Chapter 592

Whoooosh.

Red mist rose with his exhaled breath.

It was a long, slow breath—so long and slow that one might mistake him for not breathing at all. It was also a secret technique he had learned from his Master long ago.

“I’ve been watching you all this time.”

“M-Me?”

Nearly thirty years had passed, but Go Jun had never forgotten that day. It was the day he first found a dream.

He had lost his parents, been abandoned by his relatives, and drifted from one orphanage to another.

“The other children you live with are talented, too. But you’re different. You’re very special.”

The Great Cataclysm had left behind more than death and peace. It had created an enormous number of war orphans, and Go Jun was one of them.

Just one of countless war orphans. If he had remained ordinary, he would have been raised like a chicken confined to a poultry farm, then turned loose on society.

But meeting his Master, Lee Jungryong, had made him someone special.

That was the greatest reason he had stayed alone in Area A after everyone else had disappeared, waiting for the person who would soon come crashing in.

He could not flee his Master’s enemy from the place where his Master had once lived.

“…Jin Taekyung.”

Go Jun’s voice was chilling. His tightly shut eyes slowly opened, and he drew the red glow back into them. Then he instinctively reached for his neck.

Clink.

His fingers touched cold metal.

He did not even know who had originally owned this cheap necklace. Yet it had become the keepsake his Master had left him, and his most precious possession, for one reason alone: it was the only thing that had kept its shape when everything else in that place turned to ash.

Are you watching, Master?

Go Jun clenched his fist. Red qi shimmered like heat haze over the skin stretched taut across his prominent veins.

Only two months ago, Jin Taekyung had trampled him mercilessly. But things were different now.

Hatred greater than his fear, and the power he had newly acquired, had allowed Go Jun to overcome it.

I’ll kill him. Today. With my own hands.

Was it his imagination? Or a coincidence?

At that very moment, the black jewel set into the necklace gave off a strange light.

Rumble!

A tremendous vibration shook the space.

This was a place where anyone who had not been granted permission could not even become aware of its existence. Now, at last, it had allowed someone to intrude.

Countless spells and barriers that had never once been broken since their creation were collapsing even now.

“He’s here.”

Go Jun muttered quietly, released his cross-legged position, and slowly rose to his feet. Top-grade magic armor surged up around his body, wrapping around him according to his will.

Clatter-clatter-clatter!

The transformation began and ended in an instant.

By the time Go Jun stood firmly on both feet in blackened full-body armor, blue-white flames were flickering like will-o’-the-wisps at the end of the unlit corridor.

No. It was the glow in someone’s eyes.

“Jin Taekyung…!”

He spat the three syllables with hatred. The man whose name he had called answered willingly.

“Yeah. So you were here.”

Unlike the burning glow in his eyes, his voice was cold.

But Go Jun could clearly feel it—the ember hidden inside that voice. The fuse that had refused to burn while waiting for this one moment.

And then—

“Thanks.”

Fwoosh.

At last, the flame caught. A voice boiling like lava heated the dark corridor.

“For staying here all this time.”

An overwhelming energy pressed down on the space.

Rrrrmmble!

There would be no more waiting.

As the world shook, two figures became streaks of light and shot across the corridor toward each other.

The instant the blue and red streaks met—

Whoom, KABOOM!

A blinding flash and a deafening roar that seemed to split the sky erupted, coloring the entire area.

The most important thing when facing an enemy was composure. When reason grew clouded, the mind became unsettled. When the mind became unsettled, the hands and feet lost their coordination.

Maintaining composure was the surest way to win.

That rule held true in both the modern world and Murim, and I had always followed it.

But…

“Jin Taekyung.”

The moment I heard the hatred in his voice and saw that fucking face clearly beyond the dark corridor, I realized something.

Composure was no shield against anger reason could not contain.

Once that fire caught, there was no controlling it.

“Thanks.”

My eyes grew hot. I had fought my way through a 120-story skyscraper and around a thousand enemies without wavering once, but now my heart churned.

I thought of the silver-haired old butler collapsed against a snow-covered rock and continued.

“…For staying here all this time.”

I meant every word. I was sincerely grateful to Go Jun.

Because he had stayed instead of running, I could end his life with my own hands.

Rrrrmmble!

My dantian was half empty after all the internal energy I had spent, but what remained was enough. A massive wave spread out from me and shook Area A.

For this moment, I could forget the fatigue of the endless battles and the growing weight of my limbs.

I’ll kill him.

With that one thought, I stepped forward.

Flamefire Path.

Flames rose from the tips of my feet as I kicked off the ground and surged forward. They drove back the darkness that had conquered the corridor and illuminated the way.

At the far end, a figure was streaking across the corridor as a beam of light.

Go Jun.

I could see the red glow of his eyes between his clenched teeth and the helmet pulled low over his face.

The instant light flashed from the waist of the man charging toward me without hesitation, I raised White Flame’s shaft.

Whoom, KABOOM!

Two enormous energies of different colors tangled amid the roar.

The collision sent a tremendous force back through my weapon. A wave of energy slashed in every direction like a blade.

Beyond our locked weapons, I saw his red eyes. Then his voice reached me.

“You’re not much, are you? Don’t you think?”

“…!”

My eyes widened despite myself.

His feet should have been knocked backward. Instead, they were planted firmly in the ground.

