Descent of the Demon Master

Knight Besley clenched his teeth to the point of nearly breaking his jaw.

All the Knights of the Round Table were acutely aware of something a little humiliating.

They knew that, even though they stood at the top of the Western martial society, they still fell short compared to the rulers in the East.

Although it was deeply humiliating, they had to acknowledge this bitter truth.

The Round Table kept the world in balance. That wasn't just some throwaway belief, either. The organization actively participated in countless conflicts around the world for its cause. Which meant… It naturally got tangled up in China's situation, too.

‘Those damnable Three Kings…!’

Merely thinking about China gave Knight Besley a case of nasty heartburn.

The trio of beings that divided China into three and ruled over their territories with iron fists… The Three Kings! In the Round Table's view, no other group of men instilled more terror and dread than these three.

The end of the Cold War allowed China to start interfering with the rest of the world.

That meant the Round Table and China would inevitably be at odds with each other, although the considerable distance between the two camps initially prevented physical conflicts from breaking out.

China opposed the world order centered around the Round Table's ideals, which the rest of the planet naturally accepted as par for the course until then. The truth was that the Chinese were simply sticking to their own set of principles.

Even so, China putting its interests first and trying to become the world's only hegemon was more than enough to set the alarm bells ringing in the Round Table.

Naturally, the Round Table couldn’t sit back and do nothing about China’s attitude. It might not pay much attention to the ongoings on the surface world, but at least in the martial world, the Round Table couldn’t afford to lose its hegemony.

The first flash point where their feud came to a head was in Tibet.

Before China invaded Tibet on the surface world, the Chinese martial artists assaulted the mountainous region first. The Round Table judged that assault was an act of tyranny meant to disrupt the world order and promptly dispatched its armed forces to support the Tibetans.

And the result was… a complete annihilation for the Round Table. It was as straightforward as a result could get.

The armed forces even included three Knights among its ranks. But their defeat had been so thorough that no one was left alive to send a situation report to the Round Table.

Eventually, one survivor managed to come home after a few months in the wilderness, but his mind was already gone by then. The only thing he could mutter repeatedly like a parrot was “The Dark King!”

That was the beginning of the Round Table’s troubles.

To restore its pride, the Round Table repeatedly tried to retaliate, only for their attempts to be thwarted by the presence of the Three Kings every single time.

Only after tasting failure for a dozen-plus times did the Round Table finally acknowledge the inalienable truth of the martial world: it didn’t matter how fair and logical an organization’s structure was or how democratic its decision-making process was… Since strength was everything in the martial world!

...And the Three Kings were the peak of that strength.

The Round Table's insufficient strength forced it to stop interfering in East Asia. So, it chose the next best option on the table, which was monitoring the Three Kings from a distance to figure out what they would do next. Ṛᴀ₦ồᛒÊṤ

That had been the story up to this point.

No one openly admitted it, but the Three Kings’ presence was like a psychological scar, a mental trauma of sorts, for the Round Table.

But how could it not be? The Round Table's whole reason for existence was ostensibly safeguarding the world order. So, the fact that they couldn't interfere in a region due to their insufficient strength deeply humiliated the proud Knights of the Round Table.

Not only that, but it also left their justification for interfering in other parts of the world on a shaky foundation.

What tormented the Knights even more was the fact that the Three Kings were responsible for the Round Table being able to run around freely for the time being.

If the Three Kings hadn't been locked in a deadly standoff, they would've turned their attention to other countries already, and that would've led to the Round Table's eventual destruction!

If the conflict between the Three Kings was resolved and China was united once more… The Chinese martial society would no doubt extend its tentacles to the rest of the world. Like they had done in the past.

Despite knowing all this, the Round Table couldn't dare get involved in the situation within China. Any sort of ill-conceived interference would only lead to waking up the proverbial sleeping giant instead. This fear alone made it impossible to even attempt anything.

But leaving the situation alone was also not really feasible since the Round Table's higher-ups could easily imagine what would happen once China was finally united by one of the Kings.

To the Round Table, the Three Kings’ existence could be described as an explosive that needed to be disarmed right away but was simply too powerful for anyone to go near it. Those three made you remember how powerless you were simply with their presence alone.

‘That’s right. That’s what the Three Kings are like. But this…!’

Knight Besley shuddered in his boots. It seemed that one more existence had revealed itself to make the Knights of the Round Table feel utterly powerless and helpless!

