Chapter 172: Belial (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 172: Belial (4)
Desire.
An endless craving for martial prowess.
And an emptiness that nothing could ever fill.
That was the life of Yu Hana.
Her father had always been exceptional.
In her eyes, he wasn't a mountain to be overcome, but a sky she could never hope to reach.
The reason she didn't train at the Cheongpung Sect.
The reason she enrolled at Gaon.
It was all to become stronger.
She wanted to prove her own strength in the wider world, in a place untouched by her father's shadow.
People would ask why she was so obsessed with the martial path.
When she was very young, she had lost her mother right before her eyes.
The metallic scent of blood that day, the ear-splitting scream, and the touch of her mother's hand as it grew cold.
Every one of those sensations was seared into the deepest part of her, an indelible brand.
From that day on, the young Yu Hana asked herself, and the world:
Why?
Why did it have to be this way?
Why did it have to be my mother?
And she came to her own conclusion.
Because I was powerless.
Because I was too weak.
She had lost her mother because she lacked strength.
At her mother's funeral, amidst the sobs of the adults in black mourning clothes, the young Yu Hana did not cry.
She simply stared with empty eyes at her mother's funeral portrait, smiling brightly from beyond a sea of chrysanthemums.
And there, she made a vow.
Never again.
Never again would she lose something she wanted to protect because she was too weak.
Then, one day, as she lived a life driven solely by her obsession with martial arts…
Jung Hae-in walked into her world as if it were the most natural thing.
For her, who wanted to know how to become stronger, his existence was like a blessing from the heavens.
His every movement, every sword technique, every skill was something new, something she had never seen before.
So, at first, Yu Hana intended to use him.
She planned to stay by his side, steal every last thing from him with furtive glances, analyze it all, and make it her own.
But… time dulls all things.
And it makes certain emotions all the more vivid.
At some point, Yu Hana found herself watching his back, not his techniques.
She was looking at his face, not his swordsmanship.
She felt her heart pound with a kind of tremor she had never experienced before at a single, simple word of praise from Jung Hae-in.
After the day she lost her mother due to her powerlessness, her entire world had been nothing but a craving for martial arts and a hollow void.
However.
Into that empty void, the existence known as Jung Hae-in…
…had seeped in, little by little, without stopping.
A relationship she had intended to use to become stronger.
But, at some point…
That… was the new desire she had discovered within herself.
The feeling grew clearer with time.
At a certain point in time—it could have been the future, or it could have been the past.
And when she finally realized it, she was once again standing behind him.
War never seems to have an end.
It was always like that.
Another name for the battlefield was the Deadly Ground.
But the path Jung Hae-in led them down had never once been wrong.
This time, too, Yu Hana trusted him and plunged into the Deadly Ground with him.
It was a separate unit operation, a surprise attack on the enemy's flank with elite heroes.
But as if they had predicted our every move, an Apostle had been dispatched to the heart of the battlefield.
In the end, the separate unit was trapped within an enemy encirclement that closed in endlessly.
In front of them, an Apostle.
Sword Demon Hayato stood atop a mountain of corpses, a smile on his face as if he were enjoying a game.
From his sword, the blood of a comrade he had just cut down dripped to the ground.
You couldn't take your eyes off him for even a second.
“Aaargh!”
But a desperate scream from a comrade came from directly behind her.
Unavoidably, Yu Hana glanced that way for a moment, just a brief moment.
And that was enough.
She felt an inexplicable chill run down her spine.
Yu Hana instinctively turned her head.
Ssek!
Hayato's sharp dagger cut through the air, flying toward her.
This is the end…
Yu Hana cursed herself for letting her gaze wander for that one instant.
However, the tip of the blade did not strike her.
Thwump!
A deep wound was torn open in the chest of Jung Hae-in, who had been cutting down enemies in front of her. His body slid down and collapsed against a wall.
“No!!”
Yu Hana's shriek tore through the air of the battlefield.
“I never get used to this…”
Jung Hae-in trailed off, coughing up blood.
Clutching the hole in his chest, he squeezed out the words that wouldn't come.
“Please, please, please…”
With trembling hands, Yu Hana tried to stanch the flow of blood.
But it only seeped through the gaps between her fingers.
“Yu Hana…”
He lifted his head.
“I’ve thought about it a lot… and maybe I was wrong.”
Jung Hae-in whispered, spitting blood.
Yu Hana desperately tried to plug the hole in his chest, but the hot blood just flowed futilely between her fingers.
“Kuaargh!”
Behind her, the screams of her comrades falling continued. With him down, everything was collapsing.
“I’ll… follow you.”
She gently kissed his forehead and rose to her feet.
But Jung Hae-in shook his head.
“You’re not going to die. Ever.”
His voice was weak, but resolute.
Yu Hana couldn't understand what he meant at the time.
And this memory…
This time, it didn't disappear.
Yu Hana opened her eyes.
“……?”
Instead of the metallic scent of blood, she was greeted by the fragrance of an air freshener in the room.
Instead of her comrades' screams, a familiar voice explaining a battle plan echoed softly in her ears.
Her body… it could move.
She slowly looked down at her own hands.
The hands that should have been stained red with his blood were clean.
She raised her head.
Yu Hana was sitting on a bed in the Hero Association's lodgings.
“—The plan has changed… It was determined the risk factor is too high…”
Outside the room, on the terrace, Jung Hae-in was on a call with someone, holding his watch.
As if possessed, Yu Hana got up from her seat and approached him.
Jung Hae-in, in the middle of his call, saw her approaching and gave her a reassuring nod and a smile.
He’s… alive.
He didn't die.
That was enough.
