This Place Will Be Your Grave

The 7th Apostle narrowed his eyes at the people sprawled across the ground. What the hell just happened?

Not a single one of the humans who had received the blood aura of the Blood Manifestation Aberration Formation had died. They weren't even injured, from the look of it. The cultists who had ringed them in, by contrast, were all dead.

Is that even possible?

He had expected the cultists to die. He had known Raon would ring a sword-cry through that ominous blade, and he had braced for it — there had still been a jolt, of course. What he could not accept was that those insects, standing far closer than the dead cultists, had merely fainted.

Unless his aura control has already left the human realm behind…

It meant Raon had driven the sword-cry shallowly into the people nearby and buried it deep in the distant cultists. Even the 7th Apostle himself doubted he could manage that kind of aura work.

"As expected."

The 7th Apostle lifted his head and looked at Raon, who still had the ominous sword leveled at him.

"Impressive."

He admitted his surprise at a situation that had slipped the script, and offered a leisurely round of applause. A wrinkle this small I can live with. This was not the whole play.

Herding in those blood-marked humans and forcing a choice between killing them and letting them live had only ever been a device — a way to mock Raon and crack his mind. The real thing was the sorcery still swelling in the sky above. The Blood Manifestation Aberration Formation.

"Raon Zieghart."

The 7th Apostle raised a finger and pointed at the heavens.

"That sorcery is called the Blood Manifestation Aberration Formation. Do you know what it means?"

"……"

Raon did not answer. He kept his sword trained on the man.

"Of course you don't. You didn't even know it was there. The Blood Manifestation Aberration Formation means the manifestation of a blood aberration upon the world. It names vermin like these, who exist to become our food — and in another sense…"

A chilling smile touched the 7th Apostle's mouth as he drew up his blood aura. An almost stupidly vast tide of it surged outward, and the ground around him began to wither dry.

"…it also names the cultists who grow stronger beneath that sorcery. What you are seeing now is not even a warm-up. Once the Blood Manifestation Aberration Formation fully activates, the amplification of blood aura will more than double."

"……"

Even with that colossal blood aura blazing off the 7th Apostle, Raon's expression did not change at all. He simply watched the man with sunken eyes.

"From this moment on, I will give you true despair. Die beneath the star of blood."

The 7th Apostle snapped his fingers — the signal for Tus to trigger the formation.

"Hm?"

Nothing happened. The blood aura of the Blood Manifestation Aberration Formation kept drinking in the surrounding energy and swelling, and that was all.

Snap.

He snapped again, louder. The formation still did not fire.

"Tus!"

Calling the name changed nothing.

"What is…"

"Did I ever say I didn't know that formation?"

The 7th Apostle's head came up at the sound of Raon's cold voice.

"I didn't know the name, I'll grant you that. But…"

A faint sneer crossed Raon's face as he pointed at the Blood Manifestation Aberration Formation.

"I know more about that sorcery than you do."

"What did you do to Tus?!"

The composure that had sat so easily on the 7th Apostle a moment ago bucked like a boat hit by a wave.

"Anything else I might have let pass. Using children, I will not. Offering those little ones up as sacrifices — you people are human only in the skin. You are worse than beasts."

Raon looked down at the 7th Apostle with a gaze that could freeze blood.

"I left that filthy work to someone who hates it more than anyone. The Tus you keep screaming for has probably lost his head by now."

The 7th Apostle met Raon's eyes and swallowed dry. He really knows? The Blood Manifestation Aberration Formation? How? How, damn it?

He even knew that the children standing closest when the formation fired would become the offerings. The bastard had actually mapped the array.

Shit… If Tus was dead, the way Raon said, a great many things would start coming apart. Anxiety rolled in like a tide.

Snap!

The 7th Apostle flicked his fingers, and White Blood Cultists who had been hidden around the square burst out in a rush. There were easily more than thirty of them. They took in the situation and, without a flicker of panic, drew up their blood aura.

"Help Tus! Spread out and move!"

He snapped the order at once. He had to get them gone before Raon rang another sword-cry.

Raon did not ring a sword-cry. He turned his head instead.

"Light Wind Squad!"

The clear shout brought the swordsmen of the Light Wind Squad out of the dark. They formed a circle and closed the White Blood Cultists in.

"Trash that doesn't deserve to live."

Raon looked over the cultists with a killing intent as cold as drawn steel.

"Kill them all."

