novelAlta Chapter 528
Chapter 528
After leaving Namuel Village, Su-ho headed straight for Demon King Mountain, where they said the Demon King was.
Of course, he didn’t walk—he used Cheolma.
There was no reason to go on foot when he could fly.
As he flew toward Demon King Mountain, Su-ho thought,
'This is driving me insane, seriously.'
The spirit world.
He’d imagined something like a Shadow World ruled by the Shadow Lord, but the spirit world he’d actually experienced was darker than he’d expected.
So he was curious.
What kind of quest would even trigger when he met the Shadow Lord who was being called the Demon King?
'I want to clear this quest with as little fighting as possible, if I can.'
But something about it felt bad.
Like foreshadowing, the residents’ request kept sticking in his mind.
Demon King Mountain was nearly in sight.
It was farther than he’d expected, and he was glad he’d flown.
When he reached the summit, sure enough, a huge castle that looked like Demon King Castle to anyone sat on the mountaintop.
Landing at the entrance, Su-ho looked up at it and muttered,
“Looking at it like this, it really does look like a Demon King Castle.”
It had a pretty eerie vibe.
But the funny thing was, it looked eerie because its owner was the Demon King—there was none of that gloomy, dark Demon King Castle atmosphere at all.
Because the sun was still blazing, and the sky was still blue.
Going by the mood alone, it felt like the moment right after you’d already beaten the Demon King and come back out.
Before entering, Su-ho slowly examined the area around the castle.
But strangely enough, even here, there still wasn’t a single shadow anywhere you’d expect one to be.
'Did he even sweep up the shadows of residences, too?'
Why?
Was the Shadow Lord that greedy?
Next, Su-ho activated his skills.
[ Eye of the Night Commander is activated. ]
[ Mana Detection is activated. ]
Skills optimized for detection.
The moment those two activated, Su-ho was startled.
There were no red grid squares detected by Eye of the Night Commander, but the amount of mana gathering was substantial.
'At this level, yeah... there really could be a Demon King here.'
After turning the skills off, Su-ho pushed the castle gate.
Surprisingly, it opened smoothly without a sound.
And the inside of the castle, which he’d expected to be pitch-dark, was brightly lit, as if someone actually lived there.
Su-ho looked around and slowly walked deeper inside.
'No one here?'
Just as he thought that and turned his head the other way, a young handsome man was standing five steps away in complete silence.
Seeing him, Su-ho spoke lazily.
“Whoa, you startled me. Who are you?”
“.......”
Tall, black hair, pale skin—no dark circles, but deep-set eyes and a hollow gaze.
Instead of answering, he just stared at Su-ho with those distinctive eyes.
No name card appeared.
Rather than press him, Su-ho closed his mouth and stared back just as quietly.
After a moment, the man finally spoke.
“An outworlder?”
“So what if I am?”
“I see... that’s why you had a shadow.”
Looks like they judged outworlders by whether or not someone had a shadow.
Su-ho asked,
“Are you the Shadow Lord?”
“The Shadow Lord, huh....”
At Su-ho’s question, the man lowered his gaze to the floor with an even hollower look, then looked back at Su-ho.
“If that’s what you want to call it, then sure. Out there, they call me the Demon King.”
“Don’t give me ‘if that’s what you want to call it.’ Are you or aren’t you? I came all the way here to meet the Shadow Lord.”
“Why?”
“I came because of a quest, but... ah. You probably don’t know what a quest is either.”
“Quest!”
The moment the word quest came up, the man’s hollow eyes suddenly came alive.
“Is it a special quest?”
“Yeah, it is. How do you know?”
“At last...!”
That instant—
Fwoooosh, fwoooosh, fwoooosh!
An enormous amount of energy began pouring out of his body.
[ The ‘Demon King of Shadow Castle’ reveals its existence. ]
[ A boss monster has appeared. ]
Along with the system notice, it suddenly announced the appearance of a boss monster.
“What the—!”
The moment that ominous presence erupted, Su-ho immediately pulled back.
