Chapter 62 : Chapter 62
Chapter 062. Dark Guest (2)
Immediately after realizing that Dam Jeok-san was an opponent who could not be suppressed with demonic energy.
The demonic energy wrapping the Dark Guest's body turned sharp like a well-forged blade. As if his previous violent temperament had been a mirage.
"Hoh."
A low exclamation burst from Dam Jeok-san's mouth upon seeing him.
To be able to make such a judgment in an instant. As expected, he is more decisive than most martial artists.
The Dark Guest kicked off the ground and rushed in. Sharp demonic energy was rippling on his tightly clenched fist. An intense momentum that distorted the space it touched, even though the energy was extremely compressed.
The guy extended his fist without hesitation. BOOM! An intense explosion sound, as if a thunderbolt bomb had gone off, rang in the empty air, and the surroundings trembled. A power unbelievable for just extending a fist once.
Dam Jeok-san remained still without blinking an eye until that single fist reached right in front of him.
However, intense genuine qi was swirling within his eyes.
"......!"
The Dark Guest, who had closed in on Dam Jeok-san before he knew it, felt a shudder run through his whole body the moment their eyes met.
'What on earth is he calculating...?'
The moment doubt settled in his eyes.
Dam Jeok-san escaped the trajectory traced by the Dark Guest's fist by tilting his head ever so slightly.
An exquisite evasion.
He had been waiting for this moment from the beginning.
A smile formed on Dam Jeok-san's lips, and the Dark Guest's face crumpled. However, that was also brief. Flames flashed from Dam Jeok-san's sword.
A slashing attack cutting down from top to bottom. It was a simple sword technique that even third-rate swordsmen in the market could perform.
However, the Dark Guest facing Dam Jeok-san's slash could not harbor such complacent thoughts.
Because the shadow of the sword he swung split into five. Although the real body must be one, for some reason, he had an intuition that the illusions were also dangerous.
"Good instincts."
Dam Jeok-san muttered in a low voice while looking at the Dark Guest clenching his molars.
Hiding the real trajectory through the dazzle of Sword Flame is a basic Illusion Sword. However, now that his abilities had become twice as strong through the Heaven-Breaking Star-Destroying Style and the ability of predation, the illusions also harbored killing power comparable to the real strikes.
"However, knowing it doesn't mean you can dodge it."
As soon as those words ended, five sword shadows, whose reality and illusion could not be distinguished, poured down on the Dark Guest like torrential rain.
The Dark Guest crossed his arms and forged demonic energy like a shield. If he could neither dodge nor counter, he would choose demonic energy.
That was a choice that could definitely be called the correct answer.
However, the moment the five rays of sword shadows collided with the shield of demonic energy forged by the Dark Guest, a dizzying shock that felt as if his mind would fly away assaulted the Dark Guest.
A shock as if muscles were tearing, bones were being crushed, and even internal organs were being turned to mush.
It was a pain he had never experienced since becoming a sacred existence after being chosen by the Cult Leader. Since then, he had become dull to pain and suffering, and most injuries healed in an instant.
However, the wounds inflicted by Dam Jeok-san's Sword Flame were painful as if being seared with a branding iron. The Dark Guest instinctively noticed that the guy possessed a power that was the exact opposite of his own.
He will be defeated.
No, he will die.
Such an intuition grazed the Dark Guest's mind. Dam Jeok-san was that dangerous. An unprecedented strength that could not be distinguished by the realms of martial artists, such as peak or ultra-peak, existed in him.
Otherwise, he, who had killed the Divine Dragon Squad Leader in a single exchange, would not be pushed back this miserably.
However.
'So what?'
The order he received from the Cardinal was to capture and kill all Northern Murim people coming to the desert.
There was no need to think of anything else.
'All I have to do is just kill him.'
Even if I die doing so.
His eyes, wrapped in thick demonic energy, glistened fiercely.
That was the first judgment made in his life by the guy who had lived as a heartless object repeating slaughter all his life.
He willingly affirmed his own existence.
And drew up all the demonic energy he possessed to one place.
Among it, there was also demonic energy that was essentially needed to maintain the unity of monster and human. Consuming even that was no different from a martial artist drawing up their pre-natal qi.
"You..."
The Dark Guest spoke looking at Dam Jeok-san with darkly settled eyes. A voice that was somehow clearer than before.
Even though he was not a martial artist, he could tell that he had reached a certain moment of enlightenment.
But the Dark Guest burned everything he had. It was not just a cliché meaning. His body was already losing its form and collapsing.
And as his body collapsed, the final strike the Dark Guest was unfolding was becoming more and more precise.
Since he never learned how to name martial arts, it is Nameless.
Since it is the most powerful in his life, it is an Ultimate Technique.
A Nameless Ultimate Technique forged with obvious murderous intent.
It exploded toward Dam Jeok-san.
"Excellent."
Dam Jeok-san burst into low admiration watching that figure.
To seek a certain Martial Way in the end despite not being born as a martial artist. An appearance that does not lag behind even when compared to the Monkey Monster.
His instinct as a martial artist felt satisfaction. And his instinct as a predator felt greed.
'I can sufficiently devour that.'
I can devour it and make it mine. That desire was not limited to that of a predator but also affected himself as a martial artist.
