Chapter 177 - Bloodline is Everything

[Translator - Helga ]

[Proofreader - Starfall ]

Chapter 177: The Last (3)

The Black Dragon Bloodline and the Superhuman Bloodline.

Two forces exploded and intertwined. The sheer magnitude of it made Odin shudder.

Watching the scene unfold, Odin recalled an experiment from the past.

An experiment to obtain True Bloodline using the Vessel. There had been high hopes in Aeon, but the results were far from ideal.

There was a limit to the bloodlines a human body could contain.

Absorbing even a single bloodline was overwhelming, and wielding it required considerable effort.

Because of that, Aeon was never able to achieve their goal of housing multiple bloodlines within a person.

There had been cases where test subjects managed to acquire two bloodlines, but they all died shortly afterward.

And so, Aeon had no choice but to conclude:

“It’s impossible…”

That a human cannot possess two bloodlines.

“Even if you're born of the Black Dragon bloodline…”

Right now, the bloodlines Hanul was wielding were the Black Dragon Bloodline and the Superhuman Bloodline.

The Black Dragon Bloodline ranked among the highest of all bloodlines. The Superhuman Bloodline was just as formidable.

It wasn't just that he had both within him—Hanul wielded their powers freely.

Odin had never seen anyone like him.

There had been a possibility once. A long time ago—Lee Da-hae, a test subject who was stolen away by Hyukcheon.

“...Ah. I see now.”

Hanul had accused him of the sin he committed against his mother.

“You’re Da-hae’s child!”

Odin’s face lit up with joy. Was this how it felt when a beloved pet had offspring?

“Amazing! They say talent is inherited, but to think even aptitude for the Vessel is passed down! What a miraculous discovery! Da-hae truly was a gift from the gods!”

“Let’s set some rules first.”

Hanul twisted his neck side to side. A cracking sound echoed.

“From now on, you’re forbidden to speak of my mother with that mouth of yours.”

“Why are you doing this? You should know just how incredible your mother was…”

Hanul slowly raised his hand—and tore into the empty air.

In that instant, Odin’s shoulder twisted violently and was torn off.

With the sound of flesh and bone being ripped apart, Odin screamed in agony.

“Gah—AAAGH! AAAAAARGH!”

“Did you not hear the rule?”

Even after tearing off a man’s arm alive, Hanul showed no reaction.

“I told you not to mention my mother.”

Odin quickly activated magic, sacrificing a portion of the cursed mass.

Screeech!

Sraaagh!

The shrieks of vengeful spirits echoed without pause. The severed arm regenerated in an instant.

“Hah... haah…”

Odin panted heavily, face frozen with fear.

“T-that just now… that was…”

He had heard of it before.

The founder of the Sanchez family, the first in the world to acquire the Superhuman Bloodline, wielded a terrifying authority that could exert physical force regardless of distance.

“Don’t ignore my rules. I’m already holding back as much as I can to avoid killing you outright.”

The way Hanul spoke—as if he could kill Odin anytime—filled Odin with rage.

In that arrogance, Odin remembered a man from long ago.

The man who had stormed the lab, forced Odin to kneel.

The thief who stole the most precious test subject from him.

Kwon Cheon.

“...Hah!”

Odin let out a laugh, overwhelmed with emotion.

“Right… you’re not just Da-hae’s child—you’re Kwon Cheon’s son, too!”

He remembered how devastated he’d been the day he lost Lee Da-hae. How deeply he’d despaired.

“Because of what your father did, I was expelled from Aeon. It took years for me to rise again in Pandemonium.”

Eventually, Odin became a figure even Aeon couldn’t touch. But the scars in his heart remained.

“Perfect. You can atone for your father’s sins in his place!”

At Odin’s feet, cursed mass began to swell. It surged like a tidal wave, filling the space with cursed energy.

“I suppose we’ll need to add one more rule.”

Yet Hanul didn’t react at all to the mass of curses.

“Don’t speak of my father either.”

Ultimately, it was a simple matter.

As he prepared his spells, Odin organized his thoughts.

Hanul possessed the Black Dragon Bloodline and the Superhuman Bloodline. All he had to do was target those two.

Fortunately, Odin was well-versed in dealing with both.

He had spent years treating the Hyukcheon lineage as enemies, devising ways to counter them and creating the Serpent that Slays.

He’d clashed endlessly with the Sanchez family while rising through Pandemonium—people who bore the Superhuman Bloodline.

“Let’s see what you’ve got.”

The cursed mass surged and transformed—into blades.

The entire space the two stood in became filled with them.

