◈ Episode 525. A True Disaster (3)
Paimon.
The noble Demon King looks at his own imperfect body.
Indeed, it was not enough.
Even after sacrificing the entire territory, it was not enough to fully manifest. It is inevitable. If all had gone according to plan, he would have manifested himself on this earth over many days.
They just didn’t meet my expectations.
“Copper, Silver, Golder, and Primordial Satan.”
Though they were not helpful to my full manifestation.
Still, I forgive them.
The corners of Paimon’s eyes parabolicized.
“Thanks to you, I was able to face the perfect you.”
His voice came from the Demon World.
“You have not forgotten me, just as I have not forgotten you.”
Even if his only intention was to tear himself to pieces, Paimon was happy.
Even that was evidence.
Paimon’s pupils glowed coldly.
‘Evidence that a ray of light was an obstruction.’
In that sense.
A demon who has nothing insignificant other than the uniqueness of being your flesh and blood.
Pride’s plan was not a bad one.
There is no need to extinguish a ray of light.
Just let the light extinguish itself.
A harsh trial for the light.
“Is this the land where your light began?”
And then.
seug.
Paimon’s gaze turned to the limp Pride.
“In honor of your service, I will give you one last chance.”
“……?”
Even if he is your flesh and blood.
I will not allow him to deprive me of time to face you.
Paimon declared, turning to the frozen Pride.
“Leave this land.”
“……keuheog!”
And with that, Pride’s body, which had not fully recovered, twisted in agony once more. If Pride had lost half his life force after the encounter in the Demon World, this was half of it.
“Don’t show your ugliness in this place.”
Now that Pride had suffered internal injuries that left him unable to move.
Nothing stood in Paimon’s way, so an imperfect manifestation was fine. Isn’t the negative energy that’s flooding this place becoming a source of strength for me?
Ssssssssshhh.
From transparent to translucent.
And into substance.
Paimon looked at the body adorned with gold and silver treasures and then raised his head.
“Your piercing gaze is sharper than a blade, my friend.”
It wasn’t a coy metaphor, for Paimon was actually channeling a considerable amount of demonic energy to offset the menacing surge of black magic.
“The silence is bitter, too.”
You don’t even want to talk to me.
……Burrrr.
Is this an unreasonable impact on an imperfect body?
Or is it ecstasy?
Paimon shuddered slightly, then spoke again.
“But that coldness is also you, and I will not turn away from it as you said. Even if you think only of tearing me apart if that is your will…….”
The golden pupils glittered with madness.
“I will be torn to pieces for you.”
Gugugugugung……!
And the transformation began. The energy poured from Paimon changed even if the players didn’t understand a single word.
“Has it begun? The final boss raid……!”
“……This is no joke.”
“Dude, somebody punches me in the face, wake me up!”
The air feels different.
A flicker.
Soon, a flickering vision.
[The Ninth Throne Demon King, the Noble Paimon, changes the field. The Eternal Golden Realm, the El Dorado adds golden color to your senses].
The mosaicized first sentence is unreadable, but the second half is enough to make sense. The analyst, Nam Cheolmin, called out to all who could hear his signal.
-We’re in a critical condition, everyone, stay alert!
Some gritted their teeth, others rummaged through their inventory and pulled out a bottle of Unique Grade potion they’d been saving, others slapped themselves on the cheek and activated their skills.
But it was all pointless.
“Hey, what’s that……?”
The ant and the elephant, and the gap between them.
Even if the ant would do anything to counter the elephant’s actions. Unless the elephant gets stomped on. The ant could never survive.
It was a gate.
A giant gate, made of gold and jewels, over Jeju Island.
It was slowly descending from the Curse.
From the days when Arcana was just a game.
As a ranked player, he had faced countless monsters.
Hisagi narrowed his eyes.
‘…… What’s beyond the gate?’
He couldn’t even guess.
Was it a weapon, an army, or, if not, a mass of powerful magic that could blow Jeju Island away without a trace? Even as his mind raced, he remained suspicious.
“You can’t believe everything you see.”
“What do you mean, snake eyes?”
“You all saw it, system message.”
“……!!”
That’s right.
Didn’t the system message that never lies warn you?
Your senses are already coated with the color of El Dorado.
Chireung.
Hisagi said, pulling out his magic spear.
“Shall I be a little more direct? I mean, whatever comes out of that door, we shouldn’t back down. Even if you’re terrified, it’s only because you’re delusional.”
Nam Taemin snorted in response.
“What kind of shit did you think you were going to say, I’m sorry, but if you were planning on fleeing at any point, you shouldn’t have even stepped foot on Jeju Island’s soil in the first place!”
It wasn’t just the three Guild Masters of the Great Alliance.
Even if they were mesmerized by the light of El Dorado.
All of Jeju Island would not back down from El Dorado’s gate.
kkiiig.
When everyone’s gazes were focused.
Slowly, the gates of El Dorado began to open.
Paimon’s lips twitched in time with the opening.
“Hear me, my friends. I will tell you of the beauty of the El Dorado.”
As expected.
No answer came.
Paimon continued undaunted.
“Aesthetes like you, who gaze upon the same place as I do, can appreciate El Dorado, though I have no intention of showing my treasures to such mere mortals.”
To see, to hear, to feel.
Their senses have already been blocked by the golden light.
So it should be fine.
Paimon looked only at Grandfell as he spoke.
“I think the perfect artwork to open the ceremony would be the aesthetically pleasing ‘Scream of the Rain’. It was painted with blood from the paws of a beast in agony, so it is, quite literally, a painting imbued with life.”
