“Keoheok?!”
With a final, agonized scream, the last resisting warrior of the Agency³ collapsed in the courtyard of the headquarters.
Charrang.
With a faint, clear metallic hum, the sword that had ended his life spun through the air and returned to its master, the Life-Stealing Ghost Sword.
“…”
With this, the enemy’s main fighting force had been effectively shattered. And yet, neither the Life-Stealing Ghost Sword nor his comrades from the Special Task Force raised their voices in a cry of victory.
“Ptui.”
One of the Task Force members spat a glob of phlegm onto the armor of a fallen Agency warrior before pulling a rolled tobacco leaf from his tunic and placing it between his lips.
“…”
Though spattered with the blood of its dead owner, the silver heavy armor, that proud symbol of the Agency, still reflected the bonfire’s defiant glow. As the Task Force veteran lit his tobacco, his hand trembled, almost imperceptibly.
“…You have our deepest gratitude.”
Myeong, the Agency’s loyalist field commander, approached the veteran and offered a formal salute with clasped hands.
“Save it.”
The white-haired veteran shook his head, his eyes filled with a bitter sorrow as he looked at Myeong.
“It is you who has endured much.”
In those few words, a wave of comfort and empathy washed over Myeong.
“…”
Behind his blood-splattered mask, Myeong bit down hard on his lip. The other loyalists who had survived the battle stood in grim silence. The courtyard was a charnel ground, filled with the bodies of men who had been like family. The headquarters they had called home was burning in several places.
“Damn it all…!” one of the loyalist warriors finally broke, cursing as he threw his head back to stare at the sky. There were far too many familiar faces among the dead. “Stupid bastards!” A choked, tear-filled voice escaped from between his clenched teeth. “Why…? Why were you so blinded by the lure of power…?!”
It was a victory, but one they could never celebrate. The honor of the Agency, once the pride of the Sword Clan, now lay trampled in the dirt. To reclaim that honor would take far longer than simply recovering from the night’s devastating losses in men and materiel.
“I appreciate the sentiment, but…” Myeong forced himself to regain his composure and lifted his head. “…it is not over yet.”
At first, his words might have sounded like a declaration of resilience—that the Agency was not finished, that it could rise again.
“Not yet.”
But his next words were far from hopeful.
“The enemy’s leadership is still inside the main building. We must deal with them all before they can hatch another plan.”
There were still brothers of the Agency to be killed. Still family of the Sword Clan to be put down.
“First, we must blockade the secret exits and establish a perimeter around the headquarters—”
The veteran Task Force member shook his head. “It’s no use talking strategy and tactics with me. I’m just a warrior.”
“Then, who should I—?”
Myeong’s question was cut off by a bellow from the Life-Stealing Ghost Sword.
“Special Task Force! We have new orders from the Senate of Elders! Effective immediately, we are to implement a full and total blockade of the Agency headquarters! Team leaders, report your manpower and confirm your assignments!”
“Senior Life-Stealing Ghost Sword!” Myeong hurried over to the legendary warrior, who was busy relaying the Senate’s directives. “A blockade is fine, but we must suppress the interior right now!” he urged, his voice tight with desperation. “The leadership knows of countless escape routes in this building! We have to go in now!”
“Not necessary.”
At the warrior’s flat refusal, Myeong’s face fell. “What do you mean—?”
The Life-Stealing Ghost Sword glanced at the directive from the Senate in his hand as he replied curtly, “Because the person who needs to go inside is already there.”
“The person who needs to go?”
The Senate’s directive was already smeared and ruined by the blood on the warrior’s hands.
“That’s right.” Having finished relaying the orders, he cursed under his breath and tossed the bloody paper into a bonfire. “The one who has the right to judge them for their sins.”
The directive was consumed by the flames with absurd ease, turning to a handful of ash that scattered on the wind.
***
Inside the Agency Headquarters.
“Have you secured an escape route yet?!”
The situation room, located in the deepest part of the headquarters, was a maelstrom of chaos.
“M-my apologies, sir! Individuals presumed to be from the Special Task Force are securing the exits too quickly…!”
“Does that make any sense?!” The Vice-Chief of the Agency, the organization’s second-in-command, screamed, the veins on his neck bulging. “How in the hell could they know about our secret tunnels and secure them so fast?!”
“W-we don’t know, sir! Every route we check, the Task Force is already there, waiting…!”
“It must be the traitors! The ones who opposed our great cause must have leaked the information to the enemy!”
“Damn them all!” The Vice-Chief slammed his fist on his desk. “To so easily babble our organization’s secrets to outsiders… those backstabbing bastards…!”
The irony of who was calling whom a traitor seemed lost on him.
“And what right does the Senate of Elders have to interfere in the internal affairs of the Main Clan anyway?!”
“…Vice-Chief, sir.” One of the subordinates, a records clerk, spoke up timidly. “According to the laws of the House, in a time of crisis, the Senate is permitted to intervene based on its own judgment—”
“Are you suggesting that our noble decision to forge a new future for this organization is a threat to the Main Clan’s well-being?!”
“N-no, that’s not what I meant…!”
The Vice-Chief, his beard bristling with rage, was trembling as he vented his fury on everyone around him. “And what in the hell is the Second Young Master’s faction doing?! They should be mobilizing their elders to put a stop to this outrage from the Senate!”
“According to the last communication from the Second Young Master’s side before the blockade was established…”
[Chief.]
The Head of the Agency, who had been sitting at his desk in stoic silence, received a telepathic message from his secretary.
[The situation is not good.]
[…I know,] the Chief replied.
In truth, the situation had deteriorated into the worst-case scenario long ago. The Senate’s armed intervention via the Special Task Force was merely a symptom of a much larger problem.
