Chapter 703
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Current re-published chapters (270 - 305)
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Kwaaa……
I couldn’t breathe.
The deafening roar still hadn’t faded, its endless reverberations now sounding distant and muffled.
Even so, the system alerts rang with cruel clarity in my ears.
Beep! Bee-beep-beep!
Status abnormality, [Severe Internal Injury] has been applied!
Status abnormality, [Severe Exhaustion] has been applied!
Status abnormality, [Severe Muscle Rupture] has been applied!
Status abnormality…….
The system alerts—no, the warnings—kept coming, calmly listing just how fucked my condition was.
If the system were a doctor, it would probably look at me with the most serious expression and say this:
‘Patient. I hate to tell you, but you’re really screwed this time. Why do you keep using One Annihilation? Is dying young on your bucket list?’
How kind.
Just imagining it made me feel like shit, but strangely enough, my mood didn’t really change.
The reason was simpler than I thought.
Something even worse than I’d imagined was waiting for me.
Cough, cough.
Drip. Thud.
Blood burst out with each cough and splattered onto the ground.
I chewed on the chunks for a moment.
They had to be pieces of my internal organs.
Seeing that, One Annihilation was definitely generous—bullshit. It wasn’t like a convenience store lunch box.
‘Damn it.’
My vision was fading.
Senses that had been sharp as a divine weapon just moments ago were now dull as a rusted axe left in an abandoned shack.
White Flame, which I’d always handled like it was part of my body, felt like the heaviest thing in the world.
But if there was one thing still working perfectly, it was the pain exploding in my forearm right now.
Crunch. Crunch.
With blurred eyes, I looked at ‘it.’
Eyes filled with nothing but greed and madness.
Beast-like teeth, jutting out as it chewed flesh and swallowed blood.
I couldn’t believe it was the same human as me.
“Is it good?”
Crunch.
“Yeah. It must be good.”
I don’t know either.
It won’t understand anymore, so why am I even saying this?
Why am I leaving this detestable bastard alone while it does a real-time mukbang with someone’s wrist?
Maybe it’s selfishness—wanting to borrow someone else’s hand.
Maybe it’s the last scrap of pity for something that used to be human.
Shwaa! Swish!
Crunch…….
Somewhere, the wind was cut.
The teeth that had been tearing at flesh so fiercely suddenly slackened.
As I stared at the youth—red eyes wide, body stiffening—a silver mane smeared with blood and dust swept into view.
– Human. You don’t look well.
Guardian Spirit.
The moment I registered its presence, my legs gave out.
I grabbed its mane and forced out a weak reply.
“People usually ask if you’re okay first.”
– I am different from humans. You didn’t look okay, so I didn’t bother asking.
“I like that. What about that black bastard?”
– I killed it. That was the fourth time.
“What?”
– It kept getting up. The speed of its recovery increased as time passed, and it also became stronger. This time might be the same.
Gate.
More precisely, the influence of the demonic energy pouring out of the Gate.
As the masked man grew stronger from that demonic energy, the Guardian Spirit would have been weakening in return.
Like the Divine Stone in its mouth—no longer able to shine the way it used to.
‘The Guardian Spirit shares its power with the Divine Stone.’
Now I could see it clearly: deep wounds all over the Guardian Spirit’s body, shoulders heaving, breath coming fast and rough.
Maybe it noticed my gaze, because it shifted its huge body, trying to hide the wounds from view.
“I’m sorry.”
The Guardian Spirit stared at me with pale blue eyes, then shook its head at my faint apology.
– You did enough.
“At the end……”
– I know. You would have succeeded if those things hadn’t interfered.
I turned my powerless eyes around.
Torn bodies came into view.
The traces of the Mutants—those who had completed their mutation first and charged in, right when the Guardian Spirit warned me, at the last moment before I fired One Annihilation.
‘I didn’t expect it.’
No. It would be more accurate to say I didn’t even have the luxury to care.
Back then, unlike now, the Mutants came at me with such ferocity—and in such urgency—that I couldn’t even spare a glance around.
‘And they died.’
About a hundred of them.
What awaited them was the vortex unleashed by One Annihilation.
But in that split instant—an instant shattered into countless fragments—they stopped me on instinct and fulfilled their role.
They bit into my forearm to change the direction.
They blocked my view.
They threw themselves into the path of that unstoppable, colossal power.
And because of that… one person survived.
“Southern Demon Empress.”
At my voice—barely more than a groan—the figure standing tall within the thin haze of dust took a step forward.
Step.
The monster.
The only one left standing at the center of everything that had been erased by One Annihilation’s aftermath.
Red eyes shining, she revealed herself.
—
Red.
Everything was red.
The sky, the earth, everything in between.
At the same time, things that should not exist were there, plain as day.
‘Ah.’
The Southern Demon Empress stared blankly at her hand.
The snow-white, smooth hand she had crafted through tens of thousands of years of internal energy and countless essences was gone.
In its place was a withered hand—like a dying old tree branch—covered in fine wrinkles and age spots.
“Ah. Ahh……”
Her eyes, already reddened by burst blood vessels, brimmed with tears.
This couldn’t be.
It couldn’t.
She was more beautiful than anyone in the world.
She was the one who had to be beautiful.
