Chapter 295 : Divine Might (3)
Chapter 295: Divine Might (3)
Had he recalled a question he shouldn't have?
The side effects of the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword which had almost disappeared now that he had reached a mature level of mastery began to rear its ugly head again.
The demonic energy spread throughout his body ran wild like an untamed horse.
"Entertain me a little more!!"
BOOM!!
Each time he blocked the fanatic’s saber, the rampage grew even more violent.
Was it because he had already been swallowed by the waves of distracting thoughts? Or because internal injuries were piling up?
Even though he was being pushed to the crossroads of life and death, Il-mok couldn't fall into a state of selflessness as he had before.
Instead, memories of the past kept coming to him.
Memories of spreading a new religion called the Maitreya Luminous Cult in the Central Plains.
Memories of executing evildoers in the name of the Maitreya Luminous Cult.
Furthermore.
—How could another's soul...
The moment he recalled those words that the Blood Cult’s Elder had muttered in his final moment, Il-mok came to realize something.
‘So that’s why.’
Why he couldn't reach the Realm of Truth even after gaining sufficient enlightenment about martial arts.
Why he felt no revulsion even after committing murder.
At some point, he had been looking down on everything from Seo Ji-hoon's perspective.
He had been immersed in living as Il-mok, but the perspective had ultimately been Seo Ji-hoon’s.
Yes. Just like controlling a character in a game.
That was why he didn't want those close to him to die. It would be regrettable if the NPCs he had journeyed with died.
He felt nothing when he killed someone because no one would feel revulsion at killing a villain in a game.
Maybe it was a kind of self-defense mechanism.
A wall he had unconsciously created to erase the revulsion of his first murder.
At this very moment.
Il-mok became aware of that wall's existence for the first time.
BOOM!!
He blocked the fanatic’s saber again, but this time, Il-mok vomited blood amidst waves of intense nausea.
"Urgh."
It wasn't from internal injuries caused by Qi Deviation.
The moment he faced the reality he had been blocking with a wall, terrible sensations flooded in.
The screams and smell of blood from the countless evildoers he had killed. The sensation of piercing their throats and hearts.
The moment he recognized that he had killed over a hundred people, an indescribable revulsion wrapped around his entire body.
'Am I... a murderer?'
The fanatic's scimitar flew toward Il-mok's half-dazed face.
But the curved blade couldn't take Il-mok's neck.
Clang!
Zafir deflected the arrow that flew from nowhere at the last moment and looked at a certain direction with eyes filled with rage.
"How dare you interfere with this sacred duel!!"
Zafir swung his scimitar at the air, and the Saber Qi formed from his curved blade bent strangely and flew toward somewhere.
Il-mok followed the Saber Qi that the man had launched with half-dazed eyes.
At the end of that path was Jeong Hyeon who had just rescued him with her arrow.
She protected him just like back in the day when they were still students at the Hall of the Demonic Way.
"......"
And then a woman with an impassive expression and cold features stepped quitely in front of her.
BOOM!!
She successfully blocked Zafir's Saber Qi with her hands but,
"Cough."
The gap between their realm is just too vast, and she eventually coughed up blood with a light cough.
But even while suffering internal injuries, Jin Hayeon boldly spoke.
"Young Master, wake up."
Her eyes were looking directly at Il-mok, just as when Il-mok had saved her from the Heart Demon.
She wasn't the only one. Jeong Hyeon was also looking at Il-mok's eyes before aiming her bow at Zafir again.
"Young Master!!"
And as always, Ju Seo-yeon was also running toward him as if she would take a blade for Il-mok.
Of course with her eyes full of her own personal agenda.
Only then did Il-mok look around.
Thanks to them, he had a brief moment to survey his surroundings.
'Everyone... is still alive.'
All the screams he had heard from all directions had been from the enemies.
Everyone was covered in wounds and drenched in blood, and they were struggling desperately with fewer numbers after the seriously injured had retreated.
But no one appeared to be dead at the moment.
