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Chapter 436: Regret (2)

“Guh…!”

I snapped back to consciousness, gasping for air.

I coughed a few times, my eyes darting around.

Where am I…?

It’s a strange ceiling… or rather, I can’t see the ceiling at all.

The first thing in my view is the sky.

Is it night, or maybe dawn?

A subtle sky that doesn’t reveal the time catches my attention.

Boom!

Seeing that, I immediately sat up.

I quickly scanned the surroundings.

‘…Where am I now?’

All I could see around was charred, blackened earth.

I picked up some dirt with my hand for a closer look.

‘This is….’

The soil was rotten.

And I mean really rotten.

It seemed to have rotted due to the influence of poison.

Fortunately, maybe time has passed, as the poison seemed to have faded…

I brushed the dirt off and stood up.

First, I needed to figure out where this place is.

‘Where the hell did they send me?’

I circulated my energy throughout my body.

The energy flowed through my blood veins and made one full circle around my body.

I had recovered a tiny bit of inner strength, and I felt no abnormalities in my body.

Then, I recalled Tang Je-mun’s words.

She said we would be taking a test, so could it be that this place is the testing ground?

‘For it to feel so bizarre….’

An inexplicable atmosphere caught my eye. I wasn’t talking about the pit.

Something cool felt prickly against my instincts from outside.

I exerted power and leapt.

Thump-! I burst through the dirt and emerged from the pit.

“Hmm…?”

As soon as I landed on the ground, my eyes widened at the sight outside the pit.

I kept looking around, scanning every corner.

After a few seconds, I couldn’t help but be shocked.

It was no wonder.

“…What the hell?”

Surprisingly, the space I had just been lying in was actually Poison Lake.

All the water that should’ve been filled to the brim had vanished, leaving only a pit where I had apparently rested.

“…Huh?”

Seeing this, I let out a breath of utter disbelief.

All that water had disappeared in an instant? What is happening? Sure, the water is gone, but…

“This is bad….”

Considering that Poison Lake is somewhat treated as a treasure representing the Tang Clan.

Did all the water just disappear right after some outsider came to gawk?

This wasn’t a situation where any excuses would matter.

I really messed up.

How am I supposed to explain this?

‘…Damn it.’

I thought I encountered an opportunity, but it seems I hit a dead end.

Trying hard to relax my furrowed brow, I turned my head.

It was supposed to be to find Nahi, who was waiting outside.

“…!”

As I slowly surveyed the area, I felt another sense of unease.

First, the field that was spread all around was all dried up.

The same went for the forest I had passed through.

The trees were stained black like the soil.

Evidence that they had rotted inside and out.

The once vibrant forest the Tang Clan meticulously tended to was now dead.

Thud.

My heart raced at the sight.

My body was already in motion.

Using every last bit of my inner strength, I moved.

Something feels off.

An ambush, perhaps?

Did something happen while I was away?

My mind failed to process things clearly.

I just ran.

‘What about the others? Are they okay…!’

I had no mental capacity to understand the situation.

For now, I had to keep running.

Maybe I exerted myself too suddenly and violently.

Blood vessels ruptured in my eyes.

Boom-! Rumble-!

I burst the dust cloud as I reached the residence.

I hadn’t spotted a single person on the way.

A faint whiff of blood mixed with a chilling killing intent lingered around.

I ripped open the door to the residence.

“Haah….”

I tried hard to calm my racing heart, but it wasn’t easy.

What if something happened?

Those thoughts filled my mind.

I headed towards the places where Nangong Bi-ah and Wi Seol-Ah had been.

Even while walking through the corridor, I bit my lip at the sight of blood pooling on walls and floors.

The blood that trickled down from my lip dripped from my chin.

Eventually, I reached my destination.

“Hah….”

As expected, there were no signs of people.

Only faint traces of someone’s presence could be noticed.

I didn’t know whether to feel relieved or not.

I sank down, feeling drained.

‘What the hell… what’s going on?’

I could feel my fingertips trembling slightly.

What the heck is happening here?

