The World's Greatest is Dead

A familiar place in a stark white void.

I opened my eyes inside what was called one of Yucheon Gil's dream-visions.

...What?

I'd only just barely managed to close my eyes, and now that I came to, I was in a dream-vision?

Where the hell is Yucheon Gil?

I focused my senses.

Hummmm.

I tried to search for Yucheon Gil by stirring my soul—

...He's not here?

To my surprise, I couldn't feel Yucheon Gil at all.

What?

He wasn't here?

How can this be his dream-vision if Yucheon Gil isn't in it?

Usually, Yucheon Gil would cast the dream-vision himself and lock me inside it.

But now, even though I had entered the dream-vision, I couldn't feel him anywhere.

That was strange.

The master of the dream-vision couldn't be sensed.

I naturally assumed this was his doing.

Just what was going on here?

I narrowed my eyes and looked around.

Should I wake myself up first?

If I absolutely had to force myself awake, I could.

It would require a somewhat violent method, but it wasn't impossible.

In other words, I could do it if I chose to.

Not yet.

I should find out a little more first.

Just as I thought that and looked around—

HUMMMMMM-!!!

Hm?

Something rang inside me.

Not just inside me, either.

Why are these reacting too?

The bracer on my wrist and even the Divine Sword at my waist were vibrating along with it.

...These came with me too?

I realized it belatedly.

Come to think of it, how were these even here?

Could objects come into a dream-vision too?

It wasn't impossible.

If it was an object imbued with divine force, something like a divine blade used by a shaman, then it could be brought in—

Ah.

Right.

This bracer was a Divine Blade.

A dazzling object steeped in divine force.

That was what this bracer was, so it could count as a Divine Blade.

...But it isn't my Divine Blade.

It wasn't mine.

If anything, I was carrying something that belonged to the Mo Family of Xi'an, which made it even stranger that it had come along as if it were my own.

Same with the Divine Sword.

Why had the objects come with me?

That didn't match what I knew.

No matter how much I darted my eyes around and searched the surroundings, unlike the objects that had come with me, nothing else seemed different.

What is this?

What exactly was this dream-vision?

It felt like the same kind of dream-vision Yucheon Gil had created for me before, but—

It's subtly different.

It didn't feel like an ordinary dream-vision.

What was this?

Just as I was standing there, baffled—

CRAAACK—!!!

A sudden fracture split the white backdrop.

I frowned as cracks spread across the space in an instant.

CRRRRSH.

The cracks ran everywhere, and then the whole background began collapsing.

It happened in a blink.

In that blink, the entire space that had existed before shattered apart, and a place I had never seen before revealed itself.

This is...

A ruin.

Ruins beneath a rising moon.

It wasn't dark.

A brilliant moon hung above the sky, lighting everything below.

And then—

“...!”

My eyes widened.

Something began appearing on the ground.

That was—

...A corpse?

Corpses.

At least dozens of them.

Bodies were strewn across the ground in every direction.

What the hell was this now?

Why is this so vivid?

A dream-vision was vivid by nature, but the state of the corpses was far too clear.

And brutally so.

Bodies hacked apart, torn open, butchered to pieces lay scattered everywhere, and the ruins were thick with blood.

I'd seen worse, so it wasn't enough to make me retch.

Still, it wasn't an easy sight to take in.

What is this supposed to be?

The problem was that this was a dream-vision.

Where in the world had all these piled-up corpses come from?

I hesitated and took a slight step back.

Then—

“Was one still left alive?”

A voice.

I froze and turned toward its owner.

Ah.

I knew at once.

It's Yucheon Gil.

I could tell that the being in front of me was Yucheon Gil.

But—

Young.

Young again.

Which meant this too was Yucheon Gil from his younger days.

...How old?

I couldn't tell.

I couldn't judge it exactly.

But the atmosphere was completely different from the twenty-year-old Yucheon Gil I'd seen last time.

Back then, he had been worn down to the edge, spitting nothing but killing intent.

The atmosphere's different, and even his body is different.

