Chapter 152
Chapter 152
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 152
Chapter Title: Infiltration, Gangbuk-gu Papal Court Fierce Battle (5)
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8.
“Wow, you’ve made it all the way here. I welcome you with all my heart. From here on, it’s the research wing.”
Research wing……?
No sooner had we reached the 11th floor than Song Chan-woon spoke from the end of the corridor.
“I’ll let you in on a little secret. All my divine star weapons are researched here before being sent out into the world.”
Divine star weapons?
Something like Seo Hwa-yoon’s combined weapon? It didn’t take long to figure out what divine star weapons were.
“P-Pope……?”
That’s when something crawled out from outside the lab.
“Pope…… over…… over there…… are you there……?”
In this world of all places…….
For a moment, my knees buckled, and I nearly collapsed.
“Pope…… P-Pope…….”
It was a slug.
A lump of flesh shaped like a slug, slithering across the floor while mumbling.
“It hurts…… it hurts so much…… where…… where are you……?”
“Oh…… it’s Da-sol! I’m right here.”
It was utterly grotesque.
Song Chan-woon scooping up the lump of flesh as tenderly as if cradling his own child.
“It hurts…… it hurts so much…… I can’t…… can’t endure…… endure it…….”
“You have to endure. You must endure steadfastly, Da-sol.”
Suddenly, my mind went ice-cold.
The slug from the blood crystal…… If that’s the case, then what the hell am I seeing right now?
“You know that without trials, one cannot walk the path of faith, right?”
“I can’t…… can’t find the path…… I’m scared…….”
“That pain is but a moment, but the glory awaiting in the high heavens will be eternal. I mean it.”
That’s when it happened.
The ceiling shook, dropping dirt, then collapsed, pouring down rubble and earth.
「KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKKK!」
A pitch-black figure landed amid the dust cloud…… then suddenly lunged at me.
What kind of…… agility is this?
《Dawnlight Yeomyeong Sword》. I instantly shifted back to create distance…… What?
Kwaaaaaang────
Then the left wall shattered, and a monster burst out amid flying bricks, dirt, and dust.
「───KYAAAAAAAAA!」
Was it because I knew the circumstances?
The moment I gripped my sword hilt, my eyes burned hot.
“……Those who hope for unseen salvation……”
No, but precisely because of that.
I would do what I had to. I would do what I could.
“……must wait with patient endurance…….”
《Holy Dawn Sword》.
In an instant, I kicked off the ground.
The chest of a single monster hunter was abruptly pierced by the blade of divinity.
Chaaaaaaaang─────
A thrust with enough force to punch through the wall.
“───Haaaaaaaah!”
The monster hunter thrashed and writhed, but in a flash, crimson light spread through its body, turning it to charred remains.
《Dawnlight Yeomyeong Sword》.
I retracted the blade and moved again.
In that split second, the second monster hunter closed in behind me.
Shuwaaa……
Leaving a faint afterimage sound.
I shifted to its back at unreal speed and drove my twin blades into its nape.
One more……
My body scattered into afterimages. The next moment, I stood before Song Chan-woon’s phantom form.
“Ah…… you truly are impressive. One of my favorites────”
─────Puhaaaaaak!
Then I swung the broken greatsword, granting rest to the…… being that had once been human in his arms.
“Pope…… light now…… I see the light…… Ah…… is that you, Pope……? It is……?”
Those were the child’s dying words.
“So…… warm…….”
Damn it……
Ah…… damn it all……
I caught my breath in a despair that threatened to crush me.
“Oh dear…… Lead Hunter, you are truly exasperating. You’re seeing the trees instead of the forest.”
“What’s the forest and what’s the tree? Where the hell is your forest or tree in this insane biological experiment of yours!”
“Those who follow the flesh think only of fleshly matters. Those who follow the spirit think only of spiritual matters.”
My shout drew an irritated smile from Song Chan-woon.
“How long do you plan to cling to this world, Lead Hunter?”
“What?”
“Da-sol was originally a lowly slave’s spirit. No matter how she struggled, she could never become a child’s spirit.”
