Chapter 17
The Demon King’s Disciple (6)
“Tsk. Didn’t you use a trick? Besides, human limitations still remain. You can’t really say you conquered it properly.”
“You’re dragging this out too long, Demon King. Please keep your promise.”
“Shut up. You haven’t truly mastered the Void yet. You’ve merely opened your meridians and connected your magic circuits. The foundation is complete, nothing more.”
“Calling me ‘you’ now? That’s harsh. Have you already forgotten the bet? You read my memories yourself.”
The Demon King let out a deep sigh as she watched Jinhyeok grin shamelessly.
“Fine, you genius. Since every pressure point in your body is now open, it’s time for practical combat.”
“Yes.”
Jinhyeok took a deep breath and removed his shirt.
His body was lean and perfectly conditioned, not a trace of unnecessary fat remaining.
“You’ve built quite a body.”
“Huh? Oh… I’m not really sure how that happened. It’s not like I’ve been working out.”
His awkward response only made the Demon King smile.
Back in the military, he had done some basic weight training, but nothing remotely close to this.
For some reason, Jinhyeok found himself unconsciously flexing his abs.
The Demon King chuckled.
“Your body was forcibly transformed into a vessel capable of containing demonic energy through countless cycles of death and regeneration.”
Her gaze swept over his physique.
“Ordinarily, you would have needed years of recovery and training. But you had the System and its protection.”
Regeneration.
Growth through demonic energy.
Those two factors had steadily transformed Jinhyeok into something beyond human.
“Honestly, no matter how many times I think about it, it’s absurd. The demonic energy couldn’t escape because of the Curtain of Light, so your body regenerated while adapting to it. What an unbelievable coincidence.”
The Demon King looked genuinely pleased.
Watching her, Jinhyeok cautiously raised a hand.
“Um, Demon King. I have a question.”
“What is it?”
“Is it impossible for me to use weapons? Wouldn’t it be more efficient to grow stronger with one?”
Before entering the Tower, every Hunter had relied on weapons.
The Demon King fought only with her fists, yet every strike possessed enough power to shatter mountains and split the earth.
Facing the future armed with nothing but his bare hands felt like standing before an endless mountain range.
Wouldn’t a weapon ease that burden, even a little?
She’s proud of her fists. She’ll probably get angry.
Prepared for the worst, Jinhyeok asked anyway.
Unexpectedly, the Demon King nodded.
“You’re not wrong. In most cases, weapons make combat easier. All Four Heavenly Kings under my command use weapons—with the exception of the Diamond Monster.”
“Then why do I have to use my fists?”
“Because you are meant to learn the Solitary Supreme. Only through complete embodiment can an ignorant fool like you master it.”
“Ahem. I thought you promised to call me a genius.”
“Shut up.”
She crossed her arms.
“There’s another reason. A martial artist who fights with their fists turns every part of their body into a weapon. More importantly, as long as they can still clench a fist, they can keep fighting until the moment they die.”
Jinhyeok nodded slowly.
“That… actually makes sense.”
“Here’s another piece of advice. Use the Blessing of Light. With it, walking the path of solitude will become easier.”
The moment she finished speaking, the Demon King appeared directly before him.
An overwhelming pressure crushed down on him.
Not even a fraction of a second was left for escape.
The Demon King who had patiently taught him the Void moments earlier was gone.
Without warning—
She attacked.
“Ugh!”
BOOM!
Jinhyeok instantly exploded demonic energy from his body.
With his eight extraordinary meridians opened and his circuits connected, he moved faster than ever before.
Yet what was the point?
Trying to evade the Demon King was like trying to swim against a tidal wave.
In the end, he failed to avoid her fist.
He crashed into the ground.
The Demon King sneered.
“Get up. With demonic energy, you recover quickly, don’t you?”
“…I’m being treated like a punching bag.”
“Think back to when you first came here. Compared to then, isn’t being a punching bag a luxury?”
Jinhyeok couldn’t argue.
“The only thing that truly elevates a warrior is this: every attack is executed through a body built over an entire lifetime. The ability to control one’s attacks completely. A warrior’s combat is the accumulation of countless experiences.”
“Wouldn’t it be more efficient to just implant those experiences into my memories?”
“My martial arts are not systematic.”
The Demon King shook her head.
“I specialize in finding the most efficient solution in the middle of battle. The Solitary Supreme cannot be learned through memory alone.”
