Survival is ultimately a struggle.
To not die.
A struggle to survive.
Kkkkkk!
That was life.
It was a hellscape where the demons lived.
Kihihi!
But even that hell was a luxury for some.
For the residents of the gap who hadn't been born yet, it was a struggle, an opportunity, and a blessing to be born.
Kikiki! Keke!
Therefore, they were just demons struggling to be born.
To do that, they ate everything they could get their hands on, whether it be a living soul or a dead soul.
A weed that somehow spreads its roots and thrives no matter what as long as there is a hill to climb.
"With the king of demons gone, the weeds have multiplied so much."
The Dragon Lord Antares clicked his tongue.
Has there ever been such a proliferation of weeds in the sea of the afterlife since the beginning of time?
The number of residents in the gap seemed extremely alarming.
Moreover, although they were just weeds, there were many powerful giants among them that grew like huge old trees due to the amount of nutrients they had absorbed.
"Even if they are just weeds, with this many of them, the next king could be decided among them."
As the Dragon King spoke at that moment.
The demon world ruled by Esil was under a massive invasion.
Kwaaaaah!
"Don't give up! Fight for our survival!"
Kyaaaaa!
Under Esil's orders, all demons were working together to stop the invasion from the residents of the gap.
Those who struggle to survive and those who struggle to be born.
The war between these two forces was truly fierce and a total mess.
"but..."
Antares, couldn't help but snicker as he thought of Esil, who seemed too weak and clumsy to become a king.
"You've been lucky in many ways. When you're weak, it's a good idea to cling to the strong early on."
Yes.
Thinking back, Esil was lucky in many ways.
Because the residents of the gap that had to invade the demon realm were being annihilated from behind like this.
[Keeeeeeeeek-! Fight! Suho's glorious army!]
"..."
Antares stared silently at the tremendous spectacle unfolding before him.
Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
Even if you ignore Beru, who was cheering enthusiastically from the front, Suho's shadow legions were truly invincible.
There was no one to block their path.
[A Demon of the Gap has been defeated.]
[A Demon of the Gap has been defeated.]
[A Demon of the Gap has been defeated.]
[A Demon of the Gap has been defeated.]
... ... .
[Keeeeek! okay! Keep pushing! To all the foolish people who stand in our way! Bring great destruction!]
Crap.
Oh, wait.
It's not quite the great destruction.
"That's what I said when I was fighting against your father... Phew."
Antares' forehead wrinkled as he felt a little embarrassed.
However, he soon relaxed his expression and just softly sighed.
Okay. He knew well that in war there were no permanent enemies or permanent allies.
But there was no way.
How did he, the King of the Dragons and the Lord of Destruction who fought against the Shadow Army until the very end, end up on the Shadow Lord's side?
Even the fact that he voluntarily chose the Shadow Lord's son as his successor was a future that he had never imagined.
However, because he was the King of Dragons, he couldn't help but sincerely sympathize with the residents of the gap who had to fight against these guys.
'They're really terrible people.'
The Dragon Emperor himself knew better than anyone else how frustrating it was to deal with an immortal army that never dies.
Kkekekeke!
Kkeeeeeeek!
Quantity? At a glance, the number of residents gathered here was more than 10 times greater than Subo's shadows. The devil-like horror in which they waged war was even more intense.
But these guys were really unlucky.
It's a pity.
"Why did I have to meet Suho?"
The Shadow Legion, or rather the Shadow Power, was a power more specialized for war than any other power.
The more you die on one side, the fewer troops there are, but the more you die, the more troops on the other side increases!
It was a very reassuring force for those on the same side, but for the other side, there was no other ability that was so obnoxious.
But, excluding the monarchs themselves, there was one race that was immune to the deadly and annoying shadow power.
The 'demon tribe.'
"Originally, the Demon Race was the only opponent to the Shadow Legion. They were the only race that could not be taken away by the Shadow Lord even if they died."
Antares looked at the corpses swept away by Suho's Legion, recalling the countless strategies he had used using demons a long time ago.
