久久大陆

"--Dae-Seong!" Ma-Ri yelled out.

Just as the young woman climbed to her feet anxiously and desperately, she was stopped–

"Don't come any closer!" Dae-Seong yelled without looking at her.

Jun-Seo didn't so much as care to recognize the others' existence in the room, looking at the man whose heart he held in his hand.

It was still inside of his body, yet the devilish claws were wrapped around the still-beating heart, caressing it with an inevitable malice.

"I tried my best. It was not my intention to kill you–your life wasn't mine to take," Jun-Seo explained quietly, "Anywho…Let's have a chat for a bit."

"--" Dae-Seong spat out more blood as the grip on his heart tightened ever so slightly.

"You've shown it to me: how invaluable the "Evolution System" is…was. What a shame. If it had been assimilated, he would've been quite unstoppable…" Jun-Seo lamented.

The leader's eyes widened at those words, gripping onto the Artificial Devil's cold shoulders as he forced his gaze upward, coughing up more crimson.

"...Assimilation…?" He spoke quietly through uneven breaths.

"Oh?" Jun-Seo said in surprise at the last bits of vitality from the man.

Ma-Ri watched from a distance as tears built up around her eyes, unable to process the impossible scenery around her, and the even more unsavory situation before her eyes. Korain himself was still coming to, coughing up as Ma-Ri forced herself to look away from the dreadful sight to help the man sit up.

"What happened…? That bastard got me…!" Korain said hoarsely, caressing his bruised windpipe.

"Korain…" Ma-Ri said his name weakly.

The emotion in the young woman's voice made him look up in shock, seeing the tears held at bay in her icy blue eyes before seeing what was happening in the center of the hellish domain.

"Boss!" Korain screamed out.

The salt-and-pepper haired man hardly cared for the abhorrent scenery around him, only focusing on the state of his dear comrade, but Ma-Ri kept him down.

"Ma-Ri…?" He looked at her anxiously, not understanding why she kept him back.

She only shook her head, "...Trust him."

Those simple words took the burning will from Korain, albeit only if for a moment, but he waited, nodding his head.

Dae-Seong coughed out, catching whatever sparse breath he could before he continued his weakly spoken words:

"...Baek-Hyeon…tell me…Is he…among your ranks?" He asked, gripping the devil's shoulders, squeezing them with the feeble strength he had left.

The black-eyed, devil man looked down at him with half boredom, half disappointment, still clutching his beating heart through the hole he made in the man's torso.

"...For a moment, I considered: 'what would hurt more'? Letting you die without an answer, or letting you die knowing that you led Judas straight into your home…" Jun-Seo whispered close to his ear.

His eyes immediately widened, both as the words met his ears and his beating heart was clenched tighter, without any semblance of gentleness.

"Then…!" He realized.

Jun-Seo smirked, keeping his black, accursed lips near the man's ears, "That's right. Baek-Hyeon is one of us–my brother, in fact. How does it feel, oh-so-revered leader of humanity's last bastion? It was all your fault."

"--"

The lack of an answer only brought further satisfaction to the one who had foregone his humanity, smiling in satisfaction as he could feel the quivering grip on his shoulders tighten while looking down at the man's silver locks.

"I see."

"Oh?"

Dae-Seong looked up at him, "--If that's how it is, then I'll accept my punishment and atone, right here and now."

"What're you…?" Jun-Seo looked down at him with a raised eyebrow.

Before the Artificial Devil could realize, chains of divine-linked gold sprouted from the floor, manifesting with a desperate swiftness as they bound his limbs and body.

"Gh–! What is this? I shouldn't be surprised…that you'd of all people would struggle until the bitter end…! Fine, then! I'll–!" Jun-Seo said.

In retaliation, even with his body bound, all the devil had to do was simply squeeze his grip as he squashed the human's heart like a fruit, destroying the man's core of life in a simple, but devastating action.

"Dae-Seong–!"

"Boss–!!!"

–The two executives who witnessed this yelled out, attempting to rush over with little restraint from their leader's previous words, but were stopped–not by a command this time, but by a realization.

"What–?" Jun-Seo let out.

Even as the man's heart was destroyed, even as blood spewed from his mouse, and seemingly every orifice as he stood in a pool of his own lively essence, he remained standing.

