This wasn’t a sneer, or the kind of smile that ca from composure.
The Demon King was smiling with the sa kind of rapture he’d had when special quest was ntioned from Su-ho’s mouth.
Su-ho pressed the blood sword tight to the Demon King’s throat and said,
“What’s so funny?”
“Heh. Of course I’d laugh. Do you have any idea how long I’ve waited for this mont?”
“So why?”
“I can’t tell you that. So hurry and kill . Then you’ll learn the whole truth.”
At the words urging his own death, Su-ho’s expression twisted.
What was this?
Was he trying to use mind gas and stab him in the back?
No—if that were the case, the mana reaction coming off him wouldn’t be perfectly still.
If he was preparing so other skill to backstab him, the mana ripples would have to swell sohow.
But his mana ripples were endlessly calm, like a quiet surface of water.
“So you’ve got no intention of telling nicely.”
“Obviously.”
“Then I’m not killing you.”
“......What?”
“I’m not killing you. You look like you need death no matter how you look at it, so why would I fall for a provocation like that?”
“Haha, interesting. But you’ll have no choice but to kill .”
“Why?”
“So you can et the Shadow Lord you want.”
“What are you talking about? Weren’t you the Shadow Lord?”
“As if.”
His face was full of leeway.
Like he was the one holding the initiative.
But his words shook Su-ho harder than he expected.
Su-ho narrowed his eyes.
'That’s true... he was called the Demon King, or the Demon King of Shadow Castle. He was never called the Shadow Lord.'
And if he really were the Shadow Lord, wouldn’t the special quest have triggered long ago?
Su-ho asked,
“Where’s the Shadow Lord?”
“You’ll find out if you kill .”
“That’s weird. If you want death that badly, you could kill yourself. Why are you insisting on borrowing my hand?”
“That’s my choice. So—what will you do?”
“I told you. I’m not killing you.”
“You’re stubborn. Then you’ll never get what you want. There is no way to et the Shadow Lord except by killing .”
“For now, sure.”
Thud!
He drove the blade he’d had at the Demon King’s throat in about half a handspan.
A soft sound of flesh being pierced followed.
But the Demon King’s face was still full of leeway.
“You think you can kill with sothing like that?”
“Are you stupid? I said I’m not killing you.”
[ Enthrallnt is activated. ]
He t the Demon King’s eyes.
Then Su-ho’s mana began seeping into the Demon King.
But—
Pang!
An effect like ice cracking and fragnts flying burst out, and the enthrallnt failed.
Seeing that, the Demon King laughed.
“Ridiculous. Were you planning to put under hypnosis?”
“You catch on fast. But I guess it doesn’t go down easy since you’re a boss monster.”
“We’re not on the sa level.”
“Talking about levels when you’re lying on your back... then how about this? Poison Dragon.”
“Saaa!”
At Su-ho’s call, the Poison Dragon sprang out.
At the sa ti, obeying Su-ho’s will, the Poison Dragon rode along Su-ho’s blade and slipped straight into the Demon King’s body.
“......!”
“Wait. I’m not done yet.”
[ Corruption Sorcery is activated. ]
The mont the sorcery activated, starting from the tip of Su-ho’s blade, the Demon King’s skin began discoloring.
Su-ho didn’t stop there. He touched the Demon King’s body here and there with his finger.
[ Point-Pressure is activated. ]
[ Seal of Pain is activated. ]
He pressed paralysis points.
And he also placed Seal of Pain so his stamina couldn’t recover.
Su-ho bundled the best torture thods he could use into a full set and applied them to him.
Not long after, a response ca imdiately.
“Guhhh...!!”
Wow, look at that life coming back.
He’d thought he’d never see that kind of vitality in those hollow eyes, but I guess even a Demon King hurts when it hurts.
Su-ho smiled and said,
“I’m not going to kill you. But I never said I’d just let you go, either. FYI, my day job is a dic. Try enduring as long as you can. I’ve got ti to spare.”
“Guhhh... you son of a...!”
“Oh, so you can even swear? You were acting so relaxed I thought you had sothing you were relying on.”
“You bastard...! Even if you do this, I...!”
“Yeah. Don’t answer to the end—just try enduring. Even if you’re a Demon King, your stamina isn’t infinite. Stay sharp. If you slip for even a second, I’ll put you under hypnosis.”
After saying that, Su-ho made a chair with Blood Armor and sat down beside him.
He also used Blood Armor to haul him upright and hang him there.
“Guhhh...!”
Ti passed.
About five minutes later, his entire body had turned a dark, grayish-black, like mold had blood over him.
Looking at the Demon King’s face that seed like it could pass out at any mont, Su-ho used enthrallnt again.
[ Enthrallnt is activated. ]
The skill activated.
And this ti, what hadn’t worked before worked properly.
Because a heart-shaped effect appeared in his eyes.
To confirm, Su-ho asked,
“Demon King?”
“......Yes.”
“Okay. It went down nice.”
As expected, there’s nothing like torture.
After removing only the Poison Dragon, Su-ho stayed seated and asked the Demon King,
“Where’s the Shadow Lord?”
“The Shadow Lord... is... inside ....”
The Demon King answered with difficulty.
But the Shadow Lord is inside you?
What the hell is that supposed to an?
Su-ho asked,
“Inside you? What do you an?”
“The Shadow Lord... is hiding... inside ... Unless you kill ... he will never... co out....”
“What the....”
At that mont, a thought suddenly crossed Su-ho’s mind.
'This... feels kind of like a trap.'
A long ti ago, there was a very famous ghost ship called the Flying Dutchman.
