Returnee's S-Rank Management Guide

Chapter 224 : Embers (4)

Embers (4)

Henate is strong.

Even though I had provoked him, honestly, he was by no means an easy opponent.

'First, I have to draw his attention to me as much as possible.'

Thanks to continued warnings, most of the surrounding citizens had fled, but the fact remained that we were still fighting in the city center.

If Henate were to start running away and attacking people, the situation would become dire.

'The problem is Dune.'

Dune didn't seem particularly moved by Henate's anger.

If he started using Henate's strength to run around and attack people, things could get really bad.

But at that moment—

Thunk.

The brightly lit city suddenly went dark.

The reason was simple.

A blackout.

All the electricity in the city had been drawn away to somewhere and vanished.

'Alencia.'

Jung-woo immediately realized why.

Alencia, heading for Pandemonium, had begun to use her power.

"This is... troublesome."

With the lights that had illuminated the surroundings gone, ordinary people's visibility might've been hindered—but not Jung-woo's.

He could immediately sense Dune's scowling face, as well as the emotions on it.

'Could it be...'

With the whole area plunged into darkness, to Dune, this was actually a boon.

Because of his ability to move through shadows, the effective range had just expanded.

Boom!!

He put strength in his legs, reached him in an instant, and threw a punch. A red mist formed armor and blocked it.

Crash!!

As Dune slid back from the impact, Jung-woo was convinced.

"Dune, it looks like you can't use your ability without light, huh?"

"......"

Dune silently wrapped his entire body in the red mist.

That was practically an admission.

Thinking about it, it made sense.

Shadows only exist where there is light.

But now, with the whole area darkened, there were no shadows.

And if he tried to move through simple darkness, the area would be too wide to pinpoint effectively.

No matter how much Dune's magic power had been enhanced by Henate, there was no way to cover the entire city.

"Really, from start to finish, everything is just a hassle."

Dune grumbled, staring at Jung-woo.

From the beginning, fighting Jung-woo and killing him was never part of the plan.

But escape was not possible either.

There were eyes hidden nearby, quietly watching this side.

"If I surrender, will you let me go?"

"Of course not."

"... Yeah, that's only natural."

Dune raised his hands in a gesture of surrender, then dropped them.

He didn't expect Jung-woo to accept anyway.

Jung-woo was definitely planning to deal with him here.

"You made a mistake, Park Jung-woo."

Not good.

It wasn't good, but—

"No matter how strong you are, you can't do everything alone."

There were still people in this city.

No matter how far they ran, Dune could cover the distance in a flash.

In this situation, the overwhelming advantage belonged to him.

Dune and Henate only had to fight, but Jung-woo had to protect everything.

Lives, property.

If he failed, all the blame would fall on Jung-woo.

And if that happened, in its own way, it wasn't such a bad thing.

***

Natural disaster.

It means a calamity that is beyond human control.

John Williams, a reporter for VCN, heard the sound of an explosion and hurriedly ran outside.

Worried that a terrorist attack might have occurred, he asked people nearby, and they all said the same thing.

"It looked like awakeners got into a fight."

"I saw someone punched, and the person went flying all the way over there!"

As they said, traces of what could have been a bomb explosion remained in front of the broadcasting station.

'What on earth is going on?'

The city was in turmoil.

People believed to be from UnderStellar had attacked the Pandemonium Guild.

Everyone was on edge, unable to know what was happening inside, and because of that, the army and awakeners who maintained public order in the city couldn't easily get involved.

No, from the start, would the army or other awakened even matter?

Who would dare to intervene in a fight between S-ranks?

All they could do was hope that the fallout wouldn't reach the outside.

'But then, what's happening here?'

The assault on Pandemonium, and a fight between awakeners in front of the broadcasting station.

Seeing a video someone had shot on a cellphone camera, John's eyes widened.

'Park Jung-woo.'

Ordinary people might not have realized it, but as a reporter, John recognized him at a glance.

Park Jung-woo, the sensational figure who first appeared to the world in 'Odyssey', and was later identified as an S-rank awakener through Hunter Hugo.

'Why is he here?'

And who was he fighting?

Could it be someone from UnderStellar? Unfortunately, he didn't know what the UnderStellar members looked like.

Only a very few in UnderStellar had their faces or names known.

'Over there.'

Listening to witnesses, John followed in the direction where the two had disappeared.

He didn't even forget to grab his camera.

It might be dangerous, but his instincts as a reporter told him not to miss this.

And then, he saw it.

Park Jung-woo fighting a red monster.

The man who stood alone against the monster in the darkness after the blackout.

'What is that...?'

This wasn't a fight between awakeners.

Having spent years reporting on awakeners, John could tell.

That thing fighting Park Jung-woo was definitely no awakener.

Was it a monster?

No, not even that.

It was an unidentified creature.

'Demon.'

Suddenly, that word popped into John's mind.

