Episode 9: Shackles of Judgment / Chapter 147: Radical Reform (6)
TL: emptycube / ED: Obelisk
{T/N: Resource request right -> Resource transfer right}
This place was filled with warm light like the spring sunshine. The area looked white and relaxing like an overexposed spring sky as flower petals fluttered in the air.
‘Are all high ranked Kahur Kabkuns like this?’
Even in her bewildered state, Marina’s eyes fixated on the fluttering petals because of how odd the scene in front of her was. What woke her from her idleness was a wretched scream that seemed to slice at one’s fingertips.
“Heeuuu aahhhhh!”
Marina was startled. Amidst the densely falling petals, she saw a warrior spurting blood.
Long-headed shadows with long, pointy tails dashed through the petals towards him. It was a slaughter.
“You sons of bitches!!”
The well-built man swung his greatsword, ripping into a shadow’s body. Marina knew who he was. Like her, he was the head of a large clan and was trying to become a middle-ranked warrior. He had also joined the alliance Ding established, and was renown for wielding his greatsword and unleashing powerful strikes.
Riip!
Yet, was his famously monstrous strength not enough? The shadow monster’s tough, rubber-like body didn’t slice in two. It was only sliced halfway through, resulting in a tattered state.
{Kiiiee!!}
The wounded shadow became fiercer and agiler. After leaping away as if it had been burned, it wiggled its dangling torso while glaring at the weak warrior.
“Grr… Kack!”
Its tail, which swished as if it was having a seizure, pierced a lowest-ranked warrior’s belly. It then proceeded to rip the dying warrior’s throat out with its sharp hands. The warrior who had died powerlessly was a warrior of another clan whom Marina had seen in passing.
“Just… What…?”
Why was she here…? The more she thought about it, the more ridiculous it was. To think that there were resource transfer rights!
‘Our affiliations are different! And I’m a clan leader!’
Hot embers surged from Marina’s belly. Although it wasn’t an amazing position, for them to transfer her, who was like a troop leader, as if she was a lowly soldier? This wasn’t possible.
“Something’s wrong!”
{Kirireuk!}
Even though this incomprehensible situation was already a headache, there was a shadow monster that wouldn’t leave her alone. Her irritation reached its peak.
“Screw off!”
Ba-ba-bang!
Marina blasted the ‘Gun of Three Calamities’, which was created using the Seo Tribe’s technology. The bullets, made from gathering the karma of those in despair after encountering misfortune, poured down on it like heavy rainfall. She had personally customized this weapon with a machine gun in mind. It was a weapon of outstanding capabilities, matching its astonishing price. Yet…
{Kiririk!}
The bullets of misfortune didn’t rip the shadow monster into shreds. Thanks to its characteristically tough body, even though the bullets pierced its body in certain places, it didn’t receive a fatal blow.
Perhaps realizing that Marina wouldn’t be an easy opponent, the wounded monster retreated and began to look for an easier target.
Marina, who had been indignant over the unbelievable right that was the resource transfer right, came to her senses when she saw this.
“It’s strong…?! Also, cunning.”
It seemed to be at least a low-ranked (4-star) monster. While it was weaker than her, they were technically the same rank. Marina looked around at her surroundings. Though the number of low-ranked warriors wasn’t low, the majority were lowest-ranked.
Cold sweat ran down her spine. She suddenly recalled Leah’s voice.
‘Where do you think? Hell.’
Marina’s brows twisted miserably like a squashed snowman. Sobs mixed with her voice.
“Am I going to die like this…?”
If something could be considered fortunate, it was that warriors were constantly summoned here. They might be able to survive if they tried their best to endure. Like how someone shouted, “There’s no way that the resource transfer right is unlimited! We can live if we endure!” they might be able to survive if they continued to endure.
However, there was no doubt that many would die during this time. If they ended up being one of those who died, what was the point of enduring?
“Heaack!”
Drenched in his dead comrade’s blood, a lowest-ranked warrior swung his sword as he was stricken with fear.
{Kiriiireuk! Kiyaah!}
“… Huh?”
The lowest-ranked warrior, who was blindly swinging his sword out of fear, blinked in surprise. The monster, which had previously rushed towards him like the devil, had retreated as if it was frightened by something.
