Chapter 114. Subjugating Phenex (4)
─ Did he get him?
─ Is he dead?
─ Did that finish him?
─ Stop saying stuff like that. You’re jinxing it...
“ROOOOAAARGH!”
Kang Yujin unleashed his internal energy through [Heavenly Splendor Great Thunder], stripping away Phenex’s barrier, then generated impact with [Fa Jin] while keeping his fist in contact and activated [Shatter Everything].
But just like Arioc, Phenex did not collapse immediately after taking the hit.
“Ghh... GAAAAH!”
He merely groaned in agony.
Kang Yujin stepped back and watched carefully.
“This... this is nothing...!”
Cracks slowly began appearing across Phenex’s body.
But perhaps because of his regenerative ability, those cracks quickly repaired themselves.
Then new cracks appeared beside the healed sections.
Phenex’s regeneration and the collapse of his body were fighting against one another.
“Phenex.”
Watching him, Kang Yujin asked,
“Where is Ha Mina?”
“Wh... what?”
“Last time, Ha Mina promised me something. She said that if I became strong enough to defeat you, she’d tell me why she kidnapped me and experimented on my body.”
“Ghh...!”
Phenex clenched his teeth.
“Ha Mina is not here.”
“Yeah?”
“That woman does not take orders from me in the first place. She belongs not to me, but to... Ghhhh!”
“Then you tell me.”
“Kuh... Khuh... KHAHAHAHA!”
Phenex burst into laughter.
By now, cracks had spread across his entire body.
The collapse of his flesh was beginning to outpace his regeneration.
“You foolish creature who does not even know why you exist!”
“What?”
“You don’t even know why you exist! Even now... you are still nothing more than a laboratory specimen!”
“What does that mean?”
“You think I would tell you, you experiment...!”
"..."
Phenex shouted triumphantly.
But even as he spoke, his body continued splitting apart.
“Keep questioning it! Fear your fate! And...!”
“If you’re not going to tell me, forget it.”
Kang Yujin cut him off.
“I’m not that curious.”
“W-What?”
“It’s not like I’m dying to know.”
He spoke coldly and slowly clenched his fist.
“No matter why I was created, I’m still me. I fight to raise the name of the great ‘Nameless King.’ That’s all.”
He had already found his answer when he defeated Baek Yunho.
Whatever Ha Mina’s purpose had been in experimenting on him, whatever a Vessel truly was, none of it changed the path ahead.
“You... you... you...!”
“If you’ve got nothing else to say, hurry up and die. I’m exhausted.”
Kang Yujin raised his arm.
Then he drove another fist into the rage-twisted Phenex.
“GAAAAAAAH!”
The instant the punch landed, Phenex’s body split apart even further.
“I am a Demon God who transcended even death! An immortal being with infinite life...!”
“There’s no such thing as infinite life.”
Kang Yujin watched Phenex’s body break apart and spoke coldly.
“You’re nothing more than a stray demon with powerful regeneration.”
“GAAAAAH! Glory... glory to Pandemonium...!!”
With that final death cry, Phenex’s body exploded outward.
Not a single chunk remained.
Everything turned to powder.
That was the end.
Phenex never regenerated again.
He had been completely annihilated.
"..."
Kang Yujin slowly turned his head.
Seok Taejun, Lee Jukheon, and Joo Minha were approaching.
They had been preventing the other demons from interfering so Kang Yujin could focus entirely on Phenex.
“You did it?”
Lee Jukheon stared at him with a sulky expression.
When Kang Yujin gave a small nod, Lee Jukheon frowned and sharply turned his head away.
“You’re one hell of a bastard.”
“That’s right. Defeating an immortal Demon God... that’s an incredible achievement.”
Seok Taejun smiled beside him.
“Then with this... our mission is finished.”
“Yes.”
Joo Minha nodded.
“The mission to infiltrate Pandemonium and eliminate Phenex, commander of the Second Far Eastern Region... is now complete.”
