Chapter 96
Chapter 96
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 96
Chapter Title: Gevra
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Thud.
Suddenly, my body flew backward. I had no idea what had happened. I tried to shout in panic, but no voice came out.
“...?”
I tried to stop my flying body and land, but it wouldn’t obey. My body simply wouldn’t move.
‘My body?’
Yuri’s eyes widened as he stared ahead. He thought he’d been flung backward, but what he saw was strange. He felt a sense of floating, and everything in view was growing distant—yet Yuri’s body was right there in front of him.
‘I’m flying backward, so why am I over there?’
His fragmented thoughts quickly pieced together an answer. What was flying wasn’t his flesh—it was his soul.
‘What?’
That wasn’t the only bizarre thing.
It was as if time itself had stopped.
Only his soul had departed; Yuri’s body remained standing exactly as it was. It was frozen in the pose of fastening Gevra onto his right wrist. Ha-ryeong was frozen too, in the exact position Yuri had last seen her in, tending to her hidden weapons. Even Estor, who had absentmindedly draped the robe over himself, was motionless.
‘Astral projection?’
Before he could even try to make sense of this inexplicable phenomenon, thump! Another massive sound rang out. With it, the soul that had been forcibly hurled away trembled. Rumble! A powerful gravitational force yanked at Lee Soo-hyuk’s soul.
The soul was sucked back into the body. He couldn’t move the flesh as if nothing had happened, look around, or open his mouth to speak. Lee Soo-hyuk’s soul was pulled deep into Yuri’s body.
How deep? His shaking vision plunged into complete darkness the moment it entered the body, seeing nothing at all. After some time in that darkness—
A massive light appeared. No, it wasn’t light—it was flame. A fiercely roaring blaze burned within Yuri.
Yuri stared blankly at the flame. It wasn’t unfamiliar; he’d felt it every time he circulated the Heavenly Principle Annihilating Evil Art. It was the same flame he’d sensed whenever he delved deep into himself during meditation.
But he’d never seen it this clearly before. It was as if a veritable mountain of flame loomed right before his eyes.
Back when he’d first learned the Clear Hearing Heart Method in Lutran, Yuri had compared it to a shallow spring, while the Heavenly Principle Annihilating Evil Art was a colossal blaze.
That very thought now manifested intuitively before his eyes.
Since leaving Logos, he hadn’t practiced the Clear Hearing Heart Method at all. There was no need to worry about Elena or Ha-ryeong’s suspicions anymore, and with the supreme Heavenly Principle Annihilating Evil Art at his disposal, there was no point in pursuing a mere first-rate technique like the Clear Hearing Heart Method.
Perhaps that was why everything around the roaring blaze was parched and barren. All that remained of what had once been a small spring—the Clear Hearing Heart Method—was a withered, twisted stump, buried beneath the flames.
‘It’s still growing.’
The flame of the Heavenly Principle Annihilating Evil Art, which he’d visualized in his mind a few times before, was far grander than he’d imagined. And it was still expanding. It truly was a mountain of flame.
Overwhelmed, Yuri gazed up at it vacantly. The blaze could topple with the slightest tilt and consume everything—yet though it was the flame of the Heavenly Principle Annihilating Evil Art, it didn’t feel like his at all.
‘What is this...?’
He had no clue what was happening.
As a game item, Gevra dramatically boosted essential stats for close-combat warriors. The stat that saw the biggest increase was strength; equipping Gevra alone sharply raised physical damage.
It didn’t just boost stats. When equipped, it added magic damage proportional to physical attack power. With that extra damage factored in, a well-built setup could expect more than double the damage output from Gevra alone.
Its other option was skill level growth correction. In the game, skill levels maxed at 10, and even reaching that was no easy feat. Time attack records were determined by how quickly you acquired desired skills and synergized them for efficient leveling.
Stat boosts and added magic damage. Skill level growth correction. Allen had said Yuri would understand once he equipped it himself, but hadn’t specified what divine relic powers Gevra exactly possessed.
‘I still don’t get it...’
