Novel Full Chapter 583
Chapter 583
Fwoom-
Fists flew the instant Jason and the Demon King’s gazes met.
Their fists shot forward, going supersonic, piercing through the air and transmuting into pale, blue-white light. Then, their fists collided.
RUMBLE!
Accelerated to the absolute limit, their fist’s collision made an instant seem like two; a shockwave burst from the collision point and sprayed out in all directions.
BOOM- BOOM- BOOM- BOOM-
A succession of thunderous detonations was accompanied by blue-white flashes. Caught in the battle that had erupted without warning, Se-Hoon could only pull Luize tightly into his arms while Sung-Ha and Amir leaned against each other to brace themselves against the shockwaves.
Rumble-
The battle couldn’t be seen; it was far too fast for the naked eye to follow.
All Sung-Ha could do was chase the blurred afterimages of the two as he blocked the shockwaves coming from every direction.
It… could get that fast?
Sung-Ha was in disbelief. He thought he knew exactly how fast Jason’s fist was, having seen it with his own eyes and even experiencing it firsthand. But what was unfolding before him was in another dimension entirely: speed he’d always thought was only possible for a single strike was maintained from start to finish without dropping off.
BOOM! Rumble-
The unceasing booms and shockwaves shoved each other aside, erased each other, and swept through the surroundings. Below them, the ocean—packed to the brim with souls—had not been spared and was now grotesquely gouged up and twisted.
Let alone interfering, the situation for those caught in it was one where merely enduring the aftermath of the fight was overwhelming.
“Are you able to… track them?”
Hearing Sung-Ha, who had barely managed to let out that whisper after swallowing the blood rising in his throat, Amir—his eyes darting nonstop—answered with similar difficulty, “It’s quite blurry, but… I can make out the outline.”
“Then… can you tell me exactly what is happening?”
What kind of exchange was taking place that Jason, of all people, couldn’t bring about a conclusion? To answer Sung-Ha, Amir kept his Heaven Sky Eyes on the hazy afterimages.
“He’s using us as hostages….”
Fwooom-
Just as he said that, a knife-hand from the Demon King slashed toward Amir’s eyes. However, before it could land, Jason’s fist smashed into the knife-hand and continued into the Demon King’s side.
BOOM-
The Demon King’s upper body was pulverized into nothing. In any ordinary battle, that would have been the end of them—yet that monster was different. The remaining lower half of the corpse dissipated in the blink of an eye. A split second later, above Se-Hoon’s head dozens of meters away, the Demon King had reappeared without injuries and was bringing his foot down.
The sequence they had just seen was so alien that it made the exchange a moment ago feel like a hallucination. Yet, as if to prove it was real, Jason was already chasing after the fully regenerated Demon King and driving his fist forward.
BOOM-
Before the foot could land, Jason’s punch crushed the instep before blowing through the knee and abdomen. And then, once again, the corpse dissipated, and the Demon King reappeared—behind Sung-Ha.
BOOM!
Every time Jason landed a killing blow, the Demon King revived as if nothing had happened and pressed the assault against the other two. No matter how one looked at it, the four were clearly hostages.
The truth behind the “evenly” matched exchange was now clear: it was just a hostage drama that repeated hundreds of times an instant.
Slash!
To protect Se-Hoon and Luize, Jason let a cut open on his cheek.
Slash!
To protect Sung-Ha, his shoulder was sliced.
Slash!
To protect Amir, he let a gash on his thigh.
Though all shallow wounds, the droplets of blood ran down and stained the ocean, causing a faint stink of iron to drift around the four before long.
This… is dangerous.
For the time being, the balance of power was barely holding out. However, if the injuries kept piling up or Jason’s stamina bottomed out… then there was no telling when the scales would tip.
Realizing that, Sung-Ha bumped Amir’s back lightly with his elbow. The standoff would have to be broken no matter what.
“…”
“…”
Not a single word was exchanged—nor even a glance—but both understood. Considering Se-Hoon had no room to intervene while protecting Luize…
Even if we fail—
—two is easier than four.
They had to be the ones to do it somehow.
With that same thought, they looked toward the battlefield and mustered together every single last ounce of strength, steadying themselves so they could join the two’s fight, even if for only a moment.
