Chapter 59 Counterattack (2)
Counterattack (2)
Episode 60
The chapel trembled with the ghastly cries of the undead.
Kiiieeeeeeeek!
The zombies rising from the floor were practically an ocean—an endless black swamp of corpses stretching as far as the eye could see.
CRASH!
But Park Si-hyun's charge split the sea like Moses parting the Red Sea. Unflinching even before the horde of corpses, his frenzied movements amidst them resembled a one-man army.
The worshippers couldn't suppress their shivers at the majestic sight.
Si-hyun, drenched in blood, roared as he crushed every zombie that fell into his grasp. Then, the corpses leaped up, forming a wall to bury him.
But—
CRASH!
The circular wall of corpses was shattered by a single thrust of his shoulder. Even in the midst of it all, he never stopped—fists, elbows, knees, and kicks striking with brutal precision, exploding zombies left and right.
"..."
Kwon Han-sol, who until recently had been nothing more than an elementary school student, felt tears trickling down his cheeks. The sight of Park Si-hyun fighting desperately in that sea of zombies, covered in blood, was utterly harrowing.
The floor writhed as if alive, and zombies emerged endlessly.
Some had half their heads missing, others had unfocused eyes, and many bled profusely from their entire bodies—each one a grotesque nightmare.
He had thought he'd grown somewhat accustomed to zombies after joining the Great Peace Sect. But he was wrong.
He had only been forcing himself to pretend he wasn't afraid.
Mom...
If only for the sake of his mother, who clung to him protectively against the zombies.
"...I-It's okay. It's okay, Han-sol."
Her words sounded more like she was reassuring herself than her son.
"..."
Ever since the Tower appeared on Earth and the zombies emerged, he had seen this same fragile expression on his mother's face. She was terrified herself, yet she pushed herself to comfort him, her own flesh and blood.
It had been the same when they were holed up at home, desperately waiting for salvation.
Only when the zombies vanished from Seoul, and the Great Peace Sect performed the miracle of summoning the pristine white Tower, did his mother regain her color.
Even when they joined the sect, it was only because he couldn't bear to see her cry.
So every time they went to the temple, he swallowed his disgust and fear at the sight of the massive zombies.
But now, his mother was crying again.
This wasn't the sight he wanted to see.
He wanted to see her like she had been when she first found hope in the Great Peace Sect—reassured, at peace.
But the Great Peace Sect was no hope at all.
They were villains, pretending to be salvation while dragging his mother to the edge of a cliff.
There was no hope left.
The anxiety he had suppressed all this time, even while facing those horrific corpses, grew stronger every time his mother shed tears.
There was no hope of overcoming those countless zombies. If things continued like this, they would be taken to that unfathomable place called the Tower and die as sacrifices.
But even so, he wished—no, prayed—that at least his mother wouldn't die.
In the narrow gaps between the passing zombies, he held onto her tightly.
God, please... don't take my mother away.
But his tearful prayer reached no one.
That was what he believed.
"You can relax now."
A large hand rested on the trembling boy's head. Han-sol blankly looked up.
It was the handsome older brother who had exposed the Great Peace Sect's true nature and wiped out the zombies.
Park Si-hyun, who had just slaughtered every zombie in the vicinity, had taken a brief moment to come to him. He smiled brightly, as if telling him everything would be alright.
"Take care of your mother. Leave the rest to me and the others."
The older brother turned his back and walked toward the zombies.
He wasn't holding that beautiful sword that had shimmered with light.
All he had were his two bloodstained fists, hanging loosely at his sides.
Yet despite such meager armaments—why wasn't he afraid?
Following him, the pretty sisters stepped forward, each gripping radiant swords in their hands.
Unbroken even before that overwhelming horde, many others filled in behind him.
"Ah..."
He didn't know where, in that sight, he found hope.
Only that—
A hero.
That word wasn't too grand for him.
Even though he must be scared too, he was fighting the zombies with such courage.
"......"
Han-sol didn't want to just cower in fear, doing nothing. He wanted to do something.
There was that terrifying sister above them, ghost-like and frightening—but just as the older brother was protecting everyone, Han-sol wanted to protect his mother.
I... I have to help him win too...
CRUMBLE!
With the sound of the ground collapsing, zombies crawled up from behind.
If this continued, they would go straight for the older brother.
"Uwaaaah!"
Han-sol flung himself forward and grabbed one of the legs of a zombie charging at him.
Even then, the zombie only had eyes for Si-hyun, completely ignoring Han-sol.
I can do this. That thought filled the boy's chest.
And—
Even a kid is doing this... what about us?
The boy's struggle moved the others. But they had no weapons.
Just as everyone was on tenterhooks—
"Y'all need weapons or what?!"
A gruff voice suddenly boomed out.
A cultist with an aggressive face abruptly jumped forward.
"We've come to supply weapons~!"
