Chapter 436. Regret (2)
"Hurk…!"
Regaining consciousness, I exhaled roughly.
I coughed a few times and rolled my eyes around.
Where is this…?
An unfamiliar ceiling… except I can't even see a ceiling.
What I see first is the sky.
Is it night, or perhaps dawn?
A subtle sky, one where I couldn't tell the time, entered my eyes.
I shot up.
Seeing that, I immediately raised my upper body.
I looked around my surroundings at once.
'…Where the hell is this again.'
All I could see around me was scorched black dirt.
I scooped some up with my hand and lifted it to examine closely.
'This is….'
The dirt was rotten.
And severely so at that.
From the circumstances, it seemed to have rotted due to poison.
Thankfully, it seemed the toxic energy had faded, perhaps because time had passed….
I roughly brushed off the dirt and stood up.
First, I had to figure out where this place was.
'Just where did they send me.'
I circulated internal energy through my body.
Energy flowed through my acupoints and circled my body once.
My internal energy had recovered slightly. I didn't feel anything wrong with my body.
Soon after, I recalled Dang Je-mun's words.
She had said we would be taking a test, so perhaps this place itself was the testing space.
'If that's the case, this feels way too strange, though.'
An inexplicable atmosphere met my eyes. I wasn't talking about the pit.
Something chilling from outside was prodding at my instincts.
I gathered strength and leaped.
Thud-! I broke through the dirt floor and escaped outside the pit.
"Huh…?"
The moment I landed on the ground, my eyes widened at the scenery outside the pit.
I constantly surveyed the surroundings.
After a few seconds of that, I couldn't help but flinch in shock.
And with good reason.
"…What?"
Astonishingly, the space I had been lying in until just now was none other than the Poison Lake.
The water that should have been full had all drained away, leaving only a pit, and it seemed I had been lying atop it.
"…Huh?"
I could only let out a hollow breath at the sight.
All that water draining in an instant? What the hell. And that wasn't the only thing.
"I'm fucked…."
The Poison Lake was treated as one of the Dang Clan's representative treasures.
An outsider took one look at it and then the water vanished?
This wasn't a situation where excuses would matter.
I was really screwed.
How do I explain this?
'…Fuck.'
I thought I'd met a truly miraculous encounter, but it seemed this was a dud too.
I forcibly relaxed my throbbing brow and turned my head.
I had been trying to find Nahi, who should have been waiting outside.
"…!"
Slowly scanning the surroundings, I felt another sense of alienation.
First, the fields stretching out in every direction had all withered and dried up.
The forest I had passed through was the same.
The trees were stained black, just like the dirt.
Proof that they had rotted through to the core, not just on the outside.
The forest that the Dang Clan had cultivated with such care, once overflowing with vitality.
Was all dead.
Thump.
My heart beat wildly at the sight.
My body was already moving.
I moved using only a rat's tail worth of internal energy.
Something was wrong.
Was it an attack?
Had an attack occurred while I was gone?
My head wasn't working properly.
I just ran.
'The kids? The kids…!'
I didn't have the mental clarity to assess the situation.
I had to run right now.
Perhaps because I had suddenly exerted too much force.
The blood vessels in my eyes burst.
Thud-! Crack-!
I arrived at the residence kicking up a cloud of dust.
I hadn't found a single person on the way.
A faint scent of blood and killing intent mixed in the air lingered around.
I tore open the residence's door as if ripping it off.
"Huu…."
I tried to force my chest to calm down, but it wasn't easy.
What if something had happened?
Such thoughts filled my head.
I headed to where Namgung Bia and Wi Seol-a had been.
Even while walking down the corridor, I bit my lip hard at the blood staining the walls and floor.
Blood flowed from my lip and down my chin.
And when I arrived at my destination.
"Haa…."
Just as expected, there were no signs of people.
Only faint traces that someone had been there remained.
I didn't know whether to feel relieved or not.
I sank down as if my strength had given out.
'What… what is this?'
I felt my fingertips trembling faintly.
Just what the hell was going on?
This was a situation where I needed to think rationally, yet I couldn't stay calm.
My heart was beating faster than usual. My breathing was already ragged.
Heat was rising in my body as my emotions violently fluctuated.