The Artificial Devil then realized another fact–

The chains! They're still manifested…! They should've dissipated the moment I destroyed his heart! His health is null! The System should be deleted! He should be dead! Jun-Seo thought.

"...I told you, didn't I? The Evolution System…only adapts as I remain standing. As long…as I grit my teeth…as long as I'm on my feet…The impossible is made possible," the man told him.

Like a corpse risen from the ground, the silver leader of Gangcheori reached down, nearly tumbling over in doing so as blood spewed out from his wounds, grabbing hold of the greatsword he dropped.

The Artificial Devil attempted to break from the chains in order to stop him, but they held him with a tightness that increased the more he resisted, burning his unholy flesh in the process as he yelled out:

"--What of it?! You're a walking zombie, but on your last breaths! What will this disgusting struggle bring but disgrace to your image?!" Jun-Seo screamed out from the top of his lungs desperately.

One last time, he wrapped his blood-soaked fingers around the dragon-wing handle, lifting the heavy weapon as he breathed heavily, hardly able to remain on his feet.

As he lifted the sword, he was unable to look the devil in the eyes as his own vision was hazy, swaying, and diminishing by the second as his consciousness was fleeting.

"...Even if…I can't bring you down myself…I'll make the impossible possible…for them," he explained through quiet words, coughing up further arterial fluid.

"Nrrgh–!!!"

Finally seeming to see past his hubris, the Artificial Devil utilized his unnatural body, bulkening it as he bolstered himself with a malicious force, shattering the chains at last–but the attack was already coming.

It was beautiful; to the eyes of the two who spectated this last stand, it was a celestial grace that stretched itself across the air, expanding like a nebula of creation as the glitter of stars shined bright.

To the devil, it was terror–an evolution specifically honed to bring harm to him, surpassing natural divinity itself and soaring close to the mantle of the Heavens itself.

The entirety of the hellish sub-reality shook; trembling in the face of utter, evolved, transcended, and magnificent power–being flooded in with a light unseen by the deathly caverns, being invaded by hope that was drowned out by prior darkness.

"Millenia Drive: The Stars of Tomorrow."

In essence, it was a slash; enchanted by flames that melded divine heat multiple times over, adapting repeatedly until reaching a new height that took on the shine of the cosmos–releasing a cut that bisected space and bypassed all defenses.

"Dae-Seong–!!!"

As Jun-Seo attempted to raise all of the unholy shields he could, sprouting walls of shadowy energy and black steel itself, it was all shattered as the massive slash of refined, ascended power cut its way directly to him.

Interlaced in the flames of creation and destruction, conviction was manifested through rampant evolution; beyond anything he had unleashed previously, this was Dae-Seong's last, and strongest, attack.

…After all, is there no greater responsibility for a leader than to pave the way for the next generation? Dae-Seong thought.

It was Dae-Seong's final evolution; an adaptation created with the purpose of one thing:

"Reach the Artificial Devil, and create a path to victory for my subordinates."

With the celestial force crashing against the abhorrent devil's flesh, a volatile release expanded outwards in a condensed release of divine absolution that surpassed any weapons of mankind, mimicking the cataclysms that end eras, knocking the half-dead man back as the two immediately rushed over to check on him.

"Dae-Seong…!"

Ma-Ri fell to her knees at her side, tearing the white, blue-flower designed leggings she wore in the process, but not noticing in the moment.

By this point, little life remained in the eyes of the stout leader, who only saw fluttering images of the young vice leader beside him, and the burly, but reliable man reaching him as well.

"...Ma-Ri…" He said her name quietly, not hearing her repeated, desperate calls himself.

"--"

Ma-Ri fell silent, looking at him with desperate, trembling eyes as she stayed by his side.

The wounds that the leader had suffered were far too great; even healing magic would not suffice by this point–besides the deep gashes left all over his body; severing the flesh on his arms, legs, and torso, what was beyond repair was the heart that was completely shattered.

Looking up at her, he could still see an innocent girl, unready for the world ahead of her.

Ma-Ri…He thought.

He remembered their first meeting–a girl, lost and without aim, yet carried such an unparalleled flame within her.