Beside him, a bespectacled female cultist also popped up.
The crowd's dumbfounded expressions lasted only a moment.
The two dragged bundles forward before the people.
Clang-clang-clang-clatter!
Steel pipes, tools, and other weapons capable of fighting zombies came pouring out.
One by one, the hesitant people gripped the weapons as if resolved.
It might have been futile resistance.
The zombies were rock-hard, and their efforts might have meant nothing.
But they couldn't let the young man's sacrifice—risking himself to become the target of every zombie to save them—be in vain.
"We have to do something."
"We can't just become sacrifices like this."
That was the moment when, one by one, they began to move.
"Haaah!"
From behind, battle cries both loud and small erupted.
The holy maiden candidates, who had been trapped like greenhouse flowers until now.
They stabbed relentlessly at the zombies with Dororang's Knives given to them by Yu Yeon.
Some women trembled in shock. But emboldened by the others, they plunged their daggers into zombie skulls.
Kkkkiiieeeek!
Nothing had changed from when they'd been helpless victims.
Which was why they had to move now.
"Let's go!!"
People armed with weapons charged into the zombie horde.
#
The crowd blocked the zombies' path. And from the middle, they began their assault.
Alexandros, leader of the Great Peace Sect, furrowed his brows.
"Die!"
"Hold them back!"
The spark of defiance hadn't died in the people's eyes. Swinging weapons at the corpses they'd once feared so much, they hesitated no longer.
'Why...?'
Just as Alexandros wavered—
"Looks like you're enjoying hiding behind corpses."
A young man walked forward with heroic bearing through the sea of corpses.
Dressed in the same robes, yet with transcendent handsomeness that set him apart. Zombies still sporadically blocked his path.
But.
His eyes had already read the zombies. He stole their strength and density into his fist. The swung fist, amplified by Optimal Progression and his abilities, struck.
Kwaaaaang!
The zombies—supposedly reinforced—burst apart so effortlessly it was hard to believe. It was as if bombs detonated from his knuckles.
'Is he really human...?'
The zombies between the cult leader and Park Si-hyun visibly dwindled.
Though the ground cracked open, spewing forth endless zombies, Si-hyun was faster.
With each punch, explosive sounds erupted, and waves imbued with Sacred Power rippled outward.
Even zombies reinforced by ashen darkness couldn't withstand a single blow from his fist.
And Si-hyun didn't stop unleashing that same terrifying power.
'Why isn't he tiring?'
Hundreds of zombies had already been pulverized by his fists.
If a human kept unleashing that level of force, exhaustion should have been inevitable.
Yet his breathing remained steady as he slaughtered the zombies.
When his raised fist came crashing down, zombies were crushed into the ground.
That wasn't all.
Kwaaaaang!
A massive arm smashed through the chapel like a guillotine, flattening zombies like waves.
"Y-you...!"
The enraged cult leader looked up. Beyond the shattered wall, Kang So-eun stood with arms crossed.
"How dare...!"
Using his own servant to destroy the temple bestowed upon him—was this some kind of joke?
This was an act that would shame him before the Mother.
『"Corpse Command" summons "Zombie Swarms."』
The dormant zombie swarms outside the temple opened their eyes. But all the undead's targets were fixed on Park Si-hyun.
The colossal zombie monstrosities couldn't target Kang So-eun. Instead, they clashed against each other to block the other swarms.
Kwaaaaang!
Five zombie swarms collided outside the temple. The sheer pressure alone crushed the air, unleashing deafening roars. But this at least contained the rampaging swarms.
Yet the cult leader's expression remained grim.
The people had blocked the zombies in the middle.
And Si-hyun, relentless as ever, kept driving his fists home—one devastating blow after another. Zombie heads evaporated under his strikes.
Beside him, Kim Seon-hwa never left his side, swinging the Holy Sword of Sacrifice. Waves of Sacred Power split zombies apart, reducing them to ash.
And then Park Se-eun—
"Dieeee!"
Her pretty eyes flaring wide, she brought her greatsword down. A fissure split the ground where it struck.
「Twists」
The power stored in the holy sword released in a fan-shaped annihilation, wiping out zombies in an arc.
"Hold them back!"
"Over there!!"
Even cultists without weapons threw themselves bodily in the zombies' path, teeth gritted. Their bodies might shatter, but they refused to retreat.
'This can't go on...'
Every zombie was fixated on Park Si-hyun. They couldn't kill anyone else. Which meant they couldn't even replenish their numbers with fresh corpses.
'This can't go on...!'
The cult leader signaled his aide. Understanding his intent, the aide glanced toward the second floor.
"Fire!!"
The few remaining snipers on the second floor immediately obeyed the deputy leader's command. The sect's orders took precedence over their own lives.
The high-caliber sniper rifles they had been gripping numbly all simultaneously locked onto Park Si-hyun.
