Chapter 876
Episode 218: The Cycle of Stronger Foes Arriving When One Falls (Part 5)
A massive shadow spread over the sea outpost of the Demon Realm.
Neither Sakiel nor the demons stationed beneath the outpost had ever encountered Murakan’s ultimate technique before.
No one could guess its true power or what was about to unfold. Yet instinctively, they all sensed the terrible danger looming over them.
“Activate the shield… we have to activate it!”
Sakiel shouted urgently for the outpost’s protective barrier to be raised, but her voice echoed hollowly inside her mouth.
It wasn’t that no sound came out, but most of the demons who should have carried out her orders had already been swallowed by the darkness.
They didn’t even realize the moment they died. Their vision simply darkened for a moment, and just as they reflexively tried to act, their consciousness snapped shut.
All the Demon Realm’s proud defenses and alert magic were swallowed up in vain by the encroaching darkness. Sakiel felt the shadows closing in from her sides and behind, and she flinched, dodging wildly.
“One touch and it’s over…!”
She raised her crystal orb.
Back when she was a great general, she had used the Grand Seal to subdue countless Demon Lords—everyone except Jito. She intended to unleash that very technique now.
“I’ll make you regret not leaving quietly!”
As Sakiel unleashed her magical energy, the darkness around her briefly receded.
“Hoh, so you claim to be a top-tier demon. You’ve got some pedigree, it seems.”
Murakan grinned as he looked at Sakiel.
But he didn’t press harder or unleash his breath to suppress her further. The purpose of Jin and Murakan’s visit today wasn’t to obliterate the Demon Realm’s largest outpost.
They were here to gauge the extent of its power, to assess just how threatening its abilities were. In other words, to uncover the Demon Realm’s trump cards.
Kraaaah…!
The sphere of magical energy surrounding Sakiel spun fiercely, pushing back the darkness of Murakan’s Dark Arrival. Its speed increased steadily, and Murakan’s interest visibly grew with each surge.
“You feel it too, kid? Inside that magic energy concealing the demon, an enormous power is building. Looks like they’re trying to cast some spell through that crystal orb.”
“Murakan, you decide. If it looks even a little dangerous, attack without hesitation. If not, let’s watch a bit longer.”
“Given that my ultimate technique is unfolding so perfectly, there’s no way it could be dangerous. Unless there’s some monster capable of tearing through the Dark Arrival’s shadows—like Elona or Ziphl. In the Demon Realm, probably only Jito or Paelito Belgassium.”
From Murakan’s perspective, the darkness Sakiel had pushed back was barely a scratch on the Dark Arrival.
If Sakiel had the power of Changseong, she would have attacked Murakan before the Dark Arrival fully manifested.
Below the outpost, a silent slaughter continued.
Murakan sensed the demons dying through his awareness spread across the Dark Arrival, and Jin saw their energies fading one by one beyond the darkness.
Meanwhile, Sakiel had expanded her domain to about five times its original size. The surface of the now massive magical sphere was inscribed with countless unfamiliar magic circles.
“A curse or a sealing spell, it seems. But since I confirmed immunity to curses, it must be a seal.”
“Whatever it is, he won’t succeed.”
Murakan’s confident words made Jin nod.
At that moment, Sakiel completed the Grand Seal ritual. She opened her eyes wide, focusing all her magical power and energy into the crystal orb.
“The End of Hell—the spell that sealed seven Demon Lords before. No matter how strong you are, you won’t withstand this…!”
The End of Hell was the magic that had elevated Sakiel, whose combat power was relatively low compared to the top generals, to the position of Chief Secretary.
She hadn’t expected to unleash it right at the start of the battle, but she was oddly relieved. If Murakan could unleash the Dark Arrival repeatedly without cost, it was only right to try to end things here and now.
“Time to send you to hell!”
Sakiel shouted, raising the crystal orb. According to plan, all the souls of hell she had gathered would burst forth from the orb, ensnaring Jin and Murakan, dragging them into an abyss even past the reckoning of past Demon Lords.
But moments later, she realized the magic circles engraved on the orb weren’t activating.
“What the…? There wasn’t a single flaw in the ritual. So why isn’t it triggering?”
“Khahaha!”
Murakan suddenly burst into laughter. The darkness of the Dark Arrival rippled with his laughter, as if mocking Sakiel alongside him.
