Chapter 185:
Chapter 185:
Chapter 185
The first thing that Yu-hyun did when he felt the seriousness of the situation was to take care of Seo Sumin and Kangyura.
“Seo Sumin! Take Yura and run away!”
The light emitted by Chullapantaka had physical force and pressured Yu-hyun.
Yu-hyun used Baekryeon as a shield and shouted to protect Seo Sumin and Kangyura from the light.
Seo Sumin nodded her head and tried to get out of her seat, but Chullapantaka did not let her go.
[Mortal. Why do you keep resisting in vain? Resistance will only prolong your painful life for a very short time.]
“You’re the one who came to this world with the intention of dying, and you have the nerve to say that.”
Yu-hyun snapped back at Chullapantaka.
There was no polite speech as usual.
He was neither a listener nor a customer.
He was just an enemy who wanted to kill them.
[My death means nothing. I have already transcended, so if I can remove the seed of evil that threatens the world with my death, that is what I have always wanted.]
“She is the seed of evil? Who are you to decide that?”
[Her previous life was called Heavenly Demon. But that’s not the only reason. There are many beings called Heavenly Demon in other dimensions. What we are wary of is that her sword is very sharp without even having her own will.]
Paradise Pure Landwas wary of Seo Sumin.
Her talent was one of the best in the whole murim.
She earned the title of greatest of all time in just 10 years of learning martial arts, and became the leader of Heavenly DemonT.
Moreover, after that, she reached the state of Zen with a very trivial enlightenment.
[Isn’t it amazing? A weak being who knew nothing became a transcendent in just 10 years. A year later, she became a complete transcendent, and even surpassed the position of a spirit. Then, do you think she would stop there if she became a spirit?]
“…If you’re jealous of her talent, why don’t you just admit it?”
[It seems like you’re trying to provoke me, but it’s useless. My will is firm.]
Chullapantaka’s voice was calm even in response to Yu-hyun’s provocation.
[I was stupid and dull. I couldn’t even memorize a single phrase of my master’s teachings that everyone else easily memorized. I may have blamed the difference in talent at some point, but now that I have enlightenment, I don’t wish for it.]
“Then, why are you doing this? Why are you risking your own death for this…”
[Because she is dangerous. 10 years is a very short time compared to our lives as spirits. There is someone who has surpassed our position with such talent in such a short time. The bigger problem is that she didn’t even have her own will.]
“What?”
[A sword without will is dangerous. It depends on who wields it, whether it becomes a defender of justice or an evil that cuts down the world. Then I ask you. What was the catastrophe that she caused as the Heavenly Demon? Could you call it justice?]
“…”
Yu-hyun couldn’t say anything.
Seo Sumin had outstanding talent, but more than that, she had weak mental strength.
That was because she had never had a strong will to do anything by herself.
She just lived as her grandfather wanted, as her grandfather told her to.
Just like that.
She was a sword without will.
If that sword had been insignificant, Geukrakjeongto would have ignored it, but it had the danger of cutting even the stars, so he couldn’t.
Yu-hyun shouted in defiance.
“She’s suffering enough! She regrets what she did!”
[She suffers from the sins she brought upon herself, but she hasn’t completely shaken them off. Do you know what that means? She is still an incomplete being, and that incompleteness itself is the most dangerous spark in the world.]
Seo Sumin was a dangerous bomb that could explode at any time.
A huge bomb that would endanger not only humans but also spirits if it exploded.
Chullapantaka wanted to eliminate that possibility.
That’s why he manifested in this world with the extinction of his existence in mind.
He believed that it was for the sake of the world without any doubt.
“Even so…”
[Enough with meaningless questions. I’m not going to play along with your trick to buy time anymore.]
“…Did you catch on?”
Yu-hyun bit his tongue at Chullapantaka’s words, who looked through him perfectly.
Chullapantaka had an incomplete manifestation.
Moreover, Genesis’ hammer would soon fall.
He intended to keep the conversation going by provoking Chullapantaka and buy time.
He just had to hold on until he self-destructed.
[Resistance is futile and only fuels pain. Give up everything and accept your fate quietly.]
“…Fate?”
Fate.
The word that made him nauseous as if it had been branded from his previous life.
Yu-hyun clenched his teeth and spat out his anger.
“You guys have always been like that.”
[What?]
“You believed that you could judge everything, and you played with us as you pleased.”
Yu-hyun remembered the aftermath of the apocalypse.
