Some time ago.
At the rebel forces’ headquarters.
“…So, Eldest Young Master, are you saying there’s a possibility they will attack soon?”
“Probably.”
Yeon So-hyeon gave a bitter smile.
“I sincerely hope not. That’s why I sent one of our clan elders to them in advance. As a warning not to act rashly.”
A warning.
That was Yeon So-hyeon’s intention in dispatching Elder Yu from the Third Young Master’s faction ahead of time.
For now, at least.
“But that warning could have the opposite effect, couldn’t it?”
Yeon So-hyeon nodded gravely at the associate’s words.
“If their arrogance, their greed, overflows…”
Then someone from the Third Young Master’s faction would surely mobilize troops, big or small.
“…If that happens, shouldn’t we fight alongside you?”
“Eldest Young Master. Although the workers are exhausted, we still have plenty of strength left.”
The associates stepped forward, pretending not to be tired.
But Yeon So-hyeon could see the deep fatigue they couldn’t hide on their faces.
“It’s alright.”
Yeon So-hyeon shook his head.
“Gather everyone and retreat to the farthest point from the Third Young Master faction’s encampment – that is, the rear.”
Due to the encirclement completely surrounding the grounds, they couldn’t escape.
But at least they could withdraw to a distance where they could avoid combat.
“…Eldest Young Master.”
The one who stepped forward was the associate in charge of explosives.
“If we can at least lure the enemy into the right position, we could inflict significant damage through simultaneous detonation of explosives.”
“That won’t do.”
Yeon So-hyeon immediately shook his head.
“On the contrary, we must dismantle all the explosives that were pre-installed in the areas where we expect the enemy to infiltrate.”
The leader of the poor workers understood what Yeon So-hyeon meant and nodded in agreement.
“…You mean the enemy might use that as justification instead, right?”
“That’s right.”
“I understand that much. But…”
The leader looked at Yeon So-hyeon with concerned eyes.
“From what you’ve said so far, aren’t you planning to hold off against who knows how many warriors all by yourself, Eldest Young Master?”
Yeon So-hyeon chuckled at his words.
“Hold off, huh…”
He brought the mask he was holding close to his face.
“Have you forgotten who I am?”
The white mask adhered to his facial skin with bizarre movements, as if it were liquid.
“……!”
The figures present all retreated at once as an eerie aura erupted explosively.
Frost began to form around Yeon So-hyeon, who had become the Sovereign of Dark Heavens, as if midwinter had suddenly arrived.
“It’s not me who will have to hold off, but the enemy.”
He said, exhaling a breath that smelled of sulfur.
“All those who don’t know their place and are swayed by their desires…”
The Sovereign of Dark Heavens declared.
“…will receive judgment here today.”
***
“Aaaaaahhhh-!”
The young warrior’s scream echoed through the vast space.
Lightning struck outside the building.
The interior of the building, which only had outer walls so far, brightened for an instant.
The corpses of sect members hanging from the high ceiling were revealed all too clearly, if only for a moment, in the white light of the lightning.
Drip, drip, drip…
The blood flowing from their bodies was increasing, now dripping steadily.
The white-masked figure, the Sovereign of Dark Heavens, closed his eyes beneath the mask for a moment as he received the flowing blood.
“…….”
The thirst that seemed it would never disappear.
The hunger that felt so terrible, as if it could never be satisfied.
It subsided like a lie, and a sense of fullness welled up.
But that was only for a moment.
After devouring a Nomad in the Northern Wastes.
His innards, his demonic energy, which had tasted once after long starvation, surged up to his brain as if boiling.
“Devour them all!”
“Kill them! Kill them! Kill them!”
The Sovereign of Dark Heavens shook his head violently, shaking off the temptation of the Dark Heavens Scripture once again.
As if in retaliation for that formidable will, tremendous hunger and thirst came rushing back.
“G-guilty, you say…”
His gaze turned to the owner of the voice.
A young warrior.
The young warrior, who appeared to be in his late twenties, seemed to be a warrior from Hengshan, judging by the way he held his sword.
“This is a battlefield! If I don’t kill, the opponent will kill me!”
