The Devil’s Seed is a method of invasion for Devils. Through this, they can descend to this realm and fulfill their obsessions by trampling on the powerless and fulfilling their every sick entertainment.
As a race, Devils have been a menace in all of realities and every sentient creature out there should learn to fear their existence. Kim Hajin doesn’t exactly fear them as he really doesn’t know them the same way Chae Nayun or Kim Suho does.
However, he knows for certain that Devils are dangerous. As the Author of The Returnee Hero, he knows quite a lot about the Devil’s Seed.
First, it has enormous vitality that its host becomes virtually unkillable.
Three timed grenades arc at incredible angles toward Yun Hyuk. Each of them lands on spots he can hardly evade. One on the back of his calf, one at his nape, and one just under his groin.
It doesn’t even take Yun Hyuk a full second to regenerate his limbs.
Second, the Devil’s Seed has an instinctive survival ability that defies the biological will of the host itself. Despite Hajin’s bullets being generally harmless, the Devil’s Seed will react nonetheless.
Kim Hajin’s shotgun aims at Yun Hyuk’s chest where the Djinn’s heart should be. The Devil’s Seed as if in response to the harm being done to its host wildly acts on the hostility by firing spiky hardened blood.
The way the hardened blood arranges itself is as if it is an attack that comes from an intelligent lifeform. The Devil’s Seed while not fully formed is still quite capable.
Third, the Devil’s Seed is undetectable to the point that it is impossible to know of it.
Kim Hajin uses his [Black Coat]’s miraculous dodge when he realizes he has no escape from the array of hardened blood that ought to claim his life. He slips on the ground that seems to defy physics until he is outside the hardened blood projectiles’ range.
The escape is successful but he is not entirely safe as the real danger is latching on him. He doesn’t even realize it, but the Devil’s Seed is actually latching on his arm.
Hajin notices it too late as a lump of malevolent tumor pulses with vigor, and regenerates Yun Hyuk so intimately close at him.
“Got cha~” Yun Hyuk cheerfully declares. “This is just a few powers of the Devil Lilith!” He cocks his arm and swings it at full power to Hajin.
Fourth, the most problematic of all. The Devil’s Seed should share the source Devil’s power with it.
Yun Hyuk’s eyes glow an eerie pink, and Hajin is put in a daze. He stands there helpless as Yun Hyuk’s fist increasingly approaches him. He cannot even use his [Black Coat] as his subconscious is stopping him.
Kim Hajin is exhausted, and he has shown every trick he has on his bag already.
But.
He is not alone.
“Took you long enough.” Kim Hajin transforms his shotgun back to its Desert Eagle form.
Yun Hyuk’s arms are cleanly slashed by Kim Suho’s sword. The pain that comes from cutting 'concept' assaults Yun Hyuk causing him to lose control of the charm he is putting Hajin under.
“Let’s do this!” Kim Suho grips his sword with strength and swings it the second time at Yun Hyuk’s neck.
Comes from the side is Chae Nayun swinging a big ass sword of magic power using its flat side as if it is a bat. By that moment, the head is already cut and away from the body. Nayun’s pseudo bat connects to the body sending it flying away to outside the rooftop.
Hajin pounces on the head that suddenly grows bloody tendrils as if they are tentacles. The head desperately dodges the bullets that come flying at impressive speeds. For a gunner, their choice of weapon in close combat is the handgun. Hajin can easily move his wrist to change the angle and accommodate the difference in space between him and his foe.
“I will take care of Yun Hyuk! Get rid of the Devil’s Seed!” Hajin shouts at his compatriots.
The fact that the head is not regenerating from the body suggests that the Devil’s Seed is not residing in the head. Yun Hyuk who is only a head now angrily runs to the outside of the rooftop, but Hajin easily intercepts him, by pressing a button just under his belt.
Nayun and Suho have already jumped from the rooftop by that point.
The fumbling Yun Hyuk cannot even jump from the rooftop as the concrete floor explodes into smithereens causing him and Hajin to fall a few floors inside the building.
Kim Hajin has come prepared and has rigged a few places with C4 of course with a few explosive reinforcement of his SP. “It is just you and me now, Yun Hyuk…”
***
The core of this plan has always been Suho.
