Krrrrrrrrrrrr...
It always takes time for the dust to settle.
That is true even if it isn't dry, sandy dust.
The collapsed ridge poured down to the valley floor.
Clumps of earth, like clay pressed down by the rain, settled amidst the downpour, clearing the view.
"..."
Dong Bongsu's feet remained planted in the mire.
He had already withdrawn the two swords crossed before his chest.
There was no more need to swing them.
He gazed at the spot he had struck with his swords.
One end of the valley, a mountainside, was gouged out as if bitten by a giant maw.
The granite face was exposed, white and bare, where half the ridge had vanished, and rainwater poured down its grooves like a waterfall.
Something was buried deep in the center of that gouged-out mark.
It was a strike as if the entire world had been dropped upon it, so it was no surprise that a peak had collapsed along with it.
The important thing was... it was alive.
The inside of the crushed pile of rocks stirred.
Once, krrrrrrr-.
Twice, wrrrrrrrr-.
Something with weight was pushing aside the debris and raising itself.
"Astonishing."
It was an intriguing development.
No creature of flesh and blood should have been able to survive that blow with its breath intact.
The weight of this one was certainly different from the things he had cut down on his way here.
Kwarr, wrrrr, tadak.
The figure that pushed its way through the mixture of rain and scree did, in fact, have a human skeleton.
A crimson martial robe was torn and tattered at the shoulder, revealing dark flesh through the gaps.
But he wasn't certain if it could be called flesh.
The conical hat the being had worn pressed low on its head was, of course, gone.
It must have been annihilated without a trace by the recent strike.
The face thus revealed was not human.
To be precise, it was a face where something else had forced its way up through the remnants of what was once human.
"Demonic Arts, is it?"
The line of one cheekbone was distorted, flowing downwards, and below the eye socket, a dark red pattern spread like a spiderweb, piercing through the skin like blood vessels.
The mouth was torn slightly wider than its original position.
Demonic Qi was pushing up from within the flesh, destroying the human contours.
One consumed by the Demonic.
In the Murim over there, this would be classified with a single term.
Qi Deviation.
However, this was not a common case.
It was a situation where one had given their essence to Demonic Arts in pursuit of strength, yet had grown strong to the extreme while retaining a degree of reason.
In exchange for power, he had chipped away at himself bit by bit, until nothing but the Demonic remained... One could say he grew strong by losing.
And with a sliver of reason left in that state.
That was what made this type of being far more dangerous.
Even while being consumed by the Demonic, he was surely in a state where he didn't even realize it, instead believing he was something that stood above the Demonic.
Though devoured by Demonic Arts, he believed he had placed the Demonic beneath his feet; he was undoubtedly under that kind of delusion.
Of course, Dong Bongsu also fed on strength.
The only difference was that Dong Bongsu had nothing to chip away in the first place.
Having never been filled, there was nothing to empty.
He was strong because he was empty; the other grew strong by losing.
They were similar in their pursuit of strength, but the paths they had walked were polar opposites.
"Khahahahahahaha."
A bizarre sound befitting his grotesque face.
With it, the being licked its entire face with a tongue that seemed a foot long, baring its fangs at Dong Bongsu.
It was savoring the taste.
Indeed, in this, they were similar.
[Bzzzt, conditions for Spiritual Eye activation... ksssh... have been met. Spiritual Eye automatically... bzzt, casting... kzzk... is initiated.]
For he, too, was salivating.
Of course, the large piece he had been eating earlier was also buried somewhere in the mire.
Dong Bongsu's eyes briefly glanced toward the valley floor.
Deep within tens of zhang of mud, the Qilin embedded there was still quiet.
Perhaps the Qilin offered a greater harvest.
It must have drifted in from another game... a type of descended being, to use the local term.
However, the priority and the superiority of taste were clear.
The moment the being, having pushed aside the rest of the debris, set its feet on the valley floor.
[...An enemy with a level difference of 10 or more... zzzzzk... has approached within 20 meters... ksshk...]
It had already reached the peak where Dong Bongsu stood.
