Chapter 391: Episode 74 – Great War of Saints and Demons (6)
A battle fought on a beach not too long ago flitted in and out of Yu Jung-Hyeok’s irises.
⸢On that day, the spear that separates the boundaries of the oceans clashed against the abundant night.⸥
It was the battle of ‘Gigantomachia’ he witnessed back then. In that place, he saw the boundless ocean and infinite night go head to head.
Poseidon and Hades.
A battle of Statuses between two Myth-grade Constellations; the brilliant showdown of the enormous Statuses possessed by the Constellations occupying the top rungs of the expansive <Star Stream>.
Yu Jung-Hyeok bore witness to that battle and was shocked by it, felt moved by it, and had to despair because of it. And he stood back up again. He did what he needed to do in order to surpass those distant enemies.
This sword strike was a technique he created by copying those enemies he couldn’t surpass yet.
Breaking the Sky Swordsmanship.
Inner Mysteries. (奧義)
Split the Dark Ocean.
Yu Jung-Hyeok’s sword moved along with the illusion of the jet-black ocean splitting apart.
It was a sword strike imitating Hades’s scythe colliding against the spear of the oceans. The Ether blade burning up in the blue hue was immediately dyed in the black light, and the explosive magical energy from the Transcender substituted for the darkness of <Underworld>. And in the next instant, Yu Jung-Hyeok’s [Breaking the Sky Energy] cut apart Anubis’s torso.
Gu-waaaaaah!!
The powerful sword strike tore through Anubis’s body; it screamed and collapsed to the ground.
Even if they were in the 80th scenario, this power to defeat a Fable-grade Constellation was....
[Many Constellations are shocked by Incarnation Yu Jung-Hyeok’s godship!]
The power of a human that had finally exceeded that of Constellations caused them to seethe in agitation.
[Attack him together!]
[Fire! Kill him!!]
Someone’s cry became the signal for the bombardment to commence. Arrows imbued with powerful magical energy rained down. Yu Jung-Hyeok confronted them all from the front.
Pu-shuut! Pu-shuuut!!
Even as the arrows pierced his side, shoulders, and thighs, he stood before Anna Croft to deflect all of the attacks.
She had to ask him. “.....Why?”
“You’ll die.”
“Then, why don’t you let me?”
“Not in this place. That isn’t a part of Kim Dok-Ja’s plan.”
She bit her lips, hard.
Kim Dok-Ja. Of course, she knew who he was. However, what was he, anyway? Just what was his importance, that this proud and unyielding man decided to bend his own belief for that guy?
Yu Jung-Hyeok muttered loudly as if to answer her silent inquiry. “I once glimpsed the memories from the regression turn of a far-flung future.”
A far-flung future, he said.
Before she could say something, though, he continued on. “It seemed that many things had happened.”
“Well, looks like you’ve glimpsed something really fun, then. Did you also happen to see the end of the 3rd turn, too?”
“I did not. However, I did see what your future was like.”
Anna Croft’s shoulders flinched a little from surprise.
She possessed [Precognition], but all she could spy on was snippets of the future. She definitely couldn’t see the distant future beyond this world-line.
Yu Jung-Hyeok asked her. “Do you wish to know?”
“Not at all.”
He ignored her and opened his lips. “Like how you’ve inherited the memories of yourself from the 2nd turn, the you of the next turn will inherit the memories of you from the 3rd turn. Just like that, you’ll continue to use [Retrocognition] to glimpse into the portions of memories from the previous regression turns and inch forward into the future. Just like how you’ve doing until now.”
“You’re speaking of obvious things. Someone who can’t see the future can also say stuff like that. What are you trying to tell me here?” replied Anna Croft with a dismissive smirk.
But, Yu Jung-Hyeok’s expression remained unreadable. “Past the 700th turn.... Many things changed. You, me. Under the curse of remembering our past turns, we grew weaker and weaker.”
“...’We’? No, hang on!”
“And past the 900th turn, and then, the 1000th.... One day, you told me this.”
Yu Jung-Hyeok slowly blinked his eyes and recalled a certain passage he read from the records of the 1863rd turn.
