Chapter 69 - The World Where the Constellations Died (1)

1

One winter day, So Baekhyang followed her mother across a snowfield.

The day was overcast. Snow poured from the cloudy sky. In the driving blizzard, a person was scarcely more than a shadow.

Her mother's retreating figure, too, was indistinct as a shadow.

So Baekhyang raised her voice.

"Mom!"

Suddenly, she was afraid. The snow was too loud. Its noise swallowed her voice, keeping it from carrying.

"Mom!"

Her mother's shadow was still far away.

So Baekhyang grew anxious. She had to walk faster to keep up with her mother. But the farther she walked, the more breathless she became. The farther she walked, the quieter her voice grew. What should she do?

"Ugh..."

Should she stop shouting and walk faster to catch her mother? Or should she stop walking altogether and shout with all her might?

The young Heavenly Demon did not know.

While she remained uncertain, the shadow drew a little farther away.

"Mom!"

At last, So Baekhyang stopped.

"Mom!"

Once her feet stopped, her voice did gain a little strength. Until now, her footsteps had been stealing the space her voice needed. So Baekhyang thought her mother would turn her head and look at her now, and that her shadow would become that much clearer.

But what was happening?

The shadow drew a little farther away.

While So Baekhyang shouted, it drew farther away.

At last, her mother's shadow was buried in the blizzard, indistinguishable from the snowfield.

"..."

Had her mother abandoned her? Had she suggested crossing the snow as a pretext for a seemingly natural parting? Or had her mother truly lost her?

So Baekhyang did not know.

She could not know.

2

[You have died.]

When I briefly closed my eyes and opened them again, I was in a space of endless darkness.

[Your death fulfills the skill's activation condition.]

[You will randomly copy one of So Baekhyang's skills.]

My hell.

[Generating skill cards.]

Cards floated up before my eyes. But skill cards were not my immediate concern.

Catching my breath, I spoke to my attendant spirit.

'Mr. Sword Emperor, did you memorize the folder?'

"Well, some of it."

The attendant spirit scratched the back of his head.

The folder containing the results of the Apothecary and Medicine King's desperate research—that was what mattered. With the Heavenly Demon rampaging in the throes of qi deviation, I hadn't been able to calmly memorize its contents.

"Put what you memorized together with what I memorized, and we should be able to piece it together. But we'd better get back before we forget..."

'Okay. Then let's hurry up and choose a skill first.'

"Hmm."

The attendant spirit moved through the air, reading aloud from the backs of the cards. The Heavenly Demon had quite a few skills, but one in particular caught our attention.

+

[Divine Art of the Demonic Heaven]

Rank: A+

Effect: The Demonic Cult. They hate the laws of heaven. They curse them. Not content merely to hate and curse, they established a religious order and at last formed a single doctrine. The Divine Art of the Demonic Heaven is a martial art embodying the essence of that doctrine.

One who masters the Divine Art of the Demonic Heaven can tear apart the heavens and crush Mount Tai! However, they must deeply understand the hatred and curses contained in its forms.

The more they hate and curse the world, the more heaven will pale before them. The one who grasps the ultimate essence of the Divine Art of the Demonic Heaven is the one who will overturn heaven—the Heavenly Demon.

※However, using this divine art makes it difficult to retain your sense of self.

+

The Divine Art of the Demonic Heaven.

It was an outrageously arrogant name, but I couldn't mock it.

'... This must be the martial art we saw earlier, right?'

Because it truly was that powerful.

She had merely swung her sword from a distance, and the Medicine King's head had fallen. Viper had died without even lasting three exchanges. Even I, who had prided myself on the training I'd gained fighting the [Demon King of Autumn Rain], couldn't follow the path of the Heavenly Demon's sword with my eyes.

Truly, a supreme technique without equal under heaven.

"Tsk. A textbook demonic art."

The attendant spirit frowned.

"In the end, whether it's martial arts or formations, it's all a matter of how you deal with the world."

'Deal with the world?'

"Yep. If you try to embrace the world generously, you're generally with the orthodox factions. If you try to claw at the world, that's the Demonic Cult. So orthodox martial artists make their bodies into [vessels to embrace the world], while Demonic Cult bastards make theirs into [claws to scratch the world]..."

The attendant spirit folded his arms with a thoughtful hum.

