Chapter 841: The Descending Moon (2)
They knew each other as well as it was possible to know another person. Even without Battle Precognition, they could predict the direction the other would move, the place they would aim for, the angle, the breath, the habits, everything. That was why Song Taewon did not bother with finesse. He charged in head-on. Draped in the black of Plunder’s shadow, now even more practiced than before, he threw the weight of his entire body into his rush at Seong Hyunjae.
Crrrrrack.
– The floor, already damaged, split open even wider beneath Song Taewon’s feet. A long crack raced ahead of him and reached the tips of Seong Hyunjae’s shoes first. Then, with the air heaving around him, Song Taewon drove out his fist. Golden eyes quietly watched every movement, then Seong Hyunjae turned his body at the exact distance required. His feet had not shifted even half a step. The wind that grazed past him stirred the hem of his clothes. Almost at the same moment, Song Taewon’s toes twisted as well. Of course Seong Hyunjae would let it pass. Perfectly, at that. Song Taewon had expected it, so he did not panic as he changed direction.
Kadeuk. The floor, crushed under tremendous force, sank in. Song Taewon’s body turned, and two short daggers appeared in his other hand. They shot toward Seong Hyunjae’s head and neck a fraction of a beat apart. Kang, kakang, the daggers struck the chains blocking their path and ricocheted away. At the same time he threw them, Song Taewon spun his whole body in a wide circle and snapped his foot upward.
But just barely faster than him—
Kwarrrr!
Golden chains burst up from under the spot where Song Taewon had been standing, laced with surging electricity. At some point, the chains had entered the building and punched through the ceiling. Song Taewon, whose balance had become unstable because he had already committed to the kick, could not evade and dropped straight down. But before he even hit the floor, tat! He kicked off the falling debris and shot upward again.
Seong Hyunjae, chains coiled around him, looked up at Song Taewon as he leaped high into the air. Pajijijik, golden currents thrashed, and fragments of the building danced along with them. Then—
Kwarrrrung!
A light that dyed his vision white burst outward, and the entire rooftop exploded. Even the uppermost floor of the building beneath it was shaved away in an instant, vanishing as if ground down, and the furnishings inside were flung in every direction. Shattered glass glittered as it poured down the side of the building.
The moment the current came crashing down, Song Taewon curled his body as tightly as he could and wrapped himself in black shadow. The golden light could not pass beyond Lunar Eclipse and was swallowed whole. However—
“…!”
Every length of rebar that had been supporting the building’s top floor came flying at him. Unlike the currents infused with mana, simple physical force was, if anything, more troublesome to block. His feet had not yet reached the ground, so he could not dodge either. Song Taewon drew up the mana throughout his entire body and protected his flesh.
Teong, teodeong!
With sounds like blows striking an iron wall, Song Taewon’s body was forced backward. The tips of his feet, barely finding purchase, slid across the floor until they reached the very place where the window had once been. The wall was gone, and empty wind brushed past his back. This was the tallest building in the area, and even with an entire floor blown away, the other buildings still lay beneath his line of sight.
Song Taewon exhaled shortly. In contrast, Seong Hyunjae had scarcely moved at all, save for the slight flutter of his clothing. Seong Hyunjae’s fingertips slowly neatened the disarrayed hem of his clothes.
“I’ve grown rather strong, haven’t I.”
“…”
“With Han Yujin’s help, and Hangyeol’s power still remaining as well.”
By devouring the magic stones of his subordinates and borrowing the aid of those two people’s memories and abilities, he had drawn his past out little by little. He had likely already surpassed SS-rank. Golden eyes lowered to look at his own hand.
“But as expected, rising all at once makes it difficult for the body to keep up.”
“…What sort of condition are you in?”
“Exactly the one you already know.”
He would digest what had piled up, layer upon layer, and become complete as Seong Hyunjae. If he established himself as himself while maintaining his ego, then the contract with Crescent Moon, into which Sigma had opened a gap, could likely be severed without much difficulty.
But from the beginning, it had been a method with an exceedingly low chance of success.
“It is like trying to pour one ton of water into a one-liter leather pouch. The leather may very well have the potential to stretch enough to hold more than a ton, but that is work that must be done slowly, over a long period of time.”
Several hundred years, or perhaps more than a thousand. If enough time were granted, he could someday succeed. But Seong Hyunjae did not have time. If he forcibly stretched it in haste, the leather could only tear.
Song Taewon looked at Seong Hyunjae calmly. It was not something to be newly shocked by. Both he and Seong Hyunjae had expected failure. That was why Song Taewon was standing here.
“Hand over the magic stone. You will remain as yourself.”
Song Taewon held out his hand once more.
“Han Yujin will remember you. So will everyone else.”
They would remember the figure of him who had remained, to the very end, as none other than Seong Hyunjae. The corner of Seong Hyunjae’s mouth lifted.
“That was the plan. That was why I erased my feelings toward Han Yujin.”
