When Heroes Arise
Die!!!
A flash of light erupted from Ilmanhyeolje’s twin swords. Violet radiance stretched out like pulled noodles, then whipped into a frenzied storm.
So Yeomgyo flinched hard.
“Kh—! Simultaneous Sword Gangqi from both blades!”
It was a realm beyond mere sword qi—the signature of those who stood at Transformation Realm and above, a power said to cut through anything in existence.
Crimson energy gathered along the Red Demon Bell Sword. Red Sword Gangqi bloomed in its wake and began madly batting aside the violet torrents. Wherever those lights touched, everything was sheared away and shattered.
Whoosh—!!
A sweep of Ilmanhyeolje’s violet Sword Gangqi grazed past So Yeomgyo’s tilted forehead. The tips of her hair fluttered free, cleanly severed.
Clang! Screeech! Screeeeech!!!
Stalactites were butchered without mercy. Walls were carved open. Earth and dust exploded outward under the sheer force of destruction.
You rat-like little—!
Ilmanhyeolje roared with pure fury and unleashed a wild storm of cutting strokes.
Even in my own era, there was never anyone who dodged my attacks this perfectly!! And that is with my full power still unrestored!
He laughed.
I acknowledge you, So Yeomgyo! That vast title of yours—God-Slaying Flame Eye! But for that very reason—!
His voice thundered.
I will not let you die cleanly!! You, above all, I will make scream in humiliation! I will not finish you in a single stroke!
His long tongue dragged across his lips.
I will make you mine—!!!
Shrrrk—!
His forehead was split open. His whole body was carved through. A continuous cascade of red heat-strokes collided with violet killing light. Both fighters’ legs drove into the ground like stakes.
Screeech!!
Sparks flew. Their blades poured down like a hurricane and ricocheted apart. They kicked off walls. Kicked off the ceiling. Kicked off the floor. Space meant nothing. Gravity meant nothing. They rebounded from every direction, chasing and being chased, swinging, thrusting, carving through.
They slipped past death by the thickness of paper, cutting and shattering everything in their path.
And through that storm of blades, a frost-sharp side kick shot out like lightning and punched clean through Ilmanhyeolje’s gut.
Ghk!!!
He went flying backward. She pursued, driving her blade down to split his skull. He twisted aside. The sword slammed into the floor instead.
KRAAAANG!!
The stone floor struck by the missed blade sheared apart in a blast of heat. Ilmanhyeolje’s twin swords swept for her neck and waist. Her body slipped between them in a spinning motion. Hands braced on the ground, her leg whipped around and smashed into his throat. The instant the kick landed, her body righted itself midair and she brought her sword down again from the crown of his head in a single decisive cut.
Ilmanhyeolje sprang up and blocked. She chased him like a madwoman, still swinging. His face twisted as if he could not believe what he was seeing.
“Cough—cough…!”
So Yeomgyo forced down a fit of wet coughing and charged forward.
I can’t drag this out! At this rate…!
She bit down hard on blood-slick teeth.
I’ll be the one who falls!
Along the pressure bandage cinched tight around her abdomen, red blood was already soaking through and running down.
Kyaaaaaaah!!!
With a ghastly, ear-splitting shriek, Ilmanhyeolje kicked free of the rubble and rose. His body still bore no decisive wound. If things continued this way, the fight would never end—and So Yeomgyo knew full well that the one who would collapse first from exhaustion was herself.
“Then…!”
She reset her grip on the Red Demon Bell Sword. Crimson heat-wave Sword Gangqi gathered along the blade. She swung it toward the ceiling.
KRA-KOOM!!
Stalactites came down in a mass, the whole ceiling collapsing in sequence.
Kh—!
Ilmanhyeolje swept his twin swords at the massive falling stones. In that single instant So Yeomgyo leapt back twice, opening the distance. She clenched her jaw until her teeth felt ready to crack.
Don’t tell me—this feeling—!
Seeing her set her stance even as she held the range, Ilmanhyeolje startled.
