Chapter 179
Chapter 179
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 179
Chapter Title: Living Armor (4)
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“Ssshhhhiiiiik.”
A sinister sound, like gas leaking.
Jet-black armor covered its entire body, and between the gaps, a dark blue flame burned.
“It’s… it’s here.”
“Th-that thing is here!”
A deathly silence fell over the cargo ship, which had been as noisy as a marketplace.
Seeing the dark blue eyes gleaming from within the helm, the Heukseonghoe members froze like frogs facing a snake, muttering “It’s here” like broken machines.
Living Armor.
The grim reaper sent by the Snake herself to punish them for daring to defy her.
“Ah, ugh.”
*Tremble, tremble.*
The Heukseonghoe member's legs trembled like an aspen leaf as he met the Living Armor's dark blue eyes.
A monster they'd encountered in Korea after fleeing from the Snake.
At first, they had scoffed, thinking the notorious Snake had sent a mere single monster as a pursuer.
But that didn't last long. The situation changed drastically when hundreds of the 'Toads' were slaughtered by that single grim reaper in jet-black armor.
Despairingly overwhelming power.
With every swing of the spear wreathed in dark blue flames, the Toads lost their lives in vain.
“S-save me. I don’t want to die.”
Faced with the Living Armor's power, which far surpassed their expectations, Huan had hastily stepped in, but...
Even he couldn't last long and was forced to flee.
A monster that not even the 5th-ranked Executor of the Heukseonghoe could face.
The Toads had no choice but to hide from the grim reaper sent by the Snake.
They had hijacked a large cargo ship and were hiding there, debating whether to leave Korea, when their hideout was discovered.
“Aaaaaaaah!!”
One of the Heukseonghoe members, trembling with a pale face, screamed and turned to run.
The moment he took a step, screaming to be saved.
“Ssshhhhiiiiik!”
With a sinister sound, the Living Armor's eyes flashed.
*Shhhk!*
In the blink of an eye, the spear, wreathed in dark blue flames, pierced the chest of the fleeing Heukseonghoe member.
“Hiiik!”
“C-crazy!!”
They couldn't even properly see the motion of the spear thrust.
All they saw was the flicker of a dark blue light, burning like a will-o'-the-wisp.
It was as if someone had flicked a light switch off and on, only to find someone in the room dead.
“Aaaaaah!!”
“D-damn it!!”
“Run! We have to run!!”
Fear spread like a poison.
As the panicked Heukseonghoe members tried to flee like moles scurrying from the cold.
*BOOM!*
“Where do you think you're going without my permission?!”
An impact that shook the entire several-hundred-meter-long cargo ship.
Huan, who had been in the command room shouting for them to set sail immediately, glared at his fleeing subordinates with wide eyes.
Huan's firm, bronze skin began to bulge and distort.
The muscles in his legs swelled to a grotesque degree as black mana enveloped his body.
*Whoosh!*
Stomping his foot lightly, Huan grabbed one of his fleeing men and lifted him up.
“I, Huan, will personally execute any who try to run!”
*RIIIP!*
Huan grabbed the fleeing subordinate and tore him in two.
“Hiiieek!”
“U-ah.”
At the brutal sight of a man being torn in half, the Heukseonghoe members stopped in their tracks and trembled.
The Living Armor, killing people with sinister hisses in its jet-black armor, was terrifying, but Huan had also established himself as an object of fear through years of tyranny and brainwashing.
“Fight!!”
Huan roared, the veins on his neck bulging.
He didn't know how they had mimicked his voice, but since they hadn't managed to set sail before the monster arrived, they had no choice but to fight back.
*'It's too late to run.'*
The only reason he'd managed to escape last time was thanks to the maze-like alleyways nearby.
In an open space like a pier, escape was impossible.
“Killing that monster is the only way we'll make it out of here alive!”
Huan threw the corpse, dripping with blood and guts, high into the air for his subordinates to see.
His men, who had been fleeing from the Living Armor, turned one by one and began to draw upon the power of their Stigmas.
Their skin distorted, becoming rough and bumpy.
Their grotesquely swollen leg muscles pulsed like living creatures.
“Go, my warriors! Don't tremble before a mere snake!”
Huan raised his hand high.
His heated voice echoed across the deck.
“I am the Cheonma! I am the one who will become the master of the Black Stars!”
“RAAAAAAAAGH!”
Words they had heard so often it was akin to brainwashing.
