Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 73 - True Intent (4)

Chapter 73 – True Intent (4)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“I will take exactly the seven of you who remain alive as my teammates.”

‘!?’

The boys had been tense, wondering which of them Mok Gyeong-un would choose as teammates.

At the words that came out of his mouth, they were dumbfounded for an instant.

Dawn was about to break, and he was telling them to kill each other?

‘Th-this bastard?’

‘Seriously!’

From their point of view, they could not help but be furious.

From the start, they had spent the whole night defending this flag.

And then this fellow had suddenly appeared and taken complete control of the situation, like a rolling stone knocking out the stone that had been lodged in place.

No, it was worse than that.

“Are you seriously…”

Mok Yu-cheon, like the others, had a surge of anger and was about to shout at Mok Gyeong-un.

Yet the moment he saw Mok Gyeong-un’s face, his words caught in his throat.

‘Ha…’

That face, with the corners of his mouth lifted all the way to his ears, was enjoying this situation.

It had nothing to do with the feeling of a prank.

It was the face of someone who sincerely wanted each of them to kill one another.

-Shiver!

The instant that certainty struck him, goosebumps ran from Mok Yu-cheon’s spine through his whole body.

Rather than wondering if this really was that Mok Gyeong-un, he felt as if he were looking at a being filled with nothing but pure malice.

At that moment, Mok Gyeong-un opened his mouth.

“You all have far too much composure. It looks like dawn is about to break.”

The eastern horizon that Mok Gyeong-un pointed to with his hand was being dyed vermilion.

Everyone’s expressions turned grim.

It truly looked as though the sun would rise at any moment.

‘Damn it.’

‘Do we really have to do what that bastard says?’

It was at that very moment.

One boy could no longer contain his anger and finally charged at Mok Gyeong-un with a shout.

“You son of a bitch!”

The boy had in his hand the stone axe Yeom Ga of Crimson Kill Valley had thrown.

The boy, blinded by rage, had no thought at all for the dawn or anything else.

He simply felt that only by bringing that stone axe down on Mok Gyeong-un’s skull right now would his anger be satisfied, and so he acted impulsively.

But,

-Clang!

“Huh?”

With only three paces left before reaching Mok Gyeong-un, the boy’s body froze in place under the chains.

“Wh-what is…”

That strange sensation, as if his entire body were bound.

He could see nothing, and could not make any sense of it.

At that moment, Green Spirit Gyu So-ha, who had stretched out a hand toward the boy, said in a cold voice,

-Master. Shall I kill him?

At that, Mok Gyeong-un shook his head.

It would not be bad for Gyu So-ha to kill him, but there was still no need to reveal that his shikigami had reached a level where it could kill someone.

That was why,

-Step, step, step!

“L-let me go. Th-this isn’t right.”

The boy bound by Gyu So-ha’s chains seemed to have regained his senses, and now trembled with a pale face.

Mok Gyeong-un seized the stone axe the fellow was holding and raised it as if he would bring it down immediately.

Terrified, the boy pleaded.

“Hik! I… I was wrong. I’ll do as you say.”

“It seems you flared up like an iron cauldron and then cooled just as quickly.”

“Please spare me.”

“Then you should have aimed for someone other than me.”

With those words, Mok Gyeong-un brought the stone axe down on the boy’s head.

-Ugjeok!

“Ggek!”

A grotesque scream flowed from the mouth of the boy whose head had been crushed.

The expressions of the other boys watching this sight were a spectacle in themselves.

They too had killed other boys from the first gate until now in order to survive, but that had been murder for the sake of a goal.

Mok Gyeong-un’s actions, however, had a different quality to them.

‘M-mad bastard.’

It felt as though he enjoyed the act of killing itself.

As a simple example, the very fact that he was smiling so brightly while watching a boy die in such a cruel way, with his head crushed, was far outside ordinary human thinking.

“……..”

The boys, seized by pressure, no longer even thought of trying to do something about Mok Gyeong-un.

He was completely outside the standard.

And once it came to that, the first one to move was

-Pak!

-Crack!

“Kuh!”

Yeom Ga of Crimson Kill Valley, who snapped the neck of one of the boys standing right beside him.

