seattlejaycees Chapter 272 : 272. Meteor (1)
Chapter 272 : 272. Meteor (1)
272. Meteor (1)
"A normal human, huh."
Jin Su-hyuk bared his white teeth as he laughed.
"What changes just because you use the Demon King's power?"
The power of wishes, filled to the brim within his body, surged forth, and a radiance reminiscent of a 'Demon God' spread throughout the space. With strength suffusing his entire body, he even felt a sense of omnipotence.
The power of a god.
It was a power that surpassed even Awakeners and the Demon King—god-like power resided in his heart.
"I'll tell you, Park Jung-woo."
Jin Su-hyuk looked at Jung-woo as he entered his field of vision.
There stood a monster that absorbed all the magic power of the area like a black hole and even devoured demonic energy and origin—everything.
Demon King, yes.
That power could rightly be called absolute.
From Jin Su-hyuk's perspective, it was even more baffling why Jung-woo hadn't used that power until now.
"As you declared to me, I too will kill you."
His long-held dream was now close at hand.
The name Jin Su-hyuk would become a singularity, engraved in this world, eternal and undying.
He might be praised as a god, or reviled as a demon.
Either way, it didn't matter.
"Even if I die!!"
He kicked off with his legs and charged at Jung-woo.
Jung-woo likewise rushed toward Jin Su-hyuk.
On the surface, Jin Su-hyuk appeared to have the upper hand.
His burgeoning muscles looked like iron towers, and his physique, now pushed to the limits of humanity, stood over two meters tall.
Like a beast, Jin Su-hyuk's fist came crashing down toward Jung-woo's head.
KWAANG!!
Jung-woo received it head-on.
The shock was so great that this massive fortress swayed for a moment; his knees buckled slightly, but the formidable demonic energy accelerated in his heart and spread throughout his body.
He let the force of the crushing right arm slide off him, spun half a turn, and drove his fist into the other's waist; unlike before, Jin Su-hyuk's body wavered greatly.
BAM! BAM BAM BAM BAM!!!!
Explosions like bombs going off resounded through the fortress as their fists exchanged at terrifying speed.
Jin Su-hyuk had never mastered any martial art.
He swung only with reckless abandon, but his power grew ever stronger with each passing moment.
It meant more and more wishes was being focused into the Demon God.
"Jin Su-hyuk."
Jin Su-hyuk's eyes, once black, now burned gold.
Immense divinity dwelled within his body, manifesting as flames visible to the eye.
"There was a time when I admired you."
He certainly could be called a god without any irony.
Outside, the clash of Demon God energy continued to rage, its aftershocks reverberating in rapid succession.
It meant that outside, beyond this dark star, another fierce battle was raging.
"There was a time I wanted to be like you."
Jin Su-hyuk, once just a manager, had built the greatest management in Korea—he was a hero to many, myself included.
I admired his bond with Kang Min-gi, who was always by his side, and the trust Awakeners gave him.
"Admiration, you say?"
Jin Su-hyuk spoke to Jung-woo as their fists battered each other's faces, blood bursting from the corners of their mouths.
Pitch-black blood.
Blood reminiscent of a demon's dripped from both their lips.
"Don't make me laugh. That was just pity sent from failures!"
Both his arms, which had deflected multiple attacks, were covered in blood.
Yet, as he slipped past the other's attack and struck Jin Su-hyuk's chest, he felt bones break.
"Respect, admiration. Those things mean nothing. The only reason I could be given such things was because I wasn't an Awakener. I just achieved great things 'for a normal person'. That's all!"
As a child, Jin Su-hyuk thought he was the protagonist of this world.
He excelled at everything, always called a prodigy as he grew.
So he believed he could do anything he wished.
That illusion shattered the moment he realized he would have to live his entire life as a mere human, not as an Awakener.
"This world originally belongs to Awakeners."
Jin Su-hyuk had wanted to become an Awakener.
No matter how great his talent, compared to Awakeners he was lacking in every way.
No matter how much he wracked his brains, his body was inferior to even a mere F-rank Awakener.
Just thinking about it a little makes it clear.
Humans are inferior to Awakeners in every way.
This world endures only by the mercy of Awakeners—he realized this then.
But Awakeners themselves don't realize it.
Simply because they're few in number.
The culture and history of this world—
The values of humanity stifled their potential.
This was all wrong.
A world where the superior merely serve the inferior.
"So I have lived to restore this world to its proper form."
For humanity to advance, this flawed form had to be corrected.
Awakeners would only continue to increase in number, and eventually conflict with humans would accelerate.
That cannot be stopped by any means.
Humans are not foolish.
If the ordinary come to perceive Awakeners as a threat, they will attempt to kill them instead.
Then Awakeners will surely lose.
No matter how great they are, in the end they are human.
They cannot overcome the sheer numbers and the power of science wielded by ordinary people.
"That must absolutely never happen. So I've long searched for a solution."
And then, to Jin Su-hyuk, salvation arrived.
The existence of demons.
They would usher this world into a new era.
"No."
Jung-woo, taking a big step forward toward Jin Su-hyuk, who showed all his teeth in a wide grin, swung with all his strength at Jin Su-hyuk's face.
Jin Su-hyuk hastily blocked, but with the noise of snapping bones his arms broke and his new body tumbled backward.
"I told you that would never happen."
Catching his breath, Jung-woo calmly observed the flow throughout his body.
At first, overwhelmed by too much information, he could barely swing back.
If he hadn't gotten used to the world he saw with the Demon King's eyes, he might not even have been able to stand.
Physically, Jin Su-hyuk may have been overwhelming, but the current Jung-woo was on a different level.
