part- 4 (1)

I am in the forest where I dueled with my master and right now I am—

"haaah….haah…..haah"

half dead while trying hard to breathe because I have been running for an hour without slowing down and my speed is—

—"you are going to start running with the speed of a bullet train"

that is what my master said while we started to train. I am completely exhausted. master runs along with me and right behind me. if I slow down even a little bit he hits with the wooden stick on my lower back and it pains like hell. as I was running like that while trying hard to breathe I asked my master who is running behind me

"hah….. master…..I thought….. we were training"

"what are you talking about, we are training now arent we?"

"master this is not training…. it is torturing"

"shut up and run, if you have the energy to talk then just run"

he said that with a strong base tone and high pressure. so I ran silently

after a total run of 3 hours at the speed of the bullet train which is practically 500 kilometers per hour. since I am a devil right now this speed is not killing me or else I would be dead even with the 10th part of this speed. I fell on my back to the ground. My legs are in pain, my heart is pumping so loud that I can even hear it and my lungs are in pain with every breath I take in. as I was in this much pain my master comes near me while I am lying down and looks down on me and says

"you should not be like that since this is the general workout for you for 10 days straight from now"

"10 days!!!!....wait, then I am done after that!!!?"

as I was lying down I asked as if it were good news among the bad news then he broke my last hope by saying

"After that, you will be training in swordsmanship with me for 1 hour and the next 1 hour for hand to hand combat"

"what hey I thought that you would only teach me how to control Abeloth's power and why do I need swordsmanship training. I am more of a hand to hand combat user"

as I said that master replied to me

"when fighting using only one method of fighting is not efficient especially when fighting the celestial creatures so you have to train all the other weapons as well which will be after 10 days and then in real combat you can use whichever you excel in"

"oh, I see now"

as I was saying that he continued

"and regarding the red dragon power you will learn how to control it after those two training and the amount of time you spend for that is 3 hours"

"3 hours huh. which is almost the amount of basic training "

"3 hours is actually pretty less. you might think that my purpose is to make you train on how to use the red dragon power. but that is not it."

"..."

I agree with him because I felt the power of the red dragon on the first hand so I was silent while he continued

"my purpose is to make you strong. you are not used to your enhanced physical capabilities at the moment. so my primary objective is to make you get used to it in these 10 days"

oh~ now I get it why I am running like this

"Ohh that is why you are making me run to my limit huh… wait if this speed is to make me get used to it then what is going to be after 10 days"

just as he said the first 10 days is this routine then if this is just the start of it then what is it going to be after 10 days. when I asked him while practically freaking out he said to me

"after the 10 days you will be trained with the thought of exceeding your maximum limit. so until then just get used to it"

"ughhh damn it"

so my fear was right. I am gonna go through a living hell in the future. as I was feeling depressed and afraid for the future that was yet to come my master continued without even considering my feeling. what a monster

"after the training of red dragon power you will learn about underworld and power rankings."

"then what about all the other time!!?"

"what do you mean?"

"you know like food or sleeping"

when I said that master looked at me with a confused expression and replied with a dubious answer as if it were the most natural thing to do

"ah, about that you will be living in this forest along with me by camping in the sorest and you will come with me to the town near the border after all the other training so that you can see how the underworld works"

"c-camping!!? I expected the training to be harsh but this is way too harsh…. good thing that I at least I will get to take breaks"

as I was saying that with a painful expression while trying my best to control my tears master spoke without even concern

"alright. now that the schedule explanation is over let us get to the next part of training. standup, it is time for sword training"

"wait!!! don't I at least get a break after that much running!!?"

"not now. you're only allowed to take breaks in the afternoon and evening"

definitely living hell damn it

"master please don't tell me that I have to do like this every day"

"nope"

"phew…"

I was relieved at least half though but what am I forgetting

"as I said before you will get even more harsh training from tomorrow and after 10 days even harsher"

now I remember what I forgot. he said just now regarding my training getting harsher after 10 days but in all the outrageous things I heard until now from master I forgot those

"m-m-master you are kidding right!!!?"

"no"

"my body will break!!!!"

when I said that master replied with a dazzling smile

"no don't worry your body will be just fine and if you do this every day your body will get even stronger"

"no waaaaaaayyyyyyyyy"

I cannot hold it anymore. the tears that I held until now have started to flow. as I was crying master told me

"you said that the red dragon had talked to you right?"

