The Sword That Should Not Exist

The woman's eyes had locked onto my sword. She stared at it as though beholding something that could not possibly exist.

...So she'd caught on, at least somewhat.

Heukcheon's blade was one of a kind, but her hilt was perfectly ordinary. I'd assumed that would be enough, and had been carrying her around in the standard scabbard issued by Korea Hero Academy.

Maybe I should have kept her in subspace after all.

"Master, I have told you time and again: I despise subspace."

Heukcheon wore a rare scowl of displeasure. But there was nothing to be done about it. Weapons with an ego ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠lose affinity in droves the moment they're sealed away in subspace—for a person, I suppose it would feel like being locked away for eternity in a solitary cell no light could ever reach.

I sent Seo Gayeon a silent instruction to hang back and watch for a moment, then stepped out front.

"You. Where did you get that sword?" the woman said, her voice trembling.

"Which sword do you mean?"

"The one at your waist."

Snap. She flicked her fan open as she spoke. Her expression had changed from before; she studied me with open confusion.

I lifted my sword and leveled it at her. Behind me, Seo Gayeon shut her eyes and began gathering mana.

"Want a good look at this sword?"

The woman made no answer. When I rapped my knuckles against the scabbard, her eyebrows twitched.

"It must be my imagination. Heukcheon's divine sword shattered long ago. There is no way it could be in your hands."

The tone of someone stating simple fact. The woman raised her fan, and a razor-edged energy rolled off it. An elder from the lowest rung of the Jecheon Society—a wind sorcerer who worked her craft through a folding fan.

Fwoosh! The fan snapped fully open, and a gale erupted, so ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠fierce it was hard to keep my eyes open against it.

The instant it rose, I hammered off the ground. A leap. My opponent was a sorcerer; get in close, and the advantage swings my way. But every step was a struggle—the wind had tangled into something like a spider's web, snagging me at every turn.

"Watch the weave of the wind," Heukcheon said quietly. "Your opponent is a sorcerer. She means to stall you, Master."

I closed my eyes. The image of a pre-dawn sky rose in my mind, and somewhere in my head a lock clicked open. When I opened my eyes again, the world was glowing green.

"The Sacred Star Eye exists to observe one's opponent. My previous master surmounted countless trials on the strength of it alone."

Sshk! The wind compressed into blades. A rough count put them at well over fifty. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Her pattern has changed, too.

"Hup!" I pulled a sword threaded with a measure of Yeokcheon out of subspace and hurled it.

"Reckless nonsense!" The woman swept her fan in a wide arc.

A wall of wind heaved up to swat the sword aside, but the Yeokcheon-laced blade bored straight through it and shot at her.

"Kgh!" The sword punched through the woman's arm. The wound must have been a serious one; she swayed on her feet, and the web of wind went slack. I burst forward with Black Shadow Step.

In that instant I accelerated to a speed even I could barely rein in.

"So you have finally mastered it." Heukcheon's murmur was almost a sigh. One heartbeat later, I stood directly in front of the woman.

I swung, pouring the inner essence of the Black Flash Sword Art into the stroke. The blade accelerated. The woman threw up her fan in desperation.

KRA-KOOM! A sound like a thunderclap rang out—impossible to believe it came from sword meeting fan.

"...How?!" The woman's shriek was pure disbelief.

I fell back half a step and reset my stance. A thrust. I gripped the iron sword and drove it in with the Black Flash Sword Art's core principle, and the woman scrambled backward, the howling wind carrying her retreat. The moment I flicked into another thrusting stance on Black Shadow Step, she gave ground again.

"How do you know the Black Flash Sword Art?"

"How do you think?" I said, letting one corner of my mouth curl.

Her eyes darkened as they fixed on me. "Tell me now, and I may let you live."

"Can you kill me right now, though?"

I was pressing her without so much as wrapping a hand around Heukcheon. If I brought out the Black God Martial Art on top of it, I could corner her completely. Honestly, short of wanting to lose, there was no version of this where I did.

"Flip it around—tell me how many of you there are, and I'll let you live."

"Heh. You're banking on the Emperor, are you? She cannot set foot in this place."

"Master, you are watching through the Sacred Star Eye, yes?"

Yeah.

"Then look deeper with it. Did her mana waver just now?"

No. It didn't waver.

"Then she speaks true. So that monstrous woman has been tripped up by someone else, has she?" Heukcheon muttered, genuinely puzzled.

I'll take her alive for now. I set Yeokcheon fully in motion.

Vwooom! Black energy tore through my body. A black power—the power that denies all things—licked out past the edges of me.

