Ch.186Demon Awakened from the Seal (5)

# 186. Demon Awakened from the Seal (5)

Everything becomes clearer.

The closer I get to where humans gather, the clearer everything becomes.

Everything about me, except who I am.

The twisted creatures swarming around me rush ahead.

Are they responding to my will?

Or is it merely instinctual behavior?

What matters is knowing who I am, but I couldn’t figure it out even as the twisted creatures were dying at the hands of humans.

I need to know, for only then can I establish my existence as myself and properly exert my power.

Should I wait until I discover who I am? Or at least until those humans come to deal with me?

Just as I wish to eliminate humans, they surely wish to eliminate me.

I should return.

Return and wait for the next opportunity.

Those twisted creatures are valuable, but they will multiply again with time.

But.

What is that unpleasant flame?

**

Our action of entering the sealing site and awakening the Sealed Demon earlier than scheduled could be considered a bug exploit in gaming terms. It was a method impossible to execute in the game, but this wasn’t a game, and though we struggled tremendously, we succeeded.

So my answer to why the Sealed Demon hadn’t appeared yet was simple:

‘It woke up too early.’

Simply put, it was bugged.

Originally, after defeating a couple of elite monsters, a message saying “A Demon has Awakened from the Seal!” should have appeared, followed by a hellish raid… But while the Sealed Demon instinctively moved toward the fortress after awakening, it stopped advancing for some reason.

A prolonged standoff wasn’t good. At this rate, the fortress side would eventually win, but not without casualties. And if the Sealed Demon survived, monsters would regenerate, and it would return stronger.

Yet we couldn’t go looking for it directly. That would be suicide.

So, though it was uncertain whether it would work, we decided to provoke and lure it out—by sniping it with flames imbued with holy power and elemental energy, forces antithetical to demons.

*Hey, are you scared?

If you keep hiding, I’ll keep throwing these!*

I know it’s unwise to judge demons by human standards. But one thing I was certain of:

Demons have pride and arrogance as passive traits.

From our perspective, it was a “worth a shot” attack, but I half-expected the Sealed Demon wouldn’t be able to take it that way—making this more like a rain dance than a strategic move.

Since it consumes considerable magical and mental energy.

Since it’s not a skill light enough to keep throwing repeatedly.

So.

I wished it would wake up soon.

I wished it would annoy us by constantly advertising its awakening and approach.

Come quickly, you bastard. Don’t you see your minions are dying?

The combined attack—a miracle-like fusion of Sister Soyu’s Record Erasure, Subin’s Flame Spear, and Sister Yehyun’s Fire Elemental—shot across the sky like a comet with a single gesture from me.

The target wasn’t the monsters but the Sealed Demon somewhere in the distance.

Though invisible, its massive presence was palpable, and the unpleasant vibrations had continued since the battle began, allowing us to estimate its location.

“Ah…”

Someone sighed.

The comet-like flame spear (generously infused with holy power) had vanished without a trace.

But I clenched my fist in anticipation.

An attack of that magnitude disappearing without a trace?

“Battle positions.”

“…Huh?”

“Boss! It’s coming soon!”

Obviously, the Sealed Demon had reacted!

At my words, the raid members smiled and took their positions. Though boss raids were never easy, everyone knew that a drawn-out stalemate was the worst scenario.

A boss just needs to be defeated, right?

That was our specialty.

“Arang. You know where the leadership is.”

Arang nodded.

“Go tell them. The time has come.”

Arang disappeared and returned in a flash. Her speed was impressive, but this was possible because everything had been agreed upon beforehand. If we hadn’t convinced them sufficiently…

‘Don’t think about unnecessary ifs. Focus. Focus.’

Once the Sealed Demon appears and creates a raid space like the Colosseum, that’s our cue.

Despite screams and explosions from all directions and the foul smell of burning corpses, we conserved our strength and waited patiently.

Just as I was considering firing another provocative attack…

*- It was because of you.*

“Ugh, oppa!”

“Sunghyun!”

