Black Thunder Descends
Before her eyes, Biryu stood blocking the way.
“Why…? Just why.”
In front of her, Biryu was being beaten senseless as he barred the path.
Tears streamed from So Yeomgyo’s eyes.
“Why for a guy like me.”
—CRACK!!
Blood sprayed in every direction, painting the air before her.
“You could just fall back. You could just leave. You could just live. Pretend the memories never happened… It’s not like anything else—you’re just as much of a—”
Clear tears traced the path of her crimson eyes.
“You’re the kind of guy who’s terrified of dying. The kind who wanted to live and be happy. So why the hell…?”
It was the first time she had shed tears since setting out into the jianghu.
Yet she did not even realize she was crying.
The tears ran down her cheeks, over her chin, and onto the ground.
—Crack… crack…
Even as flesh burst and bones snapped, the man before her did not fall.
His legs had given out.
His black martial robes lay tangled in the mud, matted with blood and pus.
The light had left his eyes; every bone in his body was shattered.
But his spirit remained unbroken, and in the end his two feet refused to retreat.
“Haa… haa…”
His back was always in front of her, so she could never see what lay ahead.
“I had already written off the spirit of chivalry in this world as a relic of the past. I didn’t believe in it. I only mocked it…”
And yet, under that sky, he stood before her like a mountain.
Even though he was weaker than her.
Even though he was clearly more fragile.
Without knowing his place.
Afraid of death.
Ignorant of the jianghu.
The man who had written clumsy, crooked letters because he didn’t even know how to handle a messenger pigeon—
the man who had been clumsy at everything—stood in front of her.
“…No.”
So Yeomgyo muttered.
“No.”
She clenched her teeth.
“It’s not over until I say it’s over.”
She did not wipe her crimson eyes; she forced them wide open.
“I don’t give up until I die. That is precisely—”
Her left arm was broken.
Her thigh had been slashed open; her left eyelid was swollen shut with blood.
“—the pride of the strongest assassin in the jianghu,”
Blood welled and gushed from her abdomen.
Her right shoulder was dislocated.
“the Munju of the Blood Death Sect, the one who kills even gods who stand in her way—the seventeenth Divine-Slaying Flame Eye!”
—CRACK!!
She braced herself against a chunk of stone beside her.
—Slice!
She dragged the stone across her swollen left eyelid.
Blood poured out; the swelling drained away and her vision cleared.
—Crunch.
She seized her dislocated shoulder.
—CRACK!
She forced it back into place raw.
She shoved the broken arm into alignment.
So Yeomgyo’s face had gone corpse-white, slick with cold sweat.
She bit down on her fingers.
—Scribble, scribble-scribble.
She began writing characters on the ground in her own blood.
As the blood-script took shape, it became flame, became light, and coiled around her arms.
She scraped together the scattered embers of her inner energy, gathering them like dying sparks.
—Fwoosh.
Her ultimate flame technique ignited once more, the scattered embers of her power roaring back to life around her broken form.
That was when it happened.
Ilmanhyeolje’s roar shook the air.
“DIE, YOU TRASH!!”
“—!!”
When she lifted her head, she saw Ilmanhyeolje pouring every last scrap of his inner energy into a full-power punch aimed straight at Biryu.
It was nothing like any of his previous attacks.
So Yeomgyo screamed.
“NO—!!!”
And in that instant—
—KRA-KOOM
A single bolt of black lightning that seemed ready to tear the world apart and swallow every scrap of light came crashing down.
“…What.”
Ilmanhyeolje’s arm was torn clean off; his entire body spun through the air.
He used the momentum of that spin to put distance between them.
—Crunch, crunch-crunch!
His arm regenerated.
Ilmanhyeolje tilted his head.
He stroked his restored hand and looked at me.
“You…! A mere insect—”
“….”
—Crackle. Crackle-crackle…
Black lightning coursed along my closed-eyed body.
[Good heavens. I… I spent all those long years constructing the Heavenly Demon Emperor’s body in the abyss, and yet you seized it in a single instant—incomplete though it may be…?]