“What?”
He looked around at his surroundings, thinking that someone had helped him, but there was nothing around him besides the fluttering flower petals and his dead comrade’s corpse.
{Kirrreu….}
The lowest-ranked warrior swung his sword at the monster, who was crouched like a cat, wary of him, again.
{Kiyak!}
It happened again. The shadow monster leaped up and fled. As though it was scared of being sliced by his sword…
‘It’s scared of what’s on my sword?’
Although he didn’t know why, when he swung his sword, the monster couldn’t approach. However, the monster, who was scared of his sword, seemed to have adapted to something as it gradually began to regain its original attack prowess.
Kang!
Kaang!
{Kiree!}
Unlike before when it flinched whenever the sword was close to touching it, it approached, smashing against his sword more and more fiercely.
‘What is it? What? Why was it scared before…?’
The lowest-ranked warrior, who had previously taken a breath of relief, felt like his reasoning was about to be paralyzed from fear. The monster gradually attacked him more aggressively.
‘Just what is it?! … Huh?’
While inwardly despairing, he looked at his sword that flew from his grasp. To be exact, he saw his comrade’s blood smeared on it. It had already dried up and was scattering amidst the petals.
‘!!!’
He made a judgment instinctively. Giving up on his longsword, which was thrown back from the monster’s attack, he took out a dagger and sliced his arm. He stabbed his dagger, which was dripping with his blood, towards the oncoming monster’s chest.
Psscht!
As if stabbing into tofu, the dagger easily pierced the monster’s skin. It was a completely different outcome from when he failed to rip it even when slashing at it with all his strength.
{Kieeeyeeeh!!}
The monster let out a loud scream. It wriggled its body in pain. His blood, which had pierced into the monster, spread throughout its body before the monster turned into flower petals, starting from the tip of its tail, and scattered. The shadow monster turned into a whirlwind of petals.
The hairs on the lowest-ranked warrior’s body stood on their end. Confident he had found the solution to overcome the current situation, he shouted,
“It’s blood! Blood! Wet blood is their weakness!”
This information spread in a matter of seconds.
The shadow monsters would powerlessly scatter into petals when they were even touched by wet blood. As long as the blood on their weapons didn’t dry, these terrifying monsters were no different from scarecrows.
The warriors felt hope that they could win.
Only, what they had miscalculated was the greed of those gathered here.
Blood dried quickly. To face the endlessly oncoming monsters, they had to endlessly smear blood on their weapons. Unfortunately, their own blood was insufficient for this.
‘If I wound myself anymore, it’ll be difficult to survive!’
Thinking this, a warrior stabbed his comrade who was standing next to him.
“Heuuk!”
“Sorry.”
Thanks to the blood dripping from his spear, he was able to save his own life, through this, however, he had spread the gates of hell wide open.
No, it wasn’t particularly his fault since he wasn’t the only one who came up with this thought.
Marina sliced off a lowest-ranked warrior’s arm.
“Euaack!”
“Shut it. It’s not like you’re going to die.”
She remarked shamelessly as she squeezed the cut arm and smeared it plentifully on her magazine. She pulled the trigger.
Ba-ba-bang!
Bullets shot everywhere with a deafening roar. Unlike before when it barely pierced them, even if the bullets grazed them, the shadow monsters would turn into petals. Petals fluttered densely.
“Die! Die!”
When the blood dried while she was firing, she would grab another warrior and smear their blood again. At first, she cut off their arms, but she later realized that it was better to just slice their stomachs or throats.
“Don’t be so depressed. You guys killed your comrades to live too, right?”
She had even come up with an excuse at some point.
Since she used a gun as her main weapon, she downed an overwhelming number of shadow monsters and, as a result, killed an overwhelming number of warriors as well.
Warriors now rushed towards the shadow monsters to avoid her. Since they needed to push past the monsters, they once again killed warriors next to them. This vicious cycle continued.
An endless struggle.
“You crazy bastards! Do it in moderation!”
A low-ranked (4-star) warrior yelled. Although it wasn’t like he hadn’t killed others either, he still felt terrified seeing so many warriors being killed by each other rather than by the monsters.
‘At this rate, won’t we die by fighting with each other?’
