Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 191

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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191
After chasing Seo Kyung-hyun’s fleeing form for what felt like an eternity, I finally managed to grab him by the nape of his neck.
“At last!”
Now I just needed to impale him on the harpoon. But the creature in my grasp thrashed wildly, shrieking like a madman.
“No! I can’t die! Kill me instead! I am God’s representative! The executor of justice! How dare you, a mere—!”
“Stay still!”
His senseless ravings made me grip harder. Normally, I wouldn’t have paid such words any mind, but the demonic energy had rattled my composure.
As my hand dug deeper, his soul grew translucent, and I instinctively released him.
The freed creature thrashed against the walls and harpoons, causing other souls to break loose as well.
“For a soul to interfere with matter in this state—it’s stronger than I anticipated. This will take some time, so I’ll attend to other matters and return.”
Razgas, observing the building now teeming with souls, left the room.
Dozens of souls ricocheted through the building like pinballs in a machine.
I hadn’t even caught one yet, and the thought of capturing them all made my vision darken.
* * *
I lost all sense of how many hours I’d been trapped inside.
I captured each soul one by one, impaling them back onto the harpoons, and finally secured Seo Kyung-hyun’s soul, completing the collection.
“You! You again?! Just kill me!”
“I’d like nothing more, but suffering for eternity in this place suits you far better.”
I pierced Seo Kyung-hyun onto the harpoon once more. It was no ordinary weapon—the moment souls were impaled, they lost all capacity to resist.
“The exhaustion is setting in…”
Draining them proved far more taxing than exerting force. And mentally, trying to handle Seo Kyung-hyun’s soul gently when I wanted nothing more than to incinerate it was even more grueling.
As I stepped through the door, Razgas was waiting.
“I came to check since it was taking a while, and it seems you’ve just finished. Since you’ve now mastered the art of handling souls, shall we go capture the escaped one?”
There was no respite. I sighed. But thanks to my struggle with the souls, my ability to perceive them had definitely sharpened, and I’d learned how to capture them without damage.
“Can you sense it now?”
I climbed the Mountain with Razgas.
“In this vast Demon Realm, how could I possibly sense a human soul?”
“Souls that have been confined for long periods often lose their sanity. Since they move without thought, they rarely venture far.”
Heeding Razgas’s words, I carefully surveyed my surroundings again.
“There.”
After searching for a while, I found one. Unlike the dark, drab colors of the Demon Realm, it emitted a faint luminescence. Even corrupted, a human soul stood out in this realm.
“Where… are you referring to?”
What I could see, Razgas could not. My training had borne fruit—I could now perceive souls even better than she could.
“Come.”
I took the lead, and Razgas followed.
“No wonder it was impossible to catch if it was hiding in such a remote place.”
It was a dense Forest thick with grotesque trees in an extremely isolated location.
“There it is.”
“Ah! I see it now too!”
As we drew closer, Razgas spotted it as well.
Capturing the souls I found was simple. While I held them, Razgas would suck them into potion bottles.
“Why didn’t you use that bottle for the soul from where Seo Kyung-hyun was?”
“…? Isn’t it prettier to keep them on a harpoon?”
Her expression showed she didn’t understand.
“Never mind. Let’s go catch the next one.”
The remaining three souls instinctively fled when I detected them, but compared to Seo Kyung-hyun’s spirit, they were small fry—easy to capture.
“I can’t see where the last one went.”
“We have time. Let’s search slowly.”
Razgas swayed her hips as she walked ahead of me. The demonic energy affected me with various thoughts, and lust was one of them. Because of that, it was difficult to tear my eyes away from those hips.
I shook my head to clear my mind and looked up at the black sky of the Demon Realm.
* * *
Even after thoroughly searching the western residential district and Forest, the escaped soul was nowhere to be found.
“Did it flee to another region?”
“Hmm…. It’s impossible to leave the western Demon Realm. Let’s at least check the River of Souls.”
“The River of Souls?”
“It’s where souls from the lower realms flow in.”
Bat-like wings spread from Razgas’s smooth back. I followed as she flew ahead.
We crossed several Mountains toward a black pillar.
Only when we drew closer did I realize it wasn’t a pillar at all—it was souls cascading down like a waterfall.
“That’s…. all of it?”
“They’re souls falling into the Demon Realm.”
“There are quite a lot of them.”
“Those souls seep into the Demon Realm and become demonic energy.”
The souls flowing into the River of Souls were already pulped, their condition far worse than Seo Kyung-hyun’s or the escaped souls. Still, given the sheer volume, the light from the souls burned all the more intensely.
“With this, even if the escaped soul were nearby, I wouldn’t be able to see it.”
“It can’t be helped. I’ll report to Gaff that we did our best. Hmm? Why is there a demon here? Please wait a moment.”
Razgas spotted a demon near the River and descended.
It was an Imp—a small, unremarkable demon.
“What are you doing here?”
“Eek?!”
The demon startled and jumped at the sight of Razgas descending from the sky.
“Ah…. Well….”
“You do know this is a forbidden zone, don’t you?”
“Ah…. Yes, I do. I’m leaving now. I got lost and came here by mistake.”
The Imp, who had been cowering before Razgas, flinched upon seeing me and hurriedly turned to leave.
“Wait.”
I called out to the Imp rushing to depart.
“How do you know me?”
