Crackle!
Flutter!
Suddenly, the robe tore apart, and something massive blocked my view. It all happened so fast that at first, I couldn’t make out what it was. But then it began to flap its wings vigorously, and the witch, who had stretched out her neck, started to rise into the air.
Startled, I focused my gaze and saw the fully spread wings. They were huge, bat-like, and a deep black color. Just as I was about to think the shape looked strangely familiar, the witch soared upward on the wind, quickly disappearing into the distance.
“Pursue her!”
Hwa-jeong’s voice echoed in my mind. But just as I pushed off with all my strength, my body suddenly twisted violently.
“Ugh?”
Rumble! Rumble!
Looking down, I saw the altar collapsing in a heap. Not just the altar—the entire room we had entered was crumbling. It was as if the world itself was ending; the whole space shattered like a puzzle falling apart. And beyond the wreckage, a new world began to reveal itself.
At that moment—
“Suhyun!”
Flash!
A fierce burst of light streaked before my eyes. I instinctively shut them tight, then opened them again to hear a high-pitched scream echoing through the air. Rarely showing anger, Im Hanna now glared fiercely at someone, holding a “brilliant flash” in her hands. A glowing arrow was lodged in the back of the witch, who was still hovering in midair. Seeing her stagger, I shouted without hesitation.
“Dragon Transformation!”
『Activating Dragon Transformation.』
Immediately regaining my balance, I flapped the wings that sprouted from my back and surged upward with all my might.
“That was a good strike! Let’s finish this quickly before it gets any more troublesome!”
As Hwa-jeong’s voice rang out, clear flames wrapped around my bloodied sword. She was telling me she’d handle the support—my only job was to cut down the witch.
Fueled by that encouragement, I closed the distance in a flash with a three-step movement: jump, spirit dash, and phantom shift. As I got close enough to see her face, the witch’s expression twisted as if she’d seen a monster.
“D-Dragon wings? Crazy! How can a human—!”
Before she could finish, I swung my sword down with all my strength. The witch hastily raised her arm to block. Somehow, she had summoned a long staff resembling a broomstick in her right hand. In an instant, the broomstick glowed blue and emitted a circular magic seal, colliding with my sword.
Clang! Clang!
Blue sparks flew at the point of contact. I took a shallow breath. Astonishingly, the magic seal blocked my full-powered strike twice. Though it cracked and melted from the heat, the sharp edge of my blade hadn’t pierced through. Still, the impact left its mark—the witch let out a long scream and began to fall.
“…!”
No. Just as I thought she was falling, she barely spread her wings and soared again. But she no longer tried to run. It seemed she realized fleeing was pointless. Floating steadily in the air, she glared at me as if to kill.
I adjusted my grip on the sword and studied her carefully. The wings on her back, her hands darkened to black… and when I spotted the horns sprouting from her crown, I finally understood the witch’s transformation.
“So that’s it. She’s a demon.”
A demon.
“But the ones you mentioned didn’t wake me up. I’ve been awake for months now, long before that.”
“I don’t know either. I never imagined there’d be a being capable of meddling even in this astral dimension.”
Right. If she’s a demon, that explains what the witch said earlier. It wasn’t the caravan that broke the seal—it was a demon. And not recently, but long ago. Thinking back, something similar happened before. When we entered the mountain range where the dragon slept, the demons resurrected Magna Carta.
“Then why?” The question kept nagging me, but I had a hunch. Probably because I kept crushing every plan they made, they decided to work somewhere I couldn’t see. The thought sent chills down my spine. If I had ignored it like before… the disaster would have been unimaginably worse than the first time.
The battle momentarily quieted. The witch no longer wore a calm expression. Still shaken from the earlier clash, she grimaced and rubbed her right hand. I crossed my arms, thinking I needed to figure out her true nature first. It was frustrating that my third eye was limited here.
“I wondered how she blocked it… but I never thought there’d be a demon. Ha.”
“…”
“Let’s see. No mere demon lord could block my attack… so she must be at least one of the 14 demon princes.”
“…”
I probed gently, but the witch showed no reaction. She seemed intent on hiding the demon’s identity, acting very cautiously. That meant the demon inside her probably knew who I was.
Of course, that didn’t mean I had no way to find out. Unless it was the great demon himself, provoking one of the 14 demon princes or their minions was surprisingly easy. I recalled the blue magic circle that had formed around the broomstick earlier.
“Considering the witch’s compatibility and that defense… could it be Balsor? That insignificant subordinate of Satan?”
At that, the witch shuddered. I smirked.
“Don’t pretend. Pluton. Looks like that prim and proper Lucifer never taught you how to act.”
“Shut up, you!”
As expected, a voice responded immediately—not the witch’s voice, but one that seemed to come from deep within her. It seemed the demon had tried to pass off as Balsor, but I knew demons too well.
“Did you write your will? Proserpina might be sad.”
I chuckled, adjusting my grip on the sword. Come to think of it, it was pretty fun watching Proserpina get trampled in front of Pluton.
Anyway, I didn’t know how I ended up facing a demon, but I was oddly glad. This was like catching a rat while backing away. If I could take down Pluton here, the demon faction would suffer a huge blow.
