novelraw Chapter 135 : The One Who Opens the Gate (1)
Chapter 135 : The One Who Opens the Gate (1)
The One Who Opens the Gate (1)
"......"
Detecting the presence vanish in an instant, Damian frowned.
He had predicted up to the point where Park Jung-woo confirmed 'that thing'.
He thought it was possible for the gate to open as well.
Given who he was, there was definitely a chance he would open the gate and summon a top-rank demon to kill.
However, the problem was the entity that emerged from the gate.
"You don't look pleased."
Jin Su-hyuk asked as he read Damian's expression.
It seemed the situation was unfolding differently from what he had expected.
"Ardan Bello..."
He hadn't expected that guy to emerge from the gate.
"From your reaction, I take it he's not an ally. Are there enemies even among the same demons?"
"An enemy... Well, no, not exactly. It's more accurate to say he simply wasn't interested."
"You looked far too shocked for that, though."
Had he really made such a face?
At Jin Su-hyuk's words, Damian raised his teacup and peered at his reflection.
Sure enough, his expression didn't look good.
'The Great Duke of Winter.'
The demon hero once called by that title.
But after losing the war, he had fallen, losing everything.
His Great Duke's title, his immense strength.
Having lost even his family, he plummeted down, now barely clinging to the end of the top-rank demons.
"I don't know how he's still alive, but he's not worth worrying about. He'll come looking for us soon enough anyway."
"He'll come looking for us?"
"I can pretty much guess why he's come to this world."
At Damian's words, Jin Su-hyuk nodded.
He had more things he wanted to ask, but he didn't feel Damian would answer anyway.
'Just in case, I should put him under surveillance.'
Damian wasn't the type to spout nonsense, but it couldn't hurt to be careful.
'So, not all demons are united under one banner.'
Through this demon called Ardan, he learned that not all demons served Damian.
This was a rather important fact.
'And then... Park Jung-woo. Looks like you picked up something interesting from the other world.'
If he'd known, he would've built a good relationship with him sooner.
If he had, wouldn't he have joined Grand Nova instead of Unique?
'I should have a word with Oh Dae-su.'
Once Park Jung-woo's direct superior.
Considering his reaction, there was likely something he knew about Park Jung-woo.
And if, by any chance, he was the reason Park Jung-woo chose Unique over Grand Nova...
'There's no need to keep useless people around.'
Especially when thinking about the world to come.
***
These days, Shin Ah-yeon couldn't help but think that bad luck was following her around.
Especially when she saw Jung-woo, who seemed to bring calamity wherever he went, she wondered if she should visit a shaman for a ritual.
"You raised a ruckus with an SS-rank monster in America, and now you've completely wrecked the Relic Fiesta?"
Ah-yeon sighed as she watched Inspector Shim Hyuk-soo being interviewed on the news.
Miraculously, there had been no deaths.
At first, when the incident happened, there was criticism over Relic Fiesta's poor security.
But as the incident's scale surpassed a mere act of terror, public opinion reversed.
【Is that even magic? There was some sort of barrier, wasn't there??】
【From what's known, everyone inside that barrier supposedly lost consciousness, so no one knows what actually happened.】
【From the interviews, people say they feel extreme fatigue—isn't it like their life force got drained or something?】
【Stop with the nonsense. Do you really think that makes sense?】
Especially as footage circulated from the CCTV, showing Lee Soo-ah and Alencia running around saving people, the two's popularity soared even more.
'The incident was so huge that they didn't get that much attention... Actually, maybe that's for the best.'
Ah-yeon nodded as she watched the clip being used as a reference on the news.
If not for that footage, Lee Soo-ah and Alencia would surely have been blamed for not stopping the Relic Fiesta terror properly.
Now, with Javelin Guild's Kang Gi-hun being named as the main culprit, the Javelin Guild would likely be disbanded quickly or get a new guildmaster.
With this second major blow following Shim Hyuk-soo's incident, Javelin Guild was as good as finished.
Naturally, its affiliate JM was hanging by a thread as well.
"But it wasn't all for nothing."
"Huh?"
"I picked this up."
Watching Jung-woo grin and open up thin air to pull something out, Ah-yeon's eyes grew wide.
"Is that... Dragonbone?"
"Correct. Since it had been tainted by demonic energy and couldn't just be left there, I had no choice but to take it."
Was it really unavoidable?
Not long ago, when Ah-yeon had coveted the Dragonbone, he'd called her a thief, and yet here he was bringing it himself.
"Well, fine. So, where did you get that Dragonbone from?"
"Subspace. Oh, have I never shown you this before?"
"Never! If you had such a convenient technique, you should've told me sooner."
Honestly, as a mage, Ah-yeon found herself more interested in the "subspace" used to store and retrieve the Dragonbone than the Dragonbone itself.
How exactly did it work?
Was it space-manipulating magic? Or...
"I'll tell you later."
"Really? So why did you call everyone together today?"
If it were simply about the Relic Fiesta incident, it would've made more sense to discuss at Unique.
As the boss, Sung Hwan and the other staff needed to be kept in the loop, too.
Even though thanks to Lee Soo-ah and Alencia there were no deaths, the media could still blow things up if they wanted.
So she'd thought it was a meeting to strategize for that, but apparently not.
'What's Soo-ah so lost in thought about this time?'
Meanwhile, Alencia next to her looked as though she didn't have a care in the world.
Were they even at the same place?
"I imagine everyone saw the news today."
While Ah-yeon was thinking, Jung-woo addressed the three people huddled together in the mansion.
He wanted Hwang Yeon-ji there too, but ever since her horns grew out, she spent most of her time asleep.
