Chapter 68 - Heavenly Demon (3)

3

“I'm sorry,” the Apothecary said. “In his current condition, there's nothing I can do to treat him.”

She was examining the Murim Alliance Leader. Throughout the examination, her expression remained faint. She was like a doctor who already knew there was no hope for a patient, yet examined him solely to tell him, “There is no hope.”

“...”

The Heavenly Demon silently looked down at the Murim Alliance Leader. Had she never expected a cure in the first place? With an expressionless face, she merely parted her lips.

“Stand up.”

“I'm sorry.”

“I have no desire to hear your worthless apologies. Stand up, Axe Immortal, Murim Alliance Leader.”

In the dark cave, the Heavenly Demon's breathing sank low. A poisonous fragrance seemed to flow from her mouth.

“Did you not make a pact with me? Did you not boast that you would challenge demonic rule over the world and raise the banner of orthodox Murim? Did you not finally unite the Nine Great Sects and One Association and the Five Great Families to seek battle? A man who did all that cannot die in bed. You cannot.”

“I'm sorry.”

“Stand up.”

The scent of poison grew a little stronger.

“Get up and take a weapon. You need not even take up that ugly axe of yours. Take a wooden sword. A switch, a rod, a wooden stick—anything will do. Take it. Take it and fight me.”

“I'm sorry.”

“I told you to stand up.”

“You demon.”

The Murim Alliance Leader drew a breath. He had aged further in a single night.

“I'm sorry I'm weaker than you.”

“...”

“I tried to hold on even one more day, but I can't anymore. You must have sensed it too. I was already drawing on my innate vital energy. My internal energy is gone. My vital energy is spent as well. You might be able to endure another year... but this is as far as I go.”

Silence.

“I was the weaker one.”

The old man murmured where he lay.

“Kill me.”

“...”

The Heavenly Demon's face twisted.

“I don't want to end up like that Shaolin abbot. Kill me before my body rots away. Once I become a living corpse, looking at what's before me won't mean seeing, and being alive won't mean living. So...”

“So you want me to kill you as you lie in bed?”

The poisonous fragrance reached its peak.

“Is that what you are telling me?”

The Heavenly Demon's body was small. Pitch-black fire rose from that small body. Her internal energy took shape and burned.

Killing intent.

As her internal energy burned, it gave off the smell of soot. It was the smell of the life she had lived, the life she had endured. The Heavenly Demon's scent was acrid, like weeds crushed to a pulp.

“Is this the end of the great war you promised? This?”

“...”

“You should have taken me down with you long ago. For what glory have you endured this long? You should have gathered all the children of my Cult and the orthodox factions and ordered them to kill themselves together. What radiant future did you hope to enjoy by stubbornly holding on until now?”

The Murim Alliance Leader could not answer. The tears the old man had shed hardened into traces on his cheeks.

“I...”

“Namgung Un. From your days as a young gentleman, you monopolized the praise and envy of the martial world for being born with a Heaven-Blessed Martial Body. At twenty, you reached the pinnacle. Before you were thirty, you became the head of the Namgung family. When demonic rule gained ascendancy, you were acclaimed as Alliance Leader. The essence of all the orthodox factions resides in you, and the bitter aspirations of all the orthodox factions linger within you. And yet, despite all that, you would meekly offer your neck to my demonic hands?”

“...”

“Very well. I will kill you.”

The Heavenly Demon rose.

“But you will not die an easy death.”

She headed off somewhere. Even after she vanished, the burnt smell of soot lingered. It was almost suffocating. The Apothecary and Medicine King, who knew little about aura, looked particularly distressed.

A moment later, the Heavenly Demon returned. She held an axe in her hand.

“You old Namgung relic. This is the Jade Axe you treasured so dearly. Surely you have not forgotten it already.”

“So Baekhyang...”

“Say it.”

The Heavenly Demon raised the axe.

“Martial might has forgotten chivalry, and chivalry has lost its might.”

“...”

“Say those words. Say them, and I will kill you as you wish.”

Martial might had forgotten chivalry.

Chivalry had lost its might.

Those words meant the end of orthodox Murim.

The master of the Demonic Cult was telling the Murim Alliance Leader to acknowledge the orthodox factions' destruction himself. Only then would she take his life. And she would sever his neck with his own beloved weapon.

“Say it.”

“...”

“Will you not say it now!”

The old man's lips moved. His mouth opened, his teeth parted. But nothing could be seen beyond them. Nothing followed. It was as though he had lost his tongue. Again and again his mouth opened, and each time his tongue lost its way.

