SSS-Class Suicide Hunter

oared up from the bottom to the top.

Immediately, the Venomous Snake twisted the blade.
The blade ran up against my blade, creating sparks as it did.
The Venomous Snake straightened his sword like that.
As if piercing the sky, he stood upright and slightly bent his wrist.
He tilted.

Then, he yelled.

“You beat up the little shit in front of you!”

The strikes poured down like rain.

“That’s all! You little shit!”

A shower of blades rained on me.

“Damn it,” Bang! As soon as I blocked it, “Ah,” bang! The next blow went, “Oh!” The next blow again, “Damn,” and the abruptly falling blade chewed down on my sword and bit it.
In that instant, he widened the opening I had made.
“Ach,” then, swish…! The burrowing blade scratched my cheek. 

“This…!”

Blood spilled.
I narrowly took a few steps back.
But—

“I won’t miss!”

The Venomous Snake literally followed me, curling up like a serpent.

Again, a slash from the bottom to the top.

“Agh.”

As soon as I blocked it, he rose and showered down more blows upon me.

“Damn it.”

Damn.
He was definitely strong.

He wasn’t ranked highly among hunters for nothing.
This Venomous Snake!

“Oi oi, Death King! Is that all you have to show after drawing the first blood?”

The Venomous Snake snorted.

The burning feeling inside me burst out not from my mouth, but from someone else’s.

“Damn it..!”

It was the Heavenly Demon.

“You!”

She bitterly yelled at me.

“What are you doing? It’s a shower! It’s water! Doesn’t that sword form resemble rainwater?”

The Heavenly Demon, who had been provoked by the Murim Lord, finally couldn’t keep it in any longer.
The woman shouted at me with her fists clenched.

“What are you so afraid of? Receive it and drink!”

The Heavenly Demon was acknowledging this match.

She was acknowledging that it was between me, who had become the successor to the Demonic Cult, and the Venomous Snake, who had become the successor to the Righteous Sect.
She was accepting the fight between the two of us.
This was a confrontation between the Demonic Cult and the Righteous Sect, and we were both accepted as the ‘proxies’ of the Heavenly Demon and the Murim Lord.

“Ha.”

I laughed.

“Understood!”

I lifted my stance while holding the sword in reverse.

Infernal Heavens Demonic Art.

Second form.

Sword of Thirst.

I blocked the pouring attacks of the Venomous Snake before it could start pouring.
Then, as if I was drinking it upside down, I dragged it to my desired path.
It spilled.

It spilled to the ground.

“Oh.”

The Venomous Snake who had wasted a turn.

And I, who had made him waste the turn.

At the moment when our eyes crossed, the voices of the old man and the woman also crossed.

“Disciple! Use the Rotten Leaf Earth Technique! It’s become wet soil…”

“Ha! Then make it into a puddle!”

The Venomous Snake crouched and took a defensive posture as I simultaneously twisted my sword.

Infernal Heavens Demonic Art.

Third form.

Sword of the Drowned.

Very slightly, at an angle.

When it’s nearly horizontal, bang! Attack, bang! Make it fly, bang! Matching the Venomous Snake’s breath, bang! When he blinks, bang! With that.

For the finale, in reverse,

Oof, bang…!!

“Fuck…!”

The Venomous Snake ground his teeth as his flank was cut.

The Murim Lord shouted,

“It’s strong! Fall back!”

“Follow!”

the Heavenly Demon yelled.

The Venomous Snake retreated, following the Murim Lord’s orders, and I advanced, following the voice of the Heavenly Demon.

Infernal Heavens Demonic Art.

Fourth form.

Sword of Freezing.

“Aaagh, you!”

The Venomous Snake was angered.

“You’re a sucker for a fight, really!”

“Venomous Snake-nim is also tough!”

“No, you’re really a sucker! Were you a lollipop in a previous life, Death King? How does it stick together like this?”[3]

“Then was Venomous Snake-nim a dog in your previous life?”

