Chapter 393
Chapter 393
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 394
>Chapter Title: Brothers' Sacrifice
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“Huff… huff…”
“Hyungnim! Can’t you run any faster?”
“You little punk! This is my max! You’re the one who’s so damn slow!”
“That’s because this is the fastest I can run too!”
“Then shut your mouth and run!”
The Shin brothers were running faster than they ever had in their lives.
There was a reason they had no choice but to.
“Shin Yu, don’t worry. There’s still some time left!”
“Yeah! Just trust your hyungs! We’ll get you to the door right on time!”
Shin Hyun carried Shin Yu in his arms as he ran.
Shin Yu could have kept up with their speed if he stretched out his hand, but his stamina couldn’t match his brothers’.
Warmth radiated from them.
As souls, it couldn’t be the heat from excessive exertion.
- Your legs gave out, huh. I told you not to push yourself. Here, hop on my back.
Shin Yu had a similar experience once before.
He remembered visiting the mountain where Shin Kang was training, collapsing from exhaustion.
And Shin Kang had carried him down the mountain on his back.
A tempered body, a diligent soul.
His presence had been warm.
“Huff… huff… Almost there! We’re almost there!”
“It’s over there! If there’s still time left…”
And now, the brothers’ presence was warm too. Throughout every breath he’d taken in life, his brothers’ warmth had been with him.
Tadak…
Thud…
Thud…
Their footsteps gradually slowed. They had already seen the outcome and were doubting it.
“…It’s closed.”
“Seol-i’s gone too.”
“Heh heh… This is… awkward.”
The brothers were warm, but reality was cruel.
The final gateway.
The door stood firmly shut.
The door was enormous, and no matter how you looked at it, there was no sign it would open again.
Thud…
Even the ever-optimistic Shin Hyun couldn’t help but have his legs give out in a situation like this.
Shin Yu had to comfort them.
Rustle…
- I’m fine. Thank you all for worrying.
“Fine my ass… You little punk, you’re not fine at all!”
“……We need to find a way to open the door.”
In that short time, they tried every method worth attempting.
Kaaang-!
Kaaaaang-!
Clang…
“…….”
Shin Kang and Shin Hyun’s swords both snapped. The door was unyielding, and mere iron blades couldn’t elicit any response.
Rustle…
- Stop. That’s enough.
“…If we stop, then you’ll…”
- It’s okay if I’m left alone. Someday…
Someday, someone might come back to the labyrinth.
“If that ‘someday’… never comes?”
He had no answer for that.
If it came to that, he’d go mad like a ghost haunting a tomb where his brothers slept.
They all knew it.
- I’m sorry, it’s all because of me…
“Yu-ah.”
Shin Lip called out to Shin Yu.
Shin Yu quietly listened to his eldest brother.
“What do you plan to do once you leave the labyrinth?”
It was an out-of-place question.
Now they couldn’t leave the labyrinth—why ask something like that?
But imagination was allowed to anyone.
- With who? Seol-i?
“No, not necessarily Seol-i. What do you want to do?”
- I…
He only wanted to leave the labyrinth. No, he’d felt that way for a long time.
He just hadn’t expressed it due to his lingering attachment to his brothers and the anxiety of being left alone.
‘If I could leave the labyrinth…’
Just imagining it brought an immense sense of liberation. Why hadn’t he resolved himself until now?
It was as if his brothers pushing him created the option.
‘…Ah!’
If he left the labyrinth, there was something he desperately wanted to experience. A small wish born from passing through the gateway of twisted dreams.
- I want to see snow.
“…Snow?”
- Yeah, snow. I saw it again in the dream.
The seasons cycled endlessly.
The labyrinth had weather and cold, but no snow.
No, even if it snowed in the labyrinth, he’d say the same.
“Why… snow of all things?”
- Because…
Why snow?
Was it because on the day he met Kang Seol, on Yu Lim’s final day, snow had poured down?
That day had been good.
The day they’d staked everything against each other.
Was there another day he’d breathed so intensely?
If he escaped the labyrinth, he thought it would be nice to breathe like that again.
Shin Lip listened, lips pressed tight, then asked Shin Yu.
“Yu-ah, when you left Kang-i at the final gateway, did you come out through a door like this?”
The same door?
Shin Yu rummaged through his memories and scribbled.
- It was the same door.
“You’re sure? That this door leads to the other side too?”
- Yes. But why…
“Answer the question. Time’s short. How long did that guy Kang fight the one beyond this door?”
- I don’t know… It was such a desperate battle…
A battle where time lost meaning. That’s what they’d fought. Kang Seol on the other side was probably in the same situation.
“I see… Then there’s still hope.”
- What?
“Hyungnim, do you have a plan?”
Shin Lip whispered to Shin Hyun.
Shin Hyun grinned upon hearing it.
