Chapter 361
Chapter 361
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 361
>Chapter Title: God's Hand
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God's Hand.
Despite its grandiose name, it was literally just a hand-shaped entity.
‘…These guys are after the Hand of Divine Steel.’
Kang Seol’s gaze turned icy without him even realizing it.
The One-Armed Sword Saint. The Hand of Divine Steel.
The thought of it falling into the wrong hands and being exploited made his blood boil.
“I’ve never heard of it. Haven’t seen anything like that.”
“Do you know what the Hand of God looks like? Or even that it exists?”
“No clue. Don’t care.”
The petite woman behind her pulled something out.
“…Well, lies won’t work here.”
Kang Seol’s eyes sharpened as he recognized it. A pendant adorned with a gold ornament shaped like a human face.
“Is this man’s answer true or false?”
The woman spoke in a calm voice.
[Belian uses Confirmation Bias.]
[If the answer to the question is deemed false, Instant Judgment activates.]
The pendant’s ornament opened its eyes and responded.
- Liiiie….
[Instant Judgment activates.]
“…Damn it.”
“False. I’ll sever your left arm.”
Spurt—!
“Arrrgh—!”
Kang Seol’s left arm was sliced clean off in an instant, hitting the ground.
- What the hell??
- Insane…
- Didn’t even see it coming;;
He screamed in pain, but his expression remained surprisingly composed. As if he’d seen it coming.
‘Heretic Inquisitor with Confirmation Bias… This’ll be a headache.’
Kang Seol picked up his arm and pressed it against the stump.
Blood and flesh fused back together in seconds, restoring his arm.
“…A monster?”
Belian and Belldre, the sisters, stared in stunned silence. Their voices revealed they were both young women.
“You’re the monsters for chopping off arms without warning.”
Kang Seol scowled.
‘She can use Confirmation Bias… No talking our way out of this.’
Honestly, even if they tried negotiating now, he had no intention of letting it slide.
“Next question.”
“No answers from me. My turn now. The floor’s mine.”
“Your turn? You don’t have the right or the power to demand truth from us. Belian, ready?”
“Sister, ready.”
Belldre and Belian responded indifferently even as Kang Seol assumed a battle stance.
He didn’t like their attitude.
“Maybe I lack the right. But…”
He clapped his palms together, and something dark rippled between them.
Shoooo…
“I’ve got the power.”
“…Shadows?”
Clash—!
The impact between his palms made the black energy balloon outward like a swelling bubble.
Kang Seol’s eyes reddened, veins bulging.
His golden eyes twisted into an eerie crimson glow.
[Summoning Night Beast.]
[Night Beast’s combat power scales with the amount of darkness used in the summon and the summoner’s stats.]
Crunch…
Crrrackle…
Before the backlash from the Night Raven could drop him, Kang Seol had stockpiled a substantial amount of darkness.
The Night Beast quickly swelled to mid-sized proportions.
Grrooowl…
The fact that it could move without a soul meant not just the labyrinth-dweller could wield Night Beasts.
Kang Seol had pieced together how to raise them from clues in their corpses. This was the Pitch-Black Labyrinth. If he willed it, anything was possible.
“That thing…”
“A, a demon…”
Kang Seol beamed proudly at his massive Night Beast, then pointed forward.
Toward the masked sisters.
“Bite.”
Whoosh—!
Proportional to Kang Seol’s stats, his Night Beast was far swifter than ordinary ones.
He’d learned while slaying the labyrinth’s Night Beasts that the darkness gained was not just a pass to the next stage—it could fuel summons.
‘Occupational habit. Wouldn’t have figured it out otherwise.’
A survival tactic born of desperation.
All he had was summoning. If tricks failed, he’d hone summoning until it worked.
This was the proving ground for that choice.
“At best, a fake! Assist me, Belian!”
“Got it!”
Zing…
[Belian uses Shield of Wisdom.]
[Target’s defense increases by the caster’s wisdom stat.]
Clang—!
A radiant golden shield faintly enveloped Belldre.