But the mysterious technique she had honed for nearly a hundred years had been shattered, and like a curse, she had reverted to her old, ugly original form.
As she trembled—shock and rage surging through her—she realized the curse wasn’t limited to suppressed aging.
‘It hurts.’
Only after a sudden, sharp pain did she finally examine her body properly.
A chunk of flesh torn from her side as if ripped away by an invisible beast.
One arm completely blown off.
Half her face melted by searing heat.
The Southern Demon Empress’s eyes widened.
It wasn’t something that could be.
It wasn’t something that should be.
The wound on her side could heal. A skilled magician could attach an arm without leaving a scar.
But not the face.
Unless she chose the same path as the Blood Lord she despised, traces would remain on that horribly burned face.
“No. This is… this is ridiculous……”
Muttering like someone lost, the Southern Demon Empress suddenly froze.
Because of one figure reflected in her bloodshot eyes, already wet with tears.
Jin Taekyung.
She saw him.
She felt him.
After that dazzling flash that erased everything, he stood there—spent, hollow, nothing but a shell.
The trivial being who had stolen her youth and beauty.
And then a single thought seized her entire body.
‘I’ll kill him.’
In that instant, the chaos of emotions cooled.
The monster that had lived so long stepped forward without hesitation, darkness clinging to her like a cloak.
Step. Step.
Quaddeuk.
With every step, the energy pouring from her body crushed the surroundings.
She had lost her youth, but she still had more than enough power to kill him.
The bleeding from her side and arm had already stopped, and the instability inside her was slowly—steadily—settling.
If the sudden return of aging was a curse, then the demonic energy from the Gate, thickening even now, was a blessing.
A blessing that would let her tear apart Jin Taekyung—who could barely control his body—and the foul beast blocking her path.
Stop.
===
Suaaaaa.
A halo of light spread from the Divine Stone as the Guardian Spirit’s Telepathy echoed.
The thousand Mutants that had already packed in around it flinched and shrank back, but the Southern Demon Empress did not stop.
Paaang!
Force Energy shot out without hesitation.
Darkness mixed with blood-colored Force Energy crushed the light of the Divine Stone and swept toward Jin Taekyung.
Kwang!
The ground exploded with a roar.
In a flash, the Guardian Spirit bit Jin Taekyung by the neck and surged away like lightning, letting out a low cry.
Divine Stone is…?
The Guardian Spirit swallowed the rest, but the reality was brutally clear.
A subtle trembling movement was felt inside its mouth.
Like an old man facing a young man in his prime, the Divine Stone’s power was dropping even now.
And the strength of the White Tiger that had protected it for so long was dropping with it.
‘Was the Spiritual Energy left by the Imoogi not enough?’
I never believed it would restore everything to its original state.
On top of that, the Water God Dragon had left little energy behind, weakened by having mutated once.
‘The demonic energy is too strong.’
Strong enough to suppress even the Divine Stone.
The demonic energy pouring from the Gate was already spreading beyond the Inner Palace and encroaching on the Outer Palace.
There were beasts of the Sacred Land that the Guardian Spirit had brought, but if even they fell under the demonic energy’s influence while the Divine Stone weakened, the situation would spiral out of control.
No.
It was already out of control.
A thousand Mutants, completely under demonic energy’s sway, surrounded them without a gap.
And the Southern Demon Empress—still standing to the end—was closing in.
‘At this rate…’
The thought he couldn’t escape darkened the Guardian Spirit’s face.
That was when Jin Taekyung spoke in a weak voice.
“Go.”
What?
“You worked hard. Thanks for everything.”
The pale blue eyes staring at him widened.
Jin Taekyung struggled upright, using White Flame like a cane.
“That’s enough. Get out of here and save the people.”
“Get out of this fucked up land as fast and as far as you can.”
Is that what you’re saying now…?
“I guarantee, no matter how fast you are, you won’t last long if you take me with you.”
“I’ll start whining for you to put me down in less than half an hour.”
“Because I’ll die if I don’t circulate my energy.”
At the playful but cold words, the Guardian Spirit closed its mouth.
Jin Taekyung smiled and continued.
“So go. Before it’s too late.”
After saying that, Jin Taekyung turned his head toward the Southern Demon Empress.
Eyes that looked like they could go out at any moment met blood-red light burning with rage.
“Okay. I’ll go along with you willingly, so let’s stop.”
“Let’s go see the Heavenly Lord or whatever that mutt is.”
The Southern Demon Empress answered by raising her hand.
Shwik, Pipit!
Finger Wind flew like a ray of light and tore Jin Taekyung’s neck.
Jin Taekyung shrugged like nothing had happened.
“If you’re angry, say it with words. I’ve already bled a lot.”
“What if I die on the way?”
The Southern Demon Empress replied coldly.
“That would be a problem.”
“Are we talking now…?”
“You can’t die this easily. I’m going to slowly tear you apart with my own hands.”
“……You’re not losing. How are you going to handle the aftermath?”
“It’s fine. The Heavenly Lord will be pleased if I bring the Divine Object.”
“White Tiger’s skin is a bonus.”
And as the Southern Demon Empress smiled brightly and spread her hand—
Kuoong-!
A massive roar swept through the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace.
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