From Today, I'm a Player

Chapter 271. The End of a Tragedy Pt. 7

“Attack the Demon King!”

Now that the Demon King had been trapped, this was their opportunity. Their opponent had been bound in chains of flame, unable to move. Moreover, they were chains of flame that contained the powers of the source.

“So you’ve used all of the power you’ve accumulated so far…” the Demon King muttered.

The enormous power that had seemed to be running rampant while they were dealing with the Sponsors had actually turned against him, forming a chain to bind him. The Demon King seemed genuinely surprised.

“Are you saying that the natural instinct for destruction of the powers of the source didn’t work on you?” He spoke calmly even though the chains of flame were melting his skin. “To think… Your understanding of the powers of the source was that great.”

He seemed more impressed by the fact that Lee Jun-Kyeong had deceived him than by the fact that he had been deceived.

‘He expected it.’

It was true that Lee Jun-Kyeong had tricked him, doing so because of the countless unexplainable parts of the Demon King’s actions. There was something that made him doubt the Demon King the most.

‘Son of Heimdall and Athena.’

‘My dear nephew.’

The Demon King had told him that he was Heimdall’s son. Almost as if possessed by something, Lee Jun-Kyeong had searched Gehenna to find the Demon King. However, the moment he heard those words, he had come to his senses.

“If, by chance, I really am Hyung’s son…”

The flame giant that had expanded had suddenly become smaller. Lee Jun-Kyeong was abandoning the transformation that the Demon King had spoken of, abandoning the form of the Sponsors. All of the power that had fueled that form was used to bind the Demon King.

Plop. Plop. Plop.

Flames dripped off of him like a peeling shell as Lee Jun-Kyeong’s appearance was gradually revealed.

“There’s no reason…”

Although the flames flickered, searing, tears were clearly falling from the corners of Lee Jun-Kyeong’s eyes.

“For you to be involved in our family matters,” Lee Jun-Kyeong said.

The Demon King had told Lee Jun-Kyeong that he was Heimdall’s son.

‘Hyung would never have let me be forced down this path.’

He would have at least said something, anything, in the previous timeline. If Heimdall remembered everything even after returning to the past, then instead of letting him fight, he would have made him run away. The Heimdall that he knew would never have left his son to this life.

However, Lee Jun-Kyeong knew that the Demon King’s claims about his parentage weren’t lies. The Demon King had no reason to lie. Thus, that only meant one thing.

He snarled, “You forced everything to be this way.”

The only answer was that the Demon King had forcefully made the situation like this, and he, Heimdall’s son, was made to be used for his selfish wishes. He was a monster that would repeat the timeline for eternity. Thus, with his strength, this was entirely possible.

Lee Jun-Kyeong didn’t know how the Demon King had done it, but he knew that the process would have been hell. It would have been horrifying for Heimdall.

“You’re quick to notice,” the Demon King said.

The chains of flames constricting him were burning thicker and hotter.

“At least until now, you’ve never noticed that fact,” he mused, laughing.

There was something else too. Lee Jun-Kyeong had thought of it during the time he had spent waiting to enter Gehenna and meet the Demon King.

‘What about the Sponsors who took my side?’

Earlier, there had been a mission initiated to kill him by the Sponsors. Nevertheless, there were some of the sponsors who hadn’t created any missions or had even given missions to save him. Moreover, there were even the Sponsors who seemed to be on good terms with the Sky of the Apocalypse, according to the notifications that he had gotten.

Those questions swirled around in his mind, and they were questions that he had thought would have been answered when he met the Demon King.

“There was no one by your side.”

However, when he had met the Demon King, there had been no one by his side. Moreover, the Demon King had wanted to kill all of the Sponsors, actually killing most of them, too. There weren’t any Sponsors by his side that stood by him or even seemed to have a cordial relationship with him.

Thus, another question had arisen.

‘Were the Sponsors helping the Demon King?’

