The seventh apostle narrowed his eyes while looking at the people lying around on the ground.
‘What just happened?’
None of the people who’d received bloody energy from the Blood Haze Array had died. Forget being dead, they didn’t even seem injured.
On the other hand, the fanatics surrounding them had all perished.
‘How is this even possible?’
He expected the fanatics to die, since Raon’s resonance even managed to slightly affect him despite him being fully prepared for his possessed blade.
Even though the fanatics’ death wasn’t that surprising, he couldn’t believe that the worms had only fainted despite being closer to Raon than the fanatics.
‘It’s impossible unless he has a superhuman control of his aura…’
The result implied that he minimized the influence of his sword resonance to the people close to him while increasing it against those further away, but he had the feeling that such a detailed control of aura was impossible to achieve even for himself.
“You don’t betray my expectations.”
The seventh apostle raised his head to look at Raon, who was pointing his possessed blade towards him.
“That was amazing.”
He admitted his surprise at the unexpected situation and clapped his hands to show his composure.
‘This much deviation is acceptable, since this isn’t everything I’ve prepared.’
The reason he had brought the people with bloody energy to create a scene where Raon had to decide between killing them or saving them was in order to laugh at him and destroy his mind.
The real weapon he had was the sorcery array in the sky, which was getting even bigger as they spoke—the Surreal Blood Manifestation Array.
“Raon Zieghart.”
The seventh apostle raised his finger to point at the sky.
“That sorcery is called the Surreal Blood Manifestation Array. Do you know what that means?”
“……”
Raon didn’t respond, keeping his sword pointed at him.
“Of course you wouldn’t, since you shouldn’t even have noticed that sorcery’s presence. The name means that it’s going to manifest the surreal side of blood in the world. It’s a way to describe the worms who are going to become our food, and it also…”
Bloody energy burst from the seventh apostle as a frightening smile appeared on his face. The eruption of an extremely powerful bloody energy started to dry up his surroundings.
“Means that our believers will become stronger under that sorcery’s influence. However, what you are seeing right now isn’t even a glimpse of its power, since its amplification effect on bloody energy is going to grow more than twice as strong as it is right now once the array is properly activated.”
“……”
Even though a tremendous amount of bloody energy was bursting from the seventh apostle, Raon’s expression didn’t change in the slightest. He was simply examining the seventh apostle with a composed expression on his face.
“I’m going to bring true despair to you. Die under the bloody star.”
The seventh apostle snapped his fingers. He was signaling for Tius to activate the array.
“Hmm?”
However, nothing changed. The Surreal Blood Manifestation Array just kept getting bigger by absorbing the energy in the surrounding area.
Snap!
He snapped a bit harder, but the array remained unchanged.
“Tius!”
He tried calling his name, but nothing changed.
“What…?”
“Did you mention that I didn’t know about the array?”
He raised his head upon hearing Raon’s cold voice.
“You are right about the fact that I didn’t know its name. However…”
He sneered and pointed at the Surreal Blood Manifestation Array.
“I’m pretty sure I know more than you do about that sorcery array.”
“What have you done to Tius?!”
The seventh apostle’s eyes wavered violently, despite how calm he was until a moment ago.
“Out of everything you’ve done, you never should’ve used children. Even though you have the appearance of a human, you are even worse than a beast for trying to sacrifice those children.”
Raon looked down on the seventh apostle with a frightening gaze.
“And the one who is in charge of handling him hates that kind of nasty act the most, so that Tius guy you are looking for must’ve lost his head by now.”
The seventh apostle swallowed nervously while meeting Raon’s eyes.
‘D-Did he really notice it? But it’s the Surreal Blood Manifestation Array. How? Just how?!’
He was even aware of the fact that the children who were located the closest to the array would become the sacrifices upon activation, which implied that he really had managed to understand the array’s functions.
‘Damn it…’
If Tius ended up dying just like Raon said, things were going to get difficult. He suddenly became extremely anxious.
Snap!