[Belldre uses Slaughter’s Play.]
[If the first attack lands, the next is guaranteed critical.]
Ziiing…
Belldre’s longsword let out a clear ring.
Whoosh—!
She leaped to confront Kang Seol’s Night Beast but realized one mistake too late.
Whoooosh…
The oppressive pressure from the frontal clash was beyond imagination. The wind alone nearly pried her jaws apart—she should’ve avoided a head-on collision.
Noticing her error, Belian buffed her.
[Belian uses Steadfast Resolve.]
[Target’s max HP increases by 20% for 30 seconds. After, HP drops by that amount, but defense rises 20%.]
“Hah—!”
Kaaaaang—!
Night Beast’s fist met Belldre’s sword.
In that instant, Belldre’s eyes widened twofold.
“What kind of power is this…?”
She’d lost the contest of strength.
The loser gets knocked flying—that’s how it goes.
Craaack—!
Belldre soared back, toppling two full-grown trees.
But she was near-superhuman. With Belian’s support, she wouldn’t kneel easily.
“Sister!”
Boom—!
Regaining her senses, Belldre charged along the ground, faster than before.
Groowl…
Caught off-guard by her sudden dash, the Night Beast missed.
Belldre targeted not the beast, but the summoner: Kang Seol.
The classic, efficient way to counter a summoner.
Thud—!
Kang Seol vaulted off a tree, bending it like a whip.
“…What?”
[Using Night Mirage.]
[Control darkness to manipulate objects lacking willpower upon touch.]
As he retreated, clapping his hands.
Clash—!
Scraaaape—!
Belldre swung to cleave the incoming tree-whip.
Strange energy laced it, resisting her blade, but she eventually bisected it.
“First…”
Kang Seol, who should’ve been hiding behind the tree, had vanished.
“Sister! Danger!”
While she struck the tree, the mid-sized Night Beast split into three small ones.
Belldre had never faced a summoner wielding such bizarre power in real combat.
Still, she judged she’d seized the advantage.
Smaller meant weaker than mid-size.
She could break them individually.
But Kang Seol always exploited the opponent’s weakest point.
Pop—!
One small beast charged Belian, the sister; the other two blocked Belldre.
Even one would overwhelm Belian alone.
“Coward!”
Not the words from someone who’d just targeted the summoner over the summons—but “coward” is the most useless cry in a fight.
In the past, Kang Seol couldn’t have orchestrated such precise maneuvers.
He’d only finely controlled golem ravens, and even then, clumsily.
But after three months honing spatial awareness, he grasped time’s flow in the space itself. It gave his Night Beasts fluid momentum.
“S-Sister!”
“Belian! Run!”
Slash—!
Belldre reverse-gripped her sword, decapitating one Night Beast.
Divided, its shell and power had indeed weakened.
Having confirmed that…
“That’s far enough.”
“……”
Kang Seol had appeared, one arm around Belian’s neck, the other on her mask.
“Crush it?”
“Ngh…”
Kang Seol had much to ask them—interrogation over killing. The arm severance stung a bit, but he ignored it.
After enduring long trials, his mind had grown serene.
“Drop the weapon.”
Clunk…
Belldre let her sword fall.
“Question. Where are you from?”
“We’re treasure hunters. Wanderers, so you’d have to ask where…”
Heh…
Kang Seol grinned, as if he’d hoped for that response.
“No good… Forgot?”
Crack—!
“Ugh… S-Sister…”
Kang Seol snatched Confirmation Bias from Belian’s hand.
“Lying’s bad. Now…”
Belldre flinched, waving her hands frantically.
“I-I’ll tell the truth!”
Unlike Kang Seol, who reattached limbs like glue in three seconds, she’d be one-armed for life if severed.
“…We’re from the West.”
“Is this one’s answer true or false…?”
- Truuee….
Confirmation Bias verified the truth.
‘From the West?’
An utterly unexpected answer. The West, a place he’d never cared about, popping up out of nowhere.
