Chapter 594

Crack!

The grisly sound came with a sensation I had felt hundreds—thousands—of times before, traveling up through my fingertips.

Flesh splitting. Bone breaking.

Somewhere along the way, I had grown used to it. Sometimes that left a bitter taste in my mouth. Being used to it meant I had taken that many lives with my own hands.

But not this time. As I looked down at the dying man, I felt no bitterness at all.

“Kh……!”

A final groan escaped with a deflating sound. At the same time, the solidly built man dropped to his knees.

Thud.

The blood-red glow in his eyes, once chilling to look at, slowly faded. His whole body trembled before the death closing in on him.

No. Perhaps it wasn’t death itself that Go Jun feared. Perhaps it was me, the one who had dealt it to him.

“J-Jin Taekyung.”

His voice was fading, and so was the light in his eyes. I felt no pity.

He wasn’t human like me. He was a monster.

The Peace Guild had lost Kim Hwajong today. Thousands of people whose names I would never know had lost family and friends they loved. For the madness Go Jun had caused, this death almost seemed too easy.

“Cough. I-I can’t die like this……”

I looked down coldly at him as he knelt there, convulsing in pain.

“Die. Oxygen is wasted on a piece of shit like you.”

I had no intention of listening to a long-winded final speech, or giving him the chance to make one. I wrenched White Flame from his chest.

Fwoosh!

The moment the transparent spearhead came free, the blood that had not yet evaporated sprayed out like a fountain.

Go Jun stared blankly up at me, a fist-sized hole in his chest. Then his body slowly tipped over.

Splash.

That was the end. His face fell into a pool of his own blood, and he stopped moving, eyes still wide open.

As I looked at the monster’s corpse, with no breath or trace of life left in it, a thought came to me.

It’s over.

Lee Jungryong’s loyal Disciple of several decades—the man who had effectively ruled Ares Guild, one of the foremost Guilds in the world—had died by my hand.

He had deliberately caused two Monster Waves, leaving thousands dead or injured and costing Kim Hwajong and some twenty Peace Guild members their lives. He had paid for it with his own.

So this really is the end…

Then why did I feel so hollow? I had taken my revenge, yet it felt as though the hole was in my chest, not Go Jun’s.

It was probably because I knew that the people who had left my side would never return.

Are you still cold? Is it still dark?

I turned away, asking questions that could never reach them.

Fatigue and drowsiness weighed on me more heavily than I could have imagined. I fought them off and slowly crossed the dark corridor, wrecked by our battle.

Step.

With every step, faces and memories rose before my eyes and obscured my vision.

I saw Gwangan Bridge collapsing. I heard people screaming in terror. A family photograph dangling from a car’s rearview mirror brought back a promise I had made long ago, pinkies linked with someone I missed more than words could say.

“When Hayeon gets a little older, and you, Taekyung, start middle school, let’s come see the sea again. All right?”

“Really?”

“Of course. Come on, pinky promise.”

But today, the place from the promise I had kept deep in my heart had collapsed.

Innocent people had died, and monsters had spread like a plague. I had done everything I could, but I hadn’t saved more of them.

Step.

My thoughts were as unsteady as my feet. Through the confusion, a warm voice echoed in my mind.

“It wasn’t your fault.”

“……!”

“You did your best.”

The graying old butler who had comforted me even as he died had gone somewhere he could never return from.

I had no way of knowing whether it was night or day where he had arrived. Whether it was cold or warm. I could only hope that his world was a little brighter. That he, who had shivered in the cold, was somewhere warmer.

And… that he had believed my lie to the very end—the lie that the person he had wanted to see one last time had come.

Step.

There is no process without a result. Someone had to pay the price. I believed it was only natural to be punished for doing wrong.

That was why I had come here. I had thrown open the gates of a palace no one had dared approach and brought down an impregnable fortress.

I had fought, and fought, and fought again. And after finally killing the monster wearing a human face, I suddenly felt hollow inside and found myself wondering:

What am I supposed to do now?

I had thought that killing Go Jun, the cause of it all, would ease my anger, even a little. I had thought I might laugh out loud with relief.

But that wasn’t what happened.

With one gesture, I could make a massive pit and fill it again. But I couldn’t fill the empty place in my heart.

It had been the same three years ago. It was the same now.

Damn it.

My mouth tasted bitter. In the end, the wounds were left for those of us still here to bear.

I almost regretted giving Go Jun such a painless death.

Step.

I stopped.

At some point, an inexplicable sense that something was wrong had taken hold of me. A chill crept up my spine.

What is this feeling?

Was it the exhaustion? Or everything weighing on my mind? My thoughts were as murky as fog.

I stood there for a moment. Then I realized what was wrong.

Go Jun should be dead. So why…

Why hadn’t the System window announcing the kill appeared?

I had driven a spearhead into the center of his chest and burned his organs. I had watched his face fall into the pool of blood and felt him stop breathing.

“Don’t tell me.”

I muttered the words and turned around. An unusually deep darkness had settled over the ruined corridor.

The System was absolute, and it was immediate.

I knew that better than anyone. I simply had not noticed anything strange because I had been overwhelmed by exhaustion and deep thoughts in the moment of victory.

So when I found the pool of blood empty, I was not especially surprised.

He’s alive. Go Jun is alive.

That much was certain. What I wanted to know was how.

There had been only two of us in Area A: Go Jun and me. He had been dead. His heart had stopped, and he had stopped breathing. Even a half-body bath in top-grade potion could not have brought him back.

Then how?

I followed the traces he had left behind.