"Let me give you the simplest example. An overhead slash, where you bring your sword down from above your head. Some schools call it a Tiger Stance strike because it's like [the posture of a tiger pouncing]."

WHOOSH!

The attendant spirit took a stance and swung both arms.

'...!'

For an instant, I flinched. I truly felt the force of a wild beast lunging at me.

He was strong.

His speech and appearance were so pathetic that I sometimes forgot, but the attendant spirit before me was the Sword Emperor. A martial artist who had nearly conquered the Tower with a single sword.

"Well, it doesn't really matter whether it's a tiger, a bull, or anything else. Forms vary wildly depending on the enlightenment attained by the art's creator, the school's founding master. Anyway, what matters is that you're [imitating] a tiger or a bull, even if only a little."

Copying. Imitating.

And thereby making something in the world your own.

That was what the attendant spirit meant by [embracing the world].

"But demonic arts are different."

The attendant spirit took a stance again. The same stance he'd used when swinging his arms earlier.

"When the Demonic Cult teaches a form, this is what they say."

With a sharp breath, he planted his foot.

"Recall your rage the moment a bandit stabbed you in the guts."

The empty air split.

Faced with it, I involuntarily stepped back.

His face.

It was none other than the attendant spirit's face that caused it. An infinitely cold fury lay upon his expressionless features.

As though he had become an entirely different person.

"Recall the moment the county magistrate dragged your little sister away. Remember your weakness, how you could do nothing. You stood waiting in front of the government office all night, but at dawn, your sister returned as nothing more than a cold corpse. Picture her face."

The attendant spirit performed a sword dance.

Though he held no sword, somehow I felt as if I could see it. That sword was as black as the space in which we stood.

"Recall again the sight of burying your sister's body all alone. Was it winter? Was the ground frozen, difficult to dig? Did you force your fingertips into that unyielding earth? Did your nails break? Did blood flow from those broken nails?"

'...'

"In the end, did you lay your sister's body in a hole less than a foot deep? Did you bury her feet first? Did you heap cold earth upon her body? Did you gather grains of soil in your own hands and scatter them, one handful at a time, over the face you could not bring yourself to bury until the very end?"

I couldn't breathe.

As the attendant spirit's sword dance continued, the endless space seemed to shrink a handspan at a time. My head even grew a little dizzy. Though they should have been mere motions of his hands and arms, the resentment flowing from him reverberated.

"Recall the feel of those grains of earth. Grip your sword with the hands that dug the soil. Swing it with the motion you used to scatter earth over your sister. Lament your helplessness and resent the world's cruelty."

I murmured as if groaning.

'Claws to scratch the world...'

"That's right."

The attendant spirit lowered his arms.

Only then could I breathe again.

"You could call it a mental discipline for controlling internal energy. Literally, a method of stirring up your mind and driving it hard. Whether you're a martial artist or a hunter, victory ultimately comes down to how well you use internal energy or aura."

He shrugged as though nothing had happened.

"Put simply, it's a contest of presence. Demonic arts have a pretty intense presence."

'...'

"Anyway, Zombie, you don't need to learn it."

I silently gazed at the silver skill card.

"No, you don't need to learn any other martial art at all. Who am I? The mighty Sword Emperor, right? The greatest martial artist in this universe, that's who. You may not realize it, but you're already gradually learning my supreme techniques! This Divine Art of the Demonic Heaven or whatever is practically trash compared with my martial arts—"

'I'm going to learn it.'

"... Huh?"

The attendant spirit blinked.

'I said I'm going to learn it. This Divine Art of the Demonic Heaven.'

"Uh, uhhh... Uhhhh..."

Blink. Blink.

It took roughly three seconds for the attendant spirit to recover his ability to speak.

"Why?"

'Because I want to.'

"I told you, it's worthless trash compared with my martial arts!"

The attendant spirit began to throw a fit.

"Zombie, don't tell me you got suckered in by the swordplay that Heavenly Demon nobody showed off earlier! Fuck. This is driving me crazy. She only poured out her vital qi and briefly entered the Life-and-Death realm! It was a power high, a vital-qi high! Zombie, a martial artist must never get hooked on that vital-qi high!"

I chuckled.

'Are you sulking because I'm trying to learn someone else's martial arts instead of yours?'

