Chapter 87
Chapter 87
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 87
Chapter Title: The Void Hunter, Cheongunhyojadong (9)
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15.
Cheongunhyojadong's Heteromorphs were all humanoid.
Except for the pilgrims.
There were priests, madmen, soldiers, and knights.
In order of danger level.
Knight, priest, soldier, madman.
The priest commanded the madmen, using black magic to send them into a frenzy, making it an extremely dangerous existence.
……That's what I'd heard, for sure.
“What?”
Shin Tae-yeop furrowed his brow.
A chain of confusion…… Do Ye-jin grew afraid of this unfathomable situation.
“Hee…… heeheehee…… heeheeheeheehee…… Kyoro, Kyoro, Renafrapra…….”
The priest alone slightly raised its head, muttering incomprehensible sounds (not even translatable by transcendental power).
“Kyoro…… Rena◆fra…… Edelweiss…… Quaiselbay…… Warbar…….”
Edelweiss?
Roheiritz had said the same thing earlier, hadn't he?
“……Kgh.”
That was when Shin Tae-yeop clutched his forehead in agony.
Shring!
She hadn't even remembered when he'd drawn the Cannon Axe from his back.
“Stop it! What is this! What are you doing right now?!”
“Hee, heeheehee, heeheehee, Warbar, Warbar, Warbar.”
Do Ye-jin thrust the axe blade threateningly in front of the priest's mask, but…… the flustered one was Do Ye-jin herself.
This thing…… what was it?
It neither resisted the threat nor showed fear.
“Kyoro…… Renafrapra Edelweiss Quaiselbay…… Warbar.”
It simply looked up at Do Ye-jin and muttered politely. The madmen began to chant along.
“Kyoro Renafrapra Edelweiss Quaiselbay Warbar.”
“Kyoro Renafrapra Edelweiss Quaiselbay Warbar.”
An evil melody.
A tune harboring madness that crumbled human reason.
Completely at odds with the Lynn script……
“Shut up! Stop it! I said stop!”
It was then.
Ping, the sound of a bowstring vibrating.
Then suddenly…… Shin Tae-yeop floated into the air before tumbling across the floor.
Turning her head to look…… Eh……?
A black-feathered arrow.
Embedded deep in Shin Tae-yeop's side was an arrow.
This arrow…… no way.
She remembered thinking it was dangerous. Her mind was in full panic, yet Yoon Geon-woo's teachings moved her body.
Hardening, 50 percent.
Heat from her muscles exploding throughout her body.
Emergency situation—no time for warmup, no leeway.
It happened in an instant.
Do Ye-jin launched herself to catch Shin Tae-yeop. The moment they rolled across the floor together, a thunderous roar erupted from the ceiling.
A bolt of blue lightning crashed down.
The ceiling collapsed, and a fierce dust storm from the debris tore at her entire body.
A brief silence.
Zero visibility from the dust cloud. Her heart beat exactly three times.
“Ryuiiiieeeeee!”
She could see the priest furiously kicking off the ground and rising.
At the priest's command, the madmen entered a frenzied state. Mad warriors who feared no death.
But in that moment.
“………………………”
“………………………”
“………………………”
Through the collapsed ceiling.
Faceless demons flapped their wings as they descended.
“Keeeeeek!”
“Kiiiiiiik!”
It was a scene of slaughter.
The demons effortlessly tore off the madmen's limbs or pierced their bellies to drag out their entrails.
“You must know what that monster tongue just meant.”
Thud, thud, thud.
Heavy footsteps echoed.
“It means the Lord of the Abyss has descended upon this land.”
Her heart leaped wildly with every echo of those footsteps through the sanctuary.
……It was him.
In her fog-shrouded vision.
A man in a raven mask walking with precise movements.
The hunter from another world, Roheiritz.
“Yeah, doesn't it feel good to hear that cry again in this land?”
In point-blank range, he'd reloaded his crossbow.
Aiming at the head of the demon-held priest, he pulled the trigger without even looking.
“I wondered why the stench of the abyss was suddenly shaking the air…… How amusing.”
The priest's head snapped back before it pitched forward, knees buckling at the same time.
“You can't fool me. No matter what shell you're hiding in.”
Nebula serum…… Nebula serum……
Amid the thick stench of blood, Do Ye-jin pulled a syringe from her leather holster.
“I'll give you 10 seconds.”
Shin Tae-yeop's condition was wretched.
The chainmail on his side had been pushed into his flesh along with the arrow.
“Reveal your true form. So I can smash that damned mug of yours.”
Calm down. Stay calm.
Muttering to herself, Do Ye-jin injected the nebula serum into the wound. Roheiritz spoke.
“This…… damn…… Even the great Shin Tae-yeop ends up like this every day lately…….”
“It's fine now.”
As Do Ye-jin started to stand, Shin Tae-yeop grabbed her wrist.
“Run…… No chance of winning…….”
“What about you?”
“Nothing to be done here…….”
“There is.”
