Chapter 273. The End of a Tragedy Pt. 9

Flicker!

A fierce flame burned. It was a flame of unknown color that burned as if it was going to consume all of Gehenna—no, devour the entire world. It was impossible to guess where the flames started and ended, almost as if the tips of the sparks were touching the pale, red moon.

“Gasp… Gasp…”

Taking a deep breath, Lee Jun-Kyeong looked around. It was difficult for him to distinguish any figures due to the iridescent colors of the Flames of Genesis.

“Mr. Lee…”

He could hear Jeong In-Chang’s voice call to him. Lee Jun-Kyeong moved forward through the flames. There, he saw a figure who had collapsed.

“...Mr. Jeong!!!”

However, the figure wasn’t the Jeong In-Chang he knew. His appearance was that of one of the Sponsors, resembling a large ogre. The battle… It had ended.

“Mr. Jeong!” Lee Jun-Kyeong shouted as he grabbed the massive figure.

“It’s… it’s okay…” the ogre said. “I was lucky.”

Jeong In-Chang’s voice became a little more relaxed. “My Sponsor was already dead. Not long after you entered Gehenna, my mana disappeared, too…”

“Mr. Jeong!”

“We had a plan to enter Gehenna and merge with the Sponsors…but it was too much for me as my Sponsor had disappeared. His huge pupils looked straight at Lee Jun-Kyeong.

“But the princess… The princess helped me.” He laughed. “It seemed as though the Sponsor had transferred some of its power to the princess as it died. After entering Gehenna, I merged with my dead Sponsor… The Prince…”

He smiled slightly. “I merged with the cooled corpse of

and was able to aid you, Mr. Lee.”

“Mr. Jeong…”

“I’m satisfied.” Jeong In-Chang’s voice gradually became softer. It wasn’t the booming voice that came naturally with a giant’s figure, but a quiet one, reminiscent of that when he was human. “I just wanted to be able to stand by your side, just once…”

“Jeong In-Chang!”

“Mr. Lee…” Jeong In-Chang was speaking in a calm tone. “Go. You have to end this.”

“But…!”

Jeong In-Chang was dying. He had used his body to shield Lee Jun-Kyeong and give him time for the Hunter to wake up. His entire lower body had already melted away and disappeared, flames still flickering.

Lee Jun-Kyeong stood up from the ground. Although the battle had already ended, Jeong In-Chang had died.

“The end…it’s not over yet…”

With an empty gaze, Lee Jun-Kyeong stumbled forward. He walked through the flames, corpses everywhere.

“Hyung…”

He could see Heimdall’s corpse before him. Heimdall had merged with the Guardian of the Rainbow, but his dead body had already cooled off and was being burnt away by the Flame of Genesis. Even if Lee Jun-Kyeong were to ask him a question, he wouldn’t get any answers.

Heimdall was just the beginning.

“Everyone…”

Merlin.

Arthur.

Horus.

Everyone had died. The Demon King, whom he had put on the verge of death, had killed all of them. Finally, Lee Jun-Kyeong stopped before something.

“...”

Athena.

He could see her body. Even though she had merged with a giant, her Sponsor still retained her beauty.

‘Get up!’

He remembered she had shouted at him to live, over and over again as she had taken over Jeong In-Chang’s role of being a shield. Even though she had been pierced through and was burning, she had refused to move away. Thus, their fates had ended without ever having a proper conversation.

“Not even a single word…”

No matter how much he stood before her, she didn’t move whatsoever.

“Just…”

All Lee Jun-Kyeong could do was sigh. He wanted to collapse. Right here. As he sat among them, all he wanted to do was burn alongside their corpses.

“I have to…”

However, he had to finish it. It wasn’t over yet. Lee Jun-Kyeong stumbled again and moved forward. He wondered when he had lost one of his legs. He couldn’t feel the pain of the missing limb whatsoever as the pain burning in his chest was consuming everything else.

Flicker.

Lee Jun-Kyeong once again walked forward into the iridescent flames.

“Cough, cough…!”

There he saw him, lying there.

***

“Cough, cough!”

As he lay there, he continued to vomit up blood. His face was covered in blood, and both arms were missing. Plunged in his chest was an iridescent flame that even burned Gehenna. The Flames of Genesis incinerated him. Nevertheless, he was still alive.

“Cough! Cough, cough!”

“...”

He truly had an incredible vitality. If Lee Jun-Kyeong hadn’t used all of his strength to restrain him, if the Sponsors, his enemies, hadn’t fought against him, then the Demon King wouldn’t have fallen even after Lee Jun-Kyeong’s companions had joined the battle.

Lee Jun-Kyeong approached him.

“Cough… cough…”

Even though the Demon King was looking at Lee Jun-Kyeong, he couldn’t speak properly. Red-hot intestines gushed out alongside his blood into the soil.

“You…” Finally, with much effort, he was able to speak weakly. “How did you…”

His expression was filled with disbelief.

“I just…thought that…those companions…would have been burdens…”

He, who had regressed for eons, had abandoned his companions somewhere down the line through the endless passage of time. They had become nothing but a means to achieve his goal. He had even gone as far to turn the son of his most precious and supportive companions into a vessel.

“I…” The Demon King changed his subject. “Why…”

A self-deprecating smile appeared on his lips.

“Why couldn’t I beat you…?” he asked. “Why! Why…did I fail?”

He, who had lived the same time over and over, was worthy of the title the strongest no matter what anyone said. Moreover, he had the brains and ambition to back that power. Everything had been held in his hands. Lee Jun-Kyeong, Heimdall—no, the entire world. Even the Sponsors had played into his hands.

Still, he had failed.

“…”

“Please…answer me…”

Lee Jun-Kyeong stood quietly, not responding to his pleading voice.