Startled by a sudden wave of heat, Yuri looked at his right arm. In this mental realm of sorts, his soul body existed separately, and the right arm he saw looked more like Yuri’s than Lee Soo-hyuk’s.
‘Has my soul... merged with the body?’
The mirror from the nightmare of the evil spirit. When he’d first seen Yuri’s face, it had felt so alien it didn’t seem like his own. But at the nightmare’s end, when he looked again, it no longer felt like a stranger’s.
It wasn’t mere fancy; Lee Soo-hyuk himself had yearned for and accepted it. In this world, he was Lee Soo-hyuk and Yuri—he couldn’t deny it. Either way, the answer was ‘me.’
‘Bracelet...?’
Gevra, the bracelet, adorned his soul body’s right arm. It was the bracelet radiating scorching heat. The golden band glowed red-hot, forming a ring of flame.
Twitch.
The flame ring snapped apart on its own. But rather than fall, it shot upward. Rumble! The fierce heatwave threatened to scatter his soul like ash, but Yuri desperately clung to his thread of consciousness. Strangely, that alone let him withstand the blast.
Aaaaaah—
The ascending flames writhed like a living thing. The blaze, swirling with heatwinds, took the form of a massive serpent. Yuri stared at the flame serpent in a daze.
The wandering flame serpent flowed into the Heavenly Principle Annihilating Evil Art’s blaze. As if doused in oil, the flames roared higher, sparks flying everywhere.
An irresistible force shoved his soul away. From afar, Yuri looked down at the flames. The rippling space of colossal fire resembled a furnace, and within that furnace’s blaze, some unknown serpent stared back at him.
Zzzt.
Locking eyes with the serpent, Yuri finally understood Allen’s words. That serpent was the manifestation of the power originally sealed in Gevra, now infused with Yuri’s own will as its master.
The serpent had coiled within the Heavenly Principle Annihilating Evil Art. With that alone, Yuri had seized control of the flame-filled furnace.
“Yuri?”
He returned.
Yuri couldn’t stand and staggered before collapsing to the floor. How much time had passed? He tried to open his mouth, but couldn’t. Exhaustion like having pushed his body and inner energy to their limits crushed him entirely.
“Yuri? What’s wrong? Why the sudden...?”
Estor rushed over, nose buried in the robe he’d draped over himself, sniffing away. A acrid stench. Ha-ryeong flinched and hurried to Yuri too.
“Y-Yuri?!”
He couldn’t maintain his blank expression. Ha-ryeong’s eyes bulged wide, mouth agape as she cried his name. Whoosh! Crimson flames suddenly erupted, engulfing Yuri’s entire body.
“W-What in the world...?!”
Estor swung his hand frantically. A mighty gust enveloped Yuri, but the flames didn’t extinguish even in the wind.
It wasn’t hot.
That was Yuri’s thought, sitting amid the blaze. Exhaustion weighed down his body, yet his mind was strangely crystal clear. He gazed blankly at his burning form within the flames.
“W-Water!”
Estor bellowed, but Ha-ryeong already had some. She grabbed a large flower vase in the room and dumped its water on Yuri. But the innocent flowers turned to ash, the water evaporated—yet the flames persisted.
“I’m fine.”
Yuri said as much first. He had no idea what exactly was fine, but Ha-ryeong and Estor stood awkwardly, watching him. From within the unyielding flames, Yuri slowly moved his sluggish body.
Understanding flowed through him. He knew exactly what to do now. This was, in a manner of speaking, ‘taming.’ He had become the master of the divine relic Gevra.
The flame serpent had coiled in Yuri’s furnace, but that was a spiritual, soul-based experience without physical reality. Based on it, he had to imprint Gevra’s power onto his body, his corporeal soul. Weaving spirit and body together would fully tame Gevra as his own.
“Huuuu...”
Yuri sat cross-legged and closed his eyes. Taming—or perhaps optimization was more accurate. Focusing his mind, he circulated the Heavenly Principle Annihilating Evil Art.
‘I am the flame that enacts heaven’s punishment, the asura that annihilates evil, the apostle that upholds heaven’s principles; my hands cradle the holy flame, my feet tread upon demons.’
