Chapter 55
Chapter 55
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 55
Chapter Title: Two Legs
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"W-what is this..."
The younger brother leading the Red Blood Savages couldn't comprehend it, but the older brother who had led them knew from the start. If the Great Demon King bestowed horns upon all races, sharing his will, then his own will-and his sins-would be borne by the entire tribe.
"The hunt against the innocent is our sin. We've been deceived by hunger, devouring ourselves from within. I'll take the sin upon myself, so you live. And please, prosper under the new will that will guide us."
He also hoped his younger brother would awaken to all this and become a better king, a greater warrior than he.
"Good. Now, what will you do, Chanheuk? Kill your foe."
Iven had sensed his resolve and issued the command once more. Khifuk's determination was already set. The sandstorm swirling around him sank heavily, as if obeying his will.
"I... I..."
Chanheuk squeezed his eyes shut and ground his teeth.
"I can't do that. I just can't..."
What a wretched fate. The sins of the tribe?
All we wanted was to survive. Isn't it the gods' fault for abandoning our kind here?
Shouldn't the gods atone for that sin, as is right in this world?
"We devoured ourselves and slew all else. This will must be severed."
"But Khifuk!"
Why? What sin is ours, truly? What drove us to point a father's blade at our brother?
"I don't fully know our tribe's sin. Even if it flows through the horns to us all, I thought it unavoidable. But, my lord..."
Yet his teeth gnashed in pain, and even so, he would bear the sin.
"I can't die fighting. I can't abandon us!"
Chanheuk embraced his brother and pulled him to his feet. They stood proudly against the tribe's sins and the overwhelming death before them. Watching this, the overwhelming death spoke to the trembling young king at his side.
"Do you understand, next king of the Ashen Wolf Humans? That is what a king is. Sacrificing while saving. They know their sins, embrace them, and would die for it-yet their will to live and lead intertwines. So I need only show them a way to bear their sins and survive. I'll do the same for you, and it will make you think for yourself."
Iven smiled. The atmosphere flipped in an instant with that gentle warmth. His kind expression was almost like...
"You've guided them as the lodestar."
Revanaharon flinched. He didn't know it yet, but his destiny had just been sealed.
"I'll follow your will, even unto death."
Eyes trembling with respect and affection. Iven averted his gaze at last and rose to stand before the brothers who would become great leaders of their race. Thus, the two bound by fate descended below.
"But this isn't enough."
The Great Demon King Iven, descending to the lower ground, stood before the groaning princes.
"What is this? Are you both determined to die by my hand?"
Iven asked to confirm their resolve once more. The older brother, supported to his feet, shook off his sibling and knelt on one knee to reply.
"My lord, I'll bear our tribe's sin and die for it. Even after granting the horns, please slay me so we kill no more for survival. And devour me."
Khifuk Gurimson knew. The sin passed down from his father. It had been unavoidable for survival, yet to those who knew honor, it remained a sin.
"The sin of slaughtering the pure."
A dilemma from his father's father, and his father before-perhaps from the very first father.
Is it right to kill other races to save ours?
To kill for survival?
Doesn't it break the millennium-old pact?
"You speak of the pact, Khifuk Gurimson?"
Iven already understood his intent to bear the tribe's sin, having heard it from Hyeon. His younger brother seemed ignorant, trembling in confusion and fear, but Khifuk spoke of what only the tribe's greatest warriors knew, passed from his father.
"Before death was born on this land, the races forged pacts by will and creed. We Red Blood Savages grew fastest in number, so to live in harmony, we pledged never to kill those we could reason with."
"That is the pact your kind holds among all races' promises."
"But after the gods died and we settled this barren land, we slew too many lives. With no beasts or plants, we ate the beastkin."
How could we see reasoning beasts as mere animals? To devour them for their weakness-is that glorious battle?
"This sin became the name 'Savages,' passed only to great warriors. If I take the horn, it will surely spread to all."
The horn shares will. Meaning, the will that killed others for my survival would pass to the tribe's new lives.
"Pitiful."
Iven approached him slowly.
Right then.
"Wait a moment!"
Chanheuk Gurimson blocked his path.
"I didn't know the pact, but if it's our tribe's, we all share the sin."
"Then all die?"
To Iven's cruel question, the older brother answered his sibling this time.
"The Great Demon King has changed! The era has shifted. I'll bear the old generation's sin-you lead the new! The renewed will of our tribe is you!"
Lost in memories by the brothers' words, Iven's heart stirred. But he wasn't the only one moved.
Thud!
All the Red Blood Savages who had watched the fight from the start now faced Iven.
"No, this won't do! Return and serve your lord!"
"Great Warrior! We follow your will!"
Thud!
"And the young Gurimson's will too!"
Thud!
"This is our will!"
The wilderness filled with blood. They all raised weapons.
Starved and persecuted, every warrior slowly advanced toward overwhelming death. For their honorable final battle, the foremost savage raised his axe and roared.
"Yerutsa Horn!"
The young Gurimson, representing their will, shouted too.
The cry of their great foreking, Bezark Gurimson, in glorious battle.
"All with two legs, fight to the death! Yerutsa Horn!"
***
Rank innards spilled.
One merfolk fell, and another surged like fish climbing a waterfall. They swam through their own blood. Toward the light, to extinguish it.
In response, Bulki's sword sprayed light.
The blood oxidizing in the light boiled anew, shattering bones and organs alike. The light was fierce, heavy, and grew ever redder.
Bulki ascended the stairs slowly, swinging at the pursuing merfolk. They screamed in agony as flesh boiled, black forms dying in droves as consciousness fled.
Passing the central control, Bulki hurled his sword. Spinning, it scattered light, melting the dark things outright. A gruesome stench rose. They seemed mindless, charging blindly without knowledge of gods or faith.
Bulki swung again.
Flesh pulped, black scales burst against vaporizing blood. Tails severed, arms torn, eyes oozed, tongues and entrails snapped. Like smearing black mud on walls, merfolk corpses smeared every corner of Hoshekhhatar.
Crossing the waterlogged dais, Bulki thought.
Why is this so damn fun?
Bathed in red blood, surrounded by piling, burning corpses, he was gradually consumed, sinking into death. Even his own faith seemed to fade.
"Hero! Hurry and open the door!"
"Ah."
At Shainelius's words, Bulki realized he was already at the captain's quarters door. He shook blood from his hair and focused his breath before opening it.
The situation was worse than thought. Terror, Saar's form, shook everyone inside. Souls seemed to flee as their forms overlapped bodies.
"Hero!"
The first mate, roused by Rondnel, crawled urgently to Bulki. Unable to stand by the fallen captain, Bulki retreated and listened.
"We can't let it drag us. Torpedoes might work-focus fire and flee."
"But First Mate, the hull's badly damaged. Water's flooding now."
"We're patching with regrowth iron, but how long it'll hold..."
Just then, Shainelius shouted.
"We have a Hero! He'll push out the terror, then surface with Mir. Feasible, First Mate?"
"Possible, but too many variables."
"Use every method available!"
At Rondnel's weary cry, Bulki approached the first mate, gripped his shoulders, and asked.
"Where to?"
The first mate pondered, then resignedly said.
"Torpedo tube. Remove the round, climb in-no launch, you'll exit."
"I'll gear up and go."
Bulki dashed to his quarters without looking back, grabbing minimal armor. Full kit would take too long.
"Time..."
"Hero, can you hear me?"
"Who's there?"
Then, the witch Liliet appeared before the Hero again.
"Time to defeat the thousand arms."