There are many stories tied to that ghost ship, but the most famous one is that if you kill the captain, the captain’s qualifications are automatically inherited, and you can never leave the Flying Dutchman for eternity.
Why did the Flying Dutchman co to mind from the Demon King’s answer?
Su-ho asked,
“Is there another way?”
“There... isn’t....”
“This is driving insane... why is that guy hiding inside you?”
“That’s....”
That instant—
Bbogeurrrreureuk—
The guy who’d been enduring just fine suddenly rolled his eyes back and started foaming at the mouth.
“Uh—what’s wrong with him?”
[ Restore is activated. ]
[ Dispel is activated. ]
As his condition worsened, Su-ho hurriedly removed Seal of Pain and the point-pressures, and used recovery skills.
But no matter how much mana he poured in, his condition didn’t improve.
Then he suddenly snapped his eyes wide and grabbed Su-ho’s face.
“Th...thank... you... for... freeing... ...!”
What?
Freeing?
That mont—
[ You have defeated the Demon King of Shadow Castle. ]
The Demon King died.
And—
[ Your level has increased. ]
[ All stats have increased by 1. ]
[ You have obtained 1 bonus stat. ]
His level went up.
Which ant he’d been definitively defeated.
“......This can’t happen.”
He still hadn’t even gotten all the information out of him.
But the system notices guaranteed that he was truly dead.
At that mont, black energy began seeping up from the Demon King’s corpse.
[ The Shadow Lord’s Pledge is activated. ]
A system notice.
At the sa ti, the black smoke took on the shape of a screaming nightmare, then poured out from all over the Demon King’s body and clung to Su-ho’s body.
“What is this?!”
[ Restore is activated. ]
[ Dispel is activated. ]
[ Paladin is activated. ]
[ Divine Aura is activated. ]
[ Saint Do is activated. ]
Startled, Su-ho activated every holy skill he could.
But this wasn’t sothing like evil or a darkness attribute.
The nightmares wrapped around Su-ho’s body, and then, from the Demon King’s corpse, a single massive black shape crawled out like a parasite and rose up, blazing like fire.
[ The Shadow Lord has appeared. ]
“......!”
Su-ho’s eyes widened.
The Shadow Lord, at this timing?
The Demon King had been right.
The Shadow Lord really had been inside the Demon King.
Within the pitch-black shape, two eyes filled with blue light lifted up.
There was no na card.
Maybe the Shadow Lord wasn’t classified as a boss monster.
Was that a good thing?
But I can’t move an inch right now.
Then the Shadow Lord looked at Su-ho and spoke.
- At last, a new outworlder has co.
“Are you the Shadow Lord?”
- Yes. I am the Shadow Lord, the owner of all shadows, and the original owner of Guiyeong that you are holding.
A voice like it echoed «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» in a cave.
Every ti the Shadow Lord spoke a word, those blue eyes and that black body flickered like flas, and at the sa ti, it emitted an enormous amount of energy.
Su-ho’s body was still bound by the black nightmares, unable to budge.
Su-ho asked,
“You ntion Guiyeong, so you know who I am too.”
- Of course. I’ve been watching you the whole ti.
“You’ve been watching ?”
- Yes. You should know as well. My interest would have been conveyed to you steadily through system notices.
Through system notices?
Ah—at those words, he rembered.
[ ■■■ reacts to Guiyeong’s call. ]
[ ■■■ watches Guiyeong and you. ]
[ ■■■ verifies your qualifications. ]
[ ■■■ verifies your qualifications and makes a surprised expression. ]
[ ■■■ nods at your qualifications. ]
[ ■■■ smiles at you. ]
All those countless Transcendent notices tied to the Shadow Lord.
And he rembered one more.
The one that had annoyed him the most.
[ ■■■ has refused the use of the Rune of Life Evolution. ]
That was the one—him refusing the Rune of Life Evolution Su-ho had tried to use on Guiyeong.
As those infuriating mories surfaced, Su-ho frowned and said,
“Yeah. Thanks to you, I rember it all in one shot.”
- I’m glad you rember.
“So what now?”
- You’re impatient. I watched you for a long ti, and I also waited for you for a long ti.
“You waited for ? Why?”
- Because I believed you might be the last hope that could save .
What is that supposed to an now?
Why am I your last hope?
But the Shadow Lord was utterly serious.
The Shadow Lord looked up at the sky.
It looked like it was simply staring in silence, but Su-ho could feel it.
An enormous amount of energy was rippling from the Shadow Lord as it looked up at the sky.
That was when—
[ ??? accepts ■■■’s request. ]
A system notice appeared before his eyes.
All of a sudden, ??? had accepted ■■■’s request.
If he read the room, ■■■ would be the Shadow Lord in front of him.
'Then ??? is...'
He knew imdiately.
Because he’d seen the sa kind of situation before, back with Hera.
??? was the system.
But what had the Shadow Lord requested of the system?
At that mont, the turbulent energy ripples vanished.
At the sa ti, the Shadow Lord slowly lowered its head.
- Permission has been granted. I knew it would be you.
“What are you talking about? Don’t talk like you’re the only one who knows what’s going on—explain it so I can understand too.”
- Fine. Then from now on, I will explain it in a way you can understand.
The Shadow Lord’s voice changed.
At the sa ti, even the air changed.
- Just now, I requested the system for the formal disclosure of my true na. And just now, that acceptance ca down.
“True na?”
- Yes. I will introduce myself properly. I am the last warden who protects this spirit world. The first and last archmage of the spirit world, the strongest archmage, and at the sa ti the only shadowmancer who wielded shadow magic—and now, the guardian deity of the spirit world who has received the High Grade and Non-Player grades: Umbrada.
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