Chapter 138: Sky Devil Church (2)

TL: Nadu

Editor: Lesurous

Bae Sungmin opened his eyes.

He had lost consciousness for a while as he used all his holy and magical powers to rip through the reality marble.

‘My phylactery is badly damaged.’

Bae Sungmin looked at his body coldly.

Due to the lich’s characteristic, Bae Sungmin’s body was immortal.

But, if his phylactery located near his heart was destroyed, even Bae Sungmin would die.

Right now, that phylactery was damaged and he was unable to properly recover from the injuries on his body.

The problem was that the phylactery didn’t recover naturally.

He needed to devour something that had either the darkness or light attributes, or return to Muyoung’s side to fully recover.

‘This is?’

He looked around.

It was all wasteland.

‘I bounced out.’

It seemed like he was bounced off due to a strong repelling power when he escaped the barrier.

As he was unable to see the Great City, it seemed like he was quite far away.

Also, he felt a strange gap in time.

‘How long has it been?’

He couldn’t tell.

He stood up as he placed his hand on the ground.

‘I need to let him know.’

The sect leader of Sky Devil church and the successor of Makura, one of the Eight Deva Guardians of Buddhism.

He was strong.

He had strength that surpa.s.sed everything.

What’s more, he raised devils within his reality marble.

If Muyoung was to face him like this… his winning rate would be 0%.

However, Bae Sungmin saw it.

He saw that Moon wasn’t perfect.

He needed to tell this truth to Muyoung. Just by letting him know, his winning rate would increase, even if by a single digit.

“I thought I saw something flying in, but it was a lich?”

“Is it really a lich? He looks like a human.”

“Am I ever wrong? Either way, let’s get prepared. I think he lost a lot of strength. A lich’s phylactery is worth a lot.”

He heard the voices of people nearby.

They were six in number.

It was a team with a balance of offense and defense.

s.h.i.+wk!

An arrow flew in, piercing into Bae Sungmin’s shoulder.

“Explosion!”

Blaze!

As the arrow exploded, the cut dug in. The thin membrane of skin that covered his body was gone, exposing the bone underneath, the force of the blast causing  Bae Sungmin to stumble.

“Look. He really is weak.”

“But he’s still a lich. We need to hunt carefully.”

“Ah, you’re frustrating. What if others come because we’re taking too long? It won’t be just us who saw it flying this way. Is the rule that the person who kills it gets half still a thing?”

A young man approached them as he whistled excitedly.

He was trying to get Bae Sungmin’s phylactery after killing him.

‘With my current magical powers, using low-level magic once would be my limit.’

What should he use to overcome this situation?

Creating a flame mine to explode around his surroundings, 3% chance of running away safely.

Creating fog and making them wander around…5%.

Using the inherent skill of the Asura King’s Left Arm, which he received from Muyoung, 9%!

From what Bae Sungmin judged, there was no way to even reach a 10% success rate.

“Haha! What luck is this!”

The young man came close before he knew it, and was about to swing his sword through Bae Sungmin’s throat.

Right then.

“Stop.”

A man who wore a s.h.i.+eld on his back appeared.

Then, the young man made a face.

“Who are you now? Get lost. We already called dibs on him.”

The man didn’t care if he cursed or not, he just looked at Bae Sungmin.

At the same time, the man’s eyes opened greatly.

“Sungmin mister…”

Bae Sungmin looked at the man.

He seemed familiar but he had no recollection of him.

It was because when he turned into an undead, not every memory was inherited.

Some memories of recent years were completely gone.

The man, Kim Taehwan took out his s.h.i.+eld.

“If you leave quietly, I won’t do anything. However, if you continue to intimidate that man, I will have to show force.”

“Bulls.h.i.+t. What a s.h.i.+tty show off.”

The young man clicked his tongue and when he was about to cut him with his sword…

Twoong!

The s.h.i.+eld flew and smacked the young man’s body.

“Cough!”

Although he didn’t receive an attack that was enough to kill him, he became unconscious right away.

Shhhing!

Thud!

As an arrow flew in, Kim Taehwan grabbed the arrow and snapped it.

Afterwards, the s.h.i.+eld automatically returned to Taehwan’s hand… and the fight began.

Bae Sungmin just looked at the scene.

A great master of s.h.i.+eldsmans.h.i.+p.

Just with his s.h.i.+eld, he overwhelmed the party.

Of course, compared to Muyoung or Tacan, he lacked quite a bit, but the longer he watched the man, he had a weird feeling.

Even though he should be someone whose  feelings and emotions should have almost all been erased.

‘Who is he?’

His feelings were very complex.

