Chương 141: S.05 Time to Fly 12(02)_The LAST of S.05

Scene 02_01. A great gunshot rang out. Si-yeon, casting aside the gun whose every round was spent, sliced through countless 독각귀(Dok-gak-gwi_One-legged Specter)s, not a single eye yet shadowed black. The One-legged Specters and 그슨대(Geu-seun-dae_Shadow Fiend)s swarmed toward Si-yeon alone.

From the black clouds conjured like rainclouds, thick and eerie black rain still fell, yet it could do no harm to the personnel of the 현교(Hyeon-gyo_The Black Doctrine), and thanks to the 환무(Hwan-mu_Illusion Fog) set off by the officers of the 지식관(Jisik-Gwan_Directorate of Knowledge) dispatched in support from the 본청(Bon-cheong_Headquarters), it could not reach the living either.

Countless conjured 그슨새(Geu-seun-sae_Winged Shadow Fiend)s tried to cross the watchtower with flapping wingbeats like rain-soaked straw, but as Jeong-in's 꽃반세우기(Kkot-ban-se-u-gi_Flower-Tray Raising) unfurled and her two fans traveled the watchtower ceaselessly, crossing over the great watchtower did not look easy. The fans in Jeong-in's two hands left her grip and returned again and again, like fans flung out to cast a divination.

Whenever they settled into her hands, she chanted a supplication in a singing tone, then took up the fans and danced the 서낭춤(Seo-nang-chum_Village-Shrine Dance). With the wind that poured from the fans she formed a shrine bridge to receive the spirits, and when the flung fan returned to her hand, she spread the other fan as if laying money upon the road (the shrine bridge), a rite that cooled the spirits' heat.

The Winged Shadow Fiends that faded one by one thus could not burrow into the watchtower in the slightest. Watching Si-yeon and the black clouds massed thick above Si-yeon's head, she withdrew her dance for a moment and looked down below the watchtower. Jeong-in: Come up! At Jeong-in's short order, one squad of the 별동대(Byeol-dong-dae_Special Task Force) climbed up the watchtower. The black clouds had not yet crossed the main gate and watchtower of the Black Doctrine.

Held back by Si-yeon, unable to press inside, the clouds that had poured out heaps of 검은 물(Geomeun-mul_Black Water) slowly lost their force. Jeong-in and the Directorate of Knowledge's Special Task Force switched places. Jeong-in, flinging her body lightly outside the watchtower, swept her fan-ribs to lightly float her falling body and land. Stepping with a splash onto the black waterway, Jeong-in approached Si-yeon with somewhat hurried steps.

Because of the countless underworld things she could not reach right up to Si-yeon, but heedless of that, Jeong-in unfolded a 도령거리(Do-ryeong-geo-ri_Spirit-Escort Passage) far different from the dance she had performed on the watchtower. Jeong-in's Spirit-Escort Passage shoved aside, as if sweeping them away, the underworld things that had seized the space around Si-yeon. To Jeong-in's dance, which seemed to take on the Inner Spirit-Escort Passage, Si-yeon answered by unfolding the Outer Spirit-Escort Passage.

The Spirit-Escort dance of the Inner Passage was a dance in which Bari-gongju and the household of the rite, dancing the Outer Passage, circled nine times around a great offering table and passed safely through the twelve gates of the 저승(Jeo-seung_the world of the dead), so that the souls of the dead might be reborn into the paradise of the Pure Land.

As if a great gate of paradise stood between Si-yeon and Jeong-in, the dance of the two sent countless Shadow Fiends and One-legged Specters back to the world of the dead. Si-yeon, in the role of Bari-gongju, danced the Outer Escort dance with the 은장도(Eun-jang-do_Silver Ornamental Dagger) that stood in as the 신칼(Sin-kal_Spirit Knife), and when she threw the Spirit Knife beyond the gate, Jeong-in, dancing the Inner Escort dance, raised her fan-wind high and swept the Spirit Knife in all directions.

While the Spirit Knife drifted, beneath it Si-yeon, in the role of Bari-gongju, drew a figure-eight and, gripping the Spirit Knife again, came out dancing. All of this requiem is called '돗삼(Dot-sam_the Soul-Guiding Passage)'. At the force of the two who had unfolded the Soul-Guiding Passage, the number of underworld things conjured from the risen black water dwindled in an instant. Si-yeon, breathing a little harder from the dance, caught her breath for a moment back-to-back with Jeong-in and asked.