The rainwater in the mire where its feet touched sank darkly, and the grass withered around it.
From beyond its tattered robes, the being's Killing Intent billowed, taking tangible form without restraint.
At the same time, its distorted face turned toward him.
"I."
From the corner of its mouth, pulled up at an angle, the first words flowed.
"Am the World-Ending Divine Lord."
A ridiculous title.
Consumed by the Demonic, yet it seemed to believe it was a god who had placed the Demonic beneath its feet.
It was likely the same sort of farce as the Demonic Cult calling itself a Divine Cult.
"Finally."
The blood-red pattern on its dark red skin flickered once more.
Thud.
It took a step toward Dong Bongsu.
The grass still died a blackened death wherever it trod.
No, that domain was gradually expanding, as if to surround Dong Bongsu, and the nature all around was losing its green hue.
"Finally, another one like me has appeared."
Its voice was surprisingly light.
A manner of speaking that did not adhere to any of the formalities of the Jianghu.
For that reason, it did not grate on Dong Bongsu's ears.
"Do you know how bored I've been? No matter how many I cut, they were all the same. Cutting down thousands, tens of thousands of weaklings, it was all the same."
Fwoosh-.
"You must have been the same, right?"
From the fingertips of the World-Ending Divine Lord, a darkish sphere was released.
A thick bundle of Demonic Qi shot up in a cluster, and then.
Swish-.
With a sound like ten thousand syllables compressed into one, it shot diagonally toward Dong Bongsu's chest.
A mass of Demonic Qi so powerful that the air it passed through and the mire below it sank into blackness.
Dong Bongsu spread his hands.
Two swords once again filled the space between his fingers where there had been nothing to grasp.
In his left hand, the Nine Demon Annihilation Wheel Sword; in his right, the Evil-Slaying Sword.
He angled the blade in his left hand, letting the bundle of Demonic Qi slide off.
Jjeojeok—.
The bundle slid along the sword's surface and lost its form.
It was less like blocking it and more like twisting it to scatter it.
The Demonic Qi, deflected by the sword, shot past Dong Bongsu's shoulder and buried itself in the valley slope behind him.
Kwadeudeudeudeuk—!
The rock rotted black and crumbled, and a section of the slope slid away entirely.
Wherever it touched, the grass withered, and the soil turned to ash.
A single strike aimed at Dong Bongsu, just by missing its mark, had caused a part of the mountain to collapse.
In that brief exchange, calculations were running inside Dong Bongsu.
The Super True Qi Field had read the next move a breath before the Demonic Qi left the fingertips, and the [Faith Sight] was analyzing in real-time the various items the prey was still wearing.
A hologram-like image overlaid the tattered, crimson martial robe.
『Blood Demon Robe』
◆ Grade: Epic
◆ Special Effects: Prevents even a single strand of wielded Demonic Qi from leaking out.
The denser the Demonic Qi, the harder the outer shell becomes.: At the moment of a fatal blow, it burns stored Demonic Qi to mend the broken body.
(Proportional to the amount burned · Ineffective when Demonic Qi is depleted)
What he had thought was a rag was actually a Magic Treasure.
And that wasn't all.
The black gloves on both hands, 『Black Killing Gloves』, and on each of the ten knuckles inside, five 『Demonic Essence Rings』 and three 『Blood Shells』 were fitted like thimbles.
That was why its hands didn't bother to hold a sword or a saber.
Each knuckle was a weapon that honed Demonic Qi.
Furthermore, a vast amount of Evil Qi was clearly circulating beneath its crimson skin.
He could have tried to handle it with Sacred power, but he couldn't tell if that was the extent of its power from just one exchange.
Thud.
The World-Ending Divine Lord's hand paused in mid-air.
Even seeing his technique slide off a single sword, his distorted face showed not anger, but something else.
"Oh."
The corner of its mouth, which was turning into a bloody pulp, slanted upwards.
"You really are a bit different."
It seemed pleased by the one exchange that had gone awry among all the ones he had cut down that were all the same.
Dong Bongsu did not bother to react.
Was there any kindness more unnecessary than having a conversation with the meal sitting across from you at the dinner table?
