Chapter 365:

Chapter 365:

“Phew. I guess I managed to prevent the damage from getting worse.”

Yoo Young-min sighed in relief after sniping the Thunder Destruction Orb from tens of kilometers away.

The Thunder Destruction Orb was over 100 meters in size, but from this distance, it looked much smaller than a grain of sand.

Across that distance, Yoo Young-min pierced through the center of the Thunder Destruction Orb with no margin of error.

It was thanks to his innate sense, skill, and talent, which earned him the title of Mercenary King, that he could adjust the power to destroy the Thunder Destruction Orb with a single shot from this far away.

Having finished his role, Yoo Young-min got up from his spot.

“I’m sorry, hyung. I can’t meet you right now.”

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to see Yu-hyun. But he wasn’t ready yet. Until then, he couldn’t meet or even run into Yu-hyun by chance.

He had helped him now, but that was the best he could do.

Kang Hye-rim’s matter had to be left to Yu-hyun’s hands.

“See you later.”

He hoped for the day when they could all gather together like before.

Yoo Young-min left his place, fluttering his cloak.

***

‘Young-min? Was he nearby?’

Yu-hyun realized that Yoo Young-min’s shot had come from very far away, beyond his range of sensing.

In the five years that he was gone, Yoo Young-min had made great strides in his growth, just like Kang Hye-rim.

But there was no follow-up after that. Was that it?

Yu-hyun wondered what Yoo Young-min had been doing and where he had been, but before that, his body moved on its own.

‘Now is the chance.’

In a moment of crisis, Kang Hye-rim had exposed a big gap thanks to the unexpected help.

There was no guarantee that she wouldn’t target innocent people again. He had to press on without giving her any room.

He breathed in and out. He calmed his breathing and focused his mind. Kang Hye-rim’s eerie eyes glared at him as she screamed furiously.

Her face twisted like a demon overlapped with her old face that smiled innocently.

Yu-hyun clenched his teeth and forced himself to shake off the pain.

Maybe.

“If I hadn’t left back then.”

Would the future have changed?

If they didn’t fight each other, if Kang Hye-rim didn’t fall apart.

If they were together, sticking around like before, traveling around this world.

It was a distant dream that could never come true, but it seemed so clear in front of his eyes.

Yu-hyun cut off all the temptations and aimed his sword at Kang Hye-rim. She muttered in a cold voice as she saw him.

“Fine. I won’t hold back either.”

Kang Hye-rim didn’t spew lightning or target the Liberation Army anymore. It would be a waste of energy if Yoo Young-min tried to interfere.

Instead, all the lightning that writhed around her compressed into several strands and took the shape of swords. She grabbed one of them.

She also held a black sword in her hand and faced Yu-hyun. The rest of the swords floated around her.

Before she was called the Black Thunder Lord, she was the Demon Sky Empress. And before she was called the Demon Sky Empress, she was the Sword Empress.

From then until now.

Her main weapon was always the sword in her hand.

Boom!

As soon as Kang Hye-rim landed on the ground, her bare feet stomped on it.

Her figure disappeared leaving a black afterimage. Immediately after, the ground where she stepped collapsed under the impact. The incredible force and momentum that she generated, all of that energy gathered at the tip of her sword and exploded towards Yu-hyun’s neck.

Yu-hyun tilted Baekryeon to block her sword strike.

Clang!

Even though he deflected it as much as he could, the ground around him flipped over like a wave. The earth cracked and dust rose up.

The fight between those who surpassed transcendents was like that.

It wasn’t just exchanging swords, but clashing wills and wills that shook the world and destroyed everything around them.

Yu-hyun watched Kang Hye-rim with a calm sunken gaze and thrust his sword.

Their swords collided. Sometimes they clashed and sometimes they tangled and shook, sometimes they stabbed each other.

Only their wills to defeat each other clashed and flashed a sharp light in the air.

‘It’s heavy.’

As they exchanged attacks more than a hundred times per second, Yu-hyun wasn’t sure if his arms and legs were moving properly.