After instantly winning against the five, Kim Taehwan approached Bae Sungmin.

“Are you okay? Huu, how did you end up like this?”

“Who…are you?”

“Did you forget? I’m Taehwan. Kim Taehwan.”

Kim Taehwan?

He still could remember him.

As Sungmin didn’t reply, Taehwan continued to talk.

“It has been already 1 year since you left to find your daughter. And, here are meeting after that year. Did you make any progress?”

“You met me… 1 year ago? I left to find my daughter?”

Bae Sungmin’s voice slowly shook.

Sungmin wasn’t a normal undead.

He was an undead born of hope and authority.

He forgot something important and tried his best to remember it.

But, he found a clue in an unexpected place.

On the other hand, Taehwan realized that something was wrong with Sungmin.

“Mister, could you have lost your memory? No, wait. Your body is also…”

Taehwan’s eyes widened as he was looking at Sungmin’s injuries.

His blood wasn’t red.

His blood was black. Not just that but it felt like there was quite a stink to it.

Taehwan was unable to hear Sungmin’s heart beating.

As he quickly placed his hand on Sungmin’s skin, he found it as cold as ice.

‘He isn’t human.’

That’s when he realized. That Bae Sungmin wasn’t human.

An undead. Something like a zombie.

He remembered overhearing the conversation the ones who he beat against say the word ‘lich’.

For him to be a lich!

“H-how?! s.h.i.+t! Who is it? Who made you into an undead?!”

“Give me the specifics. About who I am and what I’m looking for.”

However, Taehwan realized that he was a bit different than a normal undead.

Normal undead didn’t try to have a conversation with humans, opting to attack them instead.

Additionally, they weren’t curious about their past.

Taehwan thought that there might be a chance Sungmin could turn back into a human.

“…First, let’s leave this place. People will be coming here soon.”

Taehwan clenched his teeth.

He tried to keep his head cool the best he could.

Bae Sungmin was Bae Sungmin. A kind and sincere man who was anxiously searching for his daughter, Bae Suzy.

However, if he was found by others, they would definitely kill him.

Of course, they couldn’t go to the Great City either.

There would be no way the guards would not know of a lich entering.

And he couldn’t just leave this situation as it was.

‘s.h.i.+t.’

Moreover, his head was a mess because of the situation with the Command Clan.

He felt like this was a situation they would use the phrase ‘out of the frying pan and into the fire’.

Fortunately, the potion worked.

Because the concept of recovery was vague, and the potion had a bit of holy component that it would cause harm to undead, Taehwan was skeptical. But, for some reason, Bae Sungmin accepted the components.

Like Taehwan expected, Sungmin wasn’t a normal undead.

Afterwards, the two had a conversation.

Their ordeal that was just one year ago, that Bae Sungmin had no recollection of.

“You mean I have a daughter?”

“Yes. Her name is Bae Suzy and she should be around 10 years old now. She was a really nice and cute girl. We would even laugh and say that she’s a small angel.”

Bae Suzy was like an oasis in a desert.

She was very popular not because she was simply just kind and cute but because she was smart for her age.

“Then where is my daughter Bae Suzy?”

“The Fighting King kidnapped her. You left the Great City to find him. This was 1 year ago.”

“The Fighting King, the Fighting King had…”

Bae Sungmin continued to say that t.i.tle.

Fortunately, it seemed like he believed to a certain degree of what Kim Taehwan said.

Although he was weakened, Sungmin knew how to differentiate between a truth and a lie.

The power of the spirit within him made it possible.

“My daughter, Bae Suzy, tell me more about her.”

And so, his voice became a bit softer.

Taehwan nodded his head.

“We were summoned to the Blue Temple, where you lost both your arms. Though, for some reason, you have a pair now. Anyway, after that Suzy did everything. If Muyoung wasn’t there, that would have also been impossible.”

There were quite a lot of things Muyoung helped out.

Although he was extremely cold, the warmth he rarely showed was enough to invigorate everyone.

“Suzy was really amazing. When she came out of the sky library, over a thousand people gathered to take Suzy into their group. I just had two to three people. Haha!”

Bae Sungmin still had a cold expression. However, it felt like he slowly opened up.

Knowing that Bae Suzy was his daughter and as his daughter received compliments, it really felt odd to him.

‘I was looking for my daughter.’

He didn’t even know what he was looking for. But, he had a strong obsession that he needed to find something.

Now he found out what he was looking for.

‘Bae Suzy. My daughter who was kidnapped by the Fighting King.’

Muyoung didn’t tell him. He never asked him either.

