Chapter 97 – Great Evil

Se-min replied.

“No.”

And he shot forward like a flash of lightning.

Badurbarok was strong.

There was no disagreement on that fact. There was no way a mediocre guy could destroy two dimensions. Even if his own martial strength was weak, nothing would change. Everything would be concluded with Badurbarok’s death.

Clang!

“You have a hasty temper.”

The power extending from Badurbarok’s hand struck Se-min. Se-min’s Lupus wavered greatly. Se-min lost his sense of balance and slumped to the ground.

Se-min stood up, relying on Lupus.

Strength was relative.

Even a third-rate swordsman could show off like a peerless swordsman against ordinary people, and those stronger than that could play with a third-rate swordsman as if handling a child.

Se-min felt anxiety creeping up his spine.

He had won numerous battles and was now a powerhouse who could be counted on one hand even if one searched the entire dimension. He had even learned transcendental power through the Cosmic Flow. However, even all the abilities he possessed would become as insignificant as a child’s toy when meeting someone stronger than him.

Badurbarok neutralized his attacks all too easily.

The thought of “what if” reared its head.

Se-min forced his aura to rise to avoid admitting it. A dark red power blazed from his body. Badurbarok’s eyes narrowed.

“Being hasty-tempered resembles that guy.”

Se-min moved his body, intending not to exchange words.

Just because it looked like an angel did not mean it was an angel.

It was an irreconcilable enemy.

It was the enemy that had stripped away his everything.

He would kill it.

Aura erupted from Se-min’s body. The entire palace vibrated.

The wings of Cosmic Flow spread from Se-min’s body. Celestial bodies were created around him. The principles flowing through the world were manifested once again through Se-min.

A microcosm was rising here, in the palace of the old empire.

At that moment, Badurbarok reached out and pointed at Se-min.

Then, everything died down.

The aura Se-min had raised, and even the cosmic scenery that had risen due to it, vanished into thin air. Se-min felt a sense of exhaustion. Once again, the relativity of strength surfaced in Se-min’s mind.

The talents he possessed became useless in front of someone stronger.

His eyes became bloodshot.

He took a step forward and raised Lupus.

“Being reckless.”

Badurbarok waved his hand.

“Resembles me back then.”

Se-min was blown back, then thrown to the ground again upon colliding with Badurbarok’s power. Every direction was occupied by his power.

Se-min raised his eyes. He tried hard not to be misled by Badurbarok’s words. He had not come to exchange words.

He blocked out the guy’s words and repeated the mnemonic formulas of the Cosmic Flow. Words out of context were repeated in his mind.

Do not let your feelings be swayed by small things.

Look at the bigger picture.

Under the scale of the universe, everything was nothing more than dust that temporarily rose and vanished.

Therefore, become the universe.

However, Se-min’s concentration was broken by Badurbarok’s next words.

“Are you also a transcendent?”

Se-min raised his eyes.

“What?”

“I asked if you are also a transcendent. That bizarre connection method of this universe, called the Transcendent Network.”

“How do you know that?”

Se-min stared at Badurbarok. Was he also a transcendent? However, he had never seen such a being before.

“Because you use the same power as the Heavenly Demon.”

Se-min realized that Badurbarok had a connection with the former Heavenly Demon. What had been nothing but speculation was turning out to be true.

“Still, they said that not all transcendents can learn the Cosmic Flow. Then, does that mean you are that guy’s disciple? No, that makes no sense. Then, are you a disciple of the disciple?”

Badurbarok muttered to himself. Se-min ended up asking him.

“How do you know about the Transcendent Network?”

“The Heavenly Demon taught me.”

“What happened to that Heavenly Demon?”

“The Heavenly Demon is…”

Se-min stared at Badurbarok.

The white wings spread on his back and the sculpture of his face were beautiful. There was no sense of discord even if he were called an angel. How contradictory was it that the appearance of the being who had led the world to ruin was just like the angel revered as an apostle of God?

“No longer in the world.”

Unlike his talkative nature, no expression could be felt on Badurbarok’s face. He was like a doll without emotions.