He hadn’t expected a boss monster to appear this suddenly.
As soon as Su-ho opened distance, the one called the Demon King of Shadow Castle slowly lifted his body up into the air.
“I don’t know how long I’ve waited for an outworlder like you. But at last...!”
A voice swollen with emotion.
That was unmistakably joy.
'He’s been waiting for me?'
That made even less sense.
Why would he wait for me?
Who the hell am I?
He even knows special quests exist.
What is that bastard, exactly?
'I’ll ask after I subdue him.'
For now, the system had labeled him a boss monster.
Su-ho armed himself immediately.
[ Summoning Hercules’s Lion-Head Helmet. ]
[ Summoning Hercules’s Club. ]
[ Blood Armor is activated. ]
[ Blessing is activated. ]
[ Paladin is activated. ]
[ Divine Aura is activated. ]
[ Mana Detection is activated. ]
[ Endurance is activated. ]
[ Enhancement is activated. ]
[ Eye of the Night Commander is activated. ]
[ Sword Aura is activated. ]
A storm of skill effects.
Holding the blood sword, Su-ho looked up at him and asked,
“Things are real nasty. We fighting?”
“Haha! It’s not even worth asking twice! Do you know how long I’ve waited for this moment? Please—live up to my expectations!”
Right after the Demon King finished speaking—
[ The Demon King of Shadow Castle uses boss-monster-grade Fear. ]
[ Dragon Blood is activated. ]
[ Fear does not apply due to the Dragon Spirit effect of Dragon Blood. ]
The Demon King used Fear.
But it wasn’t ruler-class Fear—just Fear.
'What?'
You could use Fear without shouting.
With high-rank monsters, that happened all the time.
But seeing a high-rank boss monster use ordinary boss-grade Fear was a first.
'Is this guy... actually not that big a deal?'
If so, thank you very much.
If he can’t even use ruler-class Fear, subduing him might be as easy as killing him.
Ah, or not?
If my opponent is the Shadow Lord and he’s nothing special, doesn’t that mean the reward will be nothing special, too?
While Su-ho was thinking that, the Demon King’s attack began.
[ The Demon King of Shadow Castle uses Curtain of Fire. ]
Fwoosh!
Curtain of Fire.
The moment it activated, the entire interior of the castle was ringed by a scorching wall of flame.
[ The Demon King of Shadow Castle uses Scorching Long Downpour. ]
The next skill.
As soon as it triggered, an enormous number of fire arrows began pouring toward Su-ho from the flame wall—not vertically, but horizontally.
[ Saint Dome is activated. ]
KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA!!
Su-ho scanned the area and immediately deployed Saint Dome.
It was too late to shoot up into the sky.
Su-ho locked eyes with the Demon King.
Unlike earlier, when he’d been overflowing with joy, the Demon King was looking down at him with a blank face.
'Look at this bastard.'
Like he was testing Su-ho.
Being looked down on was annoying enough, but that hollow stare of his somehow made it even more infuriating.
But what pissed Su-ho off most of all was that the two skills the Demon King had chained together didn’t feel as strong as he’d expected.
'If I can hold out this long with Saint Dome, that says it all.'
But who knows?
You don’t know until you check what he’s really got yourself.
Su-ho immediately set his stance and whipped his sword upward at extreme speed.
Flash!
A single flash.
And—
[ Sky Slash is activated. ]
[ Enhancement is applied. ]
[ Sky Slash’s power increases even further. ]
The angle was perfect.
Sky Slash burst out with that single flare of light and struck straight into half the Demon King’s body.
Fwoosh!
But the instant the sword strike hit his body, flames flickered from him. His whole body split in half, then burned away and vanished.
And not far away, he reappeared in flames, like a phoenix being born.
Revived, he narrowed his brow with that same blank expression.
Like he was slightly disappointed.
Around then, cracks started forming in Saint Dome, too.
“That look in your eyes really pisses me off. Fine. Let’s see how long you can keep dodging.”
