Chapter 114
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 114
Chapter Title: Alliance, My Foot (3)
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My sword clashed with Ahn Seo-joon's in mid-air.
Ahn Seo-joon twisted his body and thrust his sword forward.
The blade, moving with fluid grace, once again aimed for Cho-ah's neck.
*Smack.*
Cho-ah caught the blade with her bare hand.
The wound on her hand where the sword had touched was healing at an incredible speed.
It was less healing and more absorption, but there was no way Ahn Seo-joon could have known that.
Ahn Seo-joon retreated, his brow furrowing as he looked at Cho-ah's hand.
“Doesn't that even hurt?”
“Who knows? Maybe it would if you swung your sword a little harder?”
“If you're trying to provoke me, stop.”
“Do you hate me?”
“What?”
“You targeted me over everyone else. If Han-gyeol hadn't stepped in, that sword would have pierced my neck. Ah, though I suppose I half-intended for that to happen.”
I knew it, but I didn't expect her to say it out loud.
I've felt this since we first met, but Cho-ah makes me uncomfortable.
Contrary to her petite height, small frame, and cute face, her fighting style was utterly gruesome.
Sometimes, I even disliked Park Si-woo for knowing and letting it happen.
Just a moment ago was a perfect example.
Park Si-woo was closer to Cho-ah than I was.
Even if he didn't know Ahn Seo-joon was targeting Cho-ah, Park Si-woo's reflexes aren't so slow that he couldn't have blocked the attack.
There was no way Cho-ah and Park Si-woo didn't know I hated that kind of fighting style.
I have no intention of saying anything about it.
It's just uncomfortable.
‘Ah, I need a sugar rush.’
Chocolate milk. If I'd known things would turn out like this, I would have bought a few more cartons.
At times like this, I envied the item window option that Yoo Ji-han and Lee Eun-hee had.
Cho-ah pointed at Ahn Seo-joon's arm.
“By the way, is your arm alright?”
“What? Ugh.”
Blood was dripping from under Ahn Seo-joon's sleeve.
When he rolled up his sleeve, the exact same wound Cho-ah had received was on his arm.
From the other side, Yoo Se-yeon tossed an elixir to Ahn Seo-joon.
Ahn Seo-joon drank the elixir and caught his breath.
“Do you not feel pain?”
“Who knows.”
“A distasteful ability.”
“I've heard that a lot, so it's fine.”
“I think you asked if I hated you. Isn't it obvious?”
“Obvious? You were the one who attacked Han-gyeol first. I just returned the favor. If anything, I should be the one who hates you. Am I wrong?”
At Cho-ah's sharp retort, Ahn Seo-joon openly showed his displeasure.
*KRAKOOM!*
The body of a snake attached to Hraesvelgr's head was severed and fell nearby.
A massive cloud of dust billowed up.
Before the dust completely obscured our vision, my eyes met Park Si-woo's.
Park Si-woo pointed in Yoo Chae-young's direction.
‘I guess I should be the one to go.’
As I turned, Ahn Seo-joon's sword shot out from the dust cloud.
Cho-ah swung her leg wide, deflecting Ahn Seo-joon's blade.
“Go! Han-gyeol!”
With perfect timing, a magic bullet fired by Choi Soo-hyun aimed for Ahn Seo-joon's head.
‘There's a lot I want to ask, but...’
I looked up at the large cliff that had formed high in the middle of Mt. Yukbaek.
There was something I had to do first.
‘And I have some questions for the god Veritas.’
I couldn't say there wasn't anything bothering me.
Choi Jae-hyung came up beside me.
“Let's, let's go together!!”
What a leech this guy was.
With loud commotions breaking out everywhere, it was chaos.
It was so noisy you wouldn't even blink if a bomb dropped on the mountain.
‘This is...’
Looking down at the blackened ground, I frowned and stopped walking.
The surrounding soil was stained black, and the trees and grass had withered.
“Why is this...?”
Having already seen Hraesvelgr's attacks, Jae-hyung didn't understand what the problem was.