The otherworldly beings who had recently created a stir worldwide.

Those who claimed they could turn all humans into awakeners.

'I don't have any proof that it's a demon.'

But still, seeing that red monster, he kept thinking it.

It exuded an alien sense completely different from monsters.

Kwoaaah!!

The red mist spread.

A streetlamp standing where the mist brushed past disappeared without a trace.

It wasn't broken or anything.

It looked as if it had been 'swallowed' by the mist.

If a person were to touch that?

Surely, like the streetlamp, not even a trace would remain.

'Can a human really fight a creature like that?'

As that thought crossed his mind, Jung-woo charged at the mist.

John thought he too would be swallowed, just like the streetlamp, but Jung-woo tore through the mist, grabbed the creature's body, and slammed it to the ground.

The ground shook as if from an earthquake.

John, watching in shock, tumbled backward and landed on his butt.

Screams rang out from somewhere.

It was a natural reaction.

Anyone who saw a natural disaster in human form would react that way.

John was the same.

'I have to film this.'

He picked up his camera.

Terror pressed down on him like a blade to his throat, but he didn't run.

Somehow, he felt he had to record all of this.

***

To Henate, the human named Park Jung-woo was like a sudden disaster.

Of course.

That world had already established itself in a certain form for hundreds of years.

Demons ruled over humans.

Humans had come to accept that, building their own nations and living on.

It was simply that demons stood at the pinnacle.

The world was always under someone's control.

It just so happened that, in those times, demons were the rulers.

They were victors, and deserved to be so.

Hundreds of years passed like that.

Then a thousand.

In that routine, one day, he appeared suddenly.

"Humans have started a war."

That was the report one day.

At first, Henate thought it was just a minor rebellion, which happened from time to time.

Occasionally, some humans yearned for independence from the demons and shouted for freedom.

Of course, those acts of rebellion never lasted long.

Before the demons had to step in, usually the humans themselves would end it early to avoid angering the demons.

So Henate thought it would be the same this time.

"The empire has fallen."

The humans' empire, the first nation to swear loyalty to the demons.

"They say they were hiding a Saintess. Along with her, there are reports of a mysterious man gathering a force."

The Saintess—something that had appeared a thousand years ago.

Frankly, Henate couldn't recall it properly, it'd been so long.

'To humans, a symbol and value of their era.'

Probably someone he'd encountered during the initial invasion of the world.

She'd appeared in the middle of the war.

But she had been simply dealt with by the Demon King, so Henate never saw the extent of her power.

"And the mysterious man? He's human?"

"Yes, but there's said to be something odd about him."

"Odd?"

"He's human, but they say he wields demonic energy. They claim he's transplanted demonic blood... and he supposedly doesn't have a mana hall."

Henate laughed at such nonsense.

All humans without a mana hall had died when the demons 'demonified' the world.

Only those with mana halls survived, and those that couldn't—or their species—were exterminated.

'And controlling demonic energy, too? That's absurd.'

Even if one had a mana hall, a human wielding demonic energy?

Henate thought it was just misinformation or a manipulated report.

More likely, any betrayal would come from a demon using humans to incite rebellion.

Yet it didn't take long before Henate realized that information was real.

"The Saintess Estella? And an otherworlder? Why can't you stop such things?!"

He had rallied the humans and built up a force, killing many demons.

Among them were even demon Dukes like Henate.

'Had a demon of noble rank, even a Duke, ever been killed by a human?'

Not during the invasion, nor while making the world their own.

To humans, a demon of Duke rank was akin to a god.

There was no way to wound him, and he could annihilate armies of thousands alone.

"How?"

"He was brought down, alone."

"What?"

"That otherworlder, a man named Park Jung-woo, killed him alone. Duke Bello arrived belatedly and cleaned up the aftermath..."

While the other heroes fought the demons, Park Jung-woo had subjugated a top-rank demon alone.

If Duke Bello hadn't arrived in time, the demons there would have suffered great losses.

Perhaps, total annihilation.

"I'll go."

"Sir?"

"I'll go and finish this myself."

Henate the Butcher.

He possessed a power specialized in killing.

So, before Park Jung-woo could gather more followers, he'd decided to take him down.

Yet, even that was a misjudgment.

'Unbelievable.'

It was a fierce battle.

After a fight lasting days, Henate suffered a fatal wound.

Had other demons not arrived just as he was near death, he might have lost his life then and there.

Of course, Park Jung-woo was not unscathed either.

His entire body had suffered grave wounds, and, being human, some injuries could never fully heal.

So it was his victory.

Henate forced himself to think so.

As long as Park Jung-woo was gone, the demons would win, no matter how many heroes gathered.

Even if the Saintess remained, as long as he recovered and fought again afterward...

But then—

"The Demon King..."

While Henate was recovering,

The war suddenly ended.

With the death of the Demon King.

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=

Damn, that escalated quickly.

【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】