Lightning (3)
In Karnevarin, there were once countless gods. Each possessed their own domains and powers, along with the majesty and strength those domains demanded. That remained true until the day an entity arose with a single conviction: for humanity to truly become great, all those gods had to vanish.
He persuaded the god of fire to take its own life. Then, wielding the power it had surrendered, he set out to slaughter the rest. So many deities fell that only five remained, yet even then the domain of lightning in Karnevarin was one that neither gods nor mortals bothered to claim. Magic had flourished into countless forms—from spells that reproduced and manipulated light itself, to those that twisted space, cheated death into immortality, or forced the dead to keep dancing. Yet no magic touched lightning.
It was the one subject even mages who eagerly probed every other taboo and horror refused to touch. That was lightning. No one knew why.
At least, not until now.
BOOOOM!
Thunder roared, layered over the lightning that had already struck. A bolt had descended upon the earth—in human shape, slowly lowering the mace it held high.
The god who had been light’s vanguard and child. The god who disliked human harmony and once shared their language. Even after the god of language perished, the prophecies splintered across cultures, sects, and interpretations. Some passages claimed the incarnation would descend with lightning, that thunder and lightning would shatter the world.
Until this moment, everyone had taken it as metaphor—the incarnation’s coming catastrophe, the ruin it would bring. But they had been wrong.
Andreina had lived fifty-nine years, died, been laid to rest in paradise, and then spent four hundred and ten years as a Holy Knight in service to the order. The instant she saw him, she understood.
Dangerous.
Darkness had come. The god that had stayed silent since the dawn of creation had finally extended a hand. An incarnation of darkness beyond any doubt.
Andreina advanced with the illusion of clenched jaw muscles that no longer existed, her foot rolling forward. A roar. A greatsword lifted high.
Florence was pinned in place. Overwhelmed. One of the autonomous district’s councilors—the strongest dark elf alive—could not be left to a single cleric. Therefore it fell to her.
Andreina closed on Ha Jinwoo, who still had not recovered his senses, greatsword raised. Her target was the head. She had believed the fight already over, yet it was not. In that case she would finish him with a single strike that allowed no resistance.
Maribella sucked in a breath and charged with her own blade, but she was already too late.
I strike first.
Andreina twisted her waist with tremendous force. Swordsmanship refined across four hundred and fifty-nine years had long surpassed perfection. Four hundred and ten years as a Holy Knight had taught her every nuance of this gigantic, inhuman body. She drew power from the final fiber of her liquid joints and metallic muscles.
Waist movement beyond human limits. Range of motion that shattered human boundaries. Weight, mass, balance more perfect than any living creature. A body without the fluctuations of endurance. All of it fused into one.
This single sword was flawless.
With absolute certainty she gripped the hilt in both hands. The moment the raised greatsword slammed downward—
Crackle—
Lightning crawled across the ground.
There was a flash. Not the flash of light. The greatsword that had shattered the earth with a roar carried not a single drop of blood.
Where—
Andreina’s eyes jerked after the lightning. The bolt stretched long, then suddenly arrived at her side.
CRAAAAAACK!
Her body tilted. Non-existent vision spun. A moment of dizziness that should not exist. The soul’s longing for the days it had been alive. Phantom vertigo and pain.
Within that phantom agony, what Andreina saw was a foot wrapped in a shoe.
The instantaneous speed had already surpassed human limits. Andreina’s colossal frame was sent flying.
BANG! BANG! KWA-KWANG-KWAAAAANG!
The massive body smashed through ground and buildings alike before crashing down. A velocity eyes could not track. Yet the lightning remained behind like an afterimage.
Ha Jinwoo stood there. Mace lowered in his right hand, eyes heavy with weariness. The micro-current no one else would have noticed burned across his body, setting every muscle alight.
“Vertea.”
“…Yes. Yes, Master.”
“Help me this once.”
“Gladly. This unit will gladly devote itself.”
“Gather maximum firepower. Stronger than the day we first met.”
The words spilled out steeped in joy. Faint delight colored the normally expressionless face. Her head bobbed with fierce nods.
Feeling that response, Ha Jinwoo stepped forward.
Even a short stride felt burdensome. His brain seemed to be melting. The heat was unbearable. Consciousness blurred, yet at the same time it was painfully clear. Perceived time stretched so far that reality felt distant. Everything moved as if in a dream.
Ha Jinwoo exhaled. The long breath became a haze that scorched the air. Still not enough. Faster. Beyond the limit. Stronger.
Despite the agony of a brain set on fire, Ha Jinwoo did not stop. He drew out power past every limit. The principle was the same as the Kill Switch. The generator, the power cells—both had changed. The blessing had rewritten them.
Ha Jinwoo’s entire body had become a generator. The enormous current it produced replaced skin, muscle, bone, and blood vessels. A physically impossible phenomenon. Yet Ha Jinwoo abandoned thought. He would simply treat the phenomenon as a weapon.