I should think logically, but I couldn’t keep my cool.

My heart raced faster than usual. My breath was already disheveled.

With the rapidly fluctuating emotions, heat surged through my body.

What went wrong?

How long had I been at Biwaegun for this situation to unfold?

What happened to the others? Are they alright?

What on earth happened…?

Gripping my rattling heart, I desperately tried to make sense of it all.

Creeeeek.

I sensed something through my Qi perception.

A person.

I turned my head.

“Damn it… what’s going on here…! Is there no contact from the other troops?”

Voices could be heard.

“…Sir, we need to join up now…! Otherwise, another infiltration team will….”

“Dude, what are you gonna do if you go there? You just wanna die together? Do you even know who’s over there?”

“But…!”

That was enough to hear of their conversation.

Crash-!

I felt a presence entering the residence and ambushed it.

One guy collapsed as I broke his leg, and as he fell, I seized the other guy’s neck.

“Gah!?”

The sudden turn of events caught the intruder off guard as he stared at me in shock.

I confirmed the figure that appeared while I held his neck.

His face was ordinary.

At least, he wasn’t someone I recognized.

Oh, and…

“Martial Alliance?”

The uniform he was wearing was clearly that of the Martial Alliance’s Sword Team Uniform.

“Gah… Ugh….”

After recognizing the outfit, I slightly loosened my grip on their neck.

“Who are you? Why is the Martial Alliance here?”

“Cough…!? Su-survivor…?”

The intruder’s eyes widened in shock upon seeing me suddenly appear.

Survivor?

“W-wait, how can there be a survivor…! I heard there were definitely no survivors…!?”

His frosty words contorted my expression.

This means that there had been an attack on the Tang Clan.

“What happened here? Tell me.”

“I-I’m from the Martial Alliance….”

“Answer first. Or you’re dead.”

As I glared at him with killing intent, his expression turned pale.

Guh… Huh….

Beside the man whose neck I gripped, the one with a broken leg groaned.

He shouted at me, overwhelmed.

“Wh-what do you want…! Why is a martial artist doing this to a member of the Martial Alliance!?”

“Shut up and answer. Why is it in such a state?”

I was anxious. I didn’t understand what was going on.

The Tang Clan had turned into a battlefield, and vitality was nowhere to be felt.

I couldn’t even tell how much time had passed.

In such a state where I didn’t know the lives and deaths of the others, there was no way I could calm down.

I was barely managing to rein in my desire to smash everything. Noticing my unusual state, the man finally spoke up.

“P-please calm down…! If you draw attention from other demons…!”

“What?”

That was actually the problem.

“You said demons?”

“Y-yes… Do you even realize who’s here right now…?”

Dread washed over me upon hearing his words.

“…How do you know about demons?”

“What are you talking about…! Now isn’t the time for that…! Huh!?”

I surged my demon energy up to my heart.

An ominous force engulfed my body, and soon, the demon energy rushed to my eyes.

Upon seeing my face, the man began to tremble in terror.

“D-demon…!?”

He definitely shouted that.

That word was undoubtedly one that people in this era were unfamiliar with.

‘…What the hell….’

But what was that reaction?

How do they even know about demons?

As the thought progressed, a chill ran down my spine.

I turned my head and surveyed my surroundings once more.

Combining everything I had seen thus far.

A pit left as poison drained from Poison Lake.

A barren forest with no vitality, long rotten.

The Tang Clan filled with blood.

People who know about demons and the Martial Alliance.

Slowly piecing things together, clues started to form.

“Gah….”

As those thoughts circled, I couldn’t hold back the urge to vomit.

“Cough….”

I felt everything inside me bursting out.

The more my thoughts progressed, the more ‘fear’ crept up my throat.

“…Damn it… don’t mock me.”

I had to pray it wasn’t the case.

This had to be different from the regrets Tang Je-mun spoke of.

As I spewed out the appalling fear, something flickered from behind me.

As soon as I sensed it, I swung my hand.

Flames erupted.

“Gaaah!”

The black flames mixed with my demon energy clung to the one who tried to attack me.

