Chapter 150
Chapter 150
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 150
Chapter Title: Infiltration, Gangbuk-gu Papal Palace Fierce Battle (3)
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4.
Kigigigigigigigigig──
The twin towers.
Both had their front drawbridges of iron gates slamming shut.
They weren't paying a lick of attention...
One wrong turn here, and I'd lose Song Chan-un.
"Right. Right. Right."
At that moment, I flinched and glanced to the side. There was...
"Black? What are you doing here?"
...Ryu Hyun-ji's familiar, Black, giggling as it spun loops in the air.
"Idiot sent the idiot. Let's go. Let's go. Gazua. Right side."
Ryu Hyun-ji... that reckless girl.
She'd stuck Black on me at a time like this?
That was as far as my thoughts went.
I broke into a full sprint.
Bursting through the blizzard, leaping barren fields, vaulting the frozen river...
...The front gate, moments from closing.
I hurled myself through the gap at the bottom... and tumbled head over heels.
────Kuuuoooong!
A thunderous boom as the gate sealed behind me.
I scrambled to my feet in an instant.
It felt like I'd stepped into another world.
The torches dimly lighting the courtyard burned with an eerie blue hue.
The stench of blood and chemicals...?
And the endless echoes of agonized screams.
Was it the chilling malice permeating the entire space?
Ung, ung, ung, ung, ung.
The Dawn Sword hummed in my grip. Right then.
"Over there. Over there. Over there."
Where Black pointed...
On the spiral staircase stretching endlessly upward... right at the second-floor landing...
Pope Song Chan-un stood there.
In his bishop's robes. Ornate priestly garments.
A mirror-adorned staff... and a holy book. Just like in the illusion.
"Ha... haha, ahahaha, ehehehehehahaha...!"
He burst into mad ecstasy before our eyes even met.
"So soon, we meet again like this, Lead Hunter. My thanks to the guidance of Ikilras."
"Song Chan-un...!"
"Welcome to my Nightmare... Please, enjoy it to the fullest... Aha... Ehehi... Ehehehehehaha...!"
Unbelievable.
Did he think I'd just let him go?
"[Dawnlight Yeomyeong Sword]."
The moment my vision flooded gray.
I pulled the space behind Song Chan-un right in front of me... and teleported my body there.
Or so I thought...?
The instant I saw Song Chan-un's back.
The instant I moved to plunge my blood-red sword into it.
My body suddenly floated into the air, then slammed brutally into the stairs with a bang.
And again.
My body floated up, then crashed into another step.
"Kuh... heuk...!"
Excruciating pain, like my bones were shattering.
What the hell...? Thoughts flickered in and out of my mind.
Pull yourself together... Pull yourself together...!
I desperately clung to that thought to regain consciousness.
Lifting my head to figure out what was happening... No... What is this?
A demon.
Song Chan-un's demon had my leg in its clutches, flinging my body around like a ragdoll.
"Came to rescue Do Ye-jin, have you?"
Amid the flashing pain in my vision.
Song Chan-un's laughter echoed from a distant void...
"Ah, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha...!"
Another bang──shattering impact.
Followed by a rumble... the stairs collapsing.
My body... it's going to break...
"Ahh... Grant this frail one befitting the seed of the apocalypse the eye of the heart."
In that instant, the ground vanished.
Intense freefall gripped my body as I began plummeting into the haze of fading consciousness.
"...Ah, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha...!"
You bastard... You had the demon lying in ambush...
I absolutely couldn't let my guard down.
He was... several times shrewder and more meticulous than I'd anticipated.
「RAHTORIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」
That was when it happened.
The demon with the skull-horse head. It lunged with its brutish arm and seized my throat.
Air... damn it... air...!
Black arrived late, growling as it tore into the demon's nape.
The demon shrieked, its grip loosening for a split second.
In that split second.
I gauged the distance and time to the bottom with a sidelong glance.
Now...?
No, now.
[Unique skill, [Shadow Ambush], activated!]
The moment my body was sucked into the viscous shadows of the abyss.
"Emerald, divinity."
I swept the Dawn Sword across my left palm.
Gripped it reverse-handed.
The instant I emerged from the shadows.
The instant I rose above the staggering demon's head from the fall's impact.
───Chiaaaaaang!
I drove the blade deep into its skull.
「───KYHAAAAAAAAKK!」
Just as calculated...
The demon, slain by the divine edge, thudded to the ground.
"Haa..."
My whole body felt like a fireball... Ribs definitely cracked a few...
I staggered to the ground, barely staying upright, then looked up.
"...Ah, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha...!"
Song Chan-un's silhouette was faintly visible. His voice echoed too.
"...As expected, truly remarkable..."
But... too far, and the dim light made it impossible to dash up.
"...Did my illusory welcome please you...?"
He began fleeing upward.
I couldn't let him escape.
I swung the [Dawnlight Yeomyeong Sword] to deactivate it, then shouted at Black.
"Find the path! The way up!"
5.
Papal Palace front courtyard.
The vast frozen forest.
"Where────!"
A blade tore through the air.
Lotus blossoms fluttered along its trajectory.
────Puhwaaaak!
The massive hunter (once a beast) with its nape pierced gushed blood repeatedly before collapsing with a thud.
Truly... no end in sight.
Had I walked right into my own grave?