Se-min asked back.

“Does that mean he is dead?”

“Well.”

Se-min calmed his mind and straightened his posture. Due to the excitement of meeting Badurbarok, his head had become too hot to look around.

Inside the room, in the place where the imperial throne was assumed to have originally been, a strange object was placed. Something like a large stone shone like a gem.

It was the Primordial Core.

“Isn’t it beautiful?”

Badurbarok walked backward and placed his hand on the Primordial Core. Then, the stone shone.

It seemed purple at one point, but then changed to violet, blazed red again, and then settled into blue. All sorts of colors mixed together, ultimately emitting an indescribable, bizarre light.

“This is the thing that shattered your world.”

At those words, Se-min felt strength tense up in his body again.

“Your friends, family, and precious ones must have all died. Were you very sad?”

“Don’t worry about me. You’ll be dead soon too.”

Se-min raised his full power. He drew out the power of the Cosmic Flow to the maximum.

Se-min looked not at Badurbarok, but beyond him. The vast power that composed the world was rising through Se-min.

“Universe.”

Badurbarok blankly stared at the flow of the Cosmic Flow appearing through Se-min.

“Beautiful… and also terrible.”

Badurbarok did not resist the energy of the Cosmic Flow flying toward him. Lupus hacked his body. Because the scale of the universe was condensed inside the sword, Se-min’s sword energy soon contained the scale of the universe.

Badurbarok’s body was sliced into pieces, and fragments of flesh scattered.

Se-min widened his eyes upon seeing Badurbarok, who had died all too easily.

[The universe cannot kill me.]

The voice echoed loudly. It was closer to a mental wave transmitted directly to his mind rather than a sound.

Coinciding with that, the pieces of Badurbarok that had been shattered to pieces swelled.

“Crazy.”

Se-min stepped backward.

In an instant, it expanded and became a mass of flesh that filled the room. Countless eyes that sprouted within it stared at Se-min.

Tentacles sprouted from between them and aimed at Se-min. Se-min backed away.

Then, a human form pushed out from within that mass of flesh.

It was Badurbarok.

He landed on the floor and walked toward Se-min. With his wings spread, his appearance was no different from before he was sliced to pieces by Se-min.

“Se-min.”

“Do not call my name.”

“Lee Se-min.”

Badurbarok did not care.

As he gestured, the mass of flesh rising behind his back pushed out something else.

It was the Primordial Core.

Tentacles wrapped around it and pushed it forward between Se-min and Badurbarok.

“Do you want to see?”

A tentacle wrapped around Se-min’s body.

Se-min could not resist.

Badurbarok was strong. No matter how much Se-min raised his aura, it vanished meaninglessly in front of Badurbarok. The martial arts of Dokgo Cheonma, in which he had trusted so much, and even the Cosmic Flow, which he had believed to be the end of martial path, were of no use.

In a sense of helplessness, Se-min ended up slamming his forehead into the Primordial Core according to Badurbarok’s will.

“See… what is there to see, you bastard.”

“My universe.”

Se-min’s vision was encroached upon by the strange light of the Primordial Core, which was so close that it touched his nose.

His vision became incandescent.

Se-min closed his eyes, but it pried its way past his eyelids. Se-min had no choice but to be swept up in the vortex of strange light emitted by the Primordial Core. There were certain scenes that he had to see even if he did not want to see them.

There was the universe.

The Primordial Core possessed the power to cross the boundaries of dimensions. It soon penetrated a world higher than dimensions.

Se-min realized the structure of the world.

The dimensions he had crossed were actually nothing more than branches existing under a single universe. The Transcendent Network and the numerous dimensions were actually within the scope of the universe to which he belonged.

The gaze of the Primordial Core went beyond the universe to which they belonged and aimed toward another cosmic system.

Se-min saw the sight unfolding before his eyes. It was the world Badurbarok had come from.

That entire scene entered Se-min’s eyes.

Badurbarok’s universe was older than Se-min’s world.

And that scenery was.

