The Balance Collapses
I thought a pure white light had swallowed the world.
I blinked.
The world that greeted me when I opened my eyes again was—
-Screeeech….
A world ablaze with blood-red twilight.
Everything was silent. Quiet as if every living thing had already died. Not even the whisper of wind reached my ears.
In that absolute stillness only one sound existed: the death-cry of a cicada, shrill enough to tear eardrums.
At my feet a cicada lay on its back, thrashing.
-Flutter
It kicked and struggled with every last scrap of strength, trying to right itself. In the end it never rose. It simply died.
My eyes felt gritty. The air stung.
How long had I been awake? How long had I been asleep?
-Flutter.
The hem of my black martial robes stirred. A sharp, metallic reek brushed the tip of my nose. One corner of my vision burned with the crimson fire of twilight.
Endless sky. Dense forest. A valley stream. Water flowing.
-Screeeech….
Here, where only the cicada’s dying scream cut the silence, I stood in Maseonrim.
“Ah—. Young Master Moyong Bi.”
At the entrance of Maseonrim, casting a cool shadow through the blood-red dusk, stood a middle-aged man with yellow eyes.
“It’s been a while. Have you been well?”
A single gust of wind rose.
-Flutter
For an instant the forest, the black cloth of my robes, and the man’s own garments all stirred together. From me came a rough, grinding sound like iron scraping iron.
“…Mara Jin.”
“Oh.”
At the sound of his name his yellow cat-like eyes flashed.
“You remember my name. Remembering a name is a very good thing. Very good indeed. A name, you see, marks the beginning of a relationship. Isn’t that so?”
The middle-aged man, Mara Jin, smiled with an easy, almost friendly air.
“Why am I suddenly in Maseonrim? Just a moment ago I was—”
“You were in the arena of the Jeolhae Outer Branch of Unwol Jiju, were you not? And your opponent was the Seventh Palace Lord of the Blood Sect, Lord Ryu Hwasa? Correct? He was a most impressive man.”
“….!”
Mara Jin grinned.
“No need for such a startled expression. That is all I know. Even I cannot look down upon everything.”
He shrugged.
“Unfortunately I, too, can see only what the law of causality permits.”
“…So what business do you have dragging me here again? As I told you last time, the deal—”
“Tut-tut—”
Mara Jin rounded his yellow eyes and shook his head.
“Our Young Master Moyong Bi is mistaken.”
A cold weight settled in my chest. Something was going terribly wrong.
“Though we stand face to face here, this time the principal party is not Young Master Moyong Bi.”
“Then who?”
Mara Jin bowed at the waist. Yellow eyes glittered; white teeth showed. Beneath the blood-red light he whispered,
“This time the principal is the Seventh Palace Lord of the Blood Sect—Ryu Hwasa.”
For a moment the words refused to make sense.
“What did you say?”
My breath stopped. Watching my face, Mara Jin brought his five fingers together, turned them upside down, and blinked those yellow eyes.
“It is no longer the ancient age when the White Lotus Demon Sect, yin-yang arts, and heretical techniques ruled supreme. I myself did not expect anyone in the present Central Plains still to know of me. Yet he pointed me out with perfect accuracy and summoned me.”
“W-wait—”
Mara Jin smiled with quiet satisfaction.
“Ryu Hwasa seems to have realized that, as things stood, he would never be able to deal with the ‘true target’ he originally intended. So before approaching that target he first called me as intermediary and offered up every sacrifice he had gathered.”
“What!?”
“Honestly, I was quite surprised. In other words—”
He clapped his hands lightly.
“—it means the sacrifices meant for the ‘true target’ he intends to deal with will all be settled by ‘borrowing.’ Truly bold-hearted. Especially since my loans carry extremely high interest—”
-Grab!!!!
I seized Mara Jin by the collar.
“You son of a bitch, what the hell kind of deal did you make?!”
One edge of the crimson twilight began to crumble. Blinking his yellow eyes, Mara Jin offered a polite greeting even while held.
“Young Master Moyong Bi?”
Still collared, the middle-aged man blinked. He raised a hand, closed it gently over the fist that gripped him, and tapped the back of my hand.
