Chapter 97

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Translator: True Detective

Chapter: 96

Chapter Title: Old Soldiers Never Die

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Confirmed that the Fixer had entered through the hole.

He would probably wander lost in the Backside World for quite some time.

As long as there was no being who knew the paths of the Backside World by his side, they could tie up the Fixer's feet for at least three days.

"Of all people, that damn Fixer had to move first and complicate things."

Pastor Saint Joseph, affiliated with the Human Front Radical Faction and in charge of commanding this operation, glared at the reed fields and ground his teeth.

Because the Fixer, who had been sitting still, suddenly headed toward the Moss House, they had to completely revise their plans.

Originally, they had planned to proceed three days later, but the moment they realized the Fixer had made contact with the Moss House, they had to push things forward no matter what.

If the Fixer declared he would protect the Moss House and began fortifying it everywhere, it would become even harder to breach than it was now.

He didn't know all the powers the Fixer possessed, but he knew the man was monstrously strong.

With the Fixer—a disaster-class monster—suddenly inserting himself into the middle of their plan, they had no choice but to think of it as a natural calamity striking.

From the pureblood supremacists' perspective, it was better to take this chance to deal with the Moss House and the Fixer together.

"Then let's all move out. This is a holy war for our future. Exercise utmost caution."

This operation was being handled by around a hundred members of the "Penitence Evangelists," composed of the Human Front Radical Faction, the Brotherhood of the Oath, and the Bloodless Victory Monks.

While the team kidnapping Nam Yu-ha bought time from the Fixer, the Penitence Evangelists would enter the Moss House, slaughter the half-breeds, and set the main hall ablaze.

The plan was to reduce everything to nothingness with purifying flames.

"P-Pastor."

"What is it?"

"Is... is this really the right way...?"

"What nonsense is that? Are you doubting the General Assembly Leader's will?"

"N-No, that's not—"

"After witnessing His miracle with your own eyes! After hearing the trumpet of the angel and still harboring doubts? After receiving blessings in your very body, you dare! You Satan-spawn!"

"F-Forgive me! I just wondered if it's right to borrow the power of anomalies for our cause..."

"You fool! That's not an anomaly! It's a holy relic bestowed by the Lord!"

Pastor Saint Joseph slapped the layman's cheek.

The tremendous strength tore part of the layman's face, and he tumbled to the ground, bleeding.

Pastor Saint Joseph grabbed the layman's head and yelled as if to say there would be no doubts, making an example for the others.

"You are acting for the greater good. Do not question your actions. This is all for the future of humanity. For your descendants, you should gladly sacrifice yourselves—and yet you dare doubt? Do you truly wish to die here?"

"No! That's not it! Please show mercy, Pastor..."

"Filthy wretch. The same goes for all of you. The Brotherhood of the Oath and the Bloodless Victory Monks are watching. Don't disgrace us. Move properly. Understood?"

At Joseph's words, the Radical Faction believers nodded.

They possessed firm convictions.

Passion and justice to protect future humanity.

And a noble resolve to eradicate the seed of half-breeds so darkness would not descend upon this land.

Such firm will required sacrifice to see it through.

It was time to sacrifice the few for the many.

"Prepare yourselves for death, all of you. For future humanity to be completely liberated from chaos, all half-breeds must vanish. Let's start here. We'll methodically wipe out the half-breeds of this land. This is a noble holy war."

Soon, dozens of Penitence Evangelists advanced toward the wooden house at the center of the reed fields.

They just needed to enter through there.

If they could get inside the Moss House, slaughtering the half-breeds would be all too easy.

The Moss House's maximum forces—the Harmony Spirit—was away in Korea, the elders were too old to even run, and the renowned onmyoji had mostly died trying to obtain nameless talismans at the Lotus Sect's academic festival.

Right now, there was no one to protect the Moss House. They just needed to kill one senile old man.

Then they could trample the half-breeds' nest with dirt-caked feet, smashing it and burning their cradle.

"Saint, suddenly there's fog..."

"Huh? There were no anomalies like this in the reed fields, right? Everyone, stay alert! This is a new anomaly here!"

At some point, thick fog blanketed the path ahead of the Penitence Evangelists, growing denser by the second.

Soon, they were engulfed, unable to even see each other's positions.

"Don't stop! Keep moving toward the wooden house! Don't lose direction searching for comrades!"

Joseph shouted to the Penitence Evangelists in a tense voice.

Reach the wooden house by any means necessary.