That reaction just now was definitely because it recognized me.
“Me, sir? I don’t know you. We’re meeting for the first time, aren’t we?”
The way his eyes darted about only deepened my suspicion.
“Something… feels…”
Different from other demons. There was a familiarity to this presence, as if I’d encountered it before. Yet it wasn’t affection I felt—it was rage that surged through me.
Wondering if demonic energy was clouding my mind, I steadied myself and studied the demon more carefully.
“…You’re human?”
A soul gleamed in the center of the demon’s chest. The escaped soul had taken refuge within the demon’s body, concealed within its form. Standing beside the River of Souls, I hadn’t noticed it at first, but now that I was close enough, it became unmistakably clear.
“…Damn it! Even in death, you obstruct me!”
Imp hurled himself into the River of Souls, and I moved to follow, but Razgas seized my arm.
“Shouldn’t we pursue it?”
“There’s no need. It cannot survive. The River of Souls is like the pure essence of demonic energy itself. No demon or soul—save for a Demon King—can endure the turbulent waters of that river. I will report to Gaff that the soul has been annihilated.”
Though deeply unsettled, I said nothing and withdrew, trusting Gaff’s subordinate’s judgment.
The moment I turned away, a grotesque creature formed from a mangled soul erupted from the river’s depths. Its form was unstable, souls dripping away, only to be reabsorbed from the water to maintain its shape.
“At last… at last I can have my vengeance!”
I threw my body backward, creating distance.
“Vengeance? Who are you?”
“…Have you forgotten me?! How dare you forget the great sorcerer Franklin!”
“Ah, so you were captured by Gaff. Never thought I’d encounter you here.”
“He must have been quite a powerful dark mage. It’s remarkable that he absorbed other souls, but in this state, he won’t maintain his form for long. He’ll be absorbed by the other souls and swept away by the current. Do not engage him.”
“I… I’m dying?! I cannot die! You die with me!”
He spouted nonsense like Seo Kyung-hyun, his mind already fractured from merging with countless other souls.
Franklin unleashed a torrent of clinging souls.
I evaded easily enough, but he seemed to draw endlessly from the river, making his assault relentless.
Unable to expend my life force, I picked up stones from the ground and hurled them, but the demon’s body had already begun dissolving—the rocks passed straight through him.
Since he was destined to vanish anyway, there was no point in engaging him directly. I retreated further.
“Where do you flee…?”
His voice had become so distorted that it stretched into an unintelligible wail. His tattered form swelled to hundreds of meters as it drew in more river water.
And then it crashed down upon both Razgas and me.
“Dodge!”
I could have easily evaded, but Razgas failed to escape in time.
“Damn!”
I enlarged my form and shielded her with my body.
Corrupted souls splattered across my head, neck, and back. The sensation was utterly repugnant.
“Bepar…”
“Useless demon. Get out of here, now!”
She should have fled immediately, but because of this wretched succubus, I was now drenched in filth.
“Eek!”
At my roar, Razgas scrambled away on all fours.
Franklin unleashed a waterfall of souls at me.
Seeing him reminded me of when Franklin had placed a bomb around Na-young’s neck on Earth.
“Damn bastard! You dared plant a bomb on my woman?!”
I charged through the torrent of souls that Franklin unleashed. Each impact fueled my rage, but it also fueled my strength.
“You mustn’t! If you absorb souls like that, you’ll lose your form!”
Razgas screamed, but I wasn’t fool enough to believe a demon’s lies. Why should I stop? This overwhelming power—if I waded into that river, I could absorb even more. Before that, though.
“Die!”
I tore Franklin’s tattered doll-like body to shreds.
“Ah… I hate this… Darkness… what did I do wrong…?”
Franklin’s body scattered formlessly into the river’s current.
“Come out now! Bepar! Ji-seok!”
Razgas shrieked incessantly.
With this power, I could defeat the Manager. No—I could even destroy the Destruction God itself.
My colossal form moved to dip a foot into the river.
“That’s far enough.”
Gaff’s voice.
“You think a demon can stop me, now that I’ve become a god?”
“Rage, desire, arrogance—you’ve been completely consumed by these thoughts. Come to your senses. Your family is waiting for you on Earth, isn’t it?”
“…You filthy demon, don’t you dare speak of my family!”
I pulled myself from the river and walked toward Gaff. I could crush him effortlessly now. Wasn’t he so small?
“If you won’t listen, I’ll make you listen.”
Demonic energy exploded outward from Gaff’s body.
“Come at me.”
Gaff extended his hand.
“Roooaaarrr!!”
I screamed and hurled myself forward, driving my fist down at Gaff.
Boom!
Gaff blocked my attack with a single hand.
“Grow up.”
Black demonic energy coalesced in his palm, forming a colossal hand that seized my wrist and hurled me backward.
As I flew, I pulled my arm and opened my jaws wide at Gaff.
“Damn it! Where do you think you’re biting!”
Gaff’s fist of demonic energy struck my cheek.
His body was small, but that black hand he’d conjured was more than enough to send my massive form flying. I tumbled and regained my footing.
“More… stronger! Faster!”
I charged at Gaff, then planted my hands on the ground. My arms and legs grew proportional, my body becoming more agile. Scales now bristled densely across my face, giving me an appearance not unlike a basilisk.
I lunged at Gaff with my hardened head.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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