Chapter 222: 220

Kang Yoon-Soo slowly opened his eyes, and it was then that he realized he was alive.

“Grrrwaaaaah!” 

A thundering roar tore through the air. Kang Yoon-Soo saw that a dragon was protecting him from the Demon Lord—it was the Deathless Dragon.

“Kruuuwooooh!” 

However, the Deathless Dragon was no match for the Demon Lord. It used its Blood Breath in an attempt to resist, but that was the only thing it could do against the absolute being. The Demon Lord did not suffer a scratch from the Blood Breath, and he easily destroyed the dragon.

Pukeok!

The Deathless Dragon was torn apart by the Demon Lord, but it tried to get up once again. However, its bones started to break apart one by one. The dragon looked at Kang Yoon-Soo and said, “I needed you to… retrieve my memories… That is why I tried to… save you… but there is no way anyone can survive… against that… being… Kuheok!”

In the end, after speaking its final words, the Deathless Dragon crumbled into dust. The immortal dragon had ended up dying at the hands of the Demon Lord.

However, those words remained in Kang Yoon-Soo’s mind. ‘Memories...’

The Deathless Dragon had risked its life to save him just so it could retrieve its memories. Its memories were so precious to it that it had dared to stand against the Demon Lord. It was the same for Kang Yoon-Soo, and that was why he had to risk his life and put everything on the line this time.

「Accept your death, weak human.」

The Demon Lord’s hands came crashing down, but Kang Yoon-Soo did not dodge them. He merely stood still as the Demon Lord’s attack approached him.

“Nooo!” Shaneth screamed as she ran toward Kang Yoon-Soo, throwing her flaming sickle at the Demon Lord’s hands in desperation.

The rest of the party members followed suit. However, their attacks failed to even make the Demon Lord flinch, and one of the absolute being’s hands easily swatted them away. The Demon Lord then began to focus solely on Kang Yoon-Soo.

However, as he was about to squash Kang Yoon-Soo like an insect, he suddenly retracted his hand.

「Something has changed about you.」

The Demon Lord spoke in an emotionless tone, and refrained from killing Kang Yoon-Soo on the spot.

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However, there was no noticeable change in Kang Yoon-Soo, who was still in horrible condition. Blood continued to gush out from the stump of his right arm and the large hole in his abdomen. Oddly enough, he seemed to be quite calm in spite of that. He slowly said, “I wish to apologize to you, Demon Lord.”

「What do you mean?」

“I was weak,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied. There was a drastic change in the way he spoke, and the anger and confusion that was once audible in his voice was nowhere to be found. In its place was a cold, emotionless void that went beyond what a normal human could express.

“I couldn’t kill you no matter how many times I regressed. I couldn’t even leave a scratch on your body. I couldn’t be a worthy opponent to you, and I disappointed you time and time again,” Kang Yoon-Soo continued. He looked up at the Demon Lord and added, “So rejoice, Demon Lord. I’ll finally be able to kill you.”

「That is funny. Truly.」

The Demon Lord stared at Kang Yoon-Soo with his seven eyes as he spoke.

「I have already tested how strong you are. You are no match for me.」

The Demon Lord was simply stating facts. Kang Yoon-Soo had become the God of Destruction, which was the strongest he had ever been in all of his previous lives combined, but it was still not enough.

「So, how do you plan to kill me?」

Kang Yoon-Soo had been able to make up his mind after reflecting on all the experiences he had accumulated throughout his thousand lives.

It was exactly as the White Shadow had said. The White Shadow had mentioned that he had to sacrifice something of equal value if he wanted to kill the Demon Lord, and the reason why he had failed to kill the Demon Lord in his ten thousandth life was because he had realized that too late.

However, at that exact moment, Kang Yoon-Soo knew exactly what he had to sacrifice. He muttered to himself, “Twenty thousand years…”

The Demon Lord’s gaze turned cold and hostile as Kang Yoon-Soo confidently declared, “I’ll put the twenty thousand years I lived on the line to kill you.”

「That is nothing but a futile struggle. Nothing will change just because of that. You will still die in the end.」

The Demon Lord replied, then slammed his hand down toward Kang Yoon-Soo. Just as he was about to strike Kang Yoon-Soo, however, something unbelievable happened.

Kwachiiiik!

The Demon Lord’s hand was destroyed!

