Descent of the Demon Master

Drip, drip…

Blood continued to drip from the tip of the lengthy demonic qi claw jutting out of Kang Jin-Ho's finger.

However, this scene wasn't as chilling as one might think. After all, Kang Jin-Ho's entire body was already soaked in blood, anyway!

Still, there was a small difference between the blood on his body and the blood on his claw.

The blood on his body had dried up and solidified firmly by now. However, the blood dripping from his claw was as fresh as it could get. And the faint steam rising from the fresh blood proved it hadn't been too long since it was drawn from its victim.

"Kkeuh…!"

The victim let out the faintest of all faint whimpers. It was so faint that one would have to pay very close attention to even hear it. However, the surroundings were eerily quiet, which meant that that faint whimper reached Kang Jin-Ho's hearing quite vividly.

Of course, the victim producing that whimper was none other than Nakata Yuji.

Kang Jin-Ho wordlessly stared at Nakata Yuji, now bleeding profusely from head to toe. Even though the Japanese man's chest was still rising and falling, no one would think of him as a living being anymore.

A pair of faint cracks opened up within all the crimson that was Nakata Yuji's blood-soaked face. Those were his eyes. And those eyes began quaking uncontrollably when they saw Kang Jin-Ho staring back.

"Ki… Ki… Kill…" Nakata Yuji muttered, but his words sounded indistinct and mush. Maybe it was because his tongue had been severed. Or he simply didn't have much energy left.

Kang Jin-Ho silently studied Nakata Yuji before raising his voice again. "You're asking me to kill you, right?"

Nakata Yuji slowly, very slowly, nodded in silence.

"How stupid of you."

"…!"

Kang Jin-Ho coldly chewed his words out. "You want to die, don't you? To escape from this pain? However, did you offer the others the same choice?"

"…!"

"Killing someone who wishes to die is not a big deal. Humans are responsible for their choices and actions, after all. My anger toward you isn't about that, though. No, I'm angry because you've forcibly taken their choices away from them!"

Nakata Yuji's fingertips trembled even more.

"No need to fret, though. I'm going to stop here, after all. However, I still won't give you what you want. You will slowly die here. While remembering all the things you have done."

"Kkeuh… Kkuh…!"

Kang Jin-Ho leisurely stood up, then walked up the cruise ship's deck that now resembled a steep cliff side. A pathetic little cry of despair reached out to him from somewhere behind, but he didn't bother to look back. He had already made Nakata Yuji pay for his actions. In that case, there was no need to linger here.

After erasing Nakata Yuji's existence from his mind, Kang Jin-Ho made his way up the deck to reach the bow. He looked up and met Wiggins' gaze.

That was when Wiggins suddenly went down on one knee.

Kang Jin-Ho frowned slightly while reaching the bow. "What are you doing?"

Wiggins respectfully replied, "A subordinate is not supposed to look down at his superior, my lord. With our current environment being what it is, allow me to express my respect in other ways."

"...I'd rather you stop wasting time on unnecessary etiquette."

"...I know you place much importance on efficiency and effectiveness, my lord. However, I ask of you to be more understanding of my position. I'm currently doing my best not to get on your bad books, you see?"

"Mm?"

"...Perhaps a look into a mirror is in order?"

Kang Jin-Ho belatedly looked down at his own body when Wiggins said that, then smiled bitterly. "Forget a mirror, I need an urgent shower instead."

"An excellent idea, my lord. Our location is in the middle of the ocean, so that takes care of the water supply. It's just that… Please refrain from jumping into the water when so many eyes are watching you. Allow me to handle this particular issue."

Wiggins raised his right hand. Some rays of light gushed out of his hand, then large water drops began materializing above his head. These water drops rapidly clung to Kang Jin-Ho's figure next.

Of course, Kang Jin-Ho didn't resist. He knew Wiggins wouldn't try to attack him.

Once the water wiped past Kang Jin-Ho, he regained his previous look as if all the blood caking him had been nothing but a lie. Although his ripped and messed up clothes were still there, at least he seemed more like a human being on the surface now.

Wiggins withdrew his hand, then respectfully bowed. "Everyone is waiting for your orders, my lord."

"...Mm?" Kang Jin-Ho cocked an eyebrow.

"You're the only one qualified to finish this battle," said Wiggins while pointing at the sea below.

