---

**

I quietly stared at him.

The neatly arranged appearance was already gone. In front of me was a monster barely maintaining a human skin, tangled and disheveled.

“…Lord of the Cheonryong Association.”

The Lord of the Cheonryong Association, Moon-ryong.

He was the former master of the now-fallen Cheonryong Association.

I gazed at him, lost in thought, when a monstrous bellows broke out.

“YOU!!! YOU BLOODY SAFA BASTARDS!!!”

The outburst swept the surroundings in an instant. A jolting energy enveloped him, a golden lightning bolt swallowing him whole.

Yeong-wol chuckled, shaking her shoulders. It seemed as if she had steeled her heart, and the words flowing out were nothing short of grotesque.

“I believe we’ve met before, yes? Hm? Martial Alliance Inspector.”

“…….”

“Feeling a bit off, are we? But what could be done? The dead usually like this. The lingering soul still clings to the body. Hence, they repeat past actions. But it’s not like they don’t listen at all… just leave them be.”

The jolting energy flowed along the ground. Cracked stones leapt into the air.

That presence. That strength.

It was the same as the Cheonryong Association leader I had witnessed back then.

Which is why it felt even more disgusting.

Strong and unyielding…

A leader who always led from the front, taking the initiative with his subordinates.

There was no hint of greed in his sword. Only the resolve to fulfill his responsibilities as the leader of his group was contained within.

But now, that sword was being used by someone else.

By one who sullies his living will.

“……”

I didn’t have a deep relationship with him. If I had to categorize it, we exchanged just a few words at most.

Yet I knew. He was no warrior worthy of such humiliation.

It was the same in Shaolin.

Now it was happening here too.

“…You lot.”

Another bell tolled.

“Why… do you take it this far…?”

“That’s a strange question,” Yeong-wol replied with a smile. “The world belongs to Reverse Heaven anyway. It’s simply about handling what’s yours however you please. Do we need to attach a reason to each move?”

“…….”

I quietly let my drawn sword drop.

Everyone has their own battlefield. And mine was undoubtedly right in front of me.

“Ok-gyeong.”

“Yeah?”

“Take care of the people. It might get a little rough. I’ll handle the Lord of the Cheonryong Association.”

I stepped into the battlefield, overturning the surface with sheer energy.

“I’ll leave that woman to you…”

The Lord of the Cheonryong Association.

Once, we stood on the battlefield together…

Now, facing a being that has become nothing more than a vessel, I raised my sword.

“Kill him. Without fail.”

“Arrogant, aren’t we? Martial Alliance Inspector. Did you think a dead man would lose his strength?”

Yeong-wol, wearing the mask of the Master of Sado Clan, drew her sword.

“You’ll die here. I don’t know how you’ve managed to survive in such a state, but…”

Yeong-wol spat out hair that had entered her mouth.

“This time, I won’t leave even a piece of that corpse intact. I’ll burn it all, ensuring it never comes back.”

Gu Ok-gyeong sprung forward. In an instant, dozens of strikes erupted, and Yeong-wol’s body was sent crashing to the ground.

Only the two of us remained. I stared at the Lord of the Cheonryong Association.

His crazed eyes, dripping with drool, were set on me. And I looked at him too.

“I will… kill… it all…!”

The once-respected warrior had fallen to such depths, and there was only one thing I could offer him.

Letting him rest, even for a moment.

“…Soon.”

I let the sharpened blade rest on the ground.

Gumang howled.

“I’ll make it comfortable for you.”

…

Yeong-wol slammed into the ground with a rough thud but quickly recovered and evaded an incoming attack with ease.

A dazzling flash. The mercilessly descending sword was also evaded flawlessly.

So, she was hiding her power. Not entirely a dropout, then.

Gu Ok-gyeong twisted her body and kicked mercilessly at Yeong-wol’s abdomen, causing her to spit out a mixture of blood and saliva.

“You’re pretty abrasive. Are you going to treat me like this on our first night together?”

“First night? Hah, did you get a knife stuck in your head or something?”

“Why? You think it’s strange? A woman loving another woman?”

“…Haaah…”

Gu Ok-gyeong leaned on her sword casually.

“I’ve met all kinds of freaks. Do you think I’d be fazed by a mere sentiment? But damn it, that’s not the problem. Your ugly walls are the issue.”

“I just wanted to hold you.”

“Into a rag? Is that love? A budding affection? Smash everything I have, and leave me with only an empty shell?”

“…That’s how it should be.”

Yeong-wol brushed her fingers over her sword.

The lavender poison and Yi-hyeong Ki began to ooze from the tip.

“You will lean only on me.”

“You crazy girl.”

There was no need to tolerate any longer. I originally came here to kill for real.

Opening all the meridians in my body. Melding with nature, revealing my turbulent heart’s landscape to the world.

The rushing winds. The energy strewn out in waves consumed all in its path.

—Crack!

“You die here, Yeong-wol.”

The form began to descend. The culmination of my honed martial arts took shape as the Heart Sword.

Shura’s Thirty-Six Blades.

Thousand Remnants of Demons.

