Return of the Frozen Player

Kim Woo-Joong took a glance at Jun-Sik, who was caught by the Heavenly Demon’s hand.

‘He’s protecting Jun-Sik.’

Kim Woo-Joong recalled the Heavenly Demon protecting Jun-Sik from his sword and Baek Geon-Woo’s fist.

‘Does that mean there’s a reason he must keep Jun-Sik alive?’

This meant that Kim Woo-Joong had to act the opposite way—killing Jun-Sik would likely cause some issues to the Heavenly Demon.

“I’ll let you rest soon. Hang in there for just a little longer.”

Jun-Sik smiled lightly at Kim Woo-Joong as if he would wait.

Kim Woo-Joong slowly lowered his sword.

‘The Heavenly Demon is stronger. At least for now.’

Just by swinging his sword once, Kim Woo-Joong had been able to realize that he had yet to catch up to the Heavenly Demon.

‘But Jun-Ho will arrive soon. He will be able to deal with the Heavenly Demon with no problem.’

However, the other Players, including Kim Woo-Joong himself, would not be able to intervene in the fight between the two. Getting involved recklessly in a fight on that level would result in many unnecessary casualties.

Then, there was only one thing Kim Woo-Joong could do right now.

‘Rather than just dragging the fight, it’s best to do whatever we can to the Heavenly Demon at least once.’

This was a judgment that could be made thanks to the Players who arrived earlier to buy him enough time .

Kim Woo-Joong’s gaze turned to the Heavenly Demon’s hand that was clutching Jun-Sik’s hair.

‘One arm.’

Kim Woo-Joong set his goal with a determined face—if he couldn’t take the Heavenly Demon’s head, he would have to do with one arm.

“Hey, disciple of the Thunder God.”

“What is it?”

“You are fast enough to avoid getting caught up in my attacks, no?”

Realizing Kim Woo-Joong’s intention at once, Baek Geon-Woo nodded.

“Alright. You can run wild as much as you want.”

As soon as Baek Geon-Woo gave his permission, tremendous magic exploded out of Kim Woo-Joong, as if this was his last moment and as if he didn’t care about what came next.

“Hmm.”

The Heavenly Demon made a strange expression. He had always thought highly of Kim Woo-Joong. After all, he had always thought Kim Woo-Joong would be the most threatening obstacle to him before Specter returned.

“But you…always tend to make misjudgments at important moments.”

The Heavenly Demon could feel Kim Woo-Joong’s urge—the sword aura blooming like the morning haze conveyed the swordsman’s intent to cut the Heavenly Demon down with all his might.

The Heavenly Demon shook his head as he looked at the Jamsil Baseball Stadium.

“You would have died there if Specter had not cut off my arm.”

“...”

“If you had run away with all your might, you would not have turned into a Sword Demon.”

“...”

“And yet you are repeating the same mistake over and over and over again.”

Kim Woo-Joong’s eyes were fixed on the Heavenly Demon. His gaze was firm and upright, with no sign of hesitation.

“I’ve never thought of it as a mistake.”

The sword aura, which was always restrained and well organized, began to overflow like a fire with oil poured on top.

“Even if the same situation comes, I will make the same judgment.”

He slowly raised his sword, pointing it at the Heavenly Demon.

“I will cut down any evil as soon as I see it. There is no exception to any evil.”

“How pathetic of you. Don’t you know that planning for the future is also a skill?”

“Oh, is that why you were running away like a rat?”

“...”

The Heavenly Demon’s eyes turned cold at the unpleasant truth.

“Oh, stop it. You’re going to make him cry.” Baek Geon-Woo was clearly pouring gasoline on the fire.

“...”

After glaring at Baek Geon-Woo with fierce eyes, the Heavenly Demon took a deep breath.

“You useless pieces of shit. Stop babbling bullshit and just come at me.”

No response came back, because Kim Woo-Joong and Baek Geon-Woo were already prepared to take action the moment the Heavenly Demon lost his cool.

“You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for this day to come.”

Massive thunder energy broke out from Baek Geon-Woo’s body. He entered the Thunder Body state in an instant, imbuing every bit of himself with magic.

Some of the red clouds that filled the sky were pushed out and black clouds took their place.

The man in front of the Heavenly Demon had become lightning itself, ready to light the sky in all directions.

“This is a thunderbolt that my master prepared just for you.”

