A scream pierced the air. Up until this moment, the audience had been watching our fight as quietly as possible. Although the Sword Star had shouted earlier, that was to be excused since he was old, like the Viper had said. It was the etiquette for those uninvolved in the duel to remain silent and step aside, but now that the duel had come to a close, people rushed in with desperation. “You’re the ones who should stay where you are!” In an instant, the crowd split into two, creating a standoff. On one side stood the Death King Clan, led by Estelle. She was the Demon King of Autumn Rain, Preta, my daughter, and now the advisor to our clan, always advising me in matters of right and wrong. Opposite of them stood the Skians, led by one dressed in a pure white helmet and a full-body suit. It was the leader of the Two Hundred Fifty-Six Color Skian Rangers, the squad who had joined the energy dragon raid toward the end. “Why are you stopping us? You’re just a bunch of clowns with color-coded clothes. Aren’t you old enough to know better?” “Right back at you. Are you going off to a funeral after all this? Our RGB Code 000000: The Real Black can easily take care of you all dressed in black!” “You guys can’t even come up with a proper title!” Estelle snapped. “What is your title then?” “I was once known as the Saintess of the Outskirts, then the Demon King of Autumn Rain. Later, I was known as Preta. And now, I’m the advisor of the Death King Clan!” The Skian ranger leader scratched his head awkwardly. “Oh... That actually sounds pretty cool...” Estelle didn’t care, so I had to stop her. “Estelle, why don’t you let them be?” “No, Patriarch! I can’t do that!” Immediately, she disobeyed. I lowered my head slightly in shock, wondering if she was already in her rebellious phase. Estelle shot a glare at the OJP Sect Master, hissing. “The sect master’s words have been so presumptuous and rude that I can’t bear to listen. He says that there is always a chance that you can go astray. Ha! So, the patriarch would fall into aura deviation and massacre the grassroots indiscriminately, then make the screams filling the human world disappear as if they never existed. After slaughtering almost everyone in the universe, he would gather only those worthy of surviving to create a small paradise. Is that what you think the patriarch would do, Sect Master?” The Viper barely managed to sit up. His palm soon slipped across the grass, and he sank into the mud. “Yeah... Shit...” Feeling embarrassed, his breathing became ragged for a moment. “Like you said, I think that your Heavenly Demon can fall into aura deviation at any moment and unleash a massacre that no one has ever seen before.” Estelle gritted her teeth. “How... How well do you think you know the patriarch? You don’t know what kind of people surround him or follow him under the clan flag, nor do you know the full extent of their determination. We all swore to aid the patriarch even if it costs our lives. But you still—” The Viper coughed, applying mud to the wound on his throat. It didn’t stop the bleeding. “That’s why.” “If your patriarch falls into aura deviation and goes berserk, you guys will never be able to stop him.” Estelle clenched her fists. “Ha. Although I’m weaker now, I’m the Demon King of Autumn Rain. When my tears fall into raindrops as I swing my sword, ogres, orcs, goblins, and countless other monsters fall like rain and form an army. I am incomparable to a swordsman whose level has only slightly improved.” “Yeah, you guys are strong... too freaking strong.” The Viper coughed up blood and chuckled. “But are you going to stop your patriarch while under aura deviation with your strength?” “Yes, of course, even if it costs me my life—” “No, that’s not it. Be more specific. Have you been paying attention to me? Huh? We’re not talking just about anyone here, but your patriarch, Kim Gong-Ja, young lady.” The Viper looked around, like a gladiator standing in the middle of the coliseum. His shoulders drooped because of the exhaustion. “Who is Kim Gong-Ja? Look at the Heavenly Demon. Even when his teacher died, he didn’t fall into aura deviation. Yes, he was sad, but he just accepted it. There are so many people in the world who deserved to die, so he could have screamed at the sky and asked why it had to be his teacher. But he didn’t. He just... cried a bit and sent her off. He may not look like it, but he’s a tough bastard.” The Viper raised his voice. “Whether the world is ending or the heart of the woman he loves is torn apart, he will be fine! He never falls into aura deviation. He holds onto his sanity as if he’s nothing without it. No matter how hellish life is, he will never fall into aura deviation.” Small wounds decorated the back of his hands, but it seemed he had brought bandages with him in advance and used this opportunity to somewhat tend to them. Yet, every time the Viper clapped, his still-healing wounds bled. “That kind of patience is incredible. His mental fortitude is almost superhuman. Tell me, young lady. What kind of fuckery do you think Kim Gong-Ja would have to go through to fall into aura deviation?” “He’s seen worlds ending so many times, so that won’t cut it. Among them, many didn’t end pretty, but he was still fine. Then... human malice should be stacked again and again so that when he gets close or catches only a whiff of it, he would think, ‘Ah, this is hell.’ Only then would it become so unbearable that Kim Gong-Ja, the Patriarch of the Demon King Clan and the Heavenly Demon, would finally go crazy.” “And you’re his vassals. Can you stop him if that happens?” All the vassals remained silent. “Would you want to stop it? I can’t even imagine the kind of hell you would all witness at that moment. If it’s a hell so terrible that it even causes Kim Gong-Ja to lose his mind... If that is why he will try to kill everyone who created this hell, including those who stood by and those who pretended not to know, it will be pure chaos...” The Viper raised his head and looked around at Advisor Estelle, Chief Warrior Uburka, Clan Shadow Kim Yul, Head Steward Sylvia Evanail, and even the Sword Star, who had not yet joined the clan but had volunteered to be my bodyguard. “Would you... be able to stop Kim Gong-Ja?” Estelle tried to speak up. “We...” “Honestly, my guess is that you’ll follow his lead and hunt down all those sons of bitches responsible for creating the hell. Your eyes will be blinded with fury. Basically, an entire clan and a demonic cult will succumb to aura deviation and wreak havoc on the world. How beautiful.” “The clan has a member who used to be a Constellation and another one who’s still a Constellation. There’s a Hunter who even received a title for his knack for slicing down Constellations. Then there’s one who nearly ruined the world by borrowing a Constellation’s power. The other soldiers aren’t ordinary either; they’re the elite of the demonic cult who survived the world’s destruction. Elites of elites! There are almost one thousand of them who can use master-level demonic arts.” The Viper picked up a stone and threw it. The stone landed at Estelle’s feet. “It looks like a faction that will easily bring down a world, doesn’t it? If something is dire enough to bring down the Heavenly Demon into aura deviation, it’s only natural that your entire clan will suffer from that as well. With all of you roaming around the Tower like that, our world will come to an end in a day.” The second stone landed near Uburka’s feet. “You need me. Without me, you’re finished. You’re so angry that you feel like you’re going insane as you wonder how someone can really create such hell. If you still have your humanity, you shouldn’t cross this line. When you start to feel furious like that, when your heart begins to race, blood flushes back to your face and it feels like your blood is boiling in every vein...” A pebble flew in and hit a spot near my heart, where the Viper had struck me with his fist earlier. When I looked up, he chuckled and said, “I’ll be there to help you control yourself. If you can’t control yourself, I’ll kill you.” The moment I succumbed to aura deviation and the Viper killed me, that would serve as the Righteous Faction’s victory and the Heavenly Demon Cult’s defeat. I laughed. “Ha. The fight will take so, so long... Ten years? Twenty? Thirty? Maybe even hundreds? Rao Fan, are you challenging me to a battle that will last centuries?” “Yeah,” the Viper replied with a laugh of his own. “I love this because I got a work contract that would last for hundreds of years.” I nodded. “Okay, Rao Fan.” Estelle looked up at me. “My lord?” “Estelle, there is no time limit to battles, anyway. To figure out whether the Demonic Heaven or the Righteous Faction was right, my teacher and the Murim Alliance leader had to fight nine hundred ninety times. They kept battling as the world was ending, but they still couldn’t reach a consensus. There’s no reason to rush.” Estelle took a deep breath. As if holding fire in her heart, she looked at me with determination and said, “You’ll never go astray, Patriarch.” “Why do you think so?” “Because it’s the path I’ve already walked once.” I thought of the clouds mixed with ash and the red rain that had fallen around me. Yes, she was right. I smiled. “Thank you.” “So, if it seems like you might stray, I... all of us will work together to persuade you and drag you back, even if it means grabbing you by the hair.” Estelle frowned. “There’s no need for you to have someone like that by your side.” “But I can still go down the wrong path.” I patted Estelle’s head and glanced over at the Viper, who was roughly wiping his muddy face with his hands. “Rao Fan, thank you.” I bowed. “Thank you for doing this for me. I’m genuinely grateful you spent so much time to defeat me. You mentioned you were jealous of me, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. You didn’t harm me or plot against me. Instead, you looked me straight in my eyes, admitted your jealousy, and tried to defeat me fair and square. I... I think that is beautiful. I thought that, if I captivate you with my Sword Telekinesis, your jealousy will naturally fade, but I’m now embarrassed by my complacency. You overcame your jealousy long ago. That’s incredible.” I got up. It was hard to breathe because I still felt the lingering pain from the Viper’s fist in my chest, but I endured it and walked toward him. For some reason, he looked nervous. I knew what I was supposed to say at this moment. Of course he feels nervous. When one finally met the person they had been jealous of and admired, when they were face-to-face with that person at the same eye level, what would they want to hear the most? What would they desperately wish the person would say to them? What needed to be said? I knew the answer to these questions because I had envied and admired Fire Emperor Yoo Soo-Ha more than anyone else. “Rao Fan.” I tapped him on the shoulder. “You’re a wacko like me, aren’t you? Well, I don’t hate nice wackos; I actually like them. In the end, you even punched me right in my heart... Really, good job.” I laughed out loud. “You looked like a protagonist. But if you want to cut off my head while I’m suffering from aura deviation, you know that’s not enough, right? You have to train harder and not slack off.” Rao Fan looked flustered. “What? Dude, if someone heard you, they’d think you just won.” “Hmm? You told us to imagine things more specifically before we speak. You know that you become stronger during aura deviation.” Rao Fan laughed, dumbstruck. “What kind of fucked-up logic is that?” I sat down in front of him, laughing alongside him. “Let’s have a drink.” Soon, someone bought us drinks. The glasses were prepared, and the drinks were poured into them. Scattered petals fell from branches above us and landed on the ground. The Skians who had been watching everything made their decision. [All votes have been counted.] [Choice 2 Voting Percentage: 00.00%] [Choice 1 Voting Percentage: 100.00%] Perhaps what they were watching was not merely the battle, but the clear water flowing down a certain eye. “Okay, let’s have a drink, Kim Gong-Ja,” he said. “You wacko fucker.” [The forty-seventh floor has been cleared.] And, just like that, the last voting session was over.