The Young Cult Leader threatened me with Thousand-Mile Divine Eye’s life.
At that, I let out a dry laugh inwardly.
Would you look at this bastard.
What the hell was he even saying right now?
Thousand-Mile Divine Eye would die?
—What are you talking about?
I answered with voice transmission too.
Then, as if he had been waiting for it, the Young Cult Leader replied at once.
—If I’m using Thousand-Mile Divine Eye as collateral, it’s not a bad choice, is it? It’s only one spar. Is even that too much?
—No, I mean who the hell are you to weigh the strategist’s life on a scale?
As I spoke, my mind raced.
The life of Thousand-Mile Divine Eye that he had just mentioned.
Surely he meant—
The baleful force.
I remembered the baleful force the Death King had tried to fire off.
And I remembered that I had gotten rid of it.
Was this bastard seriously trying to use that on me right now?
He thinks the baleful force worked?
Unbelievable.
And irritating.
—Whatever it is, choose.
Spar with him.
Or let Thousand-Mile Divine Eye die.
He was telling me to choose between those?
Ha.
A sigh escaped me, and heat rose in my chest.
Annoyance surged up.
If possible, I had been trying not to get tangled up with this bastard.
Why does he keep provoking me?
He kept poking at me more than necessary.
Even though we were bound to get entangled and become a pain in each other’s lives sooner or later, he still pushed it like this.
Did I not screw him over hard enough?
Or was he trying to use that as an excuse to take his anger out on me?
Whatever it was, it was pointless.
“Ah.”
Fine, then.
Apparently—
“You need a beating.”
“What?”
“Get up. You said you wanted a round.”
[Hah.]
At my words, the Heavenly Demon laughed.
For some reason, the reaction reminded me of Yoo Cheongil, and that flicker of irritation passed through me again, but I ignored that too.
As far as I was concerned, there was no way I could leave this alone now.
*****
Lately, I’ve been thinking this.
I °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° think my personality’s gotten filthier.
That was how it looked to me.
I didn’t think I used to get this emotional or blow up this easily...
Is it because of the Divine Sword?
Or was it because of the Heavenly Demon, or something else?
I couldn’t be sure.
Whatever the cause, though, this was what I had turned into.
“I didn’t think you’d actually accept.”
A sparring ground had been set up inside the Murim Alliance.
The Young Cult Leader and I stood on top of it.
The moment we took our places, he spoke to me.
He hadn’t thought I’d accept?
That was ridiculous.
“You kicked up all that bullshit to make sure I would accept, and now you’re saying you didn’t think I would? There’s such a thing as taking wordplay too far.”
“Hahaha. I merely put forward something tempting enough.”
“Ah, just shut up.”
I grabbed the sword at my waist.
The Divine Sword.
Thinking of that, I hesitated for a moment.
Could I really draw this here?
The Heavenly Demon had said it was fine.
“...”
Just in case, I drew it carefully, wondering whether it might cause some reaction.
Shrrrng.
The Divine Sword slid free, its blade revealing itself to the world.
The Young Cult Leader saw it too, but—
“...”
He showed no particular reaction.
So it really was fine?
The shape hadn’t changed or anything, either.
Hmm.
I gripped the sword and leveled it at him.
He too drew a sword from his waist.
Shrrng.
It was a double-edged sword, and the blade was the same dark color as mine.
Darksteel?
At a glance alone, it carried an air that ordinary famous swords couldn’t compare to.
While I was looking at it—
“...What is this supposed to be?”
Someone appeared at the sparring ground.
It was Divine Spear.
His face twisted as he looked at us.
“The Alliance Leader has come.”
The Young Cult Leader said it while looking at him.
“I requested a spar from Moon Hero. Graciously, this friend of mine accepted.”
“...A spar?”
At the word spar, Divine Spear’s expression hardened further.
A spar, out of nowhere?
“What is this?”
This time he spoke to me.
As if asking whether I was serious.
“...That’s how it turned out.”
“...”
After hearing my answer, Divine Spear said nothing more.
“I see.”
That was all he said.
Then he stepped back a few paces, leaned against the wall, and crossed his arms.
