WOOOOAAAAH!!
The cheering was loud enough to hurt.
He could have given them something back for it, but Seo Woojin did not move at all.
He only ran his eyes over the faces in the high seats.
The clan heads of the Seven Families were the first he found. All of them were present but Woon Taeryun.
Yes. The Cheon Clan’s head. Cheon Baekhyeon was there too.
Their eyes met.
Did he know? What his son had set in motion.
Had it been done with his blessing? Had he permitted something that filthy?
The question was pointless.
Even if he had not known, it would not wipe away the Cheon Clan’s guilt.
Seo Woojin’s gaze moved to Cheon Suryeon, standing in front of him.
Because Cheon Baekhyeon’s will had been behind her learning a demonic art, at the very least.
“Silence, all of you!!”
Cho Igyeom stepped to the front and quieted the seething crowd. Ordinarily it was menial work he would have left to a subordinate, but with the birth of a new Alliance Lord at stake, it seemed he meant to lend the occasion the standing of one of the Seven Families’ clan heads.
He usually came across as a bumbler, but he was still one of the clan heads of the Seven Families.
He stepped forward, and the roar that had seemed like it would never end came to a stop.
With several thousand people gone quiet, Cho Igyeom smiled, satisfied.
“Well, now. It’s a fine thing when people listen. There’s a saying that dark path bastards don’t listen for shit, and today that’s been proven a lie.”
Laughter broke out here and there at the joke.
Cho Igyeom held a smile of his own as he went on.
“Now, I do enjoy getting up in front of people like this… but we’ve waited a long time, haven’t we? To settle who our sky will be. So I’ll move this along.”
His eyes rested for a moment on the two standing on the dueling platform.
“Whichever of them wins, I have no doubt at all that they will lead our dark path toward the light! So I ask the two of you to give it everything you have!”
Whshhk!
Cho Igyeom swept one arm through a broad arc. The hem of his robe snapped with it, as though it were speaking for how worked up he was.
“There will be one winner!! Victory means taking your opponent’s life!! Then let the death match begin—!!”
With Cho Igyeom’s call to begin.
WOOOOAAAAAH!!
A roar that shook heaven and earth went up again.
Seo Woojin let out a small sigh and looked at the sword in his hand.
It was not his own sword. For a fair duel, both of them had been given plain iron blades.
‘So the Lingering Heart Sword Art is out, for now.’
It did not seem to have been done knowingly, but he was starting at a disadvantage.
‘Or maybe not. She can’t use her demonic art either, so we’re in much the same position.’
Cheon Suryeon stood with her sword hanging loose, glaring at him.
Seo Woojin thought for a moment.
‘Today I have to come away with both. Her. And Warrior Yoo.’
He had put on a calm face, but Cheon Doyun’s threat had been sharp enough.
However much he wanted to ignore it, the picture of Yoo Geonwoo collapsing into despair kept him from moving carelessly.
‘It’s a pointless thing to weigh. Even if I hand over my life, he won’t release Warrior Yoo.’
The man had said as much with his own mouth.
That he had a grudge against Yoo Geonwoo too.
He was showing a mad kind of fixation. He did not look like someone who would keep a bargain just because the other side had obeyed.
‘The problem is what comes after. Warrior Yoo really will be put in that cell. Speaking that confidently means he’s prepared a lot.’
While his thoughts ran on.
Cheon Suryeon kicked off the ground.
Whoosh!
Shhhhhk!
For all the lightness of her movement, the sword came down heavy.
Claang!
Seo Woojin swung up into it and turned it aside.
But Cheon Suryeon did not stop.
She used the recoil off his block to spin a full turn.
The added momentum made the next cut fiercer. It went for Seo Woojin’s neck.
CLAAANG—!!
Seo Woojin put his left hand against the flat of his blade and blocked with both.
But he could not cancel out all of her force; his body was shoved sideways.
Cheon Suryeon came after him at once.
She worked the sword in short strokes and pressed him.
Seo Woojin’s hands and feet grew tangled.
Clang! Clang! Kagang! Claang!
Fsst! Shnk!
He managed to cover the vital points, but the small cuts kept adding up.
With Cheon Suryeon overwhelming him from the start, the stands went cold.
And as though she were savoring their reaction.
