SSS-Class Revival Hunter - Chapter 398

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

◈ SSS-Class Revival Hunter ◈

Chapter 398: My World and Yours (3)

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The sun, hanging bright in the sky, suddenly wavered.

The Sword Emperor made his move.

He struck like a bolt from the blue, without warning or herald. Following the skewed trajectory of sunlight, the sword flashed once, and immediately after, a missile-like white flash soared through the air.

"Three moves,"

I, too, raised my sword in response.

A shadow spread across the flower garden like the remains left after I had burned away.

"Won't you yield even three moves!"

The shadow flickered along the path of the sword.

Demonic Heavenly God Sword

The First Form

Sword of Starving Death - Heart

Shadows sprawled on the ground bit into the earth in unison.

Aura was sucked from the ground. It was closer to harvesting than cultivation, and closer to bloodsucking than harvesting. It looked like a horde of hungry ghosts had invaded a banquet and were devouring the food without stopping to breathe. I hurled the energy of this world, sucked in with such ravenous hunger, straight toward the sky.

The surging blood-red shadow cleaved through the Sword Emperor's dragged-down flash of light in a thunderous manner...!

The Sword Emperor's aura was pared away like the peel of an apple. The shavings of aura became a white rain shower pouring down.

The world flashed as if a million firecrackers had gone off at once.

I took that flash as a signal for my counterattack.

Demonic Heavenly God Sword

The Seventh Form

Sword of Bludgeoning Death - Heart

Brightness and darkness mixed within the flickering world like a dance. From each appearing shadow, crimson vital energies were spewed forth. With no rhyme or reason, and nowhere to escape, the Sword Emperor faced the crimson tendrils with a smile.

"You, of all people,"

His fully revealed teeth gleamed like those of a lion.

"Aren't going to let me off with three moves, are you!"

The tip of the Sword Emperor's sword moved.

A sound reminiscent of a tongue clicking echoed.

If it was indeed the sound of a tongue clicking, it surely would have been made by the void itself.

Whoosh...!!

The void opened up.

It was as if a transparent giant was opening its lips to take a breath. The world's energy I had shot through the shadows like a conduit was sucked into the rift opened in the world.

It was sucked in.

And then it burst forth.

Boom......!

Not vertically, but horizontally, a waterfall of light poured down.

The moment I saw the oncoming barrage of light, I realized what was happening.

“The aura I fired...”

Before I could even utter my retort about him swallowing and spitting back my energy, the Sword Emperor responded.

"As if it were yours to claim..."

Before he could finish, I reacted.

"Hup..."

I gripped a dagger.

Lifted it.

And planted both soles deep against the ground.

"Haa…"

Shadow is the child of light. If anything could become as inexhaustibly infinite as light, it could only be shadow. I drove the shadow, sharpened by the approaching flash, into the ground and into the world like an anchor. I fixed my entire body in place.

I stood firm.

Then, as if a lightning rod was struck by a bolt of lightning, the wave of light struck the tip of the dagger.

"Urgh......!"

Blood burst forth from my lips.

The blood quickly dried up and crumbled away. I could feel the blood flowing through my veins depleting from within, as if a desiccant was injected into them.

If being struck by the strike of the Constellation Killer felt like being burnt up by lightning in an instant, this strike from the Sword Emperor was like having the scorching sunlight beat down right in front of my face.

"Ugh…"

I breathed.

I breathed deeply.

With my heart burning up, I took a breath... and then,

"Hryaap......!!"

I began my energy circulation.

Demonic Heavenly God Sword

The Second Form

Sword of Parched Death - Heart

Like a parched old woman guzzling seawater, I drank in the light mass just as it was, with my scorching thirst. I gathered the absorbed light mass into my heart.

In sync with that thumping heartbeat, I sent it toward my dantian and brain.

My vision flashed.

The light mass spread and burst along my veins and spine. It filled my trembling body, my drying blood. Gritting my teeth to take the shock in, I replenished it with the light I had taken in.

I exploded it.

“Gal...!”

As I screamed, the streaks of light extending from my body burst forth from every pore.

"......!"

The Sword Emperor flinched, raising his sword to block.

He was fast enough. But it was too late. Like a porcupine shooting its quills all at once, the light mass I had expelled from my entire body whipped past the Sword Emperor.

"Keuk!”

Although the impact of the wide and thin rays of light wasn't significant, it was enough to disrupt his stance, and that was sufficient.

The void closed up.

The scent of incense burning in a temple wafted through the air.

"Thanks for purging the impurities... very, very much appreciated...."

My entire body crackled and spat as it emitted smoke, and I spoke.

The Sword Emperor burst into a scoffing laugh.

"Crazy zombie bastard."

“You started it... Who slurps something down like that...? It is not as if it were jajangmyeon...”

"It was mine in the first place."

"Since when was there mine and yours in external energy...."

"Right here."

The Sword Emperor said.

Before I could retort further, he gripped his sword.

"Now you understand why I didn't yield those three moves."

