When Jin-ho curled up, bracing himself for the final blows, nothing came.
Cautiously, he tilted his head and peeked through the shield of his arms.
What he saw was something he wished he hadn't.
A man was hurtling through the air, screaming—then came a sharp, sickening thud as he slammed into a tree, followed by another dull, heavy thud when he hit the ground.
But these weren't normal impacts. Jin-ho's super-hearing caught the wet crack of breaking bones—details he wished he could unhear. In that moment, he hated his enhanced senses.
The sight was the worst thing he'd seen in the last five seconds—
and that was saying something, given that just moments ago, he had killed many people with nothing but rocks.
Slowly, Jin-ho uncurled his body. His eyes widened when he saw the cause of the carnage: black tendrils writhing violently from his own shadow, lashing out far beyond his reach.
He had seen this happen a few times before, but he never had control over it. All he knew was that it was tied to his emotions.
He tried to steady his breath, but panic had him in its grip. Killing people, nearly dying, and then killing even more—it was doing nothing to help him calm down.
"Just let it happen," the Demon God's voice said flatly inside his mind.
"Look, you have to kill them anyway."
"I don't want to kill anyone!" Jin-ho shot back, his voice sharp.
Still searching for a way to defuse the chaos, Jin-ho began to speak—this time in Korean.
Maybe…the hero would understand him?
Then an unsettling thought struck him: What if he thinks demons speak Korean?
The idea nearly made him give up entirely, but he remembered—the hero did understand English.
Jin-ho scrambled for the right words.
"H-Hey, I'm sorry. I didn't me—"
His apology was cut short when another soldier let out a battle cry and charged straight at him. The moment Jin-ho's eyes locked on the man, one of the shadow-tendrils lashed out like a whip.
It sliced the soldier's head clean off—like a hot knife through butter.
Everyone froze. Jin-ho knew this was his only chance to speak to the hero in English.
"H-hey, I can't control them. Tell your men to fall back and I'll leave," Jin-ho said quickly, surprising even himself with how it all came out in a single breath.
As he spoke, his eyes scanned the crowd, searching for the hero—it wasn't hard to spot him.
"Stop! Don't attack!" the hero shouted to his men.
Jin-ho could have collapsed with relief. He truly didn't want to hurt anyone if he could help it.
The black tendrils began to withdraw, fading back into his shadow, but the soldiers either didn't hear the command or chose to ignore it. They still rushed toward Jin-ho, determined to fight.
Jin-ho tried to reason with them, pleading in both Korean and English. His words kept repeating—"I'm sorry." "Please, stop."—but the message was never received.
He didn't dare raise his voice, afraid that even a loud sigh might cause harm. He had no idea what damage might come from shouting.
All the while, the tendrils wove protectively around him, slashing at anything that came near. Realizing this, Jin-ho slowly got to his feet and met the hero's gaze. Unlike the others, the hero stood still, even trying to restrain his own people, but stopped when one of them shoved him to the ground.
For a moment, Jin-ho and the hero simply stared at each other. There was confusion and sorrow in both their eyes. Jin-ho realized the hero had no more control over the soldiers than he did over his own powers. Just as the Demon God warned, the humans seemed to hate demons blindly.
One thing Jin-ho knew that the hero didn't: the soldiers couldn't understand his English. Maybe, just maybe, the two of them could talk things through.
"No!" The Demon God's voice rang sharply in Jin-ho's mind, nearly making him flinch.
Shut up, Jin-ho snapped back mentally. Then, out loud in English, he called out, "Hey, hero, stay here. I'll come tonight so we can talk. I was also summoned from Earth—there's a lot to explain. I'm sorry for this. I can't control it."
Facing the mountain, Jin-ho prepared to leap away, ready for a quick escape. He didn't wait for the hero to answer—he could only hope the hero would trust him, now that he knew Jin-ho had been summoned too.
Jin-ho jumped to the mountain, still not used to his strength. In one jump, he was almost half way up the mountain.
