Chapter 74- Devilification.
[Devilification.]
A dense black aura erupted from his body. His eyes turned pure black. Two short horns pushed through his skin and bone at his forehead. Killing intent rolled off him in a physical wave that made the remaining two fighters freeze mid-step.
Reason began to fray at the edges. Leo activated Hyperfocus before the slaughter-hunger could take full control.
[Hyperfocus Activated]
Clarity slammed back into place. The world sharpened. Every movement, every breath, every possible angle the assassin and swordsman might take became visible a fraction of a second early.
Devilification and Blood Frenzy stacked. Stats and damage soared into territory that should not have belonged to any player of his level.
Leo moved.
A soft boom of displaced air. ....
He vanished...
Thirty seconds of Devilification remained. Three percent health left.
He reappeared directly in front of Kang Tae-oh.
The assassin’s instincts screamed.
Kang burned his final trump card and evacuated in a blur of shadow, vanishing from the point of impact an instant before Leo’s blade arrived.
The miss cost almost nothing. Leo pivoted toward Breezy Sword. The swordsman had no evacuation skill. He met the attack head-on.
Swords collided. The force of Leo’s swing hurled the swordsman backward as if he weighed nothing.
Before the man could even hit the ground, Leo was already waiting at the landing point. Another swing. Another airborne flight. Again. And again.
The pattern repeated with mechanical cruelty—each impact sending Breezy Sword farther, higher, more broken.
Leo finished it with Rising Forge, launching the swordsman toward the darkening sky. At the apex of the arc Leo was already above him.
Anvil Drop descended.
This time the skill looked different. The anvil that materialized was forged of terrifying black flame. Above it floated a burning skull, sockets empty and bright. The anvil slammed down with the weight of a collapsing forge.
Breezy Sword hit the earth hard enough to crater it. Blood sprayed from his mouth. Health reached zero.
Only the assassin remained.
Kang Tae-oh was already gone—camouflaged, silent, vanished into the ruined landscape. Leo scanned the area under Hyperfocus and found nothing.
He waited....
He searched the nearest rubble and the edges of the blast radius.
Nothing....
Hyperfocus and Devilification both expired.
The black aura faded. The horns receded. Clarity remained, but the overwhelming power drained away.
Leo exhaled and allowed his shoulders to drop.
In that single moment of relaxation, hair-raising fear spiked through him.
Instinct screamed that his throat had already been cut. Kang Tae-oh had never left. The assassin had waited, perfectly still, perfectly hidden, until the exact second Leo’s enhancements dropped.
The killing blow came from absolute silence, aimed to finish what the earlier strike had started.
Leo’s boots were off cooldown. Night had fully fallen. He teleported—once, twice, three times—opening distance in desperate leaps until the combat flag finally dropped.
A thin, burning line remained across his neck. Health sat at one percent.
He teleported one last time, straight into the safety of his forge. Potion after potion vanished down his throat. Health and mana crawled upward in stuttering increments.
Only when the numbers climbed past the danger zone did the trembling in his hands begin to ease.
Leo leaned against the cool stone of the forge wall and closed his eyes.
Damn.
That had been far too close for comfort.
Leo lay flat on the cool stone floor of the forge, staring up at the dark ceiling. The cold seeped slowly into his back, grounding him after the chaos.
Damn it.
I was careless.
He had already downed several recovery potions, yet his health climbed at a snail’s pace. The trembling in his hands had finally stopped, but adrenaline still surged through his veins in restless waves.
He remained motionless for a long while, letting the quiet of the forge settle over him.
Eventually he opened his status window and checked the numbers again.
His eyes moved to the armor interface.
Fifty-three points.
Fifty-three Devil Energy points sat quietly in the corner of the display.
He had already used Devilification once, yet the total remained high.
Maybe killing epic- and rare-rank players yielded more Devil Energy than he had realized.
He replayed the fight in his mind.
The final Anvil Drop had felt different—deeper, as if it had drawn from something beyond the ordinary skill list. The horns, the dense black aura, the burning skull floating above the anvil... all of it carried a strange, addictive pull.
He closed the interface. The black skull mark on his armor was not even half filled, despite the points he had accumulated.
Footsteps approached....
