Chapter 56
Chapter 56
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 56
Chapter Title: Mir of the Vast Sea
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Iven gazed contentedly at the legion that filled the barren wasteland, seething with fury and unyielding will.
"Finally, your wills have united."
Before his eyes stretched an endless crimson horde, radiating not just killing intent, but a raw desperation. Everywhere he looked, there was nothing but dirt and red. They trembled with fear, yet they sublimated it into rage. Some drooled, reveling in the thrill of their own impending death, while others already had veins bulging on hands clenched around their weapons.
A few had burst capillaries, and others emitted a faint glow from their red tattoos for reasons unknown. Sweat poured down their bodies, cooled by a passing breeze.
Iven looked up at the sky again. The blackened heavens felt as if they might collapse on him at any moment. Which would come first-the sky crashing down on him, or the red wave before his eyes swallowing him whole?
He closed his eyes and imagined.
The moment he raised his sword, the foremost warrior, Chanherk Gurimson, would die. Kihuk Gurimson would lose his reason at the sight of his brother's blood spraying and head tumbling, then lead the red wave straight at him. And so he would raise his sword again.
With one swing, half might dodge it, and a few more might block, but nearly all would perish. The Red Blood Savages would drench the earth in crimson, true to their name. Yet they would charge on. They would not stop running toward death. Toward battle.
Those who closed in on him would first slash at his wings or throat with their blades. Some would grab his legs, and others would tear into his flesh, willingly sacrificing themselves. Knowing this, he too would swing not just his sword, but his arms and kick with his feet.
He would trample those whose brains splattered as they fell, only for Kihuk to charge again. He would fold his swung arm to pierce the warrior's heart, but Kihuk would not stop-he would seize his two horns and try to rip out his throat. The instant those teeth sank into his neck, Kihuk's mouth would burn away in sword-purple karmic fire.
Blood from the pierced heart would sizzle on the blazing tongue.
And in that moment of fading consciousness, endless warriors would surge forward to replace Kihuk.
The Red Bloods would hurl themselves toward death without end.
All of them would die.
Iven opened his eyes again.
And once more, he ignited sword-purple karmic fire through his pair of horns. The flames blooming from his horns slightly quelled the momentum of the Red Blood Savages, who had seemed ready to charge at any second. They felt a terror even they couldn't comprehend.
For they remembered, through that blood, how this flame had once incited their blind rage when it was inherited. First, that must be severed.
They had to break free from the fear that once dominated them and multiply and thrive by their own will.
And these two princes had to lead them.
"You two princes, come before me."
At Iven's inscrutable words, the two princes approached and knelt. Kihuk Gurimson raised a hand to halt the legion panting raggedly behind them and said,
"As my lord commands."
He bowed his head before his lord. Iven gave a faint smile and called out behind the princes.
"Hear me, all you Red Blood Savages!"
What should they do? Kneel following the princes, or bite their tongues and snap out of it, steeling themselves for death even now? They still hadn't decided who their king truly was.
And then, it was not Kihuk but Chanherk who shouted.
"Warriors, kneel before the lord!"
Thud.
The most seasoned-looking elder on one flank discarded his weapon and dropped to both knees as if accepting death. He relaxed his strength and lowered his head. Those behind him followed suit, collapsing to the ground one after another.
"Today, we do not die."
With that, the entire legion knelt, kicking up an immense cloud of dust. And through it all, Iven opened his brilliant yet pitiful eyes.
"The sins carved into your bodies-I shall bear them all from now on. Moreover, your hunts shall advance even further. I bestow the horns of your progenitor upon both his sons, and those among your kind who prove worthy shall raise horns alongside them to become the Empire's strength."
Recalling from Lucifer's memories the image of Bezakh Gurimson, who resembled a war god with his horns, Iven severed one horn from each of the father's pair and granted them to his sons.
"Yerutsa Horn-for those who bear sins, horns that draw all my kin to them."
"Yerutsa Horn-for those who press on regardless, horns that repel my foes."
