Chapter 34
Part 9: The Demonic Path of the Underworld (1)
Just moments ago, this place had been no different from a small battlefield.
Orders and reports flew back and forth without pause.
The cries meant to raise morale, the clash of weapons, the screams of the wounded, and their groans had created utter chaos.
Then the Dark Heavenly Venerable appeared.
Like a tidal wave, he swept everything away.
It was as though everything had returned to the moment before the battle had ever begun.
Now, only the occasional groans of the wounded and the quiet conversations between messengers and adjutants coordinating rescue efforts broke the silence.
There had been those who fought.
Those who bled.
Those who died.
Yet not a single trace of the enemy remained.
No corpses.
No bloodstains.
Nothing.
It was an utterly unreal sight.
Faced with something so completely beyond common sense, Se-ah felt a brief wave of dizziness.
"Pavilion Master."
The field commander's report pulled her back to reality.
"Treatment for the casualties is underway, and we are also reorganizing our forces to maintain the blockade of the streets."
"I see."
After replying briefly, Se-ah turned toward him.
"Tell me... Does this scene seem strange even to someone like you, who has stood upon countless battlefields? No... of course it must."
Her question—which was hardly a question at all—made the field commander stop in his tracks.
Turning around, he quietly surveyed the surroundings.
Everyone was absorbed in their own duties.
No one was paying attention to them.
Letting out a short sigh, he removed the leather helmet from his head and tucked it beneath his arm.
Warm steam, carrying the scent of sweat, rose from his hair.
"It does."
"Just as you said... it's unbelievably strange."
Scratching at the beard that had begun to turn white, he continued,
"And not just strange... it's unsettling. Disturbing. To be honest... it almost feels as though something has bewitched us."
It was a startlingly candid confession.
Seeing Se-ah 's surprised expression, he smiled faintly.
"But battlefields have always been full of strange things. Things you cannot understand at the time—and couldn't possibly understand even if you tried."
He started to explain further, then gave up, silently cursing his lack of eloquence as a military man.
Instead, he chose a simpler approach.
"Forget it."
"...Pardon?"
Retightening the leather straps of his loosened armor, he said,
"Your vision narrows on a battlefield. That's only natural. Which is exactly why, if you become fixated on something strange, you're likely to ruin everything."
Se-ah slowly nodded in agreement.
"Given enough time, everything eventually becomes understandable when you look back on it. Somehow, it always finds an explanation. Because only then do you begin to see what you couldn't see before."
"Is that so...?"
After glancing around once more, he reached over and gave Se-ah 's shoulder a firm pat.
"So for now..."
"Forget about it, Commander."
Se-ah nodded.
"That's good advice... born from years spent on the battlefield."
Putting his leather helmet back on, he gave a bitter smile.
"Though... whether something this bizarre will ever be explainable with time... I honestly don't know."
That, too, was true.
Still...
Their conversation had helped.
Se-ah returned her attention to the situation at hand.
"What about the whereabouts of the Dark Heavenly Venerable and the Golden Spider?"
The Dark Heavenly Venerable had eliminated every martial artist before disappearing only moments ago.
"That is..."
Before the field commander could answer, Gyu, who had been quietly standing behind them, spoke instead.
"The Golden Spider disappeared not long after the Dark Heavenly Venerable revealed himself."
"As for the Dark Heavenly Venerable..."
She fixed a sharp gaze toward the distance.
"His presence is... far too distinct."
"I can't pinpoint his exact location..."
Feeling her mouth go dry, she continued,
"But he is definitely still somewhere within these streets."
Se-ah nodded.
Just as she was about to issue an order—
"Then—"
BOOM!
A deafening explosion erupted.
A tremendous shockwave swept over them.
Gyu reacted faster than anyone else, wrapping Se-ah in her arms to shield her.
"Over there!"
Bursting from the shattered remains of the building at the center of the explosion...
Was the woman dressed in crimson palace robes.
The Golden Spider.
"You!"
"You insignificant worm!"
"How do you know my name?!"
"Answer me!"
Her furious voice echoed throughout the streets.
Then...
The eerie rustling of the Dark Heavenly Venerable's robes, accompanied by their characteristic harsh metallic undertone, spread chillingly across the entire district.
***
The sound dispersed the dust cloud in an instant.
The Dark Heavenly Venerable emerged from within it.
Landing atop a building opposite him, the Golden Spider shouted once again,
"Who told you my name?!"
"Speak!"
At that moment...
The rustling of his robes ceased.
Tilting his head to one side as he looked up at her, the Dark Heavenly Venerable spoke.
"Did you truly believe..."
"That no matter what you did..."
"Or where you hid..."
"I would not know your name?"
As those words fell...
Blue ghostly flames ignited above the smooth eye sockets of his white mask.
"D-Don't make me laugh!"
He was clearly standing down on the street, looking up at her.
Yet somehow...
It felt as though he were the one gazing down upon her from above.
"You believed that hiding your name..."
"Would erase the atrocities you committed?"
The ghostfire burning within the Dark Heavenly Venerable's eyes saw a world utterly different from what everyone else saw.
"Se Yu-hwa! Give me back my son! Give my family back!"
A woman with both eyes gouged out, blood pouring from her empty sockets, clutched at the Golden Spider's hair as she wailed.
"Yu-hwa, you wretched girl! Was a mere few decades of youth worth turning the woman who raised you into this?!"
A middle-aged man from the north crawled across the ground, dragging his intestines behind him.
