Chapter 134: Way of Mourning Part 5 (2/2)
by fnovelpia
The wriggler’s swordplay was nothing like a human’s.
It moved as if its right hand was the true body, with its torso swinging limply, as though dragged by the arm.
Her movements, while reminiscent of her master’s, had a different nuance.
She used the tachi as a shield and the katana as a spear to strike vital points—just like her master.
However, at some point, her footwork had started resembling that of a certain young man.
Swish.
‘Ah…’
As she mimicked his footwork, she realized one thing.
‘This wasn’t a footwork meant for fighting humans.’
It wasn’t designed for ordinary duels.
It was a technique created to fight any kind of monster, no matter its form.
She finally understood what kind of battles he had been through.
Adjusting her movements in real time, she carved into the wriggler’s flesh.
Each time her blade struck, black liquid splattered onto the ground.
From the scattered liquid, tendrils sprouted, aiming for her ankles.
The more it happened, the less space she had to maneuver.
Yet she remained calm, kicking off pillars to secure her footing.
‘He used to jump around trees like a ninja too.’
Who would have thought she would one day understand his mindset through footwork?
She barely managed to suppress a chuckle.
But in contrast to her internal calm, her situation was anything but optimistic.
The problem was that, ever since the battle began, none of her attacks had landed a decisive blow.
As this dragged on, she started to feel anxious.
Maybe that was why—
She failed to react in time when a tendril shot out from a pillar and wrapped around her ankle.
As she was restrained, the wriggler’s right arm extended, swinging its sword at her.
‘Damn it.’
She wedged her sword into the wriggler’s attack path.
But—
She felt no impact.
***
Clang!
A man in a priest’s robe suddenly intervened, blocking the attack with a double-edged sword.
Not only did he parry the blade, but he also threw his remaining sword to hinder the wriggler’s movements.
Only then did he turn toward Sunhwa and smile.
“Perfect timing, right?”
“You’re a bit late.”
She returned the smile, her face weary with exhaustion.
‘What the hell is this?’
By the time Amon arrived at the battlefield, Sunhwa was already facing off against a swordsman whose right arm had turned into a black mass.
‘I’ve never seen this before.’
Even in the second part of the war against the Outers, this was new.
‘Well, the black blood and tendrils suggest it’s an Outer.’
Outers came in more varieties than the 72 demons of Goetia.
Seeing new ones wasn’t unusual.
‘So that guy Gamigin gave this black sludge to the master before leaving?’
Amon had a good guess why.
Even a demon wouldn’t want something like that inside their body.
Shaking off the thought, he focused on what needed to be done.
“You look like you’re in a lot of pain.”
He approached Sunwoo, who was crawling away from the battlefield.
“Need some help?”
Sunwoo weakly nodded before passing out.
Amon quickly placed a hand near his nose.
Luckily, he was still breathing.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Amon carefully carried him to the infirmary, ensuring that his intestines wouldn’t spill out from his torn abdomen.
‘Looks like he got more than just implants.’
It had to be some kind of genetic modification.
Otherwise, it made no sense for him to still be alive after that kind of injury.
Amon silently applauded Sunwoo’s astonishing resilience before heading back to Sunhwa.
***
“Perfect timing, right?”
“You’re a bit late.”
While exchanging lighthearted banter, Sunhwa noticed something odd about the sword embedded in the wriggler.
“How did you do that?”
“Why do you sound like you’ve never seen this before?”
“No, that’s not it. That thing regenerates wounds, but your sword—”
“It’s always been like that. Ever since— Huh?”
Only then did Amon realize something was strange.
Thinking back, even the False Saint Replica he had fought earlier reacted similarly.
It had panicked when its wounds failed to regenerate.
More than that, its attacks had landed without resistance.
‘No way…’
A hypothesis formed in Amon’s mind.
To test it, he turned to Sunhwa.
“Sunhwa, can you do me a favor?”
“If I do it, can we kill that thing?”
Amon nodded, now nearly certain.
She accepted his request and moved accordingly.
“I can only hold out for a few seconds.”
“That’s enough.”
She charged at the wriggler.
Despite lacking a head, it somehow detected her and swung its tachi.
There was no finesse in its attack—just brute force and an absurdly sharp blade.
Previously, Sunhwa had only managed to dodge its strikes.
But this time, she gritted her teeth and blocked it head-on.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
‘Was that the sound of her sword shattering? Or the ground scraping as she was pushed back?’
One thing was certain—she couldn’t do this twice.
By the time her arm had fractured and the soles of her feet were shredded, she barely managed to hold back the attack.
“Now!”
At her shout, Amon wasted no time.
He dashed toward the wriggler, sliding his sword into the armpit of its right arm before slicing upward.
Splat!
Black liquid sprayed as the arm was severed without resistance.
Though it lacked a face, the wriggler seemed visibly shaken.
Amon looked at the severed limb and confirmed his theory.
‘I knew it…’
The wriggler flailed wildly, swinging its left arm in a blind attack.
Amon didn’t even bother dodging.
A panicked, uncalculated attack would never reach him.