The instant the order fell, the Light Wind swordsmen — who had looked almost empty of feeling — raised a tremendous tide of energy and swept through the White Blood Cultists. There was not even the usual battle cry. The only sounds were the tear of blades through air and the wet chop of cultists' heads hitting the ground.

"We'll start on this side as well."

Raon took the Requiem Sword in his left hand and the Heavenly Sky Sword in his right.

"Even the air you breathe is a waste."

Two hours earlier.

Marta swallowed hard as she watched Luna talking with Tus. He was right. Just as Raon had said, Luna and the back-alley children had answered Tus's summons and gathered at his shop.

So that's Tus.

He was a blue-haired man in middle age, with a face so gentle the word kind rose on its own. Doing that kind of shit with a face like that… Looking so fatherly would have made it that much easier to use the children. Abandoned kids starved for warmth.

Son of a bitch.

She wanted to drop off the roof right now and smash that mouth of his in.

"I'll be counting on you again."

Tus smiled brightly and handed the children stones the size of a grown man's fist, along with silver coins.

"Yes!"

"Don't worry!"

The children beamed at the money and nodded.

"Mister. There are five silvers here?"

"Huh? I got five too?"

"You usually only give us one or two. You gave us too many."

The children who had received five silver coins tilted their heads, more puzzled than pleased. You miserable bastard… Was he handing them ferry fare for the road to the afterlife?

The reason for the extra silver was obvious. Just as Raon had said, it was the price of offering the children as sacrifices.

"Ah — I have one more favor to ask today."

"One more?"

"What is it?"

"Don't bury the stones right away. Wait where you are, and bury them when I give the signal."

Tus smiled as if he were merely asking a kindness.

"How will you give the signal?"

"I'll shout. You'll all hear it."

"Ah!"

"Okay!"

"Yes, sir!"

Five silver coins bought a great deal of compliance. The children left for their assigned spots without a complaint.

"Mm…"

Luna, standing at the back, did not leave with the others.

"Luna?"

"Mister, I…"

She parted her lips as if she had something to say.

"Hm?"

"Ah — never mind!"

Luna looked Tus up and down, as if taking his measure, then shook her head and stepped back.

"I'll tell you after today's work is done."

"As you like."

Tus nodded, gentle as ever, as if she were free to do whatever she wished.

"Huu…"

Marta let out a low breath. She had been afraid the girl would talk. All that persuading — telling her this man was dangerous — had been worth it.

The moment the last child was gone, ten men and women with barren faces appeared at Tus's side. Their clothes were ordinary. They were White Blood Cultists, without a doubt.

"Go."

They scattered at once in the directions the children had taken.

"Our turn. Split up the way we planned."

"Yes."

Marta flicked a hand, and the First Team swordsmen slipped away along the same paths the cultists had used. A hunt behind a hunt — a double tail, tracking the White Blood Cultists who were tracking the children.

Marta stayed where she was behind a rooftop sign and kept her eyes on Tus.

An hour later the sun went out and night came down. The people strolling the city filed into the nearest buildings as if they had all agreed on it beforehand. In a city famous for its noise, not even a dog was left on the street.

This too…

It was exactly as Raon had predicted. He had said that after the children were sent out, the sun would set and the people would vanish — and that was precisely what happened.

That bastard really is the monster. Continent-best talent with a sword wasn't enough for him. Analysis and judgment like this on top of it… she couldn't even be jealous anymore.

Thuk.

Only after the sun was gone and the streets were empty did Tus step outside. He was dressed as a different man entirely. Robed as an Archbishop, he walked a road that belonged to no one.

My turn now.

Marta crushed down the killing intent climbing her throat and vanished into the dark.

Luna sank down weakly at the spot where she was supposed to plant the stone. She looked at the silver coins Tus had given her and let out a long sigh.

"Haa…"

She should have said something.

Tus was the only person who looked after abandoned children like her. He couldn't be a strange man. The Marta she had met yesterday hadn't seemed like a liar, but turning on Mister Tus still made her chest hurt.

Yeah. I'll tell him later. That's better.

Luna decided she would confess last night's conversation to Tus once this job was over, and she nodded to herself.

"Hm? What…?"

When she came back to herself, the world had gone dark. It was black enough to believe it was the dead of night. It can't have been that long. She had only been thinking for a moment. Afternoon did not become night in a blink.

"Hah—!"

Uneasy, she lifted her head to look around. In a sky that had lost its sun, a blood-red cloud was swelling like a balloon.

"What is that cloud…"

"Luna."

She turned toward the voice behind her. Tus was coming toward her with that kind, familiar smile.

