**Chapter 384. Seal Released**
—
‘Ah.’
The Heavenly Demon was certain.
This—this was the realm he had dreamed of all his life.
He had transcended the boundary between life and death, surpassed even the mythic realm, and at last reached the realm of the **Demon God**.
This was a soul-severing state beyond comparison with any so-called Extreme Demon.
By shedding form, by casting everything away, he had become a god.
A Demon God.
‘Only death is perfection.’
There was no enlightenment beyond this.
Death itself was salvation.
‘I shall save the world.’
The Demon God resolved to save the world—
by placing it beneath his feet.
He would shatter every predetermined form and remake everything anew.
That intent reshaped the Demon God into yet another form.
*Crack—*
The Demon God Blade was absorbed into his chest, and in its place, greatswords surged forth from both arms.
Swords of destruction.
Blades that slew and erased everything they touched.
A supreme blade beyond all standards, imbued with the Heavenly Demon Blade and the rank of a Demon God!
*Riiip—!*
In order to wield those swords, his body swelled further, bloated by countless souls.
His eyes turned pitch-black and lifeless, yet within them golden waves surged endlessly.
“……Exquisite.”
He had become a god of death.
He moved not by the power of life, but by the power of souls.
Until every soul he had harvested was consumed, he would not perish.
Thus, he was invincible.
And he was a being destined to destroy the world and shatter the heavens.
The **Heaven-Shattering Demon God** had been born.
*Crunch—*
*Chew. Chew.*
“……?”
That was when it happened.
From behind him came the unmistakable sound of something being eaten.
He had not noticed—he had been in the midst of ceaseless evolution.
He had never expected that thing to still be alive.
‘Strange. It should have died.’
It had slipped in at a speed beyond perception and severed his left arm.
The abyssal poison and the power of death should have engulfed it instantly.
An absolute death no mortal could escape.
“……?”
When he looked, the sight was even more absurd.
The **Primordial Heavenly Demon** was gnawing on the severed left arm.
Had it lost its mind in the face of impending death?
It was utterly incomprehensible.
*Gulp.*
After devouring it entirely, the Primordial Heavenly Demon flashed that infuriating smile again.
“First one.”
First what?
“Twelve left.”
*Sssss—!*
The moment he finished speaking, his left arm regenerated.
A regeneration so miraculous it bordered on the absurd.
Perhaps that regenerative power was how he had escaped death.
But the outcome would not change.
He hadn’t even been able to track his speed before evolution—how could he possibly handle a Heaven-Shattering Demon God now?
Not even the Sunken Emperor or the Celestial Whale could.
The Heaven-Shattering Demon God spoke.
“Now, die.”
He was tired of listening to that bastard’s nonsense.
The Heaven-Shattering Demon God stomped his foot.
*Whoosh—*
In the blink of an eye, he appeared right before the Primordial Heavenly Demon and severed his neck.
With the head cut off, he wouldn’t be able to regenerate.
*Claaang—!*
But an unexpected sound rang out.
The sound of blades colliding.
It meant his speed had been caught.
“‘Manual Dexterity’ really does reach far.”
……?
Once again, words he couldn’t understand.
Had regenerating his left arm enhanced that ability?
It didn’t matter.
What mattered was that sword.
Even if it was a blade that decided fate, deflecting a Demon God’s sword was unexpected.
“That sword… is it ‘Outside the Standard’?”
If so, that meant it was of the same **Outside-the-Standard** grade.
A rank that discarded the world’s framework itself.
Things that could not exist, and must not exist, were called Outside-the-Standard.
As the two blades pressed against each other, the Heaven-Shattering Demon God asked, and the Primordial Heavenly Demon shrugged.
“I am Outside the Standard.”
Not the answer he wanted.
“You’re a ridiculous one.”
Still, he truly was ridiculous.
This was the first being he had ever encountered who claimed himself to be Outside the Standard.
*Boom—!*
The Heaven-Shattering Demon God activated his Dominion Step.