Se-min wanted to close his eyes. The thing called Badurbarok was a monster that surpassed Se-min’s guesses.

He had already conquered his entire universe, and all the dimensions he knew. And he had committed horrible things.

Hell.

That was his universe.

A demon implementing every imaginable sin, that was Badurbarok.

Just looking at it felt like it would contaminate his head, so Se-min wanted to look away, but his body was captured by Badurbarok. The overwhelming difference in power weighed down on him and tortured his soul.

The records engraved in the Primordial Core kept stabbing Se-min.

He wanted to open his mouth and scream, but his senses were numbed by the dreadful scenery, leaving him unable to feel his body. There was no mouth, so he could not scream.

Then, at some point.

Se-min saw someone.

A back.

Clothes with a dragon drawn on them.

Se-min’s mind returned to reality. Badurbarok’s tentacle released Se-min’s body in surprise, and his body fell to the floor.

Se-min knew that the energy of the Primordial Core, which he had harbored while killing the five magic beasts, had protected him.

Badurbarok stared down blankly at Se-min.

“Have you perhaps harbored the Primordial Core?”

While he muttered something, Se-min looked around, relying on Lupus. The swollen mass of flesh was surrounding him on all sides, up, down, left, and right.

“You are just like that guy. I have changed my mind. I was going to just kill you out of consideration for our connection, but I must disassemble you.”

“Cut the nonsense.”

Se-min said so as he searched for an escape route.

It was an enemy that could never be faced alone. In truth, fighting along with others did not guarantee a clever solution, but it was at least better than being alone.

Se-min hoped that the allied forces outside had handled all the magic beasts, and decided to escape this place for now.

He looked at the door.

Although it was blocked by Badurbarok’s tentacles, he had to break through that. However, as if grasping Se-min’s intention, the tentacles surged and aimed at Se-min. Se-min clicked his tongue.

He felt like a trapped rat.

At that moment, a rupturing sound resounded.

Crash!

Gradually, that sound drew closer. Soon, the door was shattered, and the appearance of the companions who had come to help Se-min appeared.

Badurbarok’s tentacles flew toward them, aiming at them, but a single Orc standing at the front tore them apart.

It was Ilrgar.

“Emperor.”

They had astonished expressions at the inner scenery and Badurbarok’s appearance.

Badurbarok reached out his hand toward them. Se-min attacked Badurbarok to distract his attention. Before Badurbarok could attack, Se-min shouted.

“Get out of here! It won’t do here!”

“Understood.”

Grasping the situation, they nodded and immediately turned around.

However, it was too late.

The mass of flesh raised by Badurbarok had already filled the palace, encroaching even on their rear. Not only Se-min but they as well were trapped by Badurbarok’s tentacles.

Se-min shouted.

“Block that bastard for just a moment!”

Germanos, Shozen, Kubar, and Kaorak blocked Badurbarok’s tentacles. Behind them, Ilrgar extended his power to protect the whole group.

Whether the troll Sagong had realized Se-min’s intention, he pointed toward a spot on the ceiling with his hand.

“This way.”

“Understood.”

Toward that spot where Badurbarok’s flesh had begun to thin, Se-min swung Lupus grandly.

Boom!

The sword energy shattered the palace and advanced.

Lupus’s sword energy clawed the imperial palace and created a hole.

Through the hole, the blue sky was visible.

The quick-witted Ilrgar led the companions and flew up through that hole.

Se-min also escaped the interior of the palace together with the troll Sagong before Badurbarok could block them. Badurbarok’s tentacles pursued them from behind. Se-min swung Lupus backward. The sword energy cut away the tentacles.

“Phew.”

Se-min floated in the sky and looked down at the allied forces surrounding the palace. Reacting to the sudden anomaly, everyone was raising their weapons.

Kubar asked.

“Is Badurbarok strong?”

“Yeah.”

Se-min said with a fed-up expression.

“We are in big trouble, seriously.”

Se-min gradually moved away from the palace from which he did not know what might pop out.

“Look at that.”

Before long, the imperial palace vibrated.

