Dokma Jeghal-hwi – 7

The Chief Manager didn’t give the enemy time to prepare.

He charged forward like a wild beast, a thick miasma preceding him by several steps with each stride.

The intruders scattered, trying to evade the Chief Manager’s grasp, but among those present, only the Chief Manager possessed intimate knowledge of the Heavenly Demon Palace.

One of the Azure Dragon Unit members, narrowly avoiding the Chief Manager, was seized.

The member couldn’t even utter a fragment of a scream before his neck was snapped, killing him.

Purple spots began to appear on the skin of the corpse, its head lolling unnaturally.

Whether ending his life before the full effects of the Poison Art took hold was an act of mercy or rage was impossible to discern.

The Chief Manager moved with agility, darting between pillars, sometimes using the walls as footholds to target the members from impossible angles.

Lee Hang and the other four members were preoccupied with evasion.

They lacked the skill to effectively counterattack while dispelling the poison that permeated the air, slowly infiltrating their bodies, and avoiding the Poison Devil’s deadly hands.

“Stop him!”

Lee Hang shouted, deflecting the Chief Manager’s approaching hand with his sword. The members positioned further back threw hidden weapons.

Flying daggers and throwing stars.

The Poison Devil twisted his body to avoid them, creating distance between himself and Lee Hang in the process.

“You still have some fight in you, Poison Devil!”

A brief respite. Lee Hang and the members regained their composure and formed ranks.

It was a formation capable of withstanding even a master whose Martial arts surpassed their own.

Although they had been shaken by the sudden attack, they were confident they could hold the Poison Devil at bay now that they were in formation.

Lee Hang was certain of it.

“A formation? Do you think something like that will work?”

The Poison Devil scrutinized their formation as he slowly approached.

“This isn’t a formation to kill you, it’s to endure. I know your Martial arts consume you. If we just hold out…”

“No, I mean… do you really think you can withstand my attacks with something like this?”

The air of the Heavenly Demon Palace seemed to coalesce, pressing down as if to crush them.

“W-What is this!”

An overwhelming force that made it difficult to even hold their heads up pressed down on Lee Hang and the members.

“You think you can restrain me with such a crude formation?”

Death emanated from the Poison Devil’s feet.

An endless, purplish wave consumed the stone floor. The viscous wave slowly, very slowly, approached the intruders.

“C-Captain!”

“Damn it… where is Thunder Sword?”

Lee Hang muttered, retreating with the formation.

The Poison Devil didn’t rush. He slowly, deliberately, pressured the Azure Dragon Unit.

Like a snake toying with a mouse, the Poison Devil wore a sinister smile as he took each step.

“Uwaaaaaaah!!!”

Did a cornered mouse bite? One of the members, losing his composure, grabbed his spear and charged out of the formation.

Lee Hang urgently called out to the member, but his voice went unheard.

The member, running across the swamp of poison created by the Poison Devil, was horrified to see his body disappearing with each step.

One step.

Another step.

His body crumbled more and more.

Losing his balance, he tried to use his spear as a support to keep from falling, but the spear shaft, already rotten, snapped with a sharp sound.

The member fell into the swamp and melted away.

The fate of the prey that dared to attack the predator was tragic.

“If you don’t come, I’ll go.”

With the Poison Devil’s words, the execution began.

The Poison Devil, changing his momentum, dashed forward and thrust his hand towards Lee Hang’s heart.

Lee Hang raised his weapon to block, but the sword, upon contact with the Poison Devil’s hand, made a ghastly noise and rusted.

“Keuk!”

A broken sword and a pierced heart.

Lee Hang stared at the Poison Devil’s face with wide eyes.

A face mixed with bewilderment, shock, and terror.

The Poison Devil grabbed Lee Hang’s heart and pulled it out.

The heart, already turning black, lost its vibrant pulse and became a rotten lump of flesh.

-Thud

The Azure Dragon Unit members, having lost their leader in vain, rushed at the Poison Devil, and their end was no different from their leader’s.

Jegal Hwi surveyed the disarrayed Heavenly Demon Palace.

The damage was severe, the floor soiled with rotting corpses.

“Cleaning this up… will require quite a few people.”

Jegal Hwi, inadvertently imagining the faces of the servants who would clean it up, covered his eyes with his hand.

“……”

Tears flowed from beneath the hand covering his face.

“I’m sorry.”

Jegal Hwi continued to offer apologies that would never reach them.

With each subdued apology, he recalled the face of a Heavenly Demon Palace member.

He apologized repeatedly, mourning the members he had killed with his own hands.

And just as that mourning was coming to an end.

“Oh my… what a messy place. Does the Heavenly Demon live in such a barbaric place?”

A cheerful voice shattered the solemn atmosphere, and Jegal Hwi turned his head.

-Swish

An alien sound and a strange sensation in his body.

“!!”

His left arm had already been severed.

-Splurt

Blood gushed out as he registered what had happened. Jegal Hwi calmly pressed on pressure points to stop the bleeding.

“You’re the… Poison Devil, right? I’ve fought Youngma and Gwonma a lot, but this is the first time I’ve seen you. Nice to meet you. I’m Namgoong Soyeon.”

Namgoong Soyeon, smiling brightly as she looked at him, held a man’s arm in her hand.

‘I didn’t feel anything.’

When had she cut off his arm? This wasn’t in the realm of a surprise attack.

An overwhelming difference in level.

Jegal Hwi sensed that just as he had tormented the Azure Dragon Unit members, this woman could toy with him.

“I have a question for you. If you answer it well… well, I might spare your life.”

“Where is our Gang Gongja?”

A suppressed madness was conveyed. Just as he was contemplating what to answer to the voice filled with obsession and fixation.

He heard words again from the other side.

“No, I can just find him myself. I asked a pointless question. It sounds like Gang Gongja is calling for me desperately over there.”

Namgoong Soyeon, sticking out her tongue and smiling sweetly, gave a deep smile.

“Ah… I’m hungry.”