novelraw Chapter 143 : Mission 10: The Hunters of Old (16)
Chapter 143 : Mission 10: The Hunters of Old (16)
War makes orphans.
The Gate War, thirty years ago, was no different.
Many died, and many more children were left behind.
It was in the war’s aftermath, a time when Gates and monsters were becoming part of daily life, that The Knights found one such orphan.
So hungry.
Streaked with grime, he was a little boy, no more than five.
Back then, the Cheongnyangni Gate’s defense facility was nothing more than a shabby campsite. The boy wandered in and was caught stealing food from the mess tent.
The Knights took him in.
“Let’s raise him.”
“What? Are you insane? How the hell are a bunch of grimy old farts like us supposed to raise a kid?”
“So what if we’re old farts? We can’t cook? We can’t do laundry?”
“We reek of old bones, you idiots! The kid will catch it!”
No one in the guild could be called a gifted parent, not even as a joke, but it was one of the few places in the ruins of Seoul where a child wouldn’t go hungry or cold.
“It’s been lonely since our heroes and Hae-eun left. This is perfect.”
It was right after the Old Five Heroes had disbanded.
The Knight Commander, Shin-woo Jo, gave his permission.
“But only until we find him a proper family. We’re just his temporary guardians.”
Until they could find him a good foster family.
That resolve faded with each passing year. The boy grew, healthy and strong, and in doing so, he preserved the humanity of the knights who returned day after day, drenched in monster blood and worn to the bone.
When I grow up…
The boy felt it, too.
I’m going to be a knight, just like my dads!
The world was half a hell, but among The Knights, the boy was able to grow up while protecting the hearts of men.
A knight of justice who protects the people!
***
Thirty years later. The present.
Cheongnyangni Gate. The junkyard.
“…”
Chevalier let the memory fade.
The little boy from that day had grown up here, in The Knights. He had looked upon every Hunter in the guild as a father and had learned everything they had to teach.
He was the heir to their legacy, the culmination of the Hunter Guild The Knights’ past thirty years.
That was the Hunter known as Chevalier.
The youngest knight in a guild where the average age was over sixty. Their youngest son.
“Father.”
That was what he called every member of The Knights.
To all one hundred of the fathers who had saved him from that hell and raised him.
“My son…”
A Hunter was dying before him.
He was an old soldier, wounded while subduing the prisoners hiding in the junkyard. The injury to his chest was severe; he couldn’t be saved.
Kneeling before him, Chevalier slowly removed his helmet, revealing the face of a young man. A large cross-shaped scar was carved across his cheek.
A smile touched the old soldier’s lips as he gazed upon his son’s face.
“We will all die when this is over, but you…”
“…”
“You… have to find a way… to live.”
“…”
“Find some… normal happiness…”
Chevalier silently reached out and held the dying soldier’s hand tightly.
Soon, the old man drew his last breath.
He closed his father’s eyes.
Then Chevalier put his full-face helmet back on.
“No, Father.”
The young knight’s voice was resolute.
“I will be with you all until the very end. Because I am the son of every Knight.”
Rising to his feet, Chevalier’s tone hardened. “Status report.”
“Yes, Vice-Commander.”
Though they were all family, when they were armored and on duty, the chain of command was absolute. Vice-Commander and subordinate.
The Knights was a guild built strictly on merit.
Exceptionally talented and personally trained by a hundred fathers, Chevalier had long since become the strongest knight in the guild, second only to Commander Shin-woo himself.
His fathers were proud to treat their son as their Vice-Commander.
“All enemies who infiltrated the junkyard have been neutralized.”
“All of them killed?”
“One surrendered.”
The intruder was brought forward, captured and bloodied.
It was Jail Mojik, the leader of Deck 2. She stared at Chevalier with anxious eyes.
“Do we have the luxury of taking prisoners right now?”
Chevalier’s hand tightened on the hilt of the greatsword at his hip.
“Just kill—”
Beep.
A call interrupted him.