Back then he had been tall but extremely lean.

Now, though he was still smaller than the Yucheon Gil I knew, his body was densely packed with muscle.

His expression was different too.

He was grinning.

And his whole body was drenched in blood.

So that's it.

I had been wondering who made all these corpses.

Apparently, the culprit was this young Yucheon Gil standing right there.

Bathed completely in moonlight, smiling while soaked in blood—

no matter how I looked at it, it was chilling.

“How did you survive?”

He was talking to me.

“You definitely shouldn't have survived.”

“...”

“What, are you mute? You can't speak?”

There seemed to be some misunderstanding here.

Could it be that he was seeing me as one of those corpses—

What?

The thought cut off.

My gaze dropped, and I noticed something.

Why are my clothes like this?

The clothes I was wearing had changed.

I was dressed in the same black martial uniform as the corpses.

“Hah.”

The moment I confirmed it, a hollow laugh slipped out.

This damned thing.

“You're laughing?”

At that, Yucheon Gil's smile deepened.

“...Ah, sorry. The situation's just so fucked.”

I held back the sigh that almost escaped me.

“Oh, so you can speak?”

Yucheon Gil asked, ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) eyes brightening.

Then—

“You mongrel of ■■. Do you still think you can defeat me?”

“...What?”

Who?

Why did the sound blur out all of a sudden?

A mongrel of who?

I couldn't hear the first part of what Yucheon Gil had said.

What had he called me?

I frowned, unable to make it out.

“Do you think dragging more people here changes anything?”

THUD.

A massive sword slammed into the ground.

“At this point, you should have come to your senses. Yet you still strut about like vermin.”

“...Hm.”

Cold sweat slid down me at the force wrapped around that sword.

This is insane.

The sheer level of that force made my stomach drop.

What the hell was that energy?

I could tell it was the Azure Moon Sect's Sword Aura, that blue light unmistakable—

So why is it that dense?

That thickly condensed power made my skin crawl just from looking at it.

It was different again from the Moon Immortal Sword's cold, still Sword Aura.

“Blame your weak master. It was a sin from the moment you came looking for me.”

SKRRAAAAPE-!!!

“...!”

At the sound of the sword scraping across the ground, Yucheon Gil appeared right in front of me.

Fast.

I couldn't even tell when he had crossed the distance.

BOOM-!!!

A delayed explosion sounded behind him.

That was the sound of Yucheon Gil launching himself forward.

Just from that single charge, I could already tell the difference in speed.

But—

SHIIIIIING-!!

“Hm?”

I dodged his sword.

The instant I avoided it, Yucheon Gil's eyes widened.

“Well, look at that?”

That gaze said it all.

He clearly hadn't expected me to avoid it.

Damn it.

I had seen the speed.

If I half-assed this, there would be no point.

Then again, every dream-vision had been like this.

A fight I can never win in one try.

Not merely a narrow gap.

A battle designed to make me feel an overwhelming wall.

“Hoo.”

I put force into my eyes.

Moon Eye opened, letting me read the sword paths.

And at the same time—

KZZZZZT—!!!!

I unleashed Moonbolt with everything I had.

“...What?”

Seeing that, Yucheon Gil's expression twisted.

I drew the Divine Sword and attacked him head-on.

I turned my waist halfway through, loading the rotation with power.

KRAAANG.

The Radiant Moon Flash Aura surged through it.

Then I swung the Divine Sword at Yucheon Gil.

BOOM-!!

A brutal crash exploded between us.

Yucheon Gil had blocked it by swinging the greatsword. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

The blades shook against each other.

But the one pushed back harder was me.

“Ghk!”

His strength overwhelmed mine.

I barely braced myself against the ground to reduce the damage, but—

“Hey.”

Blue eyes descended before me.

“That—what is it? It is clearly the Azure Moon Sect's energy, yet something about it is different.”

The sword paths came into view.

Two.

Which one?

There was no time to think.

I seized the Divine Sword at an angle.

