< 448 > Resonance. (3)
When the flames were taking on a threatening shape.
"We know that you deliberately summoned us. How could we not know?"
"Huu… Huu…."
A voice brimming with laughter was rather terrifying.
With such thick killing intent laden in those words, how could one not be afraid?
"Though such laughable struggles are somewhat enjoyable to watch… unfortunately, they grow a bit tiresome. This means they are unfit to be watched for long."
Click.
The Demon Sword Empress placed her hand on the sword hilt.
It seemed she had grasped the intention without a word needing to be said.
I was the same in that regard.
‘That bastard’s pissed.’
And he felt genuinely enraged. That giggling way of speaking was the perfect picture of it.
As expected, his inability to control his temper was notorious throughout the world.
Biyeonsum already looked to be at his limit.
"Huk… Huk…."
His breathing was extremely ragged.
The internal energy he possessed was clearly in complete disarray.
It seemed Biyeonsum would not be able to endure the Demon Lord's pressure faced at close range for long.
While the Demon Lord's demonic energy was devouring the surroundings, from the rear, Mukgwon appeared leading the demonic ones.
It seemed he had urgently picked up speed to lead them here after I and the Demon Sword Empress had charged ahead.
Mukgwon was the perceptive sort.
Upon assessing the situation, he slightly furrowed his eyes and sent a hand signal to the rear.
At this, the demonic ones reacted by raising their fighting spirits.
A hair-trigger situation.
That phrase seemed exactly right.
It meant the battle was on the verge of breaking out.
Even amidst this, I was busy looking around.
To find out why this damned situation had unfolded.
Of course, the situation was important, but—
‘Where is she?’
There was something more important.
According to the information Mukgwon had given, she should definitely be here.
‘Little Sword Saint….’
Wi Seol-a of this era.
I had heard she was here, but I couldn’t see her yet.
Could she be in the village far away?
In the moment I was sending my gaze all around.
Took.
Biyeonsum, who had been facing the Demon Lord, soon staggered and his posture crumbled.
Fortunately, he didn’t fall, but he looked to be on the verge of collapsing.
What was strange was—
not just the Demon Lord, but also the Demon Sword Empress and even Mukgwon had already lost interest in Biyeonsum.
No….
‘Were they not looking at him from the start?’
Following their gazes, I looked somewhere.
It was empty air where nothing could be seen.
I focused my sensory aura toward that place. I had a feeling there was something there since they were looking.
Then.
‘…!’
I really felt something.
Very faint, but something was definitely there.
‘This is.’
An unknown chill.
A sensation as if someone was pointing a sword at me.
Recalling that, I activated my body’s sensory aura.
Now I felt I understood why everyone was sending their gazes that way.
Because I had been so focused on the Little Sword Saint, I had forgotten the truly important part.
That she was not the only one here.
Crackle.
Lightning flickered in the empty air that had held nothing.
The Demon Sword Empress reacted slightly upon seeing it. It clearly resembled her lightning.
Pressing down on my pounding heart as I looked at the empty air—
[Thou art still the same.]
A voice came along with the gradually growing lightning.
Crackle—! The lightning gradually grew in size and soon formed a human silhouette.
The silhouette that had seemed to be made of energy gradually took on a true human form.
Tap.
As the figure that appeared in the empty air touched the ground—
Whoosh—!
The pressure spread around was pushed away at rapid speed.
The suddenly appearing figure was a white-haired old man.
The old man clasped his hands behind his back and showed light steps as he slowly approached this way.
Confirming that, I gulped dry saliva.
I saw white hair bearing history and blue eyes reminiscent of someone.
This was someone I had not faced in a long time even for me.
More precisely, it was someone I had not met since regressing.
"Huk… Huk…."
Perhaps because the pressure had lifted, Biyeonsum was continuously exhaling rough breaths.
As the old man who approached him touched Biyeonsum's back with his hand—
"Keolkeok."
Biyeonsum vomited black blood.
It seemed he had forcibly straightened his twisted insides.
"Rest a bit."
"Forgive… me."
At Biyeonsum's words, the old man tapped his shoulder in lieu of an answer.
The Demon Lord, who had been watching that expressionlessly, spoke toward the old man.
"So this is where you were hiding."
"Tsk tsk… Hiding, you say? I have never once hidden."
"You keep grating on one's nerves like a rat, so I thought you were thrashing about in terror."
‘Wow.’
It was a provocation that made one dizzy just listening.
I wanted to shut that damned bastard's mouth right then.
I wondered if his brain was truly frozen by demonic energy.
‘…Was I like that?’
I wanted to say no.
To think he could act so bold before none other than one of the Three Venerables, the absolute being of the Nangong family….
‘I really lived with my neck on the line.’
The old man before my eyes was none other than the Heavenly Venerable.
Faced with the old monster who sat in the heavens of the Central Plains, the Demon Lord was carelessly wagging his tongue.
"As it happens, I was just about to kill and eliminate a senile monster said to be in the vicinity. This is good."
Tsk tsk.
Even at the Demon Lord's words, the Heavenly Venerable merely smiled.
"…A senile monster…. Yes, those words are correct. Since I am alive because I cannot die."
The Heavenly Venerable smiled with his eyes and looked somewhere.
It was the direction where the Demon Sword Empress stood.
"It has been a long time."
"…"
The Demon Sword Empress made no reply to the Heavenly Venerable's words.
She merely looked at him silently.
The Nangong family had been annihilated by the Demon Sword Empress's hand.
Since the Heavenly Venerable had failed to prevent this, if there was any Nangong bloodline left in the entire Central Plains, it would likely be only these two remaining.
It was truly an uncomfortable relationship.
"…Though there are things I must say to you and matters to settle after meeting you for the first time in a long while, unfortunately, there is something I must do first."