"What the fuck did you do to this body to make it so strong?" Jin-ho demanded as he leapt again, climbing toward the mountain peak in search of the castle. He wasn't about to teleport and appear smack in the middle of it—that would mean running into other demons, and those things were scary as hell. Definitely not on his to-do list right now.
From the summit, Jin-ho scanned the horizon and spotted the silhouette of a dark, jagged castle. Super eyesight was amazing.
Yeah, that's gotta be it, Jin-ho hummed in his head.
"You should go to the castle and meet your people. Watching you kill humans was fun, but you—"
"No! I didn't kill them—or at least I didn't mean to!" Jin-ho snapped back at the Demon God.
"Whatever. Anyways, you need to go back to the castle," the Demon God said bluntly.
Jin-ho turned his gaze from the castle to the land beyond. Past it, he could just make out a shimmer of water stretching until it disappeared over the horizon. To the right lay some land, then another expanse of water. Behind him, the shoreline seemed about the same distance as the one before him—the castle sitting neatly between the two mountains. To his left was nothing but land, and tucked into it, a small city. Though up close, it probably wasn't small at all.
He'd gotten used to his new eyesight surprisingly quickly. After all those countless scrolls he'd read in the hallway—scrolls that were probably destroyed by now. The thought stung. If demons could cry, he might have shed a tear for all that beautiful history gone. Well, not always beautiful, but it was still history. At least with this new body, Jin-ho had perfect recall; every scroll he'd read was etched into sharp detail in his memory.
"I want to stay here for tonight and see if I can talk to the hero," Jin-ho said, still surveying the land. He frowned slightly. Why didn't he feel cold at such a high altitude? Judging by the icy peaks around him and the water, this had to be the northern part of the continent.
"Why? Nothing good will come of it. You're a demon. Do you really think he'll trust you after all that kil—well, all that stuff that happened back there?" the Demon God pointed out.
Jin-ho thought about it for a moment, then replied, "Maybe not. But I have to try."
He could almost feel the Demon God sigh in his mind.
"Hey, can I teleport—or whatever it is—back to my chamber for now? Like the one below me?"
"No. You have to open the door yourself. The door confirms that it's you who's entering," the Demon God said in a tone dripping with boredom.
Jin-ho smirked to himself. Finally, a chance to mess with the Demon God.
He gave an exaggerated sigh. "Well, I thought you were more powerful than that. I guess I have no choice but to sleep out here somewhere unsafe and wait for nightfall." His voice carried thick disappointment.
The Demon God fell unusually silent—probably annoyed.
Closing his eyes, Jin-ho shook his head. "And here I was thinking we could play some board games from Earth. Bond a little, y'know? But nope, wasted opportunity." He clicked his tongue three times in mock pity.
The silence stretched. Then suddenly—
"AH-HA!" the Demon God yelled so loudly in his head that Jin-ho nearly lost his balance on the loose rocks underfoot.
"You can get there if you give me just a little control over your mind and body. That way, my power will let you enter the chambers just like I do—but with your body. Do that, and we can play your Earth games, build our bond—whatever you want!" The Demon God sounded ridiculously proud of himself and very excited, practically shouting by the end.
Jin-ho thought it over for a moment. He was really banking on the Demon God wanting to bond—or whatever nonsense he kept going on about—but the risk of him suddenly deciding to go wipe out all the humans was still there.
"Okay, but no funny business. We go to the chambers, and that's all. I already have a few games we can play to pass the time." Jin-ho immediately regretted adding that last part. If the Demon God hadn't already thought of it, now he definitely had. Still, maybe it was better this way—at least Jin-ho could set his intentions straight.
"Fine, I promise," the Demon God sighed. Jin-ho allowed himself a small smile—if he had promised, that meant the idea really had crossed his mind after all.
"I should warn you," the Demon God continued, "when you give me control, it'll feel like you pass out and then wake up again. It won't hurt. Just relax, clear your mind, and then—boom—you'll be in the chambers."
Jin-ho did as instructed, though calming his mind was never easy; it never really stopped racing. To focus, he repeated Demon God over and over in his head, picturing the form he had taken when they first met. Jin-ho doubted imagining his human form would work.