Tap.
Tap.
He smiled.
“If you were not the sole disciple whom Asura uniquely dotes upon to the extreme, your head would have burst open just now and you would already be dead.”
Mara Jin clasped my hand.
“I am an intermediary and a merchant of bodies. I hold no personal feelings—neither toward you nor toward Lord Ryu Hwasa. If anything, when personal feelings are considered, I am rather on your side. You can tell from the fact that I came to pay this private greeting, can you not? So.”
He gently pried my fingers free.
“Let go. Calm yourself.”
Then he gave me a soft push.
-Rumble…!!
Maseonrim began to collapse. I stared at him.
“…You don’t know Ryu Hwasa.”
“Is that so? I thought we had shared quite a few conversations.”
“That bastard is the kind of man you never know what he’ll do next.”
“I am merely a merchant who conducts transactions. What sort of person my customer is does not concern me.”
I bit my lip hard.
“There’s something you’re mistaken about, you devil who buys and sells flesh. Dig out both ears and listen carefully.”
Mara Jin’s face went blank. His yellow eyes blinked once.
“A hunter may strut through the forest like a creator, holding the power of life and death. A fisherman may decide which fish to catch and which to release, roaming the lake as he pleases. Yet if the forest is laid waste and the lake dries up, both hunter and fisherman starve. That is the way of the world.”
“…What exactly are you trying to say?”
I ground my teeth.
“Ryu Hwasa is not some madman who lights a fire merely to warm himself. He is a true lunatic whose purpose is the fire itself. After every last grain of rice in the entire Central Plains has been reduced to ash, do you think you’ll still be able to trade bodies the way you do now? Will you still be able to speak so calmly of deals and claim a customer’s business is none of your concern?”
“….”
Mara Jin regarded me in silence for a long while. I met his gaze without yielding. His five pressed fingers did not so much as twitch.
“Hmm.”
In that unnatural, off-balance posture, as though time itself had stopped, he stared at me without blinking for what felt like an eternity.
“…Well, fine. Since it is you and not another, I shall listen. Precisely what is it you wish to know so badly?”
At last he spoke.
-Rumble…!!
Maseonrim continued to crumble. I opened my mouth.
“The contents of the deal you made with Ryu Hwasa.”
“That ‘you bastard’ manner of speech is a little grating, but I shall overlook it. Before I speak, shall I review the terms of my agreement with Lord Ryu Hwasa to confirm whether I may disclose them?”
Mara Jin rested his chin on his hand.
“Well… the deal is already concluded, the price has been received, and whether Lord Ryu Hwasa lives or dies has nothing to do with my transaction… I suppose. Very well. I shall tell you.”
In the shaking vision, within the brightening light, Mara Jin’s voice whispered against my ear.
“The contents of the deal are—”
I felt my blood freeze solid.
“What kind of insane nonsense is that?”
“In my personal opinion, that is.”
The sky was collapsing. The ground was sinking. At the very edge of consciousness drowning in a sea of twilight, Mara Jin smiled faintly.
“With this, every balance will collapse. There is no turning back now. Leaving all camps of the righteous, the evil, the demonic, and the blood, every Guardian who has remained silent until now will open a field of hungry ghosts where they slaughter one another.”
The white light vanished.
-Crack…
-Rumble…
I lowered the arm that had been shielding my eyes. The protective energy resonating with the Seven Sects Black Pearl Gauntlet withdrew from in front of me.
-Zap! Zzzap!
The black lightning that had wrapped my body faded. The Mandala, as though it had taken root near Ryu Hwasa’s heart, wriggled like a living heart while it drank his blood.
“Ke… keke… so it worked… this… this is really…”
Ryu Hwasa staggered. I closed the distance in an instant.
“Oh, Moyong Bi-gu—”
-Thud!!!!
My fist drove into his solar plexus.
-Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!!!
Four layers of red mist rose like protective energy to guard him, but every one of them shattered uselessly before my blow.
“Ke… uuuugh!!”
Ryu Hwasa’s mouth gaped wide. Spittle sprayed past broken front teeth. Vomit hit the ground.
-Whoosh.