With each incantation, the flames intensified rather than subsided. Yuri stayed calm and summoned his inner energy. Though he felt utterly drained, his inner energy remained intact in his dantian.
But its flow was anything but ordinary. The dantian’s energy surged like rapids through his meridians. It erupted from the dantian as flame, shooting to the middle dantian. The furnace expanded—no, connected as one.
It didn’t end there. Filling the middle dantian, the blaze surged upward. The heat searing his heart climbed his spine to his head. Upper dantian. Eyes closed, Yuri focused intently on the Heavenly Principle Annihilating Evil Art.
‘I am the flame that enacts heaven’s punishment, the asura that annihilates evil, the apostle that upholds heaven’s principles; my hands cradle the holy flame, my feet tread upon demons.’
Next.
What came next? Enact heaven’s punishment, become the asura that annihilates evil, the apostle that upholds heaven’s principles, hands cradle the holy flame, feet tread demons. After that?
What was heaven’s punishment to enact? What were heaven’s principles? Straighten what he didn’t even know? Thump, thump, thump... He felt the flame’s momentum weaken at the upper dantian’s gate.
‘For me, is heaven the Goddess of Order?’
No. Yuri didn’t worship the Goddess of Order. The incantation of the Heavenly Principle Annihilating Evil Art, recited mindlessly until now, suddenly grated. He couldn’t immerse or infuse his will freely.
The Heavenly Principle Annihilating Evil Art’s incantation was incomplete. The realm reachable with it alone had limits. To fully open the upper dantian and enter the realm of will, he needed to complete the incantation. Hear the next part from Lorellia, or—
‘I’ll do it myself.’
Unlike before, now questioning the incantation and craving the ‘next’ part meant Yuri’s will had fully merged with the current Heavenly Principle Annihilating Evil Art. He thought of Gevra’s serpent added to his inner flame. Since the serpent too bore his will, it all unified.
Roar...
The flames failed to open the upper dantian and subsided. The blaze enveloping his body faded. Yuri exhaled deeply. It wasn’t his imagination—his breath was hot as a heatwave, his throat burned, and his nose caught an acrid burnt smell.
“Huuuu...”
Composing his breathing, Yuri opened his eyes. Through the hazy smoke, he saw Estor and Ha-ryeong. Estor held a large basin brimming with water—somehow procured—while Ha-ryeong covered her eyes with both hands.
He got why Estor had the basin, but not why Ha-ryeong covered her eyes. She wasn’t even doing it properly; her fingers over her eyes were slightly parted.
“Why are you...”
Mid-sentence, Yuri flinched and looked down at himself.
His clothes were gone. Utterly naked. Damn Gevra’s flames had burned them all away. Yuri hurriedly cupped his groin.
“I didn’t see.”
Ha-ryeong said.
“Honestly, who could’ve predicted a person suddenly bursting into flames, burning up, and turning their clothes to ash?”
“At least your hair didn’t burn. Lucky.”
Estor said gravely, setting down the basin and doffing his robe. Yuri hastily wrapped the handed-over robe, feeling a twinge of regret.
‘If I’d worn those undergarments?’
Insane thought. Yuri shook his head and stood. Even that brought a profound sense of strangeness. He paused, then tentatively lifted a foot.
‘Something’s...’
Movement felt effortless. Lighter? No, faster. It hadn’t been heavy or slow before, but this was distinctly different.
Standing stock-still, Yuri clenched his fist and threw a light punch forward. Bang! Air burst with the motion as his fist extended and retracted.
‘Without even using inner energy?’
Gevra’s options granting extra stats? Punching a few more times, Yuri whipped his head toward Estor.
“Hey, let’s spar.”
“Out of nowhere?”
“Yeah. Give me a sec to get dressed, then ask Lord Alnair if we can use the knights’ training grounds.”
Sudden request, but Estor grinned. He wasn’t the type to refuse a spar.
“We’ll need to change rooms too.”
Ha-ryeong said, lowering her hands from her eyes. Yuri froze and glanced at the ceiling.
The flames that had shot up high had left scorch marks on the ceiling—and the floor too.
