Episode 11: The Grand Scheme / Chapter 190: Dark Clouds (5)
TL: emptycube / ED: Obelisk
It was a very long fight.
When they thought that one thing was over, another thing would swoop in, and when they thought that they overcame that, another would pop out.
That day was no different from deciding the fate of the universe.
**
Myeol’s decapitated corpse didn’t disappear easily. The retribution it had accumulated in this unfamiliar universe flowed out to form an ocean. The rate at which its retribution flowed out exceeded the rate it dissipated.
A nebula would probably form in this region. First, using the retribution it had accumulated, then later, the great universe would dismantle its retribution and absorb it to create a new fate. A new star would form and then a new karma species would be born.
Choi Hyuk felt a change in himself from the new retribution he had accumulated by slashing through a fate that had crossed over from another universe.
Choi Hyuk felt his karma change. There wasn’t an immediate effect since his body was exhausted to the point of drooping. However, he knew that everything would change once he had some sleep. Then, although he wouldn’t be able to match Flame-Hell or Dark-Sound, who were considered the strongest amongst the Exalted Wings, his power would only be slightly lower than theirs.
“Hooo…”
Pulling himself together, Choi Hyuk stared at the enemies in front of him. While it would be difficult, he wanted to deal with Kwe and Jae.
However, they were crafty.
“Damn it! Damn it all! But… But you will all die here!”
“How surprising. But it’s too late. This is as far as you’ll go… Though it is a bit of a waste.”
Once Myeol died, Kwe and Jae spoke stale words that only a villain might say before fleeing.
Choi Hyuk attempted to catch them, but he failed. It was difficult to chase transcendent monsters that focused on escaping, and on top of that, he was very exhausted.
In the end, he shook his head and looked at the situation of the war.
It was tragic.
There were no alliance warriors where Choi Hyuk stood, only pieces of monster corpses.
Two stars that were a part of their defensive line were completely destroyed, and the area was filled with bits and pieces of monster and warrior corpses.
Kuaaack! Kuaack!
While the leaders of the monsters, Kwe and Jae, fled, the war hadn’t ended. All around him was an intense battlefield.
Only the area around Choi Hyuk was quiet because no one dared to approach. Choi Hyuk sighed as he stood amongst the remains of the monsters Kwe had controlled and Myeol’s thick retribution, which floated in space like a liquid.
“… I’m thirsty.”
How long had it been since he felt this?
He wasn’t just thirsty, he felt hot and drowsy. This was the effect of his body becoming imbalanced.
“Should I rest for a bit…? I wish there was a cool drink.”
When Choi Hyuk said these weak words, someone arrived next to him and handed him a cup filled with refreshing liquid.
“You worked hard.”
Unknown when he arrived, Night Sovereign Ding was standing with a sincere face while holding a cup.
Choi Hyuk’s gaze alternated between the cup and Ding.
“… What are you doing?”
Though he hadn’t received it yet, he felt the chill emanating from the cup on his lips and cheeks. Just from this, he felt like he was freezing.
Choi Hyuk knew what the drink was – ‘Glacier Tears’. It was the drink Mack let him taste while bragging about the dragon race’s technology. The drink had a strong effect on karma, so much so that it even gave Choi Hyuk, a mid-level transcendent warrior, a buzz. If he drank this in his currently extremely exhausted state, he could forget everything and fall asleep as if it was strong alcohol.
In some ways, this was ideal. A refreshing drink after a battle. It was good.
However, the problem was the fact that the battle hadn’t ended yet. Though the scales of victory leaned on their side with Chu Youngjin’s awakening, the battle between the transcendent warriors and monsters had yet to conclude. Drinking this wasn’t advisable in a situation like this.
Choi Hyuk looked around at his surroundings.
The area was empty like a demilitarized zone. He and Ding stood at the center while around a hundred or so earthling warriors surrounded them. They looked to be Ding’s direct subordinates. Unfamiliar machines the size of one-room apartment units were set up around, above, and below Ding and him.
Choi Hyuk truly found it odd.
“Don’t tell me… You’re going to come at me?”
The situation seemed like it.
Others weren’t paying attention here because they were focused on fighting. On top of that, because of the intense power emitting from Myeol’s corpse, they couldn’t peer through it even if they wanted to unless they personally came over here. Choi Hyuk was exhausted after his intense battle. A hundred or so warriors and unfamiliar devices surrounded him.
He couldn’t believe it.
But, if that wasn’t the case, then why would they play a trick like this in the middle of a fight?
Ding smiled as he saw Choi Hyuk was taken aback. It wasn’t a naïve smile that hid his inner thoughts nor a nervous smile. It was, without a doubt, one of ridicule.
“Why? Didn’t you say that you were thirsty?”
As if his voice was a cue, he felt something explode with a pop.
A chill permeated around him like when one opened a freezer on a hot day. The space around him felt dense like ice cream, and his head ached as though he ate a pile of ice.
It suddenly became difficult to breathe and move.
Even when he tried to move his karma, his karma didn’t move as though it was frozen.
Even Myeol’s dead retribution, which flowed continuously, halted as if time had stopped.
