Chapter 404. Fracture (5)

A huge incident broke out in the end. It was great news for humanity and the Cassiubia League, but disastrous news for the Demon Empire. To make an analogy, it would be akin to Chi-Hyun getting defeated by a great demon below the second rank rather than Bael. If this really happened to humanity, the majority of heroes would lose their fighting spirit since it would be soul crushing to see a great being that they admired fall right in front of their very eyes. The Demon Empire’s reaction was not much different.

Regardless of the Demon Empire’s strong independent tendency, they also had their own standards and rules. They fought like crazy if things went wrong, but they knew when to put aside their grudges for the time being and unite as one in the face of crisis. In that sense, it was no exaggeration to say that Bael’s defeat today was a pivotal event that would determine the fate of the Demon Empire. Bael was a great demon who had maintained the first rank for the longest time in all of demon history. Moreover, after she reached the peak of the Demon Empire, she hadn’t received a single challenge; in other words, all the other great demons recognized her as the number one demon.

However, Bael had just fallen in front of everyone. The impact was quickly apparent. The great demons all turned pale. Although they had all seen it with their own eyes, it was hard to believe that Bael had lost. They were so shocked that they had a hard time pulling themselves together even though they were in front of their enemies.

“No…way…?” Marbas, who had only held out with the belief that Bael would soon come and help him out, suddenly screamed. He got hit by a series of heavy blows all over his body and collapsed after faltering.

“Hey, hey, hey.” Ismile landed right on top of his body and crushed him. “Where are you looking at? How dare you look the other way when I’m right in front of you?” He shook his head and clicked his tongue.

It was the same for Belial. “No…!” As soon as he saw Bael fal, Belial ignored everything and tried to run toward her but—

“Aghhh!”

Ru Amuh seized this chance and struck; a sharp wind chased Belial like a gale and landed a heavy blow. Ru Amuh turned Belial into minced meat in seconds as blood sprayed everywhere. It was truly a pitiful end for a great demon; however, even a great demon at a single-digit rank became an easy prey when they were panic-stricken. Of course, not everyone acted the same.

Although flustered, there were also great demons who calmly assessed the situation and made their next move; that was the case for Agares and Gamigin. Although it took some time, Gamigin finally succeeded in landing a blow on Yunael. When Gamigin was about to shove a dagger into Yunael’s irritating mouth, an unexpected situation occurred and made Gamigin pause. That brief opening saved Yunael’s life. A wind suddenly blew and bounced off Gamigin’s dagger as she was about to quickly end Yunael’s life and go to Bael.

It was Ru Amuh. After dealing with Belial, he came to Yunael’s rescue as soon as he saw her slam into the wall.

“Oh? There was no need for me to have come?” Ismile arrived a beat later and blinked.

Gamigin frowned at the intervention of new enemies. Judging by their presence, it seemed that Belial and Marbas had been defeated. Gamigin sensed a sudden change in the situation and stepped back while keeping guard.

“…Fuck.” Yunael wheezed as she saw Gamigin retreated little by little; she was embarrassed that she needed to be saved. On one hand, she felt a little resentful towards Chi-Woo. If he had really given her the power of the stars instead of only his words, she wouldn’t have lost.

Meanwhile, Chi-Woo descended shortly after dropping Bael, and during his seemingly endless descent, Chi-Woo looked refreshed. He had really landed a good blow; it was a blow that he had put all his strength into. Chi-Woo landed safely on the wall and raised his upper body on one knee. From a distance, he saw Bael sprawled on the floor. She wasn’t dead. Given the way she wiggled like a worm, shouting something fiercely, she was clearly alive. However, she wasn’t able to get up. It looked as if she was trying desperately to get up but couldn’t lift her upper body. It was safe to say that her body was virtually broken after receiving a fatal injury in the air. Chi-Woo had definitely felt that he had landed a solid hit.

At that moment, a great demon landed urgently next to the struggling Bael—it was Agares. He had neutralized Emmanuel much faster than Gamigin. Although he could have taken care of Emmanuel right away, he left the latter alone. Rather than letting him live, Agares had no choice but to do as he watched Bael’s battle with Chi-Woo take a strange turn while fighting Emmanuel. If Emmanuel hadn’t persistently rushed towards him with the determination to die, he would have run to Bael’s side long ago. Anyway, thanks to his quick decision, he was able to reach Bael faster than any other great demon, but he was a step too late as by that time, Bael had already been falling from the air after getting hit by Chi-Woo.

