Vol 2. Chapter 375: One Sword (6)

On the arena stage where the Heavenly Demon and Hwa In, the leader of the Cooperative Alliance, faced each other, Cale, looking down from the stands, swept his gaze around.

‘They’re all here.’

The King, Cha Run of the Martial Arts Curriculum, the Lan Kingdom leadership, and most of those who had made a name for themselves in this tournament had come.

‘No.’

That woman was not here.

So Hee.

She, who was presumed to be a Wanderer, was absent.

‘Huh?’

What is this?

Cale felt an inexplicable sense of déjà vu.

It was possible that So Hee simply was not here.

‘The back of my neck feels cold.’

A feeling like this was usually not wrong.

Just then—

“So Hee isn’t here.”

“Right. She isn’t.”

The moment Cale realized that Choi Han and Alberu, seated on either side of him, had noticed the exact same thing, his mouth opened.

“There’s something going on.”

At those words, Choi Han and Alberu gave their agreement in silence.

But the atmosphere around them had gone beyond excitement and was boiling over.

“One Sword actually has a sword in his hand right now!”

“Wow. So once it reached the quarterfinals, Kim Hae-Yi must finally be serious!”

One Sword.

And yet he had never once held a sword in his hand.

Even so, Kim Hae-Yi had defeated every opponent with a single gesture.

And right now, he was holding a sword.

“It’s just an ordinary iron sword, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. Looks like something he picked up from any blacksmith’s shop.”

“What does weapon quality matter to a master!”

“No. The better the master, the more they seek a good weapon! The better someone can use a thing, the more they know its value!”

Of course, what the Heavenly Demon held in his hand was an ordinary iron sword he had bought from a blacksmith that very morning.

“......”

The Heavenly Demon stood there quietly, holding only the sword, having tossed the scabbard aside somewhere.

Grin.

Looking at him, Hwa In smiled deeply.

She did not open her mouth.

—Do you know who I am?

But she sent a voice transmission to the Heavenly Demon.

And the Heavenly Demon—

“Do I need to?”

—merely gave a careless reply.

“Hmm.”

The martial official acting as referee realized that the Heavenly Demon and Hwa In were communicating through voice transmission or spoken words and hesitated briefly, but soon raised the flag and brought it down.

Boom!

At once, the drum sounded, and the match began.

But neither the Heavenly Demon nor Hwa In moved, only staring at each other.

“...Do I need to know, is it—”

But Hwa In was the first to speak.

“Ha.”

She did not hide the disbelief on her face.

“You dare—”

A faint unpleasantness rippled across her face.

‘You insignificant thing that does not even truly exist, how dare you ignore me?’

Truly, truly—

“How arrogant.”

Shing.

She drew her sword from its scabbard.

Then she loosened the scabbard and tossed it behind her.

Swoosh—

A single stream of internal energy-laden wind gently caught the scabbard and set it down on the floor.

“!”

“Mm!”

The masters watching flinched.

Because they had seen the depth of Hwa In’s internal energy.

But the Heavenly Demon paid it no mind.

If anything, he merely looked at the sky and quietly closed his eyes.

“......”

Seeing that, Hwa In could not hold back a sneer.

‘So Hee. You should at least handle the kids from the Transparent Blood family for me. Hmm?’

At the same time, she recalled the companion who had advised her as if offering guidance, while actually threatening her.

‘The Transparent Blood lot keep nagging me to capture that AI. So Hee, is that task difficult?’

Hwa In—or rather, So Hee—had seen the irritation disguised as kindness in her companion, and she had snapped back.

‘Why do I have to do some ridiculous thing like that! I’m a sole-born! Why should someone like me listen to demands from those Transparent Blood bastards?’

The moment Hwa In recalled that time, goosebumps rose on her skin.

‘So Hee. Try not to be such a nuisance. Hmm?’

That companion looking down at her.

No—the eyes of that Wanderer of the Five Colored Blood had truly been transparent.

They held nothing at all.

‘Disgusting bastards.’

From the youngest, So Hee’s perspective, all those Wanderer bastards were irritating.

They were gathered together only for their own individual purposes.

‘No.’

Unlike some of the first generation, who had lived as Wanderers for a very long time and shared a kind of bond among themselves.

Perhaps because she had joined more recently, she had none of that attachment.

‘Whatever. I just need to get rid of that AI and swallow up the Lan Kingdom.’

A new world.

In that place, only her own position and power mattered.

Step.

Hwa In took one step toward the Heavenly Demon.

“It truly looks like a dance.”

Cha Run murmured.

The steps of a master were like a single dance.

In the upright posture with which she took just one step, it was as if the path of martial learning she had walked could be seen.

Her mouth opened.

“Well, I don’t really care who you are either.”

Hwa In never once considered the possibility that Kim Hae-Yi might not be an AI.

