Black Lightning Strikes – The Final Duel
Crack! Crunch!
Ilmanhyeolje thrust both arms wide. Twin longswords came flying through a haze of violet mist and slammed into his waiting palms with twin metallic clangs. He leveled the blades at me.
For the first time since we had faced each other, I was looking at a formal dual-sword opening stance—his complete, all-out form.
His howling voice tore the night sky apart.
“To be forced to go all-out against a common martial trash who isn’t even a Guardian… what humiliation!”
Every muscle on his body swelled. Violet internal energy erupted. Violet sword-qi exploded from his hands in a mad torrent. Black thunder boiled up from my own body in answer.
“Die!!”
I kicked off the ground.
The instant my feet left the earth, a sheet of violet sword-qi scythed through the space I had occupied. Anything it touched was sliced and shattered. Blood Shadow Mirage Body Art fused with the black thunder; my silhouette shot forward like an arrow.
Host, the range is against you! You need a weapon!
“A weapon…!”
I scanned the surroundings, hunting for anything that could serve. Beneath Ilmanhyeolje’s feet, where he was flinging out blades of violet sword-qi, a forest of pale, floating women’s hands swayed. White longswords rested in those hands.
Those.
Black thunder flared and I rocketed forward at blinding speed, cutting a wide arc. Rocks hurtled toward my face as if the entire landscape had turned into a storm of arrows flying at me instead of me running toward them.
Whoosh! Swish! Thud! Crack!
I vaulted over a boulder that came flying straight at me, twisted my body sideways, planted a hand on the next rock that lunged for my torso and sprang over it. Violet sword-qi crashed down behind me; I flipped through the air, slapped the ground three times with my palms, then drove my foot forward with every ounce of strength I had left.
The earth exploded beneath me and my body shot ahead like a cannonball. I cut a right angle and raced along the cliff face toward Ilmanhyeolje.
“So you dare come to me, you rat!”
The moment sword-qi frosted over both of his blades, a torrential rain of violet energy began hammering down in a direct barrage. The violet sword-qi dogged my heels, carving the cliff face into ribbons. Even without a named technique, the power far surpassed most decisive ultimate arts that carried true-word seals.
“You bastard!”
His figure blurred and reappeared right in front of me.
“Hup!”
Black thunder detonated around me and my body surged into sudden acceleration.
“Die!”
His twin swords left their sheaths—or rather, simply being held in his hands turned him into a completely different fighter from the bare-handed brawler I had faced moments earlier.
Boom! Crash! Clang!!
Without ever slowing my headlong charge along the cliff, we began exchanging a blistering series of continuous blows. I slipped past with black thunder and Baekryeon-pal-ya-jong. There was no way to block a blade wrapped in sword-qi. My only options were to dodge, to cling close, or to smash his arms before the edge ever reached me.
Blood sprayed and my body began splitting open in a frenzy of cuts.
“Damn it, you monster! Even with twin swords we’re almost even! I will not lose!!”
Ilmanhyeolje’s eyes blazed; he poured even more force into his assault. We raced along the cliff, trading blows without pause.
I’m being pushed back…!
Only slightly, but I was definitely giving ground. Mumyeong’s analysis had been exact. The Heavenly Demon’s body was incomparably stronger than Ilmanhyeolje’s; even I, who knew none of the deeper details, could feel that overwhelming power welling up from the abyss. But the original owner of the Heavenly Demon’s body had not been me. Something kept slipping, turning freely without purchase. On top of that, the injuries my body had already taken before drawing out the Heavenly Demon’s flesh were severe. And finally, unarmed combat against dual longswords was the worst possible matchup.
Then—!
My eyes flooded with crimson light as the Heavenly Demon’s authority ignited.
Shaolin Fundamental Twelve Forms
Shaolin
The moment my eyes turned scarlet, my fists, wrapped in black thunder, unleashed a storm of fist-winds at impossible speed. Ilmanhyeolje recognized the arts; his eyes twisted with pure insult.
“Against me you dare use this garbage?! I’ll dismantle it in a single breath!!”
