Descent of the Demon Master

“Kkuhuuk… Urgh…”

“Pain” had this strange side to it.

It’d feel like an absolute unending torture while pain was inflicted on you. Most people would not be able to endure these moments of torture, although their level of tolerance depended on how severe the pain was. In any case…

Humans desired to be freed from pain. The tortured wished to end the suffering by spitting out everything they knew. The sick would ingest as many painkillers to weaken the pain’s intensity gripping their body.

Unfortunately, being liberated from the pain didn’t always mean the end of their troubles. Nobuo’s situation was a testament to this statement.

“Fuu-wook…”

Right now, he was not in any pain.

Nobuo had temporarily escaped from Nakata Yuji's merciless beating that had completely crushed and wrecked his poor body. However, this knowledge didn't comfort Nobuo at all. That was because the end of the physical pain didn't result in the end of his psychological torment.

The torturers had temporarily turned their attention elsewhere. That was all.

Besides, Nobuo was well aware of these people's beliefs and methods. They would never forgive a traitor like him.

“Ke… Kekeke.”

A hollow chuckle leaked out of Nobuo’s mouth.

Of course he wanted to hurl curses at those sons of b*tches. Those bastards did nothing for their underlings yet dared to grow fat from all the blood, sweat, and tears shed by the people below them. Even then, they still demanded loyalty.

Loyalty?! Why should anyone be loyal to such unscrupulous bastards?

Even then, Nobuo couldn't curse at the higher-ups of the Japanese gumi. After all, he was the one who had willingly sworn his allegiance to those people and crawled like an insect to go under their wings.

If a task was beyond one's capabilities, one shouldn't attempt it. If a path was too tough to walk on, one shouldn't take it. If one was not prepared to silently deal with all the excrement on the road and would rather jump into a cliff below to avoid getting soiled… One should've never chosen this path.

Didn't Nobuo willingly choose to take on all the excrement falling in his way while walking on this path? In that case, what qualification did he have to curse at those Japanese bastards? If he had been in their shoes, Nobuo would've also cruelly tortured the traitor before executing them.

“Kkuh-euh…”

Nobuo was solely responsible for making this dumb decision. A decision that even he couldn't understand. He was also responsible for plunging his life into the pit of despair. As such, he had no right to curse anyone, never mind resent them.

“Kkueh… Heuh… Heheheh…”

Nobuo forced his trembling hand to rub his face. He was rewarded by sharp, stinging pain coming from his fingers.

One of his fingers was missing. Although the severed finger could be seen discarded on the floor, reattaching it was a pipe dream now. Besides, who cared about a severed finger, anyway? What did that matter to a fool who was about to die soon?

Nobuo shuddered in fear.

Since Nakata Yuji found out about Nobuo's warning, he'd undoubtedly think of a countermeasure. His original plan was to mount surprise attacks against the Koreans after reaching the peninsula, but that had to be flushed down the toilet now.

In that case, what would he do next?

As far as Nobuo could tell, Nakata Yuji would choose another route to reach the Korean peninsula. Or, simply return to Japan altogether. The former option would be the best outcome for Nobuo's fate, but the hasty return to the archipelago to aim for another chance would spell his doom.

Nakata Yuji and his goons would have all the time in the world to torture Nobuo, after all!

No one could rival those bastards when it came to tormenting and torturing other humans. Nobuo had witnessed such scenes enough times to know that much.

If those people acquired a victim they could toy around to their hearts' content… They would shed their human skin and become cruel monsters!

Nobuo’s misfortune was that he was the victim this time!

To those people's eyes, Nobuo must've resembled a fish waiting to be chopped up on a cutting board. Their current dilemma must be about how to fillet him into thinly sliced sashimi without killing him in the process.

‘Maybe I should…’

...Bite his tongue and kill himself?

Nobuo cackled softly again.