Soon, the mass of flesh swelling inside shattered the palace. And it soared up and up into the sky. It kept growing larger, as if there were no limit to its volume.

Things like tentacles kept sprouting from the surface. The characteristics of the magic beasts were replicated repeatedly. Teeth, claws, wings, and all biological organs made to kill the enemy writhed at the ends of the flesh mass and tentacles.

It grew larger, and larger still.

It was a giant mass of flesh that even Gru, who was called a demigod, and the dragon Izergazin had to look up at for a long time.

The summation of the evil that had broken the world.

“Emperor.”

Kaorak spoke.

“…There is a way to kill that, right?”

“…”

Se-min had nothing to say.

Se-min raised his aura and swept it over Lupus.

Beyond the clear surface, Se-min’s own eyes were reflected. Facing a formidable enemy that he could not possibly win against, Se-min attempted to request help from the Transcendent Network once again. At the very least, he wanted to seek advice regarding the battle.

However, he was not connected to the Transcendent Network.

“Emperor, is there no method you have thought of?”

“No, it’s just…”

Se-min gave up on connecting and, looking down at the giant mass of meat, said.

“I don’t know either.”

Badurbarok in his angel form spread his wings and flew up above the mass of flesh.

Kubar asked.

“Is the winged one among those two Badurbarok?”

“It’s all of them.”

Se-min could tell that both that dreadful body and the angel form that had flown up were Badurbarok.

The angel’s body could never represent Badurbarok. His essence was rather close to the opposite.

His universe seen through the Primordial Core was disastrous.

Badurbarok castrated all the virtues of the world, confined them in his fence, and was incessantly committing sins with dreadful technology. As if evil karma was the sole reason for his existence, he repeated sin after sin, amplifying pain and despair.

Reviving the dead to make them magic beasts, or making them fight to the death with their old friends, was rather on the humane side.

Se-min gave up thinking about Badurbarok. Although he had a humane form called an angel, he was by no means a type that could be understood by the human mind.

“What is clear is that if we don’t defeat him, not only this world… but other dimensions and the entire universe will become a mess.”

Win the fight.

He had to think only of that.

Se-min looked at the allied forces surrounding Badurbarok and the companions going down to the ground.

The allied forces were many, and Badurbarok was alone. They would have to attack the enemy using their numerical advantage, but the enemy’s giant volume erased all those benefits. In terms of overall power, they were rather the minority.

No strategy worked in front of an overwhelming difference in power.

“Germanos.”

He asked the experienced man, but Germanos’s face was also stiffened and did not relax. It must have been the first time he had met a monster like Badurbarok too.

“Did the wise man not say anything?”

“‘We must overcome this trial and strike down the great evil.’ That is all the wise man said. Being a wise man does not mean knowing everything.”

The troll Sagong answered instead.

As Badurbarok’s mass of flesh gradually expanded, tentacles reached the allied forces.

The battle began. The allied forces died from being impaled by tentacles, or knocked the tentacles away and instead rushed forward bravely. Offensive and defensive stances kept reversing. Either way, blood splattered.

Se-min also emptied his head and rushed toward Badurbarok.

Although the Cosmic Flow did not work, if he kept pounding on it, an answer would come out. He further enhanced the killing methods obtained through brother Dam Woo-gwang and raised his aura ominously. The dark red aura sliced the air and whipped Badurbarok’s mass of flesh like a lash.

The mass of flesh tilted minutely.

Others did not stay still either. The dragons flew up, clung to Badurbarok’s body, and tore the skin apart. Blood and bodily fluids flowed, and from within, tentacles crawled out again and covered the dragons.

A fight between dragons and the monster took place.

In the meantime, Gru rushed in. His giant body ran in with a crash, climbed up the flesh, and smashed and rummaged through it at random.

There was no such thing as a strategy.

A desperate battle began.

Se-min accelerated his time as much as possible. Splitting and splitting it, he lined up the expanded units of time, and in each of those scenes, he carried out every kind of attack available to him.