-Kaaaaah!

Then, a death scream echoed from afar.

Terror swelled. Fog in a place where it shouldn't appear was chilling enough, but screams coming from all directions was maddening.

It felt exactly like being hunted while blindfolded, unable to see.

"P-Pastor... something's wrong."

"Shut up. Don't say useless—"

Thud-!

A young man from the Radical Faction, following anxiously behind Joseph, was dragged into the fog.

Something lurked in the fog.

"....."

Something huge spat out the half-chewed head of the Radical Faction youth and looked down at Joseph from within the fog.

A tiger.

The tiger had descended.

"Why are these... here..."

A monstrous tiger with a flushed red face.

Joseph quickly realized the anomaly's identity.

"Jangsan Tiger..."

Shouts rang out from various spots in the reed fields that Jangsan Tigers had appeared.

It wasn't just one. Multiple Jangsan Tigers began indiscriminately tearing into and killing the Penitence Evangelists.

"Run to the wooden house! Tigers! Jangsan Tigers—!"

The pureblood supremacists of the Penitence Evangelists had to sprint toward the wooden house in terror.

They ran to survive the Jangsan Tigers. Stopping meant death. They couldn't even hide.

The Jangsan Tigers hunted the purebloods as if the fog were their natural habitat, toying with them. Those who tried to fight were torn to shreds, unrecognizable.

The pale fog turned to blood mist in an instant.

'I never heard stories like this. It was supposed to be a peaceful reed field.'

Why were disaster-class anomalies like Jangsan Tigers roaming around like this?

Way too excessive for mere security anomalies. And no matter how he thought about it, the fog was suspicious. The fog rolled in, and the tigers appeared. As if the fog had brought the Jangsan Tigers.

Of course, it couldn't be a natural phenomenon. That meant someone had interfered with the reed field barrier of the historic Moss House, artificially filling it with fog.

How many spiritual arts masters in Korea could breach and control the entire Moss House reed field barrier at will?

Only one.

'The Divine Maiden, Haun. She's protecting this place.'

Joseph, fleeing from the Jangsan Tigers, realized who the true master of the fog blanketing the reed fields was.

'Weren't the Lunar Blossom Sect and Moss House enemies? Then why...'

It was the perfect chance to eliminate the Moss House, so why block their path like this? Probably because of the Fixer.

The Lunar Blossom Sect's half-breed hatred stemmed not from the Divine Maiden but from Great Elder Ok-won, a victim of the incident 30 years ago. The Divine Maiden had no ill feelings toward half-breeds from the start.

She might even be here in person. The situation was dire. They'd barely shaken off the Fixer, only for something worse to arrive.

"Run! Staying long in the Divine Maiden's fog turns you into a Forgetting Spirit! We have to escape the fog!"

Joseph swung his Bible to part the fog. It was a temporary measure, but a faint light formed in his hand, and those dying to Jangsan Tigers amid the chaos gathered toward the light he provided.

'You'll serve as bait.'

Joseph created light in the fog to lure the lost ones.

If they gathered toward the light, the Jangsan Tigers would naturally head where humans clustered.

To survive, they needed to head into the darkness without light.

That was Joseph's true path.

The quick-witted would realize it. Following the light meant becoming moths to flame.

"Over here! Pastor! Here!"

"Open the door now! We're entering!"

The quick-witted Penitence Evangelists who gathered in the darkness hurriedly pried open the locked entrance of the wooden house and stepped inside.

The interior of the wooden house was unpleasantly dark and gloomy.

For some reason, a fishy blood scent wafted through.

Completely different from the interior described in stories. Why was the first floor so sinister?

Before the intruders could realize why, the anomaly guarding the wooden house revealed itself first.

"They said guests would come... and you really did. Lots of you too... This is unexpected..."

A grotesquely twisted man holding coffee in one hand and a utility cutter in the other.

Catastrophe-class anomaly, the Smiling Man.

The guardian of the first floor awkwardly smiled at the intruders.

"At least catastrophe-class..."

"Why is a catastrophe-class anomaly on the first floor..."

The Smiling Man set down his coffee on the desk, twisted his waist in a bizarre motion, and charged at the Penitence Evangelists.

The group crowding the entrance was pushed back outside by the Smiling Man's momentum.

The faces of those in front were sliced by the razor.

"If you don't want to die, don't come inside..."

The Smiling Man warned them.

Cross the entrance, and he'd shred their faces.

