Chapter 458: Ally or Enemy (12)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 458: Ally or Enemy (12)
For a moment, my thoughts froze.
To be precise, the focus that should have been dedicated to finishing off the Brain Washer, Yoon Myung-ho, was diverted elsewhere.
That’s how incomprehensible the scene unfolding before my eyes was.
‘How does Do-jin know Dad’s swordsmanship…?’
Her dad had never taught his sword skills to anyone.
If he had, it would have been a huge deal.
The internet would have been flooded with articles about the National Hunter taking on a disciple.
‘Ah… could that be why?’
Did he hate the idea of that happening, so he took on a student in secret?
Even if that were true, it didn’t answer all the questions.
The swordsmanship he displayed was clearly superior to her own.
In terms of mastery, it was remarkably similar to that of its originator, her father.
To handle a sword with such proficiency, wouldn’t he have had to train for a very, very long time?
‘…I don’t know.’
No matter how much she racked her brain, no clear answer came to mind.
She probably wouldn’t know the truth unless her dad or Kim Do-jin himself revealed it.
So, she gave up thinking about it.
‘I’ll set it aside for now.’
He had told her never to ask, but she was certain she would find out someday.
To do that, surviving this place was the priority.
Forcing her gaze away, which seemed determined to linger, she aimed it at the enemy.
‘I can do this.’
She could feel it with every swing of her sword.
“Kuh…! This arrogant bitch…!”
The opponent’s strength had been significantly depleted.
Her attacks, which had been easily blocked just moments ago, were slowly starting to land.
But it still wasn’t enough.
‘I have to cut it away.’
Temperance.
The name of the god who had chosen her, and the name of the Divine Authority she had been granted.
Just like its name, the essence of the power was simple.
To limit and cut away from oneself.
And then, to invest that surplus into something else to generate explosive power.
‘I think I’m finally starting to get it. How I’m supposed to use this ability.’
It was simple, yet ambiguous.
What to limit, and what to enhance.
After much deliberation, she finally stood at the starting line.
‘First, emotions.’
She carved away the feelings of excitement that were more than necessary.
In their place, calmness settled in.
‘Next… hearing, and smell.’
She cut off a portion of her heightened senses.
The cacophony of noises from all around and the acrid smell of smoke began to fade.
She siphoned off the energy that would have naturally been consumed and funneled it elsewhere.
What she desperately needed right now was none other than agility.
Power flowed into the legs that were kicking off the ground.
Swoosh!
The distance closed in an instant.
Standing before the barrier Yoon Myung-ho had erected, she once again withdrew the power from her legs.
And reinvested it into the mana she poured into her sword.
The Sword Ki bloomed, a little more vividly.
“Haaah!”
Krrack!
The sword forcibly cut through the negation imbued in the wall and stopped just short of Yoon Myung-ho’s chest.
“Ugh…”
A wave of deep regret washed over her.
If only she had squeezed out a little more power, she might have reached him.
‘It’s okay.’
But the situation itself wasn’t bad.
“D-Damn it…!”
The enemy was beginning to waver.
He was starting to see, feel, and smell the death that had been invisible to him until now.
‘He used too much power.’
Sloth.
This Divine Authority, which negated everything and isolated its user, had a unique way of accumulating power.
Natural recovery or training were of no help at all.
The only way to increase its power was through plunder.
The negative energy emitted by those who were inspired by his ideology and followed him with fervent devotion.
He accumulated power by compressing this energy within his body.
This method had its pros and cons.
The advantage was that there was no clear limit, allowing for the infinite accumulation of power.
The disadvantage was that once consumed, it took a long time to build it back up.
At first, he had overwhelmed the battlefield with the advantage, but now, he was cornered by the disadvantage.
His gaze turned to the woman, Angela, who was being held back by a single man.
‘If it weren’t for that bitch!’
It was all her fault that his weakness had been exposed.
He had mobilized all the power he had stored up to successfully turn her into his puppet.
Until that point, he thought it was all over.
He believed that with her at the forefront, no one would be able to harm him.
‘What the hell is that bastard?!’
An unexpected variable had appeared.
Kim Do-jin.
That arrogant brat was tying up his masterpiece—the culmination of all his efforts—with a level of power and experience that far exceeded his expectations.
Because of that, he was being pushed back relentlessly by a woman whose power was his natural enemy.
His sense of crisis reaching its peak, he screamed as if in a final struggle.
“All of you, get over here now and stop that bitch! I don’t give a damn about your lives, just protect me, now!”
He called for the subordinates who had been tying up the Holy Knights.
But that, too, was not easy.
“Block them!”
“We must stop them, even if it costs us our lives!”
The Holy Knights, realizing the tide was turning in their favor, threw their bodies in the way of the cultists.
The number of those who managed to break through the gap and reach Yoon Myung-ho was pitifully small.
And they were no match for Son Seo-yeon, who was now in her element.
“Y-You…!”
His fury at its peak, he hurled vicious curses at Angela.
“You stupid bitch! Are you going to let me die like this?! Get over here and protect me!”
“Kugh…!”
Angela gritted her teeth against the barrage of insults.
