Chapter 227 - If (5)

4

The instant martial law was declared, hunters poured into the streets of Babylon.

"Kill them all!"

The hunters wore black uniforms. The Black Dragon Guild. It was neither their scouts nor their floor-clearing teams that lined up in the square, but their Dispute Resolution Unit and Assassination Unit.

They were hunters in the Tower, but by no means hunters [trained to climb the Tower].

"Kill anyone who can't produce a resident ID, no matter the reason! The same goes for anyone whose ID was issued less than a week ago!"

"Our guild leader has been attacked!"

"This is war!"

"Eradicate every subversive!"

BANG! BANG!

Gunshots rang out throughout the square.

The manufacture and storage of firearms were strictly regulated in the Tower of Babel. Making homemade guns was a crime punishable by death.

The major guilds were an exception, however. They were always prepared to take up firearms and wage war.

"You Black Dragon lunatics! What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

The Vigilantes were one of those guilds. They drew their guns and aimed at Black Dragon's suppression force.

"Get out of the way! We have to carry out our guild leader's orders!"

"You mean killing people indiscriminately?!"

"These measures are essential to protecting the Tower! Your own deputy leader was just attacked and killed, wasn't that so?!"

"Even so, our deputy leader wouldn't want this!"

"Well, our guild leader does! Move!"

The Vigilantes did not move. Nor did the Black Dragon Guild try to persuade them any further.

The two guilds clashed. Other major guilds that had lost their leaders joined the fray. Unable to tell friend from foe, they tore into one another like starving dogs.

"..."

That was the hellscape that greeted Kim Gongja when he emerged from the half-destroyed Pantheon building.

He wiped his face.

"Ugh..."

A person had died.

People had died.

More people were dying.

"Damn it..."

There was not the slightest hesitation in the movements of the people aiming at one another. Every time a muzzle spat fire, people were injured. They died. Lives vanished so terribly easily.

Kim Gongja could not understand.

'They're all guilds that hold up the Tower.'

He had heard plenty of rumors that the major guilds were on bad terms. Though he didn't know what had happened in the past, gossip occasionally told of long-standing grudges between their leaders.

But he had never imagined it was this bad.

'Were they ready to kill each other the moment they had an excuse?'

The highest-ranking hunters were so-called heroes, each of whom had written a legend of their own.

Why had heroes like that failed to resolve their feelings for years?

Had there truly not been a single person who could mediate between them?

Kim Gongja could not understand, but he did know that imagining such a [mediator who might have been] now was utterly useless.

He felt as though he would burst with frustration.

The dam blocking the center of his heart crumbled.

At that very moment, Ja Sujeong's corpse slid down from his back.

"Ugh."

Before he knew it, he was looking at the corpse.

"... Assistant Manager."

Ja Sujeong's body had been torn apart.

Her left leg, her left arm, her left breast, even the left side of her face. Having met a death that afforded her no shred of humanity, she kept her lips pressed tightly shut. Only her lifeless purple eyes gazed up at the sky like jewels.

"..."

Silence.

When he lowered his head, the Inquisitor's body came into view this time.

Looking at what remained of the man who had tried to do something until the very last moment, Kim Gongja clenched his teeth.

"No. Right. First..."

Do what needed to be done.

"Right."

Do what he could.

"What can I do?"

He examined what he had, one thing at a time.

The idol. It seemed to be an object that let him oversee the Pantheon as its proxy, but the Pantheon had collapsed. Even if he met its priests outside, he had no idea whether they would obey the idol.

The Black Dragon Mirror. It seemed to offer direct communication with the leaders of the major guilds, including the Black Dragon leader. But it had remained silent ever since her declaration of war.

Himself. He was only an E-rank hunter. He had no power at all.

"Power..."

He knew one person who possessed that very power.

Kim Gongja turned his head.

Babylon, the first floor of the Tower of Babel. Even in that sprawling city, the central square was where land was worth its weight in gold, and a three-story building stood prominently on that square.

Just how much magic had been applied to it? It remained relatively intact despite the explosions in the square.

The face of a man who seemed likely to remain unscathed forever also came to mind.

"The Yoo Suha Guild..."

Kim Gongja ran toward it.

5

"What the fuck? Why do you look like complete shit?"

Yoo Suha spoke.

Having had his nap interrupted, he was thoroughly irritated.

"..."

Kim Gongja's heart churned again. Ja Sujeong's death. The Inquisitor's death. Countless other deaths. He had offered to help, and he had wanted to help, but the Black Dragon leader had flatly refused.

["You're young."]

["But you have no power."]

["That makes you unnecessary."]

If it had been Yoo Suha instead of him.

If he had power equal to the Flame Emperor's.

"..."

Kim Gongja clenched his teeth.

Even the time spent wallowing in self-pity was a waste.