Nayun knows this, but it doesn’t sit well with her. It is simply because she wants to cut the Devil herself. The vitality of the Devil’s Seed is so strong it cannot be killed by normal means is not old news to her. “Suho, can you really cut concepts? As in, really?”
“I… can…” He answers, a little bit unsure.
Nayun lands on the fumbling petite body of Yun Hyuk which is already regenerating an arm and head. “If only I have my Balmung, then I can also do real damage to this thing.” Her feet empowered with magic power digs deep into the Devil’s Seed host, forming a crater with the Devil's Seed's host as the center.
The Devil’s Seed’s body continues to regenerate in a freaky manner. When its head is already complete, there is only a faceless person connecting to the torso under Nayun’s soles.
“Head!” Nayun calls as she cuts the head a second time. It will just regenerate its head anyway, but it is necessary that Nayun cuts it.
Suho comes just right on time and kicks the new head away.
The teamwork of the two, swordsman and swordswoman, is impeccable. Kim Suho raises his sword aiming to cut down the Devil’s Seed through its very concept and kill it once and for all. Nayun senses a rumble coming at them. Nayun turns around only to see a wild single-horn Djinn rushing at her.
She swings her sword at the new arrival Djinn who is already missing a single arm, thus killing it by dealing a fatal strike at its chest.
“Move,” Suho tells Nayun as he brings forth his sword down to the Devil's Seed's host just under Nayun.
***
Yun Hyuk is angry. His meticulous plan is all coming to ruins just because of one error— Kim Hajin is not the last of them. At first, Yun Hyuk thinks that there is only one interloper who is trying to go against his plan but there is actually a group.
It is funny. It is insane. It has been fucking so obvious. This new curious club did not even enter his sight. They call themselves the Devil Hunter’s Club for god’s sake! Not that Yun Hyuk believes in god.
“Why are you all trying so hard? You have seen it, aren’t you? That unkillable existence! Once it descends to this world, you will have no choice but to bend the knee!” Yun Hyuk shouts at Hajin as he is so sure of his victory.
“You are very chipper now… It makes me want to plunge you into despair.” Something dark takes hold of Hajin. Something dormant rears its ugly head from the deep pit of his mending heart. “You dare hurt Yoenha and Rachel, so I will reciprocate it…”
He has been denying it for a long time… that he loves this world, and its characters… and that at some point he grows tired of loving them. That is evident as to how he chooses to abandon the novel and put it on hiatus.
Despite that, the truth still remains… He does love them…
Maybe, his being here is some form of redemption.
“You see, our clairvoyant is pretty imaginative…” Hajin will never be able to see this world the same way Hyon Hyung does. As an Author, Hajin is trapped by his own preconceptions as to the world he built.
But Hyon Hyung is different. As a reader, he sees far from that… “The dumbass is very perceptive in the most unexpected ways. Do you know that the guy has never read a bible before, and now just because of you, he has gone to the extra trouble of studying theology? He is not really great at it, but he does the job well.”
Hajin is taking it easy now as Yun Hyuk has no place to go anymore. The single head lacks the mobility and firepower to prove to be of any threat to Hajin. “You see, Lilith, your goddess is a Devil of Lust. The assumptions are she will have strong psychic abilities and charm-based powers. Since ancient times, the art of illusions has always revolved around the eyes and the sleight of hand. I cannot explain it as well as Hyon, but can you imagine how will Lilith cast any of her powers if she lacks the medium?”
“What do you mean?” Yun Hyuk feels a sense of fear creeping down his inexistent spine.
Hajin furthers his explanation. “I know for a fact that the Devil’s Seed is not entirely Lilith herself but something like her doppelganger… so in terms of intelligence or real abilities, she will not be as good as the original. The point is she will mostly act on instinct. That is also why we separated you from her so that the instinct will have more autonomy.”
“What are you getting to!?” Yun Hyuk yells in anger while he evades the ricocheting bullet that almost connects to him.
“I mean… Cutting your body, Lilith’s Devil Seed’s limbs will be as easy as pie! Think, Hyuk! Think! How do you use your hypnotism and other blessings?”
