Chapter 53
Chapter 53
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 53
Chapter Title: Final Battle, Gyo-nam-dong Old Town Siege (3)
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3.
“Believe me. I’ll definitely win.”
In a normal situation, landing the [Crimson Lotus Arrow] on Arishel’rab would be incredibly difficult.
You could get counterattacked while preparing the thrust. Or the thing might sense it and back off.
And now, I couldn’t even use footwork.
But things were different this time.
If I used it in this situation, where it was definitely charging straight at me…?
It would slam its own body into the sword aura. Leading straight to an instant kill.
That’s why I decided.
Not with 《Shadow Ambush》, but with 《Holy Dawn Sword》 as my final gamble.
“Fuck, if I die again… I won’t let you off.”
“You’re already dead. How are you gonna do that?”
“Anyway, fuck!”
Jeong Ha-kyeong’s miserable expression.
She soon slung Do Su-jin over her shoulder and vanished with 《Super Acceleration》.
“Thank you.”
I flashed a brief smile.
Then lifted my gaze with grim resolve once more.
Arishel’rab glared down at me from its peak height, blue eyes gleaming viciously.
The descent was in an instant.
If the thrust was even a moment too late, I’d die. If it was a moment too early, I’d die.
This single instant of exchange would decide life, death, victory, and defeat.
A hush before the apocalypse.
See it first.
Humanity pushed to its limits throbbed in my heart, amplifying my focus.
─Grraaaaaaaaah!
In that moment, I saw it.
The wings twitching ever so slightly.
Come on.
It was an unreal charge.
What had been fist-sized in an instant grew to human size, and the next moment filled my entire field of vision.
Right now.
I twisted my waist.
Pulled the Dawn Sword to my side, and swept my left hand up the blade to the hilt.
The crimson blade shone brilliantly.
That transcendent blade was my will, my life force, my humanity.
And it was Kim Gye-sang’s final smile, Cha Seung-hyeon’s tears, and Lee Seon-hyo’s strong grin.
Yes.
This was it.
The blade of this world.
“Pierce through───”
I stepped forward.
Aiming the sword tip diagonally upward… straight at Arishel’rab’s maw, I thrust.
“────Holy!”
The sequence of motions birthed an explosion of power. The overwhelming thermal humanity concentrated in the blade liberated as a dazzling crimson lotus arrow.
Pinpoint focus.
The form was a scarlet wedge.
Its power, a ferocious bloodstorm hot enough to incinerate the air.
──Chaaaang!
A clear sound awakening the world in light.
The wedge began incinerating Arishel’rab’s maw in an instant.
……Fwooooosh……
Struggling to offset the descent’s impact, the crimson wedge pierced its body, burned through, and raged onward.
My wrist snapped like it was shattering, followed by my shoulder blade.
“Nguuuuuuuaaaah──”
I bellowed to suppress the agony. I would never, ever, ever let go of the hilt. I wouldn’t let go.
The incineration continued.
Its upper body covered in exoskeleton.
Its muscular, brutish lower body. Even that grotesquely massive tail.
This was the final clash of strength.
Now, I wouldn’t yield.
I wouldn’t let a single thing slip.
Until I’d swept away every nightmare from this world, I wouldn’t break.
“──Aaaaaaaaah!”
And so, right here and now, I won.
[Unique skill, 《Second Liberation: Holy Dawn Sword》 deactivated]
It was probably around then.
The pressure crushing my body like it would shatter it. And the crimson blade and arrow vanishing almost simultaneously.
──Kwaaaaaang.
Then, something massive slammed into the ground behind me with a thunderous roar.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
Silence echoed only with my heartbeat.
I was still in thrust position, crimson afterglow quietly scattering around the broken greatsword.
Did I… win?
I was afraid to turn around.
Only after steadying my ragged breaths did I muster the courage to slowly look back.
The nightmare.
There it lay, crashed into the ground.
From its lower jaw to abdomen and tail. The front half of its body completely incinerated, in the form of a dragon-human.
Glowing blue eyes.
The grotesque wings on its back.
Even the remaining head and rear body were being devoured by the Dawn Sword’s bloodlight.
