It was probably the power of the Middle Dantian. I’d pushed it beyond its limits.
Step.
The dead and the living—everything else seemed to vanish as I stepped onto the blood-red path. At that moment, an agonizing headache unlike anything I’d ever felt before struck me.
Hup.
It felt as if a long, sharp needle were digging around inside my skull.
I held back a groan and fought to still my trembling body. If I showed the slightest weakness in front of a beast that had already bared its fangs, it would devour me on the spot.
“So, you’ve come?”
The Blood-Sword Demon Lord.
The moment I heard his utterly unruffled voice, my headache doubled.
No. Maybe the real reason was the sight of Jeok Cheongang, now drenched in blood.
Or perhaps…
System Lv. ??? Chuk Banghyeol
Lv. ??? Chuk Banghyeol
Perhaps it was the strength of the Blood-Sword Demon Lord: a true monster whose Level I could no longer measure, even now.
At least twenty Levels above me… This is going to be an even harder fight.
Swallowing a groan, I reached out. White Flame, connected to me by an invisible thread, shot back into my grasp.
Nothing stopped it. I’d been braced for interference, but none came.
“Qi-Controlled Sword. No, should I call it Qi-Controlled Spear? You must’ve been in quite a hurry to push yourself this far.”
He sounded as relaxed as he looked. The Blood-Sword Demon Lord smiled with the ease of a man who knew he was stronger.
“Still, I’ll give you credit. Good try. At least you made it back before your master died.”
He laughed and casually waved a hand. The instant he did, Jeok Cheongang spotted an opening and thrust out his palm like lightning.
“You bastard!”
KWA-AAAH!
Heat surged forward with his shout.
The force of Flame Divine Palm burned everything in its path as it bore down on the Blood-Sword Demon Lord’s face. His smile never wavered.
A streak of blood-red Sword Force cut through the space between them.
SHWAK! KWA-BOOM!
The palm force split cleanly in two. Both halves flew off to either side and slammed into the ground.
A roar engulfed a dozen-jang1 radius. Acrid smoke billowed up, and through it the Blood-Sword Demon Lord appeared like a ghost and brought his sword down.
SHWAAASH!
Space warped under the terrible pressure.
But Jeok Cheongang threw himself aside as though he’d anticipated the strike, powerful enough to cleave a mountain.
SHK!
The ground split like tofu.
Jeok Cheongang narrowly avoided the blow and immediately found his footing. But the Blood-Sword Demon Lord’s blurred figure was already moving toward his flank.
Danger…!
He was so fast that even I reacted too late. There was no time to shout.
In less than a breath, the two superhumans exchanged attacks like flashes of light. The Blood-Sword Demon Lord moved faster than sound.
WHOOOM—PAM!
Compressed air burst apart.
They were too close for him to swing his sword. Instead, the Blood-Sword Demon Lord struck Jeok Cheongang’s shoulder with his palm, sending him flying backward like a cannonball.
And directly in his path—
SHWEEEE—THUD!
—I was racing toward him with all my strength.
“Old Master!”
The shout burst out before I knew it. With my help, Jeok Cheongang managed to stop himself. His reply came in a rasp.
“I’m fine. Stop making a fuss and lower your voice. You’ll burst my eardrums.”
He sounded as gruff as ever. Most people wouldn’t have heard a difference, but I knew the Fire King Jeok Cheongang better than anyone.
The greater the danger, the more he pretended to be calm. Even if it was only to reassure someone else.
“You’re doing it again. Time for your medicine.”
I sighed, placed a hand on his back, and poured internal energy into him without hesitation.
Tap. Fwoosh.
Fire joined with fire.
The Scorching Yang Qi born of the same source connected in an instant, driving out the impurities pooled deep inside his body.
“Cough.”
Drip-drip.
A mouthful of blood spilled from his lips against his will. It was black, a sign of considerable Internal Injury.
I clicked my tongue. “You’re fine, are you?”
Jeok Cheongang spat out bloody phlegm.
“It’s one mouthful of blood. What’s all the fuss?”
Honestly, I wanted to let it go. But when someone’s life was on the line, it mattered whether they were telling the truth.
THWACK!
The earlier strike had thinned the enemy forces behind us, but plenty remained. As one of them, unable to wait any longer, charged us, I kicked him in the chest and caved it in.
“You do know you’re covered head to toe in blood, right?”
“It isn’t mine. I’ve been running around so much, I got some on me.”
“That guy looks perfectly fine.”
I pointed to the Blood-Sword Demon Lord, strolling toward us through the parting waves of men. Jeok Cheongang smacked his lips.
“He must’ve been less busy.”
“Ah. Less busy. I see.”
“Anyway, I’m fine. Not a scratch on me… Well, that’s not quite true, but this much won’t stop me.”
PAM!
Jeok Cheongang sprang upright, turning three enemies to charcoal as he rose. Then he licked the blood from the corner of his mouth.
“Well?”
“Just tell me the truth. I won’t tell anyone else.”
