Six Arms of Ruin
Soul-Reaping Sword Arts proficiency has increased.
He had taken on the appearance of something draped in shadow — proof that he had become a demon in the truest sense. Demonic energy bloomed off him like heat haze, layering the air with a revolting stench.
— Grrk.
Tak Yoonil cracked his neck, loosened his shoulders, and fixed his eyes on me. As if I were the one person in this place worth fearing.
— So you were the prophesied one. Born fated to annihilate every demon in existence.
He was probably thinking of Seo Gayeon. Truthfully, I wished she were here with us. If she had bloomed her Starlight Mana and landed a single Lance of Judgment — the mid-to-high-tier spell that was her specialty — Tak Yoonil would already be dead.
Tak Yoonil was a High-Rank demon, and he was strong enough that death was a real possibility for us. But Starlight Mana boasted an overwhelming affinity advantage that ignored realms of power entirely. That was exactly why it was said she was destined to wipe every demon from the face of the earth.
— Be careful.
Heukcheon warned me.
— Reverse Heaven energy is especially potent against beings from the outer realms, my lord. But the gap in cultivation between you and that demon is unmistakable.
— Overcoming a gap in realm is no easy feat. Yet if it is my lord who attempts it, then it is worth the trying.
I gave the faintest nod at Yeongcheon and Heukcheon's counsel.
— First of all.
Slow and drawn out. Tak Yoonil's words seemed to drive themselves straight into my skull.
— You. The annoying one.
Pah!
Blade and spear raised, we shot toward the Cheonryu Guild members. I responded instantly, lunging at the man Tak Yoonil had called Jaeu.
Claaang!
Sword met sword and the impact detonated outward in a shockwave. He moved his spear — and I answered with the subtle misdirection of the Black Lightning Sword Arts, driving my blade down in a blindingly fast arc. The spear shifted. The thrust that had been going for the Cheonryu Guild member's throat swung around for mine.
Tung.
My blade batted the spear aside. But Tak Yoonil was already moving his sword.
"Hah!"
I shoved the Cheonryu Guild member away with my blade and charged straight at Tak Yoonil. Black sword-qi streamed out of him in relentless waves, all of it hunting me.
'Tsk.'
This was the trouble with a true ambidexter — fighting him one-on-one felt like fighting a crowd. But I was not alone here.
"Aren't you leaving yourself a little too open?"
Park Unhyeok thrust from the flank, his spear compressed with condensed Wind-Thunder Strike. Kim Seohyun quietly closed her hand around her sword's grip, and an intangible pressure rolled off her body, bearing down on Tak Yoonil.
I charged.
— What a nuisance.
Tak Yoonil withdrew, and the demonic energy wreathing him compressed to its utmost.
Screeeech!
Arms erupted upward. Arms forged of demonic energy revealed themselves — and in an instant, they multiplied into six.
He drew weapons out of a subspace: an axe, a blade, a whip, gauntlets. That was his talent. It was the very talent that had once earned him the title of master.
— Come, then. Show me everything.
We threw ourselves at Tak Yoonil. He met my blade, his sword-qi snarling as they ground against each other.
— Hm?
Tak Yoonil's face twisted into something odd, and he swept his blade around. Kim Seohyun cut in from the flank while Park Unhyeok bore down from the opposite side, cleaving from above. Tak Yoonil deflected Park Unhyeok's attack with the axe and whirled his spear to pin Kim Seohyun in check, and when the two guild members — Jaeu and Hyunwu — pressed a coordinated assault, he smothered them both with whip and gauntlet.
'He's gotten stronger.'
I swept my senses over him with the Divine Sight. The body of a demon was ferociously strong. His raw strength now surpassed that of ordinary monsters, and severed flesh simply knitted itself back together at a touch.
Tak Yoonil had been manageable. Demon Tak Yoonil was another matter entirely — because nearly every weakness he'd once carried had been patched over the moment he transformed.
His mana had been weak, his strength and stamina a notch below his fellow warriors — he'd covered all of it with sheer technique. But now his mana had turned ferocious, his strength, stamina, and agility had leaped to overwhelming levels, and he still had the technique on top of it all.
'This is going to be a nightmare.'
Chaeng-chaeng-chaeng!
He swatted away every attack coming from every direction. We held the formation, but it was beginning to give ground, inch by inch.
"Instead of half-assing all your variations, just strike fast!"
"Damn it, we never even practiced joint formations — this is already pushing it!"
'Worse than I expected.'
Our offense had no organic flow to it. Which was only natural — we'd never drilled coordinated attacks together. I possessed my Talent, Sword Spirit (S-), and Kim Seohyun had an ability to match it, but Park Unhyeok's martial talent was A-rank and the Cheonryu Guild members' was B-rank. The seams showed.
"Seoha and I will hold the front — Unhyeok supports us! Everyone else, defend!"
Kim Seohyun shouted. I spun into position, loosing sword strikes as I went.
— Good judgment. However.
Blackest qi compressed itself to the limit — into sword, blade, spear, axe, whip, and gauntlet alike. His will converged on all six weapons at once.
— Six Weapons Chaos Strike.
Tak Yoonil's six arms began to move.
Six weapons, six entirely different arts. The sword moved with endless, protean variation. The blade moved at blistering speed. The axe struck with brutal force, the whip flowed soft as water, the gauntlets fought like a bandit king — and the spear was fastest of all.