With a smile rarely seen on her face, Joo Minha continued.
“The world is going to change because of this.”
─ He’s really dead, right?
─ Phenex... was annihilated?
─ My God.
─ They really did it?
─ Honestly, I thought Phenex would regenerate again in the end.
─ Did Kang Yujin’s Awakening Skill really overpower Phenex’s regeneration?
─ Even Phenex can’t come back after his entire body was reduced to powder like that.
─ My God.
─ Bwahahaha! I knew he’d do it!
─ This is incredible!
[S-rank Constellation ‘Hero Who Escaped the Labyrinth’ has donated 10,000,000 Origin Power.]
[Comment: We are witnessing the birth of a true hero.]
[S-rank Constellation ‘Dragon-Slaying Immortal’ has donated 20,000,000 Origin Power.]
[Comment: A truly magnificent achievement.]
Countless Constellations erupted in excitement, and donations of Origin Power poured in one after another.
Amid the feverish response, Number 49 filmed the backs of the four as they left the command headquarters and raised his voice.
“Everyone! Thank you very much for watching today! We’ll be ending this on-site broadcast here!”
─ What? Why stop now?
─ Keep showing us!
─ Yeah, keep broadcasting.
─ Work harder, Apostle.
“Come on, everyone. This is the perfect place to end it. All that’s left is for Kang Yujin’s group to carefully make their way south. What would be interesting about watching that? Of course, I understand some of you want to keep following them, but isn’t it better to end things when everyone is most satisfied?”
─ Fair point.
─ Yeah, this is the right place to stop.
─ Anything after this would just be extra.
─ I believe that is correct.
“Thank you for understanding! And just so you know, even after the broadcast ends, this chat room will remain open! Anyone who wants to keep talking can continue using it!”
─ This Apostle is competent.
─ Oh, nice. I wanted to talk some more.
─ Yeah, even if the video ends, it’s good to keep a place where we can chat.
─ I had questions about a few things today and wanted to ask the other Constellations anyway.
“Then everyone, thank you for staying with us from yesterday until today! I, Arlecchino Number 49, had a wonderful time broadcasting on location together with all of you!”
─ That’s the first time I heard his name.
─ I’ll remember you, Number 49.
─ You did a great job this time. It was really fun.
─ How do I establish a trade relationship with that Apostle?
─ He seems pretty busy lately.
“Thank you! Then I’ll see you again next time! Stay safe and healthy!”
─ Bye!
─ See you next time!
─ Tell the ‘Nameless King’ to prepare another broadcast like this!
─ If you have requests like that, send them through donation comments.
─ This was enjoyable. I’m glad I could watch everything live.
─ This really was a revolution for Constellation Tube.
─ Can’t they just start a journey to slaughter all Seventy-Two Demons of Pandemonium from now on?
─ If they do, I’ll keep it running twenty-four hours a day.
─ Mister, pay attention to your own Contractor.
Watching the chat fill with farewells and casual conversation, Number 49 finally ended the broadcast completely.
Then he clenched his fist.
We did it!!
A live broadcast from inside Pandemonium using Constellation Tube’s live-streaming function.
It had been completely unprecedented, so Number 49 had been a little worried.
But the result was a massive success.
More than two thousand Constellations had watched the final battle against Phenex.
The Origin Power received through donations alone amounted to hundreds of millions of points.
And my commission alone is...!
What pleased Number 49 most was that he received a percentage of those donations as his commission.
When he and the Nameless King had first discussed the commission rate, Number 49 hadn’t expected much.
After all, this wasn’t a system where the Constellations could directly sponsor the Contractors.
Who would bother donating?
But once the broadcast actually began, far more Constellations than expected had contributed Origin Power.
That meant they saw value not only in Kang Yujin’s personal achievements...
but in the content itself, created by the Nameless King and Number 49.
Thank you, Nameless King!
Number 49 thanked him inwardly.