“I can't.”

The old man exhaled.

“I can't... I cannot say it...”

Fresh tears flowed over the hardened tear tracks. Across his wrinkles, tears covered tears like geological strata.

Those layered tears were difficult to distinguish from his aged skin. It made his flesh seem as though it had always been formed of his tears, and his tears as though they flowed not from his eyes, but from his flesh.

“I cannot say it...”

“...”

“I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Baekhyang...”

The Heavenly Demon swung the axe.

Its blade did not cleave the Murim Alliance Leader's neck. It merely struck the bare ground, right beside his face. The hard rock of the cave floor split as easily as tofu. I could scarcely imagine how much internal energy the Heavenly Demon, who struggled to lift even a switch, had expended to split that rock.

“Did you say that once you become a living corpse, being alive will not mean living?” the Heavenly Demon murmured.

“It makes no difference anyway. Even if you die now, your death will not be a death. What difference is there between a life that is not a life and a death that is not a death? I can see none. Meaningless. It is meaningless...”

She turned her back.

“The whole world has become emptiness.”

The next day, Namgung Un, the Murim Alliance Leader, died at dawn.

He died of illness.

4

The tenth day since we had fallen into the apocalypse.

The day of this world's destruction had arrived.

“... We obtained a valuable sample,” the Apothecary said.

“There are limits to analyzing the virus using only infected people who turned into zombies two or three years ago. Thanks to this sample, we observed the infection's progression in real time. It's a major step forward.”

The Murim Alliance Leader lay before her. A corpse that did not so much as twitch. Chains were wound tightly around the old man's body.

“It seems they don't become zombies immediately upon death... They awaken after a short delay. My guess is that it takes time for the infectious agent to spread throughout the brain.”

“I've organized our findings.”

The Medicine King handed me a folder, clicking his tongue.

“This brat may have a knack for making medicine, but she has no talent for explaining it to other people. None whatsoever. Bah, that's the trouble with people so full of themselves...”

“We devoted everything to the research,” the Apothecary said, paying no attention to his criticism. “But developing a cure proved impossible after all.”

“Was there too little time?”

“Yes. At least ninety days. If possible, a comfortable margin of around a hundred and twenty...”

CLANK!

GROOOAN.

The chains struck one another with a grating noise. We all turned our heads at once. The Murim Alliance Leader's corpse was trembling.

GRRROOO... UHHH, UOOOH...!

For a while, we silently watched the Murim Alliance Leader.

No, the thing that had been the Murim Alliance Leader.

It kept thrashing with its maw open.

“...”

That was when the Heavenly Demon approached.

STEP.

The woman came toward us with quiet steps. A woman in black. With her black hair, black martial robes, and black eyes, the Heavenly Demon held a black sword. Her blade was darker than her shadow.

“... Pathetic.”

The Heavenly Demon looked down at the Murim Alliance Leader's corpse.

“Decades of life, empty upon empty.”

We instinctively backed away from her. Her poisonous presence was incomparably stronger than yesterday. Her internal energy was no longer merely rising—it enveloped her entire body.

“In the end, strip away one layer and this is what a human is. How are we different from beasts? We eat, and eat, devouring until our flesh can no longer move, and finally disappear. Martial might has forgotten chivalry, and chivalry has lost its might.”

The Heavenly Demon extended her left hand.

“Eat.”

The zombie opened its mouth and bit her hand.

CRUNCH!

Blood sprayed. Flesh tore and bones shattered. With indifferent eyes, the Heavenly Demon looked down at the Murim Alliance Leader gnawing at her own left hand like a dog.

“H-hey.”

Stunned, Viper stepped forward.

“Hey! W-what are you doing? What if you turn into a living corpse too...!”

“Don't go near her.”

I caught Viper by the shoulder and stopped him.

“Huh?”

“It's already over.”

“Over? What is...?”

The sound of flesh bursting rang out.

SPLAT!

The noise was so gruesome that everyone in our party flinched.

Slowly turning our eyes, we saw the Heavenly Demon with her mangled left hand—and the Murim Alliance Leader, now missing his head.

She had detonated her internal energy inside his mouth, blasting his entire head apart.

“Heh.”

While all of us stood speechless, the Heavenly Demon opened her mouth and laughed.

“Hehh, haha... ahaha.”

“Ahahahaha! Ha! Ha, ahahahaha!”

It was truly the laughter of madness.