“You insolent brat. Are you saying this old man is bluffing?”
“Aren’t you?”
“No. What’s a bastard like him to me?”
“Then I’ll go help the others.”
“Hm?”
“You can handle a bastard like him by yourself, right? Everyone else is fighting for their lives.”
Grab!
The instant I started to turn away, Jeok Cheongang snatched my wrist like lightning and replied in a stern voice.
“The wise men of old said even a sheet of paper is easier to lift when two people carry it.”
“……”
“I don’t know what trick he’s using, but every so often he gets startlingly stronger and faster. You’d think he was possessed.”
“……”
“And that’s not all. Whenever this old man tried to land a blow with all my strength, some unknown force kept stopping me. It was—”
“Old Master.”
I cut him off and added quietly, “You’re talking too much.”
“……”
“One sentence. Short and clear.”
Jeok Cheongang was silent for a moment. Then he answered exactly as I’d asked.
“That bastard’s strong as fuck.”
“Perfectly put.”
“And those pure-white things way over there are helping him with some bizarre dark arts. Every time that strange energy of theirs surges, he gets stronger. I tried to take them out before things got even worse, even if I had to overextend myself, but…”
“You failed. You got hit by those dark arts, too.”
“That’s right. What I felt then was like…”
“The sky was crushing you.”
Gravity magic. No doubt about it.
Jeok Cheongang stared at me, momentarily stunned that I’d described it so precisely. I continued calmly.
“More precisely, that’s not ordinary dark arts. It’s an ability called Magic.”
“Wait. If you mean Magic…”
“Yes. The Magic you know about. The kind you’d only see in my homeland.”
“……!”
Of course Jeok Cheongang’s eyes widened. I hadn’t told him every detail, but he knew something of where I came from and what kind of world it was.
Even so, he couldn’t fully understand or accept what was happening. Neither could I.
But that mattered less than defeating the enemy in front of us.
We have to target them first. Not the Blood-Sword Demon Lord—those people in white. The mages.
Even as I sent him the message through Sound Transmission, a chill ran down my spine at how unfamiliar the idea felt.
Mages. Here, of all places. Not in the modern world, but in Murim.
Then I looked past the Blood-Sword Demon Lord, who was still closing the distance at a leisurely stroll. On the hill behind him stood the mages, their white robes fluttering. The reality of it sank in.
We have to take them out first, no matter what.
From the moment I’d realized they were mages, I hadn’t considered any other option.
I knew what the word Magic could mean—how many dangers and unknowns came with it. Of the tens of thousands of allies standing or falling on this battlefield, I was the only one who knew what mages could do in a battle this large.
Besides…
One of them is especially skilled. Skilled enough to hold back both me and Old Master with Magic.
Magic worked differently, but qi was still the raw material behind it. To Jeok Cheongang or me, even a fairly advanced mage wouldn’t pose much of a threat.
Unless they were among the rare few said to have reached the very edge of truth.
“…A Grand Mage.”
The title escaped my lips like a groan.
But just as I was about to conclude that one of them had to be a Grand Mage, a question occurred to me.
If they really have a Grand Mage, how has the battle stayed like this?
I didn’t mean we were winning. Everyone, myself included, was giving it their all, and the battle was still going badly for our side.
But if the Grand Mage had stepped in, we wouldn’t even have been able to keep things at this disadvantage.
I knew better than anyone what a Grand Mage could do on a battlefield. It took no thought at all to picture a wide-area attack spell unlike anything anyone in this world had ever seen.
How long could our army last against that incomprehensible power, a natural disaster with a will of its own? More than a third of our forces were an undisciplined rabble.
Yet the Grand Mage hadn’t joined the fight. He had briefly hindered Jeok Cheongang and me with gravity magic and strengthened the Blood-Sword Demon Lord’s body with magic, but had done nothing beyond that.
Squish.
The Blood-Sword Demon Lord crossed the blood-red path. At last, he stopped.
“What exactly… are you after?”
I was genuinely curious. And uneasy.
Were the mages holding back because they were preparing a spell powerful enough to end the battle in an instant? Or were they plotting something else?
I’d blurted the question out before I could stop myself. Three jang1 away, the Blood-Sword Demon Lord watched us with a smile, then furrowed his brow.
“After? From the start, I’ve only wanted two things from this battle. Victory. And you.”
“That’s a long way of saying you won’t answer.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but… it doesn’t matter.”
The Blood-Sword Demon Lord shrugged with an expression that could have been sincere or an act, then raised the sword he’d been holding loosely and continued.
“Let’s finish this. Of course, I’d prefer an ending where one of you dies and the other is taken prisoner.”
Jeok Cheongang and I answered in one voice.
“Go fuck yourself.”
And at that moment—
PAPAT!
We charged at the Blood-Sword Demon Lord.
No. Only Jeok Cheongang shot toward him.
Hold him off for half a quarter-hour. Just half a quarter-hour.
With that Sound Transmission sent through the wind, I twisted my body and charged toward the hill.
SHWEEEE!
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