“Haaah—!!”
Cheon Suryeon shouted and brought her sword down.
CRAAASH!
Krrrack!
The ground split with a roar.
Seo Woojin got his sword up and barely held it, but one knee had bent halfway under him.
With the blades locked, Cheon Suryeon kept pushing. Seo Woojin sank lower and lower under it.
“You took me lightly. Did you think you could handle me with your mind somewhere else?”
Her cold voice landed at his ear.
Seo Woojin let out a small grunt and smiled.
“Ah, my apologies. Your brother’s given me a lot to think about.”
“What did you say?”
“So go a little easier on me.”
Seo Woojin threw his sword out hard.
The force drove Cheon Suryeon back a good distance.
Her brow was furrowed; she seemed to have plenty to be unhappy about.
Whoosh.
From the tip of the sword she shook out once, a bluish energy began to gather.
Soon blue sword-energy covered the whole blade, roiling and rough.
As though it were speaking for the state of her temper.
Seo Woojin made a low sound in his throat.
‘No intention of going easy, then?’
Fortunately, he had more or less finished thinking.
Not all of it would go to plan, but where it fell short, Woon Seorin’s help would cover the difference.
First, before anything else.
‘Take the woman.’
Swish.
Seo Woojin let his own sword hang loose.
The complicated look on his face had gone calm.
Cheon Suryeon kicked off the ground and charged, temper in every line of it.
Shhhhhk!
Coming in fast, her sword began to move in a blur.
In a moment, sword-shadows filled the space around Seo Woojin.
The Black Sword Cheon Clan’s exclusive sword art.
The Black Heaven Sword Art. Heaven Presses the Four Quarters.
The pressure of heaven had taken all four directions.
Standing beneath it, Seo Woojin felt that pressure bearing down on him as well.
‘It’s not like the demonic art before. This is a far purer martial art.’
He had no idea how that was possible, but for now he moved too.
Whoosh! He threw himself into the air, then dropped fast.
Wind Flow Eighteen Swords. Roc’s Flight Falling Through the Clouds.
CRAAASH!
The ground gouged open with a roar.
At the same moment, the force spreading out in every direction wiped away the sword-shadows and the pressure with them.
‘The Lingering Heart Sword Art at the last moment. Until the opening comes, the true qi has to stay simple.’
Which meant precise techniques were out of reach. Holding his attention on the movement of his true qi and moving with precision at the same time was too much.
Shhk—!
Cheon Suryeon had appeared at his side before he saw her, and cut across the air.
The Black Heaven Sword Art. Black Lightning Flash.
Black lightning drove in sideways.
CRAAASH!
Seo Woojin’s body went flying with a roar.
Cheon Suryeon rode the momentum.
Tak. Whoosh!
The instant her foot touched the ground, she was after him again.
The sword stretched out long, aimed at Seo Woojin’s heart.
Seo Woojin got his posture back in midair and swung up into it.
CLAAANG!
This time it was Cheon Suryeon’s sword that was driven back.
Was that the reason?
Something wavered in her eyes.
Unlike her own blade, Seo Woojin’s carried no visible energy at all.
By any ordinary reckoning, his sword should have shattered long before this.
And not only had it not broken, it had pushed hers away.
Cheon Suryeon set her teeth and worked the sword again. But Seo Woojin, back in stance, defended like a wall of iron.
As though he could predict the path her blade would take, he met it before she could put her full force behind it.
Clang! Claang! Kagagang!
The collisions came one after another, ringing bright.
What made it possible was the Lingering Heart Sword Art, in the end.
He was used to hiding true qi inside the blade rather than sending it out, and the habit was showing now.
CLAANG—!!
For the briefest instant.
Only at the moment of impact with her sword did he let the energy in the blade out.
That was why his sword survived contact with a blade wrapped in sword-energy.
When there is no gap in strength, the outcome is settled by precision of technique, or by the difference in experience.
And unfortunately for her, the experience Seo Woojin had piled up recently was concentrated to a vicious degree.
Under the name of the Crazed Fiend.
CRAAASH!
With her sword blocked again and again, frustration made Cheon Suryeon’s movements bigger.
Seo Woojin did not let the moment pass; he stamped down.