He shouted at the Sovereign of Dark Heavens, pointing his sword.
“Guilty, not guilty. Who on earth decides that, and by what standards?!”
He shouted quite boldly.
But the tip of his sword was trembling uncontrollably, and so was his voice.
“You harbor doubts and suspicions about your own words.”
The mouth beneath the white mask moved.
“Were those you cut down truly just your enemies?”
At those words, the face of the poor worker he ultimately couldn’t bring himself to cut down in the medical tent flashed in his mind.
“You said it was unavoidable, but did you ever try to understand their unavoidable circumstances?”
At those words, countless faces of those he had considered enemies flashed through his mind.
Hollow eyes.
Emaciated faces, blackened without exception.
Their skin had no luster, and on bodies without a single muscle, the skin seemed to hang on the bones.
“Warrior of the sword house.”
The Sovereign of Dark Heavens asked.
“Were they truly enemies worthy of Hengshan’s, of the sword house’s blades?”
The Sovereign of Dark Heavens’s words pierced right through to his innermost thoughts.
“Was your reason not paralyzed, blinded by this situation?”
Step, step.
The Sovereign of Dark Heavens approached him.
“Don’t come any closer!”
Contrary to his shout, the tip of his sword trembled even more.
“Now that you should have realized, I’ll ask once more.”
The Sovereign of Dark Heavens stood just within reach of the sword and asked again.
“So, are you guilty or not guilty?”
He didn’t approach any further.
He just stood with his hands behind his back, looking at the young warrior.
“I, I…”
The faces of the enemies he had cut down.
Now, those demonic faces faded away, and their true faces became visible.
They were the faces of the poor, overcome by hunger.
They were not his enemies.
And he was not their enemy.
The poor’s enemies were not the warriors, nor the government, nor the sword house.
The enemy they wanted to fight was,
their hunger.
The sword he had dropped, his two hands, were submerged in that pool of blood.
“You’ve confessed to your crime.”
No sooner had the Sovereign of Dark Heavens finished speaking than the vengeful spirits lined up on his left and right wailed.
“Kill that bastard!”
“Avenge our grudge!”
“I was just hungry!”
A vengeful spirit with nothing left but bones tore open its belly and pulled out its entrails.
That vengeful spirit held up its sagging innards before Yeon So-hyeon’s eyes, showing that they were completely empty.
“Sovereign!”
“Sovereign of Dark Heavens!”
“The only thing that can fill our hungry bellies is avenging our grudge!”
That was the price of becoming a Sovereign of the Dark Heavens Scripture.
It was a binding that bound Yeon So-hyeon from his very soul, a constraint that forced his actions.
“Judge him!”
“Judge him! Judge him! Judge him!”
With an eerie sound, long jet-black nails protruded from the Sovereign of Dark Heavens’s hand.
“…Do you agree to the judgment?”
The warrior, now unburdened, raised his head and faced his fate.
“…Yes.”
The Sovereign of Dark Heavens’s nails moved towards his face.
If he split that face, the sin packed inside would burst out.
That sin would be sweet.
It would soothe that endless thirst and hunger.
But.
With a swish, the Sovereign of Dark Heavens’s sharp nails made a long cut across the young warrior’s facial skin.
Those nails were so sharp.
Only when the area he didn’t even realize had been touched split open and a stinging pain shot through did the young warrior realize he was still alive.
“…I am merely the judge, unqualified to forgive your sins. However.”
Looking down at the young warrior’s face gazing up at him with a dazed expression, the Sovereign of Dark Heavens – no, Yeon So-hyeon – said,
“I cannot stop you from atoning on your own.”
Blood flowing hot from the wound that crossed his left face vertically, the young warrior asked,
“…How should I atone?”
The Sovereign of Dark Heavens stepped back and disappeared as if melting into the darkness.
“Pondering that question is the beginning of atonement.”
That voice lingered for a moment, circling in the air before dispersing into the sound of rain.
“…….”
Though there was no longer any presence binding him,
The young warrior of Hengshan remained kneeling for a long time, unable to rise.
