Chapter 25

Beru recalled an old memory.

Twice in all.

The Demon Realm had been destroyed not once, but twice by the Shadow Monarch, Sung Jinwoo.

The first time had been in the Demon Castle dungeon. Then once more after everything had been reset.

In Sung Jinwoo's war against the Monarchs, demons had been nothing more than experience points for him to trample over on his way.

And so the demons had died, again and again...

In the end, only a single clan had survived in the Demon Realm: the twentieth-ranked Radir Clan, the only demons among their countless kind to have sided with Sung Jinwoo.

And now that clan had been destroyed?

[... It seems something has happened in the Demon Realm in our absence.]

Beru narrowed his eyes at the lesser demon's corpse.

Gluttony was the best way to get to the bottom of this. It allowed him to read the memories of whatever he ate.

[Young Monarch, may I eat that demon?]

Suho turned his gaze toward the demon's corpse.

[Shadow Extraction is not possible due to contaminated mana.]

He tilted his head at the message appearing before him.

"You can't extract demons as shadow soldiers?"

[That is correct.]

Since shadow power extracted the target's soul, it seemed a demon's already-tainted soul could not be extracted.

Suho nodded.

"Then go ahead and eat it."

[Kyaah!]

The moment permission was granted, Beru's mouth split into a wide grin, and he sank his teeth into the corpse.

He would have liked to swallow it whole in one gulp, but...

NOM NOM NOM!

NOM NOM NOM NOM!

... With such a small mouth, it looked as though this would take a while.

[Heeheehee!]

Turning away from the rather gruesome scene, which looked like it ought to be blurred out, Suho faced the people staring at him.

Every hunter, collectors and raid party members alike, had been watching him in astonishment.

"Uh..."

"H-how..."

No one knew what to say first amid the confusion.

Teaching Assistant Im, the only one who had seen Suho like this before, stepped forward.

"Suho, are your wounds all right?"

Leveling up had healed all his injuries, but it hadn't removed the blood on his body. Covered in blood as he was, Suho looked ready to collapse at any moment.

"Oh, yes."

At Im's concern, he casually wiped the blood from his face with the back of his hand.

"Um, excuse me..."

The raid leader approached him hesitantly.

"Perhaps you should visit the Association and get tested again..."

Summoning skills aside, there was no way Suho could be E-rank after hunting down a C-rank magic beast single-handedly.

There had to have been some major mistake.

"That's not what matters right now."

Beside them, Im picked up the empty potion bottle the demon had discarded after drinking its contents and examined it closely.

"Stardust isn't normally anywhere near this potent... What on earth is this?"

"Do you know much about Stardust?"

The raid leader's expression grew grave. He, too, had been wondering about that.

Im nodded.

"Well, a lot of low-rank hunters use it. Just a few days ago, the collectors who went missing on us today were grinning from ear to ear, saying they'd finally managed to get their hands on some..."

Stardust was used primarily by low-rank hunters rather than high-rank ones.

Why did low-rank hunters use more of it?

Because there was a limit to how much it could amplify mana.

Stardust was an incredible drug that could instantly turn an E-rank hunter into a D-rank, but it wasn't potent enough to boost a D-rank to C-rank as they had just witnessed.

Of course, it was possible for hunters who were only classified as D-rank because their mana fell just short of C-rank. Those hunters were its primary customers.

After taking Stardust, they went not to a dungeon, but to the Association, where they had their mana measured again and their rank revised to C.

"... So some users got greedy and tried drinking several bottles at once or taking it regularly over a long period, hoping to boost the effect. All they did was fail and waste their money, though."

There were also rumors that its developers were continuing their research to increase its potency.

Yet no one knew who was actually developing Stardust.

"But then how did it do that just now...?"

[Buuurp.]

Beru rose beside them with a loud belch. Then, reviewing the puzzle pieces of memory now in his head, he muttered,

[Well, of course. Stardust was made by demons in the first place. Naturally, it works better on them.]

"W-what?!"

"Demons made Stardust?"

The hunters reeled at the shocking truth.

"Is that true?"

[Yes, it is.]

Beru nodded gravely in answer to Suho's question.

[But that is not the real problem.]

Even Beru couldn't read every memory of a target he had devoured. But every fragment of information he had gleaned was shocking.

[It seems the ingredients for Stardust...]

The explanation that followed was truly horrifying.

This was how Stardust was made.

1) Making Firewood: Capture people who haven't awakened and forcibly infuse them with blue mist, turning them into Mist Burns.

2) Stoking the Flames: Throw "humans in as fuel" for the Mist Burns to maximize their heat.

3) Roasting: Roast "mana crystals thoroughly soaked in demon blood" over the blazing wood fire thus created until they are charred.

... The resulting charcoal was then ground into powder. That was Stardust.

"And they dissolve that in water, dilute it, and distribute the solution in these potion bottles?"

[Yes.]

The hunters began to tremble after hearing Beru's full explanation.

"This can't be real."

"Stardust is made by burning people alive?"

"Then why was that demon here...?"

They could guess the answer without even asking.

Beru turned and stared down the tunnel from which the demon had first emerged.

[It seems the demons' "factory" is down that passage. Along with all the civilians they captured to turn into fuel.]

Just then...

DING!

[Quest: Rescue the Survivors.]

There are people nearby waiting for you to rescue them.

Rescue as many as possible.

Your reward will vary depending on the number of people rescued.