Area A was a maze, fitting for a secret zone open to only a handful of people. But the trail of blood led in one direction, and it was easy enough to follow.

I moved quickly, taking in what I saw.

No one helped him. He didn’t have time to cover his tracks, either.

The marks told me he had been desperate. I could almost see him crawling alone, pressed flat against the floor, struggling to keep going.

And then…

He got to his feet. Right here.

Two clear footprints stood out in the blood. Countless handprints marked the wall beside them.

What had happened to him? Why had he been writhing in pain?

Before long, I found the answer.

That’s…

Blood.

Not the bright red of human blood. Drops of monster blood tinged blue.

There was no mistaking what that meant. I stared at the monster blood on my hand, then shot forward.

Whoosh!

The wind rushed past me, carrying a strong scent of blood and a foul stench. Even through my exhaustion, I could sense someone drawing closer.

Then I entered another corridor and saw him with my own eyes.

He looked nothing like he had the last time I saw him.

“Go Jun.”

My quiet voice echoed down the corridor. Go Jun—or rather, the monster—turned as he staggered along.

“Krrk. Kurruk.”

Whatever he was trying to say came out as a metallic rasp. Compared with the rest of him, that was nothing.

He stood four meters¹ tall. His arms and legs were grotesquely swollen, as if they might burst. His body looked like creatures of different species had been thrown together, each part bearing its own shape and features.

Only his face had kept anything like its original form: a human face half-covered in scales, with blood-red eyes shining between them.

“Jin… Taekyung. Karruk.”

Fear and hatred mingled in his eyes as he looked at me. I took in the sight of him from head to toe and spoke with disgust.

“Did you want to live that badly? Even if it meant becoming a monster?”

“Shut…… up. This…… this wasn’t what I wanted either—”

Crack! KRAK!

It happened in an instant.

Before he could finish, his right arm suddenly bent as if an invisible hand had twisted it. Blue blood burst from the break.

“GRAAAAH!”

As he screamed, his grotesque body began changing rapidly.

Shlk. Crackle!

The thick skin covered in hide and scales like a monster’s began to heal, while his crushed joints fitted themselves back together like puzzle pieces.

“Hah. Hah.”

Go Jun panted, still in pain. Watching him, I began to understand how he had made it this far.

“Troll. Right?”

“……!”

His eyelids trembled at the question. I had my answer.

Trolls had extraordinary regenerative abilities. The Named Monster that had originally owned the S-grade Magic Gem Go Jun had absorbed must have been an immensely powerful Troll.

And…

The S-grade Magic Gem he absorbed wasn’t the only one, was it?

One look at him was enough to tell me. His swollen body and incredible regeneration were Troll traits, but the scales and hide covering half of him had come from another monster.

Mutation. That’s what he’s become.

Unlike mana, magical power was dark and turbid. It corrupted humans. After absorbing two S-grade Magic Gems packed with it, of course the forces inside him would clash.

“Kurruk. I could have been stronger. Stronger than this. But you. You…”

I cut him off.

“Not stronger. You would’ve become an even more horrifying monster. Look at yourself.”

“……!”

“You’re worse than a monster. You’re no Hunter, no human—just a monster. That’s what you are.”

Step.

I moved toward him. Go Jun stared at me, eyes wide, and shouted as though he were screaming.

“Don’t come closer! Krrk! Stay away!”

“That’s a problem. There’s a monster right in front of me.”

“T-This can’t be!”

His blood-red eyes filled with fear.

He must have known it, too. His body was showing signs of falling apart while he stood still. There was no way he could fight me in that condition.

Tap-tap-tap!

When Go Jun turned and ran, I wasn’t surprised. I reversed my grip on White Flame’s shaft and hurled it.

SHWAAAAK! BOOM!

A streak of flame-wreathed light burst through his legs and buried itself in the ground. He screamed and thrashed, both legs gone, while flesh and bone rapidly grew from the severed ends.

I wasn’t going to stand there and watch.

“Go on. Regenerate. Keep doing it as long as you can.”

Thud!

Drawing up the internal energy I had left, I rushed him. I planted my foot on his back, grabbed both of his thick arms, and pulled.

Crack. KRAKAKAK!

Go Jun lost both arms after his legs, and his scream rang through the corridor.

I didn’t blink. I kept moving.

Slice! Stab!

I pulled the spear from the ground and slashed and stabbed his body in several places. I seared the sections trying to regenerate with the Flame Divine Palm, then gripped them tightly and tore them apart.

Under ordinary circumstances, I would never have done anything so brutal. Now I did not hesitate.

KRAKAKAK!

Regeneration. Destruction. Again and again.

Go Jun was the first to give out under the endless pain.

“GRAAAAH! S-Stop!”

His voice was hoarse, and his eyes were not as red as before. His regeneration had been slowing for some time. Now it had stopped altogether.

“Now…… kill me……”

“I was going to.”

This time, I would make sure he could never come back.

I looked into his eyes.

“Whether you’re going to heaven or hell, go on ahead and wait for me. When I get there, I’ll kill you to my heart’s content.”

“……!”

Those were the last words Go Jun heard in this world.

It ends now.

I did not wait for an answer. Without a moment’s hesitation, I brought the transparent spearhead down.

Slice! Thud!

His head came free with a sharp cutting sound and rolled across the floor.

That was the end of the monster who had become neither a hero like Cheon Taemin nor an ambitious warlord like his Master, Lee Jungryong.

Ding.

The familiar chime rang in my ears. I picked up Go Jun’s head from the pool of blood and crossed the space where I alone remained, my steps slow and unsteady.

I was tired.