Of course.

"Yeah."

I understood. I had no choice but to.

I…

"You have become stronger than that master of mine in winter."

"Yes."

The flowers of this world celebrated life with fierce tenacity.

Despite the exchange of strikes that could split the heavens and scorch the earth, the flowers remained. They sang the song of their lives, entrusting themselves to the wind.

Among the scattering dandelion seeds, a man nodded.

"Are you happy?"

I was happy.

"Are you sad?"

I was sad.

"Both?"

I just felt a little like crying.

Amidst the emotions swirling like a double helix, only the Sword Emperor's eyes shone clearly like the midday sun.

"It's too early to be submerged in either."

I took a breath. I roughly erased the dampness sneaking deep into my nose.

"This."

The Sword Emperor gripped the hilt of his sword.

"This right now."

The tip of the sword moved.

"Needs to be received first."

And then.

Martial Art

No Form

One Sword

The world turned upside down.

He pulled his arm back, holding the sword. He took a step forward.

He put strength into his shoulder.

He thrust forward.

As a conclusion, it was a single stab.

And with that one stab, the world flipped over.

From below to above? From above to below? From left to right? From right to left?

No.

The world turned inside out, from within to without.

Like shoving one's hand into a stuffed doll and turning it inside out, the world expelled itself from the single point where the Sword Emperor's stab exploded.

Spring arrived. Summer burst forth within spring. Before summer even reached the edge of the world, autumn exploded. And from the core of autumn, winter, and then spring again, summer, and once more autumn spewed out.

A mandala made of greenery, leaves, flowers, fruits, grains, falling leaves, and bare branches swirled in a storm.

I knew that strike.

“Against Master,” this was the sword art you used.

“Yes,” the martial art I used for my final strike.

“Now I can see,” what kind of sword art it was.

“Do you only,” see it?

“That is,” not all.

Words spoken and unspoken passed between the Sword Emperor and me.

"Ah…"

I watched the strike drift slowly toward me. It did not cut through space. It was formed from time, time, countless layers of time stacked upon one another, into what could perhaps be called a sphere.

It was beautiful.

It was impossible not to be overwhelmed.

"This isn't..."

Just a simple Sword Heart.

It wasn't about shooting the gathered external energy.

"Your world......!"

The sanctuary the Sword Emperor had built.

His life.

[The Garden of Thundering Flowers unfolds before you.]

His life covered me.

[In the beginning, there was that] [Nothing else existed] [Year of the Sword] [Month of the Sword] [Day of the Sword] [Hour of the Sword] [Minute of the Sword] [Second of the Sword] [At the moment when the gears meshed perfectly] [Oh! It is done!] [At last, it has been forged!]

[The Primal Blade]

As if a dam had burst, countless images flickered before my eyes.

[Our] [Waiting] [Anguish] [Hunger] [Thirst]

[This world exists,]

[Only for you]

[All other humans are mere phantoms] [I am] [Alone]

[What is]

[So full of worry]

[On]

[Your] [Your] [Your] [Your] [Your] [Your] [Your face]

Semi-Divine Eye.

[Why is your face so full of anguish?]

That which occasionally opened after glimpsing into the life of the Tower Master, from this strike, was finally reading into the Sword Emperor.

"You…"

You were born alone.

You were forged.

"You…"

You longed for a sibling. You felt loneliness. You didn't want to be alone. You were seeking an opponent who could fight without holding back, someone into whom you could pour your entirety, someone like that. Then you met the master, the master taught you that you weren't so special.

You were…

"Satisfied,"

[He realized he wasn't alone.]

"Sword Emperor, you are satisfied..."

"I am satisfied!"

The Sword Emperor shouted aloud.

"I was a created life! A given life! I knew how to run before I could walk and was revered before I could shake hands, a shitty life!"

"Sword Emperor…"

"But!"

If the sun had vocal cords, it would have sounded like this.

“It was a fucking happy life!”

With a shining voice, the Sword Emperor exclaimed.

"I affirm my life! Every meeting! Every parting!"

"Ah ha…"

“Wailing Heavenly Demon!”

The Sword Emperor, still in his thrusting pose, shouted.

"How about you!"

"I…"

"Did you laugh! Did you love! Did you live! Were you happy!"

"I..."

"I know because I was there with you!"

The man who climbed the tower with me smiled proudly.

"But not as much as me!"

"Sword Emperor,"

"Accept my life! Feel it! Look up to it!"

I smiled.

"That's…"

I reversed the grip on my dagger.

The feel of the duct tape, freshly wrapped but already peeling and burnt to tatters, moistened my palm.

I saw the incoming strike from the Sword Emperor, the sphere of the mandala.

I cut myself.

Demonic Heavenly God Sword

The Ninth Form

Sword of Self-Death · Heart

The dagger, twisted horizontally to avoid my ribs, cleanly pierced through my heart.

Blood flowed.

