DKFTI 81

***

Aizen’s body hit the cliff wall from Karhan’s attack. Stones broke apart and fell to the ground with a crashing sound.

‘What kind of strength is this….?’

Aizen barely managed to withstand Petra’s Demon King attack and he almost crossed the line of death. Aizen had fought countless demons until now. There had been endless troublesome ones, but the Demon King in front of him was on a different level.

He felt a primal fear that he might die here and it made Aizen’s fingertips tremble.

‘Have I grown weak?’

Even though he had spent a long time on recovery, he could not return to the strength he had before taking the antidote. That strength had gone beyond reason. Now only holy power fitting for a human body filled him, so the difference was clear.

‘Maybe my body has stiffened.’

But Aizen thought there was no way he needed such an unnatural level of holy power just to face a single Demon King.

When Aizen moved his aching back muscles, Karhan suddenly grabbed Aizen’s neck with his hand.

“You are feeling fear.”

Karhan’s purple eyes gradually turned black. Aizen felt his energy turning turbid, so he raised his holy power as much as he could and covered his body.

‘What kind of trick is he planning?’

Aizen twisted his lips.

“When was the last time I tried mental manipulation?”

“Haa.”

Aizen realized Karhan was trying to manipulate his mind with magic, so he immediately blocked it with holy power.

“Why don’t you stop with those childish tricks?”

When did he get hit? Aizen grabbed his sore jaw with his hand and moved it.

“Interesting.”

“What’s so interesting about this situation?”

“Why would an Apostle of the Holy Kingdom be following the Demon King?”

How does just walking together make him an underling? Were the brains of these demons only capable of turning that far?

“It has been a while since I killed an Apostle.”

Karhan spoke while fixing his stance, Aizen laughed in disbelief. He wiped his lips with the back of his hand and answered.

“Is that so? It hasn’t been that long since I killed demons.”

Karhan jumped into the air as soon he finished speaking.

When Karhan’s body soared up, his shadow stretched toward Aizen. Karhan cut through the air and descended on him like a beast attacking its prey.

Aizen instinctively turned his body to the side and avoided the attack. But when the black energy coming out of Karhan’s fist brushed past him, a dark mark appeared on the cliff wall and the stone melted.

“Street brawling is not my hobby.”

Because of the heat around him, sweat formed on Aizen’s forehead. He thought his breathing was rough.

“I prefer winning in overwhelming fashion.”

“I have lived for two thousand years. I have seen every kind of human. Most of the rude ones like you did not live long.”

Karhan laughed as if it was amusing.

“I always felt like tearing apart the rude ones with care.”

The smile immediately disappeared from Karhan’s face. Black energy surrounded his body. Aizen measured the holy power inside himself.

If the fight dragged on, he would be overwhelmingly at a disadvantage.

“I’ve never seen anyone who talked too much in battle live long.”

He had to provoke his opponent to create an opening. If he could just get one chance… yes. He would end it with a single strike.

Aizen compressed his holy power into his holy sword. Karhan quietly watched Aizen doing that.

“Useless effort.”

He acted relaxed as if he had already read all of Aizen’s moves. Black smoke rose around him, and a huge hand came out from inside the smoke. The blackened hand looked scorched and its sharp claws looked like they could cut a man in two with just a graze.

‘I need to get rid of that smoke.’

While Aizen carefully arranged his plan, Karhan fiercely attacked.

Clang-, clang!

Aizen’s holy sword stayed busy just keeping up with Karhan’s blows. While barely avoiding fatal injuries, Aizen found an opening in Karhan and thrust his sword.

Shluk-

‘Too shallow.’

Aizen’s sword pierced Karhan’s shoulder, but Karhan grabbed the blade and pulled it out without even changing his expression.

Ploc, ploc.

Black blood flowed for a moment, but his body soon regenerated.

“I have an immortal body. You must know such an attack won’t work. How boring. I expected more from an Apostle of the Holy Kingdom.”

Bang-!

With a single gesture from Karhan, Aizen’s body hit the cliff wall and left a round crater.

“This is boring.”

The smile disappeared from Karhan’s face.

Swoosh-.

A sound came from above Karhan’s head. It was the moment he lifted his head to the sky.

Karhan’s body floated as Shanti, who had transformed into a giant form, grabbed him with his claws. Karhan’s face twisted. His body rolled twice in the air and landed on the ground. His neat hair was now completely disheveled.

“…Right. Now I remember. We have met before.”

Karhan stood up and looked at Shanti’s dragon form as if he had recalled something. Unlike when he was facing Aizen, his eyes shone brightly.

“Thanks to just one fox, I get to see something amusing.”

Karhan smiled, and soon a giant mass of blackness rose from the ground beside him. It was the owner of the hand that had cornered Aizen earlier.

“A feast. There are plenty of hearts here that I want to take.”

When Karhan’s mouth curved in a grotesque grin, the stones around them shook as if reacting to his summoned beast.

“I will rip all your hearts out while you are still alive.”

Then the summoned beast, as large as Shanti’s body, began to attack Shanti. While Shanti held onto the giant summoned beast, Aizen shook off his body that felt like it would break and stood up.

“I never expected comfort, but this is really something else.”

Aizen was dumbfounded that he was rolling in the mud here just to save one demon. But if he had thrown Sibel alone into this place, that would have been even more intolerable and infuriating.

Aizen held the holy sword in his hand tightly.

“Ahh!”

Tuk, tuktuk.

Besides Sibel’s voice he heard strange sounds. To check where they came from, both Aizen and Karhan turned their eyes to the ground. From the dry soil, plants began to sprout.

Green plants grew thickly at an abnormally fast speed.

“What is this now….”

Just when Aizen thought nothing could surprise him anymore, words of bewilderment came out of his mouth. Then an anomaly appeared on Karhan’s summoned beast’s body as well.

On the body of the summoned beast, which looked like massive clumps of dirt and rock, sprouts began to appear.

“…What did he do?”

Aizen and Karhan looked at it, trying to understand. And soon after….

-Grrrrr….

The sprouts grew in the blink of an eye into vines that firmly bound the summoned beast’s body.

“You are showing quite a marvelous trick.”

Karhan spoke with genuine admiration. Sibel’s ability, which had none of the roughness of demon power, was not just curious but nearly awe-inspiring.

And despite his shabby-looking appearance, he was showing power strong enough to hold down Karhan’s summoned beast that carried thousands of years of magic.

While Karhan was distracted, observing Sibel’s plants, green vines began crawling up his own ankles. Karhan noticed it too late. The vines quickly spread and started binding his body.

Swish-.

The vines spread tightly over Karhan’s legs, body, and arms. Yellow flowers began to bloom here and there on the vines with popping sounds.

“Ugh… achoo!”

Then Karhan started sneezing. Seeing that, Aizen tilted his head.

“Ruru….”

Karhan gnashed his teeth. The only one who could have told this young Demon King about his weakness to pollen was Ruru.

“More! More of them!”

Sibel happily bloomed even more flowers. On the barren land where no grass had grown, flowers of many colors spread out.

Aizen covered his open mouth with his hand.

The Demon King and flowers. It was a grotesque sight he had never imagined.

Aizen, who had lost himself staring, came back to his senses late. Right. No matter how ridiculous it looked, all that mattered was killing the opponent.

Aizen gathered the holy power he had left and put it into his sword.

“Ha, hahaha….”

As Karhan’s stone-like skin gradually turned red, he laughed hollowly

Clang-.

Aizen’s holy sword reached right in front of Karhan’s heart.