The sparks instantly grew, engulfing the human body.

It didn’t take long for that man’s life to be extinguished.

The sight prompted another man to cover his mouth in shock.

“Ugh… Black Flame… Black Flamer…?”

CRACK.

Before the guy could spew out any nonsense, I snapped his neck.

Crackle, crackle-.

Using human bodies as fuel, the flames blazed brightly.

I wiped the traces of vomit from my mouth with my hand.

Then I clenched my fist and slammed it against the wall.

“…F*ck!”

Boom—! My fist went deeper into the wall.

Crack—! Cracks spiderwebbed across the wall.

I recalled the falling dust and splintering fragments.

Everything felt so real.

The heaviness I felt a moment ago.

The sensation of killing someone.

Even the feeling from my fist penetrating the wall felt utterly genuine.

Is this truly just an illusion?

If… it isn’t an illusion? What happens then?

“…This can’t be real. It’s just… way too much.”

With trembling hands, I wiped my face repeatedly.

I had to grasp the situation I found myself in.

Once I combined everything, only one conclusion emerged.

It wasn’t that something happened while I was at Biwaegun.

Rather, it meant that it wasn’t that time had absurdly passed.

‘Time hasn’t even flowed…’

This is rather—

Creeeak—

“…!”

I turned my head at a sensation brushing past my body.

From beyond, I felt a menacing energy from a distance.

I gazed far ahead.

I threw my Qi perception towards where the energy was coming from.

Finally, I could see it.

In the far distance, there was a black dark cloud hanging over the vividly red sky.

And at the same time.

‘No way….’

I could feel the familiar Thunder Qi coming from there.

Without a moment’s hesitation, I leapt towards it.

My speed was faster than before.

Along with it, emotions of urgency and anxiety surged, but they were different this time.

What emotion would I dare even call this?

I don’t even know.

All I knew was that I had to keep running.

I dashed past crumbled buildings and rotting trees.

My inner strength was waning and began screaming from my lower dantian.

But I didn’t care.

I kept running endlessly.

At last, the distance was closing in.

As I got closer, a scent of blood I couldn’t identify started to pierce my nose.

The scent of blood so potent it made me grimace without noticing.

I tried hard to ignore it and finally reached my destination.

I had to be astonished by the sight spread before me.

How could I not?

Boom… rumble…

In an utterly cloudless sky.

Incongruent to the situation, a dark cloud heavily laden with Thunder Qi loomed overhead.

And a pool of blood filled with the corpses scattered all over the ground.

They were all members of the Martial Alliance, clad in their uniforms.

Squish.

As I took a step, the brutal and horrifying sight struck me, yet I wasn’t taking it in.

From the beginning, I was fixated on only one person.

The stench of blood.

The corpses littered all around.

None of that mattered to me.

The only thing I cared about was one thing.

Above the pool of blood formed by the bodies.

There stood a solitary figure.

Squish.

Though she should have sensed my presence from the splash, she continued to appear indifferent.

I took another step closer.

Step.

Another step forward.

Ignoring my trembling feet, I slowly approached her.

At a certain point, only then did her gaze turn towards me.

Her icy blue eyes met mine.

The woman looked exactly as I remembered.

Her hair, a subdued white shade, and her pale skin were striking.

Though her entire body was splattered with blood, I knew it wasn’t her own.

It was all the blood of those she had slain.

“Ah….”

Once I confirmed, a weary breath escaped me.

She tilted her head, puzzled by my reaction.

Even that reaction mirrored my memories perfectly.

‘…’

I thought of her.

…The woman from my hellish past.

A woman whose thoughts I could never comprehend throughout her life.

How was she so fixated on the moon?

Let alone how she swung her sword day by day, desiring to slay…

I knew nothing about her.

Life was too intense for me to pay attention to her surroundings.

Even until the moment she frowned over the death she dealt unto me.

With that same blank expression, she pointed the sword at me and asked:

“Who… are you…?”

With an eerie edge whispered through her voice.

She was undoubtedly—

The Demon Sword Queen.

 

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