In other words—
You had to struggle.
You had to suffer.
You had to learn it yourself.
Jinhyeok sighed.
“You are not the Demon Lord. You’ve become somewhat useful by forcing your body to adapt to demonic energy, but in the end… you’re still human.”
“Then what should I do?”
“If dominating demonic energy is impossible, lower your pride.”
The Demon King laughed and charged again.
“Seek affinity, not domination. Make demonic energy your ally.”
“How?”
“There is no answer.”
She seized his throat.
“If you cannot find it yourself, then die.”
Her fingers tightened around his neck.
“You are no longer human, Yoo Jinhyeok.”
As darkness crept into his vision, he saw the Demon King smiling.
“As long as demonic energy flows through your body, your thoughts are not produced by that tiny brain alone. Let your muscles think. Let your blood think. Let your breath think.”
Struggling for air, Jinhyeok forced out his final words.
“…That’s easier said than done.”
The Demon King snorted.
“Of course it is. What else would it be? If you cannot overcome it, then there is only death.”
[You have died.]
To reach supremacy, the answer had to be found through countless deaths.
“Focus on what you excel at.”
It sounded like good advice.
But for Jinhyeok, it was little more than the complaint of someone privileged.
Only after repeating a movement hundreds of thousands of times until it was engraved into body and soul could one achieve true mastery.
That was supremacy.
The Demon King thrust out a fist.
A punch that looked slow.
A punch that could never be dodged.
That was the Solitary Supreme.
“For reference, I first awakened it when I killed a Demon Count and earned a bounty on my head. I was around sixteen by human standards.”
“You’re incredible. Really.”
“Of course I am.”
She grinned.
“Though not quite as incredible as a certain genius who mastered the Void in only two years.”
“I’m sorry. You don’t have to call me a genius anymore.”
The Demon King held grudges surprisingly well.
This is ridiculously difficult.
“Repeat it until throwing a punch and exhaling demonic energy feels more natural than breathing.”
To internalize it, Jinhyeok had to discard every habit formed during his life as a human.
Unlike death, which merely had to be endured, this training required constant effort and awareness.
It tested his patience to the limit.
“All processing must occur within the unconscious. Only then will there be room for the Solitary Supreme.”
“Easier said than done.”
“Stop whining.”
The Demon King grabbed him by the collar.
“You are no longer human. You possess a body approaching that of a high-ranking demon. Watching you pretend to be an ordinary human is exhausting.”
“Urgh…”
“Look carefully. A normal human would die if strangled like this. But you?”
CRACK!
The Demon King snapped his neck.
Almost instinctively, Jinhyeok twisted his body and escaped.
I won’t fall for the same trick twice.
The movement was utterly inhuman.
For the first time in a long while, the Demon King smiled with satisfaction.
“Good. Throw away everything you know and paint a new picture. Not over the old canvas.”
Her eyes gleamed.
“Draw an entirely new sketch from the beginning.”
[Your understanding of magical awareness has increased dramatically.]
[Limit Broken!]
[Magic Perception Level Increased.]
Damn it. I feel like I’m losing my mind.
Truthfully, he had probably lost it long ago.
He could no longer count how many times he had regressed.
What kind of training blew your head off every time your concentration slipped?
Yet through endless repetition, survival itself became instinct.
And Jinhyeok continued to grow stronger.
One day, the Demon King suddenly asked:
“What do you think is most important in battle?”
“Strength?”
“Endurance.”
She answered immediately.
“Humans have often become stronger than demons. But you collapse too easily when faced with anything other than combat.”
She continued.
“Three days without food. Several weeks without sleep. A few decades passing by.”
Her crimson eyes narrowed.
“In all those situations, humans fall behind.”
With that, she flexed her arm.
The body she had perfected over millennia radiated overwhelming presence.
“The same was true for me when I was a low-ranking demon. I despised physiological limitations.”
“So I perfected them.”
“A low-ranking demon…?”
It was the first time she had spoken about her past.
“A body in perfect equilibrium. A body that retains its full power even after losing half of itself. That is where supremacy begins.”
“I have absolutely no idea what that means.”
“Increase your density.”
She pointed at him.
“Learn to distinguish the boundary between yourself and everything else. Right now, you are no different from a balloon.”
“A balloon?”
“A balloon clumsily filled with demonic energy.”
Jinhyeok listened carefully.