Vajra Demon Subduing Fist was broken almost instantly. Before he could seize my collar I switched to the higher True Heaven Three Demons Fist; just as that form too was about to be shattered—
Blood Sect
White Lotus Demon Sect
Black thunder drove a straight-line burst while Blood Shadow Mirage Body Art was pushed to its extreme and the curves and transitions of Baekryeon-pal-ya-jong were layered on top; in a single heartbeat my silhouette peeled away onto an entirely different trajectory.
“So that was only a stall!”
Leaving the startled Ilmanhyeolje behind, I landed exactly where he had been standing. I kicked backward, boot striking one of the drifting women’s hands. Two white longswords spun into the air; I rolled, snatched them both, and rose with twin blades in my grip.
Ilmanhyeolje, who had been chasing me, jerked to a halt.
“You… what do you think you’re doing?”
“Can’t you tell by looking?”
I settled into stance in front of him—feet spread, twin swords held ready. It was a perfect dual-wield posture.
Ilmanhyeolje asked again, almost disbelieving.
“You’re a pure unarmed specialist, aren’t you?”
“That doesn’t magically fix a range disadvantage.”
“Have you ever even studied dual-sword arts before?”
“No. But—”
I raised both blades and pointed them at him.
“I figure I can lose to every other martial artist in the world and still give you a real fight.”
Ilmanhyeolje stared at me blankly. Then rage detonated through him and he roared like a man having a seizure.
“You—across every experience of my entire past life—you are the first creature who has ever made me this furious!!!”
He charged, frothing. I drew a short breath and tightened my grip on the hilts. Sparks flew. Black thunder and violet mist collided head-on.
“Kh…!”
Blood sprayed from my body.
“An unarmed mongrel dares to ape dual-sword mastery in front of a dual-sword expert? You dare? You dare!!!”
Ilmanhyeolje began raining blows like a madman.
“Insult me, will you?!”
Even with wounds that had never healed, I somehow held on. But that too was only a matter of time. My body was being driven back at an exponential rate. The edges of my blades were being stripped away. The black thunder coating them kept them from being severed outright by his sword-qi, yet even that was reaching its limit. I was being forced back as if I would be carved to pieces at any second.
Clang…! Clang!
Steel shrieked against steel. Ilmanhyeolje felt it as well. Sword-winds howled and his offensive only grew fiercer. My body was being torn apart. There would be no reversal here.
“I’ll kill you! Then I’ll rape that Flame-Eye bitch waiting for you! Then I’ll slaughter every last living thing in this Central Plains! I’ll kill everything!!”
“Kh!”
Clang! Clang!
My momentum teetered on the edge of total collapse.
“Hn?”
And then that same voice filled with sudden doubt.
“What? Why…?”
Clang!!
Twin swords met twin swords.
“Why on earth…?”
Our blades locked, twisted, and sprang apart again. Ilmanhyeolje muttered as though he could not comprehend what he was seeing.
“Why are your attacks growing sharper by the moment?”
We pressed blade to blade, teeth clenched, shoving with everything we had. Black thunder and violet mist refused to tolerate each other’s existence.
“This is impossible. You should have been dead long ago. Now you’re almost my equal. This feels like a dual-sword specialist who has polished nothing but dual swords his entire life. Exactly like me… Wait. Exactly like me?”
Ilmanhyeolje’s head snapped up.
“You bastard—every single motion is identical to mine?”
A high, piercing hum filled the air. Beyond our crossed blades my eyes blazed with crimson light of a completely different magnitude, black thunder coiling around the glow.
“Namsang Samadhi…!!”
“It can’t be.”
Even as a Guardian, Ilmanhyeolje clearly had no idea what Namsang Samadhi truly was, what I was pursuing, what goal I carried—or that I possessed the absurd ability to copy martial arts. Yet from context, from the words I had just spoken, and from the situation itself, a single ominous hypothesis was boring through his skull.
“It can’t be…!”
Clang!
Our swords met. His blade swept from right to left. Mine swept in perfect mirror image. Identical trajectory. Identical force. Form and enlightenment were both contained within it. When the sword in his left hand spun a full circle and rose from below while the right-hand blade thrust forward, I executed the exact same sequence without a single deviation.