What went wrong?
How long had I been in Bigo for the situation to end up like this?
What happened to the kids? Are they okay?
Just what the hell happened….
Clutching my pounding chest, I tried to somehow turn my head.
Squeak.
Something caught in my senses.
It was people.
My head turned back.
"Damn it… what the hell is this situation…! No contact from the other units?"
A voice was heard.
"…Senior, we need to join up first…! Otherwise the other infiltration teams will…."
"You bastard, what are you going to do there? Just die together like dogs? Do you know who's there?"
"But…!"
That was enough of the conversation to hear.
Crack-!
I approached and lunged at the presences that had entered the residence.
I broke one bastard's legs and destroyed his posture. The moment he fell, I grabbed the remaining bastard by the throat.
"Gurk!?"
The intruder flinched in shock at the sudden situation and looked at me.
He confirmed the appearance of the one who appeared gripping his throat.
The face was an ordinary person.
At least, it wasn't someone I knew.
Moreover.
"Martial Alliance?"
The clothes the bastard was wearing were definitely the black uniform of the Martial Alliance.
"Krr… uu…."
After confirming the clothes, I slightly loosened the strength in the hand gripping his throat.
"Who are you. Why is the Martial Alliance here?"
"Kehak… Heok… S-survivor…?"
The bastard also widened his eyes in surprise at me who appeared suddenly.
Survivor?
"H-how is there a survivor…! I definitely heard there were no survivors…?"
My expression twisted at those cold words.
In other words, it meant the Dang Clan had suffered an attack.
"What happened here? Talk."
"A-are you from the Dang Clan? I am from the Martial Alliance…."
"Answer first. If you don't want to die."
I spoke filled with killing intent, and the man's expression turned pale.
Heuk… Heuuk….
Beside the man whose throat was grabbed, the man with broken legs was groaning.
He looked at me and spoke as if shouting.
"Y-you what are you…! How can a martial artist do this to the Martial Alliance!"
"Shut your mouth and answer. Why is this place in this state?"
I was impatient. I didn't know how the situation had unfolded.
The Dang Clan turned into a mess and a situation where no signs of life could be felt.
It was a situation where I didn't even know how much time had passed.
With the other kids' lives unknown, there was no way I could calm down.
A situation where I was forcibly holding back the urge to destroy everything right now. Perhaps realizing my state was very strange, the man opened his mouth to me.
"F-first, please calm down…! If we're discovered by the other demons like this…!"
"What?"
Those words were the problem instead.
"Did you say demons?"
"Y-yes… You know who has come to this place…."
Shiver…!
As the man's words reached me, I felt something twist somewhere.
"…Demons… how do you know about that?"
"What on earth are you talking about right now…! Now is not the time for tha— hup!?"
I pulled demonic energy up to my heart.
A sinister energy consumed my whole body, and soon the demonic energy reached even my pupils.
The man who saw my face began to tremble as if crushed by fear.
"D-demon…!?"
The man definitely shouted that.
A word the people of the current era definitely shouldn't know.
'…What the hell….'
Then what was that reaction.
How do these guys know about demons?
When my thoughts reached that point, goosebumps rose all over my body.
I moved my head and surveyed the surroundings again.
I pieced together the scenery I had seen while passing through.
The Poison Lake with its water drained, leaving only a pit.
The forest rotted and crumbled, with no vitality remaining.
The Dang Clan filled with blood.
People who knew of demons and the Martial Alliance.
As I slowly pieced them together, threads of a clue gradually became visible.
"Uurk…."
While recalling them, I couldn't hold it in and vomited.
"Keoheuk…."
It felt like everything inside was coming out.
The more the thoughts progressed, what was choking my throat was clearly 'fear'.
"…Bullshit… don't bullshit me."
I had to hope it wasn't true.
The test Dang Je-mun had spoken of.
The regret she had spoken so much of shouldn't have been something like this.
As I was vomiting bone-chilling fear through my mouth.
Killing intent brushed from behind.
The moment I felt it, I swung my hand.
Flames burst out.
"Kuaaaack!"
Black flames mixed with demonic energy clung to the one who tried to attack me.
The embers instantly grew and engulfed the human body.
It didn't take long for the bastard's breath to be cut off.
