The Day of the Final Battle (2)
I walked forward slowly. Far ahead, I could see him. His robe was pulled low over his face, hiding it from view, but in my eyes, his features were crystal clear. The more I focused, the louder the alerts echoed in my mind.
Equivalent Exchange activated!
Equivalent Exchange activated!
I pushed the alerts aside and advanced. All eyes turned toward me.
“Seonghyun…?!”
“Why are you here…!”
Lee Seol and Irena’s startled reactions. Their faces showed they couldn’t comprehend why I was standing here right now.
“Seonghyun! Take Seol and the professor and run! It’s dangerous here!”
Lee Jun shouted at me.
“Seonghyun… Dad… please, save Dad…!”
Lee Seol’s desperate cry. But none of it mattered to me. The only thing in my sight was one person.
“Kuk. So this is what you meant by asking for a spar. Quite the nasty joke. Still…”
Only Han Jaehyuk. He shifted his gaze to the sword in my hand.
“That sword looks incredibly dangerous.”
Eve was in a different state than usual. A crimson aura swirled and spun around the blade. I had already cut down countless monsters and cultists on my way here, letting her drink their blood. But the biggest factor was—
Synchronization.
Synchronization: 30%
I approached him slowly. The filthy dogs charged at me.
“GRRRRAAAAAHHH!”
Slash.
A vertical swing, and the head flew off. As expected from Eve. My beloved sword never disappointed. And on top of that—
From Heaven to Earth S / 1 use
It dragged him down to the ground—to hell. Black light enveloped Han Jaehyuk. He must have felt the debuff because he let out a hollow laugh.
“Hah. This is ridiculous.”
At the same time, the Cerberus’s protective barriers grew thinner.
Equivalent Exchange activated!
Consuming 30% pain to strengthen the body!
Thunder God has been activated.
I increased my speed. As expected of S-rank monsters, they kept up with me.
Lee Seonghyun. End this as quickly as possible. Your soul won’t last much longer.
I know.
I released the Solute.
CRACKLE—BOOM!
Lightning shot out and paralyzed the Cerberus. With my current skill, I couldn’t kill them yet. But that didn’t matter. I had achieved my primary goal.
Now all I had to do was knock them out.
Equivalent Exchange activated!
Sacrificing emotion to strengthen ability!
Naturally, the ability I strengthened was Thunder God. My mind went white. A familiar sensation. The same feeling I had lying in that hospital bed.
“Thunder God.”
Thunder God has been activated!
Spears of lightning rained down from the sky to the earth.
RRRRUMBLE!
“YELP!”
“GRRRK!”
Dozens of Cerberus collapsed to the ground in an instant. They weren’t dead—just unconscious. Still, neutralizing them was an incredible achievement.
“You’re insane…”
Han Jaehyuk’s face hardened in disgust. Dozens of S-rank monsters had been incapacitated. Since I had done something even Lee Jun might struggle with, it was no wonder he looked sickened.
“I make for quite a high-grade sacrifice, you see.”
“So it seems. At that level, you should be more than enough to save Yuri.”
Han Jaehyuk smiled. I smiled back. Neither of us believed we would lose.
“Fine. I’ll teach you a lesson! Try to take this!”
Han Jaehyuk shouted loudly and swung his arm. Hundreds of barriers appeared in the sky.
Phalanx
While barriers were conceptually defensive, at their peak—
They could be used as weapons.
Crushing opponents, or striking with the barriers themselves. And I knew his patterns.
Thunder God.
I stomped forward and charged at him. The dogs blocked my path.
Solute.
CRACK!
“KERRRK!”
I bound their legs with lightning and immediately targeted his back.
“Fast.”
CLANG—CLANG—CLANG!
My sword was blocked by the barriers. I had expected as much.
Synchronization: 35%
More.
Synchronization: 45%
More!
CRACK!
A fissure appeared. For the first time, shock flashed across Han Jaehyuk’s face.
“You crazy bastard!”
BOOM!
He hastily created more barriers to restrain me, but—
Thunder God.
I poured lightning into the sword and brought it down.
CRASH!
The barrier shattered into pieces. Only then did his expression truly change. From the cult leader calmly analyzing the situation to Han Jaehyuk, a human who now felt his life was in danger.
Hundreds of barriers flew toward me to kill me. Each one had terrifying durability. But I wasn’t worried.
Are you really going to do this?
Yes.
Tsk.
Eve’s form began to change. From the shape of a sword, it gradually transformed into a bow.
“A bow?”
Han Jaehyuk’s puzzled voice. Ignoring him, I pulled back the string. The surrounding space vibrated. All the blood existing in this dungeon rushed toward Eve, forming an arrow. Just like when she had sucked blood through straws from the students at the academy.