Committing suicide by biting one's tongue was nothing more than an urban legend. A human body could be surprisingly sturdy, so biting a tongue didn't result in one's death. No, one would simply lose their tongue, and that was about it.

That story about biting one's own tongue, causing the tongue muscles to bunch up and block one's throat, was a lie. Ditto for bleeding to death, too. If such a simple method of suicide existed, why would prisons install urethane walls to prevent suicide attempts?

Nobuo’s body sagged powerlessly on the floor. As his limbs had been tied up, he wasn’t even given a chance to ram his head against a wall to end his life. All he could do now was wait for his death like a fish caught in a net. His fate now belonged to those hateful bastards.

‘Why… Why did I do that?’

That question didn’t want to leave Nobuo alone. Why did he make such a stupid decision? Even though he’d gain nothing by doing so? Even after half-predicting he’d end up in this pathetic state, why did Nobuo still go ahead and do this reckless thing!

What gutted Nobuo even more was knowing his situation wouldn’t have been better even if his duplicity had not been discovered.

If Nakata Yuji had not discovered the betrayal and remained blissfully unaware, Nobuo would’ve been wrecked by the feeling of walking into the mouth of Hell by now! After all, only he would’ve known that their destination was actually a death trap.

In that case, he might have seriously considered coming out clean and confessing his betrayal as a way to escape from that danger.

When his thoughts reached that far, Nobuo began chuckling again. In the end, this was all he amounted to.

Nobuo didn't have the determination to throw his life away for a great cause. Maybe someone could, but not him.

He was just another background character, a random nobody, after all. A nobody with no clear goal or courage.

That was Nobuo in a nutshell. No more, no less.

However, he couldn’t figure this out quickly enough. As a result, he was met with this misfortune.

Nobuo pressed his head against the wall. The sensation of cold metal could be felt on his skin.

This coldness reminded Nobuo of his impending death, causing him to reflexively bite his lip.

‘Yeah, I know. I’ll die soon.’

No miracle could save Nobuo now. After all, Nakata Yuji and his goons would never spare Nobuo’s life.

Nobuo pleading for mercy would give them more pleasure while killing him. If Nobuo clenched his teeth and endured, the torture would go on and on until they could break him. Either way, Nobuo would die after experiencing a lengthy torture session.

In that case, what should he do?

‘...I gotta avoid dying like a pathetic fool.’

Since death was unavoidable, Nobuo didn’t want to die pathetically.

It was too late to act like a martyr who would gladly sacrifice their life for their cause. However, Nobuo should, at the very least, try his best to avoid going out with a whimper like some useless trash. Since his death was inevitable, he should die like a man!

‘Right. I… I will never grovel before them!'

Just as Nobuo steeled his resolve to not die like a loser…

RUMBLE! BOOOOOM!

Nobuo’s tied-up figure bounced around the room.

“W-what the f*ck?!” Nobuo reflexively cried out. His cracked windpipe split open again, causing blood to well up from his throat. However, he had no time to stew in his pain right now.

After he bounced away from the wall, an explosion noise loud enough to nearly deafen Nobuo resounded out from somewhere above. The room being completely shrouded in darkness only made the ensuing chaos feel several times worse.

Bang! Boom!

Even before the pain from slamming into the floor reached Nobuo’s brain, more impact forces got transmitted into his body. Nobuo threw open his eyes and tried to scan the room. He was flustered like never before by the vibrations from the ship precariously rocking about.

‘What the hell is going on outside?’

Were they being attacked by the Korean military? But that couldn't be true!

This was a cruise ship. No matter how brazen and stubborn the South Korean government was, it’d never wage a military assault against a cruise ship ostensibly filled with civilians!

What if torpedoes had struck the ship? That didn't seem right either since a few loud explosions wouldn't be the only results from torpedo attacks. As to prove him right, Nobuo couldn't sense the ship tilting on one side.

In that case, what was happening out there?

Nobuo tried to listen closely. And then…

“...Ah!”

