Epilogue Chapter 49 - Interlude - Demon of the Sky

Vwee—!

Thousands of flies filled the surroundings of the Gangwon-do beach. They were not the size of a fingernail like regular flies but were several meters big— as grotesque as what one would see in horror movies.

“Kyaaahh!”

“Wh-What the hell is that?!”

“P-Players! Someone get Players!”

The tourists walking along the beach to view the sunset ran away chaotically from the sudden swarm of flies. Fortunately, the flies did not chase after the evacuating civilians and had surrounded someone. Even veteran Players would be afraid if surrounded by an army of flies larger than themselves.

“Holy fucking shit, they look like crap.”

The man surrounded by the swarm of flies simply looked around at the swarm leisurely instead of stricken with fear.

“I will leave Si-Ah and Kang-Hyun to you, hyung-nim,” said the frowning Kim Si-Hun as he gripped his sword tightly.

“No fair. You’re gonna take them on by yourself?”

“They dared to lay a hand on my daughter.”

“They laid a hand on my son too.”

“That’s...”

Si-Hun flinched and stopped in his tracks. Kang-Woo smirked.

“I’m joking. Go as wild as you want.”

Kang-Woo also wanted more than anything to destroy the small fry who dared to mess with his son.

‘But I have something else to do.’

His yellow irises surrounded by black sclera blazed fiercely.

“Thank you.”

Si-Hun bowed lightly to Kang-Woo and charged at the swarm of flies.

━━━━━━━━!

A storm of silver sword energy raged. The army of flies surrounding them was caught in the storm and ripped apart as if they were put in a blender.

Crunch! Crack! Slice!

The flies, unable to even put up any resistance, were wiped out. One swing from Si-Hun’s sword sliced the flies into dozens of pieces. One might think size was the only thing the flies had going for them.

“

SKREEEEEEEEE!

”

However, the flies surrounding Si-Hun were nothing but ordinary; their skin was harder than steel and their front legs resembled those of praying mantises. They could fly at speeds nearing a hundred kilometers per hour, and their hind wings allowed for movement that ignored inertia.

They weren’t just physically advanced; they were enveloped with impure blue light, meaning they possessed mana. Each fly was powerful enough to call a biological weapon. However, that meant nothing.

“Heavenly Dragon Sword Technique, Third Form.”

The man facing them was a true monster who made them look like mere flies.

“Chaos.”

Slash—!

Sword energies bloomed like flowers everywhere and slaughtered the swarm of flies. Si-Hun wiped out the flies charging at him from everywhere, his eyes as cold as ice.

“Wow...” expressed Kang-Hyun, lost for words by the Martial God’s power. “This is... the Martial God.”

He had learned countless times that Uncle Si-Hun was powerful but got goosebumps after seeing it in person. He couldn’t even fathom the level Si-Hun was at. Kang-Hyun stared at Si-Hun’s movements as if he were in a trance.

“No, Kang-Hyun. You shouldn’t imitate him,” said Kang-Woo as he smiled bitterly and patted his son’s head.

The flustered Kang-Hyun shook his head. “I know... that’s not something I can imitate.”

“No, that’s not what I mean.” Kang-Woo smiled. “I mean, you don’t have to imitate him.”

“Pardon?”

“No matter how strongly a river flows, it’s not enough to move an ocean.”

“...?”

Kang-Hyun tilted his head in confusion. Kang-Woo snickered and rustled Kang-Hyun’s hair.

“It’s okay. You’ll understand soon enough.”

“...”

“More importantly, can you tell me exactly what happened?”

“Oh... Yes, Father.”

Kang-Hyun went through his memories and calmly explained their encounter with the unidentified man.

“Hmm. He was hiding in the bushes and suddenly attacked, huh?”

“I don’t think he was hiding. He seemed to have been searching the area for something.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Even when he discovered Si-Ah, he charged at her as he said he

smelled

something.”

“I see...” Kang-Woo muttered as he fell into thought and nodded. “I think I get what happened.”

Kang-Woo walked forward and looked around in search of something. His gaze fixed on a nearby line of trees.

He remarked, “You’re doing something rather interesting.”

He smiled nastily and turned away as if he had lost interest. He slowly walked toward Si-Hun mercilessly slaughtering the flies.

Slash!

“GYEEEEEEEH!”

𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

“

SKREE! SKREEEE!

”

There were only a little over a hundred left. The thousands of flies had been mostly annihilated within just five minutes. They continued to charge like moths to a flame despite the victor already being decided.

“Let’s see... Okay. He shouldn’t be able to see at this angle.”

Kang-Woo grabbed one of the flies and threw it at Si-Hun.

Slash!

A silver wave of sword energy went straight through the fly.

Slam!

One of the roadside trees was cut perfectly in half and collapsed.

“Hyung-nim...?”

Si-Hun turned to Kang-Woo, confused by his action.

“Haven’t you vented enough?” said Kang-Woo.

Si-Hun gritted his teeth and shook his head. “Not even close. Not until I catch who was behind this.”