The last iron skewer still lodged in my left ankle tore free. I flung it into the air and kicked it with the top of my foot. Impaled on its tip was Ryu Hwasa’s heart. There was not a shred of hesitation in the motion.
-Thud!
Heart and Mandala were pierced together. The skewer sank to the hilt. Blood erupted like a fountain.
-Kyaaaa!
The Mandala thrashed wildly. Ryu Hwasa clutched his chest and stumbled backward. I muttered blankly. Sensitive as I was to the scent of death, I knew at once.
“…Even this and he still doesn’t die?”
Even while writhing in agony, Ryu Hwasa tumbled away.
“Ha… hi… ho… hihi… ha… Moyong Bi-gun. If you meant to kill me you should have done it earlier. You can’t now. My life is mortgaged, you see.”
He trembled as he retreated.
“Thanks to you. Even I didn’t know… that when death actually stood before me I would be afraid.”
Ryu Hwasa flung both arms wide.
“But you made me take that final step. As expected, a being like you completes me…!”
“You son of a bitch—”
He scrambled backward on all fours, laughing basely as he avoided my approach.
“Hi… hihihi! At first the goal was to revive and birth a new form based on the Blood Sect’s Guardian, the White-Headed Yaksha. The required sacrifices were one hundred eight children and six thousand adults.”
He staggered upright.
“There would never again be a chance to kill six thousand while slipping past the eyes of the other sects and the imperial court. But you ruined it… At first I despaired. Then I changed my thinking. Positively! Do you know what that means?”
I had forgotten just how thoroughly mad Ryu Hwasa truly was.
“Since it was ruined anyway, I decided to borrow and aim for something far greater! Hehe…”
But I had not imagined it would reach this scale.
Ryu Hwasa panted.
“Using the soul of the very first Guardian of the Blood Sect—who had only just split from the White Lotus Demon Sect—the Ten Thousand Blood Emperor, as a mold, I would revive him!! And the sacrifices required for that—”
His eyes blazed. A rough, tearing sound ripped from his throat.
“Ten thousand!!! From Mara Jin I borrowed seven thousand bodies, to be repaid tenfold within three years, so—”
His eyes flashed.
“—I only need three thousand more sacrifices!!”
-Thud.
-Thud!
Startled by the sudden presence, I looked behind me.
“What…?”
I stared, eyes wide, at a scene I could not believe.
All around, members of the Blood Sect were dropping to their knees one after another.
“Ah… aaa!!”
Every one of them wore a beast mask and wept. Drool ran from their mouths.
-Clatter, clatter
They cast aside their sickles. Swords were thrown away; each kept only a single sickle, arms hanging limp as they walked forward.
Blood Scarlet Eight Gates.
The main combat force of Seventh Palace Lord Ryu Hwasa, and a terror known throughout the martial world. Every last one of them staggered onto the arena stage as though under hypnosis.
-Woom! Woooom!
Red mist rose from the floor like a swamp. From that swamp the Blood Scarlet Eight Gates crawled out like cockroaches. Every eye was empty of focus.
From beyond the red mist urgent voices erupted.
“What?! No! Why are the Blood Scarlet Eight Gates from every region using even the Gonghwan Death Art to gather every single member—where are they going?! Stop, sto—! Huh? Where is this…? Wait—Seventh Palace Lord?!”
Figures who looked like vice-captains of the Blood Scarlet Eight Gates were panicking, trying to drag their men back. I felt a chill of dread race through my mind.
“No way… c-could it be…”
The red mist parted in places. It filled the entire arena stage. Every member of the Blood Scarlet Eight Gates had assembled. Their number was three thousand.
-….
Not one pair of eyes held focus. Only a handful of vice-captains still failed to understand what was happening. They called names left and right, but no one answered. A ghastly silence blanketed the arena. The white marble of the stage could no longer be seen beneath the dense crowd.
I roared at Ryu Hwasa.
“You…! You bastard—your own subordinates who look only to you!!!!!”
“All of the Blood Scarlet Eight Gates.”
Ryu Hwasa raised one hand.
“Commit suicide.”
“As you command.”
Three thousand sickles of the Blood Scarlet Eight Gates rose as one and slit their own throats.