It seemed leisurely, but it was an act.

Even the Smiling Man alone couldn't handle the sheer number of Penitence Evangelists.

The Jangsan Tigers had reduced the hundred-strong group by nearly half, but still too many remained.

"What are you doing! Just push in! Jangsan Tigers are outside anyway! Not entering means death for all! Get inside quick! It's safer in here!"

With Pastor Saint Joseph's shout, the Penitence Evangelists' clerics let out mad roars to forget their fear and charged into the wooden house guarded by a catastrophe-class anomaly.

They had nowhere to retreat. Not entering meant facing unbeatable Jangsan Tigers and the Divine Maiden.

Even as people died to the Smiling Man's hands, they didn't back down.

They trampled corpses and advanced. The disaster-class Jangsan Tigers scared them more than the catastrophe-class anomaly.

"Elevator secured! Entering!"

"Emergency stairs entrance found!"

"Block the entrance so fog and tigers can't get in!"

"There are still people outside..."

"If they haven't entered by now, they're dead naturally! Seal the entrance quick!"

A catastrophe-class anomaly wasn't reason enough to halt the advance.

The raid on the Smiling Man in the wooden house progressed swiftly, and dozens slipped into the Moss House interior through the gap.

The wooden house had two entryways into the Moss House interior.

First, the elevator.

Second, the stairs.

Either way, a catastrophe-class anomaly awaited, but the stairs were overwhelmingly easier.

Boarding the elevator meant being grabbed by the catastrophe-class anomaly "Mirror Realm" and dragged into the mirror—a nightmare in confined space.

So the stairs were preferable. A catastrophe-class anomaly lurked there too, but far easier to fight than in the cramped elevator.

Of course, the real problem lay at the sixth floor, inevitably reached via stairs.

"Damn it... how many catastrophe-class are there..."

Pastor Saint Joseph arrived at the sixth floor with the surviving Penitence Evangelists who had come down together via the stairs.

Countless sacrifices to get here. They needed manpower to deal with the catastrophe-class anomaly guarding the stairs, the Slime Secreter.

After barely breaking through the anomalies to descend, now the Fixer had placed two more catastrophe-class on this floor.

Truly despairing for the intruders.

Saint Joseph felt desolation.

They had to cross the sixth-floor corridor to the opposite stairs to go lower.

Break through two catastrophe-class. Surviving members: about twenty.

They'd barely handled the Smiling Man and repelled the Slime Secreter to reach here.

Two more catastrophe-class.

He hadn't heard of this. What happened in the Moss House in just half a day?

'It was only half a day. This is too much.'

He'd thought at least seventy of the hundred Penitence Evangelists would survive and escape unscathed, but over seventy had already died.

How many defenses had the Fixer set up in that short time, less than half a day? Pastor Saint Joseph felt suffocated.

Honestly, with this force, he had confidence against any group in a holy war. But five catastrophe-class, three Jangsan Tigers, and summoning the Mujinsan Divine Maiden? That crossed the line.

'If only we'd come a bit sooner...'

Preparation for invading the Moss House had taken longer than expected.

The Human Front Radical Faction's General Assembly Leader had needed too much time to properly use the "Trumpet of the Angel."

Still, this was as fast as possible. Who knew the Fixer would visit the Moss House before the decisive day and set up such absurd defenses?

The Moss House had become a demon's den. No one could breach such difficulty.

They'd thought passing the wooden house would make slaughtering half-breeds easy.

Now, most of the remaining forces would die on the sixth floor.

Joseph couldn't hide his despair.

He realized anew that the enemy they faced was a true monster.

But having come this far, they couldn't stop. Too many Penitence Evangelists had died already. They had to go to the end.

"So this is my grave."

Joseph fully unleashed the blessing from the General Assembly Leader.

At his command, the Human Front Radical Faction believers—also known as the New Nation, New Love Church—unleashed their blessings too.

"Woo Hye-sang! Lead the extermination squad down below! We'll handle this!"

Joseph charged at the catastrophe-class anomalies with a resolute expression, his body aflame.

Radical Faction believers followed, sacrificing themselves to carve a path through the anomalies.

Bloodless Victory Monk Woo Hye-sang passed the dying Penitence Evangelists and ran toward the stairs at the opposite end of the corridor.

Four more followed him down.

Thus, five Penitence Evangelists from the extermination squad—having pierced all five catastrophe-class—headed deeper underground.

