Chapter 362. Revolution

With Ru Amuh’s liberation, more prisoners were freed and stirred up commotions all over the place. The half-demons attacked the Demon Empire’s military camps while most of the attention was on Chi-Woo and freed the Cassiubia League members captured there. And as the Cassiubia League penetrated through the weakened surveillance, the Demon Empire side fell into more chaos and confusion.

However, Aym didn’t have the luxury to shift his focus anywhere else because he quickly realized that his plan had derailed into a mess in the blink of an eye.

“Everyone, do a hit and run!” Murumuru yelled with all they had. “Endure a bit longer! Once the great demons die, the remaining legions of demons are nothing!”

The half-demons attacked the demon soldiers who were catching onto what was happening one by one. Then as Murumuru continued to take a step or two backward, their back touched someone else’s. Murumuru glanced behind and saw Chi-Woo.

They met each other's eyes, and Chi-Woo said, “Thank you.” Though their first meeting hadn’t been the most pleasant, Chi-Woo had no trouble thanking Murumuru. When Aym first dragged Ru Amuh out, Chi-Woo had been conflicted about what to do and was at a loss. It was then the half-demons came to his aid. He still couldn’t forget how he had felt when he first saw the pair of purple pupils unique to half demons. Thanks to them, Chi-Woo would be able to save his companions without any casualties.

Murumuru blinked hard. “Don’t take it the wrong way,” Murumuru said while turning away, “I am simply repaying the debt you forced me into last time.” It seemed Murumuru was bringing up the time when the Demon Empire invaded Shalyh. Chi-Woo had informed Murumuru that a half-demon was working with their enemy before the event took place.

“With this, there’s no debt between us. In other words, there’s nothing stopping me from disliking you humans again!” Murumuru shouted while continuously shooting arrows. “Also, don’t think I came to help you out. I came to save my companions and the Cassiubia League members! I’m actually using you for my own goal!”

Seeing Murumuru work so hard to explain themselves, Chi-Woo let out a small chuckle. It sounded like Murumuru was embarrassed by all the excuses they were making. Nevertheless, this was good. The situation was much better than before, and nothing was holding him back. Furthermore, Ru Amuh was really pulling his weight now. In fact, he was running around and doing more damage than what Chi-Woo had done when he first came to the Demon Empire’s campgrounds; Ru Amuh moved more fiercely than ever for the purpose of killing one demon.

Legions of demons gathered to protect Aym, but all of them were ripped apart and hurled away as if a fierce whirlwind had passed through them. Seeing Ru Amuh cut through the waves of demon soldiers like parting the Red Sea, the great demon Aym was horrified. Not only did the situation turn dramatically for the worse in an instant, but Ru Amuh was also rushing at him in full bloodlust. Aym’s body screamed at him to run as all of Ru Amuh’s bloodlust focused on him.

“Ahhhhh!” Throwing dignity and whatever shred of decorum he had left out of the window, Aym bolted. Yet Ru Amuh caught up to him in no time. The documents said that there was only one human to watch out for outside the legend. This human male was strong, but he wasn’t at the level of the one described in the documents. Thus, Aym thought that while Saleos dealt with the real monster and bought him time, he could give his all to defeat this human and escape.

“This bastard?!” But as soon as he thought this, Aym realized he was greatly mistaken. His hand clashed against Ru Amuh’s, and although he had poured in a great amount of demonic energy, his hand ended up bursting at contact, obliterated in the blink of an eye as wind swept away his energy. All he saw was his severed wrist spluttering black blood.

Aym was aghast. He knew his opponent was strong, but this man shouldn’t have been at this level. Yet Aym didn’t have any time to think about this matter. Amid the flowing gust of wind, a longsword tilted to the side. Then the sword moved so fast that it created dozens of afterimages like motion blur caught on camera.

Movements that he couldn’t even see clearly came one after the other. They weren’t just illusions, and each attack was real. They were simply so fast that it appeared as if there were multiple swords at once, and Aym was soon hit by a series of blows, each of which landed a critical injury.

“You bastard! Youuuu!” Aym shouted as he struggled inside the whirling wind. But it was all futile. Lines appeared all over his body, and blood spurted out. Aym seemed to have failed to register what was happening. Ru Amuh was also surprised, but soon realized what was going on when he spotted a faint light reflected on his blade. It was his teacher. Teacher had imbued his sword with mana that could dispel dark energy.

