Absolute Command and the Black Sun
“Y-you, you what? D-don't tell me you cleared the Tower of False Dreams?”
Ha Seonghwi's voice trembled.
The Tower of False Dreams was a tower of ill repute. It paraded every illusion imaginable before your eyes and goaded the climbers into turning on one another.
That was why its difficulty was considered nightmarish. Even the brigade commander who led the Retribution Brigade had failed to clear it, managing nothing more than barely dragging Ha Seonghwi out.
But I was different.
Thanks to the Reverse-Heaven energy, I was immune to every illusion it could throw at me.
Curses were much the same. The only things that actually worked on me were direct attacks, and those I cut off before they ever landed.
A curse-weaver or an illusionist would be a manageable opponent for me even if they were a full two stages above my rank.
'Still, Absolute Command, huh.'
I looked at Ha Seonghwi.
I had cleared the Tower of False Dreams completely, and that was what must have granted me the Absolute Command.
'Not bad at all.'
Her rank was high-tier. But depending on circumstances, she carried the potential to devour even supreme-tier opponents.
If it were anyone but me, someone who had reached the same stage as her would find her one of the trickiest existences imaginable to deal with.
And in fact, everyone at the academy except Erciel had been thoroughly tormented by Ha Seonghwi's illusions. Even Kim Seohyun had fallen for them at one point.
I studied Ha Seonghwi.
The moment I gained the Absolute Command, I could see straight through her disguise. Pink hair spilling down to her waist, and eyes of the same rosy hue.
This was the real Ha Seonghwi.
And just to be safe, I swept her body with the Divine Eye of Insight. No listening devices or anything of the sort.
I glanced around. Every gaze in the crowd was pointed our way.
First things first — we needed to get out of here.
“Let's change locations first. Follow me.”
“Yes…….”
Ha Seonghwi answered with a dazed expression.
Was this seriously like hypnosis? I let out a hollow laugh and steered her toward a quiet spot.
The moment we turned into an alley, the crowd vanished behind us.
Then Ha Seonghwi's eyes started coming back into focus.
“You— you! H-how did you cl-clear the Tower of False Dreams!?”
“There's always a way.”
I shrugged and looked at her.
Ha Seonghwi's face flushed red as she stared at me.
“Y-you dragged me into a p-place like this, so wh-what are you planning to do?! You're going to do something v-violent, aren't you?! S-so what if you've got a handsome face! Since it's my first time, you'd b-better be gentle…….”
“Save the nonsense.”
Ha Seonghwi looked at me with a peculiar expression. This isn't how it's supposed to go. — that was the look in her eyes.
Seeing that look reminded me of my ex-girlfriend.
I didn't know about anything else, but her advice had actually been a decent help in my life.
“Seoha, you're good-looking and women fall for you weirdly easily, so you'd better watch your lower half. If you want out, say the word and I'll pull you out of anything, anytime. And if you ever do get tempted by those other women, wear a condom. Everything else I could forgive — just don't get one of them pregnant, that's all. Girls with that strong a sex drive are all jezebels anyway? There's a risk of STDs, so…….”
Only now, thinking back on it, did I realize how intense her obsession had been.
The only people I'd ever been close to were my ex-girlfriend, a boss at work, and a junior colleague.
No — that's not the point here.
I looked at the False Dream sigil. I had no real feel for how the Absolute Command worked. Did I just… give an order?
Whoosh.
Pink light flared from the sigil, and the method of use poured into my head.
'So that's how it works.'
You poured your will into your words. This was something close to a form of mysticism — meaning it wouldn't collide with my Reverse-Heaven energy.
“First — face that wall and do a handstand.”
“What?”
Ha Seonghwi made a blank face, but her body moved on its own. She planted a handstand against the wall I'd pointed to.
Even so, I felt a small shaving come off my mental reserves. The power was faint, but it did have a cost.
'Pretty useful, actually.'
I watched Ha Seonghwi holding her handstand and spoke.
“First — hand over everything you know about the Retribution Brigade.”
I threw question after question at Ha Seonghwi.
“First of all, the Magongnyeo is a master of demonic arts. The Asura demon she carries is a perfect match for those arts.”
“Anything else?”
“She's searching for the traces of the one called the Heavenly Demon. She swears that if they find the traces of the 11th Heavenly Demon — the one hailed as the sole sovereign above all under heaven — she'll do anything, so the other members have been paying her a bit of attention too.”
“I see.”
I pumped Ha Seonghwi for all kinds of information. An hour passed like that.
'Not much has changed, though.'
I looked at her.
Ha Seonghwi wasn't yet a woman who could walk around openly. Whenever the Brigade sent her on missions, she went out in a different guise — which, ironically, made her a rather convenient subordinate to keep around.
The best option was to use her to monitor the Brigade's movements.
The Magongnyeo had warned me: the Retribution Brigade would move in person. At least five of them, more likely.
'But I can't trust it.'
I couldn't trust Ha Seonghwi.
Granted, I held the Absolute Command, but even if I bound her down with every restriction I could devise, the brigade commander who'd pulled her out of the Tower of False Dreams might well be able to unravel them.
'That's the real thorn in my side.'
The commander's talent was Chastisement of Discipline (S+). It was the reason the Retribution Brigade held together, and equally the reason they had never fallen to an outside assault.
Chastisement of Discipline (S+) worked like this: the caster imposed a discipline upon a given being, and if that discipline was violated, the caster could enact chastisement. The problem was that the nature of that chastisement depended entirely on the caster's heart.
