久久大陆

"Rise, Tormented Souls."

From the ground of bones, those very materials began to rattle before coalescing, forming into skeletons that rose with an undying aura sprouting from their hollow forms.

"Tch…" He clicked his tongue, mumbling painfully as he held his stomach, "...So this is the true nature of your domain?"

Jun-Seo smiled faintly, "It's an undying army–subservient to myself. Each and every one of them are victims of the GOETIA System, though not all are by my hand."

"You're sick," he said, adjusting his glasses with his trembling, weakened fingers, "It's not enough that you take their lives away, but you take even death from them?"

"I am despicable, yes. Have we not established that?" Jun-Seo replied with a smirk.

The crow-caped man was now hidden behind the army of dozens of rattling skeletons, who were of black, charred bones.

"But, what does it matter? The gates of Heaven are indifferent to good and evil; indifferent to your past–your deeds and your failures…All that matters is strength," Jun-Seo said, waving his hand as the army of skeletons seemed to charge towards his enemy, "--Paradise awaits the strong, Dae-Seong. Which one of us will reach those pearly gates? This battle will decide that."

He sure runs his mouth–that has changed. When I cornered him before…he was so quiet. Fearful, almost. It doesn't matter–I'll do it again, he thought.

With his Evolution System becoming unresponsive, he was left with solely his own strength inherent to the basis of the System itself; his greatsword and the skills he had acquired naturally.

As the horde of undead rushed towards him, he spun his hefty blade around, gathering a golden flame that crawled along its length.

"--"

To him, it only felt as if there was a wall placed between himself and his foe, with the sprinting piles of bones being nothing more than an obstacle he began to wash away with the reach of his enchanted blade.

Each strike left a trail of the iridescent flames, turning their already charred bones into ash as the flames consumed their decrepit form.

Still, as quickly as he could move his weapon and release the breath of gilded flames, the horde of skeletons pushed in more aggressively, coming from all sides now.

For some reason, though he should be more worried than anything–this angered him.

He stomped down, unleashing a shock wave that pushed the skeletons back after they had begun to grab onto him.

"Jun-Seo! Just how many people have you killed?!" He yelled out.

All the crow-caped, malignant man could do was quietly laugh at this question, shrugging his shoulders before his expression returned to his emotionless state, "I lost count a long time ago."

That answer only served to fuel his anger further as he raised his arm with the horde of tormented dead rushing in once more.

"Cast: Wind Sentinel!"

A powerful wind spiraled around his position, repelling the group of fleshless undead as it began to take shape; the powerful, howling wind morphed into the shape of a knight, bearing the top-half of the illustrious, armored figure that shrouded him.

It acted as both an offense and a defensive; it manifested around him, shielding him from the skeletons outside of the walls of visceral wind while the knight of raging air itself began to cleave away at the many fiends with its weather-formed claymore.

"Hoh. Magnificent, Dae-Seong," Jun-Seo complimented him with his superficial, demeaning words before raising a single hand and snapping his fingers, "...Cancel: Magic."

Those last few words were spoken in a low, commanding tone, with the snap of his fingers echoing as if silencing all else.

"--!"

Around himself, the storm-forged knight that manifested around him had been completely erased, negated by a snap of his enemy's fingers.

The absence of the Wind Sentinel left him once again completely open to the horde of boundless skeletons that ravenously charged in.

In truth, most of my strength comes from my adaptations. New skills are born to counter whatever my opponent throws at me. It is almost an assurance to win any battle, so long as the foe I face isn't in another realm entirely from myself.

Without it, I am almost entirely left naked. I don't possess the Angel System itself, but the Evolution System, along with most unique systems, is a variation of it. As such…my skill tree in comparison to normal Angel System users is barebones–even so, I won't lose, he thought.

Completely engulfed in a mountain of skeletons, his uniform began to be tugged and torn before he regained his thoughts–focusing once more.

"Cast: Heavenly Disperse."