"y-yes"

"then that itself shows your capability. you will survive this training"

"this and that are two different things!!!"

when I said that master replied with a serious expression

"no"

"eh?

"the red dragon does not talk to anybody. it only talks to its host when it acknowledges them as a strong being which is capable of being its master"

"....really?"

"Yeah, after all, it is one of the three heavenly dragons that fought the strongest demon king the history. maria leviathan"

"maria leviathan. so that is the name of the strongest demon king huh"

"yes"

when I asked that he replied to me. after hearing that I asked him

"master from the time I came to hell. I heard a lot about the strongest demon king from Solomon and others. is she really that big of a deal"

when I asked that master who looked towards me and said until now suddenly started to look towards the sky as if he was remembering something and said to me

"that girl is very strong. one day she trespassed heaven and fought the god in a head to head battle and injured him severely and came back with injuries but alive"

"wait what!!!? a demon injured the god in a head-to-head battle. is it really possible?"

I was stunned after hearing that. my master who saw me looked as if my reaction was a natural one and continued while smiling

"not only her, but her entire generation demon kings are also monstrously strong enough to fight the god head-on. but nobody can survive the battle they might injure the god but it is doubtful whether they will be back alive. except for maria that is"

"....."

I was unable to talk after hearing that as he continued

"she is the only student of mine that survived this harsh training that lasted for 5 years. so you can also survive it don't be so down"

"you can't compare me to the strongest demon king damnit"

what is he thinking comparing me to the strongest demon king? as I was retaliating while crying to what he said

"if that generation demon kings were here, they would've just destroyed the celestial creatures"

then master replied to me with a serious expression. I stopped crying and looked towards him as he continued

"the present generation demon kings have put their trust in you that you will defeat the celestial creatures which means they put the same amount of trust they put in the strongest demon king generation if they were here"

"....."

"The training you did just now would make you strong enough to go and defeat an intermediate celestial but you need to train more if you wanna defeat even further strongest celestials"

".... even though you say that…."

I was hesitating even then. I was surprised that the trust they put in me is equal to the trust they put in the strongest demon king generation. as I was hesitating master continued while looking at me

"do you know what the demon kings did to bring you back to life?"

"Uhm… some kind of a….magic?"

when I said that master replied to me

"There is no magic in this world that can bring someone back to life. if there was there would not be this kind of chaos in the underworld right now"

"then how did they—"

when I was about to ask master he raised his two fingers and said

"There are only two ways to bring back someone to life. one is either a zodiac guardian or an earth guardian or the creator. they can only bring someone back to life and the other is to use a special stone known as a miracle sphere to bring someone back to life"

"then what did they use?"

"They chose the latter method. the miracle stone. a rare item that can only be created by the zodiac guardian of light once in every 5 million years by compressing an immense magic power"

"no way they used something that precious?"

"yes, it is given to each part of the land every once in 5 million years including the heaven and hell, and the land that received that stone does not receive it once again until all the lands receive it. like a cycle. before the celestials invasion, our land was the last piece to receive and we were hiding it for the past 100 million years as a last trump card against the celestials creatures"

"last trump card? how?"

"if we use this miraculous sphere. we can erect a barrier for a huge amount of time and that is strong enough to keep the celestial creatures out of the island and once the barrier is erected we would use the time to train and wait until the zodiac guardians were all reborn. this was all going to happen at the verge of our defeat but Solomon and others used the miracle sphere without even telling us."

"....."

I felt bad for what they did for me. as I was silent master continued

"originally it is a painful execution for anybody who did that for punishment but they were excused because they what they reincarnated is not any normal human being but the host the red dragon. so that is the reason they are still alive now and you are being trained. so are you going to betray their trust and leave them to die?"

when he said that my eyes were wide open due to the shock. I did not know they did that much for me. until now I only remembered the celestial that killed me due to the trauma but now I remembered something else.

— "if we die will you protect this island in our place."

the words they said to me when they brought me back to life. So that was what he meant at that time. they thought that they were going to be executed due to what they have done. that means if I ignore their request now they will be executed. meaning my new friends will die. I am not gonna let that happen. no matter what

"master"

"hm?"

as I was thinking that I called out to my master

"let's move onto the next stage of training "

when I said that he smiled as I continued with a determination

"I am not gonna abandon their hope no matter what"

seeing my resolve master replied with a smile

"good"

as soon as he said that we continued onto the next stage of training