Aflame Inferno (불꽃의 인페르노) is a Manhwa written by IM Dal Young and drawn by KIM Kwang Hyun. This title is published in Booking in South Korea. This also has a Japanese language version published by Comic Valkyrie.
Aflame Inferno is about a self-absorbed high schooler and the nation's top model named Shi-Chan Kang, that gets caught in the middle of a battle between demons. Injured severely and near death, the demon Inferno merges with the student to save his life. Together they win the battle to discover that they are inescapably joined. The only hope of ever becoming separate beings again is to collect 1,000 Invento Hells and find the right spell of Resurrection. Can Shi-Chan Kang balance hunting down demons with his school work?
Manga seems to have been on hiatus since 2011 or earlier while the creators work on Freezing.
Aflame Inferno has examples of:
- Aborted Arc: With the introduction of the remaining Kings, the original idea of getting 1,000 Invento Hells has apparently been abandoned, as Inferno and Kang have both been ignoring the Invento Hells recently.
- The Ace: Shi-Chan. In addition to being a famous model, he has the highest academic scores in school, and in mock combat simulations, as well as being the top athlete.
- Archaeological Arms Race: Subverted. Pandemonium wants to be the first to find and control the ancient Teldar ruins so he can make himself the "perfect being." Unfortunately, once he gets there, all his ambitions and prejudices are not only overturned but he gets slapped in the face by them.
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: This is due to South Korean censorship. Averted in the Japanese version.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Two prominent moments stand out. Chae-Hee's grandmother, alone in a room, wished to see Chae-Hee meet the man who would make her happy before she closes her eyes for the last time. This does indeed happen. She comes out of the house and sees Shi-Chan... right before the boiler explodes, killing her. Right before that, although he doesn't say it out loud, Shi-Chan wished Chae-Hee dead because he was terrified of her, due to the fact that she is a witness to Inferno taking over his body. A serial killer stabs her to death and then her corpse is possessed by Gehenna.
- Becoming the Mask: It's implied this happens when a Tedlar stays in a human body for too long. Inferno nearly falls completely for this after she becomes a mother.
- Big Bad: Pandemonium is shaping up to be this.
- Big Damn Heroes: Several times during the raid on the TBI building, all times subverted as the Big Damn Heroes get their asses rather brutally kicked. Even Inferno. Except for Gehanna.
- Boisterous Bruiser: Gehenna. Inferno does show shades of this when Shi-Chan utilizes the Tedlar Legend's power.
- The Charmer: Shi-Chan, up to The Casanova levels.
- Likes Older Women: Shi-Chan
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Gehenna, it's possible that this may be because of Chae-Hee's growing feelings for Shi-chan.
- Gehenna has stated that she is attracted to him and has offered herself on more than one occasion, only for him to refuse. Which only serves to attract her to him even more.
- Creepy Child: Pandemonium's current body.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Shi-Chan. His mother didn't just die, she died in a fire that completely consumed the family home, and she nearly took him with her, if his nightmares can be believed..
- Demonic Possession: This is how the Tedlars get a physical form.
- Demon Slaying: the T.B.I. are humans who do this.
- Dub Name Change: Like Unbalance × Unbalance and The Phantom King, the Japanese translation of Aflame Inferno replaces all the Korean names and changes the setting from Seoul to Tokyo.
- Fantastic Racism: Tedlars don't see humans as much other than fodder for Demonic Possession.
- The TBI agents display this doubly so. Upon their introduction, they brutally slaughter a Tedlar priest who was nothing but completely beneficial to the community he lived in. They presumably did honor his last request to aid a terminally ill child, however.
- Feminine Women Can Cook: Chae-Hee. Gehenna goes to sleep and lets Chae-Hee cook the food.
- First-Episode Resurrection: Shi-Chan is mortally wounded instead of killed, but the overall effect is the same. Chae-Hee/Gehenna is a similar case.
- Girlish Pigtails: O'Reilly, Chae-Hee in her school uniform.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Shi-Chan and Inferno.
- Hearing Voices: Shi-Chan is the only one that can hear Inferno. Until recently.
- Hellish Pupils: When this happens, on a person, expect some asswhooping to happen.
- Historical Domain Character: Joan of Arc.
- Hot for Teacher: Shi-Chan, at first.
- Hot Teacher
- Idiot Hair: Chae-Hee/Gehenna
- I Gave My Word: Inferno once gave a promise that she would never kill a human, even in self defense. A promise she has "technically" kept.
- Averted with Gehenna who promised to spare a Tedlar's life if said Tedlar defeated Inferno in mortal combat.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: He can be normal. It's just he needs 1000 Invento Hells to do it. Which isn't going to be easy since Inferno was pretty low on Invento Hells to begin with.