Si-yeon: Ha, SSibal. So, hey. When am I supposed to do it, huh? Jeong-in: According to the guidance of The Seer, Jeong-in's words could not carry on. At the dash of a One-legged Specter that would give no opening, Jeong-in, gripping the two fan-ribs in both hands, severed the One-legged Specter's single horn. When the One-legged Specter's body fell to the floor heaped with black water, Jeong-in barely carried on her next words. Jeong-in: Right after the black clouds all vanish.

Si-yeon: They even gonna disappear at all?? Jeong-in: Ha. SSibal, you're telling me. Around when Si-yeon and Jeong-in's grumbling curses spilled out, the black clouds churned murkier and swelled their force. With a sigh, Si-yeon cracked and set the neck bones she had briefly rested. Si-yeon: What a piece of fucking shit. SSibal. Scene 02_02. A great explosion reached the ears of Ji-young, who was praying for peace as she unfolded a passage of the 태평무(Tae-pyeong-mu_Dance of Great Peace).

She did not open her closed eyes. She meant to finish gathering up the 터벌림(Teo-beol-lim_Ground-Sweeping Finale). When the tranquil time came to a slow halt under her unfolded dance, only then did Ji-young begin to open her eyes faintly. Ji-young, biting down hard on her lip without a single change of expression, now began to drag her steps with difficulty as if she had been lame from the start. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

Ji-young, who had conjured the dance to its end while enduring her limping steps and pain, headed toward the train station not far off, where the great explosion had erupted. Ji-young's steps carried on slowly. The steps in her 수화자(Suhwaja_Battle boots) moved toward the 독각귀(Dok-gak-gwi_One-legged Specter)s and 그슨대(Geu-seun-dae_Shadow Fiend)s conjured from the black rainwater. Ji-young, who walked a long while, slowly raised her head. She looked straight up at something cast over her clear eyes.

Something so large she had to look up a long way stood not far ahead of Ji-young's halted steps. A blazing pit of fire held flames black and deep enough to burn everything away. It was a stone statue. Ji-young: 56th The Oldest, Kang Ji-young, Ji-young bent the leg that had begun to feel wrong and offered a deep, full bow to the bare ground. Where Ji-young's deep bow landed, a stone statue as large as a building stood, burning its own body black.

Ji-young: I pay my respects to you, Envoy's Legion of the Weeping of Immolation. Ji-young's dignified bow followed twice. The 화마(Hwa-ma_The Weeping of Immolation), standing still and silently observing Ji-young's 'two bows for the dead,' lowered its creaking head, and hot stone dust fell in all directions. Scene 02_03. At the main entrance of the train station where Yeon-su had been, every police strike unit that had deployed to stop the crisis stood frozen, unconscious.

The only ones unharmed were Je-hak, who had set off the censer as Yeon-su ordered, and Ju-hyeon, whose joints had been wrenched out of place. It was when the two, unable to flee and leave behind their comrades frozen in time and unconscious, gripped the guns the strike unit had held and braced for whatever might come. A stone statue the size of a great building rose, smashing the overpass beyond the train station.

Into the gaze of the two, who watched the great explosion and blazing black flames in a daze, appeared yet more underworld things conjured as they fell from the great statue's stone dust. They had no purpose. Because they were conjured, they reviled life; because they were conjured, they craved life. They merely sought to covet life. The two reckoned they had to stop, somehow, the underworld things pouring out in all directions.

To begin with, their very appearance was clearly not right in Ju-hyeon and Je-hak's eyes. With a sigh, Je-hak released the gun's safety. Je-hak: Me, when those things come, I just shoot, yeah? Ju-hyeon: Who's gonna remember any of it anyway? Just watch out for the people. Je-hak: Looks like those folks got everyone evacuated on their own. Except the cops. Ju-hyeon: Ah, SSibal, should've dragged Jun-hyeok out even on his day off. What a piece of fucking shit. Scene 02_04. A blazing ball of fire fell.

Yu-seok, letting a scoff play for a moment, brushed off the hem of his clothes scorched partly black and moved on in silence. Dying Yeon-jin's struggle leaked out through her fingertips. Yu-seok, glancing at Yeon-jin's wordless plea, moved a few steps further and looked down at his own younger sister, unconscious and barely breathing. Yeon-su's wound did not look grave enough to be fatal.