The seventh apostle snapped his fingers, and the White Blood Fanatics who had been hiding nearby jumped out at once.
The fanatics, numbering over thirty, were unfazed at the situation as they released their bloody energy.
“Help Tius! Spread in all directions as you go!”
He immediately ordered them to move since they couldn’t be there when Raon sent another wave of sword resonance.
However, Raon turned his head instead of creating a sword resonance.
“Light Wind Squad!”
Raon’s shout echoed throughout the atmosphere and the Light Wind swordsmen made their appearance, encircling the White Blood Fanatics.
“This trash doesn’t deserve to live.”
Raon glared at the White Blood Fanatics with cold and deadly eyes.
“Kill them all.”
As soon as he gave the order, contrary to the way the Light Wind swordsmen looked almost emotionless at first, they unleashed their majestic energies to start wiping out the White Blood Fanatics.
They weren’t even shouting as they fought. The only sound on the battlefield was the slashing sound of swords and the sound of the White Blood Fanatics’ heads falling to the ground.
“We should also get started.”
Raon brandished the Blade of Requiem in his left hand and Heavenly Drive in his right hand.
“Since we should save the oxygen that you are using to breathe.”
* * *
Two hours prior.
Martha swallowed nervously as she watched Runa talking to Tius.
‘He was right.’
Just as Raon predicted, Tius called the backstreet kids—including Runa—to his shop.
‘So, that’s Tius.’
Tius was a middle-aged man with blue hair, and his gentle appearance was bound to leave a good impression on people.
‘And he did all of that nasty shit with that face…’
It must’ve been even easier to take advantage of the children because of his gentle face, because the abandoned children tended to yearn for people’s kindness.
‘Son of a bitch.’
She was struck by the urge to jump out and smack his mouth.
“I leave it to you once again.”
Tius gave stones the size of an adult man’s fist and silver coins to the kids with a gentle smile on his face.
“Yes!”
“Don’t worry about it!”
The kids smiled brightly and nodded, happy about getting some money.
“Mister, I got five silver coins though.”
“Huh? I also got five.”
“You usually only give one or two of them. You made a mistake.”
Instead of being happy about getting five silver coins, the kids found it strange and tilted their heads.
‘That damn bastard… Is that money supposed to be the coins for the dead?’
It was obvious why he was giving them more money than usual. He was paying them to become sacrifices, since he was planning to sacrifice them just as Raon predicted.
“Ah, it’s because I have one more request today.”
“One more?”
“What is that?”
“Instead of burying the stones right away, please wait at the spot and bury it when I send the signal.”
Tius smiled while saying please.
“How are you going to send the signal?”
“I’ll be shouting, so you should be able to hear me.”
“Ah!”
“I see!”
“Sure!”
The kids went to their respective spots without complaining, since they got five whole silver coins.
“Hmm…”
However, Runa wasn’t leaving unlike the others, and Tius faced her once the kids in front of her left.
“Runa?”
“Mister, I…”
Her lips slowly parted, trying to tell him something.
“Hmm?”
“N-Nothing!”
Runa examined Tius from top to bottom before she shook her head and stepped away.
“I’ll tell you after today’s job.”
“Sure.”
Tius nodded gently, telling her to follow her heart.
“Haa…”
Martha sighed quietly. She was contemplating on what to do if Runa told him about her the encounter, but her continuous attempt at convincing her that Tius was a dangerous person seemed to have worked.
Once all the kids left, ten people appeared next to Tius with emotionless looks on their faces. Although they were wearing ordinary clothes, they were definitely White Blood Fanatics.
“Go.”
As soon as Tius gave the order, they scattered in the directions the children went.
“It’s our turn now. Scatter to your assigned positions.”
“Yes.”
Martha shook her hand, and the first team’s swordsmen left to follow the White Blood Fanatics. They were hunting those doing the hunting.
Martha didn’t move from behind the signboard on the rooftop and kept watching Tius.
Once an hour had passed, the sun finally disappeared, and night fell. People playing around in the city entered the nearest buildings at the same time, leaving the noisy city completely empty.