So Yeomgyo forced her blood-stained mouth open and cried out.
The last secret art of decisive combat
Blood tears welled in both of So Yeomgyo’s eyes.
“A… aagh… Aaaaaagh!”
She screamed under the agony. With an exploding surge of internal energy, the red flame pouring from her entire body burned past crimson and into pure white, erasing everything it touched.
Ilmanhyeolje howled with laughter thick with rapture.
A Final Battle Ultimate Technique founded on sorcery! How moving—that flesh-rending sacrifice no one will ever acknowledge! Excellent!
He crossed his twin swords behind his back and settled them there.
Then I, in turn, shall answer with the Final Battle Ultimate Technique that has become a famous verse handed down through generations of our Blood Cult!!
BOOM!!
Every muscle in his body writhed. Violet internal energy detonated across his frame. The ground shook. His head lifted. In a low, sinister murmur he spoke.
Final Battle Ultimate Technique.
Sweat ran down So Yeomgyo’s brow. She had started first, yet Ilmanhyeolje’s casting speed was so much faster that she was the one in danger of being overtaken.
Strength to tear mountains free — aura vast enough to blanket the age
White flame piled up inside So Yeomgyo’s body as if ready to burst. Her joints and meridians screamed as though they would explode. Not to be outdone, Ilmanhyeolje roared his own true words.
Violet power engorging flesh and steel alike
Violet light flooded Ilmanhyeolje’s body as well. Explosive internal energy surged along his frame—endless, bottomless power. His muscles swelled until they seemed ready to tear. The twin swords trembled as they drank in every last scrap of violet Sword Gangqi they could hold.
Rrrrumble…!!!
Water droplets rose into the air. The groundwater underfoot heaved, rolled, then was shoved aside entirely, driven to one side of the cavern.
Flash.
So Yeomgyo and Ilmanhyeolje charged each other at the same instant and struck.
She brought her sword down with a cry.
A white-hot flash that erases everything in this world
A pure white blast of heat tore at the eardrums. Water evaporated. Stone fragments vanished into steam before they could even shatter. All sound was swallowed. The shock itself seemed to choke and die. What left the tip of So Yeomgyo’s sword was a flash of white heat that could wipe existence clean.
Ilmanhyeolje crossed his twin swords and brought them down, roaring.
Thousands upon tens of thousands of violet Sword Gangqi lines become a typhoon of blades
Two Final Battle Ultimate Techniques collided.
Rrrrumble…!!
The earth shook.
And then—
“This is impossible.”
So Yeomgyo could not trust her own eyes.
KRA-KRA-KRA….!!
Ilmanhyeolje’s Final Battle Ultimate Technique was, before anything else, a martial art that was itself a shield woven from thousands—tens of thousands—of individual strands of Sword Gangqi.
Sword Gangqi was said to be the purest form attainable in the martial realms. But because it existed as lines, never as a plane, theory held that defense with Sword Gangqi was impossible.
That impossibility was becoming possible right in front of her. Just as threads could gather and twist into fabric, so now a shield of Sword Gangqi raised by the Blood Cult’s Guardian was shattering her Final Battle Ultimate Technique into fragments.
Rrrrrumble!!!!
The flash of Nine-Tailed Death Flame — Heaven-Destroying Blood Explosion Calamity was being ground down and forced back by the storm of Sword Gangqi blades. A strained groan slipped from So Yeomgyo’s lips.
Blood ran from the corner of her mouth.
Ilmanhyeolje screamed in pain as well.
“Kr… uwaaagh…!!”
Even a wall of Sword Gangqi could not fully stop Nine-Tailed Death Flame — Heaven-Destroying Blood Explosion Calamity without cost. Injuries of a wholly different order were opening across his body—wounds deep enough to show bone.
So Yeomgyo clenched her teeth.
“J-just a little more! I can do this!”
If she could push just a little further, she believed she still had a chance.
Just a little more.
Just a little more.
Just a little…
Crack.