⸢Yu Jung-Hyeok, I won’t be transferring the memories of everything that happened so far to the next turn.⸥
⸢I can’t do this anymore. I’m not like you. I can’t keep fighting on while carrying all this burden.⸥
⸢From here on, you’ll be alone.⸥
⸢Are you confident of carrying the burdens of everything?⸥
Anna Croft’s complexion paled as she yelled out. “That can’t be me. I won’t break down! I am....!”
“You’ll change.”
His words digging in like a sharp oracle made her entire body shudder. Her empty eyes began quaking next.
Before she could say something, though, he opened his mouth first. “However, I’d like you not to change.”
Her eyes opened wider and wider.
“I wish to keep hating you. I plan to remember every single thing you’ve done and never forgive you for them. For that purpose....”
He left the trembling Anna Croft behind and stepped forward while unleashing his Status.
“.....You must not go to the next turn.”
As they broke past the endless rain of arrows, they saw a lone Constellation standing on the field, waiting. He was the strongest being on this battlefield.
[All of you, step aside. I shall fight that human.]
It was the ‘God-King of Thunderbolts’, Indra. Countless other Constellations could only tremble when confronted by his enormous power that symbolised the Status of <Vedas>.
Ku-gugugugu!!
[Constellation, ‘Thursday’s Thunder’, is keeping a wary eye on ‘God-King of Thunderbolts’.]
The Constellation who also symbolised ‘thunder and lightning’, ‘Thursday’s Thunder’, seemed to be burning with fighting spirit more than usual.
“Yu Jung-Hyeok, stop! Even if it’s you....!”
Yu Jung-Hyeok ignored Anna Croft’s words and dashed towards the God-King of Thunderbolts.
He already knew the Status of Indra well enough. This being’s power exceeded even that of Surya he fought some time ago. However, he wasn’t planning to cower before this being. Not at all.
‘Still not enough.’
Indra was not his ultimate target.
Compared to the Myth-grade Constellations or Outer Gods he needed to fight in the future, a being like Indra was simply another crossing on the road he had to walk on.
Also, the being he wanted to surpass more than anyone else was....
[Constellation, ‘Secretive Plotter’, is impressed by your will to fight.]
[5000 Coins have been sponsored.]
Yu Jung-Hyeok’s figure soared high into the sky before shooting straight towards Indra.
[How arrogant....!]
The thunderbolts fired by the God-King split the land apart. Ash-coloured arcs of electricity danced violently as the field cracked open like a crashing tsunami wave. The electrical currents pounced up and tore into Yu Jung-Hyeok’s arm; they tore into his legs and penetrated into his stomach. With every step he took in the air, he looked back to the time he had lived so far, and thought about the lives he might have to repeat.
The 41st regression turn.
The 362nd regression turn.
Times Kim Dok-Ja had shown him. And then...
....The 1863rd turn.
The future he got to spy through the ‘Secretive Plotter’ flitted in and out of Yu Jung-Hyeok’s brain.
For him, this was a battle against himself.
The realm he couldn’t reach no matter how hard he tried; there he was, the 3rd turn of himself struggling crazy hard, and then struggling some more, so that he could surpass those moments.
Kwa-kwakwakwakwa!!
Yu Jung-Hyeok ploughed forward as if he was borrowing all of the possibilities of the life he’d have to live, and the lives he might have lived.
The ‘Breaking the Sky Swordsmanship’.
Breaking the Sky Sword Saint once told him this – that he should not permit the heavens existing above him. That he should destroy everything, annihilate, and to disdain everything.
However, what was he supposed to do when, after destroying the sky above, he finds there was something else up there?
The ‘Secret Technique: Inner Mystery Transmission’.
[Constellation, ‘God-King of Thunderbolts’ is ridiculing you.]
The Constellations looking down on Incarnations from beyond the heavens above – this sword strike was created solely to cut them down.
As he sensed the magical energy flowing within [Dark Heavenly Demon Sword], Yu Jung-Hyeok recalled Cheok Jun-Gyeong’s sword.
With just one sword, he cut apart mountains. With that sword, he let the world know that even the oceans could be cut.
So, what did one need in order to cut a star down with just a single sword?
