Chapter 96: Asura Song Hyeok-seo
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 96: Asura Song Hyeok-seo
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Asura Song Hyeok-seo.
A returnee who commanded shadows, he had been swept up in a dimensional shift along with his twin sister.
The place where he and his sister were transported as elementary schoolers.
Classification • Phantasm 9.
Gihangjeon, a dimension where yokai of all kinds lived intermingled.
Upon falling into that world, Song Hyeok-seo found himself in a forest, surrounded by goblins watching him from the trees, and sensed the imminent danger.
He was only in the third grade.
Barely ten years old, he looked back at his twin sister, Song Se-hee, who was clutching his hand.
She was trembling, unable to process the sudden turn of events.
“Oppa, where are we? I’m scared.”
His father’s words often echoed in his mind: If anything ever happens, you have to protect Se-hee.
Song Hyeok-seo realized that “if anything ever happens” was right now.
But he had nothing with which to protect his sister.
In that moment, the goblins seized him and dragged him to a massive clearing.
There, a colossal, black-skinned goblin took a great interest in Song Hyeok-seo and Song Se-hee.
“What curious children. They’ll do nicely inside my shadow.”
This was the king of the goblins, Duokshini.
The moment he saw him, Song Hyeok-seo knew instinctively.
He absolutely could not let that monster lay a hand on Se-hee.
And so, Song Hyeok-seo wracked his brain and tried to persuade him.
He pleaded for Duokshini to take only him into his shadow, or whatever it was, and to leave his sister alone.
“Fine, very well. Playing with little kids is no fun, anyway.”
To his immense relief, Duokshini listened.
He imbued a part of his shadow into Song Hyeok-seo, and the boy became Duokshini’s contractor.
With that, Song Hyeok-seo managed to survive in Gihangjeon.
Duokshini’s power was enough for a ten-year-old boy to navigate the world.
As they lived day by day, a wandering spirit user came to the forest where they resided.
Rumors had begun to spread that a young goblin lived in the woods where Song Hyeok-seo stole crops and goods from the villagers.
The wandering spirit user had come after hearing those rumors.
To drive her away, Song Hyeok-seo attacked her using Duokshini’s shadow.
However, the spirit user subdued him with astonishing ease.
“Ha, look at this little punk. You’re wearing a goblin’s mask, aren’t you?”
With fiery red hair that brought crimson flames to mind and bright yellow eyes, she saw right through him.
A chill ran down Hyeok-seo’s spine. As he tried to flee, she snatched him by the scruff of his neck.
“Let go! Let me go, you old hag!”
“Hag? I’m your big sis, you little bastard! Can’t you tell by this flawless skin? I just turned twenty, you know?”
And that was his first meeting with the spirit user, Ran.
Ran was an incredibly meddlesome woman.
She followed Song Hyeok-seo relentlessly and eventually found Se-hee, who had been hiding in the forest.
“Well, look at you. You were hiding such a pretty little treasure, you punk. Is she your wife?”
“What are you talking about? She’s my twin sister.”
“What? Bullshit. You two look nothing alike.”
“Oppa, who is this person?”
With her bold personality, she taught the twins about the world of Gihangjeon.
She took them all over the world, helping them grow up and acting as their new parent.
But as the years passed, Song Hyeok-seo’s mind was gradually being eaten away by the aftereffects of his contract with Duokshini.
He knew all too well that it wouldn’t be long before he became Duokshini’s complete subordinate.
But his sister was different.
Traveling with Ran, she had discovered her talent as a spirit user. She was an ordinary human.
She was already eighteen this year.
She shouldn’t be living as a wanderer with him anymore; she deserved to live in a better world.
He, having made a pact with a yokai, had become a being who could no longer live among humans.
So, he had to make a choice.
“Ran-noona.”
That night, after putting Se-hee to sleep, Song Hyeok-seo sought out Ran.
She met his serious gaze and opened the door, letting him inside.
Song Hyeok-seo entrusted his younger sister to Ran, his older friend and benefactor.