«Vice-Commander.»
“Go ahead.”
«Some rats broke into the water treatment facility and slipped into the sewer system. Looks like they’re trying to infiltrate the main building through the pipes.»
It was Jae-hee’s team from Deck 1 of the Black Parade.
Their movements were already being tracked by The Knights.
“Are they the last of the intruders?”
«It seems so.»
“Good. I’ll deal with them myself.”
Then, another call came through.
«Vice-Commander!»
“What is it?”
«You need to get to the Gate Room, now! The Commander is in danger!»
“…!”
«He ordered me not to tell you, but the situation has gotten too dire…!»
Chevalier gestured to the men around him. “You go to the sewers beneath the main building and eliminate the last of the intruders. I’m going to the Gate Room.”
“What should we do with the prisoner?”
“Lock her up somewhere.” Chevalier glared at Jail Mojik, then turned away. “She might prove useful.”
***
December 11, 2050, 8:30 AM.
Cheongnyangni Gate—The Gate Room
Iron Knight Shin-woo Jo’s Domain Break, Twilight Fortress, was a landscape of countless fortress walls lining a sunset coast.
His domain specialized in defense, in blocking and protecting.
While his own body boasted the ultimate defense, his true power was the strength to protect others.
Rumble…!
That fortress was collapsing, wall by wall.
What brought down the high, sturdy walls of steel was not overwhelming physical force or immense mass.
It was time.
The walls rusted, corroded, and weakened until they could no longer stand, collapsing one by one. The fortresses lining the coast toppled like a row of dominoes.
“Same as thirty years ago…” Shin-woo spat, watching his domain crumble. “You’re as horrifying as ever.”
The evil dragon offered a leisurely smile.
With its crimson scales, one might mistake it for a fire-breathing dragon from common folklore, but the reality was entirely different.
The Corruption Dragon, Deyana Ludens.
Its breath caused all it touched to rot, and its mere proximity induced aging.
It had been that way thirty years ago. But now, resurrected from death as an undead dragon…
The undead dragon now scattered Corpse Poison from its very form.
As the aura of death spread from its blackened body, everything nearby decayed and fell apart.
The old knight’s fortress of steel rotted and collapsed. But the Demon Lord was going further, causing the Iron Knight’s domain—the very world he had manifested—to rot away.
It’s even more vile than it was thirty years ago. Back then, we had Seong-ah…
Thirty years ago, during the Gate War.
They had the Savior, Seong-ah Yu, the Saint of Light. Only with her power had they been able to suppress the corruption this monster spread and achieve victory.
But the Savior wasn’t here now. None of his old comrades were.
Still, I have to hold out as long as I can.
Shin-woo gritted his teeth, feeling his once-invincible body corroding at the edges.
The moment it breaks out of my domain, its corruption will spread throughout the Cheongnyangni Gate…!
But his domain was steadily being consumed. More importantly, he could only hold the line; he had no way to kill the beast.
Well aware of this fact, Deyana Ludens spoke as it casually spread its corruption.
“It seems maintaining your Soulscape is becoming more difficult, is it not?”
“…!”
“In your prime, you could have held this for half a day. Even if the body does not age, the soul is bound to wither.”
The Demon Lord whispered sweetly, “My old adversary. Why don’t you rot away with me?”
The Demon Lord spread its wings of rotted membrane and slowly ascended into the air.
“You have shown me your world. Now, I shall show you mine.”
A violet Gate tore open the space behind Deyana Ludens, and a torrent of something began to surge out.
It was countless crow corpses.
The rotten carcasses soared into the sky, gathering and aligning in the air. With wings spread wide and heads pointing down, the bodies resembled inverted crosses.
And then, they rained down.
Like black rain.
Patter-patter-patter-patter!
A downpour of crow corpses hammered the walled coastline.
The unleashed corruption filled the sea in an instant, and soon the ocean was brimming with death.
The corpses rotted.
The sea rotted.
The world rotted.