The assumptions that Lee Jun-Kyeong had taken for granted had turned into doubts. If they weren’t helping the Demon King, then that meant they were helping him instead.

But why?

In fact, there were still many things that could have been the answer. If he really thought about it, there were countless other questions that caused him to doubt. No, the reason he truly suspected the Demon King was simple.

“If wanting to die is truly your goal…”

Everything that had happened once he had met the Demon King had been suspicious. The Demon King had claimed that he had done all of this because he wanted to die. However, after meeting him, Lee Jun-Kyeong found his behavior strange.

Lee Jun-Kyeong could understand hunting down the Sponsors. It was something that had to be done. However, the Demon King was deliberately trying to force him to go on a rampage and lose himself.

‘There’s something else he wants from me.’

The Demon King kept making him draw on the powers of the source and stoke his rage. Looking at what he had said compared to how he was acting, Lee Jun-Kyeong had begun to feel a chill run down his spine. He wondered if death wasn’t what the Demon King actually wanted, and that was why he had tricked him.

‘Mistilteinn.’

It didn’t seem as though the Demon King had planned for him to obtain Mistilteinn, the World Tree that he had obtained after battling Elfame, or the knowledge and powers of the source from it either.

‘If he did, then he would have known that my understanding of that power would have been high.’

If the Demon King had planned it, then the Demon King would have already known about his high level of understanding regarding the powers of the source. However, the Demon King hadn’t known, or at least hadn’t noticed that he was faking going on a rampage.

Complicated thoughts raced through Lee Jun-Kyeong’s mind to the point that he had almost gone crazy. However, there was a simple answer to all of his questions.

The Demon King had said that he wanted to die. Then, he just needed to die. All Lee Jun-Kyeong had to do was realize that goal. If, by chance, the Demon King fought back–no, if he didn’t welcome his death, then it would become clear that he had a different purpose.

“That’s a chain made using the powers of the source. You’ll be able to have the death you so desperately desire.”

Moreover, he shouted at the others, the Sponsors who served as proof of his suspicion and had tried to wake him up as they faced the Demon King.

“Hurry up and attack!”

“Weren’t you in the middle of talking?”

As he heard the loud voice of a giant, the sound of mana resonating followed soon after.

THRUM!!!

A huge amount of energy swirled behind him, shooting toward the chains of flames.

BOOM!

A rainbow-colored beam of light shot forward, accompanied by a round sphere that emitted a higher temperature than even the chains of flame created by Lee Jun-Kyeong.

SLASH!

Right behind was a slash that seemed to cut through everything, including space.

BOOM!

“HA!!!”

Water magic and a fist light blasted forward, accompanied by a loud shout. Everything was aimed right where the Demon King was bound.

Lee Jun-Kyeong also concentrated, so the chains that bound the Demon King were temporarily being infused with even greater strength. He had filled them with the power that the Demon King had so lauded: the power of destruction. The various powers focused on the Demon King compressed into one point as space warped.

RIIIP!

BANG!!!!

Everyone was blinded as an intense flash of light spread that seemed to devour all of Gehenna.

***

Crack.

Lee Jun-Kyeong tried to crack his knuckles, but there was no feeling in his fingers. It wasn’t just his fingers, as no part of his body seemed to be able to move properly.

“...ugh.”

He wasn’t even able to speak properly. His head was fuzzy, and there was a constant ringing sound in his ears. It felt like static on a broken television.

‘What happened?’

Lee Jun-Kyeong struggled to move. What the hell had just happened? He had gathered all of his strength to bind the Demon King and kill him. Furthermore, the Guardian of the Rainbow and the other surviving Sponsors all attacked their opponent too.

Slowly, his memories began to emerge. He had bound the Demon King with all of the powers he had gathered and had turned to the Sponsors for help.

‘Attack him now!’

A volley of attacks had been launched against the Demon King.

Tremble.

When that scene came to mind, he trembled despite being numb. The incredible force that had condensed seemed like a fantasy.