He then turned to look at the dead man who had vomited the swarm of flies. He could easily tell who the culprit was from the stigmata on his chest.

“Celestial, was it?” Kang-Woo asked to confirm.

“Yes. It has to be him.”

“Then I’m sure you know he’s not here.”

“That’s...” Si-Hun’s expression hardened. He slashed another fly charging at him and continued, “There must be a trace we can use to track him down.”

“I already looked.” Kang-Woo shook his head. “I examined this entire area with the Authority of the Beholder. There’s nothing in a hundred-kilometer radius. There’s nothing we can use to reverse trace either.”

“...”

“I get how you feel, so enough of this pointless venting.”

Kang-Woo snapped his finger.

Fwoosh.

Flames blazed in an instant to engulf the surroundings.

Crunch, crush, munch!

The sound of tearing flesh echoed. It was more apt to say they were being devoured than burned. After confirming every fly in the area had been wiped out, he sighed deeply and turned around.

“Are the children... okay?”

“They’re fine.”

Si-Ah had fainted from seeing the swarm of flies pouring out of the man’s mouth but she had no injuries. Kang-Hyun only had a few abrasions from the asphalt. Since he had inherited Kang-Woo’s blood, such injuries would heal within ten minutes.

“Huuu. I don’t understand. Why would he suddenly aim for the childr—”

“They weren’t the targets. You were.”

“Pardon?”

Si-Hun stared at Kang-Woo wide-eyed. He didn’t understand why he would be the target when the children were attacked.

“You said earlier that you were going for a walk along the beach with Layla, right?”

“Oh... yes. We were waiting for the kids to come to the rear entrance.”

“I heard from Kang-Hyun that the guy said he could

smell

something when he discovered Si-Ah.”

According to Kang-Hyun, he had also sniffed like a hunting dog confirming its prey before attacking. After that, all his attention had been on Si-Ah.

“So you’re saying... the guy sent to attack me just happened to attack the kids by coincidence?”

“Yeah, since he could probably smell you on Si-Ah.”

“Ah.”

“The swarm of flies also only attacked you despite me walking to you.”

“You’re... right.”

Si-Hun had not noticed because he had been blinded by rage but now that his mind was clear, the swarm of flies completely ignored the tourists in the area and even Kang-Woo who was right next to him.

“It seems this Celestial... has great interest in you.”

Kang-Woo approached the displeasingly frowning Si-Hun and placed his hand on his shoulder.

“So, my beloved little brother...”

Kang-Woo had no idea what the Celestial’s goal was, but he at least managed to figure out who his target was. Hence, it was only obvious what to do now.

“Can you act as bait for me?”

Kang-Woo smiled and patted Si-Hun’s shoulder.

***

“A-Arghh...”

It had been a while since he arrived in this world. He could still recall it vividly— the blinding light of Vega once the clouds of the Black Sky devoured the starlight.

“Kurgh. Heh.”

He could not recall how the battle of the Celestials, known as the

War of the Stars

, began or ended. He had been reduced to a mindless puppet before the war even began because he had been deceived by the

Snake’s

words.

“But... I survived.”

He was supposed to have turned into star fragments and meaninglessly vanished as a consumable of war, but ended up in an entirely different world through the distortions in space created by the Black Sky’s power.

“I’m... ali...ve... Gehehe!”

Several overlapping miracles could no longer be called a coincidence.

‘This is fate.’

He placed his hand over his chest and felt the blazing power of the Black Sky within his beating heart. It was the power that his former master and the man he feared, bestowed unto him. This could only mean one thing.

“I will become the

Demon of Heaven

... in his place.”

To do that, he needed to discard this injury-ridden body and find a new vessel powerful enough to handle the Black Sky’s power.

‘I found my vessel.’

His retina displayed a man slaughtering his Familiars with a silver sword.

‘Kim Si-Hun, was it?’

He was the leader of Guardians, humanity’s most powerful organization, and was grandiosely known as the Martial God. He was the perfect vessel.

“H-Hehe. Hehehe.”

Mus, the Celestial of Musca, stared greedily at Si-Hun fighting the swarm of flies.

“Hm...?”

Just then, he noticed the man who arrived with Si-Hun staring at the roadside tree where his Familiar was hiding.

‘What?’

Mus’ vision was linked to a Familiar he had specially created for reconnaissance. In appearance, it was only an ordinary fruit fly, so it made no sense that the human had noticed it.

‘Was it... a coincidence?’

The human looking in the direction of his Familiar turned around and slowly walked toward Si-Hun.

“Hmm.”

Mus examined the human’s back thoroughly. He soon focused all of his attention back on Si-Hun. Time was better spent examining his new vessel than an irrelevant human.

“How can I make that body mine...?”

Mus examined all of Si-Hun’s movements with great detail— no, he tried to.

Slam!

The sword energy wave Si-Hun fired coincidentally cut the roadside tree and Mus’ Familiar with it, disconnecting the vision link.