It wasn't the first time Yong-ho had faced the monster. He encountered it when he first faced Aamon, when he met its eyes in a burning world when he encountered Gusion in the arena, and the moment Scathach revealed her skills for a very short time. He remembered it all, and he didn't forget the horrible feeling at that time. He was always overwhelmed by its absurdly enormous presence.
He felt the same thing this time.
Baphomet lost its strength as a dungeon spirit because it lost its master. Besides, it was extremely weakened since it had been sealed for a long time and shorn of its strength by the other 12 Spirits. Nonetheless, it was the incarnation of death that came from the alien world.
It was so huge. So, Yong-ho felt like he would be trampled by this absurdly huge creature at any moment.
But this time, it was different. It had to be different.
He had to face this monster and defeat it.
Instead of stepping back, he boldly advanced and confronted Baphomet head-on, which rushed toward him without hesitation, like a runaway locomotive.
Baphomet's body was huge. It was somewhat different from what he saw in Scathach's memory, but its head, resembling a black goat, and its huge body were the same as before.
It looked like a mountain seemed to collapse in front of his eyes.
Laughing like crazy, Baphomet wielded the scythe of death. It was wielding from above the power of death itself.
Yong-ho did not miss that moment. He opened his eyes and saw death rushing to him.
It had a trajectory. But what was seen wasn't everything. Black mana swirled around the blade of its giant scythe. It was obvious that black mana would devour a space several times the size of the sickle.
Yong-ho could not move back at this point. It was also reckless for him to block the monster by wielding Aamon.
But Yong-ho did not stop. He took another step, remembering Scathach's words.
"Catalina!"
"Master!"
Two voices rang almost simultaneously. And at that moment, when the screaming was going on, Catalina quickly approached him from behind his back, hugged him, and became his wings.
The scythe of death swept the air. Yong-ho and Catalina overcame the evil energy of death. Under the wings made of black mana, Yong-ho saw Baphomet's red eyes. Then he swung Aamon to cut through the space above Baphomet's head.
Waves of the green flames engulfed Baphomet's head. The death wrapping around Baphomet's body exploded when it collided with the green flames. Cutting through the scattering energy of death, Eligos and Ophelia rushed toward it.
The two scattered to both sides with Baphomet in between. They then attacked it with full force.
There was no roar, no explosion, no scream. The air was scattered by their strong attack, but that was it.
Baphomet turned to Blink. Its enormous body reappeared ten meters high above its original place.
Eligos was embarrassed. Ophelia immediately raised her head and looked at Baphomet.
And death crushed Eligos and Ophelia one step ahead.
It was a completely different kind of force they had never felt before. It wasn't the overwhelming presence of the strong. It wasn't even a physical force of destroying and breaking.
It was death, the end of everything.
The feeling of helplessness that they could not resist.
The feeling of despair that there was nothing to rely on.
Death penetrated Eligos and Ophelia. It didn't damage their bodies in any way.
However, Eligos knelt down. Ophelia resisted by generating the mana of greed, but she could not stand it long.
For a few seconds when Ophelia desperately resisted, Baphomet landed on the ground again. Then it swung its left arm to strike down Ophelia. Suffering from the helplessness of death, she punched head-on by a giant blow.
She bounced off more than a dozen meters like a broken marionette. Then Baphomet kicked out Eligos by swinging his right arm, holding the scythe of death. Rotating its body greatly, it once again released the wave of death. The chains on Baphomet's neck and arms broke through the air with a terrible noise.
"Skullkull!"
Skull broke through death. He broke the black and huge waves of death with a battle hammer. He narrowed the distance with Baphomet at once and swung the lightning hammer again.
Lightning flashed from Baphomet's legs. It wasn't a fatal injury. However, Baphomet's legs were bent for a moment. Skull pulled the hammer again. And above Skull's head, and higher above Baphomet's head, Yong-ho pulled Aamon. Then, holding Aamon upside down, he created the pillar of flames.
