Ch.162Chapter 6. Kill the Dueoksini (6)

THWACK, THWACK, THWACK.

I swing the club down.

I continuously bring down the club imbued with Taowu’s magic power, pulverizing Dueoksini’s body.

The moment I strike the crown of her head with the club, Taowu’s magic power, like a cutting wind, grinds away Dueoksini’s head.

When I swing the club at her shoulder, her already mangled arm dislocates and falls off.

The moment I stab the club into her spine as she tries to crawl away, blades of wind penetrate between the joints of her spine, splitting Dueoksini’s body apart.

“Kuh, aaaagh…!”

Even in her tattered state, Dueoksini screams monstrously.

The scream seems to be produced by magic rather than her vocal cords, as she continues to shriek in agony despite her body being completely destroyed.

“H-how…! Someone like you…!”

[There’s no need to say anything more.]

I came prepared with powers to compensate for my weaknesses and exploit my opponent’s vulnerabilities.

That’s essentially the end of it.

[Perish before the power of Platinum Sun that you so adore.]

Ziiing.

I emit light from my eyes again.

Unlike before when I shot a straight laser beam for long-distance attacks, I spread it like a net across my goblin mask, dispersing it in all directions.

“GYAAAAH!!”

Dueoksini’s body begins to burn away.

I dragged her into this dimensional gap, and though there’s no sun here, the magic power of Ymir residing in my body is equivalent to sunlight.

Demons exist in darkness and fear sunlight.

Since Ymir is the Platinum Sun of this world, I can purify the demon Dueoksini with Ymir’s magic power.

That’s all there is to it.

“N-no…! I can’t, I can’t die in a place like this…! At least, at least a little more…!”

[What, did you hope to die in a national cemetery or something? Too bad.]

More than half of Dueoksini’s body has already burned away.

The tide of battle has already turned, and no matter how much she drags herself away from me, trying to escape this room, it’s useless.

[Where do you think you’re running to?]

“GYAAK!”

THUD!

I swing the club toward her solar plexus.

Her chest caves in, and Dueoksini twitches violently in place like a cockroach pinned with tweezers.

THWACK, THUD, THUD.

With each strike, chunks of Dueoksini’s flesh fall off like foam.

The fallen flesh tries to regenerate by bubbling up, but each time, I immediately spray the light of Platinum Sun to destroy her magic power.

[You’ve been good at running away until now. But that ends here.]

“Kuh, hehehe, you, you want something from me…?!”

Dueoksini, now resembling a headless torso, shouts toward me.

“The fact that you’re not killing me right away, kheuk, means you want something from me!”

[…….]

“What do you want? Y-yes…! I, I was wrong to boast? Th-then I won’t appear before you anymore…! I won’t show up in Korea anymore!”

Dueoksini was desperate.

“I, I can’t die in a place like this…! My death should at least, be more meaningful…!”

Even as a demon, she seemed to genuinely fear for her life, as Dueoksini began begging me for mercy.

“A being like me can’t die in such a place, in such an ugly state…?! Huh?! At least on a live broadcast, kuhek, in front of many people…huh?! Y-yes! I’ll die! But not here—in front of people!”

Demons fear it.

More than death, they fear humiliation, damage to their honor.

“That Grand Cross! Your finishing move! Kill me in front of people! D-don’t kill me in this empty space, isolated from the world…! You need to build your reputation too! The one who defeated Dueoksini, the monster who created 72 demons!”

[Indeed, if I defeat you here, it would amount to nothing.]

All that effort for nothing.

No one would know.

[Only the three who fought with me would know. That Dueoksini was defeated and will no longer appear.]

“Y-yes! More, more gloriously kill me…GYAAK!”

[Not interested.]

THWACK.

I dismantle Dueoksini’s body with the club again.

Now only her chest and the ribs protecting her heart remain.

Crackle, sizzle.

With a burning sound, all traces of Dueoksini are disappearing from this small gymnasium.

Except for the pulsating heart, no trace of Dueoksini remains, and I focus sharp magical energy at the tip of my club.

SLASH!

I drive the crescent blade into Dueoksini’s solar plexus.

Like cutting tofu with a knife, the blade splits Dueoksini’s chest vertically.

Thud.

I open Dueoksini’s ribs with the tip of my club.

Beneath the broken and twisted ribcage, a lump larger than a fist was beating rapidly.

[So this is you. Dueoksini. Your heart is your core, I see?]

“S-stop…!”

Something flashed on the valve-like part of the red demonic heart.

“I, I admit defeat! So please, don’t let me die so pathetically in a place like this!”

Eyes and a mouth sprouted from the heart.

She must have used her last strength to create organs for “conversation” with her remaining magic power.

