Ch.849Malevolent Divine Limb

Hersella was furious.

At her enemy who mocked her as if victory was already secured, at herself for being so easily immobilized despite this being her first battle with a sorcerer who had crossed the wall, at this fight itself which had become a sticky, frustrating quagmire instead of the fierce, desperate life-or-death struggle she had unconsciously desired.

And at the certain intuition that if she had simply handed the fight over to her co-inhabitant sharing her body, instead of stubbornly insisting on concluding her revenge with her own hands, she would have been overwhelming her opponent rather than being restrained.

Therefore, she—

—-

“Meiharin…!”

A fury like her brain was boiling. Blood vessels in both eyes burst completely, turning her eyeballs entirely red. Her body, suppressed by the curse, trembled with hatred.

And then.

– Whaaaaaaah!

The crystallization of killing intent that resonated with her soul-shaking anger, the Karma of Murder containing endless rage and insatiable hunger, surged like an angry wave throughout her entire body.

That was the essence of the divine blood flowing through her veins, the key to awakening the wolf’s blood.

– Grooooooooar!

The power of materialized Karma of Murder exploded from her body, revealing its true form to the world.

A blood-red starry sky. A form like a red nebula, containing countless stars, like a stellar whale swimming through the void.

The majestic presence of the Malevolent Star, the star of heavenly slaughter.

Those starlight were the blessing bestowed upon the incarnation of the Malevolent Star Wolf Vanirgand, the god of hatred and predation who transformed his power into Karma of Murder and spread it throughout the world, the death fang that devours the sky.

—-

‘What is this…?’

Within the red mist resembling a nebula, Hersella felt as if all the pieces constituting herself were scattering into fine fragments, mixing and dissolving into the mist.

The sensation of consciousness gradually dispersing felt infinitely warm and comfortable, like sinking into dreams in a mother’s embrace, but…

‘…How dare you!’

Rather, that comfort felt intensely unpleasant to Hersella.

It was as if she were being swallowed whole by a massive beast and slowly digested in its stomach.

In fact, that thought was close to the truth.

The power contained in the majestic presence of the Malevolent Star, the revealed essence of Vanirgand’s blessing, was rage and predation.

To entrust one’s body and mind to that power meant offering oneself as prey to Vanirgand, the master of that power.

“Kuh…nnngh…!”

Hersella instinctively realized this, and thus resisted the power of the red nebula trying to absorb her spirit and body.

Despite finally reaching the moment of revenge she had awaited, instead of avenging herself, she couldn’t even control her own power and was being devoured instead.

Could she accept such an outcome?

“You dog… how dare you try to bite your master…!”

The vow from ten years ago. The memory of the moment she resolved to seek revenge pulled her scattering consciousness back together, like a star’s core gathering earth to form a body.

Hersella gritted her teeth and inhaled deeply between them, drawing in the red nebula—the crystallization of her power—that had erupted from her body and was now undulating.

Rather than being eaten, she would eat.

As if following the path guided by her unconscious, by her intuition.

– Groooooooar…

Like a black hole that devours even light, the red nebula that had spread densely began to swirl and be sucked back into her body.

The majestic presence of the Malevolent Star enveloped her entire body, melting and seeping in. Her bones, muscles, blood and flesh, skin—all were dyed a deep red.

Down to the tiniest pieces constituting her entire body, to each individual cell.

Meiharin’s curse had long since been devoured without a trace, swept away by that flow of power.

‘Yes… this is it.’

Her consciousness cleared. The power of Karma of Murder that had been raging like turbulent waves began to stabilize like a subsiding typhoon.

Hersella could instinctively understand.

Not surrendering to the erupting power of the malevolent star, but rather devouring it and subjugating it.

That was the correct way to use the essence of Karma of Murder awakened with divine blood, the power of the Malevolent Star.

“Haaaa…”

Hersella exhaled the blood-red mist like breath as she felt the pulsation of power beginning to obey her will.

Looking down at her right arm with eyes dyed red from absorbing the light of Karma of Murder.

– Wooooong!

Tiny clusters of stars swam across her skin, which had turned red as if covered in fresh blood. Not just her right arm, but her entire body.

Emitting the red light of the malevolent star instead of the blackness of dark mana, her appearance wasn’t much different from a void-type monster.

Looking down at her arm, Hersella had such a thought, and that thought was infinitely close to the truth.

Her appearance, with the power of the Malevolent Star dissolved into her body, looked too ominous and sinister to be called human—as if a blood-red starry sky had been compressed and carved to create a head and limbs.

“A body that seems to have dissolved a red nebula…! Impossible. That’s clearly the Malevolent Star’s…!”

“Hehe… Ahahaha…! Yes, good. How splendid. This is what befits the name of a Heavenly Demon!”

