Solo Swordmaster

Chapter 46: A Miracle

His flesh was sliced piece after piece.

His nerves were cut off one by one.

His blood was forced to flow backwards.

His entire gut was twisted upside down.

He would suffer a pain beyond death itself, but he wouldn’t die.

Sublimated into an art — that was the torture techniques of the Seven Dragons Association, whose Psionic arts were at the forefront when it came to research into the human body and mind.

‘Th-This man…’

Park shuddered amidst foaming at the mouth from pain.

Not because 「Counterfeit God’s Alias」had told him that Limon wasn’t lying.

Rather, it was his languor. It naturally came to him as soon as he saw those golden eyes looking at him like a squirming insect pinned under a needle.

That languor was neither fatigue nor boredom.

A dreariness only those who found murder as tedious beyond tiring could have.

It was the result of killing people over, and over, and over again.

Park became one of the miraculous lucky(or unlucky) few to learn what aSwordmaster truly was underneath all that heroic glory.

Pow—!

“Grrrgh?!”

“Who told you to think about something else?”

Getting kicked in the rear, Park completely forgot his train of thought as he felt a thunderous blow to his head.

Limon burrowed his sword into his spine.

“Don’t forget this.”

It was closer to advice than a warming, or a declaration for Park to erase any hope left within him.

“You can’t escape reality anymore.”

Whether it be regret, self-reflection, atonement, concern, losing consciousness, or insanity, Park would not be allowed to feel anything aside from a single sensation from now on.

“For the next four days, all you will be able to do is beg to be killed,” he said lowly as he prodded his sword around Park’s body.

Underneath all the pain, Park tried to think.

He tried to believe.

He tried to give up.

All of this is a dream.

Reality will be waiting for me once I open my eyes.

He tried isolating his consciousness to escape the mental and physical agony.

But as Limon declared, he would not give him the chance to go insane.

He kept Park sane by meticulously probing his pain receptors as he butchered his body one cell at a time.

And Park agonized under the pain.

He yearned for anyone to save him.

To let him die in peace, even.

That he’d do anything, pay any price, to get saved, whoever they might be.

Just then…

A miracle.

[Your covenant Constellation is moved by your earnest prayers.]

[Your covenant Constellation offers to renew your contract. You will acquire the strength to break away from the current threat upon accepting.]

[Do you accept the renewal of the contract?]

‘…!’

It was quite a strange system message.

As a high-level player who had come across several system messages before, this was the first time Park had ever been offered a contract renewal.

With all the information he had gathered while running 『Infinity Guild』, he still had not heard of anything like this happening, even as a rumor.

Normally, he would have been suspicious.

As much as he had climbed his way up with lies, he wasn’t one to blindly buy into unexpected fortune.

But now, after having lost everything with only an awful death awaiting him, Park could not afford to cast doubt on the system message when his sharp wits were already thrown out the window.

Like a drowning man clutching onto a straw, he frantically gave his answer.

“I-I accept! I accept the contract renewal!”

Ba-dump.

As soon as he cried out, Park could feel it.

An opening appeared in the world’s providence as a brilliant star fell towards him.

He could feel an immense power swallow him.

Amidst the storm of tremendous force, he realized something he hadn’t even noticed when he used Lee Chun-gi’s skills.

Even the ‘Absolute Ruler’ Monarchs were only human.

Compared to a true transcendent entity like the Constellations, they were ultimately nothing.

And now, that very transcendent entity was approaching him to lend him its powers.

He rejoiced.

‘I knew the Constellations wouldn’t turn their backs on me!’

He rejoiced at the fact his prayers were heard.

That with this newfound omnipotent power, he wouldn’t just escape his impending doom.

There was now rekindled hope that he could kill Lee Chun-gi and Limon, and take over 『Infinity Guild』.

Above all, his once despondent heart rocked with joy that he was finally being rewarded for his efforts, unlike whatever nonsense that disgusting old man spewed.

Just as he accepted the light of the Constellation with full respect and admiration, grinning ear to ear from bliss—

Chomp.

Crunch, crrrrunch.

Gu------ulp.

The deific star devoured him.

***

***

‘What was that?’

Lee Chun-gi thought Park had finally gone mad when he bellowed to “renew his contract”.

After all, it’s common for someone driven into the deep end to go insane.

But Lee Chun-gi had no choice but to accept that his judgments were wrong this time.

Pow—!

It wasn’t because Park, who had been squirming around with a sword jammed into him as he barely held himself together from the after-effects of overheat, had just shot up and kicked Limon.

It wasn’t just because his nearly severed hips had healed in the blink of an eye, either.