The attacks fired by the snakes on its head had the effect of causing living things to rot away.
I understood that.
“It's different.”
“Huh?”
“This is something else.”
As I tensed up, Choi Jae-hyung raised his shield.
Seo Ji-hoon was still on top of the cliff.
Space began to crack open, centered on the direction I was looking.
Through the rift in space, a strange, hooded figure appeared along with a monster.
The man pulled back the hood covering his face.
“You're...”
“Do you know him?”
“Jeong Hyun-sung. The unaffiliated Hunter who was kidnapped with Eun-young.”
“For someone who was kidnapped...”
Choi Jae-hyung, observing Jeong Hyun-sung's reaction, tightened his grip on his sword.
It made no sense for a guy who was supposedly kidnapped to appear so calmly through a dimensional gate from the god Veritas.
Hearing my words, Jeong Hyun-sung tilted his head.
“Do you know me? This is the first time I've seen you.”
“You would say that, if you were the real Jeong Hyun-sung.”
There was something that had been bothering me ever since we talked about Eun-young and Jeong Hyun-sung.
All Awakened Ones must serve a god. But rarely, unaffiliated Awakened Ones appear.
The ratio is only about 0.1%, but they do exist.
Why do the gods turn their backs on Awakened Ones like Eun-young or Jeong Hyun-sung?
Why must they disappear from people's memories?
And despite all that, why do such Awakened Ones continue to appear?
This was just a personal hypothesis, so it was difficult to bring it up with anyone.
Actually, besides Eun-young and Jeong Hyun-sung, there was one more commonality.
This very body. The existence known as ‘Kang Han-gyeol’.
The Kang Han-gyeol that existed right before I took over was also an unaffiliated Hunter.
‘Should I call it lucky?’
I don't know what happened to him before, but seeing Jeong Hyun-sung in front of me, I was certain.
Unaffiliated Awakened Ones are not dropouts who failed to be chosen by any god.
They are the souls who have the potential to become gods.
‘They just didn't want more competition.’
I wasn't unfamiliar with that feeling.
After all, even that bastard Lachesis said she never expected me to ascend to godhood.
Just as the body of Kang Han-gyeol accepted the entity known as the god Soter, the same was true for Jeong Hyun-sung.
That guy is Jeong Hyun-sung, but he is not Jeong Hyun-sung.
He is a half-god vessel, just like me.
The difference is that his god has broken a taboo, and the corrosion is already quite advanced.
*Step.* Jeong Hyun-sung took a step forward.
“Seo Ji-hoon said his goal was to save Yoo Chae-young and get revenge on the Raon Guild and the Hunters who condoned her death.”
“Is there a problem with that?”
“I don't think you orchestrated all this for Yoo Chae-young's revenge.”
I feel bad for Park Si-woo, but this is the reality.
It's not a lie that the god Veritas cherished Yoo Chae-young.
It's just that the standard for 'cherishing' is different.
To a god, their believers—the Hunters—are merely beings who bring them benefits.
Even if Yoo Chae-young were resurrected, as a follower of a god who broke a taboo, there's no way she could function as a normal Hunter.
Breaking a taboo is a violation of the rules from the very start.
If Yoo Chae-young had felt wronged by her own death, she wouldn't have helped Eun-young in the temple like that.
According to what Eun-young told me, the Yoo Chae-young in the rift wasn't much different from the real one.
Maintaining a rift for a month in the temple of a taboo-breaking god is no easy task.
Yoo Chae-young must have already been at her limit.
To my eyes, it was both a final struggle and a signal.
It was Yoo Chae-young's will, asking for someone to stop the rampage of the god she served, Veritas.
It was proof that Yoo Chae-young and the god Veritas were walking different paths.
“Pfft, hahaha! Hahahaha!”
At my words, Jeong Hyun-sung clutched his stomach and burst out laughing.
His laughter was incredibly creepy.
“Accepting him was my own will, and no one else's.”
