Boom!
How many times has it been already?
The loud noise from outside showed no signs of stopping.
‘What the heck is happening right now?’
Je Gal Hye-mi, biting her lip anxiously, looked out the window again.
But outside, only dense darkness flickered, as if a black curtain had been drawn, revealing nothing to her eyes.
It was a phenomenon that had occurred soon after the sky was covered by sudden thick clouds.
‘That cloud must be related to this. There’s no way this happened naturally. The most likely explanation is that a battle has broken out… But who is the opponent? Could it be that a rescue team has come…?!’
Unable to accurately grasp the situation, her mind spiraled into various wild thoughts.
Just as her dwindled hopes began to rise again—
‘No, no matter how I think about it, we don’t have the leisure to mount an attack of this scale so quickly. Then, could it be another faction? Are they trying to use us for their own purposes?!’
The unsettling feeling in her heart began to overpower any hope she had left.
Considering what she had been through thus far, it was only natural that her thoughts turned negative.
‘Or perhaps, there hasn’t been a battle at all. It might just be the ruckus before a full-fledged ceremony begins.’
Her pessimistic thoughts started to grow.
Yet, amidst the chaos, Je Gal Hye-mi steadied her trembling heart and sprang to her feet.
While she couldn’t be sure of what was happening, if a variable had indeed occurred, she couldn’t just sit and wait.
If there was something to try, now was the only chance.
‘If I fail, I’m just a sacrifice anyway. So, it’s better to try something at least.’
Gingerly, she opened the door to her room and took a cautious step outside.
*
Whoosh—
The waves of death relentlessly crashed in.
The energy-drained land, akin to a wasteland, was completely covered in thick, cloying death.
Naturally, anyone who faced that current head-on couldn’t possibly stay unscathed.
‘This isn’t going to work. I need to find… something… a way…!’
There was a limit to just holding on.
The six-headed dragon gritted its teeth, diligently trying to devise a solution.
But despite trying various methods, nothing seemed to change.
All that happened was the slow deterioration of the situation over time.
The defenses protecting its body grew weaker, and the massive body began to suffer wounds that spattered bright blood everywhere.
The deathly energy that gnawed at its insides, rotting away its blood and flesh, further impeded its regeneration ability to less than a fraction of its normal state.
‘If only I had a little, just a little more time!’
If it had just a few more days… no, just a day more, it wouldn’t have been so helpless.
If only it had known, it would have rushed through the ceremony more quickly…
Who could have predicted that taking such precautions to efficiently utilize limited sacrifices would lead to this worst-case scenario?
And finally, the anticipated catastrophe began to loom closer.
Slash—!
Boom!
One of its six heads was severed.
The enormous scythe of the abyss cleanly sliced through, burying the red head into the ground.
The horrific energy clinging to the severed surface continuously gnawed at its vitality, stubbornly preventing the head from regenerating.
“Kraaaah! Neno-oom! This filthy intruder! If it weren’t for you, everything would’ve been perfect…! Why did you have to show up now?!”
The balance was disrupted, and the deity that barely maintained a form began to wobble.
The furious roar of the dragon spread out in all directions, but the presence embedded within it was far from the majesty it had shown at first.
Whoosh—!
Another head fell.
As the six heads became four, its equilibrium uncontrollably wavered; the energy within its body was thrown into disarray.
Since it hadn’t exceeded its limits in a proper manner, side effects ensued.
“This is insane! How have I managed to endure until now?!”
As its rampaging body wildly thrashed about, its consciousness gradually began to fade.
That day, when escaping from Gonmudo and engaging in the final battle.
After clashing with numerous dragons and escaping the realm with a body in tatters, the place it chose for recovery, completely battered, was none other than the infamous Heavenly Demon Church.
Given both its inclination and conditions, it was an ideal sanctuary for him.
However, even after morphing into a human to recover there, he soon instinctively sensed something unsettling.
In the moment he completed the heads of the eight dragons through consumption, he had undeniably reached a state of enlightenment.
In martial terms, a legendary level known as the Mythical Realm.
Though he had dealt considerable damage while fighting formidable opponents without fully grasping his abilities, he believed he could certainly avenge himself once he regained his strength and healed.
But such abnormal growth, achieved by defying taboos, naturally came with appropriate side effects.
“…I can’t recover my condition?”
To be precise, he could recover.
However, an astounding amount of karma would be required for that.
The number of dragons he had consumed to elevate his standing—a quantity that had to be precisely multiplied by seven.
