Chapter 231 : Chapter 231
Chapter 231 - Demon Realm (1)
Before leaving on my final journey, meeting Rosie was also something I could not leave out.
“Unit Leader Ji-han, just how strong are you planning to become?”
She immediately noticed the change in me after not seeing me for so long.
More than anything, the mana that had filled my dantian thanks to the Ten Thousand Year Snow Ginseng was significant.
I could deceive other people, but I could not escape the eyes of a dragon.
“Am I at a point where I can try fighting a dragon now?”
“Unit Leader Ji-han, can I be honest?”
“That is why I asked.”
“My conclusion is that you are truly insane!”
Rosie looked up at me with her eyes full of force.
“So in your opinion, Rosie, it is still too much for me?”
Even if Rosie answered yes, my choice would not change.
I would soon depart on my final journey through the Abyss.
I did not know whether a higher realm than my current swordsmanship existed, but I thought this was the best I could do.
‘Of course, I thought the same thing during my days as Johan Raven.’
That was why I had entered the Dragon’s Nest without hesitation, and as a result, I had been reduced to black ashes.
“That is not what I meant when I called you insane, Unit Leader Ji-han.”
“Then?”
“You were talking about fighting one of my kind right in front of me. No matter how individualistic dragons may be, we do not exactly welcome another race coveting our clan’s position. I feel like you asked me while knowing that perfectly well, Unit Leader Ji-han. Am I wrong?”
That was not exactly the case.
I had simply thought that Rosie had become my ally to some extent by now.
I thought we had built up at least a little friendship that transcended race, but it seemed that had been my own misunderstanding.
Rosie continued speaking with a serious expression.
“Red Dragons are strong. Even among our clan, they are among the very best in combat.”
“Well, I suppose they would be.”
“If it were not a Red Dragon, but a Blue or Green one, I do not know. But it will not be an easy fight.”
Even so, Rosie’s assessment was quite encouraging.
After all, “not an easy fight” was not an expression used when something was completely impossible.
“There is the dragon, too, but before that, I am planning to stop by the Demon Realm for a while.”
“You say that as though you are going to a neighborhood supermarket.”
“To tell the truth, I thought a little about the order of the Dragon’s Nest and the Demon Realm.”
“And?”
“I figured the highlight should come last after all.”
That did not mean I considered the Demon King weaker than a dragon.
However, my revenge against the Red Dragon was the finishing touch of my second life. I thought it would be best for that finale to come at the very end.
“Fine, let us say you have some history with the dragon. But why the Demon King? Is there a reason you must fight him?”
“No. There is no such thing.”
“Then?”
“It is the same logic as climbing a mountain because it is there.”
“Insane! You really are completely insane!”
“What is this, Rosie? The Demon King is not even one of your kind.”
“Anyway, Unit Leader Ji-han, you are insane! You do not want to live out your natural lifespan, do you? But you do not exactly want to kill yourself either. So you chose a dragon and the Demon King, did you not?”
Rosie sighed and fumed.
“Could it be that you are worried about me?”
“Forget it! If you are human, then live like a human being.”
At last, Rosie flared up.
“Rosie. Until now, I have never chosen my opponents selectively.”
That would be the same this time as well.
I simply always wanted to confirm it.
That there was nothing in this world I could not cut down with my sword.
Whether it was a dragon or the Demon King, I did not want to make an exception.
“In any case, since I am going anyway, cheer me on at least. Information would be even better.”
“Do not die.”
“Even against the dragon?”
“You have to come back alive so you can buy me Mint Chocolate!”
Was Mint Chocolate more important than one of her own kind?
At Rosie’s absurd words, I ended up making a boast without meaning to.
“I will buy it for you. Mint Chocolate.”
“You promised, right?”
“Yes.”
“But I do not have any information I can give you this time. Even among us dragons, no one has ever been to the Demon Realm! Instead, give me the map to the nest.”
I handed Rosie the map.
I could guess what she was going to do to it.
In truth, this was also one of the reasons I had come to see her today.
The map, which was not yet clear, would need a dragon’s blood added to it in order to create a stable portal.
DRIP.
DRIP.
Before I knew it, blood was flowing from Rosie’s palm, and the dragon’s red blood began soaking into the map.
The map absorbed the blood, and finally revealed its completed form clearly.
『Red Dragon Devrias’s Nest』
Now, all preparations were truly complete.
***
I intended to proceed directly from the Demon Realm to the Dragon’s Nest.
My resolve had been made and all preparations were complete, so I did not want to hesitate before the most important final journey of my second life.
And I planned to take one companion with me until the middle of this journey.
“You came to collect a debt from me?”
“Yes, Master. The day I mentioned in Tornava is today.”
The only Sword Master on Earth apart from me. It was old Master Heo Gyeong-woo.
It was not because I thought I could not possibly handle the Demon Realm alone.
I simply thought I might need a messenger who could carry a record of the Demon Realm back to Earth.
After I left for the Dragon’s Nest at the end, one human’s challenge against the Demon Realm might vanish without ever being recorded.