He grabbed hold of one of the Golden Spider's legs as he cried.
"Miss Se Yu-hwa! My children are starving! Please... give me back my breasts!"
A woman whose upper body was drenched in blood held out three crying infants toward the Golden Spider.
The babies, their heads gone, wailed through the ragged holes of their necks.
"You took the arms from a man who knew nothing except hard labor... Surely you never expected me to survive afterward?"
"My hands! Give me back my hands!"
At first...
There had only been a handful.
But as time passed, more and more gathered around the Golden Spider.
Soon they completely surrounded her.
Even beyond them stretched an endless procession of vengeful spirits, so countless that no end could be seen.
Their bitter accusations...
Their anguished cries from beyond death, where they were still powerless to do anything...
Merged into a horrifying cacophony.
As time passed, their voices only grew louder.
Until they became one monstrous howl that no longer resembled human speech.
"What sin had my only daughter committed?! What grudge did you bear against a girl in the very bloom of her youth, that you had to make her die such a miserable death?! If I was the one who sinned, why did you punish my children?! How am I supposed to face my daughter in the afterlife?!"
"I will tear you apart! Even if my bones turn to dust and I must roll through the fires of hell for countless kalpas... I will curse you until I rip you to pieces!"
Behind the white mask...
Yeon So-hyeon's expression twisted in agony.
Their resentment.
Their despair.
Their hatred.
Their rage.
Every emotion pierced straight into his heart as vividly as though it were his own.
The Jeam Jinchon Scripture continued forcing the stories of the vengeful spirits...
Their memories...
Directly into his mind.
The ghostly flames burning upon his mask flared ever more violently, as though responding to his fury.
His trembling hand slowly rose to cover the mask.
But it accomplished nothing.
His vision remained unchanged.
Even lowering his head could not help.
The ghostly flames mercilessly forced him to witness everything.
Before he realized it...
Blood was trickling from the corner of his mouth.
"...There isn't anyone there! Stop muttering that nonsense!"
The Golden Spider shouted at him.
"Answer my question first—!"
The instant he abruptly raised his lowered head...
She instinctively took several steps backward.
Then Yeon So-hyeon's voice exploded like thunder.
"[Se Yu-hwa!]"
Pitch-black demonic qi erupted from his body.
"[Resist with every ounce of strength you possess! Use every last thing at your disposal! Even after you die, you will suffer throughout eternity until every one of these grudges is finally extinguished!]"
The demonic qi carried within those words was so overwhelming that the surrounding buildings shook violently, while thick layers of dust billowed into the sky.
"Shut up!"
The qi barrier the Golden Spider instinctively erected trembled violently beneath the thunderous roar of the Dark Heavenly Venerable.
"And who the hell are you?!"
"What gives someone like you the right to judge me?!"
As she pushed her power to its absolute limit...
Dark crimson veins bulged across even her face.
An overwhelming aura exploded outward in every direction.
"Enjoy your pathetic delusions after you've died!"
Both of her hands swept through the air like bolts of lightning.
The world around the Dark Heavenly Venerable exploded apart.
Within the deafening succession of explosions...
A metallic voice rang out with startling clarity.
"One."
"What nonsense are you spouting now?"
Confused by the meaningless words, the Golden Spider glanced down at her hands.
Her right ring finger...
Was gone.
"...?!"
Bright red blood burst from the severed stump.
"W-When...?!"
"When did my... my finger...?!"
The rustling of the Dark Heavenly Venerable's robes echoed softly.
"You, who destroyed the lives of others so casually..."
"...are this shocked over losing a single finger?"
As the dust settled...
The Dark Heavenly Venerable came into view.
Between his fingers...
He was holding hers.
"You dare...! You dare...!"
The Golden Spider stomped down with one foot.
The ground around her collapsed violently.
The terrifying display of power did not earn even the slightest reaction from the Dark Heavenly Venerable.
Even while the earth shook beneath him...
He calmly maintained his balance.
Then...
He casually tossed her severed finger into the air.
It fell neatly into his wide-open mouth.
Crunch.
Crack.
The sound of bones being chewed echoed clearly.
"...A rather unique flavor."
His long tongue slowly licked away the blood trickling from his lips.
"Does it taste..."
"...the same as the human flesh of the little girl next door that you devoured for the first time?"
"Shut up!"
The Golden Spider shot toward him.
The Dark Heavenly Venerable glided backward like a ghost, attempting to widen the distance between them.
But...
His movement had already been anticipated.
Her arms lashed through the air like whips, tearing the atmosphere apart as they traced wildly unpredictable trajectories.
A barrage of attacks, swift as streaks of light, hammered into his torso.
Amid a continuous series of catastrophic explosions...
His body was violently battered.
"Dieeeeeee!"
Shrieking, she thrust forward a devastating strike imbued with every ounce of her internal qi.
The impact blasted apart the surrounding air itself.
His body folded grotesquely before being hurled away.
With an earth-shattering crash...
He smashed through the outer wall of one building, burst through the opposite side, and continued flying.
Without slowing in the slightest, he pierced through several more walls before finally crashing into the exterior of another building.
One after another...
The buildings with enormous holes blasted through them collapsed.
Finally...
The last building came crashing down, burying him beneath its rubble.
"Is that all you've got?!"
"You acted so arrogant..."
"...and this is all you amount to?!"
As the Golden Spider shouted triumphantly...
A voice that should have been impossible to hear...
Whispered directly beside her ear.