Chapter 31
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 31
Chapter Title: A Bold Talk Amid the Mist
Black river water raged beside me, while far off in the distance, serpentine mountain ridges wound through a desolate plain.
I stood alone in the middle of it all.
It was a familiar place.
The training ground of the Twelve Divine Demons—sometimes crossing swords with armed warriors, other times clashing spears with masters wielding them.
Right now, I was caught in the limbo between life and death, being toyed with—or rather, trained—by those fiends from the Heavenly Demon Divine Church who called themselves the Twelve Divine Demons.
"..."
Which lunatic was coming for me today?
As I heightened my vigilance, a strange sound suddenly sliced through the air, striking my ears alongside the whistle of parting wind.
-Ding~
'Ah, that's the sound of a gayageum...'
Wait, gayageum?
A flash of intuition hit me, and I hurriedly kicked off the ground.
At that exact moment, a piercing metallic twang shot toward me like an arrow.
-Shing!
"Urk!"
A plume of dirt exploded right where I'd been standing, leaving a scar in the earth like it'd been slashed by a sword.
-Ding! Ding-ding-ding-ding!
The chaotic melody followed, scattering the fog blanketing the wasteland as the notes, laced with murderous intent, flew straight at me.
"Can't you at least say 'start' or something?!"
I bellowed in frustration, but mercilessly, the beautiful metallic tones kept coming without end.
Gritting my teeth at the onslaught, I busily deployed the footwork I'd learned, just as instructed.
-Ding! Ting! Ding!
The short, staccato flurries—like daggers flung straight—could be scattered with a wide sweep through the air.
-Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding! Ding! Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding!
The long, whipping cascades lashing from all directions required moving a beat ahead to seize the rhythm.
[Yeah, you've gotten to the point where you can follow the ever-changing rhythms pretty well.]
Then how about this?
The voice from beyond the mist chuckled teasingly, and the notes that had briefly quieted flipped in an instant.
-Dong! Doo-doo-dong!
A string instrument normally produces thin, shrill tones when plucked—not like the deep thud of a piano or drum.
So what the hell was that heavy resonance?
Before I could question the identity of the musician plucking those strings, the weighty note came crashing down on me.
Why "crashing down"? Because...
-Dong!
-Boom!
The spot where I'd stood caved in completely, like a meteor had hit it.
I barely leaped into the air to evade, but in that moment of chilling premonition, I realized my mistake.
[Leaping into the air? How foolish.]
-Dong! Dong! Too-doo-dong!
Just as the voice said, it was a foolish choice.
A crossfire enveloped me in an instant.
Imagining myself turned to mincemeat by those sound shells slicing through the air wasn't hard at all.
'Damn it.'
At least with Asclepius around, I wouldn't die.
"...Wait. Asclepius?"
A unfamiliar name suddenly surfaced, and memories flooded back like a tidal wave.
Heracles' massive fist shaking the heavens, and the pitch-black divine demon energy that had scarred my arms.
Recalling that, pitch-black divine demon energy flickered across my arms like shadows, just as in the memory.
"Hup!"
I gathered it like qi projection and thrust it toward the incoming sound waves.
-Bang! Bang! Bang!
True divine demon energy launched like missiles, detonating every sound blast.
[Hm, martial arts must be second nature now. You're handling divine power just like any technique.]
Having neutralized the sound waves and landed back on solid ground, I heard the voice from the mist address me again.
"...Who are you?"
At first, I'd thought it was a dream of training with my old sound arts master, given the familiar sonic attacks.
But realizing it was a dream, and the way the divine demon energy operated so realistically—my proficiency even improving—felt off. Way off.
Not feeling my internal energy made sense in a dream, but the divine demon energy being this intact?
It had to be either demonic possession or some other being dragging me into this dreamscape.
"You barge into my dream, toy with my memories, and turn them into weapons? You're no ordinary soul, that's for sure."
-Whoosh!
I poured more power into the divine demon energy swirling around my arms, raising my aura as I aimed at the intruder beyond the mist.
