Chapter 386: Declaration of War (2)
Just before Jin Yeomyung and Cheon Yura reached the outer wall of the side hall.
Fourth Elder made a suggestion to the Seven Elders.
"How about retreating before it’s too late? It’s not too late if we act now."
The Seven Elders responded with a question.
"Fourth Elder, do you truly believe we’ll be defeated even after deploying this much force?"
"It’s not defeat. Just a miscalculation, that’s all."
No matter how strong they were, they couldn't possibly kill everyone gathered here.
But they could kill the commanders.
It was simply a realization that had come too late.
"We should have hidden in the shadows and harassed them thoroughly. Instead of charging with force, we needed to collapse one side first and then attack the other. Just like you destabilized the Cult Leader faction by shaking the Cult’s finances."
The recent internal turmoil in the Heavenly Demon Cult had originated from none other than the youngest, the Seven Elders.
Fourth Elder looked at the Seven Elders with trembling eyes.
"Those two are as one. Their dominance rivals even that of the former Cult Leader."
"……!"
The moment the former Cult Leader was mentioned, the Seven Elders’ shoulders shook violently.
They wondered, 'Are they really that formidable?' but at the same time, found themselves accepting it.
"Fortunately, the Clan Leader is an even more cunning schemer than us. This time, he’ll surely prepare a countermeasure against them."
Clan Leader.
The moment that name was spoken, the Seven Elders slightly twisted their expression.
"Fourth Elder. I have one question."
"What is it?"
"Did the Clan Leader… truly send us here without knowing anything?"
"……!"
"Speaking in hindsight, but if we all die here, wouldn't the Cheon Clan essentially fall into the hands of the Clan Leader… Cheon Jumyeong?"
"T-That…"
It seemed Fourth Elder hadn’t considered that far.
Their expression stiffened.
The Seven Elders continued to spit out their doubts.
"Even though the Third Elder remain, at his core, Third Elder is a petty man unfit to lead. If anything, he would side with the Clan Leader, not oppose him."
Indeed, while Third Elder Cheon Rain had been accepted into the Seven Elders for his skills and seniority, suspicions had long persisted about where his true loyalty lay.
"From the start, it was strange that the Demonic Faction Lord came here alone."
Though some of this was hindsight, the Seven Elders shared their suspicions with Fourth Elder.
"If those two truly possess the absolute authority befitting a former Cult Leader, just as you said—"
And if Cheon Jumyeong had known that in advance.
"Then isn’t it possible that he deliberately threw us into a death trap?"
Given the current and coming circumstances, it was a rather plausible theory.
But Fourth Elder hesitated and denied it.
"That couldn’t be. There’s no way Cheon Jumyeong would be that loyal to the current Cult Leader…"
"But there’s no need for him to openly rebel either. With his position as the Heavenly Thunder Corps Leader, he’s already close to being second in command under the current rule."
"……."
Fourth Elder’s mind began to cloud with confusion.
Once born, doubt devoured all optimistic thoughts and swelled like a bubble.
As some time passed, and Fifth Elder and Sixth Elder belatedly decided to retreat—
Jin Yeomyung and Cheon Yura arrived before them.
"Whew!"
Cheon Yura and I finally broke through the wall of countless enemies and stood before the Seven Elders.
We had killed well over a hundred foes on our way here.
Because of that, her entire body was now drenched in the blackened blood of the enemies.
"C-Cult Leader!"
Fifth Elder and Sixth Elder ground their teeth as they saw us.
"I thought you'd run, but the Seven Elders have more backbone than expected."
When Cheon Yura sneered at the four Elders, Fourth Elder replied with a faint smile.
"Not quite."
That remark was a direct jab at the indecisive Fifth Elder and Sixth Elder.
Understanding the intent behind those words, the two Elders' faces flushed red.
Step.
Then, the Seventh Elder took a step forward and spoke.
"I have one question, Grand Duke."
Since he was addressing me and not Cheon Yura, I tilted my head slightly.
"You're talking to me?"
"Indeed."
The Seventh Elder nodded.
"The Cult Leader was in seclusion until recently, and above all, you are her confidant. Naturally, it is you I must ask."
