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Chapter 156

Yuri was not far away. The reason it took Yeonwoo somewhat longer than expected was simple – he was taking his time for Yeonwoo’s growth.

The disparity in levels between Yeonwoo and his opponent was certainly severe. However, it was closer to a difference in physical capabilities than in realms of expertise.

“Christopher, a retired hunter.”

Yeonwoo said that gathering information about the man nicknamed Gloomy Monster felt like trying to find shards of glass in the desert.

What was his name, how old he was, what abilities he had, and why he retired – just basic personal circumstances. But even that was enough for Yuri to narrow down a specific individual.

‘To think he reached the level of an Aura Master solely through the talent for killing without practicing martial arts at all.’

In martial arts, this would be referred to as a talent known as “Heavenly Killing Ability,” and in Alkeon, it’s called disaster.

Though he possessed such talent, he somehow lived a mundane life, but eventually went into hiding after losing the woman he loved – a common tale, indeed.

The last physician who examined him after his injury concluded that there was an issue with his brain.

Having lost consciousness from a head injury amid chaos, he lost his beloved at that time, which led him to plunge into the Demon King’s Church.

‘What a fool’s plight, who cares about that?’

There is no experience more beneficial than fighting a strong opponent.

If necessary, it wouldn’t matter if his disciple was half-dead. After all, if it truly came down to life and death, he would likely save him himself. But there was no reason to tell Yeonwoo that. There is nothing more valuable than the experiences gained from battle.

“Grandfather, I’m scared….”

“Haha, but it’s all for your father, so try to understand.”

Yuri chuckled in response to Tae-oh’s muttering, planting his dark sword on the ground. The thick, damp earth crumbled with a thud.

“Didn’t you have that look in your eyes, wanting to get strong somehow? You must seize this crisis as an opportunity, my disciple.”

Yuri was already sitting above Yeonwoo’s head, waiting for the right moment.

*

‘…Ah, this.’

The pain in his head dulling. Only after the sensations in his body subsided, which had flared with the pain, could Christopher regain his cool judgment. Overhead, an overwhelming presence remained, though it was only a fraction of the total.

Time dragged on excessively. Well, starting from midway, the High Priest’s request was hardly on his mind anymore.

‘But should I at least pretend to try…? It’s bothersome to find a new place after all….’

Still, the flow wasn’t bad. It was unexpected that the Gloomy Monster’s gaze, which had been staring fiercely at Kim Yoo-min, settled down calmly.

‘My mana is depleting too quickly….’

Shadow attribute magic, which became more efficient thanks to the contract with Tae-oh, meant nothing to the Gloomy Monster. It had exploded to the point where retrieval was impossible, just from a touch.

He was figuring that both time limitations and the thought of when his master would arrive were stirring in his mind when suddenly the Gloomy Monster halted in his tracks. Then, he pointed a finger at Kim Yoo-min.

A truly disrespectful finger.

“…Hmm, what’s that kid’s name?”

Out of the blue, the Gloomy Monster asked for Kim Yoo-min’s name, and Yeonwoo couldn’t help but laugh in disbelief.

“Why do you think I’d tell you that?”

“…I see. Never mind then, it doesn’t matter. Well… looks like I should only go this far, so I’ll be running away now… What will you do?”

“Here? You’re going to run away? Aren’t you overly confident? This is the middle of the city!”

“Yeah, well… it doesn’t matter, but I have to pretend to try, you know? Sorry, but don’t die or run away….”

With that mumble, the Gloomy Monster clenched his fist and readied his stance. His right fist went to his waist, bending both legs into a martial arts stance.

It was clumsy and awkward. It looked as if a child was trying to imitate his father’s martial arts. Even Yeonwoo, who wasn’t well-versed in martial arts himself, could tell that much.

However, what was chilling was that despite the clumsy pose, the man’s fighting spirit had changed drastically. It was clear. He hadn’t been putting his all into it until now. But it was also true that he had been trying to kill Yeonwoo to whatever end.

A dreadful sensation rang alarms throughout his body. He needed to evade. But evade to where? Yeonwoo instinctively realized that this was unavoidable. Don’t die and don’t run away, what kind of absurd thing is that…?!

Yeonwoo hurriedly erected layers of shadow walls between himself and the Gloomy Monster. Even though he set up dozens of them, it was inherently a shallow physical attribute. So he mixed in the surrounding dirt, but this alone would clearly be insufficient.

The methods… two ideas popped up in his mind. The first was unstable, and the second would affect Kim Yoo-min behind him as well. In a brief moment of intense thought, Yeonwoo tightened his loose grip on his sword.

‘Tae-oh, Shar. What do you think?’

[…If it’s Dad, he can do it!! Hang in there!!]

[Mm!! I’ll do my best!!]

The children also encouraged Yeonwoo’s choice. They seemed to judge that it was not without possibility. If Shar respected his choice, then it was also his duty as a father to respond accordingly.

“…Are you ready?”

“Who are you? My professor?”

Yeonwoo’s prickly reaction was taken as an affirmative, and the Gloomy Monster’s fist wrapped in aura cut a straight trajectory as it swung through the air.

