Chapter 44 – The Devil King’s Name (1)

It was long.

After a long time, I finally reached this place.

[The penalty due to your skill is being induced.]

[The trauma of the enemy that killed you is being reenacted.]

Now, it was time to talk about a certain nightmare.

In the battle of the 12th floor, when I was swept away like a raindrop,

[The intensity of the penalty is Medium.]

It was what I saw after being killed by the Devil King.

[It is Ghost Road.]

Trauma.

The nightmare of the one called the Master of Nightmares.

[Penalty opened.]

[The trauma of the monster Devil King of Fall Rain is being created.]

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I stood alone in a burning village, right in the middle of the sea of fire.

No.

-Burn her!

I might not have been the only person here.

At least I had Bae Hu-ryeong. The person that was really in hell all alone, was on the other side.

-Burn the witch’s nest!

Estelle.

The saintess from the countryside.

-Don’t show mercy. They’re all monsters that have been cursed!

-Don’t miss a single person!

Estelle couldn’t understand.

She couldn’t speak.

Because she couldn’t understand, her mouth just moved without making any sounds.

Why?

Why were humans burning humans?

They were parents who had said they were thankful to her. Babies that had received new lives from her. All of them were massacred.

-It’s what the sir wants!

Soldiers who had appeared out of nowhere destroyed the village,

-His Majesty has ordered it!

And knights who had different insignias brought their swords down.

-The Pope has said to the heretic who dares to call herself the saintess…

-The owner of the forest had ordered this, so spirit, please….

-The Queen of Mermaids has given us magic power to…..

-Us warriors have come to keep the promise of the volcano! Alright, dragons! Let’s shoot fire to….

They all revealed where they were from, but Estelle still didn’t know who they were.

Who were they to burn humans?

-Ahhh, ackk!

-Save me!

They surrounded the village like they were catching prey. There wasn’t a way to escape. There were some families who tried to leave the village, but they were slaughtered once they were caught.

The only escape was the square of the village.

They were pierced by spears, chased by swords, injured by arrows, beat with canes…..

People continued to crowd the square.

-Cough!

In the middle of the village, there was a paradise that they had made themselves.

Estelle looked around in the smoke-filled air.

-Just endure it a bit more. Just a bit…

A father hunched over. Between the space between the ground and the father, there was an empty area. His child hid in that space. The father was hit with the fire instead of his child and swallowed smoke for his child.

The father died first.

The child was able to live a minute more than his father.

-Just a bit more….

An old couple held each other. Were they trying to die together? That was what Estelle thought. But when she looked closer, that wasn’t the case. There was a newborn baby between them.

-Just a bit….

When the fire spread, the couple screamed. But they didn’t fall apart. Their arms were burnt from the flames. Even when they turned to ash, the old couple was holding each other. It wasn’t an embrace for their last memory, but to protect the small child.

The couple died first. The sobbing of the newborn baby ended after a minute.

One by one, the screams in the square paused.

The family that had become rich due to their farm, the old man who had woken up early in the morning to work.

-Why….?

There wasn’t a citizen who was untouched. There were people with cancer, people with blindness. Because there were so many diseases in the world, Estelle swallowed all of them.

But her heart was blacker than,

-How…..?

When she swallowed all those diseases.

She was surrounded by smoke.

She burned from the fire.

She quietly tried opening her mouth.

-······.

In her mouth, she could smell something burning.

Estelle realized that her heart was a bit more black. For a day, the village burned up. For a day, Estelle burned up.

Crunch!

Estelle’s hand scratched at the ashes. No one bothered her. The soldiers had all left seeing the village in flames. All that was left was the remnants of the paradise it was.

-Lepandor…..

There was a corpse of a father.

-Dajena….

Under the father, there was a corpse of a child.

-Solape…, Joe….Ugansha….

She dug.

-Mobaijan…..Topho….Anna…..Garchoff……

With her bare hands.

The remnants of the village. The ashes on the remnants. Her fingers turned black, and her red blood turned black. Estelle continued to dig.

-······.

And she ate it.

The flesh of humans.

The bones of humans.

The ashes that didn’t have flesh of bones.

-······, ···. ······.

The scent of human flesh wasn’t pleasant anymore. She couldn’t feel any hunger, or beauty. It just smelled burnt. But Estelle still ate it. She swallowed it. Even though it was hideous.

Estelle’s mouth was dirited black.

Estell’s teeth turned black.

-Poor thing….

Her intestines filled with pus, and the blood spread turned into a solution to cover her entire body. It wasn’t just blood. Something else was flowing from her eyes.

It probably weren’t tears.

If they were tears, why weren’t they clear?

-Poor things….

So it was wastewater.

The wastewater that the humans had used and thrown away had come to her.

It had gathered in her heart.

-Poor things….

The wastewater didn’t stop flowing.

-You,

The wastewater flowed.

-You, you and you are all humans.

It flowed in her mind.

-You were all born as humans, and knew the beauty and tears of life, so why? Just why?

It spilled all around her.

-Were you called monsters? Wasn’t it enough to know beauty and sadness?

It flowed around her.

-So you remain as humans, and these….my children will remain as monsters? Is that your world?

It flowed as rain.

-In this world, is it just you who deserves to die? Was it only you that was allowed to have beauty?

Her heart echoed, crying.

-Then now, you prove it.

The rain poured.

-Prove it to me.

The rain poured.

-I’ll curse you.

Because the rain poured.

No village would burn from flames.

My children. My blood. The color that took my heart.

I lost the color of my blood, so only wastewater flows through me, but the rain is red, and proves the existence of my blood.

-Be swallowed in your evil.

The rain poured.

The rain.

-You,

The rain,

The rain poured.

-You made me like this,

Continuously.

-So I will make you like this.

The rain,

Because the rain poured.

-Gong-ja.

Blink.

-Awake.

A voice.

-This isn’t your hell.

Hearing that low voice, I opened my eyes.

[Trauma reenactment complete.]

[Confirm that the identity has been maintained.]

[The penalty is finished.]

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