Yun Hyuk comes to a realization. “No, this cannot be!” He recalls how the body he left had lost its arms so easily when the two swordsmen arrived. He then recalls the several times he uses his abilities.
Eye contact, small gestures, and words— this is the medium of his abilities. “He he he he!” Yun Hyuk laughs like a madman. The Devil’s Seed is unkillable!” He grasps the basis of his confidence telling Hajin that all of his charade is meaningless.
“I will not be so sure about that.” Kim Hajin presses his earpiece as he listens to the words of the other side. “Hmm… I see.”
Yun Hyuk’s face crumbles to despair. The connection he has with the Devil’s Seed is lost. Gone. Vanished. Dead. And then he recalls the male swordsman who cut his arm which sends a shivering pain on his very soul.
“Hah~! I guess it is my loss…” On the contrary to the deranged Djinn that he is, Yun Hyuk has become so much calmer. “Grace Lilith…” The vision from his left side has become darker, until finally, there is only his mouth. “Remember. I AM! JUST! THE BEGINNING! OF IT! AND I AM NOT THE LAST OF IT!”
Yun Hyuk’s mad smile is the last Hajin sees as the Djinn finally turns to ash.
I AM! JUST! THE BEGINNING! OF IT!
The familiar words ring heavily with alarm bells in Hajin’s mind.
***
“It should be dead now, right?” Nayun asks as she pokes the dead host of the Devil’s Seed.
Different from a Djinn, the body of a Devil’s Seed’s host will not turn to ash. Nayun recalls her big brother’s state who strongly possesses human characteristics, and devil characteristics at the same time.
“Yes, I believe I have cut it down…” Suho’s sword has a little bit of cracks in it. But Nayun’s sword has it worse as only its hilt is the leftover now. The intensity of the fight has been immense. In fact, it has been beyond Suho's abilities.
If not for Nayun’s assistance, he will not even be able to cut down the Devil’s Seed.
Against all expectations, a pinky finger is working on its way into the cracks of the concrete. It worms underground until it is no longer there. Chae Nayun and Kim Suho share a glance. Thinking that their job is over, they then disperse to regroup with Kim Hajin.
The Devil’s Seed is a method of invasion for Devils. Through this, they can descend to this realm and fulfill their obsessions by trampling on the powerless and fulfilling their every sick entertainment.
As a race, Devils have been a menace in all of realities and every sentient creature out there should learn to fear their existence. Kim Hajin doesn’t exactly fear them as he really doesn’t know them the same way Chae Nayun or Kim Suho does.
However, he knows for certain that Devils are dangerous. As the Author of The Returnee Hero, he knows quite a lot about the Devil’s Seed.
First, it has enormous vitality that its host becomes virtually unkillable.
Three timed grenades arc at incredible angles toward Yun Hyuk. Each of them lands on spots he can hardly evade. One on the back of his calf, one at his nape, and one just under his groin.
It doesn’t even take Yun Hyuk a full second to regenerate his limbs.
Second, the Devil’s Seed has an instinctive survival ability that defies the biological will of the host itself. Despite Hajin’s bullets being generally harmless, the Devil’s Seed will react nonetheless.
Kim Hajin’s shotgun aims at Yun Hyuk’s chest where the Djinn’s heart should be. The Devil’s Seed as if in response to the harm being done to its host wildly acts on the hostility by firing spiky hardened blood.
The way the hardened blood arranges itself is as if it is an attack that comes from an intelligent lifeform. The Devil’s Seed while not fully formed is still quite capable.
Third, the Devil’s Seed is undetectable to the point that it is impossible to know of it.
Kim Hajin uses his [Black Coat]’s miraculous dodge when he realizes he has no escape from the array of hardened blood that ought to claim his life. He slips on the ground that seems to defy physics until he is outside the hardened blood projectiles’ range.
The escape is successful but he is not entirely safe as the real danger is latching on him. He doesn’t even realize it, but the Devil’s Seed is actually latching on his arm.
Hajin notices it too late as a lump of malevolent tumor pulses with vigor, and regenerates Yun Hyuk so intimately close at him.
“Got cha~” Yun Hyuk cheerfully declares. “This is just a few powers of the Devil Lilith!” He cocks his arm and swings it at full power to Hajin.
