Chapter 578: The Conspiracy Begins (11)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 578: The Conspiracy Begins (11)
Hexagram.
The organization began with a single man.
The power held by an Apostle of the Seven Deadly Sins was limitless.
But the man had coolly read the tides of the times.
He knew he could never conquer the world with his strength alone.
He needed companions.
Or perhaps, limbs to command.
Trumpeters who would deeply resonate with his will and spread it far and wide.
Jincheon, the Apostle of Envy, was one of them.
One of the five trumpeters the man had found after wandering the world for a long time.
A single point forming the hexagram that inspired the organization's name.
Bound by jealousy and hatred for humanity, he was one of the organization's key assets, having led every mission he was assigned to success, one way or another.
And now, that man's fist was finally aimed at Kim Do-jin.
“Let's start with a light probe.”
With a light step, Jincheon vanished from Kim Do-jin's sight.
He reappeared right behind him.
A palm, heavily infused with mana, shot toward the center of his back.
Swoosh!
Thwack!
A sword suddenly appeared, meeting the palm with a dull thud and trembling from the impact.
“Hoh.”
Jincheon watched in admiration as the sword emerged from his opponent's subtly extended hand.
‘Excellent on both fronts.’
A magic swordsman, was it?
Kim Do-jin seemed qualitatively different from the half-baked ones he had seen until now.
Sword and magic.
He seemed to have mastered both arts—each formidable enough to delve into on its own—without any shortcomings.
“Interesting.”
A dark smile spreading across his face, he threw another punch.
Kim Do-jin spun around and swung his sword down to meet the fist flying toward his solar plexus.
A clash of sword and fist.
Common sense dictated that the fist should be the one to yield.
But he didn't.
He hadn't neglected his training to the point where he would fear a mere sword.
Kaaang!
With a noise unbelievable for a clash between a fist and a sword, both men took a step back.
Jincheon advanced again.
‘I'm curious.’
Just how far can he keep up?
To find out, he closed the distance at an even greater speed and threw a punch.
A straightforward punch, utterly direct and without a hint of variation.
A tyrannical aura, as if it would destroy everything in its path, crashed down on Kim Do-jin.
But once again, the fist struck not Kim Do-jin's body, but his sword.
Kaaang…!
This time, the sound wasn't as loud.
Sensing the unstoppable force in the punch, he hadn't met it head-on. Instead, at the moment of impact, he angled his sword to deflect the power.
Jincheon retracted his fist, which had only grazed past with a faint sensation.
‘So this much is easy for you, is it?’
To deflect an attack so perfectly meant that his own attacks were familiar to his opponent's eyes, and that he was well-trained enough to keep up.
‘I can go a little faster, then.’
A thrilling sensation ran down his spine.
How long could Kim Do-jin last?
When would that confident face finally twist in despair?
It was one of his sick pleasures.
To slowly chip away at an arrogant opponent's morale, then watch them die screaming.
For him, the screams of a talented human were as exciting as the passionate lovemaking between a man and a woman.
‘Then, a little faster…’
Just as he was about to step forward with even greater speed.
Kim Do-jin, who hadn't initiated an attack even once, disappeared from his sight.
“……!”
Jincheon's eyes widened.
Within his focused vision, he could faintly see the traces of his opponent's rapid movement.
‘The right!’
He raised his tensed arm to block the long sword thrust coming from the right.
Kang!
Pshk!
With a sound like steel striking steel, the sharp tip of the sword bit lightly into his biceps.
Jincheon stared in shock.
The wound wasn't deep.
It was just bleeding a little, not enough to hinder the fight.
What shocked him so much was Kim Do-jin's speed just now.
‘…Fast.’
His opponent's movement was faster than he had anticipated.
Fast enough to match his own current top speed.
Only then did he realize.
‘His martial arts alone are on par with mine…!’
The fact that his pure martial skill, excluding magic, was sublime enough to rival his own.
“Heh…”
It was a situation that was hard to believe.
The martial skill of a magic swordsman, who must have spent only half the time on his sword while learning magic, was comparable to a martial artist who had reached this level by training solely in combat?
Considering the age difference between them, it was even more impossible.
There was only one way to render such a gap in time meaningless.
‘A genius.’
A disaster that went beyond mere heaven-sent talent.
Sword and magic.
An incomprehensible being who could master both of those profoundly deep arts at the same time.
“……”
His fists clenched involuntarily.
Because that man's existence was the very ideal Jincheon had once longed for.
And that made him even angrier.
At the ideal he could never reach.
