Chapter 66 - Heavenly Demon (1)

1

["Heavenly Demon."]

["This cannot go on."]

["... Heavenly Demon. Half the Blood Demon Corps has been annihilated! The elders declared they would enter Murim and scattered across the land, but we have already lost all trace of them. This is no time to fight the idiots of the orthodox factions. Our Cult is in danger—no, perhaps the entire world is in danger. The beggars of the Beggars’ Sect are spreading rumors that..."]

["... Heavenly Demon. As you commanded, we have established a medical research hall open to all sects. The Tang Clan’s leader has come, as have the masters of the Maoshan Sect. We will capture several living-corpse soldiers to use as live specimens, so we should have results soon..."]

["... Heavenly Demon. Even the Moonshadow Demon Lord and the Blood Demon have fallen. Even if we destroy a hundred living corpses today, a thousand more arise tomorrow. We cannot contain this strange disease! The research hall says that blocking the Yamen and Tianchu points with large needles to protect the upper dantian can put the living corpses to sleep, but beyond that..."]

["... Heavenly Demon. Take refuge on a remote island. If you enter secluded cultivation there, even a million or ten million living-corpse soldiers could never cross the sea. Surely this is not the only place that can be Murim? Wherever our Cult’s banner stands, that place is Murim..."]

["... Heavenly Demon. What importance does your promise to wage war hold? That oath was sworn before the world fell into chaos. When heaven’s laws have changed, human obligations cannot remain unshaken. Forget the oath you exchanged with the Murim Alliance Leader, and please retreat to rise again..."]

["Heavenly Demon."]

["Heavenly Demon."]

2

"... How did you endure it?"

After a long silence, that was the first question I asked. How had they held on?

A hell where the world had ended and people had been reduced to corpses. Even they themselves had become half corpses. With their hearts liable to stop if the flow of internal energy was interrupted for even an instant, how on earth had they endured three years?

"..."

The Heavenly Demon and the Murim Alliance Leader could not readily answer. They looked at each other, exchanged a glance I could not understand, then nodded together.

"Follow us."

The two left the cave. I followed them.

We said nothing as we made our way out, stepping carefully so as not to wake the others. And so our silence lasted a long time.

It broke just as the cave ended.

"Everyone dies someday."

Outside, dawn was breaking.

"There is an amusing tale passed down in Murim. Once, a supreme master attained Immunity to All Poisons and an Indestructible Diamond Body. No poison could eat away at his insides, making him incorruptible; no sword could injure his exterior, making him invulnerable."

The Heavenly Demon let out a sigh.

"One might well call him invincible. Incorruptible within. Invulnerable without. How could one kill a man whom neither the cruelest poison nor the sharpest sword could harm?"

The dawn was blue. In the dim light, the world was nothing but a pale shadow.

"But there is one thing old tales never tolerate. Invincibility."

The Heavenly Demon and the Murim Alliance Leader walked through that world of shadows. One step at a time. Slowly. Where their footprints reached was earth; beyond them was sky. Only human footsteps distinguished heaven from earth.

"Child from beyond the borders."

The Heavenly Demon glanced back.

Having left the cave, we were walking toward yesterday’s snowfield... the place where martial-arts zombies had surrounded us.

"Can you guess how that supreme master died?"

"How did he die?"

"He was killed by pairing him with a Lust Demon."

The corners of her mouth lifted.

"The pleasure of joining yin and yang is no poison. Still less is it a sword."

"Uh, but wouldn’t excessive pleasure be a poison?"

"Correct. That is why the Lust Demon did not offer him a storm of pleasure from the outset. Deftly, patiently, the demon took time. Beginning with the gentlest pleasure... until he indulged in the deadliest. The supreme master was trained, and trained again."

Day broke. The snowfield grew a little whiter. That whiteness resembled the breath the Heavenly Demon exhaled.

"The supreme master ceased to feel pain from the Lust Demon’s slaps during intercourse. He came to perceive the demon’s whipping as pleasure. Every movement of the demon’s hands and feet, even the slightest glance, became a source of happiness to him."

