Kill Your X Chapter 100 - END.

“Is it you two again?”

The Demon King, having confirmed the newly arrived souls, let out an exasperated sigh. He looked utterly fed up.

Those who arrive in Hell must stand before the Demon King once to be assigned their place. It wasn’t a position that guaranteed the right to speak, but the Demon King, more merciful than is commonly perceived, allowed it to some extent.

“My liege. The God who reigns over the lowest place in this world, Hell.”

The voices of the two souls overlapped. The Demon King, pressing his temple, sat crookedly in his chair. It would be the same old story, he didn’t even need to hear it.

The Demon King’s prediction was spot on.

“This one is innocent. Everything was done because of me, so it is only right that I bear all the punishments of Hell. Please, I beg you, send the person next to me out of Hell.”

The neat-looking man pleaded. Then, as if on cue, the man with a cold impression took his turn to speak.

“I don’t care if it’s Hell or Heaven. Just let me be with this person. I would rather be annihilated forever than be separated.”

In a normal case, he would have let the sinner’s story go in one ear and out the other and assigned them a suitable place in Hell. I repeat, in a normal case.

With the help of his aide standing by his side, the Demon King checked the specific charges of these two. Looking at the endlessly written items, he spoke with a sour expression.

“I just don’t get it. Don’t you ever get tired of this? I can’t even count how many times you two have come to Hell, hand in hand. The circumstances are always more or less the same, just with slight variations.”

The paper, densely packed with charges, fluttered in the air and fell to the floor. As always, the man with the cold impression had committed the graver sins. This one harms others every time to protect the one standing next to him. And a great many of them at that.

No matter how much it was in the name of protecting his lover, murder is murder. Furthermore, a case like this one, where he annihilated another’s entire family, was rare even in Hell, making a severe punishment inevitable.

It was unfortunate, even for the Demon King, that the neat-looking man had such terrible luck with family in every repeated life… but not everyone born into the world acts as extremely as they do. What could be done? In the end, it was all their own karma.

“Demon King. I am on my knees, begging you. If this person had never met me in the first place, none of this would have happened.”

“Silence that mouth.”

The deafening roar of the gates of Hell opening and closing echoed nearby. It was a greedy movement, wanting to swallow the newly arrived sinners.

The soul, sensing its impending fate, shed a stream of tears. The one sitting next to it hugged it tightly. As if to say they would never let go, no matter what happened.

“What am I to do with you two?”

The Demon King took his time to deliberate. There was no soul who came to Hell without a story, but he felt a certain pity for these young people who were uniquely unable to escape the shackles of a terrible fate.

Though he possessed irreplaceable power, even the Demon King did not know why this fate repeated itself. Perhaps it was called fate precisely because the ending was decided from the beginning…

“Well, one thing is for sure, I cannot keep you two souls together. Take this one away.”

“Yes.”

Before he could do anything, one soul was dragged into the gates of Hell. It was the one who had claimed it was all his fault and insisted on gladly accepting all the punishments. The remaining soul tried to follow, but was too easily blocked by the executioners. It was impossible for a mere soul to defy those rooted in Hell.

Rumble. The after-sound from the closing of the Hell gates faded. The surroundings were quiet, as if nothing had happened. So quiet that it was hard to guess what kind of punishments the sinful souls were undergoing inside.

Towards the soul that was still strongly protesting despite having its right to speak taken away, the Demon King raised his hand high. That alone was enough to make the soul freeze like a stone.

“I am so sick of it. That’s why I can’t stand the sight of you.”

The Demon King made the final decision to inflict the punishment of the hellhound on those who remained outside. This was one of the punishments given to souls who had committed extremely grave sins, and since it had the nature of a curse, one could not escape that state without the Demon King’s permission. After working to death until their bodies grew old, they had to be eaten by other hellhounds and be painfully annihilated.

In obedience to the Demon King’s command, the soul became a hellhound. It lost all its memories and spent its days faithfully serving its role as a guard dog, serving only the Demon King as its master. The Demon King was satisfied, as it was remarkably good at its job compared to previous hellhounds.

Then, there were times when the dog would occasionally stare blankly into the void for no reason. It was as if it was desperately yearning for someone, despite its ego being completely empty. Knowing it was impossible for a being stripped of human emotions, but it being the first time he’d seen such a case, the Demon King watched the dog carefully.

Meanwhile, the man who had been sucked into the gates of Hell was sentenced to the punishment of the fiery pit, and was buried in hot flames every day. It was the price for setting fire to a stranger’s house to save his lover in a crisis.

As the punishment was repeated, the soul began to lose its form. If it were repeated a little longer, the once radiant soul would completely crumble. And in the next life, it would be born with another name. That is, if luck was on its side.

“Hmm…”

Then, when the soul was left with only the form of a heart, the Demon King fell into deep thought. Looking at the situations both outside and inside the gates of Hell, he felt troubled.