The World-Ending Demonic Lord seemed to interpret the silence differently.
"Right. I get it even if you don't say anything. So let's greet each other properly. As peers."
He spread both palms wide, facing the sky.
From the center of his palms, a dark red energy boiled up and dripped onto the mire, and wherever it fell, the grass burned away at the roots.
Chiiiiiiik—.
Killing Intent and Demonic Qi were welling up from beneath its skin, leaking to the outside.
A 'surpassed' Demonic Art, where so much was poured in even after mastery that the vessel of a human had shattered first.
—Tiring.
A short mechanical sound rang out from one side of his perception.
A distorted message appeared and disappeared at the edge of his vision.
It was the channel from the beast's side, and since the dish laid at his feet was a different one, Dong Bongsu did not turn his gaze that way.
In that time, the World-Ending Demonic Lord raised his arms above his head and swung them down.
Along the arc drawn by his empty hands, a crimson Saber Qi split the sky in a single line.
The Saber Qi sliced diagonally through one of the valley cliffs, and the rock was cut like tofu, its cross-section turning to ash.
It wasn't cut, but rather rotted and crumbled from the point of contact.
A flawless Killing Move that crammed corruption and severance into a single motion.
Of course, that was only until it reached Dong Bongsu.
The moment the Saber Qi shot straight toward him, it stopped a hand's breadth away.
The Demonic Qi spread like oil over the Super True Qi Field that deflected everything it touched, then flowed away.
The scattered ends brushed against his shoulder, charring a portion of his already dark robes black, but his skin was unharmed.
Fundamentally, his body had no meridians to invade, no dantian to gnaw away.
Rust can only form on iron that is there to be rusted.
But in this body, there was nothing to rust.
The smiling demonic face of the World-Ending Demonic Lord momentarily distorted.
"...What is this?"
His Demonic Arts, which corrupted everything they touched, which no one had ever blocked, were being disrupted and dissipated the moment they reached this man.
Everything he had gained while losing all that was human could not seem to reach the other.
His eyes that recognized a peer were not entirely wrong, but being similar and being the same were two different things.
However, the World-Ending Demonic Lord did not know where that difference lay.
But it didn't matter.
"Good. Very good."
To his thread-like reason, this entire moment was nothing but enjoyable.
"This is it, this is what it takes to be a bastard like me."
The sight of his Killing Move being shattered was not a disappointment to him, but a confirmation.
An inverted calculation, that because it didn't work, it must be a peer.
They slaughter all those consumed by the Demonic, yet they search for a peer in their loneliness, and when they think they've found one, they welcome them in their own way.
From each fingertip, dark red energy poured out like a waterfall.
The valley floor was submerged in black, and the grass on both cliffs withered and lay down in unison.
The valley, once a world of verdant life, was now filled with things dying a sickly blue-green death.
Wooooooooong—.
The scattered Demonic Qi gathered at a single point above his head, condensing into a giant mass.
A blood-red sphere with a diameter several times a man's height.
A single move that could perhaps crush the entirety of Windshear Cliffs was ripening.
In the midst of a dying world, only Dong Bongsu stood exactly where he had been from the start.
Without moving a single toe.
He raised his left hand.
With only his thumb on the sword's hilt, his other four fingers opened toward the blood-red sphere.
A point of light formed at each fingertip.
Four white dots, of an opposite nature to Demonic Qi.
Fwoong—.
Four arrows of pure white light shot out.
It was not Qi.
The barrier that had never blocked Demonic Qi did not even know what to block in the face of that which was not Qi.
Where the arrows embedded themselves in the sphere's surface, the dark red began to burn away.
Because it was a body consumed by the Demonic, the Demonic Qi was doubly extinguished wherever the light touched, and the single move that could have blown away Windshear Cliffs quietly collapsed from its center.
"...This is."
The World-Ending Demonic Lord quietly looked up at the sight of his Killing Move collapsing before he could even act.
Then, the corners of his mouth twisted again.
Deeper than before.
As the blood-red sphere collapsed, light scattered in all directions.
