanating all around the surroundings. The Crazy Heavenly Demon stood there with a hell-bent glare as a scarlet glow wrapped around him.
“What are you?”, Chusung asked the Crazy Heavenly Demon who caught his eye.
The Crazy Heavenly Demon completely ignored him and instead of answering, he roused his internal energy to the max and Blood Rings started to materialize around him.
Looking at the Crazy Heavenly Demon who was surging with a murderous aura, Chusung knew instinctively that he was by no means an easy opponent.
Shinggggg!
The skin on Chusung’s arm, that he started to raise up, turned black and metallic.
Gwa-ang!
With a loud noise, Chusung’s body was suddenly flung back.
“AHHHH!”, the Crazy Heavenly Demon roared.
He clenched his palms and struck out at Chusung with a fist.
The bloody aura swelled around him into his right fist.
Chusung immediately widened his eyes and covered his whole body with steel skin, but by the time he had already seen Byuk Won-Pae, Byuk Won-Pae was flinging a barrage of unending strikes at him.
Gwa-a-a-ang!
Chusung’s body lowered and his knees bent from the pressure of the attacks. The ground beneath him cracked and sank.
The Crazy Heavenly Demon twisted his waist and started to coalesce more of his internal energy into his left fist.
The left fist dug under Chusung’s arm and into his ribcage.
Bang!
Chusung’s body bent inwardly and his body floated up in the air from the hard strike.
Chusung’s body was extremely heavy. Aiming at Chusung’s body that was flung upwards a few inches off the ground, the Crazy Heavenly Demon extended his palms and struck out with the blood rings.
KA-BOOM!
Chusung’s body, caught in a red storm of aura, flew backwards from the impact and smashed into a burning building that was crumbling down.
The Crazy Heavenly Demon took a deep breath and ran towards the building where Chusung was buried, continuing his relentless charge.
He didn’t have the slightest thought that Chusung would have died just like that as he burst forward.
He was right.
Qua’ang!
The explosion inside the building caused the whole building to explode in pieces as debris flew out.
Debris flew out and some were flying at the Crazy Heavenly Demon. He swung his palms at the debris and swiped it away.
Chusung, who rose up as flames surrounded his body, contorted his face while looking at the Crazy Heavenly Demon.
“You mere human bastard!”, Chusung spat out, unveiling his sharp and jagged teeth.
He felt utterly embarrassed by the sudden attack.
Not only that, he was utterly surprised at how strong his assailant, the Crazy Heavenly Demon was. There were only a few in all of Eria that could attack him on par like this.
But it was not only for the case for Chusung, but also for the Crazy Heavenly Demon.
When Henemy was still the leader of Predator, Chusung was second only to Henemy and the other elders of Predator.
Since Kumiho had appeared, he was now only second to Kumiho. Always being the number two.
The constant dissatisfaction of being number two however, didn’t mean that Chusung was weak, in fact it only meant he was that strong to be able to contend against those monsters in the first place.
“You cheeky bastard!”, Chusung yelled and emerged from the fire, this time completely abandoning his human form.
His size, which before, was already bigger than the Crazy Heavenly Demon, was now twice as big. All the clothes he was wearing were burned in the emergence and surge of the flames wrapping around Chusung’s body.
But no resemblance of human skin could be seen. Chusung’s body was covered head-to-toe in black scales, and his face was no longer that of a human’s but that of a complete monster.
His eyes were bloodshot red and his scales shined brightly in the vibrant flames.
Chusung was no longer going to play around in his weak human form, and took the Crazy Heavenly Demon seriously for the first time. Chusung really did look like a dragon, as he opened his elongated mouth and a burst of flames came out like a Dragon’s Breath.
Chusung’s entire demeanor and aura was much more prominent and powerful as a violent energy surrounded his body.
‘You won’t be able to handle Chusung as you are right now.’ , the Crazy Heavenly Demon recalled what Kumiho had told him back in the detached house.
She was speaking the truth. Although the Crazy Heavenly Demon was one of the best martial artists in the Peak Realm, it was not nearly strong enough to kill Chusung.
The Crazy Heavenly Demon knew it already.
But even though he knew, he strode forwards and continued to attack Chusung. Even if it was too much for him to handle, even if he might die… it had to be done.
He was not going to pretend like Chusung hadn’t slaughtered the people he called family and his beloved Dersia.
This was vengeance. Stubborn as it may be, matters of the heart couldn’t be taken lightly.
Feigning ignorance and not facing Chusung here and now was like denying the tribe and Dersia’s very existence as living people.
The Crazy Heavenly Demon, wrapped in a blood scarlet aura, rushed toward Chusung through the flames as two shades of red auras clashed within the dark night of the City.