It hadn’t happened yet, but it was still a past that haunted him like a nightmare.
The times when everyone became the clowns of the stars.
He killed to survive, and he had to continue living that horrible life because he didn’t want to die.
She is evil and must be eliminated?
That’s for the sake of the world?
Then, what was that?
What about the people who desperately reached out their hands for help?
What about the people who died trying to please you?
The world that was destroyed.
Our parents who passed away.
And I, who lost all my will and lived in disgust.
Your actions, who didn’t save anyone!
“You claim to be the law and justice of the world, but in the end, you are just afraid of her power.”
Someone is crying, but everything in the world tries to crush the one who sheds tears.
Yu-hyun didn’t like that.
So he wanted to fight.
He held a sword and decided to stand against the world.
[You can think whatever you want.]
Chulapantaka’s voice was still emotionless.
[How can a tiny being that can’t even reach our feet know what justice is?]
“Yeah, I guess so. You only see us as mere bugs.”
The spirits after the apocalypse did the same.
They just watched the bugs.
They observed the bugs that struggled to survive in a small glass tube made by someone.
Sometimes they gave them bread crumbs when they were bored.
And sometimes they squashed them with their fingers when they were tired.
That was their entertainment and their story.
“So, I’ll answer you in a bug-like way. I don’t care about your justice.”
Whoosh!
The light in Yu-hyun’s mask flared up as if it would explode.
“I will stop your deeds by any means necessary in this place.”
[How arrogant.]
Chulapantaka showed his emotion for the first time.
It was interest towards Yu-hyun, and also respect for the one who burned his will and spirit even in front of death.
Chulapantaka felt sorry for him.
If he had known more about him sooner, he could have saved him before he was corrupted by that horrifying mask.
‘In the end, it’s a meaningless assumption.’
There was no need for more conversation. He clasped his hands together.
The light flowing from his body became stronger.
He didn’t have much time left either.
So he would use all his power to eliminate the evil on this side.
Chulapantaka’s atmosphere changed from a lotus petal floating on a calm water surface.
[A red lotus with a fragrant scent]
───!!!
It was a word and at the same time a power called buddhist chant.
The teaching that his master taught him, the symbol of his incompetence that he could only memorize four phrases even after working hard all his life.
That’s why it paradoxically symbolized him and became his power.
It descended to the lower world.
“Krrrgh!”
Yu-hyun resisted with all his might against the power that pressed down on his body.
He clenched his fists and gritted his teeth.
His veins felt like they would burst.
If his flesh hadn’t been strengthened by the fruit of life, Yu-hyun would have exploded from that attack.
‘I have to find a way.’
Yu-hyun’s right eye scanned the future.
His sharp mind that was honed to the limit drew out more than the power of Laplace that was given to him.
‘See the future.’
Scenes flashed across his retina.
They were all visions of his future.
That future pointed to his death and that of Seo Sumin and Kang Yura.
He died from exploding, burning, collapsing, piercing, melting.
Yu-hyun saw countless deaths.
Throb!
The price for seeing what was not allowed was quite painful.
Even in the agony of his brain burning, Yu-hyun didn’t stop.
Among many possibilities, the only future that was allowed for him.
He found it!
Above his retina, a different future unfolded for the first time.
Yu-hyun realized that it was the only way he could break through.
“Sumin.”
And she was the only key that could make it possible.
The power of Chulapantaka that pressed down on his body weakened for a very brief moment.
Yu-hyun knew that it wasn’t because he ran out of power.
Something bigger would come soon. He couldn’t withstand it alone.
“I need your power.”
“But I…”
“Only you can do it. Only you can defeat him.”
[I don’t know what you’re plotting.]
Chulapantaka didn’t intend to let Seo Sumin move.
[How can you resist when you can’t even bear your own sins? Then watch. How your sins move.]
Chullapantaka said that as he looked at the Heavenly Demon who was still suffering.
At the same time, his power shone on the Heavenly Demon’s magic and corrupted it.
“Kuh! I, I am…!”
The Heavenly Demon, whose magic was scattered and revealed her appearance, was a beautiful woman.
She looked like how Seo Sumin would grow up to be.
She was in pain right now.
She had a hard time accepting what had happened suddenly, and the pain that had been stimulating her head all along was also the same.
She looked back and forth between reality and fantasy.
In reality, she was sitting down like this, but in fantasy, she was standing on top of corpses.
Among the corpses of her precious people and subordinates, she was howling like a beast.