The green flames struck Baphomet hard then engulfed its whole body.
Catalina rejoiced, but it was too early for her to rejoice. The moment when the green flames covered its whole body, Baphomet kicked out Skull. Using that momentum, it rotated its body, and once again, it tore the air with chains on its limbs. Holding the scythe of death tightly, it split the air.
But the scythe didn't reach Yong-ho. Nonetheless, death did not stop and spread. The power that could only be expressed as pitch-black penetrated Yong-ho and Catalina.
Catalina's head was broken. She was helpless, with no screaming or moaning, like Eligos experienced.
Yong-ho stuck it out, clenching his teeth. Even while he was falling, he swung his left arm wildly. Just like he did when he defeated Kaiwan, he added Catalina's black mana to the mana of greed. And he swept both Baphomet and the ground with a giant's hand at the same time!
Baphomet jumped to avoid the giant's arm. Yong-ho landed on the ground with the help of a giant's arm instead of falling to the floor. He raised his head to attack the monster with Catalina, who finally pulled herself together.
But they were crushed by Baphomet. It wasn't like black mana or death. Literally, a huge palm pressed both Yong-ho and Catalina simultaneously.
They could not resist the pure physical force created by the monster's weight and speed. Both of them got tangled together and were crushed on the floor. They screamed in pain when their bones were broken.
Baphomet laughed madly. Yong-ho felt he was losing consciousness. He was punched only once, but the blow was so painful.
Yong-ho once again clenched his teeth under Baphomet's palm. If he could not use his limbs freely, he intended to release his mana all at once and bounce off the palm of this monster.
At the same time, Yong-ho felt that Eligos and Ophelia began to move. And even Skull, who was thrown on the floor by Baphomet's blow, was also standing up again.
Each of them released mana of greed. Yong-ho further amplified the mana of greed by syncing with the dungeon spirits.
But at that moment, Yong-ho made eye contact with Baphomet. It lowered its head to see him even when the spirits of the House of Mammon were rushing toward it.
Its head resembled a goat. It was different from a human head.
Yong-ho could read its expression. It smiled brightly.
That was the only smile it could make—madness and rejoice, brightness and joy.
It was obviously more weakened than before. But there was something that didn't change.
It was still the incarnation of death.
It was a monster formed at the sacrifices of ten thousand people, as well as the death itself imagined by beings in the alien world.
It survived by eating over tens of thousands, rather millions of deaths.
Death smiled. It exuded a force that could not even be compared with anything until now.
With no sound or movement, it covered a huge black space. It swallowed up the lights of the dungeon lighting devices that Yong-ho's party had spread for this battle.
Eligos and Ophelia fell to the floor in the same position they were charging.
Thanks to the power of greed, they did not die immediately, but that was it.
They couldn't move even a finger because of their enormous helplessness.
Skull was no exception. Although he already belonged to death, it did not mean he was free from death. His vivid sensation of death elicited a sense of life from him. Skull remembered his life for the first time since becoming an undead. That was why he experienced the second death. Old fear and dread, as well as all the things he had to give up by dying, once again destroyed Skull's spirit.
Skull collapsed. He suffered from deep despair and sorrow, so much so that it wasn't strange even if tears poured out of his hollow eyes. Memories of living tormented him.
Yong-ho breathed a short, rough breath. He became more and more unconscious.
Although he experienced hundreds of times of mental death in the space Aamon created, all of it was fake. It wasn't real death.
He couldn't feel the passage of time, which was natural, for it was what death was.
There was nothing there.
Despair broke his will. Empty feelings swallowed up his anger.
Accept it, death. Absolute serenity.
Baphomet raised its hand. In fact, no matter how fast it did, Yong-ho felt its action was very slow.
Yong-ho did not close his eyes. Instead of Baphomet's hand or death sickle, he saw something else. It was a so-called kaleidoscopic view of his life events.