"Whaaaat?"

'Don't worry. Of course our great Sword Emperor's martial arts are the strongest in the universe. Do you think I'm trying to learn the Divine Art of the Demonic Heaven because I don't know that?'

"Hmm..."

The attendant spirit's nose twitched.

Apparently, that little bit of flattery had satisfied his pride. Honestly, this ghost was so easy to handle.

"Of course. I'm the strongest. ... Then why are you trying to learn the Demonic Cult's divine art?"

'To clear this stage perfectly.'

In other words, to give this world the right ending.

'Let's say we make a cure. Even then, all we'll do is save two people—the Heavenly Demon and the Murim Alliance Leader. Everyone else has been dead for more than two years... A cure isn't going to bring them back to life, good as new. Right?'

"Hmm."

The attendant spirit furrowed his brow.

"You're right about that."

'Then what kind of ending will we get? The Murim Alliance Leader and the Heavenly Demon [become Adam and Eve] in a reborn world? Mr. Sword Emperor, does that look like a good ending to you?'

"..."

The attendant spirit looked as though he'd bitten into shit.

He was probably imagining the Heavenly Demon and the Murim Alliance Leader as husband and wife.

"No, that's not right... Really not right. I can't imagine those two becoming a lovey-dovey couple. It's disturbing..."

'Right?'

I looked ahead.

[Please select a skill card.]

WHOOSH! WHOOOSH!

The cards whirled chaotically through the air. But I had already picked one out. My eyes never lost track of the silver card.

'Making a cure is only the first condition for creating a [good ending]. In the end, a wonderful conclusion depends on whether the characters in the story can truly be satisfied...'

I reached out and snatched the card.

'I want to give the Heavenly Demon and the Murim Alliance Leader an ending that satisfies them completely.'

[Selection complete.]

[Copying skill.]

Of course, that wasn't the end of it.

[Your current hunter rank is D.]

[A penalty will be imposed due to the skill.]

The Heavenly Demon's nightmare.

The resentment pooled in her heart.

Another hell I had to cross.

[Recreating the trauma of the enemy who killed you.]

[Penalty depth: Medium.]

But this was not the first hell I would traverse. Nor would it be the last.

[This is the Realm of Hungry Ghosts.]

There would be a chance to speak calmly of the sights in the hell I crossed.

3

After returning to the previous day, I committed suicide eight more times.

It was to return to the 'first day' we had fallen into the apocalypse.

"... It's freezing!"

Just as in the previous run, Viper cried out in surprise. The Apothecary and Medicine King instinctively hugged themselves, too. Terrible cold had assailed our party.

WOOOOO!

The blizzard swirled with a shrill howl. "Achoo!" The Apothecary had already begun coughing.

"Wh-why is it so cold? Wasn't this supposed to be Murim?"

"Eek. What's with this Siberian wasteland...?"

A white snowfield.

A sight that had become thoroughly familiar to me over the past ten days.

But the others were floundering in confusion. Without a word, I took the Apothecary's hand.

"Oh."

The Apothecary cautiously bowed her head.

"Th-thank you, Death King."

"..."

A recent memory flashed through my mind.

["I still trust you."]

The Apothecary's upper body, scattered across the snowfield. Then the snow stained bright red. My heart lurched a little.

Keeping it from showing, I spoke quietly.

"It's only natural. Heavenly Martial Sect's leader, please look after the Medicine King."

"Sure!"

"And I just caught a glimpse of a person's shadow over there."

Unlike the previous run, this time I led the party. Before long, the blizzard subsided, and a forest of human figures—no, a forest of corpses—unfolded before us.

Viper looked bewildered.

"... What are these? Why are all these people frozen?"

"They look like zombies."

I ran my hand over a corpse's face.

"Huh? Zombies?"

"Yes, look at this."

I pointed inside the zombie's mouth. At its teeth, to be precise.

"There are bits of flesh caked all over its teeth. Maybe people here don't have a habit of brushing after meals, but even so, this is a bit much. It means it tore into something like an animal..."

"..."

At my words, the Apothecary's expression changed. With a much more serious look in her eyes, she examined the corpse's mouth. A moment later, surprise spread across her face.

"... You're right. The DNA of this corpse and the flesh in its mouth doesn't match. They belong to entirely different people."