He forced his voice out.

"It's an emergency... Chairman Yoo Suha."

"I know martial law's been declared. But I also know I'm strong enough to tell it to go fuck itself. Gongja, instead of doing your own guild's work, why are you running in here looking like a beggar? Where's Sujeong? What about Vice President Ja Sujeong?"

"Here..."

Kim Gongja laid down Ja Sujeong's corpse. The Inquisitor's, too.

Yoo Suha fell silent.

"When?"

Yoo Suha's eyes were calm.

Kim Gongja found it difficult to gauge what that calmness meant.

"Right after we entered the Pantheon... There was a traitor inside. A bomb went off, the Inquisitor died, and Sujeong noona..."

"Why are you fine?"

"Sujeong noona shielded me with her body."

THUD!

Kim Gongja dropped to his knees. Yoo Suha had kicked him in the shin.

"Urgh."

Enduring the pain, he lifted his head. Yoo Suha was still looking down at his subordinate with a calm face.

"Some fucking man you are."

"..."

"Sujeong, your older sister? Since when were you two close enough for you to call her that? Hey, Mr. Kim Gongja. Sujeong is a lot younger than you. Her way of talking and her demeanor make her seem older, but she's a hell of a lot younger than you. What are you..."

"..."

"No, forget it. So what? Did Sujeong leave you some dying wish? 'Please do your best to resolve this situation,' or something? Huh? Some shit about having to save people..."

"Secretary Sujeong... would want that, too."

"Of course she would. That's why she was still looking after trash like you."

Kim Gongja could not bring himself to look up at Yoo Suha.

He had lost Ja Sujeong because he had no power.

Ja Sujeong, on the other hand, had possessed power. The power to save one person in front of her, if she disregarded her own life.

Whether that was thanks to her naturally quick reflexes or because she happened to spot the culprit before Kim Gongja did, he didn't know. But the result was simple.

Kim Gongja could not do it, and Ja Sujeong could.

"..."

It infuriated him, felt unfair, disgusted him, made him feel pathetic and sad. He could not bring himself to look at Yoo Suha.

He kept his gaze on empty space.

And because of that, he saw something else.

"Anyway, fuck. I've got a pretty gooood idea what kind of guy you are now. You two would get along just perfectly. Just absolutely—"

A flash.

Terribly fast.

"Get out of the way!"

Kim Gongja cut Yoo Suha off.

At precisely the same moment, a blue spear flew out of thin air.

WHOOSH—

The spear, wrapped in blue aura, was tremendously powerful. The Flame Emperor instantly summoned his aura to protect his entire body, but he had probably missed the timing by a fraction of a second. The curtains of fire he created were torn apart by the spear of blue flame.

"Ah."

Kim Gongja, who was closest to the Flame Emperor, saw that instant.

And then.

"Urgh!"

He planted his foot, straightened his knees, thrust his back forward, reached out—and struck the spear of blue flame.

Blue aura raged around the spear. Like a blender, that storm of aura ground the human fist that approached it into raw pulp.

"Aaaaaaagh!"

After that single scream, Kim Gongja dropped to his knees, an arm gone. A few bleached scraps of flesh pattered onto the ground.

The fragments settling slowly like drifting snow must have been his bones.

"Damn it! You dodged it?!"

A hunter dropped from the sky and landed sharply.

Yoo Suha looked briefly at the kneeling Kim Gongja, then turned his gaze to that hunter.

"Who the hell are you?"

"I am the Saintess!"

Yoo Suha looked at the bleeding Kim Gongja.

Then he looked again at the hunter who had identified herself as the Saintess.

"Fucking bullshit. You just ground half a person to pieces. What burn-in-hell bullshit is this 'Saintess' crap?"

"It's an epithet the Tower gave me."

"The Tower does have some fucking idiotic naming sense. So? Why has Her Holiness come here to raise hell?"

The Saintess took a deep breath.

As though she had waited a long time for this moment, she shouted.

"Yoo Suha! You murdered my one and only grandfather!"

The Saintess had dazzling blond hair. Yoo Suha had rarely seen hair like that. Even the blonds he had seen had not been old enough for this hunter to call them [Grandfather].

"I've left more than a few brats orphaned, so that doesn't tell me much... Who's this grandfather of yours, anyway?"

"Markus Kallenberg!"

The eyes of the hunter calling herself the Saintess blazed.

At that name, even Yoo Suha raised his eyebrows slightly.

"The Sword Saint?"

"Yes! That is my paternal grandfather's honored name!"

"Wow. Haven't heard that old geezer's name in fucking ages. You're his granddaughter? Ah, sure. He was already one foot in the grave back then. Makes sense he'd have a granddaughter your age."

"You devil...!"

"Yeah. I'm a bit like that. But speaking of devils..."

