Chapter 1152
"......You don't deserve to live."
The moment those words were spat out, the world fell into utter silence.
Plip.
A single tear fell, and from the depths of his heart, an abyssal darkness began to bloom.
Like ink dropped into clear water, the shadows consumed his entire body in an instant.
Crunch— Crrrack—
The grotesque sounds of bones twisting and muscles tearing echoed horrifically.
A power beyond what any mortal body could withstand was reshaping his very existence.
The black energy tore through flesh, seared his veins, and finally swallowed his soul whole.
The agony was fiercer than the flames of hell, yet a wretched smile curled upon Baekri Geom-ha's lips.
"Heh... heheheh..."
Compared to the despair he felt, the pain of his body breaking apart was nothing.
BOOM— CRACKLE—
As Baekri Geom-ha's desperate smile appeared, the earth trembled in response, and the heavens wailed.
Ooooooh—
The black storm of demonic energy that burst from his body drained the life from all living things, shrouding the sky in darkness.
The moonlight vanished, and the world was plunged into eternal night. At the center of the black tempest, Baekri Geom-ha slowly raised his head.
He was no longer human.
Though his shattered body had reformed into flawless perfection, his skin now gleamed with a deathly pallor, and his hair had darkened to the hue of an abyssal night.
And his eyes—
No trace of human emotion remained in those pupils.
Only fathomless darkness. Silence.
And an overwhelming, absolute terror—the aura of a supreme being whose mere existence crushed all beneath it.
Sshhk—!
Suddenly, the head of the Man in Black standing before him soared into the air, a fountain of blood erupting in its wake.
There were countless people present.
Yet not a single one had seen how Baekri Geom-ha had severed that man's neck.
"Because of trash like you..."
A mist of blood—more harrowing than bloody tears—spread through Baekri Geom-ha's eyes.
"I've come to believe this world must be erased!"
Sshhk—! Sshhk—!
Wherever his gaze fell, the heads of the Men in Black were sent flying.
Heavenly Darkness Star.
An existence with the will to reduce all to nothingness.
A demon god of destruction, bent on annihilating everything in the world, had descended upon the earth.
Sshhk—! Sshhk—!
Before anyone could react, thirty of the Men in Black had been reduced to headless corpses.
By then, Baekri Geom-ha's entire body had darkened completely, and the black storm swirling around him—as though condensing the very power of the world itself—began to rage violently.
"So it was the Heavenly Darkness Star..."
The leader trembled.
Having grasped the extent of Baekri Geom-ha's power, he realized there was no way to kill him.
"If it's the Heavenly Darkness Star, even the White Annihilation Warriors would be nothing but a joke."
Even the Baekri Clan's Masters would need to mobilize at least a force at least of the previous generation's caliber to breach these Earthen Chambers.
Because this place was saturated with potent Soul-Demon Magic Energy.
But an awakened Heavenly Darkness Star? That power was untouched by such influences—rendering any countermeasures meaningless.
Drip...
In an instant, Baekri Geom-ha's pupils darkened further, and the space around the leader began to warp under an unbearable pressure.
The air turned viscous, vision distorted like a heat haze, and the crushing force threatened to burst his body apart—
"Do you really think you can kill me?"
The leader, struck by a cunning thought, shouted hastily.
"You seem like quite the sentimental type, no?"
Forcing a grin despite the pressure threatening to tear him apart, the Man in Black sneered.
"Are you going to kill all the Clay Dolls still trapped here?!"
For just a moment, the pressure from Baekri Geom-ha wavered—
SHWIP—!
Seizing the opening, the leader thrust his hand toward the sky.
And then, something horrific unfolded.
Riiip—
The skin of the hundreds of Clay Dolls within the Earthen Chambers split open—
Hsssss...
—and from the fountains of blood, they began spewing black mist.
Simultaneously, their bodies lost form, melting into a viscous, inky fog that moved at the Man in Black's command.
Though their bodies were too weak to be chosen as martial artists,
the Clay Dolls were descendants of the True Demon's bloodline, brimming with potent Soul-Demon Magic Energy.
Thus, their energy could be used as explosives to blast enemies apart—
or, as now, sacrificed to fuel a devastating spell by pooling all their power together.
Swoooosh...
The hundreds of Clay Dolls became a deathly mist, swirling around Baekri Geom-ha in a colossal vortex.
"You tried so hard to protect those Clay Dolls, didn't you?"
The Man in Black curled his lips.
"Now, why don't you be the one to kill them with your own hands?"
With a flick of his finger, the very air twisted.
In an instant, the black mist surged forward, clinging to the bodies of the young girls.
Bzzzt—
Their bodies stiffened as if struck by a pressure point, and dark fissures spiderwebbed across their skin.
From the cracks seeped not blood—but a sinister, creeping black smoke.