A Demon God’s stride, incomparable to the Heavenly Demon’s Dominion Step.
Mountains collapsed, and the abyssal floor began to crumble entirely.
He intended to drive his blade forward and grind the bastard down to dust.
If the enemy lost his stance even slightly, he would vanish.
No—even if he didn’t, it wouldn’t matter.
“…An incredible amount of power.”
In a contest of sheer force, the bastard couldn’t possibly defeat him.
Before long, the Primordial Heavenly Demon’s sword was cutting into his own neck.
Blood was already flowing.
And the Demon God hadn’t even focused all his strength yet.
He was using, at most, ten percent.
The Demon God was simply waiting.
Waiting for him to beg for his life.
There was no escape.
“……Now two.”
“What have you been counting all this time?”
“‘All Master’ runs well.”
More incomprehensible words.
But the moment he finished speaking—
*Whoosh!*
As if vanishing, the Primordial Heavenly Demon’s form blurred.
He reappeared over fifty steps away from where the blades had clashed.
……But he had not escaped.
The Demon God had clearly perceived it.
The problem was that the sudden acceleration far exceeded expectations.
The moment they clashed, the Demon God had obtained all data on the Primordial Heavenly Demon’s body.
And he had been certain—absolutely certain—that the bastard could never defeat him, could never escape his shadow.
Compared to him, the enemy was pitifully inferior.
And yet, in an instant, the bodily data had changed.
Drastically.
That made two.
“So blocking my blade wasn’t a coincidence.”
Once could be chance. Twice was inevitability.
‘……Interesting.’
This fight had become slightly interesting.
He had been disappointed by the overwhelming gap.
He had intended to toy with the insect and crush it.
“Are you releasing seals?”
The bastard was undoing something.
Those muttered words—
—*Now two.*
That must mean the second seal had been released.
How many seals remained?
Would he keep growing stronger as they were undone?
*Fwooo—!*
The Demon God drew out even more power.
He was curious how far the bastard could go against him.
—
—
The Primordial Heavenly Demon acknowledged it.
‘This one… he’s formidable.’
The power of the Heavenly Demon who had undergone Demon-Godification was real.
He had shed his shell and become a god.
In his current state, facing a Demon God head-on was impossible.
But—
that was only true of his **current** state.
‘I’ll shatter every primal wall with the feather imbued with the Blue Bird’s authority.’
A feat only the Primordial Heavenly Demon could accomplish.
He intended to break the **thirteen walls** that existed within Park Hyun-myung.
Of course, **Martial God Wilhelm** was not a lock but a key—there was no need to break that one.
He meant the remaining thirteen.
The thirteen keys known as the *Primal Hidden Traits*.
He would shatter them and recreate them anew.
Randolph had already broken and regenerated all of them once.
He had made them wholly his own, erasing all limits.
But Park Hyun-myung had not.
Park Hyun-myung’s body was still bound by limits.
‘One being, yet two bodies. Even the keys serve different purposes.’
The Primordial Heavenly Demon was curious.
So curious he felt he might go mad.
Astonishingly, the ‘keys’ of Park Hyun-myung and Randolph operated separately.
Their purposes were entirely different.
For example, Randolph’s keys could open the **Gate of Heaven**.
When Randolph became ‘The End,’ their function became even clearer.
But—
‘I still don’t know the purpose of Park Hyun-myung’s keys.’
The thirteen primal Hidden Traits he possessed.
Even the Primordial Heavenly Demon could not discern the direction they pointed toward.
They were clearly the same as Randolph’s keys—yet different.
What were these keys meant to open?
He wanted to find out together.
‘Dexterity. All Master.’
The authority of the Blue Bird’s feather was tremendous—two walls had already been broken.
Eleven remained.
‘Golden Grace. Giant’s Anti-Magic.’
Four walls were shattered.
Nine remained.
‘Mutant. Great Sage. Void.’
The pace quickened.
Naturally so, with the Blue Bird’s authority infused.