'...We must kill him. The heretic.'
'If we kill that bastard, our Great Peace Sect will be eternal.'
Eyes that had momentarily drowned in fear now burned with fanaticism. Their fingers pulled the triggers.
A split second later—
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Bullets capable of piercing even armored vehicles streaked toward Park Si-hyun. A speed invisible to the human eye. If their aim was true, there would be no dodging—just instant, fatal penetration.
Yet, Si-hyun's eyes precisely tracked the straight-line trajectories as the air coiled in their wake.
Park Se-eun, realizing too late that the snipers had fired, let out a short scream. But by then, the thick rounds had already torn through Si-hyun's body.
"!"
The moment Se-eun's pupils went blank with shock—
"...Ah, the ventilation's performance is solid. Don't even need an AC."
A figure emerged from the dust kicked up by the barrage.
It was Park Si-hyun, his body riddled with holes. Yet his overall form remained intact, flickering like a translucent ghost.
『"Semi-Spirit Form" has been activated.』
The dozens of bullet holes shimmered faintly before sealing themselves shut, leaving no trace.
"...Huh?"
Se-eun stood frozen, unable to process what she was seeing. But there was no time for Si-hyun to explain.
Even now, zombies were swarming in droves.
At the very least, Si-hyun had a trump card. That was enough.
Meanwhile, the deputy leader, whose desperate ambush had failed, furrowed his brows.
'...What the hell is that? A ghost?'
Si-hyun's body, now glowing with an eerie light, phased straight through the zombies. The undead flailed at him, but their hands passed through him as if he were an illusion.
A skill that rendered him immune to both physical and magical attacks while active.
To damage his Semi-Spirit Form, one would need to strike at a conceptual level.
An overpowered evasion ability—at least in the early to mid-stages.
True, it wasn't permanently active, and the mana consumption was steep. But for Si-hyun, who could glimpse fragments of the future, evading attacks in bursts was trivial.
"R—reload! Fire again!"
The snipers, refusing to believe their eyes, frantically chambered another round.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Another volley of invisible bullets tore through Si-hyun's body.
Whoooosh—
Yet he remained unharmed. This time, not even the holes remained. He stood as if detached from reality, untouched by any phenomenon.
Instead, the zombies clawing at him burst apart.
'Dangerous.'
The law enforcer saw the cold indifference in Si-hyun's eyes.
Acting on instinct, he lunged forward. His gut screamed that this flickering state could only be countered by an ability.
But his attempt—
Whoosh!
"Tch—damn it?!"
—was thwarted by Si-hyun's evasion. In an instant, Si-hyun phased through the zombies and sidestepped.
"You rat bastard!"
"Yeah. You're the one who looks more like a rat."
The sect leader, witnessing this, summoned Black Magic Power from his palm. Just as he was about to unleash it at Si-hyun—
Crrrack!
—the space before him warped.
A massive golden blade erupted from the distortion.
"Your opponent is me."
The sect leader twisted his neck at the last second, but the blade still sheared off the hair at his temple.
From the warped space, a gray-haired figure emerged.
"Got time to look away?"
A silver-haired girl with gleaming blue eyes stepped out of the distortion, her Holy Sword poised.
Simultaneously, the snipers' gun barrels twisted ever so slightly.
"Ghk—?!"
The snipers' throats contorted violently—enough to be instantly fatal for any human. The fanatics' heads toppled to the ground in unison.
Se-eun, who had executed them in a single breath, narrowed her eyes as she gripped the Holy Sword.
『Holy Sword of Judgment』
A sacred blade that delivered divine retribution against evil.
Now, it amplified Se-eun's abilities to their absolute limit.
"...You fucking pedo scum!!"
The Holy Sword of Judgment, raised high above her head, erupted with light. A brilliant golden radiance bathed Se-eun's face, body, and the surroundings.
'The leader is in danger...!'
The deputy leader, sensing the overwhelming surge of Sacred Power, rushed forward in alarm.
But—
"?!"
His foot never touched the ground.
A single slash had already cleaved through his upper body.
"It's over."
A black-haired swordsman flicked his blade behind him, having already passed by.
"Hah... hahaha..."
The deputy leader exhaled, hollow.
"...Park Si-hyun... where the hell did you gather people like this...?"
With fading vision, he looked toward the sect leader—
—who was barely managing to evade the silver-haired girl's relentless strikes.
'Leader... I'm sorry... I couldn't be of help...'
Crack.
A diagonal slash split him from his right flank to his left shoulder.
The vice-counselor's body split diagonally and collapsed onto the floor.
"Quite an unpleasant affair."
Hayase didn't even glance at the corpse, her expression bitter.
Then, she fixed her gaze on the zombies ahead.
#
The judicial officer's lips trembled. He had witnessed the vice-counselor's death with perfect clarity.