‘This is also…’
Exactly according to Raon’s expectations. Raon had told her that once the sun set after the kids left, people were going to disappear. It went exactly as he said it would.
‘He’s the real monster here.’
On top of his unmatched talent for swordsmanship, his ability to analyze a situation and make decisions accordingly was truly astonishing. She couldn’t even be jealous at that point.
Tap.
Once the sun set and all of the people disappeared, Tius finally came outside. His outfit was completely different before. He walked through the empty road wearing an archbishop’s robe.
‘It’s my turn now.’
Martha faded away into darkness while forcing herself to suppress the boiling urge to kill him.
* * *
* * *
Runa sank weakly to the ground where she was supposed to bury the stone. She sighed deeply while looking down on the silver coins she got from Tius.
“Haa…”
I should’ve told him.
There was no way Mister Tius was a bad person, since he was the only one who took care of abandoned kids like her.
It didn’t feel like Martha was lying to her the day before, but she felt bad about it because she felt like she was betraying Mister Tius.
‘Alright, I’ll tell him about her later. I think I should do that.’
Runa nodded, deciding to confess to Tius about what happened the previous night.
“Hmm? What’s going on…?”
Everything had turned dark before she realized it. It was so dark that it almost felt like the middle of the night.
‘There’s no way so much time has passed, though.’
She had been lost in thought, but it couldn’t have been that long. It was impossible for the time to skip from afternoon to night in such a short amount of time.
“Gasp!”
She found it strange and raised her head to look around. A scarlet cloud in the sky was expanding like a balloon.
“What is that cloud…?”
“Runa.”
Runa turned her head upon hearing a voice coming from behind her. Tius was walking towards her with a gentle smile on his face.
Even though it was the same smile as always, it felt different somehow. A chill ran down her spine, as if she had met a savage beast in the middle of a mountain.
“M-Mister?”
Runa’s lips were trembling as she pointed at the dark sky and the scarlet cloud.
“Wh-What’s happening right now?”
“It’s not a big deal.”
Tius smiled, telling her that it was nothing to worry about.
“Rather than that, what were you trying to tell me earlier?”
“What?”
“I’m asking about the thing that you said you would tell me later.”
“Th-That’s…”
Runa couldn’t tell him about it. The incongruence she felt from Tius’s appearance matched Martha’s warning from the day before.
“Ah, it’s fine if you don’t want to tell me.”
Tius shook his hand gently.
“Because it doesn’t matter what you say once you are dead.”
“Wh-What do you mean…?”
“Bury the stone now.”
“Mister?”
Runa tried to refuse Tius’s order, but her body moved against her will and turned around.
‘Huh…?’
She wanted to stop, but her limbs weren't following her command. She almost felt like she was inside a different person’s body.
“Runa, I’m really thankful to you in various ways. It’s thanks to you that the other kids also started to trust me.”
Tius’s voice was the same as always, but the coldness in it sent a chill down her spine.
“That’s why I considered guiding you into becoming a believer, but you unfortunately injured your body. You could only live for another year at most. However, your younger siblings were pretty decent.”
He flicked his tongue out as an evil smile appeared on his face.
“I’ll take good care of those kids.”
“Ah…”
‘No, don’t do that!’
She was trying to scream in denial, but a quiet groan was all that came out of her mouth.
Runa’s body betrayed her will and walked towards the spot where she was supposed to bury the stone. Her hand felt completely stiff as she dug a hole and picked up the stone.
“Uhh…”
Her hand hurt. The intense pain almost felt like the stone in her hand had spikes around it.
“Ah, don’t worry about it too much, since the blood stone is currently sucking out the bloody energy inside your body.”
Tius whispered the words with a gentle voice.
“Sniff…”
“Your pain will fade away soon enough.”
Despite what he said, the pain only kept getting stronger.
“Ah, but I guess I should hear your voice since this is going to be your last moment.”