“Hyeok-seo, let’s just break the contract with Duokshini. I’ll help you. There has to be a way.”
“Sorry, too much of Duokshini has already seeped into me. Ran-noona, please take care of Se-hee. I just want her, at least, to live a good life.”
“…And what about your life? Song Hyeok-seo, you bastard. What are you going to do about your own life?”
Ran tried to stop him, but Song Hyeok-seo only smiled bitterly.
He could no longer remain by his twin sister’s side.
“We’re twins. If she lives well, it’s like I’m living well, too.”
“…Don’t come crying to me when Se-hee throws a fit later.”
“Calming Se-hee down is your specialty, isn’t it? She wouldn’t have even changed the way she spoke to imitate you for no reason. I’m asking you to handle that, too.”
With another plea, he turned and left.
Even so, Song Hyeok-seo would occasionally visit to see Se-hee.
After throwing a tantrum for days looking for him, she eventually calmed down and, burning with the resolve to find him herself, began studying to become a spirit user.
Se-hee had always had a talent for the spirit arts.
Ran took Se-hee to her family home, Hoyeomseong.
She had left her family, fed up with the shackles of being from a prestigious house, but she returned for Se-hee and Hyeok-seo’s sake.
In the end, she pushed aside the other direct descendants and took the seat of family head.
Hoyeomseong.
One of the three great spirit user families. Ran, now its head, adopted Se-hee and gave her unwavering support.
As a result, Se-hee was able to grow even more rapidly.
Her exotic looks, her skill as a spirit user…
Watching his sister, who was now even being called a prodigy, Song Hyeok-seo was satisfied.
My life wasn’t in vain after all.
One day, he watched from afar as a twenty-year-old Se-hee strolled beneath the cherry blossoms with Ran, and a smile touched his lips.
He had to live in the world of yokai, but he was content just knowing that Se-hee, with her outstanding talent as a spirit user, could live a happy life.
As Ran’s adopted daughter, Se-hee would surely rise to an even better position.
And later, she would fall in love, get married, and probably have a child.
Song Hyeok-seo decided that watching that would be enough to live for.
But one day, a problem arose.
Maro, Ran’s younger brother who had lost the position of family head to her, discovered Song Hyeok-seo’s true identity.
He joined forces with other direct family members and framed Ran, accusing her of colluding with Duokshini through his contractor, Song Hyeok-seo.
Naturally, Ran protested, but she had become the family head through sheer skill alone and was not adept at politics.
Bought off by bribes and various persuasions, no one in Hoyeomseong sided with her. Soon, no other spirit users would stand by her either.
It was the price she paid for wandering alone for so long, without human connections.
That wasn’t the only problem.
“Fuck, Se-hee—my daughter has nothing to do with this! You bastards! Let go of me, now!”
“For a former family head, your mouth is so vulgar. Goodness, sister, isn’t this what happens when you associate with such filth?”
It was revealed that Se-hee, who was making a name for herself as a brilliant spirit user, was the twin sister of Duokshini’s contractor.
“Ran-unni, Ran-unni!”
“Se-hee! Let go of me! I said let go! Se-hee!”
After enduring hellish torture, the two were thrown into prison.
They said that Ran’s dantian had been destroyed, ensuring she could never recover as a spirit user.
“Those sons of bitches!”
When Song Hyeok-seo heard the news, he saw red.
He couldn’t just stand by and watch Hoyeomseong get away with what they did to his friend and sister.
He had to save Se-hee and Ran.
But Hoyeomseong was one of the three great families.
No matter how strong he was, there was a limit.
So, he suppressed his rage and went to Duokshini.
He needed to borrow his power as his contractor.
“A fight with me. If you can win that one fight, I shall lend you the power of the imaemangnyang.”
Duokshini, with an amused expression, proposed a one-on-one duel.
Telling Song Hyeok-seo, who was merely his contractor, to defeat him.
The onlooking goblins cackled.
It was a fight anyone could see Song Hyeok-seo had no chance of winning.
“I’ll make you regret this. Come at me with everything you’ve got.”
It was an absurd proposal, but Song Hyeok-seo accepted it.
