Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 123 - Demon Sword (2)
Chapter 123 – Demon Sword (2)
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Translated by Jinmu
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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The hand of Mok Gyeong-un was moving toward the wooden box thickly covered in talismans.
[That sword brings human desire to the surface.]
[What do you mean, it brings desire to the surface?]
[Exactly what I said. It makes one unable to control one’s own desires. Are you not curious? What the true desire of that child who says he has defected to our Society really is?]
Mok Gyeong-un’s true desire.
Desire was a deep longing, and in that sense it was the same as the true thoughts hidden within.
Even Son Yun, the King of the Fate Blade, was curious about that.
Though Mok Gyeong-un had declared his defection, Son Yun did not believe it was truly sincere.
Most likely he had done it to escape the present situation.
If so, then what was his true aim?
-Creak!
The lid of the talisman-covered wooden box opened beneath Mok Gyeong-un’s hand.
As the lid opened, the form of Evil-Answering Sword wrapped in a leather scabbard was revealed.
The instant Son Yun tried to look at it more closely, something strange that stimulated all five senses made goosebumps rise on his arm.
-Flinch!
‘What is this?’
It was a feeling beyond explanation.
It was less something sensed through qi perception than something that stimulated his five senses, no, even his sixth sense.
That subtle sense of foreboding one might feel when walking alone on a night road.
It felt as though that had been magnified to the utmost.
‘Is this what a demon sword is?’
It was clearly different from objects called famed swords or famed blades.
Those things gave no such unpleasant feeling in the first place, but this one was stimulating the senses even while wrapped in leather.
‘Ho.’
The Shadow Sect Master’s eyes lit up strangely as he watched Mok Gyeong-un’s reaction more closely than the sword itself.
He had already seen that sword before.
Because of that, he knew that most people, the first moment they saw that sword, were overcome by a strange sensation.
Yet Mok Gyeong-un’s reaction was different from what he expected.
“Hmm.”
Mok Gyeong-un looked completely unaffected.
Rather, he was gazing at the sword in its scabbard with interest.
That ominous, difficult-to-explain energy was flowing from the demon sword, and yet he was reacting like that. He truly was not ordinary.
-What do you think?
Blue Spirit asked Mok Gyeong-un.
Because she was sealed inside the wooden doll, it was difficult for her to distinguish outside energies.
At her question, Mok Gyeong-un narrowed his eyes.
-Something… is different.
-Different?
The energy Mok Gyeong-un was looking at resembled the demonic aura of strange beings, and yet at the same time it also resembled the ominous spiritual energy of resentful souls.
It was a complex energy, unlike anything he had ever felt before.
At that, Mok Gyeong-un’s lips twitched with interest.
-I think I will understand it if I touch it directly.
This ominous energy flowing from the sword was tempting him.
It was telling him to strip away the scabbard and grip its hilt.
‘If it wants that, it is only human courtesy to oblige.’
Mok Gyeong-un grasped the scabbard and lifted Evil-Answering Sword.
Then, with his right hand, he gripped the sword hilt.
And together with that,
-Shraak!
He freed the sword from its leather scabbard.
“Ohhh.”
“That is Evil-Answering Sword?”
“Ah, truly a treasured sword.”
Exclamations sounded from all around.
With a small groove hollowed out near the center close to the hilt, and with its blade engraved with unique patterns, it looked almost like a single work of art.
Half of the blade was black and half was white, and even that created an antique and beautiful atmosphere.
-Gulp!
Seeing it from nearby, Son Yun swallowed unconsciously.
The moment he saw the sword, greed rose from the deepest place in his heart without his realizing it.
And that despite the fact that he was not a swordsman.
But in that very instant, Son Yun gathered his true qi and steadied his mind.
‘A demon sword… It is certainly a demon sword.’
For someone like him, who had no interest in swords, to feel greed the instant he saw it.
It was truly a bizarre thing.
If one were bewitched by that sword, great disaster would break out.
Son Yun looked around him.
‘This is bad…’
Just as he had feared, it was already happening.
Some of the warriors of Corpse Blood Valley, and among those the executives had brought with them, some were walking forward with dazed eyes as if bewitched by something.
Judging this dangerous, Son Yun released a shout loaded with true qi.
“Begone!”
-Begone! Begone! Begone! Begone! Begone!
Together with that, Son Yun’s shout spread out like an echo in all directions.
This fierce shout charged with true qi was none other than Lion’s Roar.
When Son Yun’s Lion’s Roar shook the entire square, those who had been seized by desire as if bewitched all clutched their ears at once.
“Ugh!”
“M-my ears?”
They were not the only ones whose minds were shaken by that terrifying shout and who then recovered their senses.
‘Ah?’
‘What in the world?’
The two Great Unit Leaders too had, for an instant, half-risen from their chairs without realizing it, and then hurriedly calmed themselves with awkward expressions while circulating qi.