Even if I loaded Ha Seonghwi with every restriction I could and planted her inside the Brigade, the commander might grow suspicious, lay Chastisement of Discipline (S+) on her, and slap a penalty on her.
Impose a penalty rendering outside pressure ineffective — and she could feed my information straight to the enemy.
I stroked my chin, thinking it over.
Which meant that, in the end, keeping her at my side was the best move.
'…….'
I looked at Yeongcheon. I was wondering whether I could put her inside Ha Seonghwi's body.
“Mmm… Yeongcheonie could manage it, if you keep pouring your Reverse-Heaven energy into her continuously, Seoha-nim, but……”
Yeongcheon let the sentence trail off.
Fair enough. Ha Seonghwi had crumpled effortlessly against me, but that didn't mean she was weak. Hers was a case of being utterly countered by a matchup.
Then I'd just have to keep her close.
I looked at the sigil. I wanted to issue the Absolute Command. The moment I thought it, the sigil began to emit a soft pink glow.
The first one was this.
“If my life is ever in danger, you will save me even at the cost of your own.”
“If I fight the Retribution Brigade, you will aid me — even if it means breaking their discipline.”
After that, I dictated a string of other commands.
Then I felt roughly half of my mental reserve drain away.
'So the cost spikes sharply every time I stack commands.'
At this rate, I couldn't bind her down with a large number of orders at once.
Having laid down the bare minimum, I led Ha Seonghwi away.
“You've got a car, right? Any listening devices in it?”
“No, sir…….”
Ha Seonghwi answered with a wounded look on her face. That was because I'd ordered her to speak to me politely.
Proper training, after all, begins with honorifics. Source: my ex-girlfriend.
I took Ha Seonghwi to a shuttered factory nearby and looked around as we got out of the car.
Korea had plenty of places like this.
As dimensions overlapped, many districts had been shattered, and buildings rose on the rubble — but midway through, the land that had been North Korea came into being, and droves of people left to develop it.
'Even if it's the Retribution Brigade, they shouldn't react immediately.'
I'd brought Ha Seonghwi here just in case — but no response, huh.
“……!”
The Sword Ghost's razor-sharp senses screamed a warning.
This place was dangerous.
Reflexively, I conjured a footing in midair and leapt.
At the same instant, a gunshot cracked past my ear.
Crack.
A gunshot rang out.
I turned my head toward the direction it came from.
“Sharp senses. Those aren't the senses of some ordinary student. The way you dodged that first shot — that's the kind of instinct only someone who's weathered countless battles even at high-tier could possess……”
A man's voice, utterly flat, without a single rise or fall.
There stood a grey-haired man in a white military uniform. A white peaked cap, and a mantle draped so it cascaded to his hip and hung off his right side.
On the right breast of his uniform was a bizarre emblem: an eagle perched above a swastika.
“Of all people, that lunatic had to show up.”
Ha Seonghwi clicked her tongue.
He fixed his gaze on me. I laughed inwardly. I'd hooked a monster of a catch from the very start.
“I like those eyes.”
Muttering that, the man stuck a cigarette between his lips and lit it.
“I am Grey. A member of the Schutzstaffel of the Nazi Empire, which serves the Black Sun. Tell me your name, brat.”
I ignored Grey's words and leveled Heukcheon at him. The grey-haired man's lips curled upward.
“Don't even know the etiquette of war, do you? Then come at me.”
“Ha Seonghwi. Ready?”
“……Yes. I've been ready since the moment I saw him.”
“Oh? You prepared because you knew I was coming? So where did the information leak fr——”
Thwip!
A dagger, forged from the jet-black bracelet, punched through Grey's thigh.
“……Since when—!”
“Since when did you think I'd fallen into your trap?”
“What?”
I curled my lips up and closed in on Grey. Ha Seonghwi's hypnotic abilities were, without question, unmatched among those of equal rank — that much I'd confirmed for myself.
I raised Heukcheon. With a languid, unhurried motion, unlike my usual bearing. Yet Grey's gaze stayed locked to the right.
As if he couldn't perceive me at all.
I unleashed the Reverse-Heaven energy — and only then did his expression change.
'A drawback of the Reverse-Heaven energy, huh.'
It even unravelled illusions cast upon an opponent. I gave a crooked smile and brought Heukcheon down.
Where did it all go wrong?
The brigade commander fiddled with their mask and thought.
It had happened in an instant.
Every single being connected to them had gone silent, without exception. Even those only loosely tied to them were the same.
So stealthy that they hadn't even noticed. Which meant one of the handful of transcendent beings on this planet had moved.
The members of the Retribution Brigade were wavering because of it.
The commander turned their gaze.
On the wanted poster, a peerlessly beautiful young man looked back over his shoulder, smiling. The bounty: a staggering five billion won.
Lee Seoha.
Instinctively —
the senses that had kept the commander alive until this very moment were blaring an alarm, as if to say: this is the price of touching Lee Seoha.
They left me alive on purpose.
They said starlight had fallen from the heavens.
Those were the words that came out at the very moment every one of their contacts on Earth had been severed.
Which meant the one who moved was Seo Yebin. The Emperor had acted personally.
The commander's eyes sank hollow.
“There's no undoing it now.”
The Brigade's members were all chess pieces anyway. It was about time to let go of the board.
Swap out Lee Seoha's ally for the vice-commander's seat, then absorb them whole.
And as for themselves —
all they needed to do was ascend to a new throne of evil.
The Seven Evils would become Eight.
And then they would have their revenge on the Emperor for the Brigade.
“Everyone, gather.”
The commander set the Retribution Brigade in motion.