Now that I knew who I was dealing with, I slowly looked around. The scenery had changed again. The round, spacious room was gone, replaced by a scene straight out of an apocalypse. The sky was red, and the ground was covered with rough, reddish bushes.
‘This place…’
“The true form of this world.”
The answer came from Hwa-jeong.
‘The true form of this world?’
“Yes. Remember someone said when we entered that this world is a space made of magic?”
I vaguely recalled hearing something like that.
“Right now, all that magic has been stripped away.”
‘Stripped away?’
“Yes. For some reason, that witch removed it herself. It must mean the situation is urgent.”
‘I see…’
So this is the real “Tomb of the Barbarian King.”
“Anyway, it’s best to retreat for now. Now that the true astral dimension has revealed itself, even I can’t predict what might happen. So forget about running wild on your own from here on.”
‘Hmm.’
I agreed immediately with Hwa-jeong’s advice. From now on, I wasn’t just facing the witch. I had to deal with both her magic and Pluton’s power. If it were just the witch, I could handle it easily with my user traits, but with Pluton involved, the situation was completely different.
Pluton. One of the 14 demon princes, a renowned demon lord under Lucifer, married to Proserpina. Though not quite as strong as Mammon, whom I dealt with long ago, he was a formidable close-combat fighter and a skilled demon mage. And since several months had passed since the seed blossomed, he must have regained some strength. I didn’t expect to win easily, but I couldn’t afford to underestimate him.
A moment later.
I landed and folded my wings as my comrades quickly surrounded me.
“Mercenary Lord, what happened?”
“We tried to take advantage of a momentary lapse, but an unexpected situation occurred.”
When Han So-young asked, I pointed to the sky. Everyone looked up at once. The witch was still hovering there.
“A demon has appeared. It’s estimated to be one of the 14 demon princes, similar to the Mammon we faced before. Not an opponent to be taken lightly.”
After I finished, Seonyul and Han So-young looked confused, but some clan members raised their weapons tensely, recalling the tough battle with Mammon.
“Ah… what on earth happened? Anyway, you’re saying this is an enemy we have to defeat?”
Seonyul shook her head and pulled a card from her pocket.
Then—
“Shut uuuup!”
Suddenly, a louder voice thundered through the crimson sky. It was the witch’s voice.
“Run away? You want me to abandon this space and run?”
“I can’t do that! I put so much effort into preparing this! I’m this close to getting my revenge!”
From the looks of it, Pluton kept urging me to run away. It was probably the smarter choice. Not that he intended to let me go easily, of course.
“Shut up, shut up, shut up! Me, die? Lose to those pathetic fools? I’m the one they call the One-Man Legion!”
“Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!”
That ripping laughter buzzed in my ears. But if I sensed even a hint of desperation beneath it—like he was trying to hide his fear, refusing to admit it—maybe it was just my imagination.
Suddenly, the witch who’d been laughing maniacally stopped.
“If you’re not going to help, then just shut up.”
She spat the words like she was biting them off, then glared down with an even more savage expression. She laid her broomstick horizontally beneath her, sat down on it, and stretched out her right hand. Moments later, a terrifying swirl of magical energy began to gather. Her long purple hair whipped wildly in every direction as an immense flow of power spread across the ground.
“Animate Flora!”
The moment she cast the spell, the earth cracked with a grinding sound, and thick, blood-red vines burst up from all around—even beneath our feet. We didn’t just stand there. Ha Seung-woo quickly chanted a spell, pressing his hands to the ground.
“Change Sand, Change Rock!”
Something incredible happened. The cracked earth began to harden, turning a dull gray and solidifying like stone. The vines that had been surging upward suddenly withered and shriveled, collapsing lifelessly.
Of course, not every patch of ground was affected. Beyond a 20-meter radius, huge, grotesque tentacle-like plants—each over two meters long—sprouted densely, writhing and twitching.
“Heh heh, heh heh heh. You can be happy about this. Because…”
The witch’s voice sounded almost unhinged, and I couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Wh-why are you laughing?”
Maybe she noticed. Her tone immediately sharpened. Like Mavolo, this witch was pretty unhinged herself. No wonder the demon had targeted her.
Anyway, the demon’s appearance was definitely unexpected. But the writhing tentacle plants all around? Not so much. We’d seen this before during the city’s past assault. The arrival of a plant army was anticipated, and we’d prepared accordingly. That’s why this expedition was carefully assembled with the right team.
“Baek Han-gyeol, Kim Han-byeol!”
I called out without hesitation, and both nodded in unison.
“Sara, Ha Seung-woo!”
I shouted next, and they immediately raised their staffs.
“────. ────.”
“────. ────.”
“────. ────.”
“────. ────.”
The four of them began chanting spells simultaneously.
The second round was about to begin.
---------------------------= Author’s Note =---------------------------
Ahaha. Don’t worry too much. After all the effort I put into this part, there’s no way they’ll fall so easily. The witch and Pluton are going to put up a pretty decent fight. …Though now that I say “fight,” it sounds kind of weird. Like Kim Soo-hyun is the villain, and the witch and demon are the ones struggling hard… hmm.
Anyway, next time will be a special feature: “Cheer Up! The Magic (Girl) Squad!” …(Bam! Bam!)
Well then, I’m off to catch up on my messages.
Wishing all my readers a peaceful night. :)