This was a technique the Thunder God had devised in his lifetime to defeat the Heavenly Demon. However, he was not able to use it even once due to the worsening of his physical condition—and also because he knew that the Heavenly Demon would see right through the technique’s principle if he saw it once.

It was a technique the Thunder God refused to use even as he died because he trusted his disciple to use it successfully in the future.

Baek Geon-Woo’s thunder-like cold gaze pierced through the Heavenly Demon.

“...!”

In response, the Heavenly Demon unwittingly swung his free hand.

Rumble!

The Heavenly Demon barely managed to parry away the thunderbolt, but his gaze then turned to his hand.

‘My finger.’

He had tried to parry away the attack with the back of his hand, but it was actually his finger which had been struck by the attack. This meant that the opponent’s thunderbolt was a beat or two faster than his expectation.

‘But there’s barely any damage. If the attack only has speed…’

Fwoosh!

At that moment, a strange and ominous feeling engulfed him. As his instincts warned him of the danger, the Heavenly Demon immediately jumped to the side to doge the attack.

Rumbleeeee!

Judgment from heaven struck the place where the Heavenly Demon had been standing.

‘That attack just now was…?’

The Heavenly Demonțs eyes narrowed. What the lightning bolt was aiming for was precisely his finger.

‘No way. Is this…’

For a moment, the Heavenly Demon contemplated whether to cut off his own fingers or not. And this momentary hesitation was exactly what came back to haunt him.

Rumbleeeeee!

Dozens of lighting bolts struck the Heavenly Demon in succession.

Although there was no damage thanks to the demonic energy wrapped around him, the Heavenly Demon bit his lips.

‘If my prediction is right, the purpose of this lightning bolt isn’t to actually hurt me.’

Rumbleeee!

The dark clouds burst into ominous laughter.

The Heavenly Demon could almost see the Thunder God deridingly laughing at him.

‘...He’s leaving a mark on me.’

There were a total of seven marks engraved on his body. And now that the marks had been set, the sky began to pour out lightning.

Bang! Bangggg! Rumbleeeeee!

The Heavenly Demon moved all over the place to avoid the constant rain of lightning striking down on him.

“Ugh!”

Dozens of lightning bolts fell down every second, not allowing the Heavenly Demon to stop moving even for a moment.

Rumbleeeeee!

The lightning pouring down as if to destroy the entire land eventually restricted the Heavenly Demon’s movement.

Feeling like the perfect time had come, Baek Geon-Woo slowly opened his mouth.

“...Lightning Class, final skill.”

Despite the battlefield being drowned in thunder, Baek Geon-Woo’s quiet murmur was clearly heard by everyone.

“Thunder God.”

A violent lightning bolt fell to the ground and onto the Heavenly Demon’s head.

Thunder only sounded a while after the lightning fell.

“Keuk!”

The Heavenly Demon’s face distorted. He pulled up his demonic energy as much as he could to protect himself, but the wild lightning squeezed through his shield little by little.

Since ancient times, lightning had been a symbol of purifying all kinds of corruption.

‘...Power of purifying energy!’

The demonic energy, corruption itself, could not hold out against the purity of lightning. All it could do was barely block it by sheer mass.

However, the end came despite the Heavenly Demon’s efforts to hold out.

“That was excellent.”

The Sword Saint’s sword was ready.

Kim Woo-Joong’s eyes only saw the enemy in front of him.

“Sword Saint Style, the Seventh Sword.”

‘The reason why I hold my sword. The reason why I cut down evil and the reason why I always walk on one path and one path alone, without compromise…’

“Heavenly Road.”

Kim Woo-Joong’s sword had always been splendid, and this strike was even more splendid. It was not just a meaningless cut, but one imbued with emotion.

“...!”

The Heavenly Demon’s eyes widened as he recalled the time he had faced Kim Woo-Joong’s sword not that far back.

‘I didn’t think he could grow this much in such a short amount of time.’

The Heavenly Demon could not hide his frustration—to think that people like Kim Woo-Joong and Baek Geon-Woo managed to push him to this extent…

“...”

The Heavenly Demon closed his eyes tightly, with a troubled look on his face. This was neither because he was in pain, nor because he was afraid of the approaching death.

“Why, you trivial bastards…”

No…it was because he felt uncomfortable disclosing the gift he had been preparing specially for Specter to Kim Woo-Joong and Baek Geon-Woo.

He felt almost disgusted by his own weakness.

Crack.

At that moment, all the Players on the battlefield heard the sound of something breaking off. At the same time, an indescribable sense of loss surged into everyone’s heart.