Only then did Il-mok remember.
Why had he taken the lives of over a hundred people until now?
To protect the common folks?
To punish the scumbags who didn't treat fellow humans as humans?
—Do you think that's an excuse?
At that moment, his Heart Demon spoke to him inside his mind.
—Even though you killed everyone who could have just been subdued?
It asked Il-mok why he didn't follow the path of No Killing just like the Buddhists did.
To the Heart Demon's question, Il-mok offered no excuse.
The trivial excuse that he had unconsciously been treating this world as a game no longer worked.
Instead, Il-mok spat out the blood that was rising up his throat again.
"Ptui. If they were the type who could change by just being granted mercy, I wouldn't have killed them in the first place."
—Who are you to judge others? Do you think you've become a god just because you gained power?
Hearing his Heart Demon's question, Il-mok smiled bitterly. His eyes had already returned to their usual indifferent look.
"God, my fucking ass."
If he were a god, he wouldn't have needed to go through all this suffering.
As Il-mok continued to mutter to himself, Zafir frowned as he watched him.
"Tsk. I thought so before, but you really have lost your mind."
His intuition told him that this battle wouldn’t grant him the honor of becoming the Great Warrior.
"Maybe God will grant me wisdom after I kill all of you infidels."
And so, Zafir swung his scimitar at Il-mok again to finish the Holy War.
Meanwhile, Il-mok, who had been observing the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword's energy running wild inside his body soon burst into a chuckle.
"Maybe this is for the best."
Zafir was about to scoff at the infidel's insane rambling when his eyes soon went wide with shock and bewilderment.
"!?"
The moment his scimitar clashed with the mad infidel leader's sword, his saber began to scream.
SCREECH!
A strange energy was coiled around the infidel leader's sword that clashed with his curved blade, making it cry out as if about to shatter.
It didn't look like Sword Force. It looked like lightning.
Sword Thunder (劍雷).
Since the demonic energy of the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword had run wild to its extreme, Il-mok had simply used that energy to unleash Sword Thunder just as when the Blood Qi had run wild in the past.
But it was different from back then.
The demonic energy that had previously run wild like a mad horse strangely obeyed his commands. Very much different from the usual situation where he had barely managed to hold on.
CLANG!
One side was Il-mok with his indifferent look, the other was Zafir with his eyes full of conviction.
Zafir's pupils trembled violently at the sudden change in his opponent's skill and attitude.
'Why has such a trial been bestowed upon me!!’
But he soon returned to an expression that was void of doubt.
'Yes! This is God's will! A command to overcome this trial and be reborn as the Great Warrior!'
But contrary to his resolute expression—
CRACK!!
Zafir's scimitar could not withstand the power of Sword Thunder and shattered into pieces.
Swoosh!
He threw the broken half of his sword like a dagger and dove for another one lying in the sand that was formerly owned by his fallen subordinate.
He grabbed the sword and stood up and ready to fight for his Holy War again, when—
CRACK!!
An ominous roar rang out, and fragments of grayish light filled his vision entirely.
"Aah... O God..."
He gazed at the fragments of light with an ecstatic expression as God's baptism rained down upon his body.
SQUELCH!!
Zafir, whose entire body was instantly shredded by hundreds of fragments of Sword Force.
For a second, he searched for God in the fading light.
Thud.
But his soulless and bloodied body collapsed onto the desert sand.
Il-mok stared briefly at the corpse that had become a gruesome sight, then turned his head to look around.
The fanatics who had been attacking the Black Tiger Corps members were staring at Il-mok and Zafir's corpse with dazed expressions.
"T-This can't be."
"Lord Zafir has been defeated..."
What was absurd was that the Black Tiger Corps members were also staring at Il-mok with dazed expressions.
Shing!
Il-mok raised the Ascension Sword toward the sky with an indifferent expression.
Vrrrrr.
The rampaging demonic energy of the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword gathered toward the Ascension Sword.
Who are you?
