Chapter 397: The Origin of Kang Geom-Ma (1)

Chaerina, who had been staring blankly out the window, suddenly stood up.

Immediately, all the gazes in the classroom turned to her. But Chaerina didn’t care and pressed her forehead against the glass.

“It has begun.”

A flush burned on her cheeks.

Her breath struck the cold glass and condensed into frost.

You can do it.

You can overcome it.

Ignoring the stares stabbing her back, Chaerina fixed her eyes on the setting sun.

The horizon was dyed a blue much deeper than usual.

***

Rumble!

The air trembled.

The Yggdrasil, which seemed to have exhausted all its vitality, shook its leaves violently, as if trying to cover the entire island of Avalon with a golden tide.

One last glow.

Just as the sun shines brightest right before it sets, Yggdrasil, in its final moment, displayed all its magnificence.

The sight was so overwhelming that everyone tilted their heads back until their necks ached.

For a moment, they completely forgot the gravity of the situation.

“Ah…”

Suddenly, Abel felt an overwhelming sense of déjà vu.

Ten years earlier.

When, as students, they had come on an excursion to the island of Avalon, something very similar had occurred.

Then, Abel awoke from her trance and snapped her head toward him. Toward Kang Geom-Ma.

Goooooooh!

A freezing air swirled. It was as if her arms were submerged in icy, electric water.

The current was emanating from Kang Geom-Ma himself.

“Ge, Geom-Ma…”

It wasn’t as usual.

His black hair had turned completely white. Abel regained clarity instantly.

She had spent nearly ten years at his side, and she knew all too well what that transformation meant.

Abel was about to approach, when—

“Don’t do it!”

Rachel grabbed her hand urgently.

“Let me go.”

Though Abel struggled, Rachel didn’t yield.

“Abel, if you go near him now…”

Rachel’s unique ability wasn’t a blessing, but it allowed her to glimpse the deepest secrets of people.

Kang Geom-Ma.

She swallowed.

He had always been wrapped in a black haze.

A man marked by unnamable secrets, and that fog had only grown denser over the years.

To the world, he seemed the happiest of men.

But inside, that stake driven deep was sinking further and further, tearing him apart.

Now, however, it was different.

The smoke no longer wrapped him. Because he himself had become pure darkness.

To Rachel’s eyes, Kang Geom-Ma was now a silhouette made of absolute shadow, with two burning eyes in the void.

His very presence twisted space and time around him. That was far beyond anything a human—even a demigod—could emit.

A god.

Or perhaps a calamity.

Before she could articulate those words, the heavens began to tremble.

The sky cracked apart like the boiling skin of a giant.

Rumble, rumble!

A shadow spread. A black sphere covered the sun. In an instant, the island was plunged into an eclipse.

The dark sun, surrounded by a red halo, gazed down on the villains from above.

“D-damn it…!”

The villain leaders writhed in terror.

One of them abruptly turned his gaze to Ryozo.

It’s him! Capture the Heavenly Archer!

They wanted to take Ryozo as a hostage. Against Kang Geom-Ma in direct combat, they had no way out.

Not twelve, not a thousand, not ten thousand could handle him.

“Quick!”

It was a desperate attempt. But the anomaly didn’t stop there.

Kaboom!

A thunderclap roared across the ground.

A lightning bolt suddenly descended on the villain who had lunged toward Ryozo.

Rumble!

“Gyaaaaaaaaaaahhh!”

Lightning after lightning.

Zap! Zap! Rumble!

Lightning after lightning.

Zap! Zap! Booom!

They fell in perfect barrages, striking only the villains, as if divine judgment itself was crashing down upon them.

And yet, the villains did not die. Even if they were resilient, that discharge should have reduced them to ashes.

“…Annihilation.”

Valerion growled with a trembling voice. He fought against the storm, beating his wings with all his might.

“Is he cutting even death itself?”

So it was.

[The Blessing of Strength: Divine Manifestation!]

[The Blessing of Strength: Divine Manifestation!]

[The Blessing of Strength: Divine Manifestation!]

[The Blessing of Strength: Divine Manifestation!]

[The Blessing of Strength: Divine Manifestation!]

The Blessing of Strength.

A power that allowed one to rewind the timeline just a few moments. Kang Geom-Ma had unleashed it in its entirety.

An ability already fraudulent on its own, now imbued with divinity.

It was like hearing the invisible gears of the universe splinter.

We can’t leave him like this.

Kang Geom-Ma, having lost his reason, was destroying the world.

He had forgotten his humanity and surrendered solely to his instinct.

Few knew it, but he had always been insane.

The air grew heavier and heavier, as if one were sinking into the depths of the ocean.

If even Dragon Lord Valerion could barely endure it, the others had no chance at all.

“Lord Heavenly Sword! Stop…!”

It was Valerion’s plea.

It was already too late. Kang Geom-Ma charged at the villains wielding his sashimi.

He ran while swinging his sword, and the shockwaves of his slashes intertwined with the golden threads emanating from Yggdrasil.

Slash!

The sound was like leather tearing apart. Rough, brutal.

The enemy’s body wasn’t cleanly cut, but ripped to shreds with cruelty.

His broad-bladed sword was the signal of the opening act.

With Murasame he decapitated one in a single stroke, and with his EX-rank sashimi he split another at his flank in two.