Do Ye-jin gently shook off his wrist and rose to her feet.
“This time, I'll be the one fighting.”
She would fight to protect.
It was a vow she made to herself.
A cry of courage gripping her wildly trembling heart.
“Got some guts…….”
Shin Tae-yeop spat blood.
“But no…… That guy's…… on a whole different level from you.”
“It'll work. Do you know who I am?”
“……?”
Do Ye-jin raised her thumb just like Yoon Geon-woo had once done.
“A body trained in combat by the 'tremendous spear warrior who summons typhoons.'”
She picked up the Cannon Axe from the floor.
After a deep breath and assuming her stance, Roheiritz spoke.
“10 seconds are up. Why haven't you drawn your power yet? Underestimating me?”
“Sorry, mister. I haven't understood a single word you've said since earlier.”
One step.
A calculated lethal interval.
“I'm not too bright.”
Visualizing that interval in her mind, she stepped forward.
“But my sister told me. Talkative guys are the ones no one likes.”
Another step.
“Looking at you, I get what she meant right away.”
“Running your mouth like that suits a little girl pretty well.”
Roheiritz snorted at the pointless taunt.
“I don't know what scheme you've got going in that girl's body──”
Now. Right here.
In that instant, Do Ye-jin kicked off the ground and leaped.
Hardening, 70 percent.
Amplified leg power propelled her body forward in a flash.
Acceleration slamming into her whole body.
At the same time, amplified muscle power swung the Cannon Axe in a wide arc. A spirited shout burst forth naturally.
“Haaaaaaaah!”
It was by a hair's breadth.
“……?!”
The match might have ended right there. If Roheiritz hadn't instantly retreated.
“Huh!”
The fierce axe blade slashed past right in front of Roheiritz's eyes.
- Once you seize the offense, never let go of it.
Yoon Geon-woo's training flashed vividly in her mind.
Again, again, again.
Wildly swinging the immensely heavy Cannon Axe, Do Ye-jin pressed forward relentlessly.
He retreated each time.
The floor and walls shattered under the axe blade, and the ensuing aftershock whipped debris into a storm.
Hardening, 80 percent.
Her body ached like it was on fire.
But her physical speed steadily increased, and her mind began to find some leeway.
I can do this.
See, I can do this.
Hardening, 90 percent.
She moved as if charging, then abruptly halted.
“Here I gooooo!”
Using inertia, she launched her body upward. At that sudden move, she saw Roheiritz—who had been retreating—trip over a stone chunk.
Got him!
The moment she thought that.
The moment she raised the Cannon Axe high.
As if he'd been waiting, he lifted his crossbow. It was already loaded.
Am I…… going to die……?
In that instant, a chill of death gently caressed her every bone.
Dodge, I have to dodge.
Do Ye-jin threw the Cannon Axe and rolled backward.
The arrow whistled past right in front of her eyes.
She wasn't even sure how she'd reacted…… but she'd barely survived.
“You bastard…… You trying to toy with me?”
That was as far as it went.
How had Roheiritz closed the distance right in front of her?
Instant agony as if her lungs were being crushed.
From his kick, Do Ye-jin spat blood and slammed headfirst into the wall.
“What was that sloppy movement? What do you even want with me?”
It felt like her ribs were broken.
How……? She hadn't even seen when he'd kicked.
Drip.
Do Ye-jin slumped straight to the floor. Roheiritz then savagely kicked her in the abdomen.
“Bring it out. Your real self.”
Once, twice, three times……
Each time his boot slammed into her gut, bones cracked, and suffocating pain raged through her.
“Bring it out, I said!”
The final kick was more intense than anything before.
Her consciousness nearly blacked out.
“You fuck…… How do I make you come out? Forty years ago, I saw how you doted on your subordinates.”
Roheiritz snapped his fingers, and Do Ye-jin sucked in a breath.
The demons dragged someone over…… It was Heo Cheon-gyeom. In a wretched state, unconscious.
He's alive?
Heo Cheon-gyeom's still alive?
“From now on, I'll cut off your subordinate's limbs one by one, right here.”
“Don't…… don't do it…….”
“Don't do it? You telling me not to?”
Roheiritz suddenly started laughing. He threw his head back and laughed.
It was a chilling laugh.
A laugh that felt like it was trampling over Do Ye-jin's back.
“You're seriously begging me now?”
“……?”
“Trash who sacrificed my world as an offering for your desires! Back then, did you even listen to my screams? Our screams?”
Roheiritz reloaded his crossbow.
And in an instant, aimed it at Heo Cheon-gyeom's forehead.
“Taste the same despair.”
Please, stop.
Time seemed to slow.
His finger rested on the trigger, then slowly began pulling it back.
It was right then.
───Roarrrrrr!
Suddenly, the demon holding Heo Cheon-gyeom burst into flames and writhed.
Shin Tae-yeop……!?
Looking back, she saw Shin Tae-yeop truly gasping for breath as he rose to his feet.
“That's as far as you go…… Roheiritz.”