"Wha—?!" The woman's composure cracked, and I closed the distance in a blink.

Tunk. At a soft, almost delicate sound, Yeokcheon sank into the woman's body.

"Guhhk!" Her whole body began to wrench and twist. Yeokcheon spread through her from the inside, whipping every strand of her mana into a runaway frenzy until it scattered entirely and left her powerless.

It has one drawback, but... it hardly mattered. Given time, she would permanently lose her martial arts—or her magic circles. She was a Villain either way; a liberal application was no great sin. Not that I had any intention of showing mercy to begin with.

If word ever spread that I was the Heavenly Demon, life would get very tiresome. The Young Cult Leader would move to erase me. And the Young Cult Leader is a genuine headache the moment he involves himself at this stage.

The Jecheon Society had split off from the Demonic Cult, and it showed: the place crawled with blind zealots. Which meant that on his word alone, any number of them would happily spend their lives coming for me.

"H-how do you have the p-power of Yeokcheon? Y-you really are...!" The woman's voice shattered mid-sentence.

I chopped the back of her neck to knock her out. Thump.

"Aaagh!"

...Oops. Wrong spot.

"Master, strike a little lower."

Mm.

One more strike and she went limp at last. I floated her with telekinesis into a nearby crate. The only reason I'd bothered knocking her out at all was that the Headmistress pays a separate reward for live captures—and she wasn't a demon, so killing her outright would have been a waste of a perfectly good bounty.

I took Seo Gayeon and swept our surroundings. No enemies anywhere. Deeper in, that front looked just about wrapped up as well.

Easier than I expected. I supposed the hard part had been smuggling manpower in under the Emperor's nose.

"Nothing ended up happening, though." Seo Gayeon said it with a sullen pout.

I agreed. For a force that had stormed the school with that much fanfare, they had been a sorry lot. Not that I was complaining—nothing happening was the best possible outcome.

Should I be worrying about a decoy? The thought flickered and died. It would mean nothing. Seo Yebin was no fool; she would turn this place inside out.

"Whew." Kim Seohyun severed a demon's head from its shoulders and steadied her breathing. Her heart ached dully; she had wrung her mana out to its very limit.

I need to refine it further. There was still far too much waste in her movements. The martial art she was learning was simply that vast. The Thousand-Year Martial Lineage. Kim Seohyun had inherited a thousand years of murim history whole—and even now, simply absorbing the arts that were hers by birthright pushed her to her limits.

"Would you like a drink?"

"...Ah. Erciel. Thanks."

Erciel was holding out a blue potion. Kim Seohyun accepted it with a smile and drank. A cool freshness washed through her, and she felt her mana creep a little closer to full.

Even as she drank, she was studying Erciel, and thinking. Erciel's skill was beyond anything she had imagined. Whenever demons drew near, Erciel lured them with illusion magic until they turned on one another, and wove a mana field around the students so that no one so much as got scratched. In truth, the reason not a single person had died here was Erciel's magic.

And Erciel was not the only one. Fighting from a protected position, Hong Yuhwa had put out frankly absurd firepower. Park Unhyeok, too, had held the upper hand against the demons, while Saint scattered light mana to keep them suppressed.

And Ara had been something else entirely. If the highest contribution among the students went to Erciel, then the single most unforgettable image belonged, hands down, to Kim Ara. Just picturing her swinging a blade longer than she was tall and pulverizing a demon in one blow was enough to make Kim Seohyun's hair stand on end.

At least three of them, then. Three whole beings she could not promise herself victory against. And all this time, she had believed no one here was her match.

Kim Seohyun smiled wryly and thought of the one student absent from this place. Lee Seoha. Every time his name surfaced, a question mark came attached. She still couldn't read him. Not one facet of his talent ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had ever shown itself. Watching him unravel the barrier that had sealed this place earlier—effortlessly, like flicking open a lock—had only hammered the point home.

Footsteps. Seo Gayeon walked at his side, and behind the two of them an unconscious woman hung crumpled in midair, bobbing along like a balloon on a string.

"Lee Seoha? And who is that?"

"She came at me with a blade the moment I laid eyes on her, so I subdued her. She appears to be connected to the ones who attacked."

With that, Lee Seoha handed the Villain over to Professor Song Rahee, then made his way over to her.

"Impressive, taking a Villain alive."

"All talk, honestly—there wasn't much impressive about it. The impressive one here is you," he said with a faint laugh.

"And if anything's wearing on you, tell your hyung." Lee Seoha added, his grin turning impish.

At the ridiculous title, Kim Seohyun laughed—haha—and nodded.