Black Flame Burns It All
Tap, tap.
Hiding myself in the darkness, I walked toward the alley. A gloomy alley steeped in shadow. The presence I could sense was minimal at best.
Under the moonlight, I leaned against a wall and waited for Seol Hwaryeon.
Has she not arrived yet?
We had agreed to meet here, but so far there was no sign of her. I had waited only a short while before the senses of my Sword Ghost picked up a faint presence.
I can sense her better than last time.
It was hard to call this Seol Hwaryeon regressing. If anything, it seemed my own senses had sharpened thanks to creating the Black Flame Meteor Star. Concealed in shadow, Seol Hwaryeon came quietly to my side.
I looked her outfit over. A black crop top that bared her navel, comfortable black shorts, and black sneakers. Charitably, it was easy to move in. Less charitably, it was rather revealing.
Before I could say anything, she bowed her head to me and spoke.
"Venerable Elder, it has been far too long. I trust you have been well. Every time I severed the heads of demons in America, I worried so much for you that I could not enjoy tormenting them and had to kill them right away. Still, seeing you so hale and healthy, you seem to be doing fine. No—forgive me, perhaps you are merely overexerting yourself, as someone of your stature would. But I am here now, so please do not push yourself too hard."
"……Right. Be a bit more careful with your body from now on. You should take care of yourself too."
"I will engrave your words into my very bones, Elder."
Uncomfortable with the attention, I nodded and gave her words my assent.
"So, where is this place?"
"A den of demons."
The entire building had been constructed for the demons' use. Its structure kept demonic mana from leaking outside, and even a cursory sweep told me the interior was built solid. Solid enough that even if a fight broke out inside, it wouldn't raise much of a ruckus for a good while.
Hmm……
Thick, corrupt demonic mana seeped from within. I could feel the dense stench of malice. Pain and despair hung heavy in the mana itself.
"Elder, allow me to enter first."
"I'm fine."
"No. Your strength must be saved for what is to come. It is not power to be spent on the small fry in there."
She pulled the scarf draped around her neck up over the bridge of her nose like a mask, then drew from her coat a mask that matched my own.
"I thought it would suit your tastes, Elder, so I prepared one. We are of the same clan now, so I figured matching our attire would not be a bad idea. Does it suit me?"
So saying, Seol Hwaryeon slipped the mask on and pulled a coat, folded into a square, from her coat, unfurling it over her shoulders.
"……I see."
"As I expected. I knew it would match your tastes, Elder."
This is not my taste at all.
But I knew that saying so would leave the strangely gleeful Seol Hwaryeon sulking, so I answered vaguely instead.
"Then let's move out."
"Yes, Elder."
Before I could take the lead, she stepped ahead of me.
We stood before the building's entrance. I sensed movement from within.
"There are people waiting inside the building."
"They don't feel like demons. Villains, then?"
"Shall I simply subdue them?"
"Do that."
At my words, Seol Hwaryeon leapt lightly away. With catlike grace, she landed—yet not the slightest sound followed. That was thanks to the secret footwork handed down through her assassin clan.
And even among them, she's a special case.
Where Hong Yuhwa possessed talents for burning things and for usurping them, Seol Hwaryeon was born with a talent for freezing and a talent for handling shadows.
If she focused on the freezing side, she would one day attain Absolute Frozen Extermination, freezing even time and space itself. If she threw herself into her talent for concealment, she could become the ruler of the underworld instead.
That is, if she were an amateur.
The path I had in mind for Seol Hwaryeon was a little different. She had the capacity to seize both. If she maximized her talent for freezing everything and her talent for shadows alike, she would become a devastating force in the future.
……Though I need to raise Kim Seohyun as well.
Kim Seohyun was the most ambiguous case at the moment. Erciel would grow on her own if left alone—she had a teacher better than anyone. Kim Ara was much the same, and Seo Gayeon had Cheongyeon watching over her, intent on raising her himself.
Kim Seohyun, though, was a bit uncertain. She had a Transcendent for a teacher, but she was learning a little of everything.
Martial arts, magic, psychic abilities, mysticism.
Her martial arts in particular were a direct inheritance of a thousand years of Murim history. She hadn't accomplished anything remarkable with it yet, but when it all came together someday, she would perform feats like a monster.
After all, in the ending where the beings of the outer planes invaded and everyone died, it was she alone who butchered every last one of them.
Humanity was wiped out, though.
Crunch.
The sound of a skull being crushed under a fist shook me out of my reverie. At some point, Seol Hwaryeon had smashed a demon's head with her bare hand and was bringing her sword down on another's neck.
Thwack—!
And then the severed part began to freeze over.
Demons were dangerous. Their ideology was one reason, but more than that, their physical capabilities and regenerative powers surpassed anything human. That was why, in order to kill them with ease, you needed a power that suppressed their regeneration.
In my case, the Heaven-Rebuking Qi makes it easy.
The Heaven-Rebuking Qi denied even the demons' regenerative abilities. It negated life itself, and negated the demonic mana they carried. That was why I could fight demons with such ease.
