Chapter 129
Chapter 129
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 129
Chapter Title: Interlude. War in the Darkness
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“…What are you talking about?”
Sword aura.
If Ja-seong had heard it, he would have been shocked enough for his eyes to pop out, but to So-ha, who knew nothing about such things, it was just incomprehensible nonsense.
—It’s just an old tale. It means nothing now. Anyway, how should I deal with this one…?
Ogan’s thoughts, which had briefly wandered off-topic, quickly returned to how to handle So-ha.
It seemed the answer was already decided, judging by the breath puffing in front of her nose and the tongue flicking out.
Even with Ogan right in front of her, poised to devour her at any moment, So-ha’s face showed only displeasure—no fear or sense of crisis.
But Ogan, drunk on the anticipation of a rare feast, failed to notice her reaction.
On top of that, an unexpected interloper suddenly barged in.
“No, you can’t!”
—Huh?
Ogan’s head snapped to the side.
There stood Samgan, back atop the altar, shouting with a twisted, ugly face.
“That wench is a grave sinner who dared disrupt the sacred ritual! The principle is to offer her alongside the escaped sacrifice to the great divine tree. So tie that sinner to the altar, and you—go catch the runaway sacrifice at once!”
—…….
Ogan fell silent for a moment, utterly dumbfounded.
He couldn’t fathom the mental state of this pathetic worm daring to order him around.
‘What the hell is he thinking?’
His bewilderment was instantly resolved by Samgan’s continued prodding.
“Ogan! You dare ignore my words?!”
Samgan and Ogan.
‘So that’s it—he thinks he outranks me just because his number comes first?’
Ogan went from disbelief to utter absurdity.
Then came a low chuckle from beside him.
“Pfft.”
No need to look; it was So-ha.
Still tightly bound in vines, she smirked without a care.
“Indeed, your god is testing you.”
—…Ha!
The mockery hit him square.
Ogan burst into a savage laugh.
Blind to the ominous shift in Ogan’s aura, Samgan kept berating him.
“What are you doing?! Go right—”
—Crunch!
Samgan couldn’t finish his sentence.
One of Ogan’s stems smashed down on him from the crown of his head.
The stem that crushed the small human body pierced straight through the altar.
Blood spread through the cracks in the shattered altar.
It was clear Samgan would never berate Ogan again.
Samgan’s death was far too sudden.
The moment rippled through the other zealots like a shockwave.
“U-Uwaaah! W-Why did Lord Ogan kill Lord Samgan…?”
Unconcealed fear spread across their aghast faces.
The exact opposite of their cheers when the battered Nok nearly met his end as a living sacrifice.
—Oh dear, I’ve gone and done it.
Feeling the zealots’ stares, Ogan shook his head as if in dismay.
Muttering something like “no helping it,” he extended dozens of bundles of stems in all directions—toward the zealots.
—Whoosh!
Just before the stems reached them, mouths gaped wide, swallowing them headfirst in one gulp.
“Aaack! Aaaack!?”
—Crunch crunch
Screams echoed from within the stems, followed by the sound of something being chewed.
—Gulp
Even the sound of swallowing the mashed remnants.
The zealots, stunned by the unbelievable sight, snapped to their senses and began fleeing with screams.
A primal survival instinct.
—Uwaaaah—!
But their feet were too slow to escape alive, and Ogan’s stems too numerous.
The zealots dwindled rapidly as they were devoured one after another.
—Tch, as expected, the ordinary ones taste awful.
Ogan griped about the flavor even as he devoured countless people.
Watching him, So-ha asked,
“Is it really okay to stir up this much chaos? Building a settlement like this can’t have been easy. Your superiors won’t be pleased.”
As So-ha said, establishing a base like this on a remote island in the middle of Poyang Lake wouldn’t have been simple.
But Ogan replied as if she were talking nonsense.
—Huh? What are you on about? You lot are the ones killing believers and wrecking villages, aren’t you? Lucky for us, I stepped in late to at least save the sapling.
“…I see.”
Pin it all on me, huh?
Just looking at how he acted first and thought up that excuse afterward showed he wasn’t fit for any responsibility.
It made sense why a so-called demon bore the lowly title of the “Fifth Stem,” inferior even to humans.
Shaking her head, So-ha asked in a lower voice once more.
“Is it really that easy? They’re not idiots—they won’t just swallow your story whole.”
—What choice do they have? This place is completely cut off from the outside by some barrier formation or whatever. Clean up the traces, and no one will notice.
“…Right?”
So-ha’s eyes gleamed.
If he was that confident, she had no need to hold back either.
‘…Should I just do it?’
As she smirked inwardly in triumph, Ogan—still devouring zealots with his stems—made a retching sound.
—Even flesh and souls of the tasteless ones are a chore to eat.
For all his complaints about the hardship, he’d been eating nonstop.
After devouring even the last remaining zealot, Ogan finally turned toward the feast he’d been craving.
—Keh heh, begging for mercy now won’t save you. It’s far too late.
Drool dripping, Ogan gaped his maw wide.
He lunged to swallow So-ha whole.
Her fate hung by a thread.
Yet So-ha only deepened her smile.
“No, this is plenty.”
The moment her words ended, blinding light poured from her entire body.
The radiance, too intense to even look at, began incinerating Ogan’s form right before her.
—Kraaack?!
Screaming in agony that threatened to shatter his mind, Ogan released So-ha from her bonds.
