Chapter 62: Apostle (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 62: Apostle (4)
“Ah… ah… ah…”
Her silver hair was matted with blood. As it was dragged along, a sticky red trail was left on the ground.
Mary crawled desperately across the floor.
She was trying to escape.
Her jaw had been completely torn from her face.
Her mouth hung open, only faint, pained moans managing to escape.
All she could repeat was an agonized death rattle.
Mary was terrified.
From birth, she had possessed great power by The Great Being's grace and had never been cornered like this in her entire life.
But now.
Even in a space where she could not possibly die, her mind was crumbling from the fear of death.
A primal fear crushed her, so overwhelming that she even forgot she couldn't die.
Why.
How could a single human push her this far?
Of course, she was in a weakened state right now.
But even if she were to draw out the full power of her true body, could she truly defeat her?
Mary herself couldn't be sure.
Cheon Yeo-wool had summoned the version of herself from her strongest era, the time when she was known as the Saintess of the Battlefield.
A past where she was strong enough to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Apostles.
But the current Apostle was in a state where she couldn't fully wield the power of her true body.
There was no way she could fight a proper battle against Cheon Yeo-wool.
Mary placed a trembling hand on the floor.
She reflexively looked back.
There stood the human, looking down at her coldly.
Cheon Yeo-wool. She too had wounds all over her body, but compared to the damage Mary had sustained, they were a mere scratch.
“Hah…”
Cheon Yeo-wool slowly wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand.
The blood left a faint red streak as it trickled down her chin.
Cheon Yeo-wool knew as well. In this space, the Apostles could not die.
What mattered, however, was that inflicting this much damage would force them to spend a long time recuperating.
That meant the Evil God's revival would be delayed by that much.
She had bought time.
That was enough.
Her gaze turned chillingly cold.
Cheon Yeo-wool slowly bent down and roughly grabbed a handful of Mary's blood-soaked hair.
“See you again~”
To Mary, those were the last words she wanted to hear.
A flash of light erupted from Cheon Yeo-wool's hand.
CRUNCH!
Mary's head was smashed carelessly against the temple floor.
Her body instantly shattered into fragments of darkness.
“Ugh…”
At that moment, Cheon Yeo-wool also clutched her chest.
Although she could call upon the realm she had reached before her regression, her current body was that of a student, not yet fully matured.
It was too inadequate a vessel to fully contain the power her past self possessed.
Chirp!
Baek-ryeong chirped softly from Cheon Yeo-wool's shoulder. It gently tapped her cheek with its beak as if in concern.
“Yeah… I'm okay… I'll be fine after a little rest…”
A small smile bloomed on Cheon Yeo-wool's lips.
This much pain was nothing compared to the burden he carried.
Cheon Yeo-wool slowly evened her breathing and closed her eyes.
*
At the same time.
In a space that transcended time and space, the realm of an absolute being.
Yu Hana, who had vanished in a silent wind, opened her eyes.
“I have been wanting to meet you.”
A deep, low voice. A faint shadow was cast across the vast space.
He was clearly there before her, yet he was as indistinct as if he weren't there at all.
Apostle, Hayato.
He slowly took a step toward Yu Hana.
His unwavering gaze seemed to pierce right through her.
“I knew at once. You, too, are a seeker of the martial path, like me. A genius in whom a great family has placed its hopes.”
The tip of Hayato's finger twitched lightly.
At the same time, the space around him gently warped. A sharp sword emerged from that subspace.
“I, too, once walked the same path as you. And the one who has witnessed the end of that path now stands before you.”
His voice was filled with a strange sense of conviction.
“Though you will meet your end here today, I would have you first show me the realm you have achieved.”
He spoke as if showing polite respect, but the meaning behind his words was chilling.
“Do not resent me too much. In the end, it is all for naught.”
A hint of emptiness lingered at the end of his words.
But Yu Hana simply stood there.
Without even answering, she began to grip the Dongbaek Sword in its scabbard.