Golden light sparked from the tips of Seong Hyunjae’s fingers. Song Taewon moved on instinct. The instant he felt the ominous warning, he kicked off the ground. At the same time, the place where Song Taewon had been standing quite literally disappeared. The floor beneath it, and the floor beneath that, were gouged down as if something had bitten them away.
“That should have held.”
Song Taewon could not tell what he had done. He did not stop running. As if an invisible beast of immense size were swinging its claws, every place he touched was sliced away with crisp, clean shearing sounds.
“But I.”
Teleportation. Seong Hyunjae appeared directly in front of Song Taewon. The instant he moved, his long leg struck Song Taewon in the side. With a heavy thud, Song Taewon’s body was sent flying all the way to the opposite edge of the building. His outstretched hand barely caught the edge, and he hauled his body up in one swift motion. Immediately after, fwoosh.
“Found myself wanting to live.”
The sound of wings beating came from behind him. Before Song Taewon had the room to look back, his body was sent tumbling again. The difference between them was as vast as that between a cat and a lion. Pajijik, electricity spat outward. Song Taewon hurriedly tried to draw up his shadow to defend, but Seong Hyunjae seized him by the wrist. Lunar Eclipse seeped out from Seong Hyunjae’s hand as well.
“Right until the very, very end.”
Shadow collided with shadow, and through the gap that opened between them, golden light drove itself in.
“—Hrk!”
Song Taewon dragged in a harsh breath. A human body was protected by its own innate mana. The higher the rank, the stronger that protection became; by S-rank, directly forcing one’s mana inside another person’s body was nearly impossible. But Seong Hyunjae’s current was burrowing into Song Taewon.
Plunder. The same skill on both sides tangled together, and in that instant, Seong Hyunjae’s mana and Song Taewon’s mana synchronized. It was also because the power of Plunder was so close to being Song Taewon himself.
“Seong… Hyun…jae…”
Alien electrical signals spread through Song Taewon’s entire body. His body went numb, and moving even a single fingertip became difficult. His vision blurred for a moment, then bled into a smear of colors. Staggering, Song Taewon took a step back. He could no longer tell whether it was his own movement or Seong Hyunjae’s control. His heel touched the edge of the building. Tuk, concrete powder scraped by his heel fell into the dizzying drop below.
“You said you would… erase your feelings again…”
“I did. But the first time was also my last chance.”
Seong Hyunjae looked straight at Song Taewon. His eyes were gentle, almost soothing.
“When it is this enjoyable, do you think I would want to erase it?”
High in the sky, moonlight rippled thickly, as if beckoning him to come.
“I want to live.”
His voice was utterly honest.
“I want to walk whatever road I must. No, even if there is no road, that is fine. I will walk wherever my feet carry me.”
There was no need to hurry. He could take his time, look around, and rest along the way. There would be times when he laughed freely, and times when he cried.
All that had to disappear was the one long chain dragging behind him. Then he might even hum a song. Everything he would no longer lose would feel new, and the very act of building time, piece by piece, would be enjoyable.
Seong Hyunjae smiled. Song Taewon clenched his trembling hand into a fist.
“But if things stay like this…”
He forced his stiffening tongue to move and spoke with difficulty.
“You, and everyone… else…”
“I should go. I should.”
“What are…”
“To Crescent Moon.”
Song Taewon’s eyes widened. If Seong Hyunjae fell into Crescent Moon’s hands, that would be the end of it. But he had refused, and he had endured until now. He had persisted through a span of time whose length could not even be known.
“Why would you, when you value yourself… above all…”
“That, too, is me.”
For Seong Hyunjae, what came first and what he cherished most was himself. That had never changed, and it remained true even in this moment.
“I am not what one would generally call a good person.”
His golden eyes curved with evident pleasure. Seong Hyunjae’s hand lightly brushed the dirt from Song Taewon’s shoulder.
“But I love myself, and for that reason, I also love the place where my precious self lives.”
“…Seong Hyunjae.”
“Is it not the world in which I reside? Therefore, it must become at least a little more acceptable before it can satisfy my eye. If it were too shabby, I would not even want to call it my world.”
So he tended it and protected it. He cherished himself. If that were the case, then was it not natural to manage his surroundings as far as his abilities allowed? It was a perfectly ordinary desire, the same as wanting finer clothes, finer food, a better-decorated room, a larger home, and eventually even the environment outside that home. Seong Hyunjae’s abilities and the range of his gaze were simply far broader than most.
“Perhaps the first me was the same.”
The world where he had been born and lived wholly as himself.
“My first world must have been very lovely.”
There was no way to know what kind of contract had passed between him and Crescent Moon. The Seong Hyunjae of that time had likely still been inexperienced. But perhaps that self-love, that foundation on which he had been built, had not been so different from now.
“That must be why I protected it.”
