Chapter Season 2 745

Just as they finished preparing themselves and were about to enter, the magical bombardment abruptly ceased. On closer inspection, it had not stopped; they seemed to have passed the point from which the spells were launched. Only then did Peran see the immense magic circle spread beneath the dark clouds.

‘I couldn't see this at all from a distance, either.’

Was it something that could only be observed from this close?

It was not a good sign.

Peran had assumed that the dark clouds themselves were pouring down the magic. In truth, it originated from the magic circle pressed directly beneath them. The dark clouds were simply dark clouds.

Then what was inside them?

“Ah...”

Peran suddenly realized that their surroundings had fallen silent. The thunderclaps, the din of the storm, the roar of flames, the cracking sounds, and the howl of the wind he had heard moments ago had all vanished. Wondering if the bombardment had stopped, he looked down at the magic circle they had passed, but that was not the case. Spells were still falling there amid a scene of utter chaos.

It felt as though they had entered another world that occupied the same place yet could not interact with the one outside.

“Sir, are you all right?”

“What about you?”

“I'm fine.”

“You should wipe off the blood before saying that.”

Looking sheepish, Peran wiped his face.

“The space between the dark clouds and the magic circle is relatively safe.”

“Yes. This will be important information as well.”

How could such a place have formed?

Was it because the magic pouring from the circle and some energy within the dark clouds were opposing forces? That was the first theory that came to mind, but he had no way to test it unless they redirected that immense magic circle's bombardment upward instead of down...

Rrrrumble...

It was a belch of thunder like something heard from within a storm cloud.

Could thunder and lightning truly be raging inside?

“Peran, now that we have this opportunity, I know it is discourteous, but I must ask one last time.”

“No. You don't need to ask.”

Peran spoke.

“Go, sir.”

“Will you be all right?”

“No, I won't. But we still have to go, don't we?”

“...”

“I don't want to whine in front of you.”

Yang In-hyun took hold of his sword and replied calmly.

“I am grateful to fate for bringing me here with you.”

Freed of his final hesitation, Yang In-hyun entered the dark clouds without reservation.

Rooooar!

Whether they were approaching the clouds or the clouds were rushing toward them, they could not tell.

Their senses blurred, and their minds went blank.

Nothing was visible. Nor could they hear a sound.

There was only a continuous, strange reverberation of unknown origin, and by the time Yang In-hyun noticed it, tremendous pressure had already engulfed his entire body.

“...!”

This was not something a sword could contend with! It was the most fundamental energy underlying the universe, a force that could be called nature itself, beyond even will. It was so vast that resisting seemed foolish, and the violent pressure felt as though it would crush his entire body.

Yang In-hyun immediately drew up his internal energy and wrapped it around his entire body.

“Cough...!”

Even then, the situation scarcely improved. Coughing up blood mixed with fragments of his organs, he wondered.

Had entering the clouds been a step too far?

The conditions inside the dark clouds were more than a human could withstand. Yang In-hyun might have endured a little longer alone, but... the pain Peran, riding on his back, must be feeling was beyond imagination. It might already be too late for him.

He wanted to turn his head and check Peran's condition, but he could not afford to. Even such a minor movement consumed a great deal of strength.

Yang In-hyun found himself at a crossroads.

Press onward or flee.

He needed to conserve his strength until he reached a firm decision...

‘...We have gathered a considerable amount of information today.’

Going any farther would be nothing more than Yang In-hyun's greed. He still did not fear death, but that applied only when the death was his alone. He could not place Peran's life on the scales with his own.

For now, they had to retreat─

Clench.

At that moment, a hand gripped his shoulder.

The grip was so weak it seemed liable to fail at any moment, yet strangely impossible to ignore.

“...”

Sometimes one could understand another's intentions without exchanging a single word, and this was such a moment. Yang In-hyun realized that if he retreated here, Peran would never forgive him.

...Making an enemy of a man like this would hardly be worthwhile.

Yang In-hyun smiled faintly and renewed his resolve.

He did not know how effective his swordsmanship would be against this mysterious force. But making no attempt to struggle was not how he had lived.

He assumed a stance with the sword he had already drawn. That alone made every muscle in his body tremble as though it had reached its limit.

“I hope... you will remember... this sword art.”

He should have conserved even the strength required to speak, but he did not. It did not matter if Peran could not hear him.

Yang In-hyun slowly raised his sword.

Losing an arm was devastating for a martial artist, even one capable of wielding a sword perfectly with one hand. The body's center of gravity was thrown off, upsetting its balance, and one major option was lost in the chaos of close combat.

When he first lost his arm, he had been overcome by a sense of emptiness. The feeling had surprised even him, but it had made him realize that, whatever else might be said, he had lived as a martial artist.

That emptiness had faded once he learned the condition of his body.

Some unknown force was killing him. With death approaching, what did the loss of one arm matter?

On further reflection, the same was true of his martial arts.

Was the Everlasting Plum Sword, the swordsmanship I, Yang In-hyun, had built, truly something I could no longer perform merely because one arm was gone?

No.

Even if both arms were lost, even if his legs were severed, his tongue torn out and his throat cut, so long as his will remained, so long as Yang In-hyun still existed in this world─

Then he could perform the Everlasting Plum Sword at any moment.

For the Everlasting Plum Sword was the path Yang In-hyun had walked.

And even when a person died, the footprints they left behind did not disappear.

First Form: Martial Annihilation.

