Chapter 46
Chapter 46
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 046
Chapter Title: Fierce Training, Graveyard of the Beacon Keeper (6)
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“Ready?”
I nod.
It’s only natural that fear wells up instinctively after being overwhelmingly defeated until now.
I take a deep breath.
Calm down. Observe instead, imagine, and calculate.
A rear grab? Or an instant charge?
The rear grab is the most threatening. If he vanishes from sight, I should spin around immediately and swing my blade.
I visualize the battle in my mind.
One. Two. Three. Four. Five.
I select the most ideal battle plan from among them.
Yes. Let’s go with ‘these.’
Unlike my old self, I don’t draw just one picture. I sketch every possible underlying scenario.
To do that, I observe first.
Strength gathers slightly in his knees. In an instant, he disappears from view, and a ferocious gale whips up from behind.
I calculate.
I don’t dodge.
Instead, I grip the Dawn Sword with both hands and pull.
《Dawnlight Yeomyeong Sword》.
My vision turns ashen.
My physical abilities explode in amplification, creating the perfect moment to counter the ambush.
I block the scythe with my golden sword.
Kaaaaang—the metallic clang echoes in that instant.
I calculate again.
The direction to deflect the scythe... feint low, then high.
──Kiaaaang!
His hands and scythe shoot upward, exposing his guard completely.
I prepare a thrust with 《Holy Dawn Sword》, but as expected, he’s no pushover.
80 meters.
The distance he opens up in one go. A realm of footwork I could never match.
But I can still fight back.
I activate 《Dawnlight Yeomyeong Sword》 again.
I hurl the golden sword straight at him and kick off the ground simultaneously.
One step. Two steps. Three steps. Four steps.
[Spacetime Control].
I race across the compressed terrain like it’s a trampoline, tracing a zigzag path to seize his rear in a flash.
A rear grab.
It’s an imitation in a refined form, but it works.
──Chaeng chaeng chaeng chaeng chaeng chaeng chang!
The blood-red sword clashes furiously with the scythe.
The next moment.
Sensing the golden sword flying from behind, he swings the scythe wide to bat it upward.
The next phase of the blueprint.
I lower my stance and charge at his feet.
Then, three steps.
The distance he retreats in an instant.
It’s also the scythe’s lethal range. My blood-red sword can’t reach it.
The slight difference in weapon length spells defeat. Sure enough, he raises the scythe high and brings it crashing down.
But what if I release 《Dawnlight Yeomyeong Sword》 here?
It halts.
The golden sword, soaring into the air, stops dead.
Then, it turns its tip toward me where the blood-red sword is and dives in a power plunge.
Shwaaak!
The golden sword grazes his cheek.
No direct hit. It’s fine.
He hesitates. A flicker of confusion mixes into his assault. Confusion grants a split-second opening.
Chaeng! The golden sword fuses seamlessly with the blood-red sword.
At the same time, the reassembled greatsword settles heavily in my grip.
0.2 seconds. Just 0.2 seconds.
If things go as imagined, I’m 0.2 seconds faster.
With my left hand, I sweep the blade upward.
With my right, I draw the greatsword toward his side.
《Holy Dawn Sword》.
The crimson blade manifests just as his form vanishes from my sight in that instant.
Just as in the final blueprint.
I whirl my body around, channeling the rotational force, and thrust the blade tip with all my might.
As expected.
He’s right behind me.
The scythe is about to cleave my skull.
Of course.
There’s no way you’d let it slide.
You’d counterattack.
In that one moment.
“Aaaaaaaaah──”
I don’t dodge.
I don’t parry.
Instead, a half-beat ahead. Truly just a half-beat.
Crimson sword aura surges into his body first.
──Chara rararararang!
The blade tip pierces his abdomen, but the scythe halts right before my eyes.
Not a drop of blood spills.
Yet the sensation of penetration transmits vividly to my palm.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
Only my heartbeat screams in the fierce silence.
Did I win?
Did I... win?