Anyone without my constitution would have to burn or freeze a demon's body after severing it. Or electrocute it with lightning.
"Good form. Making certain of the finish is better than skimping on a little mana."
"……Heheh. Ahem. Thank you, Elder."
Letting out an awkward chuckle, Seol Hwaryeon bowed her head.
She's changed so much since that incident.
How should I put it—it was like she had come to admire me even more. Somehow the distance between us felt farther, though.
Well, admiration is the emotion farthest from understanding.
We pressed inward. Not a sound, not a presence, not a scent betrayed us. Seol Hwaryeon froze them all and buried them, and I negated them outright.
The Black Flame Meteor Star—or Heukshin for short. It was one of the passive abilities I'd gained from acquiring it.
"Hm? What's that?"
"What's wrong? Remembering your girlfriend at home?"
"No, I just suddenly got a chill……"
I heard men chattering. Sticky, corrupt demonic mana hung in the air. Seol Hwaryeon looked at me, and I nodded. That was the signal: they were demons. At my signal, she dropped low to the ground. Then she leapt.
"Don't talk nonsense. It's still summer. Well, give it a month and it'll be winter, so I suppose……"
That was the demon's last words. I drew my blade and took his head in a single stroke.
"Right now I'm—"
Swish.
Having swiftly cut down another demon's throat, Seol Hwaryeon alighted as lightly as a cat.
"Still not used to the secret arts of the Black Shadow, I see."
"……No, Elder. By the time I was to learn them, half of the Black Shadow's secret arts had already been deployed in the field……"
"Hmm. Then I'll teach you the rest next time."
"E-Elder, you know them?"
"Of course. Have you finished mastering the secret arts of Eternity?"
"Yes. I have mastered both the first and second halves."
"I see."
We pressed onward. Seol Hwaryeon cut down every demon in our path as we advanced. Even when I tried to step forward, she refused to let me.
Does she think I'm gravely ill or something?
Still, the feeling wasn't entirely unpleasant. Being protected, I suppose. Though in truth, it should have been the other way around.
"There are two staircases, Elder."
"The main force is below."
The demonic mana rising from beneath us was proof enough.
"Then we shall descend, Elder."
We went down into the basement. There were demons there as well, just as on the first floor. Seol Hwaryeon dispatched them with a light flick of her body, cutting them all down. And then, the second basement level.
"……Quite the elaborate setup you've made for yourselves."
The demons had gathered in force.
About thirty of them?
Like a scene out of a movie, the demons had parted to form an aisle and lined both sides of it. At the center sat someone who looked to be the boss.
The presence radiating from him was High-Rank.
"So, you've finally come to pay us a visit, have you? The surviving remnants of the assassin clan."
"……"
Seol Hwaryeon faltered.
"How do you know about that?"
"Well. When you dwell in the dark, all sorts of information leaks out. Honestly, what surprises me is that reckless fools like you took this long to have your secrets uncovered."
So saying, the man quietly rose to his feet. I could feel multiple presences stirring. Two High-Rank signatures and five Mid-Rank ones.
"Good guesswork. Doesn't befit a crime-lord boss."
I strolled casually forward, and the man's brow twitched as if unsettled.
"Doesn't matter. You hiding back there—come out too. Makes it easier to deal with you all at once."
"How arrogant."
"If there are bugs, isn't it more convenient to squash them in one go? No need to trouble yourself swatting twice."
The moment I goaded them, a demon snapped. Demons were usually like this. They gained tremendous physical power, but as the price, they drowned easily in their own emotions.
I focused on the Black Flame Meteor Star. Negate, and inscribe the quality of absorption into a flame that bordered on the primordial source itself.
With the feel of spreading wide.
I drew out the power that had gathered in the ground and the air beneath my feet.
Whumm!
Black flame took shape. The ground under me burned with black fire, and the purest of Heaven-Rebuking Qi came flooding in.
"That's—!"
"Stop him! Kill him! Whatever it takes, don't let him use that technique!"
The man in the chair screamed in desperation. His body swelled in an instant, achieving demonification—his frame doubled in size, black demonic mana coiling around him as he charged, hammer raised.
But he was far, far too late.
Thud.
A mere light kick—laden with an immense amount of Heaven-Rebuking Qi.
Flame and source alike. The qi-laden shockwave spread across the ground as though sown into the earth, rippling outward with a roar.
BOOM──!
"Kgh—this is impossible—!"
The black flames consumed everything.
The seated boss and thirty demons. And the two High-Rank demons and ten Mid-Rank demons who had appeared in reinforcement—every last one of them was burned to ash in a single stroke.
I wasn't entirely unscathed either. That one strike had consumed most of my Heaven-Rebuking Qi.
Recover.
I simply recited the activation word in my mind.
Hah.
I sighed inwardly.
Despite the fact that there had been three High-Ranks among them.
The Heaven-Rebuking Qi had not recovered.
Which meant that my days of farming Heaven-Rebuking Qi off demons were over.
What a sad state of affairs.
Truly, nothing could have been sadder.