He raised Lupus to slash, shot sword energy again toward the slashed wound, and beyond that, poured down the Cosmic Flow, the killing method, and every effective attack he knew.

Blood and bodily fluids brushed past his cheek.

Before the guy’s wound could recover, he advanced as deep as possible and then rammed the debris of the broken palace into it to prevent recovery. Even when tentacles counterattacked, he did not retreat and aimed Lupus directly at them.

An eye surfaced deep inside the wound Se-min had made.

It stared at Se-min.

A mouth also formed below it.

“You saw my universe well, didn’t you?”

Se-min shoved Lupus into that mouth. Aura invaded and caused an explosion inside the mass of flesh. As an aftermath, he was covered from head to toe in acidic bodily fluids. Se-min raised his aura to protect his burning skin.

A new mouth surfaced above Se-min’s head.

“This place will become like that too.”

Se-min slashed above his head. However, mouths emerged from behind, from the side, and from all directions. They whispered the same words like speakers linked together.

“Your universe will be ruined.”

That scenery crossed Se-min’s mind again.

It was hell.

Once seen, it could not be erased. It was a place so dreadful and miserable that just a glance left a permanent wound on the soul. Se-min’s aura wavered for an instant.

Even without limbs, one had to flounder, and even without a mouth, one had to scream, and there was no salvation in that eternal pain. It was going on even now, and would continue in the future.

Toward him, hundreds and thousands of mouths spoke as one.

“You will become like that too.”

Se-min felt darkness casting over and looked back.

As he had kept digging into Badurbarok’s body, he had entered too deeply. As the mass of flesh rose from behind, his escape route was being blocked. Se-min attempted to escape this spot.

However.

Wings shimmered.

Badurbarok, the being with angel wings, appeared behind his back.

Se-min grit his teeth as he saw the tentacles filling the area around Badurbarok. The narrow gap where Badurbarok stood was the entirety of the escape route.

Now, the space inside was also pushing toward Se-min.

“Not looking back also resembles the Heavenly Demon.”

“Shut up.”

Se-min raised his aura, but felt a strange helplessness as if it were being absorbed into Badurbarok’s body. To shake off that feeling, he raised his aura even more fiercely.

“It’s useless.”

Badurbarok reached out his hand toward Se-min. Then, tentacles surged from all directions toward Se-min.

Even as he slashed and slashed, other tentacles appeared. Se-min was enveloped by Badurbarok. He was buried in Badurbarok’s mass of flesh, and all his senses grew distant.

In darkness and silence, the pain constricting his body stabbed Se-min.

However, he could not scream.

For him, there was neither space to inflate his diaphragm to draw a breath, nor the slightest gap to vibrate his vocal cords.

Emperor.

Someone called him.

Emperor.

Se-min tried to open his eyes. However, his eyelids were locked, and he could not open them.

Emperor!

At some point, his eyelids lifted.

“Emperor!”

The sound, and the world, returned once again.

Se-min saw a hand grabbing his collar and pulling him past his vision, which was dizzying from splattered blood and bodily fluids.

It was large and rough. It belonged to an Orc.

“Kid.”

As expected of the original practitioner, he fought quite well.

“You should have come sooner.”

“It seems you have the leisure to talk nonsense.”

“I almost died.”

“Shut up and raise your sword.”

Se-min raised his aura. Fortunately, it returned without issue. Se-min moved away from Badurbarok’s body while leaning his body on Ilrgar’s shoulder.

The scale of the vast mass of flesh unfolded before his eyes once more.

A wound dug out on a fairly large scale was visible. It was the section Se-min had dug into.

It had been clawed again when Ilrgar rescued Se-min, and now it could not repair the crack. Se-min nodded.

“If we repeat that a few thousand times, that will vanish too, right?”

“It seems we must do it more than a few thousand times.”

“Where is that winged guy?”

“He disappeared first before I could strike.”

“Then he must still be somewhere.”

Se-min said so as he raised Lupus.

And he slashed backward roughly.

“Like a rat.”

Ilrgar also looked back, following Se-min.

Badurbarok was floating with his wings spread. Se-min and Ilrgar each raised their power.