"Ho…"
Even now, they didn’t lose sight of the core of the situation.
Which was precisely why they had to be eliminated.
The Seventh Elder asked,
"Is this current situation the result of a scheme between you and Cheon Jumyeong?"
“……!”
At the question that pierced like a dagger, Cheon Yura and I flinched for the briefest instant.
But the sharp-eyed Seventh Elder didn’t miss it.
“So it was true.”
He let out a hollow laugh.
“…You’re quick-witted.”
In that moment, my guard against the Seventh Elder shot to its peak.
Perhaps, more than even Fourth Elder, this man was the one who had to be eliminated first.
Just then, Fifth Elder and Sixth Elder stepped forward, exuding demonic energy.
“To throw yourself into a lion’s den—can you handle these numbers, Cult Leader?!”
“Breaking through the battlefield and what comes after are two different things. If you want our heads, you’ll have to cut through all of them!”
As they said, the path we had pierced through was long since blocked, and warriors of the Cheon Clan filled the surroundings with every passing second.
However.
“Hoo, hoohoohoo….”
Hearing those words, Cheon Yura and I laughed instead.
The elders frowned as they saw us.
“…Creepy laugh.”
“The two brats are going crazy together.”
“Of course we laugh.”
I looked at the faces of the Cheon Clan warriors surrounding us.
Including Cheon Yura and me, only about twenty had succeeded in breaking through.
In contrast, the number of surrounding warriors exceeded that by twenty times.
But at this point, numbers held little meaning.
Because…
Cheon Yura took a step forward.
At that single step, the elders noticeably flinched.
“All of them must be cut down, you say?”
Cheon Yura deliberately infused her voice with internal energy and shouted.
“Since when did warriors of the Grand Heavenly Demon Cult send their subordinates ahead and seek a way to live?!”
“……!!”
The elders’ expressions hardened all at once.
“Especially you, Seventh Elder! Are you not the very peak of the Great Cheon Clan?! And yet, are such ones cowering before me and the Grand Duke, shoving your underlings into the jaws of death like cowards?!”
“Silence!”
“You ignorant wench who doesn’t understand how an organization operates! You think this is some wilderness?!”
Fifth Elder and Sixth Elder shouted in fury.
On the other hand, Cheon Yura’s smile only deepened.
“Wilderness, you said? Well said.”
Sixth Elder, who had invoked the wilderness, failed to realize his slip.
“You are not an army.”
“What?”
“Of course, some military discipline has been applied. But!”
Cheon Yura looked around at the Cheon Clan warriors and shouted.
“We are not soldiers, but demonic martial artists! Practitioners of the demonic path—beasts who tear out the throats of enemies in the wilderness that is Murim!”
“Nonsense!”
“And yet you speak as those Confucian fools of the orthodox sects. Can you really claim to stand at the pinnacle of the demonic path?”
Before the elders could retort, I added to Cheon Yura’s words.
“A thousand years ago, the Heavenly Demon Founder and the ‘Seven Disciples’ led the way in cutting down our enemies. It was the same during the Great War between Demonic and Orthodox Sects.”
Given the situation, no one would nitpick the change from six to seven.
“Not once! Did a superior in this cult drive their subordinates into danger and flee to save themselves. Even if someone did, they were all pulled down from their position right then and there.”
I raised the Ten Heavenly Record Immortal Sword and pointed it toward the Seven Elders.
“Look well, warriors of the Heavenly Demon Cult! Even when things have come to this, those men refuse to fight us!”
“…….”
“…….”
“Can they truly be called the leaders of a pack of wolves like you?!”
The warriors of the Cheon Clan all began glancing at each other.
Truthfully, this provocation wasn’t prearranged.
Cheon Yura had merely voiced her thoughts without much intent, and I had matched her.
But unexpectedly, the provocation worked quite well.
Murmurs spread.
Naturally so.
Despite being the Cult Leader and the Grand Duke, we had broken through the deadly path and reached here.
Yet those men, faced with the same situation, attempted to use their subordinates rather than fight directly.
‘The essence of the demonic path.’
The essence of the demonic path was ultimately chaos.
Even though some semblance of order had been established over the past thousand years, it was still a wilderness where everything was decided by strength.