At himself, born with a talent that was not overwhelming.
Base jealousy and envy coiled around his entire body.
The only way to resolve these feelings was to eliminate their source.
‘I will kill him.’
Not just for the organization, but for myself.
He unleashed the martial arts he had polished his entire life.
“Four Divine Beast Martial Arts.”
Blue Dragon, Vermilion Bird, White Tiger, Black Tortoise.
A martial art that contained the power of the four divine beasts who guard the four cardinal directions.
“Blue Dragon Stance.”
Among them, a form modeled after the nimble figure of the Blue Dragon soaring into the sky.
“Dragon's Claw Heart Gouge.”
His fingers, reminiscent of sharp claws, tore through the air and aimed for Kim Do-jin's chest.
His heart, to be precise.
Having switched his attack style to a claw technique, Jincheon's speed increased dramatically.
So much so that even Kim Do-jin, with his peak dynamic visual acuity, could only faintly track his form.
He was surprised by the sudden change in speed, but that was all.
‘It's not like I can't see it.’
It was astonishingly fast, but not so fast that he couldn't react.
As Kim Do-jin predicted the exact trajectory and raised his sword to intercept, the claw technique changed.
“Hup!”
Fssshhhk!
A single, wide swing of his arm created dozens of afterimages.
With no time to spare, it seemed impossible to tell which one was real.
‘Then I have no choice but to block them all.’
Just as Jincheon had done, Kim Do-jin gave a light flick of the wrist of his sword arm.
In response, illusions of his sword sprouted like mushrooms after a rain.
The faint tips of the swords clashed with the afterimages of the sharp claws, canceling each other out.
Soon, only the real ones remained.
Kaaaaang!
The piercing sound of steel against claws assaulted their ears.
Face to face at close range, the expressions of the two men were starkly different.
One was perfectly calm, while the other was filled with an unprecedented hatred.
In the midst of the fierce power struggle between sword and claw.
“Chaat!”
With a sharp kiai, Jincheon's right foot whipped around like a lash, aiming for his side.
“Tch.”
Kim Do-jin clicked his tongue, breaking off the power struggle and retreating backward to avoid it.
As the distance widened, Jincheon immediately unleashed his next move.
“Four Divine Beast Martial Arts, Blue Dragon Stance, Secret Art.”
Jincheon lowered his stance.
Sensing an unusual energy from him, Kim Do-jin, not to be outdone, also prepared a move.
“Returning Dragon Ascending Heaven Strike!”
Leading with his sharp claws, Jincheon leaped forward, his entire body spinning into a small, sharp, horizontal vortex that rushed toward Kim Do-jin.
Kwakwakwaka!
The sound of the air being violently torn apart.
Each blade created by the rotation was imbued with his Aura of Strength, the pinnacle of his art.
His clothes and hair fluttered in the wind generated by Jincheon.
It felt like facing a small typhoon head-on.
To counter this, Kim Do-jin also revealed the move he had prepared.
The immense mana flowing through his body.
The most efficient way to utilize it was not swordsmanship, but magic.
He suddenly grew curious.
A martial art modeled after the form of the Blue Dragon, and a magic that created the Blue Dragon itself.
If these two were to clash, which one would win?
An innocent smile played on his lips.
‘The stage is set.’
He converted the vast amount of mana flowing in his body into the lightning attribute.
And then, he gave it form.
Large, glaring eyes, a flaring nose with long whiskers fluttering in the wind, a mouth bristling with sharp teeth, and held within it, a blue Cintamani.
A long, elegant body that rippled ceaselessly, covered in hard, sharp scales.
And to top it off, a magnificent mane.
He manifested it by mobilizing all the creativity and imagination he could muster.
The divine beast that existed only in imagination, the guardian of the East among the four cardinal directions—the Blue Dragon.
「Appearance of the Blue Dragon」
The creature, merely crafted from magic, roared.
Krrrrraaaaaa—!
More real than the real thing.
Just then, a hologram window appeared before his eyes.
[The soul of the Blue Dragon, sealed deep within the world, is temporarily released.]
The Blue Dragon Kim Do-jin had created was dyed an even deeper shade of azure.
Its eyes, nose, mouth, whiskers, and Cintamani.
Its long body, scales, and even its mane.
Shadows and light were added to its body of mana, making it sharper and more vivid.
The blue pupils set in its glaring eyes swiveled, scattering an immense pressure.
『Grrr... Are you the one who summoned me here?』
“Um.”
It seemed this damn magic was causing trouble again.