'It's not just the Demon King's power.'
The Demon King's power was only the trigger that set everything off.
The king's perfect power fused together everything Jung-woo had built up so far.
Power earned through horrific experiments.
Countless experiences gained from meeting many people on his three-year journey.
Life-and-death battles that brushed shoulders with death.
Jung-woo himself hadn't realized it, but the martial arts level he achieved in three years was never low.
No, he'd hit the very limit.
The reason he couldn't break through the wall, or obtain the Conceptualization Technique, was simple.
His body had been in an extremely unstable state.
A body that should have died long ago.
It existed merely because it hadn't died, not because it was truly alive.
Without his 'wish', he would have died ages ago.
So his body couldn't possibly be intact.
Wishes, demonic energy, magic power—all of them entwined together in chaos, it was possible to produce great power, but ascending to a higher state was all but impossible.
That changed when he fully became one with the Demon King.
The power flowing from the Demon King's heart balanced his body; without a reason to die anymore, his wish stabilized as well.
"You can never defeat me."
Though Jin Su-hyuk's relentless assault had reduced Jung-woo's arms to bloody rags, there was not a flicker of hesitation in his movements.
A wave, starting from his heart, spread behind him in a ring.
'What.......'
As Jin Su-hyuk looked at Jung-woo, his broken arms regenerating, his face twisted.
He couldn't see Jung-woo's attacks—what had been visible now disappeared entirely.
'...... What is this?'
Black pupils gazed at him serenely.
The wave originating from Jung-woo's heart took form, striking Jin Su-hyuk's body over and over.
He had no chance to even raise his hands.
If not for his immense wishes, his entire body might have been torn apart already.
KWAANG!!
Once he regained his senses, Jin Su-hyuk found himself buried in the petals behind his back.
Even for Jung-woo, his strength was abnormal.
He ought to have gained the power of a god, but—
"... Kuh."
Despite witnessing such overwhelming strength, Jin Su-hyuk had a twisted smile on his lips.
"Ha, hahaha, yes. Excellent. Truly excellent, Park Jung-woo."
He hadn't expected to be pushed to this extent, but Jin Su-hyuk was in awe of Jung-woo's power.
This was the Demon King, once feared as king of the demons.
And the man who had killed that Demon King now wielded this strength.
"Surely, I cannot defeat you..."
If things continued like this, Jung-woo would recover the Demon God's heart.
Of course, even if that happened one still couldn't stop the 'Demon God', but that alone wasn't enough.
"But still..."
He staggered to his feet.
Clenching his fists, he grinned at the approaching Jung-woo.
"I can at least kill you."
KUKUKUNG!!!
It was just as Jin Su-hyuk finished speaking.
The dark star began to vibrate, and the petal behind him shuddered.
Jung-woo saw the growing mass of wishes continuing to concentrate in Jin Su-hyuk's body.
Its size now far surpassed anything so far.
"You, ...are you insane?"
Jung-woo immediately understood why the dark star was shaking.
The dark star, which had fallen to the ground, was now shaking as it shot up toward the sky.
"As you know..., I have partial control of the heart."
But it was just as he said: partial.
Damian had put a restriction in place so that Jin Su-hyuk could not do anything to harm the Demon God's heart. All he could do was operate the heart, gather wishes, and bring about 'demonification.'
He couldn't move the dark star or interfere beyond that.
"So, I've asked a certain like-minded person for a favor."
The dark star continued rising toward the sky.
Even standing on the violently trembling ground, Jung-woo watched Jin Su-hyuk without swaying.
"The crisis of this lukewarm world."
As the altitude increased endlessly and the air thinned, neither of them cared in the slightest.
Jung-woo immediately grasped Jin Su-hyuk's intention.
"To truly lead the world to its end."
KWA-AAAAAAAAH!!!
At that moment, golden light radiated from Jin Su-hyuk's body, and the dark star began to move rapidly.
Horizontal? No, that's not it.
It began to move diagonally.
"If you do this...!"
When Jung-woo shouted sharply, Jin Su-hyuk, breathing rough, answered.
"What, that 'demonification' is impossible? I don't care—that was never my goal. My aim is only to bring forth a new world. Anything else is secondary."
The remaining demons would be dealt with by the Demon God.
'That' may be Estella, but it is not Estella.
A fragment of the Saintess, who both hated and despised the demons.
If it's that, it will surely never let any demon survive.
"... Are you going to burn the entire Earth?"
"Correct."
The dark star tilted and began to fall—it would become a giant comet.
Its speed was still slow, but looking at the countless golden threads beginning to wrap around it, it would accelerate shortly.
Those golden threads enclosed the dark star like a silkworm cocoon.
With that many, even ordinary people could see it with their own eyes.
If anything resembled a golden sun, this was it.
Its majesty would bring to anyone's mind the image of apocalypse.
'The reason he's going this far—'
Probably for effect.
The more humanity prays as they witness the apocalypse, the more the wishes's strength would grow.
This comet was the final act Jin Su-hyuk had prepared for his grand finale.
A sign of apocalypse that would make the whole world watch and pay attention.
Even if we cut the broadcast now, the dread and fear already begun would foster endless wishes.
And as a result,
All ordinary people would die, and only about half the Awakeners could hope to survive.
Just as he said, this civilization would end, and only a tiny minority would survive to forge a new one.
That was Jin Su-hyuk's plan, using our 'broadcast.'
'... If that's the case.'
His aim was more radical than expected.
And at the same time, not at all unexpected.
Rather, it was in some sense a necessary act,
If a 'miracle' was to be created.
-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
9 chapters left.
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