Once the sixth floor was breached, down to the fifteenth was wide open, and no one stopped their advance.

"Already this far..."

The footsteps of invading forces closing in.

Had they really broken through all the catastrophe-class?

Kang Yeon-hwi had twisted the floors from the management office on the eighteenth.

Deciphering even the formation wards to reach here?

Lee Ha-il realized: these weren't ordinary spiritual artists.

The enemies had brought out cattle-slaughtering blades to truly destroy the Moss House.

He wasn't the only one prepared to die. The intruders had staked everything to arrive here.

"I wanted to see Hawaii before dying."

Lee Ha-il recalled the retirement he'd long dreamed of.

He had a longing for Hawaii.

Someday, when ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠he retired from the outer guard, he wanted to go there.

Of course, that day would never come.

Regrettably.

"No time to rest."

Lee Ha-il, waiting for the intruders at the fifteenth-floor landing, placed his hand on his sword hilt.

All residents from the first basement and Moss House had evacuated to the seventeenth-floor shelter. No matter what, the intruders must not reach basement seventeen.

Kang Yeon-hwi had already sealed elevators below the tenth floor.

So just block the stairs.

Stop the intruders from descending further from the fifteenth.

Of course, it didn't look easy.

Lee Ha-il was a seventy-something elder, while the intruders below were vigorous young zealots in their prime.

Moreover, someone like Woo Hye-sang rivaled Lunar Blossom Sect division leaders in skill.

Lee Ha-il was at a disadvantage.

No, overwhelmingly so.

He was someone who should have retired, unable to handle them alone.

Yet the old man stood before the approaching invaders.

His goal was singular.

Buy time.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"What? Just the old man alone?"

"That's right. Not satisfied with just one geezer?"

"No, no. Don't call your buddies. Die nicely!"

Five cultists from the Penitence Evangelists had reached the fifteenth floor.

Half-breed haters from three groups.

First, Human Front Radical Faction's Han Ki-moon and Choi Seo-ryong.

Next, Brotherhood of the Oath's Kang Yeon-su and Kim Do-jin.

Finally, Bloodless Victory Monk faction's Woo Hye-sang.

Woo Hye-sang—one of the Bloodless Victory Monk's three great lions—swung his iron mace at Lee Ha-il.

"Rotten old bastard! I'll crack your skull!"

Lee Ha-il dodged Woo Hye-sang as if passing by and slashed his abdomen.

Experience differed. Survival meant strength. As if to prove it, Lee Ha-il wielded his sword like a god against invaders far younger than him.

He evaded all attacks, targeting vitals precisely, already slitting two throats.

The problem: even with throats slit, the Radical Faction duo showed no sign of dying. Despite numerous hits, they remained fine.

Enemies unkillable by normal means. Slice off an arm, they reattach and charge again.

Could they even be called human? Ambiguous—human or anomaly?

Lee Ha-il suddenly found the situation amusing.

Those vowing to exterminate half-breeds born between anomalies and humans were borrowing anomalous power themselves. Utterly ridiculous.

Contradictory from the start. Could they truly be called pureblood supremacists?

"With that appearance, you think you're in the same human category? You're no different from half-breeds."

"Shut up! You filthy old fuck, how dare you compare us to those scum! This is the power of pure blessings!"

The Radical Faction believer, infused with blessings, regenerated wounds in real-time and pressured Lee Ha-il. Seizing the gap, the two Brotherhood members thrust short spears from both sides.

Aiming to pierce his flank.

"Kuh...!"

Lee Ha-il barely deflected the short spears, but fatigue was setting in.

He couldn't match the young men's vigor.

One against five. Successfully buying time, but paradoxically, the longer it dragged, the more breathless he became.

Top-tier experts. One lapse and...

Crunch.

During a clash of strength with the Brotherhood, Lee Ha-il's calf was torn off.

Woo Hye-sang, healed abdominal wound, slithered like a snake along the wall and floor to bite Lee Ha-il's calf.

"Pah! Can't dodge now, huh?"

Woo Hye-sang spat out the bitten flesh while clinging to the wall.

With his left calf torn by the enemy's jaws, Lee Ha-il's vision spun.

A momentary gap. The Brotherhood seized it, finally embedding a short spear in his flank.

Like Longinus's spear piercing Jesus. They impaled and transfixed his side.

"Kuheok..."

Pain from the torn calf and blood pouring from his flank.

Physically and bodily, Lee Ha-il had reached his limit.