-Current Number of Survivors: 7

-Current Number Rescued: 0

'There are still seven people alive?'

Now that a quest had appeared, there was no reason to delay.

Suho's eyes flashed.

"I'm going to rescue them."

STEP.

The moment Suho stepped toward the tunnel, Im urgently grabbed his shoulder from behind.

"W-wait! Suho!"

Suho turned to look at him.

"You should get out of here first."

"... No. I'm coming with you this time."

'Hmm?'

What had gotten into this coward?

Though the corners of his mouth quivered with terror, Im spoke resolutely.

"With my skill, I should be able to run with at least one person on my back."

There would be many more demons like the one they'd just fought where Suho was headed. He clearly wouldn't have enough hands to rescue the people trapped there on his own.

Suho chuckled.

'Run with someone on your back... That's a good idea.'

He picked up the crow mask lying on the floor and turned toward the hunters watching him.

"Then let's come up with a plan."

* * *

The railway tracks of Seoul Station stretched far into the distance.

Farther down that long tunnel stood a massive air-raid shelter built for wars or disasters.

Usually used more as a workspace for construction, it now housed the demons' factory.

"What's taking the rookie so long?"

The demons in the factory were starting to grow concerned when their youngest member failed to return from taking out the trash.

"Probably ran into a magic beast on the way back."

"Those lousy lizards are nothing..."

Just then, the iron door opened, and the rookie walked into the factory wearing a crow mask.

But the handcart he was pulling held a group of humans piled haphazardly inside.

The demons' eyes lit up with interest.

"Oh, what's this?"

"Where'd you find all that fuel?"

"Ran into them on the way back."

The rookie nodded and parked the handcart in a corner of the factory.

CLATTER.

Even as the cart jolted, the blood-drenched hunters neither stirred nor groaned.

The demons asked,

"You didn't kill them, did you? They're less effective dead."

"They should still be breathing."

"Oh, they are. Nice work, rookie."

For a while, the demons chatted about what good timing this was, since they were running low on fuel.

And the "rookie" standing blankly in front of the cart, watching them talk, was none other than Suho.

He had covered his face with the mask of the demon he'd killed and walked right in.

The people stacked in layers inside the handcart, smeared with blood and playing dead, were the hunters from the raid party.

They had been able to attempt this brazen infiltration because Beru had gained a rough idea of the factory's situation from the rookie's memories.

'The demons identify each other by their crow masks. They barely care about details like appearance or voice.'

This was possible because the demons in the factory weren't in their true bodies.

'Demon souls drifting through the rift between dimensions possessed humans and stole their bodies...'

According to Beru, even the Monarchs had once infiltrated Earth by possessing human bodies.

Entering directly in their immensely powerful true forms would have required tearing an enormous hole into Earth, which was a far more cumbersome method.

But it seemed the demons couldn't bear the sight of the weak human bodies they had stolen.

So ashamed were they to show themselves even to one another that they normally concealed themselves completely beneath black robes and masks.

Besides, demons identified each other not by sight or sound, but by the demonic energy they sensed from one another.

"Hmm? Rookie, you..."

One of the demons tilted his head as he sensed Suho's energy.

Suho swallowed hard.

"Yes?"

"What's that sword? Looks pretty good."

Strapped to Suho's back was Vulcan's Horn, which had devoured the rookie's soul.

Instinctively sensing that the material it was made from was far from ordinary, the demons approached him.

"That sword..."

Just then...

"All right, enough chatter."

The crow-masked demon with the most powerful presence clapped once, drawing everyone's attention.

"Get ready, everyone. The Gate is starting to open."

'What?'

Suho stared over with wide eyes.

At that moment, even the hunters playing dead in the cart couldn't help opening their eyes wide to look.

CRACKLE! CRACKLE!

Space was being forcibly torn open against a previously empty wall, red energy rippling through it.

'This is fucking insane.'

There had been nothing about this in the rookie's memories.

Whether those memories had been lost or the rookie simply hadn't known what was happening because he was the newest member, they couldn't tell.

'My God.'

In that moment, they understood everything: what the demons had been doing in this factory all along.

'The final ingredient in Stardust.'

Mana crystals soaked in demon blood!

Since the demons here were inhabiting human bodies, they were summoning demons directly into the factory to harvest their blood.

CRACKLE! CRACKLE!

An ominous Red Gate!

At that very moment, a dimensional opening connecting the Demon Realm to Earth came into being.

'These fucking lunatics!'

"All right, everyone, prepare for battle. We don't know what will come out, but we have to kill it in one blow!"

ROOOAR!

Watching the red light swirl out of the Red Gate, the demons readied themselves for battle.

And at last, an unidentified demon wandering the Demon Realm was summoned before them.

"..."

STEP.

Silken purple hair swayed above slender arms and legs.

'A woman?'

As the Red Gate closed again, the female demon who had stepped out stood before it in a wretched state.

Someone had dealt her a terrible beating. She was covered in blood and looked ready to collapse.

Yet despite the blood streaming down her, her eyes shone brilliantly.

"Who summoned me?"

The purple-haired demon surveyed the demons surrounding her with an imperious gaze.

Then, sensing their unmistakable hostility, she curled her lips upward.

"Hmph. Are you after my life as well?"

SWISH!

The purple-haired demon leveled her spear at the others and bared her teeth.

"Very well. Come at me, all of you! I am Esil, eldest daughter of the Radir Clan! Until my dying breath, we shall fight to the very end!"