Of course, to Hersella, who found the ominous and sinister to be beautiful, her own appearance with the power of the Malevolent Star dissolved into her body was not repulsive at all, but rather so beautiful that it inspired admiration.

Therefore, Hersella immediately bestowed a fitting name to this pinnacle of power she had newly realized, this technique of spreading and dissolving the true essence of Karma of Murder throughout her entire body.

Saryeop-ye (Art of Murder Karma).

Hyungshinjiiche (Body of the Malevolent God).

It was the birth of a fourth technique comparable to the Heavenly Demon Dominance Technique for sweeping away countless minions at once, and the Star Destruction Technique for breaking the enemy’s spiritual energy in the Field of Mortality.

======[ Meiharin ]======

Meiharin, who had momentarily paused due to a sudden question and witnessed the awakening of the essence of power called materialized Karma of Murder, the majestic presence of the Malevolent Star, was utterly astonished.

“She manifested the majestic presence of the Malevolent Star? Impossible. How could someone bearing a Stigmata wield such power…!”

Meiharin knew the true nature of the power Haschal-Hersella had named Hyungshinjiiche.

The tribe of sorcerers she led, the “White Valley,” still remembered the ancient legends long forgotten among warriors.

The stories of the divine bloodline descendants who inherited the blood of the god called the Sky Wolf, the Malevolent Star Wolf Vanirgand.

—-

In the ancient plains, before the rejection of sorcery, there existed two schools of sorcery.

The “Black Lake,” who worshipped the Malevolent Star Wolf as their ancestor and god, and the “White Valley,” who served the Northern Sea Serpent Dragon and cultivated the power of sorcery through knowledge bestowed by the dragon.

In western terms, one could say there existed a tribe of priests and a tribe of mages.

At that time, sorcerers were not persecuted as they are now, but rather recognized as powerful figures of the plains, just like warriors.

Why did such people come to be treated as beings who should be killed merely for revealing their identity?

Meiharin knew the reason.

‘…Because of the Malevolent Star.’

The Malevolent Star.

It referred to a child blessed by the inauspicious star that appeared every two hundred years, a being with divine blood incomparably thicker than other bloodlines.

The Heavenly Demon from eight hundred years ago. Superhuman beings like the legendary great sorcerer who was called the strongest on the plains, as if the incarnation of a god itself had been clothed in human flesh.

They freely wielded the mysterious power that other sorcerers named “the majestic presence of the Malevolent Star,” the power of Karma of Murder taking the form of a red nebula, and always reigned as the strongest on the plains of their era.

Generally, for five to ten years.

Doesn’t it seem strange? Why couldn’t these superhumans who had obtained such power reign for more than ten years?

The answer was simple.

‘They all went mad.’

According to information passed down through generations in the White Valley tribe, the fate of these superhumans who wielded the majestic presence of the Malevolent Star, claiming to be incarnations of the Sky Wolf, was invariably the same.

Unable to control their increasingly powerful bloodlust, their personalities completely twisted, becoming maniacs who craved only death.

The Malevolent Star from six hundred years ago, the one from four hundred years ago, and the one from two hundred years ago.

They all, without exception, fell into madness and slaughtered everyone on the plains, friend or foe alike, until they were finally designated as enemies of the plains and exterminated.

The warriors of the great plains had already forgotten the reason, but this was precisely why the very concept of sorcery had become taboo for the Ka’har.

When the strongest among those who learned sorcery went insane every two hundred years and caused catastrophes, how could the pure warriors who despised the incompetence of sorcerers tolerate such a sight indefinitely?

Meiharin’s own tribe, the “White Valley,” was a sorcery tribe with no connection to the Malevolent Star, but the warriors of that time did not bother to make such distinctions. They lacked the intelligence to do so anyway.

In any case, the powerful sorcery tribes of Black Lake and White Valley eventually collapsed under the warriors’ wave of attacks, reduced to the level of small tribes.

The White Valley managed to maintain some strength, but the Black Lake bloodline literally barely maintained its lineage.

Even that came to an end when their hidden location was discovered by the White Valley tribe, and they were annihilated by White Valley members who harbored resentment for being lumped together with them in their downfall.

It wasn’t even that long ago. It was done by Meiharin’s predecessor tribal chief.

Anyway, thus the divine bloodline that had brought calamity every two hundred years was thought to have been severed. The predecessor tribal chief considered this the greatest achievement of his life.

However, the divine bloodline had not been cut off.

Because a boy, just fourteen years old at the time, had escaped the White Valley’s massacre and survived.

The sole survivor of the Black Lake bloodline changed his surname, concealed his divine bloodline identity, and grew up cultivating strength as a warrior of the plains… eventually reigning as the strongest on the plains.

Aishan-Gioro Orhan.

That man was the only descendant left by the Black Lake bloodline. As were his children.