“Isn’t that basically gambling?”
“There are times when you know the odds are low but bet everything anyway. Right?”
Smirk…
“You’re right. Yu-ah, step back.”
- What are you planning?
“Step back. No time!”
- But…
“Now!”
Shin Yu had no choice but to obey his brothers.
The two brothers faced each other and strained to pry the door open from both sides.
Creak…
Creeeak…
“Urghhh…”
“Urgh…”
Don’t do it.
Creak…
Creeeak…
“Urghhh…”
“Urgh…”
No, don’t.
Crackle…
Clad in darkness, they poured all their strength into opening the door.
But…
Crack…
Craaack…
Cracks formed in their hands instead.
Craaack…
No.
The cracks spread in an instant. From hands to arms, arms to whole bodies.
Even their faces.
Like faces reflected in shattered mirrors, fissures ran everywhere.
An unknown light leaked from their bodies.
Thud…
In the end, they collapsed before the unopened door, leaning their backs against it.
“Huff… huff… Hyungnim was right. You should’ve listened to hyungnim sooner.”
“Yeah, why didn’t you?”
“Heh heh… Nagging till the end.”
- Why… What are you doing?
Shin Hyun spoke.
“Shin Yu. You’re the one who’ll astonish the world. The greatest among our brothers! You don’t belong stuck in a dump like this.”
- What are you… What just happened…
Shin Lip gasped.
“We accelerated our souls’ collapse. They’ll probably explode soon.”
“If the door opens, great… If not, an explosion like that should catch someone’s attention, right?”
Someone would notice the explosion.
Someone.
“Seol-i’s sharp. He’ll figure it out for sure.”
“Of course. After all the favors he owes us. He can take our little brother, yeah?”
“Kukuku… Faces thick as thieves, but you’re right. Shin Yu, this is our last from your brothers. Listen well.”
- …….
“Don’t get arrogant from your talents, don’t regret the years gone by.”
“Burn it into your mind. It’s what we leave you.”
Shin Lip recited the words they’d shared with Shin Yu on the day he died.
“Shin Yu, just as your death once united the brothers, our deaths will carry you to that guy Kang.”
The pitch-black labyrinth.
Four brothers had entered.
Three remained, one left. And now.
Only one would remain.
“Don’t cry. We’re… together.”
“Now go! Shin Yu!”
Shin Yu turned away, weeping silently. He wanted to wail aloud, but all he could do was move away from the door.
Crack…
Craaack…
“Heh… heh heh… We’re really going.”
“…Hyun-ah, thank you. Let’s meet as brothers in the next life.”
“Hyungnim… you worked hard. But next life, I’ll be the hyung.”
“…Whenever you want.”
Riiip…
Kwaaaaaaaaang-!
A massive explosion shook the space. The power accumulated by Shin Hyun and Shin Lip triggered a blast that threatened to collapse the very space itself.
Fsssh…
As soon as the explosion subsided, Shin Yu ran toward the door.
The door…
Was still firmly shut. Even this tremendous shock hadn’t opened it.
Shin Yu was left alone before it.
Now the labyrinth was his alone to claim. And his solitude, his alone to bear.
It didn’t feel real.
The brothers’ remains, ragged as they were.
Mere fragments of darkness, not flesh, but Shin Yu gathered them carefully.
Then, staring blankly at the door, he began shaping them into a body.
* * *
Kaaaang-!
Kaaang!
Whoosh…
Whoooosh…
Kang Seol, growing accustomed to Yacha’s power, was gradually keeping up with Jamad’s movements.
‘Jamad… can’t exert more power than I remember.’
As a fake, the labyrinth master’s power seemed inherently limited.
If so, he needed to watch for alchemy or grand sorcery.
Alchemy wasn’t suited for close combat, so minding only grand sorcery would let him drag out the fight.
Of course, prolonging it didn’t mean he could overpower Jamad.
Puuuunch-!
“Grk…”
“What’s wrong? Was that earlier move just luck?”
Slaap-!
Ziiiing-!
Sorcery and magic clashed. True to their natures, all were physical-force spells and sorceries.
Pumph…
“Urk…”
Boom…
“Guh…”
They both spat up blood at once.
“Haa… haa…”
“What’s this? Tired already?”
Jamad had a slight edge.
Kang Seol paused briefly and asked.
“…Didn’t you hear that just now?”
“Hear what?”
“…Never mind. Must’ve been my imagination.”
“You’ve got time to get distracted? Pull out more of those hidden cards.”
Creak…
“Or your breath will end soon.”
Whoooosh…
To Kang Seol, Yacha was the ultimate sword.
Two years ago, the exchange would’ve turned him into mincemeat instantly.
But now, he could hold his own—barely—against Jamad at the pinnacle.
Still, to win, he needed more strategy. Fiercely, as always.
