Chapter 132
We stared at each other amidst the entanglement of mountain ranges and flesh.
The flames that had risen up to my shoulders were scorching hot. My right arm was burning, but my left arm and legs also felt hot. The heat seemed to spread through my veins and engulf my entire body. My stomach and chest felt hot, and even the corners of my eyes felt hot.
I used that heat to fight back the heaviness that clung to my feet as Jun-Hyuk walked toward me. Black and red tentacles swirled around the back of his neck. Those tentacles had drawn the pentagram and put Jun-Hyuk's severed body back together.
Kyahhhhh! Arghhh, arghhhhh!!
Crack crash—!
The mountain ranges and flesh collided and fought with each other. Neither side had an advantage. We walked under the shadow that was cast by the fight and approached each other.
Jun-Hyuk's body was filled with holes and was dripping with blood due to getting pierced by the swords. The state of my body wasn’t all that different.
Thud, thud, thud.
Even amidst the screams of flesh and the rumblings of the mountains, the sounds of our footsteps were clear. While drenched in blood, we faced each other at the crossroads where life and death intertwined.
"It doesn’t look like we’ll be able to shake hands, though," Jun-Hyuk said with a smirk.
His left hand was severed, and my right arm was on fire. It was clear that shaking hands was out of the question. Above all, our relationship was too distant for us to do a handshake.
I responded by lifting up the Executioner's Sword.
Swish!
Jun-Hyuk's tentacles moved as if splitting the air and drew a pentagram. Demonic energy flowed out and seeped into his severed wrist. Instead of red blood, black blood flowed from the wound that had been covered in demonic energy. The black blood solidified and became his hand. The hand was engulfed in black flames.
I drew spell arrays.
The Curse of Fainting, the Curse of Nightmares, and Memory Annihilation.
I drew every spell array that came to mind. I didn't think the spells would work on Jun-Hyuk, but if I could momentarily cloud his consciousness, it would be enough.
Puff...
The purple mist that flowed out from the spell array enveloped Jun-Hyuk. Pitch-black demonic energy and black flames surrounded my body. The purple mist and black smoke gathered and dispersed. There was no light in this place. There was only mist and smoke.
"Bossou..." I said as I lifted my sword.
Even if Jun-Hyuk's body were severed, it would regenerate. I wouldn’t be able to kill him with a conventional swing. I had to risk everything in this strike, even if my muscles tore apart, my bones broke, tears of blood flowed out, and my nose bled.
[Bossou responds... to the Prophet's call.] Bossou reluctantly answered with a trembling voice.
My blood boiled, my heart pounded, and my vision blurred. Everything was hazy, and only the sound of my own breathing was clear. Bossou's voice echoed in my mind once again.
[Bossou fears death.]
"..."
[It's not my death, but the Prophet's death that I fear. Your body is dying right now.]
My body was burning. The flames of the devil and the drawbacks caused by overusing the power of the Loa had spread throughout my body. My joints ached, my muscles felt as if they were being torn apart, and my organs felt like they were melting.
If I were to use Bossou's power at maximum output on top of all that, it was possible that my body would break apart and I would die.
"It's alright."
However, if I couldn't kill Jun-Hyuk right now, I would die. I couldn't give up on the fight and run away. There was the possibility that he might expose the fact that I was the Cult Leader of the Voodoo Cult to the Holy See. In order for me to survive, I had to kill him right here.
[Understood.]
With Bossou's reply, his monstrous power filled my body. I could hardly see anything in front of me. I had obtained that power by exchanging my optic nerves. My faint vision was enough. I channeled my strength into my legs and then leaped towards Jun-Hyuk.
Crack.
My legs broke. I could no longer feel any pain. My body had long since reached the maximum pain threshold, so there was no room to feel any more pain. I exerted the full force of my leap to the tip of the sword. The Executioner's Sword screamed toward Jun-Hyuk's head.
Clang!