I’m sorry I said I didn’t want to do it at first! Thank you for trusting me with something this big!
Thinking about it, the Nameless King hadn’t assigned him this task simply because he wanted to overwork him.
He had entrusted Number 49 with something this important because he believed in his abilities.
I’ll work hard from now on! I’ll do anything for you, Nameless King!
Just as Number 49 made that heartfelt resolution, a voice sounded in his ear.
“What are you doing?”
“Ah, Nameless King!”
The Nameless King had contacted him.
“The broadcast ended perfectly! You were watching too, right? I worked really hard and wrapped everything up properly!”
“Yeah. Good job.”
“Thank you!”
Number 49 spoke sincerely.
“Nameless King, I’ve made up my mind. From now on, if it’s for you, I’ll do absolutely any...”
“If you’re done, hurry back. There’s a lot of work to do.”
“What?”
Number 49 flinched at the cold response while trying to express his feelings.
“There’s a mountain of work waiting. You don’t have time to rest, so hurry back to my throne.”
"..."
“What are you doing?”
“Oh, come on!”
Number 49 shouted with a miserable expression.
“Stop making me work! I haven’t had a moment to rest for days because of you!”
“Didn’t you just say you’d do anything for me?”
“I didn’t finish saying it! You interrupted me, so it doesn’t count!”
“If you’re that against it, I’ll just give the work to another Apostle from now on.”
“That is absolutely not allowed!”
“Then what do you want me to do?”
Still bickering with the Nameless King, Number 49 opened a Gate back to the Spirit Realm.
It was long past midnight by the time Kang Yujin’s group finally managed to relax after escaping Sariwon.
They had crippled the command headquarters, but the legions stationed around the outskirts of Sariwon were still intact.
The search parties that had scattered across the region to find Arioc’s assassins were also regrouping.
Kang Yujin was in no condition to fight properly after using so much internal energy.
They needed to escape as quickly as possible.
“This area should be safe. Let’s rest for about three hours before moving again. Everyone should get some sleep.”
They decided to rest in an abandoned house in the mountains.
Lee Jukheon, utterly exhausted, was the first to fall asleep, snoring almost immediately.
Seok Taejun fell asleep while hugging Chimera.
But for some reason, Kang Yujin couldn’t sleep.
Eventually, he ended up talking with Joo Minha, who was standing watch.
“If we had to describe what we did this time, it wasn’t really a war.”
Joo Minha spoke slowly in the darkness.
“It was terrorism.”
"..."
“The Pandemonium forces stationed in the northern region are still almost entirely intact. The demons we killed probably don’t even amount to one percent of their total strength.”
"..."
They had killed many demons.
But in the end, there had only been four of them.
There was no way four people could wipe out an entire army.
“However, we eliminated two high-ranking officers, Phenex and Arioc, and paralyzed the command structure. Pandemonium’s forces in the northern region will find it difficult to attempt a southern invasion for some time.”
"..."
“In fact... you could say this has created an opportunity for humanity to launch a northern offensive instead.”
A war to reclaim the northern territories currently controlled by Pandemonium.
Something everyone had dreamed about for years...
but no one had ever truly attempted.
“Do you think it’s possible?”
“We have a chance. I already have several possible strategies in mind.”
"..."
“Would you like to hear them?”
“No. Later.”
Kang Yujin stood up.
“I’m going out for a minute. I’ll check the surroundings while I’m at it.”
“Understood.”
Leaving Joo Minha behind, Kang Yujin stepped outside.
There wasn’t a single light anywhere around them.
Relying on the starlight, he took care of what he needed to do, then quietly surveyed the area.
Even looking far into the distance, he couldn’t see any enemies nearby.
They should be able to rest here safely.
"..."
Then Kang Yujin sensed something.
There had definitely been no one nearby.
Yet suddenly, something appeared behind him.
Kang Yujin carefully turned around.
“It seems like a pleasant night, Kang Yujin.”
A calm, cold voice.
Ha Mina.
