Chapter 25
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 25
Chapter Title: The Cult's Counterattack
-----------------------------------------------------------------
A ruin in Incheon.
Back in the days when the Black God Cult held strong sway, one of the church buildings they used echoed with hushed conversations.
Needless to say, it wasn't for any good reason that people had gathered there.
No decent folk would convene in a place beyond the government's reach, especially one that had once been a hotbed for criminal organizations.
The men cloaked in black robes were fiends shrouded in demonic energy.
"Your Eminence, the Divine Sword Choi Si-woo keeps getting in our way."
One man's lament.
It stemmed from their plot to overthrow Hansung being thwarted by Choi Si-woo, the second bearer of the Divine Sword title.
Because of him, the Black God Cult struggled even to revive.
All they had were the cores to create fiends, but they'd already used up the low-grade ones, and those fiends had been purged by Choi Si-woo.
"How did a Divine Sword bearer grow so strong in such a short time?"
"As long as Hansung and the other hunter academies remain, they'll be a massive obstacle to our Black God Cult's resurrection."
"Even excluding the Divine Sword, this year's cadets are no pushovers. Yoo Eun-ha with her 'lightspeed' moniker despite being a cadet, Han Su-ji of the Flame Spear, Reina of the Spirit Arrows. They're prime examples, and the other classes boast impressive talent too."
They'd underestimated Hansung, thinking the age of peace had softened it.
"We need to either brainwash or kill them before they grow any stronger."
They'd only get more powerful ahead; if they didn't eliminate them soon, it'd spell trouble.
"Many of our followers have died facing the Divine Sword. That bastard Choi Si-woo even rounded up every Black God Cult member in Hansung somehow. Who are we supposed to send?"
"Then I'll go myself."
One man cut into the Black God Cult executives' discussion.
He'd been supplying their weakened forces with resources and handling their combat strength from the shadows.
With the cult he'd nurtured now showing signs of collapse under Choi Si-woo's counterattack, it was time for him to step in personally.
"You, personally?"
"This Divine Sword seems superior to Yoo Jin-seok. Wouldn't he make the perfect vessel?"
Vessel. The entity needed to house the evil god the Black God Cult worshipped.
Choi Si-woo, with power and mental fortitude chosen by the Divine Sword constellation, was the ideal candidate for them.
"True. But for our god to descend, he must be cloaked in demonic energy, not light."
"What if we implant this SS core into Choi Si-woo?"
A sinister purple orb glimmered in the man's hand.
"Can you pull it off?"
"To defile the name of the Divine Sword? Anything."
The man smirked vilely, quietly grabbed his spear, and left the church.
To build teamwork before the group battle, the academy had granted cadets free activity time.
The others were probably training hard, but we'd only synced positions for a single day.
Teamwork, they called it. It was consideration for Rosaria.
Excluding her, our team already meshed perfectly, so we'd drilled protecting the healer.
—And Yoo Eun-ha. Don't come to the academy until I call you.
—What?
—Somehow they've delayed it, but it's dangerous. I'll call you on the day of the group battle.
Reina and Han Su-ji found it suspicious, but he'd convinced them somehow, and Rosaria had church business with the Korean Hunter Association.
My premonitions never missed the mark.
I had to figure it out. What exactly would happen in the near future.
At the very least, I wanted to survive.
In this place that might be a dream or reality, if living was only possible here, I wanted to endure to the end.
So I had to ask the Akashic Records.
"Akashic Records. What happens if I change the future? For example, if Choi Si-woo learns of it and preemptively strikes the enemies?"
You can block immediate threats, but tampering with causality will summon new ones in the end.
In other words, Choi Si-woo's efforts were pointless.
Did that mean the event of my death would just escalate?
"If I'm fated to die anyway, even blocking it once means death will come again?"
Not necessarily death.
"Then what's with the black silhouette uncle still flickering in my vision?"
It may be connected to that as well.
"Damn it."
The upcoming fiend assault was linked to that black silhouette too?
What the hell had this body's original Yoo Eun-ha been up to?
It sure as hell wasn't my fault. This was all on the previous Yoo Eun-ha.
Not me.
"What will I do in the future?"
Unknown. Whatever you choose, it will only repeat.
"Repeat?"
The Akashic Records gave no further answer.
It would respond if pressed, but I dreaded a brain hemorrhage.
This was enough. No value in hearing more.
The answer exists right before you. You simply aren't seeking it, Master.
"I am searching. More desperately than anyone."
It's impossible. If I die, team or no team, it's over. And if causality warps make saving the world from destruction harder, I must stay alive. No, at least I have to tell Choi Si-woo.
He's the protagonist. It might be irresponsible, but if I warn him, he'll power up on his own. That's what protagonists do.
"You're making me paranoid."
All I had was Acceleration.
I couldn't shadowbox with Acceleration and Parallel Circuits indefinitely against an unknown ambush.
