------------------
HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Asura]
[Proofreader - Gun]
Join our Discord for release updates!w
https://discord.com/invite/dbdMDhzWa2
------------------
Side Story 23
'Why is he here...'
Seong Jihan looked at Dongbang Sak with a calm gaze.
He had expected him to wait inside the Abyss until his descent, but for him to suddenly appear here with a huge Taiji symbol.
Then.
A sharp pain pierced through his head,
'This is...'
A memory surfaced in his mind.
[T, this is a disaster...!]
Playing with the child, then Sophia's mom calling him saying it was a disaster, it was all the same as before.
But, after that.
Ssss...
As Dongbang Sak's Taiji symbol moved backwards, the entire world began to be sucked in.
Crack...!
All the windows in the buildings shattered.
Even the people inside were all blown away into the reverse-spinning Taiji.
Of course.
Sophia and Ellie were also among these people.
[Jihan... I, I have to get Ellie...]
[Daddy! Daddy...!]
He could only helplessly watch as his daughter and wife disappeared into the Taiji.
[No!!!]
His eyes flipped, Seong Jihan tried to stop Dongbang Sak no matter what, but.
[That's unfortunate.]
Pshwsh!
He was stabbed by Dongbang Sak's sword.
He didn't last long, and was also sucked into the Taiji, where his whole body was torn apart.
[Dong...bang… Sak...]
Right before dying.
Seong Jihan, who had said Dongbang Sak’s name filled with hate.
With his desperate resentment,
The short scene that had surfaced in his mind ended.
"Kuh..."
His final moments of powerlessly losing to Dongbang Sak.
After seeing that, Seong Jihan could understand who the owner of that memory was.
'The master of the Abyss...Taiji's Lost Soul?'
Fragments of Seong Jihan who had lost to Dongbang Sak.
Those fragments had merged and were left like a lost soul, which became Taiji's Lost Soul.
But, was one of them married to Sophia and had a child?
It now made sense why Taiji's Lost Soul had hated Dongbang Sak so much.
And then.
[The power of fragments merges.]
Paaah!
A light flashed on Seong Jihan's body, making his body feel even lighter.
Before, he could only wield his Blue stats, but.
After seeing the memories, he could now use the power of the current Seong Jihan known as "The American Sword."
'At this level... I can manage a support of about Blue 2.'
Was he given this ability to stop Dongbang Sak this time?
Seong Jihan walked towards the living room window with a calm gaze.
Ssss...
As his body became translucent, and he passed through the window,
Dongbang Sak, who had only been stroking his beard, opened his mouth.
"Draw your sword."
Unlike the past that Taiji's Lost Soul had experienced, Dongbang Sak was slowly waiting for him to draw his sword.
Seong Jihan felt something was strange looking at him.
The opponent in front of him.
Didn't seem like a servant of the Martial God who wanted to destroy humanity by the Martial God's orders.
Instead, he felt similar to Dongbang Sak of later days who had collaborated with Seong Jihan to solve the issues of the Ark.
"Dongbang Sak... why are you here?"
"That is..."
At that question, Dongbang Sak's hand seemed to stop for a moment.
"That is a problem you must find out for yourself."
He stretched out the hand that was stroking his beard, and the Taiji began to turn backwards.
Shuuuu...
"The me here is your enemy."
And then, the space slowly distorted.
A Taiji Sword made of light began to gradually reveal itself.
"Give it your all."
As he said that, Dongbang Sak lightly swung his sword.
But, Seong Jihan knew very well.
That light-looking blow would split the earth and sky.
'To counter that...'
Ssss...
A Taiji symbol appeared behind Seong Jihan and the two forms divided into Yin and Yang combined into one.
And within it, what appeared was a sword similar to Dongbang Sak’s, but in a translucent form.
"Nothingness..."
Dongbang Sak's eyes flashed.
As the swords met,
Paaah!
Cracks began to form in the light of the Taiji Sword.
'I can...win.'
Nothingness was a step above the Taiji Sword.
Due to the vast difference in power, he couldn't destroy the sword in one blow, but he could definitely gain the upper hand by using Nothingness.
