Chapter 51
I’ll translate the chapter into polished HTML, preserving the special system blocks and dialogue structure, then do a quick consistency pass for names and terminology.CHAPTER_TITLE: The Blade Saint’s Curse
Acquired Authority.
Authority: Musin Descent
I stared at the status window that had risen before my eyes.
...Authority?
Even as it slowly began to crumble, those words remained sharply in focus.
Authority...
The towering power only S-class superhumans could possess.
I’d obtained an Authority. And yet.
Musin...
The name of the Authority felt strange. It was the name of my past life itself.
This is a cursed Rift.
Authority use is unav-
Just like the warning I’d seen at the beginning, this Rift should not have allowed any Authority to be used.
That was how it should have been. But.
Analyzing the System.
Due to the low rank of the Rift, the will of a higher existence cannot be forced aside.
Lee Jinwoo’s Authority is being used.
Under heaven and earth, Musin descends.
Once again, Musin had brushed aside the laws as if they were nothing.
And then my consciousness vanished.
＊ ＊ ＊
“Cough.”
Through the pain, Jin Yeonhui opened her eyes. She tried to sit up, but the agony in her abdomen made her grit her teeth.
...Damn it.
She looked down. Blood was pouring out in a rough stream. Quickly pressing a hand over the wound, she used lightning to cauterize it.
Chi-i-iik—!!!
“—!”
She forced herself to hold back the scream that threatened to burst out. The pain nearly knocked her unconscious.
“Hah... Hrk.”
With a stifled groan, Jin Yeonhui checked something nearby.
Jinwoo?
She’d meant to check on Lee Jinwoo’s condition, but—
...Ah.
Far off to the side, Lee Jinwoo lay collapsed. Had he been badly injured? Her heart lurched.
She moved as best she could. And then.
HP: [x] / [max]
“How slow... How slow... Too slow...”
She snapped to attention at Doseong’s voice. Jin Yeonhui clenched her jaw and forced herself upright.
...No.
The boss named Doseong was too strong. It was almost absurd for a Rank S Rift.
I should have listened to Jinwoo.
She should have withdrawn and waited for another chance, but she hadn’t.
Once she left, she couldn’t re-enter the Rift. She would have had to assemble another party and go back in.
So she had tried to clear it herself.
If she could do that, then—
I thought it would help him.
She’d judged that she could at least be useful to Lee Jinwoo. The reward had looked substantial, too.
I was arrogant.
She had thought she could handle a Rank S boss.
This is...
Too large a variable.
...Is it a monster?
The boss called Doseong, the Blade Saint—his power was too overwhelming.
If only I could use my Authority.
Things would have been different. Jin Yeonhui’s past life, the Lightning Empress, had specialized in Authority-based power.
Her own stats were high enough, but whether she could use her Authority or not was what mattered.
...A place where I can’t use it.
A situation where Authority couldn’t be used. There was nothing worse.
At this rate, if she chose to run—
I’d have to leave Jinwoo behind.
She couldn’t do that. Jin Yeonhui ground her teeth again.
“Haa.”
Chi-ji-ji-jiik—!!! Though the wound throbbed with pain, she could still muster strength.
She prepared her lightning. She would endure however she had to—until she brought down Doseong or until Lee Jinwoo woke up. Clinging to that thought alone, Jin Yeonhui tried to gather her power, and then—
Suuuu.
Suuuuuuuu.
...!
At the sensation of something brushing past her, her movement froze.
The current rippled.
There was no wind, and yet it felt as though wind were blowing.
Too slo...
Even Doseong, who had been moving, turned to look at something.
Following his gaze, Jin Yeonhui looked toward—
Jinwoo...?
Lee Jinwoo.
The place where he had been lying.
Huh?
The instant she saw it, Jin Yeonhui’s eyes widened.
“Where...!”
Jinwoo was gone. Lee Jinwoo’s body, which had been lying there only moments ago, had disappeared.
Jin Yeonhui hurriedly searched the surrounding area, but—
...Ahhh...
Doseong let out a murmur as he looked somewhere else. This time, when Jin Yeonhui followed his line of sight—
“Jinwoo...?”
There he was.
He stood holding what looked like his iron sword, gazing at Doseong with a slightly blank expression.
The sword hung low in his hand. He looked oddly drained.
Jin Yeonhui was still wondering what on earth was going on when—
A lofty being descends beneath heaven and earth.
The difference in rank is extreme.
The Rift’s instability is increasing.
This is?