Did I… really win?
In a world where only my breathing rang loudly, I blankly raised my gaze.
Completely white HP bar.
Even blinking, there wasn’t a single black slot. Not one.
It’s… over?
[Hunt successful: Exalted Subordinate, ‘Rampaging Despair, Arishel’rab’]
[Legendary achievement unlocked: Slayer of the Second Subordinate (3 / 30)]
[The stars pay their respects to the hunter who felled the second subordinate!]
- All physical ability stats receive (+3) correction.
The flood of system messages declared it. That long, grueling hunt had finally reached its end.
Ah…?
I doubted my eyes for a long while.
It was the moment I’d waited for like a madman. Yet also utterly unbelievable.
I blankly looked around.
Im Yong-gon and Jeong Ha-kyeong stared into empty space with dazed expressions.
Everything screamed that the victory before my eyes was real.
The Dawn Sword slipped from my hand.
I clenched my left fist. Raised that clenched fist to the sky, and roared with all my might.
“Uwaaaaaaaaah!”
My body shuddered hot with ecstatic thrill. I needed to wipe my tears, but my right arm hung limp, unresponsive.
“We won.”
When had she come?
Jeong Ha-kyeong threw herself at me, wrapped her arms around my neck, and said in a tearful voice.
“We won. Again, again, we won.”
“We won. We… won….”
My throat choked, words failing, but Jeong Ha-kyeong kept murmuring.
“Good thing… so glad you’re safe.”
Before I knew it, Hong Byeong-gyu and Yoon Geon-woo had joined, linking arms with us.
“Hyung, I, I can’t believe it.”
“This damn thing, we really did it. You really pulled it off.”
At that moment, did I think of Kim Gye-sang’s death again?
- I hope I can meet the kids in wherever I’m going now.
Clutching my heart with my left fist, I—we began to sob quietly.
This small victory.
Was anything but ordinary or simple.
A desperate victory bloomed atop countless deaths and tears.
A heartfelt victory that repaid every sacrifice we’d piled up.
And because of that desperation and heartfelt nature, a victory that overcame the impossible.
Yes.
Such a… sorrowful victory.
[Notice: ‘Gyo-nam-dong’ is incorporated into ‘New Seodaemun-gu.’]
[Notice: ‘Purification operation’ begins in region ‘Gyo-nam-dong.’]
April 24, 2045.
Day 20 of the apocalypse. Humanity had triumphed over the old town’s nightmare.
Gyo-nam-dong, Jongno-gu.
We’d reclaimed that vast urban area as survival territory.
But for this victory.
How could we measure the value of what we’d lost?
4.
“Uwaaaaaaaaah!”
“We woooooon!”
Cheers erupted from all directions.
People far off waved their arms, shouting in ecstasy.
“Lead Hunter! Lead Hunter! Lead Hunter! Lead Hunter!”
“That was fucking awesome! Lead Hunter dude!”
“My name’s Kim Baek-jun.”
As I muttered blankly.
Jeong Ha-kyeong poked my side as if telling me not to joke. Hong Byeong-gyu said.
“Honestly, ‘Lead Hunter’ feels warmer and better than ‘Baek-jun.’”
“No it doesn’t? That’s way too corny.”
Jeong Ha-kyeong shot back, and Yoon Geon-woo chuckled.
“B-Byeong-gyu-ssi and I’ll go check on Seung-hyeon first.”
“Yeah, see you later.”
This victory’s hymn stood in stark contrast to the Heteromorphs fleeing with wails.
“Truly impressive.”
Im Yong-gon clapped my shoulder with his large hand, and I shook my head.
“Thanks to you fighting alongside us.”
“I just helped out. You were the star of this win. Looked like you could’ve taken it down solo.”
“No way.”
Im Yong-gon asked in a suspicious tone.
“Then why didn’t you fight like this last time?”
That’s… impossible to explain.
As I hesitated without answering, Im Yong-gon shook his head.
“If you can’t say, no need to force it.”
“Sorry I can’t answer.”
Jeong Ha-kyeong’s eyes went wide then.
“Fuck, what the hell is that…?”