Kaaa-boooom!!
One of Yu Jung-Hyeok’s legs exploded in mid-air. It wasn’t because of Indra’s thunderbolts, however. His muscles, tightly bunched together to a nonsensical degree, exploded with a loud noise; this noise was caused by the Fables permeating into every corner of the muscle fibres, exploding to create a forward thrust.
[Stop that! You bastard....!]
He saw the eyes of Indra freaking out.
Yu Jung-Hyeok felt the time slowing down. No, it didn’t actually slow down, but rather, he had sped up, instead.
⸢In order to destroy a star, you must become a star yourself.⸥
This was the answer for someone like him, born as a mere human, to reach the Constellations.
The speed that a lifeform couldn’t withstand began tearing apart Yu Jung-Hyeok’s entire body. That was the price to pay to become a star when he wasn’t one.
His body shot forward like a black supernova and broke past the walls of the arcing electricity, shattered all the Constellations daring to block him, and finally, reached Indra’s heart.
The ‘Shooting Star Slash’.
He felt a definite sensation from the tip of the [Dark Heavenly Demon Sword].
And then, there was the voice coming from a star splitting apart; accompanied by the sound of something exploding in the distant cosmos, Yu Jung-Hyeok sensed his body falling from the air. His eyesight blurred and he couldn’t confirm the sight of the star he managed to cut. The muscles of his body refused to heed his orders; not an ounce of energy remained in him. He still felt someone catching him through his fading five senses, though.
The one he hated the most was busy running away with him in her embrace.
“Yu Jung-Hyeok, you’re truly insane. But, I already knew that....”
While vomiting out more blood, Yu Jung-Hyeok spoke to her. “.....Indra?”
“He’s probably dead. His Half-God Body exploded, after all. Even if he survived that, he shouldn’t be called a living being anymore.”
Anna Croft’s voice was infused with a certain, unexplainable heat. Just her emotions conveyed in the tone of her voice was enough for him to understand what he had achieved here today.
He had managed to destroy a star.
A measly little human had indeed destroyed one of the eight brightest stars of <Vedas>, the lokapala.
[All Constellations belonging to the Nebula <Vedas> are furious at Incarnation Yu Jung-Hyeok.]
Sadly, though, there were still countless stars left in the sky.
“If I hadn’t rescued you just now, you’d have died there.”
He knew that she was speaking the truth.
Through her [Precognition], Anna Croft must’ve seen his death.
“Even though I did rescue you, it’s nothing more than just delaying the inevitable, though....”
Blood continued to flood out of the wide-open wound on his waist. One of his legs was gone, and he didn’t have any strength left to hold his blade upright.
And eventually, her fleeing steps came to a halt, too. He couldn’t see the front, but he understood what her action meant.
They no longer had any place left to escape on this battlefield.
Anna Croft spoke. “....Yu Jung-Hyeok, I don’t have any desire to live up to the 700th turn alongside you.”
“I’m the same.”
“But then, god damn it, looks like we’ll have to live together in the 4th turn.”
“That’s not going to happen. Because I won’t die in this place.”
Yu Jung-Hyeok didn’t possess [Precognition] ability like her. He didn’t know what would happen next. Even then, he continued to speak in a hushed voice. “Because....”
His voice was fading away, yet it was definitely not the voice of a man preparing himself for death.
Almost at the same time, roars of crackling thunders could be heard coming from the far side of the heavens. They did not belong to Indra’s thunderbolts. The space-time was distorting, and the noises were generated by something crossing over a gigantic Gate.
Yu Jung-Hyeok couldn’t see that spectacle, but Anna Croft witnessed it in his stead.
It was an army enveloped in pitch-black darkness; a single realm buried deep inside an ancient Myth was currently crossing over to this world.
– Yu Jung-Hyeok, you stupid bastard!!
Yu Jung-Hyeok heard the loud yelling from the one standing at the forefront of that army and spoke up. “....Because, I have allies in this turn who won’t betray me.”
[Nebula, <Underworld>, has joined the ‘Great War of Saints and Demons’.]
<Episode 74. Great War of Saints and Demons (6)> Fin.