The pitch-black heart of the Lorenzio Palace didn't just feel like a tomb; it was a conceptual void where the rules of the world were being rewritten by the minute.
Jin Sahyuk sprawled on the cold obsidian floor, her blood a vivid crimson against the shifting shadows. She coughed, a wet, rattling sound, as her translucent weapons—shimmering constructs of pure mana—flickered and died. She looked up at the man standing over her.
Yi Yeonjun.
The man who had once led the Chameleon Troupe before he fabricated his death with the help of his friend, Bell.
He stood with his long, unkempt hair swaying in the Abyssal wind, his eyes as deep and indifferent as a grave.
"You son of a..." Sahyuk hissed, her hand clutching the gaping wound in her chest. She forced her [Reality Manipulation] to manifest one last time, a jagged shard of glass-like mana flying toward his throat.
Yeonjun didn't even flinch. He caught the shard with his bare hand, the white mana sizzling against his palm before it turned into black smoke. With a brutal flick of his wrist, he backhanded her, sending her tumbling across the hall until she slumped unconscious against a blackened pillar.
"Baal!" Yi Yeonjun's voice wasn't human anymore. It was a resonant, terrifying vibration that shook the very foundations of the Demon Realm Gate. "Take me! Take this vessel! My body is the anchor for the New World!"
A torrential stream of demonic energy, thick as tar and smelling of ancient decay, erupted from the floor. It surged into Yeonjun's orifices—his mouth, his nose, his eyes. His skin began to ripple, his veins turning a glowing, poisonous purple. He opened his eyes, and they were no longer brown. They were twin stars of malevolent crimson.
"Soon... I will..."
The voice stopped.
It was cut short by an earthquake so violent it didn't just shake the ground—it fractured the "Logic" of the world.
CRACK.
A massive, iron-black staff suddenly pierced through the stained-glass window of the palace.It obliterated the wall. From the shattered remains of the balcony, the silhouette of a man appeared.
He wore a golden headband that gleamed with a defiant, solar light. His face was a masterpiece of cold, indifferent beauty—eyes that had seen the end of thousands of world-lines.
Supreme King Yoo Joonghyuk.
Yi Yeonjun's red eyes narrowed.
"You..."
Yoo Joonghyuk didn't waste words. He pointed a finger at the staff that had lodged itself in the floor.
Only then did Baal realize it wasn't a staff.
A mop.
The mop exploded in size, expanding with the force of a nuclear blast. The obsidian palace, the pride of Baal's architecture, was torn apart from the inside out. Marble pillars turned to dust, and the ceiling was cast into the sulfurous sky.
***
On the bone-paved streets below, the war for the republic had reached a fever pitch.
Yoo Joonghyuk landed amidst the rubble, his black coat fluttering like the wings of a predatory bird.
He looked to his left.
Shin Yoosung was perched atop her Chimera Dragon, her hands glowing with the green light of the Beast Master. To his right, Lee Gilyoung, his body partially encased in the chitinous armor of the Ruler of the Deepest Pit, was commanding a swarm of Biblical Locusts.
They were holding hands, their combined status creating a shockwave that turned lower-tier demons into ash.
"Dokja-hyung would be so proud of me right now!" Gilyoung boasted, his voice a buzzing echo of a million insects. "I've killed more demons than you!"
"In your dreams, bug-boy!" Shin Yoosung retorted, her Chimera Dragon snapping its jaws around a gargoyle's neck. "My dragon counts as ten kills per bite! You're just a glorified pest control!"
Yoo Joonghyuk watched them for a heartbeat, his face a mask of stone.
'They are finally getting along,' he thought. Then, Gilyoung tried to trip Yoosung with a mantis leg while she was casting a spell.
Joonghyuk turned away, his expression darkening.
'I take it back. They are still the same.'
He turned his gaze toward the center of the square.
The status of the demonic energy was growing.
The obsidian castle stood like a fortress.
Joonghyuk walked toward it.
His right eye began to glow with a brilliant, golden light.
[Item Information]
===
[Lv.14 Ring of the Monkey King]
○ Four-colored Enchant of Spirit Power
—The ring is infused with High-level enchantments and Spirit Power. It was made by the greatest jewelsmith in the world. Amplifies chaos-attribute skills and transformation abilities.
*Note: If broken, it unleashes the true power of the Monkey King.
===
"This is it," Joonghyuk whispered.
He didn't hesitate.
He unleashed the 6th level of Transcendence.
His mana turned into a roaring sea of blue ether.
[Giant Story 'Demon World's Spring' is beginning its storytelling!]
...
All of his stories roared in unison focusing at the tip of his sword.
He swung the Dark Heavenly Demon Sword. A vertical arc of blue-black fire slammed into the ring. The impact created a crater fifty meters wide, and the pressure was so great that even the high-tier demons nearby were crushed into the ground.
When the dust settled, Yoo Joonghyuk's eyes widened in rare, genuine anger.
The ring was still floating. It was entirely intact. Only his Sage's Eye could see it—a microscopic, hairline scratch on the diamond surface.
His dignity was shattered. He, the Supreme King, the one who had killed Constellations and slaughtered Demon Kings, couldn't break a piece of jewelry?
['Distortion' is activated!]