It was an unfamiliar system message. A lofty being?
...Aahhh...
Doseong tightened his grip on his weapon and charged at Lee Jinwoo.
“Damn it...!”
Jin Yeonhui tried to accelerate, desperate to block Doseong, but—
Kwaaaah-!!!
“...!!”
Doseong’s speed was beyond anything she had imagined. That fast?
That wasn’t the speed of an S-class boss.
At this rate, Jinwoo would be in danger. Just as she thought she’d have to run even if it ruined her legs—
Kuung-!!!
A thunderous explosion erupted from where Doseong had charged, and the one who cried out next was not Lee Jinwoo, but Doseong himself.
“Huh?”
Jin Yeonhui’s eyes widened at the sight.
Doseong’s throat was in Lee Jinwoo’s hand.
Though their bodies differed by nearly a head in height, Jinwoo had effortlessly seized his neck and forced him down.
Then that expressionless gaze turned on Doseong.
Chill—!
At that look, gooseflesh broke out over Jin Yeonhui’s skin.
“...Jin...”
She tried to call his name, but Lee Jinwoo moved first.
With a casual flick of his arm, Doseong’s body was lifted into the air.
[Krrr!!]
Released from the restraint, Doseong gritted his teeth and lunged at Lee Jinwoo again.
He was faster than before. His blade sliced through the air, and then the sound arrived after it.
Whoosh—! Hwuk-hwuk—!!
Kwagagak-!!!
Lee Jinwoo began parrying his strikes with his sword as if meeting them head-on.
The barrage had begun. And Lee Jinwoo didn’t give an inch.
Not one step.
Ding.
Then a system window appeared before Jin Yeonhui’s eyes.
Doseong has gone berserk.
His power is affecting the Rift.
The power of his true body is about to be released.
It is affecting the Gate’s difficulty.
“...What?”
His true body’s power.
The more Doseong rampaged, the more he affected the Rift—and the difficulty, too?
Which meant...
Does that mean the difficulty can rise?
It meant there was a chance it could climb from Rank S to Rank SS. A situation that could become a catastrophe.
What is that Doseong?
What on earth was that boss named Doseong that made something like this possible? And then—
...What about Jinwoo?
What was Lee Jinwoo, who was standing there, matching that Doseong blow for blow?
[Aaah-!!]
From Jin Yeonhui’s point of view, Doseong’s frenzied assault was obnoxious and wildly irregular.
The speed and force were absurd. Even resisting it looked exhausting. That was...
He could pass for SS-rank...
There was no way he was merely an S-class boss. Even if the Rift was labeled Rank S, Jin Yeonhui knew it in her bones.
That was absolutely not a power level of that magnitude.
Then what was Lee Jinwoo?
Kwagagak-! Kwaang-!!
He deflected Doseong’s sword. Even then, his eyes remained calm.
When the iron sword swept upward and Doseong’s body jolted in place—
He took a single step forward.
Gugugugugugung-!!!
“—!!!”
All at once, an immense pressure wrapped around her body.
Her hands trembled on their own, and it felt as though her heart might stop.
“Ah—”
A boundless fear.
An impossible presence radiated from Lee Jinwoo.
[A... ah... aah...]
Even Doseong’s body stiffened under the pressure.
Then.
“How pitiable.”
Lee Jinwoo’s voice rang out.
The voice was not especially loud, yet it settled across the entire lake with a deep resonance.
The loneliness in it tore at Jin Yeonhui’s chest.
It wasn’t an illusion.
That...
was not Jinwoo.
Then who was it? Before that question could even form fully—
“You have done well.”
Along with those words, Lee Jinwoo swung his sword.
Fwoooosh—!!! The navy flames he had used to shatter the wall coiled around the blade.
One flash tore through the air.
Kuaaaaaaaa----!!!!!
Light burst forth. It was the same technique as before, but the force behind it was beyond anything she could have dared to look at directly.
Ku-gugugugung-!!!!
It felt like an earthquake. As power swept in every direction, the entire space resonated.
“...Ugh!”
Jin Yeonhui dropped to her knees.
It wasn’t only the pain in her body; she was being crushed by nothing but the pressure of that aura.
And yet she couldn’t take her eyes off him. Her gaze stayed fixed on Lee Jinwoo.
Fwoooosh.
[A-... Ahh...]
Doseong collapsed. She could see his flesh slowly blackening and burning away as it disintegrated.
She saw his eyes, too.
[Ah... At last... Ahh...]
Release.
