Chapter 43

Chapter 43. War Preparations (3)

"That's not what it looks like?"

In a gambler's arena, the contest must be fair.

"I only just arrived. After your victory, that is."

I deflected the Saintess of Fate Im Ji-a's interrogation with the assurance that this victory was by no means artificial.

Perhaps because she'd been down to a single finger at the moment of victory, she seemed to believe me.

She quickly broke into a radiant smile.

"Well… it was a round where losing meant actually dying. If it had been rigged, that wouldn't make any sense. I was actually going to quit gambling if I'd won because of you, Lord Shin Si-woo."

She was forcing herself to be polite.

Yet her body was trembling, and something about her felt anxious.

It was not, of course, fear of me.

It was the fact of the Patriot's return that had driven her to this state.

'How has she been living normally?'

But the Patriot's disappearance had been a very recent event.

Why was she acting like this only now?

As I watched quietly, Im Ji-a started rambling on her own.

"The government barely rescued me right before my neck hit the guillotine. Honestly, if it hadn't been for Lord Patriot, I could have made 600 trillion—"

I half-listened and nodded along.

It was nothing but a lament about losing because the Patriot had raided her gambling den.

'Maybe that's why…'

To my eyes, Im Ji-a seemed more unhinged than the Patriot.

"So why are you even more afraid this time?"

"Ah… a friend I play cards with asked if I wanted to join a big game."

A big game.

Im Ji-a had joined that big game and lost 300 trillion of the national budget.

The government had been secretly supporting her.

'Her prophecy abilities really are impressive.'

I could understand the government's support.

I'd been wondering how Gate control had been handled so well — it was probably thanks to Im Ji-a's assistance.

Anyway, what I truly wanted to know was a different matter.

Namely—

"How on earth did you flip a card with just a single finger left?"

A person dies when their brain or heart is gone.

My swords were a different story, but the Saintess of Fate Im Ji-a clearly fell within the category of human.

And yet her finger had flipped a card on its own and won?

Perhaps she had some bizarre ability to endure through spiritual power even after her body vanished.

But…

"Muscle memory! You don't know that?"

I received a truly shocking answer.

She had, in fact, gambled with everything — consciousness and soul — gone, trusting in nothing but the muscle memory left in her finger.

"Even if your head gets cut off, the body sometimes still moves briefly, right? At that point, I trusted the sensation in my finger and the memory etched in my body, and went for a bold bet."

Instinct.

The memory left in a finger.

She was claiming those things had flipped the card.

"I believed in my habit of tapping cards."

I was speechless.

'…'

If Seol-a noona ever learned this fact, she might think: 'That's the end a Transcendent meets? I'll never Awaken if—'

Ahem.

I changed the subject.

"You didn't win as big as I expected. Did you lose all of that enormous sum from before?"

The last time I'd seen her, the Saintess had Coins piled up like a mountain and was holding three [Tarot Cards].

If she'd gambled with all that, shouldn't she have multiplied it tenfold at the very least?

"I donated everything except enough for exactly one cycle!"

This, too, was an unexpected answer.

"That's the contract."

Apparently it was the price paid for President Lee Seok-hyeon and Senior Prosecutor Kang Mu-jin risking their lives to rescue her from the Patriot's execution.

Well — my guess was that the Patriot already knew the Saintess was alive.

'With the Patriot's detection abilities, there's no way he doesn't know.'

Having Transcended myself, I could say that with certainty.

At the very least, he'd have ways to learn of her status through the President or Kang Mu-jin.

The Patriot's abilities were enormously versatile.

'Perhaps the Patriot is deliberately leaving Im Ji-a alone.'

I didn't know the reason.

Maybe he considered her already punished, or maybe he was tacitly overlooking her because she was serving a patriotic cause.

Given that her fate was being confined to an underground bunker doing nothing but gambling…

'Is it punishment or a reward?'

At any rate, I approached the casino table to achieve the purpose I'd come for.

"Right now I only have three cards, but… if I win the big game, it'll become ten."

That was what she said as she handed over the cards.

It felt as though she was asking me for gambling funds.

In fact, her eyes were on my wrist, where a bracelet forged from a solid lump of Mystery hung.

An object rendered useless once I'd obtained the [Scabbard].

'It's lost a bit of its power, but the value is still there.'

The period I'd used [Mysteries] to manifest the Baby Sword's power hadn't been that long.