Silence lingered briefly before Confirmation Bias recharged.
‘Need more specific questions.’
Time to dig deeper.
“What group do you belong to?”
“…The Relic Society.”
“Is this one’s answer true or false?”
- Truuee….
Truth confirmed: their identity.
‘Relic Society?! …Trouble.’
The Relic Society lurked mainly in the West.
They unearthed or stole relics, scheming with them.
As far as Kang Seol knew—but time had passed, so maybe not.
“So, what’s the next question?”
Belldre spat casually, feigning annoyance. Amused, Kang Seol teased her.
‘Think I’d fall for the Confirmation Bias trap?’
She had an ulterior motive.
“Changing the question target to the sister.”
“Wh-What? Why…?”
“Just feel like it.”
“The sister doesn’t know much. I can answer everything?”
“Dunno?”
Confirmation Bias inflicted a lethal penalty on the questioner if the same target answered three questions truthfully and sincerely.
Hence, the third question was taboo.
An obscure fact—Belldre likely assumed Kang Seol was unaware.
He had no intention of yielding control.
“You, Relic Society—why do you know exactly what’s here?”
No survivors from the Pitch-Black Labyrinth besides Divine Steel. Even Divine Steel hadn’t truly cleared it—self-made exit, far from the end.
At least, per Kang Seol’s knowledge.
So no one should know a “God’s Hand” slumbered here, let alone its lofty epithet.
‘Especially not with a name like that…’
“That’s…”
“Refuse to answer, and it’s mask, arm, neck—in that order.”
“……There are people with special powers. They guide us.”
“Special powers? Vague answers cost an arm, by my hand…”
“O-Okay! We call them Prophets. They can locate powerful relics hidden across the continent.”
Kang Seol activated Confirmation Bias.
“Is this one’s answer true or false?”
- Truuee….
Recharging again.
One final question left.
Pondering, Kang Seol struck at the core.
“Why does the Relic Society seek God’s Hand?”
“……”
“Belian! Don’t answer! Lose the arm instead…”
“Sob… Sob…”
Belian wept fat tears at the thought of losing her arm, streaming down her mask.
Kang Seol growled at Belldre.
“Think dodging answers saves you?”
“Kill my sister… and I’ll stake everything to kill you.”
Feeling enemies sprout wherever he went, Kang Seol shrugged and prodded Belian’s body.
Flinch!
“Answer.”
“……”
“Cooperate, or I snap the neck before the arm.”
Cowed by the threat, Belian bowed her head.
“The Relic Society gathers relics to oppose the entrenched powers ruling the Holy Kingdom of Baranoa. They’re corrupt, and the faithful have been deceived… We must stop them.”
“Is this one’s answer true or false?”
- Truuee….
Kang Seol stroked his chin, glancing around.
‘Relic Society changed nature? Well… I only know their predecessors. Anyway… time’s up?’
Thud—!
“Ack—!”
Kang Seol shoved Belian away hard.
Clang—!
Belldre snatched her sword, catching Belian, and glared at him.
“I’ll kill you right now…”
Thwack—!
Kang Seol hurled Confirmation Bias at Belldre, cutting her off.
“Right now? Doubt it.”
He recalled the Night Beast.
Whoooosh…
Darkness returned.
Even this small amount was precious now.
Like golem shadows, but its flexibility appealed.
Real combat proved its worth beyond expectations. Time to refine it further.
Kang Seol’s nonchalant demeanor, as if uninterested in fighting, enraged Belldre.
“Bullshit…”
Then, a chilling voice whispered in her ear.
“A guest?”
Shh…
Whoooosh…
A brilliantly shining sword hovered at her throat’s distance.
When had he approached?
“Must be a guest.”
Gulp…
Kang Seol smirked.
“Whoops, time flew already?”
Some powers forced truth.
“You’re asking. Answer.”
Belldre couldn’t move an inch.
“Y-Yes…”
Some forced lies.
Shin Hyun grinned.
“Then quit playing around and head home before it’s too late.”