Chapter 198 : Reunion
Chapter 198: Reunion
I looked around.
Void Space was a little different from what I had imagined.
I had expected something similar to Oblivion, which the Leader of Pandemonium had used.
But this place felt almost like a bathhouse.
There was a white stone floor, and the sound of water could be heard from somewhere.
I looked at the Artifact Master Gu Ryun had made for me.
The compass-shaped object continued to move.
It couldn’t have broken down now.
It seemed the Heavenly Demon was continuing to move.
That was extremely good news.
The last time I had seen her, she had been critically wounded.
If she was moving like this, it proved she was still alive and that her physical condition wasn’t too bad.
I looked back at the passage I had come through.
A black hole remained in the white wall.
Even if I found the Heavenly Demon, I needed to remember this location in order to return to the original world.
I took something out of the Subspace Artifact I had received from Master Gu Ryun.
It was a long metal rod shaped like a lightning rod.
This Artifact was part of a set that resonated with the compass. If I planted it somewhere, I could use the compass to find my way back.
I drove it into the floor.
Ting!
“What the?”
Instead of sinking into the floor, the Artifact bounced off.
Normally, it should have pierced through as easily as stabbing tofu.
Once again, I was reminded that this space operated under laws different from those of the original world.
With no other choice, I placed the Artifact beside the spot I had emerged from.
It didn’t actually have to be planted in the ground to function, so it didn’t matter.
Besides, this place was strangely silent.
It reminded me of the Angel ruins at Heaven Lake on Mount Baekdu.
As though this were a world where everything had died.
Even when I spread out my Mana, I couldn’t sense any notable signs of life.
Of course, considering the peculiar nature of Void Space, I couldn’t blindly trust Mana detection.
But there was no other method.
Void Space was even more unknown than the Gate itself.
It was a risk I had to accept if I wanted to rescue the Heavenly Demon.
After roughly finishing my preparations, I began searching for her in earnest.
I walked in the direction indicated by the compass.
Of course, I wasn’t blindly wandering around looking for the Heavenly Demon without any plan.
That would have been far too stupid.
It would literally be like searching for a needle in a desert.
The size of Void Space was impossible to even estimate.
Moreover, the compass Master Gu Ryun had made only indicated the direction of the target.
It didn’t tell me the distance between us or the exact route.
Then how was I supposed to find the Heavenly Demon when I had no idea where she was?
First, the fact that the compass could track her meant she was within its detection range.
Of course, even taking that into account, the search area was still extremely vast.
On top of that, the Heavenly Demon was currently moving.
That was why I had come up with the lightning rod-like devices from earlier.
They were, in a sense, like satellites.
If placed at regular intervals, they would synchronize and connect with one another, forming a vast network.
If I set them up like that, not only would it become easier to find my way back, but if the Heavenly Demon kept moving, the chances of her spotting one would increase as well.
So I ran in the direction indicated by the compass while placing receiver-shaped rods throughout the area.
And that wasn’t all.
Every receiver had a button.
If it was pressed, the receiver would send a signal to the compass I carried.
In case the Heavenly Demon ignored them, I had also designed the receivers to project a message from me to her.
How long had I been walking like that?
The scenery around me had changed several times.
There were many different spaces here.
It wasn’t just areas resembling swimming pools.
There were places that looked like offices, and others filled with all kinds of trees.
But there was one thing they all had in common.
Every place seemed to be inside some kind of building.
It felt as though I had been trapped inside an endless maze.
On top of that, the occasional ringing sound in my ears gradually began gnawing away at my mental strength.
After experiencing Oblivion, I had been confident that ordinary mental attacks wouldn’t work on me.
But this was an entirely different kind of unpleasantness.
“Seriously, where the hell is the Heavenly Demon?”
After beating down something grotesque-looking, the Heavenly Demon examined it.
“These things again. All kinds of bizarre creatures are wandering around. Can’t you speak?”
Even though it clearly moved like a living being, she couldn’t sense any vitality from it.
Its appearance was grotesque as well.
This wasn’t the first time she had encountered such strange things.
Their appearances varied greatly, but they clearly seemed to be creatures native to this bizarre space.
After blowing its head apart with a single strike, she sighed.
She had wandered through this space for quite some time.
And yet she still hadn’t found anything resembling an exit.
Even the Heavenly Demon, who rarely felt much emotion, had begun to feel irritated.
This place was extremely boring.
The same kind of space would repeat endlessly, and then at some point, the surrounding scenery would suddenly change.
Occasionally, objects that didn’t match their surroundings would appear, but none of them helped her escape.
And so she continued onward.
The farther she went, the more grotesque the place became.
Sometimes she heard auditory hallucinations from nowhere, while incomprehensible paranormal phenomena occurred around her.
Of course, none of those things could frighten the Heavenly Demon.
If anything, she tried to determine the nature of those anomalies.
She thought that perhaps investigating them might reveal some means of escape.
Of course, things did not go as easily as she hoped.
Then there were the inhabitants of this space that occasionally appeared.