It seemed Huan's long and repeated efforts at indoctrination had not been in vain, as the Heukseonghoe members, who had been fleeing in terror, let out fiery roars and began to charge toward the Living Armor.
*-THOOM! THUD!*
The ability of the Toad Constellation's Stigma was physical enhancement.
Specifically, it explosively increased their leg strength.
It was an exceedingly simple and straightforward ability, but...
“Hyaaaah!!”
“Die!”
Its simplicity was precisely why the ability shone in any situation.
After all, there was no power in the world more intuitive and absolute than 'the body becomes stronger'.
A Stigma that creates lightning? A Stigma that summons blizzards?
None of that mattered.
No matter how special an ability, it was useless if not supported by physical strength.
Huan spread his arms wide and shouted with the fiery voice of an orator.
“Fight! Kill! Do not forget that the Toad Constellation Stigma you possess is the greatest and strongest of all!”
““RAAAAAAGH!!””
The Heukseonghoe members roared in response to Huan's cry and charged.
“Ssshhhhiiiiik.”
But in this world, spirit and passion alone are not enough to solve everything.
With a sinister hiss, the Living Armor swung its spear, and the bodies of the charging Heukseonghoe members were brutally cut down.
“Ssshhhhiiiiiiik!!”
*Crunch! Slice! Craaack!*
It impaled a Heukseonghoe member who leaped high into the air, running him through from groin to crown with its spear, then caught a blade aimed at its side with one hand and twisted.
The blade, unable to pierce the armor, bent like taffy.
It yanked the bent blade and roughly grabbed the Heukseonghoe member's neck.
*Creeaak.*
The helm of the armor creaked open, revealing stark white teeth and a blood-soaked tongue.
*Crunch.* After biting off and swallowing half the Heukseonghoe member's head, the Living Armor turned to find its next prey.
“Aaaaaah!!”
Just then, a man clung to the Living Armor's arm.
As the Living Armor's dark blue eyes gleamed and it moved to crush the man's head...
“Die! Just die, you monster bastard!!”
“Aaaaaah!! Dammiiiiiiit!!”
“Diiiieeeee!”
The Toads swarmed from all directions, clinging to the Living Armor's body.
The Toads jammed their fingers into the armor's joints, trying to tear it off with brute force.
For the Living Armor, whose body was the armor itself, their actions were akin to having its skin and muscles ripped away raw.
“Sshk, ssshhhiiik!”
The Living Armor thrashed its body as if trying to shake off pesky insects.
The movements of the Living Armor, which had been rampaging like a wild beast, were momentarily sealed.
“Hyaaaaaaaah!!!”
Seizing the opportunity, Huan let out an explosive roar and kicked off the ground.
A fleeting chance, seized by pushing his subordinates to their deaths.
*Creaak, Craaack!*
The grotesquely swollen muscles of his legs were wreathed in black mana.
“Die, you monster!!”
*BOOOOOOOM!!*
Huan's foot descended like a meteor, kicking the Living Armor.
A massive shockwave, as if the cargo ship itself was shaking, spread out, and the Living Armor's armor caved in.
“Gwahahahaha! This is the price for defying the Cheonma!!”
Huan grinned triumphantly and continued his explosive barrage of kicks.
His legs, enhanced by the power of the Toad Constellation Stigma, hammered the Living Armor's body like an artillery strike.
The Living Armor staggered backward under Huan's stormy assault.
“Sshk, ssheek, shk.”
“Just like the servant of a foolish bitch who can't even recognize her own master!!”
Huan's lips twisted into a smirk as he shrugged.
Huan Sukhotai.
He was of Thai royal descent and had lived his entire life receiving the awe and reverence of all.
It was the same even after the gates to the Magyeong opened.
Although he hadn't obtained a Zodiac or Polaris constellation, he received the blessing of a Black Star and was able to rise to the position of Executor in the massive organization known as the Heukseonghoe.
But.
*'The Cheonma is me! It is I, Huan Sukhotai!'*
As he nurtured his ambition to expand his power and swallow the entire Heukseonghoe, he heard of a certain being.
The Cheonma.
The absolute being who had created the Heukseonghoe, to whom the Black Stars bowed their heads.
The rumors were rampant, but no one within the Heukseonghoe truly knew anything about this Cheonma.
All they knew was that 'the Snake' fanatically followed the Cheonma.