Nor was it his sudden explosion of energy that made Lee Chun-gi’s skin crawl just from being in Park’s vicinity.

His aura.

There was no doubt that this was Park Hyun-gun.

But the feeling of displacement that felt like he was looking at something else underneath that familiar mask.

The sense of an awful alienation that he was looking into an abyss he wasn’t supposed to.

The sickening repugnance of his soul getting drained from simply looking at it.

It made Lee Chun-gi, who had maintained his stoicism even when his skills were stolen, grimace.

‘Just what the hell….’

Had it felt his gaze?

Park’s head rotated 90 degrees to face the Monarch.

Locking eyes with him, Lee Chun-gi instinctively took a step backwards.

What he felt in that moment was a fear he hadn’t felt, even when staring death in the face.

Beyond fear of that thing’s power, a physiological terror of vermin and sewage mixed with something else slobbering his face tightened his chest.

Grimace.

Park smiled at him.

His smile was so wide, the corners of his mouth tore apart as blood started dripping out.

He jeered as he licked the blood with his elongated tongue.

It was a laugh that made Lee Chun-gi delirious just from looking at it.

He wanted to avert his gaze immediately.

He wanted to erase that awful smile from his memory.

He wanted to run away and forget that any of this ever happened.

But it was no use.

He tried shutting his eyes.

He tried running away.

But the dreadful image would stay engraved in his memory.

Then, he came to a realization, just in time.

Ah, yes. That’s right.

If it was engraved in his eyes, he’d just pop his eyes out.

If his mind wouldn’t erase it, he’d just dig out his thoughts.

If his guts were in a twist, he’d just take them out.

It was truly the perfect solution.

There was only one way out of this dread.

“「Wave Blast」.”

Boom—!

He blasted an intangible wave.

It was terribly weaker than usual, as his skills were still weakened by 「Counterfeit God’s Alias」.

But Park still flew back, completely unprepared as if he hadn’t expected him to attack.

Thanks to propelling him away, the sight that ate away at Lee Chun-gi’s mind faded away as his thinking returned to normal.

But nevertheless, a repulsion remained like his brain was drenched in filthy oil.

He clenched his jaws.

“What did you do?”

That was no cognitive skill.

He could feel his mind going into delirium like he was falling just by looking at Park.

A feeling he could only describe as…

‘Deterioration’.

It made Lee Chun-gi certain of one thing.

“Rather, what are you?”

That was just the shell of a human.

Park was no longer there.

He had already turned into something that could no longer be considered human.

But what was once Park did not answer.

It stared at Lee Chun-gi, glassy eyes filled with anger.

A mere human dared cross it?

It reached one hand out.

“「w a v e b l a s t」”

“....!”

Lee Chun-gi’s eyes widened.

It wasn’t because he had just gotten attacked by the same skill he used, nor was it because its force far exceeded his, even in his normal state.

He had reflexively used 「Spatial Metastasis」as soon as he saw its hand reach out.

But the moment he locked eyes with Park, it failed to activate.

He was frozen in place, as if an invisible snake had wrapped around his entire body.

Having missed him time to escape, he was just about to get swept away by an intangible wave big enough to crush his body with ease, when—

A flash of light split through the sky.

The wave blast ruptured and Lee Chun-gi could move once again.

He couldn’t relax, however.

In fact, he looked even more disturbed than before.

It wasn’t because Limon, who had stayed a step back after defending himself from Park’s kick, was now standing in front of him.

It wasn’t because of the pressure that was as irrepressible as having a sword pressed to his neck, one that he hadn’t even felt in his battle with Limon.

It was his expression.

An expression of one who had just received a surprise gift, or won the lottery — he was beaming with joy and excitement.

The cold, lifeless black glow in his gaze was what gave Lee chun-gi goosebumps from head to toe.

“Damn… who knew that I’d get a gift like this after being good?”

Lee chun-gi couldn’t understand.

No one could have understood why Limon was this excited despite having his long awaited blood debt postponed.

“I wasn’t sure if I should just collect my blood debt like this anyways.”

It goes without saying he would have been aggravated in any other circumstance.

Especially since it was clear a Constellation had dared to violate Limon’s warnings to not get in the way of his revenge.

There was only one reason Limon was happy instead of outraged.

He saw it.

The moment Park accepted the contract renewal, an unmistakable Constellation fell from the skies to devour him.

“Thank fuck you came out yourself, you jackass snake.”

Yoo Na-kyung’s covenant Constellation.

The entity who laughed at her in her final moments and tried to steal a certain object resembling a glowing marble from her body.

The main culprit that first brought the Constellations to his attention.

Limon put on a chilling smile as he laid his eyes on it.

The Snake that Connects Ends.

——

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