The Returner

â??Ku-hahahahaha!â?? (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Yi Ji-Hyuk dashed towards the demon king Narusius with one-metre-long claws on both of his hands made out of magical power.

â??You insane fool!â?? (Narusius)

Narusius roared out and got ready to engage the human still madly rushing towards it. Even if the demon king was currently in the injured state, Yi Ji-Hyuk was a sorcerer. To think that a mere magic user dared to close the distance against a warrior. There wouldn’t be a worse insult than this.

â??Yi Ji-Hyuuuuk!!!â?? (Narusius)

Narusius, a demonic aura densely emanating from its whole body, threw itself at Yi Ji-Hyuk dashing straight towards it.

Kill that man.

The demon king would definitely rip that insolent human’s head off while he’s still breathing.

Mana gushing out from Narusius’s body seemed to coalesce, then wrapped around the demon like some kind of an armour.

Kwa-du-du-duk!

Once that strange armour fully encompassed it, Narusius began dashing at least twice as fast towards Yi Ji-Hyuk.

â??Kekekeke.â?? (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

The latter let out a twisted cackle while witnessing this spectacle. His eyes, scarily red after all the blood vessels in the whites began bulging and pulsing, flitted this way and that to chase after Narusius’s movements.

â??Hey, you’re making me dizzy here.â?? (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Stop buzzing around like a house fly. (Yi Ji-Hyuk’s inner monologue)

Yi Ji-Hyuk extended his right hand forward and pitch-black tentacles shot out to pounce on Narusius.

â??Keuk?!â?? (Narusius)

The demon king saw the tentacles flying in and grandly flinched.

Should it dodge?

But, dodging them now would signify that Narusius had been forced back in the clashes of the auras, or at least that’s what the demon thought. It soon made up its mind and flew towards the black tentacles while emitting demonic energy from both of its hands.

The demon king roared at the top of its lungs and punched the tentacles with its right fist. However, the tentacles acted like some kind of a mollusc and avoided the demon king’s punch, then like a rearing venomous snake, their tips lunged towards Narusius’s torso.

Crunch! Crunch!

Several strands of black tentacles stabbed into the demon king’s body, but they failed to break through the armour.

However, that must’ve not been their ultimate objective, because they smoothly slid across the armour to wrap around Narusius’s torso instead. The demon king smacked away the tentacles trying to crush it and roared out loudly.

â??D*mn it! Are you going to keep doing this?!â?? (Narusius)

From some time ago, Yi Ji-Hyuk was fighting in such a manner to irritate his opponent. He didn’t come attacking outright and continued to change directions while keeping the demon king in check.

â??Ku-aaaahk!â?? (Narusius)

Narusius roared out again and dashed towards Yi Ji-Hyuk while completely ignoring the tentacles.

However, it got to witness a strange sight just then.

‘What’s this?’ (Narusius)

It had been expecting Yi Ji-Hyuk to back away or use ‘Blink’ to create some distance between them, but he was actually meeting the demon king head-on.

‘You insignificant little...!’ (Narusius)

A measly human wishes to confront a demon king head-on?

The demon kings would not run away from Yi Ji-Hyuk. They all knew they couldn’t deal with him and shivered in fear of him, yet none acknowledged him as a high-ranked demon king.

Because, there was this thing called ‘opportunity’.

They all believed that as long as they could get close enough to Yi Ji-Hyuk, as long as they could land that one solid blow to his body, then he’d be destroyed forever.

Regeneration?

Of course, the ‘Yi Ji-Hyuk of the past’ possessed the immortality that allowed him to revert back to full health no matter what the damage was.

But so what if that was the case?

Even if it’s a hundred years, even a thousand, all they had to do was destroy him again and again as soon as he regenerated. That was all!

The truly amazing thing about Yi Ji-Hyuk, though, was that he never allowed such a scenario to become reality. He filled his surroundings with countless summoned creatures, demonic monsters, demons that worked as his underlings and even Erukana to buy himself enough time.

The demon kings just couldn’t overcome that hurdle and ended up kneeling in defeat one after the other in front of him.

But the current Yi Ji-Hyuk was not surrounded by the army of demonic monsters large enough to seemingly blanket the entire demon world, nor was Erukana here with him.

So with what confidence was he pouncing on Narusius by himself?

The demon king was overcome with pure rage and it roared out, before firing a barrage of magic bullets towards Yi Ji-Hyuk.