The smoke writhed like a living creature before transforming into slender, razor-sharp spears.
Whoosh!
The spears hovered in the air for a moment—
Swish!
—then tore through space with a deafening roar as they surged toward Baekri Geom-ha.
Kwa-rur-rung!
A chain of explosions erupted like lightning strikes.
Zzziiing.
Fortunately, thanks to the fully awakened power of the Heavenly Darkness Star, a black barrier akin to Protective Astral Energy formed around his body, barely preventing his flesh from being pierced.
But the shockwaves seeped mercilessly into his bones.
Crack. Thud-thud.
With the agony of shattering bones, Baekri Geom-ha coughed up black blood.
Destroying those spears meant erasing the Soul-Demon Magic Energy that had petrified the boy and girl.
He knew this all too well.
Which was why he didn't resist—why he endured the onslaught with his entire body.
Creeeak.
Eventually, even the black barrier forged by the Heavenly Darkness Star's power began to crack.
At this rate, it was only a matter of time before his body was torn apart.
'Is this all I'm capable of?'
Helplessness and despair coiled around him like serpents.
Even after awakening the Heavenly Darkness Star's power—the force said to annihilate the world—he couldn't save them?
Thud.
Then, the face of the girl collapsed beside him turned deathly pale.
Though the Soul-Demon Magic Energy inside her had nearly dissipated, sparing her from further drain by the Man in Black's spell,
her breath was fading, her body melting away in excruciating torment.
'I...'
The fragile girl who had tried to protect him was dying.
A pure soul who had given her all without resentment or despair, even as she passed on her life force.
Now, in her final moments, she was fading into agony.
"Ugh..."
Disgust and self-loathing churned within him.
What use was the power to destroy the world if he couldn't even save one small girl?
What was the point of being the Heavenly Darkness Star, the Harbinger of Annihilation?
Snap.
Something inside Baekri Geom-ha's heart abruptly broke.
"Hah... hahahaha."
Laughter burst from his lips.
Not the hollow, detached amusement of one who had never truly understood another's pain—
but the first, raw scream of his soul.
"KHAHAHAHA!"
It was a howl of grief and fury—at his own powerlessness, at his failure to protect what mattered.
A scathing condemnation of a world that treated life as a plaything.
Whoooosh.
At that moment, Baekri Geom-ha's Spirit and Mind
merged perfectly with the source of Bu Eun-seol's relentless vengeance.
—If I had thought more carefully, this wouldn't have happened.
—If I had been stronger, none of this would have occurred.
Then came unbearable regret, drowning his soul.
—If I had never been born... Saha Manor, my parents... none of this would have happened...
KWA-AAAAANG!
The fury buried deep within him erupted.
Suddenly, an intense energy burst forth from his Brain Gate Acupoint.
This was neither the Heavenly Darkness Star's power nor Soul-Demon Magic Energy.
It was a sacred azure radiance, tearing through the abyss of despair.
FWOOOOOSH!
A blinding light exploded, taking the form of a colossal blue dragon.
The dragon's roar shook the Earthen Chambers.
The malevolent mist of Soul-Demon Magic Energy scattered in terror.
The leader's eyes widened in shock.
"You—!"
Regaining his composure, he thrust out his hand.
"DIE!"
Swish!
Once more, black spears surged toward Baekri Geom-ha.
Shhhhk.
But this time, wreathed in blue energy, he did not defend.
He walked straight into the storm of spears.
Ssssss!
The moment the black spears touched the azure light,
the Soul-Demon Magic Energy was absorbed into it.
"This is—!"
The Man in Black's eyes bulged.
Only now did he recall one of the ancient legends passed down through the martial world.
"Heavenly Might Star!"
That blue energy—it was another power slumbering deep within Baekri Geom-ha's being.
The power of the Heavenly Might Star.
If the Heavenly Darkness Star symbolized annihilation,
the Heavenly Might Star was the heavens themselves—the Harmonization that encompassed all things.
A force capable of wielding all powers in existence.
"I want to destroy."
The blackness in Baekri Geom-ha's eyes was now overtaken by spreading azure light.
"And I want to recreate."
KWA-WHOOM!
Then, the petrified bodies of the children softened, their skin glowing as if purified.
The cursed power of Soul-Demon Magic Energy—
the malevolent force that led to death—was being transformed into pure life.
Whoooooosh.
As the children stirred, the trembling figure of the leader was laid bare.
Confidence had long drained from his face, replaced by shock and terror.
KWA-WOONG!
As Baekri Geom-ha stretched out his hand—
"Uuugh..."
The leader trembled, his expression twisted in agony.
The vast Soul-Demon Magic Energy within his body began transforming into cerulean light, forcibly expelled from his flesh.
"AAAAAH!"
