Chapter 170
Chapter 170
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 170
>Chapter Title: God is Great (7)
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Despite forming a sword aura believed to pierce through everything, the refreshing slashing sound did not echo.
Boom!!
A rough explosion and qi wave burst forth.
Il-mok's sword, cloaked in sword gang, was blocked by the curved blade.
By then, Mukhtar Khan had also formed blade aura, blocking Il-mok's perfect strike.
Disbelief was etched on Mukhtar Khan's face as he parried Il-mok's sword.
It was an expression unfit for a zealot.
‘Such a monster….’
Blood was already trickling from his mouth.
Thanks to countless battles and his absolute faith in God, he had attained enlightenment in sword aura, but since it was a power bestowed by God, he could not wield it freely.
Forming sword aura required extreme concentration and time, so he only used it as a one-strike kill when a sure opportunity arose.
But this brat, not even twenty yet, had suddenly formed sword aura, flying at him with a bizarre sword path he couldn't even dream of dodging, forcing him to form it while suffering internal injuries.
‘The disciple of the Evil God is a seed that will grow into an Evil God himself, is he?’
A monster that grew at an absurd speed with every clash.
Mukhtar Khan was certain.
‘Fortunate that I can kill him now! This too must be Allah watching over this Mukhtar Khan!’
Right now, he could kill that brat.
The seed of the Evil God clashing weapons with him was trembling all over, blood pouring endlessly from his seven apertures.
As if his body might burst at any moment.
Unlike himself, protected by the great god Allah, the fool was using a divine power not permitted to him.
A sneer curled on Mukhtar Khan's lips as he became convinced of his opponent's death.
Screeeeech.
Belatedly, a displeasing noise pierced his ears.
“!!!”
His eyes, focused solely on the Evil God's disciple, belatedly caught sight of something small.
An arrow piercing through space.
The arrow was aimed precisely at Mukhtar Khan's forehead.
Mukhtar Khan twisted his body desperately, narrowly dodging the arrow.
But his concentration broke, and the blade aura on his curved sword grew faint.
Slash!
With a displeasing slashing sound, Mukhtar Khan sensed something was wrong.
The weight of his curved blade, which had felt like an extension of his body, now felt different.
Suddenly, the world tilted, and the ground rushed up.
Thud.
Amid the sound of something falling to the ground, something strange entered Mukhtar Khan's eyes.
A torso, severed at the chest, familiar to him.
‘Impossible….’
With that, his vision blurred, and eternal darkness began to swallow him.
But why?
‘Allah….’
Even though he had met death in a holy war, the paradise he so longed for did not appear.
* * *
Slash!!
In the chaotically entangled battlefield, a small slashing sound rang out.
It was clearly a faint noise, yet all eyes turned toward its source.
Both zealots and Cultists had disbelief in their eyes.
The zealots could not easily accept the sight of their Khan's body split in two.
And the Cultists were entranced by the brilliant cluster of stars on Il-mok's sword.
The starting emotion felt by both sides was similar, but their destinations differed.
When witnessing something unbelievable, humans seek out gods.
“The Heavenly Demon has descended!!”
“Ten Thousand Demons rejoice!!!”
The Cultists were convinced. That was the blessing from the divine, the new hope for the Divine Cult found by the Heavenly Demon.
Meanwhile, anxiety crept into the zealots' eyes.
This was supposed to be a holy war, so why was their God's warrior sprawled like that?
As they began to sense something had gone wrong.
Thud.
The young monster who had slain their Khan collapsed to the ground like a shed shell.
Right after beheading Mukhtar Khan, Il-mok had snapped out of his trance and fainted.
Once again, the reactions of both sides diverged sharply.
“Allahu Akbar!!”
The zealots, still wanting to believe God was on their side, charged with fire in their eyes.
“Protect the Eighth Young Master!!”
“No matter what, we must keep the Young Master alive!!”
The Cultists swung their weapons as if their lives meant nothing.
One Black Tiger Unit member fighting closest to Il-mok leaped forward, scooping up the fainted Il-mok.
Several other Black Tiger Unit members formed a formation to guard him, carving through enemies to open a path swiftly.
Following Il-mok's orders, to rendezvous with the group that had already broken out of the encirclement while carrying the injured like Joo Seo-yeon and Duggo Pae.
Guarding their rear, the few cadets and instructors who had held out until the end blocked the zealots.
Slash!
Amid the continuous slashing sounds and screams from all directions.
“Guh….”
A groan came from right beside So-hong.
She thought it might be a heretic, but somehow, it was a familiar voice.
So-hong's head turned naturally, and she saw a zealot thrusting a spear at a cadet with a slashed thigh.
So-hong boldly thrust her sword.
Crack!
Her blade plunged into the heart of the heretic who dared to target a Demonic Path Academy cadet.
But before she could even pull her sword from the heretic's body.
A curved blade flying toward her neck filled her vision.
That curved blade had been aimed at her from the start. It was simply the result of choosing to protect the cadet instead of facing it.
She didn't even know why she made that choice.
Clearly, she had only entered the Demonic Path Academy because of the Branch Leader's orders.
She thought once she dragged Il-mok into becoming a Branch Protector, she would have no more business here.
But over the past few months, some affection had formed, and she couldn't turn a blind eye to the crisis of a mere cadet, not Il-mok.
Even though she couldn't understand her own actions, it oddly felt refreshing.