This was the moment they experienced firsthand the might of a demon sword of which they had heard only in words.
Even so, the reason it had stopped at this degree was because they had not actually taken it into their own hands.
‘Mok Gyeong-un?’
Son Yun looked at Mok Gyeong-un with worried eyes.
But contrary to his fears, Mok Gyeong-un was only gazing at the sword with perfectly calm eyes.
What was this?
There was not the slightest trace of greed in those eyes.
The Shadow Sect Master too found this strange as he watched.
‘Hmm. What is this?’
He had already seen his subordinates grasp that sword several times and be consumed by desire.
Even he himself had revealed the desire he had long hidden in the instant he held it.
[Shadow Sect Master, how could you…]
[Ah, ah, ah… Did I truly say such a thing?]
He still could not forget the expression worn by his now-dead lieutenant at that time.
It had truly been unfortunate.
That demon sword was sincerely a dangerous blade.
The Shadow Sect Master had obtained something he had wanted so badly, yet even so he had given up his desire to collect it.
That thing was a demonic object beyond control.
‘…There is no way he has no desire.’
Even he, who prided himself on possessing rather strong mental force, had revealed the desire he had hidden because of that demonic object.
Yet no matter how great Mok Gyeong-un’s martial talent was, he was still only a brat, and there was no possibility at all that he could withstand the power of that demonic thing.
It was right then.
-Pak!
At that instant, Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes closed and his head tilted back.
Seeing that, the Shadow Sect Master’s eyes sparkled as he muttered,
“As expected.”
There was no way he would not be caught by the demon sword.
-Sentient one? Sentient one?
Blue Spirit called to Mok Gyeong-un, who had suddenly lost consciousness.
She had no idea what was happening.
He had said it was some unique energy and that he would try absorbing it with the Form of Attachment, and then suddenly he had lost consciousness.
What in the world was happening?
* * *
Jeong ran.
When he finally reached the mountain peak after running for a long time,
‘!?’
Jeong frowned.
He saw black smoke there.
The place where the smoke was rising was where the house stood.
At that sight, Jeong threw down the carrying pole and ran madly toward it.
Soon, he arrived there.
-Whoooosh!
Blazing heat washed over him.
The house was burning fiercely.
Jeong’s face slowly hardened into something terrible.
Hurriedly looking around, Jeong ran around to the back of the burning house.
There was a small garden plot behind it.
Ordinarily, his grandfather would already be there at dawn, plucking medicinal herbs from the plot.
‘Please… please…’
Jeong ran to the garden patch, then stopped in place.
What his eyes, wide as though they would burst, saw was something stained with blood.
Things that should have been inside a body were scattered across the garden.
-Gnash!
Jeong clenched his teeth.
Then he followed the line of blood and fragments.
Looking down below the embankment, Jeong shouted,
“Grandfather!”
His grandfather was there.
The sight of his grandfather with only the upper half of his body remaining, the lower half torn away, was too ghastly for words.
As he looked upon it, Jeong’s face twisted like that of a vengeful ghost, together with grief.
The murderous intent he had long pressed into the deepest place of his chest filled his mind.
-No.
At that moment, everything stopped.
-Murderous intent born of revenge… This is not your fundamental desire.
That which was examining the memory shook its head.
Revenge could certainly become a desire, but this was not the desire this person held at the root.
-Show me the true desire you carry.
It wanted to see the purest desire, the one closest to the root.
That desire was the very reason it had been born.
-How very peculiar. Who is it that sealed off the root of your desire?
Deep within the mental landscape, it discovered a great wall filling the space on all sides.
The moment it saw that wall, it could not hide its puzzlement.
Strong mental force sometimes projected itself in the form of such walls.
But this one did not appear to have been created by the will of Mok Gyeong-un, no, of the one called Jeong. It looked instead like something planted there by someone else.
-To set up a wall like grief inside another’s heart. How very strange.
An artificially made wall.
From within it, an emotion stronger than the grief and vengeance seen earlier could be felt.
That was what was blocking the root of the one called Jeong.
But once this wall of grief, which seemed impossible to break through, was shattered, the root of the desire that had accumulated there all this time would come pouring out.
-I will open this for you myself.
The wall of grief, which seemed as though it could never be opened.
Yet it possessed the ability to open even that.
There was no need to shatter the wall.
If it simply altered the nature of the wall so that it would naturally let that root flow out,
-Srrk.
What is a wall can become a path.
It was right then.
-Paaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Something began pouring out from the part of the wall that had become a path.
It was,
-Darkness?
A dense darkness.
It could hardly be called fragments of desire.
-What in the world is this?
How could such dense darkness be lurking inside a human being?
Seeing it, that thing began to feel joy.
It believed this to be something close to the pure desire it had searched for so long.
It cast its spirit body into the darkness that was pouring forth.
