The Returner

Goh-ooooooh!

The magic circle began sucking in the surrounding Mana and resonated loudly. Yi Ji-Hyuk watched this scene unfold and smirked deeply.

He could sense Mana permeating within the atmosphere.

One could easily call this a great upheaval. Regular people had no idea about this change at all, but to those capable of using Mana, it felt like an oxygen tank had been lowered to the depth of the sea while they were drowning and they could now finally breathe.

Especially so for Yi Ji-Hyuk – the sensation he felt was markedly different from the others.

The moment he used it, all the Mana permeating in the atmosphere rushed inside his body and he got instinctively excited by it.

This sense of omnipotence that made him feel like he could do anything, as well as the destructive instinct wanting to destroy everything before his eyes, tried to wrestle the control of my mind.

At this rate, everything of the world caught in his view might get dyed in crimson-red colour.

“Kekeke.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

In the past, there was no problem to let these urges take over him. Well, his brain would revert back to how it was, after all. But now, he’d not be able to go back even if he let them take over just once.

The dark magical energy waiting for an opening to invade his mind would then break through the barrier Affeldrichae had put up and dye his brain pitch-black.

If that happened, everything would be over.

If that happened, this occasion would no longer be Yi Ji-Hyuk versus a demon king, but a bloody battle between two demon kings, instead.

No matter who wins that, the world would still be finished.

A human transforming into a demonic being didn’t simply mean the change in one’s species. It was more like the individual called ‘Yi Ji-Hyuk’ completely being reorganised beyond recognition. Everything about him, including his mentality, would change.

That would no longer be Yi Ji-Hyuk, then.

That would be an existence that retained all of his memories and powers, but was not actually ‘Yi Ji-Hyuk’. Not even himself could tell what this newly-born demon king would do next.

That was why he needed to fight against these urges.

With the descent of the demon world to Earth, Yi Ji-Hyuk gained a foothold to spread his wings, but he now also had to face an even greater danger, too.

Wuuu-ooong!

The magic circle resonated loudly and sucked out the magical energy from Yi Ji-Hyuk’s body. He poured way too much Mana into this circle and then extended his hand forward.

‘How pathetic.’ (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

He had already calmed down, and was coldly eyeing Narusius flying in at him after losing its reasoning. fr𝚎e𝙬𝚎𝚋𝚗૦ν𝚎𝒍.c૦m

Others might not fully understand this, but to Yi Ji-Hyuk’s eyes, demon kings weren’t all that well versed in the art of fighting. Indeed, if you only factored in the proficiency at war, humanity was several times more proficient than the demon kings.

That was the result of necessity.

Compared to humans that had to fight each other in an almost equal footing, demons started from the moments of their birth with large gaps in power similar to the ones existing between ants and dragons.

Low-ranked demonic beings would never catch up to the higher-ranked ones even if they dedicated their entire lives in harsh training. Not to forget, their lifespan was incomparably longer than that of humans, too.

That was why low-ranked demons would be subservient towards the higher-ranked demons possessing better abilities while never even entertaining the thoughts of betraying their masters.

The same story applied to the demon kings as well.

They all possessed powers on a different scale from the moments of their birth. Although it was true that they experienced some amount of growth, their overall strength wouldn’t rise significantly even after going through difficult and harsh battles.

Thanks to that, they couldn’t learn from their experiences, and they didn’t willingly hone their abilities.

To those who couldn’t dare to offer resistance, the powers these creatures were born with were more than enough to make them tremble in fear. But to the eyes of Yi Ji-Hyuk who as a mere human managed to reach the very same peaks they stood on, they came across as something else entirely.

That was how he got to ‘endure’ the demon world at the beginning of his journey despite possessing weaker strength than other demon kings.

Yi Ji-Hyuk watched Narusius unhesitantly flying in at him and formed a cruel smile on his face.

“There’s no easier opponent than a boar running straight at you.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Goh-oooooh...

The magic circle before him resonated loudly, then along with the explosion of black light, thousands of vines resembling thorny bush shot out from its centre.

