Urban Vagabond: Reload

Ivan Volkov clicked his tongue at the situation’s sudden turn just as he was preparing to gather his materials and leave.

“Martial artists, honestly...”

The life-or-death spar had erupted before anyone could stop it.

The Skybreaker Gate sect leader had immediately accepted Choi Geon’s challenge, and the dozen or so martial artists who had appeared as witnesses had drawn their weapons as well.

Did you arrange all of this?

Ivan looked at Kim Muhyuk as though he wanted to ask the question aloud.

However, Kim Muhyuk also wore a tense expression. It did not appear to have been planned from the beginning.

Of course. There would have been no reason to gamble when the situation was already turning in their favor.

That left only one conclusion: Choi Geon himself had changed the board.

“...Is he truly that confident? Or does he intend to burn away his final flame here?”

Regardless of the life-or-death spar’s outcome, Ivan would still write his report on the special audit.

But he could no longer stop what had already begun, nor did he intend to.

“This life-or-death spar will have no bearing on the results of the special audit.”

Ivan Volkov was ultimately a martial artist himself. He sat down, intending to observe the life-or-death spar between supreme masters.

...Though he had no idea whether he would be able to see through that dense darkness.

“However, remove every camera.”

The Martial Alliance members had already begun moving before the investigator finished speaking.

They could not broadcast martial artists killing one another at a public hearing to the entire world.

“Stop filming! Turn them off immediately, or we’ll shut them down by force!”

“Block the view with your bodies first! Phone recording is prohibited from this moment onward!”

Fortunately, the thick darkness Choi Geon had unleashed prevented even the few cameras that were slow to switch off from capturing anything.

The microphones, however, clearly caught someone’s scream.

“GAAAAH!”

The darkness rippled once, and the scream soon died away.

A moment later, another scream echoed out.

“KUHAAAGH!”

The darkness rippled again...

“S-Save meee!”

The agonized scream that made everyone’s skin crawl quickly vanished as well.

The same thing repeated again and again.

RATTLE...

A severed head rolled out from the undulating darkness.

The gallery members screamed and fled when they saw the face twisted by horrific pain.

“AAAAAAH!”

“KYAAAAH!”

But the martial artists were not frightened by a mere severed head.

Something else had already shocked them far more deeply.

“...Am I the only one who can’t see what’s happening inside?”

“Has the Sword Demon cast some kind of sorcery? Unless...”

“Surely not. It can’t be...”

The most disturbed of all were the supreme masters—the sect leaders of the Eight Great Sects and the Martial Alliance Leader.

Even they could not properly see through the darkness created by the Sword Demon.

Kim Muhyuk’s eyes widened as he watched his master display a martial art he had never seen before.

“That isn’t simple blade aura or protective aura. It’s on an entirely higher level...”

Everyone was thinking something similar, but none of them dared put it into words.

“...A Transcendence-Level Ultimate Technique. The Sword Demon has entered the realm of a peerless master.”

Martial Alliance Leader Yeo Pilgeuk murmured, his voice trembling with emotion.

The Sword Demon, Choi Geon, was a martial artist who had lived through the same era as him.

Both men had become supreme masters, and there had even been a time when Yeo Pilgeuk was called the Strongest in Korea.

But the years had passed, and all the martial artists of their generation were now fading beyond their prime.

“To become a peerless master after turning seventy... Such a feat is nearly unheard of in the entire history of the Korean martial world!”

Yeo Pilgeuk gazed beyond the darkness, delighted by his old friend’s accomplishment yet unable to conceal his envy.

At that moment, however, those with reason to fear the Sword Demon felt an icy chill crawl across the backs of their necks.

How could such a disaster happen?!

Of all people, the Sword Demon became a peerless master...

Who could possibly stop him now?

The Sword Demon, now a peerless master, would undoubtedly become even more terrifying than he had been when he first earned that title.

*****

SSSSSS...

Nothing could be seen or heard within the pitch-black darkness.

Those trapped inside felt as though all five of their senses had been severed.

“Who’s there? Who is it?!”

“I can’t see anything...”

“Damn it. I never should’ve taken that money!”

The Devil’s Walk Through the Dark Night.

Choi Geon’s wide-area Transcendence-Level Ultimate Technique, which spread darkness to blind and deafen his enemies.

Within it, none of the senses functioned properly. Even if someone approached from directly beside them, they would never notice.

“Kuh... Keh...”

A man suddenly felt a hand close around his throat.

The instant he met the pair of eyes glowing ominously in the darkness, his entire body froze.

“I shall ask you only one question.”

The voice was calm, utterly at odds with the situation.

The figure before him gradually emerged in full.

It could no longer be described as human.

It was something that could only be called a devil.

“What evil deed brought you to this place?”

“I-I...”

Under ordinary circumstances, the man would have denied everything or exploded in fury, claiming that he was being framed.

Yet strangely, before the figure of that devil, tears streamed down his face as he freely confessed his crimes.

“...I murdered people in secret. An old man and a woman who had never learned martial arts... I killed them and stole their property...”

A peerless master’s Transcendence-Level Ultimate Technique.

A martial art created when the madness a martial artist had obsessed over throughout his entire life was honed to its utmost extreme could influence others more powerfully than spellcraft.

“H-Heeaaagh! G-Get away! I was wrong! I said I was wrong...!”

The man, who had been rambling through his confession, suddenly began screaming.

He could now see the vengeful spirits of the people he had murdered.

“This will be far less than the pain you inflicted upon them. Experience it, even if only for a moment. And...”