Something to do first?
At the Heavenly Venerable's words, I became highly alert.
As expected, it meant there was something to do here.
"Something to do first…."
The same went for another ‘me’ who heard the Heavenly Venerable's words.
He furrowed his brow and asked the Heavenly Venerable.
"Are you saying there is something that requires you to step forward like this, ignoring the Cult Leader's warning? Is that what you mean?"
"Indeed."
The Heavenly Venerable directed a smile toward the Demon Lord.
"We wish to make a deal with you."
A deal. Just as I tried to focus to interpret those unexpected words—
"Ha."
I had to roll my eyes at the scoff the Demon Lord abruptly burst out.
‘Ah, that's not a good sign.’
Sure enough.
"A deal? Just now, that trash requested to speak with me. Now a senile monster requests a deal."
"This would not be bad for you either…."
"Shut up. My ears feel like they'll rot."
The briefly paused pressure surged upward once more.
Even the slightest remaining trace of laughter disappeared from the Demon Lord; only pure fury could be felt now.
"The Cult Leader bestowed mercy upon you lot… but as always, those who do not know their place tend to lose their gratitude."
Flames wrapped around the Demon Lord's body.
"Therefore, if you do not know your place, it is only right that I teach you myself."
"…Dost thou always believe it is right only after seeing blood?"
At the Heavenly Venerable's words, the Demon Lord waved his hand.
"Do not spew your pathetic utopia at me."
Kwaaaaaaaah—!
Following the hand gesture, the flames floating in the air began to let out violent sounds and fall toward the ground.
"Because you lot have no right to speak such words either."
The flaming sphere slowly began to fall.
Its speed was by no means slow, yet the Heavenly Venerable facing the Demon Lord merely furrowed his brow and showed no sign of taking any particular countermeasure.
What was this?
I swallowed a groan as I watched.
‘Is he really going to drop that?’
No matter how crazy I was at that time, I wouldn't have recklessly detonated it like this before the Heavenly Venerable.
What on earth was he thinking?
I couldn't fathom his intention.
That crazy bastard—what he was thinking doing such a mad act, even I didn't know.
Could I have defeated that old man at this time?
‘Isn't it impossible…?’
No matter how I looked at it, it was impossible.
It wasn't a matter of the amount of internal energy; they existed in a clearly higher realm than I.
It was to the degree that perhaps it might be possible if attacking together with the Demon Sword Empress.
Such was the dignity held by one of the Three Venerables. Yet he was acting recklessly as if he didn't care in the slightest.
Hwarururuk—!
The flames gradually approached the ground.
Accordingly, deeper despair flashed across the expressions of the martial artists around.
"A-ah, no!"
"Save us!"
They panicked and the formation began to collapse.
Even then, the Heavenly Venerable had not moved in the slightest.
He neither drew his sword nor raised his energy.
Why?
Was it because it was a power the Heavenly Venerable couldn't block?
That couldn't be.
No matter how mixed with demonic energy it was, with that old man's power, he would be more than sufficient.
‘Then why on earth.’
The flames drew closer.
Soon they would touch the ground and cause a massive explosion.
Just when I wondered if he intended to burn all these people alive.
Sshwik—!
Something flew toward the flames from beyond the sky.
Its speed was extremely fast.
Before I could even properly identify what it was, dozens more followed in succession and plunged into the flames.
Immediately, an anomaly occurred.
Suuuuu—!
"…!"
The massive flames that had been displaying overwhelming dignity gradually began to die down.
The black flames floating in the air vanished from existence in an instant, as if being sucked somewhere.
It took merely a few seconds for all those flames to disappear.
‘Ah.’
After confirming the anomaly, I looked at the Demon Lord and realized his intention.
The reason he had done this act, consuming so much energy.
‘It was to call her.’
While there had also been an element of establishing dominance, the true meaning was none other than to show someone and call that person here.
In the space where the flames had disappeared, something could be seen slowly rotating. It was a sword.
Several alien swords imbued with golden light.
They were floating leisurely through the air.
Having witnessed the flames disappearing with their own eyes, the martial artists who until moments ago had been dyed in despair began to cheer.
They seemed to have realized whose swords those were.
"He has come…! The Great Lord has come!"
At their shouts, the demonists furrowed their faces and looked up at the air.
Then, the golden swords floating in the air quickly flew somewhere.
The position was directly above where the Heavenly Venerable stood.
In the empty air where no one had been until moments ago, someone could be seen floating up.
"…"
I had to bite my lip as I confirmed her.
Because it was an illusion regarding my previous life, there had been a thought that I might perhaps meet her someday.
Whether to call it anticipation, or worry.
Or whether to call it anxiety, I did not know.
But I had constantly held the prediction that I might see her.
However.
‘…This is.’
Directly facing her, far more emotions swept past than expected.
Several swords moved as if to protect the woman.
The woman calmly stood atop a sword floating in the air.
Hair that was not brownish, but had become completely golden.
Eyes full of fatigue, unlike her shining pupils, carried an atmosphere of fantasy.
She was different from the woman who always held a smile and chattered beside me.
"…Little Sword Saint."
The Demon Lord muttered quietly as he looked at the woman.
Could she have heard that small voice?
Little Sword Saint directed her gaze this way.
It seemed she was looking at the Demon Lord….
‘Hm?’
…is what I thought.
Something was strange.
‘What?’
Little Sword Saint was not looking at the Demon Lord.
It could be an illusion, but it didn't seem to be an illusion.
Little Sword Saint was not looking at the Demon Lord. Rather than the Demon Lord….
‘It feels like she's looking at me…?’
For some reason, it felt like she was staring at me.
Though I couldn't know the reason, she was definitely looking at me.
And with eyes wide in great surprise, at that.