Fourth, the most problematic of all. The Devil’s Seed should share the source Devil’s power with it.
Yun Hyuk’s eyes glow an eerie pink, and Hajin is put in a daze. He stands there helpless as Yun Hyuk’s fist increasingly approaches him. He cannot even use his [Black Coat] as his subconscious is stopping him.
Kim Hajin is exhausted, and he has shown every trick he has on his bag already.
But.
He is not alone.
“Took you long enough.” Kim Hajin transforms his shotgun back to its Desert Eagle form.
Yun Hyuk’s arms are cleanly slashed by Kim Suho’s sword. The pain that comes from cutting 'concept' assaults Yun Hyuk causing him to lose control of the charm he is putting Hajin under.
“Let’s do this!” Kim Suho grips his sword with strength and swings it the second time at Yun Hyuk’s neck.
Comes from the side is Chae Nayun swinging a big ass sword of magic power using its flat side as if it is a bat. By that moment, the head is already cut and away from the body. Nayun’s pseudo bat connects to the body sending it flying away to outside the rooftop.
Hajin pounces on the head that suddenly grows bloody tendrils as if they are tentacles. The head desperately dodges the bullets that come flying at impressive speeds. For a gunner, their choice of weapon in close combat is the handgun. Hajin can easily move his wrist to change the angle and accommodate the difference in space between him and his foe.
“I will take care of Yun Hyuk! Get rid of the Devil’s Seed!” Hajin shouts at his compatriots.
The fact that the head is not regenerating from the body suggests that the Devil’s Seed is not residing in the head. Yun Hyuk who is only a head now angrily runs to the outside of the rooftop, but Hajin easily intercepts him, by pressing a button just under his belt.
Nayun and Suho have already jumped from the rooftop by that point.
The fumbling Yun Hyuk cannot even jump from the rooftop as the concrete floor explodes into smithereens causing him and Hajin to fall a few floors inside the building.
Kim Hajin has come prepared and has rigged a few places with C4 of course with a few explosive reinforcement of his SP. “It is just you and me now, Yun Hyuk…”
***
The core of this plan has always been Suho.
Nayun knows this, but it doesn’t sit well with her. It is simply because she wants to cut the Devil herself. The vitality of the Devil’s Seed is so strong it cannot be killed by normal means is not old news to her. “Suho, can you really cut concepts? As in, really?”
“I… can…” He answers, a little bit unsure.
Nayun lands on the fumbling petite body of Yun Hyuk which is already regenerating an arm and head. “If only I have my Balmung, then I can also do real damage to this thing.” Her feet empowered with magic power digs deep into the Devil’s Seed host, forming a crater with the Devil's Seed's host as the center.
The Devil’s Seed’s body continues to regenerate in a freaky manner. When its head is already complete, there is only a faceless person connecting to the torso under Nayun’s soles.
“Head!” Nayun calls as she cuts the head a second time. It will just regenerate its head anyway, but it is necessary that Nayun cuts it.
Suho comes just right on time and kicks the new head away.
The teamwork of the two, swordsman and swordswoman, is impeccable. Kim Suho raises his sword aiming to cut down the Devil’s Seed through its very concept and kill it once and for all. Nayun senses a rumble coming at them. Nayun turns around only to see a wild single-horn Djinn rushing at her.
She swings her sword at the new arrival Djinn who is already missing a single arm, thus killing it by dealing a fatal strike at its chest.
“Move,” Suho tells Nayun as he brings forth his sword down to the Devil's Seed's host just under Nayun.
***
Yun Hyuk is angry. His meticulous plan is all coming to ruins just because of one error— Kim Hajin is not the last of them. At first, Yun Hyuk thinks that there is only one interloper who is trying to go against his plan but there is actually a group.
It is funny. It is insane. It has been fucking so obvious. This new curious club did not even enter his sight. They call themselves the Devil Hunter’s Club for god’s sake! Not that Yun Hyuk believes in god.
“Why are you all trying so hard? You have seen it, aren’t you? That unkillable existence! Once it descends to this world, you will have no choice but to bend the knee!” Yun Hyuk shouts at Hajin as he is so sure of his victory.