Nightmares swarmed from all directions.
The nightmares came in various forms.
Rats, horses, demons... and humans.
Hounds of the abyss ripped through dimensions, tangling madly against the monster wave.
"Wow, sis. Thought you were some saint, but you're pretty good."
Amid the frenzy, Gong Min-young whistled, and I couldn't help blurting out loudly.
"You just open the damn gate!"
"Can't open this one."
The left tower of the Papal Palace was sealed by an iron door.
"No... then how?"
"There's a back way only the priests know. This way!"
Rounding the corner past the main gate.
An empty space enclosed by iron bars appeared along the building's outer wall. Ryu Hyun-ji swallowed hard.
"Elevator...? An elevator?"
"Yeah."
"Ha... but there's nothing here...?"
Gong Min-young groped the ground, and from the knee-deep snow emerged a lump of metal.
No, not a lump.
That's... a lever?
"This calls it."
Gong Min-young smugly yanked the lever back.
Clank, a metallic sound.
"Why... why not the right tower? The Association President went that way."
"That's the research wing. Prison block or whatever... The barrier's atop this left tower."
But 2 seconds, 3 seconds, 5 seconds.
Nothing happened. Ryu Hyun-ji eyed Gong Min-young with creeping dread.
"What...?"
Seeing panic on Gong Min-young's face filled her with terror.
"The... the lever's broken?"
"No, not broken. Shit, shit, shit!"
Clackclackclackclack.
Gong Min-young yanked the lever frantically... but nothing.
- I knew you'd pull something like this.
Chills ran over her skin.
That meticulous bastard Song Chan-un... He really knew I'd betray him?
"Do something...! Hurry and open it!"
A desperate shout flew in then.
"He's gonna, kill us, all, here? You blind?"
It was Lee Ha-ram.
At the same time, whiririririk──the whoosh of a massive boomerang slicing through.
「Kieekkkkkkkkkk───!」
「Kyaaaakkkkkkkk───!」
A boomerang laced with outer-space venom.
It melted monster rats and shattered one monster hunter's skull... but still, no end.
Song Chan-un indeed... Half the hounds already dead.
"No good."
Gong Min-young quickly faced reality.
"Won't open. I... underestimated that bastard Song Chan-un way too much..."
At those words, Lee Sung-mi, holding the line, rushed over in panic.
"Won't open? What does that mean?"
"......"
"Then how do we take down the barrier?"
Lee Sung-mi pressed her.
- Then we'll settle this for sure.
Kim Baek-jun's words flashed in her mind.
- If Gong Min-young shows even a hint of suspicion... cut her down immediately.
What if this was a trap dragging them all in...? But the cold sweat beading on Gong Min-young's face looked utterly genuine.
"I... don't know. Have to go up... to the rooftop."
Up...?
Lee Sung-mi looked up at the left tower's peak.
A despairing height that stole her breath...
Was this the end?
As she thought that, a voice seemed to echo faintly.
- You won't know till you try.
Yu Sung-deok... You'd say that right now, wouldn't you.
"Gong Min-young."
Lee Sung-mi exhaled deeply, steeling her resolve.
"Just need to get up there, right?"
"......?"
"Focus on fighting and buy me a little time. 30... seconds?"
"You... got a way?"
"Might or might not."
"What're you gonna do?"
To the incredulous Gong Min-young, Lee Sung-mi shook her head solemnly.
"Won't know till I try."
She planted her unique weapon, the Lotus Sword, in the snow and formed hand seals. One by one, carefully, slowly.
"I'll make a [Lotus Throne]. Let's see if it can get me up there."
6.
"Find the path! The way up!"
At my words, the giant Black shrank back down.
It sniffed the air... then led me into the underground corridor.
"Here. Here. Here."
Traversing the underground corridor.
Felt like wading through nauseating nightmares.
"Ah... ahhhhhaa..."
"Please... stop... kill... kill me..."
Labs lined both sides.
Each door etched with alien spiral emblems like giant snails. Screams and wails leaked out. And laughter.
And there.
At the corridor's end... Song Chan-un stood.
"Song Chan-un...!"
My head rang for a moment.
He'd clearly fled upward earlier. How the hell did he get here?
"Weird. Weird. Weird."
Black provided the answer.
"No scent. No scent. From that one."
Realization hit like lightning.
Ah... Using an illusion again, huh.
"What have you done here?"
"'Done'? I merely shared the grace bestowed upon me."
This was grace?
"You son of a───!"
The instant I kicked off the ground.
Clunk───! Doors to the labs on both sides flew open.
Bald priests in clerical robes stepped out. From some doors, monster rats burst forth.
"In front of me────"
They were all blood-soaked.
───────"Get the fuck out!"
In one flash, the Dawn Sword's arc shredded the air.
Puhwaaaak──!
As they crumpled from lethal strikes, I passed straight through the illusion, heading for the emergency stairs.
"...Ah, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha...!"
From basement to first floor.
His voice echoed relentlessly as I sprinted up the stairs at full speed...
"Here. Here. Here!"
Stairs ended, so I crossed the first-floor corridor again.
The first floor's layout mirrored the basement.
Just the screams leaking from the doors more piteous...
And.
"Do you fancy yourself as 'good'?"
At the corridor's end, Song Chan-un smirked smugly.