As twilight fell and the web-like mist coiled over the Imjin River, Lee Seong-jun stood alone, training in silence. The air pulsed faintly with each strike he threw, his breath steady and calm—until suddenly, he froze.
'…Non-type?'
He sensed disturbance through his spiritual link. The team he'd sent—Baek Mu-jin, Theodore, Julian, and Bi-hyeong—was facing something far beyond expectation. To ensure success, Seong-jun had secretly assigned an additional operative: a "non-type," a being skilled in combating demons. With such overwhelming strength, failure had seemed impossible.
Yet the signal he now received carried one chilling word.
'Nobility?'
Even across vast distances, the Metamorphosis link allowed him to feel the resonance of the battle. And this was no ordinary demon. This presence was higher—an entity of noble rank, something that shouldn't exist on Earth.
'A demon noble in China… how?'
Under Gaia's restriction, the power of any creature crossing from the Demon Realm was limited. Even the strongest demons he had encountered were capped beneath that divine threshold. For a noble-class being to appear meant either Gaia's power was weakening… or the demons had found a way to bypass it.
There was no time to ponder.
'I have to move. Now.'
If it truly was a noble demon, the team he sent was walking into certain death. Quickly, Seong-jun pulled out his phone.
"Anna," he said, his tone urgent.
A soft voice answered through the receiver. "Yes, Master?"
"I need a long-range teleportation. Right now. Send me to Bi-hyeong's position in China."
Magic surged across the connection—Anna's voice steady but tense. "Understood. I'll prepare the gateway immediately."
Seong-jun closed his eyes. A faint, fiery aura began to envelop him.
Meanwhile, in Zhengzhou, the world had already become a battlefield.
A torrent of black energy erupted from the thatched hut ahead, tearing through the air like a storm. The ground buckled, trees splintered, and the landscape was ripped apart in waves of destruction.
"Everyone, behind me!" Theodore shouted, throwing up his arms.
A wall of shimmering silver light flared to life, forming an enormous crescent shield. The magic storm slammed against it, exploding in bursts of flame and debris. For a moment, the barrier held—and then, silence.
The door of the hut creaked open.
From the darkness stepped Wang Huning, eyes wide with terror and awe. But it wasn't his presence that made the others freeze.
A second figure followed him out—one that exuded suffocating dread.
Four horns crowned his head. Veins of dark magic pulsed beneath leathery wings. His eyes glowed like black suns.
"Opening the gate was the priority," the demon murmured in a cold, hissing tone. "But this interference… is irritating."
His name tore itself from Wang Huning's lips. "Lord Raukand! I told you—these intruders will serve your ritual well!"
The creature chuckled lowly, tongue flicking like a serpent's. "Indeed… fine souls. Perfect fuel for the ceremony."
But before Raukand could move, Theodore struck first. Silver light burst from his hand, piercing the demon's skull. Black blood sprayed across the field as the head exploded.
For a heartbeat, everyone thought it was over—until the horror began.
With a sound like tearing sinew, Raukand's head regenerated. Tendrils of muscle and black mist coiled together, reforming flesh.
"Impossible…" Baek Mu-jin whispered.
Raukand smiled mockingly. "To be startled by something so trivial… How pitiful you mortals are."
He raised one finger.
"Now, bear witness to the might of Raukand, second son of Baron Arlington. Consider your deaths an honor."
A sphere of condensed black energy began to form at his fingertip, its pressure so immense that the air distorted around it.
Theodore's instincts screamed. 'If that hits, we die.'
He clenched his teeth. "Then we'll just have to fight power with power."
Silver energy erupted from his entire body, the pure force of will crystallizing into light. "Monster… I won't go down that easily."
Raukand's grin widened. "Amusing."
Julian stepped beside Theodore, his muscles trembling from exhaustion. "Let me help!"
Baek Mu-jin joined in next, unleashing a cascade of radiant energy. Bi-hyeong, chanting under his breath, bound their power together with magic.
The four forces intertwined—human will, divine aura, and arcane power merging into one beam of pure defiance.
The demon laughed. "Futile resistance!"
Raukand thrust his sphere forward. The collision tore the world apart.
KABOOOOOM!
The shockwave flattened the forest, cratering the earth. The silver and black energies wrestled, devouring one another in a swirling storm. When the light finally faded, the battlefield was unrecognizable—nothing left but dust and silence.
The result was even. But the cost was devastating.
The humans collapsed, gasping, their bodies battered and bloodied. In contrast, Raukand stood tall, unscathed, brushing away the dust from his shoulder.
"Do you see it now?" he sneered. "You are nothing."
With a lazy flick of his hand, black thorns shot from the ground. Julian barely managed to parry the first volley—only for more to erupt beneath him.
"Julian!" Baek Mu-jin shouted.
Before he could react, the thorns impaled Julian, lifting him into the air.
Julian coughed blood, glaring defiantly through the pain. 'Damn it… this monster… we can't win.'
Despair flooded his chest. Yet in his fading vision, one name surfaced.
'Seong-jun… If he were here…'
The thought gave him one last flicker of hope—before darkness began to close in.
Raukand turned to Wang Huning with a sneer. "Now then, let us begin the ritual before my offerings rot."
He raised his hand, black energy coiling. But before the spell could ignite—
The sky split open.
A searing blue light ripped through the heavens like a blade, and a red lightning bolt struck down from the rift.
The impact hurled Raukand backward, slamming him into the mountain wall.
For the first time, the noble demon's expression twisted in shock.
From the shimmering crack in the air, a man stepped forth—wrapped in a roaring crimson aura. His eyes burned with wrath and divinity.
Lee Seong-jun had arrived.
His voice was quiet, but it cut through the chaos like thunder.
"You bastard… How dare you lay a hand on what's mine."