â??Yi, Ji, Hyuuuuuk!â?? (Narusius)

He saw all of those incoming magic bullets but didn’t stop his sprint forward.

â??Kuwaaaaah!â?? (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

The claws of magic attached to his hands lengthened instantly and began slicing apart all the magic bullets.

KWA-BOOOOOOM!!!!

Massive explosions went off in the air. The city below already had experienced a bombardment, but these new impacts easily exceeded the previous ones.

‘Where?!’ (Narusius)

Narusius lost the sight of Yi Ji-Hyuk due to the smoke from the explosions and opened its eyes wider in alarm.

â??Who are you looking for?â?? (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

However, there was no need to search for him. His voice came from right behind the demon king, after all.

â??Kkeuk!â?? (Narusius)

Narusius immediately swung its hand behind.

STAB!

Unfortunately, Yi Ji-Hyuk’s stiletto-like claws were already digging deep into the demon king’s back before it could even react properly.

â??Kkeu-euh-euh-euhk...â?? (Narusius)

Narusius shivered as it looked down at the five lengthy claws piercing right through its abdomen. It wasn’t merely those blades destroying its body, either.

Yi Ji-Hyuk’s own magical powers were digging deeper into the demon king’s body through those claws. The horrifying pain transmitted to Narusius was akin to iron spikes being shoved deep in its body and electricity travelling through them. The demon’s entire body trembled from this intense pain.

â??So, is your blood blue in colour?â?? (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Slice!

Accompanied by a bone-chilling noise, Yi Ji-Hyuk’s claws cut through Narusius’s body and exited from the side. Five bloody lines ripped across the demon king’s torso and blue-coloured blood spewed out like a fountain.

â??It’s so nice that I get to ask you demons what the colour of your blood is. You guys aren’t standardised like humans, you see.â?? (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

â??You, you b*sssstard!!!â?? (Narusius)

â??So noisy.â?? (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Crunch!

Yi Ji-Hyuk’s claws slammed into the face of Narusius busy roaring out. The demon king’s vocal organ was crushed and it couldn’t produce sounds anymore.

The demonic being’s resilient lifeforce meant Narusius wouldn’t lose its life even in this condition, but it still lost its consciousness for a moment there. Which meant it also lost its ability of flight and fell headlong towards the ground.

Yi Ji-Hyuk went along, his claws still stabbed deep into the demon king’s face.

â??Kekeke.â?? (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

BOOM!

Narusius’s figure and Yi Ji-Hyuk crashed into the ground, sending out clouds of dust in all directions. The latter yanked his claws out from the former’s face, then began licking the blood on his blade.

Not enough.

This was not even nearly enough.

â??Keuh-euh-euh...â?? (Narusius)

Narusius’s crushed face reverted back soon enough and the demon king regained its consciousness at the same time. It glared at Yi Ji-Hyuk in anger.

Just how much magical energy was concentrated in those claws that he could tear apart a demon king like a piece of paper?

â??...Didn’t you say you wanted to know more about humans?â?? (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Slice.

Yi Ji-Hyuk lightly swung with his claws, and Narusius’s leg was chopped off, followed by yet another fountain of blood exploding out.

He then cut and sliced and diced again.

All four of Narusius’s limbs were cut off, and the demon king could only stare at Yi Ji-Hyuk with a deeply pale complexion.

â??I can help you with understanding how vicious a human can be, so how about it? Kekekeke.â?? (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

By now, Yi Ji-Hyuk’s eyes were dyed completely black.

Narusius saw this scene and shivered even more.

The great one did say this.

That the current Yi Ji-Hyuk possessed not even half of the powers he used to enjoy at his peak. That he’d not pose any threat to them since he also lost his immortality, as well.

But now that the lid had come off, this was already beyond the level of being unfair.

No one knew what exactly he had been doing until now, but somehow Yi Ji-Hyuk’s close quarter combat skills had increased by several folds, while the level of his magical energy management was incomparably higher than his past self, as well.

‘B-but, how can such a thing even be possible?’ (Narusius)

Even if Narusius were to fight the past version of Yi Ji-Hyuk, the demon king wouldn’t have been so one-sidedly beaten up like this.

â??Looks like you’re dying of curiosity.â?? (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Yi Ji-Hyuk smirked and slowly stabbed his claws into Narusius’s abdomen.

â??It’s all thanks to you lot, actually. Without the valuable experience of fighting against the demon kings using only a restricted amount of Mana, I wouldn’t have been able to come this far. Back when I had everything, I really had no idea how important precision would turn out to be.â?? (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

â??...â??