He used his Beyonder powers – Sequence 6: Baron of Corruption
He tried to warp the "Rule" of the ring's durability. He tried to "Corrode" its essence. He tried to "Bribe" the world's logic into letting the ring break.
Nothing worked. The ring mocked him, shimmering with the smug power of the Monkey King.
"Need some help, oh mighty 'King of One-Inch-Scratches'?"
A voice dripping with sarcasm echoed from behind a ruined carriage. Han Sooyoung walked out. She was drenched in demonic blood, her purple eyes sparkling with amusement.
In her hands, she wasn't holding a sword or a staff.
She was holding a mop.
But this wasn't an ordinary mop. The head was made of sacred, white rug fragments that radiated a blinding, holy light.
===
[The Holy Sudarium Mop of the Eternal Janitor]
...
Note: Stolen by Yoo Yeonha from a national-grade legendary exorcist legacy. Specifically designed for cleaning the 'filth' of the Abyss.
===
"If you laugh, I will kill you," Joonghyuk growled, the veins on his forehead bulging.
'I'm gonna kill that woman obsessed with business.'
"Oh, I'm not laughing!" Sooyoung cackled, holding her stomach.
"It's a Myth-grade seal," Joonghyuk spat.
Sooyoung stopped laughing, her expression turning sharp. She looked at Abaddon (in Gilyoung's body).
"Hey, King of Pits! A little help?"
[Baal... is my enemy...] Abaddon buzzed. [Filthy humans should know their place. I have a war to win.]
He turned his back on them, unleashing a plague of locusts on a group of demons.
"Tsk. Fine," Sooyoung said. She scanned the battlefield and her eyes landed on a figure moving with preternatural beauty amidst the carnage.
Jang Hayong.
A crazy idea came to her mind.
"Hayong-ah! Get over here!"
Yoo Joonghyuk didn't wait for Jang Hayong to walk.
He raised his hand.
['Distortion' is activated!]
The air bent.
A localized gravity well formed around Jang Hayong, literally "attracting" him through the air until he landed directly in Joonghyuk's grip.
"Hey! Watch the hair!" Jang Hayong snapped, smoothing his tattered robes. "What do you want?"
"We need a line," Sooyoung said. "Just like during the Great War. Use your wall. Contact a Myth-grade Constellation."
Jang Hayong sighed.
"You know it's dangerous. My skill could burn out my mana circuit."
"Just do it," Joonghyuk commanded.
Jang Hayong closed his eyes. He tapped the empty air.
[Exclusive Skill 'Wall of Impossible Communication' is active!]
[Simulating Chat Interface...]
[Jang Hayong]:SOS. Need someone to break a shiny rock. Will pay in Giant Story shares.
For three seconds, there was silence.
Then, the sky over the Demon Realm Gate didn't just turn dark—it became Night.
[Constellation 'Father of the Rich Night' is looking at you!]
Jang Hayong's eyes suddenly turned into bottomless pits of obsidian.
His skin turned pale as marble, and his hair lengthened, turning a deep, ink-black.
[You have formed a temporary sponsorship contract!]
The "Status" radiating from him was so immense that every demon within a kilometer fell to their knees, their hearts stopping from pure terror.
[Constellation 'Father of the Rich Night' has entered the Scenario!]
"King of the Underworld," Han Sooyoung bowed slightly, a smirk on her face. "Nice of you to drop by."
Jang Hayong (Hades) spoke, his voice a heavy, soul-crushing resonance.
"My wife mentioned that my son's companions were making a mess. She finds it... charming. I am only here to ensure her amusement remains uninterrupted."
[Story 'Listening to One's Wife Would Get You Tteok Even When You're Asleep' is smiling!]
Hades looked at the ring. He raised a hand, and a massive, black sickle manifested from the shadows.
"Hold the target."
Han Sooyoung picked up the ring from the charred ground.
She looked at Yoo Joonghyuk and Hades.
"Okay, boys. On the count of one," she said, a wicked glint in her eyes. "Ready?"
Yoo Joonghyuk raised his sword, the blue ether flickering with the power of transcendence.
Hades raised his sickle, the shadows of the Underworld coiling around the blade.
"Three..." Sooyoung started.
Joonghyuk tightened his grip.
"ONE!" she screamed, skipping 'two' entirely.
She threw the ring into the air.
Yoo Joonghyuk moved like a streak of starlight.
Hades swung his sickle with the weight of every dead soul in history.
The two attacks collided precisely on the ring at the same microsecond.
A blinding explosion of white and black light erupted, creating a pillar of energy that pierced Baal's barrier.
CRACK.
The diamond shattered into ten thousand glittering shards of Spirit Power.
A roar, ancient and wild, echoed through the republic.
The power of the Monkey King was finally unleashed.
[Scenario 'Demon Realm Gate' is reaching its Conclusion!]
[Story 'King of Janitors' is being recorded!](;3)
"Tsk."
As the light faded, the black dome began to dissolve, and the sulfurous sky of the Abyss was replaced by the cold, starlit night of Arunheim.
Han Sooyoung stood over the shattered ring, leaned on her mop.
She smiled and threw the mop into the shattered diamond.
"You!" Joonghyuk used his shunpo.
Suddenly, blinding light of countless shards surged.
Not to Yoo Joonghyuk.
To the mop.