Invoked calmly, a seraphic shock wave propelled from his position, sending the pile of skeletons away from him in a quick manner.

Despite this, he could see Jun-Seo still standing across the chamber of bones, unmoving and simply watching with a small, satisfied smile.

He used the sparse time he had to regain his breath, doing his best to remain standing tall and unflinching of his flesh wound.

"You're just as amazing as I recall, Dae-Seong. Still…You didn't think my realm simply was made to throw these scrawny undead at you, did you?" Jun-Seo asked.

"--?" He raised an eyebrow.

Just then, he was grabbed by one of the skeletons–or what he previous thought was.

It was a head of light-gold hair that was unmistakable to his eyes, belonging to a short, youthful man with an athletic build, dressed in gray-and-yellow leather armor.

"D-Dae-Seong…"

"...Jeol…?" He let out in quiet disbelief.

"Why did you let me die? I trusted you…I trusted you!"

The blonde-haired young man had his fingers wrapped around his neck, beginning to squeeze as the man was left utterly stunned by what met his eyes.

"Jeol, I…"

For once, the resolved, pale-blue eyes of the man faltered, shaking with utter lamentation and despair as his grip began to loosen on the dragon-winged handle of his weapon.

Remembering the tough, yet happy days spent before the formation of Gangcheori; walking beside Jeol and Korain–his grip tightened on his blade as his eyes focused, raising his weapon as he stabbed it through the one bearing his fallen comrade's face.

Behind the lenses of his glasses, he watches as the loathsome expression held by his false companion sunk into emptiness, falling limp as his blade sank through their chest.

"--"

It was a painful sight, but he didn't fall to it.

After all of this time, I can't let something like this be my ruin. Jeol, I'm sorry. Right now…I don't have room to shed tears, he thought.

Blood spilled from his lips before he could get a word out.

In that moment of distraction, many of the skeletons had gathered around him–stabbing into him from every angle, sinking their jagged, accursed blades into his body.

Slipping from his face, the glasses he always wore fell to the ground, shattering on impact.

"--"

"How merciless you are," Jun-Seo commented, watching the event transpire.

When he looked up at the red-haired man, his eyes held utter hatred for the man they looked at; it was an icy rage beyond any he had felt previously, holding his blade so fervently as the blood spilling from his dozens of stab wounds trailed down to his palms.

There was not a word that left his lips. There were many things he could say, and wanted to, but none of them could properly express the newfound ceiling of contempt he had found.

Nothing more in this world was wanted for him–to kill the man named "Jun-Seo."

"Are you angered? I don't blame–"

What? Jun-Seo thought, interrupted by the inexplicable speed of his foe.

In that moment between moments, he had crossed the length of the otherworldly chamber without a word, not moving his bloodlusted gaze away from the crow-caped man.

"Death,"--of all things, that's what Jun-Seo felt as he witnessed that massive, dragon-etched greatsword be reared back as Dae-Seong's golden-cloud decorated coat fluttered in a massive uproar of power.

For the first time since he could remember, Jun-Seo felt fear when peering up at the figure that felt larger than life in that moment; a "Grim Reaper" who held a blade with only his name inscribed on it.

A man who should by all means be laying on the ground in a puddle of his own blood, yet stood there, towering over him with such an imposing presence as blood poured from his wounds in abundance, seeming as if only a minor inconvenience.

"Cancel: Death" is still on cooldown…What do I–? Jun-Seo questioned.

The burst of power from Dae-Seong was inexplicable to the GOETIA System user; he was sure the man's Evolution System was ineffective.

It was a simple reason, one that Dae-Seong himself had not realized:

"Within the "Bowels of Hell" all are looked at as "dead"--though they may not be actually fallen, their existence is still considered "dead", as such, Dae-Seong's Evolution System, which normally responds only to counter dangerous attacks on himself, does nothing since there is no danger to the dead," Jun-Seo recounted.

However, there was one fatal flaw in Jun-Seo's knowledge: the Evolution System itself can evolve.