The Blood Prison Blade Realm
OO Hotel.
Jeok Hwa-ryeon and Jeok So-ye were folding clothes with smiles that never left their faces.
Jeok So-ye watched her mother and thought,
Mother smiles this often… I never expected that.
Jeok Hwa-ryeon rarely smiled. She only did so when stroking Jeok So-ye’s hair or speaking of Namgung Cheon.
“This world is truly fascinating. Unlike Murim, where everything was settled by force, it has order. Children can play without fear.”
“It does seem like a good place. In some ways, even better than Murim.”
“Do you miss Murim?”
Jeok So-ye shook her head.
From the moment she opened her eyes, her world had contained only Jeok Hwa-ryeon. Children her age pressed their foreheads to the ground and swore loyalty whenever they saw her. Adults treated her as the next Blood Demon.
Jeok Hwa-ryeon was the only person she could speak to freely. The woman looked at her not as the future Blood Demon, but as a daughter.
The problem was that even Jeok Hwa-ryeon had been half-mad while searching for the relic to chase Namgung Cheon. She was away from the Blood Sect most of the time.
All that remained for Jeok So-ye was loneliness.
Compared to back then…
Jeok Hwa-ryeon had regained her stability. Though still unfamiliar with this place, she now had Namgung Cheon—her father—by her side.
“I like being beside Father and Mother.”
“I see.”
They were still smiling and folding clothes when a siren suddenly blared.
Whyyyyyyeeeeeeng—!!
A gate has appeared nearby. Guests, please evacuate to the nearest school or playground within the area.
The same announcement repeated over and over.
“Mother.”
“Yes.”
Jeok Hwa-ryeon opened her palm. The Blood Demon Sword flew into her grasp. Jeok So-ye also picked up her heavy blue sword.
“Even if it’s temporary, this place is our home.”
“But Father told us to stay as quiet as possible.”
“Hmm…”
Jeok Hwa-ryeon, who had been about to open the window and leap out, stopped.
“In that case…”
She slashed the air with her sword, creating a rift in space, then pulled out two sets of stealth robes.
“We’ll simply go and return without revealing our identities.”
“There’s a way like that! As expected of Mother.”
The two donned the stealth robes and hurled themselves from the hotel, more than ten stories high.
***
Third Army Commander Romanoff.
He had once been living armor forged from the armor of a dragon hunter who possessed tremendous skill.
Romanoff gripped his iron mace and looked up at the towering buildings that seemed to scrape the sky.
“This place… is another world.”
Ten years had passed since the hero who slew the Demon King disappeared.
The demon race had regained its strength, and the Demon King’s resurrection was imminent. Yet that damned Lord Dragon still sided with humans and continued to oppress the demons.
While searching for human sacrifices to revive the Demon King without drawing the dragon’s attention, a massive portal had appeared before Romanoff.
“Army Commander, all five hundred members of the Living Armor Legion have completed the transfer.”
“Slaughter the humans and collect their hearts. That will hasten the Demon King’s resurrection.”
The Living Armor Legion began to move at once.
“Kyaaaaah!!”
People who failed to escape screamed at the sight of the walking suits of armor.
“Run away, quickly!!”
B-rank Hunter Nam Jin-cheol arrived at the scene.
“What… is that…”
Even after five years as a hunter, he had never witnessed anything like the scene unfolding in the city. Hundreds of living armors were on the move.
But he couldn’t simply stand by and watch.
Nam Jin-cheol immediately swung his double-bladed axe at a living armor.
Clang!!
With a sharp metallic ring, the living armor blocked the axe with its sword.
A living armor blocked my strike?
In that brief moment, a spear shot toward him at terrifying speed.
“Kugh!!”
He twisted his body while retrieving the axe, but the spear pierced his shoulder.
“Damn it! These things aren’t ordinary living armors!!”
The wound wasn’t deep, but the living armors were steadily surrounding him.
“When is backup coming?!”
Five minutes had passed since he sent the support request through the hunter-exclusive app right after the gate appeared.
All he could hear was the siren from the Hunter Management Bureau. No other hunters were in sight.
This isn’t a situation an ordinary Hunter Management Bureau can handle…
Clack, clack.
The living armors continued closing in on him.
“S-save me… Is anyone there?!”
His hand gripping the axe trembled violently.
In that moment, facing death—
Clack, clack—!
The living armors suddenly halted, then parted to either side.
“….?”
Through the newly formed path, the massive living armor over two meters tall—Romanoff—slowly approached.
Purple energy rippled across Romanoff’s body, clad in thick, blunt yet razor-sharp armor.
“Human warrior. Raise your weapon.”
Romanoff, holding his mace, spoke to Nam Jin-cheol.
“W-what…?”
With trembling hands, Nam Jin-cheol looked at his double-bladed axe.
For some reason, the monster was giving him a chance.
“A chance…”
He lifted the axe with all his strength.
“Die with honor, as a warrior should.”
“Uwaaaaaah!!”
Nam Jin-cheol swung the axe upward from below.
At the same time, Romanoff’s mace fell toward the axe.
Ah… is this my life flashing before my eyes?
Watching the mace approach at terrifying speed, Nam Jin-cheol closed his eyes.
Kwoong—!!
