How to Kill the Sky (Prologue)
Swords are weapons meant to kill the living, and swordsmanship is a technique crafted for the same purpose. So how the hell do you kill something that's not alive but still gunning for you? The Demon King was exactly that kind of bastard. He pops up out of nowhere on the continent, stirring up every imaginable disaster and nuisance, but good luck figuring out if the thing's even alive or has a shred of emotion—it's like a freak natural calamity that just happens. A straight-up phenomenon that dumped every catastrophe imaginable on the world. I joined the subjugation force to lop off the head of that dubious existence whose very being was in question. Needless to say, I failed.
Storms, earthquakes, tsunamis, lightning, eruptions, plagues—total clusterfuck of apocalyptic bullshit. I swung my blade at empty air until, inevitably, some drifting meteor from orbit smacked me dead. It was so goddamn absurd that dying didn't even spark rage or terror. Not the helplessness of facing an overwhelmingly superior foe, either. Just this hollow, bone-deep exhaustion. As my life and flesh crumbled away, I let out a soft, bitter scoff.
"No way they expected me to kill that?"
All my life swinging a sword, just to get taken out by that? What a wasted existence. Utterly, completely wasted.
If a second chance came my way—if I could cleave through just a bit more—that wouldn't be half bad.
And then, a second chance did come to me.
……
"Yo-nyeong."
"Yes, miss?"
"You know how a person kills the sky?"
"Pardon?"
"I mulled it over real hard—why living things die while lifeless ones stay immortal forever. Turns out, it's 'cause the living ones are alive."
"Pardon?"
Yo-nyeong, one of Hong Sang-gwan's courtesans, shot the girl in front of her a baffled side-eye. Showing up at a brothel in a woman's body was weird enough, but now this chick was spouting pure gibberish. Maybe she's one of those demonic arts nuts from the streets whose brain got fried, Yo-nyeong thought.
"What makes living things living? Bones and meat, with blood pumping through 'em."
"…"
"So, to kill the unkillable, you gotta make 'em alive first. Wanna lop off the sky's head? Visualize a heart, muscles, and neck bones, then transplant the whole package right into the sky."
"Ah… yes."
"Hmph. Logic like that's probably over your head, girlie. Just pour the booze."
How do you kill a Demon King, anyway? No point brooding solo. Word was this Murim world had some legit terrifying transcendent masters lurking around. If push came to shove, I could swallow my pride and beg for pointers like the lowly scrub I was. Sky Devil. Break Sky Sword Ghost. God Monk. If even half those titles rang true, they'd be a massive leg up for me.
I dusted off my seat and stood, muttering those nightmarish aliases under my breath.
"Guess I'll go pay the Sky Devil a visit."