“Let’s go.”
Debris erupted upward. The Holy Knight charged through the explosion of rubble. She no longer held back. Metallic muscles woven strand by strand roared as they drove her colossal frame.
The approaching immensity. Overwhelming speed and power. Yet Ha Jinwoo did not retreat. He lowered his stance and dashed.
Fierce lightning bloomed in his wake. In a burst of flashing light, Ha Jinwoo’s body met the giant head-on.
Their eyes met. Even though one side had no eye, he felt they had.
They moved at the same instant. Waist twisting to bring the weapon around. Ankle turning, converting that torque through the core and into the metal held in his hand.
A resounding battle cry. Death rushing forward. An attack normally considered impossible to receive. The Holy Knight had swung expecting him to dodge—so she could catch the evasion with her waist, redirect, sever him in midair, and end it.
Her judgment had been correct. The Ha Jinwoo of before would have dodged. This time he did not.
Speed was power. Ha Jinwoo twisted his whole body and swung the mace he had lifted high.
—!
An indescribable roar split the air. The mace, launched with thunder, drove the greatsword back. Amid scattering metal shards, Ha Jinwoo’s widened eyes moved with dizzying speed.
Merely drawing lightning was not enough. He had to become lightning.
At his will, the lightning that composed his entire body moved. Thought became action instantly. Will itself moved the flesh.
For the first time, Ha Jinwoo moved before the Holy Knight.
CLAAAAAANG!
The violent metallic ring. The turning head. The Holy Knight’s helmet caved inward. Ha Jinwoo advanced, still gripping the mace he had swung.
Lightning surged through every corner of his body. Blue flashes accompanied a hail of blows. Each time Ha Jinwoo’s arm moved, the blurred, red-hot mace hammered the Holy Knight.
She lost in speed. She still held the advantage in power, yet the strikes would not land cleanly. But such power could not come without cost.
KAAAAAAAAANG!
The Holy Knight’s greatsword met the mace. As if about to rebound, Ha Jinwoo spun through the air and reset his stance. Both warriors reached the same conclusion at once.
This battle would be won by whoever endured longer.
Ha Jinwoo pressed forward. Pure white death filled his vision. The Holy Knight’s massive body charged like a living siege engine. To be hit meant death. An attack that covered an entire surface rather than a single point—different from the bullets he had once dodged so easily. He had to evade with his whole body in mind. But now it was different. With his brain burning, his body accelerated.
RUMBLE!
Thunder roared again. Passing silhouettes. In the chaos the greatsword spun and swept low, scattering dust, only to stop against the mace swung in answer.
Thunder roared once more. Thunder forged of iron, blood, and lightning.
Ha Jinwoo did not even wipe the blood he had coughed up as he continued the dance. Flashes flickered. Every clash of greatsword against mace drove the Holy Knight back, carving clear scars into her frame.
Yeojin’s effect stacked impact force. But its limit was obvious. This level of magical weapon could not contain that speed and power indefinitely. The same was true of Ha Jinwoo’s body. It was collapsing from within. He knew that better than anyone. Still he did not stop.
He would lose nothing more. That vow was carved into his bones.
CRAAAAAASH!
Shattering metal fragments. The broken mace. Only the handle remained; its head had disintegrated.
He would not waste it. Ha Jinwoo hurled the broken weapon, then swung his clasped hands like a hammer, striking the greatsword that lightning had already driven back.
CRAAAAAACK!
The greatsword flew away. Ha Jinwoo was now bare-handed. Blood poured from the severed hand, yet he ignored the missing fingers and clenched a fist.
He read the entire battlefield. Not even a single drifting mote of dust escaped his senses. Everything was too slow. The world, even himself. He could still move faster.
At that will the lightning burned brighter. Until Andreina’s eyes could no longer follow and lost him completely.
He’s gotten faster—
KWA-KWANG-KWAAAAANG!
The impact was far too violent for a severed fist. Martial strikes that hammered and crumpled armor. Fists and legs. Attacks carrying the full speed of his body. The Holy Knight staggered, then clenched her own fist and swung in answer.
Ha Jinwoo twisted aside, drove out a leg, and the instant it connected with her armor Andreina stabbed with the greatsword. The blade split the air with a shockwave and buried itself in the ground. When she ripped it free and swept it in a wide arc, Ha Jinwoo leaped and kicked her in the head.
She was pushed back. She was losing ground. Yet the Holy Knight answered with everything she had. An enemy she had never faced in her long life. A kind of foe she had never encountered. Still she responded. She had forged herself for exactly this.
She executed her technique. The white greatsword moved. Both hands guided it with nimble precision, chasing every trajectory.
CLAAAANG!
Narrowing paths, restricting evasion. It reached the end. Even as she saw lightning torn away and Ha Jinwoo’s forearm ripped open, she calmly drew the hilt close and swung again.
Following the blue flash, the blade split the air and hammered the earth. Through the scattered rubble a red shadow approached.
