咪咪影场

With a touch and a simple thought, Maki turned into a bulging mess and vanished into filthy blood and gore. Seo Jin Hu bathed himself in all the gore and licked his lips.

"Maki tastes more bitter than my master—no, defeat tastes more bitter than my master."

Mark kept himself safe from the explosion of gore using his wings. The heavy rain cleaned his feathers up for him.

"You are daring, Seo Jin Hu." Mark said, "You have no defense against me—your body is as weak as a chicken and your abilities are no threat to me. I can kill you with my bare hands."

He didn\'t plan to kill the youth, though. Kill Slave Hunter\'s Ability was too precious.

Mark didn\'t have a Seal of Destiny to steal it for now, though.

"Red School, you underestimate me." The young man covered his bloody face with his two palms. He shivered in the rain as he said, "You touched upon the very foundation of the world and stole my Shiden\'s ability. You did!"

Mark scoffed. Thunder illuminated his cold face.

"Red School," the young man laughed, and threatened with a straight back. "I know how you did it. Seal of Destiny. Hha!" The kid licked his lips. "But you have no more of it, do you?"

How does he know about Seal of Destiny?

"What if I have, what if I don\'t?" Mark asked.

Seo Jin Hu chortled. "You don\'t have it, I guess. Or I would have been dead, my ability stolen."

Mark flapped his wings and blood dripped everywhere.

"You won\'t kill me before you get my ability, Red School!"

Mark smirked in derision. "You overestimate a demon\'s patience."

"You don\'t understand me, nobody does." Seo Jin Hu mumbled. "But I wanted to ask you a question, Red School. Answer me and I will help you steal my ability myself." His eyes peaked through the gaps between his fingers at Mark\'s demonic figure—twice bigger than himself.

Mark sneered. "What scheme are you trying to pull?"

"No scheme!" he said. "It\'s a deal! A deal!"

Mark moved his hand and a crack sound echoed everywhere as Seo Jin Hu\'s legs bend in a weird shape—bones broken. He didn\'t need a healthy body to steal the Ability, it just shouldn\'t die.

Though the pain made Seo Jin Hu buckle over and scream, the youth just wheezed in the rain and laughed. It was a painful laugh.

"Maki, Shiden, and Fulan. Those three were my bullies," he said, ignoring the twisted pain on his leg. "But I knew they were no normal people when one day, Shiden molested me. They were Hunters—his body was so fucking strong. I was scared… you know?"

Mark looked down at him coldly.

Seo Jin Hu continued. "Then, I went to their homes and killed all of them one by one. All three of them were dangerous to me, after all. Yet, I was filled with fear next day. I had murdered." Shiden\'s eyes widened. "Who\'d have guessed I could revive them whenever I wanted to with just a thought?"

"As mindless Kill Slaves," Mark mocked.

Seo Jin Hu snickered pitifully. "Indeed, I secretly revived my three bullies. It was hard to use my single mind to control three people but I soon got used to it. I acted like the three were actually alive and my school life began to grow rather noiseless."

The young man sighed. "But you know what? I became greedy. Ambitious. Opportunistic. I was the hero this world needed—I convinced myself that."

"I was the first Hunter without any limits. I can grow stronger and stronger. Yes, my body is weak but I don\'t have to use my real body. I can grow stronger than anyone as long as I kept killing more powerful creatures.

"I can save the world!"

Mark said, "So you staged your own suicide to bring attention to the Trio Hunters."

"You are sharp, for a demon," the young man said, "I did that and Hanmo took attention of my little gang. I schemed against Hanmo, too. I killed him from the shadows using my Shiden. And I was finally ready to save the world."

Mark felt strange wariness creep up against his mind. There was no way for Seo Jin Hu to act against him now—he had crippling advantages over the youth. But it still made him wary, this kid was a man with a bloody story.

"A rather intriguing history but why are you dragging my time?" Mark tilted his head. His feathers rustled in the wind. "Are ambush headed my way?"

Seo Jin Hu didn\'t answer but questioned instead, "Do you like Kill Slave Hunter Ability, Red School?"

"Indeed, you could say that."

Finally, Seo Jin Hu snapped. He stared coldly at Mark. "You don\'t deserve it, you demonic scum." He spat at Mark but the rain didn\'t let his spit reach his enemy.

