The Moonlit Assassin
After his face was scarred, Jealousy's combat style had changed one hundred and eighty degrees from before. Gone was the assassin who lurked in his opponent's blind spots, striking only at openings. Now he charged head-on, overwhelming his foe with terrifying speed and merciless violence. It was excessively brutal. Excessively savage.
And Kindness understood exactly why his fighting style had shifted. Since his face was already ruined, he no longer had any reason to hold back. In other words, this was his full power.
The true divine might of the man who had single-handedly destroyed the Cheonsal, the greatest assassination organization in the old Fan Empire. The Monthly Moonlight Art — Full Moon.
Silver moonlight radiated from his entire body, pouring toward Kindness without pause. The assault was reminiscent of the legendary Ten Thousand Heavenly Flower Rain, a relentless barrage with no gaps whatsoever.
Kindness thrust her fist forward to counter, but Jealousy didn't even bother dodging. He simply extended his right arm and met the punch head-on.
Boom!
A violent explosion rang out. The one sent flying was, shockingly, Kindness's fist. Her punch was blasted backward as Jealousy's hand shot forward, seizing a thick handful of her golden hair.
Crack!
He yanked her head forward and drove his knee straight into her face. The brutal impact sent Kindness flying backward, unable to overcome the momentum.
Jealousy ripped out a clump of hair along with a patch of scalp and hurled it to the ground, letting out a low, giggling laugh.
There had only been one mistake Kindness made in this fight: failing to finish him with her one-hit-kill Hundredth Step Divine Fist. Because Jealousy had no intention of ever giving her the chance to take those hundred steps again.
He's strong. Stronger than expected. If she had to evaluate him, his skill placed him at the very top tier among superhumans.
Is that the secret?
Kindness glanced upward, guessing the source of Jealousy's overwhelming power. Floating in the sky was the moon, shining with a presence that refused to be outdone by the city's lights. A shimmering haze rippled around it, continuously pouring strength into Jealousy.
The Moonlight Spirit.
The sun was the center of this solar system. Its thermal energy alone was enough to treat the tiny planet they stood on as insignificant. The moon was the satellite that filtered some of that solar power and sent it down to Earth. In other words, moonlight contained a portion of the sun's immense energy, and Jealousy was absorbing that energy directly into his body through his spirit, storing it up.
That was how he could maintain a martial art that clearly consumed an insane amount of mana in a permanent open state. Within an environment where the moon existed, he had obtained a limited but effectively infinite well of mana that would never run dry.
I never imagined Jealousy possessed such an ability.
It was a power she had never seen during their previous clash. Perhaps it carried some risk and he had refrained from using it until now, or maybe it was a spirit he had only recently created. At the very least, this battle had taught her one thing: to defeat Jealousy, she would have to fight him during the day, not at night.
There is no chance of victory.
Even after a long while, Eun Ma-hyun had not arrived. He must have been pinned down somewhere. And without Eun Ma-hyun, she no longer had the confidence to stack another hundred steps and defeat Jealousy.
It was time to withdraw.
As if he had read her thoughts, Jealousy charged toward her at blinding speed. His hand slashed forward like the claw of a ferocious beast.
Kindness swiftly pulled something from her bosom and bit down on it.
Crunch.
What she bit was a small crucifix, smaller than the palm of her hand. The moment she snapped the end of it between her teeth, a small yet enormous change began to sweep across the world centered on her.
Jealousy's eyes widened in shock.
His body was slowing down. In the flow of time, it was only the briefest instant. But Jealousy perceived that instant in its entirety, and within that eternity-like moment, he saw it.
A pitch-black, blood-red sky that dyed the world for the briefest second.
Whoosh!
The inner world that had lasted only an instant vanished like a fleeting dream. At the same time, Jealousy's hand pierced through empty air where nothing existed.
She escaped.
Fucking bitch. She's not even a dark mage, yet she's using an inner world as an escape tool? What the hell?
Whose inner world was that?
There was zero chance it belonged to Kindness or any of the other 7 Cardinal Virtues. In that fleeting glimpse, the inner world Jealousy had seen was filled with nothing but an endless, abyssal vastness. A vicious shudder ran through his entire body, accompanied by an unknown terror that crawled up from the depths without end.
He had only perceived it for a moment, yet a pain like his soul was being burned from the inside out had assaulted him. That was not power an ordinary superhuman could possess.
In all his life, Jealousy had seen an inner world of that caliber only once before. It was none other than the World of Dark Heaven belonging to his master, Kain.
Come to think of it, didn't they say the Church itself was a fragment of an inner world left behind by someone?
That was why Holy Magic, which was supposedly nothing more than a form of mental cultivation, could serve as a counter to dark magic. It was the forced manifestation of an individual's will that defied the laws of this world. Kain had concluded that the root cause was an inner world. It had simply existed for so long that people had come to accept it as natural.
I didn't think they would be able to use it like that.
It seemed the Church could utilize fragments of such inner worlds to some extent. Of course, since the owner of that inner world — the Undying King or whatever he was called — was buried deep in the abyss of hell, they could probably only use it for escape like this.