“Power. Movement. Judgment. You can feel for yourself how completely different you are from a month ago.”
At last, he opens his mouth in a wistful tone.
“Though you’ve grown stronger than before... the path you must walk remains narrow, treacherous, and sorrowful...”
Of course, he didn’t mean it sincerely. If he had, I’d be dead within three seconds of engaging.
His threat was just to push me to give my all, naturally.
“Now it’s time to part.”
He grasps the blade.
Suddenly, his body begins crumbling into dust from the pierced spot.
No—the entire Twilight Wasteland does.
The world loses form and scatters into dust.
“Even if the end feels out of sight, never crumble amid the pain and sorrow. Crumble if you must, but never break.”
...What?
My reason, numbed by bewilderment, snaps back. I look around frantically and ask.
“What’s happening right now?”
“There’s no need for that expression. We’ll meet again... twice, perhaps only once.”
That means.
That means...
He seems to smile faintly.
“Yes. You pass.”
Pass... pass?
I doubt my ears. I mouth the word.
Pass.
The tension binding my body drains away like the tide, and my knees buckle. A dizzy chuckle escapes, along with a single tear.
- Live.
It wasn’t in vain.
You made it not in vain.
Tears of achievement. Tears of mourning. And tears of thrill.
“Thank you. Truly. Thank you.”
I sense a familiar presence then.
But looking around, she’s nowhere to be seen. So.
“Could you pass on my thanks to Terry too?”
“Terry...?”
I ask him to relay it, but oddly, he reacts with bewilderment.
Aren’t they close?
“Who do you mean?”
“Who? That... the one with snow-white hair, looking like a Westerner...”
“...Lady Tersia?”
Tersia?
The Dawn Sword’s first successor?
“She didn’t give her real name. Just said to call her Terry.”
“Terry was the nickname her last remaining family used. ...But there’s no reason she’d still be here.”
“That’s strange. But why would I lie?”
“That’s... true. I can’t comprehend it, but... so that’s how it was.”
How it was?
I still don’t get it.
But he nods as if understanding and changes the subject.
“My final advice. Seek out Shin Tae-yeop.”
Shin Tae-yeop?
I doubt my ears again for a moment.
“Follow the light of the Dawn Sword... his pure humanity will aid your journey.”
Does the Dawn Sword lead there? And ‘that guy’? Quite the familiar term.
Are they acquaintances?
How? They lived in different worlds.
I blink in confusion, and just before he dissolves into dust, he speaks in a nostalgic voice.
“Could you pass on my regards to him?”
Regards...?
They really know each other?
Whoosh—he turns fully to dust. Simultaneously, the Twilight Wasteland crumbles into dust, and the ground vanishes.
“I’ll cheer for you and pray.”
A voice from the dust whirlwind. It’s Tersia.
“May the love of Geldharia guide your path...”
I feel a profound peace, then suddenly a sticky falling sensation envelops me.
I’m plummeting toward the bottom of the world.
Endlessly. Endlessly. Endlessly again.
It hits me suddenly.
My unfinished fate is pulling me back, rough and relentless.
From Twilight Paradise.
Into the black nightmare.
14.
[《Holy Flame Succession》: Humanity value (2,100) increase]
- Humanity: 720 -> 2,820
[《Holy Flame Succession》: Succession progress improved (13% -> 44%)]
- Combat memory synchronization. (13% -> 44%)
- Physical ability synchronization. (13% -> 44%)
- Unique skill acquired: 《Second Liberation: Holy Dawn Sword》.
[You are currently located in ‘Paradise Zone’]
- Hunter privilege: ‘Stars’ Healing’ effect activates.
15.
The sensation announcing my return to reality is a ferocious wave of fatigue and pain.
“...Ugh.”
I groan softly and crack my eyes open.
My whole body aches terribly, but with sheer grit, I prop myself up and look around.
This place... it’s familiar.
A wide bed.
Oil lamps glowing faintly from the walls.