While walking through this endless place, bizarre creatures of unknown origin would reveal themselves.
The moment they saw her, they emitted inexplicable hostility.
For all that hostility, however, their combat ability was pathetic.
She didn’t even need to use Mana against them.
The Heavenly Demon had yet to discover any of the Artifacts Yoo Seongwoo had left behind.
The reason was simple.
Yoo Seongwoo was following behind the Heavenly Demon,
while the Heavenly Demon kept moving forward without ever looking back.
She had no idea that her disciple had entered this place to rescue her.
If anything, she was too busy worrying about him.
A new inhabitant of Void Space appeared before the Heavenly Demon.
This one looked somewhat different from the creatures she had encountered before.
It was still grotesque, but this one was enormous.
It had no definite form.
It resembled both a massive shadow and a fog made of darkness.
More importantly, it was strong.
She could tell instinctively.
This thing was different from everything she had encountered until now.
On the off chance that it might understand her, she spoke.
“Can you speak?”
No answer came.
She already knew the pattern that would follow.
Blind hostility and an immediate attack.
Of course, the Heavenly Demon had no intention of giving it the first move.
Her figure vanished in an instant.
Her fist pierced through the darkness.
But ordinary attacks did not work on it.
Her strike failed to inflict any damage upon the darkness.
The creature, however, was different.
The darkness it extended felt ominous.
She instinctively knew she shouldn’t let it touch her.
She moved her feet and avoided the darkness pouring toward her.
The battle refused to end easily.
The inhabitant of the Void couldn’t land a blow on the Heavenly Demon,
while the Heavenly Demon’s attacks had no effect on it.
Even so, neither side tired.
An endless exchange began.
She tried various methods to kill the inhabitant of the Void.
Neither Mana nor Will worked.
Thinking it might be weak against light, she used Mana to burst out a brilliant flash.
That also had no effect.
The Heavenly Demon frowned.
She was running low on Mana.
Mana could not recover inside Void Space.
She had already consumed a tremendous amount of Mana during her battle against Pandemonium, and even what remained had been used to heal her body.
‘How long has it been since I ran out of Mana?’
There hadn’t been a time when she lacked Mana since her immature youth.
Part of that was due to the Heavenly Demon’s innate talent, but after her martial realm reached its peak, the amount of Mana she possessed had ceased to matter.
Except, of course, in special circumstances like this one.
More importantly, her body had not completely recovered.
The Leader of Pandemonium and his subordinates had hardly been ordinary opponents.
She had healed her fatal wounds, but her body itself was still damaged.
The fact that she could still display this level of martial might was proof of just how absurd the realm she had achieved truly was.
In any case, the current situation was quite dangerous even for the Heavenly Demon.
The darkness extending from the inhabitant of the Void began eating away at the surrounding space and spreading outward.
The unpleasant feeling grew stronger.
She considered retreating.
For someone who had stood at the pinnacle of martial arts and reigned as the supreme ruler of an entire world, such a decision could be called an enormous humiliation.
‘It feels like I’ve returned to my childhood.’
She probably hadn’t experienced humiliation like this since the days when she had wandered the streets as a snot-nosed child.
But it couldn’t be helped.
She had a definite goal.
Continuing to fight this thing seemed meaningless.
Once she decided, there was no hesitation.
Her body shot back along the path she had come from.
The inhabitant of the Void chased after her, but its speed couldn’t match the Heavenly Demon’s.
At that moment, Yoo Seongwoo, who had been following the Heavenly Demon, noticed something strange.
The compass, which had been constantly moving, suddenly stopped.
As though she had stopped moving.
Had something happened?
Yoo Seongwoo quickened his pace.
The receiver Artifacts he had brought were also beginning to run out.
He needed to close the distance between them while he had the chance.
Yoo Seongwoo drew up his Mana and circulated Asura Divine Art.
Infernal Flame rose across his entire body.
It was to prevent the Heavenly Demon from mistaking him for an enemy.
Then Yoo Seongwoo felt an inexplicable sense of foreboding.
It was familiar.
An ominous sensation that stimulated the Sixth Sense beyond the five ordinary senses.
The energy those creatures emitted possessed an unpleasantness different even from Demons.
He too had encountered the inhabitants of this place while traveling through Void Space.
A race that possessed unconditional hostility toward living beings.
But the power he sensed beyond was incomparable to anything he had encountered until now.
Yoo Seongwoo immediately transformed himself into a blazing star.
Brilliant radiance erupted from his body.
He hoped the Heavenly Demon would somehow see it.
And the light was more than bright enough to reach her.
A strange gleam appeared in her eyes.
It was Mana she could never forget.
The Infernal Flame that had once burned like a candle when she first guided her disciple’s Mana had now become a colossal star like the sun.
She had no idea why her useless disciple was here.
But there was one thing she knew for certain.
Her disciple had come to rescue her.
And everything had worked out.
The brilliant light drew closer.
At the center of that light was her disciple.
At last, master and disciple reunited.