“When that guy was preparing the spell earlier, my spirit had already infiltrated the orb. He was too tense to notice and finished the ritual in vain.”
“So it was a sealing spell after all. If I hadn’t blocked it beforehand, it would have been dangerous. With that much power, even you or I wouldn’t have shaken it off easily.”
“I hate to admit it, but that’s true. If the sealing had gone off without a hitch, we both would have had to risk everything just to break free. That Sakiel is no joke.”
Sakiel finally noticed the orb had turned black.
“Ah…”
A rookie mistake she couldn’t believe she’d made. Since learning magic, she had never once slipped up like this.
The reason she hadn’t sensed the spirit infiltrating the orb was simple: she had no margin for error.
With no other option but the End of Hell to resolve this crisis, she had focused solely on completing the ritual.
Pushing back the encroaching darkness and casting the spell left no room to check even the orb’s condition right before her eyes.
“Kahak!”
The darkness of the Dark Arrival swallowed Sakiel’s right hand holding the orb. It tore the orb and her hand away, surging relentlessly toward her.
“If all goes well, we might even finish this guy off before the Dark Arrival ends, kid.”
“Never let your guard down until the very end. But I have to admit, ending the Demon Realm’s Chief Secretary here does sound tempting. Maybe it’s time I drew my sword.”
Bradamante drew her sword from its sheath, enveloped in spiritual energy. Sakiel barely managed to fly to evade the Dark Arrival.
If Jin intervened now, Sakiel would meet her death.
But she still had one last move.
“In the end… I have to use Jito’s energy.”
The problem was, it wasn’t her own power—it was Jito’s.
Sakiel didn’t hesitate. She had already been granted permission to draw on Jito’s power in emergencies like this. Only Paelito, Sakiel, and a few other high-ranking demons had that privilege.
From her bosom, Sakiel pulled out a small black chunk no bigger than a finger.
A piece of Jito’s flesh. It was meant for use if they ever faced Changseong during the Invasion of Inse. Even then, she never wanted to use it if she could avoid it.
Consuming Jito’s body meant permanently weakening him. Even a single piece held vastly different value depending on whether Jito himself or another demon wielded it.
“I’m sorry, Jito.”
Tears of blood welled in her eyes as she crushed the flesh in her hand. The moment it shattered like a walnut, Jin stopped his sword swing and gathered his energy.
He realized the situation had shifted—this was no longer an attack, but a defense.
“Murakan, he’s pulled out a new trick. And that’s… Jito’s energy.”
“Yeah, the power of the guy who beat Ayula.”
The spiritual energy surrounding Sakiel receded.
She now wielded power comparable to Jito’s when he faced Ayula. Her torn arm had already regenerated, slicing through the surging darkness. In place of the lost crystal orb, a new magical sphere formed.
Within it, the sealing ritual Sakiel had tried to cast was reforming. At the same time, a barrage of offensive dark magic rained down—powerful enough that even Jin and Murakan couldn’t ignore it.
Jin deflected the dark beams with his sword, while Murakan spread his wings, amplifying the Dark Arrival’s shadows.
“Murakan, let’s pull back now.”
“Pull back? Yeah, he’s gotten way stronger by drawing on Jito’s power, but he’s in bad shape. Looks like he’s going berserk. He can’t keep this up for long.”
“Exactly why we need to retreat. We can’t handle the sealing ritual with Jito’s power added in. And like you said, Sakiel’s boost won’t last forever. We pull back now and wait for Jito’s energy to fade before striking again.”
“I pushed myself to recreate the Dark Arrival at full strength. You know we’ll need time to recover before we can fight at this level again.”
“Even so, it doesn’t matter. Even if we don’t face Sakiel in battle again today, we’ve already gained the advantage. The power of Jito that Sakiel used will definitely fade away. If it were the kind of power that didn’t disappear, there’d be no reason to pull it out only now. The cost of this fight is just that you recover a bit, but those guys will never get back what they used today.”
[Tch, fine. Then before we retreat, I’ll scatter all the remnants of the Dark Arrival toward the base.]
With a wicked grin, Murakan focused the Dark Arrival’s remnants toward the base. Sakiel tried to chase after Jin and Murakan but stopped flying when he saw the base being destroyed.
The fragments of Jito, which Sakiel and the other demon lords of the underworld treasured like their own lives, were used to protect the base—and then vanished.