Slower than a snail creeping along a rainy window, the trickling blood ran down my wrist, soaked my sleeve, and then dropped, plink, onto a blooming flower at my feet.

"You…"

The moment the Sword Emperor hesitated, the flower that drank my blood began to wither.

"You…"

"I…"

[He realized he wasn't alone.]

“I fled into the Tower.”

"Kim Gong-Ja,"

“I had no parents. I respected the director, but back then I was still too young to truly think of them as my parent. I could not reach out. I could not ask for help. I...”

I thought of the Black Dragon Master.

A strong and noble person. A formidable figure facing the tower alone and the world outside. But even she, when she first stepped into the tower, did so because there was nowhere left for her outside. She…

“She fled into it.”

I thought of the Sword Saint.

There were those in the tower who had left behind their achievements outside, entering with a light heart. There were those who entered to challenge.

The Black Dragon Master was not one of them.

Neither was I.

"I had nowhere to belong."

Everywhere I went, I seemed like an unwelcome guest.

Among people laughing and chatting, where everyone had places to go and homes to return to, rushing their steps on the streets, but only I seemed to be floating adrift.

In a city overflowing with light, my star, moaning in fever, seemed not to want me.

"So I came here."

Appropriately, I had no parents.

It was symbolic.

"Unlike you."

If you were forged by the world, I was discarded by the world. If you had all who shaped you as parents, I was an orphan abandoned by my parents.

So,

"Just like you."

We both left the worlds we grew up in behind and came here.

"Kim Gong-Ja,"

"Sword Emperor, sir."

Blood flowed.

The slowly trickling blood drenched my feet. My blood, spreading along the shadows, withered everything it touched.

It made everything rest.

“You were not satisfied, were you?”

The Sword Emperor hesitated once more.

I lifted my lips into a smile, still with the dagger plunged into my heart.

"I am satisfied..."

"Satisfied…"

[He realized he wasn't alone.]

"You weren't satisfied, were you!!”

Just like I had considered my master not wanting any more of life,

[He realized he wasn't alone.]

But just like every time I awoke, I wavered,

[He realized he wasn't alone.]

In the end, you were the same.

"Satisfied,"

You were satisfied with that - you weren't satisfied with that - you could have been satisfied with that - you wanted to be satisfied with that.

That you,

"Ahah,"

For some reason, Bambolina flitted through my mind.

The golden-haired child who truly found everything in this world beautiful, the eternally youthful boy who smiled so brightly without a care, but even he yearned for something beyond. Because he was human. Because we are all merely human.

Because you, too, are just human, I,

“You!”

Screaming at you like this,

"I'll satisfy you!"

You roar at me like a beast.

“If you can,” you tell me, “then try it,”

"I will!" I scream back in response,

[The Garden of Rotted Flowers unfolds.]

From my heart, I spread my shadows.

A shadow with tangible volume surges in waves. The vortex in my heart swallows the blazing sunlight. My sanctuary, a resting place where exhausted souls can pause, encroaches upon the Sword Emperor's flower garden.

"Ha!"

The Sword Emperor laughed.

Like a dragon taking a deep breath, he laughed heartily, very heartily.

"Ah ha,"

I laughed.

Like whispering, softly, very softly.

"Ahaha,"

"Ahahaha,"

"Ahahahahahaha!"

The Sword Emperor's time mandala unraveled.

Spring, summer, autumn, winter, and spring again, were all unrolled and unfolded.

The once unstoppable torrent of time, within a halted world, folded its wings.

“To have blocked that…”

The Sword Emperor kicked off the ground.

"It's not over yet!"

I kicked off the ground as well.

Our swords, my dagger and his greatsword, clashed, making a clear, chilling sound.

"Good!"

"Yes, it's good!"

Ding!

"Good! It's good! Ah!"

"Yes, yes, it's thrilling!"

Ding!

"You're quite something, Wailing Heavenly Demon!"

"And you, Primal Blade!"

Shadows flowing from my heart shot toward the Sword Emperor. The Sword Emperor, gathering light in one hand as if grabbing the neck of a dragon, parried and slashed with his sword. Ding! I barely managed to deflect with the dagger raised. Then, I spun around and aimed the dagger at his neck.

Even that was blocked, and I laughed.

The Sword Emperor laughed.

"I am not alone!"

He laughed even louder.

"I am not special!"

He laughed with genuine satisfaction.

"I am!"

The Sword Emperor swung his greatsword. He slashed.

Thunder struck.

"I am ordinaryaaaaaah!!"

"Yes, Primal Blade! And I am!"

To you, I am.

"I am not lackingaaah!!"

I swung my dagger. Ding! Ding! Ding……! I did not let go, clinging to the Sword Emperor, who parried with his greatsword, like a wolf biting and hanging on.

“I am not lacking!”

I am,

"I was not born wrong!"

Now I,

"Have a place to return!"

"Yes! There is! Of course, there is!"

"Like you,"

"Like you!"

Ding!

Our weapons collided.

Our gazes met.

Then separated.