The Heavenly Demon smoothly raised a hand.

"At the final moment..."

She stroked her own neck.

"Gently. The Lust Demon simply, gently, strangled the supreme master."

"..."

"No mighty martial prowess was needed. No profound internal power was required. Two hands. The demon strangled him with those two hands alone. As his throat tightened and his breath failed, the supreme master is said to have smiled brightly, steeped in pleasure. Even in death, his corpse wore a happy smile."

The Heavenly Demon chuckled.

"The supreme master died quite literally at the height of climax. Incorruptible and invulnerable he may have been, but he was not unhappy."

In the middle of the snowfield, corpses came into view. Corpses that moved as though still alive despite being dead. Bathed in the dim light of dawn, they stood stiff and motionless. Without so much as a twitch, they resembled a forest made of shadows.

"The lesson of this tale is simple."

"Don’t fool around with the likes of Lust Demons!"

The Murim Alliance Leader grumbled.

"That wasn’t just an old tale. It really happened. Bah! The Tang Clan had raised that master like a precious treasure, and that bitch secretly sent a Lust Demon to assassinate him."

"Heh heh."

The zombies were scattered haphazardly across the snow. Was this the trail left by their pursuit of us yesterday? The Heavenly Demon approached them.

"Most fledglings entering the martial world for the first time are mistaken. They believe a martial artist’s goal is to reach invincibility, and that one learns martial arts to gain immortality and eternal life."

With a heave, the Heavenly Demon lifted a zombie.

"Nonsense."

She and the Murim Alliance Leader began carrying the zombies.

"Those who attain Immunity to All Poisons die of something other than poison. Those who attain an Indestructible Diamond Body die of something other than a sword. Do you understand? A person of the martial world does not simply choose which martial arts to learn."

She struggled to move the zombie.

"In choosing what sort of martial artist to live as, one also decides how to die."

Her movements as she carried it were sluggish and slow. Like a postman delivering a heavy burden, she stopped along the way to set the zombie down, take a deep breath, and move again.

"Everyone dies someday."

She repeated that process.

"Do you think we do not know that? Why would the fact that we must die grieve us?"

The zombies appeared to have wandered during the night. The Heavenly Demon and the Murim Alliance Leader gathered the scattered corpses again, one by one.

"... We simply did not want to die like this."

It took a long time. Their stamina was pitiful, and there were far too many corpses.

"Assassination would be fine. Poisoning would be fine. Being caught in an all-encompassing trap and attacked from all sides would be fine, as would falling to those worthless Shaolin monks. Dying betrayed by a trusted subordinate would be fine, and dying in a duel requested by a promising young martial artist would be better still."

High noon.

By the time the Heavenly Demon and the Murim Alliance Leader had returned the zombies to their places, the sun hung in the center of the sky. Their footprints now covered the snowfield.

"But a death like this is unacceptable."

Panting, the Heavenly Demon looked at me.

"You asked how we endure it?"

"..."

"We merely wish to die as we choose."

The old man of the orthodox factions arranged hundreds of corpses in a line. The woman of the Demonic Cult arranged hundreds of corpses in a line.

And so the zombies looked like two armies facing each other, ready to charge into battle at any moment.

Suddenly, I remembered.

["They all died of the same cause, but on different dates."]

The conversation our party had had while examining the forest of corpses, when we first saw the zombies after arriving in this apocalypse’s world.

["We can only conclude that someone deliberately moved the corpses..."]

["Could it be some sort of grave?"]

["A grave, huh. From a distance, they look like the Terracotta Army."]

At night, the zombies moved wherever they pleased. Yet as many as a thousand were gathered in one place on the snowfield. Thinking about it, wasn’t that strange in itself?

"Whew..."

"Hmm."

Yes. Unless someone deliberately brought the zombies together.

"Not many went far today."

Five hundred members of the Demonic Cult.

"The moonlit sky was clear last night. Moonlight affects the living corpses too, though not as much as sunlight..."

