Chapter 262. The Weakest and the Strongest
The blue sky seemed to split apart.
From the Heavenly Demon’s entire body, silver energy surged forth, writhing like a living creature as it shot upward into the heavens. Everyone was mistaken, but the Heavenly Demon Divine Art was not a martial art composed of any particular techniques.
The Heavenly Demon Divine Art was the Heavenly Demon’s ‘Unique Domain.’ A ‘Domain of the Absolute’ that devoured the world and made it his own.
Right now, the Celestial Realm did not belong to the immortals.
For a fleeting moment, the master of the world was the Heavenly Demon.
Commonly called ‘Sky Splitting.’
Before long, all attacks had stopped.
It was inevitable. They could not possibly fail to recognize this Unique Domain.
An existence no one could encroach upon. A realm that no flawed being could possibly imitate. Only the Heavenly Demon could split and overturn the heavens, then stand above them.
“Ah...”
“Is it really...?”
“Heaven… ly… Demon…?”
There was no longer any room for doubt.
The vanished Heavenly Demon had returned. The Heavenly Demon gazed around with eyes full of boredom.
To ascend as the new sky, it meant that above the sky, one had become the sun, a god.
As two suns could not exist together, it meant he had become the single most powerful being in this world.
The One and Only God, The Heavenly Demon!
This world would strip away the immortality of any being not acknowledged by the Heavenly Demon. In other words—
“You are all weaklings.”
A world of absolute survival of the fittest was now being created, where the weak could not survive.
The moment the Heavenly Demon finished speaking, the qi of the immortals and Daoists began to drain rapidly. Their bodies shrank, and the brilliant radiance that shone so brightly before diminished noticeably.
“Wh-why?”
In that instant, the immortals panicked.
If he was truly the Heavenly Demon they had believed in and followed, why would he now seek to strip them of their power? Did this mean he had not returned to lead them once more?
However, the Heavenly Demon possessed no such emotions. No matter how loyal those who had once followed him were, weaklings were nothing more than insignificant creatures fit only to die.
So what if they had followed him their entire lives? Even if they possessed overwhelming power as demigods, what of it?
The very fact that they had failed to wait for him and had attempted to create a new sky was proof of their weakness.
“Because you are weak.”
Yes. They were weak, whether physically, or mentally.
Because they were weak, they gave up, despaired, and clung to meaningless things. Without even thinking to stand up on their own, they sought to lean on another sky, behavior was utterly pathetic. They were unworthy of the Temple of Gods he had created. But...
In the Heavenly Demon’s eyes, the immortals no longer existed.
They were not worth his attention. What the Heavenly Demon was looking at lay beyond them, the massive egg enveloping Great White.
At the very least, the momentum radiating from this so-called Great White was better than that of the immortals. For it carried a fierce will to ascend to the heavens.
Well, that was only natural, he had been created to replace the Heavenly Demon. At the very least, his spirit should be akin to the Heavenly Demon’s.
“You are no weakling.”
He acknowledged him lightly. However, Great White was far from an ordinary living being. He did not know what kind of flaw had birthed him, but inside, he was utterly hollow. The only emotion emanating from him was the desire to grow stronger. That fierce hunger to devour and evolve was like looking upon a great sin.
There was no fear, no sense of dread. He had lived his whole life as nothing but a strong one. He had never encountered an existence stronger than himself. And so—
“I shall carve into you the heart of the weak.”
He would make him realize there was a sky above the sky. Even if this body were to perish, it mattered not to him.
The Heavenly Demon clenched his fist again. However, there was one difference from before.
KUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
A tremendous surge of magic power erupted forth. The magic power of the Dragon God Sephiro coursed through his body in an instant and gathered in his fist.
Though his skin tore and his whole body felt as though it was shattering, he did not care. Every nerve burned as black blood streamed from his eyes. Even the ‘Absolute Death’ within Park Chan-woo could not stop the Heavenly Demon’s actions.
For the Heavenly Demon was merely fulfilling the terms of the contract.
To land a single blow upon Great White. Something the current Park Chan-woo could never achieve, a feat possible only in some far-off future.
Ten years, perhaps more, of growing stronger at the same pace, only then could he reach such an ideal. The Heavenly Demon intended to personally show Park Chan-woo the ultimate potential he possessed.
At least to him, the potential of this body was undoubtedly connected to his own. Naturally, such risk must also be borne.
— “Heaven, ly Demon...!!”
It was then...
The moment the Heavenly Demon was about to unleash his punch, the voice of the Outer God Charpham thundered around them.
At the same time—
Fwhoooooosh!
Charpham’s Unique Domain, ‘Dimensional Great Glacier,’ unfolded.
It caused a small crack in the Absolute’s Domain.
It was an astonishing thing. That Charpham, whom he had tamed and controlled, would dare to turn against him. Even though he should have been sealed within the Holy Grail of Sealed Demon King, he bared his fangs at the cost of his own existence. Meaning—
“You’re saying… this one is stronger than me?”