Resolved, Sung-Ha and Amir began dashing out toward the faint path visible between the flashes and afterimages—
Thunk.
Jason’s broad back blocked their way.
“Wha—”
“Wait—”
Before Sung-Ha and Amir could even finish, Jason’s left hand lashed through the air.
BANG!
“Ugh?!”
“Agh!”
The shockwave sent them flying before they could even react, crashing into the ground beside Se-Hoon and Luize.
Checking on them, Jason then turned his head back to face forward once again.
Drip- drip-
“…”
The Demon King’s claw had sunk into his left chest. He’d grabbed the wrist with his right hand before it could reach his heart, but compared to everything he’d taken so far, it was a near-fatal wound.
“What a letdown…”
Despite landing his first real hit, the Demon King looked at Jason with open displeasure.
“You went on about ‘choice’ and all that, but in the end… it’s just the same old self-sacrifice?”
“…”
“Well, it wasn’t a terrible choice. Unlike you—who lives simply because you can’t die—those two were trying to die to live.”
Crack-
The Demon King slowly clenched his fist, causing his claws embedded in Jason’s chest to tear through flesh as they exited.
Jason didn’t move an inch, still gripping the Demon King’s wrist despite his typical action of countering immediately. He knew: the moment he killed the monster in front of him or let go, the Demon King would just use that unknown technique to reappear behind them again. Jason’s instincts were screaming such.
“I told you before, more than once. I don’t really feel anything for you. If anything, there might be a sense of kinship.”
The Demon King calmly looked at Jason, who barred his way.
“For you and for me… this is the last chance. There is no ‘next’ for us.”
“…”
“So I’ll make one final offer. Abandon Lee Se-Hoon and save everyone. That’s the best option you can choose right now.”
Endanger everyone to protect Se-Hoon or sacrifice Se-Hoon to save everyone? The Demon King wasn’t merely sowing discord—he truly meant what he said; to him, the genuine best choice was abandoning Se-Hoon.
To respond, Jason opened his mouth for the first time since the battle began.
“A long time ago… I received a similar offer.”
“…”
“Back then, I tried to protect even those I wasn’t close to. Because of that, I lost everyone precious to me. It was the worst choice of my life.”
Jason’s nightmare, his choice made in arrogance and foolishness without knowing what it would bring. He stared at the Demon King.
“Still, that worst choice… hadn’t demanded someone else’s sacrifice.”
The awakened individuals who came to him that day had stepped forward to protect their own precious people, too—and most of them died in the process.
Right… It wasn’t only the villagers who died back then.
In that chaotic time where people died by the countless every day, there had still been choices made by people to save people. Even if the end of those choices had been a tragedy for Jason, it didn’t change the truth that they’d tried to save someone even at the cost of themselves.
“That’s why your offer was never even a choice.”
Jason tightened his grip on the Demon King’s wrist.
“Even if everything ends here, I won’t accept an ending that sacrifices someone.”
“…”
The Demon King stared at Jason in silence, hearing the unwavering resolve in Jason’s refusal.
“Sigh… A foolish choice.”
RUMBLE!
With nothing left to be said, Jason and the Demon King had slapped each other’s hands away and begun swinging their fists at full power. Unlike before, when they constantly moved through space, they remained in place.
Because of that, far fiercer flashes and shockwaves than at the start tore through the surroundings.
Crunch- crack- splurt!
At a glance, it once again looked like a head-on, even exchange. But reality was always slightly different.
Fists were crushed, elbows were shattered, and shoulders were torn apart. Like before, Jason’s fists remained unmarked no matter how many times they collided, whereas the Demon King’s body broke apart from each impact due to its inability to endure the force.
Click-
And once again, whenever Jason swung again, the Demon King had returned to normal. That was the only thing enabling the Demon King to stand his ground again and again, trading blows with Jason.
How?
The rate of his return was too fast to be simply regeneration, yet too alien to be a reversal of time. It was an enigma, making Jason ponder just how the Demon King returned unscarred no matter how many tens of thousands of times he killed him.
“Have you ever thought about how to kill a regressor?”
Bang!
“You can’t do it with an ordinary death. Death is just another beginning for a regressor.”
BOOM!