It was the same smile as always. What it made her feel was not. A chill ran down her spine, the way it did when you met a predator in the mountains.

"A-Ah, Mister?"

Luna pointed at the darkened sky and the scarlet cloud, her lips trembling.

"W-What is all this?"

"Nothing you need to worry about."

Tus smiled as if there were truly no cause for concern.

"More importantly — what was it you were going to tell me earlier?"

"Pardon?"

"The thing you said you'd tell me later. What was it?"

"Th-That's…"

Luna could not open her mouth. Just as Marta had said yesterday, everything about Tus felt wrong now — alien.

"Ah, you don't have to say it. It doesn't matter."

Tus waved a hand, still gentle.

"The dead can say whatever they like."

"W-What do you…"

"Plant the stone now."

"Mister?"

Luna tried to refuse the order, but her body moved on its own, unnatural, and turned her around. Huh…? She wanted to stop. Her arms and legs would not listen. It felt as if she had been dropped into someone else's skin.

"Luna. I have a great deal to thank you for. Because you came to me first, the other children started to trust me too."

Tus's voice was the same as always. Inside it ran a cold that lifted the hair on her neck.

"I considered bringing you in as a cultist, but unfortunately your body is already damaged. A year at most. Your little siblings, though, are in decent enough shape."

He flicked his tongue across his lips and smiled a smile that did not belong on a human face.

"I'll raise those children well myself."

"Ah…"

No. No!

She screamed it inside, but all that left her mouth was a thin moan. Luna's body betrayed her will and walked to the place where the stone had to be buried. Hands that felt like wood dug into the earth, then picked the stone up again.

"Nnh…"

Her palms burned. Pain flared as if she had closed her fists on a stone set with thorns.

"Ah — the bloodstone is drinking the blood aura inside you. Don't worry too much."

Tus whispered in that soft, fatherly voice.

"Hh…"

"The pain will be gone soon."

The pain, contrary to his words, only grew worse.

"Ah, but since this is the end, perhaps I should let you have your voice."

Tus gestured, and the lock on her mouth came undone. What came out, of course, was a scream.

"Aaaaaaah!"

It felt as if she had plunged her palms into a fire. She screamed until her throat tore. Her mind swam; her eyelids began to fall. Please… anyone, please…

Anyone would do. She did not care if she died. She only prayed that her siblings would not be dragged away by this devil.

Nothing changed, of course. Just as when she had covered her siblings with a scrap of board in a rainy back alley, there was no god.

Damn god. Fucking god.

She was cursing that worthless god when it happened.

Kyaaaaang!

Something came flying from behind and smashed the red stone in her hands to pieces.

"Who— khurk!"

Tus's scream hit the air, and Luna's body lurched back into her own control. She spun around in a panic.

Tuk. Tuk.

Tus's left arm was lying on the ground. In front of it stood the Marta from yesterday, a blade dripping gray blood in her hand.

"You fucking bastard!"

The curse did not match that face at all. Marta drove straight at Tus.

"Khrrr…"

Tus scrambled backward and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠swept his remaining arm. A gray current fanned from his grip and rose into a wall to stop her.

"Uaaaaaah!"

Marta bellowed, smashed the wall in a single stroke, and crashed in on him.

"You damned bitch!"

Tus's gentle features crumpled until they barely looked like a face. He began to chant in a twisted tongue.

Kyagyagyagyaang!

Red thorns burst from empty air and from the ground and swept over Marta.

"You caterpillar-looking piece of shit! Built filthy, and all you do is filthy work!"

Marta shattered the blood-aura thorns with a body wrapped in aura and brought her sword down.

"Hmph! I only needed time!"

Tus stopped the legs that had been moving without rest, pressed his index and middle fingers together, and recited a spell.

Kwang! Kwaaaaang!

As if he had told the truth, Marta's strikes began to catch on blood-aura sorcery. The wall of blood aura thickened. Thorns sharpened and tore her skin open.

"Huuuk…"

A muddy breath slid from Marta's mouth. Her dark eyes flooded scarlet, and the brown aura turning through her body swelled to twice its size.

"Kraaaaah!"

Her red eyes flashed, and she lunged at twice her previous speed.

Kwaaaaang!

She smashed through the blood-aura wall and the thorns in a single breath and hurled herself at Tus.

"Khup!"

Tus stepped the Blood Shadow Step and fell back, eyes narrowing. Berserk, is it…

Physical ability and aura up by about half again, eyes gone red — there was no mistaking it. It was the Berserk the warriors of the Cyan Gorge used when they waged their great wars against monsters.