‘At the very least, he isn’t a user.’

She could judge with certainty that he was not a game user.

Because Kim Hae-Yi had not logged out for days on end.

On top of that, he was a target to whom quests could not be assigned.

Which meant he was something like an NPC.

‘That said, he also isn’t a being placed under the system.’

Because he acted entirely as he pleased.

In that sense—

‘He’s definitely an AI.’

In truth, that judgment itself was meaningless.

“Impudent bastard.”

She spoke in a low voice.

The eyes of the Heavenly Demon reflected in her own.

Annoyance.

Would there really be an NPC that looked at the leader of the Cooperative Alliance like this?

The odds of one being designed that way were vanishingly small.

‘And the Transparent Blood still couldn’t find it.’

She had told those bastards to give her Kim Hae-Yi’s data.

But the ones called operators did not know Kim Hae-Yi’s data.

There was only one answer.

AI.

And—

‘They also couldn’t identify the underlings he keeps by his side.’

They were surely underlings created by the AI, Kim Hae-Yi.

“......”

“......”

All around them, things gradually grew quiet.

Step, step.

Hwa In strode unhesitatingly toward the Heavenly Demon.

And as she walked—

without stopping—

she stepped forward and raised her sword.

Just as walking was natural to a human being.

Her arm rose.

Her hand moved.

And every motion by which the sword followed and extended forward was natural.

And in the end, that sword pointed toward Kim Hae-Yi.

It did not look like an attack.

Everything looked like part of ordinary life.

Yet what she held was a sword.

“!”

Choi Han’s shoulder jerked sharply.

“I think she’s a Wanderer. Yes, I think she really is a Wanderer.”

By the time that voice reached Cale’s ears, the Heavenly Demon had already looked at the tip of the sword aimed at him.

Just as when he had cut through the sword of Seo Rak, heir to the Sky Sword, not long ago.

From top to bottom.

The tip of the sword came crashing down as if to split the Heavenly Demon apart.

And beyond that line stood Hwa In.

“It is as though she means to split Mount Tai.”

Cha Run could not hide his admiration.

He had not known Hwa In’s skill had risen to such heights.

Not martial arts, but ordinary life.

To her, the sword was ordinary life.

It carried the plainness of a human life lived across a lifetime.

The very thing itself.

—Cale.

The voice of the Stone sounded in Cale’s mind.

—That sword.

—It’s strange.

The ancient powers that had been quiet until now began reacting the moment Hwa In brought down her sword.

—Power. There is immense power inside it.

No aura whatsoever clung to Hwa In’s sword.

“What is she doing?”

“No idea. Is she testing him?”

So ordinary people noticed nothing at all.

But the strong were different.

“!”

Sword Ghost trembled.

Pao Seo Tae’s eyes widened.

“...One Sword!”

Pao Seo Tae realized that Hwa In was quite literally trying to split One Sword, Kim Hae-Yi, in one sword stroke.

A human cannot overcome nature.

But that sword could split Mount Tai.

There would be no mountain that blade could not cut.

So how could a human truly endure such power?

Even if one were a mountain oneself, in the end one would still collapse.

“Choi Han.”

Cale asked in a detached tone.

“Do you think he’ll lose?”

The answer to that question came without hesitation.

“No.”

The moment Choi Han said that, Cale saw the Heavenly Demon’s sword move.

New World.

A new world.

After coming here, this was the first time the Heavenly Demon had used his sword.

“!”

Hwa In’s eyes widened for an instant.

“How do you possess that power—”

She was startled.

But by then, everything was too late to stop.

“What—what is that?!”

King Tamahi sprang to her feet.

Without realizing it, she gripped the railing in front of the separated viewing section with her hand.

“What is that?”

Her voice trembled.

Kim Hae-Yi.

The Heavenly Demon.

That dark crimson force coiling around his sword.

That was not internal energy.

It was not aura.

It was not magic.

It was a force never before seen.

And yet—

“I-it’s vile—”

It was vile.

Grin.

The corner of Cale’s mouth rose.

“He’s grown even more.”

At the moment Choi Han smiled faintly as he looked at the Heavenly Demon, the Heavenly Demon’s mouth opened.

“I—”

A sword that can split Mount Tai—

And I am a man standing before that sword—

Heavenly Demon.

Who am I?

I am human, yet not human.

I am the sky of the demonic—

“I am the sky.”

The sky of the Demonic Cult.

The sky and god of countless members of the Demonic Cult.

That is what I am.

Heavenly Demon.

That is myself.

Even a sword that can split Mount Tai

cannot cut the sky.

So long as that belief exists.

The Heavenly Demon’s force will never lose.

If conviction was contained in Choi Han’s sword,

then in the Heavenly Demon’s sword there was a calm belief bordering on madness.

Hwa In’s sword came down from above to below.

From the sky to the earth.