Jason’s fists hammered the Demon King’s body endlessly without pause, and the Demon King returned without fail.
“If you want to kill a regressor, paradoxically, you must ensure their life doesn’t end. Make it so they can go to neither the past nor the future—freeze them forever in the present.”
Boom!
Jason’s eyes widened. The fist he aimed at the solar plexus was caught head-on. In that infinitesimal moment, the Demon King’s hand had cycled through destruction and restoration countless times, thoroughly nullifying the force in Jason’s punch.
This is….
There were no signs of regression nor change. That, at last, allowed Jason to finally understand the Demon King’s true nature.
He swung his other fist—
“This is the world I chose.”
With that declaration, the Demon King’s synesthetic mindscape spread and painted over the blue ocean.
Eternal Extinction: Wheel of Denied Eternity
Creak!
Thousands of massive black gears rose from beneath the surface, meshing together without a single gap. They locked the world itself into place, changing the atmosphere completely.
The ocean, once roiling from their battle, went eerily still along with the souls that no longer drifted.
Jason’s expression hardened immediately.
The entire world had fallen silent, as though one had stepped into a photograph.
“Here, I exist everywhere, and I do not change into anything. That’s why I can appear anywhere.”
An absolutely immutable existence that denied all change—that was the Demon King.
“Even if I die, I do not die.”
The Demon King declared such, then, with half a black wheel draped behind him like a halo, he clenched his fist and drove it into Jason’s abdomen with full force.
BOOM!
The fight resumed. However, while the overall flow didn’t seem drastically different, one change became more and more obvious to Jason: the Demon King now restored faster than he broke… and that only grew faster and faster as the fight continued.
RUMBLE-
Their fists blurred in an endless barrage. Then, eventually, Jason and the Demon King moved slowly, one step at a time.
Crunch-
A rib snapped—one step.
Splurt!
A thigh tore—another step.
Crack!
A fist crumpled—a third step.
With each injury, Jason retreated a step while the Demon King advanced. Yet the Demon King merely stared at Jason blankly, as if asking a question: Is this truly the best choice?
Step-
Jason took another step back beneath that gaze.
The gap…!
Even when Jason drove his fist toward the opening—the gap that led to the Demon King—all he could manage was barely maintaining the exchange. No matter how fast his fist was, it had lost its meaning against an existence that was reborn as absolute immutability.
BOOM!
For now, even if it meant retreating, he had to endure. He had to find a chance. With that thought, Jason took more and more steps—
Tap.
A sensation on his heel…?! Only then did Jason remember who was behind him.
He turned and met Se-Hoon’s eyes.
Fwoom!
The Demon King’s hand swept in at that instant, aiming to slice through both Jason and Se-Hoon in one go.
Jason’s brain raced. If he didn’t retreat now, his heart would take the blow; if he did, then Se-Hoon would definitely die. At that moment, Jason found himself at a crossroad mirroring the Demon King’s offer: an attack forcing a choice.
“…”
Jason looked at the line before his eyes, the line that had always shown him the optimal path since the day his mana awakened—his life’s very signpost. But… when he saw that line leading backward, not forward, something inside him loosened.
I…
Hadn’t he fought his best, leaving no cards left to play anymore? Hadn’t he done enough now? With those questions in his head, and the optimal choice his talent and power unanimously showed, Jason moved…
Stab-
…and let his heart be pierced.
“So it ends like this…”
To think Jason had ignored his offer to the very end and completed his never-ending life with a meaningless sacrifice. A very, very foolish choice. Shaking his head, the Demon King reached to shove Jason aside—
Smack!
Jason’s fist smashed into the Demon King’s face once more.
“Wha—”
The Demon King reeled at the unexpected counter.
“Peh-”
Then, along with the spitting of blood, more punches came. Despite the line—his intuition—still screaming at him to retreat, heal, and reset his stance, Jason didn’t take a single step back.
Every strike trying to slip past him toward the four behind was blocked. Without fail.
Splurt!
Why? Because he didn’t care if he died? Because of his petty pride that refused the Demon King’s offer?
I—
Jason knew the answer deep inside: he wanted to protect something. Something he hadn’t protected before. That… something was what his past self had dreamed of together with the villagers.
Crack!