“Ku-aaaaaah!!” (Narusius)

Narusius discovered the thorny vines instantly blocking its view and tried to slow down, but its moving speed had already escaped the realm of its control so stopping its body from rushing forward was an impossibility at this point.

Crunch!

The thorns began digging into the demon king’s flesh.

The body tougher than forged steel were stabbed cleanly through by the large thorns as if it was a human’s body, and the demon king screamed out loudly.

It wasn’t simply because of the pain, however.

The rage and humiliation of being toyed around by Yi Ji-Hyuk caused its reasoning to further erode away.

Grit, crush...

The surrounding thorny vines tightened around the demon king.

“Kkeu-euh-euh-euhk.” (Narusius)

The vines tightened as if they wanted to squeeze the demonic creature until it popped like a balloon.

‘Did he transform Mana into physical matter?!’ (Narusius)

This was beyond the concept of ‘summoning’.

If this was merely summoning, no thorny vines existing in this world would be able to crush a demon king’s body like this regardless of which substance they were made out of.

Yi Ji-Hyuk had used his imagination to create something of this magnitude with Mana as the basis. Indeed, it was not an exaggeration to label him as the history’s greatest sorcerer.

Even the demon kings that wielded Mana as if it was a part of the body couldn’t step into such a realm of control. However, Yi Ji-Hyuk had done exactly that as a mere human being.

Was it because he’s a special case, or did other humans also possess the potential to reach the same heights if given the same type of conditions?

Narusius grew interested in humans after realising that point. It had begun to accept that humans were existences with potential, not just livestock-like beings only good for entertainment, to kill, and to suck out the vitality from.

“Kuwaaaaaah!” (Narusius)

Although rather unbecoming of a demon king, Narusius still screamed out desperately and began pouring out its own Mana in all directions.

The dark magical energy extending out of its body acted like its third arm and began smacking and shoving away the black thorny vines.

Dozens upon dozens of black arms sprouted out and pushed the vines back.

“H-hng.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Yi Ji-Hyuk watched that and shrugged his shoulders.

It was undeniably true that demons had evolved specifically towards combat, as seen from the current example of Narusius not relying on the complicated incantations but just its will to wield Mana however it wanted to.

It’s just that, even if the hardware was faultless, the software responsible for utilising it was full of bugs.

‘Although, the story changes if it’s the true top-ranked ones...’ (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Yi Ji-Hyuk hadn’t let down his guard and was carefully scanning the surroundings by spreading out Mana.

“This is so weird.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

No matter how individualistic each demon king was, it’d still make more sense to establish the bare-minimum command structure when invading a new dimension. Even if they hadn’t done that, they should at least exchange some information with each other.

But then, where was the reinforcement here?

“What are they thinking?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

The previous three demon kings couldn’t deal with him and got all swept away. Half of that had to do with the fact that they underestimated him, but even if that wasn’t the case, those three alone couldn’t have dealt with Yi Ji-Hyuk in the end.

Yet Narusius was confronting him all alone? Even if this guy was a high-ranked demon king?

No matter how dimwitted demons could get, they still wouldn’t try a tactic this foolish.

“Hmm...” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Yi Ji-Hyuk helplessly shook his head. It didn’t matter how deeply he pondered this quandary, he just couldn’t figure out what they were trying to achieve here.

“Maybe they experienced a mass degeneration or something while I wasn’t there?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Since an event of this magnitude, where demon kings crossed over to another world in big numbers, almost never happened in the demon world’s lengthy history, it was next to impossible to predict their movement patterns.

Regardless of which world it was, it’d be threatened by complete destruction if just one single demon king decided to cross over. But a whole bunch of them had crossed over to Earth now, so even Yi Ji-Hyuk couldn’t predict what they would do next.

“...Well. I’ll be really happy if they all come at me in this dumb*ss fashion, that’s for sure.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

It was right then, Narusius finally managed to shove aside all of Yi Ji-Hyuk’s black thorny vines and revealed itself. Its entire body had been torn to shreds, and no one watching on would find a demon king not even bothering to mask its naked rage and hatred, pleasant to behold.