“Is this perhaps…”
When Choi Hyuk mumbled absent-mindedly, Ding smiled brightly. It was a cruel smile.
“If would have been better if you drank this as well, but it doesn’t matter. How is it? It’s a technology we’re developing to take down the queen of monsters.”
He threw away the cup in his hand. The cup flew slowly. The liquid inside splashed out of the cup in a clump. Ding’s movements seemed somewhat restrained.
“… Your rank has fallen too? Early middle rank… No, peak low rank?”
“Yeah, just like you.”
While he didn’t know how they did it, his, Ding’s, and the hundred-odd warriors’ ranks had standardized at the peak low rank.
All karma beyond a certain limit was frozen, unable to be used.
Choi Hyuk grumbled,
“If you had something as good as this, you should have used it on the monsters.”
“We’re still developing it. We need to use it when fighting the queen so it would be troublesome if they figured it out and took precautions against it after us having used it beforehand, wouldn’t it?”
Ding explained quite friendlily, seemingly thinking he had won.
“Armored Soul Tribe?”
When Choi Hyuk took this chance to ask in more detail, he slyly shrugged his shoulders.
It wasn’t a question that really needed an answer as it was obvious either way.
“That’s not what’s important right now, commander. The main point is you’re currently surrounded by a hundred warriors equal to you, isn’t it? Up till now, it felt like the whole world was yours, didn’t it? I’m jealous. However, even still, you shouldn’t have offended me.”
As though he had been waiting for this moment, Ding couldn’t endure his happiness and waved the weapon in his hand.
“It’s stifling to move in space because my rank dropped. Let’s end this quickly, commander.”
He aimed his sword at Choi Hyuk with cold-blooded eyes.
Tang!
His sword was flung from his hand. Ding didn’t know what happened.
“… Huh?”
His face became flustered.
“I think you’re mistaken about something…”
Choi Hyuk revealed a bloody smile.
“Did you think you’d win if our ranks were the same?”
The ‘Game of Thrones’ crossed his mind. The incident where the students and teachers had gathered in the gymnasium to kill each other. That time, everyone was of the same level. And Choi Hyuk came out victorious amongst them.
Also, the difference between Choi Hyuk’s fighting senses then and his current senses now was as vast as the difference between the Laniakea Supercluster and Earth.
Pstch!
“Kah! Grrr….”
Ding, who was taken aback and attempted to flee, was unable to dodge and collapsed with blood foaming from his mouth after his throat was pierced.
Myeol’s head was still cut off, Lee Jinhee and Baek Seoin were too busy with their own fights to pay attention to the situation here, and Chu Youngjin was about to awaken as a transcendent warrior.
**
There were two memories Chu Youngjin couldn’t erase from his mind.
How Lee Hyejin’s shoulders trembled in his embrace.
And the final smile of the doppelganger queen, who had looked identical to her.
Though he acknowledged that the doppelganger played him for a fool, it was still a memory of despair.
Memories where he failed to protect her when he said he would.
Her existence which he had lost once in his embrace and again behind his back.
That was why there was a lingering reluctance he couldn’t give up even though he fought to die.
‘I want to get stronger.’
He didn’t hope for much. He hoped to possess enough strength to protect the person in his arms, the person whom he could hold onto if he just stretched his hand out.
No matter who that was, even if that person was Choi Hyuk.
Even if he lost everything, he hoped for the strength to save the person in his hand.
What should he say if he met Lee Hyejin once he died?
‘Sorry. No matter what I tried, I couldn’t do it.’
Chu Youngjin couldn’t say such words. Rather, he wanted to get on his knees and apologize.
‘If I tried a bit more, if I became stronger a bit faster…’
He believed he should suffer like this.
Lee Hyejin died because he didn’t try. Twice. He had to think this and feel guilty. Only then would he never forget her.
Chu Youngjin needed to get stronger.
“Grraaaaaah!!”
He repeatedly thought this while stuck like a fly against the ‘wall of laws’. Even though it was so painful it felt like someone had rubbed salt on his wounds after tearing his body to shreds, he continued to advance forward. Because he lacked the effort. Because he had to prove that he lacked the effort to protect even one person.
At some point, ‘Chu Youngjin’s Protection’ began to shine brightly.
‘What protection. I couldn’t protect anything…’
The sword that was created through Lee Hyejin’s death. While shining, the sword, which made him sad, lonely, and sorry, transformed. It obtained a new fate fueled by Chu Youngjin’s transformation.
His body, which couldn’t overcome the ‘wall of laws’ as though it was stuck to it with glue, suddenly became lighter.
His twisted body returned to normal without a trace.
‘This… is the world Choi Hyuk sees….’
Chu Youngjin instinctively realized that he had entered the transcendent level.
He could clearly see inside the ‘wall of laws’.
Light-Maze, ranked 24th in this alliance, was taking on three monsters, while Dark-Feet, ranked 49th, was fighting two, and Kalon, ranked 119th, was fighting one. This meant that, naturally, one monster remained. The warriors were losing out by a difference of exactly one monster.
Chu Youngjin knew what he had to do.