Song Chan-woon clapped his hands.
Could his phantom form manage basic contact?
“Why is that? Because she was not chosen as a hunter.”
The next moment.
All I could manage was not to groan.
“It is I who gave them—no, the Lord gave them through me—the chance to become children.”
Writhing sounds came from all directions, and something crawled out from every lab.
“To inherit His kingdom together, they must suffer together.”
Eyesores too horrific to behold…… slug-like lumps of flesh……
“This pain is merely stepping stones to that day’s glory.”
Had they heard Song Chan-woon’s voice?
The slugs crawled to our feet, whimpering like sobs.
“P-Pope…… Pope……?”
“I can’t…… can’t see ahead…… ahead…….”
“Heh…… hehehe…… ehihihihihi…….”
No.
No, no, no.
I staggered back, panting.
“You…… you mad…… you fucking mad bastard…… how could you…….”
“The Genesis Gods are the truly cruel ones. Didn’t they predestine people’s vessels from the beginning?”
“Why bring up the Genesis Gods here!”
“The chosen hunters. And those not chosen. There’s no difference from what the Genesis Gods did.”
Song Chan-woon hugged the slugs and smiled gently.
“But the Absolute of Ikilras, rich in grace and love, is different. He gives everyone an equal chance.”
“Shut your bullshit, you goddamn son of a bitch! What chance? What the hell chance!”
“What He desires is for even these lowly creatures to be freed from slave vessels and attain heavenly glory.”
I couldn’t comprehend it.
What kind of nonsense was he spouting so eloquently?
“Do you find it ugly that He makes the unable fight? That He bestows the grace of transcendent baptism?”
That’s when Song Chan-woon drew the holy book from his waist and began reciting a prayer.
“Father Abba, rich in grace and truth……”
It was a chilling moment.
Pale glows flickered in the slugs’ eyes, their gazes turning to me in unison.
“……open the eyes of this barbarically ignorant one……”
The protrusions on the slugs’ bodies.
Those protrusions shot out like sharp tentacles, lunging at me. That’s when.
“……that he may be born anew in truth and know Your great will!”
Song Chan-woon spread his arms wide as if delivering a sacred sermon.
An opening.
That split-second gap gave me my chance.
“Pierce────!”
A chance where I didn’t need to worry about reflections from [Ice Realm].
───────Divinity!
The crimson sword aura whirled forth.
That vortex…… granted dawnlight to these pitiful souls who had lost human dignity and run amok.
“Light…… it’s light…….”
“Pope……? Light…… sudden light…….”
These poor people.
Even on the brink of death, did they believe Song Chan-woon was the Pope……?
“Oh…… Lead Hunter, your kindness matches your arrogance.”
As the vortex of light faded and silence fell, Song Chan-woon sighed.
“You overuse the gods’ miracles so. How can you test my faith like this?”
I jolted in dread.
His eyes as he spoke…… were sly as a serpent’s.
This bastard…… no way……?
Was he counting my unique skill uses?
「Smell. There’s a smell.」
That’s when it happened.
Black sniffed, then uttered a bewildered remark.
“A smell?”
「Idiot. Idiot smell. A very strong one.」
Idiot……?
I’d heard Black & White teased three people as idiots.
I inhaled sharply.
Of them, the only one who could leave a scent here…… was Do Ye-jin.
「Do Ye-jin. Do Ye-jin. Do Ye-jin.」
The moment Black carelessly named her, I swallowed hard.
“Do Ye-jin…… What a face full of affection for her!”
Song Chan-woon’s expression and tone changed completely.
“This…… this is just so, so, so surprising! How did you come to care for such a being?”
What’s so surprising?
His tone carried a tremor close to bewilderment.
「No way, no way, no way. You, you, you, with that idiot?」
Song Chan-woon smirked slyly, then turned and pointed down the corridor toward the growth chamber.
“Yes. Do Ye-jin. The child is there right now.”
What……?
Black had caught the scent and darted through the air. As I followed.