Hundreds, maybe thousands, of blades rained down on Hanul.

But what happened next was even more astonishing.

The moment the blades touched Hanul’s body—they shattered.

Not a single blade left even a scratch.

“He blocked all of it?”

Though they looked like simple blades, this technique was far from basic.

Each blade contained concentrated curses.

Corrosion. Decay. Oxidation. Disintegration.

Even solid monsters would melt away on contact with these blades—such was their potency.

It was Odin’s signature spell. Yet it did nothing to Hanul.

“As expected of True Blood. Impressive.”

Even the Superhuman Bloodline had its limits. At this level, Hanul’s body should have been riddled with wounds.

The reason it wasn’t?

Hanul’s Superhuman Bloodline was True Blood.

True Blood—the origin of all bloodlines, wielding a power on another level entirely.

“Yes, this is how it should be. It’s only worth killing if it’s this powerful!”

Not that Odin expected to bring down True Blood with magic of this level anyway.

“Let’s crank it up a bit.”

Odin spread his arms. The cursed mass spread wide across the floor.

Then it transformed—into titanic giants wielding hammers.

The giants swung their weapons toward Hanul.

Hanul must’ve deemed them too dangerous to take head-on—he kicked off the ground and began evading them.

“Kill him! I said KILL HIM!”

Seeing Hanul finally move, Odin shouted in delight.

Then, as he’d been dodging all this time—Hanul threw a punch at one of the hammers.

With a thunderous crash, the giant vanished without a trace.

Odin was left speechless.

“Even with True Blood… is this even possible?”

The position of Pandemonium’s high elder wasn’t won by chance.

It required that much power—and that much cruelty.

Odin was one of the few in the world with so few equals.

And now… his cursed spell was erased by a mere punch?

Odin unleashed spell after spell. Not just giants—cavalry emerged as well.

“Attack! Wound him—any injury will do!”

For a curse to take hold, there had to be an opening. Even a scratch would do. What mattered was getting the curse inside.

“Go!”

The cursed soldiers charged at Hanul all at once.

Hanul clenched his fists as he watched them.

Above his head, a hand materialized.

It wasn’t a human hand. It had six fingers, and its surface wasn’t skin—it was made of minerals, like stone and metal.

“...The Hand of Tyranny.”

If the synchronicity rate of Superhuman Blood is high enough, one can manifest and wield the Hand of Tyranny.

Bloodlines with low purity wouldn’t even dare attempt it. The clearer the Hand appears, the purer the bloodline.

Kwon Hanul slammed his fist down. The Hand of Tyranny mimicked him, striking the ground with equal force.

In that moment, the entire space—once filled with cursed blades and soldiers—was crushed as if struck by a hammer.

“……”

Odin broke into a cold sweat at the sight.

With just a single move, all the curse magic he’d taken pride in was utterly destroyed.

A sense of futility surged within him.

“…Is it over?” Kwon Hanul asked, turning to Odin. “I said, is it over?”

The murderous intent radiating from Kwon Hanul only grew stronger.

“In that case, I’ll make the next move.”

He kicked off the ground and charged forward.

It was clearly just a human running toward him—yet to Odin, it felt as though a massive mountain were bearing down.

“D-Don’t come any closer!”

Odin raised a barrier of curses to block Kwon Hanul’s path. But with a single swing of his fist, Hanul shattered it.

What was once one of Odin’s proudest spells now felt flimsier than a sheet of paper. Odin’s face went pale.

“D-Don’t come any closer!”

He screamed in panic.

“I said stay back!”

But Kwon Hanul wasn’t one to listen. He was already within striking distance.

Without hesitation, Hanul threw a punch. His first target? Every single one of Odin’s ribs.

“AAARGH!”

Odin shrieked and raised his arms to shield his face.

In that instant, Kwon Hanul’s body stopped moving.

No—he had to stop. Black tendrils had coiled around his body.

“I told you not to come, didn’t I?”

Odin’s voice rang out. The fear from earlier was gone; now he wore a mocking smirk.

“Take a look down.”

Hanul looked toward the floor. Black lines were drawn across it.

And not just the floor—walls and ceiling alike were covered in black lines.

“It’s a binding spell circle. Drew it while we were fighting.”

While Odin’s curses were powerful on their own, they weren’t enough to handle someone like Hanul.

That’s why Odin had been preparing this circle throughout their entire battle.

“Cheap tricks,” Hanul remarked.

But it wasn’t bravado. He meant it sincerely.

As Hanul tensed his body, the tendrils began tearing away one by one. The binding spell wouldn’t last much longer.