Mumyeong cried out in disbelief.
His voice, usually so dry, was thick with raw emotion.
[Even if it’s only temporary, is it even possible to surpass me—the original owner? No matter that you are the master of the materials…]
Mumyeong fell silent.
A moment later he spoke in a near-whisper.
[In a way… I may have known this would happen from a certain point onward, and simply stood by and watched…]
In the darkness, the black dog muttered, scattering crimson light from its eyes.
My body was a wreck.
My torn martial robes fluttered in tatters.
“For a second, when I saw that black lightning, I thought it was that bastard from our era. But rationally speaking, that’s impossible. What, did you imitate the black lightning with some kind of sorcery or black magic…? Heh heh heh. You’ve seen it somewhere before, have you?”
“….”
Ilmanhyeolje sneered as he watched me.
“Your body still looks like a complete mess. Even a maggot has a trick or two for rolling around—so you must have had some final hidden technique stashed away, eh?”
Ilmanhyeolje gestured.
“What a fool. I’m sick of playing around now.”
Violet mist rose along his body.
Enveloped in that violet haze, his twin rusty swords flew to him and planted themselves at his sides.
One of them rose into the air beside him.
“I’ll tell you one last thing, insect.”
Ilmanhyeolje spread his hand.
“Trash like you… even at the very end, you weren’t worth showing my twin swords to. Know that.”
He pointed a finger at me.
“Die.”
—WHOOSH!
With a single tearing sound of air, the longsword shot toward me.
[Host!!]
Mumyeong shouted.
—Flash!
The moment I opened my eyes I spread my palm and smashed the longsword downward.
—KRA-KOOM!!!
A massive shockwave sent the longsword flying; more than half of it buried itself in the ground.
“Impossible. My sword…?”
The smile had completely vanished from his face.
“You… how dare a piece of insect trash—”
—BOOM!!
Black lightning exploded as I slammed into the ground behind him, shattering the floor.
With a thunderous impact my front kick drove into Ilmanhyeolje’s spine like a battering ram.
“GRAAAH!!”
—Flash!
I appeared in front of him.
My fist uppercut into his gut.
“Guh!”
Ilmanhyeolje’s abdomen convulsed violently.
He staggered backward, trying to retreat.
—BOOM!
I stomped on his instep, pinning him in place so he couldn’t back away.
Then I began hammering his abdomen without mercy.
“Guh! Guhk, GRAAAH!”
I chopped upward into his Adam’s apple with the edge of my hand.
I crushed his jaw.
I hooked my fingers into his open mouth, seized his front teeth, and ripped them out.
I grabbed his nose and twisted it hard.
I drove my elbow down onto the crown of his head.
As he crumpled I swept his lower body out from under him with a kick.
—BOOM!!
Ilmanhyeolje went flying.
I tore the two remaining metal fragments of the Chiljong-heukjusa-gap from his wrist.
—Clang! Clang-clang!
I flicked my fingers and launched the two metal shards. With black lightning they carved enormous lines into the ground on either side of him.
“My turn now, Ilmanhyeolje.”
“What?!”
“The rules are the same as yours. If you want to surrender, just stretch out your hand past the line.”
I pointed at the lines on either side.
“But the width’s a bit generous, so if you want to surrender you’ll have to run pretty hard.”
“…!”
The boundary lines on both sides stretched impossibly far away.
“You… you… son of a… bitch…”
Ilmanhyeolje stared at the lines.
“Judging by that face, surrender doesn’t seem to appeal to you. What a shame.”
He slowly turned his head to look at me.
Ilmanhyeolje’s face was flushed red enough to burst.
Violet inner energy writhed across his body.
I spoke to him.
“Is this really that much fun to you? This is exactly why people call you a coward instead of a martial artist.”
“YOU SON OF A BITCH!!!!”
Ilmanhyeolje charged and threw a punch.
I leaned my head back to dodge and drove my elbow down into his face.
“GRAHK!”
“And right now you know better than anyone that with that pathetic hand-to-hand skill of yours, you don’t stand a chance against me.”
