Wolf Among the Sheep (8)
“Kwaaaah!”
Bam.
Kwanyangsaeng thrust out her arm to grab and halt the charging Ju Kang-rim. But the Death Knight's armor enhanced not only his defense but his strength as well. Crack, crunch. Her limbs snapped like dry twigs. And the biting chill froze even her bodily fluids solid, shattering her appendages.
Even on a second look, this is straight-up broken.
Ju Kang-rim thought with a grimace of disgust. Death Knights, as Gerald's direct vassals, wielded terrifying power on the battlefield. It was only natural—they surpassed most A-rank awakeners while mastering all manner of weapons and tactics. Even a lowly foot-soldier Death Knight was this formidable; a Chief Knight or Knight Order commander would rival an S-rank awakener.
Ju Kang-rim had exorcised the Death Knight possessing Park Tae-hyeon via Kangryeong Daegun and subdued it. But if a Death Knight unleashed its full might, an abomination like this would be child's play.
“Aaaahhh!”
Kwanyangsaeng desperately spewed her blood-mingled fluids at Ju Kang-rim. But he simply raised a hand to block it, freezing the spray solid mid-air before it plummeted to the floor in a lump.
Ju Kang-rim couldn't help but smirk. Kwanyangsaeng's matchup against a Death Knight was disastrously poor.
He swung his fist straight at her face. Bam. Two more of her eggs burst in a single blow. Finally realizing she was done for, Kwanyangsaeng frantically backpedaled. But Ju Kang-rim seized her arm and held fast.
“Where do you think you're going?”
Bam, crunch. With every punch, chunks of her frozen flesh exploded off. The more fluids packed inside her body, the more vulnerable she was to the cold. She thrashed wildly to escape, but it was futile.
Sensing the game was truly over, Ju Kang-rim summoned his Saingeom to finish her for good.
“Aaah! Ah! Aaah!”
As he raised his hand-axe toward her face, Kwanyangsaeng frantically shielded it. Her wail—so heart-wrenching earlier, now just a desperate bid to protect her eggs—nearly loosened his grip on the axe for a moment. But recalling how this abomination had devoured countless people, melted their corpses, and laid her eggs in the slurry... there was no room for hesitation.
“Be born human in your next life.”
With one swift stroke, Ju Kang-rim swung his Saingeom and severed Kwanyangsaeng's head.
***
“Whew...”
Ju Kang-rim let out a long sigh as he eyed Kwanyangsaeng's severed head rolling on the floor. Park Tae-hyeon and the Death Knight's spirit had burned through every ounce of the black core's power, fading into mist without lasting long. Black cores were the essence of souls, so what became of ones that vanished like this? He wasn't curious enough to ask Yeomra.
Target: Abomination Kwanyangsaeng
Reward 1: 1,000 nyang soul toll
Reward 2: Guaranteed lowest luxury grade on Today's Fortune
Biman chimed with the success message. And right on its heels came one from Yeomra.
I saw you mercilessly behead that mother desperately protecting her young. Nice work.
Just say the word. Think I can't take down something even worse?
Oh dear, my boy's going astray.
Want me to cheer you up a bit? I'll tell you what that Kwanyangsaeng really was.
What's that supposed to mean? Was it an immortal or something?
Not an immortal—just a murderer burning in some hell right now. A wicked ghost who killed other people's kids and fed their flesh and blood to her own spawn. One of our reapers caught the bitch and locked her away in hell.
...A wicked ghost?
Look up the Kwanyangsaeng legend. It's embellished, but a lot of folklore ties back to us. She was scum who deserved death alive—and worse after. She became the mother of all mosquitoes.
Mother of all mosquitoes. Holy shit, she had it coming. He only regretted not killing her twice over.
Bet you're bummed you couldn't kill her twice right now.
Don't worry. That Kwanyangsaeng was just a fragment of the real one's essence that slipped out when a Gate cracked hell's barriers. You'll run into her again someday.
I want to kill mosquitoes, not meet them.
Abominations were underworld souls fused with mortal matter. Even sinners tortured in hell qualified, so maybe the ones Ju Kang-rim had sent there would pop up as abominations later. None of the people he'd killed seemed headed anywhere nice, after all.
Congrats on the mission anyway. Yoo Wol-ryeong sends her luck.
(Congratulations! Your wallet has vanished! — avatar says)
Save the luck for Yoo Wol-ryeong herself.
Yoo Wol-ryeong's already cashed in her share. She's old news now—just checks fortunes for fun.
***
“KillAllCatsExceptMe.”
GodIsDead opened her eyes. Ju Kang-rim sat before her. She tried to move, but cable ties bound her tight.
Ju Kang-rim looked down at her and spoke. “Y'know, I've been thinking—'GodIsDead' is kinda off. Sounds like 'AllCatsAreDead.' If it matched your intent, it'd be 'CatSparedGodDead' or something.”
“What're you getting at?”
“Should I call you CatSparedGodDead from now on?”
“...My name is Shin Seong-hui.”
“Yeah?”
Ju Kang-rim grinned. He cleared his throat and called her name.