The Demon Lord’s hand, which had been about to crush Kang Yoon-Soo, shattered into pieces along with the arm it was attached to. Kang Yoon-Soo emerged unscathed, looking calmly at the Demon Lord.

The Demon Lord stopped for a moment before speaking.

「So you were telling the truth. This is the first time my body has been damaged.」

As the Demon Lord looked curiously at his destroyed arm for a while, silence fell for some time.

Then, a loud sound suddenly rang out through the surroundings, and the Demon Lord spoke again.

「I am starting to think I made the right choice by choosing you, Kang Yoon-Soo.」

That was the first time the Demon Lord had called him by name.

The party members suspected that the loud, unidentifiable sound that traveled through the air could actually be the Demon Lord’s laughter. The sound began to grow louder, and the Demon Lord’s voice grew along with it as he continued speaking.

「Come, fight against me and defeat me. Come and take your revenge, to quell the anger you have toward me.」

The skies started to rumble, and the Demon Lord’s arms spread out all over the place. The pressure emitted by the absolute being suddenly grew stronger, reaching a point where it could make anyone feel as if they were dying just from being exposed to it. All of that pressure was directed toward Kang Yoon-Soo.

A shout loud enough to tear the entire world apart thundered through the air.

「Now! Come and try to kill me in the cruelest way you possibly can!」

Kang Yoon-Soo was still bleeding profusely as he stood bravely before the Demon Lord. His body was in a terrible state, but he did not feel even a bit of pain from his injuries. In fact, he felt a surge of power like never before.

Only then did he realize what was happening. He thought, ‘My memories are turning into my strength.’

Kang Yoon-Soo had decided to offer up his twenty thousand years of memories in exchange for killing the Demon Lord. The moment he made that decision, the lives he had lived were instantly converted into his strength.

[The memories from the 20,005 years you have lived are now being converted into newfound power.]

[However, you will suffer from side-effects afterward, such as memory loss or even excruciating pain.]

The Demon Lord’s dozens of hands began closing in on Kang Yoon-Soo, who responded by extending his severed and now nonexistent arm. Even though the arm had been cut off for some time, he somehow felt as if it were still attached to his body. Thus, he balled his nonexistent right hand into a fist and swung it with all his might.

Kwachak!

With a brief sound, the Demon Lord’s arms fell to pieces as if they had been cut by a sharp sword. Regardless, he continued his onslaught of attacks, which carried the full weight of his intent to kill the regressor.

However, Kang Yoon-Soo calmly walked toward the Demon Lord while swinging his nonexistent right arm. Whenever he did so, it cut the Demon Lord’s body to pieces, and the absolute being could not avoid his attacks in the slightest.

Kwachak! Kwachak! Kwachak!

The Demon Lord no longer held back. Kang Yoon-Soo’s nemesis, whom he was facing for the thousandth time, had begun fighting against him seriously. In spite of that, Kang Yoon-Soo was able to easily subdue the strength that had destroyed the world over and over again across hundreds of his lives. The Demon Lord slammed his hands down and tried to stop Kang Yoon-Soo, but was unable to block his advance.

For the first time in Kang Yoon-Soo’s many regressions…

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He was overpowering the Demon Lord.

Kwachak! Kwachak! Kwachak! Kwachak! Kwachak!

The Demon Lord’s body continued to break down under the onslaught, leaving only one of his hands intact. That was the exact same hand Kang Yoon-Soo had previously only been able to leave a tiny scratch on as the God of Destruction.

Then, Kang Yoon-Soo focused an attack on the scratch, targeting it to tear the entire arm apart.

Kwachaaaaaak!

As the scratch was torn apart by the attack, it spread out and branched into cracks all over the Demon Lord’s body. The skies thundered, and the absolute being squirmed in pain as his body gradually shattered. The seven eyes of the Demon Lord exploded, and a scream that was loud enough to shake the entire world reverberated throughout the air.

「Kuheeeeoook!」

The Demon Lord was split in half, and the entire world shook.

「So this is… death… It was a fight that… I have no regrets… about!」

The Demon Lord said his final words.

“I’m sick and tired of this…” Kang Yoon-Soo muttered. He decided to put an end to the cycle of countless deaths he had been forced to go through, and the thousand lives he had lived. As he swung his fist for the last time, he said, “This is the end.”

