Chapter 210
Chapter 210
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 210
Chapter Title: Heavenly Demon Divine Cult Double Agent
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Suryeon looked down at one of the Black Forest Hall's branches nestled in the mountains.
It was information they'd obtained with great difficulty. This place was one of the Black Forest Hall's outposts and key branches.
Suryeon, who had descended stealthily under the cover of night when everyone was asleep, flicked her hand.
"Kill them all."
But not a single head was brought back by the scattered assassins of the Killer Gate.
"It's empty."
"This place is empty too..."
"......."
There had clearly been signs of people during the day.
There was only one thing it could mean for it to be deserted only at night.
A trap.
Suryeon quickly assessed the situation and was about to give orders.
But before she could, blood sprayed up.
---Splash!
A severed head rolled across the ground. The headless body collapsed.
Suryeon stared wordlessly at the people emerging from the shadows at the death of her subordinate.
"...A girl? Heh heh heh. And such a young one at that. Cute."
A group of cackling thugs. There were many of them.
Not only had they surrounded her on all sides, they were lined up everywhere.
It wasn't just their numbers that mattered.
Experts. Each one's individual strength might fall short of hers.
However...
Even so, when they banded together, they matched her.
"Young ones always taste the best."
"Don't get greedy. She belongs to the Hall Lord."
"If there's any left after he's done, we'll get a little, right?"
"That's true enough."
"Let's cut her tendons first."
They laughed and chattered. The content was utterly vile.
Suryeon reflected on what had gone wrong.
It wasn't befitting an assassin.
That was something she could say.
It was something she could have just let go. Revenge for the Lakes was something she didn't need to bother with from the start.
The original Killer Gate leader would have overlooked a small loss and turned toward greater gains. Or rather, everything had been wrong from the beginning.
Raiding the Demon Slaughter Pavilion had brought no profit at all.
"......."
It seemed like one mistake had piled upon another to lead to this. What had been the reason?
Suryeon pondered deeply, then smiled faintly for the first time in ages. She whispered to her subordinate assassins.
"Everyone, escape."
"...Gate Leader?"
"I'll hold them off."
Ah.
Yes.
Without that warmth, she felt utterly listless. Still, she had tried to live on.
But it seemed it just wasn't possible. She couldn't even tell who the blade of revenge should be aimed at, or what meaning it held.
...Perhaps.
Maybe she just wanted to follow him.
Him.
"That's an order."
"Where do you think you're going!"
She cleanly slashed the first warrior charging at her. In the midst of real combat after so long, she smiled faintly.
Death was right before her eyes. But wasn't that longing just as close?
That day. In that cabin.
No matter how many times she ate that food she'd tasted, it never tasted the same.
...The truth was.
The words about needing a family.
They had been real. Truly.
...But more than that playful title of 'Daddy'...
She wanted to call him by something a little closer.
"Catch her!"
From Suryeon's embrace poured a barrage of hidden weapons at the onrushing warriors.
Fierce Demon Asura .
A martial art dreaming of becoming a single asura.
To build it, one had to become a single dagger. It hadn't been her original desire.
But due to the pressures around her, she had no choice.
She had been raised that way, trained that way. But in the end, she found what she truly wanted.
"Go. Now."
Among the assassins turning to flee, it was a small relief that those she'd shared time with weren't there.
She didn't know how many of them would survive. But she'd make sure every last one did.
She had dragged in outsiders who had nothing to do with her affairs, after all.
"Catch...!"
She tore and slashed.
She struck and exploded.
Moves burst from her fingertips. Hidden weapons in the shape of circles rose, enveloped in form-projected ki.
Form-projected ki was connected to the shape of one's mind. Suryeon knew better than anyone what form hers took.
A single murder weapon. Hadn't she been raised that way? Even a moment of warmth couldn't change its essence.
In a world without him, it was a body that had lived as a weapon.
"Do you want to rape this girl?"
She waved her hand like a butterfly's wings. She trampled the charging corpses and stood atop a stone pagoda.
She donned a fox mask. Even if cornered and driven to slit her own throat...
It was to hide that expression.
"Try it. Show me what you've got."
"...You bitch!"
She launched herself at the charging warriors. She moved like a dancer.
The arts of the weapon flowed from her fingertips more wildly than ever. In the moonlight, her inverted body moved with fluid grace.
Her body felt light.
A dance knowing its place of death was this light, it seemed.
The thrust hidden weapon burst the heads of two. But in that instant, a sword flying at her pierced a portion of her protective ki.
A blade wrapped in ki. Blood sprayed over her body, pushed back naturally. But the wound itself was shallow.
She could still move.
Take one more with her. She didn't know why. She just needed to vent.
She had tried to hold onto at least one shred of humanity, but you took it. So she wanted to take too.
More.
...More.
More blood!
"You crazy bitch!"