The swimmers in the ocean and the ones riding on boats were all looking up at Kang Jin-Ho in silence.

"…" Kang Jin-Ho didn't immediately say anything but subtly frowned instead.

'What a… strange sight that is.'

Kang Jin-Ho was usually greeted by one of the two sights after a battle ended. Either he stood alone in a world filled with seemingly nothing but corpses. Or, he stood there and haughtily looked down on all the enemies kowtowing to him.

However, the current sight didn't fall under either side. That was why someone to announce the end seemed necessary. The problem here was that Kang Jin-Ho didn't particularly have anything important to say to these people.

"Huh…"

From his perspective, he and his people fought and won. So, the battle was finished. What else could he say when that was what happened?

"Hmm… What should I say in this situation?" Kang Jin-Ho glanced at Wiggins and asked.

Wiggins sighed softly. "Anything will suffice, my lord. The people down there are not waiting for a grand speech, after all. They have all finished assessing the situation. And now, they are waiting to learn more about their fate."

"Their fate, you say…?" Kang Jin-Ho muttered while scanning the ocean below again.

Over a thousand people were floating on the water's surface. In spite of the gruesome slaughter earlier, so many still managed to survive until now. That seemed to indicate that the scale of this expedition had been immense.

'What should I do about them?'

Kang Jin-Ho furrowed his brow after being confronted by a problem he didn't expect.

While on his way here, Kang Jin-Ho was planning to keep things as simple as possible. He'd kill everyone on the ship and spare those who jumped into the ocean.

There was no need to complicate this matter, or so he thought.

However, the cruise ship suddenly started sinking. And the Japanese warriors were left with nowhere else to go. With the situation in this state, Kang Jin-Ho was now forced to choose.

Abandoning these Japanese warriors here meant their fate would be up in the air. Even if they were capable martial artists, swimming back to Japan was obviously out of the question after they unwisely wasted their energy in this place.

Things would've still been dicey if the Japanese had immediately started swimming toward the closest island from here. And, with how exhausted they were, it'd be utterly impossible to navigate themselves in the correct direction and keep swimming in a straight line.

Simply put, leaving them here would kill them all.

Wiggins was asking Kang Jin-Ho this: would he kill these Japanese warriors? Or grant them a way to survive?

Kang Jin-Ho didn't hesitate with his decision. He dusted the water drops off his hair, then glanced at Nobuo nearby. "Hey, you. You speak Korean?"

Nobuo flinched nastily. "S-sorry? Ah, oh, uh… Ah! Y-yes, sir! I can! And I can work as an interpreter as well! Use me as you see fit, sir!"

Despite the sudden self-introduction, Nobuo successfully conveyed that he caught on to Kang Jin-Ho's intentions.

Kang Jin-Ho chuckled slightly. "Okay, then. Translate."

Nobuo nodded in determination. "Sir!"

"I've plugged up the hole in the ship's hull."

Nobuo shouted in Japanese what Kang Jin-Ho said as loud as he physically could.

There was no need to shout, though, thanks to Wiggins' sound amplification magic, but Nobuo was too tense and didn't have enough mental leeway to think about that.

"We will leave you behind here. It's your job to figure out how to survive."

Once the crowd heard Kang Jin-Ho, they began gasping and murmuring among themselves. However, Kang Jin-Ho didn't pay them any mind. He didn't care about them, anyway. He was here to say what he wanted to say and move on. That was all.

"If you get lucky, you might survive this ordeal."

What he said next prompted everyone to glare at Kang Jin-Ho, their eyes getting bloodshot.

The terror of being stranded in the middle of the ocean had temporarily overcome their fear of Kang Jin-Ho.

"If you don't want that…" Kang Jin-Ho smirked suspiciously. "We can always go for another round. And this time, there will be no survivors."

That landed the decisive blow.

If people were asked to choose between a quick death and a slow death, not many would willingly choose the first option. It was only logical that people would choose an option that offered a glimmer of hope.

Besides, no one here wanted to fight Kang Jin-Ho. Even if it meant they would have to contend with agonizingly slow death!

Just as the uncomfortable silence descended in the area…

"My lord, if I may…?" Wiggins approached Kang Jin-Ho and whispered something.

Kang Jin-Ho slowly nodded, then stretched his hand to his right. The subspace opened, and he extracted the Crimson Destiny.

