The Hauntings Of The Past (I)

Seunghyuk smiled as he watched Duke Travessle stand up smilingly from his seat to grab onto the speaker microphone before the King blatantly snatched it away with a furious expression crossing his face as he shouted through the speaker with no attempt remaining to conceal his hate for Seunghyuk, "Use your remaining Mana Power and kill that man!"

"My King! What are you doing! This will not be-" The Duke was immediately cut off when the Head Royal Guard's Durandal started to glow above her head once again.

"Choi Seunghyuk, you're not going to win this!" The King blankly stated right in front of the eyes of everyone and Seunghyuk did not bother to turn behind to engage with the angered King, but instead, Seunghyuk watched the fight that has went completely haywire with silent trepidation and worry.

While uncontrollably controlled chaos was unfolding in the main hall, down in the battle space was a whole another calibre of chaos. Three attacks of promise had already been broken into irreparable shards and Kwok Ryong continued to be rendered defensive.

"Hey! Three attacks was the promise! You're done and I'm certainly done! The task is complete! Why are you throwing away your honour just to listen to the stupid King's orders?" Kwok Ryong forcefully jammed his blade into the white ground and managed to force open a slight crack that allowed him to have his blade slide in and stay still while standing in a posture that emitted so much calmness that the sheer amount of it was scarily shocking to the Head Royal Guard.

"My honour is to protect the King and fulfill his royal commands! There is not one single bit wrong about that!" The Head Royal Guard casted a bright white light all across her longsword Durandal while eyeing Kwok Ryong cautiously as he watched and waited his every move.

Seunghyuk continued watching from above even as the King bored his eyes into Seunghyuk's soul. Worry started to accumulate and build up on Seunghyuk's heart as the heavy weight weighed him down because he could clearly see that Kwok Ryong was buying himself enough time so that he could look for a possible opening to get himself that currently far-fetched victory.

"Hyung! What are we going to do now? The King's playing dirty!" Jisung complained with loud whispers as his fingers interlocked with each other nervously while his forehead creased slightly showing annoyed despair.

Seunghyuk felt like he was asked an impossible question because at that moment, he did not know what to reply Jisung. Seunghyuk only shook his head solemnly while continuing to watch the one-sided fight with his mind constantly sourcing for a way out.

In actual fact, there was a way out. It was only because Seunghyuk did not want anything to do with it, hence he constantly skipped over that choice and decision. However things have worsened until they had gotten fully out of control, no one expected the King to show, reveal and display his true colours in front of the Duke together with the other royal members which was going out of the frying pan yet into the fire again.

Then, there was no choice left but to speak with the mind and the heart unified in order to communicate with the being inside of his consciousness, "Kang Joonseok...? Demon? Are you there?"

Seunghyuk utilised his skill Ancient Language Comprehension and spoke the demon tongue. The language flowed out with natural comprehensive fluency as he was certain the words spoke were understandable for a native speaker of the language like the male demon Kang Joonseok.

Seunghyuk waited apprehensively for a good minute and right before he was about to curse himself over the fact that it would not work, he was forcefully pulled into his own consciousness. Seunghyuk looked around the same dark surroundings and came face to face with the same semi-nude demon staring the same seductive eyes into his soul.

"Aren't you supposed to display a clearer sign that you're actually grateful I allowed you to stay here in my consciousness?" Seunghyuk sighed as he instantly turned a full hundred and eighty degrees around to let his back speak to the bold demon instead which received a more serious reply from behind but still with tease woven into the tone of his speech, "I heard your desperate calls and now you are here before me. You want me to break the demon seal on that Royal Nighthowler, do you not?"

"Royal Nighthowler? What do you mean-"

"That is most certainly beside the point. You are requesting for me to break a Seven Class demon seal which is the highest Class of all the demon seals. Even if I am at my full power, I would never even dare think about trying to put my hands on a Seven Class demon seal to break it. Right now, my power is limited and it has long deteriorated from the constant running and hiding. Furthermore, being in your consciousness greatly limits what I am able to accomplish," The demon Joonseok boldly cut off Seunghyuk's question like he ate rudeness and sass for his breakfast.

Seunghyuk listened to every single word that was said but remained completely silent without a word uttered after the demon stopped speaking. Instead, Seunghyuk turned around to face the male demon while staring with urging eyes through the awkwardly silent barrier of air in between the demon and him. Kang Joonseok then quirked the corner of his lips up to a demonic smile as this time he turned around and started to walk away while continuing.

"You are definitely a special one. You will most surely become everybody's most dangerous opponent for the near future. Hence as you have realised, there is a solution to my temporary inability to assist you. However, you have to take note that whatever you are going to do next will determine your life and death," Kang Joonseok, the male demon, spoke teasingly while fondling with the ends of his extremely revealing costume, "Almost like there is a second examination factor, you have to finish the mission and unlock my Demonic Soul Power temporarily. Time flows seven times slower in your own world of consciousness compared to the outside world. You yourself possess utmost clarity of the dire situation that old Royal Nighthowler is currently facing. With his skills and stats sealed down to a lower level, I am almost confident he will be slashed to death if you do not pick up the pace."

