Was this what a hell on earth looked like?

The Demon Cult’s invasion had been sudden. So no one had known what they were.

They weren’t people.

They were monsters drunk on blood — fanatics who worshipped strength.

Where they passed, not a single blade of grass remained. Always, corpses piled into mountains and blood ran in rivers.

Their advance was terror, catastrophe, hell itself.

But none of that applied to him.

The Central Plains had its One Star, Two Lords, and Seven Kings — the ten strongest in all the jianghu. And he occupied one of the two Lord positions.

The Martial Lord.

The one who stood at the pinnacle of martial arts.

What could someone like him possibly fear from mere demon folk?

He always stood at the very front of the line, and every time, he crushed the demon folk. He showed them no mercy. He tore off their heads and drenched himself in their blood, raging like a man possessed.

And the demon folk had surely feared him for it. The demon folk who were the terror of the Central Plains, afraid of him.

Was it because he had grown smug on that fact? Was it because he had been so single-mindedly fixated on crushing them that he failed to read their relentless malice?

Family.

Family was truly a precious thing. They were the ones who took your side unconditionally. The ones who became a resting place where you could finally be at ease. Above all — the most cherished, the one thing that could never be traded for anything.

Losing something like that inflicted a greater sense of loss than he had ever imagined.

His wife, half-stripped, her limbs severed.

His children, their heads displayed for all to see.

It felt as though the world itself had gone out. He couldn’t breathe. His whole body felt like it might explode. Rage erased his reason, and his erased reason poured out a killing intent beyond words. Enough that the urge to erase the entire world took root in him.

If his youngest hadn’t hidden himself——

If the boy hadn’t survived and been returned safely into his arms——

He would have.

He would have become another demon and tried to erase this world.

“Ahh……”

He held his son tight with blood-soaked hands.

Along with a vow never to lose again.

Never again.

His perception of the demon folk changed.

From an enemy to be crushed — to a hatred to be exterminated.

He grew more brutal in killing them, more relentless. He tried never to let a single one leave alive, and only felt some measure of relief when he had killed their families too.

He hid the fact that he had lost his own family. Partly out of concern for his allies’ morale — but he also simply didn’t want that grief made known.

Pride? No. Perhaps he just didn’t want to admit it. His own incompetence at failing to protect his family.

Was that why?

Even as he stamped them out like insects, the unease in one corner of his heart never faded. It felt as though these creatures would once again bear a grudge and take even the one family he had left.

So he pushed harder.

“Get up!! If you can’t endure even this much pain, how will you ever face the demon folk?!”

He already knew his son had no strength left. But he forced himself to look past it and pressed harder.

“What do you think you’ll accomplish with grit as pathetic as that?! Have you forgotten your mother’s death?! I asked whether you’ve forgotten your brothers’ sacrifice!!”

“B-but…… Father……”

He read the fear in his son’s eyes. The same look people wore when they gazed upon demon folk, he thought. And again, he forced himself to ignore it.

Even if it was hard now, this ordeal would surely make his son stronger. And once his son had grown that way, even the demon folk wouldn’t dare touch him.

His son’s suffering ached in his chest. But he didn’t stop.

The war dragged on.

Even the combined forces of the righteous path and the Dark Path struggled to hold back the demon folk. Kill them and kill them, there was no end. Just when he thought they’d been wiped out, demon folk of a similar number would appear from somewhere.

They couldn’t even find where their base was. Rumors circulated that their main stronghold lay somewhere in the Ten Thousand Great Mountains — but even that was uncertain.

Still, after years of continuous war, his understanding of the Demon Cult deepened. The demon folk worshipped a being they called the Heavenly Demon. For his sake alone, they feared not even death, casting their lives away like straw.

The one who gave up that information willingly was surely someone who had only recently become one of them. Which was why simple torture had opened his mouth so easily.

Voices condemning his cruelty grew louder. The Sword Saint was one. The Heavenly Lord was another.

He ignored them all. Because they didn’t understand. The pain of losing family.

It was around then that people began calling him something else. Not the one who stood at the pinnacle of martial arts. But the one driven mad by the demonic.

The Crazed Fiend.

From then on, everyone began calling him the Crazed Fiend.

They had given him that title to condemn him — but he welcomed it. Now he could rekindle his hatred for the demon folk anytime he wished.

And so that day too, he set out to crush the demon folk.

His son grew into a man.

