Chapter 120: Assembly (3)

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“That’s enough now.”

While Carl was rampaging alone in Lahan’s main base.

Turgar looked at his nephew with cold eyes.

“You should know it yourself. Even if I weren’t here, it would have been impossible to completely seize control of the organization with just your influence and strength.”

“……”

Dirsen could not refute it.

He had recently felt keenly how flimsy the position of an heir was when it rested solely on being the boss’s bloodline.

But he shook his head and spoke back to Turgar.

“No, it’s better this way. Lahan is unnecessarily bloated. Its cohesion is weak, and loyalty is faint. If I become boss, I’ll reorganize the group and strengthen its core.”

“Foolish.”

At Dirsen’s bold words, Turgar smirked.

With a face that said, what kind of idiot is this, he even cast a glance toward Queen.

She only shrugged her shoulders as if she didn’t know.

“Did you think you could run an underworld organization so full of dreams and hope? Even if you eat trash, even if you cover yourself in filth, you must somehow grow bigger and swell your body. The moment growth stops and the upward flow breaks, the group is no different than being given a death sentence.”

Turgar spoke in a sharp tone.

Sternly, as if scolding his nephew’s foolishness.

“Strengthen the core? When the power grows and the boss firmly takes the seat, the organization becomes strong on its own. The reason Lahan’s cohesion is weak now? Because the boss is absent, and a worm-like bloodline is pretending to be heir and shaking the foundation of the group!”

Thud.

Turgar slammed the table.

“To think you were holding onto such shallow ideas. I am ashamed that I ever held a shred of respect just because you were my elder brother’s blood.”

At his words full of contempt, Dirsen’s face twisted.

At last, he sprang up and hurled words at Turgar.

“And you?!!!”

His booming shout echoed heavily inside.

“What is so great about you? I’ll admit your accomplishments in raising Lahan. But wasn’t that only an illusion built by draining the organization’s driving force and grinding down its members? A greenhorn, you say? I’ll admit that. But aren’t you the one who split the organization because your influence wavered at such a greenhorn? Everyone knows it! They may acknowledge your ability, but in their hearts, they believe I am far more suited to be boss!”

“Silence! How dare you open that mouth…!”

They had pierced each other’s most fatal points.

With subordinates present, and even Nox as a third party, a situation formed where retreat was impossible.

‘If I back down here, it’s over.’

Dirsen also realized it.

This was the final battlefield.

Whether it ended in triumph or ruin, he had to face it head-on.

On his face, now set with a determination not seen before, lingered a grim resolve.

“I will never give up Lahan. Even if it means we fall into the flames together.”

“Together?”

Turgar smirked.

“You bare your fangs at me, relying on nothing more than Nox?”

Click.

Someone released the button on their sword sheath.

In an instant, silence fell over the meeting hall, tension rising thick in the air.

Even the executives of Black Label, who had been leisurely observing, changed their stance.

“So, you want to settle this here and now?”

“A meeting doesn’t always need words to reach a conclusion…”

Just as Turgar was about to answer with a chilling smile.

The door behind them opened, and a subordinate rushed toward him in haste.

“What is it?”

“……That is…”

As Turgar frowned at the interruption, the man broke into a nervous sweat and whispered in his ear.

“……?”

At the sudden development, Dirsen tilted his head.

Queen, on the other hand, leisurely watched the scene.

A variable appeared in this situation?

She could already guess who the culprit was, without needing to think.

‘The Master has stepped in.’

As Turgar listened to the whisper, his expression began to shift in many directions.

At first it only twisted, but soon it flushed bright red, boiling as if about to explode.

He soon smashed his fist down, shattering the table before him into pieces.

“Those damned bastards!

They agreed to this meeting, only to plot in secret behind my back?!”

“…What are you talking about?”

“Daring to attack our main base the moment I leave it unattended?!”

“……”

He had given no such order.

Dirsen’s gaze subtly shifted toward Queen.

She shrugged once again, as if insisting it had nothing to do with her.

“I don’t know anything about it.”

“Don’t play dumb! They said the one wore a black mask!”

“Oh my, is that so? Then I suppose everyone wearing a black mask belongs to Nox? Perhaps I should start charging membership fees from now on?”

“You damn…!”

At Queen’s brazen reply, Turgar’s eyes finally flipped.

“Wipe them all out!”

Thud!

The signal for all-out war had fallen.

Turgar’s subordinates leapt over the sofas and charged at Dirsen.

The meeting hall was instantly drowned in chaos.

The man gave a bitter laugh.

He had known the opponent wouldn’t be easy, but to see his own technique so effortlessly unraveled was astonishing.

“Come to think of it, we haven’t even exchanged names.

Your name?”

“Nox.”

“That was the name of the organization, wasn’t it? Ah, I see, is that it? I am the organization, and the organization is me. A man with quite the self-consciousness.”

Even at the mocking words, Carl only shrugged.

For it wasn’t exactly wrong.

“So then, do you have a name to give me?”

“…Besha.”

“Hm.”

It was a name with a peculiar ring.

For Carl, that actually worked out better.

If it was connected to a real name, the more distinctive it was, the easier it would be to track.

“The Empire is amusing.

I’d heard that if you tug on one thread, others would follow, but to think even a small group like this would have someone like you.”

“I agree.

It truly isn’t easy.”