“You’ll still talk like that after seeing this?”

Odin opened a subspace and pulled out several jewel-like objects, each the size of a soccer ball. He threw them to the ground.

Inside each jewel was condensed, potent magical energy.

“High-tier spells require proper preparation—and cost.”

Now that the magic circle was complete, the preparation was done. These jewels were the price.

With a snap of his fingers, Odin shattered the jewels. The stored magical energy burst free.

All of it was absorbed into the magic circle. The runes began to emit a murky blue glow.

“And the target… is you.”

Odin pointed directly at Kwon Hanul.

“This curse’s got quite the kick.”

Dark energy surged from the circle, all of it directed solely at Kwon Hanul.

At the moment the curse struck, Hanul felt intense vertigo. His strength drained, and he lost control of his mana.

Eventually, he dropped to his knees.

“Thought Superhuman Blood made you invincible, did you?”

Odin shouted triumphantly.

“Sure, Superhuman Bloodline’s unbeatable in terms of physical power—but that’s all. It’s trash when it comes to magic and skills.”

In other words, it had poor resistance to spells and curses.

“If I can’t inject a curse from outside, I just change the method. There’s more than one way to curse someone.”

Typically, injecting curses through wounds—like Odin tried earlier—is far more efficient.

Especially since high-tier Hunters usually have strong curse resistance.

Still, the method used on Hanul wasn’t worthless.

“The curse I cast on you targets physical debilitation and mental corruption.”

The more complex a curse is, the less effective it is against high-level Hunters.

So Odin had instead amplified the strength of a simple curse by several times.

“Didn’t see that one coming, huh?”

Odin smirked in satisfaction. To him, victory was already assured.

“Do you know how I made it this far?”

He’d lost his Vessel. Tried negotiating with Kwon Hyuk to reclaim it, only to waste Aeon’s resources in the process.

After a string of failures, Odin had no place left in Aeon.

“It was rough. Brutal, really. You couldn’t even imagine.”

Yet in the end, Odin had risen again.

He entered Pandemonium, became a councilor, and eventually rose to the seat of Grand Councilor.

In that time, he perfected his magic—sharpened it to its limits.

“Ah… it’s a shame to kill Da-hae’s son. Really breaks my heart.”

Odin clicked his tongue.

“But I’m sure Da-hae will be happy. She’ll get to see her son again, at least…”

Hanul rose to his feet.

The tendrils tried to restrain him. With an annoyed flick of his arms, he tore them all off.

Odin couldn’t help but panic at the absurd sight.

‘How… how did he get up!?’

Before he could finish the thought, Hanul’s eyes glowed green.

“…Healthy Bloodline?”

Little was known about the Healthy Bloodline. Its bearers rarely revealed themselves to the outside world.

But a few facts were well-known.

Those with Healthy Bloodline enter an extreme regenerative state whenever their life is in danger.

And when it activates, their eyes glow green.

The green glow intensified. The curse of debilitation that had wrapped around Hanul burned away in an instant.

“No… it can’t be… Superhuman Bloodline, Black Dragon Bloodline, and now Healthy Bloodline!? Three pure bloodlines!?”

Odin felt his understanding of reality shatter.

“That’s impossible! A single person can barely contain one bloodline! How the hell could he have three!?”

Then, as if struck by lightning, Odin regained his senses.

This was no time to be stunned. The curse of debilitation had already been lifted. Only the mental corruption remained.

He had to subdue Hanul before that one broke too—or else…

The curse clouding Hanul’s mind dispersed.

Odin—who had devoted his entire life to curse magic—saw it happen clearly.

“W-What the hell… That’s impossible…”

Suddenly, another bloodline came to mind.

A neutral house based in the Middle East.

The Rasad family. Bearers of Genius Bloodline—a truly bizarre power.

It nullifies illusions, hallucinations, and curses of the mind.

“No… it can’t be… No way…”

Not just lesser bloodlines. He possessed four pure bloodlines.

No human could contain that much power.

“This isn’t… this isn’t right… There’s no way… No human could possibly…”

Odin muttered blankly as a shadow fell over him. Kwon Hanul now stood right in front of him.

“You done talking?”

Odin let out a shriek and tried to cast a spell.

But before he could, Hanul grabbed his arm.

“If you’re done… then it’s my turn.”

Hanul yanked Odin’s arm with force. Odin’s entire body was lifted into the air.

“Wha—!?”

Odin could only mumble, confused.

And the next moment, Hanul swung him with all his strength—slamming him straight into the ground.

[Translator - Helga ]

[Proofreader - Starfall ]