“Shin Seong-hui.”
In that instant, Shin Seong-hui felt her gut churn. Her vision blurred, her body floated weightless for a split second, then crashed back heavy. As the nauseating levitation passed, violent motion sickness hit her unbidden—she puked.
“Urk, bleeegh!”
Face-down on the floor, Shin Seong-hui had no choice but to smash into her own vomit.
Ju Kang-rim watched impassively, then dragged her out of the mess by the collar. She heaved for a while before turning eyes on him.
“You... what the hell did you...?”
“Hm. Surviving just with puke means you're really not a full immortal, huh.”
The difference between immortals and normals during a reaper's soul-summoning was stark. Normals just got dizzy and died; immortals endured their bodies ripping apart alive.
Ju Kang-rim had already pulled her ID from her stuff to learn her name. But IDs could be faked, so he'd tested with the soul-summoning.
“How do you even know about immortals?”
His pride smarted a bit. He'd spent nearly twenty years as Gerald's direct subordinate, yet only grasped immortals' outlines. And this green awakener—GodIsDead, no, Shin Seong-hui—knew about them?
“Wait, hold up. You're hunting all the immortals? Not just Clint?”
“Clint's an immortal, so yeah, he's on the list.”
“You're insane. Think 'immortals' is just a nickname? They're really...”
“Gods sounds too lofty, so immortals it is. And I've already killed plenty. Asked where Kangryeong Daegun was? Sent that bastard to the underworld already.”
Shock etched her face. Whether she believed him or not was another matter, but he'd attacked Kangryeong Daegun and her—Clint's sworn subordinate. He was turning every immortal into an enemy and owning it.
“Alright, then—how do you know about immortals?”
But Shin Seong-hui clamped her mouth shut. Ju Kang-rim sighed and pulled a canteen from his sleeve. He dripped a single drop of its contents before her eyes.
“Know what this is?”
“...”
“Tears from that abomination you just fought. You know what happens if this hits.”
Shin Seong-hui recalled the zombies and comrades melted into lumpy clay. Terror filled her eyes. Immortal or not, turning into that meant nothing.
Yet she still hesitated, so Ju Kang-rim brought the canteen right to her face and tilted it.
“There's this group called Patriot Agents.”
She finally cracked. Ju Kang-rim paused.
“Patriot Agents?”
“A secret assassination unit in the US military. More like Clint's private army, really. That's where I heard about immortals—some of our targets are those things.”
Shin Seong-hui eyed his hand anxiously and pressed on. “Patriot Agents look like a PMC hiring local mercs on the surface. But top performers with the right ideology get recruited into the 'Knight Order.'”
“Knight Order?”
“Yeah. They get powers beyond anything before—and immortality.”
She gauged his expression. But he kept his hand steady. Desperate, she yelled.
“Sounds like fantasy bullshit, but it's real! I'm still with Patriot Agents, but a classmate already got 'knighted.' That's how I know!”
“Nah, I believe you.”
Ju Kang-rim withdrew his hand. The Knight Order was an organization he'd seen in his past life. Shin Seong-hui called it Clint's private army, but it was really Gerald's. The shadow side of Gerald's operations. While Ju Kang-rim handled military and strategy in the light, the Knight Order did the dirty, inhuman jobs from the dark. He'd even assigned them missions himself.
They were the Death Knights.
Knight Order... maybe that's the true face of Gerald and his crew.
Those who became Death Knights gained immortality. Kangryeong Daegun turned ghostly, the Vito family vampiric. Same principle: a new identity overwrote the old, granting eternal life. Clint, Serazad, and other core members were likely Death Knights too.
“Good. That's helpful.”
Shin Seong-hui's face lit up. But Ju Kang-rim kept interrogating.
“Second question. Why ignore me till now, then suddenly investigate?”
“Th-that's...”
She hesitated briefly but knew resistance was pointless and answered simply. Easier than the first.
“You scammed Clint.”
“...Scam?”
“Yeah. Said you killed Sergeant Lopez? He got 'purged' by Kangryeong Daegun. First time we'd seen that method, so the probe dragged. Internally, you got pegged as a 'lying braggart con artist.' No real record after, either!”
“...”
“Sorry, hurt your feelings?”
“Objectively accurate, yeah.”
Ju Kang-rim muttered flatly. He'd figured they wouldn't buy it easily, but total disbelief? He'd killed all the Lopez crew himself; Kangryeong Daegun just finished stragglers.
No, actually works in my favor.
Ju Kang-rim looked down at her, mind racing. Time for a strategy shift. Clint rated him low now. Sending a scrub like Shin Seong-hui proved it. He'd just gotten snagged while hunting Kangryeong Daegun's killer.
About time to exploit the bastard's weakness.
He pulled out her phone.
“What're you doing?”
“Open your account.”
“...Account?”
“The one getting your ops budget. Some anonymous account that dodges finance oversight.”
Ju Kang-rim tapped her head with the phone.
“Trace it, and we'll find where Patriot Agents—or whatever—routes funds to this Knight Order.”