"C-couldn't he have eaten human flesh?"

The Medicine King recoiled in disgust.

"You know. People in the old days sometimes ate human flesh. Rather than a zombie..."

"The dates of death are strange for that explanation."

The Apothecary adjusted her glasses.

"This corpse died about three years ago. But the person this flesh belonged to died two years ago. That would be impossible unless the corpse remained alive and moving for a year. It's difficult to imagine, but... Yes, I suspect it may be a zombie-like creature, as the Death King said."

"I-I can't stand monsters from horror movies! Do something about it!"

"Uh, sir. Even if you say that to me..."

The Apothecary looked at a loss.

'Okay.'

We were progressing far faster than in the previous run.

Even if the zombies began moving now, we wouldn't be horrified like last time. Whether you anticipated a situation or not—that alone made people's reactions entirely different.

Above all...

"Hmm."

I remembered the research results from the past several days.

"Boss, Medicine King."

"Yes?"

"Hm?"

"I have an unusual skill. I can't tell you what kind of skill it is, but according to its analysis..."

I carefully explained the research findings.

My memory wasn't perfect. There was no way I could have memorized the folder in one go. But after the Heavenly Demon killed me and I returned twenty-four hours into the past, I'd had time to study the folder carefully again.

The attendant spirit had helped memorize it, too.

"Hmmmm..."

After hearing my explanation, the Apothecary fell into thought.

"... That's amazing. A perfect research method. There's nothing to fault. It's almost like something I would have done... But the terminology is completely different from mine. No, it's really, really amazing. You have an incredible skill, Death King...?"

The Apothecary looked at me with admiration.

From my perspective, though, she was praising herself.

I see. The boss thought of herself as a 'really, really amazing' person. In this bleak world, perhaps that confidence itself was remarkable? At least, that was how I saw it.

"Hmm, isn't it a good thing that it cuts down the research time?"

The Medicine King took a simple view of it.

"Anyway, I'd like to get farther away from these zombies. Ugh. If only there were somewhere warm to stay..."

Just then...

"... Wahahaha!"

Laughter reached us.

In the previous run, I hadn't known whose laughter it was. But this time I did. The Murim Alliance Leader. The old man who was the Namgung family's Supreme Patriarch had burst out laughing.

"Demonic rule over the world ends today!"

"Ha."

And, of course, the Heavenly Demon's voice reached us as well.

"Even a passing dog would roll over laughing."

"..."

Holding my breath, I approached the voices. Snow crunched beneath my shoes. The closer the voices came, the clearer a scene grew in my mind—the time the Heavenly Demon had confessed her feelings.

["I'm afraid."]

"As long as I remain hale, so does the world under demonic rule."

["The world is such a terrifying place."]

"Axe Immortal. You are the one who should bid farewell to orthodox Murim."

["Where is Namgung Un! Bring the Namgung family's Supreme Patriarch! Have the Murim Alliance Leader brought before me!"]

The greatest under heaven.

The strongest woman in this world, who had survived until the final moment precisely because she was the strongest.

A martial artist who, in the saddest sense, had made real the words: 'Alone, I am supreme throughout heaven and earth.'

"Hmph."

That martial artist was still smiling.

Still wearing a bold smile, she stood in the middle of the snowfield, confronting this world.

Like the sole dot marked upon a blank sheet of paper.

"That old monster's tongue certainly runs long. The Blood Demons have merely gone beyond the borders for a while on my secret orders... Hmm?"

I wished only for that single dot to extend into a line.

"You are...?"

The Heavenly Demon's eyes widened. She watched me walk toward her as though unable to believe it. Understandably so. From her perspective, I would be the first living person she had encountered in years.

"Oh, goodness. Am I seeing things? It looks as though a living person is moving..."

"Heavenly Demon."

I came to a stop before the woman.

Then I slowly knelt. The cold snow sank gently beneath my weight.

"Huh?"

"Far beyond the borders, I heard of your might and found my way here in search of you. For a very long time, I have heard of your fame as the greatest of all time and admired you deeply."

I did not know how much time it would take from here on.

But I was prepared. I cried out to the Heavenly Demon.

"Please accept me as your disciple!"

"..."

The Heavenly Demon's jaw dropped as though she had seen a ghost.