KRAAANG—!!

The embers burst apart.

SKREEEE—!!

A scream rang out right after. It was the kind of sound that made my body want to curl in on itself.

Its body looked as though it had been made of ash. The part I’d struck convulsed, and fragments sprayed out.

Tainted embers scattered through the air, and I narrowed my eyes as I watched them.

It’s been a while since this too.

Cleaning up someone’s karma.

Or stripping away the foulness someone had left behind.

It was a bit much to call it an exorcism of an evil spirit, and shamans usually focused more on performing a ritual, but—

This is easier for me.

From my position, having lived without ever performing rituals, this kind of physical extermination was much more convenient.

SKREEEEEEEE—!!!!

The thing I’d hit in the head shrieked and howled.

Should I even call it sound? I was striking the soul itself, so calling it sound felt a little off.

Didn’t matter.

No matter what I call it, it doesn’t really matter.

Grandmother used to call noises like that sorrow.

Yeah, no. That’s a little too elegant a word for this.

Sorrow, my ass.

To me, it was just a scream. More specifically, an irritating screech like fingernails scraping across metal.

It’s just lingering attachment.

It was stupid to give that sort of thing meaning.

Live like that, and there was no end to it.

SKREEAAAH!!

It lunged. I swung my sword again.

CLANG—!!

I smashed it across the side, and a clearer sound rang out than before. Its body recoiled and flew sideways.

KUUAAAH—!!

Every time it rolled across the ground, black streaks were left behind on the rain-soaked earth.

That was it.

That was the filth of the foulness.

“Whew.”

I tightened my grip on the sword. It felt heavy.

Is it because I’m not using internal energy?

Normally, I would’ve been running around just fine with internal energy pumping through me.

But I couldn’t do that now.

The talisman stuck to the sword. That was the problem.

...If I want to use this in here, I can’t afford to use something like internal energy.

I didn’t have the focus to spare for that. This was someone else’s inner spiritual space. Manifesting this talisman into reality in a place like this took a considerable amount of concentration.

It was the tether that let me physically strike foulness.

It looked like a talisman, but that part didn’t matter at all. It had only come out this way because a talisman was the form most familiar to me.

Was Grandmother’s a fan?

I’d never seen it myself, so I didn’t know, but that was what I’d heard.

Chief Baek’s had been a baseball bat.

...Terrifying man.

“All right. Let’s go.” 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

There was no time to hesitate, so I stepped toward the foulness.

SKREEEEAAAH—!!

It rushed at me fast. Its nails sharpened like blades, then it threw itself at me.

I dodged and rolled across the ground. Rainwater soaked straight into my body.

Martial artists would say it was disgraceful, rolling around on the ground like that, but I didn’t care about any of that.

I slipped past it, and this time I went for the thigh.

CLANG—!

SKREEK!!

The foulness staggered. At the same time, the talisman flared up. I slapped another talisman onto the sword again.

How many now.

Three.

Small. That number was the maximum I could use in here, and also my limit.

Divine Spear’s mental strength must be absurdly strong.

He was the only case where my talismans had failed to fully manifest to this degree.

When the owner of the inner spiritual space had an overwhelmingly powerful mind.

When that happened, fighting like this became a real pain in the ass.

“Still.”

I still had to do it. Three? That was enough.

Back in the old days, sure.

Not even two. One would’ve been enough to wipe this thing out. I’d really gotten a lot weaker.

That’s why I tried so hard not to get tangled up with ghosts anymore.

I’d struggled so desperately to get away from that kind of life.

And yet here I was again.

“I’m the idiot.”

Who was I supposed to blame?

I muttered that as I dodged the foulness.

KKAANG—!!

The foulness attacked, and all I did was dodge and strike, over and over.

[...What kind of dogfight is this?]

Yoo Cheongil spoke like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Fair enough. It was a dogfight. There was no martial conviction or anything like that here.

How am I supposed to care about that stuff?

A refined, dignified duel? Not a chance. That kind of thing was meaningless against something like this.

It was a beast with nothing but instinct left. There was no reason to show it courtesy.

“So get lost quietly.”

KKAAANG—!!!

An arm burst apart. The foulness’s arm was sent flying clean off. The talisman flared again.

SKREEEEEE—!!!

The foulness curled in on itself as though it were in pain.

Now.

I closed the distance and swung the Divine Sword.

I meant to take its head off.

But—

SKREEEEEEAAAAAA—!!!!

The foulness let out a howl, and my body locked up the instant I heard it.

WOOOOONG—!!!

My soul rang.

“Damn.”

I narrowed my eyes. The sound pouring out of its soul was on a different level than I’d expected.

I knew it wasn’t some average thing.

If you compared it to ghosts, it felt stronger than an ordinary evil spirit.

Well, obviously.

That’s why Divine Spear ended up like that.

Even taking that into account, it was unbelievable. How the hell had he kept something like this inside his body?

Two talismans left.

I attached one more to the flat of the blade.

SKREEEEEEAAAAA—!!!!

The noise grew louder, and the forest trembled with it. It was affecting the frozen space around us.

And then—

SHIIING—!!

“...!”

I spun around at the strange sensation.

When I looked back, Divine Spear had appeared and launched an attack at me.

“You’ve got to be kidding.”

So it knew how to use that too. Unbelievable.

Divine Spear’s body moved like a puppet and came charging toward me, and I had to widen the distance in a hurry.

The level is low.

It wasn’t like the fight I’d seen in the memory. The soul-form of Divine Spear controlled by the foulness was just fast.

The problem was, it was insanely fast.

SHIIING—!!!

KRRUNCH—!!!

The spear punched straight through a tree. That made my heart jump. If that thing pierced me, I’d be done on the spot.

I narrowed my eyes. I looked at the talisman stuck to my sword, then drew up another kind of energy.