Until now, the Gloomy Monster hadn’t even grabbed his fist without aura, yet he showed that much power. Now he had clenched his fist and was using aura.

Awwwwoooouuuhh.

In a moment that felt like time was slowing down, Yeonwoo suddenly swung his sword. There was no time to recall the intricacies of the Crescent Moon Sword Technique one by one. The thought that he would die if he didn’t cut through with the Full Moon’s Heaven immediately tickled his brain endlessly.

Before him was a clearly lethal strike, and Yeonwoo’s senses peaked. The instincts for human survival drove him to sift through all experiences to deduce results. As a result, the flow of the Crescent Moon Sword began to seep into Yeonwoo’s body.

The moon was rising. Then, when the time came, wielding the sword would elevate the moon. The distance Yeonwoo blended into the darkness ensured that beginning of the motion arrived promptly. His maximized reflexes hastened the signals reaching his brain by a fraction of a second.

The trajectory of the sword stretched out. Neither slow nor fast. There was no need to be faster than perfect speed, nor was there a reason to be slower. Just as if in response, though it wasn’t night, the moon’s stigmata began to scatter silver light. The perfect trajectory Yeonwoo drew was mistaken for the moon, and it began to exude its divinity.

Kiiing!!

The overwhelming torrent of violence began to be pushed back by Yeonwoo’s sword. It was enough to leave anyone stunned. He had swung his fist just once, yet it felt as if laser beams were locking onto his sword. It was absurd, but Yeonwoo didn’t break his concentration.

Atop Yeonwoo’s arms, shadows snaked about. It was Tae-oh. A shadow arm that split off from his shoulder. He had thought that someday he might use it in real combat, but he never expected to need it in a life-and-death situation.

He recognized the four arms. It was an utterly unfamiliar sensation, but after practicing to the point of nearly bleeding, he had gotten accustomed to using the shadow arms for everyday tasks. While maintaining his concentration on the Full Moon’s Heaven, he gripped the iron sword taken from Relin’s Warehouse with the shadow arm.

Raising the shadow arm above his head, he exhaled sharply and swung it down neatly. It was just a simple downward slash, one without any name.

However, the decade of experience embedded in that downward slice was not dulled merely by keeping a bit of distance.

It was a sword stroke that theoretically could only be used with shadow elemental enhancement, the strongest sword strike Yeonwoo could wield at that moment, as he couldn’t properly utilize Full Moon’s Heaven; he had only designed it but never thought he would use it this way.

A torrent of force surged, being cut into pieces in an X-shape. Fragments of violence split into four and shot in all directions, crushing the ground and creating a massive hole in the ceiling. Beyond the blinding flash before his eyes, the silhouette of the Gloomy Monster came into view.

“Madness.”

A sense of powerlessness washed over Yeonwoo’s whole body. He had drawn upon all his mana to counter that overwhelming force, yet the Gloomy Monster seemed composed.

As the man’s left fist stretched out, oddly, Yeonwoo took a step forward. It had happened without his conscious intention. His body moved forward, raising the sword above his head as if it were totally unplanned.

An inscrutable movement. However, Yeonwoo instinctively felt that this step forward was his best chance for survival.

But he couldn’t know what kind of outcome that decision would lead to.

“Alright, let’s leave it at that.”

A black line was drawn in front of Yeonwoo’s eyes. When the overwhelming force reached the line, it vanished without a trace. The ceiling let out a booming sound as it began to collapse. Amidst that, Yuri descended, drawing his sword.

The Gloomy Monster reacted quickly. The shadows surrounding him twisted strangely to form a gate.

The gate used by Kai when he escaped. It was the Demon King’s power. Considering that the Demon King of Moryo showed no interest in the church, this was likely the sign that the Demon King was watching the Gloomy Monster closely.

“Master, we’re running away…!!”

“I can tell by just looking. There doesn’t seem to be any way to stop him, but we’ll need to collect some compensation for troubling my old disciple.”

At that moment, it was almost by chance that Yeonwoo realized that the sword had swung. This was because the pieces of rock falling from the ceiling had split in two before him.

Kiiing!!

A black line tore open the vanishing gate in the air. From the narrowly opened gap, something stick-like fell to the ground with a thud.

“…Is that an arm?”

“Oh my. I was confident I could sever anything, but to think I’d wedge an arm in place to block after aiming for the neck. Quite a sturdy fellow.”

“…More importantly, did you just cut through dimensions?”

“If you follow this old man, someday you too will gain the ability to do so.”

“It would take a hundred years….”

As Yeonwoo muttered that, he weakly collapsed. Yuri, who was chuckling, lifted Kim Yoo-min and Yeonwoo with his aura and escaped from underground.

Shar couldn’t help but doubt his eyes. The power that barely seemed a problem was something he had gauged by eye, which made him respect his father’s opinion. There hadn’t been any major issues with the process.

However, it was the moment after he had made that cut and when Yeonwoo took a step forward that became the concern. Only Shar likely noticed that Yeonwoo’s aura had suddenly been coated in color.

In Shar’s knowledge, such a phenomenon was something that could only be witnessed in one case.

The precursor to awakening elemental mana.

(To be continued in the next episode)

 

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