“That’s impossible…”
“Just what is that sword…?”
Eve. The soul of a queen who once ruled a kingdom. A blade steeped in extreme resentment.
Synchronization Rate: 50%
Lee Seonghyun! Any more is dangerous!
Above 50%. The threshold where sanity began to slip. Even so, I pulled the bowstring even tighter.
It’s not enough.
More. I needed power stronger than this.
Synchronization Rate: 60%
Lee Seonghyun! Stop it!
My body grew hot. The feeling of all the blood inside me evaporating. This is it.
Pain value +3
Pain value +5
Pain value +7
……
The synergy I wanted.
Equivalent Exchange activated!
Consuming pain to strengthen the body!
Sacrificing emotion to strengthen the body!
On top of that, I poured every ounce of Thunder God I could muster into the arrow. An output several times stronger than usual. My brain was melting. Cells were dying. It didn’t matter. Just this once. Only this one time.
Help me.
ZIIIIIIING—!
A bizarre noise like a laser firing echoed through the space. And finally, I completed Eve.
A sticky red arrow. Golden lightning spun around it. Eve’s manifestation looked like it could split the world in two. Everyone, including Han Jaehyuk, shrank back.
“Master and disciple… both of you are a pair of insane bastards…”
Han Jaehyuk’s voice was trembling. It was the reaction of someone witnessing power beyond all norms.
“Try to block that attack.”
A strange pattern appeared in front of Han Jaehyuk. The symbol of Phalanx. Hundreds, thousands of barriers stacked on top of each other. A fortress. It was a single castle.
The clash between an unbreakable shield and an arrow that could split anything. The moment I released the string, the world stopped. Space tore apart. Time distorted.
EEEEEEEEEE—
Along with a ringing in my ears, the world was swallowed by light. But I was certain.
I won.
About ten seconds passed. When the light faded, the scene was truly spectacular. The ground was gouged out deeply, as if a missile had struck. And at the end of that crater—
“Cough, cough… You really are… a monster among monsters…”
Han Jaehyuk, his entire body charred black, was on his knees.
He blocked it after all.
The arrow had fallen right in front of him. But he couldn’t block the Thunder God, and his body was burned black.
Fuck…
My vision shook. It was proof I had pushed myself too far, carving away at my very soul. Still, I couldn’t stop here. As I moved closer to finish him—
“…Lee Seonghyun… No, Seonghyun… Please…”
Han Yuri stepped in front of me.
“Get out of the way.”
“Please… just give me one chance… I’m begging you like this…”
She fell to her knees. The proud Han Yuri bowed her head. Her desperation reached me.
“You must have seen the recording too.”
“Dad is my last family… Without Dad, I can’t… I can’t live anymore…”
Tears fell from Han Yuri’s eyes. But—
“I’m sorry.”
“Kyaaahk!”
I struck her neck hard, knocking her unconscious. Han Jaehyuk watched us with a somewhat bitter expression.
“So… it ends like this after all…”
A hollow laugh. He closed his eyes, as if accepting his death. I gathered Thunder God. Lightning flickered in the sky.
“I have one question.”
“What is it?”
“Why the hell did you do it?”
There was no object in the sentence, but the meaning got through. Why he had joined the Demon Sect and become its leader. At my question, Han Jaehyuk let out a hollow laugh.
“I am that child’s father.”
“……”
“Even if my daughter is a being the world avoids and hates, at the very least, I have to stand by her side.”
“……”
“That is a parent’s role.”
The complete opposite. He was the complete opposite of our parents. The direction of his love was different, but the method was exactly the same as our parents’.
“You were wrong.”
Golden lightning struck Han Jaehyuk.
RRRRUMBLE!
With a thunderous roar, his life came to an end.
“Haa…”
It was over. Finally over. My body was in tatters. No—my mind was numb. My vision was blurry, as if I had cataracts. I barely held myself up on legs that felt ready to collapse at any moment. Because there was still one thing left to do.
Han Jaehyuk no longer moved. I took out the Soul’s Sanctuary and shone it on him.
“Sister.”
With the single belief that my sister was watching—
“It’s over.”
The sound of my sister’s feisty voice that I could no longer hear. That voice that no longer existed in this world.
You did so well!
Today, of all days, I wanted to hear that voice. I wanted to see my sister’s smile. I wanted to tell her she could rest easy now. That she could cheer me on as I walked my path ahead. But the person who would say those words was no longer by my side.
That fact. That truth. It hurt my heart so bitterly.
So I repeated the same words.
“It’s over.”
So that it could reach my sister’s soul sleeping within this Soul’s Sanctuary.
“It’s over… Sister.”
Today, I celebrated the best birthday. And the loneliest birthday of my life.