Goddamn it.

Focusing was already hard enough, and in the end I had to use internal energy.

My vision sharpened, and Moon Immortal Sword’s Path opened.

At the same time—

I can see it.

I stared at the lines laid out in front of me. Then I swung my sword along them.

KAK—! CLANG—!

Before I knew it, I was already meeting the spear that had flown in. Heavy. The weight of it made my hand throb.

[Want me to help...?]

Yoo Cheongil asked if he should possess me, but—

“No.”

I refused right there. I didn’t even know whether possession would work in here or not, but—

Then my concentration breaks.

The state I’d barely established, and the talismans too, would disappear.

At that point there would be no point at all.

KRRRK—!!

The spear moved. I was too busy knocking aside the endless thrusts it kept firing at me.

In the middle of that, I called out to Divine Spear.

“Any chance you’re conscious at all?”

KWAK!

Naturally, the answer that came back was another spear thrust. I doubted he had the mind for it, but still.

“Alliance Leader. Pull yourself together. You can do it.”

I had to wake up his soul-form. If the foulness had taken that much damage, there should’ve been some effect.

Then—

“...gil...”

“Oh.”

Divine Spear spoke.

“Yoo Cheongil...!!!”

Goddamn it.

[...Oh dear.]

Looks like hoping for anything had been pointless. Divine Spear came charging at me as if possessed by madness.

What about the foulness?

Somewhere in the middle of that, the foulness had disappeared. I couldn’t see it anywhere.

If I lose it—

No.

But what was I supposed to do about this?

Ah, hell.

In the old days, I would’ve crushed this easily.

...If I loosen it now, there’s no answer.

My chest tightened. I’d already loosened and reduced it to some extent, but if I turned it any farther here—

Every ghost in the world might come running to me.

Anything that sensed the difference would come swarming in. At that point, my life turning miserable would be all but guaranteed.

What do I do?

What should I do?

[Kid.]

Yoo Cheongil called me.

It sounded like he was asking about possession again.

That won’t work.

No matter how I thought about it, possession wasn’t the answer right now.

Tch.

I held back a sigh as I thought that, and then—

[Kid.]

Yoo Cheongil spoke again.

“I said no, didn’t I?”

I told you you can’t possess me, so what now? I snapped back in irritation, and then—

[Not that. Look over there.]

“Huh?”

At Yoo Cheongil’s words, I turned my gaze.

And there—

“Huh?”

Someone was there. Someone shining with bright light.

My eyes widened at the sight.

WHOOOOSH—!!!

The spear came flying again. My concentration had slipped for an instant, and this one might actually hit.

I bit down hard on my lip, thinking this was bad.

Then—

“Beloved.”

I froze.

At the sound that came from the light, Divine Spear’s soul-form stopped dead.

The spear had reached right in front of my nose. It was a razor-thin margin.

Divine Spear turned his head toward the light.

“...Beloved.”

Was that word the trigger?

“...Ah...”

A broken sound slipped out of Divine Spear.

I steadied my breathing as I watched, and then the light spoke to me this time.

“Go. Quickly.”

The moment I heard that, I put strength into my legs.

“Thank you.”

I didn’t ask who it was.

There was no need.

I had already known.

Ever since the moment I first saw Divine Spear.

*****

I ran down the forest path. The black things scattered on the ground were showing me the way.

Thanks to that, it was easy to find where it had fled.

“Found you.”

I spotted the bastard soon enough.

SKREE... SKREEEE—!!!

The foulness was standing in the middle of an open field.

“Let’s stop this. You’re tired too.”

I gripped my sword. There was one talisman left. I saw what remained starting to flake away, and I attached the last one.

SKREEAAAH—!!!

A vile cry.

I didn’t know whose energy this originally belonged to, but whoever it was must’ve been a deeply disgusting bastard.

And on top of that—

“Let me ask you one thing.”

I asked the disgusting thing a single question.

“Are you the Cult Leader?”

SKREEEEEE.

No response. Asking the foulness itself was obviously meaningless.

Even so, I wanted to ask.

“If you are the Cult Leader... then you’re probably feeling this.”

Maybe it couldn’t hear the sound, but it would feel it.

“I don’t know how you did it.”

I raised my sword and accelerated, speaking as I moved in to cut it down.

“But give it up. Unfortunately for you, I’m here.”

The master of the heretics.

The lunatic who called himself the Cult Leader and claimed the world had to be cleansed of humans.

That was the bastard I’d been thinking of when I asked.

SKREEEEEEAAAAH—!!!!

The foulness charged at me. Realizing there was nowhere left to run, it rushed me head-on.

SKREEK—!!

A hand came flying toward me.

This time, I didn’t dodge.

THRUST—!!!

“Ghk.”

It pierced straight through my chest. I felt the pain. Ignoring it, I drove my sword in.

KRRRK.

I heard the sound of fragments breaking. The blade crushed through the ash of the foulness.

FWOOOOSH—!!!

The talisman attached to the blade flared and was absorbed into its body.

Only then—

SKREEAA... AAAAH...

SHAAAAAA...

The foulness scattered into energy and vanished.

“Cough.”

I dropped to one knee, blood spilling from my mouth. Not that there was actual blood.

There was just a gaping hole through my chest.

“Haa...”

I let out a ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) breath. My face twisted sharply.

[...Is it over?]

Yoo Cheongil asked.

“...I cleaned out the filth.”

[Are you all right?]

Was that supposed to be concern on his face?

“...No, I’m not all right, but I don’t think I’m going to die.”

I clutched at the hole in my chest and pushed myself upright. At this point I really wanted nothing more than to rest, but not yet.

“...Let’s go finish this.”

I’d cleared away what had been putting Divine Spear to sleep.

Now it was time to wake him up.