Stupid bitch.

Berserk had a serious flaw. You could not tell ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠friend from foe. You attacked whatever stood in front of you as if you meant to kill it and nothing else. Even now, Marta was only hammering at the wall that kept erupting in her face.

"Heh."

A cold smile touched Tus's mouth as he summoned a blood puppet wrought of blood aura.

"Khrrrr!"

Just as he expected, Marta ignored him and brought her sword down on the blood puppet that had appeared at her side. I'll finish this in one stroke.

In case something unforeseen happened, he stacked the blood-aura wall in a double layer and began to chant a high-grade spell that could tear Marta apart in an instant. Demon Blood Annihilation Spear should be enough.

He finished the chant at speed and was about to hurl it at her.

Kwaaaaang!

Marta, who should have had her eyes stolen by the blood puppet, smashed through the blood-aura wall in a single blow and came on.

"You're too late!"

Tus snapped backward and loosed the Demon Blood Annihilation Spear. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠A Berserk swordsman would never dodge that spear. She would try to break it with her blade, and that would be the end of her.

The opposite of what he believed took place.

Huuuung!

Marta's red eyes flashed with a sharp, living intelligence. She slipped the incoming spear aside and brought the sword she had raised overhead down in a single cut.

"Khup!"

Tus tried to throw up a shield of blood aura. He was already too late.

Puddeudeudeuk!

Marta's blade split the blood aura and burst Tus's chest on a diagonal.

"Ghhk…"

Tus's jaw trembled as if he could not believe it. He toppled backward. Gray blood poured without stopping from the opened wound.

"I-It was Berserk. It had to be…"

"I got over the part where you lose your mind."

Marta spun her sword once and walked toward him.

"I can't spend the rest of my life slamming into the same wall."

She wiped the blood running down her cheek with the back of her hand and reversed her grip on the sword.

"Apologize to the people you used — and die, you piece of shit!"

Marta screamed it and drove the blade down through Tus's heart.

"Kh-heh… w-why should I apologize. I granted them the Blood God's blessing… they ought to be thanking me…"

A fanatic to the last. He did not repent. The only mercy in it was that he died in extreme pain.

"Haaah…"

Marta dropped her sword and collapsed onto the ground. She was already carved up with blood-aura wounds, and she had run Berserk and held her reason at the same time. Her insides felt like they were turning over.

"U-Unni…"

Luna came closer with her lips pressed tight. Fear, guilt, and confusion all shook in her eyes.

"Get over here!"

Marta jerked her chin, irritable, and Luna crept forward.

"Show me your hands."

"Pardon?"

"You deaf? I said show me your hands!"

"A-Ah. Yes."

Luna opened her hands toward Marta. Her palms were split raw and scarlet, as if she had crushed a pineapple husk in her fists.

"Tsk. I should've moved sooner."

"N-No! I didn't trust you, Unni, I…"

"Shut your mouth."

Marta scowled and raised what little aura she had left, pushing the blood aura out of Luna's hands.

"Ah…"

"Believing the first person you meet is stupid too, you idiot."

Luna's shoulders trembled at the soft energy tickling her palms. A rough voice that did not match the tenderness. A warmth that called up a past so distant she could barely remember it.

Kwaaaaang!

The Heavenly Sky Sword and the saw-blade crashed together head-on and threw out a violent shockwave. The gaudy buildings heaped around them crumbled like sandcastles, and through the wreckage Raon and the 7th Apostle collided again.

Jjeojeojeojeong!

Five clashes in the space of a blink. Power against power. Speed against speed. They were dead even.

"Khrrr…"

The 7th Apostle glared and ripped the saw-blade up from below. A huge tide of blood aura surged as if a wave had risen from an inland sea.

Goooooh!

Raon ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠smiled a cold little smile and brought the Requiem Sword down. The keen ominous energy reaching from the short blade braided with a heavy ganggi and flung out a fierce light.

Kuwaaaaang!

Aura and blood aura slammed together. The earth's axis twisted. A warp opened in empty air.

Teong!

Raon kicked the 7th Apostle in the gut while their blades were still locked. The man bounced like a rubber ball and rolled across the ground.

"You…"

The 7th Apostle ground his teeth, pride scraped raw.

"You felt it too."

Raon came toward him with the Heavenly Sky Sword slung across his shoulder.

"That the one you called Tus has stopped breathing."

He gave a short laugh and pointed behind him. The street was already thick with the corpses of White Blood Cultists cut down by the Light Wind Squad's Second and Third Teams.