“I’m happy that you decided to come at me like this, but...” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Black Mana slowly gushed out from Yi Ji-Hyuk’s surroundings. At first, it rotated slowly, but then, it suddenly exploded out.

“...But, it feels like you’re looking down on me too much and that’s really p*ssing me off. Wouldn’t you agree?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Yi Ji-Hyuk’s tongue snaked out as he licked his lips.

Unless the demon kings suffered a mass amnesia, they should all remember how much he rampaged around back in the demon world, so to see this particular one coming at him like this, their disdain of him must’ve been rather deeply entrenched.

Especially so with Narusius – Yi Ji-Hyuk just couldn’t figure out what gave this demon king its confidence to confront him all alone.

“Hmmmm. Well, it’s cool, I guess.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

If I can’t figure it out, just ask the dude.

Should I ask after tearing off all of its limbs and leaving only the torso intact? Or should I just rip the head off and ask that?

Demons enjoy pretty tough vitality, so even if I flay the dude alive, it’d still continue to breathe like a fish out of water for a while. That should give me ample time to ask. (Yi Ji-Hyuk’s inner monologue)

“Kekeke.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Mana gathered on the tip of Yi Ji-Hyuk’s right hand before creating lengthy claws.

“I’m not averse to ripping you apart while you’re still alive, you know? Kekeke.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

He floated up from the spot, then flew towards Narusius.

*

“Indeed, the great one’s estimation was correct.” (Boriel)

Boriel smiled and observed Yi Ji-Hyuk emitting frenzied aura, pouncing on Narusius.

The demon initially suspected that there must’ve been some kind of an error since Yi Ji-Hyuk didn’t seem all that different from his past self. But his current appearance made it a certainty.

The current Yi Ji-Hyuk was almost completely tainted by the dark Mana. That sight alone served as the perfect evidence.

It’d be unimaginable for Yi Ji-Hyuk of the past to wrap himself completely in Mana and dash forward to fight hand-to-hand.

‘It won’t be long now.’ (Boriel)

Just like what Boriel’s master had said, Yi Ji-Hyuk’s complete transformation wasn’t too far off now. And with that, a brand new world would emerge.

“Fufufufu.” (Boriel)

“Your laughter is really getting on my nerves, Boriel.” (Erukana)

Boriel slowly turned around.

After discovering the 13th demon king floating in the air with her legs elegantly crossed, it slowly got down on its knees and bowed deeply.

“I’m honoured to be in your presence, 13th demon king.” (Boriel)

“Been a while. Is that guy doing well?” (Erukana)

“The great one is still the same.” (Boriel)

“I figured he’d be the first one to cross over, what with his personality and all, but he can be surprisingly patient, I guess?” (Erukana)

“It is indeed so. And perhaps that’s why he’s been tolerating your pranks until now, wouldn’t you agree?” (Boriel)

“...Pranks?” (Erukana)

“I meant by supporting the humans. More accurately, just one individual, however.” (Boriel)

“Hng.” (Erukana)

Erukana smiled seductively and opened her mouth.

“I can more or less figure out what you fools are trying to achieve here, but do you really think it’s all going to work out?” (Erukana)

“I’m merely the hands and feet of the great one. A hand doesn’t think for its master.” (Boriel)

“A demonic being mouthing off about loyalty? That’s not even funny.” (Erukana)

Erukana chuckled in dismay, then turned around.

“As a courtesy of us being the same species, let me give you a warning. That path will simply lead you to ruin. It won’t end as problems of the dimensions, nor will it end simply at you being injured, either. Do not forget the reason why Latrel was so wary and alert about my darling. He came to possess powers that exceeded demon kings when he’s merely a human. So, if he becomes a demonic being, then... Forget about a demon king, he might end up as something far exceeding that.” (Erukana)

“...I shall definitely convey your warning.” (Boriel)

Boriel literally went ‘Pop!’ and disappeared from the spot. Erukana slowly licked her lips.

“Well, it wouldn’t be so bad if that happens, anyway.” (Erukana)

< 407. Not like I wished for it -2 > Fin.