Chapter 58: I See Now, At Last!

Life fades away, vanishing into dust without a trace.  

Any shred of pity?  

None at all.  

After all, they were demons disguised as humans from the start.  

Does killing a cockroach bring guilt?  

Not at all.  

No, even if they had been human, I wouldn’t have felt guilt or pity.  

Having lived for nearly a thousand years, my emotions are not so fragile as to waver over a single death.  

In just a few dozen minutes,  

I have led hundreds of lives to death.  

But—  

“Dudududu!” 

The earth shakes with the roar, and I face forward.  

Awakeners armed with murderous intent, demons disguised in human form, rush in waves.

“Kill him!”  

“Kill him!”  

From this battle, it’s clear that China has prepared thoroughly.  

No, more precisely—  

“Someone behind the scenes.”  

They’ve sent even more demonic forces than the number of the dead, as if trying to end this once and for all.  

Their ongoing assault takes the form of a charyunjin wheel formation.  

Probably aiming to drain my strength.  

“Foolish.”  

It’s nothing but foolishness.  

What the demons behind this did not anticipate was this: That I was once a commander in the Demon King’s Legion, a half-human, half-demon who recovers strength through demons.  

If they had all come at once, there might have been a chance.  

But this charyunjin tactic, designed to drain me little by little, only serves to strengthen me.  

My step resounds.  

The air and earth freeze solid.  

The sudden biting cold is unbearable even for mid-to-high rank demons.  

Of course.  

After unleashing the freezing chill, my Magical Power rapidly decreases.  

But it doesn’t matter.  

Those turned into frozen snacks have been replenished with Magical Power from the numerous demons around them.  

Step by step, I move through the frozen, icy domain and continue forward.  

And then—  

“Waaaaah!”  

A chorus of battle cries.  

Demons charge as before.  

What this confirms beyond doubt is: “The world has already fallen under the demons’ rule.”  

For some reason, they have yet to appear on the surface, but the United States, China, Russia, and many other nations are all puppets in the demons’ hands.  

I suddenly wonder.  

‘Then, what must I do now?’  

“Destroy.”  

The answer is simple.  

“Dudududu—”

Everything coming toward me now,  

everything filled with Magical Power, will be annihilated and utterly destroyed.  

Of course, this requires some finesse.  

I release the chaos aura I had maintained until moments ago.  

The union of aura and Magical Power demands tremendous mental strength.  

In my prime, I could maintain this all day, but now, it’s impossible.  

Since the enemy chose the charyunjin formation, I have no intention of dancing to their tune.  

I watched coldly towards the approaching foes.  

Just as their murderous attacks try to shred my body, time stops.  

Through intense concentration, I twist time.  

In that moment, as if time itself has frozen, my will alone governs the world.

“Move.”  

The sword of destruction, Excidium, ignites a blade of light.  

Its edge always—Delivers death.  

“Shreak shreak!”  

Cutting, slicing again and again.  

All I do is swing Excidium without feeling.  

“Swoosh.”  

When the time distortion ends, this is what can be seen.  

Heads fall, rolling on the ground, severed from their bodies.  

Bodies, split from crown to groin, collapse in ruin.  

Though their forms differ, every end is death.  

No exceptions.  

All who block my path meet death.  

As if that were the law.  

A moment to them, an eternity to me.  

The deaths wrought by this twisting of time number in the hundreds.  

The only one standing on this earth is me.  

But this is not the end.  

It is only the beginning.  

“Dudududu—” 

The vibrations beneath my feet grow stronger.  

‘They are coming.’ 

I lift my head and look to the right.  

Demons approaching in numbers equal to or exceeding those already dead.  

Despite knowing it means death, they seek to hold me back at all costs, trying to end this here.  

At my peak, I led all who blocked my path to death.  

That remains unchanged.  

Therefore—  

I summon death.  

Soul of the sword? 

Technique?  

Skill?  

There is no artifice in the death I bring now.  

Only cutting.  

“The enemy I fear most is not one who masters a hundred techniques over ten years, but one who hones a single strike for a hundred years. One who surpasses limits beyond limits.”  

Above hundreds of names stood hundreds of masters.  

All spoke with one voice, warning to beware those who train a single technique for long, those who break through their limits.  

But I did not fear them.  

I strove to become that very being.  

Thus, I honed a single strike.  

The ten-thousand cuts I showed earlier were born from that process.  

A full thousand years.  

If I didn’t strike ten thousand times a day, I would not put down the sword.  

At first, it took days.  

After some time, I finished within a day.  

Later, I finished by dusk.  

As time passed, the ten thousand cuts begun at dawn finished before nightfall.  

At least in cutting, I have reached a transcendent realm.  

A realm of enlightenment that does not require the power and energy of my prime.  

And now, I show that enlightenment here and now.  

The strike honed for a thousand years is itself a calamity.  

No one can block that simple motion.  

No one can evade the death I bring.  

Thus step by step I walk the path of death.  

This might seem arrogant or reckless at first glance.  

After Japan, the United States, and now China.  

Enemies surround me on all sides.  

