Chapter 231 : Chapter 231
Chapter 231 : Neutral Zone (2)
"Those bastards said it. That I'm an Outer One just like them."
His characteristically powerful voice was raspy, as if choked with iron filings. It was heartbreaking, as that harsh, plosive sound seemed to prove how little of his life remained.
"Something about how I just haven't awakened yet, or whatever. Keuheuk, sitting there quietly listening to their bullshit was a real ordeal."
Hugin, who had been calmly reciting his journey after parting ways with me, finally let out a long, ragged sigh, as if only now running out of breath. His breath seemed to carry the scent of burning.
'......'
In the end, no miracle occurred. There was no sign of recovery for his completely burnt body.
His blackened, shattered frame looked as though it would crumble into powder at the slightest touch. It was unbearable to look at.
I desperately fixed my gaze on the half of his face that still retained its shape. This was the best I could do.
"What happened to Partizan...... must have been the work of those Outer One bastards as well."
The words we exchanged when I first met Hugin came to mind. It was only a few days ago.
He had mocked himself, claiming a terrible curse had struck his hometown, which had vanished along with his memories one day out of nowhere, yet he had tenaciously pursued the truth behind it.
'Like a man groping for an invisible path in a thick fog.'
Set aside never finding it, perhaps he was chasing an illusion that didn't even exist in the first place.
Yet, he ultimately found it. He had finally grabbed the truth by the scruff of its neck by his own hands.
But why, instead of offering a single word of encouragement, could I do nothing but remain silent? It feels as if a heavy weight is pressing down on my chest.
"Ah, it's not bad."
Hugin spoke in a relieved voice. The corner of his mouth, of which only half remained, curled up in a pleasant smile.
"......What do you mean, it's not bad?"
"Because I achieved my intended goal. From the beginning, we believed the mastermind behind this war was connected to the bastard who crushed Partizan. See? In the end, our judgment was right."
A hoarse chuckle leaked out. I bit my lip.
It was truly wretched proof.
'......'
Coldly speaking, he failed. At least, by my standards he did. If that's just because of my twisted temperament, I have nothing to say.
'Nothing changes just because you know the truth.'
On the contrary, he had lost half of his kin in this war, and he himself was on the verge of drawing his last breath.
For a truth obtained through death, the price was far too cruel.
"We existed, and we fought. We wrote a history of struggle."
"......"
"Comrade Bihen, this is enough."
Did he read my inner thoughts?
Hugin's eyes looking at me were vividly alive. He seemed to be passionately arguing that for the descendants of Partizan, who had to disappear with their memories stolen, this was the sole and greatest victory.
"I have a request. Will you grant it?"
I nodded. It was an unconscious reaction.
"Comrade Kendrick."
At the strained call, Kendrick, who was standing behind him, stood up and handed me something wrapped in a white cloth. Asking for understanding with a glance, I carefully unwrapped the cloth, revealing a sword so badly burnt that its shape was barely recognizable.
"Seeing you hold it makes everything clear now. Yes, my intuition wasn't wrong."
Hugin said with a low laugh.
"What is this?"
"Urvasi. The sacred sword of Partizan."
"The sacred sword of Partizan......"
I looked down at the blackened remains. The treasured sword, which must have once emanated a dazzling light, now lay upon my palm in a wretched state, looking just like its master's broken bones.
"The future I saw was a scene where Comrade Bihen returns Urvasi to the highest peak of Heavenly Mountain."
The moment his words ended, a strange light flickered across the retina of my Ghost Eye.
I traced my finger along the blackened blade, as if possessed.
FLAKE—!
Along with the crumbling soot, the charred outer layer peeled away like a shed skin. Then, a brilliant light leaked from within.
Watching from behind, Kendrick flinched and muttered.
"N-No, how can this be......"
I, too, could not hide my astonishment and was forced to freeze.
Hugin merely closed his eyes peacefully, as if it were an already foretold event that he had no need to watch.
THRUM—!
Soon, along with a heavy resonant sound, the white blade revealed its true form. It was a pure white radiance so intense it felt blinding.
Although the hilt and scabbard remained the same, the blade shone like a spiritual entity that had successfully completed its evolution.
"......Beautiful. It suits you perfectly, Comrade Bihen."
Along with Hugin's praise, the pulsation of Urvasi in my hand grew stronger.
As if responding to the vibration, a colorless gas rose to wrap around the blade, then seeped into me without hesitation.
'...!'
In an instant, a heat that felt as if it would cook my fingertips surged up through my veins. Soon, a tremendous burning sensation assaulted me.
I didn't even have time to put down the sword. The pure white radiance erupting from the blade swallowed even my consciousness into blank whiteness.
WHISH—!
The trembling of my eyelids gradually subsided. The wild heat that had blanketed the meridians of my entire body like a hack job stopped its frenzy at a certain point and began to settle quietly.
The boiling hot energy soon turned into a cozy, comforting warmth, as if it were a lie. It felt as if spring sunshine was beaming down for the first time upon a frozen wasteland.
THUMP—!
Finally, the pulsation of Urvasi and my heartbeat began to resonate as one.
'How can scorching yang energy flow through my body......?'
The foundation of my swordsmanship is the gloomy ghost qi that commands the souls of the dead. In other words, it is the very core of who I am.
Therefore, it was by no means a coincidence that I could easily handle the cold of the Frost Sword. The yin-cold nature of ghost qi and frost was clear proof that I was naturally incompatible with yang energy from birth.
'The yin-cold energy and the rushing yang energy aren't clashing.'
I immediately sat down on the spot and closed my eyes.