Blood splashed from her swinging fingertips. Her shoulder was pierced. But she pressed on regardless.
Enduring pain was familiar. Even if a hammer smashed her abdomen, she substituted it with spitting blood.
Her internal energy drained rapidly. The form-projected ki began to fail to hold its shape.
But before they all fell, she rampaged to erase one more life.
Born as an emotionless weapon.
Raised as an assassin.
At least in death, she would die as a human.
The swung hidden weapon snapped. The swung sword split in half.
The Killer Gate's weapons launched from her bosom were all blocked. They couldn't pierce the enemy leaders' protective ki.
Her internal energy hit bottom. But she clung to the next warrior's neck, baring her teeth.
The fox mask shattered. But from beneath the fragments, she bit into the opponent's neck.
"Gaaahhh!!!"
Red Cloud.
How's the girl's song?
Is it too rough for a funeral dirge? But it can't be helped.
The girl's world was always like this.
Will she go somewhere else upon death? They might never meet again.
You and I were different from the root.
...But.
Still.
"...I miss you."
---Clang!!
The struck iron mace dug into her body. Blood surged from the split flesh.
She tumbled across the ground. She had barely pulled her body back in time to minimize the damage, but now standing was all she could manage.
"......."
The surrounding gazes stared at her in horror. Suryeon worked her mouth.
She spat out every scrap of flesh remaining in it.
She wanted to save her first kiss.
Even if she couldn't grow into a proper woman's body, she wanted to save it for him.
"......."
She looked down at the broken sword. She glanced at her trembling hands.
...Now.
It was time to end it.
"It's...time..."
She had killed as many as she could.
Time to go back.
To where she wanted to be.
Before being defiled by someone she didn't want.
"...Now."
She raised the broken sword.
To drive it into her own neck.
"I'll...follow...you..."
"No need for that."
---Thud.
The sword aimed at her neck was blocked.
By a hand she didn't recognize.
"Suryeon."
Suryeon blinked. She turned toward the voice that shouldn't have been there.
A bamboo hat. Black blood-drenched robes.
A face scarred.
The one who blocked the sword gently embraced her. Suryeon realized her legs had given out without her noticing.
"Couldn't you have waited a little longer?"
"...Uh..."
"You were too hasty. Not like you, Suryeon."
Was she dreaming?
A dream where the dead came back to life.
If it really was a dream...
It was a cruel one.
Suryeon dropped the broken sword. She tentatively reached out and touched the body holding her.
It was real. She felt the texture. From one to ten, it all felt utterly real at her fingertips.
Then.
Really...really...
"...Is it you?"
"Yes."
He smiled.
With a face she'd never seen even in all her nightmares.
"I hurried here for a reunion with my daughter. Diligently."
"......."
Suryeon smiled. She buried her face in his embrace.
Whether it was reality or a dream didn't matter.
...Just.
Right now, she wanted to stay like this.
"...I won't call you that anymore. From now on..."
.
.
.
I put Suryeon to sleep. Her wounds were too severe; there was no choice.
Instead, I handed her over to Number 1, who had followed behind. She had the medicine.
"Wow. Still the same as ever."
Gu Okgyeong stood beside me. I quietly asked.
"What are you going to do?"
"That's what I want to ask you. You look like you want to beat them to death."
"......."
"Well, it's a group I wanted to clean up anyway... No real objections..."
Gu Okgyeong cracked her neck. She ripped off her human-skin mask and smirked.
Her radiant beauty revealed under the moonlight made the Black Forest Hall members flinch.
"L-Leader?"
"That's right, you bastards. Drop your weapons. All of you, on your knees."
"...The Leader is clearly at the heart of the Demon Slaughter Pavilion... How...?"
The Black Forest Hall's bosses murmured in confusion, then one shouted.
"Don't fall for it. Look over there! Damn it! That's Song Namcheon!"
"S-Song Namcheon!"
"The escaped Chief Steward! Then..."
"Fakes! Everyone, weapons up! I don't know how you escaped the heavenly net... But I'll drag you to the real Leader myself!"
Song Namcheon glanced sideways cautiously.
"Should we retreat, Leader?"
"Nah. I'm sick of all this fake or real crap. Daeun. You stay put too. Got it?"
"It's dangerous."
"Nothing's dangerous to me, unpoisoned throughout the world. Alright. Time to bark. Like beasts. Since I'm soon to be the Demon Slaughter Pavilion's top beast, I'll bark louder at those yapping fake fake nonsense."
The Demon Slaughter Pavilion Leader Gu Okgyeong nodded. She gripped the sleeve of my robe, standing a step away, and tugged firmly.
"Together? Or me alone."
"......."
I looked back at the wound-riddled Suryeon.
With permission even from the real Demon Slaughter Pavilion Leader...
"I'll pass on holding back."
There was no reason to.
My person had nearly been ruined.
What could be more important than that?