Look at it now.
[Extraction is impossible because there is no soul.]
[Extraction is impossible because there is no soul.]
You can see it when the solvent is dissolved.
The numerous system messages that are currently being shown to Suho's eyes.
As the messages floating above demons of the gaps' corpses said, they had no souls in the first place, so no matter how many times they were killed, it was impossible to extract them.
Even at the moment of their death, the demon souls that had been devoured by the weeds were leaking out of their bodies, but it was impossible to turn them into soldiers.
[Mana is contaminated and cannot be extracted.]
[Mana is contaminated and cannot be extracted.]
What does this ultimately mean?
The residents of the gap or the demons, who were the reserve demon tribe, were a race that could easily compete with the Shadow Legion if they had a large number of them.
Of course, they had already been defeated and subdued by the true Shadow Lord long ago, but compared to his father, Suho here was nothing more than a half-baked figure.
"... Yes. This amount of soldiers would've been enough to make a dent. Until a few days ago."
But it's different now.
Grumble!
"Because Suho has my heart."
Wow.
Aren't they really unlucky people?
Thump! Thump!
Hurrruk!
Even at this moment, the Dragon Emperor's heart is boiling like lava in Suho's chest.
The mana of destruction that spread out from within was flowing into all of Suho's shadow soldiers.
The results were horrific.
Kkaaaaaaah!
"Do weeds have the talent to withstand the flames of my destruction?"
It was literally black flame!
Suho's shadow soldiers, who had always been covered in black shadows, were now covered in hot flames all over their bodies.
Due to the Shadow Army's enormous offensive capabilities, which included catastrophic fire damage, the residents of the gap were unable to move even with an overwhelming quantitative advantage, were reduced to ashes, and forced to scatter.
[Hahaha! Burn! You cursed race!]
In particular, among them, Kira, who had a sense of being a chosen person in his life, remained that way even after becoming a shadow soldier.
Especially now that he has been granted the right to kill, he was running wild like a fish in water, unleashing his overwhelming power on only the biggest monsters among the residents of the gap.
Oh my gosh-!
Krrrr!
A giant monster, as strong as a giant tree, collapsed with a desperate scream.
The war was fiercer than ever, and the Shadow Legion was clearly at a numerical disadvantage.
At this point, it was confusing to tell who the bad guy was.
Given the situation, the person trembling with fear the most here was none other than Seo Jiwoo, an ordinary S-class hunter.
"Oh, oh my god."
Seo Jiwoo's complexion was shaking with an expression as if she was going to faint at any moment.
She couldn't have imagined it until this morning.
She never thought she would witness such an absurd situation right before my eyes.
"Something like this... an S-class hunter?"
Thanks to this, there was a faint voice echoing in Seo Jiwoo's mind, which had become completely empty.
That was the greeting she gave to Suho when she first saw him.
-Wow, what were they just doing? You said you were an S-class summoner. Are those your summons?
'Aaaah!'
Seo Jiwoo ended up holding her face.
'Why did I say something like that!'
'Why on earth did you say that!'
Tears filled her eyes due to the extreme shame she felt.
If she could, she wanted to go back in time and tear out her own eyes and snout, while she looked at those cute summons.
But the good news was that there was no one here paying attention to Seo Jiwoo's feelings.
No, there was someone.
Harmakan.
[Are you crying now?]
'Please pretend not to know... please!'
Seo Jiwoo felt a chill from Harmakan, who spoke to him in a seemingly indifferent and grandfatherly manner.
In any case, the Shadow Demon Harmakan can glimpse the emotions of the soul.
[Your soul is noisy. Could it be that you have developed some kind of inferiority complex after seeing my master's abilities?]
That doesn't mean Harmakan's affectionate, he's just saying what he saw.
Harmakan whispered secretly in Seo Jiwoo's ear.
[Did you think you can overcome your inferiority complex by becoming a villain? The armor has good compatibility with blackened souls.]
"..."
He's the devil and all, but he's the worst.