It meant he had chosen to stand with Park Chan-woo rather than the Heavenly Demon. Did he truly think Park Chan-woo was stronger? Or was he simply bound to the past?
— “I will never forgive you.”
Charpham tried to seize control of the body. Even though he should know full well that emerging from the Holy Grail without any contract was suicide.
The Heavenly Demon smiled for the first time.
“As I thought, you are a weakling, Charpham.”
This proved his thoughts had not been wrong.
The fool had not changed, all the better. The Heavenly Demon reversed the flow and stole Charpham’s existence instead.
And with perfect aim—
Kuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum!
He delivered a true ‘one strike’ toward Great White.
* * *
“You are no weakling.”
…Long ago.
Through the Great Rift emerged ‘Dimensional Encounterer Charpham,’ who was defeated by the Heavenly Demon. However, the Heavenly Demon did not kill Charpham.
“Come with me. I will create a world for beings like us.”
He sought instead to take Charpham under his wing. Even though he had slain countless other Outer Gods, he spared only him, and Charpham could not help but wonder why. But Charpham was an Outer God. He had a mission to bring about the destruction of the Abyss.
Even so, the Heavenly Demon came to find him time and time again. Eventually, curiosity made Charpham decide to follow him for a while.
At some point, Charpham was following the Heavenly Demon in earnest.
“My name will be remembered forever. Alongside yours. In this free world we have created together.”
On the day the Temple of Gods was founded, the Heavenly Demon said this to Charpham.
Charpham agreed.
Those who followed them had grown beyond counting, and as he had said, a world for them had indeed unfolded. Charpham naturally became the guardian deity of the Temple of Gods. He watched from the side as the Heavenly Demon opened the horizon to a new world.
But then, the Heavenly Demon fled into the Grail. And sealed Charpham inside along with him.
A free world? As if.
The inside of the Grail, the Negative World, was a dreadfully cold realm. A suffocating place where no freedom existed, the Heavenly Demon had imprisoned himself there.
Why?
In that place where not even an inch of movement was permitted, Charpham had to erase all memory to survive.
By forcefully erasing his memories, he barely managed to sustain his existence. Then one day—
Someone freed him from the seal.
Park Chan-woo.
He was different from the Heavenly Demon. He did not whisper sweet words or tell the obvious lie that he would grant freedom.
From the moment one was bound to the Holy Grail of Sealed Demon King, complete freedom could never exist. It was a relationship of thoroughly using each other.
Charpham only intended to tolerate Park Chan-woo for the sake of tasting a momentary freedom.
At first, that was all. But—
Park Chan-woo’s actions alone gave Charpham hope.
‘Perhaps...’
He was different, completely different from all the previous owners of the Grail.
Park Chan-woo was a liberator. A savior who broke curses, listened to the stories of the wronged, and set them free. A man who never gave up and made the impossible possible.
Always in the position of the weakest, yet always hunting the strongest, he was a strange one indeed. So perhaps...
He might be able to break the accursed seal of the Grail as well.
For a long time, Charpham thought about it. About why the Heavenly Demon had imprisoned him together. But he never found the answer. No matter how he thought, it seemed nothing more than the whims of that man.
And so Charpham chose Park Chan-woo. Even if he were to vanish, he could not allow everything to proceed according to the Heavenly Demon’s will.
‘I am no weakling, Heavenly Demon.’
He would protect Park Chan-woo.
Charpham forcibly broke his seal. In the Holy Grail, such an act meant immediate annihilation.
At most, it would last a mere instant, not even a few seconds.
The Heavenly Demon might think he was using Charpham’s existence instead. But Charpham’s true intention was only one.
To ensure that this one strike was executed not by the Heavenly Demon, but by Park Chan-woo.
It was annihilation for that sole purpose. To awaken Park Chan-woo’s consciousness and obscure the Heavenly Demon’s presence!
The Heavenly Demon was mistaken. He thought Charpham was desperately trying to seize control of the body. The arrogant and selfish Heavenly Demon knew nothing of words like ‘sacrifice.’
There was no way he could ever perceive Charpham’s intent. For Park Chan-woo’s sake, even his death was not too high a price.
‘Charpham...!’
In that moment, the Heavenly Demon lost control of the body.
So focused on guarding against Charpham, he had never even considered that Charpham would sacrifice his own existence to awaken Park Chan-woo.
He thought he had already thrown the punch, but he had not. The Heavenly Demon’s consciousness was pushed back, behind Park Chan-woo.
The initiative had been seized. And then—
From deep beneath the abyss, Park Chan-woo, who had been buried, opened his eyes. Having witnessed everything, he finally opened them and frowned.
“You, who have nothing to protect, who try to protect nothing, you are the weakest of all. Heavenly Demon.”
The man truly the weakest, Park Chan-woo, spoke to the strongest.
Heavenly Demon.
In this world, the most feeble weakling… was you.
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