Tius shook his hand, and her mouth could finally move. However, the first sound she made was obviously a scream.
“Aaaah!”
She screamed her throat raw from the intense pain that felt like her hand was inside a raging fire. She even started to lose her mind and her eyes started to close.
‘Please… Somebody please help me…’
Anyone was fine. She didn’t mind it if she ended up dying. She just kept praying over and over that her siblings wouldn’t be taken away by that demon at least.
However, nothing changed. Just like when she was trying to cover her siblings with a plank in the rainy backstreet, God didn’t exist in the world.
‘Fuck you god! Curse you god!’
It was when she was cursing the damned god…
Clang!
Something was sent flying from behind her, shattering the red stone in her hand into pieces.
“Who… Kuh!”
The moment she heard Tius’s scream, she could start moving her body once again. She hurriedly turned around.
Drip. Drip.
Tius’s left arm was on the ground, and Martha, who she’d met the previous day, was standing in front of him with gray blood flowing down from the sword in her hand.
“You son of a bitch!”
Runa thought that Martha’s insult didn’t match her appearance as she charged at Tius.
“Kuuh…”
Tius hurriedly stepped back and swung his only arm. A white current spread out from his hand to create a wall, meant to stop Martha’s advance.
“Uaaaah!”
Martha shouted and destroyed the wall in an instant to charge at Tius.
“You damn bitch!”
Tius frowned to the point that his gentle face looked distorted as he chanted in a strange language.
Cring!
Red spikes emerged from the ground and the thin air and stormed towards Martha.
“Are you a caterpillar or something? Everything you do is nasty, just like your appearance!”
Martha broke through the bloody spikes by covering her body with aura before striking him with her sword.
“Hmph! I just needed some time!”
Tius stopped running away and gathered his index and middle fingers to chant a spell.
Slam! Slaam!
The bloody sorcery started to block Martha’s strikes, proving what he had said. The bloody wall became gradually thicker, and the sharp spikes protruding from it were tearing her skin apart.
“Haa…”
Cloudy steam came out from Martha’s mouth. Her black eyes turned crimson, and the brown aura circling her grew twice as large.
“Kuaaah!”
She charged at least twice as fast as before, her eyes glowing red.
Whaam!
She destroyed the bloody wall and spikes in an instant and dashed towards Tius.
“Kuh!”
Tius narrowed his eyes while using the Bloody Shadow Footwork to withdraw.
‘Is that the Berserk skill…?’
Her crimson eyes—and her physical abilities and aura being amplified by around 1.5 times—confirmed it.
She must’ve used the Berserk skill, which was the specialty of the Saiyan Canyon warriors during the great wars against monsters.
‘What a stupid bitch.’
Berserk had a huge drawback. She wouldn’t be able to tell her allies from her enemies and would only end up attacking the one in front of her. The way she kept smashing the walls that just appeared one after the other proved that fact.
“Huhu.”
Tius smiled coldly and summoned a bloody humanoid created with bloody energy.
“Kuaah!”
As expected, Martha attacked the bloody humanoid summoned right next to her instead of Tius himself.
‘I’ll finish you off in a single strike.’
In order to avoid an unforeseen accident, he created two layers of bloody walls and started chanting an advanced sorcery capable of slaying Martha in an instant.
‘The Demonic Blood Spear of Extermination should be enough.’
He quickly chanted the spell for the Demonic Blood Spear of Extermination and was about to throw it at Martha.
Slaam!
Even though she should’ve been distracted by the bloody humanoid, she instantly destroyed the walls and dashed towards him.
“It’s already too late!”
Tius quickly jumped back and unleashed the Demonic Blood Spear of Extermination. A berserker was bound to face it head-on.
He expected her to try destroying it with her sword, and that was going to be the last thing she did in her life.
However, what happened was the complete opposite of what he anticipated.
Whoosh!
Intelligence gleamed in Martha’s red eyes as she deflected the spear and attacked him with the sword that was raised above her head.
“Kuh!”
Tius hurriedly tried to create a bloody shield, but it was already too late.