And that was not the only thing I had failed to anticipate.

Crunch. Crrrunch.

An unbelievable pressure traveled up White Flame’s shaft. An enormous power, large enough that it would not have been strange for it to explode at any moment, continued to flow out and wrap around the sword blade.

Slowly, but without stopping, it continued to grow in size and crushed White Flame’s shaft.

What is this?

I had never faced Force this immense—or rather, an Aura Blade of this magnitude.

At the sight of me frozen there, Go Jun’s eyes filled with delight.

“You should’ve put that stupid head of yours to work and wondered why I stayed.”

“You…!”

Before I could finish, the Aura Blade surrounding his sword swelled outward as if it had exploded.

Craaaack, KABOOM!

A roar left my ears ringing. A powerful shock swept through my body, and a red flash filled my vision as I flew backward.

Before I could fully feel the wind rushing past my ears, my back struck a solid marble wall.

KRAK!

The layers of defensive Magic surrounding it scattered, and the whole wall caved in.

I was embedded in the exact center of the wall, leaving behind a crater large enough for three or four people to stand inside. I blinked.

My vision trembled from the impact to my head. Through it, I saw Go Jun charging at me with his teeth bared.

“I’ll kill you.”

Whoooooosh!

He moved faster than he spoke. His sword cut diagonally down through the air, sending out a burst of red light.

Then, in the next instant, a crescent-shaped Aura Blade that had crossed dozens of meters¹ came rushing right up to my face.

Slice! KRAAAAAASH!

I escaped by a hair.

My aching body moved on instinct, carrying me clear of the attack. Looking at the space the Aura Blade had shredded, I thought:

What if I’d tried to block that head-on?

The answer was easy enough.

I was more exhausted than I had realized.

Suppressing two Monster Waves had made me bear the full aftermath of One Annihilation. Then, from the moment I entered Ares Guild, I had fought while holding back enough to avoid killing most of my opponents.

Facing an attack like that head-on in my current condition would not have ended well.

“Jin Taekyung. Jin Taekyung. Jin Taekyung.”

Go Jun hummed my name like a tune, then grinned.

“You should see your face. You’re no hero. You’re just a rat. You’ll die crying and begging for your life.”

I watched him approach, his voice almost cheerful. Then a thought struck me.

“Did you take something?”

“What?”

“No, wait. In this case, should I call it a Magic Gem instead of drugs?”

“…!”

At that moment, the smile on Go Jun’s lips faded.

I no longer needed an answer. His face had given me one.

“Hah.”

I let out a small, hollow laugh.

The rage that had paralyzed my mind and body for a moment began to fade, and only then was I finally able to see the cold reality in front of me.

“Of course. That’s how you did it.”

“Seeing someone in a new light” and “improving by leaps and bounds” were just four-character idioms. At least when it came to martial arts.

Martial strength had to be honed through training and real combat.

Even with the System, I could not have grown stronger at that rate. Go Jun certainly could not have done it.

No one became this strong in only two months.

There had only ever been one answer.

“You juiced up. You really did. You fucking idiot.”

I couldn’t hold back my laughter.

It wasn’t amusement. It was disgust. Go Jun had chosen to give up being human and become a monster, and the sheer stupidity of it kept making me laugh.

“Fuck, I’ve never seen an idiot like you. You couldn’t beat me any normal way, so you started sucking down Magic Gems? If you were going to do that, why not go to Magic Johnson? I bet that guy would’ve taken real good care of you with his magic wand.”

I had hit a nerve. Go Jun’s face went rigid, and his already-red eyes darkened further.

“Shut your fucking—”

“Just shut up and listen, you son of a bitch.”

Thud. Thud.

Rubble and chunks of marble fell away as I got up.

I cracked my stiff neck from side to side and stared at him.

“What? You set off a few Monster Waves with an S-grade Magic Gem and pissed yourself over how well it worked? Watched people die because you barely lifted a finger and thought you were a god? No, sir, you fucking moron. You’re just a monster. At best, you’re some idiot side character with a Named Monster for a constellation.²”

“Shut up!”

“Fuck off. Want me to give it a title, too? Go Jun Swallows an S-Grade Magic Gem.”

“Jin Taekyuuung—!”

Fwoooooosh!

A gale rose with a tremendous wave of energy and swept through the area.

But I calmly answered as I watched that unprecedented power swell until it looked ready to burst.

“What, you fucking idiot?”

I had never been afraid. Now that I knew what he had become, I had no reason to hesitate.

He was a monster who had crossed the line, and he had to die by my hand today.

For the old butler who had fallen into a darkness from which he would never return. For the people and Hunters who had died in the Monster Waves.

And… for me, furious at this goddamned reality.

“You have to die.”

I bit out the words with all my heart. Go Jun’s blood-red figure blurred.

Whoooooosh! KABOOM!

The red Aura Blade stopped above my head.

The tremendous pressure transmitted through White Flame’s spearhead made my wrists throb, and my ankles sank deep into the ground.

But I did not give way. At least the power I wielded had been built through countless hours of training and insight, with the good fortune of the System added on top.

“Get lost, you drugged-up bastard.”

Rrrrmmble!

I grinned as I looked into Go Jun’s wide-open eyes, then thrust my fist forward with all my strength.

Wham!