Chapter 69

Chapter 69. Truth (1)

"Jesus Christ!!!"

China, observed through Shin Si-woo.
America was plunged into utter shock.

"My brother...... keeps feeding the world poison."

Shin Si-woo kept administering red pills, one after another.
And at doses that far surpassed lethal levels.
Demon worshippers, Fallen Awakened.
And now, even the true state of China—hidden behind a veil—had been laid bare.

"The intelligence from our field agents and the China we just observed are completely different."

President Bill Johnson, who'd been clutching his head for some time, spoke with caution.
America had CIA operatives embedded inside China.
More precisely, they were agents who'd already been in China when the Gate crisis erupted, Awakened there, and continued their espionage missions as they were.

"Jesus, is there...... any chance they've been turned by China?"
"Bill, our agents remain devout Christians and Catholics."
"Then why......"

What had the CIA operatives confirmed about China?

Hong Kong.
The Uyghur Autonomous Region.
Taiwan, absorbed through annexation during the Gate crisis.
According to intelligence from the surviving agents, China's condition had been horrific.

'I was told most of it was a hell on par with North Korea—.'

Hong Kong—the entire island had been dragged into a deep undersea Gate.
The Uyghur region had been swallowed by impenetrable darkness, beyond all observation. Taiwan's entire landmass had been reshaped into a grotesque ecosystem.
And yet.......

"I never imagined mainland China would be so intact."

Originally, the American leadership had speculated that all of China had undergone Gate-ification—total collapse.
But that prediction had missed the mark spectacularly.
The reality of China, as observed through Si-woo, was an intact territory where human beings lived.

"Jesus. Are the Chinese forces...... actually human?"
"Pure human beings. However, they all appear to be either Awakened or sharing in the power of Awakening."

That was the extent of what ordinary people and regular SSS-rank Hunters had witnessed.
But Jesus was a god, and so he'd been able to confirm the Descended Vassal of the Dark God that had appeared from within China.
The being that had been decapitated by Si-woo's thunderbolt the instant it emerged.

"I beheld a Fallen being at the heart of China."

The Fallen Guan Yu, with his inverted eyes.
A famous figure from the Three Kingdoms, and a Demi-God worshipped in China.

"If China's historical monsters start appearing, that would be quite the headache."

America's history was short.
That made it structurally difficult for mythological beings to descend.
If only Marvel heroes could Awaken as Hunters, that would be nice, but.......
Jesus made an effort to collect his thoughts and conveyed his will to the Transcendents and government officials gathered in the Church.

"I, Jesus Christ, decree: from this moment forward, America prepares for war with China."

The air grew heavy.

War.

War meant a conflict between humans.
Since the outbreak of the Gate crisis—humanity's shared catastrophe—it was the first time the word had been uttered.
The word "war," which had been frozen in place, was now spoken by the monotheistic god, Jesus himself.
In the silence, Jesus gazed toward the heavens.

GLEAM——.

Brilliant, iridescent light poured through the Church's stained glass.
Jesus observed what lay beyond the light.
Thinking of his final contingency—a being drifting through the vast expanse of space.

'Elon, how is space treating you?'

______________________

Ep. 23 Truth.

[Do not inform the enemy of my death.]

The Patriot had a sort of Transcendent invincibility window.

As long as he never declared to others that he was "dead," he could revive aboard the aircraft carrier at any time.

Because that was how he'd interpreted Yi Sun-sin's famous quote, the skill had been manifested according to the Patriot's will.

But.......

FLASH!

'Th-that crazy bastard!!!'

The Patriot snapped awake.

Thanks to Absolute Patriotism, the Patriot's mind could never break.

And yet.......

'I fainted?'

He hadn't fainted even when hit by a thousand Little Boys—the nukes Japan had fired. He'd died and revived, sure, but never lost consciousness.

Not during China's ten-thousand-nuke baptism either.

Not even when facing the ten-billion-strong Chinese undead legion.

Yet the Patriot had fainted.

Which meant.......

———Demon food.

—was what he'd nearly become.

The Patriot felt the damp sensation in his lower garments and strained his ears.

'Assess the situation first.'

He didn't open his eyes.

That insane sword-freak might still be targeting him.

"I understand the intent to strengthen the Republic of Korea's military. However......"

A familiar voice.

"Isn't that going too far? To actually do that to......"

President Lee Seok-hyeon and Senior Prosecutor Kang Mu-jin.

They were easy marks, so he was tempted to open his eyes.

That was when.

"It's not going too far. Even at this very moment, China is probably mass-producing Awakened as we speak."

A terrifying voice reached him.

Shin Si-woo—the one who'd threatened him with two swords.

The Patriot was about to open his eyes but played dead again.

A chilling memory had surfaced.

The memory of the exact moment Si-woo's blades had touched his neck.

'Scary as fuck.'

The Patriot had heard truly terrifying voices.

It had sounded as though the swords themselves were speaking to him.......

—We have never had the pleasure of tasting a Constellation. Hurry now, defy the Sword Master's will and become nourishment.