Tremendous firepower whose heat reached even here. But astonishingly, Heo Cheon-gyeom took no damage.
“This technique…….”
Only then did Roheiritz seem to reacknowledge Shin Tae-yeop's presence. In that moment, he said this.
“You…… Who the hell are you……?”
Roheiritz sounded flustered, but his movements were overwhelmingly fast.
In a flash, he launched himself forward.
He seized Shin Tae-yeop by the collar and slammed him into the wall. A speed even Shin Tae-yeop couldn't react to.
“How are you alive?”
Roheiritz gripped tighter, and Shin Tae-yeop exhaled as if his lungs were being crushed.
“I saw you die.”
“……?”
“I saw the wraiths devouring your corpse! What the hell are you!”
“What…… nonsense!”
Shin Tae-yeop moved one hand to form a seal, and the flame rosary spun around before transforming into a wall of fire encircling him.
Roheiritz casually stepped back once, then glared sharply at Do Ye-jin.
“Some kind of necromancy……? What the hell did you do?”
Ever since the world ended, every time the world saw Do Ye-jin, it had asked the same thing.
I didn't do anything.
She wanted to scream it while crying.
She'd never done any “deed,” never even wanted to.
So please, just please, leave me alone.
“No need to answer. I'll ask slowly after tearing your limbs off.”
Roheiritz spread his palm. A circle of void formed there.
“You think I'll let you!”
At the same time, Shin Tae-yeop clasped his hands together. Centered on Shin Tae-yeop, the wall of fire expanded into a whirlwind storm.
……Roarrrrr……
A wave of void surged in, tangling chaotically with the flame wall in the middle of the passage.
“Uwaaaaaaaaah……!”
Shin Tae-yeop unleashed his pent-up shout.
“Tae-yeop hyung?!”
It was then that Park Ji-won and Ryu Hyun-ji came running from the opposite side. Had they heard the commotion?
Thank goodness.
Everyone was safe.
“What the hell is…….”
“Use this chance to take Do Ye-jin and run! Listen carefully. Take this to Choi Uk mister. Don't lose it no matter what.”
“Hyung──”
“Don't ask questions, go! Look at me. I can't even run anymore.”
Shouting that, he tossed the bag over. Shin Tae-yeop's expression…… was serene.
- I'm…… tired now.
That expression.
She'd seen it somewhere before.
“I'll end it all here. As a final send-off, I'll take that guy with me across the Jordan.”
Where?
Right at the Grand Library.
More precisely, when Hong Byeong-gyu saved her life and died……
Park Ji-won bit her lip as if she'd made up her mind, then grabbed Do Ye-jin's wrist.
“No! I'm not going!”
Do Ye-jin shook off her hand. Ryu Hyun-ji grabbed her other hand.
“Go…… You have to go. If we can't let the <Association> know about this, more people will die.”
“What about Shin Tae-yeop? Is it okay for Shin Tae-yeop to die here?”
“Don't be unreasonable! We have to listen to Tae-yeop hyung right now.”
Run away where, even if they fled.
Why was there no option in this world where everyone could live and return.
One person.
Then another.
And yet another after that.
A world of despair where survival meant stepping on someone's death.
Rather than taste that despair again.
It might be better to surrender to the despair right now.
Come here……
It was then that the hallucination unfolded.
The ruined cathedral vanished from her sight, replaced by an endless abyss.
This place was the boundary between the present world and the mental realm.
Come……
A bubbling, boiling abyss.
From its unseen depths, despair slowly beckoned to the girl.
Entrust your soul to despair……
The moment Do Ye-jin lifted her foot.
The moment she tried to step into the abyss. Someone tapped her shoulder.
“It's okay. You don't have to go back there.”
That voice.
That gentle voice.
It pierced the abyss world like dawnlight, pulling Do Ye-jin from the hallucination.
“……?”
When she came to her senses, the situation had drastically changed at a glance.
Sunlight……?
The first thing she saw.
Dawnlight brilliantly illuminating the ruined cathedral's sanctuary.
Next, what she saw.
Tears of relief streaming down Park Ji-won and Ryu Hyun-ji's cheeks.
“Ah…….”
Enchanted, Do Ye-jin turned toward the source of the dawnlight, toward where Park Ji-won and Ryu Hyun-ji's gazes were fixed.
He was there.
Where the ceiling had collapsed from the lightning.
Where void and flame intertwined.
Right there, where Shin Tae-yeop might have died.
He had come.
Had he descended through the ceiling?
It didn't matter. It didn't matter one bit.
“Sorry I'm late.”
What mattered was this.
The dawn blade illuminating the world's despair. That he had come bearing that light.
“It's okay now.”
He turned to the boy and girl, flashing a smile as radiant as dawn.
“The mister's here.”
Who was he?
The one even the stars honored with the title of Lead. The one who united humanity under the name <Association>.
Lead Hunter, Kim Baek-jun.
It was the moment he stepped into the world of despair, bringing hope with him.