Chapter 775: Of Course, I Came to See You

Bimana’s enormous gun barrels aimed at the city.

Massive cannons capable of firing barrages with power comparable to small nuclear weapons.

If that barrage poured down, even that enormous city would be erased without leaving a trace.

BOOOOOOOOOOM.......

Immediately afterward, a tremendous explosion rang out.

But...... the sight that unfolded before my eyes at that moment was, how should I put it.

A little different from what I had imagined.

[Warning, war.......]

A hole was torn through Bimana’s walls, which I had always believed could never collapse.

The wall that had served as a foundation sturdier than the earth itself had crumbled.

There was no way the massive cannons installed there could remain intact.

The building-sized cannons shattered into pieces.

'Something.'

As I watched the fragments fall.

I felt as though time had begun to flow slowly.

'Something has gone wrong.'

An instinctive realization.

Every cell in my body sharpened, taking in everything around me with heightened sensitivity, and my mind entered the zone.

And within that slowed time, I saw it.

“Run......!”

The first to notice the anomaly was the Demon Hunter.

Had he sensed that something was wrong even before I did?

Choi Wonjun’s mouth opened urgently.

FWAAAAASH.......

But he never managed to finish speaking.

A force that swept through the soldiers like a raging storm engulfed them in an instant.

SPOT!

There were those who began moving immediately after the anomaly occurred.

The Legion’s martial arts instructors.

The beastly instincts remaining within them sharpened, and they hurled themselves toward the inside of the city.

'No, that’s not it.'

They had not thrown themselves toward the city.

'Something is coming out from inside.'

Something attempting to emerge from within.

They were trying to stop it by any means possible.

But.

BOOM-BOOM.......

The bodies of the beastkin who had thrown themselves forward were blasted away in an instant.

Those immensely powerful martial artists lost consciousness before they could even blink.

The one who endured the longest among them was Cheonho.

“That can’t.......”

A brief cry filled with shock.

He was the only one who managed to endure long enough to utter even that much.

FWAAAAASH.

The bodies of the Green Mane warriors flew into the sky.

Only a moment after I saw it did the sound reach me.

BOOM-BOOM.

The vampires’ bodies were blasted away.

Even then, their expressions remained ordinary.

Everything had happened so quickly that they had not even realized the impact that struck them.

The Green Mane, the vampires, and the beastkin.

Martial arts strengthened through the advice of Mirinae, who possessed transcendent martial skill.

Even Bimana, which had been stationed in Chuncheon, had been mobilized.

Never once in the Legion’s history had it possessed this much power.

It was enough strength to annihilate every enemy the Legion had ever fought, even if they all reappeared at once.

And yet, that strength.

'This feels a little too much.'

In less than three seconds.

Was utterly shattered.

And then.

'It’s coming.'

An enormous presence approached me.

As time flowed so slowly that it seemed to have stopped.

I moved my body, trying somehow to resist it.

But it was impossible.

At first, I thought my body was simply moving too slowly compared to it.

I thought my rapidly accelerated perception had outpaced my body...... but that was not it.

'......I can’t move.'

Bimana collapsed, the beastkin were sent flying, and the Legion’s front line crumbled.

A scene of destruction that unfolded in a moment close to an instant.

And yet I had clearly perceived everything that happened in that brief span.

I had thought time merely felt different because my senses had become too sharp.

But that was not it.

'In reality.'

I shifted my eyes and looked around me.

The golden radiance that had, at some point, wrapped around my body.

While everything collapsed within an instant.

Only my time was flowing differently from everyone else’s.

There was only one reason something like this could happen.

But that made no sense.

For it to wield power on this scale meant it had already been completed.

But if that was the case.

If it had already been completed.

Then why......!

“Because I thought it would be discourteous.”

The question that arose in my mind.

The answer came immediately afterward.

“......What?”

“Our last meeting was somewhat abrupt. Your confusion was perfectly understandable under the circumstances. That was why, although I wished to keep you there, I decided we should part for the time being and look forward to our next meeting.”

The Legion’s destroyed equipment descended slowly.

The clothes of the soldiers who had been blasted away fluttered in slow motion.

“After parting in that manner, if I were to unilaterally decide the time of our next meeting as well, would that not also be discourteous?”

Within that infinitely slowed time, the Legion members’ expressions began to distort ever so slowly.

“That was why I decided to wait patiently.”

The being that walked out from within the city.

Spoke to me.

“For the moment when you had steeled yourself and came to find me.”

***

The dish I had created.

[Course Meal - Earth]

Its effect was to strengthen the power of this world in order to resist power from beyond it.

The golden light that had overflowed throughout North Korea.

That light had gradually faded beneath the Legion’s advance, which was backed by the effects of the course meal.

But.

'That golden light was merely something being emitted by that being’s existence alone.'

To put it as an analogy.

A person must breathe in order to live.

And breathing inevitably requires inhaling or exhaling.

In that process, a small breeze forms near the person’s mouth.

A wind that arises naturally without intent.

That energy had been something like that.

'The light of Earth.......'

But naturally.

The extent of a person’s strength was not limited to the wind created through breathing.

They could deliberately put strength into their mouth and inhale or exhale forcefully.

Or they could move their hands and feet to exert powerful physical force.

And now.

'It disappeared.'

The one who had merely been breathing quietly.

