A Bolt from an Overcast Sky
After sending Du-sik off with orders to drag back that devoted son bawling his heart out for his mother, one thought crossed my mind.
Hold on...? Isn't that guy a Transcendent Realm too?
Perhaps from all the anger he'd been bottling up of late, Dang Giyeong was tearing after that fellow in his outlandish garb, cackling like a lunatic...
"Hey! Stop for a second, will you!!!"
The way things were going, if that man abruptly spun around mid-chase and took even one swing at us, it would end in catastrophe — so I found myself sprinting flat-out after them both.
"Moooom!!!"
"Stop right there!!!"
"You're the one who needs to stop!!!"
And so, in the middle of the jungle, an entirely unprompted three-man chase was underway.
Rustle— rustle—
The lead runner drew his sword energy and began shearing through the trees around him with ringing strokes, felling them one after another to wall off the path behind him.
Now, anyone with two functioning eyeballs would have pulled up short right there and thought better of it — Giyeong included.
"Get back here!!!"
But that lunatic's eyes had rolled so far back into his head that he saw nothing at all, chasing the man down like one possessed.
Edge of the Peak Realm or whatever he was — what I wanted to know was how a man with no way whatsoever to block that frost-blue sword energy could be so damn bold about it...
The back of my neck was stiffening all on its own, so I opened my mouth and shouted.
"Stop!"
Kehk!
CRASH—
Du-sik's legs locked dead all at once, and like a scene straight out of a slapstick comedy, he pitched forward onto his face. Thanks to which he was suddenly treated to a passionate kiss from the damp ground...
"Hey! Just hold it right there!!!"
After all, we could hardly let that devoted son slip away now, could we.
Crunch—
Giving a dainty little stomp to the head Dang Giyeong had planted face-down in the mud like a cast of his own face, I bounded out ahead of him...
Bars of blood rose to cage the fleeing man.
It went by the same name as his Blood Orb — yet what rose now was no sphere at all. Bars wrought of blood erupted from the earth and barred the road ahead.
"Huuuraaaagh!"
The man had a magnificent set of lungs on him — he was still roaring at full volume as he veered sharply aside — but then, a prison has never been the sort of thing to block one direction only.
Hemmed in on all sides by red pillars slowly tightening their circle, he finally halted in his tracks and turned back toward me.
"Y-you monster! Just what in the world are you?!"
Only now, of all times, asking after my identity. I merely closed the distance wearing a crooked smile — and at that, he began to mutter, shaking himself into a full-blown fit of panic...
"O God, O God, O God, O God, O God, O God, O God..."
Watching him hunt for God with such diligence, I shook my head from side to side.
"Go on, then — search for your god a hundred days, a thousand. Let's see if those bastards so much as spare you a glance."
KRAK-BOOM—
In that exact instant, a bolt of lightning came crashing down on my head.
So much for a bolt from the clear blue sky...
Granted, the sky did happen to be fairly thick with clouds — but even so, wasn't this a bit much? Was it chance, or was that man truly basking in the favor of God Himself...
"Y... you son of a—"
Straining to clutch at my spiraling consciousness, I stretched out a hand, but—
"O God! Thank you!"
Blowing a kiss up at the heavens, he fled off into the distance.
The old man keeping watch over the village was visibly flustered at the sight of the two men who had sprinted off earlier now trudging back in what could only be called a beggar's getup.
"What on earth happened out there?"
".........."
One of them walked back caked head to toe in mud...
...while the other came back scorched here and there across his body, as though he'd been struck by lightning.
The wielder of that unidentified sorcery — having butchered every last intruder in the village — had rushed off after the one who seemed to be their leader, and now—
"You didn't catch that one?"
".........."
"Heavens... you let him get away? However did that happen..."
— back they came empty-handed, bedraggled and filthy. And on top of it all, what they had to say was...
"Old man, so what the hell is actually going on here? Start explaining."
It galled him, the way this brat — barely older than his own grandson — spat out crude speech without a shred of respect. But the old man gathered himself, and began.
"First we will go to my house and talk there. Though the two of you look as though a wash is in order before anything else..."
"Haah... so where's your house, old man?"
"That one over there — the biggest house."
"Du-sik, let's go get washed up... Yeesh, just look at the state of you."
"And you're one to talk, young master?"
Honestly, the old man still didn't trust those two one bit as they bickered their way toward the village well — and he was loath to speak of Nanman's affairs. But willing or not, what choice did he have? It was his village that had been raided, after all, and these were men who carved through people like it was nothing.
Perhaps sensing the unease in his father, the son came over and asked with a face full of worry.
"Father, will this truly be all right? Those men look far too dangerous..."
"It's precisely because they're dangerous that we have no choice. The mood is plain enough — one wrong step and they'd kill every soul in this village before they'd go without their answers."
