Face-to-Face – 3

Death was a raging typhoon, a towering wave on the night sea.

With scorching heat, its brutal gestures sent the limbs of knights and soldiers flying into the sky.

The Order’s renowned knights lost their lives before they could even react.

They approached, gripping their weapons tightly, only to be engulfed in a massive heatwave created by a single gesture, their armor collapsing along with them.

Death wore the face of an exotic woman.

She moved slowly and audaciously toward Solari Lucia.

Everywhere her feet touched, ashes and groans of pain arose.

Following death was rest.

“Ugh… Ah….”

A woman with short black hair approached the pitiful souls who, though engulfed in high fever, had not yet died.

“S-Save….”

The fallen knight reached out, not even knowing if the person before him was friend or foe.

“Kkumul-ssi.”

As soon as the woman spoke, her shadow split into several strands and began to sweep through the chaotic Order.

Each strand reached out to the fallen, and soon the shadows parted, revealing sharp teeth.

“Kkeuaaaack!!!!”

Eaten alive, they screamed and slowly sank into the shadows.

The shadow, having swallowed them whole in their armor, shuddered a few times before gathering again at Lee Mina’s feet.

The earlier pandemonium was gone, and silence reigned.

All that remained in the space were the burnt and melted pillars and the soot-stained floor.

“I need to cut it off….”

Lee Mina muttered, watching the Heavenly Demon’s retreating back.

The analysis at the execution site had revealed the next dimension Kang In-ho had moved to. Now, she could leave the Heavenly Demon here and move to another dimension.

“What are you doing?”

The Heavenly Demon’s dry question reached her ears as she pondered.

“!!!”

Lee Mina was startled and turned to see Namgung Soyu standing beside her, watching her.

“Follow me. We must burn all the lovers here and find all the scattered traces of my disciple.”

With that, she leaped up and moved far ahead.

“…She’s truly a monster. That woman.”

Lee Mina said, looking disgusted at the woman who seemed even more monstrous than herself, who was absorbing people through Kkumul.

The shadow at her feet vibrated, strongly agreeing.

“You evil demons! In the name of light… Ughaaaaack!!”

Before he could finish his sentence, the Pope’s arm flew into the air.

His fat body fell to the floor like a falling leaf, and the Pope groped at his empty left shoulder, screaming grotesquely.

“Judging by your seat at the head of the table, you must be the leader.”

Namgung Soyu stared blankly at the tall, ornate chair the Pope had been sitting on.

The Pope was in no condition to answer the calm question.

He was busy crawling on the floor, covering it with blood.

“Kkumul-ssi, don’t eat this person.”

Lee Mina said, knowing that he was the cause of all this.

Was it the first pain he had ever felt in his life? The Pope thrashed on the cold floor and died.

It was a rather anticlimactic end for a man who had led the Order and filled his own selfish desires.

“He was weaker than I thought. To die from this little.”

Namgung Soyu was genuinely disappointed that she couldn’t inflict more pain.

She walked back the way she had come. Her footsteps echoed in the hall as she stepped on the marble.

“The work here is done… Where are the rest?”

She spoke calmly, as if going for a stroll.

“I’ll track them down. But… if the traces are too weak, it might take a long time to find them….”

“That’s for me to decide. I don’t know what it’s like in your world, but where I live, there is no more cruel punishment than damaging the body.”

We feel the same way, Lee Mina thought to herself.

“If it’s a trace I can grasp, I must gather even the smallest speck.”

Lee Mina coughed softly as her crimson eyes turned to her.

Lee Mina closed her eyes and began to sense the location of another trace.

In-ho’s remaining trace was very faint, unlike what she had felt at the execution site.

And

“……?”

Lee Mina frowned and tilted her head, and Namgung Soyu, who was watching her, also tilted her head.

“Is there a problem?”

“Uh… um… um?”

“Speak. What is it?”

Namgung Soyu pressed, seeing a variety of emotions flitting across Lee Mina’s face, which was usually calm.

“The trace….”

“The trace?”

“It’s coming here.”

-Thump!

As soon as Lee Mina finished speaking, they heard the sound of something huge falling over.

The two women headed outside at the vibration and noise.

The massive staircase leading up to Solari Lucia.

At the bottom of the stairs, someone in a Nun’s Habit was looking up at them.

“Strange. Was there anyone still alive?”