On top of that.
'He's definitely weaker than Jiang Shang.'
Jiang Shang, the emperor of the Murim Empire who was practically the completed form of Dongbang Sak.
Seong Jihan, who had trained together with him for a hundred years, was completely adept at fighting.
'Subdue him.'
The Nothingness moved forward confidently.
The moment his sword was about to break the Taiji Sword,
Sssss...
Ten swords began to appear from the Taiji.
Each one was a magic sword that sparkled with light.
"Let's play."
As soon as Dongbang Sak’s words ended.
Shush!
Ten Taiji Swords simultaneously aimed at Seong Jihan.
* * *
About 10 minutes after the fight had started.
Ssss...
Seong Jihan's eyes calmed as he saw the Nothingness gradually fading.
'…I don't have enough power.'
No matter how much power he pulled from the Seong Jihan here, creating Nothingness with this level of Blue stats was next to impossible.
He managed to complete the sword by squeezing out all his power.
But after about 10 minutes, he was reaching his limit.
‘On the other hand, Dongbang Sak... he still has power left.’
Dongbang Sak was pressuring Seong Jihan by wielding ten Taiji Swords.
His swords had been destroyed countless times by Nothingness, but.
No matter how many times the swords were broken, swords kept coming out of the Taiji, and there was no end to it.
And in that situation, he lacked absolute power to launch an offensive on Dongbang Sak.
‘The size of the Taiji has reduced by about half though…’
Dongbang Sak wasn't using any power, either.
As Seong Jihan was barely holding onto the fading Nothingness while looking at the weakened Taiji,
"Jihan! I'm here!"
Barren's voice was heard from above.
He was floating in the sky as if he had used a flight spell.
“Let me assist you!”
Paaah!
Barren began to unleash powerful magic towards the Taiji.
Each one was a powerful offensive magic spell worthy of being called great magic, but.
Ssss...
The reverse-spinning Taiji absorbed them all.
"No...!"
Barren’s eyes widened upon seeing that.
He looked surprised since he couldn't inflict any damage despite launching a decisive blow.
And then.
------------------
HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Asura]
[Proofreader - Gun]
Join our Discord for release updates!w
https://discord.com/invite/dbdMDhzWa2
------------------
Whoosh!
As Dongbang Sak moved his arm once,
Crack...!
The barriers that Barren had cast broke all at once and his body began falling down.
-Ah, he's not helping at all...
-No, Barren's clearly a powerful magician, but he always seems to break every time. lol
-It's because his opponent is too much.
-Fr, this old man is too much of a monster;
Still, as if he had regained his senses while falling.
Shuuuu...
Barren stopped his descent and floated back up into the air.
“Kuh... I’m sorry. Rather than helping, I only got in the way…”
Huh?
Did the word sorry come out of Barren's mouth?
'He's not the Barren from reality... He should be quite arrogant as the world's number one here, right?'
While Seong Jihan blinked as he was listening to his apology.
“...How, is it better if I help in a different way? Just tell me.”
Barren even went a step further, requesting instructions from Seong Jihan.
“Um... okay. Then the family inside the building first...”
“Family? Ah. Ellie and Sophia have already been evacuated!”
“Huh, when?”
“Aren’t your family my family? I thought you’d be worried, so I took care of them first!”
No, since when did he become like that?
As Seong Jihan looked at Barren, dumbfounded.
“You’re my benefactor who saved my life twice... this time, I’ll help in whatever way I can!”
He was burning with determination, with a resolute face.
How deeply did the Seong Jihan here interact with Barren?
-Wow, what's wrong with Barren, he's not usually like this;
-Wow, I've lived long enough to see this kind of Barren...
-Fr, I'm so touched...
-Is it possible for a person to become a better person...
-He did say that he saved him twice lol.
Just as the viewers were shocked to see this type of Barren for the first time.
“Family, you say.”
Dongbang Sak, who had been quietly listening to the two, stroked his beard.
“So, you were standing there to protect your family?”
“……”
"I see. I couldn’t understand how you were taking all of the damage.”