Freed, So-ha plummeted to the ground only to unfurl wings of light and soar back up.
In his writhing pain, Ogan beheld them: three pairs of wings from So-ha’s back.
—T-That’s…!
Unlike demons, angels’ ranks were determined by the number of wings on their backs—a measure of their power.
From the wingless sixth rank, Anhelus, to the six-winged Seraphim.
And three pairs…!
—Fourth rank, Dominion?
He’d misjudged her strength.
Chilling realization rang alarm bells in his mind.
Spurred by intense peril, Ogan acted swiftly.
He tore away all stems burning in her light and fled.
“Huh?”
So-ha let out a hollow laugh at Ogan’s surprisingly swift escape, wriggling roots and all. She raised one hand.
Light gathered in her grasp, forming the shape of a massive spear.
Gripping it in reverse and raising it overhead, So-ha hurled it at Ogan.
—Swoosh!
The spear of light sliced through the air.
Ogan, fleeing blindly without noticing, belatedly turned and spotted the light bearing down on him.
—A…!
A short, hollow gasp.
That was Ogan’s end.
The spear pierced him, and a massive explosion of light illuminated the crimson forest.
—Fwooom!
The light that blanketed the area in white for a long while finally faded, leaving nothing behind.
Confirming Ogan’s death, So-ha descended to the altar, her three pairs of wings vanishing.
“How curious. Thanks to their formation, I avoided detection.”
An angel of So-ha’s caliber would alert every demon in the world just by unleashing her power.
That was why she’d sealed most of it away normally—now freed without worry, courtesy of the Blood Tree Cult’s formation.
Feeling thoroughly unburdened, So-ha glanced around.
Unlike when she’d first arrived, only eerie silence filled the air.
Those ensnared by the Blood Tree Cult’s whispers had committed atrocities in their false faith, dying without even corpses left behind.
Her expression soured briefly before she turned to the massive tree behind the altar—Rogog’s sapling.
“Come to think of it, you’re still here.”
Stepping past the altar, So-ha approached the sapling and examined it closely.
Seeing no movement at all, it seemed freshly planted here.
“Thanks to that, you’ll be easy to deal with.”
She picked up her dropped sword from beside the sapling and ignited it once more in holy flame.
Then thrust it straight into the sapling.
—Thud!
White flames raced from the deeply embedded blade, engulfing the entire tree and setting it ablaze.
Soon, a chilling wail emanated from within.
—Kieeeek—!
In the holy fire spreading across the sapling in an instant, a shadowy form flickered.
The silhouette amid the roaring blaze resembled a wrathful demon howling from the flames.
Silently watching, So-ha sensed three presences approaching from behind and turned.
“Hall Master.”
“Nok.”
Nok, supported by Cheong, looked far better than before.
Still naked for lack of proper clothes, but the gashes covering his body had vanished.
Nodding in relief at Hong’s competent treatment, So-ha faced Nok with a stern expression.
“First off, tell me—how did you get caught?”
The Nok she knew wasn’t careless enough to get captured like this.
Yet he had been, meaning some other reason—at least, that’s what So-ha thought.
“…There’s something I must show you. Please follow me.”
With a faint groan, Nok straightened from Cheong’s support and led the group somewhere.
Their destination was the village edge, centered on the altar—a cave sealed by wooden doors.
“Cheong, that door…”
“Got it.”
—Boom!
Cheong smashed the door to splinters in Nok’s stead.
Stepping over the debris inside, a foul stench assaulted them.
“Ugh…!”
Hong pinched her nose, face scrunched, while Cheong wordlessly lit a torch and ventured in.
Thankfully, the cave wasn’t deep; they soon reached the end, eyes widening at the sight.
“This is…!”
Before them were children.
Dozens of them, emaciated as if starved and unwashed for ages.
Meeting their unnaturally hollow, dead eyes—so unlike a child’s—So-ha was at a loss for words.
“While investigating, I learned they sacrifice children to the saplings. Hearing they’d use these kids as offerings, I couldn’t stand by.”
“…Let’s move them outside first.”
Understanding why Nok had been caught, So-ha silently ordered the children brought out of the cave.
“Sob…”
Hong, eyes welling up despite the shock and blocked nose, helped lead the children out with the group.
Ten children in total.
Gazing down at their limp, unresisting forms in their arms, So-ha asked Nok,
“Their parents?”
“All bought and brought here. We don’t know where their parents are…”
Impossible to return them to family.
With a small sigh, So-ha turned to Cheong and Hong.
“We’ll take these children back to headquarters. First, clean them up and clothe them.”
“Yes.”
“Yes!”
With high and low affirmations, Cheong and Hong led the children away.
Turning from their backs, So-ha looked at Nok again.
“Anything else to report?”
“Yes. About that Rogog sapling.”
At his words, So-ha glanced sidelong at the altar.
The sapling, once ablaze in holy fire, had collapsed into ash.
“Shall I guess? There’s more than one sapling?”
“…Yes. It seems there are at least two more.”
“Locations identified?”
Nok bowed his head, shamefaced at So-ha’s question.
“I’m sorry. Only one so far.”
“…At least we haven’t lost the trail. Where?”
Lifting his head, Nok replied with a grim face.
“Mount Wudang.”
Mount Wudang.
Home to the Wudang Sect, one of the Nine Great Sects.
The famously popular Wudang Sect—what were they scheming there?
Their next destination was set.
So-ha smiled coldly.