[Even in your final moments, you try to bewitch me by pretending to be human, a being with reason. Yes, that’s the typical scheme of a demon.]

“E-even so…! Think about it! You, you don’t want to end it like this either!”

Dueoksini continuously tries to persuade me.

“Honor! The honor of killing Dueoksini! I’ll give you the honor of killing an S+ rank demon, no, me… ‘the god of Uranus’! If you let me die in a more crowded place, a more glamorous place…!”

[You seem to have one misunderstanding, so let me correct that first.]

I point my club at Dueoksini.

[I don’t particularly enjoy talking with the likes of you. Do you know why I’m still talking like this?]

“…….”

[It’s because I’ve already won.]

There are no variables.

Victory is certain.

[Instead of trying to persuade me, you should be thinking about why I’m having this pointless conversation with you.]

“What…?”

[I guess such a great being as yourself doesn’t quite understand the situation you’re in. Let me tell you then.]

I put my club on the ground and crouched down.

[I am a traitor to my country.]

“What…?!”

[I am a traitor to my country. Shout it loudly three times, and I’ll spare you today.]

“……!”

Dueoksini realized.

Though she has only one, her eye fills with shock and rage as she glares at me.

“Y-you’re playing with me…!”

[That’s right.]

I lightly touched the heart with the tip of my club.

“GYAAAK!”

[Why are you screaming like that? I haven’t even exposed you to sunlight yet.]

I poked Dueoksini’s heart with my club, detaching it from the body.

Then I immediately purified the chest cavity with sunlight.

Now, only Dueoksini’s heart remains.

[Say it. Show me proof that you want to live by saying it.]

“I, I am….”

[Even if others can’t hear, I’ll listen to you here.]

“I am…a traitor…to my country…!”

Blood spurted from Dueoksini’s eyes.

“A traitor to my country…! A parasite who sold out the nation, turned my back on my homeland, and survived by clinging to foreign powers…!”

Bloody fluid dripped from her mouth, and the valves of the heart gradually began to shrivel.

“S-save me…!”

[You want to live even after selling out your country?]

“I want to live…! I don’t want to die like this, in such a pathetic way…!”

[I see.]

I flicker the golden magic power burning in my eyes and extinguish it.

“Huh…?”

[…Heh.]

At the same time, the world began to collapse.

As soon as I withdrew my magic power, the alternate world trapping Dueoksini and me began to gradually break down.

“Kuh, hahaha!”

The world is collapsing.

The Chamber of Truth created for our one-on-one battle slowly began to crumble.

“You’ve used up your magic!! Yes, there’s no way you could maintain something like this forever!”

[It does consume a lot of magic power, that’s true.]

It was no small feat to transfer a being like Dueoksini from the original world to “my world,” and the fact that it lasted this long was because I could easily subdue Dueoksini.

But that too is now over.

This barrier-like world is gradually beginning to merge with the original world.

“Foolish one…! Outside, before entering this space, my physical bodies are spread out! My bodies, my other halves, my children are outside!”

[…….]

“If even one survives, I can dwell in it! Hahaha, you fool! Villains are always like this! They talk big but end up missing what’s important!”

Dueoksini mocks me, pulling out red vein-like masses from her heart to create leg-like structures.

“Goblin…! I will surely kill you! I’ll find the traitor among the Seven Stars, and together with that one, I’ll make you both into garbage not even worth mentioning in this world before killing you! I, surely…! Hahaha!”

[Stupid fool.]

I lowered my club.

[I did toy with you, but the reason I talked with you was just to buy time.]

“…What did you say?”

[Release.]

I dispelled the club’s physical form and released the subspace.

With something like the ticking of a clock, Dueoksini and I returned to the original world, inside the gymnasium.

“Heh…! Foolish…!”

[……!]

Dueoksini saw it.

Right in front of her.

A brilliant sun, incomparable to the light emitted from my eyes.

“Ah, aah, no…! F-first, my…!”

[Ah.]

Ymir pointed a brilliantly shining golden sword at Dueoksini.

“W-wait! S-stop! I am, like this—”

SLASH!

Ymir’s golden sword sliced through Dueoksini’s heart.

In the final moment.

Dueoksini’s eyes looked directly at me.

She realized.

That I had been toying with her until the very end.

[Ah.]

As Dueoksini’s heart vanished in a golden light, Ymir raised her head toward me.

[…It was right to eliminate it immediately, wasn’t it?]

…That’s Ymir for you.

[Yes. Your decisiveness is admirably thorough.]

[…….]

Above the mask.

Ymir’s golden glowing eyes curved like half-moons.

And so.

What was once Dueoksini quietly vanished inside an ordinary gymnasium on Sejong Island.

With no one in the world aware of Dueoksini’s demise.