“Heavens above! He’s shadowing every motion and following me!!”
Ilmanhyeolje recoiled in horror.
“What kind of monster is this?!”
Blood ran from my nose. My brain was burning in real time. My skull felt as though it were cracking open.
Clang!
Sparks flying, I began to press Ilmanhyeolje back. I copied every dual-sword technique. Every footwork. Every acceleration. Every grip. The gaps I could not yet fill, the Heavenly Demon’s physical power simply crushed shut. That was all. Step by step I closed the distance—late, distant, but steadily.
“Bit by bit!!!”
I reset my grip on the twin swords.
“Haaaah!!!”
I clenched my teeth.
Clang!!
Ilmanhyeolje’s body rocked hard. Panic flooded his eyes. For him, every single exchange had already gone beyond victory or defeat and become pure humiliation. Tendons stood out on his arms as he readjusted his hold.
“I… I!!”
Fire poured from his eyes.
“To think I would still be forced to stake my life and pour out every scrap of power even after an entire night has passed!!”
A violet storm and a black-thunder storm smashed together. The shockwave lifted shards of stone into the air. The exchange of blows refused to end. Ilmanhyeolje unleashed a bestial roar.
“I’ll obliterate everything! You, every living thing in this area—everything!!!”
He kicked me away and leapt onto a collapsed ridge of rock. He drew both swords back behind him. Around his body a storm of sword-qi began to condense. A sepulchral voice rolled out like thunder.
Ultimate technique of the ancient Blood Sect
“Ah…!”
I kicked off the ground and lurched upright. Far away, So Yeomgyo—having recovered the Nine-Tailed Death Flame Gate—was already racing toward us on light footwork.
“Biryu! It’s the Thousand-Armed Guanyin!”
She shouted.
“A continuous barrage of sword-qi!!! Once it starts, everything gets ground to dust! You have to get clear!!”
“What?!”
My mind went pure white. Ilmanhyeolje focused his internal energy and bellowed.
Boom!
“Too late! No one can escape!! All of you die!!”
I had no technique that could stand against that. I possessed no supreme art capable of opposing the final decisive secret of the original Blood Sect. There was only one method left to me.
“Damn it all—come what may!!!!”
I flooded my entire body with black thunder and concentrated every last scrap of internal energy. I gritted my teeth. My eyes snapped wide.
“Namsang!”
I drew both swords back in the exact same posture.
A high whine filled the air. Crimson light exploded from my eyes. I mirrored Ilmanhyeolje’s stance perfectly.
“And Samadhi!”
Boom!!!
Black thunder of a completely different quality—identical in feel to Ilmanhyeolje’s own—began to erupt from my body. Inside my skull a sepulchral voice thundered like the heavens themselves.
Extraction Framework — Full Deployment Complete
Maximum Output
My whole body felt as though it would shatter. Under pain of a dimension I had never known, I screamed.
“Gg…ggaaaaah!! Fi… Final Decisive Secret Art!!!!!”
Ilmanhyeolje’s eyes flew open.
“You think a miserable whelp like you can copy even this?! Fine—try it if you dare—!!”
Boom-boom-boom-boom!!!
Violet mist and black thunder erupted on either side of the full moon, climbing toward the heavens.
Ilmanhyeolje howled.
I howled the same words.
Crack…! Snap-snap-snap!!
The ground shattered. Layers of sword-qi stacked upon one another. My meridians burned.
“—The Purple Heaven shall stand—the violet sky rises—!”
Around Ilmanhyeolje, violet energy gathered as though it would split the black sky itself.
“—The Dark Heaven shall stand—the black sky rises—!”
Around me, black lightning energy pulverized the earth and swelled ever larger.
Crack! Crrrrack…!!
Clang!
The rocky ridge exploded and collapsed. Blood ran from between my clenched teeth. Veins on my forehead burst. Bloodshot eyes locked onto each other. Both dual-wielders drew their blades and roared as one.
Final Decisive Secret Art
The Heavenly Demon copies martial arts.