A tremendous shockwave spread alongside the sound of something crashing down. Nam Jin-cheol was swept away by the shockwave and rolled across the ground several meters.
“Uwaaak….!!”
When Nam Jin-cheol regained his senses and stood up, what he saw was shocking.
Romanoff lay collapsed on the ground, and standing atop him was a woman in black stealth robes wielding a crimson sword.
She defeated that thing…? Did an S-rank hunter arrive?
Romanoff felt the same shock.
I was defeated by a human woman…?
After being torn apart by the hero, he had obtained the dragon hunter’s armor from a forgotten ruin to regain his original strength.
He had become more than twice as strong as before, yet this woman had casually blocked his mace and knocked him down.
“Whoa… there are moving armors too? Is this some kind of formation technique?”
“Human…!! What is your identity?!”
“It even talks. I’m the Blood… no, just a passing masked person.”
Jeok Hwa-ryeon looked down at Romanoff.
“Now that I think about it, you called yourself a warrior. Your appearance is pure unorthodox sect, yet you follow orthodox etiquette.”
She stepped back from Romanoff’s body and rested the Blood Demon Sword on her shoulder. Her posture was as casual as a street thug’s.
“I’ll give you one more chance. I’ll allow you one strike, so show me everything you have.”
Jeok Hwa-ryeon spoke without assuming any combat stance.
“A chance…”
Romanoff slammed his mace into the ground and rose. The height difference between him and Jeok Hwa-ryeon was enormous.
She had to tilt her head back just to look at him. Yet Romanoff’s instincts screamed at him to flee from this woman immediately.
“I gratefully accept that chance.”
But Romanoff did not run. If he fled from this woman, there would be no guarantee he wouldn’t flee when he met the hero again.
Clack—! Clack—!!
Romanoff’s dragon armor separated and began gathering around his massive mace, which was now the size of his own head.
Still holding the mace in one hand, Romanoff’s other hand reached for the demonic core in his chest.
I was saving this for when I met the hero.
“Everyone, gather.”
At his command, the turquoise souls of all the living armors nearby began to converge.
“Oh… you’re gathering evil spirits. Similar to Murim’s sorcery.”
The souls clung thickly to Romanoff’s core, and his body gradually grew larger.
“Is it over now?”
Even as she looked at the giant now over five meters tall, Jeok Hwa-ryeon didn’t so much as blink. Instead, she yawned as if bored.
“Here I come.”
Creak, creak…!!
Romanoff gripped the massive mace as if it might break and raised it high into the sky.
“Die.”
The enormous mace fell toward Jeok Hwa-ryeon’s head. She merely smiled and watched it descend.
Kwaaaang—!!
The ground shook with a deafening roar.
“Uwaat!?”
Nam Jin-cheol watched from behind a car, hiding his body.
She took that attack head-on…?
Anyone struck by that mace should have been crushed into pulp.
But what Nam Jin-cheol saw was different from what he expected.
“A protective barrier…?”
A crimson barrier, eerily similar to blood, had blocked the mace.
“Well then… is it my turn?”
Jeok Hwa-ryeon took a step forward, lowering the Blood Demon Sword.
Just that single movement made the air grow heavy in an instant.
Splash.
A puddle spread outward from her feet.
A deep crimson pool of blood.
It swallowed the road, swallowed the buildings, and eventually swallowed the world.
By the time Romanoff realized the existence of the puddle, the tip of her sword was already moving.
A simple upward slash from below.
Romanoff looked at that clean, simple sword path and knew instinctively.
This… is death.
A massive crimson sword strike erupted from the puddle.
The world turned blood-red, and his vision was dyed crimson.
Drip.
Only the sound of falling blood droplets echoed painfully in his ears.
***
“That is Mother’s martial art…”
Jeok So-ye watched from a short distance away.
Perhaps she had been influenced by her father, Namgung Cheon.
The Blood Demon’s swordsmanship began the moment she declared her domain. The first step was creating and expanding a domain of blood.
No being within that domain could escape her attacks.
Just now, she had merely drawn her sword through empty space, and the massive living armor had been split in two.
In some ways it resembles a formation technique, yet the nature is completely different.
In battles between masters, the usual pattern was exchanging moves, launching powerful attacks, and engaging in psychological warfare. Jeok Hwa-ryeon’s swordsmanship could neither be dodged nor blocked.
Whether it was protective qi or armor made from the hide of a divine beast, everything was sliced apart without distinction.
It reminds me of when we fought the Heavenly Demon Cult.
Within a domain vast enough to cover an entire Blood Sect branch, simply swinging her sword had felled hundreds, thousands of enemies. She hadn’t witnessed it personally, but even the Heavenly Demon had lost an arm to Jeok Hwa-ryeon’s sword and fled in disgrace.
“There are no witnesses.”
Aside from the man trembling behind the car, there were none.
Should I kill him?
Jeok So-ye’s role was to scout the surroundings and stop anyone who approached in case of an unexpected situation.
Just as she was about to draw her sword, she saw the man running away.
Well, since we hid our identities, it should be fine.
For a moment, she had almost committed murder to silence witnesses, just as she would have in Murim.
She sheathed her sword again and stood up.
Let’s return now.
After receiving Jeok Hwa-ryeon’s voice transmission, Jeok So-ye immediately ran toward the hotel.