Luoyang Sword Clan. Agency Headquarters, Agency Chief’s Office.
In Luoyang. The first one, before anyone else, to sense the anomaly was… Grand Young Master Yeon So-hyeon.
“Just as I thought…” An unsettling chill ran down his spine, and a wave of nausea rose, like swallowing spoiled food. Yet, the energy felt strangely familiar somehow. It was a power that eroded, corroded, and distorted the universe and reality itself. Demonic Qi.
“…Is this how the Demonic Cult’s first emergence begins?”
In the original history, this event should have happened much later. Only after Yeon So-hyeon became a live-in son-in-law, leaving the Luoyang Sword Clan, and only after the Sword Clan fell into a period of chaos, did the Demonic Cult truly emerge in Luoyang. That first emergence had already begun.
“Is this my destiny?” He had returned to the past. His mother’s Grand Ritual had been broken. The Star of Heavenly Slaughter had risen. Because of him, the immense bloodshed that should have occurred only during the Sword Clan’s chaotic period was already flowing. And ultimately, the Demonic Cult emerged. It wasn’t entirely clear yet, but there was undoubtedly a correlation.
“…In the end, can destiny not be avoided?” His gaze turned towards the sky. Invisible to ordinary people, but vividly clear to Yeon So-hyeon’s eyes, a star shone distinctly, blazing red.
The Star of Heavenly Slaughter.
***
“Ugh…”
Jang Sam, a constable belonging to the Luoyang Central Office’s Public Security Annex, felt trapped in a horrific nightmare. Cold sweat drenched his body, and uncontrollable chills wracked him, making him tremble violently.
“…Snap out of it!”
A voice seemed to come from far away, but Jang Sam couldn’t easily regain his senses.
‘J-Just a moment ago… I was…’ He and the other constables stationed in Valley of Sins had regrouped upstream after escaping the bombardment. ‘Poison was spread in the mid-stream, and so… we were on standby?’
And then… ‘What was that?’
He remembered a violent tremor, as if an earthquake had struck, accompanied by an unknown sound echoing throughout the entire valley.
‘Was it a groan?’
It sounded like the noise his colleague had made while dying after being ambushed and stabbed during a Unorthodox patrol.
‘Was it crying?’
It sounded like the wails of a wife who had lost her husband and children all at once in a robbery.
‘Was it laughter?’
The distorted face of a mad shaman, chopping the head off a convulsing chicken, drenching herself in its blood, leaping wildly on the blade-edge ladder, the children’s piercing screams, scooping out entrails to fill a pot while laughing—
“I said snap out of it, you bastard!”
Thwack.
His vision flashed white, and a searing pain shot across his face. Jang Sam’s consciousness snapped back.
“Heok?!”
The first thing he saw upon opening his eyes was a crimson sky. ‘The sky is crimson?’ Just moments ago, it had been pitch-black night.
Right now,
Blood-red clouds, writhing and intertwining like snakes in a pit, filled his entire field of vision. The horrifying sense of wrongness froze his body.
“Grab your spear if you don’t wanna die!” That voice was an order. And he was a constable. Jang Sam reflexively reached out and gripped his short spear.
In that instant.
“Dieeeee!”
Something charged, and Jang Sam instinctively thrust the spear in his hands. Through the shaft, he clearly felt the spearhead tear through flesh and churn through innards.
“Kueeek—!”
Was it thanks to the spearhead he had diligently maintained, enduring the nagging of his senior constables? Or was the enemy’s charge simply too reckless? Jang Sam’s eyes met those of the enemy impaled deep on his spear shaft. The enemy’s eyes, shot through with burst capillaries, trembled violently. The tattoos covering the enemy’s face were definitely familiar to Jang Sam.
‘Luoyang Mountainous Sea Syndicate?!’
The Luoyang Mountainous Sea Syndicate was one of Luoyang’s representative Unorthodox organizations. Why was one of its members here, right in front of him? Even as he questioned this, Jang Sam’s body, rigorously honed through endless training, instinctively twisted the spear.
“Kkeureureuk—.”
Splatter.
A stream of dark red blood dribbled from the enemy’s mouth onto Jang Sam’s face, but he didn’t close his eyes until he saw the whites roll back and the breath leave the body. The enemy went limp, and no vibration traveled up the spear shaft held in his hands.
‘K-Killed him.’
Just then, the voice that had woken Jang Sam struck his ears once more. “Not yet!” It was purely thanks to that voice that Jang Sam reflexively dodged the teeth of the corpse still impaled on his spear.
“Smash its head!”
“Smash its head!”
Jang Sam put strength into both hands gripping the spear shaft and, still lying down, violently twisted his entire body.
“Uwaaaah—!”
“Guwoooo—!”
The corpse hanging from the spear shaft resisted, bones creaking, flailing its arms and legs wildly. The strength of the corpse was unbelievable, like fighting a thrashing fish the size of a man.
However, their positions had already reversed. Jang Sam, now on top of the struggling corpse’s belly, pulled out the short spear and swiftly pierced its head. His breath came in ragged gasps, his head spinning from the abrupt exertion immediately after regaining consciousness.
“It’s not over yet!”
Jang Sam used the spear embedded in the corpse’s head as leverage and hastily got to his feet. He had been lying inside a house whose ceiling had half-collapsed, leaving it open to the sky. All around him were the backs of people holding back dozens, hundreds of surging corpses. There was a handmaiden belonging to the Sword Clan’s Grand Young Master, a gallant warrior called Hwang Ho or something, and fellow constables like himself.