Carl also agreed with Besha’s words.

He was only just clearing out one small district of the commercial zone.

And now even a demon-human contracted with a devil had appeared.

‘I can’t even imagine what might be lurking behind that.’

What in the world was propping up the bigger forces and the mainstream organizations of the underworld?

“Well, it’s still entertaining, so that’s enough.”

It had a flavor different from the Central Plains.

Back when he was the Greatest Assassin of the Central Plains, Carl had run his own private network.

Since assassination was something he always carried out alone, there was no need to join hands with others.

But as for intelligence, he wasn’t skilled, so he built a secret support system.

Even back then, when expanding his influence, he had encountered all sorts of characters.

It was based on those experiences that he had created Nox.

Fwoosh!

When Besha stretched out his hand, black flames rose over it.

Carl likewise stretched out his hand in answer.

“If it’s that, I can do it too.”

The demonic fire of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art erupted upward.

As flames just like his own surged forth, Besha’s brows twitched.

“What is that power?”

“It’s something you can obtain without foolishly offering your soul as a price.”

“…You’re saying you didn’t make a contract with a devil?”

Besha’s eyes widened in disbelief.

He felt a strange sense of kinship from Carl.

So he had assumed Carl was the same kind of person as himself, one who had contracted with a devil to gain power.

At that misunderstanding, Carl smirked and waved his hand dismissively.

“It’s not a devil.

The name is similar, though—I wonder if you’ve heard of the Heavenly Demon?”

“…Heavenly Demon?”

Wasn’t that an existence more cruel and powerful than a devil?

A being called the heaven-sent evil in the body of a man.

Thud.

The conversation ended there.

Carl seized the moment when Besha’s focus wavered to suddenly rush in.

‘I won’t drag this fight out.’

Carl’s interest wasn’t in his enemy’s power, but in the information sleeping inside his head.

From what he said earlier about those heretics, to the schemes of the demon-humans.

He also wondered what kind of devil Besha had contracted with.

‘I wonder if I can overcome the power of a devil.’

Could he perhaps use the Soul-Seizing Technique to snatch away the soul of one bound to a devil?

Between the Heavenly Demon and a devil, whose influence would prove greater?

Crash.

Struck head-on by Carl’s Straight Punch, Besha was knocked back and swung his arm fiercely.

Carl immediately kicked off the ground to pursue him, but stopped when he felt something snagging at his legs.

‘Binding?’

Shoots burst up from the ground, coiling around his legs and ankles.

At the same time, Besha pressed his palms together and chanted quietly.

“Rahama.”

Whish!

Sharp thorns shot upward.

The vicious trajectory pierced through the ground, aiming straight for Carl’s heart.

Carl crossed his arms instantly, drawing his Protective Device to its limit.

Thud.

Even so, he could not fully block the piercing power.

The Heavenly Demon Divine Art’s protection shattered, and both of his arms were punctured through.

But at least, he had barely managed to keep his chest from being pierced.

He twisted his arms with all his strength, snapping the thorns.

Ssshh.

As the force dissipated into black smoke and vanished, he brushed his hands lightly.

Though both arms now had gaping holes, he acted as though it didn’t matter at all.

Seeing Carl’s face, Besha spoke as if horrified.

“You’re human, yet you don’t seem human.

Can you not feel pain?”

“I already discarded such trivial feelings long ago.”

To Carl, pain was nothing more than a sense.

He had long since mastered the way to shut it out, so it posed no hindrance.

‘Heh, the tendons—he missed them well enough.’

The muscles were a bit damaged, but it was bearable.

The energy of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art flowed swiftly, healing his wounds.

Shhhk.

Any more bare-handed fighting was dangerous.

Slowly drawing his sword, Carl tilted his head and stared at Besha.

“I’ve received my gift properly, so let me repay you.”

Crackle crackle crackle!

Dark trajectories swirled through the air in a storm.

From Besha’s point of view, it was as if a black wall had appeared before him in an instant, an attack so dense it deceived the eye.

Clap!

Blocking was too costly.

With a light clap, Besha created darkness beneath his feet and stepped into it, then leapt out from empty air.

“An amusing method you use.”

“…!”

But Carl had already sensed the movement and caught his rear.

Even if one shifted through space, if the guiding energy couldn’t be hidden, it was useless.

Whoosh!

The Heaven-Flow Twilight Flash cascaded down at Besha’s back.

Explosive demonic energy rained down, threatening to shred his body apart.

Clap.

Once again, Besha clapped his hands, and the space around him warped unnaturally.

It wasn’t teleportation.

He seemed to be distorting space itself to block the attack rushing at him.

‘In that case…’

Carl hadn’t yet completely analyzed all the techniques Besha used.

But before overwhelming force, tricks were meaningless.

Wham!

He forced his way through the distortion directly.

The cost was his arm and body twisting, skin splitting, and veins bursting open.

But without stopping, Carl carried out his attack.

Slash.

A single cutting strike.

Besha’s eyes bulged as he clutched his neck, as if unable to believe Carl would attack so recklessly.

Splurt!

Blood gushed from his chest.

In the end, Besha couldn’t withstand it, collapsing to the ground and spitting blood.

As he slumped forward, nearly face-first into the floor, Carl smirked and flicked the blood from his blade.

“The cheap act is over.

Quit the pretense and fight me properly now.”

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