However, the majority of low-ranked warriors, who had been dragged to the Kahur Kabkun because of Choi Hyuk, ridiculed him. Although they couldn’t compare to Marina, they all had weapons smeared with wet blood.
‘We are already on the tiger’s back. If we can’t keep up, we’ll all die.’
Marina actually yelled back,
“Shut up! Thank me when you get out of here!”
She simply thought, no matter how many died or how disadvantageous it became because of it, they just needed to finish off the shadow monsters before then.
She was confident.
When seeing those powerful monsters scattering into petals when grazed by her bullets, she even felt omnipotent. It was as thrilling as a shooting game.
In a short period of time, an incredible number of shadow monsters had turned into flower petals. It was to the point where these petals would almost hit their faces. An especially large number of petals stuck to Marina’s entire body.
“Ptu!”
While spitting out the petals in her mouth and brushing them away from her ears, she killed people and shot at the monsters.
‘I can go back! Once I get back, I need to look into just what that bastard Choi Hyuk did. If there’s no other choice, then I’ll lie low. It’s not like he’s going to do this again, right?’
That was how she planned for the future.
Then.
Pik!
“Huh?”
The petals that surrounded her like a fog suddenly rushed to her eyes, nose, mouth, and ears.
“Aack! What is this?!”
She struggled to brush off the petals, but the petals now pierced and burrowed into her flesh like leeches.
“Aaack! No…. No….”
She aroused her karma in an attempt to push the petals away, but every time she did, more petals rushed towards her. To make matters worse, her strength was slowly leaving her.
The petals that burrowed into her body sucked in the evil karma she had accumulated from killing her own race. The colorful red and yellow petals quickly turned dark and transparent. Just like the shadow monsters.
“What is going…?”
The surviving warriors were taken aback as they witnessed this scene. Looking at the fluttering petals, they cautiously retreated. They wanted to avoid the petals. However, there was no way to avoid the petals which had already covered their surroundings.
“Euaaack!”
The storm of petals swept the area.
The petals attacked the warriors as if they were alive. They burrowed into their eyes and flesh. They attacked the warriors, utilizing the evil karma they had accumulated as a medium. It wasn’t easy brushing the petals away even with their karma. As the petals ate the warriors, they clumped together like clay and grew bigger. Then they became shadow monsters and stood up.
“Tr… trap…”
Eyes glaring, the last warrior lost his grip on his greatsword. The petals covering his body turned into shadow monsters and stood up.
The number of shadow monsters actually increased to twice their original number.
The Kahur Kabkun filled with shadow monsters.
A few petals fell from the sky like spring cherry blossoms.
**
“Is it an annihilation as expected…? If they survived until I got there, I was going to bring them along some more.”
{Yes. There were monsters that displayed a very unique tactic. They have never been reported before. I think the name ‘shadows of retributive justice’ is appropriate. How about you?}
“Good. Then report to the alliance with that name.”
At Choi Hyuk’s less enthusiastic reply, Naro swung its arms in the air.
{Euaack! Is that all you feel? Monsters that spread their larvae through blood! A cunningness where they first act like they are scared of blood and then, after getting the warriors to fight each other, nullify the killer’s defenses with the anguished karma of the killed! A strange trait where they instantly increase their numbers after devouring the killers! Is that all you feel after hearing the name ‘shadows of retributive justice’, which encompasses all these aspects?!}
While Naro had expressed various emotions through its telepathy and body language since the beginning, after learning language, it became an incredibly emotional artificial intelligence.
Though, Choi Hyuk didn’t care.
Choi Hyuk dispersed Naro’s hologram with his hand and stepped forward.
“Quiet. I’m busy. I have to destroy the Kahur Kabkun by myself.”
Petals fluttered in the sky. The Kahur Kabkun was filled with a relaxing light. The ‘shadows of retributive justice’ stared at Choi Hyuk.
A smile spread on Choi Hyuk’s face.
“Been a while since I’ve played with fire.”
Blaaaze.
Like his karma, which had turned black since the Kundle Tribe’s funeral, his flames had turned black as well. These flames grew as they even devoured light.
…!!!
Even sound burned as the shadows collapsed. The petals collapsed as well.
Flames of night fell on the Kahur Kabkun, which had looked like a spring day.
