The moment the jar I threw shattered, the black sand that had been moving as if it were alive just moments ago lost all its strength and fell to the ground.
“What the?!”
At the same time, Yangbang turned back with a look of shock.
It seemed he hadn’t expected this to be a feint.
“With the enemy right in front of you, you really have some guts to get distracted, huh?”
Meanwhile, Dokgorin prepared to use the Great Sword Technique, swinging a massive sword made from nine connected blades.
“Die.”
“Wait…!”
Yangbang was engulfed in dazzling light before he could even dodge.
Thanks to the uranium generated within her body, Dokgorin’s sword emitted gamma rays and contained immense thermal energy within itself.
In other words, if it hit properly, there would be nothing left of him.
Boom!!
The moment the great sword that swallowed Yangbang collided with the stone floor, a massive explosion erupted, creating a cloud of black dust that rose into the sky.
Watching from the roof, I muttered to myself, ‘…Did I take care of him?’
But just at that moment—
“Excellent.”
The voice of Yangbang, whom I thought without a doubt was dead, came from within the dust cloud.
“You’re telling me he survived that?!”
Baek Yujin, who had been watching the whole situation from behind, muttered in astonishment.
“I never thought my Blood Transformation Technique, strengthened by the knowledge gathered from all over the world, would be thwarted like this. Honestly, I’m surprised.”
As the dust cloud slowly cleared, Yangbang’s figure began to appear.
What emerged before us was truly horrifying.
His half-burned face and skin, with tattered clothing stuck to him, were due to the immense heat from Dokgorin’s great sword.
But more shocking than that were the beastly eyes revealed between the burned skin of his face.
In other words, a non-human creature was wearing a human disguise and trying to mimic humanity.
“I guess if I’m going to beat you, I’ll need to show my true form.”
As he said this, the moment Yangbang opened his half-closed eyes wide, his body suddenly began to swell and expand.
“What on earth…!”
Seeing that, I couldn’t help but gasp in shock.
It was because just moments ago, Yangbang had taken on a human appearance, but in an instant transformed into a great mountain goat, larger than most buildings.
[My real name is Son Cheong-gun, the Good. A past member of the Haedo sect and one of the Ten Heavenly Generals of Bongodo.]
The enormous mountain goat with black fur looked down at us on the ground as he spoke.
[You lowly humans, behold the celestial beings.]
“Son Cheong-gun!”
“Is that a name you recognize?”
In the midst of this urgent situation, I asked Baek Yujin, who seemed to know something.
Baek Yujin nodded and said, “About 2,500 years ago, there was a major battle among the celestial beings. Son Cheong-gun was one of the beings that fought during that time.”
“Celestial beings?”
“To put it simply, it’s a group of beings that originated from animals. They often clashed with the celestial beings who were human descendants.”
[Oh? To know about that, you’re quite clever for a human of this era.]
Yangbang’s tone turned arrogant as he looked down at Baek Yujin with interest.
Then he narrowed his eyes.
[Wait a minute, you’re not human but a white-tailed deer. How can a divine beast, not tamed by humans, be wandering with them?]
“Well, I prefer living like this.”
As Baek Yujin shrugged off the comment, she subtly hid behind me.
As Yangbang’s gaze naturally turned to me, I forced a rotten smile.
“Ha, haha.”
What? You’re suddenly dumping the attention on me?
Sweating as I felt like a mouse in front of a lion, Dokgorin, who was under Yangbang, spoke up.
“How long are we going to just talk? It’s not like we have the luxury of time.”
[What? You don’t understand, human child. For a celestial being with a long life, this is merely entertainment.]
Turning back to Dokgorin, Yangbang’s expression made me breathe a sigh of relief, but Baek Yujin looked at me in disbelief.
“Isn’t it common to sacrifice yourself for your lover in these situations?”
“That would just be dying for nothing.”
I didn’t want to see Rin sad because of me anymore.
“Well, in a way, it is fate.”
She chuckled with that remark and suddenly grabbed my waist.
“Then let’s at least move to another spot. It feels like we’ll get caught up in the aftermath of this fight if we stay here.”
“Eh?”
Just when I opened my mouth to ask what she meant, a massive hoof came crashing down above our heads.
Boom!!
*
[Tch, missed it.]
The enormous mountain goat lifted its right foot in disappointment.
Glaring at the creature who claimed to be Son Cheong-gun, Dokgorin slowly gathered her internal energy using the Taihe Heart Method.
‘If this goes on to a long battle, I’ll be at a disadvantage. I need to end this as quickly as possible.’
Currently, she certainly was not at peak condition.
While she had aimed for a quick finish since fighting Gu Yangcheol, she was already exhausted from using a large amount of energy in the previous battles.
On the other hand, Yangbang had expended no energy other than using the Blood Transformation Technique, so he was relatively full of vigor.
‘Go!’
With a gesture, the nine swords flew through the air like arrows, slashing at the great mountain goat’s massive body.
But due to its enormous size, it didn’t seem like Dokgorin’s attacks were having much effect.
It was like throwing eggs at a rock.
[Useless!]
As Yangbang stomped his foot, dozens of energy fields appeared in the air, unleashing a torrent of fire and thunder.
Just like before, Dokgorin evaded the spells by using the flying swords as stepping stones.
Had her learned method not been the Taihe Heart Method, which maximizes efficiency using minimal energy, she might have already run out of energy and died by now.