The other bastard who confirmed that covered his mouth with his hand.
"B-black flames… Black Flame D-Demon…?"
Crunch.
I snapped his neck before he could spew nonsense with his mouth.
Crackle crackle-.
Flames burning using the human body as firewood.
Watching that, I wiped the traces of vomit from the corner of my mouth with my hand.
Soon I clenched my fist and struck the wall.
"…Fuuuuck!"
Kwaaang-! My fist dug into the wall.
Wooddddeuk-! Cracks spread like spiderwebs across the wall's surface.
Watching the falling dust and crumbling fragments, I recalled.
Everything felt real.
The queasiness I had felt until just now too.
The sensation I felt when killing people too.
Even the texture felt in the arm now dug into the wall.
Everything was exactly like the real thing.
Could this truly be called an illusion?
If… it wasn't an illusion? Then what happens?
"…This can't be real. Really…. This is too much."
I repeatedly swept my face with a trembling hand.
With the situation like this, I couldn't not know.
I had to recall the situation and place I was in.
Putting all the circumstances together, only one conclusion could be reached in the end.
It wasn't that some incident had occurred while I was in Bigo.
It wasn't that an absurd amount of time had passed.
'Far from time passing….'
This was rather….
Szzzt-
"…!"
I turned my head at the energy that brushed past my body.
It was an energy felt from far beyond, very far away.
I sent my gaze far away.
I spread my senses as far as I could toward the direction the energy was felt.
Only then could I see it.
Far in the distance, black storm clouds were lodged in a red-stained sky.
At the same time.
'No way….'
Lightning energy all too familiar to me was being felt from that place.
I leaped my body straight toward that place.
My running speed was faster than before.
Moreover, a different emotion from the impatience and anxiety I had felt earlier was rising.
What emotion could I dare express this as?
I don't know.
Right now, I just had to run.
I ran for a long while past collapsed buildings and rotted trees.
My internal energy was depleted and my dantian was gradually beginning to scream.
I didn't pay attention to that either.
I ran endlessly.
Thus the distance narrowed.
The closer I got, an indescribable stench of blood began to pierce my nose.
A bloody scent intense enough to make me unknowingly furrow my face.
Forcing myself to ignore it, I finally arrived at the destination.
I had to be appalled at the situation unfolding there.
How could I not?
Rumble… Krrrrumble!
Above the cloudless sky.
Contradicting the situation, black storm clouds pregnant with lightning energy.
And, corpses filling the ground and puddles formed by the blood flowing from them.
They were all martial artists of the Martial Alliance wearing the Alliance's robes.
Splash.
I stepped forward.
It was a cruel and terrifying sight, but none of that entered my eyes.
Because from the beginning, I wasn't looking at the surroundings, but solely at one person.
Even the terrible smell of blood.
Even the corpses strewn on the ground.
None of that was important.
Only one thing was important to me.
The pool of blood created by the corpses.
A figure standing alone upon it was visible.
Splash.
She must have clearly felt a presence at the sound of water, yet she only showed an appearance of still being uninterested.
I approached a little more.
One step.
Another step.
Ignoring my trembling toes, I approached step by step.
When I reached a certain point. Only then did her gaze turn toward me.
Cold, frozen blue pupils met me.
The woman's appearance was exactly the same as in my memory.
Faded white hair and snow-white skin made for an exotic sight.
Though her whole body was daubed with blood, I knew it wasn't her blood.
It was all the blood of those she had killed.
"Ah…."
Once I finished confirming, a breath like a sigh burst out.
She tilted her head at my reaction.
Even that reaction was exactly the same as in my memory.
'...'
Looking at her, I recalled.
…In my past life that had been like hell.
There had been a woman whose thoughts I couldn't understand throughout her life.
How she chased the moon.
And what she so wanted to cut that she wielded nothing but her sword day after day.
I knew nothing about her.
Because my life had been so fierce that I couldn't pay attention to my surroundings.
That had been the case even when she met death without hesitation for my sake.
She wore the same expressionless face as back then.
She pointed the tip of her sword at me and asked.
"You… who…?"
A voice seemingly soft yet laced with killing intent.
She was definitely,.
the Demon Sword Empress I remembered.