Relief. Those emotions filled Doseong’s gaze.
Why did he look that way?
She couldn’t understand it.
Crackle, crackle.
Once Doseong had been reduced to embers and gone still, the result followed.
Doseong has been eliminated.
Congratulations.
Rift: Doseong’s Seungabyeok (S) has been cleared.
Rewards are being distributed.
The Rift will disappear after a certain period of time.
Shaaa—!! The lake rippled. It was because Doseong had died.
“This is...”
We really took him down? Just as Jin Yeonhui was still looking dazed—
“What an inconvenient sword.”
“...!!”
The voice came from right in front of her nose.
It was Lee Jinwoo. Somehow, he had appeared before her and was looking down at her.
“Don’t you think so?”
“...What?”
“It does lend strength, but it’s troublesome to use. This ignorant afterlife would struggle to handle it, but... what can I do? It’s necessary.”
“What are you talking about...?”
Before Jin Yeonhui could finish, Lee Jinwoo reached out and tapped her on the forehead.
Upright—!
“—!”
Her body froze where it stood.
“It is still too soon to see it.”
With those words, a vibration brushed through her forehead.
“Forget it.”
Wooooong—!
“...Ah...”
And then Jin Yeonhui collapsed limp to the ground.
Looking down at the fallen Jin Yeonhui, Lee Jinwoo stood over her.
Then he lifted his eyes to the sky. The Rift was slowly breaking apart.
“I ask you this.”
Watching it, Lee Jinwoo said—
Musin asked.
“Was this what you wanted?”
There was no reply.
There was no need for one, either.
In any case.
“Stay there. I’ll come hear it myself.”
Before long, I would go and see it.
Musin was in no hurry.
The one who should be in a hurry...
wasn’t me.
＊ ＊ ＊
The man did not remember his own name.
By now, it was likely true that he had thrown it away because he no longer wanted to remember.
-You worthless fool. You are a stain on this family.
Since childhood, he had been called by anything except his name, so it likely held little meaning anyway.
Yes, he had been worthless. He had been uniquely worthless even among his brothers, and because of that, he had failed to protect a single thing he was meant to protect.
Not his own name, nor his life.
Not even the woman who had been more important to him than his own life.
-Die.
On the day his fiancée was killed by his brother’s hand, the nameless man despaired.
He howled because he was too useless to protect anything.
And he made a vow.
-Remember.
I have already forgotten myself.
But you will remember.
-I will surely kill you all.
Death was already closing in through the sword wound that had pierced straight through his abdomen. He knew he would not survive.
And yet he cried out through tears of blood, screaming and raving all the same.
That day, a voice reached him.
-Do you want power?
He did not know whether it was the words of a reaper who had come to stand before death, or something else entirely.
He simply answered.
-I do.
However it came. Whatever power it was.
Because he wanted it. Because he longed for it.
-Then we must make a bargain. I will give you power. What will you give me in return?
The voice made an offer.
-...Anything. I will give you everything.
The man said he would surrender anything and everything.
-Good.
The voice answered as if that were the reply it had wanted.
And so the man received a miracle.
He turned back time.
His body and the clock returned to childhood, and his once-worthless form was, for some reason, different from before.
He gained in a handful of sword strikes the enlightenment he had failed to obtain through thousands of swings.
People praised him.
And not long after, he cut down his brothers and finished his revenge.
He saved his fiancée.
Then, absurdly enough, war broke out.
The war with the Demonic Cult. By then an old man, he still took up arms to protect the woman.
And at the end of it, he won the war against the Demonic Cult and became a hero.
-You’ve worked hard.
The man leaned into the woman’s embrace. A life different from the past.
As he sought to settle into that peace, to rest at last—
-Are you satisfied?
A voice rang out. That voice he had forgotten and lived without remembering.
-The time has come.
-Fulfill the contract.
There was no time to think. No time to protest.
The voice had already wrapped around the man.
-Not yet...! Seung-a! I...!!
The man tried to speak, calling the woman’s name. The woman, too, cried out in shock and called his name.
-■■--!!
-...What?
The words that spilled from her mouth never reached the man’s ears.
His name. The woman had called his name. And yet—
What was my name again?
He could not remember. His body collapsed away.
-A name does not matter.
-Doseong.
The epithet he had gained through victory in war.
-That alone was enough for you.
That became a curse.
A curse that would bind the man for endless, unfathomable ages.
Doseong’s Seungabyeok has been created.
“...Ah...!”
And just like that, I opened my eyes.