‘How can I defeat him? What method can I use?’
Dodging the bolts of lightning that zipped past her head, Dokgorin contemplated.
As long as celestial beings are living creatures, they must have weaknesses.
However, since the vital spots of animals are different from humans, she couldn’t identify them based on her existing knowledge.
Wham!
Avoiding the pouring spells, Dokgorin climbed onto Yangbang’s huge body, catching two of the floating swords.
Then, with the remaining seven swords, she slashed into Yangbang’s massive body and ran up towards his neck.
[Graaaah!]
With a painful scream, Yangbang bucked and writhed.
Due to the unstable footing, she nearly fell off, but Dokgorin stubbornly embedded her sword into his body, holding on tightly.
Using the momentum from her waist, she leaped again into the air, landing on top of Yangbang’s head by stepping on the hilt of her sword.
“Let’s see who dies first.”
She then activated the Great Sword Technique once more.
From her hand emerged an enormous light sword, stretching out.
The season that had burned Yangbang in his human form swung again towards the goat’s forehead.
But Yangbang was no pushover either.
[Do you think I will fall for the same trick twice?!]
Clang!!
Just before the light sword struck Yangbang’s forehead, a gigantic energy field unfurled above, blocking the crucial hit.
Dokgorin strained against Yangbang’s energy field to some degree, but eventually, she couldn’t withstand the impact and was flung off from above Yangbang’s head.
“Rin!”
Hearing Chilbok’s voice from afar, Dokgorin thought, ‘I should have held the wedding ceremony beforehand if I knew this was going to happen.’
A late regret flickered through her mind, but it was already too late.
Boom!!
Her body fell from the sky, crashing right into a pile of rubble.
“Cough—”
Dokgorin spat out blood.
Though she protected herself with her defensive technique, the sheer strength of the Great Sword Technique was too overwhelming for just that.
‘Is this the end?’
It felt too empty of a conclusion compared to the nearly five years she had tirelessly run for revenge against the enemy who killed her family.
Having bled and endured to elevate her skills for revenge, in the end, she lost.
‘Just one more step left.’
Reaching out her hand weakly towards Yangbang, who looked down at her with arrogant eyes, she knew no matter what, she couldn’t reach him.
She slowly felt her eyelids growing heavy.
“I’m sorry, Father. I’m sorry, Mother. I’m sorry, Brother.”
The faces of her family flickered past her mind like a flash of lightning.
And in her final moments, the face that surfaced was none other than her beloved’s.
“I’m sorry, Chilbok.”
As she murmured that in her heart and prepared to close her eyes—
“Stay awake!”
“?!”
Startled by Ichilbok’s voice right in front of her, she jumped.
Ichilbok, who she thought was merely an illusion shown by her flickering memories, was clearly standing before her.
“…How?”
As Dokgorin asked with a dazed expression, Ichilbok replied.
“When your beloved is about to die right in front of you, who would just stand by and watch?”
Saying that, he extended his right hand towards Dokgorin.
“So, even if you’re going to die, you have to give it your all until the end.”
“…Okay.”
Feeling her eyes welling with tears of gratitude, Dokgorin refused to cry.
Because there were still things left to do.
As she grasped Ichilbok’s hand and stood back up from the rubble, Yangbang looked at them in amazement.
[Wait, you can get up in that condition?]
Then Ichilbok raised his middle finger at Yangbang and said,
“Don’t underestimate humans. You pathetic beast. The will of humans sometimes has the power to turn the impossible into possible.”
[You!!]
Yangbang, angered by his provocation, stomped his foot, and from the sky, fire and lightning rained down like a shower.
Dodging all of Yangbang’s attacks using his techniques, Ichilbok told Dokgorin, who was tucked under his arm.
“Here’s some advice from Baek Yujin. To kill him, use the technique you used in your last duel with yourself.”
Upon hearing that, Dokgorin nodded with an enlightened expression.
“Understood.”
Holding her under his arm, Ichilbok looked up at Yangbang’s gigantic form and asked,
“How long will it take to prepare that technique?”
“It won’t take long, about ten seconds.”
“Okay. Then just focus on using that technique from now on. I’ll handle the dodging.”
After saying that, Ichilbok continued to use his physic ability to dodge all the incoming attacks from Yangbang.
‘Thank you, Chilbok.’
Murmuring that in her heart, Dokgorin recalled the name of the technique she had used in her last duel with Baek Yujin.
Mystic Sword (玄劍).
It was the final technique of the Nine Heavens Mystic Sword’s Heart Method.
The method was relatively simple.
It compressed a large amount of energy into a single point, and from that state, it compressed it even more to bring the power to its peak.
However, since it involved gathering an immense amount of energy into one point, even a slight miscontrol could lead to a backlash that would throw her into a coma.
It was truly a double-edged sword, but the power was extraordinary.
This was because as Dokgorin herself did not fully understand the principle, the large amount of uranium within her body would refine and transform into a new element, plutonium.
As the blade of the sword she held in her right hand turned black, Dokgorin shouted,
“Chilbok! Now!”
As Dokgorin gave the signal, Ichilbok, squeezing out his remaining stamina, moved above Yangbang’s head while Dokgorin swung the darkened sword toward Yangbang’s forehead once again.
[Useless!!]
At that moment,
Kiiing!!
With a tremendous roar, a giant explosion and flashes consumed Yangbang’s body.