Agares’ expression became instantly serious as he confirmed Bael’s condition. He would only know the exact details after a more thorough inspection, but her visible wounds alone were way too big and serious. Her physical condition was much more shocking than he had expected. If it were not Bael but any other great demon, they would have been extinguished instantly.

“Agares agh…! Lift me…! I’m going to immediately…!” Even in this condition, Bael shouted in anger, but her words weren’t realistic. She couldn’t even breathe properly, let alone raise her body. Frankly, Bael’s contribution to this battle was already over. However, he couldn’t just leave her like this, so he hurriedly held and lifted the screaming Bael and slightly glanced back. When he met eyes with Chi-Woo, who was raising his head with one knee on the ground, Agares felt a shiver run down his spine.

Agares had a history of being defeated by Bael before. Since Chi-Woo was able to beat Bael, he was obviously stronger than him. The strong opponent whose power Agares couldn’t even guess the extent of had a bright glint in his eyes. His opponent probably also knew that he had just cut off the lifeline of his prey, but even then, he was trying to completely end Bael with his own two hands. Agares’ head went blank under Chi-Woo’s gaze. He didn’t even have the will to fight back; he needed to run away even a second faster. Only this thought pervaded his mind, and Agares flew away in a hurry according to his instinct. The thought of capturing the last gate had completely disappeared from his mind.

‘I’m not going to let them go.’ As Agares expected, Chi-Woo was about to get up and quickly chase after them, but—

“…Ah?” A shrill sound came out of his gaping mouth. He tried to get up, but ended up tilting and falling back onto the floor. Suddenly, his body didn’t listen to him. That wasn’t all. His whole body became soaked as sweat poured out from head to toe. Then he felt a strong sense of weakness, and it felt as if the mysterious power that was rising from the bottom was seeping out of him, like a furiously spinning motor that was switched off just before it overloaded and broke down.

“Teacher!” Ru Amuh, who was going to target another great demon, ran straight to Chi-Woo as soon as he saw something was wrong with him.

“What the? What’s wrong?” Ismile was also taken aback. After fighting shockingly well, Chi-Woo was suddenly on the verge of collapsing. He wondered what he should do and stared over the wall. Agares was quickly running away with Bael, who had become immobile. It wasn’t just him. As soon as Bael was defeated, the great demons attacking the gate in all directions ran out from everywhere like a swarm of bees once their queen was attacked. Everyone abandoned their respective positions and gathered around Agares. Their intention was clear.

At this point, the Demon Empire no longer cared about capturing the gate. Their only thought was to protect Bael in any way possible, and Ismile soon made up his mind. It was safe to say that the Demon Empire’s front had collapsed the moment the great demons left their positions in a hurry. Although he was worried about Chi-Woo’s condition, he couldn’t miss this opportunity.

“Chase after them! And kill them all!” He shouted at the top of his lungs and took the lead in chasing the demons. Soon after, the gate, which had been tightly closed, opened wide. With Ismile at the forefront, troops flocked from all over the place in order to vent out the anger they had accumulated so far. It was the moment humanity and the Cassiubia League began their massive counterattack.

Seeing all this, the Abyss King, who was leading the attack on the mountain range, stopped marching. His eyes were fixed on the withdrawing band of demons quickly running away with Bael. In the end, disaster struck. It was a catastrophe incomparable to the two failed attacks from the Sky Castle. The Abyss King’s mood plummeted. He had thought they had a rather useful teammate on their side, but once they actually got to work together, the demons were more like trolls who frequently dragged their teammates down. Anger soared to the top of his head, but he quickly calmed himself down.

“…Huk Cheong-Ram, tell the whole army.” With cold calculation, the Abyss King made an appropriate judgment befitting the current situation. “We’re retreating.” Of course, he didn’t expect that they would be able to withdraw easily, since the Last Dragon was looking down at them with glistening eyes. The Abyss King sighed for the first time since the war began. No matter how he looked at it, he would need to make huge changes to their future plans.