Slash!

Knight Besley desperately threw himself back to dodge the incoming sword slash. The armor covering his chest split open like a piece of paper, then the muscles in his torso were sliced open next.

He couldn't feel any pain, however. He was too busy being relieved by the fact that his head was still attached to the rest of his body to feel any pain! Of course, with that terrifying monster still swinging its sword around, he knew now was not the right time to be relieved about anything.

Just as he tried to get up, though…

“Keuh-wuuuuk?”

Besley initially thought he was too tense to feel the pain. As it turned out, though, that was wrong. Just as he began thinking that he had managed to live, a burning pain suddenly erupted in his chest and traveled all the way down to his heart.

Was this pain from the wound on his chest? No! It was caused by a foreign energy trying to invade his body. This energy mercilessly dug into his flesh and collided with mana flowing inside. The resulting collisions left behind a trail of destruction inside Knight Besley's innards.

“Cough!”

Besley's internal organs rocked and nearly ruptured, causing a mouthful of blood to well up in his throat.

‘But…! It’s only a minor wound, so how is this possible!’

He heard once in the past that merely getting brushed by a sword carrying immense energy could cause serious internal injuries. Today, he got to experience that phenomenon for the first time in his life.

That monster from Korea was forcibly bringing things existing only in fantasy into reality. Things like enveloping his entire body in aura, churning and ripping apart internal organs with nothing more than some leftover energy, and also…

Flinch!

Besley flinched and froze on the spot when he locked eyes with the crimson light burning fiercely within Kang Jin-Ho’s eye sockets.

‘...Also, suppressing others with nothing but his glare!’

There was no other way to describe Kang Jin-Ho. He really was a monster.

‘How can a small backwater country in East Asia produce a monster like him?’

Knight Besley was willing to acknowledge the power of the Three Kings. It’d be impossible not to.

However, they were Chinese. China used to rule the world before Europe took over, so it would not be strange for the Chinese to still possess enough inheritances to produce a trio of monsters like the Three Kings.

But wasn't Kang Jin-Ho from South Korea? Wasn't he supposed to be a martial artist from a minor nation?

How could a martial artist hailing from a small nation with no appreciable martial arts history nor inheritances possess enough strength to one-sidedly massacre the proud Knights of the Round Table? Besley simply could not understand this.

Besley stared at his own hands next. He had finished expelling the foreign energy out of his body, but his hands were still trembling like leaves caught in stormy winds.

‘Am I really… trembling in fear? Me?’

He wanted to deny it so badly, but his body was too honest for that.

That was when Knight Besley had an epiphany.

He fought on many battlefields until now and never once retreated from any of them. But that wasn't because he was a courageous warrior.

No, it had more to do with the fact that… Besley had never experienced a situation that terrified him to his core! In other words, it meant Kang Jin-Ho before his eyes was teaching Besley about the kind of fear he had never experienced until today.

Squeeze!

Besley consciously gripped his sword tightly. Unless he held the hilt tightly enough to crack the bones in his fingers, he’d never be able to hide this fear-induced tremor.

‘Others must be feeling the same thing.’

Indeed, it must be scary for them. No, make that downright terrifying!

However, they couldn’t back down. As the Knights, they were the Round Table’s last line of defense. The last bastions, as it were. If they retreated now… No one would be strong enough to stop this monster.

‘What about reinforcements?’

Knight Besley glanced to the far side before chewing on his lip.

‘No, they aren’t coming.’

Blood seeped out from his lip.

Kang Jin-Ho wasn't the only monster in this place. The warriors he brought with him turned out to be far stronger than expected, too!

Even if the narrow exits gave an overwhelming advantage to the defending side, the small number of enemy warriors still perfectly prevented the knight orders dispatched from various nations from reaching the hall. Actually, it was safe to say those people were doing a lot more than “preventing” at this point in the battle!

‘They are pushing back the knights?’

Initially, Kang Jin-Ho’s people were lining up by the exit, but now? They were pushing their way deeper into the passageways.

Fighting inside the passageways would mean both sides should be evenly matched, numbers-wise. Even then, the Round Table's warriors were still being pushed back!

‘Doesn’t that mean Kang Jin-Ho’s people are stronger than our knight orders?’