The light dispersed like black mist, swirling toward the scattered boys and girls before gently seeping into them.
And then—
The Soul-Demon Magic Energy that had been lost from their bodies was reborn as pure life force, flooding back into their veins.
PAA! PAAAAH!
The earthen chambers, once filled with nothing but despair, had become a miraculous space where azure energy breathed life anew.
Drip... drip...
As the Heavenly Might Star's power surged through his meridians, the Darkness Secret Arts binding him unraveled on their own—
Revealing Baekri Geom-ha's true face.
"You..."
By then, the leader—the Man in Black—had been reduced to a living skeleton.
His bony finger shook as he pointed at Bu Eun-seol.
"So that's it. That's how it was."
The Manifestation Art Energy, said to govern causality itself—
When fused with the Heavenly Might Star's power, capable of manipulating all things—
Baekri Geom-ha now wielded strength akin to the Primordial Dragon.
"Baekri Geom-ha."
The Man in Black cried out his name.
"So it really is you."
Had it been Bu Eun-seol standing there, he might have questioned what the Man in Black meant—might have tried to unravel the mystery.
But to Baekri Geom-ha, their circumstances meant nothing.
Sssssss—
As his power intensified, the skeletal Man in Black crumbled into dust, scattering into the wind.
"Bu Eun-seol."
After first manifesting the Heavenly Might Star in the Heavenly Darkness Star, Baekri Geom-ha's gaze had changed.
"Now, at last, I can feel you."
Was it the Heavenly Might Star's power manifesting?
Or had his spirit aligned with Bu Eun-seol's grief and vengeance?
The presence that had been lost—
The one he could never sense before—
Now resonated deep within his soul.
'Now, let's put your strength to use.'
Step. Step.
He approached the fallen girl.
And channeled the Heavenly Might Star's energy overflowing within him into her body.
Instantly, color returned to her gaunt face, and her fading life force surged back in an instant.
HUMMM!
Not stopping there, he used the Internal Energy flowing through Bu Eun-seol's body to unblock her minor meridians, strengthening her frail constitution—
Even infusing her with the Prajna Great Power flowing through Bu Eun-seol's body.
"Ah..."
As the girl finally opened her eyes, Baekri Geom-ha smiled.
A warmth unlike anything his ruthless, sinister persona had ever shown.
"Now, may I ask your name?"
The girl's eyes widened.
Not because Baek-ri Mu-ha's face now shone with an ethereal beauty—
But because his smile felt brighter and warmer than sunlight itself.
"Cheong-a."
She lowered her gaze, voice soft.
"That's what I was called... before I came here."
"Cheong-a."
Baekri Geom-ha smiled.
"I'll remember that name. For a long time."
After giving her one last radiant smile, he turned to the other children watching him and took a deep breath.
'I'm not the one who can save them.'
In this world where everything seemed frozen, Baekri Geom-ha looked up at the distant sky.
'What the martial world—what they need... is you, Bu Eun-seol.'
A faint smile touched his lips—relieved, yet lonely, as if he had finally set down an ancient burden.
PAAAAH...
Suddenly, dazzling motes of light began rising from his body.
Like the Milky Way in the night sky, hundreds—no, thousands—of stars swirled around him before soaring upward.
Amidst that brilliance, Baekri Geom-ha slowly closed his eyes.
This was the final ritual—pushing his own existence back into the abyss.
So that his personality would never again encroach upon this body.
So that Bu Eun-seol's true self could return.
'When the powers of the Heavenly Pole and Heavenly Darkness become one within me... I'll find you again.'
His last whisper scattered into the light, mingling with the wind.
Like lost fireflies, the glowing fragments painted the night sky before fading into the distance.
Cheong-a and the Clay Dolls lifted their heads, following the vanishing lights.
The one who had saved them was right before their eyes—yet it felt as though he was drifting away to some far-off place.
FLASH!
When the last of the light disappeared—
The face that had worn a distant smile now bore an expression of boundless loneliness.
Baekri Geom-ha's presence was gone.
Bu Eun-seol had returned.
"......"
Silently, Bu Eun-seol looked down at his own body.
Though he had been curled deep within the abyss of his soul, he had seen and felt everything Baekri Geom-ha experienced.
"Don't worry. I'll save them all."
He murmured softly, gazing at the faraway sky.
There was no response.
But perhaps, somewhere, Baekri Geom-ha had smiled in satisfaction.
"Let's go."
Bu Eun-seol turned to Cheong-a.
The Soul-Demon Magic Energy had been purged from their bodies, replaced by vibrant life force.
No longer would they live as expendable tools under the name "Clay Dolls."
And Bu Eun-seol—honoring Baekri Geom-ha's will—would protect them with his life.
"To the Soulless Society."
At his low voice,
the boys and girls, as if entranced, began gathering around him one by one.