But he still fell short in his father’s eyes. It looked as though he might lose his life to the demon folk at any moment.

That anxiety. That worry. It came out stronger than usual.

BANG!

“Damn it!! You haven’t improved in the slightest!! Do you have any will to do this at all?!”

His son, sprawled miserably across the ground, barely managed to rise. The fear that had once filled his eyes as a child was gone now. Only hatred and emptiness remained.

“How is this father to trust you?! Showing me nothing but disappointment like this — how am I to make you my successor?!”

“I never wanted it.”

It had been a very long time since he’d heard his son’s voice. But that voice was utterly flat and cold.

“What?! What did you just say?!”

The words unsettled him — and so, instead, he let his anger show. But his son didn’t care in the slightest.

“I wish…… I wish I had just died back then too.”

Family, by nature, cannot help but share each other’s weaknesses. And so his son used the most lethal strike of all. A venomous strike that tore his chest to shreds.

That pain was more than he could bear. Even his towering martial arts were useless before his son’s sharpened words.

That day, he could do nothing but turn and walk away from his son’s side.

After that day, he couldn’t bring himself to visit his son.

Only then did he understand. That his worry could become fear and pain to his son.

But spilled water can’t be gathered back up. All he could do was keep his distance and think of a way. A way to heal his son’s wounds.

Mercifully, the war’s end was in sight. More precisely — they had found a thread to pull. The Heavenly Demon. Kill that one, and everything would end.

The Beggars’ Sect and the Lower Gate mobilized all their strength to find the Heavenly Demon. And after long endurance and sacrifice, they located him.

The demon folk, realizing their master’s location had been exposed, launched a massive assault.

They had to hold them back while capturing the Heavenly Demon. And so the three called the strongest in the Central Plains stepped forward. The Sword Saint, the Heavenly Lord, and the Crazed Fiend.

They moved in secret and found the Heavenly Demon. And after a desperate battle, they severed his head.

The war was over.

He thought everything was over.

He wanted to butcher the fleeing demon folk — but for now, he wanted to go home. To go and kneel before his son and beg his forgiveness.

But——

The home he returned to was empty.

He wandered for days on end. He took the help of the Beggars’ Sect and the Lower Gate. And still, his son’s whereabouts were impossible to find.

Demon folk. Surely the demon folk had touched his family again. He had to butcher them after all. Tear their limbs apart, rip off their heads, drink their blood.

Hatred consumed his whole body. It wasn’t easy to hold back the urge to charge straight for the Ten Thousand Great Mountains.

And in the midst of that — news came.

“Your son fought in this last great battle. And…… I’m sorry to say it — he fell.”

News delivered by the Heavenly Lord himself. The body brought to him as his son’s corpse was mutilated beyond recognition.

“This is…… your son’s final letter. It seems he wrote it before going into battle.”

He took his son’s letter with trembling hands. What it held was not hatred toward his father.

[I am sorry for failing to meet your expectations. It weighs on me that your unworthy son wounded you. I apologize. Because I was inadequate, I could not ease your pain. That truth grieved me, and before I knew it, those words spilled out of me. Please…… forgive me, Father.]

Ahh.

What are you saying?

Forgiveness?

Why are you the one begging forgiveness?

The one who should be begging is your father.

The unworthy father who turned away from your wounds should be the first to ask.

[I heard that Father was to set out on a long journey. And so I could not sit still. Because I wanted to prove something to you. That when Father stood and fought against a great enemy, this unworthy son fought alongside him too — that is what I wanted to be able to say. And so, without Father’s permission, I recklessly joined the war. For this too, I beg forgiveness. I pray, above all, that Father remains safe.

Awaiting the day we meet again.

From your unworthy son.]

He couldn’t believe it.

He couldn’t forgive it.

The hatred that had consumed his whole body turned entirely upon himself.

His own anxiety had driven his son to his death.

It was revolting enough to make him retch. To have pushed his son so hard when he himself was the weak one. To have blamed his son’s inadequacy when he was the one who had failed to protect anyone.

“Ah……. Ahh……”

He couldn’t bear it. The reality of having now lost his son too.

And so.

He walked in on his own.

Into the long, long darkness.

Years passed.

Who he was. Where he was. He was aware of none of it.

He simply breathed. He simply waited.

For his son to return.

That day too was no different from any other. The day he waited for his son as always.

Someone sat down beside him.