The sword stopped before being able to pierce his head. Jun-Hyuk blocked the sword with his hand, which was engulfed in flames. His hand, which was burning with dark and dense flames, was sturdy. However, I did not release my strength. I intended to pierce through his palm and directly penetrate all the way down to his head.
Creak, creak—!
Jun-Hyuk's palm clashed against the Executioner's Sword. The sword was occasionally pulled forward and pushed back, but it could not pierce through toward Jun-Hyuk's forehead.
The purple radiance emanating from the Executioner's Sword mixed with the dim fire flowing out from Jun-Hyuk's palm. The confrontation was intense. If I released my strength, Jun-Hyuk would twist my neck, and conversely, if Jun-Hyuk released his strength, the Executioner's Sword would impale his temple.
"Let me ask just one thing." In the midst of this precarious standoff, I asked, "Where did you take In-Ah?"
"...I wonder," Jun-Hyuk chuckled.
His lips trembled as he spoke. Jun-Hyuk scanned me with his eyes filled with bloodlust and continued, "She could be scattered here and there."
"..."
"She might have been among the taxidermied creatures that you killed."
In-Ah was nowhere to be found in Florence Academy. There were only taxidermied creatures resembling In-Ah. Since she wouldn't have gone outside of school, I naturally thought that Jun-Hyuk had kidnapped her. At the very least, I hadn’t thought that she was dead. I had no reason to think this way. I just vaguely believed that this was the case.
However, In-Ah was nowhere to be seen on Eiden Hill.
Ogun's black sword had not struck Jun-Hyuk. It meant that his words were true. My hand that was holding on to the sword began to tremble. The muscles in my arm were burning from the devil’s flames and were gradually losing strength.
I raised my left arm. Three swords that had been wandering in the air now pointed toward Jun-Hyuk. The fiercely glowing tip of the heated sword shone sharply as if it was going to pierce through Jun-Hyuk's body at any moment. However, the sword remained still in its place, unmoving.
Ogun was going against my will.
"Ogun."
[...]
Ogun did not respond and remained completely silent. I looked at him, knowing that he was watching over me from somewhere.
"Stab him."
Swoosh─!
The swords screamed as they flew toward Jun-Hyuk and me.
Splurt!
The sword pierced through my abdomen and penetrated Jun-Hyuk's heart. The force of the flying sword was transferred to my body. With that force, I pushed the Executioner's Sword in.
Crackle, crackle—!
The blade skimmed across Jun-Hyuk's hand and veered off course. The Executioner's Sword lodged itself into his left eye socket.
I wanted to swing the sword and tear apart his entire skull, but I no longer had any strength left in my hands. I didn’t even have enough Voodoo magic power to sustain the Executioner's Sword.
The Executioner's Sword embedded in his eyeball left a trail of mist and disappeared. The purple mist swirled around the area.
Jun-Hyuk touched the sword lodged in his heart and murmured, "Why are you so persistent... in interfering?" he said with a smile as blood gushed out from his mouth.
"Interfering my ass..." I raised my hand.
The two swords that were flying in the sky aimed at Jun-Hyuk.
Thud, thud...
The swords weakly fell down from the sky and crashed into the ground. There was no longer enough strength left to control Ogun's power. Tentacles sprouted from the back of Jun-Hyuk's neck, but they lay deflated without being able to conjure up any black magic.
Neither I nor Jun-Hyuk had the strength to fight anymore. We had suffered too many injuries and shed too much blood. Our bodies were growing cold.
Thump, thud—!
The mountain ranges and chunks of flesh that were fighting above our heads also lost their strength and collapsed.
Silence enveloped the area. Thin, faint drops of rain filled the silence. The thunder was small, and the wind was thin. Our hearts beat slowly and weakly. The demonic energy that had filled Eiden Hill so densely that one couldn't see a step ahead had now become faint.