The nun at the bottom of the stairs slowly began to climb up.

With each step the demure nun took, the sound of metal clashing could be heard.

A huge greatsword was held in the nun’s hand.

Finally, when they reached a distance where they could recognize each other’s faces, the nun stopped.

The nun’s different colored eyes were striking.

“Peace be with you.”

It was a greeting that did not suit the chaotic situation of the Order.

“So-so. Who are you?”

Namgung Soyu asked coldly, even as she accepted the greeting.

“My name is Maria Roen. I am a small believer who realizes the will of Saint. Did you create this situation?”

“What if we did?”

“It is right for those who have committed evil to scream in pain, but their judgment was what Saint entrusted to me.”

“So?”

“To arbitrarily lay hands on the sinners designated by Saint… is a very great act of sacrilege.”

Maria smiled and raised the greatsword to her shoulder. The heavy thing made a whooshing sound as it cut through the air.

“Ha!”

Namgung Soyu scoffed at the clearly felt hostility.

Dare you harbor Killing intent toward me?

Namgung Soyu clenched her fist, thinking of blowing the insolent woman away with a fist of wind.

Just as she was about to extend her fist, Lee Mina’s voice came from behind.

“That’s the woman.”

Namgung Soyu and Maria’s gazes turned to Lee Mina.

“Those eyes… Inho-ssi’s eyes.”

Lee Mina pointed to Maria’s blue eyes.

“Oh, sister. Do you know Saint?”

Maria gave Lee Mina a bright smile. It was a smile for a comrade, different from when she looked at Namgung Soyu.

“Wait.”

Just as Maria was about to say something more to Lee Mina, Namgung Soyu cut her off.

Maria frowned, her cheerful conversation cut off before it could even begin.

“Those eyes are Inho’s eyes?”

“Yes, it’s the trace of Saint.”

Maria replied with a blissful expression. She seemed so happy to have Inho’s trace in her body.

“Is that so?”

As soon as she finished speaking, Namgung Soyu’s body blurred.

Clang!

Namgung Soyu, who had already rushed down the stairs, reached out to Maria’s eyes, and Maria raised her sword to block it.

“What are you doing?”

Maria said in a cold voice, facing off with the sword’s blade.

“Those eyes. Didn’t you say they were my disciple’s? I, as his master, must take them.”

“Disciple?”

“Kang In-ho is my disciple. I took in and raised that ignorant fellow. So he is mine. Even a single strand of his hair is my possession. How much more so his eyes?”

The greatsword swayed back and forth, maintaining the front line.

“That’s blasphemous. To claim to be Saint’s master and try to take Saint’s traces left to me like this. It’s sacrilege.”

“I will decide that.”

Namgung Soyu gave a twisted smile, struggling to push back the sword that would not budge.

Maria’s expression turned cold at the smile.

“You. You are a sinner.”

With that declaration, Maria’s sword shot forward like lightning.

Bang!

Part of the staircase collapsed.

“Your strength is impressive.”

How long had it been since she had met someone with superior strength? Namgung Soyu admired.

“But that’s all you have.”

Before she knew it, her fist had struck Maria’s jaw, and the area below Maria’s jaw disappeared.

Maria staggered and knelt down from the shock of having her jaw blown away.

“How much better would it have been if you had just given me your eyes willingly.”

Just as Namgung Soyu was about to reach out to her again,

She felt something rushing up from below and pulled her body back.

Whoosh!

Before she knew it, the greatsword had slashed upwards from below, where she had been standing.

“!!!”

Namgung Soyu’s eyes widened.

The face she had clearly blown away, jawbone and all, had returned to its original state without a single scar.

“Ah… Saint. So that’s what you meant.”

“What….”

Namgung Soyu frowned at the opponent who was not looking at her but at the sky.

“The sinner I must punish is not the Order… but this sinner. I understand. I, Maria Roen. In accordance with the will of Saint, I will punish the sinner.”

“Punish? This Heavenly Demon? How presumptuous.”

Namgung Soyu said, looking at Maria, who was holding up the greatsword with a blissful face,

“Sinner, from now on, I will make you repent.”

Maria only gave a gentle smile.

Lee Mina, who was watching the two women’s confrontation from a slightly farther distance, spoke to her shadow.

“Kkumul-ssi, please get some popcorn.”

“Caramel flavor, please.”