Choi Geon watched the suffering man for a time before tightening his grip.

“May you be born good in your next life.”

CRACK!

The evildoer’s neck snapped.

He fell to the floor, twitched, then went still. His face had turned deathly white from the unbearable agony.

SSSH...

Choi Geon melted back into the darkness and walked toward his next target.

Every evildoer who encountered the devil within the darkness underwent the same process.

“I-I killed my friend and stole his spiritual medicine and martial arts! B-But that bastard started it...”

“I tracked down the loan shark who lent me money and buried him. Heh. The insolent bastard thought he could threaten a martial artist?”

“They told me they wouldn’t leave me their property even after they died, so...”

The evildoers trembled in terror as they confessed every last one of their crimes to Choi Geon, suffered horrific pain, and received their punishment.

Those whose crimes were especially heinous lost their lives.

Those whose crimes were comparatively lighter had their lower abdomens destroyed and their bones crushed.

“That insane bastard...!”

The Skybreaker Gate sect leader heard every sound with perfect clarity.

Within the darkness where he could see nothing, the evildoers’ confessions echoed without end.

This is sorcery. The Sword Demon must be playing some sort of trick. If I remain calm, I can resist it.

The Skybreaker Gate sect leader alone retained his sanity within Choi Geon’s darkness.

Unlike the others, he was a supreme master and could at least endure its influence.

“Do you think I’ll let you take me?!”

Even in the pitch-black darkness, his keen senses remained intact. Several times, he detected traces of Choi Geon’s presence and launched attacks.

SHRAAAK!

The blade aura he fired in a surprise attack tore through empty space.

There was no response.

It was as though the darkness itself had swallowed everything.

All he could hear were the continuing screams of the others.

“GAAAAH!”

“KUHAAAGH!”

“Hngh...!”

The screams that had once sounded distant were gradually drawing closer.

“Y-You fucking bastard...”

The Skybreaker Gate sect leader was afraid.

An enemy approaching little by little within a place where nothing could be seen.

It was a kind of fear he had never experienced once since becoming a martial artist.

FLASH!

Light suddenly flared within the darkness.

For a fleeting instant, he saw someone’s throat being severed or their heart pierced before the vision vanished again.

Beside the corpse stood Choi Geon in the form of a devil, staring directly at him.

FLASH! FLASH!

Each time the light flared, the devil had come a little closer.

Terror slowly tightened around him.

His hair stood on end, and cold sweat soaked his back.

Before he knew it, the devil was standing directly before him.

“Now you alone remain, evildoer. What evil deeds have you committed?”

“I-I...”

At that moment, the Skybreaker Gate sect leader clenched his teeth.

Blood streamed from his eyes and nose, but he desperately resisted being consumed by the darkness.

“Die, you devil!”

In a single instant, he unleashed the ultimate technique he had kept hidden while pouring all his strength into it.

It was the most powerful sword technique among all the martial arts he had cultivated throughout his life.

SHRA-RA-RA-RAK!

Sword force raged outward, briefly scattering the dense darkness.

Through the opening, the Skybreaker Gate sect leader spotted the leaders of the Eight Great Sects and shouted.

“Sect leaders! This is our chance to eliminate the Sword Demon! Help me!”

The sect leaders flinched.

Yet not one of them dared step forward.

Growing desperate, the Skybreaker Gate sect leader shouted until his voice turned hoarse.

“We have more than enough chance of winning! I dealt the Sword Demon a grievous wound! If just two of you help me, we can tear that bastard to pieces!”

The Skybreaker Gate sect leader truly believed he could tear the Sword Demon apart if three—no, even two—of the other sect leaders joined him.

He saw the Golden Glory Gate sect leader hesitate when their eyes met.

...But ultimately, no one stepped forward to help him.

“You fucking morons! Don’t you understand?! If you don’t help me, you’ll be next!”

The Skybreaker Gate sect leader screamed in a furious frenzy.

SSSSSS...

The scattered darkness closed around him once again, trapping him inside.

Having nearly lost all reason, he wildly swung his sword into the darkness and roared.

“What did I do that was so wrong?! It happened decades ago! I compensated them more than enough, and I even reached settlements with those things’ families while they sobbed and whined! Who the hell are you to punish me as you please?!”

Heh... heh... heh...

The devil’s laughter echoed from every direction.

“Do you admit that you and your late younger cousin committed acts against children that only beasts would commit, then covered them up?”

Bloodshot eyes fixed upon the devil as it appeared before him, and the Skybreaker Gate sect leader burst into crazed laughter.

“Ha ha ha ha! Yes, and what are you going to do about it?! Do you have any proof? I found every last piece of it and burned it long ago! You’ll never find anything!”

SHNK—

A sharp pain pierced his chest.

The Skybreaker Gate sect leader vomited a mouthful of blood.

As he staggered and collapsed, Choi Geon shed the devil’s guise and whispered to him.

“That is enough. Now die slowly. I shall at least grant you enough time to savor everyone’s stares until your final breath.”

“Wh-What...?”

Only then did the Skybreaker Gate sect leader realize it.

All the darkness surrounding him had already vanished.

“S-Sect leaders...”

“That was true?”

“Disgusting bastard...”

He began making excuses to the people staring at him with contempt.

“N-No. This is a frame-up! I didn’t do any of that. That evil ghost used sorcery to... Keugh!”

He had been the sect leader of Skybreaker Gate, one of the pillars of the Korean martial world.

Kwon Inmo, the Army-Shattering Sword, confessed his crimes before countless martial artists, spent his final moments offering nothing but excuses, and died.