Accepting a god undergoing wraith corrosion from breaking a taboo was tantamount to suicide.
The vessel that was Jeong Hyun-sung was not that large.
No one could guarantee how long he would last.
“Why?”
“Because I learned the truth.”
Jeong Hyun-sung's rage washed over Choi Jae-hyung and me.
“You, who were chosen by gods, could never understand! Our fate!”
Jeong Hyun-sung stretched out his hand, and the ground rippled.
The surrounding terrain twisted into bizarre shapes.
This was the inherent domain of the god Veritas, so Jeong Hyun-sung, having become a demigod, could wield power nearly equal to a god's.
Choi Jae-hyung batted away the incoming spikes with his shield.
A shield of light protected Choi Jae-hyung and me.
“Even so, you didn't have to join hands with a taboo-breaking god!”
“Then what was I supposed to do?”
I clamped my mouth shut.
What choice could a guy make after learning his fate was to disappear without anyone ever remembering his existence?
Unlike with Eun-young, I couldn't just go find and help all the unaffiliated Awakened Ones.
“You're going to die.”
“I was destined to die anyway.”
“It's not just about dying!”
“To me, dying that way or this way is all the same. And...”
Jeong Hyun-sung's expression darkened.
The surrounding trees turned a dark, bloody red.
“If I'm going to die anyway, doesn't it make more sense to get revenge on as many bastards as I can?”
His resolve seemed firm. It didn't look like this could be solved with words.
“What happened to Eun-young?”
I'd heard from Choi Soo-hyun that he left her a comment after the raid, but I never heard that she'd replied.
Jeong Hyun-sung reacted to the name Eun-young.
“You, what's your relationship with Ms. Eun-young?”
“You don't need to know that.”
“Are you perhaps... involved?”
“No.”
It wasn't that Eun-young wasn't attractive, but being involved with her was a separate issue.
“Then you must be comrades. Serving the same god. But you'd better give up.”
“Why?”
“I heard Ms. Eun-young was also an unaffiliated Hunter for six years. She'll surely regret it when she learns the truth. Though you'll die before you ever see her again!”
Jeong Hyun-sung rushed forward in an instant.
I ducked, barely dodging the attack.
His movements were extraordinary.
*Creak, creak.*
Behind Jeong Hyun-sung, there was a sound like metal clashing.
It was the army of the undead summoned by Hraesvelgr.
“Even if I am annihilated, you cannot defeat me.”
Jeong Hyun-sung stretched his hand to the side.
A large mouth appeared in the air and swallowed his arm.
“Crazy bastard, what the hell!”
Choi Jae-hyung, who was watching, was startled by the bizarre scene.
When Jeong Hyun-sung pulled his hand from the mouth, his arm had transformed into something like a sword.
Thick veins on the arm twitched and pulsed.
It felt as if a living sword had been attached to his arm.
Kicking off the ground, Jeong Hyun-sung charged at an incredible speed.
*Clang!*
Jeong Hyun-sung's arm and my Sky Sword clashed, creating a shockwave.
As I was pushed back, Choi Jae-hyung appeared and swung his sword wide.
“How is he so damn strong?! My wrist is gonna break!”
Having barely knocked Jeong Hyun-sung back, Choi Jae-hyung grimaced.
I reached out to Choi Soo-hyun.
—Hyung! Can you back me up?
—What? You can't even handle that alone? Get lost!
—I'm serious, it's urgent!
—You think you're the only one in a hurry? I'm busy too!
Choi Soo-hyun's words left me dumbfounded.
It sounded like he was backing up Park Si-woo, who was fighting Yoo Se-yeon.
Yoo Se-yeon is a mortal, while Park Si-woo and Choi Soo-hyun are Transcendents, aren't they?
Come to think of it, Jeong Cho-ah is a Transcendent too.
Wow.
What's with this team balance?
—What are you doing against a single mortal!
—She ate it.
—Ate what?
—You know, that thing you used to tease me about, calling it the Jewel of Four Souls.
That thing was edible?