And I couldn't sustain it long anyway.
It drained my stamina like crazy. My whole body itched, and even cigarettes only held it off briefly.
"If causality adjusted it, the group battle's a sure bet."
The massive group battle event, with the academy's barrier lifted.
Even with hunters deployed, they wouldn't spare S-ranks, and top domestic hunters would only show for the finals.
Could I really trust Blazing Bat?
What if an SS-rank fiend came?
This was the worst-case scenario. Choi Si-woo was definitely stronger than in the original.
With causality adjusted, no mid-tier fiend; it'd send one stronger than him, like canon.
Yang Ho-seon was unreliable.
Given the fiends that hadn't appeared yet, Choi Si-woo must've taken them out. At least A-rank.
If pre-regression final battle assumptions, SS or higher.
"No. Before the final battle, Choi Si-woo's hair turns silver, eyes golden from divine awakening. His hair's still ashen, eyes normal."
So, rate him moderately high.
A-rank? Then S+ fiend possible.
S-rank? SS. Just a hypothesis, but likely.
The fiend that ambushed back then was A-rank.
Even that barely fell because Choi Si-woo synced with the Divine Sword briefly.
What sparked it?
"Yoo Eun-ha's death."
In the end, Yoo Eun-ha's death propelled the story.
The Akashic Records' words were bullshit no matter how I sliced it. It couldn't even read my status window, yet claimed omniscience.
So, was I doomed to fall to the fiend attacking the academy?
"...Fuck."
Internet Broadcasting Club.
A woman rifled through files.
Wearing dolphin pants and a white tee, her name was Lee Yoo-jeong.
She'd been digging through files she'd compiled.
"This is weird."
She'd checked countless cadets' status windows so far.
Though not heir to Cheonsan Group, as its princess, she'd used her ability to scout Hansung cadets with talents fitting Cheonsan.
That led to status files on cadets, and lately, profiles on whoever she could.
But sure enough, only Yoo Eun-ha eluded her.
A humiliation for her.
Yoo Eun-ha, who'd introduced her to the world of yuri. She burned to know her info.
"I'll uncover it no matter what."
The clue was surely the sealed script of special symbols, not her name.
Not ancient text, but bizarre symbols forming letters.
Symbols inputtable on computers.
Lee Yoo-jeong checked Yoo Eun-ha's status again.
Having memorized it from one glance, she re-appraised using a strand of hair Yoo Eun-ha had dropped in the clubroom.
The name had changed.
What had happened to alter her name?
"Ah, I'm an idiot."
Those weren't random characters. No need to re-appraise; she needed to interpret them.
The new or old symbols likely meant the same.
What would decoding reveal?
Lee Yoo-jeong felt her motivation surge for the first time in ages.
And dozens of minutes later, she screamed at the decoded text.
Hansung Academy.
The Divine Sword bearer who'd sent Yoo Eun-ha home paced, biting his nails.
"I kept Yoo Eun-ha away for a while, but when will the fiends show?"
If luck's bad, the day of the group battle.
"If they come before that, it'd be perfect."
Choi Si-woo glanced at Han Su-ji and Reina diligently raising their specs in the simulation training room.
Those two were far stronger than pre-regression.
Even if fiends attacked, they wouldn't go down easy.
They'd be assets, stronger than the deployed academy hunters.
He'd rigorously trained them the past three days, so the group battle would be a breeze.
"Park Jun-hyuk, called Cheok Jun-kyung of Class B, seems to be training here too."
The Black God Cult or other fiends wouldn't target the group battle day.
They'd taken heavy losses so far. They wouldn't hit when A-rank+ elite hunters were deployed.
"These next few days are the crux."
Only association and guild hunters now.
Decent numbers, but mostly B-rank or below.
Numbers couldn't ignore an S-rank villain; they'd be swept away.
Still, we can handle up to S-rank.
"Yeah, but..."
Another issue: Even post-regression, he hadn't fully inherited his past power.
Only sword sync achieved; his body hadn't bloomed to accept it.
Plus, lately, to impress Yoo Eun-ha, he'd overworked his body...
Want to think about that now? Nail this incident for points.
"Yes."
Wait, powerful demonic energy. This? You feel it too?
Malice perceptible only to those synced with the Divine Sword. And intense demonic energy even normal hunters could sense.
It had to be a fiend. Why else would the outside be in uproar?
"Combat with the hunters has begun."
This one's no ordinary foe. It'll be tough.
"We have to. It won't be beyond us."
Bigger crises loomed ahead; he couldn't flinch at this.
At least Yoo Eun-ha wasn't here. A blessing.
No contact, but no word from the association meant she was still home.
That eased his mind.
Choi Si-woo gripped the Divine Sword and stepped out of the training grounds.
What met his eyes was a lone man standing atop a pile of hunter corpses.
"Why are you here?"
Seeing the man's face, Choi Si-woo's twisted with rage, despair, and hatred.