Kwaaaaaang─────!
The door to our immediate left exploded.
A ragged monk reduced to chunks of flesh flew and slammed into the wall…… and from there, a monster hunter staggered out.
“Ah…… oh, a response to my prayer.”
It was different from the other monster hunters.
This one was like…… several hunters mashed together……
“The 11th Legion……! The eleventh warrior who fights in obedience unto death for the new heaven and new earth!”
My heart went cold.
What the hell was this guy…… Where did Song Chan-woon’s madness come from?
- Don’t forget.
That’s when I recalled [Master of the Broken Dawn]’s words.
- That hunting means funeral.
The monster reminiscent of Yujureom glared at me and unleashed a fierce roar.
“Grraaaaaarrrrrr…… Raaaaaaaaghhhhhh!”
Nothing had changed.
From the dawn of the hunt to now. The Exalted Ones, the Subordinates, the reborn humans—they were all the same.
“Come forth, Dawnlight.”
So I.
Had to give it to them too.
The rest…… that could only be met in the dawnlight.
- Once they become monster hunters, there’s no saving them.
Golden and blood-red radiance intertwined brilliantly.
The world seemed to halt completely.
I jammed the twin blades into its skull, then twisted with a crunch of bone.
Kuuuung.
Its massive body crashed down, shaking the corridor as if it would collapse.
Dust billowed thickly.
I caught my breath and merged 《Dawnlight Yeomyeong Sword》 back into the broken greatsword.
“Ah, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!”
As if mocking the sight.
Laughter from Song Chan-woon echoed from the head.
“Aren’t you curious…… what that being you just killed was made from?”
……I gritted my teeth and ignored it. I didn’t want to know. Knowing terrified me.
「Here…… here……!」
I rushed into the room Black led me to and shone Dawn Sword…… barely holding back vomit.
This son of a bitch……?
Blood splattered everywhere.
Organs forcibly ripped out.
The stench of blood and rotting flesh.
“Do Ye-jin isn’t here, but things that were once part of the child are.”
He’d pursued us relentlessly again.
Song Chan-woon spoke from behind me in a gentle voice.
“Oh…… what an artistic expression.”
“What did you do.”
“What do you think I did?”
“What the hell did you do to that child here, you bastard!”
Wait. A chilling realization hit right then.
What if…… Do Ye-jin too……?
He’d turned her into one of those monster hunters?
- I’ll open the path for you, Uncle.
Her innocent face flashed before my eyes, and I gasped.
“We have to find Do Ye-jin.”
Black mumbled in a sullen tone.
「Gone. Gone. The scent ends here.」
“We grab Song Chan-woon’s real body and make him talk! Lead the way!”
The questioning might get a bit rough, but.
“You’ll ask me……?”
Song Chan-woon chuckled then.
“Very well. That’s what I’ve been hoping for too. I’ll wait gladly. If you can reach where I am, that is.”
Fine…… wait right there.
I bit my lip until it bled and hurled myself through stairs and corridors.
11th floor. 12th. 13th.
Ye-jin, Ye-jin, please…… be safe.
I ran and ran.
From the 11th to the 15th floor. Crossing the research wing was…… vomit-inducingly horrific, I must confess.
“Ah…… ah…… aah…….”
“U…… uuua…… uaah…… uhu huhu haaa…….”
“Wiri riwi wiwi ong…… wi wi ewi eng…… ewing e…… oooouieang…….”
Former humans in slug form crawled everywhere.
But it was different from before.
The pitiful things spotted me and…… spewed pale glows, extending tentacles.
“Aaaaaaah────!”
I suppressed the stabbing pain with a shout and swung Dawn Sword to clear a path.
Slicing, slicing, slicing again.
How many slices while running, how breathlessly I climbed the stairs.
「Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr……!」
Black, sniffing nonstop.
Just before the 16th floor. He bared his fangs and growled savagely.
“What’s wrong, Black?”
I asked urgently.
The answer sent a shiver down my spine.
「Ahead. Ahead. Right ahead. The executor of Ikilras.」