Smash!
Martha’s sword cut through the bloody energy and created a diagonal fissure in Tius’s chest.
“Kuah…”
Tius collapsed onto his back, his chin trembling in disbelief. Gray blood kept flowing from his open wound.
“B-But I’m sure you went berserk…”
“I’ve already overcome the penalty of losing my mind.”
Martha twirled her sword as she walked up to Tius.
“I can’t have the same wall blocking me forever.”
She wiped off the blood flowing down from her cheek with the back of her hand before taking her sword in a reverse grip.
“Apologize to the people you took advantage of as you die! You fucking bastard!”
Martha shouted, stabbing Tius in the heart.
“Kuh, wh-why do I even need to apologize? They should be thanking me instead, because I allowed them to receive the Bloody God’s blessings…”
Tius didn’t feel regret even in his last moments, which should’ve been expected of a fanatic. The only relief was that he felt an extreme amount of pain as he died.
“Huff…”
Martha dropped her sword and sank to the ground. She felt like her stomach was turning over from using Berserk while maintaining her reason with her body being full of injuries created by bloody energy.
“M-Miss…”
Runa bit her lips tightly as she approached. Her wavering eyes reflected her fear, apology, and shock.
“Come here!”
Martha angrily bobbed her hand, and Runa shrunk as she walked towards her.
“Show me your hand.”
“What?”
“Are you deaf? Show me your hand!”
“Ah, okay.”
Runa opened her hand to show it to Martha. Her red hand was full of cracks, as if she grasped the skin of a pineapple tightly.
“Tsk, I should’ve acted earlier.”
“I-It’s not your fault! I was the one who didn’t trust you…”
“Shut your mouth.”
Martha frowned and used the small amount of aura remaining in her to drive away the bloody energy in Runa’s hand.
“Ah…”
“You would have to be stupid to trust someone you met for the first time, you idiot!”
Runa’s shoulders were trembling as she felt the gentle energy tickling her hand.
Her coarse language that didn’t match her kind-heartedness reminded her of the warmth she felt in the old days that she couldn’t even fully remember anymore.
* * *
Slaam!
A huge shockwave occurred from the frontal clash between Heavenly Drive and the saw sword. The flashy buildings around them collapsed like sandcastles, and Raon clashed against the seventh apostle once again in between the falling debris.
Clang!
They clashed five times total in an instant. They were completely equal in terms of power and speed.
“Kuh…”
The seventh apostle glared at him and slashed upwards with his saw sword. The huge surge of bloody energy looked like a tidal wave in an ocean.
Whir!
Raon smiled coldly as he slashed with the Blade of Requiem. The sharp ghastly energy of the dagger and the heavy astral energy mingled with each other in harmony to create a bright light.
Whaam!
The land trembled and the space became distorted from the collision between aura and bloody energy.
Whack!
Raon kicked the seventh apostle’s stomach while crossing swords with him. The seventh apostle bounced back like a rubber ball and rolled on the ground.
“You bastard…”
He violently ground his teeth from his pride getting hurt.
“You must’ve also realized it.”
Raon walked up to the seventh apostle with his sword supported on his shoulder.
“That the Tius guy you were looking for has perished.”
He snickered and pointed behind him. The second and third teams of the Light Wind squad had also finished their jobs, and the corpses of the White Blood Fanatics were lying all around the street.
“You are the only one left.”
Raon raised his chin and smiled.
“Since we are going to have a feast after this, I’ll finish you off quickly.”
“Kuh… Kuhahahaha!”
The seventh apostle started laughing like a madman from the ground. He started applauding while raising his narrow eyes.
“Yes. I’ll admit it. Your plan, strategy, and might… They are all worthy of admiration.”
He slowly raised himself. A cold glare was radiating from his eyes as the energy covering his body became a lot more powerful than before.
“However, you are mistaken about one thing.”
“What am I mistaken about?”
“It’s about that spell. Killing the caster isn't actually enough to finish it off.”