What’s the point of making them endure such a difficult punishment? The two, bound by a tenacious fate, seemed likely to find their way back to him in the next life, and the life after that. There were far more souls who were annihilated in Hell and never got a next life, but these two were peculiar in many ways. For now, he had one of them held as a hellhound, but it was only a temporary measure. Since the lifespan of a hellhound is not eternal.

“What if I were to prevent them from repeating the decisive cause that brings them here?”

If he could prevent them from directly harming others, especially their own kin, in order to save each other, wouldn’t the result be different? Perhaps he could easily break the chain of their ill fate with minimal intervention.

Once his thoughts reached that point, the Demon King pulled the soul out of the fiery pit. There were many souls that came in and were quickly annihilated, but as a result of various tests, this soul was one that could endure any punishment for a long time.

There were probably many reasons, but the strongest would be its powerful will not to disappear just like that. It must want to survive somehow and return to the side of its loved one.

The soul in his hand pulsed violently, as if it were a complete living being in itself. Was it because it was such a pure and fragrant soul that it was paradoxically burdened with such a wretched fate?

Having made up his mind, the Demon King approached the dog outside the gate.

“My loyal dog. You have done well again today in preventing souls from escaping Hell.”

The dog, having lost its memory, reacted without knowing anything. Its pupils dilated at the scent of the fresh soul, and it twitched its oily nose.

As a reward for its hard work, the Demon King threw the soul to the dog. He repeated the same thing a few more times, and was finally relieved when the dog changed, knowingly or unknowingly.

Finally, when he thrust a spear into the dog’s heart, the soul that had been clinging to the heart instantly escaped from Hell. The dog’s annihilation speed was also fast.

“What an impatient bunch.”

The Demon King muttered, looking down at the empty spot.

He didn’t intentionally give a mission that contradicted the original purpose.

Even the absolute ruler of Hell cannot completely avoid the interference of fate. Especially when doing something that crosses the line between life and death, there were things that had to be given up, and above all, a justification was important. Unconditional goodness was the domain of Heaven, so in order to help a pitiful soul, the Demon King had to choose a rather cumbersome method.

✽✽✽

The process was extremely arduous, but in the end, it turned out as the Demon King wanted. The two finally broke the ill-fated connection that had pierced through their long lives. It was in a way that the Demon King had not anticipated.

Seo Seunghan did not kill Song Jeonggun, nor any of Gyujin’s other family members. Since Seunghan had no family, Gyujin also achieved the same result.

If they did not commit any other sins for the rest of their lives, at least this time, the two would not enter Hell together.

But one only knows how a life will end when it’s over. The Demon King, who had returned to Hell first, anxiously awaited the sinners. They usually came in before they could pass their youth, but even after more than a decade had passed, the Demon King did not see their faces. It was worth the effort of using his power to break Seo Seunghan’s curse. A faint smile bloomed on the Demon King’s lips.

He had achieved his goal, but there was one other side effect.

Having gone up to the human world and observed humans directly, he saw that life was a series of countless choices. Once he understood the process roughly, the sinners’ stories sounded multi-dimensional, unlike before.

‘Leaving my position as the ruler of Hell for a long time was not a very good choice.’

The Demon King frowned upon discovering this part of himself that had been partially assimilated by humans.

To pull himself together, the Demon King summoned a sinner he had neglected for quite some time. It was a soul that had entered during his time in the human world and had yet to be assigned a place in Hell.

However, the wait would not have been comfortable by any means. The sinner’s face, seen after a long time, was proof of that.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a soul in such a hideous state.”

Seeing the face with all its features melted and dripping, the Demon King clicked his tongue.

The soul, facing the Demon King for the first time after a long while in Hell, was startled. It was because he had the face of someone he had definitely known in his mortal life.

“What, are you resentful about coming to Hell? It’s foolish enough to think you wouldn’t be killed by others after killing several people yourself.”

Song Jeonggun was suicided in the detention center. The culprit was another gang member, commissioned by the Kumto-pa boss, Shi Seunghwan.

“There’s no need to think long about what punishment to give. Seeing how you listened so well to the Kumto-pa boss, you’ll surely perform the role of a hellhound well.”

With a single gesture, Song Jeonggun was turned into a dog. Hellhounds have various appearances depending on their individual dispositions, and Song Jeonggun’s was not a pleasant sight. He was on the verge of rotting quickly and becoming prey for the other dogs.

“Do you happen to know? What happens when a hellhound doesn’t do its job properly?”

The dog instinctively flattened its body and trembled. Unlike Seo Seunghan, he was slow-witted, so it seemed like something interesting would happen soon.

“If you don’t want to find out, you’d better keep your wits about you.”

The Demon King, having returned to his original ruthless nature, nudged the dog’s side with his foot. Showing mercy to a sinner once was enough.