For any single existence to reach godhood, an immense amount of karma was essential.
Yet, summing that up with the number he had consumed during the subsequent battle, how could that possibly be feasible?
“If I were to destroy the entire world, perhaps that might be possible… No, maybe even that wouldn’t be enough.”
In effect, his growth had come to a complete halt.
He had undeniably become stronger than before, but he was now stuck in an ambiguous state of not quite reaching enlightenment.
If he were to make an appearance in such a state, he would surely crumble before the forces of Gonmudo before ever being able to destroy the world.
“What kind of absurd situation is this?!”
No more room for growth.
Driven by endless greed, he had violated taboos while seeking higher levels, but because of that, his potential had wholly dried up!
Since then, he had partaken in all manner of experiences while operating as a member of the Heavenly Demon Church.
Plunging into all sorts of forbidden spells and techniques, strictly controlled even by the demon cultists, he engaged in bloody experiments beyond all reason and natural law.
His obtained title through this process was none other than Heavenly Demon Conjurer.
A magical celestial who deceives the heavens.
At long last, after all the sacrifices of countless lives, that effort bore fruit.
A way out of his situation was indeed…
“Yes, it’s about thinking differently. Instead of achieving godhood through consumption, if I can devour another who has fully attained it and claim it for myself…!”
Ironically, that was precisely the method he had previously employed.
Devouring others to steal their power.
As he searched for a candidate, a being from another world caught his eye.
A person with unique abilities and an unparalleled growth rate, distinct from all others, especially one who possessed the Heavenly Killing Technique and grew much faster than others.
“Excellent.”
Time passed.
As he had anticipated, that being soon forsook their name to become the Heavenly Demon, abandoning any thought of returning home and steadily growing in this world.
To the brink of the Current Realm.
“Just a little more, just a little more…”
In merely a few decades of training, this prodigious talent had caught up to him, who had been cultivating for thousands of years.
If he could seize the moment when that brilliance finally began to dawn…
If he could swallow their karma, empowerment, possibilities, and future all at once…!
“Hmm, so the mind has returned, has it? You’re quite well-behaved now. Or perhaps it’s time you gave up?”
“…Huh?”
The mocking words pierced through his consciousness.
As his fuzzy mind gradually returned, Yaliuhuan began to consciously recognize the reality once more.
The first thing that caught his eye was the pitch-black surroundings that had completely enveloped him.
Not merely the phenomenon caused by the cloud of magical energy and the death-infested land, it was a clear sight of midnight.
The battle that began in broad daylight had somehow stretched through the afternoon.
“This is…?”
As Yaliuhuan turned his head to the direction of the voice he heard, he suddenly realized he had been lying on the ground.
It was probably a moment when he lost control due to the effect of the wobbly balance that was previously unstable.
Given the outcome, it didn’t seem like it had ended well.
“Ouch—”
The pain, now becoming all too familiar, drew Yaliuhuan’s gaze toward its source.
Standing on his completely decapitated body, the Heavenly Demon had thrust a black sword into the neck of the last remaining green head.
“…Well, isn’t this absurd? I had suspected we’d end up fighting someday, but I didn’t foresee it unfolding like this.”
A hollow laugh escaped his lips.
The tension that had been building steadily toward the climax suddenly gave way to a third party’s intervention, leading to a dizzying turn of events where one became a Jiangshi while the other plunged a sword into their neck.
If a storyteller were to present such a random sequence without any coherent buildup, he would have snatched their tongue out in irritation.
“The fact that the Heavenly Demon is here means… it implies that the others have all been dealt with.”
Looking around slightly, no sounds from the battlefield reached his ears anymore.
This meant that all who resisted were executed, leaving only those who chose submission.
Having not only taken control of the Heavenly Demon Church but even subduing any elite squads dispatched from the outside in the end.
“Truly… this is a disaster.”
Yaliuhuan’s gaze turned to the one who had ruined his plans.
A middle-aged man who inspected him as if admiring an exhibit in a lab, wearing a skin that still felt lifelike and mimicking the appearance of a living man, yet undoubtedly had died long ago.
At the same time,
He was the one who ultimately sprouted godhood that he had managed to let slip through his fingers.
“Cough… how unfortunate. If I had consumed you, not only would I have regained my condition, but I could have swept away those from Gonmudo with their techniques.”
“Pfft— now that’s quite an amusing thought. If that had happened, I bet I wouldn’t have just ended up with a stomach ache.”