Kang Geom-Ma kicked the torn bodies in different directions.

To one who screamed and tried to flee, he drove the sword into the back of his neck, the blade bursting out of the mouth with a nauseating snap.

“Keugh…”

The faceless villain collapsed.

With Murasame he sliced open his torso, leaving an irregular cut like beast bites.

Covered in the blood of his enemies, he didn’t bother wiping his face.

He simply teleported and began another massacre.

Splash!

Jets of blood drenched him.

He skewered with the sashimi, shattered bones, kicked remains, brushed aside entrails with his arm and pressed forward.

The villains shrieked hysterically, overcome with panic attacks, while he cut through them without pause.

Some tried to resist. Useless.

When one of them snapped his fingers to cast a spell, points of light flickered between the clouds.

In an instant, a flock of magical sashimis shredded him into particles.

“Mo… monster…!”

One with a rabbit mask tried to turn away, but tripped and fell like a crushed frog. The very earth vibrated as if it had swollen veins, a body throbbing with blood.

His eyes inevitably turned to Yggdrasil. She opened her mouth in horror.

“It’s… horrifying…”

The trunk of the tree was visibly blackening. Why? What was happening?

But her thought was cut short. Kang Geom-Ma stomped her face into the ground. With the black sun at his back, he was no longer human. He was a monster.

A disaster.

A calamity.

“F-forgive me, please, mercy…”

Her shoulder sank, and along with the mask a line of blood was carved.

The skull split, spilling its contents in a torrent.

He killed her in a single blow and immediately hurled himself at the next, wreathed in lightning.

BOOOM!

Explosions like bombs shook the atmosphere one after another. The glare lit up the entire land, and the villains’ eyes seemed to sink as if hacked apart with an axe. The sky roared with a crimson whirlwind.

But something was strange.

It didn’t matter how many he killed, the screams didn’t stop.

In the middle of the tide of deaths, how could they still be alive?

[The Blessing of Strength, divinity, manifests.]

[The Power of the King of the Underworld, divinity, manifests.]

[The Blessing of the God of the Sword, divinity, manifests.]

Kang Geom-Ma didn’t stop cutting. He burned with lightning, unleashed Igeo-geom slashes, fought hand-to-hand without hesitation.

[You cut death. The target has revived.]

[You cut death. The target has revived.]

[You cut death. The target has revived.]

Each slash only made the villains resurrect. Until finally, their pleas changed. They no longer begged “Save me!”, but instead—

“Please… kill me!”

“I beg you… no more…!”

Valerion, watching him with a grave face, met Metatron’s eyes. Both nodded.

“We must intervene.”

“I agree.”

If they left him like this, this timeline would collapse.

The destruction would soon go beyond the island of Avalon and sweep across the entire world.

Already Yggdrasil, the world tree, was rotting alive.

“Father.”

Clang.

Leon van Reinhardt unsheathed his sword, stepping between Metatron and Valerion.

“I’ll help too.”

“He’s your friend.”

Surprisingly, Metatron did not object. They were in a situation where even small hands were valuable. Besides, his son’s sword was a relic made to shine in moments like this.

Metatron asked him again.

“Even so, can you raise your sword against him?”

“He is my friend. And remember that when he saved Geom-Ma, he did it with a kind of physical therapy. When he regains his senses, he’ll understand.”

“…Fine.”

Metatron thought for a few seconds, then nodded.

“Then I entrust it to you.”

“I’ll go too.”

With the sound of her spear slicing the air, Rachel approached. Metatron thought, What an incredible human being.

“To withstand Kang Geom-Ma’s pressure with pure determination alone…”

The air around her split like paper under a blade.

“It seems I can see it… barely.”

“…See what?”

Rachel, with a serious face, allowed the faintest smile.

“His weak point.”

“…”

“Eh, don’t misunderstand me. Don’t discriminate.”

There was no time for doubt.

No room for calculation.

KRRRAAAAAANG!

The lightning roared ever more violently, spreading like roots across the sky. Spaces opened, and through the cracks shone a red glow from another dimension.

Metatron wasted no time.

“Alright.”

He turned his gaze toward Abel. She did not hesitate. With cold eyes, her hand was already on the hilt of her sword.

Chiing.

Notung.

The legendary sword of Nibelung, that never retreats.

“I’ll say only one thing.”

Abel spoke, her weapon gleaming with solemnity.

“Now, as before and as always, we face the strongest enemy. Even if our purpose is to contain him… there will be blood.”

Her front teeth sank into her beautiful lips.

“No matter how much you worry… please, do not hate Kang Geom-Ma. I don’t say this because he is my husband. Right now he is fighting, not against a villain, but against himself.”

She bowed her head deeply forward.

Abel, with her body bent at a right angle, begged with all her voice to everyone.

“Please… save Kang Geom-Ma and Ryozo.”

“Don’t say as if it were something extraordinary what is obvious, Abel. That only makes one feel bad.”

Abel raised her head.

Speedweapon, biting down hard on the mouthpiece of his recorder, said.

“I’ll take care of the buffs and energy recovery, so you all go rescue them.”

At that radiant smile, everyone let out a brief laugh. In the midst of despair, maintaining that expression, heroes, angels, and demons advanced.

“Let’s go.”

To save the Demon King.