"You're the only one left."

Raon lifted his chin and smiled.

"We've got a squad dinner waiting. Let's wrap this up."

"Kh— khahahahaha!"

Still sitting on the ground, the 7th Apostle burst into wild laughter. He squinted and started to clap.

"Fine. I'll give you that. Your scheme, your strategy, and that martial power of yours — all of it is enough to make a man admire you."

He rose slowly. The energy wrapped around him now was of a different order entirely, and a cold light shot from his eyes.

"But there is something you have wrong."

"Something I have wrong?"

"That's right. That sorcery, you see — it does not end just because the caster dies."

The 7th Apostle took the saw-blade's hilt in both hands and rattled off a mantra too fast to follow. The instant those unbroken syllables spread, the blood-aura stormcloud packed into the sky heaved hard.

"Now the Blood Manifestation Aberration Formation will explode."

His smile widened as the blood-aura stormcloud swelled as if it meant to burst, raising a terrifying tide of power. Huge, and then huger still. The sphere of blood aura that packed the sky kept expanding without end and began, slowly, to fall.

"When that thing detonates, this place will be wiped off the map. What's left will probably be me, unharmed — and you, in rags."

The 7th Apostle spread both hands and giggled.

"Don't worry. I'll drink every last drop of your blood."

"Did you forget what I said a moment ago?"

"What?"

"I told you I know that sorcery better than you do."

A faint smile touched Raon's mouth as he raised the Cultivation of Ten Thousand Flames to its extreme.

Kuung!

He drove a true step into the ground, packed the deep, solemn tremor rising from the earth and a vast heat into the Requiem Sword, and hurled it into the sky.

Kwarrrreung!

The Requiem Sword, sheathed in crimson flame and pale-gold ominous energy, became a thunderbolt climbing the wrong way and punched into the sphere where blood aura was gathering without end.

Even pierced, the sphere of blood aura did not change. If anything, its power swelled further.

"Khahahahaha!"

The 7th Apostle pointed at the sinking blood aura and sneered.

"Ominous energy or not, what do you think a single short sword can do? That sphere holds the blood of more than a thousand people! A thing like you cannot erase it!"

Raon's eyes stayed calm. He raised his right hand.

"You always did love that flashy little flourish. I'll borrow it."

A faint smile, and he snapped his fingers.

Tak!

The clean, bright sound cracked across the square, and the Blood Manifestation Aberration Formation shuddered as if a storm had hit it.

Jjijijijijik!

A roar like thousands of birds screaming burst out, and the sphere of blood aura locked completely still.

Uuuuung!

A tearing whistle of a blade spinning at savage speed cut a hairline crack through the Blood Manifestation Aberration Formation. The thread-thin fracture ran like a spiderweb across the whole of the red sphere.

Kwaaaaaang!

Gold light erupted through the split cracks, and the Blood Manifestation Aberration Formation blew apart as it stood. The blast seemed to ring across the whole continent. It left Gransavil's sky behind and poured down outside the city.

"Seventh Apostle."

Raon turned his back on the blood-aura light falling like a meteor shower and came to stand in front of the man. He smiled at those eyes, blown wide with shock.

He reset his grip on the Heavenly Sky Sword and kicked off the ground.

Jjeoeoeoeong!

He packed a turning flame into the blade, smashed it down on the saw-blade, and drove the 7th Apostle back.

"Khrrr!"

Even startled, the 7th Apostle took a precise guard — but the tremor in him came through all the same.

Raon stepped the Supreme Harmony Footwork and crashed in, drawing Frost Lotus with the Heavenly Sky Sword. A blue wash of light raced along a silver trail and skimmed the empty air.

"I know that swordsmanship!"

The 7th Apostle slashed the saw-blade on a diagonal and cut off both strokes of Frost Lotus.

"Then how about this?"

Raon reached his left hand into the air.

Cheoeok!

The Requiem Sword, returning from the wreck of the Blood Manifestation Aberration Formation, slapped into his reverse grip and rang out a sword-cry that lifted the hair on the skin. At point-blank range, Blood Rain unfurled. For an instant the 7th Apostle's body locked.

"Khuk!"

He tore himself free at once — but Raon did not miss that sliver of a moment. He drove the Requiem Sword in.

Pukaaaaak!

The wound Frost Lotus had already split tore open again, and dull blood sprayed.

"Ghh…"

"I promise you."

Looking down at the 7th Apostle bent at the waist, Raon's eyes held a red flash of lightning.