- Invisible to Normals: Tedlars that have human bodies are often unnoticed by normal people and low-level tedlars.
- Jerkass: Pandemonium
- Lady of War: Gehenna. Inferno as well.
- Lethal Chef: Gehenna, the Queen of Destruction, cooks food that lives up to her moniker if by accident. A subversion since her host body, Chae-Hee, is a rather excellent cook.
- Marriage of Convenience: Shi-chan and Chae-Hee/Gehenna. As part of protecting The Masquerade.
- Meaningful Names: Inferno is the Italian name for Hell. Gehenna, is the hebrew name for the place where the souls for the wicked dead go to. Thanatos is the Greek personification of Death. Pandemonium (all demons) is a name invented by John Milton for the capital city of demons in Paradise Lost.
- Missing Mom: Shi-Chan's is dead prior to the start of the manhwa.
- The Mole
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Gehenna's rep is such that even high-level Tedlars are terrified of her. Even then, she's second place given the reactions that the Tedlars make when they realize that Inferno is actually alive and well.
- To be fair, Thanatos and Pandimonium are almost as feared, being that they are two of the four Tedlar Emperors. Gehenna is just unpredictable and just the name Inferno scares everybody.
- Also subverted in a way. While Inferno has a fearsome reputation of being invincible and holding a grudge against every Tedlar in existence, that invincibility came from an ability that burns Invento Hell on an "x per second" basis, together with having an absolutely enormous amount of Invento Hell. Today, Inferno is running pretty low on Invento Hell, so even mid-level Tedlars can become dangerous enemies - Inferno is still dangerous, but nowhere near the rumors.
- New Transfer Student: Gehenna/Chae-Hee
- No Biological Sex: Tedlars, by default until they possess their first human body. From then on, they develop a preference of which gender they assimilate easier with and their manifested bodies also take on gender-identifying characteristics.
- Ordinary High-School Student: Shi-Chan Kang
- Our Demons Are Different: Tedlars are invisible to people and need human bodies to interact in the living world. So far, Inferno, Gehenna and her Western Clan are the only ones that willingly make sure to take already dead human bodies as hosts. The other Tedlars could care less if their host is alive or dead.
- Parental Abandonment: Chae-Hee's parents are apparently dead and her grandma died in a battle between Shi-Chan and Gehenna
- Parental Substitute: Chae-Hee's grandma was this to her and Gi-Huun, her brother.
- People Puppets: The Tedlars take over the bodies of people and use them to get around in the living world.
- Pandemonium plays this completely straight by turning human corpses into actual puppets compelled to serve and protect him.
- Playing with Fire: This is one of Inferno's specialties.
- Prehensile Hair: Gehenna when she's in control of Chae-Hee's body. It slices flesh, rocks, and concrete. And onions.
- Pretty Boy: Shi-Chan is so pretty that he models on the side.
- Ragnarok Proof: Lampshaded and Justified. The ancient Teldar city found by Pandemonium and Thanatos is in a cave atop a very tall mountain. The paintings, database, and artifacts all show that the city used to be on flat fertile plains, above ground. This means that the city survived several major geologic changes, mostly intact, and the technology, infrastructure, and techniques used to make buildings that sturdy has been lost with time.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Thanatos after Eliza's death
- Inferno on every single Tedlar who crossed her path after Thanatos and Pandimonium killed her human family. It's how Inferno's terrifying legend began.
- Sharing a Body: Shi-Chan and Inferno.
- Shrinking Violet: Chae-Hee Shin
- Supreme Chef: Chae-Hee
- Sweet on Polly Oliver: Reader variation, as Inferno isn't quite up to the title of King...
- Taking the Bullet: Eliza does this for Thanatos.
- This Is a Drill: Shi-Chan gets at the business of this in one of the early chapters.
- Translation Convention: Zigzagged. When Pandemonium drags Thanatos to the ancient Teldar ruins, supposedly untouched by humanity for thousands of years, a holographic avatar appears that speaks with Thanatos and Pandemonium, all in the same language. It is never made clear if they are all speaking "ancient Teldar" or the ruins have somehow found a way to speak modern languages fluently.
- Worthy Opponent: Gehenna apparently feels this way about Inferno. Possibly combined with The Only One Allowed to Defeat You.
- Yandere: Gehenna and she actually has a valid reason to be. Since she's protecting both him and Inferno, she'd much rather he not be out chasing other girls while she's involved in fights with other Tedlar Emperor lvl foes with no back-up and no way for him to reach her. In additon to Shi-Chan being the official fiance to her host, Chae-Hee.