Within that light, two feet kicked off the mire.
Kwadeuk—!
"Yes, yes!"
The mud where his feet landed was gouged out like a crater.
"This is it, this is it!"
Heavenly Ghost's Bloodlight Strike.
If long range didn't work, he just had to swallow it up close.
That was the most enjoyable and direct form of greeting the World-Ending Demonic Lord knew.
Two crimson hands clasped together in the air, converging to a single point.
The Demonic Qi layered upon itself, and the blood-red pattern that had pierced the skin boiled up along his forearms.
A distance of ten li was erased in a single breath.
A single crimson line drawn through the rain had arrived right before Dong Bongsu's chest, as if it had been there from the very beginning.
And.
Just as it had erased the distance, what was contained in the World-Ending Demonic Lord's hands was a Demonic Art that erased all things in a single blow.
Kwazzzzzzzzzik—!
Dong Bongsu's left hand had not been withdrawn.
Darkness deepened over the Nine Demon Annihilation Wheel Sword in his left hand.
Beside it, the blade of the Evil-Slaying Sword in his right hand faintly glowed.
It was a sword that burned both Evil and Demonic.
There was no reason not to draw this sword at the point where he would receive the Demonic Qi head-on.
The two swords converged to a single point before his chest.
Upon the black line, everything he had accumulated was laid at once.
The Super True Qi Field that gathered scattered Qi in every gap, the Super True Qi Resonance that scattered touching Demonic Qi in all directions, a single line of Sacred Light that burned Demonic Qi, and the weight added to the sword's tip by a thousand counts of Killing Intent.
Finally, the white light of the Evil-Slaying Sword interlocked with the black line in the same spot.
A single line where darkness devoured, and white light burned, a line from which nothing that touched it could ever return in the same form.
—Anything that crosses this line cannot remain as it was. And as much as I have swallowed, I become new. Super Black Hole Sword Aura.
The two cross-shaped lines, having evolved to their current state, collided head-on with the blood-red strike.
Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang—!
The valley was sucked into a single point.
The rain, the water in the mire, the earth and rocks pouring from the cliffs were all drawn backwards into that one point.
The strike that the World-Ending Demonic Lord had condensed his entire life into was drawn back, strand by strand, beyond the sword's tip.
As much as was drawn in, more rose to take its place.
Swaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa—.
It was the Demonic Qi of one who had given away all of himself and was left with nothing but the Demonic.
That Demonic was his everything, so it was bottomless.
The black line and the blood-red light clashed and came to a halt, unable to consume each other.
The point of intersection could not bear it and contracted inwards.
To a smaller point, and then a smaller one again.
In the end, it collapsed under its own weight.
Jjeooooooooooooooooooong—!
From the collapsed point, the valley erupted.
A Qi wave of tangled blood and darkness pushed the canyon outwards.
Two more peaks collapsed, and the ridge beyond was swept away like a mound of dirt.
The huge form that had been submerged tens of zhang deep in the mud stirred once before sinking again.
The Spirit Creature was still there.
But it was in a state of disorientation from the clash of the two predators.
When the Qi wave subsided, Dong Bongsu was still standing in the same spot he had been from the start.
The World-Ending Demonic Lord's strike had failed to reach him, and Dong Bongsu's Black Hole had not managed to consume him entirely.
Krrrrrrrrrrrr...
Beyond the epicenter, the World-Ending Demonic Lord, who had been pushed back a dozen zhang, was also standing in place.
His crimson martial robe was more tattered at the shoulder, and the blood-red pattern was cooling.
The impact almost made one of his knees buckle, but he held firm.
He was smiling.
Without frustration or anxiety, something else had filled the place where despair should have been.
It was gladness.
To have finally met another among all the things that were the same, no matter how many he cut down, one who had received his strike head-on.
It faced Dong Bongsu with the expression of one who had recognized a fellow monster.
The rain once again fell diagonally between the two.
One believed he had found his peer, and the other was looking at prey he had yet to touch.
It took another step closer.
"You, too, are a god."
It opened its mouth again.
"Like me, a fallen god."