It had happened in an instant—too fast to stop.
A single, chilling slash, so swift he couldn't even tell when it had been delivered. Just the thought of being exposed to that blade made his hair stand on end.
But he was an executive of the Great Peace Sect. He couldn't falter here.
Not yet... I can still do this...
Filling his chest with baseless courage, he threw himself forward to protect the sect leader.
"Where do you think you're going?!"
A beautiful woman with dyed brown hair streaming behind her charged in. Kim Seon-hwa slammed Sacred Power into the Holy Sword of Sacrifice and accelerated.
The judicial officer barely dodged, snarling.
"Step aside. I'll spare your life if you do."
He was certain he wouldn't lose to Kim Seon-hwa.
She looked at him incredulously.
"You think you can handle me?"
"You—!"
It didn't matter if Kim Seon-hwa had wiped out thousands of zombies alongside Park Si-hyun. As long as his mother was here, Sacred Power couldn't run wild like an untamed beast.
"I don't have time, so I'll finish you in ten seconds."
The judicial officer, with his sharp, businesslike demeanor, checked his wristwatch and declared. All the while, he kept a wary eye on Hayase, who was carving through zombies with a single blade on the other side.
Kim Seon-hwa frowned.
"After all I've shown you, you still underestimate me."
She closed her eyes, then opened them—golden light flashing in her pupils.
[I've borrowed stats from Park Si-hyun.]
"I'll take my time cooking you."
Her smile grew even more bewitching, accentuated by the beauty mark beneath her eye.
#
As the Great Peace Sect's executives were incapacitated one by one, only corpses thrashed wildly.
Amidst the chaos, Park Se-eun stomped on zombie skulls and leapt high into the air.
She didn't care that her short skirt might reveal her underwear—she brought the holy sword down with all her might.
"Preying on the weak when you can't even act your age?! You bastard!"
The sacred greatsword, fueled by the force of her jump, split the ground apart.
The sect leader swiftly identified the weapon.
[Holy Sword of Judgment]
An overwhelming will to punish evil radiated from the blade. It wasn't something he could recklessly oppose with Black Magic Power.
...I never thought such a weapon actually existed.
Honestly, he was stunned.
His mother, whose voice he had only heard a handful of times, had descended in person. Now, fantastical weapons he'd never seen in the modern world were being swung right before his eyes.
Moreover, the difference in stats between Park Se-eun and himself was despairingly vast.
But how strong was Park Se-eun now?
Her power had been Amplified to rival his own.
WHOOSH!
The golden greatsword swept through the air. Zombies caught in its path were bisected in a single strike. That once-frail girl had grown this strong. Yet, the sect leader didn't believe he would lose so easily.
His mother was watching from above.
We will not fall.
And it wasn't just his mother—she was still here too.
If only she—the one who had laid the foundation for the Great Peace Sect—would reappear, even Park Si-hyun wouldn't stand a chance.
After all, no one in this world could live without sin.
But why wasn't she visible, when she should stand out more than anyone?
When will she arrive?!
As impatience gnawed at him, the sect leader's eyes darted around, searching for his executives—
BOOM!
Several zombies were sent flying from the chapel entrance.
Tirpe?!
The sect leader's lips curled into a sly smile—but his face froze instantly.
Even those fighting the zombies voiced their confusion.
"RAAAAH!"
A battle cry so loud it was almost embarrassing.
But Park Se-eun recognized it immediately.
"Ah!"
A group of swordsmen charged in, cutting through zombies with real blades.
They were the instructors of the Striking Sword Way dojo.
"So this is where all the zombies we've been hunting were hiding!"
At the forefront, Han Hyeok-do laughed heartily as he swung his sword, sending zombies flying.
[Iron Wall Sword]
It was less a slash and more a brutal bludgeoning.
Like bowling pins, the zombies were knocked aside.
But no matter where they turned, more crawled out from the ground.
The Striking Sword Way members scattered to engage them.
Before long, Han Hyeok-do was left alone—but he didn't seem the least bit lonely.
"Aren't you getting a little too excited, dear?"
Minase pressed her back against his, real sword in hand, and chided him lightly.
Han Hyeok-do snorted and thrust his blade forward.
"You've got my back, don't you?"
"And who's got mine?"
"...Hayase will protect you."
Minase chuckled softly before shifting her gaze.
Amid the seething tide of zombies, fountains of blood erupted. Park Si-hyun rampaged at the center of it all—with Hayase intercepting zombies behind him.
Even covered in blood, Hayase showed no hesitation. His own daughter had chosen to fight like this. And the look in her eyes was more serious than he'd ever seen before.
"Hayase seems too busy looking after her future husband to spare us a glance."
"Then we'll just have to manage. Keep up."
Her ever-reliable husband took the lead. Minase sighed, then smirked and followed him into the fray.
Into the battlefield where life and death intertwined.