Chapter 166
Chapter 166
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 166
>Chapter Title: God is Great (3)
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‘Ah, Allah?’
Thanks to the enemies’ shouts, Il-mok realized what religion they believed in and twisted his face into a bizarre expression.
From all directions—east, west, south, and north—flames of Allah came flying in, blotting out the sky.
“Haaah!”
Black Tiger Squad Leader Gu Yang-hyeok let out a roar as he swiftly swung his saber repeatedly through the air.
Demonic energy-infused saber winds followed his blade, rushing toward the flames of Allah.
Leading with Gu Yang-hyeok’s saber winds, the deputy squad leader and several squad members, along with Instructor Chu Il-hwan and the other Demonic Path Academy instructors, each swung their weapons.
In the end, the flames of Allah were blocked by the winds they created.
But the problem was that this was a mountain.
The flames began spreading to the surrounding brush around the river.
“Allahu Akbar!!”
The fanatics, shouting the now-familiar cry, charged at them once more.
Il-mok felt the world go dark before his eyes.
He had spent his life cursing the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult’s followers as fanatics, but he never imagined he’d encounter real ones straight out of the modern news.
At that moment, the Black Tiger Squad Leader’s shout snapped Il-mok back to reality.
“No follower of the great Heavenly Demon Divine Cult abandons their comrades! Hold out until those poisoned awaken!”
That was why they had waited idly while Allah’s sorcerers conjured their flames.
It was because those poisoned by the toxin hadn’t fully expelled it yet.
Whether due to Gu Yang-hyeok’s shout or because they were mad fighters who loved battle to begin with—
“Come on!”
“I’ll send you to King Yama!!”
The cultists maintained their formation, bellowing to boost their morale.
In the center, those who had drunk the river water were circulating their qi to drive out the poison, while the unharmed ones encircled them, holding off the enemy.
Thanks to not being poisoned himself, Il-mok had no choice but to face the foes on the front lines.
The enemies charged, wielding weapons and babbling in some unknown language he’d never heard before.
It was a familiar look in their eyes.
Il-mok had seen that blindly fanatic gaze all too often.
“Fuck.”
Spitting a curse, Il-mok drew his sword.
There were just too many enemies.
This wasn’t like the bandit group last time, where he could leisurely use his fist techniques or Golden Crow Palm.
Slash!
A gruesome cutting sound echoed across the battlefield.
Black Tiger Squad Leader Gu Yang-hyeok swung his saber with lightning speed, and saber qi bursting from his blade tore through space, slicing off the head of a fanatic charging at the forefront.
Thud.
Whether unaware of its own death or carried by momentum, the corpse staggered a few more steps before collapsing in a heap.
Blood poured from the corpse’s neck, soaking the ground.
As if previewing the carnage to come.
Crunch.
The body of the one who had charged ahead and died was trampled and crushed underfoot by its own comrades.
“As Allah wills.”
“Death to the enemy.”
Undeterred by their comrade’s death—no, their eyes blazing even fiercer—the fanatics pressed on.
But they had chosen the wrong foes.
“Heavenly Demon descends!!”
“Ten thousand demons rise!!!”
The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult warriors showed no fear in the face of the fanatics’ intimidating charge.
The fanatics swarming from all sides finally clashed with the formation of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult followers.
Slash!!
Clang!!
The sounds of metal clashing and flesh being cut rang out everywhere.
“Allahu Akbar!!”
“Heavenly Demon! Grant me strength!!”
Cries calling to their gods.
“Gaaah!!”
“Die!!”
Screams and rage-filled roars intertwined.
It was an utterly bizarre scene.
Everyone there sought their god, yet the spectacle was filled not with holiness, but malice and killing intent.
And Il-mok, standing at the heart of that contradictory chaos, could not escape its evil either.
“Die.”
A middle-aged man with crazed eyes bellowed something incomprehensible as he swung his curved sword at Il-mok. To make matters worse, another man nearby thrust his spear to exploit any opening.
Faced with their blatant, viscous killing intent, Il-mok gritted his teeth.
- Kill!
- Human flesh and bone are kindling, blood is fuel!
- Draw the most beautiful sword path!!
The side effect’s shrieking voices in his head. He wanted to ignore them, but Il-mok wasn’t an idiot.
Standing there dumbly would get him killed.
“Shut up, you pervert fuck!!”
Hurling double curses at the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword’s ego, Il-mok swung his blade.
His sword moved gracefully, deflecting the curved sword.
Clang!
Clang!!
The curved sword, struck by his qi-infused blade, recoiled and clashed with the spear swung by another fanatic.
As the two weapons collided and the two fanatics staggered—
Screeech!
A beautiful silver arc traced the optimal path through the air.
Two headless corpses crumpled to the ground.
In this space brimming with contradictions, Il-mok surrendered to his own.
Cursing the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword’s ego all the while, he had no choice but to act as it desired.
His first kill in life.
But whether due to the demonic art’s influence or the dire situation, he felt no crushing guilt or monstrous self-loathing.
Just an inexplicable unease that soured his mood.
Perhaps because, in the moment he severed their necks, he saw the faces of those two corpses.
The faces of the decapitated bodies weren’t angry or sad.
They were smiling.
Maybe that was why no guilt surfaced—and why that unknown unease crawled up like maggots.
“Fuck.”
He spat another curse to shake off the discomfort.
Just then, another enemy charged at Il-mok, swinging a curved sword.
Crunch!
Trampling the fresh corpse of his comrade that Il-mok had just beheaded.
“Crazy bastards.”
Muttering curses like a chant, Il-mok deflected the curved sword.