KRAAAK-!! SKRIIIIICH-!!!

Right.

I deflected the strike coming from the left with the flat of the blade.

THUD-!

The sword bounced upward as if erupting.

My shoulder throbbed.

What a brute.

“Huff.”

I steadied my breathing and lowered my stance.

Given the situation, my posture had already begun to collapse somewhat.

Do it.

Even so, I had to do it.

I unleashed Moon Wave.

A crescent shot swiftly toward Yucheon Gil.

“Hah!”

The moment he recognized Moon Wave, distortion flashed across Yucheon Gil's face.

And then—

“Insolent.”

CRACK-!

“...!”

Moon Wave shattered.

Yucheon Gil had casually countered it with the greatsword.

The blades had collided.

I had even been the one with more speed going in—

Are you kidding me?

As if that meant nothing at all, Yucheon Gil brushed it aside with absurd ease.

“So that's how it is.”

The instant my body staggered from the rebound—

“So you're the one.”

Yucheon Gil's eyes shone, as though he had figured something out.

“A stupid imitation. What a pack of idiots.”

He grinned so wide it seemed his mouth would split.

At that smile, my body froze on its own.

Killing intent.

Even worse than the twenty-year-old Yucheon Gil.

That earlier Yucheon Gil had been an unshaped disaster.

This one was different.

This time, a suffocating terror wrapped around my throat.

I tried somehow to force my neck to move against that killing intent, but—

“Disappear.”

SHHHK-!!

Before I could even perceive it, Yucheon Gil's Sword Aura sliced straight across my body.

That was—

“...Hahk.”

The end of the memory.

*****

I bolted upright.

My hand shot immediately to my face.

“...Wow...”

As expected, my whole body was drenched in cold sweat.

The aftermath of the dream-vision.

“Huff... huff.”

My breathing hadn't returned yet.

It came out rough and ragged.

“...This is ridiculous.”

What the hell had that been just now?

The dream-visions were always grotesquely difficult, but—

Wasn't that going too far?

What was I even supposed to do against that monster?

...That speed just now.

Even that was different from the speed of his first charge.

Which meant he had been holding back even then.

This is driving me insane.

I couldn't even react properly.

My body had frozen under the killing intent before I could do anything at all.

And I'm supposed to beat that?

Was I really meant to defeat a monster like that?

No matter how I looked at it, this dream-vision was out of its mind.

Besides.

The strange part was—

...Was that really a dream-vision prepared by Yucheon Gil?

A dream-vision of Yucheon Gil in which Yucheon Gil himself could not be felt.

Was that really something Yucheon Gil had made?

“Hoo...”

I wiped the sweat away at last.

The mental exhaustion hit hard.

I had wanted to rest for a bit, but the moment I lay down, I got dragged in there instead.

There was no way I could still be fine.

“What do I do now?”

What the hell was I supposed to do?

The bracer was already a problem.

Now the dream-vision was too.

Just as I was starting to get a headache from the whole impossible situation—

Hum.

“...Hm?”

I felt a presence from the far side of the residence.

What?

This was the residence the Moon Immortal Sword had given me.

No one should have been able to approach it carelessly.

The Tyrant?

For a moment, I wondered if it was the Tyrant.

But no.

If it were the Tyrant, there was no way that presence would be leaking out like this.

Then who was it?

As I stood there, puzzled—

—It is Moon Dancer.

“...!”

I almost jumped.

A sudden voice transmission had reached me.

It was the Freak Demon.

The Freak Demon had sent it.

...Was he nearby?

I had forgotten for a moment because I hadn't seen him lately.

The Freak Demon had been around too.

—I apologize. There were too many eyes watching, so I could not remain by your side... Please punish this incompetent me...

I had no real intention of punishing him, though.

Leaving the guilt-ridden Freak Demon aside—

...Moon Dancer?

I focused instead on the important part.

Cheon Hyein.

She had come looking for me.

Knock, knock.

The presence drew close and stopped at the door.

“Are you in there?” Cheon Hyein's voice came through.