That wasn’t all. Ru Amuh’s body had felt extremely heavy the last time he attacked the Demon Empire with the Cassiubia League. Since he was fighting in an area two great demons had made into their territories, all sorts of unfavorable conditions had been imposed on him. But that was not the case this time. He didn’t feel any negative influence from being in a great demon’s territory today, and instead felt boosted up with extra strength. His surroundings were filled with light instead of darkness to reflect this change, and the Demon Empire’s territorialization failed to make a difference.

A faint smile tugged at Ru Amuh’s lips before quickly sliding off. This was the difference between Chi-Woo’s absence and presence. There was nothing for him to fear when he was with Teacher—like now! Ru Amuh clenched the guard of his sword harder.

As Ru Amuh’s attacks became fiercer, Aym shouted, unable to bear it any longer, “Saleooooooos!” In his despair, he was yelling at Saleos to question why he wasn’t coming to his aid, but unfortunately for Aym, Saleos’s situation wasn’t any better than his. In fact, it was much, much worse. Because his opponent was none other than Chi-Woo.

“What are you doing?” Chi-Woo asked.

Whoosh. The light club in his hands lengthened again. Saleos didn’t answer. When Chi-Woo began walking toward him, Saleos collapsed to the ground. His legs gave out because he felt an indescribable pressure so intense that he couldn’t resist..com

“You should be risking your existence now. What are you doing?” Chi-Woo asked, and Saleos regained his senses. “Aren’t you going to do it? Then, you are just going to die like this.”

Saleos doubted his ears. “Y-You…bastard…” He opened his mouth with much difficulty. “Do you even realize…what it means for us to put our existence on the line…?”

“What it means?” Chi-Woo tilted his head. “I don’t really know…is it important?”

“What?”

“Hm, how many great demons have I seen putting their lives on the line? Vepar, Zepar, Samigina…are there more?”

Hearing Chi-Woo’s murmurings, Saleos’ mouth gaped open in utter shock. Saleos was one of those who had benefited from the recent reshuffling of ranks inside the Demon Empire. He had climbed up the ladder due to the natural progression of events. Thus, it hadn’t been long ago when he was still in the lower ranks and heard endless praises about the greatness of those Chi-Woo had just mentioned. Samigina, especially, was a historical figure. News of Samigina’s extinguishment was so shocking that Saleos hadn’t believed it when he first heard it. Furthermore, since Samigina was a fourth-ranking great demon, the Demon Empire fell into a great shock again after finally settling down. To think such great demons were defeated by the man in front of him…

“Anyway, there seemed to be nothing much to it. Do I really have to know?” Chi-Woo asked.

Saleos wanted to yell at Chi-Woo to stop lying, but it didn’t appear to be a lie. He could no longer question Chi-Woo after witnessing his power in person. And it was then Saleos experienced complete despair. This was a wall he could never overcome, and resisting was futile. Even though Saleos enjoyed fighting with the strong, there was a limit to it.

After all, it wasn’t like he could pride himself on being the stronger one or fight with his opponent on near-even grounds facing Chi-Woo. The other party was too overwhelming, and Saleos knew he had no chance of winning whatever he did. In the end, Saleos lowered his head, unable to make himself get to his feet. He simply closed his eyes. It was a very surprising turn of events. A great authoritative figure like a great demon was tasting complete helplessness and giving up his own life.

Meanwhile, Ismile screamed inwardly as he watched this scene from afar. ‘No! What are you doing!’ Though he had missed the crucial timing, Ismile still didn’t let go of his thread of hope. He thought there would definitely be time for him to make his entrance. For instance, Chi-Woo could be caught off guard by his enemy’s desperate attack, and the tide could be turned. Then, Ismile could coolly enter the scene with a smile and say something like, ‘Hm. You are still lacking in some ways. You have to be on your guard at all times.’

However, everything happening right now was the complete opposite of that.

‘Get up even if you think you have no chance! No matter how scared you are, aren’t you still a great demon!?’ Ismile cheered for the great demon rigorously, but Saleos didn’t even raise his head. Ismile clicked his tongue. It was over. It appeared that Saleos had lost all his will to fight. But Ismile couldn’t simply leave; although it was late, he needed to do something. He needed to defeat at least one great demon to live up to the Nahla name, so he hurriedly looked for the remaining one.