Hugh entered carrying an unrolled scroll in one hand. His gaze moved from Leo’s blood-stained face to the slowly healing wound on his neck.
"Still alive?" Hugh asked.
"Guess so," Leo answered from the floor.
"You look like a corpse that learned to talk."
"Thanks. I feel worse."
Hugh set the scroll down and sat cross-legged in front of him, studying him for a moment.
"So how many of them were there? I saw you fight before. I don’t think eight people are enough to turn you into a talking corpse."
Leo gave a tired half-smile. "Around thirty, I think. I killed most of them without much trouble. The ones who turned me into this were five."
Hugh fell silent.
"So you handled roughly twenty-five without breaking a sweat, but five put you in this state. Must have been quite the talented group."
"Ha...ha... yeah." Leo’s laugh was dry.
Hugh grunted and turned back to the scroll. "Finish healing, then come look at this."
"What is it?"
"Something from the Asgard. I haven’t been able to stop reading it. I think I’m close—close enough to understand. It’s related to the black flame."
Leo nodded and was about to reply when a system notification cut through his vision.
[Ding!]
[Forge Sight – Passive Scan]
[Detected: 12 individuals within 500 meters of the Forge Dimension.]
Leo opened the external view. The clearing outside was almost unrecognizable—scorched, cracked, and glassed by Gungnir’s impact.
A dozen figures moved through the ruins, kicking aside rubble, flipping stones, and scavenging whatever loot remained. A few faces looked familiar from the earlier siege.
"Let them search," Leo said, closing the window. "They can’t find or enter the Forge Dimension anyway."
He looked at Hugh. "Go through what you can. I’ll be back later."
With that, Leo logged out.
---
At the edge of the ruined clearing, Kang Tae-oh stood alone, watching the scavengers pick through the ashes.
They were pathetic—bandits pretending to be hunters, turning over corpses the way a man turns soil. Where they saw treasure, Kang saw a warning written in fire and glass. The black-flame crater at the center still smoked. The fused earth glittered under the moonlight like frozen blood.
He raised a hand to his neck. The skin was hot to the touch. His trump card had saved his life, but it had cost him his pride.
He opened his interface and initiated a call to the name at the top of his list.
The connection opened on the first ring.
"You still alive?" The voice on the other end was calm—no relief, only calculation.
"Yes."
"Then the contract seems to have failed. I’ll double it if you want another attempt."
Kang gave a dry laugh. "That still won’t be enough."
He let the silence stretch for a few seconds before continuing.
"The blacksmith, Leo Stone. He isn’t simple. He was wearing epic-rank armor and epic-rank boots. And I believe he’s the same blacksmith from the world announcement."
The line went quiet.
"How sure are you?"
Kang considered. "About seventy percent... no. Ninety percent."
The pause that followed was longer.
"Then this changes things. I’ll need to re-evaluate the assets and discuss it with the others before we move forward. For now, stop involving yourself with Leo Stone—both in the real world and in Myth Online. Now that we know his identity, we can reach him whenever we choose."
The voice hummed, noncommittal.
"You’ve delivered your report, Kang. The rest is above your level."
The call ended.
---
In the real world, it was the third day Master Rook had waited for Leo.
Same upside-down bucket. Same position. Same stick. The vein at his temple pulsed more angrily than it had the day before.
"That brat really has the nerve to ignore me for three days straight."
He clicked his tongue. The disciples nearby nearly jumped out of their skins at the outburst.
Rook strode to the reception desk.
"Come. Lead me to that boy’s house."
He grabbed the young girl’s wrist and began pulling her along.
"Grandpa, no! You can’t just show up at someone’s house because they missed training."
"Says who? Watch me go there and drag him back." He cracked his knuckles for emphasis.
The girl offered a helpless smile. "Grandpa, I’ll be late for school. We should go after I finish school."
"No. I can’t wait that long. Come on—I’ll carry you. We’ll be there in minutes. you will still be able to make it to school."
"Wahhh—!"
The girl shrieked as her grandfather hoisted her onto his shoulder like a child.
"Grandpa! You can’t treat me like a three-year-old anymore. I’m a grown woman!"
"Stop shouting, little girl. You’ll burst my eardrums."
.....