A threat to feed him to the demons.

—What is born when one hammers a star? You yourself seem unremarkable, so I shall simply extract that ability called "Awakening." So hurry up and defy the Sword Master's will!

A horrifying threat to rip out the heroes he'd spent his entire life protecting this nation alongside.

What Si-woo had actually demanded was simply to choose "2."

'What the hell does 2 even mean?'

His legs were trembling, his knees weak.

Fear sharpened the Patriot's mind to a razor edge.

He had a hunch.

Si-woo had clearly asked if he'd received a Tower quest.

Combine Tower and 2, and?

'The second option on the list.'

The answer was dual-wielding—ido-ryu.

Typical swordsman. Clearly trying to turn him into a dual-wielding fighter.

'He threatens me with two swords and tells me to pick the number 2 for dual-wielding?'

No matter how he thought about it, picking a Constellation like President Syngman Rhee seemed way cooler than becoming some dual-wielding swordsman, but.......

Before that thought could even finish, the Patriot's eyes snapped open despite himself.

Because he'd heard something savage enough to override his fear of Si-woo.

"If I reshape my territory in Pyongyang, I should be able to use the Guardian Sword Kim Jun to increase Korea's Awakened indefinitely."

The Guardian Sword.

No—the Bastion of Patriotism, Kim Jun.

What was his ability again?

"E-even so, the process is quite......"

"I'm not sure the citizens will accept it. There's such a thing as public sentiment."

If even the President and Kang Mu-jin, who normally nodded at anything a Transcendent said, were pushing back this much—that told you everything about the nature of this ability.

The Patriot leapt to his feet, beside himself.

"You're going to shove citizens into coffins and turn them into Awakened?"

The coffins that had birthed a hundred and seventy thousand Awakened.

But the process involved was anything but pretty.

"Junior, have you lost your mind?"

Originally, the coffins were meant for soldiers who'd been contaminated by Polluted Beasts and were awaiting euthanasia.

Since enduring inside a coffin was better than euthanasia.

But Si-woo had used the power of Purification to cure every last contaminated soldier.

Now the Patriot understood why.

"Y-you maniac. That was your real reason for curing the troops?"

Shoving perfectly healthy citizens into coffins and pushing them into a Gate.

That was Si-woo's plan for cultivating Awakened.

Was this guy absolutely insane?

But for some reason.......

"Patriot."

Si-woo looked at the Patriot with a steady gaze.

Then shifted his eyes to the President and Kang Mu-jin.

Slowly, but with gravity.

He looked at every person in the carrier's war room, one by one.

Then Si-woo spoke.

"That's how I overcame my trial."

The trial of Shin Si-woo—something that had never once been mentioned.

This was about that.

***

'There's no other way.'

Dark Gods and Demon Gods.

Among them, the high-ranking entities were already exerting influence on Earth.

'Through a structure where the higher species dominates the lower......'

Furthermore, Muratan had hypothesized:

[Sword Master, there is a high probability that through the medium of a Demon God's contract, even ordinary civilians have come to carry the Awakening factor.]

According to Muratan, Awakening was a force that could be separated.

If I could do it, someone else could do something similar, and China was most likely doing exactly that right now.

They might have bundled tens of thousands of civilians together to forge a single powerful Awakened ability.

"In my estimation, humanity's golden window is ten years at most."

In Raise a Sword, the moment when the world's collapse accelerated was called the "critical point."

We were already teetering on the edge.

"If it's ten years, then there's still—."

"Golden window means the time until extinction. Prevention and preemption are already too late."

I gave a brief account of the path I'd walked with my swords.

"I unified humanity's will into one."

The population of that world was far smaller than Earth's.

Even so, there had been an enormous number of nations and a diversity of species, making the unification of opinion an impossibly distant goal.

"There were tons of countries—how'd you unify all of them? What about those bastards who can't eat pork, or those insane Islamic countries that marry nine-year-old girls to sixty-year-old men?"

The Patriot asked.

I had seen the end of the world—whether in the form of salvation or destruction.

But even the form of salvation was, from the perspective of all humanity, debatable at best.

Because the way I'd unified humanity's will was this:

"I abandoned those who opposed me. I killed everyone who resisted."

In Reinhardt's world, there had been only one nation—the Empire.

In Yuria's world, a single Holy Nation under her rule.

In Muratan's world, clusters of humanity sheltered behind the Inviolable Fortress, scattered across the globe.

In Iris's case, the Last Empress and her Million Demons had been the entirety of the world.

'Jun.'

Of course, there were cases where more nations survived.

The still-dormant 3rd Sword, Jun.

Paradoxically, the one who'd lived the most brutal life had saved the most people.

But using his methods wasn't feasible yet.

'It's questionable whether he'll even wake up.'

Jun was an assassination sword.

My greed to witness the end of the world in its most intact form had shattered his sense of self.

There was no sign of him awakening, and even if he did, I hadn't resolved how I'd face him.

At any rate, with those thoughts in mind, I spoke my final piece.