Yet nothing changed immediately.
Regression.
Training.
Death.
The same cycle repeated endlessly.
“The universe has no center. It is simply infinite.”
The Demon King looked toward the sky.
“To contain a universe within one’s body is naturally difficult.”
“Yes.”
“Your body is a universe. If that is too difficult to understand, imagine an ocean.”
She paused.
“No. Even a lake will do.”
The Demon King raised a finger.
“The point is this: there should be no place in your body equivalent to a dantian. Your fists, legs, face—every part of your body must become a dantian.”
As regressions accumulated, so did the Demon King’s teachings.
Individually, they brought no enlightenment.
Together, however, they slowly pushed Jinhyeok closer to understanding the Solitary Supreme.
Eventually, one day—
The Demon King sighed.
“…I suppose I have no more advice to give.”
“I’m sorry, Demon King. Perhaps I really am a fool.”
Her expression turned unexpectedly serious.
“No.”
She shook her head.
“You have already completed more than ninety percent of the Solitary Supreme.”
“All that remains is a single realization.”
The Demon King had become much gentler.
“If you still cannot understand, I can tell you the words I shouted when I first mastered it.”
Jinhyeok nodded eagerly.
“I’d be grateful.”
The Demon King straightened her back proudly.
“I am the strongest in all the Demon Realm.”
“I am the pinnacle of all living things.”
“For ten thousand years before me and ten thousand years after me, I shall exist solely as myself.”
“To me, there is neither law nor heaven.”
“…Pffft!”
Jinhyeok burst out laughing.
“I-I’m sorry.”
As a modern man from Earth, the declaration sounded unbelievably embarrassing.
The fact that she had spoken it with complete seriousness only made it worse.
“Ahem.”
The Demon King coughed awkwardly.
“I was only trying to help because you seemed lost.”
Then she punched him hard and disappeared into the castle.
Left alone outside the Demon King’s castle, Jinhyeok sat down and closed his eyes.
Meditation.
A habit he had grown fond of while studying the Void.
A time to focus entirely on his inner world.
What exactly is the Solitary Supreme?
To exist alone… Why must one exist alone?
Questions echoed endlessly within him.
It was obvious that selfishness alone could never be supremacy.
The Demon King was arrogant.
But her arrogance was not hollow.
Fight with your bare hands.
Use the light within you.
Every part of your body is a dantian.
One by one, he recalled every lesson she had taught him.
The countless teachings that had once sounded like mockery began to merge together.
To leave one’s mark upon every world.
To remain unbound by probability and fate.
Jinhyeok remembered all his deaths.
None of them had been failures.
Each death had refined and proven the existence called Yoo Jinhyeok.
Breaking the chains of probability.
Breaking the chains of fate.
Leaving behind a mark that belonged to him alone.
That was the “trace” the Demon King had spoken of.
Every death.
Every regression.
Every moment of suffering.
They had all become part of him.
Not merely in memory.
But in his demonic energy.
His beating heart.
Every cell of his body.
All those regressions were me.
They are me.
They always will be me.
At that moment—
Something clicked.
Supremacy was not a flashy ability.
Nor was it a number displayed in a status window.
It was like a solitary star shining within an endless universe.
The absolute proof of one’s existence.
The undeniable declaration of self.
Jinhyeok slowly opened his eyes.
So this is… supremacy.
[You have mastered the Solitary Supreme.]
[Magic Awareness has been integrated into the Solitary Supreme.]
[Magic Vision has been integrated into the Solitary Supreme.]
He stared at his clenched fist.
The boundary between myself and the world… Is this what it feels like?
Ordinary people rarely perceive themselves.
Most only become aware of their existence when looking into a mirror.
The rest of the time, they experience only the world around them.
But what Jinhyeok felt now was different.
For the first time—
He felt only himself.
When he looked up, he found the Demon King standing before him.
For the first time in a long while, her face was visible.
And she was smiling.
A genuinely pleased smile.
“You have finally mastered the Solitary Supreme.”
Emotion welled up inside him.
One day, he would have to kill her.
That fact had not changed.
Yet at this moment, all he felt was sincere gratitude.
“Yes.”
He bowed his head.
“Thank you…”
“Congratulations, my disciple.”
The Demon King smiled warmly.
Then she raised her fist.
“Now die.”
Without hesitation, she unleashed the Dragon-Slaying Fist.
