Chapter 372: Survivor

The Death Lord and the Heavenly Demon.

A precarious truce between the two monsters was formed.

'First, I should check if we can get out of here.'

Kim Minwoo pulled out a Heavenly City Transfer Ticket from his inventory.

Although he had a free entry pass obtained by ascending as a divine entity, the most certain means of escape in this hellish Outer God's territory was an item guaranteed by the system.

Paat―!

It was the moment he injected mana to activate the transfer ticket.

[Warning! Space is extremely unstable due to an out-of-standard dimensional collision and the energy of the Outer God!]

[Due to the dimensional turbulence phenomenon, dimensional transfer and return are forcibly restricted for one week!]

"……Ha."

A dumbfounded, hollow laugh burst out of Kim Minwoo's mouth. It was because the dimensional axis had become twisted in the aftermath of them clashing while risking their lives with full power.

It seemed they would be helplessly trapped in this deadly land swarming with vicious debuffs for at least a week.

"Hey, Heavenly Demon."

Kim Minwoo called Yoo Honbi.

"They say we can't return for a week because the dimension is twisted. Do you happen to have any other way to return……."

Kim Minwoo, who was continuing his words, paused.

Yoo Honbi didn't even have any interest in the fact that the transfer ticket was blocked in the first place.

From the start, she didn't seem to have any thought of returning.

Her bloodshot pupils were headed solely toward the miserable land of her homeland spread out before her eyes.

She had stepped foot again on the homeland she missed even in her dreams.

Even if the entire planet had been devoured by the Outer God and turned into a living hell, her two eyes were completely rolled back with a bizarre desire and bone-deep longing.

'My people…… The people of my world might still be alive somewhere.'

Kim Minwoo, who silently watched that terrible obsession and desperate gaze, asked while casually resting Hell Rhapsody on his shoulder with a tuk.

"……So what do you plan to do now?"

"I will find traces."

Yoo Honbi answered as if she was chewing and swallowing her teeth.

"Someone among my people must surely be breathing and alive, avoiding those monsters. I have to find them."

"By what means on this wide planet? Looking at the state of this place, it doesn't seem like a single rat is left, let alone lifeforms."

"I will still find them. Do whatever you want."

A resolute voice.

Looking at her eyes, Kim Minwoo let out a pishik laugh.

When he saw her past glimpsed through the chaos attribute…….

"If you insist, I'll help you."

"……Why would you?"

"First of all, what good is there in scattering?"

"……."

Yoo Honbi fell silent for a moment.

Since the inventory wasn't blocked, they wouldn't run out of food or drinking water.

However, the problem was unexpected situations.

If something happened, the Death Lord was definitely a helpful combat force.

"To survive in this hell for a week, we need a base or clues at least. Finding a surviving native would be the fastest."

"……Do whatever you want."

Yoo Honbi took the lead and walked.

Kim Minwoo slowly followed behind her.

Kim Minwoo lightly tapped his shoulder.

"Hayangi."

―Kkuu.

"A place with people around here, not beasts. Can you find it?"

―Kku!

Hayangi, who confidently nodded its head, soared into the empty air.

Although the terrible energy of the Outer God was crushing the atmosphere, to the Divine Beast Hayangi, who had swallowed the attributes of the abyss and chaos, the air here was nothing more than slightly acrid dust.

"Follow it. Our Divine Beast's navigation function is truly amazing."

"……Divine Beast?"

"Over there."

The place Kim Minwoo pointed at.

As she concentrated her visual acuity, a pure white bird could be seen.

'Nonsense.'

Yoo Honbi's heart fluctuated.

She was the Heavenly Demon who had reached the pinnacle of martial arts and one of the Seven Lords standing at the apex of the Heavenly City.

No matter how much the Outer God's debuff was pressing down on her, her sensory perception was sharply honed to the point where she wouldn't miss even the breathing sound of a single rat within a radius of several kilometers.

However, until the moment that small bird took off from Kim Minwoo's shoulder, she didn't feel any presence at all.

Only after Kim Minwoo pointed it out, and she consciously drew her sensory perception to the limit, could she barely see a faint silhouette like a haze.

'Such a tiny creature perfectly deceived my senses?'

A chilling goosebump ran down Yoo Honbi's spine. The martial prowess of the Necromancer's main body was out of standard, but even the small pet bird he carried around was a monster that lightly destroyed common sense.

"……Indeed, it is worthy of being called a Divine Beast."

Yoo Honbi swallowed dry saliva and muttered low like a beast.

She silently gripped her demonic sword and began to follow behind Kim Minwoo toward the direction Hayangi was guiding them.

How long had they walked across the bizarrely twisted bone mounds and swamps under the blood-red sky?

―Kkuuu.

Hayangi, who had been flying ahead, stopped flapping its wings and pointed down a massive canyon.

"Stop."

Kim Minwoo raised his hand and restrained Yoo Honbi.

From the bottom of the canyon, a faint but distinct sound of explosions and clashing metal could be heard.

The two carefully looked down the canyon.

And, Yoo Honbi's pupils dilated massively as if they would tear.

"Ah, ah……."