Even though he had the ultimate body of Darwin, his body creaked. Kang Hye-rim was that strong.

A single sword. He had only exchanged one round of swordplay with her as a sword master, but his arm trembled and his legs lost strength.

She had grown so much, but he felt his heart crumble at the fact that he was the target of her sword.

Still.

‘I will faced her.’

He did not look away from her, even though she was not the beautiful person he used to know, but the one who had fallen into temptation and corruption.

He did not run away or turn his back.

He stood firmly in his place and pointed his sword at her.

He had vowed to do so.

So he swung his sword. He steadied his mind and stepped forward.

Clang!

The black blade and the white blade intertwined and collided. The earth was cut every time their swords crossed.

She had a dream. A dream where she was happy with him.

The dream was so happy that

She didn’t want to wake up.

The reality that she woke up from was too bleak and lonely.

“What’s wrong with that!”

“At least, you shouldn’t have killed innocent people.”

Yu-hyun’s voice was cold enough to be cruel. Kang Hye-rim made a complicated expression, not knowing whether to cry or laugh.

She licked her lips but said nothing. She couldn’t. But her heart was conveyed so earnestly.

You know what, Yu-hyun?

How did we end up like this?

Yu-hyun didn’t answer that question. Through the cracked mask of Aporia, his unwavering eyes stared at Kang Hye-rim.

His unwavering will in his eyes was the same as the man she knew.

Kang Hye-rim bit her lips and poured all her strength into the sword in her hand.

“Why!!!”

She gripped the sword with resentment and anger.

You shouldn’t have come back if you left. Why did you leave me alone until now? Why didn’t you come to see me sooner?

“Why on earth!!!”

You shouldn’t have been nice to me.

You shouldn’t have reached out to me.

You shouldn’t have made a promise to me.

-I won’t leave you or abandon you, at least.

You promised me then. You promised me that you wouldn’t leave me, that we would be together.

But why are you looking at me like that? Why are you swinging your sword at me?

Say something to me.

I don’t care if it’s an excuse, just say something to me.

“Kang Yu-hyyyyyuuuuuuun!!!”

The past days that she spent with him flashed by.

Their eyes met, and they each took their stance.

They raised their swords, intending to end everything with one strike.

The moment their swords’ tips reached the limit of compression, they swung them towards the sky and then downwards.

A fight of life and death.

In the slowly flowing time, Kang Hye-rim did not miss Yuhyun’s face until the end.

Even though his mask shattered from the impact and blood dripped from his wound, his gaze never wavered.

He was always like that. In the past, in the present, and probably in the future. He would never falter.

That was what she wanted to see so badly.

Kang Hye-rim let out a weak smile and loosened her grip on the sword.

Clash!

Their swords crossed like they would split the world in half and grazed past each other.

Yuhyun’s strike cut Kang Hye-rim diagonally.

But her strike, Kang Hye-rim’s strike, missed Yuhyun at the last moment and cut the scenery beyond him.

Cough.

Kang Hye-rim spat out the blood that came up her throat.

She felt agony from her left shoulder to her right waist. Her legs lost strength and her body leaned back slowly.

She saw Yuhyun’s eyes widen belatedly.

‘Ah.’

As she fell, Kang Hye-rim suddenly remembered the question she had received long ago.

-Choose.

-Will you be cut by the world?

-Or will you cut the world?

‘I...’

She thought she had cut the world.

She had cut and killed everything that oppressed her, so that nothing could kill her anymore.

She had vowed to cut everything, even if it was the world, so that she could stand on her own.

‘It was all... a mistake.’

She had not cut the world. She could not cut Yu-hyun, who was her world.

Will you cut the world? Or will you be cut by the world?

There was only one thing she could choose from the two paths.

She had been cut by her world.

That was all there was to it.

‘Being cut by the world, it’s so sad, and so heavy.’

The world that had felt so distant came rushing in like a tide.

She realized how vast and quiet the world she had scorned was.

In the drowsiness that engulfed her, Kang Hye-rim understood for the first time.