He had uncovered one of the Church's hidden trump cards. It was undoubtedly a tremendous achievement, but it didn't change the fact that he had let Kindness get away. He would probably get an earful from Pride about why he failed, even though the guy had barely given him any proper instructions. That was annoying enough, but what truly pissed him off was that he hadn't been able to kill the woman who had ruined his beautiful face with his own two hands.
Kwaaaaaang!
Unable to contain his rage, Jealousy slammed his fist into the ground. The earth caved in deeply, unable to withstand the force. The shockwave spread in all directions, collapsing every structure and terrain feature around him.
He had planned to stay out of the war if possible, finding it too much of a hassle. But these bastards seemed hell-bent on dragging him into it when all he wanted was some peace and quiet. How irritating.
Did that Pride bastard plan this too? Was he using all these excuses to force work onto him because he kept trying to avoid doing anything? It was a ridiculous leap in logic, but if it was true, he wouldn't be able to forgive him.
"Hoo..."
The fight was over. There was nothing he could do now that Kindness had already fled. Jealousy closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh, as if trying to calm his anger.
Then he turned his head toward the towering earthen wall that had risen high and frowned.
You're too slow, you old whore.
The moment Jealousy inwardly grumbled those complaints toward Lust, who was still fighting inside, the towering earthen wall began to collapse as if it had been waiting for exactly that moment.
Like the saying that even a tiger comes when called.
"Hmph."
Watching it crumble, Jealousy snorted and turned his back with clear disinterest. He didn't entertain even the slightest possibility that Lust might have lost, naturally assuming her victory.
Even with one arm severed, Eun Ma-hyun was still Eun Ma-hyun. He was the man who had perfected the limits a human could reach with a single sword, attaining the realm of 8-star. One of the two superhumans who led the Tugwi Guard, a group of insane fanatics who sought to plunge the continent into war for the sake of Tugwi.
Even while being pushed back, he held on tenaciously. Even as he fell, he did not lose a single ounce of hostility toward his opponent.
The handicap of losing one arm had been adapted to surprisingly quickly. His center of gravity had been reestablished in no time, and the swordsmanship he had learned for two hands was being executed flawlessly with just one. It was a truly astonishing display of power that made it hard to believe he had weakened at all.
But his opponent was an 8-star superhuman, just like him — not some 7-star practitioner. A slight handicap was nowhere near enough to decide the outcome.
Lust smiled sweetly as she looked down at Eun Ma-hyun, who was pinned down and suppressed by the world's own currents.
They might forget kindness, but they never forgot even the smallest grudge. That was one of Sawang Heokcheon's life mottos, and everyone in the underworld was fiercely loyal in carrying out his will.
Right now, hell was experiencing an unprecedented period of chaos since the dawn of creation. Because of the schemes of the one called the Undying King, a passage had been opened between the deepest parts of the living world and the afterlife. The King of the Underworld had responded swiftly, and as a result, the surveillance of the afterlife had become far stricter than before. Those who had already been in hell might be different, but the newly deceased could no longer be revived and sent back to the living world.
Knowing this full well, Lust ground her heel into the back of Eun Ma-hyun's head with a mocking laugh.
Crack. With a grotesque sound, Eun Ma-hyun's legs bent in a direction that should have been impossible. Lust twisted them over and over like she was wringing out a rag. Having turned him into a complete wreck so he could never run away, she kicked Eun Ma-hyun's head. Even in that state, he hadn't let out a single scream.
Not a single person, including superhumans, had ever managed to stay silent while enduring that madman's torture. With those words, Lust stepped past Eun Ma-hyun and slowly walked toward the place where the towering earthen wall had been erected.
Is this the child?
She looked at the boy embedded deep inside the earthen wall with eyes full of interest. The one who had appeared at the most critical moment and taken Eun Ma-hyun's arm. Although he had received help from a spirit she herself had created, it was not something an ordinary person who hadn't even formed a single star inside his body could possibly do.
Masao… was it?
She had heard about him, but seeing him in person, he really was quite an interesting boy.
As she looked Togun up and down, her brow furrowed slightly.
"If we leave him like this, he'll die soon."
He had taken a direct kick from an 8-star martial artist. He wasn't someone who received the world's active love like she did — he had only received a slight amount of assistance. It was a miracle his body hadn't burst apart, and it was astonishing that he was still alive.
I can't let him die after making me owe him a debt.
Responding to her will, the world began to move. The earth shared a portion of its life force with Togun, replenishing his stamina. His characteristic rejection of mana constantly interfered with her attempts, but she paid it no mind. She wasn't some weakling who couldn't overcome a single curse placed on a mere brat, especially not when she wasn't even holding the Masao family's heirloom that had strengthened the curse over several centuries.
This won't fully heal him, but at least he won't die.
Togun's complexion improved considerably. Just moments ago he had looked like a corpse on the verge of death; now he appeared to be in a deep, peaceful slumber.
"This is a token."
A token that this child had made her owe him a debt. It was her own way of marking that she would repay him later.
Lust lightly kissed his forehead and gave a seductive, playful smile.
With those final words, Lust left Togun there, gathered Eun Ma-hyun, and vanished beyond the world.
And a short while later, the towering earthen wall that had separated the inside from the outside slowly crumbled down. It was as if marking the end of the colossal battle that had unfolded in the confined space of Ariaadna Square.