Starlight filtering through the window.
A private room?
And my lower body has regenerated. Though the excruciating pain lingers.
All impressions of those fly blank as something else catches my eye.
Black bobbed hair and cat-like features.
Sitting cross-legged on a folding chair, armed in [Shadow Exoskeleton Cloth] with a shotgun slung menacingly over her shoulder.
Jeong Ha-kyeong.
She’s dozing off, her face etched with exhaustion.
For a moment, joy surges so intensely a choked laugh escapes.
Only then do I truly feel I’ve returned. And that she survived the nightmare too.
But her sweat-and-blood-streaked appearance looks utterly drained.
It’s no wonder, really.
Three days. The training lasted three days in real time.
So, like last time, she’s been watching over me for three straight days?
I really owe her so much, time and again.
I slip quietly from the bed, intending to wake her and tell her to lie down and rest. That instant.
──Grip.
Jeong Ha-kyeong seizes my hand fiercely. She yanks me close until our faces nearly touch, glaring at me with murder in her eyes.
“Corpses are meant to rest in peace.”
...Corpse?
A murmur sharp as a blade.
“Amazing. Why do vermin like you keep crawling─”
“Ha-kyeong?”
“...Is it because they’re really dead...?”
Jeong Ha-kyeong trails off abruptly.
Her eyebrows slowly arch up. Her pupils tremble.
“What... how...”
“Feels like ages since we last met.”
It’s sincere. My subjective time was a month.
“No way... They said you were dead...”
“I nearly was, but I came back alive.”
“No. That fucking psycho bitch said... no way it’s real...?”
Jeong Ha-kyeong stammers blankly.
Then she fumbles my hand with her other one and mutters in a choked voice.
“That crazy bitch... said your soul was gone... definitely gone... now you’re just a vegetable with a living body...”
The crazy bitch must be the Star Messenger. Soul gone... Maybe that’s what happened while I was in the soul world.
“That’s true.”
“True?”
“I made it to heaven’s gates. But I thought of the beauty hunter and U-turned back.”
“You fuck... is this the time for jokes?”
Her eyes, smiling weakly, brim with tears.
Ah... They reveal all the anguish she’s endured, and it hurts my chest.
“Sorry I’m late.”
I apologize sincerely, and she slowly shakes her head, wiping her eyes.
“Fuck it. You came back. That’s enough. More than enough.”
16.
“How long was I out?”
I ask to confirm first.
While I spoon some soup, Jeong Ha-kyeong checks her pocket watch and answers.
“Two days asleep, evening of the third now.”
“You mostly thought I was dead?”
“Why else would I say it to draw those fucking gods? Only the idiot trio and Choi Uk know... and yet they still swarmed somehow.”
“How’d I get here?”
“Around 5 PM first day? That’s when Im Yong-gon showed up carrying you and Choi Uk. All three covered in blood.”
Im Yong-gon... I’m suddenly impressed.
He broke through the nightmare zone turned into a bloodbath alone.
“The worst off was... you. Unconscious, fuck, of course I thought you were a corpse. Your lower half was gone.”
“Probably thanks to Gye-sang.”
Kim Gye-sang.
My breath catches suddenly.
Pain like a gaping hole in my heart... I clutch my chest and force out the words.
“He was dying too... but gave me his last [Holy Blood Pill]... told me to live, to live.”
“So he really died.”
She must’ve heard already.
With Choi Uk’s blunt personality, he’d have told her straight... So I nod grimly.
“Yes.”
Jeong Ha-kyeong says nothing.
After a long moment, she rummages in her coat pocket for her cigarette case. Takes out two, hands me one.
“Don’t grieve too much.”
She says it with forced cheer.
“Think positive first. He went to a good place.”
“...”
“Yeah. Christian, right? Straight from hell to heaven, no detours. Lucky bastard.”
She puts the cigarette in her mouth and strikes a match to light it.
“Ha-kyeong.”
“...?”
“You’re smoking it backward right now.”