He instantly chased down the monster that was causing a ruckus as it went between the three warriors without anyone keeping it in check.
“Ah, no!!”
Kalon shouted when he saw Chu Youngjin’s actions.
“Kehih!!”
The monster that was targeted by Chu Youngjin didn’t show any traces of being flustered as it created an explosion, seemingly having waited for this opportunity. The explosion was strong enough to annihilate nearby enemies, even if they were at the transcendent level.
The warriors who suffered heavily for not knowing this at first frantically kept a distance from it throughout their battle.
Blaaze!
However, Chu Youngjin, instead, rushed towards the explosion. He didn’t even bat an eye.
The red sword in his hand emitted a light. The light shined in a very small radius. A short distance that Chu Youngjin could reach it if he stretched his hand out. However, everything within this radius disappeared.
‘Chu Youngjin’s Absolute’.
Chu Youngjin’s sword, which was reborn as a Weapon of Conclusion, possessed an absolute influence within any area his hands could reach.
As long it was within this radius, Chu Youngjin was confident he could kill a transcendent-level monster in a single exchange as this was the fate he hoped for. The power to eliminate anything that was a threat to the person within his arms or next to him with absolute certainty.
Ptsch!
“Keuk?!”
The monster’s expression revealed its disbelief.
Though Chu Youngjin, having become a transcendent warrior, wasn’t as versatile as others and didn’t have any special characteristics like Choi Hyuk, he obtained one thing – an outstanding close combat prowess that could kill anything within a certain distance.
The transcendent-level monster’s body was ripped into tatters at his continuous sword strikes.
With this, it was over.
**
“Huh… Amazing.”
Light-Maze gave Chu Youngjin a blank look. While it was only within a close range, he was shocked by the divine power Chu Youngjin revealed.
It was enough to make him, who was ranked 24th in the alliance, discouraged.
Chu Youngjin had an irregular power. While it was impossible to control in fine detail, as long as the conditions were met, he was a weapon that could wield absolute power. In the perspective of his opponent, the best they could do was predict it in advance. If it activated, his attack would leave them with heavy losses.
His first display was quite impressive. The six monsters that were fighting the warriors were inevitably killed when Chu Youngjin approached. If Chu Youngjin was a normal transcendent warrior, it would have been impossible for him to cause such an extreme reversal.
“Are all earthlings monsters…?”
First, Choi Hyuk, and now Chu Youngjin, they were two weapons that could be used in any situation, despite facing potentially difficult opponents.
Light-Maze shook his head as he heard a screaming voice.
“Chu Youngjin! Chu Youngjin! You crazy bastard!!!”
Shiro screamed as she approached once the ‘wall of laws’ dispersed after the fight.
Chu Youngjin saw her, who always looked cold-headed, in a new light.
Without realizing, he stretched his hand out towards her as she cried, saying how she thought he would die.
“Hey!!”
Before the tips of his fingers could touch her hair, Choi Hyuk called out to him. No, he wasn’t particularly calling out to him as he called out to all the transcendent warriors there.
“If you’re done, come here!”
Earthling corpses were scattered around Choi Hyuk. Around a hundred of them.
“What is this?”
“Foolish yet thankful guys.”
Choi Hyuk gathered the machines floating amidst the corpses and told Baek Seoin, who hastily arrived, to store them.
“But…”
After gathering all the machines, Choi Hyuk lowered his voice. His gaze was on Myeol’s decapitated head.
“But I don’t think this is the end.”
He sounded fed up. However, his voice also contained some nervousness.
“That’s…”
Chu Youngjin followed Choi Hyuk’s gaze and saw it. After being decapitated, Myeol’s body kept spewing a ferocious power. Yet, that wasn’t important. Something more ferocious than this ferocious power was squirming, awakening, within it.
“Don’t tell me…”
“No way!”
“What… are we supposed…?”
Light-Maze, Dark-Feet, and Kalon, who had fought with their lives on the line just now, showed extreme reactions.
They looked like they were resenting without a target to resent, asking how this could be, before becoming uneasy.
Choi Hyuk revealed a bitter smile.
“I only noticed now after all this time because these guys had played a trick on me.”
Only after killing Night Sovereign Ding and his 100 subordinates and disarming the machines did his karma return to its normal state. It was at that moment when he sensed this ferocious power.
Choi Hyuk ground his teeth as though he was fed up with it as well as he asked,
“It said its name was Myeol… It’s probably the character Myeol for ‘demise’, right?”
If it was demise, then something came to mind. A force that overwhelmed even Exalted Wings. Not an incomplete one he had faced with Flame-Rain before, but a complete one.
The words Myeol said flashed through his mind.
‘Mother said I was the most special!’
He also recalled the last words Kwe and Jae had said.
‘Damn it! Damn it all! But… But you will all die here!’
‘How surprising. But it’s too late. This is as far as you’ll go… Though it is a bit of a waste.’
Choi Hyuk felt like he finally understood why it was special and why it was a waste.
Myeol’s stomach ripped open, and an enormous hand, which one wouldn’t imagine could come out from there, abruptly appeared.