As if she had conjured 검은 모래(Geomeun-morae_Black Sand) to shield her body even amid the blast, Black Sand slid from Yeon-su's body as he nudged it with his foot. While Yu-seok deliberated, looking at Yeon-su, a 삼베(Sambae_Hemp cloth) blade flew at his shoulder. At the Hemp cloth blade that gouged a deep wound, Yu-seok flinched and scanned where the Hemp cloth had come from. Gyeong-seo: Ha, this SSibal bastard, seriously. Gyeong-seo, bleeding from her head as if pouring, dragged shambling steps forward.

Pulling from her breast a paper bundle of 잿가루(Jaet-garu_Grey Ash) and tipping the whole of it into her mouth, she blocked the way ahead so that Yu-seok, who was deliberating as he watched Yeon-su, could not easily leave. Gyeong-seo twisted her head this way and that. Having swung even her shoulder lightly to set the joints, Gyeong-seo steadied her footing in her scorched 수화자(Suhwaja_Battle boots). Yu-seok: Aren't you hot?

Yu-seok, lingering near the feet of the blazing statue, tossed Gyeong-seo an indifferent question. Gyeong-seo had no mind to answer Yu-seok's jab. Wordlessly shaking out her hands and conjuring Hemp cloth with both now-empty hands, Gyeong-seo whirled and coiled the strands, then conjured the Hemp cloth like a blade. Gripping a pair of blades in both hands, Gyeong-seo, as if to ready a 교방검무(Gyo-bang-geom-mu_Courtesans' Sword Dance), steadied her footing in the Battle boots a little more.

Yu-seok: Me, I'm going to pull Yeon-hui out. What do you say. Want to come along? Gyeong-seo: After I kill you I only need to take your damn blood and go, so don't mind me, just drop dead nice and quiet. At Gyeong-seo's quiet threat, Yu-seok scoffed. Yu-seok, staring for a moment at the Hemp cloth strands in Gyeong-seo's hand, conjured a blade from Black Sand and gripped it, then pressed his foot down firmly on the neck of the unconscious Yeon-su. Yu-seok: Me, I've got no such intention.

Watching Yeon-su, trampled under Yu-seok's foot and unable to regain consciousness, Gyeong-seo agonized deeply. Gyeong-seo, who did not lower her gripped Hemp cloth blade to the end, quietly asked Yu-seok. Gyeong-seo: You. Are you a bad bastard, or not. It was Gyeong-seo's blunt question, laden with a broad meaning, cast after weighing everything. At the deep question from Gyeong-seo, who had quietly watched the flow until now, Yu-seok reset his gaze as if impressed and studied Gyeong-seo intently.

Yu-seok, having studied her intently, held a light smile again. After the sneer had gone, a hint of respect showed. Yu-seok: That I want to be rid of The Oldest is certain. Gyeong-seo: Your position, was it the Former The Oldest's will? Yu-seok, without withdrawing his smile, sighed wordlessly. Yu-seok: Half of it. Gyeong-seo nodded. Able to sort out her blocked thoughts, Gyeong-seo eased her stiffened expression a little and raised one blade conjured from Hemp cloth.

Of the two blades she held in both hands, one aimed at the spot between Yu-seok's brows, and the other she carried back as if hiding it. She aimed precisely between Yu-seok's brows. There was not the slightest waver. Gyeong-seo: Then, since half of it isn't, I'll kill only half of you. When Gyeong-seo steadied her footing in the Battle boots, the phone inside Gyeong-seo's 두루마기(Durumagi_Traditional outer coat) rang. Gyeong-seo hesitated.

Because she had guessed exactly who the call was from, she hesitated all the more. Whether to feign ignorance and strike Yu-seok or to take the call, Gyeong-seo, after a very short, swift, deep deliberation, let the blade she had hidden behind her fade and, keeping her aim precisely between Yu-seok's brows, drew out the phone and moved it to her ear. So-hui: Send him to me. So-hui's voice was flat. Gyeong-seo: Why. It was a short question back. So-hui: Because I'll bear it. Gyeong-seo: It will be dangerous for you.

So-hui: That too, I'll bear. Gyeong-seo could not answer and hung up. Just as she hung up, she only held the phone tight in her hand. Gyeong-seo, who cast a deep deliberation over that short time, in the end let even the blade aimed between Yu-seok's brows fade. Gyeong-seo heaved a great sigh and turned around. Gyeong-seo: Get lost. Now.