***
The Sovereign of Dark Heavens’s gaze stretched long, scattering blue sparks as he ran like a ghost across the rooftops.
A voice echoed in his head.
[You foolish one]
That voice was familiar.
[Atonement, you say]
The voice chastised him.
[Sovereign of Dark Heavens or whatever, do you think you’ve become some great being just because those around you praise you?]
It was the voice he had heard while imprisoned, before returning to being the seventeen-year-old Yeon So-hyeon.
The voice that had made Yeon So-hyeon contract with the Dark Heavens Scripture, an ancient demonic artifact.
According to what he heard later, it wasn’t the voice of the demonic artifact called the Dark Heavens Scripture.
[That hunger and thirst will only grow stronger the more you endure]
Yeon So-hyeon responded coldly in his mind to the unidentified voice.
‘If I were to move unable to resist mere bodily reactions, how would that be any different from those swayed by their desires?’
[Foolish words!]
It was such a loud roar that pain shot through his head.
[Don’t you know that the more you suppress it, the greater the backlash will be?!]
“…Of course I know!”
Yeon So-hyeon answered through gritted teeth as he ran.
‘The more forcefully you suppress it, the greater the impulse that comes back later. I’ve already tried all the experiments. So I refuse your meddling in my life.’
[Meddling, you say?]
As Yeon So-hyeon pushed his Dual Divine Art[1] to the limit, the voice faded.
[Don’t expect that shallow Dual Divine Art to protect your mind forever!]
‘Didn’t I say I already know that without you having to tell me?’
[You thundering fool…!]
The power of the Dual Divine Art was rapidly decreasing.
This was because the erosion of the Dark Heavens Scripture was continuing ceaselessly even at this very moment.
Yeon So-hyeon had been repeatedly modifying the Dual Divine Art to cope with this.
By now, even the person who first created the Dual Divine Art would hardly recognize it as such.
But the power of the Dark Heavens Scripture, an existence from the outer universe, was infinite.
[All Sovereign who chose to fight the Dark Heavens Scripture rather than devour evil didn’t leave even a fragment of their souls behind]
Limits were gradually becoming apparent in the resistance against that ceaseless erosion.
[You too will lose your reason and become a mere puppet-]
The voice soon faded, and Yeon So-hyeon’s movement technique also stopped.
This was because he had arrived at his destination.
“Don’t worry.”
Yeon So-hyeon, the Sovereign of Dark Heavens, answered the voice that could no longer be heard.
“Right now, in this place, there are so many evildoers to devour that I could pick and choose endlessly…”
From atop the highest roof in the area, his gaze stretched far into the distance.
“…Evil ones who must be devoured are overflowing.”
There, he saw the figures of a group of warriors advancing rapidly, melting into the darkness.
They were entering an area where several white smoke plumes were rising from chimneys.
***
[Stop!]
At the scout’s hand signal, the old man in charge of the right wing sent a sound transmission.
The old man, who had been the master of the Gansu’s Outstanding Cypress Martial Arts Hall before becoming an affiliate of the Luoyang Sword House, lay flat on the roof.
[Has the identity of the white smoke been confirmed?]
The scout’s report came back.
[Yes, Master! I confirmed by smell. As expected, it’s smoke from cooking rice.]
[What about the guards?]
[Two or three guards were visually observed at every two outposts, but the security doesn’t seem particularly tight]
Someone who had specially trained in Eye Technique added a report.
[The guards also seemed preoccupied with eating their meals]
At that report, savage smiles spread across the faces of the surrounding warriors.
[It seems meals were distributed after the earlier battle]
[Now’s the time, Master]
[Those bastards must be crazy for white rice]
The master instructed the messenger to report to the head of the Hengshan Northern Flow, who was in charge of the center.
[Everyone draw your swords.]
Dozens of warriors hiding in the surroundings drew their non-reflective swords.
[There’s no need to distinguish. Except for our allies, cut down everyone regardless of age or gender.]
The warriors nodded.
After confirming that everyone was ready, the master shouted via sound transmission.
[Let’s go! Turn those vermin’s meals into funeral offerings!]