Chapter 63: Apostle (5)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 63: Apostle (5)
In the Glory Group, where infighting among half-siblings was rampant, she was the youngest.
From an early age, Kang A-rin’s life had never been easy.
She was only five years old.
While other children were learning to read and play with friends, the first things she learned were internal politics and the ways of combat.
Because she was the legitimate second daughter of the chairman’s official wife.
It was only natural that she was constantly checked by the surrounding factions, and the burden placed upon her was far too heavy for a child to bear.
But even in such a world, there was someone who protected her.
Her older brother, Kang Yu-sung.
He was always a steadfast shield for her.
One of the very few people she could trust and rely on.
Then one day, as time went on.
“Wow!”
At a young age, Kang A-rin had mastered Aura/Qi Reinforcement.
A black energy flowed gently from her fingertips. It was an achievement unbelievable for a six-year-old.
Her private tutor, Anna, was delighted by her accomplishment. But at the same time, she was afraid.
Her talent… it’s too exceptional.
To display such talent at a young age was both a blessing and a curse.
It was more than enough to incite the jealousy of her other siblings, and it was far too dangerous for Kang A-rin, who had yet to build her own faction.
“My lady… how about we keep this a secret, just between us?”
This was the only thing she could do as her tutor.
“Huh? Why?”
Kang A-rin tilted her head.
“Um… think of it as a kind of surprise party. Wouldn’t the chairman be shocked if you showed him after you’ve improved a little more?”
“Oh, I see~”
The good-natured Kang A-rin nodded without a hint of suspicion.
But then she added.
“Then… how about I tell just my brother? I’ll be shhh~ to everyone else.”
The child brought a finger to her lips, making a “shhh” sound and smiling playfully.
Kang Yu-sung should be fine.
He was her biological brother.
He was kind-hearted, and above all, it was clear he cherished his little sister more than anyone.
“Alright.”
Anna nodded cautiously.
As if she had been waiting for it, Kang A-rin beamed and ran off, her heart filled with joy.
How pitiful.
Anna thought, watching Kang A-rin’s retreating back.
Although it wasn’t a sentiment an employee should harbor for her employer, she couldn’t help but feel that way.
Kang A-rin ran straight into the arms of the brother she had always trusted and followed.
“Brother!”
As soon as she reached Kang Yu-sung, she thrust out her hand with all her might.
Black energy swirled at her small fingertips.
She naturally assumed her brother would be happy for her.
“What do you think? Isn’t it cool?”
Just like always.
She believed he would ruffle her hair and praise her, telling her how amazing she was.
But he didn’t answer.
Kang A-rin slowly lifted her head. She saw his face.
His expression was frozen. His eyes, always so gentle, were unusually sharp.
But it wasn’t long before his familiar face returned.
“You did great~”
Only then did he smile like he always did and pat her on the head.
Kang A-rin didn’t know it then, but looking back, that was probably when it all started.
And, as time passed.
“You expect me to believe that?”
Kang A-rin’s eyes wavered.
“Believe me.”
Around the time of her graduation, she had believed most of what Jung Hae-in had told her. For some reason, what he said always turned out to be right.
So… she had tried to believe him, no matter what he said…
My brother is a spy for the Mines?
That was the one thing Kang A-rin couldn’t believe. So, she feigned acceptance but hesitated.
But his words, this time as well, were right.
To serve as a sacrifice for the Evil God’s revival, Kang Yu-sung burned an entire city to the ground in an instant.
The screams of fleeing citizens. The voices crying out to be saved. The buildings and roads, all burnt to a crisp.
It might as well have been all Kang A-rin’s doing.
And then, the sight of her brother walking slowly through the flames.
“Ah…”
Kang A-rin realized it all far too late.
Finally, she opened her eyes again.
A space of the absolute, transcending time and space. She could feel it instantly.
“So, I finally meet you.”
A colossal shadow moved sluggishly. The Apostle standing before Kang A-rin.
The stone colossus, Balak.
He was the Mine who had been colluding with Kang Yu-sung until the very end.
The one who had instigated all that destruction from the shadows.
Kang A-rin’s eyes grew cold.
“I must say, I was truly dumbfounded when you suddenly killed your brother.”
Balak muttered under his breath.
“He was a card I’d been saving, you see.”
A sneer twisted his lips. Supporting his massive body, he bowed his head heavily.
An arrogant smile and a leisurely demeanor.
He stared down at her as if looking at an insect.
But Kang A-rin didn’t say a single word.
“Hmm…”
Closing her eyes, she took a slow breath.
She had realized something after the incident with Kang Yu-sung.
Whatever Jung Hae-in says is unconditionally right.
A truth of the world.
It was a self-evident fact she had learned too late.
As if waiting, Balak opened his mouth.
“It was all my doing.”
His voice echoed like the rumbling of a great cavern.
“It was I who urged your brother to betray you. I who amplified the emotions of that pathetic fool, who felt nothing but fear upon witnessing his younger sister’s talent.”
He deliberately paused.
As if waiting, wanting to savor her reaction.
“It was all… me.”
But all she did was slowly raise her hand.
Swish!
Black Aura/Qi Reinforcement sliced through the air, slashing the side of his face.
It wasn’t a strike containing all her strength. It was just a simple movement.
Like reaching out to stroke a pane of glass.
But his rock-like skin tore open with ease.
A thin line of dark red blood trickled down as crumbled stone fragments rained to the ground.
“…”
Balak felt that something was wrong.
His body was made of Magic Alloy, a gift from the Great One.
An immortal body forged from mithril.
It shouldn’t break.
It couldn’t break.
But now, it was crumbling like ordinary rock.
She spoke softly.
Her voice was endlessly gentle, almost languid.
“I miss him.”
She wasn’t even listening to him.