As it drove down as though to split the Heavenly Demon in two—

the Heavenly Demon’s sword did not move to ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) block it.

Only forward.

Should one really fear a sword that can at best split a single mountain?

He had only one target.

The enemy before his eyes.

Only Hwa In, her alone.

The one who had dared call the Heavenly Demon impudent.

That was not merely an insult directed at one man, the Heavenly Demon.

To look down on the Heavenly Demon, the sky of the Demonic Cult, was to look down on the followers of the Demonic Cult.

And the sky could never watch those beneath it be treated with contempt.

Woooooo—woooo—

The dark crimson force gradually left the Heavenly Demon’s body, passed through the sword, and moved forward.

“......”

“......”

The audience fell silent.

When that dark crimson force appeared and grew large enough to be seen plainly with the naked eye—

they felt suffocated.

At the same time, some unknowable vileness made goosebumps rise on their skin.

And yet they also felt an irresistible fascination that would not let them look away.

Vile, terrifying, suffocating—and yet a force that held their eyes captive.

“Danger—”

The moment someone said that—

KRAAAAAASH-----!

A thunderous roar exploded.

One sword.

And one sword.

The roar created by a single clash shook the entire arena.

A great cloud of dust rose up.

People waited for that cloud of dust to settle.

But there was no need.

Whoooosh—

Wind blew.

The wind was dark crimson.

Dark crimson force billowed up and shoved the dust away.

“!”

When the eyes of those who understood what that meant widened—

Slash---!

Someone was driven backward.

It was Hwa In, the leader of the Cooperative Alliance.

The sword descending and the sword thrusting forward.

The two swords had met each other with exquisite precision.

Craaack—

One sword broke and fell to the ground.

It was Hwa In’s sword, the one that had been driven back with her.

A sword famed throughout the Lan Kingdom as a renowned blade had been broken by an ordinary iron sword.

As if pierced by an awl.

It split and shattered into pieces.

“Huh?!”

“What?!”

But no one’s eyes were on the sword.

Drip.

Blood ran from the corner of Hwa In’s mouth.

She had suffered internal injuries.

That dark crimson force.

She had tried to block the force that had suddenly flared up with internal energy.

The leader of the Cooperative Alliance.

The supremely pure heart method that had enabled her to rise to that position.

The internal energy she had built through that heart method was so utterly pure and clean that she had judged it would surely overcome that vile ominousness.

Because she had believed there was no way that AI could possess that power.

That power was one only the chosen could wield.

A great power that now, no longer, could ever appear again.

“...Truly—”

But she had failed to block it.

Drip.

The blood flowing down was the answer.

The distance she had been forced back was the answer.

She did not even wipe the blood from her mouth.

Bleeding, Hwa In spoke.

“Do you truly possess individuality?”

The dust settled, and the view cleared.

Standing there with dark crimson force rippling around him like hundreds of snakes writhing, the Heavenly Demon.

His figure was distinct even within that ominous dark crimson.

As Choi Han had said, the Heavenly Demon had grown in that time.

Because he had experienced dragons and Apitoyu and awakened to many new things.

“How can someone like you possess the power the Celestials sealed away—”

Hwa In stood there, her expression choked with disbelief.

And the Heavenly Demon crooked up one corner of his mouth.

“This is interesting.”

The moment he spat out those words, the stands erupted.

“That person isn’t Hwa In!”

“How can Hwa In—Hwa In—!”

The Heavenly Demon’s sword.

No—because Hwa In had to use another power in order to block his dark crimson aura.

That power was the unique power possessed by the Wanderer So Hee.

A power the Celestials had sealed away in the past, and which was now known only as an ancient power.

A power with limitless possibility.

The aura used by the Heavenly Demon possessed the qualities to become that power, and was already becoming that power—individuality.

“You—”

So Hee.

A rising master whose name had come up alongside Kim Hae-Yi.

But because she had drawn less attention—

after shedding Hwa In’s mask, she faced the Heavenly Demon in her original body.

“You—who are you?”

A strange madness slowly began to swirl in her eyes.

The eyes that had once dismissed him were now dyed in unmistakable hostility.

“Now that is a gaze I can appreciate.”

And the Heavenly Demon smiled.

Wooooo—wooooo—

As if to cover the sky above the arena,

the dark crimson force was gradually spreading.

As though this aura itself were proclaiming that it was the sky.

And watching that sight, Cale said leisurely,

“Our young master must have been very angry.”

At the same time, he grabbed the shoulder of Choi Han seated beside him.

“Calm down. It still isn’t your turn.”

So Hee.

From the moment he saw that face, Choi Han’s expression had hardened.

And Cale and Alberu began observing So Hee.

Cale to record, Alberu to search, Choi Han to stand guard.

Each holding his own thoughts, they watched the Wanderer.

And the Heavenly Demon.