“GRAAAH! Y-you, you damn—!”
Clutching his nose, Ilmanhyeolje shoved off the ground with his palms and flipped backward through the air.
“How… how…!”
He staggered as he shouted.
“What the hell just happened?! How can your strength, your speed… everything change so completely in an instant…!”
Ilmanhyeolje glared at the black lightning wrapping my body with glittering eyes.
The violet mist around him grew more violent.
His crushed body began to recover as if time itself were reversing.
I spoke to him.
“I have no reason to explain myself to you. I have only one thing to say.”
I spoke quietly.
“Pick up your twin swords.”
“What do you mean.”
I wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth.
“Your barehanded technique is garbage, so if you want to last even a little longer, pick up those twin swords you’re so proud of.”
“What?”
Ilmanhyeolje’s expression was that of a man whose pride had been shredded to pieces.
“Or.”
I looked down at him.
“What? Now that you have to go all-out against a regular martial-artist insect you used to look down on—someone who isn’t even a Guardian—does that wound that precious pride of yours as a Guardian?”
“…!!”
Ilmanhyeolje stared at me.
It was an expression no amount of ordinary insults could have produced.
—Riiip.
I tore away the tattered outer layer of my martial robes as I spoke.
“Don’t go dying and then make some pathetic excuse in front of King Yama that you lost because you didn’t use your twin swords. You’re exactly the kind of bastard who would.”
“You…”
Ilmanhyeolje looked at me.
It was the face of a man whose masculine pride had been ripped to shreds.
No insult could have produced that expression.
“Or.”
I looked down at him.
“What? Now that you have to go all-out against that insect you used to despise, does it hurt your pride?”
—Crack.
“…You!!!”
—Rumble…!
The cave shook.
“…?!”
I looked around.
The ceiling was collapsing.
Ilmanhyeolje’s voice changed.
“You of all people!”
It was a damp, metallic voice that seemed to echo from deep within the cave, like iron grinding against iron.
“Even if the world collapses, I will kill you no matter what!”
On one side, the impossibly high ceiling that had connected to the sky above ground began to cave in.
Through the gap, a black sky appeared.
A sky without a single star.
A massive full moon rose.
—KYAAAAAA!!!
A blood-red wail of the dead rang out in agony.
Countless pale women’s hands bloomed and fluttered around him.
From those hands, white longswords were drawn and gripped.
It looked like a forest of white longswords.
The plaza began to blaze with violet light so bright it seemed ready to explode.
Ilmanhyeolje roared.
—Wooooom…!!
The violet light surging up from the plaza dyed the night sky.
Pale blue light pouring down from the full moon descended upon the plaza.
As the blue light and violet light clashed, inner energy erupted from Ilmanhyeolje’s entire body as if it would explode.
Heaven and earth began to tremble.
[The Host has exceeded all expectations and drawn forth the Heavenly Demon Emperor’s body from the mindscape, but because you are not the original owner, its use is still incomplete. Your martial arts are still lacking as well.]
Mumyeong’s voice suddenly rang inside my head.
“Mumyeong?”
Mumyeong explained in a calm, rapid voice.
[On the other side, he was the original owner from the very beginning and has recovered seventy percent of his prime power based on the First Night. On the surface the situation is clearly the worst it can be. But paradoxically, I don’t think this is entirely bad.]
“…Then?”
As the blue light and violet light clashed, inner energy continued to surge from Ilmanhyeolje’s entire body as if it would explode.
[The phenomenon before your eyes is clearly the process of entering the First Night—the first of the Seven Nights that Ilmanhyeolje must pass through after being born from the cocoon.]
Heaven and earth trembled.
[Once he enters the First Night, Ilmanhyeolje will possess more than seventy percent of his prime power and grow stronger. At the same time, however, he will lose the regenerative ability that was the hallmark of his newly born, cocoon-stage self. And what that means… the Host should already understand.]
I narrowed my eyes and nodded.
“It means that from this moment on, every single person here has staked their life without a single exception.”
[Exactly.]
Mumyeong said.
[This is now a life-or-death duel.]