Instead of trapping the scorching yang that was beginning to form recklessly inside my body, I allowed it a full circulation within the flow of ghost qi.
Before long, the two wildly raging, disparate energies slowly locked together, gradually merging into one massive vortex along a certain trajectory.
'Harmony.'
I realized it instinctively. What entered me wasn't a flame of destruction, but the essence of light that awakens suppressed life and drives away the darkness.
'Benkou Vision.'
It was my first time operating a cultivation method with others around. Even so, I had to do it. The cry of my subconscious that it had to be now or never echoed in my ears.
TZZZZT—!
It sinks.
The passage leading to the Altar of the Abyss.
It is infinitely quiet.
'......What is this?'
There was no Wraith Cry raging like a welcome greeting, nor a horde of dead souls struggling to swallow me whole. There was nothing. It was just a hollow darkness, like a void of nothingness.
Right then.
A crack formed in the endless void, and a single beam of dazzling light poured through the fissure.
Followed by another, and another......
As if it were the dawn of creation.
It exploded ceaselessly, tearing through the shroud of darkness.
And before long—
The pitch-black abyss and the golden brilliance broke down each other's boundaries, forming a massive Taegeuk.
A microcosm where light and darkness finally stood on equal footing.
This was the true nature of the vortex in which the two disparate energies had been locking together just a moment ago.
'It's familiar.'
It was a sentiment uttered inadvertently. I found it absurd even myself that this was the very first thing to come out after facing such an overwhelming sight.
I gently placed my hand against the downpouring beam of light. A pleasant warmth flowed over the back of my hand.
'......Ah.'
I turned my head.
In the distance where my gaze landed, brazier pots holding multicolored flames were burning in a circle around me.
The purple flame of Benkou Swordsmanship.
The dark gray flame of Imperial Swordsmanship.
The blue-white flame of the Frost Sword.
The loess-colored flame of Quake Earth.
The red flame of Blood Points.
The green flame of Immunity to Ten Thousand Poisons.
The black flame of Pasaheanjeong.
The vermilion flame of the Ten-Day Crimson Flower.
Flames that each held a story, burning like the setting sun on the horizon.
Following the heat coughed up by those grand blazes, I raised my eyes above my head.
Beyond the distant void, they finally revealed themselves.
Radiant golden stars embroidering the dark ceiling.
The footprints of my journey after my regression were casting a brilliant light, using the flames of the braziers as nourishment.
Those were the true source of that familiarity.
'All of it......'
Was inside me.
·
·
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"Comrade Bihen?"
I heard Hugin's voice calling me from reality. I slowly opened my eyes.
"......!"
"W-What on earth is this......"
Hugin and Kendrick were staring at me with startled eyes. Only then did I fully lift my half-closed eyelids.
A strange flame, the likes of which I had never seen anywhere before, was flickering around my entire cross-legged body. Though it was clearly burning, it wasn't hot, and while it contained a bone-chilling cold, it didn't freeze.
As if light and darkness were chasing each other's tails......
A band of black and white flames was quietly rotating with me as its axis.
"Amazing, Comrade Bihen. It's beyond anything I imagined. What happened?"
I silently looked down at Urvasi. The sword resting on my lap was pulling back its light on its own, as if it had fulfilled its duty as a beacon guiding my awakening.
"I intend to entrust Urvasi to the blacksmith who forged my sword."
"Urvasi is a sacred sword, but it's also a demonic sword. It's not something an ordinary blacksmith can handle."
"Do not worry. He is also a man far from ordinary."
If it was Gaff, who forged the Heavenly Demon, he would surely be able to balance the destructive demonic nature and sacred radiance contained within this sword.
"I will return half of the restored Urvasi according to your wishes, and I shall inherit the other half."
Hugin paused, then laughed weakly.
"Are you saying you'll split the history of Partizan and carry it on? Is that truly possible?"
"Yes. Because the newly born sword will no longer be called by its old name."
I stroked down the blade, where the afterimage of white flame still lingered, and said,
"I shall call that sword the Radiant Sword."
"Radiant...... I like it."
Hugin, laughing softly, reached his hand out to me.
"Comrade Bihen, will you grasp Urvasi together with me? Let us encapsulate half of your future and half of my past."
After sheathing Urvasi, I stood up and held it together with Hugin, each of us taking a side.
THRUM—!
Urvasi vibrated quietly. Hugin's faint pulsation was transmitted through the sword. Compared to my white flame, which had just begun to blaze, it was incredibly thin and precarious.
"Comrade Bihen, do you...... see it too?"
Hugin called my name in a trembling voice. His voice was as dry and crumbly as sand without a single drop of moisture, but his heavily strained eyes were clear and transparent, as if holding a mysterious, hidden landscape.
Had the illusion he was seeing transferred to me as well?
As the walls enclosing the narrow bedroom collapsed, the chill of a river fed by melting perennial snow rushed in from beyond. Along with the sensation of blades of grass tickling the tops of my feet, cloud-shrouded peaks and bizarrely shaped rocks filled my vision like a folding screen.
'Heavenly Mountain......'
The word echoing inside Hugin's head was clearly audible to me too.
He stared into my eyes as if burning away the last remaining embers of his life.
"It seems my path ends here."
Over the back of my hand holding Urvasi, he overlapped his own blackened hand.
It was the most noble and heavy last will handed down to me by the descendant of a fallen paradise.
"I shall follow that path right behind you."
"Thank you."
Hugin smiled and closed his eyes.
With this, the grand journey of a man who had dominated an era came to an end.
I sincerely prayed for his eternal rest.