Was he really going to watch?
Why would a busy man like him stay and watch this of all things?
Ah, this got burdensome.
A fight with Divine Spear watching.
I came here because I was pissed off, sure.
But could I win?
Still, I had undergone a rebirth and raised my realm.
Wouldn’t that be enough to beat him?
I didn’t know.
I really didn’t know, but—
I’ll do it and find out.
The arrow had already left the string.
There was no taking it back now.
“Shall we begin?”
the Young Cult Leader said.
“One question first.”
“What?”
“Why do you want to fight me?”
I was curious.
Why he was so intent on sparring with me.
“Is ‘I simply wanted to fight you’ not enough of an answer?”
“It isn’t. There’s nothing for either of us to gain from this fight. On top of that—”
I paused briefly, then continued,
“I feel like we’re going to fight each other one day anyway, even without something like this.”
“Hahaha—”
I said it as though predicting the future.
Did he not know that?
No.
He knew.
That bastard knew all of it.
And still he wanted to fight.
“That’s true. But there’s no harm in having a taste first, is there?”
“...Hmm.”
Was that so?
“Fine, then.”
I decided not to think about it any more than that.
Besides—
Once.
I had wanted to try this too.
“Shall I give you the first move?”
the Young Cult Leader said.
“Gladly.”
I did not refuse.
I immediately tightened my core and let my energy explode out.
Crackle—!!! Rumble—!!!!
Moonbolt.
At once, the power in my whole body burst outward, and exhilaration surged up.
“Huh...”
The Young Cult Leader’s eyes widened in surprise as he watched.
“I’m coming.”
There was no need to watch that reaction any longer.
I put strength into my legs and charged.
Boom—!!!
I shot forward like an arrow.
At a speed completely unlike before, I gripped my sword tight.
Radiant Moon Flash Aura roared violently.
I released the flash at once.
A single point of sword-light burrowed toward him—
Kwaaaaang—!!!!!
—and stopped just before the sharp edge split open the space between his brows.
“...”
Our eyes met.
With a puzzled expression, he asked,
“...Why did you stop?”
“It’d be boring if it ended like this. Do it properly.”
“Hmm.”
The Young Cult Leader nodded.
“My apologies. I underestimated you.”
That instant—
Whoosh—!!!
Moon Eye caught his sword path.
A black line.
I moved the Divine Sword the moment I saw it.
Clang—!!!
The swords collided.
The Young Cult Leader attacked and drove in at me fast.
Skreeech—!!!
Close combat began.
Moon Eye captured the path of his sword.
Using that, I kept knocking his attacks aside.
He’s fast.
Fast.
My eyes rolled, tracing the range and speed of his attacks.
But still—
I’m faster.
Kirik—!
I knocked his sword away on the diagonal and let the force slide past.
Using that, I created an opening.
A gap had opened up.
Seeing it, I twisted my waist.
Moon Wave—
A sharp crescent slashed toward the Young Cult Leader.
At this rate, the attack would land cleanly.
But then—
“...So this won’t do either?”
A chill ran through me.
Something icy and wrong rippled out of the Young Cult Leader’s body.
Fwoooosh—!!!
Black energy coiled around his sword.
Creeeak—!!!!
Black force crashed against the brilliant crescent from the outside.
Moon Wave was blocked.
His eyes had turned red.
Boom—!!!
The attack I had unleashed was repelled, and the recoil came back into me instead.
I caught my shaken balance.
The atmosphere had changed.
Was he finally going to do this properly?
If so—
then I’d have to do it properly too.
Thinking that, I prepared Great Moon.
I loosed the form.
It resembled Moon Wave, but it was also a little different.
Kiiiing—!!
The sword path poured out in clean order.
If the light Radiant Moon Flash Aura gave off was the moon itself, then the Young Cult Leader’s power resembled night.
A very, very vicious night.
This—
Was this demonic qi?
Even just blocking it from the side made my body want to shrink back on its own.
Even with Moonbolt active.
It felt as though our speed was matching now.
This bastard had something.
Had he not used his real strength properly back at the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering?
Clang—!
Already the fourth form.