“You are very chipper now… It makes me want to plunge you into despair.” Something dark takes hold of Hajin. Something dormant rears its ugly head from the deep pit of his mending heart. “You dare hurt Yoenha and Rachel, so I will reciprocate it…”
He has been denying it for a long time… that he loves this world, and its characters… and that at some point he grows tired of loving them. That is evident as to how he chooses to abandon the novel and put it on hiatus.
Despite that, the truth still remains… He does love them…
Maybe, his being here is some form of redemption.
“You see, our clairvoyant is pretty imaginative…” Hajin will never be able to see this world the same way Hyon Hyung does. As an Author, Hajin is trapped by his own preconceptions as to the world he built.
But Hyon Hyung is different. As a reader, he sees far from that… “The dumbass is very perceptive in the most unexpected ways. Do you know that the guy has never read a bible before, and now just because of you, he has gone to the extra trouble of studying theology? He is not really great at it, but he does the job well.”
Hajin is taking it easy now as Yun Hyuk has no place to go anymore. The single head lacks the mobility and firepower to prove to be of any threat to Hajin. “You see, Lilith, your goddess is a Devil of Lust. The assumptions are she will have strong psychic abilities and charm-based powers. Since ancient times, the art of illusions has always revolved around the eyes and the sleight of hand. I cannot explain it as well as Hyon, but can you imagine how will Lilith cast any of her powers if she lacks the medium?”
“What do you mean?” Yun Hyuk feels a sense of fear creeping down his inexistent spine.
Hajin furthers his explanation. “I know for a fact that the Devil’s Seed is not entirely Lilith herself but something like her doppelganger… so in terms of intelligence or real abilities, she will not be as good as the original. The point is she will mostly act on instinct. That is also why we separated you from her so that the instinct will have more autonomy.”
“What are you getting to!?” Yun Hyuk yells in anger while he evades the ricocheting bullet that almost connects to him.
“I mean… Cutting your body, Lilith’s Devil Seed’s limbs will be as easy as pie! Think, Hyuk! Think! How do you use your hypnotism and other blessings?”
Yun Hyuk comes to a realization. “No, this cannot be!” He recalls how the body he left had lost its arms so easily when the two swordsmen arrived. He then recalls the several times he uses his abilities.
Eye contact, small gestures, and words— this is the medium of his abilities. “He he he he!” Yun Hyuk laughs like a madman. The Devil’s Seed is unkillable!” He grasps the basis of his confidence telling Hajin that all of his charade is meaningless.
“I will not be so sure about that.” Kim Hajin presses his earpiece as he listens to the words of the other side. “Hmm… I see.”
Yun Hyuk’s face crumbles to despair. The connection he has with the Devil’s Seed is lost. Gone. Vanished. Dead. And then he recalls the male swordsman who cut his arm which sends a shivering pain on his very soul.
“Hah~! I guess it is my loss…” On the contrary to the deranged Djinn that he is, Yun Hyuk has become so much calmer. “Grace Lilith…” The vision from his left side has become darker, until finally, there is only his mouth. “Remember. I AM! JUST! THE BEGINNING! OF IT! AND I AM NOT THE LAST OF IT!”
Yun Hyuk’s mad smile is the last Hajin sees as the Djinn finally turns to ash.
I AM! JUST! THE BEGINNING! OF IT!
The familiar words ring heavily with alarm bells in Hajin’s mind.
***
“It should be dead now, right?” Nayun asks as she pokes the dead host of the Devil’s Seed.
Different from a Djinn, the body of a Devil’s Seed’s host will not turn to ash. Nayun recalls her big brother’s state who strongly possesses human characteristics, and devil characteristics at the same time.
“Yes, I believe I have cut it down…” Suho’s sword has a little bit of cracks in it. But Nayun’s sword has it worse as only its hilt is the leftover now. The intensity of the fight has been immense. In fact, it has been beyond Suho's abilities.
If not for Nayun’s assistance, he will not even be able to cut down the Devil’s Seed.
Against all expectations, a pinky finger is working on its way into the cracks of the concrete. It worms underground until it is no longer there. Chae Nayun and Kim Suho share a glance. Thinking that their job is over, they then disperse to regroup with Kim Hajin.