“…” All he saw was a pathetic great demon who squealed like a pig as his body got torn apart by Ru Amuh’s wind blades. Ismile chewed on his lips nervously.

‘Should I still make my entrance now…?’ Ismile shook his head to himself. Since the two great demons were in such states, there was nothing more he could do. The result of the fight had been determined the moment the Demon Empire lost the sole method to keep Chi-Woo in check. There was no room for Ismile to step in now. Even if he did, he would only be rebuked for making the entrance after the situation was settled to steal merits.

“What is this…?” Ismile’s shoulders dropped. “Seriously…” In the end, he disappeared from the scene with a sad look on his face.

***

The darkness passed, and the morning sun rose. There had been a stir inside Cassiubia League’s camp since dawn. It wasn’t hard for them to grasp what had happened after noticing that Chi-Woo and all the half-demons were missing. The members of the camp thought they should go help since things had gotten to that point, but Ariel commanded them to stay, and they had to stop their preparations. No one dared to disobey an order that came directly from the commander-in-chief. The only thing they could do was to stay alert and wait anxiously.

After a while, the chaos they heard from far away quelled. Silence reached the plains, and after a while, the Cassiubia League’s camp began to buzz. It was because they saw a group approaching from a distance. They were the companions who had failed to escape from the recent war.

Complete silence descended on the Cassiubia League’s campgrounds. They couldn’t believe what they were seeing, but their companions’ return seemed to mean only one thing: the great demons were defeated.

News of their return also reached Ariel’s ears. “What?” Her response was like theirs. It was unbelievable that the Demon Empire’s encampment had turned to ashes overnight.

“I…I can’t believe it,” Ariel said in utter shock and shook her head. When she first heard about Chi-Woo’s disappearance, she had laughed at his foolishness. She wondered what one person could possibly do, and even though she had heard the rumors, she thought most of them were exaggerated. Even if there was a shred of truth to them, there was no way Chi-Woo would be nearly strong enough to make a change. Two beings alone would be able to overturn their current predicaments and overcome the defenses that their enemy had set up: the legend from humanity, and the Last Dragon from the Cassiubia League. No one else could possibly do anything.

Yet the impossible happened. It really was surprising, but Ariel soon realized that wasn’t the important part and hurriedly got out. Meanwhile, Chi-Woo was leading the group he had saved to the Cassiubia League’s encampment. He came to a sudden halt when he saw someone waiting for them. The man was leaning against the wooden fences at the camp’s entrance with his arms crossed.

“Hey.” Ismile raised an arm and waved when he saw Chi-Woo. “I stayed awake the whole time. You really couldn’t let a person sleep in peace, could you?” Ismile yawned in an exaggerated manner and smirked. “Looks like you’ve done quite the feat the whole night.”

“…I’m sorry.” Chi-Woo smiled awkwardly. He thought he should apologize for acting on his own when they had come together.

“No need. I am the one who is sorry. If you gave me a heads up, I would’ve chipped in too. But I must’ve been tired from flying for too long. I fell fast asleep and woke up too late.” Ismile explained himself when no one asked, and Chi-Woo spotted the discrepancy in his story.

“But didn’t you just say that you couldn’t sleep the whole night?”

“No, I meant I was half-asleep the whole time.” Of course, this was a lie. Ismile had realized what was going on faster than anyone else and acted, yet he continued lying without a crack on his mask of calmness. “Anyways, it doesn’t matter as long as the result is good. Good job.”

Ismile continued while shrugging, “But it is a bit regretful. If you had asked for my strength, we could’ve been inside our tents by now sleeping. But of course, it’s not like I’m saying you did a bad job. You should just keep in mind that it could’ve been that way. Anyway, good work again.”

Chi-Woo looked curiously at Ismile. Ismile was clearly trying to appear calm and speak in a carefree voice, and it seemed that he was desperately highlighting a particular point.

“Are you perhaps—”

“Okay, let’s go in now. You should rest after accomplishing something this big.” Ismile wiped his nose and turned around. He even opened the door for them. Chi-Woo had a feeling that Ismile was trying to gloss over something, but he assumed he was overthinking and walked forward.

It was at that moment he noticed a jade-color haze across the wooden fence. The spirit reflected the sunlight as she approached them: it was the commander-in-chief of the Cassiubia League’s army, Ariel. As soon as she spotted Chi-Woo, she immediately descended to the ground and flew toward them. Judging by how high the ends of her eyebrows were raised, she seemed enraged.