Was she enraged by his taunts?
Not at all.
‘Anger’ is a negative emotion that arises in response to one’s desires being thwarted or being forced to do something.
In contrast, Kang Yu-sung becoming a Mine no longer elicited any emotion from her.
Because, at some point, Kang A-rin’s desire had been reduced to only one thing.
Perfect composure.
A fluid killing intent, aimed at a single target.
Kang A-rin raised her hand once more.
Black Aura/Qi Reinforcement shimmered and flowed along her fingertips.
Rustle.
From somewhere, a black fox slowly appeared.
Slithering out from her feet, the fox moved in a gentle curve, as if wrapping itself around her leg.
Kang A-rin’s eyes slowly turned red. The light in them flickered faintly, then gradually spread and deepened.
She slowly licked her lips.
Balak’s massive body trembled minutely. It was a sensation he had never felt in his entire life.
His animal instincts were screaming a warning.
The human before him was a being that could kill him.
Kang A-rin slowly raised her hand.
The sound of a fox’s laughter echoed from somewhere.
The black energy completely devoured the space.
*
Have you ever resented your given talents, endlessly and utterly?
“Sob… sniff…”
Today, too, Ha Sion was weeping in a corner of the training ground, stifling her sobs.
Seong Si-woo’s disappearance.
Once again, an incredibly heavy burden was placed upon her shoulders.
Kang A-rin, Cheon Yeo-wool, Yu Hana, and… even Seong Si-woo.
They had all accepted the Authority called Fragment and gained the power to fight the Mines.
They were necessary, and their power was essential.
But now that Seong Si-woo was gone—that burden had grown even heavier.
Oh, God.
‘Why on earth.’
Why was I not even granted the chance to accept a Fragment?
She lay prostrate, clawing at the ground.
Blood seeped from her fingertips.
Lament, grief, resentment.
Swallowing all those emotions, the only thing she could do in the end was…
Grip.
…to once again take hold of her bow.
Practice.
Someday.
All she could do was stoke a flame that might one day ignite.
And when she opened her eyes again.
Her surroundings were submerged in complete silence.
No sound, no light, no presence.
It was a space so quiet it felt alien.
Ha Sion realized it at once.
There was only one Apostle who enjoyed such a sinister method.
Blag.
The moment she turned her eyes, a white silhouette slowly began to take form in the darkness.
A being with no eyes, no nose, no mouth.
But it was clearly speaking.
“A pleasure to meet you, beautiful young lady.”
It sounded like the crackle of a speaker. An ominous echo lingered in its voice.
“Allow me to introduce myself formally.”
It slowly inclined its body in a movement that seemed to pay respects.
“As for who I am…”
The being became clearer within the space.
“The Apostle, 8th Seat, Blag.”
The hollow voice resonated deeply.
“Welcome to my domain.”
Blag smiled faintly.
Though his expression was not visible, she could feel that he was smiling.
“I, too, have so many questions. However… since the Great One has bestowed upon us this magnificent space, it would not do to prolong our conversation.”
The moment his words ended,
BOOM!
The formless space vibrated.
Sion felt no particular emotion.
She simply scanned her surroundings.
All four directions were shrouded in a white mist.
Blag slowly raised his hand.
And then.
Creeaak.
His forehead split open.
From within, an ‘eye’ revealed itself.
A third eye.
The entire space rippled and shook.
“Miss Sion.”
The eye on his forehead opened into a narrow slit.
“Who are you?”
Blag’s third eye slowly rose. The blurry space sharpened in an instant.
It was a vision that seemed to peer into the other side of the world as it truly was.
All who were seen by this eye met the same end.
Their hidden weaknesses were exposed, and they would take one step after another toward their inevitable defeat.
However, the moment that eye analyzed Ha Sion.
“……”
The tips of Blag’s fingers trembled minutely.
He couldn’t understand. There was no way he could understand.
Her age was barely twenty years.
There was no way someone who had lived such a short life could possess such a record.
The number of Mines she had killed.
A few thousand?
No.
Tens of thousands?
No.
It was more than that.
Just then.
From her fingertips, a black flame bloomed.
A flame as dark as the Abyss. Yet its intensity resembled a Holy Fire.
For some reason, it even felt sacred.
Parma’s Flame.
Ha Sion could not have a Fragment.
She did not possess that chosen power.
So, she hunted Mines alone.
To reach them, she had to do whatever it took.
Whether she died hunting or was killed by an Apostle, she had no other choice.
At first, her hunts were reckless.
But as time passed, she learned more efficient ways to kill Mines.
Sensations she couldn’t understand gradually became familiar.
The movements of the Mines, the feeling of her fingertips piercing their flesh, even the flow of the black smoke that rose from them.
She read them, accumulated them, and tried to understand them one by one.
And at the end of that endless hunt.
Finally. At the brink of death.
She came to understand the essence, the very concept, of ‘Demonic Force.’
She had not been chosen by any god.
She had not relied on any power.
And yet.
The Blag before her knew instinctively.
She was, to the Mines, the worst kind of predator and their natural enemy.
Ha Sion.
Before her eyes stood an Apostle.
A life-or-death situation.
Can I win?
She asked herself, but it was a meaningless question.
Had she ever once acted after weighing the possibilities?
She just… did it.
Shhhk.
Ha Sion silently raised her bow.
Creeeak.
The bowstring was drawn to its absolute limit.
Taut, with no more room to pull.
The Apostle before her was, in the end, a Mine.
Big or small, strong or weak.
No different from the hundreds of thousands of Mines she had killed until now.
I will kill you.
Woooooong.
The raging flames flowed along the bow, creating a silent stillness at the tip of the nocked arrow.
There was no need to think.
There was no need to aim.
She just… fired.
Fwip!
The arrow shot out with an explosive burst.