“Gold Demon Flame Sword Lord! What are you doing?! Cut down the enemies of the Cheon Clan at once!”
“…….”
“Evil Spear Demon Unit! Eliminate the enemies of the Cheon Clan!”
“…….”
Receiving orders, the Gold Demon Flame Sword Unit and Evil Spear Demon Unit glanced at one another, hesitant to move.
Watching that, I nodded inwardly.
‘This is where orthodoxy and demonic path diverge. Had it been the orthodox side, they would’ve charged blindly to uphold their banners, but the demonic path…’
Those who submit to the law of power expect their leaders to prove their strength when such moments arise.
To see whether they have the capacity to lead.
To see whether they are truly worthy of ruling over them.
This was the same for the Cheon Clan and the Six Demonic Clans.
The Seven Clans had maintained their strength over a thousand years precisely because they continued to prove this.
Just as the atmosphere was beginning to turn strange—
“That’s enough.”
“F-Fourth Elder!”
Fourth Elder stepped forward, sword drawn.
It was clearly the stance of a martial artist stepping forth to ‘prove’ something.
“You’ve been quite clever, Cult Leader.”
“Not really? I simply spoke what I felt.”
“I acknowledge it. The martial prowess you and the Grand Duke just displayed proves you are worthy of standing above this cult.”
At those words, the other elders gasped in shock.
“Fourth Elder!”
“Even from you, how could you utter such nonsense?!”
Chak!
Fourth Elder waved them off and continued speaking.
“However, no matter what, that alone is not reason enough for the Cheon Clan to acknowledge you.”
“Even though I’ve proven myself as the supreme being through strength?”
“Precisely because of that.”
Fourth Elder glared at Cheon Yura with a chilling gaze.
“You, who have grown this strong, would never leave the Cheon Clan alone—the very clan that oppressed you as a child.”
“……”
“Your sister, Cheon Yujeong, was the same. That girl intended to use the Cheon Clan, but whatever her aim, the result would have been the same.”
At the mention of Cheon Yujeong, Cheon Yura’s expression changed ever so slightly.
“You knew she was blood-related to me?”
“I did. I was the one who recommended her as the leader of the True Blood Unit. Though, now it means nothing.”
“……”
“In the end, the conclusion is this—we can never coexist.”
At this point, it no longer mattered who had started it.
Either one side would be destroyed, or one side would be subjugated.
There was only one of two endings.
“Leaders of the Thirty-Four Demon Squads of the Cheon Clan, hear my command.”
“…We accept your order.”
The leaders, who had previously rejected other elders’ commands, gave proper courtesy to Fourth Elder.
“If I die, launch a joint attack and kill the Cult Leader and the Grand Duke.”
“……!”
So ruthless.
And it was all the more chilling because this ruthlessness didn’t stem from malice.
A venom born of the willingness to cast aside anything in order to protect the prestige of the Cheon Clan.
As long as someone like that stood as Yura’s enemy, she would never sleep with her feet stretched in peace.
“We accep—”
—Silence, all of you.
I silenced their mouths with a lion’s roar infused with sword intent.
Then I stepped forward, gently pushing Yura behind me.
—Since this is something I started, I’ll be the one to finish it.
—…Alright.
Even though she probably wanted to finish it herself, Cheon Yura backed off without protest.
I faced Fourth Elder directly and opened my mouth.
“Your claim that we cannot coexist is wrong.”
“Wrong?”
“No matter what nonsense you spout, under one absolute law, everything is forced to become equal.”
“…What do you mean by that?”
Instead of answering, I brought forth the power I had never unleashed until now.
Kugugugung!
The world trembled.
No—it was more like it screamed at the arrival of something it couldn’t withstand.
“The Cult Leader and I are of one heart and one mind.”
Some might see it as rude or overstepping my bounds.
“Her will is my will, and my will is her will.”
Thud!
At the phenomenon that followed, everyone gasped in shock.
“Before us… kneel, before the Heavenly Demon.”
Heavenly Demonic Divine Art
Heavenly Demon’s Dominance
The moment I took the true stance—
The world surrounding Cheon Yura and me began to turn pitch-black.