Chapter 57
Chapter 57
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 57
Chapter Title: Retribution
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"Stop... stop... stooop...!!!"
Those were the words of Shim Jug-eom as he took a slap across the face from me.
It wasn't really language at all. It was more like a scream.
I ignored the plea and swung once more.
Shim Jug-eom rolled across the floor with a grotesque shriek.
He no longer even resembled a human.
Not even a beastkin anymore—a massive beast.
The result of repeated evolutions even as I kept beating him down.
"I... I became a god! A god, I tell you!!"
"What bullshit."
Shim Jug-eom tumbled across the floor after taking another hit to the snout.
As I approached for one more strike, he cowered like a dog getting beaten.
For someone claiming to be a god, it was a pretty pathetic sight.
"What... what the hell are you?! You're not someone who accepted a god, nor did you become one yourse—gyaaak!!"
Shim Jug-eom rolled around the altar to dodge me as I beat him.
Then, as if his head had finally clicked into place, he yelled at the woman as if he'd figured it out.
"You... you... you deceived me...!!!"
The woman whose hands I'd crushed laughed like she didn't give a damn what happened to her.
"Fuck, you retarded bastard... I knew it from the start when you were going on about the Seven Southern Powers or whatever. I told you to quit that childish crap and behave like a good little monster."
The woman just shook her head, slamming it against the wall over and over.
She didn't even bother fixing her slipping glasses as she sneered at Shim Jug-eom.
"You're still clinging to your sense of self somehow, but not for long. Just turn into a proper monster already. Actually, this works out better. Watching a monster rampage is way more fun than your idiotic plan to control a god."
"Shut uuuup!!"
Shim Jug-eom let out a roar and chomped down on the woman's head, swallowing it whole.
Blood sprayed from the spot where her head was torn clean off.
Shim Jug-eom shuddered violently as he chewed and gulped it down.
As if recalling some past memory, he shook his head and looked toward one corner of the altar.
A huddled researcher was trembling there.
A small orb hidden in the folds of his robes.
Something black writhed inside it.
Shim Jug-eom's pupils contracted.
He already seemed to know what it was.
"So that's why something felt missing. You stole it away, you spy...!!"
Before I could even grasp what he meant, Shim Jug-eom sank his teeth into the researcher's throat.
The black orb spilled out with the blood and slid down Shim Jug-eom's gullet.
In that instant, the black patterns enveloping the altar flashed and inverted.
A light unlike any I'd seen before, mixed with the beast's form and human screams.
The monster's howl filled the cave.
Muscles swelled up, and black wing-like things sprouted from his back.
The surrounding corpses were caught in the shockwave and disintegrated into dust.
Shim Jug-eom emerged from the erupting black mist, letting out a lazy sigh.
The furious rampage was gone, replaced by an air of overwhelming leisure.
"Haa... now I'm finally complete. Yeah, without this, there'd be no reason for a god like me to lose to some mere human."
A massive hole gaped in his chest.
A blue heart had taken center stage, connected to the rest of his body by tendrils of flesh branching out like roots.
"The vessel escaping, the remnants of the altar being stolen... it all makes sense if it was the work of that spy."
Shim Jug-eom transformed his arms into enormous blades and swung them.
The people standing to either side of me had their heads sliced off.
"What a joyous day. Geomju, I could even forgive all the insolence you've shown me. No need for pointless killing on a day like this."
I stood there listening to Shim Jug-eom's nonsense and couldn't help but chuckle.
"What's so funny?"
"You're just spouting bullshit nonstop. How could it not be funny?"
He'd get beaten, awaken again, get beaten again, awaken again.
And now that he was in that state, he was saying he'd let me off the hook?
I extended my index finger, pointing right in front of me.
"Kneel. If you don't want to die."
"If you want to see blood that badly... I suppose I can't refuse."
I repeated it as if I hadn't heard.
"Kneel."
"How dare you... how DARE you...!! You think a puny human like you can stand against me?!"
Shim Jug-eom flapped his black wings and charged at me.
The floor cracked, the altar shattered to pieces.
Destructive demonic energy burst out, melting even the stone walls.
Shim Jug-eom closed in instantly, grabbed my head, and slammed me forward.
His hands shifted forms freely at speeds too fast for the eye to follow, pressing the attack relentlessly.
Blades, hammers, spikes, axes, awls.
Every weapon imaginable manifested from Shim Jug-eom's hands.
They struck with speed surpassing sound.
I kicked off the floor and leaped back, extending my right hand.
Just as his weaponized arms came crashing down on my retreating body...
Thud!
I drew the Rigid Body Armament gripped in my hand and swung it.
Shim Jug-eom's arms were severed.
I grabbed the severed left arm and jammed it back into his body, then sliced off the regenerating other one.
"Gyyyaaak!!"