“Very well.”
Hayato, too, wore a pleased expression as he aimed his sword, but…
Yu Hana, however, closed her eyes and fell into thought.
It was a memory from the past.
She was born into the Yu Family.
And she learned the swordsmanship of the Yu Family.
She was a Yu because she was born, and she held a sword because she was born.
She grew up swinging a sword, and she lived her life swinging a sword.
She yearned for the martial path, but her inner world was always empty.
She learned without knowing why, and she trained without knowing her purpose.
Then one day.
Because of someone.
She slowly began to change, without even realizing it herself.
Yu Hana, who had been like a blank canvas, was colored in, stroke by stroke, by his touch.
How to swing a sword.
How to adjust her stride.
The precise point where her shoulder should relax the moment she extended her blade.
Where to place her weight when she took a step.
How much faster she could lunge if she bent her knees just so.
How to twist her feet when stopping to enable an instantaneous counterattack.
Even down to how she should take a breath.
Everything from the greatest principles to the smallest details. Every single thing.
There was no part of her that his touch had not reached.
And with every one of his touches, her pure white canvas was gradually filled.
Following his breath, flowing with his touch, she was thoroughly dyed in his colors.
Now, Yu Hana was no longer a blank page.
A being painted only in his colors, a being permitted only to him.
And that woman was now smiling.
A hot breath escaped from between her lips.
She could feel it returning.
The her from that time, who had been perfectly dyed in his colors.
For the first time in a long while, she felt the euphoria of becoming one with him. A sense of unity.
Yu Hana drew the Dongbaek Sword from its scabbard.
Her fingertips trembled softly.
Hayato turned his head, catching the scent of flowers drifting from somewhere.
This was a world of nothingness that transcended time and space. There couldn't possibly be any flowers.
But this was the unique realm she had reached.
『Supreme Chaos Blossoms』
A feast of endlessly dancing flowers.
Dazzlingly brilliant, and perilously fatal.
Before he knew it, red camellia petals were swirling around her like an illusion.
Yu Hana's every movement was fluid, yet held the tension of one walking on thin ice.
“What…!”
He was stunned. Without the slightest warning, her entire presence had changed in an instant.
Yu Hana gave a feverish smile.
~♫
As Yu Hana let out a light whistle, a small squirrel leaped from somewhere onto her shoulder.
It fiddled with her cheek with its small front paws and rubbed against her lightly.
“Hello?”
She whispered quietly.
Apostle Hayato could not believe the scene unfolding before his eyes.
He had dedicated his entire life to the martial path.
For its sake, he had offered his family, his status, his very everything to The Great One.
And yet—
He had never seen a human capable of wielding such beautiful and perfect swordsmanship.
Finally, he slowly moved his hand.
The surrounding space distorted, and one by one, transparent swords began to appear.
A feast of innumerable swords, stretching to infinity. Blades that vibrated heavily, representing his will.
However, Yu Hana was completely unfazed. As if she had known everything from the very beginning.
Her Dongbaek Sword drew a gentle line in the air. The scattering red petals danced an endlessly light dance.
The final sword dance she performed.
『Limitless Red Lotus』
—The red flower in full bloom.
Born from the infinite void, the petals of the red lotus consumed all of Hayato's space.
In that instant.
The space shimmered red.
SHRRRRK!
Hayato's entire body was torn to pieces amidst the petals.
He instinctively reached up and clutched his throat.
But what seeped out from between his fingers…
…was red blood, flowing endlessly like petals.
When he closed his eyes, the whole world was red. Not with blood, but like a field of flowers.
“How… can this be…”
He staggered and fell to his knees.
He opened his lips.
He wanted to ask.
‘What kind of conviction must you possess, to be able to perform such a martial art?’
But. Before he could even speak. His consciousness faded.
In his final moments of sight.
There was only the sight of red petals scattering, and the woman who smiled as she watched them.
And all that remained was the scent of camellias, scattering on the wind.