* * *

Chi-Woo came back to his senses and groaned. When his eyes regained focus, he saw light from an oil lamp. Chi-Woo unconsciously moved around, and his eyes slightly widened when he turned right and then left. He saw a woman lying as if she was dead on the bed on his left. It was Alice. She was breathing evenly from her nose with her eyes closed. Given that she didn’t move at all, it seemed that she was still in a coma. Still, thanks to her divine blood, most of her body had recovered compared to before. She really must be a descendant of a god as Ismile had said.

‘Thank goodness…’ Chi-Woo thought, and only then did he realize where he was. He was at a makeshift infirmary for the injured. ‘Come to think of it…’ The last thing he remembered was seeing a great demon taking Bael away and trying to chase after them, but he suddenly felt his whole body drained of energy. He didn’t remember anything after that. It seemed that he had lost consciousness at some point. Chi-Woo checked his body first. There was nothing wrong except that he felt a little weak. After warming up somewhat, he carefully stepped out so as to not wake Alice up. It was dark outside.

The moon rising in the night sky shone gently on the gate. The whole area was still. It was so quiet that it felt like the days they spent fighting ferociously had been a lifetime ago. Chi-Woo wondered what had happened to their enemy. He had let Bael slip in the end, but considering the fatal wound he had inflicted on her, she must have retreated by now.

“Hey.”

Chi-Woo’s pensive stroll was interrupted.

“Did you sleep well, superstar?”

Chi-Woo saw Ismile leaning against the tent and raising one hand. “I was going to smoke a joint and then check up on you, but you came out on your own.”

“Mr. Ismile.”

“I guess it’s as expected. You really have an amazing healing ability.”

“By any chance—”

“Ah, you want to know how long you slept? It hasn’t been two days, but it’s been over a day.”

Chi-Woo was slightly surprised; he’d been out of it for a whole day?

“And also—some of the Seven Stars members wailed and caused a huge commotion. But I know you’re Elrich’s son, so I wasn’t really worried about you. Although I’m curious how concentrated your divine blood is that you recovered faster than Alice, but I’ll save that for another day.” He folded his fingers while quickly answering before he looked up at Chi-Woo. “Now, if all your questions are answered, can I ask you a question now?”

“No, I still have more to ask.”

“…How many more?”

“Well, one for now?”

“If it’s just one…” Ismile smacked his lips. “Alright. What is it? You want me to tell you who shed tears for you? For your information, there were three.”

“No. What happened to our enemies?”

“Ah.” Ismile cleared his throat and answered, “Should I say it’s the same…they’ve been quiet since withdrawing back to their main camp. Well, it feels like it’s only for now though.”

Chi-Woo tilted his head. Their enemies hadn’t packed up and left, but weren’t doing anything either…for now.

“The Last Dragon is keeping an eye in all directions, and she’ll let us know as soon as she finds out anything. So it’s my turn now, right?”

𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

He didn’t know why Ismile was so excited, but Chi-Woo nodded, and Ismile asked, “What happened?”

Chi-Woo blinked in puzzlement.

“It’s not just us. I can sense our enemies’ complete bafflement for the past day or two all the way from here.”

The enemy coalition was currently at a loss and didn’t know what to do—that was what Ismile felt. This meant one thing: even though Bael had survived, she wasn’t in a normal condition. Or the probability that she would return to the battlefield in a short period of time was basically zero percent. Perhaps she might even leave for good.

“That’s probably the case. In fact, I overextended myself so that I could kill Bael for certain when I got the chance but…I had never imagined that she would survive after receiving a direct blow.”

Ismile clicked his tongue and asked, “How on earth were you able to overpower Bael by that much?”

“What? I don’t think I overpower…” Chi-Woo scratched his head.

“No, you overwhelmingly beat her,” Ismile said flatly. “Bael even revealed her existence at the end of the battle with you.” The usual playfulness on his face was completely gone. “For your information—” His eyes spun once, and he continued, “Even Big Choi can’t overwhelmingly beat Bael 100 percent when she’s in that state… That’s my personal judgment.”

Bael had bet her existence as a great demon when she fought Chi-Woo. Even Chi-Hyun could not fight Bael in that state as if he was playing with a child; she was a worthy opponent that he needed to fight earnestly without lowering his guard. However, in Ismile’s eyes, Chi-Woo had completely crushed Bael in battle, and this only meant one thing. At least in that moment—Chi-Woo had surpassed the Celestial Realm’s legend.