He blocked her sword as it came down late, then drove inside her guard.
With his left hand, still splinted, he struck her abdomen.
THWACK—!!
“Kuh…!”
Cheon Suryeon let out a groan and staggered. The palm force carrying his internal energy shook everything inside her.
The splint cracked and the bandage came loose, but Seo Woojin pressed the attack.
A full turn, and the sword coming down.
Cheon Suryeon threw hers up in a hurry.
CLAAANG!
The two of them, blades locked again.
It was the reverse of before.
Now it was Cheon Suryeon driven down onto one knee.
Seo Woojin bent lower and brought himself closer to her.
Close enough now to feel each other’s breath.
“Give it up. Do that and I’ll let you live.”
Cheon Suryeon bit her lip, her face bitter.
“You… you were hiding what you can do.”
“I wasn’t exactly hiding it, but think whatever you like.”
Cheon Suryeon’s sharp eyes bored into him.
“I will never give up. So… kill me. That’s the only way this ends.”
A short laugh escaped Seo Woojin.
What she had said that night came back to him on its own.
“Isn’t it just that you want to die?”
“…!!”
“I’m sorry, but I’m not kind enough to kill a person simply because they want it.”
“…It was you. Then. That night.”
Seo Woojin’s eyes widened a little.
“So you weren’t entirely without awareness.”
The eyes that had been fixed on him as though to kill went slightly slack.
She looked resigned.
“If you won’t kill me… then I’ll have to give you a reason to.”
In that instant.
Cheon Suryeon’s eyes turned red. A gale began to rise around her, and a foul energy started to wrap the two of them.
Cheon Suryeon had used her demonic art.
“I’m sorry. For dragging you into it.”
The forlorn smile on her face was hard to miss.
What was she sorry for?
The backlash that would come from using a demonic art in a formal setting like this one?
If that worried her, she should not have used it.
“Don’t worry about it. You’ll be carrying my debt for a long time.”
Something wavered in those reddened eyes.
Swish.
He lifted the blade he had been bearing down with, just slightly. And then he spun up the true qi he had been holding back all this while.
The Lingering Heart Sword Art. Non-Action.
He could not make a storm as powerful as the last time. The sword would not survive it.
But now, with the demonic qi still an instant from spreading.
It would seep in like a quiet breeze.
Whip—!
Tonk—!
He struck her sword first.
With a light, almost trivial sound.
CLAAAAANG—!
Cheon Suryeon’s sword shattered into fragments.
The silver dust scattering out of it faded in the air like tears held back too long.
Seo Woojin murmured under his breath.
“When you wake, the nightmare will be over.”
Shhhhhk!
Seo Woojin’s sword came in again.
Shhwack!
And cut her.
CLAAAAANG—!
Seo Woojin’s sword broke apart and scattered as well.
Cheon Suryeon looked down at her own chest.
Blood was seeping out, but the wound was not deep.
It was a strange thing to feel.
What reached her before the searing pain was a kind of clarity.
The sense of the demonic qi that had been fouling her insides for so long being cleansed away. As though the fog in her head were lifting without a trace.
After that brief clarity passed.
She folded where she knelt.
Catch.
Seo Woojin caught her as she fell and laid her down carefully.
A contest that had ended without much of a fight.
The result was clear.
Seo Woojin had won.
“Not yet—!!”
The voice denying that victory came out of the high seats where the senior figures sat.
It was Cheon Doyun, his face twisted into something vicious.
“It isn’t over yet!! The rule of this death match is to take one of the two lives! Cheon Suryeon is not dead yet—!!”
Perhaps the shout landed.
“H-he’s right. She may be defenseless now, but the rule is that one life has to be taken.”
“That’s right. The sky of the dark path ought to show that kind of ruthlessness.”
“He’s right—!! Kill her—!!”
The wavering was brief and the madness was quick.
The madness of several thousand filled the Arena of Martial Supremacy.
“Kill her—!! Kill her—!!”
Seo Woojin listened to the chant and grinned.
It was a very easy thing. Staining thousands of hearts with madness.
But by the same token, turning that madness into a burning fire would not be difficult either.
Swish.
He raised one foot slowly.
CRAAASH—!!
And brought it down on the ground.
The explosive stamp swallowed several thousand voices in a single stroke.