“Ah, that certainly poses a problem. Now that I’m feeling a bit better, consuming more poison could be troublesome.”
“Feeling a bit better, you say….”
To Yaliuhuan’s witty remark, the Demon King Hans tilted his head slightly.
Of course, it had been quite a while, so it wouldn’t be strange if the effects had worn off by now.
But…
“Looking like that, it couldn’t possibly have improved any.”
All heads except one in the center were severed, and even at that juncture, undead beings had latched onto the surface, meticulously delivering deathly energy to pierce through him as he was being hacked repeatedly.
Not to mention?
The massive body was in tatters, with not a single intact part, restrained to the ground by chains of the abyss and shadow thorns, constantly infusing death energy in, gnawing away at his vitality.
In truth, had it not been for his elevated body, he should have been dead long ago.
Yet if he truly felt like he was getting better…
“He’s about to die. His senses are completely out of whack. Honestly, it’s impressive that he’s lasted this long.”
He had endured against Hans for over ten hours.
All the while not as an individual but with numerous undead by his side.
Taking into account that a significant number of undead and Jiangshi had been utterly obliterated because of his rampage, he could indeed say he had proven his worth as a hidden boss.
“Cough—huhuhuhwww!”
Now seemingly lost in madness, Yaliuhuan began to chuckle on his own.
Watching that peculiar scene, Hans rubbed his chin slowly.
“The Six-headed Dragon… no, Tam.”
Such outstanding material.
Arguably the finest ingredient he could find in the Ganghwan Realm.
Having neatly retrieved all severed heads and dragon pearls, if he wished, he could craft an undead that perfectly replicated its former self.
“But…”
His gaze shifted to the surroundings.
The scene lay in ruins after a lengthy and vast battle.
But what mattered wasn’t just that superficial appearance.
“The Demonic Realm.”
Looking at it with his own eyes, he grasped why this place gained such infamy.
“The situation is far more serious than I expected. When I only gauged the energy depletion from other regions, I thought I’d have some leeway, but…”
It was now only thanks to the remaining energy from other dragon veins that he could hold on, yet the magic domain’s might devouring the world’s energy was beyond what he had anticipated.
If they couldn’t close the gap here, the dragon veins would soon reach their limits, and inevitably, the world’s energy would be wholly swept into this place.
If that happened, it wouldn’t just be those who use energy who would become a problem.
In this realm, energy served as both a means to unleash abilities and a fundamental energy of life.
If it were all depleted… ultimately, all living beings would perish.
“Of course, the situation won’t deteriorate to that extent right away. The folks at Gonmudo are working hard to delay that.”
Yet, as he observed the situation in Gonmudo through Horus in real-time, he knew that couldn’t last for long.
Most notably, considering that there had even been fatalities during the rituals to prevent that from happening.
“Before it gets to that point, I need to resolve this issue. Of course, I have a plan in mind… If I use Tam’s body as a sacrifice, I can surely complete the task more definitively.”
The dragon children chosen by the divine being, the karma-absorbing Jiangshi Heavenly Demon, and the body of Tam, who had dipped his toes into godhood.
Hans organized his new plans methodically in his head.
Suddenly.
“Hmm?”
The laughter of Yaliuhuan that had seemed endless abruptly ceased.
Along with it, the faint life response that had hung on so tenaciously flickered away.
“…He’s dead. I wanted to see how much longer he could endure.”
Naturally, he had already made the decision to use alternative methods, but curiosity as a magician couldn’t be quelled.
If he could find nothing further to gain, then at least he should satisfy his thirst for knowledge!
…Or so he thought.
However, not everything was lost.
“Achievement Unlocked! Defeated the calamity of the Ganghwan Realm, ‘Tam’.”
“The calamity dragon, which devoured everything and in the end, consumed itself leading the world to ruin, has been slain. You have been granted the special ability ‘Power of Consumption’ as a reward.”
“You have achieved a feat of great significance to the world. Your karma has increased accordingly.”
The new achievement notification.
It was something he had never seen before in the Ganghwan Realm.
No, that wasn’t just it…
“Achievement Unlocked! You have become the ‘Last Supreme Dragon’ left in this world.”
“You have become the sole Supreme Dragon of the Ganghwan Realm. You have been granted the special ability ‘Dragon Pearl’ as a reward.”
“You have achieved a feat of great significance to the world. Your karma has increased accordingly.”
An unexpected two-for-one event!