“This is…”

It felt as if they had lost something very precious to them—and there was no one who didn’t know what it was they lost. It was only natural for them to realize it right away, because it was something that had stuck with them ever since they had first stepped on a Player’s path.

“Magic.”

Everyone’s magic was gone.

The Players looked at each other in disbelief. They felt weird—naked, even.

“I’m not the only one like this, am I?”

“You too?”

“Wait a minute. Does that mean that the entire area…?”

Everyone’s gaze turned in one direction.

“You trivial and useless beings.”

The Heavenly Demon let out a faint sigh, holding the tip of Kim Woo-Joong’s sword with one hand.

Kim Woo-Joong’s hand helplessly trembled on the sword.

“I wasn’t planning to use this on you bugs.”

But the Heavenly Demon had no choice. If he was to fight Specter later, even losing one arm to these fools was too much.

‘Moreover, I need to be careful of a crazy dog running wild at the risk of its life.’

Kim Woo-Joong and Baek Geon-Woo were precisely that crazy kind. If they managed to cut off one of the Heavenly Demon’s arms, then even if they ended up dying, they’d die laughing.

“Fuck off.”

The Heavenly Demon lightly flicked the sword he was holding. The movement was almost negligible, but the demonic energy it contained was anything but.

“Cough!”

Kim Woo-Joong was forced back more than five steps, vomiting black blood. He glared at the Heavenly Demon with disbelieving eyes.

“But…how?”

“Why are you looking at me like that? Are you surprised that I can use demonic energy when none of you can use magic?”

The Heavenly Demon smirked and took a sword out of his inventory—it was the Holy Sword that he had stolen from the power plant on the 7th Floor.

“The emperor on the 7th Floor was doing something quite interesting with this sword.”

What they did on the 7th Floor was experimenting with turning magic into Force. As soon as the Heavenly Demon witnessed that and read through the records, he decided to steal the Holy Sword from them.

“It took me quite a long time to absorb the power of the sword.”

In fact, it had been more than three months, but he was yet to absorb all the power of the sword. It was not that he didn’t want it, but he simply could not take it all in.

‘I’m sure I’ll have an upset stomach if I forcibly shove it down.’

Unfortunately, he was only able to take in what he could at the moment.

But that alone was full and overflowing enough.

“I found out this sword has a will of freedom.”

The power of freedom was endless.

“For example…it allows me to erase all the magic in the area and make it possible to use only demonic energy.”

“That’s…just…ridiculous,” Baek Geon-Woo murmured helplessly.

If what the Heavenly Demon just said was true, there was no way Players could kill him even if hundreds of thousands joined forces.

Only then did the Players realize why the Heavenly Demon had come down to Earth with such confidence.

‘Of course, most of the demonic energy I have will also be unavailable when I use this skill, but…’

But the Heavenly Demon didn’t feel the need to go into such detail and explain.

He slowly opened his mouth.

“Anyway, this was originally a gift prepared for Specter, but…”

‘The trivial bugs in front of me dared to annoy me.’

“...the sight of bloodshed when he arrives won’t be bad either.”

When the Heavenly Demon snapped his fingers, his inventory spat out seventy-two bodies with mechanical parts attached, using his demonic energy to activate their demonic neigong.

The seventy-two bodies lying across the ground slowly rose up.

“Well then. Try your best to run away—like a rat.”

Clank.

Kim Woo-Joong picked up the sword from the ground with his magic-less hand.

“...If there is evil in front of me.”

‘I vowed I would never run away and show my back even if the opponent is someone I can’t cut.’

“...I won’t run away.”

Kim Woo-Joong only ran forward, not backward. Even if he couldn’t use magic, he still had his own body, which he had trained by spilling blood, sweat, and tears for decades.

Swoosh!

The arm of the corpse in front of him opened and a blade protruded from it.

“...!”

The moment Kim Woo-Joong tightly clenched his teeth and swung his sword with all his might, a single gunshot tore through the silence of the battlefield.

Bang!

“Keikkk!”

The corpse avoided the bullet by simply tilting its head, then took a few steps back.

“It seems like guns don’t work on them either.”

The man threw away the gun without hesitation. He walked across the battlefield and approached the Heavenly Demon.

Thud, thud.

As the man got closer, the Heavenly Demon’s lips twisted into an evil smile.

“You’re finally here.”

Specter, the main character of this festival, had finally appeared.