The waves of energy took form as they descended. The shadow of a woman who had been swinging her sword for her beloved emerged, enveloping her from behind.

The form wrapped around her like a shadow. But it was different. The completely encompassing Heart Sword concealed greater power than it appeared.

Yeong-wol’s face twisted.

“W-what is that?!”

“…What? Damn it. Are you jealous of my Heart Sword?”

“Is that the remnant of Ilma?! Why would you go that far over someone you met just once as a child?!”

“Because she was different from you. Damn it. Aren’t you paying attention? If you make my revenge meaningless, I’ll kill you.”

“…Hah! Both sides are the same…!”

Grinding her teeth, Yeong-wol regained her stance.

“All I need to do is endure! The Lord of the Cheonryong Association over there will immediately join us! If we are to fight, you should have fought alongside me back there! Gu Ok-gyeong! This time, I shall bind you in a space from which you cannot escape! No way for you to run from me!”

“You crazy girl.”

Growling, Gu Ok-gyeong shifted her stance.

“Endure? Sure. Go on and endure. But your judgment is completely wrong. Damn you, do you think that they’ll just sit around like you?”

“…What did you say?”

“I don’t know where that dude on the brink of death is, but… not now. It’s not the way you imagine it.”

That’s right. It’s absolutely not.

I know better than anyone, having been alongside him this whole time.

That power. That strength.

That sword. The heaviest sword in the world.

“Enduring, you say…”

Gu Ok-gyeong chuckled grimly.

“That must be the tale of the Lord of the Cheonryong Association.”

…

The Heart Sword moved.

“SAFAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!”

Amid the strange voices erupting, the heavens and earth were flipped. The thunder dragon, driven mad with rage, swept the ground, moving to engulf me.

Formless yet powerful.

An energy mass that one cannot properly receive head-on unless it’s Heart Sword.

I raised my sword. I swung with all my might to knock it down.

It wasn’t encased by the Heart Sword.

I merely wielded Gumang.

But with that alone…

—KWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

The thunder dragon roared as it plunged into the ground.

The jolting energy swept through the area. Trees snapped one after another, and the overturned energy created a hole deep in the ground.

With that, even the Lord of the Cheonryong Association temporarily fell into a state of combat incapacity. He merely took a breath and gazed my way.

It was perhaps the lingering soul remaining in the body mimicking a human form.

It was utterly unpleasant.

Like forcibly binding that shadow of his lifetime, I lifted my sword once again.

The Heart Sword, which cannot be defended against at a low level. But for me, it was different.

Already, that very thing itself was the Heart Sword, and it was in my hand.

Ear Sword, Gumang.

The three swords became one, and the sword that spent the longest time with me was anchoring itself in the center…

It became the real Ear Sword, incomparable to any divine weapon in the world.

Nothing in the world is unattainable.

Nothing in the world can escape your grasp.

But still, it isn’t enough. After all, a weapon is merely a weapon. To truly shatter my opponent, I had to unleash my own skills.

“…Hah.”

To draw blood from someone is never a pleasant feeling. Yet there are times when it must be done.

This moment… is exactly that.

I close my eyes, feeling my body’s energy swirling around, whispering to me.

The changes I could never have imagined before. Yet now, I could move everything possible at my fingertips.

The red clouds of Bi Cheon have truly become red clouds.

And now stood tall, making it hard to find an opponent.

Heaven was right before me.

So, for a moment, I could be a false heaven.

Hold the sword and sing.

Lifting free from the clumsy Yi-hyeong Ki…

Neither beast nor…

Not claws…

Nor fangs.

Always in the form I swung.

What I always hoped for was…

…

The sword I could always wield.

“…….?!”

The Lord of the Cheonryong Association reflexively looked up at the sky. Watching the red clouds gather into a point, he hastily maneuvered the thunder dragon.

Despite its size, the Heart Sword wails mournfully. But that doesn’t stop the flow.

The rapidly converging red clouds gathered into a single point, soon beginning to scream as they punched a hole in the center.

Like a whirlpool pulling inward, it began to rush with all its might to create a singularity.

A shape as if the heavens had been pierced. And all of it gathered as a vessel that could contain itself.

Ear Sword, Gumang.

The white and black pearls were fine-tuning.

And encompassing all of that…

The Blood Sword.

“…….”

I.

Always wished for it.

Unwavering and unbreakable.

No matter what happens, to keep pushing forward.

To become the heaviest person in the world.

So I grasped it. I grasped the sword.

All the red clouds of the world was drawn in and moving.

Concentrating the energies of everything under the heavens in the form of that sword…

The sword that touches the heavens.

To paint the entire world red…

The heaviest sword in the world.

“…Nine Heavens Blood Demon Technique, Eighth Form.”

When everything comes to an end, the world falls silent. The world that was stained red turned into a mere sword, quietly handed to me.

What is now settled before me is not a sword, but the lingering spirit that couldn’t let go of the sword while wandering through the heavens; it has now returned to reality, condensing all the passed time into this moment.

Simple yet quiet.

A silent red time devoid of any flair or drama.

But.

“Rasetsumon.”

That alone is enough.

To divide the world in two.

 

---