Following her gaze, I had to doubt my eyes for a moment.
“Wha… t…?”
The final stage of incineration.
Just as Arishel’rab’s head crumbled to ash.
That’s when the problem arose.
Something burst from the back of its skull and fell to the ground.
Not a soulstone.
It was.
“A… person…?”
Chaos.
Jeong Ha-kyeong narrowed her eyes.
“She’s alive. See. Pulse is there.”
“Shall we check?”
“Yeah.”
I rose as if entranced.
With Im Yong-gon and Jeong Ha-kyeong supporting me, I walked over.
It was a girl.
Looked like high school age.
Wearing a school uniform, unmistakably Korean no matter how you sliced it.
We were the only witnesses.
But someone beat us there.
Do Su-jin.
“Dangerous. Step back for now.”
I urgently warned, but Do Su-jin frantically stripped off her left glove.
“Do Su-jin-ssi!”
Looking closely, her palm bore a deep knife scar.
Strangely… the girl’s right palm had the exact same scar.
Why?
The girl looked strikingly like Do Su-jin.
Do Su-jin pressed her palm to the girl’s.
And then, something incomprehensible happened.
“Y-… Ye-jin-ah….”
Do Su-jin hugged the girl and, casting aside all queenly dignity, began sobbing like a child.
…What?
I stared at the scene in bewilderment.
My head was about to explode from this inexplicable event after the fierce battle.
Suddenly.
- I’m looking for my little sister.
- During the last subordinate fight, didn’t you feel something off?
And earlier, Do Su-jin had collapsed without even being hit by the roar.
Clutching that left hand in pain….
If there was a connection?
No…?
But that doesn’t make sense…?
Her little sister was the subordinate?
How? How could that be possible?
Waves of mist gently swept through around then.
In an instant, all chaos vanished.
The raging flames, choking smoke, rotting stench. Even the Heteromorphs.
In that purifying mist.
The girl didn’t evaporate. So she wasn’t a Heteromorph.
“What the fuck. Shit, what is this?”
“No clue here either. No idea what’s going on….”
As Jeong Ha-kyeong and I exchanged words, Im Yong-gon calmly asked.
“Any precursors to weird phenomena like this? Anything different from the last siege?”
“There was.”
Cha-Ratevil.
No [Hunt successful] until it turned to a soulstone.
But Arishel’rab got it the instant its HP hit zero slots.
“Does that make this make sense?”
“Ha-kyeong-ssi, anything on your end?”
Jeong Ha-kyeong furrowed her brow.
She seemed about to say something but ultimately shook her head in pain, like last time.
“…No, I don’t know. No idea.”
Rustle. The mist finally cleared, revealing a modern-style cityscape filling our vision.
A quiet city.
All civilization had regressed.
Asphalt roads to cobblestone paths.
Skyscrapers to 5-6 story wooden mansions.
The hospital to a luxurious Gothic cathedral.
……Dong…… Dong…… Dong……
The clock tower tolled gloomily.
Even Queen Do Su-jin wept. Clutching the subordinate (formerly) girl.
Cheers still boomed from distant streets.
“Who’s that?”
“Dunno. But damn, she looks just like her.”
The hunters witnessing this could only whisper in confusion.
“What do you see there?”
A deep voice rang out.
Turning, the blood-soaked Crow Hunter stood beside Im Yong-gon.
“Pardon…?”
“To me, it looks like a storm.”
“What storm?”
Head hurting, no more beating around the bush. Choi Uk pointed at Do Su-jin and the girl with his crow beak.
“Right now, victory’s joy drowns it out, no issue. But soon, it’ll be a storm shattering the raid team’s unity.”
His voice carried a sigh.
And his prediction wasn’t wrong.
[Rampaging Despair, Arishel’rab]
[Population Limit]
Paradise Name: New Seodaemun-gu
- Region ‘Muak-dong’ incorporated. (+500)
- Region ‘Gyo-nam-dong’ incorporated. (+500)
Current / Limit
- [Paradise Main District]: 3,000 / 3,000
- [Paradise Subdistrict - 1]: 500 / 500
- [Paradise Subdistrict - 2]: 0 / 500