If it absorbed this and became one with it, then what it had long desired, a being of unity between person and sword made only of pure desire, would be born.
-Come, become one with me.
It tried to assimilate with this darkness.
But then,
-!?
At that moment, it realized that this darkness was not something simple.
-This is…
It was not a pure darkness.
It was murkiness itself, enough to make one dizzy.
This murkiness that sought to destroy everything was…
* * *
-Swoosh.
Mok Gyeong-un, whose head had been tilted back, slowly raised it.
Son Yun, the King of the Fate Blade, watched Mok Gyeong-un closely.
It certainly looked as though he had been bewitched by the demon sword, but what kind of desire he possessed would soon…
‘!?’
Two pupils blackened like black jade.
They were like a bottomless abyss.
‘…What is wrong with his eyes?’
Was that the state in which desire had surfaced?
Something felt wrong.
At that moment, one of the Great Unit Leaders, Bo Hyeok-so of Yama Unit, shouted toward Mok Gyeong-un.
“You bastard! Come to your senses!”
Mok Gyeong-un’s state clearly looked as if he had been taken by the demon sword.
Thinking he had to awaken him immediately, Bo Hyeok-so hurriedly tried to snatch the demon sword from Mok Gyeong-un’s hand.
It was right then.
-Shraak!
Bo Hyeok-so seized at his own throat.
Then, with both eyes wide open, he began to pour out cold sweat like a man seized by terrible fear.
‘!?’
Why was he acting that way?
Bo Hyeok-so’s pupils were trembling madly.
Seeing that sight, Son Yun, the King of the Fate Blade, wondered what was going on, and the instant his eyes met Mok Gyeong-un’s,
‘Huh?’
For a brief instant, as if time were rushing, the sky turned red and then dark, while the ground in every direction was soaked in thick, sticky blood.
It was certainly the same place.
Yet all the people around him had their necks severed or flesh torn from various parts of their bodies, screaming in pain.
Every living thing breathing inside this square had suffered a horrific death, or was suffering just before meeting one.
‘What in the world is this…’
What was happening?
As he looked around in bafflement,
-Whoooosh!
The bodies of those who had died or were dying all began burning at once.
The red and scarlet flames soon turned blue, then gradually deepened from violet until in the end they became black flames.
-Whoooooosh!
Those black flames rapidly became a fire demon and began swallowing everything in all directions.
Startled, Son Yun, the King of the Fate Blade, tried to fling himself backward to avoid them.
However,
‘I can’t move.’
His body would not move, as though someone were holding it fast.
He could not understand what in the world was going on.
-Whoooosh!
The black flames that had engulfed all directions had grown enormous and were now trying to swallow him too.
Son Yun was not a man who greatly feared death, yet the sight was so dreadful that for an instant he shut his eyes without realizing it.
For a moment, silence came, and nothing could be heard.
And then,
-Flash!
The surroundings suddenly brightened, and Son Yun, the King of the Fate Blade, opened the eyes he had shut.
But then,
‘No?’
The square that had just been engulfed and burned away by black flames had returned to normal, and Bo Hyeok-so of Yama Unit stood there drenched in cold sweat, his breathing harsh.
But that was not all.
The Shadow Sect Master, too, was looking about with shocked eyes.
It was as though he too had seen something.
While this was happening,
-Kiririririk!
A strange resonant noise that rang in the ears spread from somewhere.
‘That sound?’
Its source was none other than the demon sword Evil-Answering Sword.
The blade of Evil-Answering Sword was trembling wildly on its own, and it seemed that the resonant cry was coming from the groove hollowed into its center.
It looked as if the sword itself were in pain.
* * *
-Impossible… this is… chaos…
It was chaos itself.
Swept away by the darkness that was like chaos, it trembled in fear.
It had tried to become one with that root and unite with it, but instead it felt as though it itself would be devoured by it.
While that was happening,
-Swaaaaaaaaaa!
In an instant, the overflowing darkness was drawn back as though time were reversing, and before the pierced wall of grief sat Mok Gyeong-un, no, Jeong, propping up his chin.
-!!!!!
At the sight of that, it trembled even more madly.
Fear.
This was a human byproduct, an emotion it had never once felt.
Then what in the world was that?
To it, Jeong crooked his index finger, then clicked his tongue and said,
“Not yet.”
-Flick!
Together with those words, he lightly flicked his finger.
And then that thing, no, the will of Evil-Answering Sword that had entered the mental landscape, vanished from within that space as if it had been extinguished.
-Pasuseuseuseuk!
* * *
Soon, the pupils of Mok Gyeong-un, blackened like black jade, returned to normal.
As if nothing had happened.
Mok Gyeong-un, his mind returning, furrowed his brow and looked around.
‘Hm?’
Yet Son Yun, the King of the Fate Blade, the Shadow Sect Master, and the other executives were all staring at him with grave expressions on their faces.