“Third time.”
He’d stayed four days at Maybeld manor, and this made the third room change.
*
The spar ended in Yuri’s overwhelming victory.
Not a life-or-death bout, so they held back, but even accounting for that, it was one-sided.
Even without inner energy, his body was fast and strong enough; adding inner energy let him handle Estor’s swift swordplay with ease.
The biggest change was in the Four Gates Thunderclap. The web of lightning within a 1-meter radius hadn’t widened, but it was now flawlessly dense. And unlike before, it reacted instantly to detections.
“Thank you for everything up to now.”
That evening, at Alnair’s request, they dined together.
Amid a feast of nameless delicacies and conversation, Yuri spoke first.
“I wondered when you’d say it.”
Alnair replied, slowly swirling his wine glass.
“With today, you’ve got no reason to stay in this city, right? I realized I hadn’t shared a meal with you all. Thought I’d make the occasion to say it.”
The merchant’s eyes crinkled slyly. Fixing his gaze on Yuri, he asked,
“Heavenly Thunder and I paid our dues, but Iron Stronghold and the Church of the Earth haven’t yet, as far as I know. What’ll you do?”
“Nothing urgent needed, so no plans to seek them out.”
“Leaving the debt outstanding? Splendid. I was there when Iron Stronghold and the Church of the Earth spoke of repaying you. I, Alnair Maybeld, will stand guarantor. Yuri, even decades from now, they’ll have to repay you.”
“You’ll still be alive then?”
“Of course. Who could kill me?”
Alnair snorted and sipped his wine.
“I heard your destination from Estor. Eastern Red Plains? Closest is disembarking at Kwangseo Port. Problem is, no airships departing now.”
“Then what?”
“Use a Maybeld airship. More comfortable and faster than merchant or passenger liners. Eleia.”
Eleia Yudel, mid-chew on meat, looked up at her abruptly called name.
“Mouth full?”
Alnair frowned at the unswallowed reply.
“Don’t be uncouth.”
“You call someone eating. Why’d you summon me?”
“Escort our guests.”
“Escort?”
Eleia blinked.
“Maybeld airship means no other passengers, but who knows what happens in the skies. Messy if something does.”
“Worried about cultists attacking?”
“Doubt they’d go that far, but better safe. Round trip to Kwangseo Port’s two weeks at most. Come along.”
“Got it.”
Eleia nodded, then spoke again.
“No need to return?”
“If you wish.”
“Hm, no—I’ll come back. Not ready to head east yet.”
With that, Eleia returned to her meat.
‘Two weeks.’
Estor had said the trip alone might take half a month; Alnair meant round trip. The Maybeld airship must outperform standard ones.
“By the way, Yuri—got a girl in mind?”
Yuri’s fork and knife crumpled in his grip at the sudden question.
“If not, how about my daughter?”
Servants calmly replaced the cutlery. Yuri cleared his throat and shook his head.
“Weren’t you negotiating with Estor?”
“Why sell me off?”
Ignoring Estor’s incredulous glance,
“I’d love to be in-laws with Orsia if possible. But Estor refused.”
“Sorry, but I’m not ready yet...”
“Why? Got a girl in mind?”
Thud.
Something kicked Yuri’s shin under the table. Ha-ryeong.
Eyes elsewhere, she sliced thick meat, kicking his shin again.
[What?]
[Say yes.]
[Why.]
[Then he won’t push.]
[I can refuse myself.]
[Got a girl in mind?]
[Secret.]
[Secret my foot.]
Sneer and another kick.
“Ah, right— you and Heavenly Thunder’s disciple are close, yeah? That it?”
Before Yuri could answer, Alnair continued.
“Not that.”
Yuri smiled wryly. The kicks stopped. Ha-ryeong’s face, glimpsed sidelong, was unchanged.
Alnair pressed no further; the meal ended peacefully.
Back in his new room, Yuri sat in a chair.
One last task before leaving Alderan.
“Should’ve done it sooner.”
Muttering, he picked up a pen. But couldn’t move it right away.
Where to even start?
-To Elena.
He wrote that much first.