When the Heart Demon posed the question to him again, Il-mok answered with an indifferent expression.
"Who am I? I'm me."
He was simply himself.
That was right. He was Il-mok, and he was Seo Ji-hoon.
Just that the order had changed.
He was no longer looking down at Il-mok as Seo Ji-hoon. He was simply living as Il-mok who carried the memories of his past life as Seo Ji-hoon.
This place where he lived now was his reality.
He was no longer someone living in a peaceful modern era. He was someone living in an age of barbarism, where law and morality and norms were just suggestions.
—Do you think that excuse works for you?'
Hearing the Heart Demon's question, Il-mok chuckled.
"Excuse, my ass."
At the same time, the energy gathered in the Ascension Sword soon divided into strands, forming hundreds of thin Sword Qis that looked like silken threads.
True to the name "Heaven's net is vast and wide, yet nothing escapes," the net formed by the Sword Qi that left the Ascension Sword spread out in all directions.
It was a strange technique.
Originally, the Heavenly Net Sword Il-mok displayed would escape his control once the Sword Qis traveled about three meters. But not from now.
He could clearly feel each strand of Sword Qi that had gone far away.
Swish.
They moved in winding curves like actual threads, avoiding the Black Tiger Corps members and flying precisely only toward the fanatics.
And those who touched the net Il-mok had created were not captured, but had their entire bodies shredded.
Il-mok calmly watched the scene of dozens being shredded by the single technique he had unleashed.
No, he didn't even need to watch. The sensation of each strand of Sword Qi slicing through flesh was being transmitted to him.
'Yes. This is reality.'
He had killed all of them. Just as he had in the past.
'Everything I did was my own doing.'
Even as the goosebumps-inducing sensation of cutting through something made all the hair on his body stand on end, Il-mok did not sheathe his sword.
To protect someone.
To punish evil.
Those excuses are now meaningless to him.
The sight of the Muslims being swept away overlapped with the past.
The Unorthodox Faction’s scums and Blood Cult that he had seen in the Central Plains. And the Muslims he had encountered while traveling to the Western Regions.
This godforsaken world was a world where those with power massacred the weak.
Therefore, he would continue to swing his sword.
Because this was a world where force was needed to accomplish what one believed was right.
Therefore, he would etch their deaths into his soul.
So as not to become a monster who solved everything with force alone.
He would wield his sword while fully bearing the weight of the deaths he had caused so far, and the deaths he would cause in the future.
He would not pretend to be good and make excuses every time while turning away from reality.
The moment the last net Il-mok had created pierced through the final fanatic, Il-mok sheathed the Ascension Sword and sat down on the ground cross-legged.
"Whew."
He had acknowledged everything and decided to fully accept everything. Even his own contradictions and ugliness.
All of that was who Il-mok was.
Just then.
“The Heavenly Demon Descends!"
"Ten Thousand Demons Obeys!!"
The believers of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult who had witnessed Il-mok's divine might began prostrating themselves on the ground and calling upon their god.
But even that noisy clamor did not reach Il-mok's ears.
Before he knew it, he was wandering in a state of selflessness, and nature’s energies were flooding toward him.
Ouyang Hyeok, who had been watching that wondrous sight, unconsciously turned his head to look at the Vice Leader.
'They said he was a talent who would become the new god of our Cult in the future. Perhaps we are witnessing a human’s ascension into godhood.'
While entertaining such sentiments, Ouyang Hyeok belatedly noticed some women approaching Il-mok.
Jin Hayeon, Ju Seo-yeon, and Jeong Hyeon guarded Il-mok's side like it was the most natural thing in the world.
"Oh my."
Only then did Ouyang Hyeok realize what he should be doing.
He was a leader of the Cult's elite combat unit, and he was standing there fanboying while people were bleeding.
"Treat the wounded! Everyone who can still stand, set up a perimeter! Don't let a single ant get close to the Young Master!"
At Ouyang Hyeok's command, the Black Tiger Corps finally came to their senses and began moving in orderly fashion.