“Of course I have to go!”
“It may be dangerous!”
“Is my life not one I am living as a bonus anyway?”
“Then I will take that as your acceptance.”
“But just where is this place that it would be dangerous even with both of us going?”
“You ask that quickly.”
Still, it was already too late.
The die had been cast.
***
The Demon Realm.
An unknown place where no human foot had ever set foot.
Even dragons knew nothing about it, yet the two of us stepped into this place.
There was one thing I was most curious about.
The seeds I had scattered here long ago. I wanted to know what kind of chaos the four Zombies I had first sent ahead as a vanguard had caused in this place called the Demon Realm.
Of course, they might have failed.
It was entirely possible that they had been suppressed the moment they arrived in the Demon Realm.
However, what I had expected was that the four Zombies I had sent ahead possessed considerably improved performance.
If they had succeeded in spreading the infection early on, there was a chance its rate of expansion might have become uncontrollable.
Because the mechanism of the Zombie, an existence created by the Demon King, was originally like that.
“Ji-han! But is this place truly the Demon Realm?”
“Yes. You confirmed it with me at the portal.”
“But it does not look very different from a place where humans live.”
That surprised me as well.
The moment we passed through the portal, what unfolded before us was a human world that did not seem much different from the other dimensions of the Abyss.
Even if someone had said it was some country in some era of Earth, I would have accepted it without much sense of incongruity.
“However, I cannot feel the energy of any living beings.”
That was the strangest part.
Traces that someone had lived here clearly existed.
Just from the many buildings and the well-maintained road network, I could tell that the beings of this place had lived in groups like humans and interacted with one another.
Now, however, they had vanished without a trace.
“It is like a ghost town.”
The most troublesome part was that there was no message from the Abyss whatsoever.
There was nothing about a quest, and not even a basic guidance message.
We knew nothing at all about what kind of worldview this place called the Demon Realm had.
If monsters had rushed at us the moment we passed through the portal, we might have learned something, but right now, it felt as though we had been thrown into the middle of a boundless ocean.
“Let us enter a building first.”
I thought there might be some traces or clues remaining inside a building.
We entered a building that looked like a private home.
“Ji-han! This is!”
First, the figures in the painting hanging on the wall at the entrance of the building.
“They are in human form.”
They were not horned monsters.
They had two eyes, one nose, and one mouth, all in the proper numbers, and looked like complete human beings.
“Were the beings who lived here truly people?”
“At least their outward appearance seems to have been.”
Then there were the household tools inside the building.
Their shapes were somewhat unfamiliar, but they were the sort of human tools that might appear wherever civilization existed.
“This appears to be tableware.”
Judging by its condition, it was something that had not been used for quite some time.
It was already covered with rotting mold.
In addition, the scattered clothes and the food stored in what appeared to be a pantry all resembled things from the human world.
The greatest question, however, was that the residents of this place had disappeared like the wind.
The other buildings were no different.
‘Could it be because of the Zombies?’
However, there were no traces of battle anywhere throughout the village.
If so, it meant they had voluntarily emptied this village.
“Ji-han, this is rather bewildering.”
“First, we need to find something alive. Whether that is a person or a monster.”
We needed something we could question.
For example, if this truly was the Demon Realm, then where was this Demon King?
***
We traveled along the road.
If we followed the road, we would be able to reach another village.
We had already come up empty at the first three villages, and now this was our fourth attempt.
Unfortunately, we had not encountered anything at all during the entire journey.
Not people, and not even wild animals or birds.
‘How can this be possible?’
If at least a Zombie had appeared, I would not have had doubts about this world itself.
“It feels as though we have come to a world that has been destroyed.”
“A destroyed world?”
“Yes. More than forty years ago, I once went through the Abyss to a world in the midst of destruction.”
“The Abyss really does have all sorts of places. What happened there?”
“As for me, I only completed the quest and left that world, so I did not see how it ended. But one impressive memory suddenly comes to mind.”
“What is it?”
“At that time, a resident of that world said this. If not a single survivor remained, that world would completely close.”
“Then one thing has become clear.”
“What do you mean?”
“That someone is alive in this world we have come to now. Since even a single person is still surviving, has the world not yet closed?”
Of course, there was no guarantee that the same laws applied to the two worlds, but for now, I decided to believe it.
At the moment, we still had not found a single clue.
And finally, we arrived at the fourth village.
However, no matter how much I expanded my qi sense, I still could not feel anything.
Now I was beginning to feel somewhat deflated.
“Still, we should search it thoroughly, should we not?”
“Of course. But before that, let me try one other method.”
“One other method? What do you mean?”
“Now that I think about it, do you not feel we have been behaving far too quietly since we arrived here?”
Even though I was absolutely not that type.
I drew the Holy Sword and, without hesitation, immediately infused mana into the blade.
“Ji-han! What are you planning to do?”
“I am just feeling a bit frustrated.”
For now, I decided to act without overthinking it.
BOOOOM!
The Sword Qi released by the Holy Sword began covering every part of the village.