The seventh apostle grabbed the saw sword with both hands and started chanting some incomprehensible spell.
He finished his chant before Raon had time to stop him, and a violent throbbing occurred from the bloody clouds filling the sky.
“The Surreal Blood Manifestation Array is going to explode now.”
He smiled, and the bloody rain cloud expanded out of control at the same time to spread around a tremendous amount of energy.
Huge wasn’t enough to describe its size. The bloody sphere covering the entire sky expanded to no end and slowly started to fall down.
“Once that thing explodes, this city is going to be completely blown away. You and I are probably going to be the only ones left in a tattered state.”
The seventh apostle stretched his arms to the sides and giggled.
“Don’t worry. I’ll suck out your blood until the last drop.”
“Did you forget what I told you earlier?”
“What?”
“I’m pretty sure I told you I’m more knowledgeable than you about that sorcery array.”
Raon smiled faintly and increased the Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation’s output to the maximum.
Thud!
He stomped the ground to mix the resonance rising from the ground with the powerful heat in the Blade of Requiem before shooting them towards the sky.
Rumble!
The Blade of Requiem, surrounded by crimson flame and yellow ghastly energy, became reversed lightning and soared into the sphere that kept growing endlessly.
However, there was no change at all to the sphere, despite being pierced by the Blade of Requiem. Instead, its energy was getting amplified even further.
“Kuhahahaha!”
The seventh apostle laughed at him while pointing at the stabilizing bloody energy.
“Even though you can use ghastly energy, what were you trying to achieve with a single dagger? That sphere contains more than a thousand people’s blood! It’s not something a weakling like you can remove!”
Raon nonchalantly raised his right hand.
“I noticed you like to flaunt your power. Let me copy that.”
He smiled faintly and snapped his fingers.
Snap!
The sound resonated through the air, and the Surreal Blood Manifestation Array started to tremble, as if a storm were blowing on it.
Tssssh!
A loud noise that sounded like thousands of birds were chirping at the same time echoed as the bloody sphere came to a complete halt.
Whir!
Alongside the sound of something violently piercing through the wind in a spiral, the blade drew a thin line on the Surreal Blood Manifestation Array. That extremely thin line started to spread all around the red sphere like a spider web.
Baaam!
Yellow light started leaking out from the cracks and the Surreal Blood Manifestation array exploded.
The explosion seemed loud enough to resound throughout the continent, and it deviated from Grand Seville’s sky to fall down outside the city.
“Seventh apostle.”
With the bloody lights falling behind him like a meteor shower, Raon stood in front of the seventh apostle. He smiled while looking at the seventh apostle’s wide, astonished eyes.
“You know, I never lose against an opponent that I’ve already won against before.”
He fixed the grip on Heavenly Drive and kicked the ground.
Clang!
He smashed the saw sword by incorporating his sword with a rotating flame to press the attack.
“Kuh!”
The seventh apostle still managed to get into the perfect defensive posture despite his panic, but his agitation was as clear as day.
Raon used the Supreme Harmony Steps to charge at him and slash with Frost Pond. Blue lights dashed through the silver trajectory to sever the space.
“I already know about that technique!”
The seventh apostle slashed down with his saw sword diagonally to completely block the two strikes of Frost Pond.
“Then how about this one?”
Raon stretched his left hand in the air.
Tap!
The Blade of Requiem returned from destroying the Surreal Blood Manifestation Array, settling in his hand in a reverse grip, and created a frightening sword resonance.
The Blood Rain bursting from point-blank distance paralyzed the seventh apostle’s body for an instant.
“Kuh!”
The seventh apostle quickly withdrew, but Raon didn’t miss that small opening and thrust the Blade of Requiem.
Pssh!
The seventh apostle’s scar, the one created by Frost Pond in the past, ruptured once again to spread around his impure blood.
“Argh…”
“I promise.”
Crimson lightning was sparkling from Raon’s eyes as he looked down on the seventh apostle, who was bending forward.
“You are going to die here.”