Kim Seohyun's eyes went wide.
I knew it in my gut: all six of those attacks were aimed at me.
'Black Scale won't hold.'
There were too many attack vectors. I couldn't cover them all with Black Scale — not when it could still only guard my fists.
Whoosh!
Reverse Heaven energy erupted from my back. Black Scale formed, and the single-edged wing curving from my right side began to distort.
Black Wing Transformation
Black Cloud Binding
— What the—?!
The single-edged wing transmuted into a shroud of cloud wrapped around my body. The black cloud denied the enemy's assault. Attacks pouring in from six different directions were almost entirely blotted out.
In the instant that hairline gap opened, Tak Yoonil recalled his spear and hurled out another thrust.
I retracted Reverse Heaven at blinding speed. Part of the cloud gathered into Heukcheon and vomited out a wave of ink-black sword pressure.
— So that is the power of denial!
Tak Yoonil's face went white with shock as he dragged his spear back. Kagak! Forced as the recovery was, I could see the muscles in his arm tearing themselves out of true.
Claaaaaang!
Spear and sword collided, whipping up another shockwave. Six attacks, plus the contortion of yanking his spear back mid-motion and thrusting again.
Tak Yoonil had exposed an open, unmistakable seam.
"Now!"
"Thanks!"
Kim Seohyun lunged. The Winter Sword flared blue. Her pupils blazed a blue so cold it stung to look at.
Thousand-Year Pulse Unification
White Heaven Steel Sword Strike
Vuuuuum!
The Winter Sword gave voice — a sword cry. Deep blue light coiled around the blade, and with it came a bone-deep wave of killing cold.
— Young master. Have you forgotten that I am a demon?
His warped arms were gradually righting themselves. Tak Yoonil clenched his teeth and swung the axe.
Claaang!
It looked like polar light and darkness waging war against each other. The blue light swelled, freezing over Tak Yoonil's weapons and his body inch by inch — and in turn, his demonic energy was boring into Kim Seohyun.
'Yeongcheon!'
— Yes, sir!
Yeongcheon wove a spell with blistering speed. I poured Reverse Heaven into it, and in a flash my body turned weightless as I hurled myself at Tak Yoonil. At the same moment, I activated my magic — Illusion Within Truth, etched into my body by my engravings. And the spell woven into my coat scrambled Tak Yoonil's senses on top of it all.
— Cheap tricks!
But Tak Yoonil, unlike Harun, did not fall for the illusion. He retreated in a huge leap and cracked the whip.
Claaang!
Sword met whip. My utterly compressed Reverse Heaven denied the fighting spirit steeped into the whip's length.
Crunch-crunch-crack!
The Winter Sword froze the axe solid, cold flooding through the steel and up into Tak Yoonil's arm, locking it in ice.
"Heugh— hah."
But Kim Seohyun didn't look much better off. Her face had drained white from wringing out every drop of her qi.
The instant of opening Kim Seohyun had carved for us. Sword, blade, and spear answered it all at once.
"Go!"
Park Unhyeok's voice rang out. He charged with Wind-Thunder Strike condensed to its limit. The blade swung for him — and he ground his teeth and took one hit from the blade-qi-wreathed weapon head-on.
"Kghk!"
And then he thrust. His spear drove for Tak Yoonil's, twisting its trajectory aside.
"I owe you one."
Gritting my teeth, I seized Heukcheon and slammed every last drop of Reverse Heaven into her.
Vuuuuuum!
Heukcheon answered. A sword cry tore out of her.
Soul-Breaker.
Onto the power of denial was layered a force that warped everything it touched.
Tak Yoonil's movement — the extending thrust — stopped for the barest fraction of a second. It was enough.
I swung at the speed of a lightning flash, carrying the essence of the Black Lightning Sword Arts within it. The blade that was nothing but fast carved a deep, gaping wound across Tak Yoonil's chest.
Pschuh!
His chest split open and black blood sprayed in every direction. One look told you it was fatal.
"Everyone, attack!"
The two guild members closed in on Tak Yoonil through gritted teeth. It was a mortal wound — but he was a demon. Given a single minute, he'd regenerate enough to be back on his feet and moving.
I clenched my jaw. I recalled every thread of Reverse Heaven I'd hammered into Heukcheon. And then — Black Scale.
A black, negating power gathered into my right hand.
'Faster.'
Tak Yoonil had to die here.
I had already wasted too much time — because from the very start, Tak Yoonil was never our only enemy.
Staggering, I leapt toward Tak Yoonil as he weathered the two guild members' assault.
Pah!
Moving like black lightning itself, I reached out my hand — straight for his chest.
He must have sensed something, because his mouth opened and demonic energy surged toward my hand.
But it was already too late.
Vuum!
Black Divine Void.
Black Mirror.
It denied everything. Denying Tak Yoonil's demonic energy outright, it scattered a blast of annihilating waves.
— I... am...
Crunch.
Tak Yoonil's head burst apart mid-sentence, whatever he'd been trying to say cut off forever.
A chill crawled up my spine.
Something was there. I could feel a gaze. I turned my head.
And there she was — a girl wearing an expression of sheer rapture.
"Found you."
The true Heavenly Demon.