Su-ho raised a hand.
[ Vivara’s Spell is activated. ]
SHWAAAAAA!!
A heavy downpour drenched with true mana poured diagonally.
The flame wall collapsed like it was crumpling, and the castle interior turned into a sea of water in an instant.
The Demon King was soaked, too.
With his hand still raised, Su-ho stared at him, then slashed it straight down.
[ Lightning is activated. ]
KWA-RRRRRRUNG!!
The Lightning skill Su-ho had copied from Zeus during the Titanomachy.
Soaked in true mana, it swallowed the Demon King with terrifying force without a single spoken warning.
The lightning was like an imoogi.
After devouring the Demon King, it pierced through him and brutally punched down through the castle floor, carving out a massive crater and leaving huge scorch marks around it.
Fwoosh!
But despite that enormous impact, the Demon King once again flared with fire and summoned himself back into form.
Resting his sword on his shoulder, Su-ho said,
“Damn... what are you, invincible? Every time something happens, you revive in flames like ninjas swapping in a log.”
“.......”
The Demon King didn’t answer.
Instead, he raised his right index finger and slowly drew it sideways.
[ The Demon King of Shadow Castle uses Hellfire. ]
Flames kindled across the entire castle.
It was hellish fire that turned blue past red, and it had been a long time since Su-ho had seen actual Hellfire.
Of course, it was incomparably hotter than any flames he’d seen so far.
Hellfire was almost a top-tier fire technique.
Maybe that was why.
Seeing it, Su-ho let out a hollow laugh.
“Wow... don’t tell me you were hiding your power on purpose just to test me?”
“.......”
No answer again.
Fine.
Let’s see how long you keep your mouth shut.
If dousing you and frying you with lightning didn’t work, does that mean simple physical hits don’t work?
Then how about this?
Su-ho started slamming him with other skills.
[ Weaken is activated. ]
[ Seal of Pain is activated. ]
[ Enrage is activated. ]
[ Blessing of Rage is activated. ]
[ Curse of Rage is activated. ]
A five-piece debuff set.
And now ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) that Curse of Rage was S-rank, it prevented him from using as many as five skills.
[ Rage Mode is activated. ]
[ Foxfire is activated. ]
Additional buffs.
And—
[ Eclipse is activated. ]
[ You receive sunlight and moonlight. ]
[ The runes of the sun and the moon respond. ]
[ The power of the sun and the moon is activated. ]
[ You receive the blessing of the sun and the moon. ]
[ All stats increase by 2%. ]
[ All recovery increases by 2%. ]
[ Fire attribute is activated. ]
[ Light attribute is activated. ]
[ Ice attribute is activated. ]
[ Dark attribute is activated. ]
With every attribute unlocked, Su-ho gripped his sword again.
“Try blocking this one, too.”
With that gentle warning, Su-ho swung his sword.
Seeing it, the Demon King didn’t stay still, either.
The instant light scattered from Su-ho’s blade, black flames burst from the Demon King, and a compressed tornado-shaped blaze shot out.
[ The Demon King of Shadow Castle uses Black Calamity. ]
[ Enhancement is activated. ]
[ Sky Slash is activated. ]
[ Enhancement is applied. ]
[ Sky Slash’s power increases even further. ]
Each system notice.
But the moment the two attacks collided, the one smiling was Su-ho.
Because Sky Slash split Black Calamity in two in an instant.
Right after, the multicolored sword strike reached the Demon King.
The Demon King tried to use that flame-dodge again.
But the skill didn’t activate.
Because of Curse of Rage.
Slash!
The sword strike pierced him.
He’d failed to dodge.
Fwoomp!
At the same time, the Hellfire that had looked ready to burn down the entire castle went out, and the Demon King fell, like an angel that had lost its wings.
Su-ho didn’t miss the moment—he rushed in at once and pressed his blade to the Demon King’s throat.
Thankfully, he was still alive.
But—
“You’re smiling?”
Amazingly, the Demon King was smiling.