Instead, he sidestepped, followed the invisible lines only he could see, and slashed again.
A clean slicing sound echoed as the left arm fell.
This time, it took a bit more effort—like cutting something tougher than before.
The wriggler, now armless, convulsed, spraying black blood in all directions.
Amon sliced through the emerging tendrils and returned to Sunhwa.
“Can you still swing a sword?”
She shook her head.
“Sorry, my arm’s busted.”
“This is a problem…”
“You were cutting it just fine earlier. What changed?”
“There’s a catch. You cut the meat cleaner than I do.”
“What? What do you mean—hey! Wait!”
Ignoring her protests, Amon scooped her into a princess carry and leapt away.
Boom!
A black tendril slammed down where they had just been.
The tendrils were now sprouting from the wriggler’s severed stumps.
“How many times is this thing gonna transform?!”
As she groaned, Amon calmly explained their next move.
As the explanation ended, she grimaced once again.
“Are you crazy?”
“Just close your eyes and do it.”
“Hey! This is embarrassing!”
“It’s better than getting smacked by a tentacle and dipping your toes in the River Styx!”
“Alright! Fine!”
Reluctantly, she accepted Amon’s insistence.
She fixed her broken arm with the scabbard like a splint, then climbed onto Amon’s back.
With her still-functioning right arm, she drew her sword—
Squelch.
She slashed the humanoid part of the black wriggling creature.
The wound quickly regenerated with black liquid, but when Amon cut through the black liquid itself, it failed to heal again.
As she continued cutting the wriggling creature and Amon slashed at the black liquid, Amon’s smile deepened.
***
‘Now I see it.’
The true nature of that black wriggling mass.
The grotesque intruder lurking beneath it.
‘I can catch it.’
Its essence.
‘I understand now.’
My own nature.
Until now, he had thought his ability was simply a kind of healing disruption.
When his eye manifested its power, he assumed it was just some snail-like ability.
But neither assumption was correct.
His power wasn’t some minor skill like healing disruption, and his eye had always belonged to him from the start.
His ability wasn’t flashy like Sonia’s, nor was it overwhelming like Cassie’s.
In a way, it could even be considered rather ordinary against humans.
After all, his ability was—
‘An ability that directly attacks the essence.’
In game terms, it ignored special defenses and dealt fixed damage.
At first glance, it seemed overpowered, but against humans, it had little significance.
Flesh would be cut by a blade regardless, and implants reinforced with physical hardness couldn’t be bypassed by his power.
However, things were different when facing the false saint, demons, or the black wriggling creatures.
Unlike humans, who relied on various technologies and equipment, these beings fought with arrogance, relying on their inherent traits.
They believed in their regeneration and offered their bodies freely.
They trusted their size and charged forward recklessly.
Against such foes, Amon’s ability was their natural predator.
‘Because it drags them down to the same ground as me.’
Demon or Outer, dungeon boss or otherwise—
As long as their toughness wasn’t purely physical, he was their bane.
In a way, his ability treated them like humans.
That was Amon’s true power.
As these thoughts ran through his mind, the black wriggling mass finally shed its human shell and revealed itself to the world.
[Ng’haa fhtagn hlirgh! Goka, noga, h’ilyaa! Zilth’ur, ymg’ah, fhtagn! lä! lä! Ny’ghaa shugg fhtagn!]
The black tentacles shrieked something incomprehensible, but Amon ignored them and began his final assault.
“Hold on tight.”
He gave a warning to Sunhwa, who clung to his back, then leaped straight into the mass of black tentacles.
Like climbing a tree, he moved swiftly across the writhing tendrils.
Then, he began to chant.
[Holy, holy, holy.]
[He reigns, and all people shall tremble; He is enthroned, and the earth shall quake.]
[Righteousness shall be established, and justice shall flourish.]
[Let them fear and praise, for that is holiness.]
Sunhwa’s translator converted Amon’s Latin into words she could understand.
Normally, she had no interest in religion.
But at this moment, even she had to admit—
The warm energy filling this space could only be described as a divine miracle.
The black wriggling mass, now stripped of its human disguise, desperately lashed out at Amon.
However, having lost its physical body and exposed its very essence, the creature’s tentacles were now effortless for Amon to cut.
In the end, the writhing mass let out a final, wailing shriek.
[Ng’haa fhtagn!]
She didn’t know what it meant, but it was clear it wasn’t anything friendly.
At last, Amon’s magic reached completion.
***
The chant ended, and stakes rained down from the sky.
To humans, those stakes radiated holiness—
But for the black tentacles impaled upon them, the sensation was far from divine.
[Kee!!!!]
The Outer writhed in agony, flailing its tendrils.
Yet, chains extended from the stakes, pinning the creature to the ground.
Cracks of white light spread across the earth.
Then, the ground split open.
“Amen.”
“Eh? That was supposed to be my line.”
Sunhwa quipped as she stole Amon’s closing words.
With that, the Outer was swallowed by the chasm below.
Thud.
Then, as if nothing had ever happened, the earth closed once more.
And so, the Gyeomgye attack incident finally came to an end.
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