Above the cave, the blizzard still raged. Yet the Heavenly Demon's laughter devoured it, reducing the sound of snow to a trivial noise. Her laughter filled the cave, rang through the sky, and ate away at the world.

“Zombie, be careful,” the attendant spirit said quietly. “It's qi deviation.”

At that moment, the Heavenly Demon turned her head and gazed steadily our way. A seductive smile softly spread across her face. A strange voice flowed through her parted lips.

“Oh?”

Goosebumps rose on the back of my neck.

“Are you orthodox warriors come to assassinate me?”

Her eyes were no longer seeing us.

“Good. Come at me. Let us cross swords.”

“Everyone, run!”

The instant I shouted, the Heavenly Demon swung her sword.

SHAAASH!

A fountain of blood erupted. It was the Medicine King's blood. His throat had been cut precisely, and his knees buckled before he could even scream.

He died instantly.

Seeing a companion die right before him, Viper belatedly drew his sword.

“Fucking hell...!”

I couldn't follow the sword's path with my eyes. No, I couldn't even see her move. There was simply [the Heavenly Demon swung her sword], and at exactly the same instant, [the Medicine King's throat was cut]. Not even the briefest gap separated them.

“This is insane,” the attendant spirit groaned. “She's surpassed the Demon-Transcending realm. It must be because she's pouring out not just her internal energy, but all her vital energy too... Right now, she's entered the Life-and-Death realm, however temporarily. Even if I returned alive in my prime, I'd lose four times out of ten against her.”

That was the Heavenly Demon. As she had been before a living corpse's bite weakened her. The greatest martial artist under heaven, who had reigned over this world.

“Absurd,” the Heavenly Demon crooned.

“Abbot of Shaolin. Did you think such cheap tricks could stop me? You ox-nosed Taoist of Wudang. Do you dare think you can bear the karma of my Cult?”

Step by step, the Heavenly Demon approached us.

“Grief overflows the world, submerging Mount Song. Resentment burns throughout heaven and earth, setting Mount Wudang ablaze. The Demonic Cult is Murim's heaven, and I am the Demonic Cult's heaven. Are you worthy to speak of a heaven beyond heaven?”

“Damn it!”

Viper raised his sword and charged.

“Death King! Take the Apothecary and run!”

I was already doing just that.

I swept the Apothecary into my arms and ran. Escape would be impossible anyway, but still I ran. To struggle until the very end. To refuse to accept this ending, this death, as inevitable.

“You are not enough! You orthodox lackeys!”

The Heavenly Demon's laughter pursued us from behind.

“Namgung Un!”

Once, twice, three times.

There was the sound of blades clashing.

“Where is Namgung Un!”

And then there were no more sounds of swords.

After enduring three exchanges, Viper had died.

“Summon the Supreme Patriarch of the Namgung family! Bring the Murim Alliance Leader before me! However lush Murim's forests, however vast its skies, there is but one talent in all heaven and earth who can withstand my blade! Four Demon Lords! Drag Namgung Un before me at once!”

The laughter was relentless, utterly relentless.

For every step I fled, it followed ten. I was no match for her. When at last her laughter closed in right behind my back, the Apothecary spoke from my arms.

“Death King.”

She looked up at me.

“I still believe in you.”

And then something cut through us both.

Pierced us.

“...”

The sky tilted. The ground tilted. I lost my feet, lost everything below my waist, and fell into the snow with only my upper body remaining.

Yes.

It was a field of white snow.

We had made it out of the cave.

“...”

The Apothecary had fallen a little distance away. Only the spot where she lay was vividly red. Like shaved ice drizzled with strawberry syrup, I thought with my dazed mind.

“Ahaha. Hehh, hahaha!”

Snow was falling.

“Ahahahaha! Ha, ahahahaha...”

As the snow fell, sky and earth became indistinguishable. A dark white. All I could see was a cold, pale shade.

Someone was walking away, stamping footsteps into the snow.

With each footprint, sky and earth seemed to separate, at least for a moment. But the blizzard raged without pause, burying even the last remaining footprints.

Without a sound.

Without a trace.

Without any scent at all.

The world that had scorched its people. The people scorched by that world. So that the pitch-black soot was buried and buried again, leaving only a white snowfield. So that only a colorless, odorless, soundless blizzard would fall forever.

The world perished.

[You have died.]

But that was all.

For me, destruction did not mean the end.

[You will regress 24 hours into the past.]

Now.

Let's save your world.