46 Fruits Of Labour (I)

A fist, completely clean and pure without any enhancements or elemental reactions and help, allowed Seunghyuk to cause damage so severe to the creature of pure darkness, punching it into oblivion, void and then to nothingness. All the fancy and eye-catching skills that Seunghyuk possessed were superceded by Seunghyuk's one bare fist which ended the impossibility with just a pure fist of possibility.

"I...I did it...I did it?" Seunghyuk's fatigued body dragged itself and fought consciousness to near the red jewel that floated in the air giving out red light that blinded even the torches of fire at four corners combined.

Seunghyuk's hands wrapped around the red jewel and grasped it tight, and it was then where the adrenaline dropped and his energy stop coursing, knocking him into a deep sleep.

A deep sleep on the outside yet the same active brain in the inside where Seunghyuk opened his shut eyes to see the familiar darkness surround him. This time the darkness seemed calm and Seunghyuk felt strangely comfortable in the full body embrace of his pitch black surroundings. Just when he was weirdly enjoying his peace and quiet, amongst the nothingness came a voice of annoyance.

"If you are done here, would you get out?" the system-like voice sounded and Seunghyuk immediately turned his head around to face a random direction in the spaceless void, hoping to at least look at the direction of where the sound came from then he answered casually, "Well, I don't know who you are and your familiar voice is still creeping me out, but I have reached a conclusion that if I lose consciousness, I will be sent here. This means that I can technically sleep intentionally even if Conqueror's don't require sleep, so I can come here to experience your void, apparently."

Seunghyuk was left with silence after his long response and the strong wind-like blow that would force him out of the space did not come. The silence like a comfortable pillow and nothingness like a huge blanket, making Seunghyuk feel at ease and at home.

"Are you absolutely certain that you want to sleep, your task is on the line, is it not?" Seunghyuk immediately pounced up from the resting position and found himself somehow standing on nothing, but Seunghyuk was too worried and rushed that he thought nothing of it and just willed himself out of the space and regained consciousness.

"You finally decided to come around. I was going to leave," Kang Joonseok's devilish smile hung on his face as he looked down on Seunghyuk who is lying down on the red carpet floor, groaning softly as he stood himself up to face the male demon with an ever cocky look on his face, "What...No wait! I have to get out of here! That old creature is in danger...!"

Seunghyuk was easy locked in place by four invisible barriers, squeezing his shoulders tightly and suspending him helplessly midair with his legs being the only part of the body with freedom of movement.

"Kang Joonseok! What in the world are you-" Seunghyuk's words stopped midway and the anger immediately seeped out of him, now hopelessly looking at the male demon with eyes of fluttering hearts and love, "Ka... Kang Joon...Joonseok..."

"That will do before I end up attracted by your callings of my name," The demon waved his right hand across horizontally and the strong seduction spell immediately cancelled, the invisible walls disappeared and returned Seunghyuk full control over his own body which seemed to the male demon that he released an angry beast, "What was that for?!"

"I was merely trying to show you the extent of my powers. You do not know what you have done, I believe. I remember telling you to repeat every single action and every single word from your past no matter how much you want it to change. However, your sheer willpower, or should I say your mental strength, broke through the illusion and never-ending trap in my Demonic Realm. You somehow got your hands on my trapped Demonic Core and I still am unsure of how you did it," Kang Joonseok looked at Seunghyuk with seriousness dotted all over his face, showing a rare sight of himself apart from his usual teasing expressions, then Seunghyuk exhaled deeply like he was breathing out all the anger in him and replied, "I...I'm not sure too. I literally tried every powerful skill I had, but it just didn't work. Then I...used my bare fist? Right, I used only my bare fist and somehow punched that shadow figure to death."

The male demon only smiled and his seriousness disappeared from his face like Seunghyuk's words were windscreen wipers wiping away the seriousness in the form of rain, leaving only the clean and clear windscreen of demonic tease. Seunghyuk watched full of thought as Kang Joonseok tilted his head and gazed at the ceiling of the seemingly endless hallway, clenching his jaw then releasing the tension almost immediately after.

"Your mental strength is one of a kind. Even the greatest warriors that I have seen spilling fresh blood on the warzone, the mental strength they possess after multiple massacres still falls far from reaching the level of yours," Kang Joonseok bit hid lips flirtingly and rubbed a hand across his exposed skin, trailing his teasing fingers down the bumpy road of his abdominal muscles, causing Seunghyuk's face to flush up violently with red involuntarily, "Yo-you crazy demon! Cancel your demonic spells rig-right now!"

Seunghyuk felt like a mouse that was being played in the palm of the seductive male demon's palms, and it was his first of many occasions when he has met someone much, much stronger than him. Actually, Seunghyuk knew he had crossed swords with someone of much higher level than him before, and it was that mysterious assassin sent to take his life. Seunghyuk was about to continue walking down his own maze of thought before a teasing voice knocked him out of it.

"You are aware that I currently have the power to take over your whole body and I have to thank you for releasing my Demonic Core," Seunghyuk watched the male demon in horror as his whole body stopped listening to his commands, "I...I knew it! You're just ...!"

