Returnee's S-Rank Management Guide

Chapter 253 : Demon's Lantern (2)

Demon's Lantern (2)

Damian was a kind of bait.

Or, it could be called a scheme for deception.

It was a plan based on the thought: "Anyway, Park Jung-woo won't be able to kill me."

Whether Park Jung-woo destroyed the heart of the castle or killed Damian himself, in the end, all that awaited Jung-woo was mutual destruction.

So, by using that, Damian intended to provoke Park Jung-woo and make him use the Demon King's heart.

If that happened, not only could he stimulate the incompletely formed heart more strongly, but he could also accelerate the process of demonification even further.

'The power filling the heart is sufficient.'

However, the divine art that made it up, and the power of the Demon King—

Both were subtly lacking.

Damian's own strength had not reached the level of the Demon King, and the divine art, after all, was only ever a copy of Estella's power, so it could not reach a perfect state.

Therefore, here, by luring both Park Jung-woo and Shin Ah-yeon and making them fight, he planned to make up for what was lacking.

Park Jung-woo possessed the Demon King's heart.

And Shin Ah-yeon had Estella's Stigmata.

By supplementing the heart using a bit of both their powers, he would make the heart more perfect.

Up to that point, he was successful.

Though it was not complete, he had succeeded in making the castle soar into the sky.

However, there was one thing Damian had not considered.

"You're just as incapable of dying as I am, aren't you?"

That Park Jung-woo's actions would far surpass his expectations.

'Was he always this strong?'

He had known recently that Jung-woo had started to accept the Demon King's heart.

When closing the rift at the Grand Canyon, and when he killed Henate.

That guy had begun to wield the Demon King's power as if it were his own.

That was not simply because of Estella's authority.

Jung-woo himself had become a monster, approaching the level of the Demon King.

KWA-AAANG!!

Damian's hand sliced through the air.

As if foreseeing the trajectory drawn in purple, Jung-woo was moving a step ahead already.

Jung-woo's fist, whose number of throws by now was uncountable, sunk into Damian's abdomen.

'I can see it.'

He had heard about it.

Even though the Demon King did not have precognitive abilities, he moved as if he could see the future.

That was exactly how Jung-woo moved now.

'All my movements!'

Just as expected by Damian, Jung-woo could clearly see the flow, overlaid in purple.

The flowing demonic energy, and even the direction it was about to manifest and attack.

'As that guy said, most of my strength has been lost.'

All he had left were abilities for survival.

Overwhelming defense, and regenerative ability.

Clearly, everything else had been handed over to Jin Su-hyuk, leaving only the power needed to survive even in extreme situations.

"What did you see in Jin Su-hyuk?"

He broke the guy's arm, trampled and twisted his leg.

Yet, the quickly regenerating body was almost grotesque.

"I don't particularly trust him."

"... Then, it's not the guy you trust, but the goal."

Jin Su-hyuk had said—

He would build a world only for awakeners.

He would become the singularity.

Coincidentally, that goal overlapped perfectly with what Damian desired.

"But..."

Damian shrugged off Jung-woo's incoming fist and spread his arms wide.

Then, behind the guy, a purple magic array formed, and dark magic bullets shot towards Jung-woo.

The amount of power in the magic bullets was absolutely not weak.

Just one of those dark magic bullets would be enough to vaporize an average building in an instant.

For him to be shooting off such magic bullets so recklessly, it was proof of just how sturdy this castle had been built.

"You made a mistake."

Batting aside the incoming magic bullets, Jung-woo closed the distance.

That moment was truly an instant.

Quicker than the demon could shoot and retreat after the bullet, Jung-woo's right hand grabbed Damian by the throat.

Then he slammed him to the ground.

KWA-AAANG!!

"Ku-ugh!"

Black blood burst from the demon's mouth.

An ordinary person would have died instantly from that force, their neck broken, but the guy did not die.

"Indeed, Jin Su-hyuk's goal may be to turn this world into a demonic zone... but if things go awry, who knows what he'll end up doing?"

"It won't go awry."

"We'll see about that."

The castle in the sky floated in midair.

This place, buried deep underground and devoid of the slightest light, was now brightened by sunlight before they knew it.

The blue sky was visible.

They could see the clouds drawing closer.

This castle would now begin demonification from the sky towards the earth below.

That was likely what remained of Damian's role here.

'He's almost like an alien.'

Indeed, it occurred to him that what the demons did was not much different from aliens.

Invading from another world and attacking this world—it's exactly the same, isn't it?

The only difference was that it was magic, not a spaceship, by which they crossed over.

"Clearly, that was based on the premise that I'd leave you here."

For Jung-woo, who had no way to kill Damian, that was the only option.

This heart could not be controlled forcibly even with the power of the Demon King.

It was set to react only to Damian's power.

In other words, only Damian himself, or Jin Su-hyuk.

Only those two could control that heart.

"But is there really any need for that?"

"... What?"

"After all, the place this castle is headed for has already been decided."

He could tell at a glance, looking at the flow.

Hadn't the guy just said, the castle would now move along a set trajectory?

So even if Damian didn't do anything else, it would naturally head for a predetermined place.

"That means I now have another option."

".........!!!"

Only then did Damian realize the meaning in Jung-woo's words.

It was to take Damian not to the castle, but to Park Jung-woo's own base.

'I never thought he'd go this far with such stubborn persistence.'

He could not understand it.

Surely the guy had to know that, in the end, it was meaningless.

"As I said, even if I'm not here, the castle will function on its own, and Jin Su-hyuk absolutely will not stop it. So what you're doing is—"

"I get it."