The brothers, still unaware of the meaning and merely groaning in pain as they recited their wills, sprouted horns nonetheless-one on the elder brother's left forehead, one on the younger's right. They gleamed harder than steel, like those of a rhinoceros.
"Now, you are my Demon Kings."
And Iven extended his hand to the others. Sword-purple karmic fire began flowing into all the Red Bloods who stained the earth crimson.
"Urk! Y-You... all of you..."
This time, Iven endured the groan and shouted anew.
"You are all my horns-raise your horns! Yerutsa Horn!"
Those Red Blood Savages with strong wills sprouted small horns in the same positions as the brothers'. Once more, their wills flowed through Iven's blood.
"Ah, in this harsh land, contemplating our own honor-how could we not feel desperation? This will, like a beast enduring hunger, courses through me."
It was loneliness, or starvation.
"Ugh!"
And the sin of failing to overcome it.
"Iveldra! Call Hyeon, quickly! And me! Back to that place!"
To Iven, who had swallowed their sins, a fury capable of slaying them all welled up once more.
"Hurry!"
At this, Iveldra hastily opened a portal, and in the barren valley of Gehenna where nothing grew or bloomed, Iven vanished once again.
"Kuhk! Ack! Urk!"
And he began vomiting fury anew.
"Hah, this is..."
A being that should never have been born in this world was once again taking form in the story, seizing the Demon King's role.
***
Bulki recalled Lilitt's words as he climbed into the torpedo tube loaded with magic bullets.
"A time to emit light, not the abyss."
The woman who had called herself the ship's watcher said that with Cheret, they could breathe inside that light-so he, who had yielded to the abyss, must now scatter light into the deep sea once more. But Bulki didn't understand what that meant.
Bulki sealed the torpedo tube's hatch. And embraced the utter darkness.
Only the stench of repulsive blood lingered; no other scent reached him anywhere.
"Still, I have to go. And... kill."
In that instant, another mechanism docked behind the torpedo tube Bulki had entered and connected. Where explosives should have been loaded, Cheret now shone with light once more.
In a flash, the darkness lifted, and Bulki could see his own hands. Even the golden light from Cheret couldn't wash away the dark red blood staining them. Cheret seemed excited, stamping its feet, but Bulki didn't know what that signified either. At the end of the massive torpedo barrel, he mounted Cheret, waiting for the hatch to open, then shouted,
"Ready!"
With a deafening roar, the cannon's muzzle split open. Cheret emitted light, and the torpedo launched.
Boom!
The torpedo's casing peeled away, and Cheret, carrying the breath-holding Bulki, streaked toward the deep sea like lightning.
"This? Cheret?"
As Lilitt had said, he could breathe inside Cheret's light. But the moment he caught his breath, pressure clamped around his throat.
It was the thing with a thousand hands-Saar.
"Kuh!"
Just gazing into the eyes of that horror, named for devouring all, felt like a curse racing through his body. Larger even than Hosekhkhatar, it was already dragging the ship deeper with its countless arms, and without swift action, the vessel itself seemed on the verge of shattering.
Right then.
Bang!
Not from Bulki's tube, but from another of Hosekhkhatar's torpedo launchers, a magic bullet fired out, pushing back the horror. And Bulki drew his sword as Lilitt had instructed.
"Light!"
[Judgment of Glory].
In an instant, a blinding light erupted, illuminating the deep sea. The horror moved its colossal body to devour it, and Bulki veered upward to evade-but then he saw it.
A movement even vaster than the deep sea's terror.
"This is..."
Following Bulki's light, sharing Cheret's glow-that very ocean.
A being with an amphibian's maw and the body of a massive whale. It'stirred slowly, whipping up a colossal whirlpool that swallowed the horror in one gulp.
"Cheret, did you call it?"
Cheret kicked joyfully underwater. And the being seemed to recognize Cheret too, circling slowly around Hosekhkhatar.
It felt as if the entire sea were dancing.
"The entity they call life itself."
It was Yam, the Mir of the Vast Sea.
『Hero, can you hear my voice?』