Chapter 661
The prison looked no different from any ordinary building.
From the outside, it was so unremarkable that no one would ever guess it was a prison.
But hidden within that ordinary-looking structure were countless weapons and defensive magic circles.
Without the permission of the warden or Mayor Jin Geumho, no one could enter or leave.
Once imprisoned here, no one would ever see the outside world again.
Even in death, leaving this place was impossible.
Because even the corpses were burned.
Naturally, the Awakened guarding this place were of an exceptionally high caliber.
The warden was an A-rank Awakened, all the officers were B-rank, and every guard was C-rank.
It was an overwhelming force capable of eliminating ordinary Awakened in an instant.
Old Man Go led Zeon and Jin Geumho inside the prison.
"Mayor."
The warden greeted Jin Geumho and Zeon at the entrance.
Barely into his fifties, the warden radiated the sharp presence befitting an A-rank Awakened.
Old Man Go asked him,
"Where is he?"
"As instructed, we've placed him in the special cell."
The special cell referred to the prison's solitary confinement room.
It was built from a special metal that even an A-rank martial-type Awakened couldn't break through, and every surface was covered in magic circles, preventing even magic-type Awakened from using magic skills inside.
On top of that, guards watched it twenty-four hours a day.
Once someone was locked inside, they could never leave without an order from the warden or Jin Geumho.
Old Man Go spoke again.
"You treated him with respect, didn't you?"
"Of course. We didn't lay a finger on him."
"Good. Lead the way."
"Yes, sir."
With a puzzled expression, the warden guided them onward.
He had dealt with countless prisoners.
Whatever they had been outside, once they entered here, their lives and deaths were entirely in his hands.
Even the strongest Awakened.
Old Man Go knew that as well.
Yet from the moment the prisoner had been brought in, he had treated him with extraordinary courtesy and repeatedly instructed the warden to treat him like an honored guest.
If he was truly that important, they shouldn't have imprisoned him here in the first place.
Locking someone in prison while insisting he be treated as an honored guest naturally made no sense.
But this was Old Man Go of the Numbers.
He had no choice but to obey.
Nor was Old Man Go the only one here.
Every member of the Numbers had assembled.
Even now, they were stationed around Jin Geumho.
Tension filled every face.
Not only Grain and the others who had witnessed the man's strength firsthand, but even Seong Ho-yeon, who had joined later, wore a stiff expression.
He was an S-rank Awakened.
He had fought countless battles to protect Neo Seoul.
Naturally, among the Awakened he had fought were many whose strength far exceeded ordinary imagination.
Seong Ho-yeon was someone far more accustomed to fighting humans than monsters.
Yet none of the Awakened he had ever faced could compare to the man Grain and the others had escorted here.
The instant he saw the man, alarm bells rang in his mind, and every hair on his body stood on end.
Simply seeing the man made his body instinctively sense danger and react.
Even though the man had shown no hostility whatsoever.
His mere existence was enough to make every living creature nearby tense.
It was the first time Seong Ho-yeon had ever encountered someone like this.
He couldn't relax.
From the moment Jin Geumho arrived, every one of his senses had been on high alert.
The same was true for every member of the Numbers.
The oppressive aura they emitted made it difficult even to breathe deeply.
This was hardly an environment where someone like the warden could act as he pleased.
By this point, he had become intensely curious about the identity of the man alone in the special cell.
Whiiing!
Only after passing through several security doors did they finally reach the special cell deep underground.
One side of the cell had a thirty-centimeter-thick glass window.
From outside, one could see inside.
From inside, one could see nothing beyond.
Through the glass sat the man in a chair.
He was still wearing the black robe.
The instant Jin Geumho saw him, his eyebrows twitched, and his eyes shone gold.
His Heavenly Eye had activated.
"Khk!"
But he immediately deactivated it.
The moment the Heavenly Eye activated, an unbearable pain stabbed into his eyes.
It felt as though hundreds of needles were piercing his pupils.
His eyes turned bloodshot, and tears streamed down his face.
It was the first pain he had ever experienced since obtaining the Heavenly Eye, startling him so badly it felt like his heart had dropped.
Who in the world is he...?
At that moment, the man looked toward the glass and spoke.
"That's an amusing little heretical technique."
Although it was supposed to be impossible to see outside from within, it seemed the man could clearly see everything beyond the glass.
"Heretical technique?"
"A sinister art. Tricks like that don't work on me."
The corner of the man's mouth twisted beneath his hood.
No one present failed to recognize it as a sneer.
The warden flared up.
"How dare he—"
"Calm yourself."
Old Man Go stopped the warden before he could explode.
At that moment, Zeon stepped forward.
"I heard you wanted to see me."
"So you're the sand mage who created this..."
The man pulled a fragment of black diamond from his robe.
Zeon recognized it instantly.
It was a piece created by his own skill.
"Where did you get that?"
"There was a lighthouse standing in the middle of the desert."
"A lighthouse? You saw the one I made?"
"So it was yours after all. Yes. That lighthouse led me to a place called Steel Fortress."
"Hmm..."
A low sound escaped Zeon.
Not long ago, he had applied Diamond Spear to construct a massive lighthouse in the middle of the desert.