Only the Primordial Heavenly Demon could wield that power.
And thus he intended to shatter Park Hyun-myung’s limits—every shackle binding him.
‘Beast Lord. Glutton. Heart of the Eternal Monarch. Weapon Master.’
Only two remained now.
Among the primal Hidden Traits—
‘Golden Scale Druid…’
He was blocked by **Golden Scale Druid**, one of the two.
A form that had fully evolved its primal nature.
That wall was on a completely different level from the others, so taking time to break it was only natural.
But no matter how long he waited, the Blue Bird’s authority could not surpass it.
‘Is this the limit?’
Would he have to be satisfied with eleven?
He had fulfilled much of the bargain.
Even this should have removed a significant portion of the restrictions.
But…
A strange competitiveness flared within him.
‘A wall that even the Blue Bird’s authority can’t cross.’
After all, it was only a feather imbued with authority.
He had merely transformed it so the Hidden Traits would oppose one another.
Naturally, there was a limit.
But knowing the Blue Bird, he also knew how incredible this already was.
The Primordial Heavenly Demon stroked his chin.
Then, he made a decision.
‘I’ll do it myself.’
He would break it with his own hands.
He was a being that surpassed the Blue Bird.
What the Blue Bird could not do, he could.
The Primordial Heavenly Demon inserted his soul into **Park Hyun-myung’s Gate**.
And then he saw it.
*Fwoooooosh—!*
A colossal dragon surging with the Golden Scale.
At that moment, the Primordial Heavenly Demon couldn’t help but admire it.
To evolve a Hidden Trait into such a form.
“You are the World Tree of Origin.”
The World Tree of Origin had taken root within Park Hyun-myung.
That alone was a god.
A god protecting Park Hyun-myung’s soul.
‘So that’s why I couldn’t interfere.’
He laughed softly.
No wonder he hadn’t been able to exert any influence at all.
Who could have imagined such a thing guarding Park Hyun-myung’s soul?
But this was the world of spirit.
Park Hyun-myung had opened the gate himself, and now that he was already inside, it was far too late to block his intrusion.
The Primordial Heavenly Demon released his **rank**.
Instantly, the size of his soul swelled enormously.
—*Grrrooo—!*
The Golden Scale Dragon let out a scream.
But it did not fall easily.
It was enduring the rank of the Primordial Heavenly Demon’s soul.
‘Better than the rabble of heaven.’
The Golden Scale Dragon—
it was truly sublime.
Had he not entered through the gate, he would never have been able to intrude.
Even at his prime, the same would have held true.
“Blame the master who opened the gate for you.”
But this was inside the gate.
Once inside, victory was his.
He was beyond comparison with something like the Blue Bird’s authority.
There was a reason heaven itself had sealed and watched him.
He fought for an immeasurably long time within the spirit world.
How long had it been?
*Ruuuumble—!*
At last, the wall collapsed.
The Golden Scale Dragon fell.
‘The final key.’
Now only the thirteenth Hidden Trait remained.
He could roughly guess what it was.
‘Heaven.’
A Hidden Trait that bore the very name of Heaven itself.
He couldn’t quite imagine what form it would take.
The Primordial Heavenly Demon stepped forward.
Soon, a wall appeared.
‘A corpse?’
Before the wall lay a being collapsed like a corpse.
And not just any being—
an overwhelmingly supreme powerhouse.
He recognized it instantly as a cosmic monster.
‘The Blood Demon King.’
……It was the corpse of the Blood Demon King.
One of the demons that had once brought ruin to the world.
Had it challenged the final wall and died?
The Primordial Heavenly Demon lifted his gaze.
Then—
*Slide.*
Above the wall, before him, a single enormous eye and a mouth emerged.
The eye stared directly at the Primordial Heavenly Demon.
And the mouth—
*Grin.*
Smiled as if amused.
But the Primordial Heavenly Demon could not smile.
Instead, his expression hardened.
“……Why are *you* here?”