Originally, I'd been thinking of donating it to the state, but…

'What if I give her this and have her win big?'

Didn't I possess a secret technique to make Im Ji-a win absolutely?

First, let me check whether her clairvoyance was still intact.

Sreuk—.

I drew a single golden card.

And then…

[An enormous black vortex that has swallowed Jeolla-do. Black palms surging from within.]

The tarot card contained an image hinting at my destination.

'It must mean to head toward the land submerged in the Void…'

Could those black hands be hinting at demon worshippers?

Perhaps.

'Has it already become the demons' land?'

The Void was the place where Jeolla-Man, the Jeolla-do publicist, continued to transmit distress signals.

And there had been a wide range of opinions about it.

The Korean government had, at the Patriot's emphatic request, asked nations around the world for analysis, and the results had been somewhat bleak.

The experts' assessment was as follows.

[High probability that the messages themselves are an anomalous phenomenon consumed by the Bizarre.]

—Referencing similar cases, the interior of a Gate resembling the Void is presumed to be an inhospitable environment unsurvivable by humans.

—The Necromancer's domain that consumed Canada also manifested large-scale anomalies resembling the Void in its initial stages.

—Therefore, the claim of 170,000 by the presumed survivor lacks credibility.

—Estimated to be a more evolved Gate or a new type of Bizarre phenomenon.

But our government's assessment was different.

[High probability they are alive.]

The reason was quite simple.

<There's no way citizens of the Republic of Korea died that easily!>

It was thanks to the Patriot's belief.

Of course, I was very familiar with this kind of phenomenon.

That was why I could say with certainty:

'There are no living people inside.'

This phenomenon had also appeared in [Raise a Sword].

It was a precursor to the Abyss — a Black Gate — and its range hinted at the Gate's scale.

'It's going to be immense.'

The Necropolis that had annihilated half of Canada had displayed precursor phenomena as large as the Korean peninsula.

Jeolla-do's case wasn't quite that size, but the Void had consumed the world more deeply.

Something enormous might be about to happen.

'If I have her devour the entire Void—'

Let's erase everything.

That was what I'd thought, but—

"There are enemies of Lord Shin Si-woo in Jeolla-do. And at the same time… it is full of those seeking salvation."

The Saintess's interpretation was different.

"Those palms are the pleas of survivors begging to be saved from the darkness."

She was saying those terrifying hands were the reaching hands of those begging for salvation.

"Salvation?"

"They're alive."

The Saintess of Fate, Im Ji-a.

Titles were sometimes born simply from achievements, but they could also embody the beliefs of the person in question.

So that was why she bore the word 'Saintess.'

"That's what I believe. The card reading says the same."

"Understood."

I nodded calmly and opened the remaining two cards.

"They should… prove useful in the near future."

"I trust you."

The Saintess of Fate, Im Ji-a.

The power of prophecy she possessed was tremendous.

'The other two cards…'

I'd confirmed all three cards.

Now it was time to organize my thoughts and head for my destination.

But just then, a change occurred.

Kuung——.

The Baby Sword suddenly vibrated.

Its jewel glinted, and a voice poured out on its own.

⦗Sword Master, I'll help.⦘

Muratan had abruptly declared he would assist me.

* * *

At first, he had been indifferent.

The world called Earth that the Sword Master showed him was far too dull.

'Too many humans who can't even qualify as scraps of iron.'

The world of [Raise a Sword] had largely consisted of beings who were at least scraps of iron.

There were certainly many who couldn't even manage that, but compared to Earth, the ratio had been far higher.

But this world — Earth — was something else.

'Despite having well over billions of sentient beings, the vast majority don't possess the qualification of iron.'

He had lost interest like that.

But as the Sword Master's sphere of activity widened, Muratan's perspective changed.

Beginning with the being called the British Doctor, a boundless horizon of possibilities opened before Muratan's eyes.

"A world full of interesting iron!"

The Patriot who bore Constellations.

The Saintess of Fate who drew forth the future.

An ordinary woman who rejected great power and lived a common life.

A world alongside fascinating specimens of iron.

Truly, it was filled with peculiar iron the likes of which he had never seen.

He should be hammering, chewing, ripping, and tasting every last one of them right now…

And yet, the Sword Master, as always, went on with his trivial life.

Going on about being a savior and whatnot.

