The Variable (4)

"Even now, the youngest of the Sichuan Tang Clan and of Golden Manor may be arriving here — and perhaps someone from Qingcheng as well."

"And you imagine this sovereign would not know that?"

With that single remark, every scattered piece of the situation snapped into place at once. A disaster born of a fire no one could name. The Greenflame Twin Dragons, sealed in this place from the beginning. And beyond them, the Qingcheng Sect, the Sichuan Tang Clan, and Golden Manor.

She knew of this place from the start. She had been aiming for it all along.

Setting the Greenflame Twin Dragons loose. Driving events into something indistinguishable from a calamity, so that Qingcheng, the Tang Clan, and Golden Manor would be unable to join hands afterward. All of it. This was no coincidence. It was a fate fixed in advance, bound to unfold.

Of course I could never have foreseen it. I had only begun to involve myself in the martial world in earnest, and to carry out Cheon Yu-wol's commands, long after this moment. Before I ever stood before her, there was no way I could have known in full what she had done, or what hidden designs she nursed. Fragments, perhaps. The whole of it — never.

"Not a chance!"

Seol-ha, hurled by Cheon Yu-wol, came flying straight at my eyes. There was no time. Rather than the still-unripe Black Abyss Heaven-Rending Net, I seized my sword and moved.

The instant heavenly thunder qi touched my toes, I already had Seol-ha in my arms. The problem lay past her shoulder: Cheon Yu-wol. From her signature divine weapon, Moonbreaker, pitch-black sword-qi came screaming in, meant to cleave the two of us apart at once.

I had to be faster.

I hauled the thunder qi higher and wrung still more speed from it. A crash like splitting heaven — and I was already gone. In my place, Cheon Yu-wol's sword-qi tore through the afterimages I had left, one after another.

She hounded me without mercy. There was no restraint in her hands. She had fully awakened the Heavenly Outer Demonic God Body, that physique said to have been born for nothing but destruction, and before she had even turned twenty she had completed the Heavenly Ordinance Blood Dragon Sword, an art of vicious, peerless attainment. A genius. And now that she stood as my enemy, she truly was—

"Damn it. If she isn't a fiend, nothing is."

Bundles of crimson sword-qi poured down without end, hurling themselves at Seol-ha and me with brutal force.

I had seen the art countless times. It was one of the techniques Cheon Yu-wol favored, and whenever anyone asked why, her answer never changed. If one is going to draw a sword at all, better that it be a cruel one. An answer worthy of the king of fiends — worthy, indeed, of the Heavenly Demon.

The essence of the Heavenly Ordinance Blood Dragon Sword was extreme destruction. Endless pressure. A merciless hand. Killing moves in every form that dragged the foe into the grave alongside her. Movements arrogant to the brink of madness, unfolded on the premise that no one existed who could surpass her — every defense cast aside, nothing left but ruin.

And yet even a martial artist has habits. To eyes that had watched her across more than a few decades, those habits were unmistakable. The third form, Blood Dragon Frenzy. The fourth, Ordinance Dragon's Death. It was when those two linked. To gather destructive force into a single point and push the fourth form's ruin even further, Cheon Yu-wol's left shoulder twisted the slightest fraction more. A movement so extreme it offered up even the axis of her body — and so her defense grew all the more fragile.

"Here."

Still holding Seol-ha, I turned.

I, who had done nothing but evade, reached striking distance in a flash. At the same moment my foot traced a half-circle and drove into that fleeting opening. Moonbreaker changed its path in desperate haste. Too late. Sparks burst along the divine blade as my sword scraped it and surged upward like lightning.

The step I had gained upon entering the Flower Realm was paying off, and clearly. The Line — the sum of my internal power, my senses, of everything I was — spoke with certainty. This strike would land true.

In that instant a red light flashed in Cheon Yu-wol's eyes. With a speed of reaction that beggared belief, she twisted, struck the tip of my sword, and used the rebound to spring far clear. I knew what that was. Another peculiarity of the Heavenly Outer Demonic God Body. The world called it the Heavenly Demon's Ghost Sense. It was not a sense born merely of learning martial arts and training them after the fact. It was like a beast feeling danger in the wild — an instinctive premonition rising of its own accord. There was a reason people said that heavenly bone, the Heavenly Outer Demonic God Body, was a treasured sword given human form. She had always been like a well-honed blade.

"I cannot understand it."

Unlike the moment before, when she had bared killing intent and drawn without hesitation, the look in her eyes had turned strangely as she stood at a distance.

"You knew what I would do."

"......"

"From the very start there was no killing intent in your sword. How dare you, before this sovereign."

"Harming a beauty isn't among my hobbies."

To my surprise, Cheon Yu-wol let out a soft little laugh. But I knew that laugh was false. Her eyes were already burning fiercely toward me, and she would be reasoning without pause through every cause that had kept her from cutting this enemy down at a stroke. Fail to achieve her aim, and she could not sleep even with her eyes open — and that was the least of it. Prey she had once fixed her gaze upon, she pursued more relentlessly than any beast. That was the Cheon Yu-wol I knew.

"Who are you? Reveal yourself."

"What makes you think that of me?"

"There is no mistake. You know of me. You are someone who knows my movements."