Then it happened. It felt like he'd briefly fallen asleep—just for an instant—but when Jin-ho opened his eyes again, his entire body ached. It was the same dull, throbbing pain you got after a full day of brutal training, waking up sore the next morning.
His eyes didn't see the chambers or the ceiling of the cave. They saw the open sky. He was laying down on his back. His body also felt strangely warm in certain spots.
Jin-ho raised a hand to rub at his head, trying to shake off the lingering fuzziness—like shaking away sleep. That's when he noticed it. His palm was coated in a thick, sticky liquid. At first, he thought it might've been something clear against his red skin. But, with his sharpened eyesight and enhanced smell, there was no mistaking it. Blood.
He jolted upright—almost springing to his feet. All around him was the scene he had dreaded most: the thing the Demon God had promised not to do. Dead humans.
Jin-ho's mind raced. How did the Demon God think he could get away with this? With all this blood?
"Well, I was just going to wash your body and give it back to you in the chambers," the Demon God muttered, his tone carrying a hint of disappointment, as if irritated he hadn't been allowed to finish the job.
"What the hell were you thinking?" Jin-ho almost shouted, his voice laced with both anger and fear.
Before the Demon God could reply, a wave of smells hit him—smoke and charred wood, thick and heavy, undercut by an even stronger scent of hot stone and iron. Jin-ho inhaled again, and new layers revealed themselves: rotting vegetation, salt thick in the air, and then something sharper still—vinegar laced with metallic undertones.
The scents all tangled together, blending into something that, disturbingly, made his mouth water. Jin-ho knew they shouldn't smell appetizing. The mix should have been revolting. And yet, saliva gathered in his mouth.
"Ah, you like that smell. Good," the Demon God said, almost pleased. "That's the scent of anger, determination, disgust, sadness, and fear—in the order you smelled them. All of them mixed together makes a demon very hungry. Good thing you don't have to eat people. Trust me, they taste awful."
Jin-ho could barely process what was happening. Everything moved so fast, yet it all felt like slow motion. Just as he was about to rip into the Demon God—maybe even destroy this cursed body altogether—he heard someone yelling.
The voice was distant but loud enough to cut through the chaos of his thoughts. Footsteps followed, drawing closer. When Jin-ho turned, his chest sank. It was the hero.
"I was going to try and trust you on this! Why did you do this? I knew demons couldn't be trusted!" the hero shouted, his glowing white sword clenched tightly in his hand as he strode forward with fury.
Jin-ho's throat tightened. He wanted to cry when he saw the truth—the hero was the only one left. Everyone else had been slaughtered. Only he had survived.
Jin-ho knew he had to explain what this wretched Demon God had done to him and how all of this happened.
"Please, listen—" Jin-ho began in Korean but was cut off by the white glowing sword nearly slicing into his head.
Jin-ho rolled to avoid the blow. "Nice moves. Now, kill him," the Demon God said proudly.
"Listen, it wasn't me," Jin-ho said, forcing himself to speak English this time. He had to dodge another blow, which surprised him. He hadn't realized he could move this quickly and smoothly. It was almost as if the hero was moving in slow motion.
"I won't listen!" the hero yelled, anger blazing in his eyes.
Jin-ho jumped back to give himself time to say at least one sentence.
"Listen, it wasn't me. Just like earlier today, when I had no control, it was almost the same thing," Jin-ho explained quickly, hands raised and praying his English was good enough.
The hero slowed his steps, the anger in his eyes tempered now with a flicker of confusion. "What do you mean, almost?" he asked, still advancing toward Jin-ho.
"I had no control over my body. I… when you hit me, I finally had my body back. I gave up control to find a place to sleep. I know it's hard to explain, but please believe me." Jin-ho spoke so fast he barely breathed. Finding the right words was difficult with his head full of emotions. He made himself look genuinely sorry for what happened, which wasn't hard.