"He keeps worrying about tiresome things."

The weak — those who didn't even possess the worth of iron.

All you had to do with them was build a safe zone and cage them all inside it.

So not even an ant could get in.

So demon worshippers couldn't be born.

Isolate the safe zone with immensely powerful swords and build them their own utopia.

Compared to the world he'd lived in, wasn't Earth a considerably more stable environment?

'On top of that, Earth even has [Mysteries].'

[Mysteries] were, at a glance, interesting metal, but in truth they didn't spark much interest in Muratan.

They were a lump of energy that granted wishes, a flawed power with clearly defined limits.

It meant they were something created artificially.

What had caught Muratan's interest was something else entirely.

Muratan's eyes gleamed.

"Awakened abilities."

The ingenuity that humanity was said to possess.

'Awakening,' born at the end of unidentified trials.

'A bizarre and strange power born from an individual's experience.'

It could, astonishingly, be separated from the body.

What if those powers were separated, collected, combined, and hammered endlessly?

What if the totality of [Awakening] created that way were mixed entirely into iron?

'Truly, the mightiest sword might be born.'

Of course, mixing it into just any iron would cause the sword to shatter on the spot.

But Muratan had no such worry.

'That cheeky little brat of a demon would hold up just fine.'

Or the decrepit old sword.

Or he could shove it into that addled holy sword.

The 3rd Sword, standing there like the dead, for instance — or the First Sword, deep within, whose thoughts were utterly unreadable.

The [world of swords] the Sword Master had built was full of things tougher than anything.

Things tougher than the [Outer God] — the last iron Muratan had hammered.

So the possibilities more than overflowed.

'To do that… there's a problem.'

Fulfilling Muratan's wish required the Sword Master's cooperation.

For that, the Sword Master couldn't be wasting time saving worthless humans.

To Muratan, [humans] meant civilians who couldn't even qualify as scraps of iron — beings of no value whatsoever.

"Sword Master, I'll help."

* * *

The Republic of Korea had a special task force.

Built around a small number of S-rank and SS-rank Hunters, they were the elite of the elite — those who had passed the Patriot's patriotism screening.

During operations, they could activate 'Mysteries' to maintain a constant Transcendent state, or install [Gates] to travel to desired locations.

It might look similar to the portals Half-Elf Yuki had laid down, but [Hyeonmu's Gate] had the advantage of allowing transit to any desired location within a set radius.

"Special Task Force, all members assembled!"

Using the information from the defector Kim Chang-sik, I had delivered the identities of Seoul's 'demon worshippers' to the Hyeonmu Special Task Force.

"Top priority: elimination. Where possible, capture alive. Operational content acknowledged."

I had no intention of revealing yet that my sword could revert demon worshippers.

But the information I'd obtained, I intended to put to full use.

The mission I was assigning the task force was simple.

The comrades Kim Chang-sik had seen at the demon worshippers' gathering.

Deliver their identities and round up every demon worshipper living in Seoul.

And I—

"I just need you to open a Gate toward the Void from the vicinity."

I was heading for the Void-consumed Jeolla-do.

Starting from 300,000 and now at 170,000.

Many had died, but an enormous number of survivors was still estimated to remain.

Huuuung——.

Crossing the Spirit World that Yuki had installed, a city near Jeolla-do appeared.

A nameless man from the task force who had followed to escort me stood at attention before me.

A man with his whole body wrapped in combat gear.

He opened the Gate.

Zzzeok———.

Hyeonmu's Gate, inscribed with bizarre patterns.

The moment the Gate opened, the task-force member saluted me.

"Sir! Godspeed!"

A single brief phrase.

But within it, countless wishes were held.

The wish that I would drive out the Void that had swallowed an entire city whole, and rescue the survivors inside.

<L-Lord Shin Si-woo has arrived at the Void zone!>

The entire nation was watching me.

From a helicopter far in the distance, a voice rode the wind and pierced my ears.

'It's heavy.'

Land where I'd believed no survivors existed.

But by meeting Im Ji-a, I had confirmed that survivors were there.

That was why my feet felt heavy.

I didn't even want to look at WorldNet's reactions.

'170,000.'

How could my feet not be heavy after hearing that number?

But.

Even so.

I stepped into the darkness where the Void lurked.

And so—

'As I thought.'

I stood alone in the darkness.