Had, for the first time, deliberately blown out a breath and created a powerful wind.

The Legion’s power had been enough to push away the faint breeze created by ordinary breathing.

But it was impossible to block even that forceful breath.

The result was what lay before me now.

Caught by an unexpected gale, the Legion’s forces had been annihilated in an instant.

No, to be precise.

“Did you stop the Legion members’ time?”

They were i'n the process of being annihilated.'

I spoke as I watched the Legion members’ bodies suspended in the sky slowly begin to fall.

“No. Should I say you stopped only my time?”

“Strictly speaking, neither is correct. But explaining it in detail would become somewhat complicated. You may think of it as something similar to what you are imagining.”

“......Stopping time. How?”

“Can you not see this light?”

The man who had appeared before me at some point.

He resembled the prince I had seen not long ago.

But he looked far more radiant and beautiful.

He opened his mouth gently.

“The place enveloped by this light is my domain. My world.”

As he spoke.

In response to his will, the golden energy blanketing the surroundings moved.

“And I may determine every law within my world as I please.”

He lightly waved a hand.

The direction of gravity within the city changed, and objects inside the city began falling toward the sky.

“The direction of gravity.”

The objects that had been falling slowly began accelerating.

“The flow of time.”

Then they slowed again.

And finally stopped completely in midair.

“Life and death.”

“.......”

“Everything.”

Watching that sight, I gritted my teeth and spoke.

“I was told that you could not wield power on this scale while trapped inside a weak body. Was I misinformed?”

“No. What you heard was correct. Embarrassing though it is, even I cannot do something like this when the body serving as the vessel for my soul is insufficient.”

“Then...... you really did finish evolving the body.”

“Mm. That is correct.”

I stared blankly and asked.

“When did you finish?”

What the Demon Hunters had said about that thing attempting to evolve was undoubtedly true.

But there had been one mistake.

Because it had not invaded.

We believed we still had time before the evolution was completed.

And during that time, we intended to prepare some kind of countermeasure.

“Immediately after our first meeting.”

But that was wrong.

“Not long after you left, I obtained a vessel sufficient to contain my soul.”

By the time I left North Korea and reached South Korea.

That thing had already evolved the prince’s body to a level sufficient to contain its own soul.

“......What the hell is that? Was that evolution supposed to happen that quickly?”

According to the Demon Hunters’ and those zombies’ predictions.

That evolution should not have been possible in such a short period.

But it had completed the evolution far too quickly.

“There is no need to blame your subordinates.”

It shrugged.

“Your subordinates did nothing wrong. Their information was simply...... slightly inaccurate.”

“What do you mean?”

“They once served another being, did they not?”

He rubbed his chin and fell into thought.

“The name of the being they served was Akram...... was it not? Aga...... Ag......? In any case. The knowledge they possessed originated from that being whose name began with A.”

The Demon Hunters had served a demon, and therefore understood demons better than anyone.

Naturally, the being that demon referred to was someone else.

“......You said our encounter in North Korea was the first time we met.”

I had already suspected it to some degree from what Mirinae had said.

As expected.

“You are not the being I encountered in Gangwon Province.”

“Haha. I would feel somewhat disappointed if you treated me as the same as that.”

It was a different being from the one the hunters had served and from whom they had received their knowledge.

And.

“I am embarrassed to say this, since it sounds like self-praise...... but to be honest, the difference between that being and me is so great that comparison is impossible.”

“......Is that so? Sorry.”

“There is no need to apologize. In any case, by the standards of your subordinates, it must have been impossible. It certainly would have been impossible for the being they served. But it was possible for me...... that is all.”

This thing.

Was a being far above the one I had encountered in Gangwon Province.

“......That A-something you mentioned held a grudge against me. So when a demon descended in the north, I naturally assumed it was that one.”

“Ah, a fairly reasonable deduction.”

“Thanks for the compliment, but it turned out to be wrong.”

And for some reason.

This being, supposedly so far above that other demon.

Was continuing to speak to me in a friendly manner.

I could not understand the reason for that.

But in that case, there was something I had to ask.

“I heard that your descent was carried out through an extremely dangerous method...... was the hunters’ knowledge wrong about that as well?”

“No. They were correct about that part. It was certainly dangerous. Enough that even I had to give it some thought.”

“Right. That part.”

There had never been any guarantee that the demon I encountered in Gangwon Province was the one that had descended.

But even when I tried to consider the possibility that another demon had intervened.

“I couldn’t think of any reason worth taking that level of risk to descend here.”

“Ah. I see.”

“So naturally, I assumed it must have been the one who held that grudge against me.......”

But it was not.

“May I ask one question, if it would not be discourteous?”

“As many as you wish.”

A being far superior to that one.

Had descended upon this land while risking annihilation.

“Why...... did you descend into our world?”

There had to be some reason worth taking that much risk.

But I could not imagine what it was.

Was there some value in our world that others did not know about?

Was there someone among beings like Belsnickel or Mirinae who gave it a reason to descend?

......Was it simply bored?

Or perhaps.

'For no reason at all? Just because?'

Countless possibilities passed through my mind.

But absurdly enough.

“What a hurtful thing to say.”

The correct answer that left its mouth.

Rejected every one of those possibilities.

“Of course, I came to see you.”

To me.

It was an answer I had never expected at all.