So that anyone crossing the desert would have a landmark.
He had never imagined someone would actually follow it all the way to Steel Fortress.
Zeon turned to the warden.
"Please open the door."
"That..."
"Open it."
When the warden hesitated, Jin Geumho gave the order himself.
Tears were still streaming from his eyes.
The damage had been that severe.
Which was precisely why he knew.
A prison like this could never hold the man.
If he wished, he could smash through the special cell and walk out at any time.
A solitary cell like this meant nothing to someone like him.
In the end, the warden opened the cell door.
Zeon stepped inside and stood face-to-face with the man.
The man's height was about the same as Zeon's.
Unlike most martial-type Awakened, he wasn't especially large or heavily muscled.
Judging only by his build, he looked no different from an ordinary person.
But Zeon could feel a presence from him like a living volcano.
An aura that seemed ready to erupt the instant someone touched it.
It reminded him of Mount Pankrena, the active volcano he had once seen.
It even felt as though the smell of sulfur from an active volcano was drifting from the man.
"Where did you come from?"
"Very far away."
"How far?"
"Farther than you can imagine. From a place no human could ever reach on foot."
"Then... you're not human?"
"I am human. I've simply lost my way."
Zeon frowned.
It wasn't easy to understand.
"Then why were you looking for me?"
"Didn't you build the lighthouse?"
"I did. So?"
"A lighthouse is built to guide those who have lost their way. I thought... if someone built a lighthouse in the middle of the desert, perhaps that person might be able to send me home."
Despite the man's calm voice, Zeon felt his blood boil.
It seemed there was something in the man's voice itself that stirred fighting spirit.
Suddenly, Zeon's gaze fell upon the man's fist protruding beneath the robe.
The man's build wasn't especially large.
He was about the average height of an adult living in Neo Seoul.
But his fist was different.
It looked nearly twice the size of an ordinary person's.
Nor was it merely large.
Calluses protruded like iron spikes, and countless scars were deeply engraved into it.
At a glance alone, there were well over twenty scars branded into it.
Zeon had met countless martial-type Awakened.
From the moment they awakened, they gained physical abilities far beyond human limits.
Minor injuries healed quickly, so no one bore that many scars.
He found himself wondering what kind of path the man had walked to carve so many scars into his body.
Only his fist was visible beyond the robe.
Yet Zeon instinctively knew.
Beneath that robe were many more scars—deeper and larger than the ones on his hand.
"You said you lost your way?"
"More precisely... I lost the way back."
"Back to where?"
"My home. The place where I was born... and where the people I love are."
"Where is that?"
"Just a moment... I used to think I knew. But after wandering for so long... I'm no longer certain the place I remember still exists."
The man's voice, searching through his memories, was filled with deep regret.
No one here could possibly imagine where he had come from.
Or what road had brought him all the way here.
As Zeon had guessed, the scars weren't limited to his fists.
His entire body was covered with countless scars, as though tattooed upon his flesh.
Most of them were wounds left by fatal injuries.
An ordinary person would have died instantly from even one of them.
Several of those wounds had, in fact, driven the man to the brink of death.
Had his will been even slightly weaker, his life would have ended then.
But the man had a reason he could not die.
Like so many others, there were people waiting for him.
Those he loved.
Those who had loved him.
He had to live to see them again.
So he clung desperately to life.
He tore himself free from Death's grasp and crawled out of the abyss of hell.
And if anyone stood in his way, he shattered them with these two fists.
In that way, he killed countless people and finally arrived here.
The road he had walked was one paved with blood.
He had spilled the blood of many.
Yet he had shed no less of his own.
The man searched for the road home.
But no matter how long he wandered or searched the entire world, that road never appeared.
After traveling endlessly, he eventually arrived here.
A desolate world buried beneath endless sand.
At first, he believed he had fallen into hell.
A hell without humans.
But humans did live here.
Though most lived lives hardly worthy of being called human.
He asked them how to return home.
Naturally, none could answer.
So he despaired.
And left them behind.
When despair had driven him to the very bottom, he saw it.
A towering lighthouse standing in the middle of the desert.
A giant lighthouse made of diamond.
It looked as though it were showing someone who had lost his way the path back home.
So he sought the one who had built it and came here.
Searching through his memories, the man finally recalled the place he needed to return to.
"Mount Hua."
"Mount Hua?"
"That's right. I must return... to the place where Mount Hua stands."
The man's words caused Zeon's gaze to deepen.
It was a place name he had never heard before.
Yet he didn't think the man was lying.
His voice carried too much longing for that.
"My name is Zeon. What is the name of the man who wishes to return to Mount Hua?"
At Zeon's question, the man fell silent for a moment, as if thinking.
Everyone inside the prison watched him with tense expressions.
Under everyone's gaze, the man pushed back his hood.
Wild hair like a lion's mane framed thick eyebrows and eyes as deep as the bottomless abyss of hell.
Gaunt cheeks.
Firmly closed lips.
Even the nape of his neck beneath his jaw was covered with countless scars like those on the back of his hands.
The man looked like the incarnation of battle itself.
Then he revealed his identity.
"My name is Damho. In my homeland... people called me the Fist Demon of Mount Hua."
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