“You!”

The boys who had been following Yeom Ga could not hide their confusion and sense of betrayal.

At that, Yeom Ga said in an irritated tone,

“Fuck. Then did you come all this way just to play at friendship? If you want to live, you bastards had better do as that bastard says.”

“Kuh!”

They had no other way, and so could not deny it.

There was no use charging at Mok Gyeong-un now, so if they wanted to survive even now, they had to keep killing until only seven remained, just as that bastard had said.

-Papapak!

“Sorry!”

“Huk! Y-you…!”

The other boys too lunged and strangled or ambushed the boys beside them.

Those who were even a little slower became prey on the spot.

And that was not only true of Yeom Ga of Crimson Kill Valley’s side.

“Daaaamn it!”

The boys who had been scattered while forming the half-moon and defending the flag also threw caution to the wind and pounced on the boys beside them.

-Pat!

“Die!”

“Y-you too?”

“Shut up! Is this the time to argue about that?”

Much as they hated to admit it, Yeom Ga was right.

‘We all came in here to kill one another while competing anyway, so what friendship is there at this point?’

They had to survive.

If they died, cooperation and friendship would mean nothing.

Before dawn broke, they had to be one of the seven left standing.

“………”

At this scene, Mok Yu-cheon, with Mo Ha-rang slung over his shoulder, bit down hard on his lip.

For a moment, everything felt empty.

They were not people of the orthodox path, but for three shichen they had shared life and hardship together in order to survive, and now in an instant they had turned to killing one another.

As recently as two gak ago, these were the same people who had said they would stay together to the end.

Thus Mok Yu-cheon had felt that, whether righteous or evil, people were still people anywhere.

But.

“Die! Die!”

“Aaaaaah!”

“P-please spare me. I… I helped you too.”

“So what!”

Now they were killing one another as though none of that had ever happened.

All of their eyes had changed.

-Tight!

The nails on Mok Yu-cheon’s hand, torn ragged from the iron-ball struggle, dug into his palm.

All of this was because of that bastard.

Because of him, the place where they had competed by joining forces had turned into a bloody asura field.

He had made them all into beasts driven only by the instinct of the strong devouring the weak, rather than human beings.

If he had acted according to his heart, he would have knocked that bastard flat.

But,

‘…The qi gates.’

His qi gates were sealed, and Mok Gyeong-un appeared to be using some strange occult art.

Thinking back on what had happened at Yeon Mok Sword Manor, it seemed to be occult arts.

‘Damn it.’

He did not want to be dragged around by that bastard, yet there was no way.

In that moment, without realizing it, Mok Yu-cheon glanced sidelong at the Mo Ha-rang he carried over his shoulder.

Then, as if startled by himself, he shook his head.

‘No.’

For an instant, without meaning to, he had thought that he should kill her.

What in the world was happening to him?

And while he was thinking that, he saw one boy approaching with murderous eyes.

“Hoo… hoo…”

“Masang.”

Mok Yu-cheon called the boy’s name.

He had been one of the three who had stayed alive together with him from the very beginning.

By now Masang held in his hand one of the two stone daggers that had belonged to Mo Ha-rang.

-Grit!

Mok Yu-cheon clenched his teeth.

They had already stained their hands with plenty of blood on the way here, so he knew full well that there was no way to persuade Masang in this situation.

That was why he was so furious.

At that moment, Masang let out rough breaths and looked around.

Then he spoke.

“……..Yu-cheon. Cut off Ha-rang’s breath.”

“What?”

Mok Yu-cheon raised his voice sharply.

He had not imagined that this fellow would so casually tell him to kill Mo Ha-rang, after they had escaped danger so many times thanks to her.

What was more, had she not been injured while trying to help her teammates?

“No. Rather than that, leave Ha-rang aside and you and I fight.”

“Hoo… hoo… quit your bullshit and kill her.”

“I said no.”

At Mok Yu-cheon’s words, Masang shouted,

“You son of a bitch! She’s not surviving with injuries like that anyway. If that’s the case, then at least you and I should survive by killing her!”