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

She had reason to be unsettled. In the martial world as it stood, no one had so much as imagined that the Heavenly Demon Cult existed, let alone watched it show its face. And here I had moved as if I had already witnessed the Heavenly Ordinance Blood Dragon Sword. Of course she was confused. Yet I was in no position to offer a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠proper explanation either. I, too, had never expected her to appear in this place.

"A woman unknown to me, carrying not only a fierce demonic qi, but belonging neither to the Sichuan Tang Clan, nor Qingcheng, nor Golden Manor. Did it never occur to you that I might be just as curious about your identity?"

"I expected you would not answer easily. Then I shall have to kill you here, if I am to leave no trouble behind."

She was probably right. It was not yet the time for the Heavenly Demon Cult to reveal itself. Little by little, Cheon Yu-wol had been stacking justifications for removing her father, who grew ever more wary of her and ever more hideous, and in the midst of that she was laying the cult's bridgehead. This mistake — more precisely, her failure to eliminate me — would stand for a long time within the cult as proof of her insufficiency.

"Wait. Hear me out."

Cheon Yu-wol only glared, saying nothing. That meant there was still room to talk.

"As you must already have felt, neither of us seems able to defeat the other completely."

In truth, if both of us brought every ounce of our strength to bear, I could not even be sure I could surpass her now — not even after luck and effort had carried me into the Flower Realm. My body had only just reached that realm. At this point in time she was twenty-seven, and she had attained it long ago. In precision of every kind, she still stood ahead of me. I might have the advantage in experience, but she possessed an extraordinary sense that could fill that gap.

"So arrogant. I ought to tear out that tongue of yours first."

Properly provoked, Cheon Yu-wol curled the corner of her red lips. A laugh rose in me even though nothing was going as I wished. In all my previous life, I could count on one hand the times I had twisted her mood like this. My mere existence was shaking her. For a vassal who had spent a lifetime doing nothing but attend her, the pleasure was a strange one.

"On reflection, I really must kill you."

"Weren't we in the middle of a conversation?"

"You are the first whose mere existence has disgusted me."

"......"

A brief silence passed, and I spoke again.

"I will keep silent about you."

"You expect me to believe that? Even a common man would not trust your word."

"You are no common man. Anyone capable of such skill at your age must possess a considerable vessel. Martial arts are a mirror that reflects a life."

"Your three-inch tongue is sweet enough. But you have not properly answered my question, so what trust is there to discuss? Who are you?"

Even if I revealed my identity obediently, I could not fully settle Cheon Yu-wol's doubts. That I had returned ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to the past was the most important card I held for growing strong. I could not show it to her when she might yet become an enemy. Old affection was a separate matter. I weighed it for a moment, and in the end I made my decision.

"Cheon Yu-wol. Young Cult Leader of the Heavenly Demon Cult."

A strange light passed through her eyes.

"As I thought... you..."

"I know of you, but I have no intention of using that knowledge for my own gain, nor of speaking it aloud. Had I meant to, I would long since have gone about the martial world announcing that you, and the Heavenly Demon Cult, exist."

She answered at a slant.

"And could you even bear what would follow?"

"As I said, the fact that you failed to cut me down in a single stroke is answer enough."

"......"

"I am no hound set loose to guard the orthodox sects. Righteous cause, chivalrous hero — none of that suits me. I live only for my own goal. I came to this place for that same reason."

If I could not share my present circumstances with her, then the best choice left to me was to use this situation to make her leave. Becoming the Heavenly Demon Cult's first target for elimination would do my road ahead no favors.

"And yet, you are strange."

"In what way?"

"By your own mouth, you have no thought of becoming the orthodox's dog. You do not look like a pawn of the unorthodox, nor are your eyes those of a man who covets power. And yet you swallowed this entire place like a hungry ghost. Like one who craves strength."

"And so?"

"What is it you want?"

"We are hardly close enough to share such a thing. It is a secret."

"You are dangerous after all."

"If you cannot cut me down here and now, the hounds of the orthodox will arrive before long, and your existence will be exposed. Better, then, to cooperate with me — someone who may yet become an ally."

"An ally?"

"Depending on the moment, there is room enough for that."

"The orthodox would turn themselves inside out to hear you talk so. Do you spill all these words merely to survive, or to protect that woman?"

"Both. And one thing more."

"Which is?"

I regarded Cheon Yu-wol in silence.

"Because it is not yet time for you and me to fight. If we must someday, I would rather it be somewhere better than here."

Vague as it was, no answer could ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠have held more of my true feeling.

"That is the best answer I can give. Ask anything more, and I will have no choice but to fight as well. And if we must fight—"

I set Seol-ha briefly upon the ground and stepped in front of her.

"—you will not walk away unscathed either."

If the road to protecting my life and Seol-ha demanded a fight, then I would fight, however long it took. Even if that road meant cutting down Cheon Yu-wol, who had once been my lord.

"Your weakness."

Cheon Yu-wol looked past my shoulder at Seol-ha.

"This sovereign has never once known defeat. I have always won. Always surpassed."

"And is that your answer?"

"You will certainly die."

Expressionless, Cheon Yu-wol leveled her sword.

I nodded. I had done all I could. Now, let come what may.