Lee Jun-Kyeong had gauged the extent of the powers that had gathered—it wasn’t a power made to simply kill a living being. It was powerful enough to obliterate a planet or even part of the universe.

As the condensed force tore itself apart and created a flash of light…

‘And then…’

“...!”

Lee Jun-Kyeong’s eyes shook. He finally remembered what had happened after that.

“We failed…”

His plan to kill the Demon King in a single blow had failed. Even after being hit directly by a force strong enough to have destroyed part of the universe, the Demon King had survived.

‘How impressive. You really are impressive.’

Of course, it wasn’t as if he had emerged unscathed. The Demon King’s right arm, which had initially been pierced and then cut off by Lee Jun-Kyeong, hadn’t regenerated. Moreover, he had been hit with that combined force and had suffered injuries all over his body.

His entire body had become warped and melted. Within those gaps, the powers of the Sponsors and the powers of the source had condensed and eroded him. As he tore off the melted portions of his face, the Demon King had…laughed.

‘You really, really are impressive.’

‘Attack him… !’

They attacked him once again at that point. However, this time, the chains of flames that had bound him were no longer there.

Woosh.

As the Guardian of the Rainbow rushed towards him, the Demon King had already disappeared long ago. Suddenly, his figure appeared right next to where the giant, as fluid as water, stood. A loud noise erupted. All of a sudden, the energy of one of the giants had disappeared.

‘It died…?’

Lee Jun-Kyeong had shouted at that moment.

‘Just how…! How much of a monster is he supposed to be?’

The injuries on the Demon King had been so severe that it wouldn’t have been surprising for him to fall over and die immediately. Furthermore, their attack had been one filled with the powers of the source, aimed to destroy a True Immortal. It had been a perfect trap, an attack using a power that could disintegrate entire planets.

The Demon King should have died. Moreover, it should have been a gruesome death. However, the successive bursts of sound following had seemed to point to it all being a lie.

BOOM!

Lee Jun-Kyeong had chased after the Demon King while holding Surtr in one hand, his eyes trembling.

‘As expected…you really didn’t want to die.’

It was then that Lee Jun-Kyeong had realized.

‘Isn’t it obvious?’

He had realized how the Demon King was able to exert so much power at that moment. The Demon King was disintegrating his own body, using the power of the beginning to break apart his own body and pressure the giants using the destructive power it generated.

It seemed as though the Demon King had intended to kill himself, as if he assumed he would regress anyway, even if he died like this.

‘I want to live. I just want to escape this damned curse first.’

However, his gaze didn't belong to someone who would soon die.

‘I’ll get a new body soon. A body so perfect it’s incredible. A body that will free me from this curse while being able to contain all of me.’

As the Demon King’s eyes sparkled with madness, Lee Jun-Kyeong had heard an explosion.

BOOM!

That was his last memory.

Thud.

Before Lee Jun-Kyeong could move, he heard footsteps. It wasn’t the earthquake-causing footsteps of a giant but rather the footsteps of a person. Lee Jun-Kyeong raised his head.

“And you are my vessel.”

It was a figure whose entire body had melted, too horrifying to look at directly.

Zzt. Zzt.

Because the figure had used the powers of the source to disintegrate his own body, his body was splitting apart and coming together over and over again.

“It looks like we don’t have much time.”

“Ugh!”

The Demon King grabbed Lee Jun-Kyeong by the collar and lifted him up.

“You really are impressive, my nephew.”

The Demon King lifted up Lee Jun-Kyeong, who seemed to be suffocating, unable to breathe properly. His expression was unreadable because his entire body had melted, even up to his face.

“You will finally break my curse.”

However, Lee Jun-Kyeong was sure of it. The Demon King’s mouth was smiling. He then looked beyond the Demon King.

“...”

The Sponsors who had fought alongside him, even if it was only for a short while, were all dead.

“Thank you.”