Only then did he realize he’d misjudged.
Calling them mad for merely trampling a comrade’s corpse didn’t capture the vicious depths of their fanaticism.
Screeech!!
Arrows and nets flew from the enemy’s rear.
Toward the chaotic melee where friend and foe were intermingled.
Thud!
“Guh….”
Most struck the backs of their own fanatic allies, turning them into unwitting targets.
But some soared past comrades to target the cultists.
Screams and groans erupted from those pierced by arrows everywhere.
“Damn it!”
Others thrashed and cursed, ensnared in nets.
“Allahu Akbar!!”
With that cry—now enough to make bile rise just hearing it—Allah’s magic wand spewed fire once more.
Toward the battlefield where allies and enemies were mixed.
“…….”
Too numb even for curses, Il-mok stared at the enemies burning to death, his voice caught in his throat.
Because of their attitude that disregarded comrades’ deaths.
No—the faces of those smiling even as arrows riddled their backs and flames consumed them.
The battle had barely begun—not even a full incense stick’s time had passed—yet Il-mok already felt like vomiting.
It was Il-mok’s misunderstanding.
They didn’t disregard death. They celebrated comrades’ deaths and yearned for their own.
Muhtaar Khan had already explained it to them. This battle was a holy war.
Their scriptures commanded: “Believers, fight the unbelievers near you and let them find you harsh; God is with the righteous.”
In holy war against unbelievers, God was always with them.
And if one died in holy war alongside God, for God—naturally, they’d go to paradise in the afterlife.
Their scriptures also promised that paradise held every kind of tree and fruit, exquisite wine—and above all, seventy-two virgins as wives.
Death in holy war held no terror for them.
It was the swiftest path to paradise.
“Allahu Akbar!!”
The result of fanatics eager to rush to paradise and those who believed dead comrades had already gone there was devastation.
Crushed corpses littered the ground, their blood staining the vegetation red.
Flames from Allah’s magic wand set the mountain ablaze, while the Black Tiger Squad Leader’s signal flare added green smoke.
But the fanatics’ indiscriminate assault didn’t end with sending allies to paradise.
“Goddamn it!!”
Amid the mad, unselective onslaught, injuries mounted among the cultists too.
Mostly Black Tiger Squad members.
Not because they were incompetent.
The academy cadets, unfamiliar even with real combat let alone melees, faltered against the fanatics’ deranged attacks. Most injuries came from squad members protecting them.
“S-sorry, senior….”
“Save apologies for after you swing that sword more!!”
As Black Tiger Squad members bickered with cadets—
“Die.”
The fanatics, thrilled by their foes’ wounds, rampaged even wilder.
Yet the cultists didn’t collapse.
“Sorry we’re late!!”
“The wounded, fall back!!”
Those who had fully expelled the poison with their qi rose one by one, joining the fray.
Gu Yang-hyeok’s eyes blazed as he coldly assessed the chaotic battlefield.
“Haat!”
With a shout, he unleashed his hidden ultimate technique, dark trails weaving through the air.
Slash!
Slash!
A path carved through human flesh, muscle, bone, and blood.
“Demonic Path Academy instructors, lead the cadets and break out now!!”
Having poured qi to open the path, Gu Yang-hyeok held it alone against the fanatics closing in, issuing orders.
At his command, instructors and assistants widened the gap to aid him, and Instructor Chu Il-hwan bellowed.
“Cadets, follow us!!”
Amid the chaos, one cadet shouted maniacally.
“Fleeing before Heavenly Demon Divine Cult warriors? Unthinkable!!”
It was Dugopaey.
Everyone else was busy fighting, so Il-mok yelled furiously in their stead.
“Our seniors can’t fight properly because of us, you dumb fuck!!!”
“!!!”
The idea that he was a hindrance, not a help—unimaginable for the eldest son of the Dugosega—left Dugopaey pale with shock.
But Il-mok had no time to coddle him.
Clang!
Blocking a charging fanatic’s spear, Il-mok used the rebound to launch lightness skill toward Dugopaey.
He grabbed the back of Dugopaey’s collar and leaped away.
“If running now feels humiliating, live and grow stronger! Survival comes first!”
Shouting that, Il-mok dashed along the escape route Gu Yang-hyeok and the instructors had carved.
“Damn….”
Finally snapping to, Dugopaey slapped away Il-mok’s hand from his collar and gritted his teeth, deploying his own lightness skill.
Right after the last cadets escaped, Gu Yang-hyeok sent a transmission to his deputy.
- Take the wounded squad members and go. We’ll buy a bit more time then follow.
- Understood.
In the urgency, the deputy followed without question.
Sending only the academy cadets, instructors, and assistants was risky. They didn’t know the Heavenly Myriad Mountains’ terrain.
The deputy and wounded would guide them to safety.
Besides—
‘With just cadets and wounded gone, the squad leader won’t fall.’
The deputy trusted Gu Yang-hyeok and the Black Tiger Squad’s prowess.
“As Allah wills.”
“Death to the enemy.”
While Gu Yang-hyeok and the Black Tiger Squad held the line—
“Allahu Akbar!!”
“Die!!”
Ignoring the fanatics’ shouts and the squad’s roars from behind, they fled full-tilt with lightness skill.
Soon, even the clashes, cuts, and metal strikes faded.
“Goddamn it….”
“Tch.”
The Black Tiger deputy squad leader muttered a quiet curse, while Assistant Instructor Chu Il-hwan clicked his tongue in irritation.
Il-mok soon understood why.
Pushing through the surrounding brush, more fanatics approached.