As the demonic energy dissipated, a pit appeared behind Jun-Hyuk. It was a deep, black pit that was like a well. It seemed to be a makeshift pit to retrieve the box that was buried on Eiden Hill.
"What's inside the box..."
"...How do you know about it?"
At that moment, Jun-Hyuk's expression turned cold. His pupils trembled slightly. Pain spread throughout my body. I couldn't speak properly, and I couldn't even finish my sentence.
With the little strength that I had left, I used the intoxication spell. I breathed in the mist and expelled the pain.
And then I said, "Resurrecting Satan... or something like that?"
Jun-Hyuk twisted his mouth as if mocking me. And with trembling hands, he put his hand into his pocket.
"Something like that."
What he pulled out from his pocket was an eyeball. Jun-Hyuk picked up the eyeball that was filled with veins and put it in his mouth. Tentacles emerged from the eye socket that had been pierced by the Executioner's Sword and reconstructed Jun-Hyuk's eyeball.
Jun-Hyuk's body trembled, and he looked at me with his newly reconstructed eyeball as he said, "I am becoming Satan's container."
That eyeball was not a human eyeball. The pupil was horizontally split like a goat or sheep's eyeball. I couldn't read the emotions contained in that iris. No, I couldn't even look at that iris in the first place.
Swoosh!
Tentacles sprang out from the back of Jun-Hyuk's neck and eyeball. The tentacles wrapped around half of his head. Foul demonic... energy was flowing out of his gaping mouth. It was much thicker and more sinister than before.
“.??????? ????? ????? ????? ????” Jun-Hyuk said.
The demonic energy that flowed out of his mouth took shape and became a hand. It was a hand that I was unable to gaze at. The six eyes that were attached to the six nails glared at me.
Boom!
"Ugh...!"
The shockwave from that gaze pierced through my abdomen. I flew backward with a sword stuck in my abdomen.
—Crash!
I collided with a tree. A vomit filled with blood came out of my mouth. It felt like all my organs had exploded.
"Ah, ugh...!"
I tried to get up, but it was all in vain. I could not exert strength in any of the muscles below my chest. It seemed like my spine had snapped. Even if I managed to get up, I wouldn't be able to walk.
My body was already in shambles. I forced my unresponsive head up and looked at Jun-Hyuk in the distance, surrounded by demonic energy.
"Ah, hm, hm."
Jun-Hyuk adjusted his neck and raised the index finger of his left hand, which was burning black. Then, he wrapped his index finger with his right hand. The black flames transferred to his right hand.
As he observed both his hands burn black, he opened his mouth. From his mouth, which moved slightly, black smoke poured out as he chanted a spell.
"TH-TH-TH-AH-AH-AH-UUUMMM─!"
A pale eye was etched onto Jun-Hyuk's forehead. He closed his eyes and stared at the world with the pale eye engraved on his forehead. The black smoke that had flowed out from the decaying bodies of the dead taxidermied creatures gathered above Jun-Hyuk's head. The smoke took on a form and transformed into hundreds of chunks of flesh.
Thump, thump, thump─!
The chunks of flesh began to merge into a single mass. From that mere lump, arms, and legs sprouted, and a head formed. It was a gigantic taxidermied creature of overwhelming size, made up of the flesh of all the taxidermied creatures that had died until now.
Thud, thud─!
With each step it took, the ground trembled, and the air shook. The taxidermied creature was approaching me. The movements of the taxidermied creature were slow and ponderous, but in my current state, I couldn't avoid it. I looked up at the sky with my last remaining strength.
"Ah..."
The sky was completely covered in smoke and dark clouds. There was no room for even a ray of sunlight to shine through. From that pitch-black sky that seemed as dark as the abyss, a single ray of light shone down on me.
It was the moonlight of the full moon.
"...Kalfu."
[The full moon is beautiful tonight.]
With that response, crimson-colored moonlight that resembled the color of blood poured down onto my head.
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