It was like everything was silent, the inside of Seunghyuk's head or the beating of Seunghyuk's heart, they all ceased to produce any sound when their lips met.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Seunghyuk shoved the male demon roughly and only watched him laughed unfazed whereas Seunghyuk thoroughly wiped everything off his lips like he kissed a dirty frog, but he only heard the male demon speak softly, "Breaking through my seduction spell through sheer mental strength, Choi Seunghyuk, you really are one of a kind. One last thing, the fight between the old Nighthowler and the King's guard had ended long ago."

Seunghyuk listened, then his face stretched out widely with shock and he opened his mouth next to let out a panicked shout, "What! Damn it! I'm too late, aren't I?"

Kang Joonseok just smiled devilishly and raised his slender fingers to draw an incomprehensible rune-like character in the air which immediately lit up with blood then faintly, a coloured scene split open in front of both the smiling male demon and the bewildered Seunghyuk.

"Let us observe what happened, shall we?" The male demon spoke calmly as Seunghyuk stared into the created screen with a curious fire burning in his eyes.

"Hey! Three attacks was the promise! You're done and I'm certainly done! The task is complete! Why are you throwing away your honour just to listen to the stupid King's orders?" Kwok Ryong forcefully jammed his blade into the white ground and managed to force open a slight crack that allowed him to have his blade slide in and stay still while standing in a posture that emitted so much calmness that the sheer amount of it was scarily shocking to the Head Royal Guard.

"My honour is to protect the King and fulfill his royal commands! There is not one single bit wrong about that!" The Head Royal Guard casted a bright white light all across her longsword Durandal while eyeing Kwok Ryong cautiously as he watched and waited his every move.

Kwok Ryong gripped his crimson black blade tightly, staring helplessly at the Head Royal Guard yet not being able to do anything helpful that will ensure his victory since it was already a fixed chess match where the king piece was destined to be knocked off the board even just by an ordinary enemy soldier piece.

"Why isn't the damn gods in the skies not giving me a chance to reborn! Slash Of The Stars!" Kwok Ryong shouted and vented out his anger, swinging his blade diagonally downwards to send a huge sword arc forward, yet the strong sword attack was easily split into halves by the Head Royal Guard's shining longsword.

"Showering Meteors Of Durandal!" The Head Royal Guard sounded out loudly through her voice filtering helmet and poured in all her strength together with all her remaining mana to use her strongest skill yet another time which rendered Kwok Ryong useless, "I...I...Young human boy, it seems like I couldn't do it..."

The last few words were spoke as death neared Kwok Ryong and anxiety poked at Seunghyuk's heart, forcing him to shout out panickedly at the calm male demon, "Kang Joonseok! Why are you showing me this! Wait...Oh, you..."

Seunghyuk understood immediately when he saw the unfazed look of out of ordinary confidence and calmness on the male demon's face. Seunghyuk continued watching with a rejuvenated heart pounding with hope and just like what Seunghyuk expected, the miracle happened.

"Oh, oh-ho my god! My seal!" Kwok Ryong spoke excitedly and his released and loosened fingers regripped themselves around the hilt of his crimson black blade, rushing forward with a rush of new blood and energy gushing violently all around his body, "Atomic Pulse!"

Kwok Ryong spoke out an unfamiliar skill to Seunghyuk's ears and sent out a circular black sword ring that expanded outwards so rapidly that the naked eye struggled to follow, pulsing outwards roughly like the ruthless ring of explosion of an atomic bomb, breaking the Head Royal Guard's skill immediately and sent her flying backwards hopelessly till the sound of her armour smacking hard into the wall of the battle space was heard.

"I don't remember this skill. System: Eye Of Detection! Huh...Huh? There's no way...you managed to lift and break the seal on that old creature?" Seunghyuk looked at the male demon with astonishment sparkling in his eyes, darting his attention between the smug looking Kang Joonseok and the gray System screen displaying unbelievable information.

"Eye of Detection is unable to be used on this target as the Conqueror's level is of too big of a difference from your stats to be accurately detected."

It has been quite a long way since Seunghyuk had seen that exact message from the System, and it was that spontaneous assassination. This time it was the same, because Kwok Ryong's actual power skyrocketed and was not something Seunghyuk could easily detect and analyse with his low skill level and Conqueror experience.

"I wished I really broke the old Nighthowler's Seven Class Demon Seal, however, I was only able to temporarily stop the seal from inhibiting the Royal Nighthowler's ability," Kang Joonseok spoke with a relaxed tone as he leaned back onto the wall while standing but Seunghyuk on the other hand remained shock with a confused expression written all over his face, "Royal Nighthowler? You've used this term on that old creature Kwok Ryong again. What do you mean?"

There was silence between Seunghyuk and the male demon as the scene of the fight continued playing on, showing Kwok Ryong using an exaggerating upgraded version of the Slash Of The Stars, knocking the Head Royal Guard completely unconscious, even the armour built using rare and extremely sturdy materials had a hole through its torso area and sword cuts and marks were left seen vividly all over the armour.

"Well, you have completed your task, Choi Seunghyuk. Unfortunately, the seal will reseal the Royal Nighthowler's ability once more after a while and to answer your question, the Royal Nighthowler whom you referred to as 'the old creature' is the first King of the Nighthowlers."

First King of the Nighthowlers, the male demon said, and Seunghyuk was completely flabbergasted.