Chapter 153
Chapter 153
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 153
Chapter Title: Infiltration, Gangbuk-gu Papal Court Fierce Battle (6)
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9.
“Why are you like that, Black?”
I asked urgently.
The immediate response sent a shiver racing down my spine.
「Ahead. Ahead. Right in front. Eekilas’s enforcer.」
Had we finally reached the top floor?
Unlike the other levels, the entrance to the hallway here was sealed by a massive iron door.
Such petty tricks… won’t work on me.
I thrust my sword tip forward and shouted at the top of my lungs.
“Pierce through, Holy───!”
A blood-red melody rose from the broken blade.
That power, unleashed at my command.
It exploded from the sword tip, shattering the iron door to pieces.
A piercing screech. The door exploding apart.
From amid the collapsing dust storm came the bastard’s laughter… and a freezing blizzard pouring out.
“Where do you plan to run now?”
Was this… outside? A terrace?
I kept asking to pinpoint his location through the dust cloud and snowstorm.
“Doesn’t seem like there’s anywhere higher to go.”
“Run? Why say such hurtful things?”
I had to approach with caution.
His reflection ability and summoning skills. One more mistake like before, and my body wouldn’t hold up.
“I merely invited you here, Lead Hunter.”
“Why?”
“Because I wanted to talk with you so badly.”
“We’ve talked more than enough already.”
“Oh, right. But the one thing I’m most curious about, I wanted to ask in person.”
“Stalling for time?”
What a pathetic ploy.
The snowstorm whipped up the dust cloud, which began to slowly clear.
“Well… shall we talk? I swear on the name of the Exalted One I serve, I’ll speak only the truth.”
Don’t make me laugh.
I cautiously shifted my left foot sideways.
“Do you know about the being that destroyed this world?”
“[The Nameless Demigod]?”
“Yes. And the fact that his only daughter has descended to this world in human form.”
What… did he say?
As I moved to shift my right foot, I froze reflexively.
“His… daughter… is here?”
“Looks like you’re finally in the mood for an honest chat, Lead Hunter of Seodaemun-gu.”
Through the thick dust and heavy snow.
I heard Song Chan-un tapping his cane against the floor.
“Slowly… and enjoyably, let’s talk… Dawn will never rise again… so let’s savor this long night…!”
Soon, that sound began circling me slowly, like drawing a ring.
“Who’s his daughter?”
“No one here can eavesdrop on our conversation.”
“Shut up and answer my question! Daughter? What the hell are you talking about?”
Song Chan-un fell silent for a moment, then burst into laughter that seemed to choke him.
“What, you didn’t know? Really? After all this time, hanging around with that entity?”
“…………?”
“The laughter… it won’t stop──! Heh, hehehe, hehehehehehehehehehehe, ah, ahahaha… hahahahaha… hahahahahahahahaha!”
Gradually… the dust was clearing.
I’d wondered why the dust cloud lingered so long.
“You, who wish to return this world—this new world—to the pathetic old ways?”
Finally… I’d found him.
“My… you’re truly pitiful!”
In that instant, blood-red light savagely illuminated the temple’s darkness.
Holy Dawn Sword.
I unleashed its holiness in a flash, swinging the blade at Song Chan-un.
─────Kaaaaang!
Song Chan-un barely blocked the strike with his raised cane, staggering back.
“Such barbaric ignorance, worthy of pity. Out of compassion, I’ll tell you.”
The bible hanging at his waist.
Song Chan-un opened the worn book, flipped through a few pages slowly, and began to speak.
“The only daughter’s epithet is [Daughter of the Abyss]. That’s what they called her in the society of gods.”
I halted my charge mid-stride.
“Daughter… of the Abyss?”
“No one knows her true name, not even the gods. [The Nameless Demigod] hid it. Even his master didn’t know.”
The master of [The Nameless Demigod]… the Absolute God of the Abyss?
But why… hide her?
To use her as a tool for rebellion?
“But I do know the alias she’s using in this world. It’s…”
It’s? It’s? It’s?
I barely swallowed dryly. Song Chan-un smirked wickedly.
“…Do Ye-jin.”
10.
“I’ll make the 《Lotus Throne》. Let’s see if we can reach up there.”
As Yi Seong-mi formed hand seals while saying that, Gong Min-young muttered blankly.
“We don’t have much time to spare…”
As if in response to her words.
A scream tore through the air, shredding vocal cords. It was the hunting dogs’.
“What… is that…?”
Ryu Hyun-ji, who turned first… felt her heart turn ice-cold.
Bursting through the raging blizzard.
Cutting straight through ranks of dozens of hunting dogs… a repulsive monstrosity… .
「GUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」
A bizarrely squelching roar.
The monster swung its arm wide, and five or six hunting dogs were shredded into bloody chunks, flying through the air.
“A… legion…?”
Gong Min-young muttered blankly.
How to describe that nightmarish form.
Like… mashing a dozen people… into one human shape?
Over five meters tall.
Its swinging arms, its legs trudging through the snow… all were human bodies.
“L-Legion, you say?”
“It’s made by fusing fifty or more high-level hunters… a real monster…! They only made them to fight subordinates… .”
Gong Min-young clicked her tongue and clapped her hands together top and bottom.
[Unique skill, 《Jackal Piercing Bridge》 activated!]
Space tore open long…
From it, a monster wolf’s maw lunged out… swallowing the legion’s upper body… .
「KIEEEEEEEEEEEE──」
That’s what she thought.
「──AKKKKKKKKKKK!」
A scream like ripping metal.