Before Narusius could say something, Yi Ji-Hyuk cut the creature’s words off.

â??I guess you’re the only one who hasn’t figured it out yet. Kairan probably knew about this already. That guy sent you here, didn’t he?â?? (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

â??...â??

That was enough to shut Narusius up.

How did he know that?

â??Why do you think Kairan sent you here? To kill me? Would he not have known that you’d never be my match?â?? (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

â??I, I...â?? (Narusius)

â??Kekeke.â?? (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Yi Ji-Hyuk let out a crazed cackle and slowly began drawing a line on Narusius’s throat with his claw.

â??And that’s why you’re going to die. Whether it’s the demon world or Earth, idiots like you only get used as pawns then get discarded like dead weight, you know.â?? (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

â??Kkeuh-ruruk.â?? (Narusisu)

Blood gushed out from Narusius’s mouth. The demon king tried desperately to avoid Yi Ji-Hyuk’s blade-like claws digging into its throat. However, he pinned the demon’s body hard on the ground and continued to leisurely draw a bloody line on the exposed neck.

It was as if he was savouring the sensation.

â??Don’t you worry, though. I shall send that guy to where you’re going now soon enough. Kekekeke.â?? (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

With its eyes wide open in disbelief, Narusius slowly lost its consciousness. Its body slowly hardened, then transformed into pure Mana and crumbled away.

â??Hah-aaaah...â?? (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Yi Ji-Hyuk stabbed his hand into Narusius’s crumbling body and began greedily sucking in the abundant Mana. It was no longer difficult for him to draw in extra Mana now, but getting his hands on something of this purity through the atmosphere was still a tall order.

After sucking in all that Mana, Yi Ji-Hyuk shuddered grandly and raised his head. He might have finished one demon king off, but the demonic beasts were still freely roaming around.

He slowly extended both of his hands out.

â??Get...â?? (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Wuuu-oooong!

Pitch-black Mana gathered in his hands.

â??...Over here.â?? (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

His Mana rose up into the sky. And then, a massive magic circle began engraving itself into the centre of Seoul’s sky.

*

â??D-did he win?â?? (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

Choi Jeong-Hoon saw the black Mana strands rapidly rising into the sky and cried out in elation. Anyone could tell that the magic circle was aimed at the monsters down below. If it was to fight against a demon king, there wouldn’t be a need to draw something that massive way over there.

And as if to answer his expectation, the magic circle grew even larger than before and started emitting pitch-black light. A black void was generated in the centre of this magic circle and gradually grew larger and larger.

A Gate seemingly directed to the ground below had appeared over the skies of Seoul.

Choi Jeong-Hoon couldn’t help but tilt his head at that sight.

‘What is he trying to do?’ (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

He could tell that a massive-scale magic was about to be used here, but he got this strange feeling that this one would be slightly different from all the others Yi Ji-Hyuk had shown before.

Well, whenever the latter wanted to go with a kill-everything type magic, rather than open a Gate like that, he preferred to condense Mana and fire that instead.

Choi Jeong-Hoon’s puzzlement didn’t last for long, however.

â??...W-what the heck is going on?â?? (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

The world suddenly began flipping on its head.

At first, small particles of dust, then small pebbles after that.

It all started with objects with low weight first â?? and soon the entire city began floating up gradually. 𝒇r𝙚𝙚𝓌𝙚𝑏𝗻𝑜𝘷𝗲𝘭.c૦𝑚

So, so very slowly â?? as if gravity itself had reversed, the items starting from low weight floated up slowly first and got sucked in towards the gigantic Gate in the sky.

â??I-it can’t be?!â?? (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

There was no way?!

A man with a sane mind wouldn’t try something like that.

Of course, Choi Jeong-Hoon knew better than anyone that Yi Ji-Hyuk was not what you’d consider as normal.

â??Miss Jeong Hae-Min!!!â?? (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

â??Y-yes?â?? (Jeong Hae-Min)

â??Teleport everyone in this place out of here, now! Hurry!â?? (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

â??Got it!â?? (Jeong Hae-Min)

She didn’t need a reason. Even she was aware of the severity of the current situation. If Choi Jeong-Hoon said so, then there was no doubt about it.

The black Gate she could see in the heavens above was like the wide-open mouth of a devil, wanting to suck everything in this world.

< 409. Not like I wished for it -4 > Fin.