Chapter 151
Chapter 151
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 151
Chapter Title: Infiltration, Gangbuk-gu Papal Court Fierce Battle (4)
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7.
“Do you think of yourself as good?”
Song Chan-un smirking slyly at the end of the corridor.
“You must see me as the root of absolute evil.”
In that instant, a magic barrier of White Blood drew itself in the center of the corridor.
“I want to ask—what exactly are you basing your accusations of sin on?”
Blood bubbled up.
Then suddenly surged forth, forming the flesh of a demon.
“The law? Or perhaps the outdated laws of ancient religions…?”
《Holy Dawn Sword》 liberated. I gripped the hilt tightly.
And the moment the demon charged.
I feigned charging forward myself, then abruptly stopped short. Only thrusting the sword tip ahead.
────Puhwaaaak!
The thing impaled itself straight onto the blade with its own momentum.
“Haa… damn it… haa…”
My entire body throbbed as if it were shattering.
I withdrew the Dawn Sword just like that, then crossed the corridor again.
“How can you be so obtuse?”
The labs spilling out screams. And Song Chan-un’s phantom form.
“Now nothing can accuse us of sin anymore.”
Second floor.
This time, doors on both sides of the corridor flew open all at once, and monster rats poured out.
“We are those called as Hunters, each chosen as apostles, aren’t we?”
I broke straight through that hellscape.
[Unique skill, 《Sword Wind Lotus Bloom》 activated!]
Monster Eye Gorge helmet.
Releasing the power of the sword winds imbued in this gear all at once.
Chwararararararak───!
The sword winds swept up the monster rats charging from all directions like a storm, engulfing them.
───Puhwaaaaaaaaak!
As their bodies shredded into chunks and scattered, I threw myself toward the stairs to the second and third floors.
“Shut your nonsense!”
“It’s not nonsense—it’s truth. Do I really have to spell it out?”
Damn it… He’s keeping up the chatter to break my focus. Apt use of a phantom body.
“That now our lives lie not under the law, but beneath the grace of those great stars?”
Third floor.
The moment I stepped into the corridor.
Three demons and over a hundred monster rats came at me.
「Danger. Danger. Danger. Danger!」
In that instant.
I drew my sword to my waist… then thrust it forth fiercely.
A crimson flash exploded.
The flash swirled into a vortex, surging forward and vaporizing the charging foes one after another.
Passeusseusseus… … … … … … .
Not over yet… He must’ve reacted by now?
“Absorb it, 《Ice Illusion Mirror》!”
As expected.
But I’d anticipated it all.
[Unique skill, 《Shadow Lurk》 activated!]
Just as the crimson flash tried to loop back to me, I slipped into my shadow and out again.
Success.
But my stamina’s already… damn it.
“Aaah… Even the Genesis God’s Lead Hunter is just a Lead Hunter, after all!”
Genesis God…?
This guy knows about that too? Song Chan-un’s phantom grinned.
“Why wouldn’t I? I too once served the Genesis God… or perhaps a fragment of it that might have been a god.”
Shut up… .
I propped up my buckling body against the wall.
「You okay? You look hurt. Human.」
Black spun circles in front of my eyes, giggling.
[Unique skill, 《Shadow Lurk》 unusable]
- Uses remaining: 0 / 2
Brushing aside the hopeless alert window, I forced a smile.
“Yeah… I’m fine. Keep guiding me. Let’s go… .”
The moment I stepped past Song Chan-un’s phantom form.
Huh?
At the edge of my vision.
Inside the dark lab, some bizarre illusion overlapped.
An empty operating table.
In the illusion, someone was bound there…
“Please… please spare… spare… kughaaaaah───!”
… The tonsured monks sawed into that body with saws or smashed it with hammers, then implanted some worm-like thing inside.
What the hell… is this…?
I nearly collapsed right there in shock and horror.
- Those bastards… down below… sooner or later, they’ll just get eaten anyway.
- The ones who resist get dragged to the Papal Court. After that? Not a single one comes out sane.
The testimonies from Choi Su-cheol and Gong Min-young… were right before my eyes.
My sword hand trembled suddenly.
Was it me crying, or the Dawn Sword…? I couldn’t tell.
“Song Chan-un… you damn son of a bitch… .”
I couldn’t tell.
But the cold rage igniting in my heart was clear.
“You must’ve done this crap… to Gong Hye-ri too… .”
“Gong Hye-ri! Wow…! What a nostalgic name. She had such beautiful eyes and hair.”
It was weird.
His tone was like gushing about a close friend’s brag.
“Thanks to her sacrifice, the holy weapons advanced several times further.”
“Why’d you do it.”
“Pardon?”
“I asked why the hell you had to do such shit!”
Song Chan-un tilted his head.
His deeply narrowed eyes held a contempt like, “What kind of ridiculous question is that?”
“Lead Hunter. It’s a phrase that appears very often in the scriptures—do you know the word ‘leaven’ by any chance?”
“Not interested. Just answer──”
“──It’s mold cultivated on grains, a ferment used traditionally to brew alcohol.”
Leaven…?
Ferment for alcohol…?
What the hell is this bastard babbling about?
“In ancient Israel, they even put it in bread to eat.”
“……?”
“Bread without leaven is hard, but with leaven, it’s soft in texture and nutty in flavor.”
I listened while walking slowly for now.
Needed to… regroup my stamina and breathing.
“Do you know how wondrous leaven is? Just a tiny pinch spreads through an entire huge lump of dough.”
Song Chan-un smiled faintly, and I furrowed my brow.