Below the canyon. With their backs against a massive rock wall, a group of people could be seen engaged in a desperate resistance to the death.

The uniforms of the Orthodox faction were torn, the leather clothes of the Unorthodox faction were stained with blood, and the black robes of the Demonic Cult were drenched in dirt and dust. In the past, they were enemies eager to kill each other over the world, but now they were desperately swinging their weapons with their backs against one another.

Their numbers were barely over a hundred.

At the center, the injured and young children who hadn't even reached adulthood were gathered, trembling in fear.

"Die! You monsters!!"

Spewing sword qi, a man screamed out.

However, the enemies blocking their front were far too overwhelming.

―Chwiiiiik! Humans! Tear them!

Orcs boasting sizes as large as mountain ranges.

A purely, overwhelmingly massive and ignorantly tough physical body.

On top of that, with the authority bestowed by the Outer God's apostle Mutakta added, they were true monster warriors who spewed a thick sense of pressure just by breathing.

Kkang! Jjeojeojeok!

The astral qi condensed on a Murim elder's sword shattered like a piece of paper the moment it clashed with an orc's axe.

"Keuaaaak!"

"Elder!!"

With a single ignorant axe swing from the orc, the upper body of the elder, who was called a supreme master, burst apart along with bloody water.

No matter how much they struggled, it was too much to inflict even a single proper wound on those orcs of overwhelming physicality with human martial arts.

Thick despair was being cast over the survivors' eyes.

"Is this the end……."

It was the moment he was about to close his eyes, shedding tears of blood.

"……Who decided that."

A chilling and bone-piercing voice.

Kwaaaaaaang―!

Plunging down like a thunderbolt from the top of the canyon, a dark red energy and pitch-black darkness crushed the ranks of the orcs who were about to pounce on the martial artists in a single breath.

"……Uh?"

"Th-that energy is……!"

Where the dirt dust cleared. Standing there were Kim Minwoo, resting Hell Rhapsody on his shoulder, and Yoo Honbi, spewing dark red demonic energy.

The sight of the orcs, which even the supreme masters couldn't stop when attacking together, being sliced away in a single breath.

A massive orc, appearing to be the captain of the orc horde, glared its eyes and stepped forward.

―Chwik. What are you?

"Humans."

Kim Minwoo's form, who answered indifferently, blurred smoothly.

Right after.

Seogeok―!

Before silver-plated spear tips and magic could even be exchanged, the pitch-black trajectory of Hell Rhapsody sliced the orc captain's neck in a single breath.

Kung.

The massive orc's head rolled on the ground in vain.

If it were an ordinary monster horde, they would naturally flee in terror when their captain died in a single strike.

However, orcs were a highly belligerent race.

A peculiar race whose blood boiled the strongest especially when clashing with the strong.

―Chwiiiiik! The captain is dead!

―They are strong humans! Kill them!

Fear?

Flight?

There was no such thing.

Rather, the orcs, burning with extreme competitiveness and madness at the death of their kin, raised their weapons and began to lunge from all directions.

"……Truly disgusting battle-crazed bastards."

Kim Minwoo clicked his tongue.

The sight that unfolded next was a one-sided slaughter that distantly destroyed the common sense of the martial artists.

Peobeobeobeok―!

Kwaaang!

The dark red trajectories spewed by Yoo Honbi's Heavenly Demon Divine Arts tore the orcs' bodies to shreds.

Kim Minwoo's Hell Rhapsody accurately dug into the grain of the orcs' bones and muscles, harvesting their necks without mercy.

The monster orcs that had been trampling them were being swept away like fallen leaves at the hands of those two strangers.

"O-oh my god……."

The martial artists who had fallen into despair watched the massacre with paled faces.

At that time, an old martial artist who was sitting down injured pointed at Yoo Honbi with a trembling hand, looking at the dark red demonic energy she was spewing.

"Th-that supreme energy is…… could it be…… the Heavenly Demon?"

"Elder! What are you saying!"

"Th-that's right! That face…… on the day of destruction, before the sky tore apart, the one who disappeared into the dimensional rift…… the Heavenly Demon's daughter, Lord Yoo Honbi!!"

At that shout, a fierce buzz spread among the blood-drenched martial artists.

"What? The Heavenly Demon's daughter?"

"I heard she disappeared into the dimensional rift…… she wasn't dead?!"

"Oh Heavenly Demon……! The heavens have not abandoned us!"

The survivors wailed and prostrated themselves on the ground.

In a world ruled by Outer Gods, the Orthodox, Unorthodox, and Demonic factions no longer mattered.

The only thing that mattered was martial prowess.

In that sense, Yoo Honbi's appearance was no different from a rope of salvation descending from the sky.

Before long, around the time the hundreds of fiercely lunging orcs turned into lumps of meat without a single one remaining and lay scattered on the ground.

"Haa, haa……."

Yoo Honbi let out rough breaths as she shook the blood off her demonic sword. Because she had forcefully drawn out her qi amidst the terrible debuffs, her complexion had turned half pale.

The people wailing and prostrating toward her. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Her blood-red pupils trembled minutely.

"……Report the situation."