Kang Jin-Ho glanced at the crowd below and announced something else. "Let me leave you with a small present."

RUMBLE!

The Crimson Destiny, now freed from its scabbard, issued a bone-chilling sword cry. This sharp cry shattered the weighty silence oppressing this part of the ocean.

As the sword cried, the black flames began spreading on its blade. Starting from Kang Jin-Ho's hand, this black flame instantly covered the Crimson Destiny before tripling its length. And then…!

SLAAAAAASH!

Kang Jin-Ho lightly leaped up before chopping down on the ship with the Crimson Destiny. The black flames shot down like an arrow and scythed past the cruise ship.

CRACK! CRAAAAACK! Creeeeaaaanniiing!

The ear-shredding screeching metal noises and dull but heavy impact sounds resounded out from the ship.

'No freaking… way?!'

Everyone watching on thought of the same thing just then.

There was… no way! It couldn't be!

Unfortunately for them, Kang Jin-Ho was never the type to humor other people's expectations. And to prove that, the cruise ship slowly split apart into two.

That was just one strike! A single strike was all Kang Jin-Ho needed to split a large cruise ship in half.

People's shock was swiftly replaced by sheer terror. After witnessing a truly unbelievable sight, the Japanese warriors couldn't even tear their eyes away from the gradually splitting cruise ship.

With its body now split left and right, the cruise ship violently rocked and quaked before sinking below the waves in the near blink of an eye.

"...Oh, my, god!" Nobuo gasped. He forgot to close his slack jaw. His brain failed to process what he had just witnessed.

Kang Jin-Ho lightly tapped on Nobuo's shoulder. "Keep translating."

"S-sorry?"

"Since that's a cruise ship, there must be life jackets on board, right? Tell them to do their best in finding those things."

"...Y-yes, sir." Nobuo gulped, then translated what Kang Jin-Ho said. However, he kept stumbling over his words. Still, the Japanese warriors got the message, and they reacted in one of the two ways.

One camp remained dazed at this unbelievable spectacle and continued to float around, while others were quick to catch on and dived underwater to swim toward the sinking cruise ship.

Kang Jin-Ho briefly studied the two opposing responses, then turned around to leave.

Wiggins nodded. "Shall we get going, my lord?"

"Mm, we should."

Wiggins snatched Nobuo up, then he and Kang Jin-Ho lightly leaped off the bow of the ship still jutting out above the water. They landed on the boat with Yi Myeong-Hwan and Lee Hyeon-Su.

"Thank you for all your hard work, sirs!"

"Good work out there, sir!"

The boat's occupants powerfully bowed their heads and waists at Kang Jin-Ho. They were doing their absolute best to express their undying respect toward their Assembly Master.

"Mm…" Kang Jin-Ho briefly nodded, then glanced behind him.

He could see countless people floating on the water, but… None of them could call themselves a warrior now.

Being a warrior, or a martial artist for that matter, was not determined solely by one's strength. It didn't matter how strong one was, losing one's will to fight meant they also lost their qualifications to be treated as a warrior.

People who were no longer warriors were also no longer Kang Jin-Ho's enemies.

This war was indeed finished for good now.

Kang Jin-Ho glanced at the boat's occupants. "We're heading back."

"Yes, sir!"

The Koreans' boats left behind the countless Japanese in the ocean and sailed away as quickly as possible toward the Korean peninsula.

The ones now abandoned on this seemingly endless stretch of the ocean could only stare in stupefaction at the distant boat carrying Kang Jin-Ho away.

They still couldn't come to grips with what happened in this place.

But they were still forced to reckon with their situation by the crimson-colored ocean waters, plus the sight of the cruise ship's bow gradually but surely disappearing beneath the surface.

...And one more thing forced them to get a grip on reality.

"I, I found it!"

A Japanese man broke through the water's surface while holding on to a life jacket. And when the floating people saw that life jacket, they all instinctively realized what they must do now.

Many hurriedly dived under the water to swim toward the sinking ship, while the others…

"Hand it over, now!"

"Give it to me, or I'll f*cking kill you all!"

A desperate scramble suddenly broke out. A scramble for their survival!

Another pandemonium unfolded on this ocean over a life jacket. Meanwhile, the morning sun lazily rose up on the distant horizon to create a rather out-of-place picturesque backdrop.

Then again, perhaps a bright sunrise was an appropriate way to announce the end of this war.