The gaze shifts to Jeju Island, which is shrouded in black magic.
“Wouldn’t it be beautiful to have a masterpiece added to this landscape?”
Thud.
And with that, the Gate of El Dorado is fully open.
As I said earlier.
Paimon’s mind had already decided on a sequence.
After sketching out the outline of Rain’s Scream.
The artwork is even more deeply colored.
A ray of light will cover the land where it began.
“I knew you would understand.”
El Dorado.
Many have tried to glimpse its interior.
The closest was the Eighth Throne Demon King, the gentle Barbatos, but even the most comprehending of demonic arbiters could not comprehend Paimon’s aesthetic.
-“Terrible, you are a terrible being, Paimon……!!”
High Ranking Demon King.
Noble Paimon.
Because the noble being’s perspective was on a different level from that of other demons.
But at this moment, Paimon’s face was filled with joy.
“I knew you wouldn’t look away.”
So, even more so.
‘I’ll make it so you can’t come back.’
A ray of light.
I had to extinguish it completely. Pride, that bastard, would have to deny the very ground from which it came, so that it could never return.
“Then the next piece of art will be…….”
As planned.
Paimon was about to pull out the next artwork.
Suddenly, he opened his mouth.
“No. I’d like to hear your impressions first.”
It was mere curiosity.
My El Dorado.
If only you understood my aesthetic sense.
It was the anticipation of what you would say.
After eons of waiting.
Finally, Paimon.
Because it was an encounter with an equal being.
Paimon’s lips curled.
“Any appreciation is welcome. Criticism is welcome, as long as it’s yours.”
Grandfell’s lips begin to move in response.
But it doesn’t take long for Paimon’s face to turn pale with pleasure.
It didn’t take long.
“□□.”
……What?
“……Well, dear?”
“□□ □□ □□□□□□.”
I can’t hear your voice……?
I……?
I couldn’t hear you.
No, it wasn’t that I couldn’t hear it.
It was unintelligible.
‘……Why?’
I had felt this sensation before.
Bael the Fool, the first demon king of the throne.
I had felt it in the moment of confrontation with that inscrutable being.
It was that sensation.
Paimon gulped, swallowing dryly.
‘You mean, you’re on the same level as Bael?’
If no one else, but you.
It wasn’t incomprehensible.
But what was incomprehensible was the lack of consideration.
‘Surely, you would tear me apart……?’
You are not like Bael.
You have dignity.
You have the dignity of nobility.
You spoke to me in a way I could understand.
But now, why, why now?
Are you speaking to me in a language I cannot understand?
‘……Wait.’
That wasn’t the only question.
‘Too quiet.’
The effects of ‘Rain’s Scream’ were not working. The junk that should have been stomping its feet in agony earlier was now looking up at the sky.
“What……?”
But as I said, the question didn’t last long.
“!”
Paimon’s eyes widened.
A giant grasping hand.
The Gate.
It wasn’t Paimon’s artwork that opened the Gate of El Dorado that was revealed. It was as if he had butchered all such works of art with his own hands. Hands soaked in blood.
It was the hand of Bael, the first foolish demon king.
Paimon stammers.
“Ba, Bael. Why……?”
A puzzle forms in my head.
Why I couldn’t understand you.
It was.
“……Wasn’t that what you said to me?!”
But Paimon never finished his sentence.
Bael’s grip tightened.
It had snatched Paimon’s flesh from his body.
“……kugk!”
He couldn’t even struggle.
The pressure of the grip was enough to cause his body to disintegrate.
Paimon could feel it in his gut.
‘I’m going to die.’
But at the moment of death.
It wasn’t the past that flashed through Paimon’s mind.
It was the future.
Not his own future, but yours.
Even in a world without me.
Will you ever be free from the light?
Paimon smiled in anguish.
“……aah. My dear.”
Quack.
Bael’s grip tightened, and Paimon disintegrated into flesh.
A fleeting moment of consciousness.
Paimon finished his last thought.
‘I guess it’s possible.’
It was.
This Bael, was the picture you painted.
I am on my last breath.
I understood Bael’s meaning.
Ecstasy washes over the torn flesh.
‘You inspired me to the end, you……!!!’
*
Grandfell said.
“Bael, he was my prey.”
But Bael’s hand remained on his prey.
He snatched the Paimon and blew it up.
And just like that, the prey was gone.
There was nothing to tear apart.
Grandfell said.
“I should have killed him more painfully than anyone. But you showed him no remorse, and you brought such a death to your own kind.”
Then.
“Pay for that sin instead.”
A deeper stirring of appropriate emotion.
To devour Bael.
If only he could devour Bael.
As if it didn’t matter if something else was involved.
It began to flow.
It was then.
Shwoosh.
Frostnax released the polymorph and took flight.
The dragon’s eyes lit up.
What would happen to the land at this rate.
But even the Ice Dragon’s flight was meaningless.
“!”
It had merely been struck by black magic power. The dragon’s skin began to melt away like ice, but what was even more alarming was its gaze.
“Dark Dragon…….”
It wasn’t aimed at them in the first place.
Its gaze was only.
It was staring at Bael.
It was then.
Bael’s hand began to fade away.
As if its purpose had already been accomplished.
It scattered without a trace.
“……?!!”
But no one could rejoice.
The target was gone.
So.
Where is this vast amount of black magic power going?
……seug.
As if to answer that question.
Grandfell’s heartless gaze turned toward Jeju Island.
Indescribable horror.
Jeju Island.
Korea.
It enveloped the whole world.