He could hear them. He could hear the screams and loud yells. Sounds of chaos and confusion coming from somewhere far away registered in his hearing!

‘What the hell?’

What on Earth was going on in this bloody ship?!

***

Death always accompanied humans closely. However, humans were blithely ignorant of this fact.

Turning on the news should be enough to inform everyone that dozens and dozens of people die every single day through no fault of their own. Yet, no one believed such unfortunate death would come for them next.

They simply thought those people got unlucky.

In that case, when would humans realize they were staring at the approaching death? That would be in moments like this one.

Splaaaash!

That sounded like water powerfully gushing out. If not that, a whip powerfully slapping a pool of water. However, the true source of that noise was neither of those.

No, that was the sound of a sword slicing through a person’s torso!

The Japanese were retreating. All they could think about was running away from here! Even though they were on their butts, their feet desperately pushed at the floor, and their hands urgently pulled and clawed to drag their bodies away from here.

Why were they doing that, though? Because they could instinctively tell. They could tell that death was right by their side!

Sensing the presence of the nearby grim reaper was surprisingly simple. One only had to watch the spectacle of people one had been laughing together and sharing banters with… turn into corpses in an instant! And not just any corpses, either!

People who were perfectly healthy only a second ago got their heads sliced off and sent flying in the air. Bodies got sliced, diced, and chopped in half, with guts, severed limbs, and waists tumbling messily on the floor. Finally, all the fountains of blood spewing out from the mangled corpses dyed the deck crimson.

This was Hell. A vivid imagery of Hell no painter in history could draw was now unfolding right before the eyes of the Japanese warriors.

When humans witnessed such a hellscape, they would belatedly realize something. And that would be how they were already a part of this Hell! And then…

Splosh…

A Japanese warrior witnessing the massacre could only chuckle bitterly.

The sound of a human’s feet stepping through puddles of blood rang so refreshingly clearly. The disconnect between that noise and the spectacle the warrior’s eyes could see was so extreme that he felt nauseous.

A man stepped over the blood puddles to approach the Japanese warrior. Maybe it was incorrect to call that creature a man, though. After all, a “man” implied that that creature was a human male. But how did that label make any sense in this situation?

No one would think of calling that creature a human being when “it” was covered from head to toe in blood!

Just looking at the blood-covered face and all the droplets of blood dripping from his hair would be enough to say this individual could not be a human. Especially when he must’ve deliberately poured blood on himself to look like that!

However, that wasn't all. A human, or any individual thinking of themselves as a functioning human being, would never crack a smile while covered entirely in blood.

Only one part of that man escaped all the crimson liquid and remained pearly-white. And that was his teeth bared in a chilling grin. The Japanese warrior felt his heart freeze for a moment in sheer dread after witnessing those strikingly white teeth.

“Oh, god…!”

The Japanese gasped when that man walked toward him in very, very leisurely steps. Which made sense, considering that that man wouldn’t have a reason to hurry.

They were trapped inside a ship, after all! A ship floating in the middle of an empty ocean, no less.

There was no possible escape. No wonder that man seemingly had all the time in the world. To him, this place must be like a well-stocked buffet.

The man leisurely closed in before stopping abruptly before the Japanese warrior.

The Japanese warrior’s pants were soaked in his urine, but he didn’t have any leeway to notice such things. Who would care about stuff like that when a smiling grim reaper stood before them?

The man, Kang Jin-Ho, leisurely addressed the Japanese warrior. “I gave you a chance.”

“I, I…!”

Slice!

What a bizarre situation this was. Despite knowing all too well what the sound coming from his throat symbolized, the Japanese warrior no longer felt terrified. What he did feel was a sense of indescribable liberation.

Even as his fading brain witnessed the once-in-a-lifetime sight of his own back that no longer had a head attached to it, the Japanese warrior was glad. He knew he was now free.

He knew this fear would no longer torment him from this moment on.

Sometimes, death… had the power to liberate people.