That was inconceivable. A knight order should be the pinnacle of martial prowess. After all, even the top martial artists in their home countries had to pass strict evaluations and training regimes first before being allowed into one of the knight orders.

Joining a knight order was undeniable proof of a martial artist being acknowledged as one of the best by their respective country!

But now, not only did a ragtag bunch of martial artists from a small nation located in some remote peninsula manage to prevent the elite knight orders from entering this hall, but they also successfully pushed the other side back?! How was Besley supposed to make sense of this situation?

‘Just when did things start to go wrong?’

The Round Table had never ignored the situation in South Korea. Maybe that was true twenty years ago, but not now.

The current Korea was definitely not a nation that could be overlooked. Even in Europe, only a handful of countries could claim to possess greater national strength than South Korea. However, this story was only applicable on the surface world.

In the martial world, South Korea was no different from a third-world country. There was nothing remarkable about that nation other than that it formed a buffer zone between China and Japan. This fact remained true until a few years ago.

But in those scant few years, Korea had transformed into a completely different nation. And not recognizing that right away was perhaps the Round Table’s biggest mistake.

Besley knew he and the other Knights must fix this mistake somehow, but..!

Paaahaaang!

Just as his thoughts reached that far, Knight Besley was rudely woken up by the ear-shredding shockwave caused by a pitch-black sword qi flying straight into his face.

“Kuk?!”

Besely urgently gripped his sword with both hands, then drove his aura into it. His heart madly pounded away as if it’d rupture at any second from the sudden and urgent circulation of mana, but Besley had no time to care about that right now.

Whether he died from a ruptured heart or got sliced apart by that sword strike… The end result would be the same, anyway!

“Uwaaaaaaht!”

Besley’s aura explosively gushed out. Just before it slipped out of his control, he did his best to swing his sword.

KA-BOOOOOOOOOOM!

The sword containing silver aura grandly collided against the pitch-black demonic sword qi to create a gigantic explosion. Knight Besley was thrown back like a kicked ball.

“Kkeuh-euh… Euhk!”

Besley crashed into the floor before tumbling around several times. Only then did his body finally stop, allowing him to reach out with his shaky arms to grab at the floor tiles. Crimson blood gushed out from his nose, eyes, and slack mouth.

He couldn’t summon any strength in his hands gripping the floor. He couldn’t even feel anything above his wrists. All the bones in his hands must’ve shattered into bits in that explosion just now.

Even so, Besley knew he needed to get back up.

“Kkeuh-uhk…!”

Besley pushed his shaking body up somehow. Despite losing all the feelings in his hands, they still gripped the sword tightly as if they had become solidified on the weapon's hilt.

He was relieved by this development. Had he let go of the weapon by accident, Besley wouldn’t have been able to pick it up again.

Even though blood continued to pour out from all of his seven major orifices, Knight Besley still managed to stagger back up to his feet. Then, he raised his sword to point it at Kang Jin-Ho.

“Hmm…?” Kang Jin-Ho's gaze containing those eerie crimson lights locked on Knight Besley.

It was impossible for Besley to resist Kang Jin-Ho’s demonic qi with his meager strength. Even then, he still managed to defend against it. Despite his body in a tattered state, Besley still had not given up on his futile resistance.

“Even this place has someone commendable, then?”

Besley reflexively smirked when he heard Kang Jin-Ho mutter casually to no one in particular.

This situation was no laughing matter. And one shouldn’t be laughing in this situation, to begin with. Despite knowing all that, though… Besley couldn’t help himself.

How could he hold back his laughter, though? When the strongest martial artist he had ever met was praising him?

The earnest admiration expressed by one’s enemy was easily the best praise any martial artist could wish for. After all, martial artists who called battlefields home and died in battles must earn the acknowledgment from their enemies, not their allies.

That was when Kang Jin-Ho’s figure suddenly grew larger.

‘No, wait. It hasn’t gotten larger at all!’

Besley quickly realized that it was an optical illusion. Such was Kang Jin-Ho’s stupendous running speed that it momentarily fooled Besley’s brain into thinking his enemy’s size had ballooned up.

Besley’s brows shot up high.

BANG!

...And then, Kang Jin-Ho’s kick landed mercilessly on Besley’s gut.

As if he got hit by a massive truck, Besley flew up in the air while vomiting a mouthful of blood.

“But you’re still too sloppy.”

That was the last thing Besley heard after crash-landing on the floor and gradually blacking out.

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