Just like Dongbang Sak said.
Seong Jihan had absorbed all of the blows of the Taiji Sword that could split the heavens with his Nothingness.
This was actually extremely inefficient.
Rather than blocking all of the attacks, if he had deflected and dodged them appropriately.
Nothingness would have been able to inflict effective damage on Dongbang Sak before fading like this.
But.
‘…I couldn’t do that.’
Behind him were people who he had shared warmth with, even if for a little bit.
Of course, strictly speaking, they were an illusion of the Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams diagram.
And they couldn’t really be considered real family.
Even so, he couldn't let the building collapse or let Sophia and the child be buried by rubble.
As Seong Jihan regained his determination,
"To reach the Infinite, one must first become emotionless."
Dongbang Sak sighed softly, mentioning the Infinite.
"Infinite...?"
Infinite.
A state that only Jiang Shang, the emperor of the Murim Empire had reached.
In the Ark, Seong Jihan had trained with him for 100 years to reach it, but in the end, he didn't manage to reach it and instead mass-produced Nothingnesss to suppress Mitra.
'Since returning to Earth, I haven't thought about the Infinite at all.'
The Infinite was a level only Jiang Shang can reach.
After concluding that, Seong Jihan didn't desire it after finishing everything.
But why was Dongbang Sak mentioning the Infinite?
Just as Seong Jihan’s eyes were shaking slightly.
“This is all a process to reach the Infinite...”
Ssss...
Dongbang Sak's energy changed.
The Taiji rapidly shrank, and dozens of Taiji Swords appeared from it.
"I shall gladly take on the role of the villain."
And those swords.
Paaah!
Instead of aiming at Seong Jihan like before, they spread in all directions.
The movement of the swords clearly revealed his intention to destroy the world, rather than fighting him.
“That bastard…!”
Barren activated his Force in an attempt to stop the flying Taiji Swords, but.
Pshwsh!
The swords, instead of being stopped, pierced right through his body.
“Kuh-ook…!”
“Barren!”
"Ji, Jihan... to the guild... ! Everyone's evacuated there..."
He couldn't even finish those words,
Shuuuu...
He was sucked into a Taiji Sword and disappeared.
Seong Jihan gritted his teeth and looked around.
The forest of buildings, Manhattan’s skyscrapers were falling like dominos because Dongbang Sak was determined to destroy them.
'…I can't block it all. To stop this, I have to aim for Dongbang Sak.'
Seong Jihan squeezed all his strength to hold onto Nothingness again, but.
Ssss...
On the contrary, Dongbang Sak was increasing the distance from Seong Jihan.
"If you give affection to an illusory child, you will never reach the Infinite."
"Dongbang Sak! I never even intended to reach the Infinite!"
Seong Jihan shouted like that, but.
"That cannot be."
Dongbang Sak’s figure faded, and,
"Seong Jihan. Follow your true feelings..."
His words echoed as if they were coming from afar.
Follow his true feelings.
Wasn't that a phrase he'd heard many times?
Seong Jihan widened his eyes.
'For now, to the guild...!'
Following Barren’s last words, he flew to the American First Guild Headquarters to protect the people he had evacuated.
However.
“Emotions become dull as they are chipped away...”
Dongbang Sak's echoing voice,
“I shall help with that.”
Was heard loudly like thunder, right before Seong Jihan reached his destination.
And then.
Just as a Taiji Sword was stabbed into the Guild headquarters,
Paaah!
The sword of light unleashed darkness in an instant.
Then,
the building was instantly buried by it.
“Ah…”
When Seong Jihan arrived at the guild headquarters.
Everything had already disappeared.
And in front of his eyes, as he was looking dumbfounded,
[The Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams diagram has collapsed.]
A message popped up and his vision went dark.
And how much time had passed?
Just as he began to feel the light again,
“Wow… Martial God-nim. You’ve already solved it?”
He heard Yoon Seah’s voice next to him.
------------------
HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Asura]
[Proofreader - Gun]
Join our Discord for release updates!w
https://discord.com/invite/dbdMDhzWa2
------------------