Once the castle was fully in orbit, Jung-woo would be in considerable trouble.

Soon, it seemed the castle would fly over the sea, and if it fell there, it would be difficult to bring Damian back.

"For now, get some sleep."

"Slee—...!"

The moment he heard those words, Damian felt a sharp impact strike his head.

He felt his consciousness sinking into darkness.

***

The demonic zone in Sichelmond.

A variety show tackling the demonic zone there had recently become one of the most talked-about programs.

It was only natural—the interior of a demonic zone was being shown to the public for the first time.

So its topicality was unmatched, and with recently famous hunters all participating in this raid, viewers' interest was at its peak.

The number of viewers for the live broadcast, which simply followed the hunters catching monsters and advancing through the forest, reached into the millions.

The peak, however, was when a demon appeared.

There had already been talk before the broadcast that a demon might appear, but for it to happen so suddenly...

'That top-rank demon looks the part, doesn't it?'

The camera crew, watching the situation unfold near Sichelmond via Alencia's camera, didn't think much of it.

How many S-rank hunters were there right now?

Even if one appeared, it didn't seem to matter much.

But the ensuing battle astonished every broadcast staff member present.

'Were demons always this strong?'

From the incident in America with the demon Henate, they knew demons were quite strong.

But that time, though buildings were destroyed, there were actually more deaths in the terrorist incident caused by UnderStella.

But that was because Alencia had been there, and thus, damage had been minimized—a crucial point.

With Alencia feeding off the city's power, the damage had been 'only' that much.

"... How many demons like that are there?"

"Surely not. Isn't that one particularly strong...?"

Every S-rank awakener among the top ten in the world was there.

Even Park Jung-woo, a 'returnee', was among them.

Of course, Park Jung-woo had headed for the deepest core first, but the other S-rank awakener were all formidable as well.

Yet, that demon not only seemed unfazed, but was actually overwhelming them.

"Why did Hunter Raidan Bowl suddenly betray us? If he sided with the demons...."

"Can those so-called 'evil demons' actually strengthen humans? Like Jin Su-hyuk said?"

Then there would be no way to distinguish between them.

No, really, are the two sides actually different? Doubts began to form.

When Alencia started to fight, cameras had to rely on footage attached to others to view the scene.

Then came Baek Hojun's fight.

He finally defeated the demon, but even that was accompanied by some ominous words.

And then, the castle soared into the sky.

"Wh-what is that!"

A giant castle rising at the heart of the demonic zone.

It wasn't only the cast who were shocked at the sight.

At this moment, not just millions, but tens of millions of viewers were witnessing this spectacle.

It was impossible, even with modern science, to float a castle of that size in the air.

Magic.

Or perhaps a power beyond that.

The castle shot into the sky and soon began moving somewhere like a satellite.

"Chase it, right now!"

"It's too high. And it's moving too fast, it's impossible!!"

It wasn't flying at blinding speed like an airplane.

However, it was far beyond the reach of the cast members on the ground.

"Didn't Manager Park go alone to the core area?"

"Surely he isn't in that castle, is he?"

Nah, surely not.

Everyone thought so, watching the castle recede.

But then something fell from the distant castle, caught briefly on camera.

Two people falling from the castle.

"Manager Park? No way, right?"

"......"

PD Jung and PD Do, who were part of the crew, could hardly deny it.

Somehow, the only person they could think of who would have fallen from the castle just now was Jung-woo.

***

【What's the real identity of the castle that suddenly floated up from the demonic zone?】

【Seoul National University Professor Kim Kyung-min claims the castle is actually an alien spaceship】

【Just how strong is a demon who could take on dozens of S-ranks alone?】

After just getting off the plane and checking the news at the airport, there were already dozens of articles lined up.

If including international media, it was not dozens but hundreds.

Rather, Korean articles were surprisingly few.

'Did Jin Su-hyuk intervene?'

It was a possibility.

This incident included some elements that could cause strong backlash for Jin Su-hyuk.

"Isn't it a bit much to call eleven people 'dozens'?"

Shin Ah-yeon, who must have seen it as well, looked exhausted.

Well, considering the kind of click-bait headlines some reporters lived on, those were pretty tame articles.

【S-rank hunters unable to handle even a single demon. Is this really okay?】

"Ah, miracles are for situations like this."

"For what?"

"Now that I'm used to the authority, I could probably find out their address, don't you think?"

In the past, Shin Ah-yeon would have cursed at this point, but ever since her memories were mixed with Estella's, that kind of language had gotten a lot less frequent. Maybe the fact that she was a Saintess in her previous life made her want to maintain a certain image.

'Well, I'm not sure her actions have changed that much given that she's still thinking about tracking down an article's writer for a fight as soon as she reads one.'

I hope she doesn't waste miracles on trivial things like this, but, well, she'll do as she pleases.

"Do you think Jin Su-hyuk knows we brought Damian?"

"He probably does."

"But are you sure this is safe? What if he suddenly gets desperate and tries to kill himself...."

"He won't."

Having beaten that guy senseless in the demonic zone, Jung-woo was sure—he was in no state to die so easily.

At least, Damian himself wouldn't be able to die just as he pleased.

'Even if he could die, he wouldn't.'

His goal was the revival of the demon race.

He had spent over 300 years to finally arrive here.

By obtaining the miracle of 'divine art', he had just barely managed to create a new, 'heart' surpassing the Demon King's power.

So, Damian would never die.

Whatever else might happen, at least in that much, he was certain.

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

29 chapters left.

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