Come Struggle All You Want
Clatter-clatter-clatter.
"I rounded up every last one of those scattered artifacts."
Canteas, who had scoured the whole of Britain, dumped the artifacts out of his subspace storage. Roughly fifty thousand of them. Fortunately, they hadn't spread to other countries, so he had managed to collect every single one still within the UK.
"I suppose we should be grateful they didn't spread further…"
Fifty thousand. That lunatic from the Blood Sect had clearly intended to turn Earth upside down. Compared to the world's population, fifty thousand might seem vanishingly small—but these were artifacts. Considering the power they held and the chaos they could spawn, fifty thousand would have been more than enough to throw several nations into turmoil.
"Where'd you go, anyway? I looked for you earlier and you were gone."
"To Emilton."
"Why?"
"To figure out what this is."
Do-ha drew out an orb and held it up.
"Oh—I actually got a few of those myself."
"You fought those jiangshi-looking things?"
"Yeah. They kept coming even with their heads cut off, so I figured something was up. Later I found these orbs inside their bodies. Didn't know at first, so I smashed a few of them."
"Emilton said you'd know what these are."
"Yeah, I know. This is ancient technology. You should've just come straight to me."
"You were out collecting artifacts. Plus I had business at the imperial treasure vault."
"What'd you steal this time?"
"Steal?! Most of the stuff in the imperial vault is stuff I put there myself!"
Do-ha bristled at the word. Of course the imperial treasury didn't belong to the emperor personally—but more than half of what sat in that vault had been things he himself had tossed in there.
"Looking at these artifacts, though—almost all the gems are missing. Judging by the empty sockets, there used to be jewels set in them."
"Yep. I pried out all the diamonds, rubies, and the rest and pocketed them."
"Nice work. Heh."
"Heheh."
On this, at least, the two of them were perfectly in sync. The artifacts themselves were the problem; the gems were fine.
"So what did you bring back from the vault?"
"This."
Do-ha showed him the Heaven-Cleaving Blood Demon Sword. Canteas had been there when Do-ha first obtained it, so he already knew what it was.
"The Heaven-Cleaving Blood Demon Sword? Why did you bring that…"
As he spoke, Canteas's expression slowly hardened.
No way…
It can't be what I'm thinking.
"I'm going to use it to lure out the Blood Sect."
"Are you insane?!"
Canteas shrieked. And for good reason—if word reached the Blood Sect that the Heaven-Cleaving Blood Demon Sword still existed, they would do anything to reclaim it. They would march with every force they had. That was how vital the sword was to them.
It was a sacred relic, a symbol of their identity—but there was something even more important. Completing the Blood Demon Divine Art required this demonic blade. The Blood Demon Divine Art, passed down through generations of Blood Demons, had always been a half-finished martial art without it. In the martial world, people even said that if the Blood Demon Divine Art had been whole, not even the Absolute Being Baek Do-ha would have been an easy opponent.
"They'll do anything to complete the Blood Demon Divine Art. It'll cause absolute chaos."
"Blood Demon Divine Art, my ass… That's just a knockoff of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art."
"…If the Blood Sect heard you say that, they'd flip out and try to kill you on the spot."
In the martial world, no one ever called the Blood Demon Divine Art a knockoff of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art. The reason was simple: anyone who did so died without a sound. The Blood Sect, hidden in every corner of the world, would find them and snuff them out without a trace.
"If they come at us, all the better. Saves me the trouble of hunting them down."
"Still, revealing that doesn't seem like a good idea. All of Korea would turn into a sea of fire."
"You think I'm crazy enough to reveal this in Korea?"
Do-ha shook his head. He wasn't actually a madman—there was no way he would unveil it on Korean soil.
"We'll put that aside for now… The one who made these orbs. Can you find him?"
Right now, the priority was tracking down the maker currently running amok on Earth. The one called Heo Won-sa. He had been a jiangshi, but the residual will sealed inside him meant that was almost certainly his real name.
"Heh heh heh. Who do you think I am?"
"A game-addicted dog skeleton."
"Hey! Don't call me a dog skeleton! Other people at least call me a skeleton!"
"Back in high school, the science lab had a human anatomy model that looked exactly like you."
"Oh, for real!"
Canteas snapped in irritation. Understanding exactly what Do-ha meant only made it worse—he had seen the photos circulating online.
"So, did you find him?"
"Of course!"
Clatter. Hissssss.
Canteas set the orbs on the floor and began chanting. Souls started to pour free.
"Wh—!"
Do-ha flinched hard at the sight.
"Th-those are souls? These are the victims' souls, right?"
"Yeah, they are?"
Do-ha was actually stumbling over his words. Canteas tilted his head. Was seeing souls really that shocking?
"Emilton said that once they're made into orbs, the souls are completely annihilated. That they can't even go to the Underworld…"
"That's right."
Canteas nodded. It was true. Once forged into orbs like this, the souls could never reach the Underworld, nor enter the cycle of reincarnation spoken of in Buddhism. Of course—that was only if Canteas hadn't been here.