“What’s your point?”
“Gong Hye-ri was leaven. Old-world leaven. Just like you.”
“What…?”
“That’s why she had to be removed.”
Song Chan-un covered his mouth with his sleeve and chuckled.
“She’d only get in the way of the Lord’s path.”
In that instant, something flickered before my eyes. Gong Min-young’s face, sobbing like a child?
“Just… for that fanatic belief… you did all that?”
My fingertips trembled.
No grand reason or anything.
“You tortured a mother… in front of her daughter…? For this shitty reason…?”
“This shitty reason?”
Song Chan-un’s voice sharpened to the point of excitement.
“With just one bit of leaven like you! After seeing Seodaemun-gu’s paradise rot away, you sure say that easily.”
I didn’t answer him.
My whole body felt engulfed in flames… like opening my mouth would spew heat.
“Let’s go… Black… .”
I said that to Black, then aimed my sword tip at Song Chan-un’s phantom.
“You just wait… I’m coming to beat your ass right now… .”
Without waiting for a reply, I threw myself up the stairs. Song Chan-un’s voice chased after.
“With the Genesis God’s power?”
After that, I raced through endless stairs and corridors.
“With the power of beings neither just nor righteous?”
Fourth floor, fifth, sixth….
“Even if there is justice and righteousness, with the power of gods who can’t even enact it?”
I’m going mad.
Climb and climb and climb, but no end in sight.
“In the old world ruled by those gods, was there any righteousness? Wasn’t it full only of injustice and tears?”
Demons appeared on every floor.
「RAToRIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKKK!」
Puhwaaaak──!
I slashed them apart with the Dawn Sword again and again, pressing forward.
“Get out of my way───!”
Each time, Song Chan-un appeared as if mocking me, striking up conversation.
“If there’s righteousness, then what of those born with everything and those born with nothing?”
I ignored it.
Tried to ignore it.
“They say all people were created in love—where in that world was the love, exactly…?”
But… how could I ignore words like that.
“And you think there’s love in the crap you’re doing?”
“Of course. Your outdated thinking just blinds you—you can’t see the new world… hahahahahahahahaha… .”
Eighth floor.
Breath up to my throat.
Legs starting to lose sensation… Still far?
“What do you know? You, who received every kindness the old world had to offer…?”
Ninth floor.
I didn’t let go of the Dawn Sword.
Gritting my teeth, I kept slashing forward, onward. Had to.
“That tall stature, handsome features, clear aura. You must’ve received every kindness from everyone your whole life?”
A bit more. Just a bit more.
The higher I climbed, the closer the ‘real scent’ got. Black’s words were a sliver of comfort.
“You’re just returning the kindness the world gave you… .”
And the reason I didn’t rest.
Was also because of that damn persistent phantom that badgered me every time I paused.
“But what about those who received no kindness?”
“…….”
“Those born with disabilities or ugly looks?”
“………….”
“In humanity’s long history, did you ever see the Genesis Gods caring for such people?”
As I kept silent, suddenly Song Chan-un’s phantom eyes blazed with fury.
“Those persecuted souls! Refusing to forgive the old world, refusing to love it!”
“………………….”
“What crime are you condemning them for—tell me!”
I, who had been bounding up the stairs with all my strength.
For the first time in what felt like ages, looked straight at Song Chan-un.
“Ah! The sin of not being born as perfectly as you?”
As I didn’t open my mouth.
Song Chan-un’s phantom started clutching his belly, laughing.
“Ahaha, ahahahahaha! That’s quite the grand sin──”
“──Violation of the Special Act on the Protection of Children.”
The moment I spoke.
Song Chan-un’s phantom stopped laughing for an instant.
“Violation of the Youth Protection Act. Violation of the Personal Human Rights Protection Act.”
“……?”
“Kidnapping, murder, unlawful imprisonment… Need more? Add noise pollution.”
“……Noise pollution?”
Tenth floor.
The moment the stairs ended and the corridor began, monster rats poured out. I swung Dawn again.
“Yeah… you’re right about everything!”
Spraying blood into the air.
Monster rats with muscles sliced off, hides torn by the blade.
“The pain and sorrow of those people… How could someone born whole like me possibly understand?”
Twenty. Thirty.
By the fortieth, the path to the stairs opened.
“But!”
I’m not smart.
Not academically gifted like Choi Uk, nor brimming with religious knowledge like Song Chan-un.
“You bastards… exploiting the weak and pitiful with your sophistry.”
But.
Looking back on my life, there was one thing I could assert.
“I know better than anyone how to handle them.”
“You? What makes you think you can?”
“I was a Republic of Korea police officer.”
Song Chan-un raised an eyebrow slightly, looking at me charging ahead as if it were absurd.
“Police? What’s that supposed to mean! Pathetic…! You can’t even answer what a police officer is!”
“Republic of Korea Police Charter.”
Who the hell are you?
What does a cop even do? Whenever criminals spat that at me.
“I pledge loyalty to the nation and its people.”
I always explained it clearly with this charter.
“Maintain the peace and order of society.”
And even now.
“With all citizens able to enjoy peaceful, happy lives.”
This resolve I’d spoken with my mouth and engraved in my heart.
“I bear the responsibility to give my all.”
Hadn’t changed one bit.
So I don’t get shaken by such sophistry.
“I had to memorize and recite this damn thing on long walks because of bastards like you.”
I’m not smart.
But based on this charter, I can clearly distinguish good from evil. Simply put.
“Who needs protection and who needs punishment—how the hell don’t you get it… you son of a bitch?”