The Search for Legion
Bang!
"Je-u!"
Namgung Je-u's pen slipped as he looked up from the documents he had been signing, glaring at Do-ha, who had just kicked the door open and strode inside.
Why does that damn bastard keep kicking the door open every single time?
"How many times do I have to tell you to open the door with your hands?! At the very least, teleport in!"
"You forgot teleportation doesn't work on the Eastern Continent?!"
"As if you couldn't just ignore a little formation the dragons set up!"
"Hey, you're working. I couldn't just startle you, could I?"
"And you think kicking the door in is something I'd take calmly?!"
"It's just my way of letting you know I'm coming."
Do-ha scraped a chair back and dropped into it.
"Song Gyeol, been well?"
"Haha, I'm always doing fine, sir."
"Where's Dan Woo-hyeon?"
"He took the Moon Sword Unit and the Yang Sword Unit out of the Alliance for a while."
"Ah."
As soon as Do-ha settled into his seat, Song Gyeol poured him a cup of cold green tea. He still remembered that, from long ago, Do-ha had never liked hot tea.
"Ah, thanks."
"By the way, Baek Do-ha."
"?"
"You said you'd solve the problem, so why are you creating more of them?"
"What are you talking about? I handled it cleanly."
"Do you have any idea how many reports came in from the Yangtze?!"
Reports of corpses discovered by people fishing or swimming along the river had poured in without end. And it wasn't just one or two bodies—some witnesses had nearly fainted, claiming there were dozens upon dozens of them.
From the investigation, it was clear the entire Janggang Water Fortress hadn't been wiped out—only a portion of them had been killed. If he was going to deal with them, couldn't he at least have done it cleanly?
Why leave the corpses lying around?!
"What, were you saving Hellfire to cook stew with later?! You should've just melted them out of existence!"
"Je-u, you don't get visual effect?"
There were any number of reasons to leave the dead where they fell on a battlefield.
First: cleanup cost money. Removing corpses required manpower, and manpower meant money. That was why most wars only recovered weapons and left the bodies where they lay.
Second: piled corpses sowed terror. Instilling fear in the enemy was critical in war. Fear broke morale—or drove them into retreat.
There were other reasons besides those two, of course, but those were the main ones.
"Why would you need money for corpse disposal?!"
Do-ha—or rather, any situation with mages present—made that first reason irrelevant. Magic could simply erase the bodies.
"It's the fear. That's how you make the Yangtze bastards wet themselves."
River bandits. Mountain bandits.
The defining trait of those kinds of scum was that if you didn't plant real terror in them, their thug instincts came roaring right back. Even the orthodox martial artists had plenty of filthy bastards among them—so what did that say about river and mountain bandits?
That was why you left the corpses. You needed that raw visual horror so they would never dare crawl back up again.
"If I'd intended to wipe out the entire Janggang Water Fortress, I would've melted every last one of them."
But he couldn't do that—so he left the bodies. Only when a comrade died beside you and turned into a cold corpse did morale truly break.
If he had simply meant to kill them all, he wouldn't have bothered with anything as troublesome as leaving corpses behind.
"Ugh…"
Je-u pressed his fingers hard into his temples after listening to Do-ha. There was nothing wrong with what he said. Je-u himself had been the one who insisted the Water Fortress, the Green Forest, and the Beast Palace couldn't simply be erased.
"A few reports coming in is still better than the mess that would follow if the Water Fortress just vanished."
"True."
In the end, Je-u nodded. He had left those other factions standing precisely to keep chaos from sweeping through the murim.
"What about the Green Forest and the Beast Palace?"
"Handled it with conversation. Didn't even kill anyone this time."
"Well, those two already know you."
Know him? That was putting it mildly. In the past, Do-ha had driven both of them to the brink of annihilation. Because they knew that, Je-u hadn't been particularly worried about the Green Forest or the Beast Palace.
"Idiots, the lot of them. Fighting that hard over a scrap of land."
"People go to war over scraps of land just like that."
Je-u let out a short laugh at Do-ha's words. Anyone else hearing that would have found it absurd. People murdered each other over a few square meters of dirt. Do-ha could walk into any place and live like he owned it, so he never felt the weight of it—but on the Western Continent and in the murim alike, sects constantly schemed and clashed over territory.
"Studying Earth, I found their world was even worse. The distant past even had World Wars One and Two."
"That's true enough."
Do-ha nodded at Je-u's remark. Thinking about it, Earth had endured just as many wars as Belhart.
"By the way—is there really someone like that?"
"Who?"
"You said it yourself. That there's a strong one among the cult people."
Hadn't Do-ha said there was someone on a level comparable to his own prime? After hearing that, Dimerof, Emilton, and Je-u himself had spent days unsettled. The three of them knew Do-ha's peak power better than anyone—and an enemy like that existed?
How could any of them rest easy?
"Yeah. He really was about the same as me at my peak. Strictly speaking, weaker than past me."
"Not identical, then. But close enough?"
"Right."
"Hmm… You said you had a way to find him."
"Yeah. I was going to tell you the Green Forest and Beast Palace business was settled, then move right away."
Do-ha downed the tea in front of him in one shot and rose from his seat. Watching him, Je-u's expression shifted into something faintly worried.
"Do-ha."
"?"