"But..."
"Besides, I can't even begin to fathom what sorcery that disrespectful little brat wields. Whatever it is, it hardly seems like a secret worth staking every villager's life on."
"Then how about we poison them — pretend to serve them a meal?"
"Forget it. Those are men of the clan most famous for poison in all the lands up north."
"Yes....."
And it wasn't only his son wearing that anxious look — glancing around, the old man found every villager's face etched with the same worry.
"I will settle all of this myself, so none of you worry overmuch."
Forcing a smile, the old man did his best to soothe the people around him.
And so the two martial artists from the Central Plains and the one warrior of Nanman sat facing one another...
"Now then — where shall I begin?"
"All of it... from beginning to end, every last detail."
"Hmm... well now, let me see. It would have been about two months ago..."
With the old man's low hum, the telling of what had happened in Nanman began.
It was on one such night, roughly two months before the present day.
KWAAAA-BOOOM—
A thunderous explosion rolled out from the deepest reaches of the jungle, loud enough to shake the entire village.
"What in the...?"
Jolted from his sleep, he went straight out of the house to check on the surroundings, but...
"Mommy... Mommy..."
"There, there, my darling, it's all right..."
"WAAAAAAH!!!"
Aside from villagers spilling out of their homes with startled eyes, there was nothing unusual to be seen. Only the daytime birds, wings flapping in a panic, streaming away in the direction opposite the sound's source.
Up to that point, at least, the old man chalked it up to a simple occurrence, reassured the people, and sent them home.
"Everyone back inside. Nothing looks amiss to me, as far as I can see."
A week went by.
The men who went beyond the village to hunt began returning injured, or bitten by venomous insects. That, too, was the sort of thing bound to happen once or twice if you lived in a jungle this vast, so it was brushed aside once more.
Two weeks went by.
Right up until the previous week it had been nothing but minor scrapes; now there were men being carried back gravely wounded, or hovering at the very edge of death. The atmosphere in the village began to sour...
"Then we will trust in you and you alone, Elder!"
"All right... none of you are to leave the village until I return."
In the end, the old man set out into the jungle himself.
Shshshshshshshshshk—
Once he had pushed deep enough that the village was no longer in sight, a busy stirring of sounds began to rise around him...
Kyaak—
"Hm... this one's no beast you'd find around these parts."
Sixty years he had lived in this place, and never once — not anywhere near the village — had he laid eyes on snakes and insects like these: creatures that belonged only in the deep reaches of the jungle, the very depths from which that great noise had lately rung out. And now they were hurling themselves at him. He tilted his head.
"Something is going on out there, all right...."
True, a violent downpour might now and then wash a stray creature or two downstream — but the situation now was as if...
From what were they being driven out?
At least, nothing like it had happened in all the old man's living memory.
The jungle was already brimming with beasts and vermin dangerous to the point of eeriness, and a premonition whispered that venturing deeper would earn him nothing good.
So the old man combed the area a little while longer, then turned back for the village...
"For now, it would be best if no one set foot outside the village for a while."
"Elder, but then what of the food..."
"I know. I will gather it myself, so let us be patient just a while."
"Yes....."
The village was, for all intents and purposes, sealed shut.
Then, some three weeks after that, one day...
Still, the jungle had quieted somewhat compared to before, so he permitted the men whose strength the village acknowledged to go beyond its bounds — and those men came back with a man of the Nanman Beast Palace in tow.
"I come from the Beast Palace."
In any event, they received him warmly, and he began to explain why he had come all this way.
"As you well know, Elder — the jungle has been acting strangely of late, has it not?"
"That it has..."
"And so, while there is still time, the Beast Palace seeks to bind all the tribes into one."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I cannot explain the details, but the jungle will only drift somewhere worse than it stands now. That is why we say: better to join our strength together, here and now."
"That is not a matter for me alone to decide. I will call a village meeting, so wait a little while."
"I pray it goes well."
And so the village meeting was held...
"So... then everyone is against it, then?"
"Yes. The whole business smells suspicious, if you ask us. And even setting that aside, we feel no particular need to join the Beast Palace."
The conclusion reached in that meeting was refusal.
Yet when that answer was conveyed to the envoy of the Beast Palace...
"Is that so? Then you will truly have no regrets?"
"We thank you for the offer, but the villagers are all against it — what would you have me do? Travel safely on your way home."
"Well... so be it. It is their choice. Only — do not blame me when it comes."
With those words, he departed.
Uneasy words for a listener to sit with, but they brushed them aside as carrying no particular meaning...
Then, some ten days later — in other words, roughly three weeks before the present day.
"Leave the children. Tie up every last one of the rest and drag them off!"
The warriors of the Beast Palace came storming into the village.