Swords, axes, iron maces, hammers flew from all sides. He tried evading all, but the bitten left calf left his legs powerless.

He staggered, exposing openings.

In an instant, an axe buried in his shoulder, a hammer struck his head.

Enemies unharmed by attacks, but for him, even one hit was fatal.

In such a situation, allowing countless strikes.

'My ears are gone... I hear nothing.'

Lee Ha-il's ears rang from the blunt impact.

Too much blood lost. His body was growing cold, numb to pain.

Fall and meet death?

Resist to the end?

Lee Ha-il suddenly recalled a conversation with the elders days ago.

'Why not retire and rest easy? You're not young anymore.'

'But I don't have a successor yet.'

'Even so, staying active at your age is stubbornness.'

'I'm fine. I can do more. The kids are still growing. If even one leaves, it'll be precarious right away. I can't abandon my duties just to take it easy.'

'Ha-il... We're sorry. It's because we couldn't step up. We burdened you too much alone.'

'It's nothing. I can still work, so don't worry.'

If he'd accepted the elders' suggestion and retired then? Would he be in Hawaii now?

If he'd taken their advice for rest, maybe he'd have enjoyed a better old age.

"Ha... hahahaha!"

Lee Ha-il laughed amid spilling blood.

Give up? Retire? Peaceful old age?

No.

Dying fighting for loved ones was far cooler.

"Hawaii, huh. What was I thinking? Sorry. Old age made me clingy to life. Just now, I cast off all those lingering regrets. Let's start over."

The old gentleman regripped his sword.

All lingering regrets in his heart vanished.

This was his burial mound today.

He'd take at least one with him, anyone would do.

"Come on. This old man's not dead yet."

Time until Lee Ha-ri's seal was released was short.

Five minutes—no, one minute would do. Buy just a bit more time.

Lee Ha-il staggered, raising his sword midway.

From the moment intruders breached the first floor, the elders began unsealing Lee Ha-ri.

But unsealing was far harder than sealing, several times more difficult.

It required more time than expected. Frail elders on their last legs were expending final strength to unseal.

'Knew it would be late.'

So hold out alone until the elders freed Lee Ha-ri.

Though even he didn't know if Lee Ha-ri could stop them all.

Still, cling to that sliver of hope.

Never give up until the moment of death.

That was the mission of the Moss House outer guard.

The fate of the three sole guardians protecting the Moss House.

The moment they gave up, everyone here would be massacred by those vile Satan-spawn.

"Fuck... crazy old bastard... what kind of eyes on a geezer..."

"Don't flinch! He's almost done. Look at that face. Walking corpse. Keep pressing. His left calf's gone, target there."

"Blood pouring from his side. Movements slowed."

Hyenas bared teeth at the weakened old soldier, and Lee Ha-il reached complete exhaustion.

Stay like this, and he'd be dismembered.

At death's door, Lee Ha-il decided: hold one more minute.

"Hoo..."

The Fixer had left an item.

It was the reward from chasing black darkness at Garam University, a quest prize.

A crystallization of unknowable yin-yang knowledge.

In case someone invaded here.

Unlikely, but if anyone pierced five catastrophe-class guards to reach here.

An item for the absolute final moment.

The elderly onmyoji nearing eighty admitted this was the final battlefield.

No place to run. Never planned to anyway.

Lived long enough. Cast off regrets.

Time to become fertilizer for others.

'Moss grows anywhere.'

His death wouldn't be in vain.

Lee Ha-il shattered the Hybrid Refinement Core.

The faint anomalous traces in his blood awakened.

His heart pounded.

Since passing sixty, had his heart ever throbbed this strongly?

"Haa."

Lee Ha-il's reason numbed. Pain vanished simultaneously.

Life and death boundary. Awakened anomalous instincts.

Blind violence and murderous ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠urge toward humans boiled over.

Fortunate. Only enemies here.

"What the hell is that!"

"An anomaly. The old man's lost his humanity...!"

Lee Ha-il transformed into a pitch-black beast sprouting fur everywhere and charged at Woo Hye-sang.

The most troublesome of the five intruders. Even Lee Ha-ri couldn't handle him easily.

While any reason remained, tear out that throat.

Somehow, kill that one here.

The Hybrid Refinement Core's side effects would soon activate.

Before then, take him as a companion.

Before his heart stopped, drag one more along.

To lessen the burden on those behind. For the future.

What was once Lee Ha-il discarded his lifelong sword and moved by instinct.