The plan was already fundamentally broken the moment the Supreme Operations Council got wind of it.
The Chief clenched his fist out of his subordinates’ sight. Even now, so long after your death, you still stand in the way of my future…!
The last conversation he’d had with his predecessor, the former Head of the Agency, flashed through his mind.
“Kuh, keuh…!”
Even with the Chief’s sword buried in his back, his life rapidly bleeding out, the former Head had fixed him with a blazing glare.
“For now, it may seem as though the Agency has fallen into your hands…”
“But do not forget that ‘He’ is still in this House…!”
That was the day. The day he had stabbed the former Chief in the back.
“In the end, ‘He’ will find you…!”
The current Chief gritted his teeth. The dying man’s final words had clung to him ever since, a relentless curse.
Just then.
“Vice-Chief, sir!” An Agency warrior burst into the situation room. “We’ve received an urgent request for support from the second floor of the main building!”
“We already sent two Command Masters as reinforcements to the second floor, did we not?!”
The rank of Command Master was reserved for those who had ‘crossed the wall’ into a higher realm of martial arts. Two such masters were more than the entire fighting strength of a mid-sized sect. And since there was already one Command Master in charge of that defense line, it meant three transcendent masters had been deployed there.
“And didn’t you say the Task Force bastards haven’t even breached the building yet?! That they’re still forming the blockade?!”
“Y-yes, sir, but…!”
His eyes bloodshot with rage, the Vice-Chief screamed, “Then how many of them got in?! How many intruders are there that you can’t even suppress them with that much force?!”
“W-well, sir, the information I received is something I felt needed re-confirmation, but—”
“How many?!”
The subordinate squeezed his eyes shut and yelled the unbelievable truth.
“The number of enemies who have infiltrated the main building is one! Or at most, two!”
The Vice-Chief couldn’t believe his ears.
***
The Command Master in charge of the second-floor defense line couldn’t believe his eyes.
“What in the…?”
The corridor was completely filled with the bodies of his fallen subordinates. All that remained were the two Command Masters who had been sent as reinforcements, and himself. With their defeat, the internal defense of the Agency headquarters had effectively collapsed.
“What are you doing here?!”
Standing over the sea of corpses was an ‘old man,’ his breathing low and even. He had the appearance of an ordinary elder, yet hidden within him was a profound and mysterious aura.¹¹ In the entire Sword Clan of Luoyang, who else could possibly slaughter so many elite warriors and face down three Command Masters at once?
One of the Command Masters screamed his name, a sound torn between terror and disbelief.
“The Sword Sovereign…!”
The Sword Sovereign. The old master who, after retiring from active duty, was said to be enjoying a peaceful life as the Director of the Sword Clan’s Martial Academy.
And also, the Chairman of the Supreme Operations Council. He stood before them now.
“Huuuu…” The old man let out a long breath that was almost a sigh. “This old man’s karma… is something this old man must reap himself.”
The Command Masters could not comprehend his words, nor the deep regret that colored them. “Karma?! What does the Sword Sovereign have to do with our Agency…?!”
“It has something to do with me. It has everything to do with me.”
As the Chairman of the Supreme Operations Council. As the man who had failed to properly lead the House in the absence of its lord.
“It has a great deal to do with me.”
“I don’t know what kind of senile nonsense you’re spouting, old man!”
The three surviving Command Masters gripped their swords, their blades pointed at the Sword Sovereign.
“Don’t think you’re leaving here alive today!”
Even in a situation where three masters were facing a single, weary old man, it was the three who felt an overwhelming, suffocating pressure. It was no illusion.
“With only three swords… you think you can stop me?”
The sheer weight of the name ‘Sword Sovereign’ was a palpable force.
“We know you’ve already exhausted most of your stamina!” one of the Command Masters shrieked, as if trying to convince himself.
“Your human shields are all dead! Now you must face the three of us with your own body!”
Even as they spoke, they exchanged glances, two of them subtly shifting their positions to surround the old master.
[Do not underestimate him just because he is old.]
[We must fight a war of attrition, exhaust his stamina and internal energy completely.]
“I see,” the Sword Sovereign said, wiping a bead of sweat that trickled down a deep wrinkle on his face. “It seems this is as far as this old man can go… alone.”
His sudden shift to polite, formal speech was jarring and inexplicable. Before the Command Masters could even question it, a new voice echoed down the corridor.
“My, my.”
It was the voice of a youth, tinged with a casual arrogance.
“And who was it that was so insistent on reaping his own karma all by himself…?”
The tips of the three Command Masters’ swords whipped toward the direction of the voice.
“Who’s there?!”
“Show yourself!”
The Sword Sovereign ignored them, letting out a soft, gap-toothed chuckle. “When did I ever say I would do it all alone? I merely said I would see how far my own strength could take me.”
“Hoh? Are you questioning my memory now?”
The bodies littering the corridor, the last desperate stand of the Agency’s traitors—it was all treated as if it were nothing.
“I am not questioning your memory, Grand Young Master. I am merely suggesting there may have been a slight misunderstanding in our communication.”
“After all those years of putting down the sword to play politics, your silver tongue could now rival that of the Main Clan’s elders.”
“You flatter me.”
The one who had been bantering so casually with the Sword Sovereign now stepped into the light.
“Well, it can’t be helped.”
A youth emerged from the shadows. The Grand Young Master of the Sword Clan of Luoyang.
Yeon So-hyeon rolled up his sleeves.
“I suppose this Grand Young Master will lend a hand.”
“Heh heh, I am in your care, Grand Young Master.”
The Sword Sovereign to the left of the corridor. The Grand Young Master to the right.
The three Command Masters were now trapped in the middle, surrounded.