"I intend to unite humanity on Earth as well."

I'd struggled to control even my own swords—could I truly bend the world to my will when it moved as it pleased?

Where there are a hundred people, there are a hundred different wills.

But what's needed now is a hundred people following a single will.

I would make it happen.

"Only after humanity is united and gives everything it has can we barely manage to hold on."

Yes—that was how we'd held on.

Until my swords could kill everything that threatened to end the world.

If they couldn't hold, my swords would have faced a fallen world, so I'd made people survive by any means necessary.

"Look at the world right now. There are plenty of countries that would collapse the moment a single Transcendent disappeared."

If there was one thing that differentiated Earth from Raise a Sword, it was the existence of Transcendents.

I would gather every last one of them to face the forces of evil and demonic power, and in the meantime, the rest of humanity needed at least enough military strength to hold the line.

'I can't do everything by myself.'

I had no intention of doing it all alone.

If I tried, every powerless human would just end up dead.

Fortunately, my sincerity got through.

"Si-woo, we'll make preparations as you wish."

Starting with Senior Prosecutor Kang Mu-jin—the blade of justice—nodding his head.

"To minimize public backlash, I'll be the first participant."

The President declared he would become the very first Awakened born from the coffins.

And the Patriot, who'd been flinching and stealing glances at me this whole time—.

"I still don't understand your idea of shoving ordinary citizens into coffins."

He still rejected my reasoning.

I gazed at him steadily, and the Patriot grudgingly averted his eyes.

He seemed to have steeled himself in his own way.

"I-I'm going to get stronger."

With those words, the Patriot tore open a Tower Entry Pass.

FLASH!

In a burst of light, the Patriot vanished.

He'd entered the Tower.

But for some reason, the Patriot's aircraft carriers remained in the world.

"When obtaining a new Constellation, the existing Constellations cannot intervene. That is the way of things."

Yi Sun-sin said as much, his expression heavy.

***

FLASH!

[External interference detected.]

[The options have changed.]

The Patriot, having entered the Tower.

Before his eyes, a set of choices appeared.

'Th-the order changed?'

FLASH!

[Options]

1. Constellation, Yi Do.

2. Constellation, Syngman Rhee.

Originally, Yi Do had been option two.

But now Yi Do had been moved to option one.

According to Si-woo's threat, it was supposed to be "2, no exceptions," but.......

The Patriot put his sharp mind to work and arrived at a wise answer.

'Number 2, or dual-wielding?'

Given that the maniac had threatened him while holding two swords, the number 2 was definitely not it.

He was a swordsman, so it had to mean dual-wielding—ido-ryu.

But.......

'You think I'll do what you say?'

The Patriot's head cocked to the side.

His finger was about to reach for first president Syngman Rhee.

'Scary as all fuck.'

The memory of being threatened by the swords flickered before him.

Right. A good senior Transcendent listens to his junior's opinion.

That's a much better look.

FLASH!

[You have selected Yi Do.]

The Patriot's vision changed.

Somewhere within an enormous palace.

A plump man in royal robes sat upon what appeared to be a throne.

'A king.'

Through repeated trials, the Patriot had learned to recognize this as a "king" from somewhere in Joseon.

Easy to identify.

'So the king himself isn't the Constellation?'

There was no dual-wielding king in Korean history.

'Should I just kill him first and think later?'

Kings had only ever gotten in the way of building the Great Korean Empire.

That had been his experience thus far.

As the Patriot stared intently at Yi Do upon the throne.

"How dare you. Whose royal presence do you think you stand before, to raise your head so?"

A weighty baritone settled over the great hall.

'Usually they'd be terrified and ask if I'm a celestial being, but this one's different.'

A Taegukgi cape.

A Taegukgi hoodie.

A Taegukgi baseball cap.

Despite the Patriot's bizarre attire, the unidentified king upon the throne rebuked him in a tone of stern dignity.

'So he's no ordinary king.'

The Patriot allowed himself a sliver of expectation and began the customary procedure.

If this turned out to be some thug like Suyang-whatever, he'd kill him on the spot, but he had to hold back for now.

'The chance of meeting that great person.'

As always, whenever he encountered someone who seemed like a "king," there was a line he always delivered.

Because you never know.

'Tae-jeong-tae-se-mun-dan-se......'

Two tae's, two se's.

And one jong from Sejong.

Asking in order was a bit tricky.

Let's just go for a fastball!

"Are you, by any chance, King Sejong the Great?"

A posthumous temple name is the title bestowed when a king's spirit tablet is enshrined in the royal ancestral shrine after death.

Even if this really were King Sejong, he wouldn't know the name during his own lifetime.

Of course, the Patriot didn't know any of that.

"How dare—."

The king—Yi Do—let out a roar of fury.

Just as Yi Do was about to scream for someone to throw this insolent wretch out.

From the Patriot's mouth came those words.

"The speech of our nation, being different from that of China—."

That which had only been created but not yet promulgated.

That which had been forged in utmost secrecy within the royal court.

"H-how do you know of that?"