Her gluttony hunger didn't surge, and instead, she felt an inexplicable sense of accomplishment.
‘…Protecting and teaching the young ones isn't so bad.’
With that final thought, as she prepared to face the impending death with composure, the curved blade flying toward her halted.
At the same time, a savory aroma stimulated her senses.
It wasn't a hunger-inducing scent.
It was the smell of human flesh burning.
“Splendidly done, Instructor So!”
Beyond the corpse electrocuted to death while standing, a familiar voice rang out.
Right after the powerless heretic's body collapsed. The blood-soaked form of Instructor Chu Il-hwan appeared.
“Lead the cadets out! I'll buy time with the Deputy Unit Leader and escape.”
He had ended up as bait due to Deputy Unit Leader Gwak Sul's quick thinking while trying to break through, getting surrounded by countless heretics along with the Deputy Unit Leader.
But while Duggo Pae carved a path and Il-mok took out the enemy's leader, Chu Il-hwan and the Deputy Unit Leader had finally broken free of the thick encirclement.
Despite fighting in the most grueling spot, he was willing to stay until the end to help his allies escape.
“…Once the cadets are safe, I will definitely return.”
At So-hong's reply, Chu Il-hwan flashed his signature mischievous smile.
“Hahaha. By then, the Deputy Unit Leader and I will already be out, so no need to return.”
It was a smile unfit for his age, but So-hong found it quite fitting.
So-hong leaped forward, scooped up the cadet she had just saved, and unleashed her lightness skill.
Remembering that the cadet's thigh had been slashed.
After So-hong and the cadet escaped, followed by the remaining cadets, instructors, and assistants.
“Phew.”
“We'll need to push a bit harder.”
Chu Il-hwan let out a light sigh, while the impassive Deputy Unit Leader scattered black lightning and blade qi to fend off the heretics.
How long had they run, ignoring the screams and shouts of the heretics from behind?
So-hong's breathing began to grow ragged bit by bit.
Even carrying a cadet, and having expended twice the usual energy protecting them while fighting.
‘Please. Heavenly Demon.’
Realizing that if she, an instructor, was like this, the cadets had no strength left to run, she could only pray to the divine for some change.
Then. Far ahead, the bushes rustled, and a new group began to emerge.
“Battle formation!”
So-hong shouted it, but deep in her chest, a snake named despair began to slither upward.
‘I can't show weakness.’
Setting down the cadet in her arms, So-hong raised her sword and forced a valiant expression.
Her solemn, death-resigned face quickly twisted.
Having realized the true identity of the snake she thought was despair.
Behind the newly appeared group, a flag bearing a red turtle emblem fluttered.
It was the Crimson Turtle Unit, one of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's sixteen combat units.
* * *
“You look a mess.”
After massacring the heretics who dared invade the sacred Heavenly Myriad Mountains of the Divine Cult.
The Crimson Turtle Unit Leader drawled to Black Tiger Unit Leader Gu Yang-hyuk.
As he had said, Gu Yang-hyuk had bought time for the cadets and injured Black Tiger Unit members to escape, then slaughtered the heretics and broken out of the encirclement.
Only then did they realize they had been tricked by the enemy.
By following the trail of the allies they sent ahead first, they arrived at a blood-soaked site.
There, the Deputy Unit Leader and Instructor Chu Il-hwan were fighting the heretics, struggling to break free.
Gu Yang-hyuk and his Black Tiger Unit members joined to help them, but the enemies who had first encircled them rejoined, trapping them again.
Fortunately, the Crimson Turtle Unit arrived at that moment, allowing them to annihilate the heretics.
At the Crimson Turtle Unit Leader's teasing, Gu Yang-hyuk gave a wry smile.
“It might just sound like excuses now, but if it weren't for the Demonic Path Academy cadets, our Black Tiger Unit alone could have swept them.”
Gu Yang-hyuk truly believed so.
Their proportion of experts wasn't high compared to their numbers.
If they had waged guerrilla warfare in the familiar Heavenly Myriad Mountains, he was confident of victory.
But the enemies were madmen who laughed even at their allies' deaths to exploit them, and protecting combat-inexperienced cadets against such foes wasn't easy.
“Certainly, they were third-rate except for their fanatic eyes. Hahaha.”
As the Crimson Turtle Unit Leader heartily agreed, Gu Yang-hyuk let out a faint sigh.
This only made them look incompetent for nearly falling to such rabble.
“Hahaha. Just kidding. Don't mind it. As you said, it was because of protecting the cadets. Their numbers were huge too, and a few decent ones were mixed in.”
Seeing the Black Tiger Unit Leader sigh, the Crimson Turtle Unit Leader soothed him and got to the point.
“But how was the Eighth Young Master?”
“Impressive for his age, certainly, but I couldn't observe closely since I prioritized his escape.”
Answering honestly, Gu Yang-hyuk turned to look somewhere.
Toward the blood-drenched Deputy Unit Leader from the fierce battle.
The Crimson Turtle Unit Leader's gaze followed, and the Black Tiger Deputy Unit Leader recalled that scene from moments ago to answer their question.
The sight of a mere novice, not yet graduated from the Demonic Path Academy, forming a brilliant cluster of stars.
“I believe he is timber that will become a new god of our Divine Cult in the future.”
At the lavish praise from the Black Tiger Deputy Unit Leader, famed for his solemnity, the two Unit Leaders' eyes widened in surprise.