I mounted his shrieking body and began carving him up.
Shim Jug-eom couldn't even resist.
It was a pilot issue.
No matter how great the body's specs and abilities, if the skill couldn't keep up...
Would someone used to cruising at 50 km/h adapt to blasting along at 120?
Lucky if they just slammed into the guardrail and bounced off without flipping.
"Kuhak...!!"
The monstrous Shim Jug-eom vomited blood and dropped to his knees.
I grabbed him by the hair and smashed his face into the wall.
Once, twice. Until the wall cracked.
"Is this all you've got, ranting about being a god?"
Shim Jug-eom's body regenerated stubbornly, clinging to life.
I wondered if even piercing his heart would do it, but surprisingly, it did.
The woman's words came back to me belatedly.
She'd said he'd lose his sense of self and rampage as a monster.
If that was true, Shim Jug-eom would soon lose himself and become a beast.
For now, as a stopgap, I jammed the Rigid Body Armament into his heart.
The sword kept absorbing flesh and blood, halting the regeneration.
I pondered for a moment, then decided.
"Gotta unleash this thing on the capital."
I wanted to show them how their own scheme would be their undoing.
I dragged Shim Jug-eom by the scruff out of the cavern.
"Geomju... you alright?"
Chu U-geom was walking toward the cavern entrance right on cue.
He'd been cleaning up the monsters I hadn't finished off, looking pretty worn out.
"Do I look alright?"
"You don't look it at all, which is why I asked. And what's that you're dragging behind you..."
"Monster bastard. Planning to let it loose in the capital."
Chu U-geom stared at me in shock at my words.
His hand went warily to his sword.
"Come to think of it, I never asked you. Did you know? Knew and didn't stop it?"
"...I knew. I tried to stop it... but I didn't have the power."
The convenient excuse anyone could make.
I tried to stop it, but I didn't have the strength.
"Who did?"
"..."
"Don't try to stop me."
Chu U-geom didn't block my way out.
He probably couldn't have anyway.
He didn't have the power.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Palace—
A red carpet stretched long across the white marble floor.
The footsteps of hurrying attendants echoed like the harbinger of a storm.
"Your Majesty, urgent news! The capital... the capital...!"
One attendant dropped to his knees but couldn't continue.
His breath caught in his throat, his face pale as a ghost.
The ministers and generals frowned at the attendant's demeanor.
The king raised a hand to silence them and gently urged the attendant.
"Speak calmly."
"...A monster has appeared in the capital!"
"A monster? What monster out of nowhere?"
The attendant began describing the monster he'd been told about.
Black and blue hide, a gaping chest revealing a heart.
A form straight out of legends—like a demon from folklore.
The listeners' expressions hardened as they heard the description.
They vaguely knew what monster the attendant meant.
The god resurrection plan orchestrated by the kingdom alliance centered on Delgaria.
"What nonsense is this? You all know better than anyone it shouldn't revive until the vessel is secured."
The plan to resurrect the god and turn it into the kingdom's puppet required a vessel.
Without one, it couldn't be controlled.
Several ministers shot to their feet, shouting.
"Who's responsible?! Who the hell is it?! I'll rip that bastard and all his kin to shreds!"
The hall erupted into chaos amid the furious yells.
Ministers and generals pointed fingers, shoving blame, some even drawing swords.
"Enough!"
The king's stern voice rang through the hall, quelling the uproar in an instant.
The king closed his eyes for a long moment before speaking lowly.
"Finding the culprit comes later. What matters now is... how that monster got into the capital."
The attendant gasped for breath as he continued.
"...The one called Geomju dragged it here."
Silence.
"Geomju?"
"He brought a monster into the capital? Wait, before that—why is the name Geomju even coming up?"
As far as the ministers knew, Geomju was just the master of some third-rate assault squad.
An insignificant nobody with a slightly arrogant name.
Especially after rumors that he was leading a rebel group turned out false.
Dragging a monster in was tantamount to gambling the entire nation and its people.
"He's gone mad...!"
"What's his intent?! Does he want to destroy the kingdom?!"
"Your Majesty, if I may be so bold!"
A general stood and declared.
"This is all because of that Geomju. We must capture him and uncover every detail of this outrage!"
"Indeed! The very name Geomju is a challenge to royal authority!"
"Just give the order, and I'll drag him before Your Majesty at once!"
At that moment, bells clanged wildly outside the palace.
The signal for the capital guard to declare emergency.
Before they could react in shock, the firmly shut palace gates creaked open.
Creeeeak!
A squinting man walked in with a sinister grin.
In one hand, he dangled a severed head.
The head of a general who commanded a key part of the capital guard.
A powerhouse said to rival Shim Jug-eom in skill—now dead.
"Looks like you're all gathered here."
Explosions and screams erupted behind Geomju.
"Come on out. I've got something I really want you to see."