[Hmm. The master's hunting is slowly coming to an end.]
Harmakan rubbed his chin and looked around at his surroundings, which had become noticeably quieter.
Corpses covered the battlefield filled with intense heat.
Spicy smoke rose thickly above it.
[Did you know? This smoke is not ordinary smoke, but the souls of the demons they have consumed.]
At Harmakan's explanation, Seo Jiwoo held her breath and covered her mouth and nose with both hands.
[Tsk. Surprise! Don't worry, you won't turn into a demon if you inhale this smoke. What's more important is where this smoke wants to go.]
"Harmakan! Beru!"
Suho, who was commanding the battlefield at that moment, also realized this, turned around, and shouted.
"Trace where these demon souls are going!"
[Understood!]
Beru's eyes sharply flashed and his spirit expanded.
Harmakan also spread his hands and created a magic circle as if he would not be defeated.
Then, in the middle of this void, which was intricately intertwined with numerous cracks, the demon's dead souls were captured floating in the air and flowing somewhere.
[Master. It's over there.]
[No, my lord! This way!]
"Two places?"
Harmakan and Beru pointed in opposite directions at the same time.
Antares said while looking at him.
"Both are probably correct. After all, there is only one place for the demon's souls to return to."
The Demon realm.
These souls would instinctively return to the demon realm.
"But today, these souls have one more option."
Antares looked at Suho with a smile on his lips.
"The power of destruction that I have given you is a powerful power that can completely destroy even the soul. And extremely powerful destruction is not much different from 'purification'."
"purification?"
It was an amazing statement.
Antares' smile grew deeper as he seemed to like Suho's reaction.
"Yes. That means that the demons' souls that have been purified by burning in my mana can return to the sea of the afterlife."
"... !"
The moment he heard those words, Suho's gaze quickly scanned his surroundings.
And he was able to pick out the ones that stood out among the thousands of system messages that filled his field of vision.
[Mana is contaminated and cannot be extracted.]
[Target can be extracted.]
[Mana is contaminated and cannot be extracted.]
[Target can be extracted.]
"There it is! A demonic soul that can be extracted!"
The demon's purified souls were wandering around in the air, confused, gathering in a heap and rushing somewhere.
Even at this moment, the shadow soldiers were thoroughly trampling and burning the demons of the gap, and the smoke flowing out from them further joined the group.
That was the direction Beru was pointing at.
[Kihehe! I got it right!]
Beru was very proud and raised his antennae.
Harmakan, recognizing defeat, lowered his eyes sullenly.
But not all souls were purified by the power of destruction.
It was not the demons that fought Suho's shadows, but rather the souls of the real demons that had been eaten, they were flowing in Harmakan's direction.
It was an attempt to return to the Demon Realm.
As a result.
Tiring!
[You have completed 'Quest: Trial of the Demon King'.]
"Ah."
Suho saw the quest completion message and learned that Esil's ordeal was over.
As the remaining weeds that continued to invade Esil's territory were eliminated, she succeeded in withstanding the invasion.
"Anyways, I'm lucky in many ways."
Antares laughed.
In that terrible war, the entire universe bestowed blessings on the cowardly demon noble Esil Radiru, the only demon who crawled under Sung Jinwoo.
[Quest completion reward has arrived.]
[Do you want to check your reward?] (Y/N)
"Confirm reward."
Suho immediately confirmed the reward.
[You have acquired the 'Item: Baran's Horn'.]
"Baran's Horn?"
A long devil's horn appeared in Suho's hand.
The moment he held that horn in his hand.
"!"
Suho suddenly felt a chill.
A feeling as if someone was looking at you.
This feeling was familiar.
[Baran, the king of demons and the Lord of White Flames is watching you.]
That was when.
"Be careful of Baran-"
At that moment, the dragon Antares was saying something to Suho.
Tiring!
[Passive skill '(Unknown)' is activated.]
Shwaaaaaaaaaaa!
Suho's shadow colored the entire world, and time stopped.