An uncomfortable voice that couldn’t be described as pleasant pierced directly into my head.

The Sealed Demon. The boss had appeared.

*- It was because of you.*

But this Sealed Demon bastard was blaming us right off the bat. Sure, we did fire flame spears without warning, but what did it mean by “because of you”?

Could it be referring to us waking it early?

*- You will regret this.*

“Fuck, what a disgusting voice. Hey! Stop spouting nonsense and show yourself! Are you scared?”

Yuri, her face contorted from the voice, spat out harsh curses. Even the unnies who would normally tell her to watch her language remained silent—that’s how unpleasant the Sealed Demon’s voice was.

*- Primitive beings.*

The vibrations and voice we’d been feeling grew much stronger. The vibrations made our skin tremble, and the voice made us want to cover our ears.

And it wasn’t just affecting us—fortress personnel and monsters alike were suffering.

“What are you doing! Keep attacking!”

“B-but I can’t concentrate on my incantation!”

“Is this the limit of Paelm Fortress mages? Grit your teeth! Endure it forcibly! Minor backlash is nothing! If you want to live, be prepared to die while casting!”

“Remember the hardships of walking God’s path, brothers and sisters. Life is synonymous with trials, and today is merely one of many.”

“Even if it may be our final trial.”

“Our faith in God and guidance for His lambs shall never cease.”

“Until our last breath, we shall not stop praying.”

“Keep shooting! Whether your fingers tear, your bowstrings break, or your arrows run out! Anyone whose arms stop for any other reason dies by my hand! Understood?”

“Yes!”

“Keep shooting, I said! Keep shooting!!!”

While the monsters merely cowered and tried to distance themselves from the approaching Sealed Demon, the fortress side was different. Some with strong mental fortitude quickly regained their composure and rallied their comrades.

It was fortunate, and something we needed too, but…

“Let’s go.”

For our raid members, a single word was enough. Together, we jumped down from the fortress.

**

The Sealed Demon was essentially a summoner-type mage boss. Thus, the first obstacle we faced after leaving the fortress was none other than the monsters.

The monsters that had fled to the outskirts due to the Sealed Demon’s presence turned and charged at us as we approached it.

Strictly speaking, they weren’t summoned by the boss but were a natural phenomenon, yet a pattern is a pattern.

The Sealed Demon might be seeing us for the first time, but we had defeated it dozens of times before.

Regular monsters charging at us were just that—regular monsters.

If there were thousands, it might be different, but with fewer than a hundred, we didn’t need pattern analysis.

With our firepower…

“Break through!”

“Roger!”

We just needed to push through directly.

Seyeon at the front, followed closely by Yuri. These two had incredible breakthrough power. Like in a Dynasty Warriors game, monsters in their path were sent flying like bowling pins.

With powerful ranged support backing their aggressive charge, we reached the Sealed Demon in just minutes.

‘That’s one savage appearance.’

When we faced Iseratio in Magicanth, it wasn’t humanoid to begin with, and the heat that seemed to cook you just by being near it was so overwhelming that I didn’t have time to focus on its appearance. But the Sealed Demon was different.

It was humanoid, not as large as Iseratio, and unpleasant.

First the vibrations and voice, and now its appearance.

It wasn’t simply ugly.

It was literally unpleasant.

I hadn’t thought much when seeing it in the game, but facing it in reality made me so uncomfortable that I wanted to lash out and destroy something.

“Looks like fucking shit, this bastard.”

Of course, our Yuri didn’t hold back.

“Hey, wait!”

She leaped forward with her blunt appearance critique. Something felt off from the start.

“Everyone to positions!”

I quickly checked on the raid members. Their expressions were uniformly serious. They were clearly enduring the same discomfort as me.

“Hey! Ayuri! What are you doing? Come back!”

…Even Subin, uncharacteristically, scolded Yuri loudly from the beginning.

Seeing this, I shouted:

“Soyu! Barrier! For all of us!”

This discomfort. Something’s wrong.