To save his friend and sister, he was a man who would stick his head into the jaws of a monster.
And Duokshini had gravely underestimated his tenacity.
Shadow Proclamation.
A technique that made Duokshini’s own shadow his.
Faced with the ultimate technique that devoured all power, Duokshini was instead devoured himself.
Ironically, Duokshini’s final cry as he was consumed by the shadow was a laugh.
“The day will come when you will regret this day, the day you swallowed the shadow.”
He vanished completely into the shadow, leaving behind those cryptic words, but with that, Song Hyeok-seo became the king of the goblins.
All goblins bowed their heads before him, and having consumed Duokshini, he went on to become the king of all yokai.
“I’m going to save my sister and my benefactor. All of you, follow me.”
The imaemangnyang.
The procession of yokai began, with Song Hyeok-seo at its head.
Leading the monstrous horde, he stormed the city of spirit users and smashed through the prison where his sister and Ran were being held.
And there, he was forced to see it.
“Hahak, spread your legs, you vulgar bitch. You should at least know how to do this!”
The sight of Se-hee, crying as she was pinned down by Maro, on the verge of being violated, all while clutching the head of his friend, Ran.
“Oppa…”
Ran, who had fought to the very end to protect Se-hee, had been beheaded by Maro.
And there, faced with the sight of Maro about to rape his own sister, Song Hyeok-seo—
Snap—
The thread of his sanity broke.
His eyes were dyed with shadow.
“What—”
With a roar filled with his anguish, Maro was swallowed by the shadow before he could even resist.
His head, floating alone in the darkness, was not even granted the release of death, his eyes wide open in terror.
His limbs were thoroughly ground to pieces within the shadow, and he screamed endlessly, with only his head remaining.
Holding that head, Song Hyeok-seo covered the entire Hoyeomseong estate with his army of yokai.
Screams echoed from all directions as people died, and Hoyeomseong, once called one of the three great families, became a purgatory.
There, holding Maro’s head, Song Hyeok-seo hung it from the very top of the Hoyeomseong castle, so that he would suffer for all eternity.
He wished for his screams to echo through this place for the rest of time.
Even as he had the yokai tear every last person in Hoyeomseong to shreds, his anger would not subside.
It felt as if this rage would only be quenched once he had killed every last spirit user.
Because despite Ran’s pleas and Se-hee’s cries, not a single one of them had listened.
Perhaps from that moment on, Song Hyeok-seo had already been consumed by the endless malice dwelling within the shadow.
“No. No, Oppa! Don’t go! Don’t go, you bastard!”
He had gone mad, and not even Se-hee could stop him.
His emotions, eroded by Duokshini for so long, had been broken long ago.
He had become a monster, a mixture of human and yokai, yokai and human.
And so, he led his monstrous army and waged a great war against the spirit users to unleash his anguish.
Countless people died, and countless yokai died.
As he walked an endless path stained with blood, Song Hyeok-seo came to be called Asura, the incarnation of rage.
Even so, he lived in a ceaseless impulse of destruction.
Several times, Se-hee stood in his way.
She grew stronger and stronger as a spirit user, and each time, she clashed with Song Hyeok-seo with all her might.
“Let’s stop. Let’s just stop, Oppa. What would Ran-unni think if she saw you like this?” she pleaded after being overpowered by him.
But even hearing those words, the only image that replayed in his mind was of her, on the verge of being violated, clutching Ran’s head.
Every time he remembered that moment, the thought that he had been too late and the faces of the hateful spirit users were all that came to mind.
“Se-hee.”
He no longer had any way to overcome his rage.
So, he forced one last smile for his twin sister, whom he had no doubt would one day surpass him.
“Can you kill me.”
He said it, knowing full well how deeply those words would wound his twin sister.
If she killed him, the one who had become the master of the imaemangnyang, Se-hee would be praised by the spirit users for her lifelong achievement and would be able to live safely.
Then, no one would ever dare to look down on her.
So, he had to become evil.
“You son of a bitch…”
And again, several more years passed.