Something he’d forgotten flickered before Jason’s eyes. Alas, the Demon King’s assault gave him no time to grasp it. With blood soaking his chest and his flesh being carved apart, all Jason could do was hold on by sacrificing his body—until he literally could move no more.
“I’ll create a future that isn’t ashamed of its ending.”
The conversation with Se-Hoon from earlier brushed past his mind.
“A future that no one would dare to call meaningless. A future everyone will acknowledge.”
Jason understood at that moment. He now knew what that something he wanted to protect was.
I wanted to protect… the future.
Just as the villagers had fought while dreaming of a peaceful future, he wanted to protect a world where that dream could actually come true.
It was for that reason that he’d left the village that day to hunt the monster that might threaten everyone. It was for that reason that he had kept swinging his fists, again and again, all the way to today.
Fwoom!
A wish for a future—a wish he had dreamed of with all the villagers together. Remembering the wish he had forgotten long ago with more clarity than ever, Jason looked at the Demon King’s fist closing in.
Fwoom-
And he hurled his fist toward the line that now stretched forward once more.
BOOM!
Jason and the Demon King punched each other in the face at the same time, then drove fists into each other’s abdomen in the same following instant. From there, the brawl no longer cared for defense. No holds barred, it was as if Jason couldn’t wait to die.
He had been struggling so hard, so why? The Demon King was dumbfounded—
Splat!
“?!”
His vision abruptly flipped. That was when he—belatedly—realized: his head had snapped to the side. Surprised, the Demon King hurried to block Jason’s ensuing fist in a panic…!
Crunch!
Some stranger than getting caught off guard happened. He had clearly blocked, so why had an invisible blow stabbed into his side?! Immediately moving to guard the next blow—the Demon King’s neck snapped instead.
“What is this!”
The attacks were ignoring immutability itself?! Utterly confused, the Demon King looked behind Jason at Se-Hoon—who wasn’t doing anything???
Then…! The Demon King searched for the cause, and then, and only then, did he truly see Jason.
Swish-
Jason was making an oddly peculiar movement that was neither fast nor slow. Thanks to Beast King’s memories, the Demon King recognized it as the phenomenon that appeared when the power of Premotion was being used. Yet, that realization just made the Demon King’s expression twist in confusion.
Impossible…
In the past, perhaps. But now, with immutability, even the power of Premotion should have been something he could overcome. Certain of that, the Demon King swung his fist to block Jason’s incoming punch again—
Splat!
His vision blinked out. His head had burst and regenerated.
“…!”
The Demon King finally accepted it. The one piercing his immutability wasn’t Se-Hoon; it really was Jason.
The moment his thoughts reached there, the Demon King lunged toward Se-Hoon without missing a beat. He didn’t know what Jason had done, but if he pressed Se-Hoon as a hostage, Jason wouldn’t be able to move so freely.
Or at least, that would have been the case.
BOOM!
The moment the Demon King appeared in front of Se-Hoon, his solar plexus was blown through. And before he could even recover, his head burst apart, plunging his vision into darkness once more.
But he could still feel the fists crushing his entire body. It was an onslaught that overwhelmed immutability itself.
When had he been hit? Had he always had this many openings? Who was he even fighting right now? The Demon King spiraled into confusion.
“Enough!!!”
Eventually, the Demon King just began flailing, throwing wild punches.
Yet Jason stepped in and drove his fist forward again without blinking.
Fwoom-
Read the breath, outrun the gaze, outpace awareness itself.
If the gap Jason read before ended there, Jason simply sped up further and further until he advanced beyond it.
Read the mind, pierce the soul, and finally transcend the world.
Jason’s punches, having escaped the past to touch the future by crossing time and space, hammered the Demon King’s body without pause. It was an eternal barrage that lasted all the way to the future where the Demon King’s power reached its limit and shattered—until his world collapsed.
Rumble!
Driven back by Jason, the Demon King was forced all the way to the edge of the world covered by Jason’s synesthetic mindscape, to the very fringe of the Forest of Repetition.
And there, at the boundary, as destruction and restoration repeated endlessly and cracks spread even into the spinning gears of the Golden Wheel beneath the surface….
Eternal Vanguard: Path of Tomorrow
Jason’s fist blew straight through the Demon King’s world.