Quite admirably, at that. Song Taewon stared blankly at the smiling face before him. He was a difficult man. And yet Song Taewon had thought he had experienced a great deal of Seong Hyunjae, that he knew a great deal about him.
“…You are…”
Unfamiliar. And at the same time, still unmistakably him. From the very beginning, all the way to this world, he was someone who could not help but climb to the highest place in any world.
“Perhaps this world, to me, is the second. No matter which world it was, I must have tried to keep protecting it. But with the exception of the first, I was not wholly myself.”
So he must have allowed grains of sand to slip easily through his fingers. The more the cycle repeated, the less he would have been able to know himself.
“This place was enjoyable enough. It is where both my death and my life remain, so I cannot say it is not a land for me to live in.”
“Then all the more…!”
All the more. Song Taewon’s mouth twisted. He was the death prepared for Seong Hyunjae. Did he truly have the right to tell him to live? As if guessing what lay inside him, Seong Hyunjae spoke.
“I have no intention of giving up. I will fight and endure. I may not look it, but I am S-rank, am I not? My rank has risen even further now. As his partner, I cannot very well lose to Han Yujin.”
It was impossible. But the things that had blocked Han Yujin’s path had always been impossible. Black shadow seeped out from Seong Hyunjae’s hand. It gathered into something like a round bead.
“When I leave, Han Yujin’s memories will disappear as well. Give them to him. Not all of them. If I hand them over completely, I will no longer receive the aid of the Nurturer title.”
Lunar Eclipse, holding Han Yujin’s memories, seeped into Song Taewon.
“And now.”
Seong Hyunjae’s hand gripped Song Taewon’s shoulder.
“For me, who is trying to live, death is unnecessary.”
His shoulder was pushed lightly.
“Song Taewon, you are no longer death.”
Not only mine, but no one else’s death either. The very reason Lunar Eclipse had been created denied that reason itself. He was being pushed away. Song Taewon reached out his arm.
“Therefore, live. As Song Taewon.”
Drawing out the last of his strength, Song Taewon caught Seong Hyunjae by the arm. There were far too many things he thought he needed to say, but in this moment—
“…Come back.”
Come back, and you too should live. Seong Hyunjae laughed soundlessly. Strength entered his fingertips. Song Taewon’s body fell backward. Perhaps Seong Hyunjae had lessened his weight, because the sound of collision was not loud. In the first place, he was S-rank, so falling from this height would not cause a serious injury. But he was still under the paralysis of the current, so he would likely be unable to move for a while.
Without a trace of lingering attachment, Seong Hyunjae turned away.
Jalang.
A silver bell rang. Golden eyes looked up at the moon. A fierce smile spread across his face.
“You no longer need to wait, it seems.”
With the Gardener’s intrusion, the world of dreams had been all but opened. The garden that had been blocking it was gone. At the same time, Sigma’s contract, transferred to Seong Hyunjae, had scattered as well. Seong Hyunjae, the little moon, had consumed a large number of magic stones, and he also held the Gardener’s magic stone in his hand. If he swallowed even that, he would be complete.
It was time for retrieval.
Jalang.
Moonlight descended, and the golden chains rang out as if in answer. The gold that had once been like Seong Hyunjae’s own limbs began to stain coldly silver.
– My little moon.
A voice called to him. Silver light scattered in every direction. Seong Hyunjae lifted the Gardener’s magic stone.
“Seong Hyunjae. That is my name.”
It did not matter what Crescent Moon called him, nor what names he had passed through in the past. He had defined himself as himself.
“Crescent Moon.”
Boom. A thunderous noise came faintly from far away. A part of the building touched by moonlight broke apart. Seong Hyunjae’s gaze turned even colder.
“Take your hands off my world.”
– You have come to love this world.
“Naturally.”
Moonlight transformed into chains. As they tried to move toward the lower floors of the building, golden light spread outward with Seong Hyunjae at its center. Kwajijik! Countless silver chains shattered into pieces all at once.
“So let us have a conversation between the two of us. You must know about the one strand that was cut.”
Sigma, cut free. He was already being protected. It would not be easy for Crescent Moon to destroy the world of dreams, break past what lay beyond it, and seize Sigma. Seong Hyunjae lightly brought the Gardener’s magic stone to his lips.
“This is still here as well.”
The faint sound of chains could still be heard in the distance. They were likely aimed at Han Yujin and the others.
“Shall we move elsewhere and negotiate at our leisure?”
– Are you trying to sacrifice yourself?
“This is my struggle to live as myself.”
A struggle to seize everything he desired, as greedily as he pleased. Seong Hyunjae smiled.
“All I need to do is survive in your hands. That does not seem particularly difficult.”
The moonlight that had been descending over the whole world was withdrawn. In only one place, where Seong Hyunjae stood, it fell even more thickly. Silver chains jingled. Seong Hyunjae drew in a short breath.
Then the moonlight vanished, and his figure disappeared with it.
–TL Notes–
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