Seunghyuk always found Kang Joonseok's sassy and straightforwardly rude demon quality annoying and hateable, but this increased that bar meter just a little bit higher. However, Seunghyuk knew he was right and that he himself was already running out of time.

"Your task is not simple at all. You are required to enter my Maozau Lainagayau which directly translates to Demon Realm. To speak simply, a Demon Realm exists from birth in every single demon, and the Demonic Soul Power flows out from the Demonic Core deep in the dangerous realm. With some special and peculiar method, I have been forcefully locked out of my own Demonic Realm by my fath...that heartless creature and only you, who have had my entire being kept inside of your consciousness, can enter my Demon Realm," Kang Joonseok still spoke with his surprisingly clothed back facing Seunghyuk and he suddenly came to an abrupt stop as he turned back around to look Seunghyuk in his eyes with demonically solemn eyes, "You will experience painful and possibly forgotten memories from your past. You will feel the whole cycle of internal and external torture yet again, but you cannot do anything, even with your current power, to try and change the history. Only when you have endured the wound from the past can you reseal that wound and break the spell to get access to my Demonic Core. Are you still confident?"

Seunghyuk was definitely expected to give lengthy thoughts about the decision he was going to make but like lightning flashing across the dark sky, he stated with anxious calmness, "Kang Joonseok, just get me in and I'll unlock your Demonic Soul Power. Quick."

'Quick' he said and 'quick' he was immediately given.

Seunghyuk felt like his whole skin was about to get pulled out from his body and that every single fibre of his body would disintegrate. Seunghyuk's body instantly disappeared from before the male demon and reappeared inside a red, illuminated hallway. It gave off chilly and eery vibes that presented themselves like reapers ready to take lives away with them even before Seunghyuk mentally prepared himself for the shocking sight and sensation.

"What the hell is in this demon's realm? I guess I'm half correct, because this technically is hell," Seunghyuk spoke to himself as he normalised his breathing then took his first few steps forward down the completely straight hallway without any corners or turns.

At the very instant when Seunghyuk weakened his guard even just a little bit, the originally luminescent red hallway blurred and whirled out of focus, shifting and reshaping itself to form whole different surroundings. A dark, dimly-lit corner of what seems like a school from the school crest which seemed unclear at first. Seunghyuk found himself already in a pathetic kneeling position before a group of young boys with flamboyantly dyed hairs and tattooed bodies, looking down smugly at Seunghyuk like Seunghyuk was an absolute lowlife.

"Hey! My little Woofy! Go catch that stick!" was what Seunghyuk heard the red-haired boy shout and all the memories replenished the holes and cracks in his brain where his internal thoughts went absolutely berserk, "No! Why am I brought back here to experience this stupid pain again! Why? Why?!"

"Hey look! I threw quite far today, huh? Maybe my Conqueror abilities are starting to show, yeah?" The same old memories came back like a set of needles, piercing themselves deep inside of Seunghyuk's head, then it was as if the shackles holding his heart still had broken and he shouted out loud like an angered bull, "STOP IT! YOU! YOU REALLY THINK YOU'RE ALL THAT? YOU'RE NOT!"

Seunghyuk's eyes flashed with obvious rage and his palms heated up and uncontrolled fire started to rise and grow at alarming speeds, starting to scorch the easily flammable items around him. Anger was thrown into fueled strength as Seunghyuk screamed his lungs out as to send the raging ball of fire forward towards the group of bullies.

However, the fire never even gotten near to the flamboyant group of boys, instead it shattered the scene around him and large, visible cracks ran across his surroundings like it was just a sheet of glass. The glass shards filled and infused with memories of haunting pain scattered and dropped to the red carpeted ground of the hallway before turning bright and shifting the whole of the surroundings back to that horrifyingly familiar dimly-lit corner of the school, starting off back at the same, pathetic kneeling position again.

"WHY? WHY CAN'T I CHANGE ALL THIS? IS THIS FORCING ME TO COWER ALL OVER AGAIN AND COWER ALL MY LIFE?!" Seunghyuk's agitation peaked and his original well of patience ran completely dry, replaced with a needlessly generous amount of anger and irrationality to act like overflowing magma erupting out of the top of his head.

Seunghyuk's hands lit up with flames of intense fury once again, sending scorching fire projectiles towards the group once again, yet similarly watching the scene break into piteous pieces that drop to the same carpeted ground, only to piece itself back to bring Seunghyuk back into the cruel cycle of endless torturous repeat.

Once, he tried again with the same stubborn anger.

Twice, he utilised all skills possible to try sending the attacks across.

Thrice, he gritted his teeth and grinded his teeth, standing up from the same, pitiful kneeling position only to walk towards the impossible again.

Fourth, fifth, sixth and till the umpteenth time, Seunghyuk felt despair more hopeless than any despair he had ever felt in his whole life. Like light has disappeared from his vision, like life has disappeared along with light. Watching the pieces of painful fate drop to the ground for the millionth time, the surrounding scenery shifted and folded yet again, like a horrendous tune on repeat forcing Seunghyuk to dance like a puppet under control.

"Do...Do I really have to recreate whatever really happened.....like that same old coward I was?" Seunghyuk knelt down before the group of bullies until he was sure his knees have lost the ability to feel.