“What are you staring at?!”
“Help us, now!”
Constable Jang Sam didn’t need to think twice.
“Uwaaaah—!” Letting out a sound that was half war cry, half scream, Constable Jang Sam joined the wall they had formed, thrusting his spear at the enemies beyond. Once. Twice. Three times, and four.
How many times had he thrust his spear? Severed heads of corpses rolled everywhere. The corpses that had died and risen again no longer moved.
However.
“Next wave incoming!”
The fight wasn’t over. Throughout the valley, allied forces, pushed into corners, were engaged in battle. The enemies from the lower stream had somehow mixed in with the allied troops. Even when killed, they rose again. Kill them, kill them, yet they came endlessly.
“Uwaaaaaah!” Not understanding the situation, Jang Sam just thrust his spear. “Die! Die!”
How many had he killed? How long had he fought? Countless enemy corpses piled up. And the corpses that rose again lost their heads and fell once more.
“Heok—. Heok—.”
His breath burned in his throat. One of his arms hung uselessly, torn. He no longer had the strength to lift his spear.
“Heok—. Heok—.”
Jang Sam’s weakening gaze scanned his surroundings. The Grand Young Master’s handmaiden, who had moved like a dancer, killing enemies with incredible agility, was dead. The one called Warrior Hwang Ho was dead too. The constables were dead. Everyone was dead.
“Heok—. Heok—.”
But the enemies still poured in endlessly, like the tide. Just as human hands cannot stop the ocean’s tide from coming in, the enemies surged relentlessly. Watching his own body being torn apart, his entrails pulled out, Jang Sam let out a final, deathly scream.
“Kkeuaaaaa—!”
***
“Uuuugh…”
Jang Sam, a constable belonging to the Luoyang Central Office’s Public Security Annex, felt trapped in a horrific nightmare. Cold sweat drenched his body, and uncontrollable chills wracked him, making him tremble violently.
“…Snap out of it!”
A voice seemed to reach him, but Jang Sam couldn’t easily regain his senses.
‘J-Just a moment ago… I was…’ He and the other constables stationed in Valley of Sins had regrouped upstream after escaping the bombardment. ‘Poison was spread in the mid-stream, and so… we were on standby?’
And then… ‘No, no.’
Suddenly, a strong sense of déjà vuwashed over him.
‘Wasn’t it?’ Allied and enemy forces had clashed throughout the valley. And he had definitely fought until the very end…
“What are you doing spacing out in the middle of a fight?!”
Slap. The stinging slap across his face snapped him back to reality.
“Uwaaaah—!” Leaping to his feet, he grabbed his spear and stabbed the head of a charging enemy. He stabbed, and stabbed again.
“Uwaaaaaak—!”
It felt like he fought for a whole day. Or maybe two. It might have been three.
“Kkeuaaaaak—!”
Watching the sky as his body was torn apart alive, his entrails pulled out… it was sickeningly red.
How many times had he died? How many more times did he have to die?
“Snap out of it and get up!”
Jang Sam shook his head. He didn’t want to get up anymore.
But his hand habitually sought his spear, and his body moved as it had been trained.
“Uwaaaaaak—!”
He no longer knew if the sound tearing from his throat was a war cry or a scream. He fought, and fought again. He just…
‘Mother…’
…wanted to see his mother again, who must be waiting anxiously for him at home. He howled as his body was ripped apart.
“Rise.”
That voice came again, but Jang Sam was exhausted. He couldn’t get up and fight anymore.
“Awaken.”
But this voice was different from the ones that had woken him until now.
“All is naught but delusion and illusion.”
Clearer and sharper than any war cry, any enemy roar, any scream, any wail he had heard around him.
“Ah….”
And the damned, blood-red sky was cracking. The red sky that had been there, sickeningly present every time he died and woke, was shattering. Through the cracks, dark energies seeped out like smoke, swallowing the red sky. The ominous red sky crumbled, dyeing itself black. Jang Sam unknowingly murmured, looking at that sky.
“…Dark Heavens…”
The false sky collapsed. The Dark Heavens arrived.
Jang Sam opened his eyes. He didn’t need to get up. He was already standing, his hand gripping his short spear. His arm wasn’t torn off, his entrails weren’t ripped out, and the only wounds on his body were the scrapes from escaping the bombardment.
“Uh…?”
“What is this…?”
Around him, his fellow constables, seemingly just snapping out of it, were checking their own bodies.
“You alright?”
“What about you?!”
And checking on each other’s safety.
“H-Headcount!”
“Headcount!”
The night sky was black. The valley wind fluttered their clothes. He… They… were back in the upper stream of the valley. Or perhaps, they had never left in the first place. Like the voice he heard at the end had said… was it all just delusion and illusion?
However… if they had remained trapped in that nightmare… everyone would have…
Jang Sam abruptly looked up.
“…!”
He rubbed his eyes and looked at the sky again, but there was nothing but clouds filling the night sky.
However… Jang Sam felt it. Someone had definitely been there. Someone wearing a white mask, so vividly visible even against the pitch-black night sky. As if to prove it, the voice he had heard in the nightmare echoed in his ears, in everyone’s ears.
“You’ve all suffered greatly.” The voice added briefly. “Now, leave the rest to me.”