“To resurrect me, the last one hundred of my kind all sacrificed their lives.”
“…”
“And so I, the last of my race, was reborn. But I am a lone corpse. My world is already completely dead.”
“…”
“Therefore, should I come to rule your world, it shall become a land of Corpse Poison and decay.”
Shin-woo stared blankly at the scene for a moment.
If he was breached, if the Cheongnyangni Gate fell and this Demon Lord escaped… this vision of hell would become reality.
“Then and now…”
Shin-woo reversed his grip on his greatsword, holding it like a javelin. He pulled his arm back with all his might.
“You always did run that damn mouth of yours, son of a bitch…!”
He hurled it forward.
Thunk!
The thrown greatsword embedded itself in the Demon Lord’s chest.
But the Demon Lord didn’t even pretend to be in pain. It looked down at Shin-woo Jo as if observing a pet throwing a tantrum.
“You know an attack like this is meaningless.”
Shin-woo Jo answered with action.
Rumble…!
One by one, the fortress walls on the beach began to rise into the air, then flew toward the Demon Lord like missiles.
The greatsword in its chest was acting as a coordinate marker, calling the walls to it.
CRUNCH! CRUNCH! RUMBLE!
The tombstone-like walls surrounded the Demon Lord, fusing together to form a single, massive coffin.
“Oho…”
“I was waiting for you to take flight, you fucking corpse.”
As the endless walls sealed it away, Deyana Ludens drawled with an air of nonchalance.
“But you know a stone coffin like this will not hold for long.”
“…”
“All coffins rot, and death inevitably seeps out. Struggle well during your brief reprieve…”
THUD!
The final wall slammed into place.
The moment the coffin was complete, Shin-woo’s domain dissolved, and he found himself back in the Gate Room of the Cheongnyangni Gate.
He was exhausted, gasping for breath.
“Commander!”
“Commander, are you all right?!”
Chevalier and his subordinates had been waiting outside.
But as they tried to enter the Gate Room, they recoiled.
The room was already teeming with an aura of corruption.
“Stay back!” Shin-woo yelled, waving his men away as he staggered out. “Initiate the closure process…!”
“Sir?”
“We’re abandoning the Gate Room. Do it!”
“Yes, sir! Initiating closure process!”
Chevalier urgently opened a panel next to the entrance, inserted an emergency key, and turned it.
For the first time in decades since the defense facility had been built at the Cheongnyangni Gate, the closure process was activated.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Watching the fire doors descend and stone walls rise over the Gate Room’s only entrance, Shin-woo issued his next command.
“Seal this building, too.”
“…!”
“We have to buy as much time as possible to slow it down. Blow up the building!”
A moment later.
KABOOOOM…!
The explosives planted throughout the building surrounding the Gate Room detonated, burying the Gate Room itself within the ruins.
In a clearing far from the blast, Shin-woo hacked through ragged coughs as he stared into the swelling cloud of dust. Blood spattered across the palm pressed to his mouth.
Chevalier went rigid with shock at the sight. The man of steel hadn’t suffered a single injury in thirty years, yet he was coughing up blood.
Suppressing the corruption that had already invaded his body, the Iron Knight spat, “Contact the government… we need to request reinforcements.”
Stunned, Chevalier asked urgently, “Are you saying you’re going to bow down to the government now?”
“…”
“You’re giving up? After coming this far? Are you serious, Commander?”
“Don’t forget our purpose, Vice-Commander.”
Shin-woo’s resolve was firm.
“We are Hunters. We started this not for some petty grudge or revenge, but to protect the right of citizens to defend themselves.”
“…”
“But if that Demon Lord gets out, the world will turn back into the hell it was thirty years ago.”
Shin-woo locked eyes with Chevalier.
“As someone who lived through that hell, you should know better than anyone—you don’t want it happening again.”
Chevalier said nothing, his fists tightening at his sides.
Shin-woo’s voice stayed firm.
“Get the government on the line. We have to protect Seoul… protect the citizens.”