"Are you perhaps connected to this energy I call divine demon qi?"
Divine demon energy wasn't mine to begin with, nor something a human could naturally possess.
That's why I couldn't wield it properly without the Ghostless Heart Art's formulas—only manifesting it externally at the very end of my duel with Heracles, in a moment of extreme peril, drawing on past experience with qi projection in a trance.
Yet being able to handle it so freely now meant its source was nearby, allowing seamless circulation.
Just as cultists grew stronger in divine demon energy near me, the Heavenly Demon, or Daoist priests wielded greater natural qi at their abundant home mountains.
[Impressive. Even in a new body, your mind is sharp, memories intact. As expected of the soul I chose.]
The entity beyond the mist chuckled softly, admiration or mockery unclear.
A bizarre energy unseen in the long history of the martial world.
And the being at its origin.
[I told you before. When you're ready, I'll come to you. And since that preparation just wrapped up, I thought I'd drop by out of fondness.]
Don't be so wary. You'll hurt my feelings.
For someone rummaging through my dream and memories, those words carried surprising warmth. I slowly quelled the divine demon energy and lowered my arms.
The opponent was the source of the divine demon energy within me.
And even in my own dream, they held control. Whatever they did, I couldn't stop it.
Moreover, my revived instincts—now flowing through divine demon energy instead of internal qi—were screaming a warning.
We're on different levels.
That cheeky crescent moon goddess, high in the sky, was visible—like the moon I'd one day conquer.
But the being hiding beyond the mist, watching me unilaterally, was the darkness itself beyond that.
No matter how humanity piled up civilization, bending sky lightning to its will and dragging every mystery under science's banner...
She alone would forever watch this little star quietly from beyond the fog.
[Oh my? Already grasping and wielding my divine power so deeply. Must be resonating strongly now that we're face-to-face. Well done.]
Like marveling at a pet's tricks on one's hand, or pride in a toddler's first steps.
Conveying two similar yet distinct emotions, the entity—her or it—praised me.
[At this rate, awakening might come even sooner. Heh, how funny. I wish that day would hurry up, yet also hope it never does.]
How long had it been since I'd felt this thrill?
The enigmatic voice murmured softly.
"Excuse me, who are you?"
[Me? Hmm? Not really in the mood to say.]
What the hell?
I furrowed my brow, and the voice burst into laughter.
[You'll have to find me yourself. Grope through the dark night, forge a path, and chase after it.
Walk and walk, and eventually, you'll crest the highest peak, scale the tallest wall, and reach me.]
With that, the voice unilaterally ended the topic of itself.
"Ugh, can't be helped, then."
[Oh? Giving up so easily? Unexpected.]
If the divine demon energy I harbored originated from that voice beyond the mist, then the process of learning and understanding that entity—its gender, humanity or divinity, even its name—was the training itself.
"Getting answers here might feel good for a moment, but they wouldn't truly be my answers. That'd just cause problems down the line."
Just one more intriguing task added to retraining this body.
An incredibly exciting one, at that.
"No idea how long it'll take, but I'll come find you soon."
[...Is there joy greater than this?]
This time, the voice whispered lovingly, drawing close to my ear.
[Here's a parting gift.]
"A gift?"
As I echoed the question, an inexplicable force gently cradled my face.
-Mwah!
A cool, soft sensation like night air brushed my forehead and pulled away.
[No oracle can stand against you and alter fate's flow, no power can suppress you. So wander this strange world freely, as you will.]
With those words, my consciousness began to sink slowly.
Where to? If I slept in a dream, was that reality? Or another dream?
[Oh, right—you have siblings too. If you meet them, get along well!]
...Huh? Siblings?
What did that mean?
As I snapped my eyes open to retort...
The barren dreamscape's opposite greeted me: the real world.
Clear skies, bright sunlight.
And...
"Mm?"
"Mm?"
A goddess-like beautiful woman, pressing her lips to mine.
...At this point, one could truly say everything was the complete opposite.