Mark looked at him coldly.

It was not Seo Jin Hu\'s decision whether Mark took the ability or not.

Suddenly, from deep within Mark\'s mind, a voice echoed with complete certainty, "Oh, Mark. Kill that kid now or you will regret it—he\'s dragging for time. I can feel it, the earlier A-Rank Hunter is not chasing you but killing all the demons around. Demon deaths are piling up."

Mark froze. This voice as fair as silk against his ears, he had heard it before—it was the woman inside the ice wall.

How? Where is she?

"If he gains around a minute more, the A-Rank Hunter would kill enough demons. They would descend," she said. "If the Angels come, no demon would leave this world alive. That includes you. Kill Slave ability or not wouldn\'t matter anymore."

Mark remembered a conversation he had once had with a Hunter he had killed before.

"Your nemesis, you filthy scum of the earth." The Hunter spat blood on Mark\'s face, but the Demon guarded it with his wings. "ANGELS! They will come as long as we kill enough of you!"

"Kill him now, Mark, you don\'t have much time. It\'s not Hanmo alone who is killing demons, there are Hunters all around the mega-dungeon and their kills would count too." She scoffed. "Ah, forget it, as our first meeting gift, I will gift you an ability just as wonderful as Kill Slave if you kill the kid."

Seo Jin Hu didn\'t seem to have heard anything and just began to speak. "You know what, Red School? I could have just stayed inside Maki\'s shadow if I wanted to drag time. But I didn\'t. Why?" he shook his head. "Because I am not dragging time—"

Mark\'s hand moved in an arc and Seo Jin Hu\'s head was broken like a blasted watermelon.

[Killed…] A notification piled up among many other but Mark ignored it.

The woman\'s satisfied voice echoed in his mind, "You didn\'t hesitate to kill, and is not blinded by your greed for that ability, either. You are quite good."

Mark said coldly, "I\'ve learned not to think too much before killing. If I have to kill, I kill."

The Trio Hunters taught him that lesson. He had been wary of the angels since a long time go and now, the warning of the mysterious woman only increased that.

"Now, tell me, woman, who are you?"

A bell-like laugh echoed inside his mind.

"That\'s not the question you should ask, Mark, you should ask how we are connected. But I am not one to lie uselessly either. But still not experienced enough. You should never allow someone to delay, no matter what. And you will have your answers, but for now, I shall give you only one thing."

Suddenly, a small seal appeared in his wrist and Mark looked at it with interest and caution. This woman, what was her motive?

A… Seal of Destiny?

Indeed.

[Seal of Destiny]

[A soul-bond Unique Treasure created by the Will of the Demon World. It can help a Demon steal one ability of their choice from other creatures.]

[Limitation:

Can only be used once. It doesn\'t work on Angelic Blessings (innate powers of Angels) It only works on creatures that had been killed by Marcus.]

"I got this seal a long, long time ago. Use it on my body trapped inside the ice wall and steal the ability named \'Clown\'s Circus\'. You will not be disappointed."

With that, the woman\'s voice vanished.

Mark looked at Seo Jin Hu\'s dead body with a trace of pity.

He didn\'t really know what Angels coming would entail but he didn\'t care for the ability Kill Slave and his own life the same. He could let an ability slip out of his hand, there would be more, but he only had one life.

Abilities were just tools in the end. Nothing more, nothing less.

That was an amazing ability, though...

His willful dreams of having a huge legion of his own seemed like an impossibility now. But then, he looked at the horizon.

The sky seemed strangely golden. His heart thumped inside his chest.

For now, let\'s get back to the lab.

…

Mark learned of it only later that day but had he been a bit late, Hanmo would have killed enough demons today to truly summon Angels into this world.

The A-Rank Hunters could have done that long ago—join gang to kill all the smaller demons and summon the Angels. But they had never done that because they knew Angels would then rule their world, unless they didn\'t see no way to handle this mega dungeon till the end, they didn\'t plan to summon Angels.

Seo Jin Hu had so daringly come out of the shadow only to see Mark\'s face of despair at the end. He had indeed not been lied to by the woman. Yet, Mark was immensely wary of her.

With the hamster in tow, he went back to the lab. The woman was somehow related to the Violet Screen and she had never been out of his mind ever since he saw her.