Five hundred members of the orthodox factions.

The Heavenly Demon and the Murim Alliance Leader moved their respective subordinates. It was a monumental undertaking that took an entire half day. Yet they worked without a word, as though performing an ordinary daily chore.

["That is how we wage the Great War Between Orthodox and Demonic Forces."]

["Three years have already passed in this way."]

Snow fell.

"The orthodox martial world will never be destroyed by mere living corpses."

People died.

"Nor shall our Cult’s destiny end by being devoured by mere corpses."

The Nine Great Sects and One Association, and the Five Great Families, all vanished.

"If our orthodox factions truly must fall, it must be only at the hands of the wicked Demonic Cult."

Even if dust settled on every secret martial arts manual, with no one left to read them.

"If our Cult vanishes from the world, it shall be only by the blades of the orthodox factions."

This world had not yet ended. For it to end, two more people still had to die.

Even if a world held a billion people, and 999,999,999 died of an epidemic, if the last survivor—the final person—took their own life, that world’s cause of death would not be illness. It would simply be suicide.

At least, that was how the leader of Murim and the heaven of the Demonic Cult saw it.

"Murim Alliance Leader. Supreme Patriarch of the Namgung Family. Namgung Un."

The old man cupped his fist in salute.

"The Axe Immortal."

"Demonic Cult Leader. So Baekhyang."

The woman cupped her fist in salute.

"The Heavenly Demon."

The sun had passed its zenith. Years had passed since only two people remained in the world.

Throughout those years, their daily task had been to decide one thing: what would be this world’s cause of death?

"I request our 990th duel."

Would the Demonic Cult fall to the Murim Alliance Leader?

"A duel to live, or a duel to the death?"

Or would the orthodox factions fall to the Heavenly Demon?

"A duel to the death."

"I accept."

The two martial artists lowered their salutes. In the middle of the snowfield, where five hundred orthodox martial artists faced five hundred demonic martial artists, the Murim Alliance Leader and the Heavenly Demon charged.

I still could not recognize the martial arts they performed. To my eyes, they were barely taking a step. Struggling. Extending an arm only with the greatest effort.

Their footwork was so slow it could not have kept pace with even a child. Their hand movements were so weak they could not have crushed a single tangerine.

"..."

A genre in decline. A world in decline.

This apocalypse had been slowly dying over 990 days.

"This..."

I opened my mouth. Watching their duel from afar, I murmured without realizing it.

"This cannot go on."

My heart churned.

"It’s unjust."

—...

"It shouldn’t be like this."

A fierce fight raged on the snowfield. The Murim Alliance Leader and the Heavenly Demon, who must once have displayed magnificent martial arts while contending for the title of strongest under heaven, could now do no more than grapple like children. They rolled through the snow. Their kicks missed. They grabbed beard and tore at hair.

"To you, Sword Emperor, that might look like a truly incredible fight. Yes, I’m practically a novice who has only just begun learning swordsmanship. But no matter how remarkable the subtleties in that grappling are, no matter how extraordinary the principles hidden in it..."

Through the rest of the day and into evening, the Murim Alliance Leader and the Heavenly Demon never stopped fighting.

"This is an insult."

The sunset glowed. Today, too, no winner was decided.

"An insult to both of them."

A world in decline.

In a world overrun by an incurable epidemic, the two martial artists were strong enough to keep themselves alive against all odds. But they had grown far too weak to take each other’s lives.

"This can’t be."

The world is cruel because we cannot be born as we choose. Then what is a world in which we cannot die as we choose?

To be unable even to reach a proper end. For life simply to be cut off midway.

—What are you going to do?

The attendant spirit spoke quietly.

—Will you kill the Heavenly Demon and the Murim Alliance Leader yourself? Sure, that could be a merciful gift, too. It’s what I would do. But you mustn’t forget that both you and I are nothing more than outsiders.

"I know."

The two martial artists did not wish to commit suicide. If they had to die, they wished only to die at each other’s hands.