In the days when vengeance was all he carried within him, he had wanted to erase an entire world. He could not bear that a world devoid of righteousness or chivalry existed, nor that he himself was part of it. A world that had taken the most beautiful woman from him deserved to perish, and if that was not its fate, he would destroy it himself.

Because he had believed everything was wrong.

Even Jo Seong-chu, who declared that chivalry lay in the dust, might once have been a young wandering hero who dreamed of great deeds and roamed the realm before he grew old and wretched.

Jo Seong-chu had been unhappy all his life, but his greatest misfortune was having no friend to stop him as his beliefs grew twisted and he spiraled out of control.

Yang In-hyun still could not forgive him. But now, at least, he could pity him.

Martial Annihilation was the past Yang In-hyun had wished to erase.

Second Form: Flower Cultivation.

He had wanted to plant a seed in a desolate world.

Whether that desire came from guilt or hypocrisy, the Yang In-hyun of that time had not cared.

Then, in another martial world within the World of Void, he encountered a place called Mount Hua once more. He could not say exactly what he had felt at the time.

He had only known that he did not want history to repeat itself and that he could trust no one. He could not stand by and watch even the kindest person he had ever known sit atop Mount Hua.

If I am to prevent it from happening again, I must stand there myself.

For all the contradictions in his reasoning, Yang In-hyun fought Mount Hua's former sect leader and won. He completed the Second and Third Forms simultaneously during that process.

He hoped the seed that would someday sprout would become the roots supporting a new Mount Hua. The sturdy plum tree would bear a complete record of the foolish deeds of Yang In-hyun's past, so that anyone harboring the same foolish notions might see them and change their ways.

So that no one like Jo Seong-chu would ever appear again.

So that no one like Yang In-hyun would ever appear again.

Perhaps those were the thoughts he had carried.

Flower Cultivation was the present Yang In-hyun was changing.

Third Form: Full Bloom.

Was any living thing more honest than a plant? Plum blossoms would not bloom in a place unfit for life. And so Yang In-hyun had hoped that the great tree would do more than sink its roots firmly into the earth. He hoped its flowers would bloom in all their beauty.

If it became a place worthy of the name Mount Hua, it would come to symbolize more than the narrow world of martial artists.

Not only children, scholars wandering the world to broaden their horizons, or elderly couples seeking beautiful scenery.

...Even a man abducted as a child and raised as a weapon, or a woman capable of offering a cup of wine to such a wretched man.

He hoped Mount Hua in full bloom would become a sight anyone might encounter when they paused to catch their breath.

If he could contribute to that, then Yang In-hyun's death was truly nothing.

Full Bloom was the future Yang In-hyun dreamed of.

Then what should the Everlasting Plum Sword Final Form depict?

What should crown the sword art that embodied the past, present, and future?

‘Isn't it obvious?’

A final period.

The final period at the end of a life that had been so very long and filled with nothing but regret, yet had turned out to be unexpectedly bearable just before its end.

After vengeance, regret, and hope, what it had to embody next was ‘inheritance.’

He did not mean the Everlasting Plum Sword. This was the inheritance of his will.

I hope someone better than me will dream a similar dream. If such a person exists, I hope they will take me as a cautionary example, wander a little less, and achieve what they desire with a little greater ease.

Peran was not a man whose convictions aligned with his own, but that made it all the better.

To have a disciple perfectly in tune with him accompany him at this final moment, as if it had all been arranged, and to show that disciple his life—that would be more than he deserved. It was no ending for a pathetic fool like him.

He hoped Peran would convey this final moment to Mount Hua as calmly as possible.

And if even one of the countless people at Mount Hua, whether now or in the distant future, was influenced for the better by the life of the man called Yang In-hyun...

Then Yang In-hyun could say his life had meant something.

To whom was he saying this?

That, too, was obvious.

To the most beautiful woman under heaven, who had loved Hundred Flowers Wine so dearly.

Yang In-hyun opened his eyes once more.

The dark clouds still covered everything around him, but now they looked a little different. They seemed like the storm clouds that had shrouded his mind all this time.

If so, clearing away the dark clouds within him was no difficult task.

And so Yang In-hyun named the Everlasting Plum Sword Final Form Crossing the Clouds.

May I cross beyond these dark clouds and reunite with the one I love.

As the sword art unfolded, tears streamed from Peran's eyes.

Within this dangerous yet extraordinary space, Yang In-hyun's quiet resolve was conveyed to him in full.

So that was it. So that was the life you lived.

A life so suffocating, lonely, and twisted.

...And yet you never blamed fate. You always changed it. You dreamed of a better future. Even if that meant ending up in an even more terrible situation, you never gave up, right to the very end.

All while remembering the brief moonlight that had shone upon your life, fainter than moonlight veiled by clouds.

And you created this sword art.

Using your life as fuel, you created a single ray of light to drive away the pitch-black darkness.

Fwoooosh─!

The dark clouds blanketing their surroundings cleared, but that was not all. The giant even staggered as though it had suffered a tremendous shock. Yang In-hyun's final attack had dealt the giant a meaningful blow!

Without wiping away his flowing tears, Peran instead opened his eyes even wider.

To see the vista Yang In-hyun had created. To seize a clue that would prove useful.

The converging dark clouds vanished as though burning beneath the sunlight. The stifling pressure disappeared, and his view opened up.

And beyond them, Peran saw it, perhaps for the first time.

The area above the giant's waist.

The place where its upper body should have been.

It was...

‘...’

Completely empty. There was nothing there.

In other words─

...the giant had no upper body.

*****

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