In the instant Nine-Tailed Death Flame — Heaven-Destroying Blood Explosion Calamity wavered and frayed, Ilmanhyeolje’s form blurred. He drove into the opening.
“Hhk—!”
So Yeomgyo’s eyes flew wide. His fist was buried in her abdomen.
Keheheh. Did you think someone who’s survived as many battlefields as I have would miss a wound like that?
“…!”
Slowly, beneath the descending fist, the ruptured injury in her gut was plain to see.
“A… aagh.”
She staggered. At the same moment his sword swept in.
“Kh—!”
She tried to raise her blade to block.
Her weight buckled under the pain.
“Ah.”
So Yeomgyo knew it was over.
Her arm broke. Ilmanhyeolje swung again.
Shrrk.
Her thigh was cut open. His foot came flying. She tried to dodge and felt her legs tangle. The kick slammed into her gut. She felt the Nine-Tailed Death Flame Gate gutter and die.
“Haa… haa!”
Even the last scrap of hope was gone. She felt the day she had always prepared for as an assassin finally arrive. The moment she had feared every night as she lay down to sleep had come.
Hesitation lasted only a breath. The moment she had rehearsed every day was here—before bed, before washing, with an awkward little smile she had practiced killing herself, and now she understood, with sudden clarity, that this was that moment.
“Haa—haa!”
She felt her lip split. Felt the blood run from her nose.
Cough—cough.
Blood spilled from her mouth.
Thud.
She was flung rolling again. Ilmanhyeolje approached with a grin.
I told you, didn’t I? Keheheh. I wouldn’t let you die cleanly.
She tumbled. So Yeomgyo tried desperately to force herself upright. With heavy, booming footsteps Ilmanhyeolje closed in on her where she had collapsed against the wall.
Ak Ryu-yeop and the rest of the men—they all seemed to want a turn with you. Though with skills like yours, who knows. First we’ll take care of one of those legs, then enjoy ourselves. You’re far too fast otherwise. Heh heh.
She decided she could use that. Charge him, force the exchange, draw a counter, and die on his blade. There would be no cleaner suicide than that.
She wanted to live. More than anyone, she wanted to live. But even with death before her, she meant to stand tall. She would not beg for life. This was her life—and the only face she could show to all those whose lives she had taken in order to keep living.
So Yeomgyo tried to steady her trembling legs. She tried to throw away the thought of wanting to live. Tried to throw away the lingering wish to be happy.
That was… so… so…
“I… for someone like me, living off a shameful trade as an assassin—a trash life—this was the only pride I could ever stand on…”
Moisture gathered in her Flame Eyes.
“I have no regrets.”
Her broken arm hung limp. The cut thigh hung in tatters. Blood gushed from her abdomen. One eyelid was swollen shut. The front of her martial robe was torn open. She bowed her head. On her bloodied wrist, a cheap bracelet still hung, crushed out of shape.
“Regrets…”
She bit down until her teeth seemed ready to break.
“…I……”
Her voice came wet and thin.
“All I ever wanted was to hear someone say, just once, that I’d worked hard in this life… and in the end I never…”
Ilmanhyeolje raised his sword high.
Now then—I’ll take that thigh!
“…!”
So Yeomgyo reset her grip on the sword. She prepared to charge.
A voice came from somewhere.
“…!! …!”
The raised tip of Ilmanhyeolje’s blade stopped.
…What?
It was a sound from far away.
Ta-da-da-da…
Running footsteps were spreading faintly through the dark—and growing rapidly louder. Ilmanhyeolje turned. The cavern was ringing. Vibrating. Resonating.
For something to be felt this strongly from here… this is no ordinary person—!
His leering voice climbed sharply. Only one thought flashed through So Yeomgyo’s mind. She murmured in a shaking voice.
“Don’t tell me.”
Ilmanhyeolje’s eyes went wide.
Wait—if that’s Black Lightning, then don’t tell me the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult’s Guardia—!!
With Bi Ryu’s raw, desperate scream, his form slammed into Ilmanhyeolje and tangled with him in a violent crash.