Yoo Suha glanced again at his subordinate's corpse—the subordinate who was becoming a corpse.

"Is it your fault everything outside looks like a burning pile of dog shit, too?"

The Saintess clenched her fists.

She wanted to tell him. About the Kallenberg family's wealth. The power that wealth had accumulated. The fools captivated by the mysterious phenomenon called the Tower. About how she had manipulated them and set them in motion.

And she wanted to tell him about the Master of the Pantheon, whom anyone could persuade so long as they followed the rules, making him easy to predict and exploit. About the head of the Black Dragon Guild, who hated the outside world yet wanted, somehow, to establish ties with its great powers. About how she had struck through those loose gaps and brought them down.

She did not.

With the burning Tower behind her, the Saintess said only this.

"My grandfather died in the Tower, at your hands."

"..."

"So I will kill the Tower, and I will kill you."

Yoo Suha gave a crooked smile.

"By that logic, it would be the old man's fault. He killed me when I didn't even know what was going on, you know? Going on with some crazy bullshit about how his eyes could see the number of people I'd killed. Ugh. If anything, he was the murderer, not me."

"Bullshit!"

"Bullshit is what you've been spouting this whole time, young lady. A murderous granddaughter with a murderous grandpa. Blood will tell."

"You're the murderer, Flame Emperor. No, talking is pointless. Die!"

The Saintess charged, her blond hair streaming.

"Ha."

Yoo Suha looked down at a white speck that had drifted into his palm. He didn't know whether it was dust from a collapsing building or a bone fragment shed as Kim Gongja was shredded.

Only this.

"What a shitty feeling."

He felt like shit.

Whenever something he knew nothing about happened, Yoo Suha always felt like shit.

"No real need to waste time here. But I think I'll have to kill you."

Blue aura exploded, and red aura engulfed it.

A moment later, a scream emerged through the blue and red smoke.

"Aaaaaaagh!"

"Yeah, now I'm starting to remember. Your eyes look alike. Those eyes."

Yoo Suha closed his eyes, then opened them.

"Those fucking eyes that take one look at someone and see a worthless murderer. They look alike. Oh, do shitty eyes skip a generation, too? Huh? Did your grandpa teach you in some family lesson that anyone you see is definitely a murderer, so you should cut their head off first?"

"Y-you... ah, urgh...!"

"Anyway, this world teaches people how to hate others, how to trash-talk them, even how to fucking kill them. What an amazing school. What's really fucking incredible is that after teaching them all that, it expects them to love each other, cherish each other, have kids and raise them well."

Even as the smoke-laced screams made his ears feel acrid, Yoo Suha kept talking.

"I just can't understand it. Looking at your fucking eyes makes it even harder to understand."

Yoo Suha looked at the hunter, whose entire body had now burned to a crisp, black as charcoal.

He bent at the waist, meeting her gaze as he looked down.

"How could a person ever like another person? Right?"

The last remaining part of her burned.

And that was how a hunter who had sworn to avenge her grandfather and spent years steeling herself for revenge died.

Yoo Suha slowly straightened up.

"Ugh. I'm stiff."

After stretching his neck a few times, he surveyed the scene.

"What a fucking mess."

Outside the mansion, everything was burning. The ruins in sight alone seemed enough to build a vast complex of ancient remains. In a world filled with ash and smoke, the screams and gunshots never ceased.

"A real fucking mess. Don't you think so, Part-Timer?"

Yoo Suha looked down at Kim Gongja.

Having lost an arm and so much blood that his consciousness was hazy, Kim Gongja could not even look up at him. Yoo Suha did not demand his gaze, either.

"I don't get it," Yoo Suha muttered.

"You, Sujeong... I don't know how people who can like other people manage it."

He looked up at the sky for a moment.

"Well, I guess it's because you're idiots like that that you work under me."

"Chairman, I..."

"Ah, forget it. No more babbling."

Yoo Suha waved a hand to stop Kim Gongja's feeble murmuring.

As though it was a bother.

Above all, as though it was familiar.

"Just don't worry about anything. Your big bro will handle it all for you."

Even dazed from losing so much blood, Kim Gongja murmured blankly.

"How...?"

"I've got my ways, but..."

The Flame Emperor.

Yoo Suha shaped his hand into a gun.

Then he wrapped red aura around it, forming a sphere like a bullet.

"You wouldn't understand even if I told you."

"What...?"

"My skill's kind of fucked up."

CRACK!

The bullet of flame pierced Yoo Suha's brain.

Kim Gongja looked up in horror as Yoo Suha took his own life.

Kim Gongja would never have understood the meaning of that death, even at the very end.

[You have died.]

But.

'I' knew.

[Regressing to 24 hours ago.]

The world shattered into pieces.

.

.

.

And so.

'I' opened my eyes.