SYM 76
by EmerlynWhat should I do?
Eun-hyeon’s heart pounded wildly.
He had imagined that if a human sacrifice were to take place, it would be filled with people’s screams and cries. He never imagined it would happen so dryly.
The mass suicide, carried out as casually as everyday life, was all the more shocking.
Eun-hyeon watched the children enter one by one and take their seats, his fingertips growing icy cold.
The thought that the same thing would happen to these children made his vision darken.
Should he kill the Priest? Could he really go all the way over there and kill him?
He was suddenly furious at his own weak body.
Just then, one of the Hongbaek Sect members ran up to the Priest and whispered something. Hearing this, the Priest turned to look at the people and slammed his staff on the ground. The musicians’ playing grew faster.
Hearing the sound, Eun-hyeon felt a strange pain in his heart. He frowned, unconsciously placing a hand over his chest.
“We have a rat who escaped. We’ll make him walk out on his own two feet.”
As soon as the Priest finished speaking, he slammed his staff hard on the ground.
The moment Eun-hyeon heard the sound, he felt a pain as if someone had opened his chest and grabbed his heart.
The Priest didn’t stop and continued to slam his staff on the ground.
Thump, thump, thump.
The faster he slammed the staff, the more intense the pain became.
“Ugh…”
Just as he could no longer bear it and his body was about to collapse,
Claang!
With a sharp sound that tore through the air, the staff the Priest was holding burst apart.
It wasn’t just broken; it was utterly shattered.
“Who is it!”
“Intruder!”
The Hongbaek Sect members, who had been silent until now, shouted and surrounded the Priest.
“Y-you… How dare you interrupt the ritual, you rat! Catch them all! We’ll heat the altar with the rat’s blood!”
At the Priest’s cry, the Hongbaek Sect members began to search the surroundings in unison.
Could it be Cheong-un?
Eun-hyeon was looking around when he heard Cheong-un’s Telepathic Transmission.
Eun-hyeon shuddered at Cheong-un’s Telepathic Transmission. At the same time, all the tension he had been feeling was released in an instant, and his legs almost gave way.
Eun-hyeon unconsciously tried to nod, but barely stopped himself.
Where was Cheong-un? He had no idea.
Clang, cli-ing, clang.
Short, sharp sounds rang out in sequence, and Hongbaek Sect members could be seen falling.
Eun-hyeon bit his lip tightly. He couldn’t properly understand what was happening with his own eyes.
It was then that he met the Priest’s eyes.
The distance between where the Priest was and where Eun-hyeon was was quite far, but it seemed the Priest had seen him.
“There you are! You rat!”
At the same time as he heard a whooshing sound, Eun-hyeon’s body flew into the air. The Priest had thrown the whip he had been looking for, wrapping it around Eun-hyeon’s waist.
“Aaaaaah!”
As Eun-hyeon struggled in the air in surprise, something came and snatched his waist. The whip, which had been wrapped around his waist like a snake, was silently cut off and fell away.
“…Haa, really, one can’t take their eyes off Master for even a moment.”
Eun-hyeon clutched his heart, which was beating as if it would burst.
“You are hastening your own demise.”
Cheong-un held Eun-hyeon and lightly landed on the platform where the Priest was standing. The food and Ritual Vessels on the platform were all shattered by the aura Cheong-un emitted.
“Y-y-you! You impudent…”
The Priest’s face turned bright red at the sight.
“Catch him, now! Catch him!”
The Priest threw down his severed whip and shouted hysterically.
The Hongbaek Sect members rushed forward. But Cheong-un didn’t have to lift a finger himself. The Amhon, who had been hiding until now, revealed themselves.
The sudden appearance of a dozen or so figures caused bewilderment on the faces of the Priest and the other members.
“W-where were these things hiding…”
The Priest’s face hardened.
At first, he had been excited by the anger at those who had appeared to ruin the ritual, but by now, the excitement had subsided.
“…You guys. You were targeting us.”
“You’re slow on the uptake, old man.”
Cheong-un held Eun-hyeon and stepped back.
It wasn’t so much that he was afraid of the Priest, but he was worried about Eun-hyeon’s expression when he saw blood.
“You guys, where are you from? You don’t seem to be from the Martial Arts Alliance. Then where? Where are you from?”
Cheong-un smirked at the Priest, who was glaring at him.
“Then didn’t you know this would happen when you provoked us?”
“…Us? C-could it be…”
“The murder case at Chwihwa House, that was your doing, wasn’t it?”
Eun-hyeon’s eyes widened at Cheong-un’s words.
Why was the Chwihwa House murder case from when they were in Hapcheon suddenly coming up?
“The officials suddenly said it was all the Demonic Sect’s doing, which was strange. Who was covering up what they did? But, that was your doing.”
“Hahahahahaha! How amusing, how amusing! Is this the will of Heaven!”
The Priest, who had been quietly staring at Cheong-un, suddenly burst into wild laughter.
“If so, then these are the Demonic Sect, you must be the Heavenly Demon. And the child you are holding…”
The Priest’s laughter deepened.
Cheong-un read something ominous in that laughter.
“What are you trying to do…”
“Form 4!”
Suddenly, the Priest shouted at the sky. Then, the Hongbaek Sect members who had been confronting the Amhon slit their own throats with their swords. In an instant, the surroundings were covered in blood.
Cheong-un frowned at the Hongbaek Sect members’ actions, which even he had not anticipated.
“Old man, whatever you’re trying to do, you should stop…”
“I was just thinking of offering a small ritual, but the will of Heaven was for something greater. This was all part of the Lord’s plan.”
“What are you saying?”
“Rejoice that you have gained a small victory against us today. You will soon be coming to see the Lord.”
The Priest’s eyes were strange. He smirked as if Cheong-un, not himself, was the one cornered, and an unknown, eerie foreboding was felt.
“Amhon!”
Feeling that something was wrong, he called out to the Amhon, but the Priest moved a little faster.
“Form 5!”
With a short cry, the Priest slit his own throat. Red blood splattered on the face of the Amhon who belatedly rushed over.
The Priest collapsed forward, his white clothes covered in blood.
“Crazy bastards. What the hell is this…”
Cheong-un had encountered crazy people enough to be sick of them within the Demonic Sect, but this madness was eerie.
He kicked the collapsed Priest. The Priest was still grinning even as he spat out blood.
Cheong-un bit his lip. It was a strange feeling, as if he had lost to enemies he could have easily defeated. It had been a long time since he had felt so dirty.
But the important thing was that Master was safely in his arms.
“Amhon. Clean these up. Erase this place so thoroughly that no one will even know the Hongbaek Sect was ever here.”
“W-wait a minute! What about the children? What about the children?”
“The children…”
Cheong-un looked at the children, who were still sitting in the same position they had been in since the beginning of the chaos.
Could they ever regain their sanity?
Cheong-un was pessimistic about this, but he didn’t bother to show it in front of Eun-hyeon.
“I will entrust them to the Martial Arts Alliance. We are working with the Martial Arts Alliance on matters related to the Hongbaek Sect, so there is nothing to worry about.”
“Ah, that’s a relief…”
If 300 children in an abnormal state were suddenly thrown at them, the Martial Arts Alliance would be reluctant, but what did he care?
He intended to throw such troublesome matters to the Martial Arts Alliance, who acted like paragons of virtue.
“Master, let’s go somewhere you can rest for now. There is a branch of the Demonic Sect nearby.”
“…Okay.”
Eun-hyeon rested his head on Cheong-un’s chest. Perhaps because the tension had been released, he fell asleep in an instant.
Without even guessing what would happen next.