The Demon Lord’s body cracked apart completely, then shattered into pieces.

[You have killed the Demon Lord!]

[You have gained the achievement of killing an absolute being!]

[Your fame has spread throughout all of the dimensions.]

[The destruction of the other worlds will no longer commence.]

[Nobody will be able to tell what lies in the future for the Sylphia Continent.]

[The Travelers from another world have reached their ultimate goal!]

[The Travelers will now be able to return to where they came from.]

[Your class, God, has disappeared.]

[All of your divine power has returned to the goddess.]

[You have completed the final chapter of the legendary quest.]

[Legendary Quest—The One Who Protects the Continent has been completed!]

[You are the first to complete all of the legendary quests!]

[You have obtained an astonishing amount of rewards…]

Kang Yoon-Soo could not read all of the messages popping up before him, as his strength suddenly left his body and his mind went blank before he collapsed. He barely managed to get a glimpse of his companions rushing toward him, and heard her voice calling out, “Kang Yoon-Soo!”

Kang Yoon-Soo lost consciousness.

***

Kang Yoon-Soo’s party members were then transported back to the continent from the magic tower, but they did not appear in the Kervas Mountains where they had met the Imperial Knights. Instead, they were transported to an unknown forest.

“We have to heal Kang Yoon-Soo!” Iris shouted.

“Take out all of your potions!” Shaneth urgently cried.

Henrick looked around at the surroundings and said, “I can tell that we’re somewhere very secluded, judging by the fact that there are no mountain trails. Still, why don’t you go and scout the surroundings while we’re treating him, just in case?”

“Grrrr…!” White growled.

“I will go as quickly as I can,” Mini-Lich replied before hopping onto White.

The pair of summoned creatures ran like the wind.

Meanwhile, Kang Yoon-Soo did not bat an eyelid while Shaneth was performing first aid on him. There was quite a lot of blood gushing out from his severed arm and the large hole in his abdomen, and he had sustained many other injuries while fighting against the Demon Lord.

“Papa! Don’t die!” Sally cried while clinging to him.

“Shut up! Stop spouting such nonsense!” Acle rebuked her.

Sharp and Light took out as many potions and bandages as they could find from the party’s backpacks and passed them along.

“Ah, damn it. Why is the weather so cold? Hey, light a fire,” Henrick said as he looked up at the dark clouds forming above them and bit his lip.

There was no way that such cold weather could be any good for a patient who was bleeding profusely like Kang Yoon-Soo.

Sharp collected some firewood, while Sally lit it to create a strong fire.

Shaneth continued to apply potions to Kang Yoon-Soo’s wounds while praying under her breath, ‘Please don’t die… Please… Please…’

The treatment went on for a long time, and when they finished applying potions and bandaging Kang Yoon-Soo, they put a cloak over him to keep him warm. That was the best they could do at the moment.

Just as Iris was bandaging Kang Yoon-Soo, however, she suddenly shouted, “Kang Yoon-Soo is awake!”

The party members rushed over to his side as he slowly opened his eyes and regained his consciousness.

Shaneth watched worriedly for a moment, she threw herself onto him and hugged him tightly. She exclaimed joyfully, “You did it! You managed to protect everyone! You managed to protect us and the world!”

However, Kang Yoon-Soo had no reaction.

Suddenly, Shaneth felt a stream of tears running down her cheek. Kang Yoon-Soo was crying, even though his face was expressionless. Shaneth stared at his face, asking, “Kang Yoon-Soo…?”

Kang Yoon-Soo stared back at her for a while, then looked around at his companions. Slowly, he broke his silence and asked, “Who… Who are you people?”

“W-What…? What do you mean by that…?” Shaneth asked.

“I don’t know…” Kang Yoon-Soo muttered.

The air around them grew colder as snow began to fall. Snowflakes fell from above and started to pile up around them.

“Nothing… I can’t remember… anything…” Kang Yoon-Soo muttered.

His eyes looked devoid of any sign of desire, and his face was even more expressionless than it used to be. The only thing visible on his face was the endless stream of tears pouring out.

“I don’t know why I’m crying here… and I don’t know who you people are…” Kang Yoon-Soo muttered.

Kang Yoon-Soo managed to finally kill the Demon Lord on the day the first snow fell.

That was the day he lost his memories.

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