“Cough, cough…the powers of the source… Why wasn’t I able to obtain it like…just why…”

At that last moment, when Lee Jun-Kyeong’s companions had appeared, the Demon King had seemed genuinely surprised. Moreover, that flame of indescribable color that had burned him, the Flames of Genesis, was a power that even he hadn’t been able to wield.

He had held mastery over everything else, but Lee Jun-Kyeong had been ahead of him when it came to the powers of the source.

Finally, Lee Jun-Kyeong began to speak, “I had truly admired you.”

It was a calm voice that contrasted with the voice filled with rage and anger of the Demon King.

“You… I thought that as long as you were alive, you would have been able to save me.”

However, it had all been an illusion. The Demon King had made him feel like that.

“Although the root of all of our problems had been the Sponsors, you’re the reason we all are like this.”

At least with the Earth, the Demon King had been the one to destroy it. It wasn’t as though Lee Jun-Kyeong didn’t understand him. He had been someone who had lost the same thing, over and over again, for a long time. It would have been impossible for such a person not to go crazy. No matter how strong his strength of will would have been, the endless repetition of hell would have been enough to turn even him into a monster.

“Despite knowing that, I refuse to try to understand you.”

Lee Jun-Kyeong didn’t want to understand him.

“Your…” Lee Jun-Kyeong clenched his fists, Surtr suddenly appearing once more. “Your sins are too great to do so.”

He held Surtr up, burning with the Flames of Genesis. Lee Jun-Kyeong held Surtr with both hands and aimed it at the Demon King’s chest.

“This is the end.”

Now, it was time to give the Demon King his final end.

“Cough, cough…”

The Demon King let out a small exclamation, as a deep smile spread from the corners of his mouth.

“This…” he said, slowly closing his eyes. “So this is just another ending of mine.”

Flash!

As the smile on his lips grew even deeper, he opened his eyes and glared at Lee Jun-Kyeong. Even as he was dying, his eyes flickered full of rage like a ghost from hell.

“I will just begin all over again. I can’t die in the first place. The curse of regression. It’s a stigma that’s been engraved in my flesh. In the first place…you could never kill me.”

There was a sneer in his voice.

“You’re aiming for something that isn’t feasible in the first place. There is no way for anyone to kill me. Thus, you still have a chance…” the Demon King said, gathering his strength.

“Hand yourself over to me. Then, there will no longer be any regressions. Hasn’t your world already been destroyed? Look around!” he shouted. “All of your precious companions are dead! Do you think it’ll be any different outside?! Gehenna is connected to Earth!”

This wasn’t any fake struggle, Lee Jun-Kyeong could feel it too. Gehenna was connected to Earth. Now, the Flames of Genesis were incinerating all of Gehenna, on the verge of destroying it.

“It won’t be any different than here. The outside will be burning too. Because of that spark of yours.”

The Demon King’s smile turned crazy.

“I will change it for you! You have only awakened the power of destruction! You don’t know how to use regeneration or creation! If you kill me right now, everything will end!”

The Demon King was right. If Lee Jun-Kyeong killed him like this, then everything in this world would end. There would be nothing left, and no companions either.

That was true even for the people he had saved. There would be nothing left. If he were to kill him, it would all be over. His world was ending.

“It’s the same anyway, right?”

“...?”

“Either I kill you or get my body stolen by you. Either way, my world is gone.” Lee Jun-Kyeong’s voice was filled with sorrow. “And…”

For a moment, he looked up at the sky. Before he knew it, the Flames of Genesis had reached the red moon and had begun to consume it too.

“You can’t regress anymore.”

“What…?”

“It looks like you don’t even have the strength to inspect your own body, Demon King,” Lee Jun-Kyeong said in a calm tone. “Regression is, as you said, a stigma attached to your flesh. However…”

“No…!”

“You’ve become one with me, if only for a moment.”

The Demon King had momentarily taken possession of Lee Jun-Kyeong’s body.

“During then, I transferred that power to myself. Using the powers of the source, a power that I understand better than you.”

“Ah ha…”

The madness disappeared from the Demon King's face. Instead, there was a smile that seemed more human than anything else.

“Thank you.”

Squelch!

Surtr, which had been plunged into his chest, began to emit light.

Flicker!

A light more fierce than any of the flames devouring Gehenna encroached over the world. Some said that there had been a huge explosion, a big bang, when the universe had been first born. He wondered if what had happened right now was what that bang must have been like.

The Demon King disappeared as the space of Gehenna was erased. The bodies of his companions were no longer visible. It was truly the end.

“So it’s over,” Lee Jun-Kyeong said as he let go of Surtr.

What the Demon King had said, and what he had said to the Demon King in turn, weren’t lies. The Demon King could no longer regress, so his tragedy was over.

“Ah.”

Instead, Lee Jun-Kyeong found himself regressing. The unpleasant feeling that squeezed at his chest was clearly the power of regression. When he had become one with the Demon King, the powers of the source that existed within him had stripped the Demon King of the stigma of regression.

Lee Jun-Kyeong laughed. He could see his companions again. However, soon, his face sank as if it were falling.

“...”

He would have to repeat it all again. The ending was fixed: the Demon King’s defeat and the destruction of the world.

“Although the Demon King’s tragedy has ended…”

What was left for Lee Jun-Kyeong?

“It looks like it’s the beginning of another tragedy.”

In the midst of the curse of endless regressions, he would have to do whatever it took to overcome it. There was no guarantee that he wouldn’t end up like the Demon King in the endless battle. Lee Jun-Kyeong wondered what he should do.

The sight before his eyes was already daunting. The end of a tragedy was only but the beginning of another.

Thud.

Within the disappearing Gehenna, Lee Jun-Kyeong collapsed. This was the end.

Crack…! Crack!!!

Or at least, that was what he thought.