The Demonic Cult would not be destroyed by some strange disease, but collapse in defeat against the orthodox factions. The orthodox factions would not yield to some epidemic, but shatter with the advent of demonic rule over the world.

That kind of end. A proper conclusion. An acceptable final destination for their lives.

Even if I intervened and killed them, it would be neither an [end] nor a [conclusion]. It would not even be a merciful gift.

It would be nothing but [scribbles] a child had added to the back of a storybook.

That would not do.

"I..."

I spoke to the attendant spirit.

"I’ll bring this world to a close in my own way."

—And what way is that?

I did not answer his question.

The twilight deepened.

"I-it’s evening already, old fossil."

"Must be because it’s winter... Hah. The days go quickly..."

"Tomorrow, I shall settle this without fail."

"Look who’s talking..."

The 990th day of the Great War Between Orthodox and Demonic Forces, too, naturally ended in a truce. The Heavenly Demon and the Murim Alliance Leader ceased their attacks and returned to the cave, looking even more exhausted than yesterday.

"Where have you been?"

Our companions welcomed us back. Viper stood guard at the cave entrance, while the Apothecary and the Medicine King were busy studying something around a zombie. It was the zombie of Wudang’s sect leader, who had startled us yesterday.

"We’ve been examining the patient. Things were too hectic yesterday..."

"Have you made any progress?"

The Medicine King and the Apothecary looked at each other. He clicked his tongue first.

"Not yet."

"Yes... W-we’ve never seen a virus like this before."

Of course they hadn’t.

The Heavenly Demon and the Murim Alliance Leader said they would rest first and walked to the far side of the cave. After watching their backs recede, I turned to the Apothecary.

"Ma’am."

"Yes?"

"Please be honest with me. If you were to make a cure, roughly how long do you think it would take?"

"Ah. Um, uh..."

She hesitated.

"To be completely honest... at least 120 days."

"It could take twice or three times that. You always allow plenty of time for schedules like these. Even then, it’s usually not enough."

The Medicine King added curtly. The Apothecary lowered her head.

"... Yes, he’s right about that, too. Though that would really be the worst case..."

Hmm.

"So should I think of it as about a hundred days at the shortest, and three hundred at the longest?"

"Uh. Well..."

She bowed her head low.

"A-actually, we might not be able to make one at all. The facilities and conditions are poor, and I can’t promise anything at this point. I’m sorry, Death King... You trusted me enough to bring me to a stage like this... but developing a cure within the time limit is impossible."

The time limit.

When the Librarian sent us into the apocalypse, he had said:

["When you open your eyes, you will find yourselves in the world ten days before Chronicles of the Heavenly Demon meets its unfortunate discontinuation."]

["I look forward to seeing a splendid conclusion."]

In other words, though we did not know what would happen, the world would truly end in ten days. The Heavenly Demon and the Murim Alliance Leader, who had struggled so hard to survive until now, would die as well.

Those ten days were what the Apothecary called the time limit.

"I’m truly sorry..."

"No."

I shook my head.

"That’s enough."

"W-what?"

"Don’t worry, ma’am."

The dagger at my waist. I slowly ran my hand over its hilt.

"I’ll find a way to handle the time problem. Don’t give up. Keep researching."

"..."

"Do you remember what I told you when we first arrived in this world yesterday?"

This was no ordinary book. It was a world in its own right. We had come to save that world.

"..."

The Apothecary nodded cautiously. There was a certain understanding in the look we shared.

"... I-I remember. Of course I remember, Death King..."

I nodded as well.

"What I have to say is the same as yesterday. The time limit is almost up, we’ll never escape this apocalypse if we fail to clear this stage—all those distracting thoughts. Put them out of your mind. I’ll do my best in my role, so please just show me your best in yours."

"Put all the distracting thoughts out of my mind..."

"Yes. I promise. I’ll take care of every other problem myself."

I spoke to the person who would one day be called the Alchemy Ministry Head.

"Please trust me and keep working."