'I'll explain separately later.'
Well, even if he didn't, Ah-yeon or Soo-ah would definitely tell her.
"The demons tried to sacrifice Relic Fiesta attendees to open the 'Demon Realm Gate'."
I briefly explained what happened at the Relic Fiesta, including what I'd heard from Soo-ah.
Kang Gi-hun from Javelin Guild attacked, and separately, demons attempted to open the Demon Realm Gate and summon a top-rank demon.
"That... really happened?"
When Alencia muttered with a serious face, Ah-yeon was the one left flabbergasted.
"Was she really there?"
"Alencia was busy rescuing people, so she might not know. Only Soo-ah and I met the demons."
Thanks to Alencia running around rescuing people so diligently, there were no fatalities.
Of course, if I hadn't hurried to open the gate, the people in the basement would have been in danger, but thanks to my quick decision to open the gate, everyone survived.
"Ahem, anyway, that's not the important part."
Since there had been a brief pause, I cleared my throat to draw everyone's attention.
Now came the truly important part.
"The important question is why they did it."
Why cause such a huge incident at the Relic Fiesta just to open the 'Demon Realm Gate'?
It was something I needed to address.
"Wasn't it just to summon that 'higher-rank demon'?"
"No, unni. If that were the case, that demon didn't seem interested in being our enemy."
Soo-ah shook her head at Ah-yeon's words.
"He also didn't seem particularly interested in the other demons."
Ardan Bello. I still didn't know why he came to this world, but for some reason, he didn't seem like an enemy.
No, if anything, he felt familiar.
'Why?'
Jung-woo didn't seem to notice, but with her good intuition, Soo-ah found Ardan to have a strangely familiar vibe—which is why she couldn't attack with killing intent as she had against Kang Gi-hun.
"In fact, the demons didn't open the Demon Realm Gate just to summon a high-rank demon. Think about it. There were two S-rank Hunters there, plus me. Even if they succeeded and a high-rank—even a top-rank demon—appeared, there was no guarantee it would survive. What mattered was finding out whether the gate could even be opened or closed."
"Is that important?"
"It is. There's essentially only one existence that can open and close the 'Demon Realm Gate'."
The magic to open the Demon Realm Gate was originally prepared for a single person.
That was obvious.
If anyone who met the requirements could use a spell to summon a top-rank demon from another world, it would have been a problem.
"The Demon King."
"...?"
At Jung-woo's word, everyone stared at him in confusion.
It seemed they hadn't fully grasped what he meant.
Only Soo-ah, who had heard this from Ardan, seemed to have some idea.
"W-wait, what do you mean by that? So, are you saying Jung-woo oppa is the Demon King?"
"That's not exactly right."
"Ugh, then can you explain it directly? So... Only the Demon King can open and close the gate with that magic. But you closed it, so..."
Doesn't that mean you're the Demon King?
Did you go to another world and come back as a Demon King?
Ah-yeon found her head in a state of confusion.
"Of course I'm not the Demon King. But, I do possess what's required to open the gate."
The condition to open the Demon Realm Gate.
And what Damian had tried to confirm.
"The Demon King's Heart. In other words, the Demon King's Core."
The hearts of high-level and above demons contain so much power, they can create erosive-type dungeons.
Ji Yeon-hwa had absorbed a magic stone from a supreme demon's heart, after all.
Naturally, the Demon King was the same.
"You absorbed that? Why not just destroy it..."
Listening, Ah-yeon couldn't understand why Jung-woo would go so far as to absorb the Demon King's heart.
He wasn't the type to covet strength anyway.
"Unlike with other demons, if you destroy or abandon the Demon King's heart, its power disperses through the demon realm and inhabits another demon's body. Usually, the next Demon King is born by it being absorbed in the body of the Demon King's bloodline."
If destroying it had been the answer, it would have been done from the start.
But destroy the core, and a new Demon King would simply appear.
Even if the demons were successfully scattered, as long as the Demon King existed, the same events would repeat.
"So, I came up with another method."
Jung-woo had intended to return to his original world right after defeating the Demon King.
So, he embedded the Demon King's heart into his own before returning to another world.
So the demons could never track down the Demon King's heart.
So another Demon King could never be born.
"You put the core in your own heart? Are you crazy?! Then—"
"Yeah! Isn't that dangerous?"
Shocked, Soo-ah and Alencia looked about ready to leap at him, so Jung-woo hurriedly interjected.
"There's no need to worry. I don't die that easily."
"N-not die? How can you be sure of that?"
"I'm not sure, but ever since I crossed the rift, no matter what horrific fate befell me, I just didn't die."
That's why, even after all that happened in that world, he'd survived.
He hadn't known why at the time, but now he'd gathered an idea.
'The Authority of Wishes.'
Jung-woo glanced at Ah-yeon, who was looking at him with worried eyes.
If, like Sarah Walker, Ah-yeon was the reincarnation of "Estella"...
With her authority, everything made sense.
'I don't want to die.'
The last words Jung-woo had said to Ah-yeon as he was being sucked into the rift.
And the answer he never got to hear.
That was the only time.
That was the moment the Authority of Wishes came to dwell within his body.
-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
So Jung-woo became immortal because of Ah-yeon(previous life Estella)'s authority.
Meaning Jung-woo was sent to the past because of the rift.
But before that, he made a wish that he didn't want to die.
Ah-yeon(Estella) granted it.
Jung-woo helped Estella defeat the Demon King and took his core.
And went back to the present.
It's hard to explain.
Also, Soo-ah sensing something familiar from Ardan just reinforces my theory that Yeon-ji's core is from Ardan's daughter.
【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】