"Then what about these souls?"
"Because I separated them."
"That's possible?"
"Heh heh. With my power, it's more than possible."
Most of the black magic spread across the world of Belhart was of his own making. And having created the Soul Change ability, every derivative magic connected to it was fully within his reach. He may have lost a little face after being stuck away from his true body for a while, but he was still a Lich. The title "Lord of the Underworld" wasn't something you got for free.
"Then these souls… can they reincarnate too?"
"Of course. I separated them completely intact."
"Canteas. This time, you really did well."
Do-ha praised him with genuine sincerity. The people sacrificed to make these orbs—at least this way, they could find some measure of peace.
"What… After everything I've done, you're saying 'this time'…?"
"Feeling hurt?"
"A little hurt…"
"I was going to tell you to keep all the gems you pulled out of the artifacts instead of giving them to me."
"…What are you talking about! Being praised feels great! Kehehehe."
Oh yeah. Time to sell off all those diamonds and rubies and upgrade my PC.
"What about the people who used the artifacts?"
"Once someone's completely consumed by an artifact, their soul goes to the Underworld anyway, so there's nothing I can do. All we can do is end it quickly so their body doesn't suffer any longer."
"I see. Still, good work. Let's track down this Heo Won-sa or whatever."
Kyaaaaah!
Slither.
"Hmm. The quality of these artifacts is rather poor."
Heo Won-sa, who had sacrificed dozens of monsters to forge new artifacts, furrowed his brow. He lacked both the time and the materials to craft Abyssal Fences, so he had been churning out artifacts day and night—and the results were far from satisfying.
"Maybe I should have made hundreds more Abyssal Fences before making my move."
At first he had assumed that circulating the artifacts as accessories would let them spread quickly. But the pace had been unexpectedly slow. By his original plan, the artifacts should already have reached other countries by now—yet the news remained quiet abroad.
"The jiangshi I prepared have all been destroyed too… Those hunters. They're moving faster than I expected."
He had lost the captured Henry, his jiangshi had been destroyed, and the artifacts had failed to spread overseas. Something kept grinding out of alignment, gear after gear.
He glanced at the screen.
"Keh heh. So they're searching hard for me."
Heo Won-sa laughed as he watched the news. No matter how thoroughly they traced residual energy, they would never find him. Even if they crossed into Belhart and sought help from the martial world, it would make no difference. He had already scrambled every kind of energy together so thoroughly that even unraveling the tangle would never lead them to his own signature.
"While you lot waste your efforts, I'll be spreading artifacts to other countries. Keh heh heh."
He had left them to spread naturally through circulation, but that clearly wasn't working. Time to do it the hard way—go out and sell them himself, city by city.
He picked up an artifact and turned—
"?!"
—and stopped cold. Something was there in the darkness behind him.
"Who's there."
Heo Won-sa stared carefully into the dark. That was where he kept a chair. He couldn't see without a light, but something was definitely sitting there.
Click.
Flash!
The figure in the chair flipped the switch, and light began to push back the dark.
"…Baek Do—"
"Shh."
As Heo Won-sa started to speak the name, Do-ha quietly cut him off.
"Don't you dare speak my name with that filthy mouth of yours."
He was already holding back the urge to tear this creature apart on the spot. Hearing the name his grandfather had given him come out of that filthy mouth would only make the urge harder to restrain.
"How did you find me?"
"Curious about that?"
"No. Actually, it doesn't really matter even if I know."
"Are you nuts? Then why ask?"
"Even if you figure it out, you're going to die here anyway."
Hissssss.
Energy poured from Heo Won-sa and began to spread in every direction. This place was his domain. No matter how absolute the opponent, stepping inside was no different from falling into an antlion's pit. Dozens of formations. Mechanical arrays. Magic layered on top of that with scrolls obtained from black mages. And more—jiangshi seeded with residual will through Abyssal Fences, stationed throughout.
"Now then, go ahead and struggle all you want."
Sssssss.
Heo Won-sa let out a sickening laugh as he flooded the space with power.
"Hm?"
Nothing happened. No formations stirred. The mechanical arrays showed no sign of activating. Even the jiangshi implanted with Abyssal Fences failed to answer his call.
A thin smile curved Do-ha's lips.
"What are you waiting for? Come on, do something."
"Wh-what have you done?!"
"Not working out so well, is it?"
At that moment—
Whoosh!
Canteas teleported in beside Do-ha.
"Do-ha, I took care of everything."
"The orbs?"
"I sent them all back to the Underworld."
"Is that so?"
At Canteas's words, Do-ha rose slowly from the chair. The formations had been dismantled. The magic had been extinguished. The mechanical arrays had been shut down. And most important of all—the orbs. Their souls had been freed, rendering the jiangshi useless.
"I'll return the exact words you said earlier."
"Grr…!"
"Now then, go ahead and struggle all you want."
A cold killing intent poured from Do-ha's eyes and began to fill the room.