It didn't matter what had happened.
If he was alive, that was all that mattered.
Yu Hana turned her head, relieved.
And she saw another woman sitting across the table.
Cheon Yeo-wool.
For some reason, she wasn't looking at Jung Hae-in.
With sad eyes that seemed to understand everything, Cheon Yeo-wool was staring quietly at Yu Hana.
The first moment their eyes met, she didn't understand.
But.
That moment.
That was when Yu Hana remembered a regression for the first time.
*
CRASH!!
“Cough…!”
My vision flashed white for a moment.
More than the impact of hitting the hard barrier behind me, the sensation of my insides being crushed was more vivid.
A hot, metallic taste filled my mouth.
Blood was rising in my throat.
It's nothing.
A few broken ribs.
A little blood.
A bit of pain with every breath.
I opened my eyes.
The world was entirely red.
Hot blood streamed from my forehead, soaking my eyelids and obscuring my vision.
I raised a trembling hand and roughly wiped my eyes.
I wipe them.
Again, I wipe them.
The blood keeps flowing.
After one wipe, I could see the faint form of Belial standing in the distance.
That, too, was brief.
Immediately, fresh blood blurred my vision, thicker than before.
“Ha…”
I let out a hollow laugh.
An Apostle.
I knew.
I knew that winning was impossible from the start.
A protagonist in a crisis suddenly awakening and defeating the enemy is a miracle that only happens in movies.
Thud, thud.
I could feel Belial slowly approaching me.
I could hear the sound.
I could feel the sensation.
But I couldn't see.
Belial stopped a short distance away from me.
His voice came as a whisper right next to my ear.
“Did you think you could win… this time as well?”
I didn't answer.
“That miraculous victory you achieved against that fool Barcus. It seems that has become your undoing. If that’s what you were thinking, it was a miscalculation.”
Belial's voice was smooth, and utterly revolting.
“I offered you the best possible choice. You are the one who failed to take it.”
There was no need to hear any more.
I fumbled for Catastrophe, which had fallen beside me.
Using the spear as a staff, I pushed my staggering body to its feet.
I still couldn't see.
The blood weighed down my eyelids, clotting stickily and stealing my sight completely.
So what?
Don't think I can't do it just because I can't see.
I shed my reliance on ‘sight’ a long time ago.
All-Encompassing Perception.
The world changed.
The red vision vanished, and darkness filled its place.
However, it wasn't simple darkness.
The flow of the air.
The vibrations beneath my feet.
Every single wave.
I now see the world not with my eyes, but with my senses.
You say I didn't choose?
That's not it.
It's because I never had such a choice to begin with.
I cannot fall.
I literally, absolutely cannot fall.
Single-Minded Focus.
Let's think of only one thing.
Enduring.
Trusting my comrades, not falling, and enduring.
“Hmm…”
For the first time, a note of pure interest colored Belial's voice.
With a gesture, his six wings flapped, and dozens of ominous, purple spears materialized in the air.
I can't see them, but I can feel them.
The sensation of dozens of spears being aimed at the wall behind me, where Yu Hana lay unconscious.
And then, they were all fired toward her.
SWOOOOOSH!!
Parry them.
I just have to parry them.
No Step.
I rose into the air and swung Catastrophe.
There was no longer any calculation or prediction in my movements.
CLANG! SHINK! CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!
The tip of my spear drew an invisible arc in the air, deflecting every incoming projectile.
With each spear I parried, my broken ribs screamed, and a pain like my muscles were being torn apart washed over me.
But I couldn't stop.
This will probably be my last day.
KANG!
“Cough!”
The moment I parried the last spear, another burst of blood erupted from my mouth.
But nothing changes.
Swoosh…
Even more spears than before materialized, aiming for Yu Hana.
Ignoring the screams of my broken bones, I stood up again.
It's simple.
I just have to block them one more time.
Hundreds of deaths were once again fired toward Yu Hana.
SWOOOOOOOOOSH!!
I rose into the air, about to parry the deaths once more, when right at that moment…
They stopped right in front of me.
They hung in the air, as if blocked by an invisible wall.
With my unseeing eyes, I stared into the darkness. Belial wasn't moving either.
The spears weren't moving.
What in the world is happening?
It was then.
Right beside me, very softly.
A voice I knew all too well spoke.
I felt the voice as if it were ringing inside my head.
“That's not how you do it.”
Startled, I whipped my head toward the source of the sound.
I still couldn't see anything.
But I could clearly feel that someone was standing there.
“The spear… hold it a little lighter. Paradoxically, to parry great force, you must be lighter.”
The voice continued, as if it knew everything about me.
“There’s no need to be afraid. Just because you can't see doesn't mean you can't perceive.”
SWOOOOOOOOOSH!!
At that moment, the spears that had been frozen in mid-air were once again fired at me in unison.
“At a precise 45-degree angle. With the feeling of letting your opponent's force flow right past you.”
As if guided by the voice, I gripped Catastrophe again with a trembling hand.
And just as he said, I loosened my grip ever so slightly.
Shhhhh…
The tip of my spear drew a circle in the air, and instead of parrying the incoming spears, it began to twist their trajectory, deflecting them to the side.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The purple spears grazed my spear and collided with each other, vanishing in mid-air.
In the midst of that storm of spears, I stood perfectly still, without moving a single step.
“Well done.”
From within me, or perhaps right beside me, that all-too-familiar voice spoke.
The silhouette of the familiar voice placed a hand on my shoulder and spoke.
I slowly turned my head toward where the voice had come from.
Still, I could see nothing.
“Now…”
However.
“Let's kill him.”
I already knew all too well what had to be done.