As we wondered about each other’s past lives, the Venomous Snake and I clashed swords.
A large amount of snow soared as the winter wind raged.

The field became more heated, though.

“Break off at a good point, disciple!”

“Hit him properly!”

“Don’t block it! Avoid it, even if you have to use the Running Wave! After that, use the Aged Earth Counterstrike…”

“Child! You can’t stop, either! Avoid it!”

There were scars on our skins.

They were increasing in number.

Blood splattered, flesh flew away.

Both the Venomous Snake and I had become caked in blood at some point.
The open wounds were buried in the cold wind and quickly hardened into scars.

“Oho, Madu, you bitch! Aren’t you the one interfering in their match, now?”

The Murim Lord was scolding her, but he was still laughing.

“You’re an old man with only sly serpents in your mind…”

The Heavenly Demon was telling him off, but she was laughing.

Whenever the two laughs intersected, the Venomous Snake’s sword clashed with mine.

Neither I nor the Venomous Snake intended to kill each other.
There was no intention to kill even in the war between the Heavenly Demon and the Murim Lord.
Therefore, this was not life or death.

It wasn’t a fight to kill.

But it was a fight that, if ended, would allow everyone to die.

“Huff, hooo! Haa!”

I became the sword of the Heavenly Demon.
I fought with all my power in the place of the Heavenly Demon, whose body had become infected and could not fight without spilling her energy all over.

This was the scene that she had lost.

“Haaa!”

The Venomous Snake became the sword of the Murim Lord.
He ran with all his power in the place of the Murim Lord, whose whole body was infected and who could not wield an ax without breaking his spirit.

This was a dream that he couldn’t dream of anymore.

“…….”

All scenes fade.

No matter how brilliant a dream was, it would one day become discolored.

Humans all decay.

“Agh…”

At some point.

The Heavenly Demon stopped talking.

The woman who was called the greatest of all time in the Murim world slowly covered her face.

“You wicked… You wicked things…”

A decaying genre.

A decaying world.

“I threw it all away.
I threw it away a long time ago, but it’s starting again…”

Only people could abandon people.

Only people could not abandon people.

“What do you want…?”

How much time had passed?

When neither I nor the Venomous Snake had the strength to lift our swords, our match was over.
There was no winner.
There was no loser, either.

“……”

I put away my sword.

Breathing harshly, I walked with arduous steps.
I walked in the snowfield.
I walked to the Heavenly Demon, who was standing with her face covered, and I kneeled on my throbbing knees.

“Heavenly Demon-nim.”

I touched the snowfield with trembling hands.

“I want to become your disciple.”

I want to be your scene.

“I would like to have Heavenly Demon-nim as my teacher.”

I want to be your dream that doesn’t discolor.

“I am called the Death King.”

I hope your scene leads to my scene, your dream leads to my dream, and your life leads to my life.

“My real name is Kim Gongja.”

It was a period when all sincerity was mocked.

I want to support you so no one can laugh at you.

“Please accept me as your disciple.”

Please keep living.

That was what I said.

“…….”

The sunset colored the sky.

Snow was falling in the field.

“I am the Heavenly Demon, So Baek-hyang.”

Snowflakes fluttered in the wind for a long time before falling from the sky to the snowy field.
There were countless snowflakes.
And one snowflake came to rest on one woman’s dark hair.
The white melted in the black and flowed down.

“Bow to me in the Ceremony of Nine Salutes.”

The Heavenly Demon opened her lips.

“I will receive you as my last disciple.”

~~~

[1] The “Petty Demonic Sword” and the “Eternal Demon Sword” use different hanja, but they are pronounced the same way in Korean. 

[2] Baduk: A Korean board game, also known as “go” in Japan and “weiqi” in China.

[3] 엿 같네 is colloquial for “it sucks,” but its literal meaning is “it’s like hard taffy.” The joke was translated to “lollipop” because the pun worked out too well and I couldn’t help myself.