In an instant, the wolf’s jawbone was torn out, spraying blood… and through that blood spray, the legion charged toward them.
Thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud.
Ryu Hyun-ji gasped for breath.
Was that my heartbeat… or the ground shaking… ?
「Grrrrrrrrrrrr…………!」
Then White swelled up and tried to charge at the legion.
“W-White! No! Come back!”
「Why? Why?」
And rightly so… nothing could stop it.
“We can’t… stop it… .”
The hunting dogs torn to shreds mercilessly. Even Lee Ha-ram’s boomerang [Dragon Page Staff] struck it directly… but bounced off powerlessly.
“Sister, how much longer?!”
Gong Min-young shouted urgently toward Yi Seong-mi.
Hunting dogs… more hunting dogs… .
She tried to use her unique skill… but felt agony ripping through her body. Usage limit… .
“How much longer?!”
Thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud.
It’s coming, coming, coming… but nowhere to run.
“Just a moment longer.”
That was when.
A voice from within the blizzard.
That single phrase… halted Eekilas’s army in its tracks.
“Excellent, Miss Min-young. Truly excellent. So moving. To grow this splendidly.”
A feminine tone.
A sickeningly sly voice.
“Creating just five Abyss hunting dogs feels like yesterday.”
Rising like bile in her throat.
The dreaded name burst from Gong Min-young’s mouth.
“Song Chan-un…!”
11.
“…Do Ye-jin.”
Do… Ye-jin… ?
My mind went blank white in an instant. This… bastard… ? What did he just say… ?
“Shut… up… .”
Dawn Sword’s First Liberation, 《Dawnlight Yeomyeong Sword.》
In a flash, I surged behind him.
And swung my twin blades… but kaang! Blocked by his thrusting cane.
“The truth is always cruel.”
Hyperventilating… ?
“You fell completely for that nameless god’s deception?”
Lies, lies.
Damn it. Shouldn’t have listened. Is this his mirror power too?
“Just tell me where Ye-jin is… !”
Lies sounding just like truth.
A voice in my heart impulsively screaming it’s real… I could hear it.
“How utterly pitiable!”
Song Chan-un barely shook me off and retreated.
“The entity that destroyed the world you want to reclaim!
Breathing… breathing… is… hard… .
“Treating her like a cherished little sister all this time!”
Haa… haa… haa… . Haa… haa… haa… .
“And now you’ve come all this way to save that daughter? Ah, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, hahahaha… ahahahahaha… hahahahahahahaha… !”
At that moment.
Thud… The bible closed, spewing dust from its worn pages.
“In the world you desire, every teaching had a price, didn’t it? Shall we follow that law too?”
The smile vanished from Choi Sin-yul’s face? Wait, no—Song Chan-un’s.
“Well… the price of my teaching is…”
That instant.
“…your life.”
Frost-white light surged from Song Chan-un’s mirror.
“You bastard… !”
I charged him straight away.
But then the frost light peaked and exploded… and the world vanished from my sight.
No… ?
Where… is this… ?
Instead, an entirely different world unfolded abruptly.
An illusion… ?
I whipped my head around, gasping raggedly.
An illusory world… ?
Brooding thunderclouds swirling ominously.
Mountains filling my vision.
The ruins of a megalithic city glowing in primordial purple.
“Ashale… Ashale… Shetory Aden… Sherashul’Toryak.”
Song Chan-un’s voice echoed.
Into alien mountains laden with eons of ominous history. But he was nowhere to be seen.
“Come out… ! Where are you hiding?”
I aimed my Dawn Sword at ruins here and there, shouting.
Come out… come out… come out… where… where… where… hiding… hiding… hiding…
My voice echoing back… for some reason, it felt foreboding enough to pierce my chest.
“Hiding?”
“Find him, Black! Where… where’d he go.”
Black sniffed around here and there… but only tilted its head.
「No scent, no scent. No smell.」
What… ?
“Me? You think I’m here?”
He’d trapped me in an illusion to prepare his summons? Seeing me panic?
“Ah, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!”
Song Chan-un erupted in mad laughter.
Damn it… I felt my body trembling.
Cold.
Was my flesh crumbling from the chill? Or was it fear?
“Come out! I said come out!”
「……Come out…….」
「……Come out…….」
「……Come out…….」
Again, my voice echoed back in a sickeningly distorted tone.
「……I said…….」
「……I said…….」
「……I said…….」
Wait.
This isn’t… an echo.
「……come out…….」
「……come out…….」
「……come out…….」
Goosebumps erupted across my skin.
Someone… somethings… with grotesquely developed vocal cords… mimicking my voice.
But who?
“You must know this polar paradise… is none other than the phantom world I, Song Chan-un, have summoned.”
A phantom world… ?
Like the tomb keeper’s graveyard? He can use that as a skill?
“Behold… ! The place even stars with faint divinity dare not utter… !”
That was when he began his incantation.
From the ruins of the megalithic city… horrific entities began writhing and crawling out.
“Worship… ! The frigid brain prison where evils that rebelled against the Exalted One are imprisoned until the eternity of the cosmos… !”
No forms visible.
But… somehow… I could clearly feel them in his incantation.
“Hear… !”
……Ŋ…… ð??……?……
Profane flute tones burrowing relentlessly into my ears, driving my soul to the extremity of dread.
“The song of the loyal jailers guarding this polar land… !”
A pale stench so repulsive it froze my senses.
“Ashale, Ashale, aaaaaaaaaa! How truly beautiful you are… !”
And.
The invisible madness… escorting them as they approached.
“《Mountains of Madness》… !”