[Heavenly Demon. Evil that cannot be forgiven. Look at your sins. What you have done. What you will do. And wash away your sins with your own hands.]
Chullapantaka’s voice penetrated through the Heavenly Demon’s ears and into her soul.
It was poison.
A deadly poison that shook the human mind and filled it with agony.
“I am… I am…!!!”
Crack.
The hand that touched the ground clenched into a fist involuntarily.
The dry soil was squeezed in her hand, and a mark of her hand was drawn on the ground.
She was betrayed.
By someone she thought of as family, by someone she really cared about.
And, she killed them all.
No, she hadn’t killed them yet. But she would soon.
She would kill everyone who came after her, including the imperial soldiers and the martial artists of the martial alliance, and she would live in regret.
Just like the girl in front of her.
“Yes… That’s right. That’s how it was.”
The Heavenly Demon raised her head and looked into Seo Sumin’s eyes.
The girl who looked exactly like her younger self.
“You see, I know what happened now. You were, you were another me.”
Although she was a manifested being, the Heavenly Demon was a transcendent.
A sense of the unknown that could not be expressed in words told the Heavenly Demon the cruel truth.
The girl who fell into despair in front of her was her future.
The weak appearance that had lost everything, given up everything, and eventually collapsed was what she would go through.
As soon as she realized that, a smile came out of her lips as she bit them.
“Kuhuhu. Hahaha. Yes. I failed. And I fell apart so miserably. How stupid of me. I should have died instead. But I was still clinging to life so pathetically? This is my future?”
“I, I am…”
“Shut up. Don’t make excuses. No matter what you say, what you did won’t disappear.”
The Heavenly Demon glared at Seo Sumin with a fierce look.
She barely got up on her feet.
Black magic rose up and wrapped around her hand.
The Heavenly Demon drew out the sword that was on her waist.
The weapon that she didn’t even draw out when she went berserk showed its appearance with a bleak black light.
“You killed everyone here. You couldn’t bear the shock of being betrayed, you denied reality, and you turned your eyes away from reason. And the end result was a disaster, as you know.”
“…”
“And, the voice is telling me. To do my role. To kill everyone here like you did. That it’s fate.”
The killing intent from the Heavenly Demon showed no sign of stopping.
Seo Sumin couldn’t refute what her past self said.
No, it would be more accurate to say that she didn’t do so.
Wouldn’t it be better for her heart to hear such a refreshing curse?
Wouldn’t it be okay if her neck was cut by the hand of her sin?
Wouldn’t she not have to suffer anymore?
Seeing her like that, the Heavenly Demon raised her hand holding the sword. Seo Sumin felt her future as she saw that and closed her eyes.
The hand of the Heavenly Demon holding the sword swung down.
Whoosh!
But.
The pain she expected didn’t come.
“…”
Seo Sumin opened her eyes that were closed.
Her body was fine.
What the Heavenly Demon’s sword pierced through was.
“You…”
Her own heart.
“Kuk! Kugh!”
The Heavenly Demon coughed up blood as she stabbed herself in the heart.
Seo Sumin closed her mouth.
She asked with her eyes. Why did you kill yourself instead of me?
The Heavenly Demon looked at Seo Sumin with unwavering eyes even in pain.
“Because I won’t become like you.”
Thud.
The Heavenly Demon’s legs lost strength and she knelt down.
Red blood flowed endlessly from her mouth and the black cloak was soaked with blood.
In the midst of the cold death approaching, Heavenly Demon turned her head and looked at the forest where she had come from.
She didn’t know why she did that.
But.
Even if it was just a hallucination, she wanted to see him one more time.
And she saw him.
A part of the forest that was now in ruins.
There, the old man who had treated his wounds was leaning against a tree and looking at her.
The moment their eyes met, Heavenly Demon was able to cut off her last attachment.
‘Ah. You’re alive. I’m glad.’
She smiled with relief and looked at Seo Sumin again.
Her body began to scatter into white letters.
In the process of announcing the end of her existence, she left her last words to Seo Sumin.
Her voice, which had been filled with hatred until a moment ago, became soft like the warmth of spring.
“So, you should try to change too.”
With those words, Heavenly Demon Seo Sumin disappeared completely.
The white letters fluttered like petals on a spring day.
They flew with the wind and stayed by the old man’s side for a while, then vanished as if they were going away.
The only thing left in her place was a black sword with a glossy shine.