However, as he now figured out what exactly he was looking for, now he needed to ask.

Who the Fighting King was and where he was at.

‘I’m going to rip his limbs apart and rip his skin off. I’m going to place a curse that will make him live eternally and make him suffer.’

Bae Sungmin didn’t know that this feeling he had was revenge.

One after another, his feelings were being revived.

Things that weren’t allowed for an undead.

This also could be considered as ‘evolving’.

“I can’t leave aside the story regarding the Star of David either. That time…”

“I need you to go to the Great City and bring news.”

“Huh?”

“Please give this crystal to Muyoung.”

“..!”

Brrrr!

Taehwan s.h.i.+vered his whole body.

Muyoung, he said Muyoung!

That name popped out of Sungmin’s lips.

‘The man really was Muyoung hyungnim?’

A few days ago, Taehwan was attacked by the Command Clan.

That time, someone who he suspected as Muyoung came forth and killed them before disappearing into thin air.

Taehwan was able to escape after many complications.

However, afterward that incident, he was able to continue living in hiding outside of the Great City.

“Go to the Sun Guild. I’ll join afterwards.”

Bae Sungmin pa.s.sed Kim Taehwan a crystal the size of a fingernail which contained his memories and information.

Of course, he also placed appropriate measures just in case.

His relations.h.i.+p with Kim Taehwan seemed certain but he placed a trap using all his magical powers just in case.

If Taehwan was to go to the wrong place, the crystal would self destruct.

“It is really the Muyoung I remember?”

“Find out with your own two eyes.”

Bae Sungmin was unable to enter the Great City. He needed time to recover.

Even the connection with Muyoung was momentarily disconnected when he escaped Moon’s reality marble.

It seemed like Taehwan was the only way for him to deliver a message to Muyoung as of right now.

Taehwan looked at the crystal given by Sungmin.

‘I have no idea what on Earth is going on.’

His mind was complicated.

However, one thing was certain.

‘I need to confirm it.’

Their relations.h.i.+p continued even now.

Taehwan felt he could solve the problem regarding the Command Clan and the mysteries happening within the Great City once he saw Muyoung.

‘He’s able to deal with death. The reason why Sungmin mister became a lich would definitely be connected to him.’

Taehwan nodded and then turned his body.

“Please take care. I’ll quickly go and come back.”

The Great City was chaotic.

It felt like everyone was on edge.

They seemed to be holding their swords and were suspicious of their surroundings.

He even saw a few buildings completely destroyed. But, there were no signs of them being fixed.

‘Strange.’

It was very different from the normal lively scenes of the Great City.

While walking in the gloomy atmosphere, Taehwan was able to coincidentally meet a mercenary.

As the mercenary, he saw a few times from the underground pa.s.sed him on the street, Taehwan grabbed hold of him.

“Hey, did something happen?”

“Oh oh, Kim Taehwan! You were alive!”

“I was outside the Great City for a bit to complete a request.”

“Is that so? I knew it. I felt that it was odd for you to suddenly ask what happened in this current situation.”

The mercenary heaved a deep sigh.

However, it wasn’t long.

At most, 15 days. Taehwan felt like something happened during that period of time.

The mercenary whispered into Taehwan’s ears.

“It’s been crazy these days. The Sun Guild lost.”

“They lost?”

As Taehwan spoke loudly, the mercenary was startled.

The mercenary quickly blocked Taehwan’s mouth with his hand and spoke quietly.

“Shhh, speak quietly. Either way, the Sky Devil Church appeared. People say they placed their base at Sky Library. The Sun Guild attacked with a great army but they lost. They say that they were looking for cooperation from other groups and were preparing for a second attack but its hard to say what’s going to happen, tsk tsk.”

The Sun Guild lost.

They lost within the Great City.

Something that couldn’t happen, happened, and Taehwan was silently shocked.

“And so the atmosphere is like this because of it?”

“Well, there was that, but the Command Clan has also infiltrated the Great City. Right now, it’s a commotion because of this. If a house suddenly gets destroyed, a trial is started by force, and these things occurred frequently.”

“A trial…”

A trial. It was a kind of test.

It was a fight with your life on the line.

If you live, you would receive a reward but if you die, it was the end.

It seemed like the partially destroyed buildings in his surrounding were sacrificed like that.

“You be careful. If you seem a bit suspicious, the guards will try to kill you.”

“Thanks for the advice.”

“Phew~ Due to this situation, we have more work but the problem is that many people are dying off. If this continues, I might need to leave the Great City.”

The mercenary clicked his tongue and left.

Taehwan’s expression hardened.

In just two weeks, rapid change seemed to have happened.