Dam Jeok-san did not deny it. Rather, he willingly accepted it and moved forward.
To devour, he must break him. Head-on, dignifiedly, and perfectly.
A brilliant night sky dwelled on the tip of his sword. A night sky where stars flickering in silver twinkled like dots under the deep blue darkness.
And Dam Jeok-san erupted that night sky without hesitation.
Even though it was merely a sword cutting through the air, the surroundings trembled. A power of a different level from when he unfolded the Illusion Sword and split it into five sword shadows was felt.
That was because the Sword Intent of Ascending to Heaven dwelled in Dam Jeok-san's single sword.
He yearned.
To change himself with a single sword.
He yearned.
To change the world by changing himself.
He yearned.
To change the world and ascend to the sky.
The Heaven-Breaking Star-Destroying Style, which had transformed into Dam Jeok-san's unique martial art before he knew it, revealed itself to the world once again.
CRAAASH!
The sword containing the night sky traversed the world. But what blocked its path was a fist containing someone's life.
The will to kill another even while sacrificing one's own life blocked Dam Jeok-san.
The Dark Guest's fist and Dam Jeok-san's sword finally met.
The layers of demonic energy curtain were torn away like a sheet of paper the moment they touched Dam Jeok-san's sword, but the fist, which was already half-collapsed, bizarrely bent, and torn, did not easily crumble.
CLAAAANG!
A bare fist clad in no energy, only the will of certain kill, withstood Dam Jeok-san's sword. A situation worthy of being called a miracle. A shockwave spread in all directions as if metal had collided with metal.
"I will, kill you."
The Dark Guest repeated only those words like a soldier who had lost his mind.
However, Dam Jeok-san felt fear, not amusement. The guy was not broken. He was just completed as he was. While holding only murderous intent toward him.
Not all enlightenment leads to growth. Some enlightenment accelerates corruption and even makes one stuck completely in the mire.
The Dark Guest's enlightenment was like that. Because he realized that the value of his existence lay only in killing Dam Jeok-san, and he willingly sacrificed even his own life for that.
"I am sorry, but that is impossible."
Because Dam Jeok-san knew that fact, he asserted with a bit of bitterness.
At the same time, his sword accelerated rapidly. He unfolded the move of Monkey-Destroying One Flash, which could be called an extremely fast sword technique, unwittingly.
FLASH!
His sword seemed to skip space, snapping forward, and dug into the Dark Guest's nape in an instant.
The Dark Guest exerted a sixth sense close to a beast and barely managed to snatch the sword, but—
SLASH!
Dam Jeok-san's Fast Sword proceeded, cutting off his hand entirely.
The sword technique he had polished to the extreme was slightly superior to the Dark Guest's instinct. Just that.
Thinking so, Dam Jeok-san moved his sword forward.
The skin, hard like that of a monster, was sliced away, and after the muscles were mashed, the bones were crushed. The sensation of beheading felt more vivid than ever.
A painful look appeared in the Dark Guest's eyes. Dam Jeok-san did not avoid it and faced it.
"Kuhuhu..."
Has he become able to endure the pain before he knew it? No, perhaps the body, sensing death, is deceiving the senses.
"This is the end. Do you have any last words?"
Dam Jeok-san asked so, either ceremonially or sincerely.
"We, ell."
The guy answered while gurgling blood bubbles.
"Do you happen to have any intention of dying for me?"
Grinning, the Dark Guest asked as if squeezing out his last remaining strength.
Dam Jeok-san, shaking his head, drove the sword in deeper.
SLASH!
The neck, which had been hanging by a thread, was cut vainly and fell to the ground.
An appearance neither human nor monster. It was even more bizarre because he did not choose to become a half-demon himself, but his human body was forcibly combined with a monster's.
However, despite that.
The guy chose death by his own will.
Therefore, Dam Jeok-san will remember Dark Guest No. 9 not as a victim of the Yin God Cult, but as a fighter.
PLUNGE!
As if to confirm the guy's death one more time, Dam Jeok-san drove Sky Thunder into his heart.
Along with the stream of blood bursting out as if waiting, massive demonic energy was transmitted to him.
'...This, just in terms of amount, is more than even Murong Gang.'
Demonic energy that lightly exceeds the accumulated qi of an ultra-peak expert. I can't even get a sense of what kind of monster was used to make him.
Dam Jeok-san did not reject the Dark Guest's memories flowing into his mind.
However, the memories of the original monster would likely remain unknown even after predation ended.
Because the Dark Guest was completed as a single entity.
What Dam Jeok-san faced after accepting the memories was just a pitch-black world.
A space of Nothingness where there is nothing, or Darkness where light has completely subsided.
Only a very faint sound came from there.
―Since you are a child born by me, live for me.
A voice that shook Dam Jeok-san's spirit even though it was merely an illusion, not reality.
'It feels like facing an absolute master.'
Dam Jeok-san instinctively realized that the owner of that voice was the Yin God Cult Leader.
An absolute existence with notoriety rivaling the Eight Sovereigns of Murim.
A supernatural being who might have lived through times comparable to the First Lord of the Martial Sovereign Castle.
However, with everything about him hidden except that,
that existence moving the world in the dark...
―You are... not my child?
spoke to Dam Jeok-san.