Maribella swung her greatsword at point-blank range. A fierce metallic clash drove her blade back, but the greatsword stopped as well.
Now.
Maribella shouted at once.
“Vampire knights! Attack!”
The knights accelerated at their lord’s command. White-armored figures moved as one. Their long swords traced the air and struck the torn sections of the Holy Knight’s armor.
“Annoying!”
The Holy Knight roared and swung her blade, but—
CRACKLE-CRACKLE!
Ha Jinwoo, accelerated by lightning, kicked the greatsword aside before it could complete its arc. Before she could swing again, countless enemies closed in.
The sight of blades that had once relied on light rising up. Overlapping memories triggered something in the Holy Knight; she moved even faster, almost in a frenzy.
KWAAAAANG!
She smashed Maribella with a fist and sent her flying.
CRUUUUNCH!
Even as Ha Jinwoo’s kick from behind staggered her, the greatsword bisected two knights. Yet the blade was caught. Dying hands gripped it, halting the swing.
When she tore it free and slammed it down, only lumps of meat remained—but an opening appeared. Ha Jinwoo flew in and kicked the greatsword again. The weakened grip, a habit from when she had still been alive, let the weapon slip from her hand and embed itself in a distant building. The Holy Knight clenched her fists.
Even without a sword she was a warrior. Her arms and legs were siege engines in their own right.
“Keuk…!”
Maribella, who had followed once more, was sent flying again. Her exhausted body could not withstand the blow. The Holy Knight chased Ha Jinwoo, thrusting fists and sweeping legs.
KWA-KWAAAAAANG!
The strikes connected. Fists hammered each other’s bodies simultaneously. While Ha Jinwoo was slammed into the ground and rose again, Andreina simply kept advancing. That was all she needed to do.
Yet why? The image of victory was steadily blurring.
She would not give up. That alone remained unchanged. Why? What is lacking?
Power, technique, speed—nothing was missing. Yet she was being pushed back. Watching Ha Jinwoo vomit blood, rise from the dirt, and accelerate while spitting lightning, Andreina felt victory sliding from her grasp.
RUMBLE-RUMBLE-RUMBLE!
Her body was driven back by thunder. The giant frame tumbled. Still Andreina reflexively kicked, caving in Ha Jinwoo’s chest and sending him rolling miserably across the ground.
The advantage was clearly hers. It had to be. Holy Knights did not suffer injury. Even with identical wounds, this steel body without life held every edge. It should have been that way.
What is it? Something…
Before she could rise, a disturbing sound and searing heat reached her.
RUMBLE—KWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
A pillar of flame soared high enough to swallow the sky. Far away the halfling’s outstretched hand glowed crimson. The flame was so intense that clear pain showed even on that expressionless face.
She had failed to notice it amid the heat of Ha Jinwoo’s lightning and his desperate resistance. Armor melted. Muscles, joints, every metallic component liquefied.
With the sensation of tightening non-existent jaw muscles, the Holy Knight hurled herself forward.
CLAAAANG!
If something had not struck her ankle—
The severed ankle rolled away. The posture she had committed to collapsed. Maribella tumbled across the ground from the reflexively swung arm, but it was already too late.
What does “too late” mean?
The answer to that reflexive thought did not come from her.
KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!
The sound ringing in her ears was unfamiliar. Had she ever heard anything like it?
Andreina lifted her head in a daze and looked at Ha Jinwoo. The spear he had picked up floated in the air.
Crackle. Crackle!
Lightning scattered in every direction. The spear slowly became wrapped in blue radiance. The very throwing spear Andreina had hurled at the start. It was now spinning at terrifying speed.
I will end it with this.
A technique both familiar and alien to Ha Jinwoo. At least forty years had passed since he last used it, yet it felt strangely natural. Still, this was the first time he had ever employed a skill that required dedicated equipment without that equipment.
Only after gathering every trace of lightning throughout his body could he barely manage it. Ha Jinwoo understood immediately: once he used this technique, it would truly be the limit. He would not even be able to maintain consciousness. Nevertheless, he unleashed it.
What he needed was a single, overwhelming blow. His stamina had reached its end. His legs trembled. His breathing was ragged. Only pain anchored his awareness.
Ha Jinwoo twisted his body powerfully and focused on the spear suspended in the air. The metal that formed the Holy Knight’s body. The intricate patterns resembling machine circuitry. He needed power capable of destroying all of it at once—the frame, the defenses, defense itself.
The high-speed rotating spear glowed red. Ha Jinwoo felt it with his will. This would work.
The sole success of the Zeus Project—Ha Jinwoo. Two things had made him a hero on the battlefield: wide-area detection through micro-current and drone jamming. And this.
Despite its promotional name, no one had ever laughed at the sheer destructive power of the technique. A secret art designed for use against battleships, super-heavy tanks, colossal biological weapons, and fortresses.
A strike that could rightly be called the lightning of Zeus.
Astrape
It painted the descending darkness blue.