She understood.
She had to ignore her own body, break through her opponent, and protect the cult leader.
But contrary to her thoughts, her body refused to obey.
She knew she could definitely break through if she accepted a certain amount of damage, but her body didn't want to.
As if doing so would result in an even greater loss for herself.
“Move, move, move, I said…!”
It was an instinctual rejection.
Though her mind was dominated, her body still remembered the past.
The dissonance created by that difference limited her abilities.
“Uwaaaaaah!”
She charged forward once again.
Perhaps her constant chanting had an effect, as the hesitation in the hand swinging the mace lessened.
Which meant her attacks had become that much more intense.
“Nngh.”
Every time I blocked an attack, a sharp pain shot through my bones.
If I blocked a few more times like this, it wouldn’t be surprising if a muscle tore or a bone broke.
“Get out of the way, move, I said get out of the way!”
“No, no, I said no!”
“Uwaaaaaah!”
“Kyaaaak!”
Kim Do-jin held on, countering her roars with a ridiculous shriek of his own.
Watching this, Son Seo-yeon bit her lower lip hard and readjusted her grip on her sword.
‘This is his limit.’
Having watched him from the side for quite some time, she could see it.
She could see that despite his pretense of being perfectly fine, he was actually being pushed to his limit.
The calmness that still remained within her coolly assessed the situation.
‘I can do it.’
The foundation had been laid.
All that was left was to use all her strength to tear open the boundary of negation that Yoon Myung-ho had deployed.
To do this, she too needed to take a bit of a gamble.
And for Kim Do-jin, she decided she was more than willing to roll the dice.
“……”
She layered restriction after restriction upon her body.
She sealed her mouth, then closed off her nose and ears.
Not just reducing them, but a complete shutdown.
In a silent world, her feet left the ground.
A few attacks rained down from her surroundings, meant to keep her in check.
Dangerous attacks flying from outside her field of vision, while her hearing and sense of smell were gone.
But not a single one touched her body.
‘I can feel it.’
The sense that Kim Do-jin had emphasized so much was finally sprouting.
A sixth sense that detected the flow of mana in her surroundings, allowing her to perceive attacks from outside her vision in advance.
Relying on this, she broke through the fierce barrage and arrived before the grimacing Yoon Myung-ho.
Before swinging her sword, she carved away one more thing.
‘Sight.’
The light in her sparkling eyes went out.
Four of the five senses had left her side.
All that remained was the sense of touch.
But it didn't matter.
The things she had seen before closing her eyes were vividly painted in her mind.
She recalled a memory from before her mother had forbidden her from training.
The moments she had swung her sword with all her might in front of her father, Son Si-woo.
Happy moments are remembered for a long time, but always in fragments.
Because her learning was just as brief, she had only learned a single sword technique from her father.
A single strike, as simple and clear as her younger self who had learned it.
‘Falling Meteor.’
Despite its grand name, it was nothing more than a downward slash that was just a bit more powerful.
She remembered asking him with a child’s heart.
Why did you give it such a grandiose name?
And he had replied.
—“Because it sounds cool.”
That was the first time she realized it.
That her dad, who she had always thought was so dependable, had a cute, boastful side to him.
Slowly reciting the explanation she had heard that day, she put it into action.
She raises her sword high so that it and her arm form a straight line, lifts one foot, and steps forward forcefully.
As she glides forward, she brings the sword down powerfully, as if drawing a circle.
There was one important point here.
The flow of mana.
She had to gather the mana distributed throughout the sword to the point of impact, creating a small sphere.
This not only maximized its destructive power but also brought about a visual change.
A blue, glowing sphere hanging from the tip of the sword descended along the blade’s trajectory, leaving an afterimage.
Like the tail that briefly lingers in the path of a passing meteor.
A small meteor, falling at a ferocious speed.
Thwack!
Simultaneously, a sensation traveled up the sword and through her hand.
That gruesome feeling of tearing through an opponent’s flesh.
One by one, she reclaimed the senses she had carved away.
The thick scent of blood, right before her nose.
“Kuaaaack!”
A scream of horrific agony reached her ears.
And she could see Yoon Myung-ho, his eyes wide with pain, the sword buried deep in his shoulder.
Seeing this, she murmured with a dazed expression.
“I did it…”
She had succeeded.
She had plunged her sword into the infamous S-rank villain, the Brain Washer!
Her joy was short-lived.
She realized her job wasn't over yet.
Pressing a small dagger to the neck of the pain-wracked Yoon Myung-ho, she fell into thought for a moment.
‘How should I say this?’
What words could she use to stop the chaos that filled the battlefield?
When nothing came to mind, she changed her way of thinking.
‘If it were Do-jin…’
What would he say at a time like this?
The answer came quickly.
She poured all her remaining mana into her vocal cords and shouted with all her might.
“E-Everyone, freeze!”
Her powerful cry cut through the clash of sharp steel and the screams of pain.
Feeling the eyes of friend and foe alike turning towards her, she added her final words.
“M-Move an inch, and this guy is dead meat! Got it?!”
It was in that moment she understood just what kind of person Kim Do-jin was.