That one move to turn defeat into victory.
Flaaash-!
Kang Seol’s closed eyes opened. From the moment he vowed to conquer the labyrinth, he’d been painting one picture.
But it was still incomplete.
“Where!”
Kagagagak-!
“Grraaah…”
“If that’s all the power you have… you deserve to die here!”
Kwaaaang-!
Kang Seol gritted his teeth and shook off Jamad.
Whoooong…
Yacha’s path unfolded once more.
Creeeak…
Among the myriad lines, one flow alone didn’t reach Jamad.
Kang Seol seized it without hesitation.
Whoooong…
Kwaaaaaang-!
A barrage of slashes poured down.
One line stretched straight out.
Jamad stood frozen, unmoving.
No defense, no counter.
Fwoooosh-!
The slash passed Jamad by.
There was a clear gap, and it flew off somewhere, smashing and vanishing.
Kwaaaaaang-!
“…What was that? You didn’t dodge, but it missed.”
“…No, I definitely cut it.”
Clank…
Jamad turned at the sound that followed.
Thud…
A noise from the distant door. Something sliced by the slash falling to the floor.
Kang Seol had targeted the locked door from the start, unleashing energy to open it from within.
Creak…
Creeeak…
“Not hearing things, right?”
The massive door slowly opened.
“You there?”
A crudely shaped figure of darkness stood within, smaller than a child.
“…Shin Yu.”
Shin Yu, possessed by the darkness, opened his mouth. Formed from his brothers’ energies, sound emerged.
“Uh… ah… ah… uh…”
Again.
Pop-!
Shin Yu suddenly bolted.
Jamad, sensing displeasure, clapped.
Clap-!
Riiip…
Several rock spears formed, targeting Shin Yu.
Whoosh…
Whoooong…
Despite the unfamiliar body, Shin Yu dodged them all.
Jamad sensed something extraordinary in those movements.
He swung a fist at Shin Yu, now right before him.
Whoooong-!
Boom…
The crude body’s lower half exploded.
“…Dodged?”
That clumsy form had evaded the attack. Shin Yu had avoided total destruction with optimal movement.
Jamad grew intrigued by the motion and didn’t pursue.
Shin Yu writhed between Kang Seol and Jamad, collapsing wetly. The price of a late choice.
“…….”
Shing…
Suddenly, Kang Seol drew his sword.
【No! What are you doing!】
Bitan cried out.
Slice…
Spurt-!
Kang Seol severed his own right arm.
His expression unchanged despite the pain of bodily harm, evoking someone.
- Shin Yu, leave me. I don’t need you.
Here.
The words spoken while cutting off his arm here.
It was Shin Kang.
The man Shin Yu looked up at reminded him of Shin Kang.
But the emotion and words were different now.
“…Shin Yu. Come to me. I need you.”
Kang Seol knelt.
- Until we meet again at the end of this path.
“I’ll take you to the end of this path, no matter what.”
“…….”
“Now, give me your answer. Do you still want to stay in the labyrinth?”
Shin Yu, strength spent, forced his mouth open.
“T-take… me… p-please… with you…”
He was sick of the labyrinth now.
So…
If it wasn’t too late.
“Take me… to the world…”
Smirk…
Kang Seol pressed Shin Yu’s arm to the stump.
Whirl-!
Atromil’s blue lines and the progenitor’s blood-red lines intertwined, grafting arm to stump.
[Atromil creates a new conduit.]
[The progenitor’s blood forcibly merges a new body to heal the physical defect.]
……
Creak…
Creeeak…
Immense pain, yet Kang Seol didn’t flinch.
Repeated clashes.
A life in dreams.
The bloody battle in the snowfields.
Uniting their hearts took eons, but Shin Yu merging into Kang Seol took only an instant.
[Constitution: Ghost Hand awakens.]
[Ghost Hand: Black Hand blooms.]
[Black Hand assists movements.]
[Moves at tremendous speed for a short time.]
[Time to learn movements greatly reduced.]
[A profoundly powerful ghost resides within.]
[Ability points are consumed.]
[Ability points used.]
[Ability points used.]
[Ability points used.]
[Ability points used.]
……
Finally, with all ability points gone, the two became one.
The black hand still felt awkward.
As Kang Seol wiggled it, Jamad asked.
“Is that… your final power? Just… a hand?”
Kang Seol didn’t explain Shin Yu. He’d learn soon enough, whether he liked it or not.
The battle in the snow-swept plains.
Once-comrades now foes before him, once-enemies now allies beside.
Countless paths intertwined.
“Shin Yu. Let’s show them… that day’s…”
The winter blizzard even stopped.
That day’s silent storm.
The hearts hidden behind the early curtain call.
And…
“Us.”
Kang Seol—no, he and Shin Yu—charged at Bitan.
Crackle-!
Light flashed.