*'The Cheonma is nothing more than an illusion created by the Snake.'*
If the Cheonma truly existed, it made no sense for them to have never shown themselves in nearly ten years.
After long deliberation, he concluded that the being known as the 'Cheonma' did not actually exist.
In other words, the throne was empty.
*'And the only one who can sit on that throne is me, Huan Sukhotai.'*
From then on, Huan began to call himself the 'Cheonma'.
There were two reasons.
One was to become the ruler of the Heukseonghoe, and the other was...
“Hehehe. I'll show that arrogant bitch who her true master is.”
The Snake Queen.
Platinum blonde hair that looked like molten gold and emerald eyes.
A woman with a delicate body that looked as if it would break at the slightest touch, and a sensual aura that didn't match.
Huan could never forget the shock of the day he first saw her.
Even he, born a royal who had experienced countless women, had never met one with such unique charm.
A poisoned apple.
Yes, she was a woman who possessed both beauty and danger, like a poisoned apple.
*'If I become the Cheonma.'*
I can have her.
I can make that Snake, that poisoned apple, my own.
That was the second reason why Huan called himself the 'Cheonma'.
“Hahaha! Go and tell your master! That I, Huan, am the real Cheonma—!”
Before Huan could finish his shout.
*Fwoooosh!*
The dark blue flames burning between the gaps in the jet-black armor flared violently.
Huan's subordinates clinging to its body were engulfed in the flames.
“Aaaaaaaack!”
“Kuhk! Gak!”
The Toads screamed and writhed.
The Living Armor, now covered entirely in dark blue flames, stared at Huan.
“Wh-what?”
Huan stumbled backward, a look of bewilderment on his face.
The moment he met the dark blue eyes gleaming from within the helm, the thought that something was wrong flashed through his mind.
“Kuhk!”
Just as Huan urgently kicked off the ground and leaped backward.
*Fwoooosh!*
The dark blue flames covering the Living Armor's body gathered at the tip of its spear.
“Wh-what is that?”
The flames gathered at the spear's tip transformed into the shape of a warhorse.
A spectral warhorse made of sinisterly burning dark blue flames.
The Living Armor mounted the spectral warhorse and charged toward Huan.
“Aaaaaaaah!!”
The spectral warhorse galloped through the air as if defying gravity.
Galloping through the air at a terrifying speed, the spectral horse reached Huan and brought its front hooves, made of dark blue flames, crashing down.
*-CRUNCH!*
“Gah!”
Huan's solar plexus caved in, and he coughed up blood.
The Living Armor raised its spear high and pierced straight through Huan's head.
*-Thud.*
The 5th Executor of the Heukseonghoe.
The ambition of Huan Sukhotai, who dreamed of becoming the Cheonma, thus came to an empty end.
“Sshk, ssk, ssshhk.”
After dealing with Huan, the Living Armor panted heavily as if exhausted, taking staggering steps.
Perhaps as an aftereffect of summoning the spectral horse, the dark blue flames that had enveloped its body had noticeably weakened.
*Fwoosh.*
The spectral horse the Living Armor had summoned was reabsorbed into its spear and vanished.
“Ssshhhhiiiiik.”
As if to replenish its spent mana, the Living Armor turned to the corpses.
*Crack!*
It approached a nearby corpse, broke its ribs, and pulled out the heart.
*Crunch.* It opened its mouth wide and swallowed the heart whole.
The power of the stars condensed within the heart flowed into it—
“...Sshk?”
But there was none.
Despite having chewed and swallowed the heart whole, it couldn't feel any mana at all.
“Sshk, ssk.”
As if unable to understand, it tilted its head, then rummaged through the corpse of the just-killed Huan and tore out his heart to eat, but...
It was the same this time.
Like a fruit with only the peel left, not even a wisp of mana remained inside the corpses.
“Sshk… Why… is there… ssk… no, mana?”
A sinister voice leaked from within the Living Armor's helm.
As it rolled its dark blue eyes, scanning its surroundings.
“Oh, what's this? You can talk?”
“……!!”
The Living Armor urgently gripped its spear and spun around.
A young man was looking down at it from atop a tall stack of containers.
Slightly drooping eyes and curly hair.
A man with a gentle appearance, yet exuding a dangerous aura, as if poisoned.
“Thanks for the meal. It was delicious~.”
Oh-jin patted his stomach and let out a chuckle.
The black miasma that had spread out like a fog seeped into his body.