Badurbarok still had no expression, like a doll. The more they faced him, the more they realized that he was not a human-like being. Since he was not human but had a human form, it was repulsive enough to cause goosebumps.

Badurbarok lifted his finger.

And brought it down.

At that moment, the earth shook.

Se-min looked around. Tentacles were stretching out in all directions from the mass of flesh.

As if a human were crushing an ant with a finger, the outrageously giant volume struck down upon the allied forces.

Blood erupted, dyeing the earth red.

Life faded away all too easily.

Se-min grit his teeth and raised Lupus. How many had died in that single attack just now?

Tragedies felt distant. Had he already grown used to this hell too?

Badurbarok did not have even as much guilt as when killing an ant. Anger and fear whirled through Se-min’s body simultaneously. Se-min raised the Cosmic Flow.

“Badurbarok. I have something I’m curious about.”

Badurbarok looked at Se-min. Se-min continued.

“How much did you get beaten up by the Heavenly Demon?”

“…”

Badurbarok did not answer. However, Se-min detected that subtle fluctuation. It was close to anger.

Se-min smirked and sneered.

“It’s as clear as day. Weren’t you beaten to a pulp by grandmaster, the former Heavenly Demon, and groveling, only to act up now that the grandmaster is gone? You were beaten to near death the moment you met, right?”

An ordinary villain would have flared up and told him to cut the nonsense, but Badurbarok did not do such a predictable thing.

He just quietly extended his power toward Se-min. Se-min raised Lupus to block it. Badurbarok’s attacks continued.

Se-min opened his mouth to provoke Badurbarok until the very end.

“But what are you going to do? Great people like grandmaster, the Heavenly Demon, are all over this universe. When the time comes, you’ll be to them…”

“The Transcendent Network.”

Badurbarok said.

“That will also end up in the same state as the things you saw.”

Whenever Badurbarok mentioned his world, a headache came. Se-min grit his teeth and raised Lupus.

The cosmic scenery that Badurbarok had shown kept shimmering. It was eating away at Se-min’s mind. He shook his head.

As Se-min wavered, Ilrgar spoke.

“We shall face that one first. Gru will deal with the mass of flesh.”

“Right.”

Se-min glanced down.

The giant ogre was running toward the mass of flesh. Each time he swung his fist, the mass of flesh shattered and fragments erupted.

Tentacles stabbed at him, but Gru did not care. It was just like a stone crushing tofu.

He was reliable.

“Nice.”

Se-min smirked.

It was different from when fighting on Earth. There were guys fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with him here. He did not need to take responsibility for everything.

Se-min stood straight, holding Lupus. The Tai Chi Wisdom, the power that could be called Se-min’s foundation, whirled tidily. It soon manifested power according to the principles of the Cosmic Flow.

He mixed in the Demonic Dragon’s hatred and sublimated it into Dam Woo-gwang’s killing method. The dark red aura rose even more threateningly.

And the Primordial Core.

He raised the power of the Primordial Core. At that, an indescribable light rose around Se-min’s body.

Suddenly.

Over Badurbarok’s world that kept shimmering above his eyelids, a hem of clothing was draped. It was something he had seen once.

Black clothes, the soft golden dragon embroidery stitched on them, a soft gold dragon on a broad back.

It was the back of a man.

Se-min could now tell who that was.

The original owner of the Primordial Core, his master’s master.

It was the former Heavenly Demon.

Although he did not know what had become of him now, such a being existed in the world. Se-min would become like that.

The moment he felt him engraved in the Primordial Core, Se-min felt the sticky despair that bound his entire body dissipate.

An event from a long time ago came to mind.

It was something he had forgotten because it was so long ago.

He had wanted to become strong, and thus wanted to become a Raider. If so, what was the reason he had wanted to get strong, and had wanted to become a Raider?

Someone had asked that, and he had replied with four characters.

At this very moment, now facing Badurbarok, Se-min recalled those words once again.

That work he had to do was given to him right now.

“Lee Se-min.”

He muttered his own name.