“Still waiting, are you.”

A familiar voice. Warm and comforting.

“I came to apologize.”

In a world where everything was hazy, his voice, impossibly, was clear.

“The pain of losing family is truly beyond words. And you fought the demon folk even through all of that.”

“……”

“I’m sorry. For not understanding your pain and only condemning you. For turning away from your suffering and playing the righteous man alone.”

Yes.

You did go too far.

Amid all the condemnation, I had expected that you, at least, would take my side.

“I intend to walk the hellfire you walked. Until then — could you look after this child?”

Only then could he turn his head.

It was the face he had expected. The Sword Saint. A rival, but a friend.

Beside him sat a child who couldn’t have been more than five years old.

“I’m asking you. It won’t take long.”

Seeing the sorrow in his eyes, he couldn’t refuse.

It felt like facing another version of himself.

He nodded.

And so the man left, and the child remained at his side.

And the child’s bright, innocent laughter — just for a moment — illuminated the self he had hidden away in the dark. That momentary light gradually pushed back the surrounding darkness. Until at last — a radiance poured down, bright enough that it was hard to keep his eyes open.

Drip. Drip.

Blood wet the ground.

The blunt blade had finally cut his chest. Not deeply, of course — so it wasn’t a fatal wound. But that much was enough.

Enough for the Lingering Heart Sword Art’s qi to tear through the Crazed Fiend’s body.

The Crazed Fiend raised his head and looked at Seo Woojin standing before him.

“The war…… is it over……?”

Seo Woojin coughed up blood once. The dark red told him his internal injury was worse than expected. It surely had to hurt — and yet Seo Woojin smiled.

“It ended…… decades ago……”

“Is that so.”

The Crazed Fiend slowly stepped backward. He looked up at the sky and closed his eyes.

“It’s over…… at last……”

The voice, sunk in remorse, carried no will in it at all.

Seo Woojin let out a quiet, mocking breath.

“Now that it’s over — will you take your own life this time?”

The Crazed Fiend’s gaze returned to Seo Woojin. Despite the harsh words, his eyes held no emotion.

“How truly absurd.”

“What is.”

“That even a master who possesses martial arts high enough to touch the heavens can do nothing about the frailty of being human.”

“……”

Click.

Seo Woojin clenched his teeth. Looking at those hollow eyes, something bitter rose in him. The look he hadn’t been able to see while the madness covered it. A look that ached in his chest, that made him grieve for being unable to fathom that despair.

His grandfather’s eyes.

“The weakness of old men, really.”

Seo Woojin shook his head. He threw the sword he’d been holding to the ground and walked toward the Crazed Fiend.

“No matter how strong the martial arts, a human can’t become a god. Humans are unfinished beings — of course they make mistakes.”

Grab!

Seo Woojin closed the distance in an instant and seized his collar.

“They aren’t beings who can go through life blaming themselves for all of it. Not if they’re human!”

The weakness of old men, really……

It ached in his chest.

Seo Woojin exhaled and let his words carry the compassion he felt for them.

“I don’t know what you lost…… but I’m telling you that the cause of it wasn’t you.”

The Crazed Fiend’s hollow eyes wavered. He didn’t understand Seo Woojin’s outburst. But that outburst became a comfort.

“……You are.”

“The ones who left first wouldn’t have wanted to see you like this. They wouldn’t have wanted you to surrender to your weakness.”

“……”

Whoosh!

Thud!

The Crazed Fiend snatched Seo Woojin’s hand away and threw him to the ground.

Shhk! BOOM!

In that instant, a heavy weight came hurtling toward the Crazed Fiend. He evaded it easily, of course.

In the gap, Bae Seokjin had placed himself between them, glaring at the Crazed Fiend.

The Crazed Fiend looked at the two of them and let out a small laugh.

“How interesting.”

“……?”

Seo Woojin, barely pushing his upper body upright, sent him a questioning look. But the Crazed Fiend didn’t answer.

He simply turned away.

“At the very least — it seems that one didn’t make the same mistake I did.”

“Wh-what?”

The Crazed Fiend launched himself into the air and vanished somewhere.

“I’ll come to visit before long.”

Leaving only those few words behind.

Faced with the sudden turn of events, Seo Woojin could only let out another dumb sound.

“Huh……?”

Through the swirling dust——

The sunlight shone unusually bright.

(End of Chapter 20)