"It's not just me. Dimerof, Emilton, Selenia, Canteas—we're all here. If it gets hard, say something anytime."
"What kind of creepy nonsense is that? I'm going."
Do-ha snorted a laugh and left the room. Je-u set down his pen and scrubbed his face dry with both hands.
He and all their friends knew the truth. Do-ha always looked like he was coasting through life—but he was fighting alone, every step of the way. Ever since his defeat by the Demon God, he had set out to erase every single threat. Things he would once have let slide, he now finished completely. He no longer even chose his methods.
The old Do-ha would never have used angels or demons. When he first announced he had formed soul contracts with Metatron and Baal, every one of his friends had been quietly stunned. That was how they all understood it: this time, Do-ha had truly made up his mind.
Even after returning to Earth, he keeps fighting enemies without rest.
Do-ha was his brother. They bickered and nagged each other every time they met, but Do-ha was always a precious friend and brother. And that brother never stopped annihilating his enemies—so the worry never left.
"Song Gyeol."
"Yes, Alliance Leader."
"Tell the black-market fences to let me know if any decent spiritual elixirs come in."
"You mean to give them to Lord Do-ha."
"I'm stuck in the Alliance Leader's seat and can't move freely. Dimerof's the emperor, so he can't move easily either… At least this way I can help somehow."
"Then I should buy an elixir for Lord Do-ha as well."
Song Gyeol smiled gently at the Alliance Leader's words. In his own childhood, Do-ha had given him so much guidance. Thanks to that, he had truly achieved something and reached the realm he stood in now.
Tap.
Tadadak.
"Uwaaaahm. Where are we even going?"
Canteas yawned as he followed Do-ha, who was leaping from treetop to treetop through the towering canopy. After returning home, Do-ha had eaten a simple meal with his grandfather and immediately set out somewhere.
"Looking for someone."
"An enemy?"
"Well."
"?"
Canteas tilted his head at Do-ha's answer. Enemy or not—what did "well" mean?
"Could become an enemy, could become an ally?"
"Exactly."
The one he was searching for was someone he had known since long ago. But that was the past. It might not be true anymore.
"Then why are we running?"
He could have used Neunggong Heodo—the art of walking on empty air—or simply flown with Fly magic. Why bother stepping from leaf to leaf with Chosangbi, the Grass-Top Flight technique?
At Do-ha's level, practicing Chosangbi wouldn't even count as real training.
"I told you. I'm looking for someone."
He could search while flying, but the target had burrowed deep into hiding. Staying close to the ground made it easier.
Tszzzzz.
Where are you.
Do-ha spread his qi sense as carefully as he could—like a man slowly moving through water to catch a fish. The being he was hunting was as strong as he was. If it felt his qi sense, it would vanish in an instant.
"Do-ha, want me to scatter some summons around?"
"No. If it sees undead nearby, it'll know right away."
"Then why did you bring me?"
"Excellent question."
"?"
Canteas cocked his head. Excellent question?
"Because I was bored."
"You bastard!"
Canteas snapped in irritation. For the past few days he had barely slept because of his research. Forget gaming—getting one or two hours of sleep had been a luxury. And the reason he'd been dragged along was because Do-ha was bored?!
Wasn't that going too far?!
"I'm kidding."
"Doesn't sound like a joke…"
"It really is a joke. It's because of the one we're looking for."
"If that's the case, then…"
Just then—
Ssssss.
Something snagged, ever so faintly, on Do-ha's qi sense.
"Found you."
Baek-bo Myeol-hwang Gong
Eleventh Step: Cheonhwa Myeongchul
Heavenly Fire of Destined Scorching
KWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
The moment something registered on his qi sense, Do-ha unleashed a colossal Cheonhwa Myeongchul without the slightest hesitation. Being caught by his sense meant the other side had found him as well. Hesitate, and he would lose it.
KUOOoooo!
A massive pillar of fire crashed down from the sky, and searing heat exploded outward in every direction. The column of flame—wide enough to swallow four or five buildings at once—was melting the empty air itself.
"A formation?"
As he had said, Cheonhwa Myeongchul was melting the void. Ordinarily it should have slammed into the ground. Right now, it wasn't.
"No. Magic."
"Huh?"
There was nothing around them. That meant it was illusion-type magic… but was there anyone who could cast an illusion strong enough to withstand Do-ha's Cheonhwa Myeongchul?
"Don't tell me…"
As Canteas thought it through, something suddenly clicked. There was a being who could cast magic of that caliber.
"The one you're looking for is a dragon?"
"That's right."
KUOOoooo!
At last—
Clang!
Do-ha's pillar of fire shattered the magic, and the surrounding scenery began to cascade down like broken shards of glass.
"Damn it!"
At the same moment, someone desperately flung their body into a desperate escape.
"Not so fast."
Bzzzt.
Whoosh!
A smile curling at the corner of his mouth, Do-ha unfolded Noeryeongsinbo and closed the distance in a single breath. He had finally caught it—he wasn't about to let it slip away.
"How about we talk for a bit?"
"Huuu…"
When Do-ha appeared, blocking the path, the fleeing figure finally let out a deep sigh.
"I knew it. I knew you'd still be alive, Legion."
Looking at Legion—the one who bore the humiliating moniker of "Sewer Rat"—Do-ha smiled.