"Please, I would never hurt anyone. Just let me talk to you, and if you still don't believe me, then you can kill me, I swear," Jin-ho pleaded.
The hero paused for a moment but still wore a face that didn't trust him.
That's when Jin-ho realized something he had overlooked until now—how massive his new body was. Even with the hero standing tall before him, Jin-ho was about twice his height.
The simple realization grounded him a little. They locked eyes, staring silently as the wind whipped around them, as if trying to make the moment more dramatic.
"Why aren't you fighting anymore?" the hero asked. "You were just killing all my people without a second thought, and smiling madly about it."
The question pierced Jin-ho like a blade. He almost laughed bitterly. Who in their right mind would trust the Demon King, especially after watching him massacre countless humans—some surely friends of the hero? Who had the Goddess summoned here?
"She's always been a bit weird… but this is our chance. Kill him, and we win," the Demon God chimed in gleefully. His cheerfulness turned Jin-ho's stomach.
Jin-ho turned his head to the side to throw up all the heavy feelings—and whatever he'd eaten or not eaten. But when he bent over, nothing came out. It was as if his body went through the motions, but no matter what, nothing would come up.
"Yeah, you can't throw up being a Demon King. It should feel like you do, but nothing will ever come out. Your body is a one-way system. I made your body so it will never get sick—you can eat dirt and it will absorb it. Cool, huh?" The Demon God sounded proud of himself, but none of it registered in Jin-ho's mind.
"So, explain it to me," the hero said with a straight face, almost emotionless, but Jin-ho could still smell the anger and other faint feelings beneath.
Jin-ho looked back at the hero. He was very handsome, with blue eyes like the sky and hair so blonde it almost looked white. His facial features were perfectly balanced—a strong nose and jaw, nothing too big or too small. This man was so unlike Jin-ho in every detail.
"You don't have any zits," Jin-ho said almost mechanically, in Korean. His eyesight was good enough to see the hero's skin was not only clear but had tiny pores.
"What?" the hero said, not understanding Korean.
Jin-ho shook his head to clear the distraction. This was not the time for shock.
"Um, sorry... I..." he started but then corrected himself.
"I... I'm sorry for this. It was not me," Jin-ho said, hoping the hero would listen and believe him.
The hero looked around, then back at Jin-ho. "Yes, you did do this. You came down here and killed... everyone." The last words were whispered.
Jin-ho hung his head in shame. "It was this body, but it wasn't me. I lost control. I wasn't in control at all." He didn't think lying was right, but it felt necessary. If he didn't obscure who was really behind the wheel—his body—the hero wouldn't listen.
"Not in control?" the hero asked.
"Yes. As I said before, I was summoned like you, but given a new body. This body—I can't control it properly. That's what I wanted to talk to you about." Jin-ho made up some lies to win the hero's trust.
He was surprised at how easily he could talk to a human. For some reason, the hero felt like a stuffed bear—just there to listen. It was easy to talk to him.
The hero remained silent, waiting for Jin-ho to continue or make a move.
Jin-ho met the hero's blue eyes. "I wanted to ask if you could help me understand or control my powers. I would never want something like this to happen again. That's why I was so far out here alone." The lies flowed easily.
Jin-ho put his hand on his chest. "I'm just a human from Earth on the inside of this big body. I can't even control the tail, let alone my powers."
He sat down, hoping his stance would ease the hero. "I'm so scared, and I can't even cry because of this stupid body."
Silence hung heavy for a while. Then the hero sat down in front of Jin-ho. Jin-ho looked up through his crossed arms to see the hero crying. This was far beyond anything Jin-ho had ever expected.
"Uh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean..." Jin-ho started, but the hero interrupted.
"No. You had to go through that and then see what happened. I'm sad this all happened too, but the one I see now and the one who was killing everyone are two completely different people. I believe you."
Jin-ho almost laughed at how insane this turned out. He had been 99% sure the hero wouldn't believe him and would strike again.
Are you sure the Goddess isn't... like... special or something? Jin-ho asked the Demon God.
"Now that I see this, maybe," the Demon God said, laughing.