The world will condemn my actions as massacre.  

Knowing that, I can only endure.  

Because the world, humanity, still does not know of the demons.  

Those hiding behind humanity will condemn what I do, trying to make me the enemy of the world, the public enemy.  

Perhaps that is one reason they have yet to show themselves openly.  

But—  

“What does it matter?”  

What difference does it make?  

I do not care about the eyes around me.  

I have the power to shatter all lies and conspiracies.  

No matter what schemes those demons plot, it means nothing.  

All will bow before overwhelming strength.  

And the moment this path of death reaches its end in Beijing, China and the world will realize—  

Who I am.  

What fate befalls those who cross me.  

***

Zhongnanhai, Headquarters of the People’s Republic of China  

Inside the government building where only China’s highest authorities may enter.  

“…The damage is severe.” A middle-aged man speaks with a grave expression.  

A greasy face full of greed.  

He is Vice Chairman Jian Tao, ranked fifth in China’s official protocol.  

Currently the trusted right hand of Chairman Zhang Zhao.  

Standing at the center of power, he is usually confident and smiling, but today he was different.  

His face was twisted with severity as he reported.  

As expected, the only person who could receive a report from the Vice Chairman was Chairman Zhang Zhao.  

Despite the report of severe national damage, Chairman Zhang Zhao remained calm and indifferent.  

“Yeah? How many dead?”  

He asked about the scale of damage as if it were someone else’s problem.  

“Confirmed casualties now exceed 5,000.”  

Five thousand.  

Even if they were civilians, that would be shocking.  

But no.  

Vice Chairman Jian Tao would never report mere civilians as casualties.  

He was talking about Awakeners.  

Not just any, but some of China’s notable Awakeners.  

Five thousand is one-twentieth of China’s Awakener population.  

No matter how great China is, even as a great Awakener nation, such losses indicate a catastrophic decline in power.  

It was beyond understanding why the Chairman remained so nonchalant.  

“Five thousand bugs to provoke him? That’s more than enough.”  

Nonchalant?  

No, he seemed to be hoping for such losses.  

“What the…!”  

Even for the Chairman, this crossed a line.  

As the startled man was about to protest, the voice cut through like a command to stop a performance. 

“Enough.”  

“There’s no need to keep wearing the mask.”  

Those words were like magic.  

“…Indeed.”  

The tense and anxious face from moments ago changed instantly.  

Suddenly, the face swelled grotesquely, resembling a toad.  

But it was only a moment before it returned to its usual greedy appearance.  

“Everything is going according to plan.”  

The plan: to pressure Kim Si-won into climbing the Tower.  

So they prepared heavily this time.  

They poured in mid-to-high rank demons to ratchet up the tension to the extreme.  

“Once China realizes it has fallen into our hands, he will inevitably seek to gain power… the United States and all. He may not even realize that’s what we want.”  

Kill him?  

That’s simple.  

But it must not happen.  

He must ascend the Tower for the grand design, long awaited, to be fulfilled.  

And the demons deployed now are sacrifices for that plan.  

They will joyfully embrace extinction and become nourishment for the great one soon to be born, living on for eternity.  

“But there is one concern.”  

“Speak.”  

“Given his personality, he will likely strike here, at Beijing. Is that acceptable?”  

So far, his destruction has never ceased midway.  

Hiroshima, Tokyo were reduced to ashes, and New York the same.  

By precedent, it was highly likely he would target Beijing and Zhongnanhai next.  

“Hahaha!”  

But the Vice Chairman—or rather, the entity disguised as him—only laughed at the question.  

“Seems the transition is not yet complete.”  

The demon within Vice Chairman Jian Tao had only recently awakened.  

It had yet to fully grasp the current situation, which is why it could utter such words.  

“Do you not know who guards Beijing and Zhongnanhai?”  

“Well…”  

Actually, he did not know.  

Because, as expected, his memories and transition were incomplete, preventing him from properly assessing the situation.  

“The creator of the plague. One of the great stars, his personal guard.”  

“Huah!”  

A cry of shock slipped out unconsciously.  

“If you say it’s his personal guard…”  

“The Order of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.”  

At that moment, what came to mind was terror.  

The Order of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.  

They were top-tier demons personally named by the great legion commander.  

If they guarded Beijing, there was no need to worry about security.  

“I see.”  

An unfamiliar voice echoed through the hall, “W-what?!”  

Chairman Zhang Zhao and Jian Tao froze in shock as they realized the voice should not have been heard, and tried to retreat.  

An aggressive grip on their throats stopped any movement.  

Of course, they were demons.  

They would not be subdued by mere physical restraint.  

But the overwhelming Magical Power that radiated from there—  

A power that sent shivers, reminiscent of the great one above—  

Paralyzed them completely.  

The hands gripping their throats were clad in jet-black armor, a figure exhaling blue aura from beneath a helmet shrouded in darkness.  

“So now you know who’s behind you.”  

Kim Si-won.  

Donned in the form of Commander of the Immortal Legion, he had already infiltrated Zhongnanhai and subdued the two power players.