Having stopped the mad chanting, Seo Woojin looked slowly around at them.
Then he slowly raised one finger to his lips.
The surest and most arrogant way there is to say be quiet.
Cheon Doyun started to open his mouth again, raving.
But a glance from Seo Woojin was enough. To close it.
And only then, a peaceful silence.
Seo Woojin savored it and spoke, slowly.
“Clan Head Cho.”
Cho Igyeom, who had been keeping still, flinched, then answered with a sour face.
“Yes.”
Seo Woojin lifted his chin and looked down at him.
“What is it the dark path pursues above all?”
The question came out of nowhere. Cho Igyeom did not understand the point of it, but he answered readily.
“The dark path’s profit.”
Seo Woojin nodded.
“Then I’ll ask you. That woman fought me better than anyone could have. So is killing her the dark path’s profit, or is the profit in letting her live and putting her to work for the dark path?”
Cho Igyeom faltered and could not answer.
“That, that is…”
This time Seo Woojin turned his eyes to where the clan heads of the Seven Families sat.
“What do you all think? Do you believe killing her is worth more than the dark path’s profit?”
None of them was willing to answer quickly.
Of course, Seo Woojin had not asked in order to hear their answers.
His eyes were on one man alone.
“That is the rule, so killing her is right.”
The declaration came from the Cheon Clan’s head. Cheon Baekhyeon.
A short laugh escaped Seo Woojin, and he walked off to one side.
It was where a warrior stood below the platform, holding Seo Woojin’s own sword.
Seo Woojin put out his hand, and the man handed the sword over with shaking hands.
Shhing—!!
Seo Woojin drew the moment he had it.
Then he walked back to the center and looked at Cheon Baekhyeon.
“Y-you—!! There is no end to your insolence!! Do you know where you are, drawing a blade so carelessly—!!”
Cheon Doyun’s shriek did not make it to the end.
This was not like what had come before.
For the first time, Cheon Doyun was feeling death.
From Seo Woojin’s killing intent.
“Do not open your mouth carelessly. Not until I allow it.”
Having shut Cheon Doyun’s mouth, Seo Woojin looked at Cheon Baekhyeon.
“Clan Head Cheon.”
“…”
“I will ask you.”
“…”
Cheon Baekhyeon held his silence, but Seo Woojin paid it no mind.
“Who is the Lord of the Dark Alliance?”
“…!!”
Cheon Baekhyeon’s brow twitched.
“Answer.”
Seo Woojin’s provocation.
For the first time, a curve appeared at the mouth of that expressionless face.
“What is it you are trying to say?”
A short laugh escaped Seo Woojin.
Cheon Baekhyeon meant to go to the end without ever saying it himself.
Seo Woojin looked slowly around him.
Every eye there was on his mouth and nothing else.
In a vicious silence in which even the sound of the wind had stopped.
Seo Woojin spoke, slowly.
“I am the Lord of the Dark Alliance.”
It was a truly arrogant thing to say.
But not one of them could contradict it.
Seo Woojin’s presence.
It was overwhelming even the clan heads of the Seven Families now.
Seo Woojin raised the sword in his hand and pointed it at Cheon Baekhyeon.
“The Dark Alliance Lord’s first order. The trials are over, and Cheon Suryeon will not be killed. For the ability she has shown, Cheon Suryeon will be made Guardian Spirit, guarding the Alliance Lord and no one else.”
Seo Woojin tipped his head.
“If you object, come down.”
Do not air your complaints from up there; come cross blades yourself.
Seo Woojin’s meaning was clear.
It looked reckless, a piece of bravado, but it was an intensely political act.
To come down from that seat would be to declare an intention to start a civil war.
The several thousand warriors here would turn enemy in a single moment.
Cheon Baekhyeon slowly rose to his feet.
Even the sound of breathing seemed to have vanished.
Would he really come down?
Several thousand pairs of eyes fixed on that one body.
Cheon Baekhyeon moved slowly.
He raised one arm and set it against his chest.
And bowed his head.
“All as the Dark Alliance Lord wills.”
After a brief silence.
WOOOOAAAAAH!!
The roar rolled out like thunder.
Now.
A new sky of the dark path had been born.
(End of Chapter 50)