At the outcry, almost like a scream of desperation, Mok Yu-cheon muttered with difficulty,

“I know. Fuck, I know that too.”

But he could not do it.

If they were to fight each other and one of them died, that would be one thing, but he could not cut off the breath of a girl whose mind was half-fogged like this.

Then,

“Then I will kill her.”

With those words, Masang charged.

At that, Mok Yu-cheon hurriedly lowered Mo Ha-rang and stood in Masang’s way.

That fellow had already killed another boy, and now, in order to survive, he had no hesitation at all about killing the injured Mo Ha-rang.

-Papat!

His qi gates were blocked, but Mok Yu-cheon had once been called a genius.

He hurled his body at the charging Masang and, seizing his wrist with the methods of grappling lock, twisted it backward.

-Crack!

“Let go of that!”

Mok Yu-cheon snapped at him to let go of the dagger in his hand.

“If you don’t let go, your arm will break.”

“Ggeueueueu.”

“Masang. Calm down. Instead, let’s join forces and go after the boys from the other teams…”

Masang sneered before Mok Yu-cheon had even finished speaking.

“Ggeueueu. Dawn is coming. What do you think we can do now? And even if it wasn’t me, it’s already too late.”

At those words, Mok Yu-cheon lifted his head.

And there he saw one boy running toward Mo Ha-rang, who lay sprawled flat on the ground.

It was another boy who had also been on their team.

The boy, running with an apologetic expression, was holding a stone in his hand, as if he meant to smash Mo Ha-rang’s head in.

“Stop!”

Mok Yu-cheon shouted in panic.

But it was already too late.

‘Nooooooo!’

The rough stone the boy wielded was a single step away from crushing Mo Ha-rang’s head.

It was at that very moment.

-Clang!

‘!?’

Just before the stone struck, the boy’s body froze in that posture.

“Th-this is…”

That foreign sensation of something binding his body.

This was that thing from before.

-Slump!

“Ha… haa…”

As it stopped at the very last instant, Mok Yu-cheon collapsed to the ground and let out ragged breaths as if he had begun hyperventilating.

He had been so tense that the sudden release had thrown his breathing out of control.

If it had been only a little later, Mo Ha-rang would truly have died.

At that moment, the boy whose movement had been bound shouted as if driven mad.

“What are you doing? You said you’d give us a chance to fight one another!”

He thought perhaps that bastard would now say some nonsense about sparing the wounded or showing mercy to a woman,

but then a sound was heard.

-Clap clap clap!

Since they could still move their heads, they looked that way and saw Mok Gyeong-un clapping his hands.

They did not understand why he was doing that, when Mok Gyeong-un smiled faintly and said,

“Congratulations.”

“What?”

“The spots are full.”

At those words, the boy swallowed and looked around.

Mok Yu-cheon and Masang, and Mo Ha-rang and himself who had tried to kill her, and Yeom Ga of Crimson Kill Valley with two of his followers, had survived.

‘Ah!’

So intent had they all been on killing the others and reducing the number that they only now realized that there were just seven left.

Truly, the human heart was a crooked thing.

“Haa…”

“We lived.”

All those who had just moments before been trying to kill one another brightened as they breathed sighs of relief.

They were swallowed up by the ecstasy that came from surviving the competition.

That ecstasy was so great that they completely forgot the fact that they had just carried out a slaughter among themselves at Mok Gyeong-un’s bidding.

‘Interesting.’

The corner of Mok Gyeong-un’s mouth twitched upward.

Watching them like this stirred a small interest in him.

At that moment, dawn was breaking.

As the vermilion sunlight slowly lifted its head, the mountain of Corpse Blood Valley, which had lain under darkness, gradually brightened.

And along with that,

-Papapapapat!

it was not long before warriors wearing red belts appeared, using lightness art as though they had been waiting.

The warriors who appeared inspected the surroundings, confirming the flags and the survivors.

Then their expressions hardened when they discovered something.

‘!!!!!’

It was because of the giant monster wolf, no, the monster beast Galjeo, lying there dead with its muzzle torn apart.

‘……..Who in the world?’

This monster beast had not been released for someone to kill.

It had been released so they would survive it.