Even as I reached the fourth sword path, he blocked Great Moon.
Five.
Six.
Then I prepared the final, seventh form.
Even if it doesn’t go through—
I can still unleash the sword strike.
I swelled the condensed Radiant Moon Flash Aura to the extreme.
Light bloomed in full and shot toward the Young Cult Leader.
“Hup.”
With a shout, the Young Cult Leader released demonic qi.
Kwaaaaaang—!!!!
Aura crashed against aura, and an enormous shockwave exploded outward.
“Aagh!”
“Urgh...!”
The martial artists watching the match were shoved back by the blast.
Fwoosh—!!
Wind exploded out and filled the sparring ground.
It was an absurd gale.
I was only startled for an instant by what had happened—
Not yet.
Instinct told me at once that it was not over yet.
I put strength into Moon Eye and looked through the sandstorm thrown up by the recoil.
Inside it, I saw crimson eyes.
I lunged.
Again.
Again.
Swiiish—!!!
I lashed the sword like a whip.
To sweep away the view obscuring the front.
The wind from the blade tore the storm aside.
In the brightened instant that followed, I charged him again.
Heat was starting to build in my body.
Not bad.
At this rate, I could ride the momentum and—
“I lost.”
“...What?”
—but I had to freeze where I was at the words the Young Cult Leader let out.
He raised both hands and conceded defeat.
“I lost?”
“Yeah.”
I asked because I thought I might have heard wrong, but he reacted as though his answer had been perfectly clear.
Was he insane?
“...Why?”
The spar wasn’t over yet.
Why was he conceding?
I didn’t understand, so I asked.
“I can’t really keep going, and I’ve already seen what I wanted to see, so I don’t think there’s any need to continue. Our friend here is very strong, huh?”
“What?”
“Good work. As expected, the future of the orthodox faction really is on another level.”
The Young Cult Leader slid his sword back into his waist.
The people watching began to murmur.
None of them looked as though they really believed the spar had ended like that.
“Crazy bastard.”
“As promised, we had our spar... so that part will be handled as it should.”
The Young Cult Leader turned his back and stepped down just like that.
Watching him go, I swallowed the displeased look rising onto my face and retrieved the Divine Sword.
That bastard.
What exactly had his objective been?
*****
Right after the one-bout between the Demonic Cult and orthodox faction ended—
the spar having concluded in Moon Hero’s victory—
the Young Cult Leader returned to the Demonic Cultists.
Among those gathered around the sparring ground, one Demonic Cultist asked him,
“Little Sky... are you truly all right...?”
“So I checked. It seems he isn’t the one.”
His face gone expressionless, the Young Cult Leader clicked his tongue as he spoke.
He had observed carefully enough, but he had caught nothing.
It was a somewhat dangerous method.
Still, now that he had certainty, that was enough.
There had been no demonic qi from him.
Then who was that bastard?
The one who had called himself the Heavenly Demon.
The Young Cult Leader had been unable to stop suspecting that it might have been Bang Seongyeon, but the bastard possessed not even the slightest demonic qi.
...Tch.
He ground his teeth.
It was a waste to lose the Thousand-Mile Divine Eye card like this, but at least he had confirmed what he needed to confirm.
Of course—
that doesn’t mean I’ve lost the card.
A valuable card was to be left in place.
He had gone so far as to meet Bow Ghost to make it. He had to leave it as it was.
Still—
How will he respond?
He had already brought up Thousand-Mile Divine Eye.
At this point, Bang Seongyeon’s next move mattered.
He turned his head back.
Blue eyes were fixed on him.
Seeing that, the Young Cult Leader smiled as well.
Wait.
Not yet.
He concealed the tremor in his hand.
The aftereffects from just now had strained his body.
He did not think it had originally been to this extent.
It seemed the bastard had gained some great fortuitous encounter.
At this rate, he might have to go all out himself.
Was that even possible?
Was that bastard really such a genius?
It was strange, but there was no way to know right now.
He wanted to cut him down at once with everything he had.
But he had to endure it.
Because he’ll come soon enough.
The time was not far off.
It simply was not yet.
